Is it ok to leave Christmas cake batter to sit for 3 hours? I make a couple of Christmas cakes every year, using this recipe: https://helgavan.com/easy-christmas-cake-recipe/

Usually I make two smaller cakes by splitting the recipe in half and baking them both in the oven at the same time (for less than in the given recipe).

This year I don't have a very big oven. It'll only be able to fit one of the two half-cakes. Is it ok if I leave the other half of the batter to sit while the first one bakes? What's the best way of storing it for this time?

I‘m not sure how much leavening the baking powder will really accomplish in this recipe but anyhow, that’s your „critical ingredient“.

To be on the safe side, I would recommend you prepare your recipe until „day 2“, then on day three split the cherry mix and the remaining ingredients in two and do the final mixing in two batches so that you can bake them right away.

If you choose to finish all batter at the same time, just let it sit at room temperature, or, if you want to be on the super-safe side (eggs, > two hours) you can put it in the fridge, but that’s going to increase the baking time and aggravate the „burnt-edge-raw-center“ issue.

Now some might argue that for food safety reasons the raw eggs should not sit at room temperature for more than two hours, but as you are going to bake the batter for a quite long time, anything that might have grown will be pasteurized and the time frame is too short for the production of toxins.


Pressure Cooker "Safety Fuse Plate" Bubbles During Use I recently bought a 9.5 Quart Tramontina Pressure Cooker for the purpose of cooking dried beans and legumes since I've moved to an altitude that makes simple stove top cooking impractical.

I've only used the cooker twice, and each time, it pressure locks but steam/bubbles continue to come out of the handle (on and off), the manual pressure release valve (frequently) and something called the "safety fuse plate" (almost continuously). Very little steam comes out of the pressure limiting valve from what I can tell.

I am not familiar with pressure cooking, but have done quite a bit of reading and cannot figure out if this is normal or unsafe or really anything. I know I'm not overfilling it and I doubt the pressure is too high. The food does not come out cooked/finished, although that could be due to incorrectly adjusting the times for the altitude.

So my questions are:

1) Is this normal?

2) Does this sound unsafe?

Happy to provide any more information as requested.

EDIT: After replacing the safety fuse plate, the bubbling continued. I reached out to customer service and they think its probably an issue with the valve itself. If I get a replacement, I'll try the cooker again and update with the results.

Beans and legumes produce a lot of scum/foam (it's a mostly denatured protein mat) while cooking.  For a pressure cooker, this can clog your vents (a bad thing).  So you want to ensure that not too much is produced.  Your user manual should have a section describing the cooking of beans and/or legumes with appropriate instructions.

An example is on page 23 of this manual.  To summarize:

Don't fill cooker more than 1/2
Adding a tbsp of oil per cup of legume can reduce frothing [I haven't tried this]
Bring the legumes to a boil and skim the initial scum before closing the cooker


Can you safely torch a meringue topping instead of baking it? I want to make a butterscotch pudding and chill it in ramekins. Since the pudding calls for egg yolks, I thought of making the whites into a meringue topping. If I do that, can I brown the topping with a kitchen torch instead of baking all the puddings in the oven? Or is the baking necessary (e.g., for safety)?

Yes you can - if you make the right kind of meringue.

There are three types that vary in the preparation process:

French (or classic) meringue
Where egg whites are simply beaten with fine sugar.
Swiss meringue
Where the egg & sugar is beaten over a water bath.
Italian meringue
Where the whites are beaten first and a steady stream of hot sugar syrup is then slowly added while continuing to whip.

The former two are often considered “easier”, but only the latter will result in a meringue that is safe to eat without an additional baking or cooking step. And torching a meringue is merely decorative.


Best potato varieties to use for mashing I use Maris Piper with butter, milk and seasoning, but I'm wondering if there is a better variety for mashing?

The variety of potato used for mashing really is a matter of preference, and the style of product you desire.

Light, Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

The best potatoes for light, fluffy, very smooth and elegent mashed potatoes are starchy varieties, such as the US Idaho.

Dense, Creamy Mashed Potatoes

For dense, creamy mashed potatoes (which also hold longer), a waxy potato like a Red Bliss or a fingerling is more ideal.

Middle of the Road

You can also get excellent results with middle of the road potatoes which are between the starchy and waxy extremes, such as the US Yukon Gold.


How to increase flavour intensity in this recipe? I am thinking of making dinner tonight (probably pasta) and the ingredients that I have a courgettes, tomatoes and half a butternut squash. I am 70% vegetarian

I first added olive oil, then fried onions and garlic, then added in the vegetables. I added in salt, pepper, souvlaki seasoning, sage and thyme I believe for extra taste. At the end I mixed in a tablespoon of Ricotta (my favourite cheese). The pasta I had with it was Rigatoni.

However the taste turned out to be a bit bland. What can I do to spice up this recipe? I want it to be more intense,perhaps roasting the vegetables first and then frying them. Will that help? Otherwise what can I add to increase its taste?

Thanks.

Edit : Instead of having pasta with this sauce, can I have Ciabatta baked in the oven with it?

try adding some green, yellow and red peppers with the added vegetables. I believe these peppers give a strong taste.

Also you could try to add some paper laurel when cooking, then remove it upon serving, it gives a good taste and smell too.


How can I use a large quantity of raw almonds all at once? I have a big practically unused bag of raw almonds that's been sitting in my pantry for a couple years. I got them as a gift when I used to munch on them more, but after a few major life changes it just has never been pulled out again.

What can I possibly make with all of these almonds? I'm looking for something that uses the almonds as I primary ingredient rather than a garnish so I can get rid of them in one fell swoop instead of slowly whittling them away. I've thought of almond butter and almond flour, but I don't see myself using either that often, so it doesn't really help.

As Stephie implied, after "a couple years", I'd bet your raw almonds are rancid and whatever you do with them would just be throwing good ingredients after bad. But eat a couple and see for yourself. If they're ok, I'd make almond butter, that would let you use all of them quickly.


Can I repair a cake tin which has started to leak? I have a cake tin (the sprung false bottom type) which, although the bottom seems to fit quite well, has started to leak when I pour cake mixture into it.

Is there anything I can do to rescue the tin and stop it from leaking, or should I just bin it and get a new one?

Wrap the bottom in tin foil before squeezing it into the sides with the clasp.


Wet fillings in chocolate Water is the arch-nemesis of chocolate. So how do you put water-based fillings into chocolates without splitting the chocolate? I've tried this a few times, and it never seems to work properly.

(Most particularly, I'm trying to do a fondant filling. But since fondant is just sugar with water in it... that's not going to work very well.)

To correct your statement:
Water is the arch enemy of liquid chocolate...

You can even let melted chocolate and liquid touch, this will not cause the chocolate to seize, stirring might.

If you want to create a filled bite of chocolate-encased deliciousness often called Belgian praline (but names may vary), you can go different routes:

Prepare a (semi-)solid centre, e.g. a piece of marzipan or, if firm enugh to cut, your fondant, then coat it by dipping it in tempered chocolate.
Prepare a hollow shell by pouring tempered chocolate into molds and pouring it out again before it sets. Then fill the shell with your desired filling, leaving a bit of space to the top. Close the shell by piping or pouring more chocolate on it. Let cool between steps and before unmolding.
For really liquid fillings like liqueur, you need shells that have only a small opening. You can make them yourself, either by using a special mold with a small opening or by making semi-spheres, "glueing" two halves together and then using a warm tool to melt a hole into the ball. Or you can order them from specialized suppliers. Fill the shell with your liquid filling, then close the hole by piping a drop of chocolate on it.
Optional: dip the filled object in chocolate to hide seams etc.


Can you use marinade twice if it was first used on precooked meat? I made precooked frozen meatballs in the crockpot with jelly and honey BBQ sauce. It was really yummy and was wondering if the sauce that's leftover would be ok to marinate some ribs in?

The general rule is that if the food has not been exposed to potentially dangerous temperatures (40 - 140 F, 4 - 60 C) for more than 4 hours cumulative over its lifetime them it is safe to use.  This would apply to your sauce, so if it was hot the entire time it was being used, it should be okay.

If your marinade meets that constraint, then you might consider reusing it.  However, it will have been diluted and infused by the meatball flavors, so the result may be strange or it may be fantastic, depending on how those flavors interact.

Given that ribs are not inexpensive items, I would start with a new "marinade" sauce, so that you have consistent and predictable results.

See also: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info


Effect of flour/fat/sugar/egg ratio in a sponge pudding I thought I'd have a go at making a sponge pudding. I've Googled recipes and they all seem to be variations on creaming together fat and suger, beat in the egg then flour, then bake or steam. However different recipes vary in the ratios of flour, fat, sugar and eggs. The differences can be quite large, e.g. from one to three eggs for roughly the same amount of other ingredients.

With four ingredients there are obviously lots and lots of possible combinations, but I'm interested to know if there are any general rules for knowing what varying the amounts of ingredients will be. For example I know from experience that if you don't put in any fat you get Scotch pancakes/drop scones, which are quite elastic. Adding fat gradually changes the texture to the standard sort of Victoria sponge texture.

If this is too broad, then my main interest is that I like sponge puddings to have a coarse texture and be quite firm, so they don't turn into mush when you add the custard. I'd be interested to know how changing the amounts of the various ingredients would change the texture towards or away from this ideal.

Michael Ruhlman talks about cooking in terms of ratios in his book: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

He says the basic Sponge Cake (close cousin of Sponge Pudding) is (ratios by weight):

1 part egg
1 part sugar
1 part flour
1 part butter

And it works. This BBC recipe is along those lines.

To your Q on ratios, to make or more dense cake you could:

decrease an egg
and/or increase flour

You have other options as well.

you could reduce leavening agents, if any
at the point you are combining butter into another ingredient, be careful not to over do it, this introduces more air into the final product.


Is it possible to cook a whole fish in a dishwasher? I heard that there is a way to cook a whole fish in a dishwasher - any techniques, tips??

Surely the authors of the previous (sublime!) answers will throw the "Sure it works in practice, but does it work in theory!?" at me, but this great SE question and its answers still lured me into creating an answer backed up by empirical evidence.

The Answer

YES! It's certainly possible. At least one successful attempt has been logged (see below).

The Experiment

The following equipment and ingredients were used in this experiment:

Two whole trouts (each 230 grams, 28 cm long, thickness 3 cm).
One salmon steak, cut in two equal pieces (90 grams each, thickest point 3 cm).
Herbs: rosemary and parsley.
Lemon slices (only on the trout, not on the salmon).
Sea salt.
Zip-lock bags.
Microwave foil (only on the salmon).
Dishwasher type: Bosch SGS55 (only sold in EU, it seems)

STEP 1 - Preparation

Salmon

Wrap tightly in microwave foil with salt, rosemary, parsley.
Put in zip-lock bag.
Push air out of bag, close it.

Trout

Salt, rosemary, parsley and lemon slices inside the fish.
Alas: the zip-lock bags were too small, I had to cut off the head and tail.
Put in zip-lock bag.
Push air out of bag, close it.

STEP 2 - Enter the Dishwasher

Rolled up the zip-lock bags a bit.
Put one salmon and one trout bag in the top rack, the other two in the bottom rack (to test the difference).

STEP 3 - Program

Here's the tricky bit. I read up on sous-vide before trying, noting fish (particularly salmon) would need around 50° Celsius at a constant temperature. However, my main concern was that the temperature would not be constant enough to cook the fish: I was more afraid of under cooking than of overcooking. So I decided to run my experiment at this program:

The highest program marked 70° Celsius
Run for the full 137 minutes
No detergent
No other equipment (plates, cutlery, etc)

THE WAIT

With the dishwasher empty, the first bit of the program made an awful lot of noise, with cold water hitting the inside of the empty dishwasher. After that it kind-of returned to normal.

STEP 4 - Results

After 136 minutes I was standing in front of the dishwasher eager like a little kid waiting to open his Christmas presents. The dishwasher felt really warm, even on the outside. When I opened the dishwasher I saw one of the bottom salmon bags had fallen to the bottom. This is what the bags looked like when I got 'em out:

Then, with hands shaking, I opened the bags. This is the result:

Victory! upon closer inspection it turned out the fish were all perfectly cooked! We put some extra salt on and enjoyed them very much.

Conclusion

The answer is then a wholehearted "Yes: this is possible!". Try this at home!


how long to cook stuffed chicken breasts I have chicken breasts stuffed with rice.  How long should I bake them and at what temperature?

The time and temperature can vary widely based on a lot of different factors. What's important is the final temperature. Chicken breast is safe and largely considered palatable at 165F (74C). Use an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast.

Just to give you an idea where to start, here are several recipes for Stuffed Chicken Breasts from Cooking Light.


How can I prevent the cheese on my homemade pizza from hardening too soon? I am on my road to perfecting thin crust pizza, but a major problem is that about 5 to 10 minutes after getting it out of the oven the cheese begins to congeal and harden, making my homemade pizza taste like it just came out of the fridge.

Why does it happen? I know the cheese in commercial pizzas from Dominos or Italian mergheritas from Rome both retain somewhat desirable texture for more than 30 minutes after serving. Even as those pizzas get colder, their cheese "coating" does not harden as mine.

Recipe:
500g white flour /335 ml water with 7g dried yeast and 1tbsp of salt /
knead for 10 minutes or so / proof for 2 hours
/ 220c in the oven for 7 minutes

The cheese was a think layer of grated Parmeggiano Reggiano with 18% Mozarella Fresca and a little olive oil with a sprinkle of kosher salt.

The easiest solution is to use different cheeses.

Most commercial pizzerias, like Domino's or Pizza Hut do not use expensive cheeses like Parmesean or fresh mozzerella... they use crappy cheese designed to be stretchy and to stay that way when warm instead of hot. In general, they use part-skim mozzarella, which is often sold pre-shredded and in hard blocks like you'd find cheddars. This is addressed in another answer, here.

Hard cheeses like Parmesan are unlikely to melt at all and, when they do, they will firm up quickly as they lose heat. You should rarely expect a hard cheese to melt well. Most of them don't. They also lose a lot of oils when they melt, causing unsightly separation. They're great for a burst of salty cheese flavor but they won't behave like Domino's cheese. This is why it's common to top a completed pizza with shredded Parmesan but you wouldn't want to use it as your primary base cheese for the unbaked pizza.

Fresh cheeses like ricotta and mozzarella have the opposite problem. Their high moisture content will often make pizza unappetizingly soggy.

In contrast, the part skim mozzarella used in pizzerias is specifically chosen because it has low water content.

Check out the two questions linked here for a ton more info.

You should consider doing some research into which cheeses melt well as opposed that separate into an gross mess. Note, this list, like many others includes Asiago but it's important to notice that the list refers specifically to fresh Asiago, not the Parmesan-like aged sibling.


How to salt potatoes? I would use boiled or fried potatoes inside other recipes like the Spanish tortilla which has usually a salty taste. Depending on how I cut the potatoes however, sometimes there is too much contrast between how salty mix and the potato chunks.

I wonder if there is a way I could salt the potatoes correctly before adding them to de mixture.

For instance, for the tortilla I mention, the spuds are cooked in olive oil for about 30min. Adding salt to the oil while cooking had little effect. I was thinking about leaving them in salty water for a while, but that would take a long time and pre-boiling it, doesn't seem to fit the recipe.. so..?

Add the salt in te bowl of egg and potato mixture, right before pouring the mix to the pan. You don't salt the potatoes you salt the whole tortilla.

Even if you use onion. The onion inside the Spanish tortilla tastes always sweet.


To knead or not to knead, that is the question I recently saw a recipe for no-knead bread. The process was the same except that instead of kneading, you just let the bread sit for 12 hours. The bread maker claimed that no-knead bread tastes better than kneaded bread.

Is kneading just a time saver and we would be better off letting it rise naturally over a long period of time, or is kneading better?

In order for dough to bake into nice bread, you must develop a gluten structure that can trap the gas the yeast release as they feed on the flour. You can do this in several ways:

Mechanical action (kneading)
Natural fermentation through yeast

There risks to overdoing it in both cases. If you overknead, see   Are there any negative effects to kneading bread dough longer?

If you overferment (overproof) the dough, the yeast will break down the gluten structure completely and you will have a saggy/gloopy mess that can't contain the escaping gas. See this post.

Many doughs can't develop a good gluten structure without at least some mechanical action, so we typically use a combination. Allowing a natural fermentation (particularly with wild yeast or starter) allows for a more flavorful, easier to digest bread as well.


How long will homemade salad dressing stay good in the fridge? How long can I keep salad dressings that I made?

Since this is probably affected by what it's made up of, let's say we're talking about different salad dressings made from a combination of the following ingredients: mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, vinegar, sugar, garlic, oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice...

And are there any other ingredients that I should watch out for that could affect salad dressing shelf life? Any rules of thumb regarding storing salad dressings...?

There is no rule of thumb encompassing all salad dressings.

One "rule of thumb" which sometimes gets used is to look at the shelf life of the most perishable component. Frequently it works; sometimes, it is dangerously misleading. A mixture of the things you listed can have a longer or shorter shelf life of that of the most perishable component. An example of lengthened shelf life is mayo; it stays good for longer time than a cracked fresh egg, because the yolk gets pasteurized and the pH is lower. But there can be examples of the other thing happening. The classic is the homemade garlic oil: you can keep pure garlic and pure oil for months in the pantry, but once you combine them, you get a botulism risk.

I don't usually keep salad dressings in the fridge, but if I did, I would look at why the most problematic component has the shelf life it has, and decide whether mixing it will change the condition. For example, if I had a mixture of oil, vinegar and pure emulsifier: Oil keeps for months because it has no carbs, so nothing for bacteria to eat. Vinegar can have a few carbs, but not a lot, and it also has a very low pH, so bacteria die in it. The combination still won't have enough carbs for bacteria, and will still have a low pH. So the mixture will keep for very long time, just like pure vinegar or oil.

On the other hand, imagine mixing vinegar with honey and water. Honey doesn't go bad by itself, because the carbs are too concentrated for bacteria. The vinegar and water will dilute them, so this mechanism of bacteria prevention vanishes. The pH of the mixture will probably rise a lot too, because the vinegar gets diluted, so no protection on that front either. Thus, this mixture is apt to go bad much earlier than pure vinegar or pure honey.

This method requires that you make a new decision for each new dressing you make, and that you acquire enough knowledge to be able to make such decisions. If you feel this is too much effort or too risky, you can either start adding conservants to your homemade dressings, or just start preparing a fresh dressing for each batch of salad.


Commercial part-baked baguettes It's possible to buy 'part-baked' baguettes in the UK which are intended to be heated in a hot oven, say 220C (430°F), for 10 minutes before serving.

  Does the dough or crust undergo any significant cooking (i.e. a chemical change in composition) in the final step? Or is the only purpose to make the bread palatable?

As a follow up question,

  What differs in the preparation of these baguettes from those intended for immediate consumption?

Pre-baked baguettes are typically not browned at all when you buy them. If there is a crust all all, it is still very soft and mostly the same colour as the inside of the bread. The main chemical change undergone by cooking them is browning the outside. The inside is slightly undercooked when you buy them, to make sure it doesn't dry out completely when you brown the outside. If you tried to eat them straight from the package, the texture will be slightly uncomfortably doughy rather than fluffy.

They are intentionally underbaked compared to those intended for immediate consumption, and underbaked at a temperature that's low enough that there is minimal browning of the crust. This related question describes how to achieve something similar at home.


Is this "true" cinnamon? I just made pho. It turned out great but for one thing, I found the cinnamon flavor to be just a tad overwhelming. No worries, I just added more of everything else to bring balance to the broth. It made me wonder though. I picked up all of the spices at a halal grocery, including cinnamon sticks. The ingredient list on the package just says "cinnamon", the product was imported from India. The sticks are bigger and fatter than I am used to, and the flavor did seem extra strong. Is this a picture of "cinnamomum verum" (ceylon), as opposed to the more familiar (to me) "cassia"?

It is really hard to say anything definite just from the photo, but I would say it's not C. verum. First, cassia (C. cassia) usually has a stronger and more robust flavor than Ceylon cinnamon, rather than the other way around. From the thickness of the bark I would also say that this is cassia or some other species of cinnamon (there are a couple that are used as spices) ... all Cinnamomum verum I have seen sold had a very brittle and flaky texture (including only the thin inner bark of the tree) ... like this one (photo from this seriouseats.com article):

... or like the left one in this image from wikipedia:

Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) on the left, and Indonesian cinnamon (Cinnamomum burmannii) quills

However, there are also different varieties of Cinnamomum verum that vary significantly in flavor and sometimes also the outer layers of the bark are collected, so it is really hard to say ... but the one that is (at least in Europe) sold as Ceylon cinnamon will only include the thin crumbly inner layers of the bark and have a different (like red hot candies) and slightly more delicate flavor than cassia - and it would be more expensive as well.
But also, with cassia as with any kind of cinnamon - the strength and flavor of the spice might vary greatly depending on the region of origin, variety of the cultivated tree, freshness of the spice and other factors.
Some more info about cassia that might be useful:
Cassia is widely cultivated in South and East Asia (including India, where the "cinnamon" you bought came from). And about the accessibility in the United States (according to wikipedia):

In the United States of America, Chinese cassia is often sold under the culinary name of cinnamon.
...
"Indonesian cinnamon" (C. burmannii) is also commonly sold in the United States, where it is labeled only as cinnamon.

I also found this article (at vanillareview.com) with some descriptions and explanations of the most commonly found "cinnamon" species/varieties:

L to R: Ceylon, Indonesian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Madagascar cinnamon.


How to make pretty crêpes? I know how to make crêpes, however they have some tendency to be a bit ugly aesthetically speaking.

Each time I go to a crêperie, I can see this kind of crêpes :

However, when I try myself, I often end up with something much thicker, with less even browning, like this but thicker:

What can I do to improve my crêpe-fu? Is it possible to achieve the prettiness of the first picture?

The trick, according to a French roommate from college, was thin batter temperature and a well (clarified) buttered pan.

The batter should feel almost too thin. I always thought that the batter was perfect and she would thin it just a little more.

The pan should be at just the right temperature (this will vary stove by stove).  Your photos look like the temperature could be a little lower, but only just! The way she kept her pan perfectly buttered was using clarified butter, and used half of a yellow or red potato on a fork (think a nice waxy potato) to spread the butter.  This allowed just the right amount of butter into the pan.


How can I choose good avocados at the supermarket? I've been trying to ignore my burning desire to make some guacamole because every time I go to the supermarket to buy avocados I can't manage to pick out good ones.  They always either become too soft before I have a chance to do anything with them or are hard and not very tasty.  How can I tell when an avocado is perfectly ripe?

Depends on if you'll buy for instant consumption or for storage.

If you want to eat/prepare them right away, you want an avocado that feels soft on the inside, when pressing them they will cede and have that soft feeling ripe avocado has. It shouldn't cede very much though, as those are past their prime. The very good ones even smell in a nice avocadoey way a bit (or maybe that's just my insanity.)

If you want to prepare them later, you want firm ones that cede only a tiny little bit (the rock hard ones mostly never ripen in my experience,) you then store them in a porous bag (the typical brown paper bag or a newspaper) to let them ripe. To speed up the ripening, you can add an apple to the bag.

See also this related question


Is rare duck breast safe? Other forms of poultry are regarded as undercooked at the slightest sign of pink juices and yet it is common practice to cook duck so that it's medium rare. Is the risk of food poisoning significantly lower with duck meat than other birds?

On the other hand, if we could be sure that a piece of chicken could was salmonella-free, would its texture and flavor be improved by not overcooking it? I expect the sight of pink would put most people off but if one could overcome that, could it actually taste better?

Rare duck meat is safe to eat because it does NOT contain the same risk of Salmonella as does chicken meat.

Primarily because ducks, as mentioned above, have not traditionally been raised in the same squalid conditions as "factory raised" chickens - salmonella is a disease that is primarily transmitted through dirt/dirty unclean conditions.

Now, on the other hand, as more and more ducks are being raised in industrial conditions, they are also becoming more likely to contain strains of Salmonella.


How Much Ammonium Chloride for Home-made Salt Licorice? I want to make my own Scandinavian style salt licorice. I was able to buy ammonium chloride at a local spice store, but I am not sure how much to use. My research, so far, has suggested a concentration of anywhere from 2 to 8%. (It seems 7.99% is the legal limit in Germany for human consumption.) First, I am assuming that this is a percentage of total weight, correct? Second, is there a particular point in the cooking process when the ammonium chloride should be added? Is there a particular technique that should be utilized, e.g. make a slurry?

The percent of ammonium chloride listed is in regards to the total weight of the ingredients used. After making a few batches, I have found that adding the ammonium chloride along with the sugar offers great results. Finally, here is an equation to figure out how much ammonium chloride to use, given you know what percentage you want to have:

K = Known Weight of Ingredients (Everything in the recipe except for Ammonium Chloride)

X = Weight of Ammonium Chloride

Z = X's % of Total Weight of Ingredients expressed as a decimal (e.g. 0.06 for 6%)

T = Total Weight of Ingredients

Step 1: T = K / (1-Z)

Step 2: T - K = X

Step 3: Make some salmiak licorice.


Can you use just egg yolks when recipe asks for eggs? Having just made a batch of meringues,I am now left with lots of egg yolks, can I use them in recipes that ask for "eggs" i.e cakes and tray bakes. Is the white of the egg needed in the baking process ?

It really does depend on the recipe. Egg yolks have some protein but a lot of fat which adds flavor and makes baked goods more tender and moist.  Whites are just protein which adds structure and has a drying effect.

If the particular recipe is depending on the eggs for the binding power of their protein you may not get enough by substituting just yolks. Remember that the volume of the yolks is less than whole eggs so you may see better success substituting two whole eggs with three yolks.

Some cakes will handle the reduced protein. White and yellow cakes will be ok. Pound cakes will also be fine and in fact some recipes call for only yolks. Expect your cake to be a little denser, softer, and tastier. Any kind of sponge or angel food cake won't work because they rely wholly on the protein from the whites.

Soft, rich breads will also benefit from the added fat. The breads will derive their structure from the gluten in their flour. Cinnamon rolls and rich doughnuts come to mind. A local doughnut shop is famous for the yellow color which comes from using fresh yolks.

Yolks can be used in many recipes that call for whole eggs. Look for recipes that will benefit from all the added fat. Anything custard-like, where the eggs are mixed with milk, will work very well- even better than with whole eggs in fact. Examples are custard, flan, puddings, french toast, etc. Given the season you might consider a custard-based ice cream.


Why do Asian savory recipes call for a few pinches of sugar? I've got a few Asian recipes (e.g. Mongolian lamb and Singapore duck) that request only ⅛ teaspoon of sugar for a meal fit for 2 or 3 people. That feels too little to affect sweetness.

Are there particular ingredients common in Asian cuisine that require de-acidifying with sugar, or is the sugar used for another purpose?

First, there are plenty of sour ingredients in Asian cooking, that are de-acidified by a little sugar. Tomato paste, peppers and soy are examples that come to mind.

Second, and this is the Zen-style answer, is that the sugar is to sweeten the dish a little. One teaspoon of sugar in a sauce is plenty sweet enough, especially if you're not used to having 6tsp of sugar in a can of Coke daily. Sweetness, like saltiness and spicyness, is something we get used to easily.


Finding a farmer's market A lot of people advise getting fresh produce and other ingredients at a farmer's market, where you can find items that are local and high quality, and have various other appealing attributes (such as being organic, or grass-fed, or humane, or hormone-free, or heirloom, or whatnot).

However, since many farmer's markets aren't open all the time, and there are different kinds of farmer's markets, finding one can be tricky.

Are there any directories of farmer's markets? What other strategies are there for finding farmer's markets when you're in a new area other than asking around? Do the different kinds of farmer's markets (like the large, permanent kind) have different names that might inform a better search query?

For the US, try Local Harvest.  They list farms, farmer's markets, CSA, etc, and try to keep track of what sort of things are sold from each place (fruit, meat, etc.)

update : other places to ask around : the local farm extension office or your local farm bureau.  When I lived in Europe, it was easy -- they were large enough that everyone knew where they were, and it seemed that there was at least one per town, and there could be a dozen for larger cities.


Why will my dense, concentrated stock not solidify to jelly? I boiled all the bones from a roe deer for stock and got about four litres all of which was solid when refrigerated.  I took half of it and left it in a pan in the bottom over of an Aga for two days to gently evaporate and become more dense. The result turns out to be a great colour and smell, but will it doesn't solidify. Why?  The remainder, though less concentrated will not come out of the jug even if tipped upside down.

Sounds like the temp of the Aga was a bit low. From the GMIA Gelatin Manual (page 11):

  As a dry powder, gelatin is very stable, and can be stored in air tight containers for years with no loss in quality. Gelatin in solution, or soaking in water, should be left in this state only if kept very cold, or hot enough to destroy or inhibit bacterial growth.
  The nature of the organisms which grow in gelatin solutions and gels depends upon a number of factors. The pH has a most important influence. At pH values less than 4, bacterial growth is suppressed, while yeasts and molds grow abundantly. Above pH 5, proteolytic bacteria can become active.


pork fillet cooking time I have a pork fillet which I've cut in half and marinated in some honey and soy.  I heated a pan, and seared it on all sides, then put the pan in the oven at 180 deg C.  The question is, how long to leave it in the oven until it's cooked through?  I suspect it's about 20 minutes for the average fillet (3-4cm in diameter).  Any suggestions?

Every Kitchen needs a meat thermometer. Little too late in this case but it would have saved you here. I never used one at home until after I started working in a restaurant that only had a flat top and a convection oven with burgers on the menu. I got a relatively cheap one for $5-10 at Wal-mart and it does the job.  Another option for next time is to check your meat often and poke it with a spoon, once it feels firm throughout, like the skin on the back of your hand when you make a fist, it's done.


Vertical Smoker Cooking Times I have a gas vertical water smoker that I got from Cabela's earlier this year. I've had some success smoking a few different things: whole chickens, baby-back ribs, salmon, pork shoulder and a pork tenderloin. It's been a lot of fun!

I have noticed that my cook times are significantly longer than the recommended cook times. I have read that water smokers will take longer because of the extra humidity. This makes planning a meal hard. I know that there are a lot of variables when it comes to cooking time, but I would like to be able to look at the recommended cook time in the recipe and then say "well on my smoker that's going to take 1.2 times whatever they recommend." Is there a general rule of thumb for cooking times when using a vertical water smoker?

My roommate and I have a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, and in general, we've found that smoking times can vary a lot based on a number of different factors that tend to be hard to control. We've done beef brisket about 8 or 10 times now, and we've had some go for 8 hours and some take as long as 14.

It seems to be a function of the amount of connective tissue you need to break down. You've probably already noticed the "smoking plateau" that occurs around the 165-175 degree internal temperature mark -- when that happens there is nothing you can do but wait until the temp starts rising again and hits your target final temperature.

So to answer your question -- for larger pieces of meat, just start early and allow for wide variances in cooking times (we usually start the night before for an afternoon BBQ party). Luckily, most smoked meats taste great 3 or 4 hours after you've pulled them off (if wrapped and stored correctly). Knowing when to put on smaller pieces of meat (e.g. chicken parts/sausages/fish) will just come with experience, but since they rarely take more than an hour or two to cook, you won't be off by that much anyways.


How can I detect bad-fed or fast-fed chicken eggs before buying? I have traveled in Eastern Europe and I am annoyed to find out supermarkets seem offer only stale eggs (like white inside, no A -vitamin, tastes bad), they cost in the range of 7-12 cents per egg. My host offered me some eggs from local people, they were superb -- thick yellow, good smelling and tasted good.

How can I know before buying that I am buying a quality egg?
I like to eat eggs on the morning so I find the bad eggs very irritating, the are like paper -- not nutritious at all. For cooking, I am unsure whether they matter but I want to buy now  only quality healthy eggs. How can I find such eggs?

I feel there is no point to save a few cents to buy rubbish, eggs are very cheap protein source although I paid a bit more for healthy quality eggs.

It's not a simple matter to spot a good egg just by looking at it. Different breeds of chicken will lay eggs that look a bit different from each other. Also, it used to be quite common for farmers to feed the chickens some colourings that make the egg yoke more yellow. So a strong colour inside doesn't mean it's good quality.

I'd suggest, if you think eggs are cheap enough for your to not worry about money, you look for free range organic labels on the egg box. If the egg is officially from an organic source then you know it's not from a chicken stuffed up with chemicals.


*Roughly* how many tomatoes go into a 24oz jar of pasta sauce? Suppose I have medium-sized roma or plum tomatoes and want to make a jar of pasta sauce. Assuming I do not add mushrooms, peppers, onions or a significant amount of other fillers, roughly how many tomatoes will make 1 jar of pasta sauce?

Tomato size varies, so number of tomatoes is going to be so rough as to not be globally useful. Weight is pretty good, though.

The NCHFP's tomato sauce page says you need an average of 6.5 pounds per quart of sauce, so for 24 fluid ounces you'd need 4.875 pounds (4 pounds 14 ounces, or 2.2 kg).

I've found nutrition data saying 62g for a plum tomato, and Wikipedia says 57g (2 oz) for a roma tomato, so that'd be 35 to 39 tomatoes. But the roma tomatoes I often see in US grocery stores could easily be twice that size, so with those you might need more like 15 to 20.

Of course, how much you cook it down has a huge effect too, but without trying a specific recipe, it's pretty much impossible to know where you are on that scale.


Bolognese: can I add the meat after tomatoes? I see most recipes online mention first frying the meat a bit and then adding it. I think that would make the meat drier than meadt mixed into fresh tomatoes. Will it work ok if I put the meat into a fresh tomatoe sauce about 20-30minutes in?
and when should I add the wine?

thanks!!

It won't be as nice if you place meat into the fresh tomato sauce.

The reason why is because you are then essentially boiling the mince, so you won't have any caramelisation happening. That caramelisation adds a good amount of flavour to the sauce, so you'll be losing that.

Sure, the mince may dry during the frying process, but remember that it will get 'rehydrated' anyway when you throw it into the sauce afterwards.

Also, by frying the mince, you render out all the fat that can be used to fry the Mirepoix to add extra flavour.

I like to add the wine to help deglaze the pot/pan once I've fried everything, then I reduce to half, then I add the tomatoes last.


Cleaning a food processor A family member of mine passed away many years ago (15-16 years) and had a lot of cooking gadgets.  Well, recently I've been becoming more interested in cooking and have acquired a few of these tools.  This weekend I found a food processor in the box wrapped up.  I asked my parents about it and they said that after this family member passed away and the stuff was boxed up it was put away in storage (where I got it this weekend).

Anyway, this thing hasn't been used since the family member passed away.  Is it going to be OK to use?  Is there anything special I need to do to clean it and get it operational?  It looks like it's clean but sitting around that long, you never know, right?

If it looks clean and it's been sitting in a box I would just run it through my regular washing routine.  Unless it was stored dirty or with some hazardous materials there is no reason to do anything more.


What is the white foam that builds up when I make tea? I microwave water in order to make tea. After it is microwaved and I drop the tea bag(green tea) into the water, thick white foam builds up on the top.

What is it and should I worry about drinking it?

When you boil water in a cup in a microwave, it will often boil without forming bubbles, because unlike a kettle with a rough heating element or inner surface, a clean ceramic cup has few nucleation points. Nucleation points allow pockets of gas to form, which become bubbles as the water boils.

When you add the teabag to the hot water, you are essentially introducing thousands of nucleation points very quickly, and so lots bubbles form very quickly - your foam. You should exercise caution when heating water this way prior to adding a teabag, as if you heat it for too long it can superheat, and will boil explosively out of the mug when you add the teabag.


Cooking Cheap Cuts of Beef I've been trying to find a relatively quick way to prepare eye of round "steaks" (really just slices of a roast), so that they are tender and juicy, but not falling apart. The goal is to avoid having to cook an entire roast, which takes a lot of time and results in a lot of leftovers.

At first, I sautéed them in a pan, and they came out tough and leathery. I then tried to marinate them in a simple mix of olive oil and lemon juice for 30-45 minutes beforehand, and to tenderize them with a hammer. This, too, resulted in a tough, dry piece of meat. My greatest success with this cut has been to braise it in red wine for 60-90 minutes, though it was still unpleasant to eat.

Has anyone else been experimenting with cooking slices from an eye of round roast? If so, what have been your failures and successes?

The crucial observation is that cooking a smaller cut does reduce the cooking time, but not that much. Cheap cuts contain connective tissue, which consists of collagen. Converting the collagen into gelatine takes time. The conversion from collagen to gelantine begins at 70C (160F), so it important the braising keeps this temperature.
How long the conversion needs depends on the cut of meet but I think your 60-90 minutes are not long enough. I would make it at least 3-4 hours.

Suggestion: Cook the your roast in one piece. Cut it in serving portions and freeze.
Thaw and warm at serving time.

If you want to speed up the braising process consider using a pressure cooker.


What's the use of the hexagon bottom in braisers? I have a few cast iron skillets and a dutch oven and I want to get an enamelled cast iron pan so that I won't have to worry about ruining the seasoning when using acidic sauces (tomatoes, lemon, etc).

I like this shallow Staub pan but I'm not convinced about the hexagon shapes. They say the hexagon bottom produces a natural non stick surface that is more resistant to scratches and chips. Has anyone used something similar to this or know what the hexagon shapes at the bottom are for?

The pattern on the bottom is to reduce sticking, as food is only likely to stick to the peaks and not the valleys.

It is also intended, with dubious effectiveness, in my mind to extend the non-stick lifetime of the pan as the non-stick coating tends to only wear off the peaks, and not so much from the valleys.

In my mind,  non-stick is not a feature I would look for in a dutch oven, where you want fond development for braises and searing.


What type of yogurt is most similar to the yogurt used in authentic Middle-Eastern cuisine? While looking at different recipes to make "yogurt sauce" commonly found in Middle Eastern cuisine, I noticed a descrepancy between the type of yogurt the recipe calls for. Some recipe calls for plain low fat yogurt, others calls for plain Greek yogurt, and then in this recipe, it calls for strained plain yogurt: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tzatziki-sauce-yogurt-and-cucumber-dip/.

What type of yogurt should be used to make the most authentic yogurt sauce? Is there a specific type of yogurt or specific brand that most closely resemble the yogurt used in the Middle East?

Greek yogurt is simply strained yogurt. It was only fairly recently that Greek yogurt was widely available in the United States, so prior to wide availability, a simple substitute was to strain normal yogurt.

The type of sauce you are trying to make would definitely use a strained yogurt. Whether you wanted to strain your own or buy strained yogurt (aka Greek yogurt) is really up to you. In Greece, sheep's milk was traditionally used for yogurt, but now there's a lot more cow's milk too, so either would be authentic. I would think that full fat would be the most authentic, but not the healthiest, as I doubt low fat varieties were used traditionally (if they even existed).

The American use of the term Greek yogurt is really just one of branding. Many other areas in the middle east use the same style of strained yogurt. The Greeks also have plenty of normal (unstrained) yogurt.


Why Did This Cheesecake Catch on Fire? A friend of mine's wife was baking a cheesecake, which she does somewhat regularly. The house filled up with smoke, and when they opened the oven, they observed that it had caught fire. Apparently it was a fairly standard cheesecake, not a unique petrol-flavored version, nor even spiked with a healthy dose of brandy. She proceeded to remake the same recipe immediately after with no further conflagration.

I did a bit of googling and the only conjecture I saw that somewhat jibes with the circular burn mark is that somehow liquid fat separated from the filling, pooled, and caught fire.

Any idea why specifically that would happen, or alternative explanations?

I know it sounds like a stupid question, but are you sure the oven wasn't in "broil" or "clean" mode? It seems unlikely that a regular shape of flammable would emerge from a fairly homogeneous mixture. It seems more likely that a heat source in the shape of the burn marks on the top of the cheesecake was radiating directly onto it. It could have been an intermittent malfunction with the oven, too.

Other than that, I'm lost. It's quite a mystery you have on your hands there.


How much fresh yeast should I use if I want to use it instead of dry yeast? I have a recipe that lists the quantity of dry yeast I need, but I have only fresh yeast.

How much fresh yeast should I use, knowing the quantity of dry yeast?

Look at: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/yeastbreadtip.htm

  Conversion Measurements for Using Different Yeasts in Recipes:

Multiply the amount of instant yeast by 3 for the equivalent amount of fresh yeast.

Multiply the amount of active dry yeast by 2.5 for the equivalent amount of fresh yeast.

Multiply the amount of instant yeast by 1.25 for the equivalent of active dry yeast.


How is pasteurization different from sterilization? Are these two terms basically the same? I am trying to learn more about food safety and preserving food longer.

Basically, pasteurization is a process that kills most bacteria. Sous vide is a method that you can use to pasteurize food (eggs for example) which will kill most, but not all, bacteria. Sterilization is a method of killing all bacteria (e.g. by irradiation or heat). Sterilization would be what you'd want to use for canning, for example.

Milk is pasteurized by the manufacturer and can use lower heat for a longer period or higher heat for a shorter period.


Simulating the discontinued Lawry's Roasted Garlic Salt? Lawry's Roasted Garlic Salt was simply the best spice I've ever had. And  had I known it was discontinued I would've bought a few cases.

If you're familiar with it can you recommend something similar.

We know that:

1.1g contains 13% of the daily value of sodium which according to the FDA is < 2400mg/day so 320 mg checks out correctly.
The total weight of the entire container is 201 g and the amount of servings is 183, so that checks out as well. (183 * 1.1)
The ingredients are in order of weight:

salt
sugar
modified corn starch
roasted garlic
spices (including oregano and basil)
natural flavor
extractives  [sic] of carrots

and that means the content of salt is highest, then sugar, then starch, ... until the carrot extract.
Salt is NaCl and 1 teaspoon weighs 10.7g so 1/4 teaspoon weighs 2.7g, not the 1.1g that the container displays, so the other ingredients must be lighter to come to a weight of 1.1g for the overall mixture
1 teaspoon of sugar weighs 3.95g
1 teaspoon of corn starch weighs 2.77g
1ml of garlic flakes weighs 0.35g, so 1 teaspoon weighs 0.07g
1ml of BBQ spices weighs 0.48g, so 1 teaspoon weighs 0.1g

"Natural flavor" and "carrot extract"  are really hard to find and are the ingredients with the least amount of weight in this recipe so I'll leave them out of this for the moment.

If we would mix 5 teaspoons of the above ingredients we'd come to a total of 0.8795g, which is too low so let's increase the cheapest and heaviest ingredient:

1.4 teaspoons of salt + 1 teaspoon sugar + 1 teaspoon of corn starch + 1 teaspoon of garlic +1 of spices is 1.09 g

That leaves you to play with 0.01g of natural flavor and carrot extract to get it just right, but the above should be 99% correct.


How to unsalt roasted salted peanuts? I bought roasted peanuts from the market and they have too much salt in them.

How should I reduce the salt in those peanuts as much as I can?

My intent is to make peanut butter.

Depending on how much salt is on them, and how it's been applied, you might be able to knock some of it off, and effectively decant it:

Place the peanuts into a hard-sided container at least twice the volume of the peanuts that you can seal tightly.
Shake the peanuts. A lot. Not too hard, though, as the goal is to knock some of the salt off, not to smash the peanuts up.
Finish by shaking the peanuts side to side, or placing it on something that vibrates (like a washing machine)
Open the container, and scoop the peanuts out, being careful to leave the excess salt at the bottom.

You save yourself some effort, you might be able to do the whole work on top of your washing machine, or leave the container in the trunk of your car for a few trips.  The larger the salt crystals, the easier this will be to remove.  If it was applied as a wet spray or while the oils were on the surface of the peanuts, it's going to bind more to the peanuts, and be more difficult to remove.

Although the diluting trick will work, you can also use the peanuts in a recipe that would have otherwise called for salt and leave out the additional salt.  You could also crush them up and use them as a topping for something that could use a little extra salt.  (ice cream, Pad Thai, etc.)


Beating Egg Whites with Granulated Sugar Added for Tapioca Pudding I've been making tapioca pudding from a recipe that calls for 2 egg whites to be beaten with 1/2c of sugar until soft peaks form.  Out of quite a few tries for many minutes, the eggs will never get beyond a thick creamy stage (around the consistency of a soft yogurt).

Is it possible to get to the soft peaks stage with that much granulated sugar mixed with the eggs?  Is there some trick I should try to make it work properly?

If not, might it work to replace the sugar with a corresponding amount of powdered sugar? - presumably this would give it more structure (corn starch) and less weight to support (smaller sugar granules).

The recipe I'm using is here: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=858

You can replace the granulated sugar with confectioner's sugar, but due to that starch, you'll end up with an icing-like consistency.  In fact, royal icing is just egg whites and confectioner's sugar.

There is actually a surprisingly large number of variables when it comes to beating egg whites, with the amount and type of sugar being just one of them.  I'm not sure if this is going to be a complete list, but here's the basics of what you need to know for beating up to the "stiff peak" stage (and if you want soft peaks, then just don't beat for as long):

Age of eggs.  Older eggs will whip faster and to a greater volume, but will be less stable (i.e. will deflate faster).  Most people seem to find they get the best results with eggs that are about 3 days old.  Very fresh eggs are difficult to whip, and very old eggs (more than 1-2 weeks) are just too unstable to work with.
Temperature. You want to separate the eggs when cold, because the whites are firmer and it will be easier for you to cleanly separate the yolks from the whites.  But you always want to allow the whites themselves to come up to room temperature before you start beating them, for the exact opposite reason - the proteins are less firm, more stretchy, and will more readily accept air.
Impurities (especially fat).  Make sure you don't have any impurities.  Use a clean, dry mixing bowl and whisk.  Don't let any of the yolk get in; even a trace amount will significantly decrease the amount of air you can incorporate, and if you happen to contaminate the whites this way, it's probably better just to start over.
Salt and acid both help egg whites to coagulate, which you might remember if you've ever had to poach them.  That has a stabilizing effect which will allow you to whip the eggs longer and firmer without blowing a hole in the web of proteins, and will also help to prevent (or at least slow down) the foam/meringue from deflating afterward.  You don't need more than a pinch of salt, and the traditional amount of acid is either 1/8 tsp cream of tartar (preferred) or 1/4 tsp lemon juice or vinegar.  You'll want to start adding these early, as soon as you see the egg whites starting to foam.
Finally, sugar is critical to attain the stiffest peaks, but it is critical that you do not add it too early or too quickly!  Sugar serves a similar role here as it does in baking; it dissolves in the water, absorbing it and drawing it away from the proteins, which improves stability a lot.  But this particular type of stabilization is a double-edged sword; if you add it too early, it will interfere with the coagulation process and it will take forever to beat them to peaks.  And if you dump in all the sugar at once, it will just deflate the foam you've worked so hard to produce (and possibly break it, requiring you to start all over again with new eggs).

In general, you want to add the sugar right after you see soft peaks beginning to form, and incorporate it very gradually while beating.  If you want the final result to be soft peaks instead of stiff peaks (which you do, in this case), you can add the sugar slightly early, but err on the side of caution here.  Stiffer peaks won't harm your pudding that much, but no peaks definitely will.  I also suggest using superfine sugar, because the finer the granules, the quicker they will dissolve; but don't use icing sugar unless you want icing.
Finally, don't over-beat the whites.  As I alluded to above in the salt/acid section, the beating process involves stretching the proteins and incorporating air; incorporate too much air and you'll just break the proteins, and then you'll have to throw the eggs out and start all over again.  This is especially easy to do accidentally if you use cold eggs.

If you keep all of these things in mind then you can whip the eggs all the way to a nice stiff meringue; soft peaks should be a piece of cake.


do szechuan peppercorns get stale? I've got some Szechuan/Sichuan peppercorns that don't make my lips numb or tingly, even when I just chew on several of them for 10 seconds or so. I would expect that they would. The jar smells good. Are they old? Low quality? (Or am I immune to the chemical?)

It's impossible to say for sure as senses are subjective, however there may be nothing wrong with it. Sichuan pepper comes from a completely different plant than black pepper, it's actually in the citrus family, and is more aromatic than spicy. You should get more of a spicy, slightly citrus note rather than it blowing your mouth out with pepperiness. If you aren't tasting much they're most likely old, spices do lose potency over time. Keeping spices sealed well in a cool, dry place helps slow degradation, but eventually the flavor will go.


How long can fruit macerate in the fridge? I have begun to macerate pitted cherries in sugar and lemon juice. Due to some issues, I've had to leave them macerating for 2 days before I cook & can them for jam.
Will the macerated fruit be safe & flavorful given it has been 2 days?

It depends on how ripe the cherries were before maceration but, generally speaking, they should be safe to eat!
From William Sonoma:

Because sugar is a natural preservative, macerating is a great method
for extending the life of berries that are less than perfect in
appearance or just past their prime. Fruit prepared this way can last
for up to three or four days covered in the fridge.

and from Serious Eats:

When it comes to prepping in advance for a dish, time is on your side.
If you're dealing with fresh fruits, you can usually start macerating
up to 48 hours in advance of serving. Dried fruit maceration can be
done up to a few weeks in advance and stored covered in the
refrigerator. In either case, alcohols with higher percentages
(bourbon as opposed to red wine, for example) will help preserve your
precious fruits and berries from spoiling.

When in doubt, I use the good ol' sniff test and err on the side of caution. No cherries are worth getting sick over, in my opinion :)


How to improve contact between non-flat pan and stovetop I have a slightly concave steel paella pan, but I want it to get a nice even heat from my flat glass top stove.  Has anyone had and solved this problem?  First thought is to try to use some aluminum foil to take up the space and (hopefully) conduct the heat well to the pan.
Once I have my solution, what is a good and easy way to test it?  Thinking of testing with a sprinkling of flour and see that it browns evenly

I have one of those pans, and I also have a glass top electric stove, and the answer is that you can't use the pan on the stove.  Not only does it not make good contact, an electric stove is incapable of the rapid temperature changes you need for proper paella, particularly the blast of heat at the end to make the proper socarrat (brown crust).
I recommend that you instead get a portable butane stove, like the one I use, and use that for your paella-making.


How to prepare this (Chinese) snack? I've bought a bag of small dried and salted fish at my local Chinese market. My guess was that the thingies could be eaten right out of the box, but they are too bony and salty.

I guess they need some kind of desalting and perhaps frying, but not sure what to try.

From the back of the bag drawings and text (thanks Google Translate!) I managed to infer that it's really a snack (ideal beer companion!)

Any ideas on how to prepare/serve them?

Based on my russian experience, this is ready to go snack. Just bite it and drink beer.
I know, my american friends usually scared to try "uncooked" fish, but salty dried fish is good. Also I would recommend you to try salty dried calamari or octopuses.

Cheers!


Can fresh Poblano peppers be used raw? I was thinking about making a pasta salad with roasted, peeled Poblanos and started to wonder if raw diced Poblanos might work and add a bit of crispness (texture) as bell peppers do.

Since I have only ever used Poblanos that have been roasted and peeled, I started searching for recipes. I haven't been able to find any recipes of any kind that use raw Poblanos.

At the same time, I haven't found anything that says there is any reason not to use them raw. So, I'm wondering if it's a taste or texture thing, or if there is any other reason.

The skin is thick and waxy. If you've got a vegetable peeler which takes off very thin slices, you could peel them. If you have a Brûlée torch or something similar, you could also just burn the skin off while keeping the flesh uncooked.


Mandarins soaking in Vodka I have been soaking mandarins segments in vodka at room temperature for 20 days in sealed preserving jars. 500mls vodka to 1 kilo mandarins.  the fruit began to rise in the jar as I think it was fermenting. Is this bad and is this useable liquid. My aim is to make mandarin schnapps. Obviously I'm a beginner at this and would value helpful suggestions

The fruit is probably not fermenting. That alcohol level will kill most bacteria and mold, and while it wouldn't be entirely out of reach of acetic acid bacteria, the floating is much more likely to simply be caused by the segments absorbing ethanol and becoming more buoyant.

I would expect the liquid to taste fine, though I think you could get better and more convenient results by just adding some fresh mandarin juice to vodka. When liquor is infused with citrus fruits, one generally uses the peel (or at least the zest) as well or instead, because the ethanol is effective at absorbing the aroma compounds in them. Limoncello, for instance, is made from lemon zest, and Campari is made from whole chinotto.

In fact, if I saw a kilo of mandarin segments soaking in 500 mL of vodka, I'd assume that the primary purpose was to infuse the segments for eating. (I've seen this preparation called "tipsy oranges".) Of course, you can also drink the liquid. :)


How to use and is there a good thermometer for very small small fish? I'm trying to check whitebait temperature after cooked and it always seems to be a lower temperature than expected e.g. even after boiling the fish, removing the fish and adding the thermometer, the thermometer can show 40-50c.

I'm currently using this thermometer, however, although it goes in the fish(seemingl fully), perhaps as the fish is so small air is getting to it and so an accurate read isnt been given.

Is my current thermometer inappropriate and are there any specific thermometers which can be used specifically to check small fish such as whitebait.  I imagine the needle has to be very small considering the fish size and most thermometers i find are not much different than the one I linked.

Is it possible that the fish reaches the safe temperature e.g. 62c however as soon as I remove the fish from the water it rapidly cools so by the time the thermometer goes in the fish tempertaure already decreases to say 40c?  If yes how is it best to check fish temperature?  I know you can look for texture and opaquness of of fish however I'm not good at judging with my eye so I'd rather use something more objective like a thermometer.

Whitebaits are thin. If you are putting them into hot water or hot oil, it should take under a minute for the whole fish to reach the temperature of the surrounding liquid, assuming they are no thicker than 5mm. Heat transfer at this scale is rapid. If you have frozen whitebaits of course, that would take much more time. My suggestion is to cook them once thawed.

It is not practical to probe the inside temperature of such small fish. Your thermometer, unless faulty, should be well capable of measuring the temperature of your cooking water. You would have to design an elaborate experiment to get at the core temperature of the cooked fish. Unless you are after the data rather than wanting the fish cooked, don't bother.


Will spoiled food always make you sick? Kind of a strange question, but say something has spoiled, i.e. smells bad, tastes bad, etc.

Will it actually always make you sick? Like for instance spoiled dressing, let's say it tastes sour, smells nasty and you eat it, will it make you sick?

If so what actually makes you sick? The toxins/bacteria? or it just being unappetizing?

I ask because I tried a TINY bit of ranch and while it tasted mostly fine (it was a bit tangy) it smelled quite tangy but looked fine. I also saw this article about people eating bad food and not getting sick.

What most people don't get when it comes to food safety: Spoiled food has a chance of making you sick.

When food is visibly spoiled, it has large bacterial colonies growing in it. This means that it has been exposed to conditions which were promoting bacterial growth. Anything which was present on your food will have grown, unless outcompeted by something else.

The bacteria which make food gross are rarely the ones which make you sick. But if they had the chance to grow, the real pathogens had a chance to grow too. If they were present, then they grew, and you will consume them, together with whatever waste products their colony produced.

Assuming that there were infectious bacteria on your food, you will ingest them. From there on, it depends on a ton of factors whether you will get sick or not - the amount you ate, the acidity of your stomach contents, the state of your immune system. The last does not mean "you'll only get sick if you're immunocompromised" - it is like being around a person with the flu, even if your immune system is intact, you can still catch it.

There are pathogens which cannot infect you, but simply produce toxins. Botulinum is the poster child for these, but I think B. cereus also works through a toxin. In this case, eating the food poisons you. Depending on the type and amount of toxin ingested, as well as the current state of your body again (mostly liver function), the symptoms can run the entire spectrum from "so weak you don't notice them" to "you die despite being correctly diagnosed and treated".

Then there are a few more exotic possibilities, for example Hep C cannot cause liver cancer alone, but it does so (sometimes) in the presence of a type of toxin produced by moulds. But this is not actually considered foodborne illness any more, even though it's possible that eating mouldy food was the trigger. It falls outside of the scope of food safety, as the fault cannot be pinned on a specific dish you ate. Nevertheless, it's one more reason to not eat spoiled food.

There is also the possibility that your spoiled food has no pathogens at all, and the spoilage microbes outcompeted all the bad guys, and then of course nothing happens.

So, to sum it up: if you eat spoiled food, there are four possible outcomes:

You get sick (right away or with an incubation period of 2-3 days) and notice it
You get sick (right away or with an incubation period of 2-3 days) but the symptoms are so weak you don't even notice it
You get a different health problem, soon after eating or even years later, without knowing that it was the spoiled food which caused it
Nothing happens.

There is no way to predict which one will occur. Actually, these outcomes are possible with any food you eat, including safe food, but eating unsafe food increases the probability of the first outcomes a lot, and eating spoiled food increases it even more.


Why and how does the egg white stick to its shell when cooked sous vide? I've been cooking eggs sous vide and love the control over the consistency of the yolk; a perfectly jammy egg yolk is one reason the sous vide approach impresses me. However, there is one sticking point for me: the egg white sticks to the egg shell! I find it frustrating that whenever I cracked a sous vide egg, sometimes all that would come out was the yolk, and the egg white would be stuck to the inside of shell. Can someone explain what is going on?

Why does the egg white stick to the shell when a egg is cooked sous vide?

For what it is worth, I've found a method that helps overcomes this limitation. The traditional boiled egg approach cooks the egg from the outside in, yet relying on a watch and a pot of boiling water can yield inconsistent results and runs the risk of overcooking the yolk. After cooking an egg in the sous vide to the desired yolk consistency perform the following:

Have an iced bath and pot of boiling water prepared.
Take the eggs out of the sous vide and cool them in the ice bath for a few minutes. This will cool the egg some and mitigate the additional cooking of the egg yolk in the following step.
Take the eggs out of the ice bath and place them in a pot of boiling water. Boil the eggs for 5 minutes.
Take the eggs out of the boiling water and place them back in the ice bath.

I have found that "shocking" the eggs after cooking them sous vide helps firm up the egg white a bit and release the egg white from the shell, making them easier to peel, yet the results still aren't where I'd like them. It's almost like inverting the timed-boil approach and cooking the egg from the inside out. Can anyone explain why this approach is working, but isn't quite enough?

It is because the outer most layer of egg white is not firm/tough enough to survive being peeled without ripping apart.

If you do not want to ice and boil it, you can torch the outside of the egg for up to a minute. This will cause localized boiling under the shell and physically separate the egg whites from the shell wall.
Also, overcooking the outermost layer of egg whites will help the egg hold its shape for the softer styles of eggs.


How can you change the environmental factors to change the proportions of sourdough microbiological cultures? How can you increase/decrease the proportions of lactobacili and yeast in a sourdough starter. For example, if I wanted a more acidic bread, increasing the lactobacili, or if I wanted a less acidic bread, then less of them.

Is this possible to control or will it always revert to a state that is preferable to it?

There are a variety of theories about what the most important factors are to control the sourness of a sourdough bread.  Many times you will find conflicting evidence from different sources.

General Considerations

Some starters are naturally more sour.  Some organisms produce more tart flavors, while others produce buttery notes. Some combinations of yeast and bacteria work together and push the process toward acid production, while others compete for resources (Article 3, page 21-22) yielding less acid.
Fermentation time counts.  Anything you do to increase the amount of time it takes to complete bulk fermentation will likely increase sourness.  Usually this is done by using a small amount of starter.  You can also increase sourness by degassing the dough and letting it rise again.
Flour type matters.  The ash content of the flour contributes to buffering the acidity and extending the flavors of the end product.  Higher ash content flours allow the microorganisms to keep working longer.  In general, ash content is directly related to extraction rate. Also, some starters "like" certain flours better than others, this is especially true for whole wheat, rye, or other specialty grain flours.
Fermentation temperature is tricky.  I have read many sources that go on and on about temperature and sourdough.  Some claim a lower temperature increases sourness, others claim that it decreases sourness.  I tend to find that proofing in my fridge increases sourness somewhat, but also makes rising take an incredibly long time.  According to some sources (page 22), many of the bacteria in sourdough thrive at temperatures between 85-105˚F, while the yeasts thrive at 75-80˚F. Strict control of temperatures within one of these "optimal" ranges can alter the mix of organic molecules produced by a given culture, but most home bakers do not have the equipment needed to maintain such specific temperature tolerances throughout bulk fermentation.

Articles

Squeeze more sour from your sourdough
How to develop sour flavor in sourdough
Sourdough: a tool for the improved flavour

Tip

No matter whether you want it more sour or less sour, always start with an active culture.  The microorganism milieu of your culture is dynamic.  If you try to start a loaf with a starter that is only semi-awake your results will be unpredictable and unlikely to be replicable.


How long can you freeze raw chicken before it seriously affects its taste? The dramatic effects of freezing something almost always has an immediate impact on taste.  But it seems like the longer something is in the freezer the worse it tastes.  Recently, I found some months old raw chicken in the back of the freezer and it definitely tasted slightly strange.

So, beyond the initial freezing process, how long can you store frozen chicken before being frozen affects its taste?

The change in flavor is mainly affected by packaging and how long before it gets frozen.

Packaging: If you have vacuum sealed chicken it will last quite a while. It won't get freezer burnt, dry out or pick up flavors from other freezer occupants. I would say properly packaged will last months to a year range depending on your taste buds.

Time before freezing: I have a habit of buying meat to cook right away, but end up freezing it raw several days after the fact. I then see it a week or two later and pull it out to cook. It never tastes as good as when I freeze it immediately.


Mixed bread dough shelf life? I have just picked up baking confectionery bread buns and I wanted to ask how long can I keep a mix of dough, yeast and water in the freezer or refrigerator? The mix has no butter or eggs by the way.

Thank you!

Still Tasty recommends 1-2 days fridged, 2-3 months frozen.

The main problem with storing yeast dough in the fridge is that it will continue to rise ... possibly escaping whtever container you may put it into.  If I try to refrigerate a normal bread dough, I'll put it in an oiled container at least 3 times the size of the dough, oil the top of the dough, then press on a sheet of waxed paper to keep it from drying out (but so it can still rise), then place the lid on the container, slightly ajar, and then something heavy to keep the lid from lifting up.

If the bread dough is high moisture, low yeast (such as many 'no-knead' doughs that are intended to be refrigerated overnight), they're typically formulated such that they don't have enough strength to escape their container as it'll collapse upon itself first.  Many of them you can store for more than a week, but it'll start to take on a more sourdough-like flavor.  By about two weeks, they'll start to turn grey.

For freezing pizza crust dough, I've had good luck rolling small balls (maybe 2" / 5cm across)of dough, then placing them into a zip-top container, and then squeezeing out most of the air, and freezing it ... however I do not let it have a first rise; I then move it to the fridge to thaw the morning that I'll be baking it.  I leave enough space in the bag so the dough can more than double before the bag pops open.  If I need to thaw it faster, the balls mean that I can break it apart to increase the surface area.


Searing boeuf bourguignon The other day, I tried to make beouf bourguignon. The recipe called for 6 lbs of beef, I had 5.  Nevertheless when it came time to sear the meat I had to do it in batches. Which is fine, except that by batch 3 the fond from batch 1 began to burn.  I want that fond! What is the best technique for searing several pans full of beef without burning it?

There's two things you really need to control, the moisture of the surface of the beef and the heat / fat content of the pan.

Always pat beef down with a paper kitchen towel (or whatever else you use) prior to seasoning it and searing it. It will sear considerably faster if you do this, which results in you having less time per batch for the fonde to burn.

The second thing you have to do is keep an eye on when your pan gets back up to temperature after you put your next batch in, and quite possibly lower the heat a bit (and even perhaps add a tiny bit more fat).

But there's also the possibility that 3 large batches is just going to be quite difficult using one pan, so you could use two pans, or deglaze the pan after the second batch and save it (not ideal, but better than losing all that flavor).

I've never done more than two large pan fulls in a single go (I'd probably use a griddle that sits over 2 burners instead, if I had that much to sear).


When creating a recipe, what determines whether 2 ingredients will go well together? Over the weekends when I have more time to play in the kitchen, I often experiment by putting things together just to see how they taste/interact with each other.  I've been doing this pretty randomly and have had a variety of results. Here are some "recipes" that I have tried recently:

marshmallow chicken (surprisingly good, like peanut chicken)
coffee and sour cream (ok I didn't want to do this, but I was out of half & half, awful)
chocolate chip stuffing (excellent, just make sure to spread out the chocolate pieces)
peanut butter salami sandwich (highly recommended)
jalapeño ice cream (do not try this at home)

These are just a small selection of my samplings, but are there any guidelines on how to pair ingredients when cooking, or is it like the Large Hadron Collider and just hope they hit the right way to find something that tastes good?

When it comes to pairing specific ingredients, the general thinking seems to be that ingredients that share "flavour notes" in significant quantity will go well together.

In practice it goes much deeper than that, because in addition to taste, foods have very specific and recognizable aromas which affect the perception of flavour; wine is mostly sweet and sour, but you wouldn't substitute ordinary grape juice for it; the aroma of the alcohol is unmistakable, and even between different wines you will have varying levels of "fruitiness" or "woodiness".

But let's start with tastes:

Chocolate and coffee go well together because they share characteristic bitter notes.  The roasting of the beans also makes a difference; the pairing works best when the roasting is enough to thermally degrade the bitterness without losing too much sweetness due to caramelization.  This emphasizes the sweetness and de-emphasizes the bitterness and acidity of the coffee, making it closer to the flavour profile of chocolate.
A traditional stock combines a mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery) with meat (well, bones), both very high in umami.  The end product may have varying notes of bitterness or saltiness from the vegetables but is basically one huge kick of umami.  A lot of people also enjoy peanut butter and bacon together, which combines the significant umami and saltiness in both foods.
Beets and sour cream are a traditional (or so I'm told) Polish dish, both obviously sharing strong sour notes.  Often chives are added, which are mildly pungent in nature and pungency tends to go with sour or bitter (since it is created by sulfur which is perceived as sour, bitter, and also "metallic").

This tends to work reasonably well for basic pairings, but another very strong element of this is balancing all of the different flavours in a dish.

Peanut butter and jam don't seem to have much in common, flavour-wise.  But when you combine them together in a sandwich you have the high umami and saltiness of the peanut butter, the sweet and slightly sour notes of the jam, and the hints of bitterness and/or sourness in the bread.  Together you have strong notes of all five tastes and the result is appealing to most people.
Five Spice is usually a mixture of cinnamon (sweet), star anise (mildly sweet and bitter), fennel (mildly sweet and fairly savoury), ground cloves (pungent and somewhat bitter), and Szechuan peppercorns (salty and pungent with a sour aftertaste).  The quantities are generally adjusted to balance out the tastes; for example, fennel is the only really savoury ingredient so Five Spice tends to have more of that than other ingredients.  Anyway, this is used all over Chinese cuisine as a sort of "wonder spice".
A really good roast chicken starts off high in umami and is then brined (salty), buttered (sweet), and roasted which involves the Maillard reaction (bitter).  This is missing sour, which is why a lot of cooks will throw a few lemon slices in there.

But truthfully, even though this all sounds plausible, it's really so much more complicated than that.  Even though there's some science at work here, the five tastes are a little like the four elements or humours; it's an almost archaic way of thinking about food chemistry, because our mouths and noses can detect so much more than that.

If you want to see just how little we actually really know about flavour today, check out They Go Really Well Together on Khymos, linked to from one of the related questions.  There you'll see totally nonsensical combinations like chocolate and garlic or mint and mustard that actually - with the right preparation of course - produce pretty pleasant flavours/aromas.

The truth is people are still gathering data on this and we don't really know, exactly, what makes some flavours work together.  At least we're starting to approach this scientifically and actually experiment and document this stuff, but there's not enough data to form a coherent theory yet.  Check the answers to my question about flavour pairings and the other question on pairing resources if you want detailed data on which flavour pairings can "work", although you might not get much of an explanation for why.


Replacing whole egg beating process by separated egg white and yolk beating in a recipe which calls for the former? Can I replace whole egg beating process by separated egg white and yolk beating in a recipe which calls for the former? Can I replace the maida(all purpose flour ) with cake flour? Recipe is given below.
Youtube video recipe for chocolate cake. Recipe is given in the description box. (Note:Language used in the video is malayalam:Kerala, India)
https://youtu.be/iS9_i-VJ6XA

the answer to both your questions will be yes. the cake flour will give you a lighter cake due to the lower protein content (less gluten=lighter and fluffier cake). separating the egg withes from the yolks in this recipe is not really necessary because you have already a good amount of rising agent in the recipe itself but is you wanna make the entra step fold the wipped egg whites at the end, they should lightened the texture even more.


What makes bread mold grow; light, air or both? I'm building a breadbox that will hold multiple loaves of bread.  I was wondering if it would be a good idea to put a gasket around the lid to reduce air infiltration but I don't know what is more important.  So is the key to keep out light or air or both?

Mold grows best in warm, moist conditions. It's a fungus, not a plant; light has nothing to do with it. Fresh air doesn't really make it grow either, but circulating air does help reduce condensation, depriving mold of moisture. So you really don't want to seal a breadbox - that'll just help create a nice moist environment for the mold to grow in.

Breadboxes are really just about keeping other pests away from your bread, while still being able to keep it at room temperature. (It goes stale faster in the fridge.) If you're worried about mold growth, you probably just want to freeze some of the bread.


The science of confit In recent weeks I have made both duck leg and pork belly confit with rich tasting and great texture results. I want to experiment with this technique further but to do so, and avoid wasting meat and fat, I'd like to understand the science behind the technique.

In particular what makes the result of confit so different to the result of braising for the same period at the same temperature?

Do different fats have different effects on the meat (other than the flavour they impart through the flavour of the oil). For example will a fat that is liquid at room temperature (olive oil etc) result in a different type of confit to cooking it in lard or duck fat?

What are the characteristics of meat that suit it to confiting? Is there a particular fat content or other factor that determines the success of this method?

The slow cooking give confit meat its texture and the storage time allows further reactions and dissolutions to take place.  The traditional reason solid fats have been used for a confit is for preservation: once the fat cools it "seals" the meat. Today we can refrigerate, so many restaurants now make their confit with liquid oils.

Myhrvold has demonstrated that he can reproduce the duck confit by using a steam and air mixture to cook the duck leg and then flavor its surface with oil.

There are several processes competing when we heat meat to cook it:

The collagen needs to melt and gelatinize.  There are different types of collagen, each denaturing in different temperature ranges.  As the meat is heated, collagen starts to shrink at about 40°C/ 104°F and by 80°C/176°F all of it is gelatinized.  Different animals have different types of collagens and the right temperature could be anything between 60°C/140°F and 80°.
The elastin, which exists in smaller quantities than collagen, will shrink with temperature and make the meat tougher.
As the many molecules contract, they squeeze water from the meat, making it feel tougher.

So if you are going to develop a recipe, you will have to experiment.  As a guide, the more collagen, the higher temperatures you will need.  The amount of collagen goes up with the age of the animal and how much weight (stress) the muscle needs to support.

The reason confits are made by immersing the meat in oil may be that the oil makes it harder for the meat to loose its water, but I speculate.

Cooking for Geeks is one of the few places I found discussing the science of confit. Maybe Myhrvold's slim tome will have a section on it.


When making cheese (e.g. Halloumi) from non-homogenized milk, are the dangers in non-homogenized milk neutralised? I was looking at ways to make Halloumi at home and found this video. The recipe calls for non-homogenized milk (another name for raw milk, I think!) which as far as I know can be very dangerous.

But I am not drinking the milk, I making cheese from it. Will the cheese-making process neutralize all the harmful stuff in raw non-homogenized milk?

You are indeed mixing up different things, as Tetsujin mentioned in comments.

When the milk comes out of the cow, it is an emulsion, but not a terribly stable emulsion. Also, it has bacteria in it - ideally only the milk acid bacteria from the cow's udder, but it can also have pathogens from either a sick cow (usually things like listeria) or from being contaminated, e.g. e. coli from the cow's fecal matter. If you leave it sitting around, even at fridge temperature, the emulsion will start separating, with the milk fat swimming to the top, and the milk will start to either turn sour or spoil, depending on which kind of bacteria prevails.

Modern consumers don't want any of these to happen, and modern producers and handlers don't want to have to sell the milk within a couple of days of milking. So milk is typically processed in multiple steps. Some of them are intended for pasteurization (killing bacteria), others are intended for homogenization (preventing the separation of milk fat and whey). There are many different processes for each of those two goals, and a producer can apply one or more of them - and the producer can also decide to homogenize without pasteurizing, or the other way round. You can also consume raw milk, if you can find a source - they are differently regulated in different legislations.

Now, to your question. The important part for your safety is not whether your milk has been homogenized, but whether it has been pasteurized. If you make your cheese with non-pasteurized milk (no matter if homogenized or not), then che cheese "inherits" the risks of the milk. If you make it with pasteurized milk, it again inherits the risks (or lack thereof) of the milk. To answer very literally, the cheesemaking process doesn't turn raw milk into safely pasteurzied milk.


What's the secret to pan-searing a steak with regard to oil's smoking point? Lately I've been trying my best to learn how to pan-sear a steak at home and the main takeaways I've gathered from my research and distilling tips from the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver etc. are:

the pan has to be really hot and not made of a material that may have its coating disintegrate as a consequence, so steel is cool while non-stick materials aren't
we put some oil in it
we sear the steak

I won't get into what point #3 branches into but the problem is, every single time I have problems with the first two points alone. I'm using an old steel pan, kinda like this one:

So I put it on high heat for literally a minute, pour literally a tablespoon of oil and within seconds there's either A LOT of grey smoke which lets me know that I'd better turn off the heat or I'm going to have an emergency or the oil just plainly catches fire (this thankfully only happened once so far but still - it did).

Why is that so? I've been using regular refined canola oil, I also tried extra virgin olive oil (that one was pretty dumb I have to admit as the smoking point on this one is pretty low but I didn't know it then - and I only did this once) but it doesn't matter to be honest. And I'm keeping the pan on high heat for literally under a minute, not 10 minutes to reach steel beam melting temperature like some people on YouTube seem to advocate.

What am I doing wrong? Is the pan wrong? The oil? The temperature? I just have no idea, especially since the temperature definitely isn't anything to write home about and the oil is the most run-of-the-mill type you could think of, not some experimental type or brand.

If your oil catches fire, it is indeed too hot. But still, you cannot make a good steak without reaching the smoking point.

"the temperature definitely isn't anything to write home about" - here you are wrong. Whether the tempreature is too much, too little, or just right, that's something you recognize by the behavior of your food. If your oil billows large smoke clouds and your steak chars on the outside, that's way too much, no matter now easy it was to reach it or how little you have turned the dial.

Just keep adjusting the temperature until your steak cooks well. From what you are writing, the first adjustment should be down, but before you learn, you will probably at some time start undershooting it and will have to regulate it back up. Just repeat the exercise until you get a good feeling for how to make the steak. You can speed up the learning process if you start using an infrared thermometer.


Toasting bagel in my oven How much energy am I wasting by toasting my bagel in my big oven? Should I get a toaster?

A toaster is more efficient than a toaster oven, which in turn is far more efficient than heating an entire conventional oven.

Toaster statistics:
Approximate time to make toast – 4 minutes
Watt measured while running – 820 W
Resulting electricity usage – 0.055 kWh

vs

Toaster oven statistics:
Approximate time to make toast – 5 minutes
Watt measured while running – 1110 W
Resulting kWh usage – 0.093

Lower kWh usage means the toaster is more efficient than a toaster oven.

Here is the source for the comparison of toaster vs toaster oven.

Now, you can compare the less efficient toaster oven to a conventional oven here (or to a microwave, but you don't really use that for toast). Toaster ovens use about 1/3 to 1/2 the energy of a conventional oven. So if a toaster uses less than a toaster oven, and a toaster oven uses far less than an oven, then clearly a toaster would be far less wasteful than the oven.

So YES, buy a toaster!


If cookies are made with enough sugar, will they just be chewy caramel? If one increases the ratio of sugar to flour in the dough of, say,  chocolate chip cookies, at what point (if any) will it no longer make chocolate chip  cookies and instead be chocolate chips embedded in chewy caramel?

In other words: At what point (if any) is dough no longer cookie precursor, but caramel precursor?

There are no similarities between the process of making caramel and making cookies.

Pure caramel has one ingredient, sugar. This sugar is cooked on the stove and brought to a high temperature until it changes color.

  The process of caramelization consists of heating sugar slowly to around 340 °F (170 °C). As the sugar heats, the molecules break down and re-form into compounds with a characteristic color and flavor.

There are two products you may be talking about instead that are called caramel - caramel sauce and caramels, or milk caramels, a wrapped candy product.

Both of these are made in a similar fashion - heat sugar and other ingredients on the stove to a specific temperature point. These added ingredients include corn syrup, cream/half & half/milk, and butter.

While these ingredients share similarities to some degree with cookies, cookies rarely ever include liquids like milk as you need to keep the dough thick so that it doesn't spread, and will always include some sort of flour and (usually) eggs, which are not a standard ingredients in caramel recipes (and probably never ingredients).

The process for cooking is similar to pure caramel, they are cooked in a saucepan on the stove until they reach a specific temperature, something around 250F. At this temperature, the chocolate chips would be completely melted.

You can certainly make chocolate caramels, if that is what you wish, but you could not convert a recipe for chocolate chip cookies to a caramel recipe.

Adding more sugar to the cookies would make them spread quite a bit more (remember that sugar is considered a liquid in baking cookies) and eventually you'd get something like a lace cookie, which is probably the closest you'd ever get to caramel in a cookie recipe. Lace cookies contain flour but significantly less flour than sugar.

As an example, this recipe for Oatmeal Lace Cookies has only 3 tbsp of flour (and 2-1/4 c oats) but has a whopping 2-1/4 cup of sugar along with two sticks of butter. The method is also similar to caramel, in that it's a boiled batter that is heated in a pot on the stove and then baked.

This is probably the closest crossover you're going to get between the two. And, as a bonus, if you want chocolate, lace cookies are often dipped in or drizzled with chocolate.

Honey-Almond Lace Cookies from Food Network:


How to increase batch size of dough starter bread? I've recently acquired a really cool bread book filled with recipes which follow this format

Mix up some flour, yeast, honey, and milk into a very smooth dough.
Cover this with more flour and yeast and set it aside to rise for several hours until you're ready to add the remaining ingredients and mix it all up into dough.

This is working great and produces delicious bread. However, I'd like to increase my batch size in order to make more. Can I safely double the ingredients in step one to make my dough starter twice as large and then dump twice as much flour and yeast on top of it?

I don't feel like I should be able to as the current amounts of flour and yeast cover the dough starter completely so I don't think adding more would grant the starter any great access to flour and yeast. Thank you!

You can safely double all the ingredients, including the yeast. (See this)

If you're worried about the wet part of the starter having access to the dry flour and yeast, you could try shaping the wet starter to give it more surface area, use a bigger bowl, or simply make two separate bowls of this and combine them later.


How do I know when yellow split peas are cooked? After having boiled for initially 10 minutes and then simmered for an hour my yellow split peas are still firm and a little gritty.

If cooked long enough do they ever get soft like a red kidney bean?

They are the cheapest pulse on the shelf and I'm beginning to think the least responsive to cooking.

I soak these overnight so they are fully re-hydrated by the time of cooking.

I cook in enough water to cover them.

You probably haven't added enough water. Split peas are dried, cooking re-hydrates them, but only if there's enough to for them to absorb.  You need to add at least double the water as peas, a bit like rice in that respect. It's also possible you have old peas, or they are a variety that simply needs a longer cooking time. Hard water can also slow down cooking.

Try using softened water if you can, and more of it. An overnight soak can also work wonders.