What differences will happen if you use a rectangular baker to bake cookies instead of a tray? Hey so I have these rectangular bakers that I use to make lasagna. Unfortunately I don't bake cookies that often so I don't have a standard cookie tray. I decided to bake some cookies though so I opted for using those since those are what I have in my disposal. See below

I just popped them into the oven but I actually didn't consider if this would affect how long they need to cook for since they have that lip that surround the cookies. Will they turn out okay? If I don't get an answer in the next 8 or so minutes I can post what will happen for science.

They should be fine.

It's possible that they'll be a bit gooey, or just a touch underdone.  The high sides of the pan may shield the cookies from the heat, just a little bit.  The glass pans will absorb a little more heat, and so take just a tad longer to heat up - partially balanced by the fact they take a tad longer to cool down, and so might carry over a bit of residual cooking.  Both effects should be pretty minimal, but cookies do bake for a very short amount of time, so the difference may be noticeable in a way that longer-cooking dishes would never notice.

If you look at your cookies, instead of just pulling them out when the time is up, you should notice if they need a touch more baking (I would guess maybe a minute of extra time, if any)... of course, you should probably be doing this anyway, especially if you want to cook them to your desired style (if you prefer a bit softer or a bit crisper, for example).  Light browning on edges or ridges should be a very good cue for done-ness.


Mixing cooking chocolate with normal chocolate I have some cooking chocolate and I have some chocolate seashells. I've had the chocolate seashells for some time now and I want to use them because I don't want them to go to waste. So, I was thinking of mixing some of the chocolate seashells with the cooking chocolate to make chocolate cups (melt the chocolate together and use it to make chocolate cups) and then filling them with panna cotta. The question is if mixing the 2 types of chocolate a bad idea or if mixing just a small amount of chocolate seashells with the cooking chocolate work?

Divi, I would try a sample melting of the two chocolates - do this very slowly in a double boiler or if you are super-careful, in a microwave - to see how the two chocolates react to being mixed once melted.

If they mix adequately, drop the test mix on a piece of wax paper and let it cool to see how the re-hardened mixture firms up.  Based on your experiment, you should have a better idea of what to expect with the two dissimilar chocolates.  (rumtscho has a good point that without knowing exactly what the two chocolates are, it's hard to give an answer.)


How to season soaking beans I would like to know the purpose of large spring onions and bay leaves and baking soda when soaking beans overnight as in the following picture.

Is it for cleaning the beans, killing germs, easing in on the smell, or adding flavoring?

What other sort of seasoning can be added when soaking beans eight hours overnight prior to cooking?

The spring onions and bay leaves honestly seem like a waste. Usually you discard the soaking water, and that's going to take most of the already-subtle flavor with it.

So if you want to add flavor, whether with spring onions and bay leaves, spices, or anything else, add it during cooking. The cooking time is plenty long to get all the flavor into the water/broth and beans, and you won't be pouring any of it down the drain.

Baking soda is added during soaking mainly to help soften the beans faster. People will also say it helps reduce gas-causing sugars, and perhaps other reasons, but it's hard to find evidence for them.

Relatedly, many people add salt during soaking to help soften and avoid bursting.


Does cooking vegetables increase their flavor? Is there some scientific explanation for why one cooks vegetables?

I mean apart from increasing the ability to digest. Are there flavor enhancements going on? Does the temperature have to rise about 100°C, which means that just boiling wouldn't do?

I've heard of the Maillard reaction (with known chemical reactions, temperatures, etc.), but that mainly applies to other meats?

One simple reason to cook vegetables is to kill microorganisms, which can make you sick.

In Chinese wok cooking, very high heat is used to get wok hei.

  The distinct taste of wok hei is partially imbued from previous cooking sessions. In practical terms, the flavour imparted by chemical compounds results from caramelization, Maillard reactions, and the partial combustion of oil that come from charring and searing of the food at very high heat in excess of 200 °C (392 °F).[11] Aside from flavour, there is also the texture of the cooked items and smell involved that describes wok hei.


Low Hassle, Knead-Free Doughs I wanted to try creating a type of curry filled pastry, but I am curious if there are any good doughs I could utilize that don't need the large waiting times/kneading/rising that most bread recipes require.

Basically, I'm thinking the ideal case is if there is quick and easy dough that I can just prepare, fill, and toss in the oven and get a little to moderate rising while it's cooking. I suspect some kinds of pastry recipes can do this but I don't:

a) know any recipes like that, or;

b) know how heavily they rely on the sugar in their recipes.

Any advice appreciated.

Yeah, how about biscuit dough? That's a common way to do a quick and easy chicken pot pie. It might be a little tricky to actually enclose the curry in the biscuit dough, but it should be doable.

For reference, here are a couple of "pot pie" recipes that use biscuit dough on top of the filling:

Add a Pinch (from scratch)

Bisquick (Using Bisquick brand) Chicken Pot Pie)

I specifically included the Bisquick recipe, because they have a thing they call "impossibly easy" pies. That is a way to use the product that is very much like enclosing a curry or stew in a pie, but really isn't. I don't know if you live in a part of the world where you can get Bisquick (Jiffy is another brand). Check out these recipes:

Impossibly Easy Pies

EDIT: Here's a recipe for making "Bisquick"

Conveniently, just after posting this answer, Cook's Country (America's Test Kitchen's sister show) aired an episode with their version of an "impossibly easy" pie. Instead of using Bisquick, which is made of flour, baking powder, salt and shortening; they used half-and-half and melted butter for the fat in the batter. Their recipe calls for 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1 cup half-and-half, 1/4 tsp salt, 4 eggs and 2 TBS melted butter for the batter in their "Impossibly Easy Ham and Cheese Pie"(sorry, paywalled) which doesn't have a wet stew or curry filling, it's just ham and cheese. The whole pie is quiche-like. It's not a pastry or dough, it's a batter, but it does show a way to use flour in a recipe that would often call for Bisquick.

EDIT 1/25/15:

I just came across this, which IS enclosing a saucy, stew-like product in biscuits. This uses refrigerator dough biscuits, but homemade would be just the same:

Pillsbury Unsloppy Joes

The relevent instructions are:

Heat oven to 375° F.

Press each biscuit into 6-inch round (a Grands biscuit is 58 grams).

Spoon 1/3 cup meat mixture onto center of each round. Fold dough in half over filling; press to seal.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 9 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.


Can you thicken a pudding just by reducing? Pretty simple question I hope. I am trying to recreate a recipe I made several years ago using heavy cream, lindemans framboise lambic, raspberry puree, and sugar. I don't recall using any thickeners - though I may have. It was easily 7 years ago, and the recipe is long gone, so I am trying to recreate it both from memory and based off my current culinary knowledge.

The resulting consistency was similar to a thick pudding. It worked great as a pipeable filling for cupcakes, and also was smooth and creamy enough to be a dessert on its own.

I remember reducing the cream for a long while, but as I said, I do NOT remember using any thickeners.

Is it possible if I added the fruit early on pectin would have helped thicken? If I started without the fruit and just used the lambic, cream and sugar, could I have reduced it well beyond nappe and then loosened it up with the fruit? Would that have thickened at all?

Or am I simply misremembering?

I wish I could remember what I did!

This will only thicken by reduction if you leave it on for a really long time. At least 8 hours of simmering, but better to use more than 16, and then you'll get a flavored kaymak.

The way it thickened is much more likely to have been raspberry pectin. Many berries have sufficient pectin to thicken when they happen to be used within the optimal sugar and pH range. The calcium in the cream will also activate the second type of pectin.

I have had raspberry juice make a jelly by itself, and I have made a recipe which thickens a gooseberry-cream mix, relying on the gooseberry pectin. I haven't made a cream based raspberry thickened dessert, but it's very likely to work.

You can use the gooseberry recipe to get an approximate range for the sugar amount involved, http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1415683/gooseberry-cream-and-elderflower-jelly-pots.


To which internal temperature should I cook beef for rare/medium/well done? I am going to cook a beef roast: To which internal temperature should I cook it for rare/medium/well done?

|  Rare         |  120 °F to 125 °F  |  49 °C to 52 °C   |  center is bright red  |
|  Medium Rare  |  130 °F to 135 °F  |  54 °C to 57 °C   |  center is very pink   |
|  Medium       |  140 °F to 145 °F  |  60 °C to 63 °C   |  center is light pink  |
|  Medium Well  |  150 °F to 155 °F  |  66 °C to 68 °C   |  not pink              |
|  Well Done    |  160 °F and above  |  71 °C and above  |  brown throughout      |


Doctoring up part-skim low-moisture mozzarella for pizza I recently started using low-moisture full fat mozzarella on my homemade pizzas, and it is simply fantastic. Went to the store today to pick some up, but all they had was either low-moisture part-skim or regular full fat.

I figured low moisture was more important than than the delicious delicious flavor of fatty cheese, but now that I'm about to make it I'm thinking it'll probably be sub-par.

Is there anything I could do to make part-skim mozzarella have a fuller flavor? Or is there anything I can add to the pizza? I was thinking of having an oily pesto base in the hopes of upping the fatty flavor and mouth feel. But, if I'm just adding oil for the sake of adding fat, should I skip the base and just drizzle olive oil on top of the cheese?

I'm going crazy thinking about this here. Please help, and thanks in advance! (PS sorry if I sound like a foodie snob in this question. I get really serious about homemade pizza...)

In this question, someone suggested using cream cheese to better replicate the effect of fresh mozzarella, milky and fatty.  You likely won't want it by itself, but a little mixed in with your mozzarella or a few dabs scattered on top might give a nice richness.  Or similarly adding fresh cheeses, like ricotta or cottage cheese, will also give a milky taste and add fats for a rich mouthfeel, and might complement your mozzarella nicely.  Even a good feta has something to add in creaminess, the texture and taste - though I prefer the sheep's or goat's milk fetas, rather than the common low-fat variety.

On the other hand, these will also add moisture - so if you were going out of your way to find low-moisture mozzarella for a reason, then these additions might not be to your taste.

Another option might be to go back and get the full moisture mozzarella, and mix it with the low-moisture to see if you can get decent results that way.  Overall, the results should be in between (depending on the precise mix) but it might give reasonable results.

Or you could do something with white sauce, possibly with other flavorings, garlic, herbs - maybe as your sauce base for the pizza, or else just pour a small amount in with your shredded cheese and toss well, and use the damp tangles on top of whatever other sauce yo would normally use.  This can be a way to add all sorts of other flavorings, if you want, by incorporating them into the white sauce.

Or you could look into rich toppings for your pizza, to make up some of the flavor.  I thought of oil-marinated olives, or vegetables roasted or sauteed in oil, or else something with its own fats like bacon, to get added flavor in with your fat.  Adding pesto would fit in with these options, as well.

Basically, I would suggest make it less about adding fat for the sake of "making up for" the mozzarella, and more about adding richness and flavors to make something really tasty.  You might find some recipes where this low-fat mozzarella works wonderfully, and yet the full-fat mozzarella might make the result too rich.


What is the use of different blender speeds? I've recently taken to blending smoothies in a 500 Watt blender with pulse, low, and high settings. I get that a higher power setting spins the blades faster but I'm curious how I can best leverage the different speeds. For example, why would I want to use a low speed over a high speed?

There are many reasons for having a blender with selectable speeds:

Not every time you want to liquify or make a mush of your food; quite the opposite, usually you want to keep a bit of texture into what you are blending.
Thus, lower speed is better.
Blending heats up your ingredients, either by the friction of the blades and by the heating of the blender engine itself. Now, while it's pretty difficult to ruin oils or many other things with the blender temperature, vegetables and fruits on the other hand are really sensitive.

So, as a generic rule of thumb, you always want to start with the lowest speed and then raise it up step by step (my blender used to have 5 speed settings, for examples) just as necessary. No point in running the blender at max speed by default.
The blender's engine is built to blend things, and as obvious as it may sounds is maybe less obvious that the engine is not expected to runs free blending the air, because it can quickly burn and ruin itself: it actually needs (and expect) some kind of resistance from the food it's blending.
So, when you blend big and/or hard things, it's advisable to do some on/first (this is the reason for the pulse mode), then raise the speed, to not overheat the blender and to not give the blades too much energy.

For example, if you are blending chickpeas, as they are pretty heavy and big. When you  immediately go at the highest speed all you will get will be chickpeas being struck by the blades and just bouncing all around. When you lower the speed, the impact between the blades and the chickpeas will be less energetic and the blades will have a chance to at least begin to scratch them ;-)


Mold forms on sweet miso -- can I still use the miso? We have a jar of sweet miso that has been in our fridge for several months.  I know that miso keeps practically forever, and that is naturally fermented.  But I was surprised to find when I opened it that a layer of mold had formed at the top.

If I scrape off the top layer and discard it, is the rest of the miso safe to use?  Or do I need to toss the whole jar?

The mold is the indication that the content is compromised with substances that the mold can grow on or with mold that does not mind the environment. This will happen for example when you use a spoon that is not clean. Unfortunately, there is no way to know if this substance is only on the top of the miso. So, whatever it was that the mold grew on, could be in lower layers, too, where non-visible mold with non-detectable toxins could have developed.

So, while a lot of food stuff lasts nearly forever, this is only true while it is uncompromised and proper hygiene is followed.

So, my recommendation would be to toss the whole jar and learn from the experience and not treat fermented food as invincible and reconsider package sizes.


Lemon Butter Sauce too acidic My Lemon Butter sauce was way too acidic. What can I use to mellow the sauce? I started with 1/4 cup lemon, added shallots and garlic and reduced by half. Then added 1/2 stick butter, cherry tomatoes and fresh bay scallops, and served over angle hair pasta. It was very lemony and acidic.

If that is 1/4 cup lemon juice, that seems like quite a lot and reducing it is also probably making it taste even more lemony. If you want to keep about the same amount of liquid, try softening the shallots and garlic in 1 t olive oil and then adding 2T dry white wine and reducing. Add 1T lemon juice and bring to boil again but don't reduce, add in the cherry tomatoes, scallops and the 1/2 stick butter. You could also reserve half the butter to swirl in after the scallops are cooked through.


What part of the brisket is sold in UK? I'm looking at this recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Home Cooking, pg. 198:

Barbecue-Style Slow-Roasted Beef Brisket

1kg beef brisket, excess fat trimmed off to leave just 1 cm

2 onions, peeled and sliced

6 bay leaves

2 tbsp light brown sugar or muscovado sugar

1 tbsp tomato pureé (presumably this is tomato paste for us Americans)

1 x 300 ml bottle lager

350 ml beef stock

1 tbsp cider vinegar (optional)

For the rub: 2 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 tsp mustard powder, 2 tsp freshly ground cumin seeds, 2 tsp celery seeds, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

He mixes the rub, puts it on the brisket and seals the brisket in a roasting tray with a bit of oil. Caramelizes the onions and sugar and bay leaves and salt and pepper in the tray, puts in tomato puree and broth to deglaze. Then sticks the brisket in this mix, brings it to a boil and then puts it in the oven (140 C). Then takes it out 3 - 3.5 hours later and makes a sauce from the drippings in the pan.

The question I have is: Is the brisket (without any qualifications) from the point or the flat? If it isn't the flat, what would I change to have the recipe work for the flat?

Most brisket I've seen in the UK is flat, although I've seen point as well occasionally. The recipe should work fine for both unless you have a really thick point. With a thick point you could cut it the long way to increase its surface area, or cook it a bit longer. You won't go wrong cooking it lower and slower in any case.


How do you make a deep spicy flavour that leaves you wanting more? I'm not sure if this is going to make much sense and I apologize in advance, but hopefully someone understands what I mean.

So my problem is with spice, such as when I make curry, I'll add chilli powder and/or cayenne powder, which while it does make the dish spicy it's not a very 'deep' spice. Like it's only on the tip of the tongue if that makes sense.

What I want to do is have that deep spicy that while burns, still leaves you wanting more. I think in like chinese dishes, or if anyones had it in that packet ramen which says 2x spicy on it.

What methods/techniques/ingredients/etc can be used to achieve this?

Adding some grated fresh ginger towards the end of cooking can do this, and is compatible with both Indian and Chinese food.

In general though, you need more of the spices that give flavour, and less reliance on chilli heat alone. For that, in a curry, cumin, ginger, mustard, turmeric, and coriander are common, though there are plenty of others. Commercial spice blends can be good but I prefer to fiddle and taste as I go, I tend to do it myself


Meaning of do not thaw for frozen food Today I bought frozen food for the first time and the brand is Mc Coin.

I read the instructions, which have the following instructions;

  Do Not Thaw and cook from frozen

I am unsure how to parse this. Can someone please tell me what the company is telling me in the instructions, and how I am to cook it?

Should I put my opened packet into freezer  ?
Should I cook it directly from the packet ?

If you're cooking store-bought frozen food (a pot pie for instance) and you thaw it first, following the cooking instructions on the package will lead to over-cooking, burnt crust, and a dry meal. The instructions are predicated on direct from freezer to oven and you must adjust accordingly.


How do you funnel food off a cutting board? After I cut or chop something up on a cutting board I have the problem of funneling the pieces into a bowl or other container and it typically makes a mess.

Normally what I try to do is scrape the pieces with a knife into the bowl or whatever, but inevitably some of the pieces miss and go flying off onto the counter or floor.

Is there a reliable method of funneling food off a cutting board into a bowl, cup or other smaller container?

I have a few ways of dealing with this:

When using a small cutting board, use a bowl that's wider than the (smallest) dimension of the cutting board. If you can manage to swing (not fling!) the cutting board upright above the bowl, everything will fall into the bowl. Especially if the bowl is a bit wider than the board. Don't catapult your food off the board, but try to do it reasonably quickly so the board is upright before the food has slid/fallen off.
When using a large cutting board, I put the board flush with the edge of the counter. I hold a bowl next to the counter, and because I'm not relying on gravity, I'm able to very precisely push things off the board bit by bit (as others mentioned, use your hands or the back of your knife). If you have a circular bowl, you may want to create some overhang with the cutting board, so the edge is above the widest part of the bowl.
You can achieve a similar effect by putting the bowl in the sink and your cutting board next to and flush with the sink.
If the food is going to be cooked together anyway, favor using a big bowl for everything rather than several small bowls to put everything in separately. Less washing up, less change of missing a big bowl when dropping food into it.
When cutting large chunks, you can always just use your hands to pick things up. My mother would use a spatula and her hands and she should move quite a lot of food that way.
If you have a cutting board with a handle, you can actually use the handle as a mini-funnel.
With a bit of dexterity, you can make a V-shape by holding the back of the knife to the edge of the cutting board, and use that similar to the folding cutting board that moscafj linked. It only really works for smaller piles of food (depends on how wide your knife is, I guess).
My grandmother's trick #1: Pile the cut food, put a cup/bowl over it. Flip the board+cup. Take away the board.
My grandmother's trick #2: Pile the cut food, put a cup/bowl/your hand over it. Hold the board over a bigger bowl. While holding the cup/bowl/your hand in place, pull back the cutting board, so the food slides off the board and falls into the bigger bowl.

Which method I use depends on the food, amount, cut size, and what bowls I have available. I have a fair amount of plastic bowls specifically to simplify the whole cutting-and-storing part of our rather large meal preps.


Determining cooking time for ribs in the Texas Crutch Pork back ribs are one of my favorite meals. However, depending on which butcher I go to I get different sized ribs.

My method is a simple one for when I'm making a quick at-home meal. I rub the ribs overnight, remove from the fridge for an hour, then wrap tightly in foil with a little liquid.

I'll then put them on the grill under indirect heat at 250˚F for 3 hours for smaller ribs or 4 hours for larger ones.

I then follow up with 15 minutes on medium direct heat while saucing to caramelize and build up a little bark, but I'm always guessing at the right time to cook them due to variable sizing.

What is the best method to determine the doneness of ribs while using the Texas Crutch method?

While I do not believe it is necessary to "crutch" ribs, it can be done, and the most popular method is called the "3-2-1 Method." (see the writeup on Steven Raichlen's Barbecue Bible site here: http://barbecuebible.com/2015/01/20/3-2-1-method-ribs/ )

The prescribed method is to cook unwrapped for three hours, two hours in foil, and one additional hour unwrapped. The method and times are merely a guideline, and are based on cooking St. Louis ribs at 225F. If you cook at a higher temperature, then adjust the times at each stage downward. If you are cooking baby back ribs, then adjust those times significantly downward. Use indirect heat the entire time, and apply sauce in the last 15 minutes of the cooking process.

Again, please be aware that these are merely guidelines. The ribs are done when they pass the tests for doneness, not at prescribed times.


How can I stove-cook meals for groups of 6-8 with only one burner? I often host dinner parties for groups of 6-8 people at my apartment. I usually cook simple meat-based entrees using pan-frying, sauteeing, braising, poaching, etc., usually accompanied by rice/salad.

The challenge is that my apartment has a very small kitchen area with only 1 stove burner:

(I have no oven -- just a microwave, rice cooker, and water boiler.)

I have this frying pan (which measures 12 inches across the top, 9 inches across the base, and is 2.5 inches high):

Is this an ideal size? Or is it too big for my stove burner? The only alternative I see is to cook my meals in 2 batches, but that seems like it could make it hard to time things properly.

Generally, it is said that you should avoid pans which are not the same size as the burner. You are wasting energy in both the "smaller" and "bigger" case. Besides, as Jessica mentioned, you are wasting time and getting lower quality food with a larger pan, because you have to stir a lot, and still get unevenly heated food.

But if the alternative is to cook two batches in a fitting pan, I still think that you are saving electricity and time with the inefficient large pan. So I would stay with it.

I can also recommend buying more burners and an oven, if you are going to cook. A portable burner is very small and can be stuffed into a cabinet when not needed, to save counter space even in the tiniest kitchen. It can be cheap, or you can get an induction one for better quality heating and energy saving. A toaster oven is, in my experience, much more useful than a microwave. This will depend on the way you eat - if you frequently get frozen meals, the microwave is more convenient. I do all of my normal baking if a toaster oven, and it does everything, even complicated cakes, so if you are serious about cooking, it might be a better use of space than the mw.


Milky fluid inside chicken I cooked a 5lb chicken at 350 for 2 1/2 hours. When we cut one side it was nice n white with clear juices. The other side had a milky fluid in it. What is it, caused it, and is it safe to eat?

It sounds like that's a combination of protein/fat/liquid that coagulates when you cook the chicken. Was it the lower half of the chicken that had this liquid?

And if that is indeed what it is, it's safe to eat. It doesn't taste very good though, so I wouldn't recommend trying it.


I need help to plan a Menu: 10 people, dinner with lovely friends at home I am planning to prepare a menu for friends at home, on saturday.

I need it to be easy, relatively fast and tasty.
Following this rules (and being italian) I need:

appetizer
pasta
second course
dessert

I've already solved (strange) the pasta problem: I'll prepare it with a delicious pink tuna I have, capperi, a little garlic, lemon and a sprinkle of white pepper.
Sounds boring but it's delicious :D yum! :D

The dessert is done because friends always bring wine and dessert in Italy so I don't care.

What can I do for appetizer and second course?
I really don't know :/
Meat is not a wise choice unless I prepare something particular, I guess...
For appetizer a selection of cheese could work?

I just can't think about anything that works in harmony but I still want to prepare that tuna so badly.

Help, please!

If I have to cook for a big group, 9 times out of 10, I go for scampi.
But if you use scampi as the second course, I'm not sure what to serve it with.
(I make it as an entree). Rice or bread, I'd say. I've never tried it with baked potatoes, but maybe it could work; or other options of course.

But I don't know if two times fish (in a broad meaning) works for you.

You can also make your meat in advance (stewing, ragout (of chicken, in vol-au-vent), meatballs) so you just need to warm it.

Edit: Oops, I just saw that this is an old question...


how do I get the salt out of my chinese take out I bought some overly salted Chinese food ( I did not know it at time) and took most of it home.
Now I would like to get the salt out so i can it eat. Do you have any suggestions?

While Erlenmeyer flasks and graduated cylinders and food-science may not be able to save your leftovers, adding some cooked rice with fried egg (basically any fried rice recipe) will likely crowd out the saltiness of the base dish as well as extend your leftovers.


How can I figure out fat content in quark cheese? The store next to my house offers a brand of solid quark.

It's really good and tasty, and it says on their website that it's made of whole milk and it's not being stirred during production, so that it remains solid and keeps layered texture.

However its fat content is listed as 4% to 20% on the label. Apparently they don't want to bother with measuring the exact fat content and labeling each batch separately.

My question is: is there an easy way to measure fat content in quark?

By "easy" I mean something I could do at home using readily available equipment and/or chemicals, within like 5 or 10 minutes, and not ruin the whole package of quark in the process.

Do you have access to similar but more precisely labelled brands? I'm thinking you could use them to calibrate a measurement based on density - weigh a precisely measured volume of a couple of brands with a known fat content and interpolate.

It won't be perfect because the composition of the remaining water/protein mix won't be perfectly consistent.


How much chilli puree should I add to get 43 ppm pungency? I know about the pungency Scoville heat unit. Different chillis have different SHU.

I saw one chilli sauce specification where a 43 ppm pungency units were 'required'. How much chilli puree should I add to get a result of 43 ppm pungency in the final product (chilli sauce)?

Unless the chili puree you are using is an industrial product that comes with a narrow and clear specification (in SHU or ppm capsaicin), OR unless you are capable of measuring the SHU or capsaicin content yourself, this is not possible to do with any degree of accuracy - if you are processing fresh or dried chili yourself, the actual content is very dependent on natural variation and your process.

Also, these scales (ASTA ppm vs SHU) only roughly translate because of weight vs volume vs dry mass vs ... issues, and because SHU itself is not considered a truly accurate measurement.

Naively calculated (this means: if you need a plausible and demonstrably calculated BS result because somebody needs some number on some piece of paper, here is how you get your BS result), 16.000.000 SHU would be a (non*)food consisting of 100% capsaicin, so 1000ppm would be equivalent to 16000 SHU, 1ppm to 16 SHU, 43ppm to 688 SHU. If your capsaicin-bearing ingredient has eg 6880 SHU (not unrealistic!), you would use 10%.

*nonfood indeed. Pure capsaicin, while perfectly safe when incorporated into food in sufficient dilution, would be very harmful to ingest on its own!


Pressure cooker delay timer use case Many electric pressure cookers, such as my Power Pressure Cooker XL come with delay time feature. According to the manual this can delay cooking by up to 24 hrs. Apparently to accommodate user's schedule. But wouldn't the ingredients spoil by that time? Has anyone used this feature? Am I not getting it right?

Dried legumes, and sometimes grains, are commonly soaked 3-24h before pressure cooking them, and this feature would allow useful automation of that method.


Is there any cleaning utensil that is comparable to fingernails? As you know,  sometimes the best scraping tool in the kitchen for cleaning up is your own fingernails.
The only thing I know of that compares in terms of effectiveness is metal, but you shouldn't use metal on many things,  such as cast iron or teflon pans.
Is there anything that can match the effectiveness of fingernails, but that isn't so hard it scratches like metal?

Try searching for "pan scrapers." I have a pair from Lodge that has served me well, though you can find almost identical scrapers without the branding.

These are essentially equivalent to the scrapers mentioned by ChrisH, but with curves to make it easier to clean the edges of your pans


How can I add flavor to meatballs which taste stale from being frozen too long? My pre-cooked meatballs must have been frozen too long, they taste stale. I tried mashing them up and making sloppy joes but they still tasted stale. How can I season them to make them more edible?

Whenever I have freezer burnt or really old frozen meat, my go-to solution is to use my slow cooker. Find a recipe that sounds appetizing to you and has a long cooking time (6-9+ hours on Low), and go for it. For example, here's a Meatball and Vegetable Soup recipe (which I'm not endorsing, it's purely as a "this is the style you're looking for").


Will Asarum europaeum add a ginger flavor? I was looking through a cooking catalog, and came across GINGER, EUROPEAN which made me wonder if this is like normal ginger that you cook with.

Short answer: kinda-sorta, in a weak way.

Long answer: European wild ginger is grown as a ground cover, not for culinary purposes.  It is closely related to American Wild Ginger, though, which can be used to cook with, but it has a weaker flavor than Chinese ginger, less pulp, and you shouldn't actually eat the roots.  I would presume European ginger to be a very similar experience, but only have experience with the American variety.


What is the binding agent in eggs? Background

I am someone who has a family history of high LDL cholesterol and my LDL is within 4 points of 100 (the barrier between "ok" and "healthy").  Therefore when I cook eggs straight up, I always cook without the yolk, since the yolk has all the cholesterol of the egg.  However, I have never done this when cooking pancakes, cake, cookies, etc.  Therefore I wanted to know if I could use egg for it's intended function (i.e. binding mixed ingredients) without the yolk.

Question

What is the binding agent in eggs, is it the white, the yolk, or both?

Egg whites contain a significant amount of protein, which is an excellent binder when cooked. This protein is what makes a cooked egg white somewhat rubbery.

Egg yolks contain lecithin, which is an emulsifier. The lecithin in an egg yolk is what combines with oil to make the emulsion we know as mayonnaise.

The white (with its protein) and yolk (with its lecithin and fat) are both critical to the chemistry when baking. If you eliminate just the yolk, you may get a tough and flat result. Substitutes like silken tofu, yogurt, applesauce, or mashed banana can all be used to replace either the yolk or a whole egg.

The best substitute will depend on the exact recipe and desired result. Applesauce and banana tend to impart added flavor, which can be a consideration as well.


What can I do with Pork Butt Trimmings? I bought about 6 lbs of pork butt, cooked that up and made awesome chili. Now I have about 1 lb or so of pork trimmings, the fat, mostly white in color.

What can I do with this?

What can you do with pork fat?

Cook the bits over med-low heat to render out the fat. You can strain the rendered fat and use it as lard- make biscuits or pastry. Or you can get crafty and make soap or candles- but these are not within the scope of this site.

I had some Kazakhi friends in Russia who made a dish called "Плов" (Plov).
http://www.say7.info/cook/recipe/118-Plov.html
They would render pork fat this way and continue until the fatty bits were well fried. They would then scoop out the fried bits (and eat them) then fry onion and then carrot in the fat. Add some pork and fry until browned. Then add rice and water and a head of garlic on top, cover until the rice is done. Delicious.


Can I put a disposable aluminum pan directly over a burner? If I need to melt margarine on the stove and have no pots or pans available, can I melt it in a thin disposable aluminum pan directly on the burner (on a low flame), or will the pan burn/melt?

I wouldn't risk it. Aluminum melts at 660°C and a gas flame is much hotter than that. Of course, the heat dissipates rapidly when you go away from a small flame, but these disposable pans are awfully thin and can quickly heat a lot. They are meant for the oven, which practically never exceeds 300°C.

If you really have no pan to melt it in think of some other alternative vessel. You probably don't need much melted margarine at once. Consider using a cezve, or a ladle (you will have to hold the ladle over the flame). Or you can try an oven-safe porcelain mug, but you risk discoloring the mug's bottom. It is less likely that a porcelain mug will be damaged than a thin alu disposable pan, but I still wouldn't risk an expensive mug.


Is there a way to ferment mustard seeds for homemade mustard? I have a recipe for mustard that calls for fermented mustard seeds - is there a way to ferment them at home?

Whey appears to be an agent for lacto-fermenting mustard.  This recipe for lacto-fermented mustard describes a process of combining ingredients and then letting them ferment after the recipe is put together by leaving out over a few days.

This recipe for a mustard seed raita uses yogurt as the fermentation ingredient, which means that you would have to use yogurt with active cultures.


How much food for a tasting event? How big of samples? I am participating in my first tasting event. The event coordinator says I need to make enough food for about 400-600 people to sample. How big should a sample be? About 2 tablespoons? 1 ounce? Does anyone have a ballpark for how many pounds of food sounds about right?

Right now it looks like I'm buying about 50 pounds of meat, not including the remaining ingredients. That seems high.

Do you perchance have the time to do a "dry run" with some friends? You may find it useful to initiate a series of platings with structured feedback questions that can be answered easily (yes/no, on a scale of 1-4 rate X...), and maybe a free response if you feel like it. Serve in the environment closest to where people will eventually be eating the food(outside ?) Change one "thing" or variable each time you present your quartet. For example:

Series 1- This will be your "control" plate.  Present this with no frills...or like you had to whip up 30 extras on the fly

Series 2- Variable to change: portion size/shape (increase/decrease/change shape)

Ask: Did you want more? (Y/N)
       Could you fit all this in your mouth at once? (Y/N) What were your initial impressions?

Series 3-Variable to change: plating time prior to consumption (+2 minutes)

Ask: Is this food at a pleasant temperature?  Was it too hot/cold? Did you notice any textural/color/flavor changes 2 minutes/5 minutes after it was plated?

I'm sure you get the picture.  My thoughts are that small mock-release could provide you with some fast and practical information. I would hate to realize that the portion size/presentation adversely impacted consumer experience, or that some other delicate service nuance could throw off your culinary compositions.  Good luck.


Does microwaving destroy nutrients in food? After answering this article, I did some research on microwaving killing vitamins and nutrients in food.

I very quickly learned that this is a touchy subject, even among nutritionists, and nobody (at least, nobody I saw) seems to have a "this is the science behind it and here is a definite answer" answer.  Some articles claim "there is no hard evidence" while others point to studies from Stanford and other respected institutions that back the "yes" answer.

Some quick articles with conflicting information, if you're only going to read one please read the first and last as they seem the most reputable to me:

The Straight Dope: Scientists are not sure yet, but it's likely in some cases
Microwaving can be like boiling, which kills nutrients
Microwaving is the best way of cooking for preserving nutrients
Microwaving hurts broccoli, but is good for potatoes
Harvard: Microwaving may preserve nutrients, like Vitamin C

As an interesting note, the "use less water" idea, which most of us take as common sense when cooking vegetables, may also be under scrutiny.  From the Harvard article above:

  But this is nutrition, and nothing in
  nutrition is simple. Italian
  researchers published results in 2008
  of an experiment comparing three
  cooking methods — boiling, steaming,
  and frying — and the effect they had
  on the nutritional content of
  broccoli, carrots, and zucchini.
  Boiling carrots actually increased
  their carotenoid content, while
  steaming and frying reduced it.
  Carotenoids are compounds like lutein,
  which may be good for the eyes, and
  beta carotene. One possible
  explanation is that it takes longer
  for vegetables to get tender when
  they’re steamed, so the extra cooking
  time results in more degradation of
  some nutrients and longer exposure to
  oxygen and light.

So, my questions are: Is microwaving known to kill nutrients in foods?  Is there a way to minimize this effect?  Can any nutritionists weigh in here with their experience, and ideally, the science behind their answers?  This has been a very confusing research path full of conflicting information, so all answers are appreciated.

Anything that breaks down due to heat is going to break down no matter HOW you cook it. Boiling only "destroys" nutrients by leaching them away into the water, which is the same reason that other people say that steaming/microwaving is better.

Thiamine, for example, is highly water soluble, so boiling is out. But it also breaks down at 100C, so you can't really cook it either. Niacin, on the other hand, leeches into water, but it's not heat-sensitive, so you can cook the hell out of it, as long as you don't get it wet. Folate is so fragile you can't leave your leafy greens in the sun without it breaking down (common with acids).

Basically, almost everything is better uncooked, but a lot of things are impossible to eat if you don't cook them enough to break down the cellulose. So eat a balanced diet, and stop worrying about the microwave.


What type of sugar can preserve bread the longest? I believe that honey preserves bread the longest. Are there any other sugars or sugar-like solutions that can preserve bread from mold longer?

I don't think a spoonful of sugar, honey, etc added to a loaf to encourage the yeast will make much of a difference. Sugar can act as a preservative but only at pretty high concentrations, and the amount you use in bread isn't going to be high enough.

My experience is that home-made bread will get stale long before it gets moldy. I've seen supermarket bread go moldy but I assume that's because they use some pretty serious preservatives that means the bread has the time to develop the microbes - say, a week or more.

I'm thinking about cake, which is pretty much a ultra-sugary bread, and even the amount of sugar there isn't enough to avoid it going stale. And again, that goes stale faster than it goes moldy, at least here in the cold North of England.


Ribs safety after outside defrosting I defrosted a package of unopened sealed ribs outside for an hour and a half because I was short on time. I did not think it would be a problem, but after reading all the different posts, I am a little concerned. The package was sealed, so are they okay to eat? i rinised them and salted them and they are in the oven...

From the FDA: Food temperatures between 40 °F and 140 °F, are ideal for bacteria.This range of temperatures is often called the “Danger Zone.” Never leave food out of refrigeration over 2 hours. If the temperature is above 90°F, food should not be left out more than 1 hour.

That said, if your ribs were frozen to begin with, then it certainly took 'some time' to reach 40°F and was likely not in "the danger zone" for over an hour, and 'should be' safe.


Why are the blueberries in my blueberry muffins not melting? I've made a few batches of blueberry muffins and the first batch turned out perfectly.  After that batch, I tried to substitute honey for sugar (just testing things out), but the blueberries didn't melt and they didn't have much flavor so I decided to go back to the original recipe.  For some reason though, my blueberries still won't melt and it honestly ruins the muffin for me.  For more clarification, when I say the blueberries won't melt I mean that they feel like they're ready to burst but they're completely intact (like they haven't "exploded" and the skin is unbroken). I'm really at a loss here on what to do or why this randomly started happening; I assumed it was related to the honey, but the latest batches have no honey in them.

Would really appreciate some help if anyone has a clue! :(

EDIT: I bought a huge bag of the frozen blueberries at Costco so I have had the same bag of frozen blueberries for all my muffins.  I appreciate all of the responses, but considering I'm already using frozen I'm still confused.  I'll try some more blueberry muffins tomorrow; maybe it was just a fluke.

Honey versus sugar has nothing to do with your berries bursting or not.

Assuming you are in the northern hemisphere you are getting out of season fruit as it is winter. Your blueberries are either greenhouse grown or have travelled halfway around the world from somewhere warm enough to grown them. Out of season blueberries tend to have less flavor and have thicker skins because they are not ripe.  They cannot be ripe when picked because they will rot before they make the trip from wherever they are grown, so they are picked while still underripe.

I would suggest buying frozen instead. Frozen berries are picked when ripe and then frozen right away, so usually taste better than fresh ones you get in the middle of winter. Freezing also weakens the skins, so they burst more reliably. Frozen are also much cheaper. In fact that's what I would suggest doing to fresh ones to make their skins burst when baked - freeze then thaw them, so you may as well save some cash and get a better tasting result by buying them frozen in the first place.


Overcooked yogurt : what did I actually do? I tried to make yogurt by slowly heating yogurt diluted in milk, but I forgot to watch it.

When I checked a few minutes later, it was above 70 °C and the whey had separated from the "yogurt".

The result smelled like yogurt, but it was very lumpy and quite dense, it looked a bit like mozzarella.

AFAIK, at 70 °C, the lactobacillus should have died, right ?

So what was that ?  I am not familiar with many milk products, does it look like a known recipe ?

Short answer:

That is well above the 130°F (55°C) at which the bacteria will die.
You over coagulated your milk proteins and made cheese.

Long answer:

After scalding and cooling, yogurt is kept warm to incubate the bacteria. The bacteria munch on lactose in the milk and produce lactic acid. The acid denatures the milk protein, causing protein molecules to unravel and then tangle up with each other trapping water and other milk molecules.

By heating the milk further, those tangled proteins then started to tighten up. They squeezed out a bunch of the water and became more solid and dense.

This is how acid set cheeses like paneer, or queso fresco are made- except they use lemon juice or vinegar for the acid instead of lactic acid.
This is also very similar to some ricotta preparations that are made from rennet-produced cheese whey. In this case the lactic acid from the cheese fermentation is enough to denature the leftover, water soluble, milk proteins when the milk is heated.

If your fermentation didn't go off, and from your description of the smell it sounds like it is good, then you could use this as a mild, fresh cheese. Yogurt cheese is used for frozen yogurt but this won't work for you if your proteins tightened up so much that they aren't creamy anymore.

Personally I'd just eat it on a cracker with a little jam.


Can I use sage tea as a herb while cooking I have a bag of loose sage tea, that I do not use for tea. I was wondering whether or not I could use these leaves in my dishes. At first sight, it seems all sage.

Is there a way to know if it is indeed all sage and without any tea leaves? There are no ingredients listed on the bag.
Would it be dangerous to cook with, if there was tea in it? My guess is that it would be fine, but might give a nasty flavor.

Without a list of ingredients there's no way to know what else is in your sage tea, or what flavors it will impart to a dish.

If the tea you get from the bag is pleasant then the flavor it imparts to the food should also be good, although sage is a very powerful herb and a whole tea bag of it would likely be far too much.

My view on this is that while you don't want to waste food you also don't want to ruin it, and the global ecology is not going to collapse because you get rid of a sage tea bag. If you really want to use it rip it open and try it on a small dish first and see what results you get.


Where is fat and what is this gel in refrigerated fish soup? I simmered some mackerel and added some kale.

I wanted to remove the fat so refrigerated overnight.

I didnt see any fat layer existing as you would see with refrigerated chicken or fatty meat but I did see eat some while still hot the before refrigeration.

After refrigeration I didn't see any fat and instead saw the whole liquid had become like a thick gel.

Why wasn't there\should there be a layer of fat like i see with chicken or red meat?
What is this gel?  Is it the collagen from fish bones, the problem is that it was on the stove for 30 minutes and mackerel has little bones so how come there was so much?
i was wondering where all the water had been replaced by gel?  if its collagen does it absorb all the water which is why i cant see a separation of gel and water?

Q1. Chicken and red meat is much more fatty than most fish, so you get a more noticeably thick layer of fat on top of say, chicken soup. Perhaps your fish was lacking in fat.

Q2. Gelatin is contained in other parts of animal flesh besides just the bones. [Sometimes vegetable matter as well e.g. tomatoes...unless vegetable "gelatin" has another name; if so, people will let me know I'm sure]

Q3. I wouldn't say the water had been "replaced" by gel. The water is taken up into the gel and becomes part of it. Think of Jello: You start out with a lot of water, then you mix the gelatin powder into it and cool it, and you wind up with a gel. The water didn't disappear or get replaced by a gel, it is simply a component of the resulting gel.


5 Gallon Drinking Water Container I'd like to buy a 5 or 6 gallon container for drinking water. I don't like plastic. One option is a glass carboy. But it's easy to break a glass carboy. Another option is a metal container. I guess one option can be aluminum or galvanized milk can. I searched the web and all I found were old vintage milk cans which are pretty expensive. Are aluminum or galvanized milk cans (or water cans) still produced? Do you have a better suggestion for a can for storing drinking water (not plastic)?

Thanks.

Use a bucket.

Lid sold separately, about ~20 for the two of them. Alternatively, you can pick up an oak barrel. They tend to be much more expensive in the 150-200 range. You could make your own container out of clay, though price effectiveness is questionable

More to the point, I think you underestimate the utility and glory that is plastic. Any container will flavor the water, plastic least so. Plastic is the lightest especially for its durability. It's incredibly cheap. It's safe (Don't let BPA alarmists mislead you, containers exhibit safe levels or they wouldn't be approved by the FDA. It's far more worrying how much of it winds up in other places.) It doesn't rust, and is non-porous. It is transparent, which allows natural sunlight to decontaminate drinking water from harmful microbes. It is hypoallergenic.

Overall plastic is pretty neat, and I strongly recommend you reconsider your aversion to it.


Difference between Maida and All purpose flour I'm baking tonight and I'm out of All purpose flour. I'm lazy to run out to the grocery store. Can I replace All purpose flour with Maida (Maida is better known to Asian Indians - we use it for making Naans and such)

Maida is wheat flour similar to what is sold in the US as cake flour. Like cake flour, maida is finely milled, and it has less protein than all purpose flour. You can use it for bread and cakes, as well as chapatis, parathas and puris.
To achieve a flour more like all purpose or other flour types, you can add gluten to maita. According to The Fresh Loaf, maida typically contains 7.5% gluten (if anyone can find a more authoritative source, please edit accordingly).
Cooking for Geeks has a good article about the gluten content of other flours:

High gluten flour and bread flour is produced from hard wheat. High gluten flour has a gluten percentage of about 12-14% while bread flour contains about 10-13% gluten. Both flours are almost completely made of hard wheat, but some high gluten flours are treated to reduce starch content, raising the gluten content to around 14%. These flours are generally used for making breads. High gluten flour is reserved for breads that are extra elastic such as bagels and pizza.
Cake flour is produced from soft wheat and is low in gluten content (8-10%). This flour is used for making delicate cakes. Baked goods made with cake flour has a tendency to crumble because of the low gluten content.
All purpose flour is made from a mixture of hard and soft wheats. The gluten content ranges from 9-12%. This is the most versatile flour because it can be used to make both cakes and breads. However, breads won't be as chewy and cakes won't be as tender as if you used bread or cake flour.
Pastry flour is also a mix of hard and soft wheat flours with an emphasis on soft. Generally, the gluten content is 9-10% and is often recommended for pie crusts.

So, again according to The Fresh Loaf:

Then if you're interested in the details of the math, start out with a formula like (100parts/100parts * 7.5%) + (Nparts/100parts * 75%) = 10.5% [or 9.5% or 12.5% or whatever your desired result is], then solve for N. Skipping intermediate steps, simplification gives N = ((end-percentage-goal * 100) - 750) / 75 (Even this math is actually an oversimplification that's not quite right. It takes the not-quite-correct shortcut of directly adding percentages without accounting for the total being more than 100 grams. Hopefully though it's "good enough" ...)
The bottom line is: for every 100 grams Maida, add somewhere between 2.6 and 6.6 grams GlutenPowder. Adding 2.6 grams GlutenPowder will give a result with about 9.5% gluten, adding 4 grams GlutenPowder will give a result with about 10.5% gluten, and adding 6.6 grams GlutenPowder will give a result with about 12.5% gluten.

According to the original author of this answer, "You might find that bread and cakes made with maida don't keep as well as the same things made with all-purpose flour, but home baking never stays around for more than a day in my experience."


How long does cooked garlic keep in fridge? I was wondering how long cooked garlic (in this case with pasta and a tiny bit of olive oil) keeps in the fridge. I always wonder about garlic (or onion) with oil but it was only a little oil. Still Tasty says that cooked onions last 3-5 days but nothing for cooked garlic. Would they be the same?  http://stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/17825 Thank you.

In general the FDA recommends that you consume leftovers within 3-5 days (See their website for specific foods). In this case, I don't think the garlic is what's holding you back.

While garlic and herb infused oils do present some botulism risk, I think what they are getting at is the can of preserved garlic you've had in the fridge for 9 months.


Cracking coconut cream I have several recepies which call for cracking coconut cream (Thai curries).

I used to just fry the curry paste and add coconut cream (or coconut milk) which produces reasonable results, but on reading the recipes again I realized that I was not making it correctly.

My more recent attempts at starting with coconut milk have resulted in it being more poached than fried, still nice but I feel that I am missing something.

As far as I can tell if you simmer the cream for long enough the oil should separate out and you are able to fry in it. But I can't seem to get this to happen. Am I being impatient or am I doing something fundamentally wrong?

Two things I know can make this difficult: using low-fat coconut milk, or using coconut milk that has had an emulsifier added to it (check the ingredients). Also, you may just not be cooking it long enough or at high enough of a temperature. I think you will really like the results when you get this to work, the curry comes out less gelatinous and more flavourful.


What is the difference between using nibs or liquor for making chocolate bars? For making chocolate bars. Nibs or liquor, why use one over the other?

Chocolate liquor is the result of grinding and heating cocoa nibs. It's then mixed with other ingredients to form the final chocolate. So it's not really one or the other: nibs are produced in one stage of the process, and chocolate liquor is produced at a later stage.


Brewing kefir with powdered cinnamon I've been experimenting with brewing with kefir. Fruit and fruit juice produces a nice tasty result but I would like to use ginger, nutmeg and a lot of cinnamon.

The common answer for using cinnamon is to place a cinnamon stick into the mix. This allows the stick to be easily separated from the kefir grains after brewing (so they can be reused) and does not leave bits in the final product.

However, I do not have any. I do have medicinal quantities of my favourite spices. I looked into muslin bags which are often used to make herbs easy to remove after cooking. Given how fine the powdered spices are, I have no idea if this will work.

Is there any way to infuse the spices into the water without ending up with "gunk" (I am sure there is a better term)?

Since no one else answered, I'll give you what I can.

Disclaimer: I never brewed with kefir grains. I brew beer, ciders, sometimes yogurt, and kefir started from commercial kefir.

I'm a big fan of cinnamon. So what I tried:

Filtration bags from brewers store simply fail to keep cinnamon dust in.
Filtration bags, extra fine cinnamon dust and gunk glue them so good that you can't really taste cinnamon in the final product.
Muslin bags as one of the above, depending on how thick and dense fabric is.
Dense metal mesh like the one you use on frying pan - tried to use it in couple of ways but nothing really worked.

Now, what worked? The only thing that worked for me was to first brew without cinnamon, then get my yeast out for reuse, and only then add cinnamon. After a day or two I decanted my brew leaving gunk on the bottom. Sadly this probably won't work for milk kefir. Sure won't work for yogurt, it's too thick. For juice-based drink it might work. It worked for me with ales and ciders fermented with yeast. Note: I needed to pitch fresh yeast with priming sugar to get any carbonation.


Why did James Bond heat up the knife for his foie gras? I was reading Fleming's Casino Royale and ran into the following curious detail, when describing James Bond's meal:

  Later, as Bond was finishing his first straight whisky ‘on the rocks’ and was contemplating the paté de foie gras and cold langouste which the waiter had just laid out for him, the telephone rang.
  ...
  Bond shook himself, then he picked up his knife and selected the thickest of the pieces of hot toast.
  He dipped the knife into the glass of very hot water which stood beside the pot of Strasbourg porcelain and reminded himself to tip the waiter doubly for this particular meal.

Now, from the text, it seems he's about to put foie gras on a toast. As far as I'm aware it's quite soft and not hard to cut with the knife and spread.

What exactly is the point of dipping the knife into hot water then?

From this link

  The key to slicing and portioning foie is to treat it like a rich
  mousse-cake: Make sure to heat up your knife under running water in
  between every slice. A cold knife will catch and stick in the foie,
  causing it to tear or crumble. A hot knife will melt the fat as it
  goes through, leaving you with clean, smooth surfaces to sear.


How do you get garlic to stick to green beans? When sautéing green beans (or snap peas, asparagus, etc) in butter with garlic, how do you get the garlic to stick to the beans?? I've tried varying the amount of butter up and down, and I've even tried adding corn starch, but nothing seems to get it to stick like I've seen in restaurants.

I'm going to guess that you're using fresh garlic, because I had that problem with another dish. I solved it by toasting my chopped fresh garlic for five minutes at 250°F on a pre-heated cookie sheet first lightly sprayed with Pam with Olive Oil. That way, it's dry on the outside (and thus more prone to sticking), but still moist and tender on the inside.


Can you freeze bagna cauda? (cream basically) Yesterday we had bagna cauda at a friend's house. It was too much, so everyone went home with a leftovers bottle (around 1 liter).
Will it ruin if I freeze it?

You can freeze cream, but it will undergo some separation issues.  When you thaw it you can shake or mix it to reintegrate the milk solids that have separated. Unfortunately, it will not regain the same mouth feel as never frozen liquid dairy. Basically I never freeze dairy that I want to drink, only things I will be cooking with or baking with.

In the case of this dip, I assume it will be reheated when you want to eat it, so I would say that you can freeze it and when you reheat spend some time with a whisk to recombine fully.


dehydrating puree food Can I dehydrate chicken cooked in water, purreed and mixed with purreed vegetables and mashed potatoes.  Like a stew.  Something that would be crisp like a chips then dissolve easily when eaten.  All precooked. Blended then dehydrated.  This is for someone that struggles with swallowing and it needs to be tender and soft.  Can you mix things like that?

1 - Get the paste flat and very thin

Use what's available: pastry machine; wide, flat icing tip; jerky "gun"

Make sure the paste has as little water as possible when preparing, different methods will require different amounts of water

2 - Dehydrate it

Use a home dehydrator or look up home oven dehydrating articles on jerky or fruit leather


Should I reshape refrigerated pizza dough into ball again when taking it out of the fridge? I made a pizza dough and put it in the fridge until tomorrow. 100% wheat flour, 68% water, 3% salt, 0.3% yeast.
I don't remember where I got the recipe, I kind of obsessed with pizza last year and tried many recipes and this one gives the best crust and flavor for me. But I don't remember how to handle the dough after the cold fermentation in the fridge.
What I do is, mix the ingredients, knead just a little until it's not so sticky. After some rest I fold the dough and give it another rest, I repeat this a few times until the dough is smooth. The last time I divide and form the individual balls, put them in separated closed containers and put it in the fridge until the next day (usually 18-24 hours).
I take it out of the fridge about 8 hours before cooking them, but I don't remember if I should reshape the balls to strengthen the gluten (and then let them rest) before stretching and cooking them. Or should I just take it out of the fridge and not touch it until ready to stretch and cook?

You don't need to take them out 8 hours before cooking, that's too long. 1-2 hours is long enough as it gives your dough time to come back up to temperature before baking and get active again. If your gluten is well developed before you put it in the fridge you don't need to work it further, a bit won't hurt anything but won't help either, and too much could make your dough tough. If anything you want it to relax a bit as it will make it easier to shape into a base.


Sticky corn starch croquette I'm having a coeliac over for dinner and I've made croquettes from corn starch. I have a recipe with 100gr corn starch and 700ml liquid. That works fine. But when forming the croquette, the batter will stick to my hands... a lot.

Is there a way to prevent this from happening?

It's the water in your skin more so than anything else that makes it stick to your hands; generally the most effective way to prevent any kind of water-based dough or batter from sticking to your hands is by greasing them.  Some of the fat might get into the dough, but not really enough to make a difference.

Any kind of fat will do. Vegetable oil is the economical choice but margarine or shortening will coat the hands much more effectively.

If you've got gloves then it's even easier, just spray them generously with cooking spray before you put them on and start to work the dough.


Frozen and Unfrozen Chicken: what's the difference? I see some chicken places advertising that their chicken has never been frozen. The suggestion, I suppose, is that never-been-frozen chicken is better. Is there any truth to this? References please.

Yes, there is a clear difference in never-frozen vs. defrosted meat.

The cell plasma in your chicken freezes in the freezer, turning into ice crystals. Since cell plasma is over 90% water, it expands instead of shrinking in the 0 to -4°C range. The crystals cut the cell walls. When you defrost the meat and cook it, the cell plasma flows out into the pan, leaving you with dried out meat. This is the first, major problem with freezing, and occurs even when the meat is frozen for a very short time.

If you keep meat stored frozen for longer time, there are two other effects. The unavoidable one is rancidity. The cell plasma in frozen meat has a high mineral concentration, and given time, it will oxidize the fat in meat, changing its taste for the worse. The avoidable one is freezer burn - it occurs if the meat is not wrapped properly in the freezer. Freezer-burned meat is really unpleasant to eat, most people throw out affected parts.

Of course, this is not the only factor affecting meat quality. SAJ14SAJ's comment is true in the sense that bad meat (from mass-produced young animals grown in bad conditions) will not have much taste of its own, and even if you prevent it from drying out, it still won't be as nice as good meat. But what is more pertinent in this case is that the cooking process can more impact on drying out than a freezing-defrosting cycle. If you cook defrosted meat carefully, you will minimize the dryness effect. It won't be the perfect morsel, but it can still taste pretty well. On the other hand, if you have never-frozen meat and overcook it, it can get to shoe-leather consistency, so that you lose all advantages from non-freezing.

References: McGee on Food and Cooking, p.146 (reputable, dead-paper book) or http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/sausage-making/freezing-meat - (random Google hit, one click away).


Searching for a "Dry Goods Starter Mix" Friend of mine had a dry goods mix that included things like flour, salt, sugar... it kept indefinitely and could be used in proper portions for any number of bread type items - muffins, pancakes, and so on.

Can I make such a mix at home? Where can I find sources describing it? And how can I use it?

This site has a recipe for the mix and recipes for using it.
http://kitchensimplicity.com/homemade-bisquick-mix/
Or google homemade bisquick


What is glooi in English? Warning! As is discussed in the comments to the answer, the plant and tuber may be poisonous and must be cooked by experts.

I went to a village market in NE Thailand. They had many products from "the jungle". For lunch I had steamed, shredded coco-nut, pumpkin and a white tuber (?) they called "glooi".
 I assume the "glooi" is sliced (and steamed) in the picture below.

Does anyone know more about "glooi", it's English name etc?

Warning! The plant and tuber may be poisonous and must be cooked by experts. See comments.

Some Thai friends had eaten this tuber when they were young and helped me surf the Internet for it.

It is pronounced glooi (กลอย).

Scientifically it would be
Dioscorea hispida Dennst
http://www.thaicrudedrug.com/main.php?action=viewpage&pid=14

My dictionary translates it as wild yam, but that is probably a wide definition. It is definitely different from other yam that resembles sweet potato and  is sometimes purple. (Yam in Thai language is "man".)


Can "juice from concentrate" be diluted 100% juice? If products labelled as juice from concentrate is just water added to concentrated juice, and concentrated juice is 100% juice with water removed, can juice from concentrate have more water added than previously removed and effectively be diluted juice (compared to the original 100% juice)? Or is there a legal requirement for producers to add the same amount of water that was removed?

Are typical "juice from concentrate" products sold in stores equivalent to 100% juice (ignoring the removal and readdition of water), or could they dilute it and still sell it?

As you have a Canadian website in your user profile, I assume you are asking about the legal requirements in Canada.

Canada's Food and Drug Regulations state the following (emphasis mine):

  B.11.133 [S]. Reconstituted (naming the fruit) Juice or (naming the
  fruit) Juice from Concentrate

  (a) shall be fruit juice that has been prepared by the addition of
  water to fruit juice of the same name from which water has been
  removed;

  (b) may contain juice of the same name, a sweetening ingredient, and
  natural pulp, oils and esters of the named fruit;

  (c) shall conform to the standards for the named fruit juices as
  prescribed in this Division; and

  (d) may contain, in the case of reconstituted lemon or lime juice, not
  more than 10 parts per million dimethylpolysiloxane.

Thus, it is not explicitly illegal to add more water to the concentrate than you removed from the original juice, as long as the resulting product would be marketable as "juice". The rules for that differ per fruit, but see for example the definition of orange juice. Mostly, constraints are placed on which compounds can be present in the product at which concentrations.


Frozen turkey breast worry New cook here!  So I started to cook a 3 lb. frozen turkey breast. It cooked for 75 minutes and I inserted a meat thermometer, while keeping it in the oven. It registered 165. I took it out and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, my husband cut into it and the middle was still frozen. He then put it back in the oven for another hour or so. I just pulled it out and placed a meat thermometer in it while it was out of the oven. It registered 180. I started worrying about the bake, refrigeration, frozen re-bake thing. Should we even consider eating this poor turkey breast?

I don't know if it'll be good, but assuming this time it did actually cook all the way through, it should be safe to eat. Food is safe for up to 2-4 hours in the danger zone, and it sounds like your initial cooking, refrigeration, and second cooking are still within that.

It does sound like something went pretty wrong with your thermometer usage, though. My guess would be that you just didn't manage to find that frozen spot, and need to be sure to try a couple spots and make sure you're getting the temperature-sensitive part of the thermometer all the way to the center of the meat.

It could also be that your thermometer isn't great, and the temperature-sensitive part is too big, so it was in contact with both the frozen part and plenty of warmer turkey outside of that, and sort of averaged out to 165. Or it could be wildly inaccurate! So you might want to test it on a few more things where you have a good idea what the reading should be, and get a sense of whether you can trust it.

And of course, for next time, defrost before cooking. It's hard to get good results cooking frozen food directly, unless it's small enough. (And as you've discovered, a turkey breast is not small enough!)


Unused baked potatoes I work in a cafe but I am still a little new to some things so my question is: If I turn yesterday's bakers into today's mashed potatoes will they taste any different? I am concerned that they may look different  or taste less fresh.

I have done this in the past and it does work well (think about twice baked potatoes...) but there are few considerations. You will need to add more butter or cream to the baked potatoes and it does work better if you are mixing it with boiled potatoes. I don't recall there ever being enough left over bakers that we didn't need to add at least some fresh potatoes.

bonus: then you can use the left over mash potatoes to make potato rolls for the next night :)


Why does Alton Brown call for three types of milks in a recipe? I'm looking at the ingredient list for Alton Brown's aged eggnog recipe, and I see the following:

1 pint half-n-half
1 pint whole milk
1 pint heavy cream

Does the half-n-half play any specific role here?

I calculated the final fat ratio of the mix and it's ~20%

Wouldn't it be easier to just mix milk and cream to get the right ratio, skipping the half-n-half altogether?

By my math that's 3.25 cups of milk + 2.75 cups of cream.

The main purpose of the one part of Half-and-Half is to aid in homogenization of the one part of milk and one part heavy cream.

Per this article (toward the end):

  Half and half is also a good solution for desserts that call for equal parts milk and cream, but have a tendency to separate. The fat has been homogenized in the half-and-half, so using it in desserts like panna cotta will deliver a smoother, more consistent result.

The half-and-half also enhances desired texture/mouth feel properties.


Is Pickwick green tea deceffeinated? I am referring to this brand: http://www.amazon.com/Pickwick-Green-Tea-Original-Packages/dp/B003YBNJH8

The box doesn't say anything. I drank several and while I felt weird, my pulse was normal. I can't find any info on this tea and their website is in non-english languages only. Anyone got an idea?

Green tea contains caffeine naturally. Here is a reference for general amounts in beverages Mayoclinic Nutrition. As Memj said, Decaf products are generally labeled as such.

From the Pickwick.nl using Google translate:

  Have you ever heard of theine? That's just another name for caffeine
  in black, green and white tea. But how much caffeine now actually
  contains a cup of tea? A cup of black tea contains approximately 30 mg
  of caffeine. At an average cup of coffee is 85 mg. Rather a time no
  caffeine? Choose one or Rooibos herbal blend.

It's not specific for their green tea, but does say to choose herbal blends if you don't want caffeine.


Is it safe to eat sushi with different toppings (cooked and raw) after 24h? I have been reading posts in the internet, but it just made me more confused. My conclysions after reading several posts of different websites:

Some say that sushi (the rice) with sashimi (raw fish) should be safe, but the cooked food shouldn't (this fact shocked me a little bit as I would expect the opposite).
Others say completely the opposite, as I was expecting. Even like 16h after storing it in the fridge, if it has sashimi (raw fish) it should be thrown (depending on the freshness of the fish. If you ordered it, its impossible to know).

Context:

I went at a friend's place yesterday at about 22:00. We chilled (using this verb in the cooking exchange just sounds weird, sorry) for a few hours and then I went home, not without taking the enormous sushi tray that was leftovers from a few hours before I went there.

Some info:

The sushi tray was on the table, not in the fridge. So my friends probably ate and then went to the living room without putting it inside the fridge. Let's say 5h passed.
When I got home, I immediately stored it inside the fridge.
Some sushi has raw fish (sashimi), some has cooked stuff (like japanese omelette) and I think there are some vegetarian or vegan ones.

Picture of the tray:

What matters is time in the Danger Zone. If your sashimi heated up to room temperature it should certainly not be consumed: for instance E. Coli doubles in between 15 minutes and 1 hour in warm conditions. (Sushi on the same tray is likely to get cross contamination.) Chilling it later does not help: the bacteria have already grown.

A very cautious recommendation is that any food that has spent more than 2 hours above 4C should not be consumed. This is particularly important for raw fish and meat that will be contaminated with bacteria.


How do I save my curry with too much of a raw onion smell? I was cooking for a party and ground my raw onions, added to oil and then added meat. Now the curry is sweet and smells like raw onion. How do I save this curry so I can use it for the party?

Don't grind the onion too fine. Just chop it fine.

Now if it is done add some oil and put it on low heat till it starts to taste better.


Where can I find buttermilk in France? The translation for buttermilk is given as babeurre, but this doesn't correspond to anything I can find in grocery stores or cheese shops here. I suspect that the word means something in Quebec but it doesn't ring any bells here.

Does anyone know what I should be asking for and where I can find it?

You'll want to look for one of two products either lait fermenté or lait ribot.

Lait fermenté is a cultured buttermilk. This is homogenized and pasteurized milk which has been cultured with lactic acid bacteria. This is the de facto standard buttermilk in modern times. If you go to an American grocery store and buy buttermilk you are buying cultured buttermilk.

Lait ribot is traditional buttermilk. It is the fermented liquid leftover from churning butter. This is not commonly found in the US and other western countries.

See also: Buttermilk


How to make puffed/popped rice? Is it possible to make puffed rice at home like the rice used in breakfast cereals? I have a hot air popcorn maker and have experimented with that with little success.

I imagine the problem is to do with the moisture content of the rice, so far I've only tried with dried Basmati. Does it need moisture to expand to create the puffed effect? If so does par boiling the rice work? If so how long would I need to do it to get the ideal moisture content.

Interesting question.  Did search 'how do I make puffed rice'.  Came up with some interesting information.

There are some writings that suggest that puffed rice can be made like popcorn; get the moisture in the grains of rice to the correct level (no idea what the level should be, experimentation should guide you I suppose) and then (depending on what source you read) put in a popcorn popper, put it on sheets in the oven or fry it in oil.

The history indicates that the first puffed rice made in the U.S. was actually shot from a cannon, after, I presume, being thoroughly soaked to some level of softness; there was a cereal advert in the '60s that bragged "this is the cereal that's shot from guns".  Am thinking that the softening of the rice, probably by cooking, and then putting it into a pressure vessel in which the pressure is allowed to rise to a certain PSI (pounds per square inch) and explosively releasing the pressure, causes the grains to boil or fizz or effervesce, gives them the light puffiness we see at the market.

If I'm reading the information correctly, the devices to make puffed rice are available

Here is a link to a video showing the explosive creation of puffed rice by a traveling puffed rice manufactury on a bicycle in Taiwan;

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3915559836111131480#docid=-4928826327589404249

Here are some other links, kind of vague, regarding non explosive puffed rice:

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question393.htm

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/20752/how-to-make-puffed-rice

http://www.indiamike.com/india/indian-recipes-f108/how-to-make-puffed-rice-at-home-t94003/

This last link has some history & speculation of how puffed rice has been made non explosively using hot salt, or sand...didn't read all of the ideas.

Have fun, and be safe.


Can I add unsweetened cocoa to a store-bought white cake mix to make chocolate cake mix? I know that buying a chocolate cake mix would be the easiest, but there is a white cake mix whose flavor I like...

A small amount will be fine, but if you try to add enough to make it significantly chocolate flavored, you'll throw off both the wet/dry ratio and the acid chemistry of the mix, and probably end up with an unsatisfactory cake.


How to prepare dried tortellini? I bought some tortellini with meat at a local mall.

The problem is I didn't buy prepackaged, but just some 200g out of a big bin, at a stand where you just load as much as you need, and get the barcode with the right weight printed - so the simple "follow directions on the package" (as advised by all recipes involving such tortellini when searching for the answer online) doesn't really help.

How do I prepare such tortellini for eating - boiling time? Drop into hot water or bring to boil with water? Add salt to water or salt later? Anything else to remember?

Unfortunately, the above answers would probably be good for fresh tortellini, or frozen or something like that. Following the advice, I had the dried tortellini floating on the surface within a minute or two, puffed a little too. I fished one out, and it was definitely hard. I let them boil for another five minutes and they were barely edible, some even a little crunchy in places.

Last week I managed to hunt down the bulk package at the market (used to fill the bin), and there were directions on it: Boiling time: 15-18 minutes. And yes, since the boiling water cooled down to simmer as I added them. In 15 minutes they were still a little al dente but after another 4 minutes they were entirely soft, and just right.


Pressure canning instructions Where can safe and reliable instructions (including high and low altitude canning) be found for canning?

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving includes a section that does just what you're asking.  It also provides a large collection of excellent recipes and general tips and tricks.


What can I use as a replacement for ricotta or cottage cheese in a lasagna? I really cannot take the texture of ricotta or cottage cheese in food, to the point where I will gag when it is in my mouth.

However, most of the recipes I have seen for lasagna involve using one or the other. Is there something I can use as a replacement that will do the same sort of cheese thing that they do, without the weird texture?

I've never used ricotta or any soft cheese on my lasagne - I wonder if it is an Italian American convention. I use bechamel sauce, mozarella and parmesan, and it works very well.


Are there any benefits in refrigerating stock before using it? I'm at the tail end of cooking a chicken stock and was planning to use a small portion of it in a marsala sauce later in the evening. Every chicken stock recipe I've read says to let the stock cool then refrigerate. To my understanding, this is not only to preserve the stock but also to allow it to become gelatinous? Will I lose out on any flavor by going directly from the pot and into the pan?

Any gelatin in your stock will be there whether it is warm or cold.  It's just that gelatin solidifies when it cools...it will melt out when you warm it again, leaving you where you are now.  You can go straight to your sauce, your stock is probably as flavorful as it will be when you are finished cooking it.  Cooling prior to refrigeration is to prevent the potential warming of other items in your refrigerator, and has little to do with the stock itself.


Basil Pesto and Cream Cheese dip I made a dip with basil pesto covering cream cheese with grated parmesan cheese over it all.

Can I keep the dip (tightly covered) for 4 days without the pesto interacting with the cheese?

The pesto was purchased in a jar. It was not opened until yesterday when the dip was made.  I only worry about the chemical reaction between the two and rancidity (sp). There was enough left over to use again.

Thanks.

As long as the whole dip is/was kept in the safe temperature range (under 40 °F / 5 °C), I don't think you will have a food safety issue.  Remember, time out of refrigeration (well, technically in the danger zone of 40~140 °F / 5~60 °C) is cumulative.  How was the dip served the first time?  If the cream cheese (a "potentially hazardous" food, much more so than parmesan or pesto) sat out at room temperature in the danger zone for 2 or more cumulative hours (4 at the outside) you should discard it.

Other than the food safety issue, there may be some minor interaction among the ingredients, but that will be more a palatability issue, not a safety issue.   The flavor might even improve.


Very unusual kitchen tools I found this very interesting post. I can guess what some of them must be but have no idea about the others. Can someone please help identify these:

This is a collection of identifications from existing answers. If you know what something is, please add it here, rather than adding yet another answer - and remember to explain how you use it!

1. An egg scissor. Lee Valley used to sell some as recently as this century. You hold it like scissors, open the blades, put the circle over the top of your hard-boiled egg (which is sitting upright in an egg cup) and close the blades, neatly cutting off the top of the egg. The chicken motif reinforces the purpose. It's gold coloured because it's an entirely showing off tool that nobody genuinely needs.

2. Fork for sardines

3. A pair of tongs for asparagus. Thumb goes in the top ring, two fingers in the rings underneath. Just for asparagus. Yes, it's silly.

4. A butter or cheese knife with an integrated fork. Cut a pat of butter, use the fork to transfer it wherever it's going.

5. Knife for oranges

6. Another butter/cheese knife+fork.

7. Sugar cube scissors. Used to pick up and serve sugar cubes.

8. A cherry pitter. Insert cherry, work the action, no more cherry pit.

9. A pair of butter churns. Pour cream in jar, crank paddles, get butter. You can move the top from jar to jar.

10. A bbq-type fork. It has a little piece of machinery integrated to push whatever it is you've skewered off again. If you squeeze the little handles sticking out at the top, the scissor action will push the end down. I guess it removes the need to use another utensil to do the job...? (It's either that or something designed for easy fire-roasting while you sit at a comfortable distance.)

11. A strawberry stem remover. They still sell these: http://www.shop.thekozynook.com/Strawberry-Huller-5582.htm  OR Tweezers to remove fish bones, such as from salmon. OR Tweezers to pluck feathers from birds.

12. Stand for fruit knives

13. A sugar spoon with integrated caster. Take a bit of sugar from the bowl, then use the hole to drizzle it over your food.

14. Device for holding game at cutting (put it on one of the critter's legs, lock it with the screw)


Cookware, copper or cast iron or just buy the right tool for the job? I'm thinking of replacing my motley collection of cheap non-stick and bargain basement steel pots and pans.

I'm considering either replacing with cast iron (Le Creuset is probably the best known of these) or perhaps pushing the boat out and investing in copper cookware.

For someone who enjoys getting adventurous every now and again in the kitchen at home, is it worth spending extra on copper?

Copper can be useful for certain tasks due to the its metallic properties (heats quickly, distributes heat evenly, etc.), however I would not call copper pans good "all-purpose" pans.

As for cast iron, you mentioned Le Creuset, and again I would tell you that they are more of a specialty manufacturer. They make some very nice coated cast iron-ware and fantastic large pots, but they're not really the go-to for a simple cast iron pan.

For basic cast iron, go buy a Lodge skillet. They're around $20 depending on size, and will literally last a lifetime. The company has been making these pans for 115 years; they know what they're doing. I use mine 3-4 times per week, and cook almost all my meat in it. It tastes better after every use.


Storing unused portion of red onion I like the red onions in my toss salads.  Seldom do i use a whole one, because they are usually so large and i want to know how can i keep the already cut onion from going bad.  I have tried just about everything, zip lock bags, wrapping in foil or plastic wrap, brown paper bags etc.  But for some reason and sometimes the onion becomes slimy on the cut part, at which point i have to cut away a portion of the onion before i can use it.

Take a decent sized cling film, put the onion with the cut part down in the centre. Close the cling film over the round part and twist all the air out of the wrap.

The onion will stay good in the fridge for some days.


Is there any use to salmon heads and spines? The fishmonger gave me a whole salmon rationed, and included the head and spine. I threw the head and spine away, but was wondering whether there is any culinary use for it.

Normally in a fish stock, I use white fish, not blue.

I agree that you can get some good meat from the head and could use it to flavour Bouillabaisse, i wouldn't however use it for stock as oily fish can lead to a cloudy fatty stock rather than the clearer and more flavoursome fish stock that can be derived from the off cuts and bones from white fish.


Why is cream curdled in coffee? Why would liquid half-and-half creamer curdle when poured into hot coffee? This happens to me sometimes, and I'm not sure why. Could it have something to do with either the coffee being too hot or the creamer being too cold?

I would think this is happening because your cream is just about to turn sour.

As cream ages, lactic acid builds up in it.  The acidity in your coffee is enough at that point to push the cream over the edge to curdling.

Try newer cream or a very low-acid coffee with old cream and you should be OK.


How can I counteract the to bright tomato taste of a beef stew? I used a large tin of chopped tomatoes as the majority of the liquid (plus water) to make a beef stew. It doesn't taste right! I used lots of fresh spices; thyme, rosemary and sage. It really needs help. Can anybody suggest something, please?

The thing to avoid with stews is boiling them as this tends to make the meat tough and drives off the more subtle aromatic flavours, cooking too hard can also make tomatoes taste a bit metallic.

If it tastes a bit too sharp there are a few this you can do to help it.

seasoning : just basic salt and pepper flavours will help as well as plain salt anchovies and fish sauce can work well with beef, if used moderately  these don't give the dish any sort of fishy taste. These also tend to enhance the savoury flavour of the beef but you do need to be a bit careful not to over-salt stews as this is difficult to fix.
sweetening : a bit of sweetener can counteract harsh flavours and enhance aromats. Something like honey or caramelised onions is generally better than refined white sugar, black treacle also works well with beef as it has a bit of bitterness to balance the sweetness.
Spice : even if you don't like hot food, paprika or black pepper can add extra depth to a stew without making it too hot as can fresh peppers. Aniseed flavours like tarragon, star anise and fennel seed also work  well with beef.

Smokey flavours can also work well and can be a good emergency fix for a stew which has gone a bit wrong eg smoked paprika or smoked oysters.

The key thing is to add seasonings gradually and taste as you go along, taking careful note of how they change the flavour often it sis not so much a case of tasting the seasoning itself as how it changes the whole balance.

Also stews get better with slow gentle cooking (not boiling) it's normal for a meat stew to taste bit weird after 30 minutes or so but after 45 minutes to an hour of gentle simmering is should start to come together so it's important not to season too much too early.


What determines the variety of paprika to use in recipes? Spanish smoked paprika is powerful stuff that can enhance or overpower a dish. How do I judge when, how much, and which type of paprika (Spanish, Hungarian, sweet, hot, smoked, etc.) to use?

If a recipe didn't specify which type of paprika to use (and I've never seen one that didn't) I would default to a 'sweet mild' paprika. Sweet refers to 'not chilli hot' rather than anything to do with sugar. Smoked paprika is a very particular ingredient used in very few cuisines so I wouldn't think of it as just a variant or substitute for the other paprikas.

The other clue about which to use will be in the rest of the recipe. Is it a spanish or basque recipe? Then smoked is likely what they mean. Is it Croatian/Serbian? Then it is sweet mild. Does the recipe include chilli as a spice separately? Then they likely won't be asking you to double up by using hot paprika too, use mild. The quantity the recipe calls for will also be a clue. Smoked & hot paprikas are very strong, so I'd expect to see a pinch or 1/4 teaspoon listed in most cases, whereas mild paprika is often used to add colour as well as flavour so you might see greater quantities used.


How should I convert my Victoria sponge to a chocolate sponge? I generally bake Victoria sponge cake with 6 oz flour. Now to make a chocolate sponge cake do I substitute 2 oz of flour with cocoa powder or do I keep the 6 oz flour and add additional 2 oz cocoa powder.

I have seen some recipes that mention the former and some recipes mention the latter of what I mentioned above. Which of these 2 methods is the best way to prepare a chocolate sponge cake.

Replace 2oz of flour with the cocoa powder. If you add an extra 2oz of dry ingredients, the ratio of wet to dry will be off and you will end up with a dry sponge.


How to store a Christmas pudding to make it drier? I have prepared a Christmas pudding but it came out too wet to our taste. What is the best way to store it to make it drier but without spoiling it?

A storage method that will dry out your pudding will essentially be staling it. Starches retrograde (lose moisture) fastest between 17F and 46F (-8c and 8c). Unfortunately, this not only causes the starches to release moisture, they also revert to their crystalline form which can make them unpalatable. If you still want to do this, the refrigerator is the perfect place to keep it in this temperature range, but it will still take some time to lose moisture.

Alternately you could speed evaporative moisture loss by storing it somewhere warm and dry (a low oven or over a pilot light?) Again, this will probably make your pudding dry in an unappealing way as the outside will dry faster than the interior.


Unable to make yogurt in cold climate I have read the answers to this question - How to thicken yogurt and I am not sure if my question is on topic or not - this is the procedure I followed to make yogurt in a mountainous region and I am not able to make yogurt twenty four hours after I started the procedure

1) Boiled unpasteurized milk
2) Cool the boiled milk to where when I touch the milk it feels warm.
3) I added three teaspoons of branded yogurt(3 % fat)
4) Stir for couple of minutes with teaspoon

I am not sure if you are required to put a lid over the milk as it ferments (I did not) but today morning when I looked it is half milk and half yogurt. It still tastes milk like. The bottom portion is yogurt and the top portion is milk. I am in a mountainous region and it is fairly cold right now(the coconut oil has frozen). I reckon it is around 13-14 degrees centigrade plus rain and I am wondering if my milk culture is "gone" or is there a way to rescue it ? In the morning I did wrap some woolens around it and did put a lid on top of the vessel. I am looking to know what I did wrong here.

Not covering it was unwise - it accelerates cooling and also allows other (unwanted) bacteria to populate it.

Not insulating it to keep it warm was your main problem. I seem to recall that some cultures in cold climates that traditionally fermented milk products would do so in a bag worn next to the skin, under clothing and blankets, to keep the ferment warm at body temperature. You can probably improvise something a bit less primal, but it's there as an option. A well-insulated box is generally simple enough, but waiting until the milk was already cool to "wrap some woolens around it" is too little, too late - you need the insulation to keep the heat in, as it does not warm the milk up when it's already cold.

I have decent success with a 35-37C temperature for a long time (24 hours) - but without a means to hold the milk at temperature (perhaps set it above the warm computer? Carefully!) I'd start in the 45C range and wrap it up in a lot of insulation to hold the heat as long as possible. Aside from woolens, styrofoam or cardboard are fairly inexpensive or even free insulating materials that are widely available. You can nest several cardboard boxes inside each other to make multiple layers for better insulation. If you are making a small quantity of yogurt you can add bottles or jars of warm water for additional thermal mass (wrap them all up together inside the insulation/box.)