What kind of onions for dal? I'm making dal for the first time and have all of the ingredients below, but I can't decide whether to use white, yellow (vidalia), or red onions.  I have all three in stock.

Here are the other ingredients:

1/4 cup ghee
1 1/2 cups diced onions
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 cups orange lentils
2 tablespoons ginger powder
2 tablespoons Garam Masala powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
8 cups chicken stock

It really doesn't matter, I have tried with all of them, and each one tastes differently. Even in India at different places people use different kind of onions, it is mostly driven by availability. The best way to check what you may like is by using different kinds of onions for the first 3 times you make it :). I personally like yellow ones, you can start with that one for the first time.


Why does dark chocolate turn white after being in cold for some time? Why does dark chocolate turn white (and not so tasty any more) after staying in cold for some time? Usually this effect can be seen after storing chocolate in fridge.

Its called chocolate blooming.

There are two types:

Fat blooming - cause is not known for certain, but probably the type VI chocolate crystals are more thermodynamically favored, so spontaneous conversion (and exit from the surface of the solid solution constituting the chocolate body) may be possible.
Sugar blooming - the sugar in the chocolate is dissolved by humidity, and the precipitates on the surface.

Fortunately, there are no safety problems with bloomed chocolate, and it can be remelted with no inherent loss of quality.   So bloomed chocolate is perfectly useful in recipes where it will be melted; or it can be melted and re-tempered if desired.


How to dehydrate chili at home? Chilies have different temperatures for dehydration. Does anyone knows what temperature to use for Tabasco and Habanero? And the duration of the process?

As Alton Brown teaches in an episode of Good Eats 'heat' is not the key to dehydration, but rather air flow (you can skip to about 12:00 in). What you need is the "Blow Hard 3000" (A Box fan and a stack of air filters, the cheap ones are fine). He recommended (and I have tried and was successful with a variety of meats & herbs, including pablano peppers) taking a stack (4-5) Heat and Air filters. For peppers (and many other applications) fast moving dry COOL air is better than heat.


How do caraway and ajwain differ in taste and use? These two seed spices seem confusingly similar. I have never used ajwain before. A new recipe I intend to try out calls for jowan (carom seeds) which, according to Google and Wikipedia, are also called ajwain. The pictures I found online of ajwain resemble fennel and caraway seeds but seem smaller than either. Since there are two different Wiki pages for caraway and ajwain, I was certain they were different things.

Today I saw a pack of ajwain at an Indian grocery store but "(caraway)" was also printed on the packaging. As per Wikipedia, ajwain is also called ajowan caraway. But how different are they?

How are they different in taste and actual use?
If I don't have ajwain what'd be a good substitute?

Ajwain is a plant in the family apiaceae, and its seed, which is used (especially in south Asian cooking) for its thyme-like flavor while caraway is a biennial plant, native to Europe and Asia, mainly grown for its seed to be used as a culinary spice.

Ajwain is used more for saviory dishes for it's thyme like qualities, while caraway is more used in baked goods similar to how aniseed is used.


Speeding up soaking of cashews for a recipe I am trying to follow a Sri Lankan recipe that asks me to soak cashews overnight. Since I can't really wait that long, is there a way to speed up this process? Would putting it in hot water help the process?

The use of a pressure cooker would rapidly accelerate the absorption of water. It risks over doing it and also 'cooks' the cashews so this may not be the best solution for your recipe but the pressure vessel would force the moisture inward to the nut.


Pork sausage patties in a crockpot overnight Is it safe to store a crockpot full of freshly cooked pork sausage breakfast patties overnight?  set on Warm. ? Also do you think this will make them "dry" to eat in the morning?  If it's safe, do you know any tips for making them keep their taste/texture ?

It really depends on how warm the warm setting keeps the food. If it's over 60 degrees Celsius, you should be fine, but for something like pork I would want it to be considerably over that temperature to be on the safe side, and then you're into cooking territory rather than 'keeping warm' territory.

You are probably better off cooking the patties, storing them in the fridge, and reheating them, wrapped in foil, hard and fast in the oven, if you're looking for a quick, convenient way to serve them first thing.


Convert grill recipe to convection toaster oven? I generally just lower the temp 25 degrees when going from oven to the little convec toaster oven and it works out well.  This may be a silly question, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

I cook just about everything in there, since the oven seems like overkill when I'm cooking for two.

The conversion depends on what the recipe says to do for a grill.

If the recipe says to preheat the grill to high (for gas) or create two beds of charcoal under both halves (for charcoal), then preheat the broiler on your convection toaster oven and broil the food items on a rack set in a pan or on a grill insert.

If the recipe has a specific temperature, lower that by 25 degrees and use the convection cycle.

If the recipes doesn't give a specific temperature but instead suggests indirect grilling (where one side is higher and the food is on the low side or using a higher rack), use a lower temperature in your oven, perhaps 325, and cook as suggested.  That kind of recipe will probably take the most trial and error.


How to finish sous vide carnitas without drying them out I've followed this recipe from Serious Eats to make sous vide carnitas. The sous vide step is easy - just leave it in the bag for 12-24 hours. The last step of the recipe is to break up the meat with a fork and put it under the grill for 10 minutes. However when I do this the meat goes from delicious and moist to crispy but completely dried out!

How can I finish the meat and keep the moist meat I spent so long preparing?

Make sure not to break up the meat too much. In particular, try not to smear it between the fork and the dish... You want chunky pieces, not spread-out strands. The more broken and strand-y the pork gets, the greater its surface area and the faster it dries out. You also want to crowd the pieces in the pan as much as possible while browning. It's better to have a bunch in the middle of the baking pan, than individual pieces spread around the pan.


How long can milk be stored in the refrigerator after boiled and put in a Ball jar? I've finally gotten my steel-cut oats recipe nearly perfect and I'm trying to figure out how long I can store them (so I know how much I can make at once). Basically I'm doing a double-boiler setup in a ball jar cooking the oats for 45 minutes to an hour and then putting on the lid and then refrigerating for later use.

Normally milk will go bad after a couple weeks in the fridge but I assume boiling and vacuum sealing will extend this time. I'm not really familiar with canning though so my assumption might be wrong.

How long should I expect milk to last in the fridge when boiled and sealed in a Ball jar?

Unless you are using a canning method that is actually designed for long term storage and shelf stability, you cannot assume the food is sterilized or pasteurized by home processing methods.

You should therefore not expect a refrigerated shelf life of more than 2-3 days, the same as if you had not processed it.

Finally, you are creating a low acid food with absolutely no protection (other than refrigeration) against botulism, so you definitely do not want to store it more than this guideline.

In addition to botulism which is not detectable by odor or taste, if you do see unusual appearance, especially bubbling, or detect an off odor or flavor, you should definitely discard.


How to scale up pudding recipe 10x? I am trying to make a 10X recipe of a cooked pudding.  It uses flour and corn starch as a thickener.  I scaled up the ingredients proportionally, but it is not as thick.  Any recommendations on how better to scale the ingredients?  Is the sugar interfering with the gel?  Do I need to change the ratio of the thickeners? Should the proportions be different?  Any thoughts?

Scaling out a recipe is often more difficult than just "multiplying" the ingredients. In the Book Ratio they have a chapter on Custard:

  The standard ratio is bedrock, 2 to 1; 16 ounces milk blended with 8
  ounces (4 large) eggs will result in 24 ounces of an excellent
  custard. Large eggs are about 2 ounces each, which makes custards easy
  to manage without a recipe: a cup of milk and 2 eggs, or ½ cup of milk
  and 1 egg. But 1 large egg will set three-quarters of a cup of milk
  into a perfect custard. So, as with all ratios, and recipes, it can
  vary. If you intend to turn the custard out and it needs to hold its
  shape, stick with the basic ratio. Extra yolks are often added for
  texture and richness. The quantity of sugar and the quantity of fat
  also affect the final outcome. If you’re using a lot of sugar, you may
  need to add a little more protein for structure. If you’re using only
  heavy cream, you may need less.

  Ruhlman, Michael. Ratio (Kindle Locations 3475-3481). Simon &
  Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Simply doubling a recipe is usually pretty straight forward...the more you scale upwards the more 'out of alignment' your ratios become (particularly where eggs are involved).

Without your base recipe I have to warn 'your mileage' may vary' So be prepared to tweak it to your taste.


Where and how do I keep the extra buttermilk biscuits? I wrapped some buttermilk biscuits in a kitchen towel and kept them in the pantry (they were baked two days ago) but now they dried out and turned to some teeth-breaking biscuits! Where and how should I have kept the extra fresh?

Biscuits are notorious for that; they're best eaten right away. If you want to preserve their original texture longer than 12 hours (yes, that short of a time), your best bet is to freeze them as soon as they are cool and eat them within a month or two. Wrap them as air-tightly as possible.

You can pop the frozen biscuits in a moderate oven or unwrap and give them an hour or so on the counter to defrost, then warm them. Either way, it's best to serve them warm, they will seem softer and fresher that way.

If you've found a recipe you like and think you might want to make them frequently, mix the dry ingredients for multiple batches. If you can weigh the dry mix that you have just mixed, then you're golden. You can make as many or as few biscuits as you want anytime just by using the same proportion of dry, fat and liquid as the original recipe. You can easily make a single biscuit that way or feed a crowd.


How to make pizza crust thin and elastic at the same time? For the title: I'm not sure if "elastic" is the perfect word here, so is anyone knows better one - put it in the comment.

I like thin pizza crust, but when I've made it myself it was hard and stiff - not very pleasant to eat.

I know that making a dough isn't an easy task, but I would like to hear your tips. What should pay attention to avoid hard and stiff crust?

I've heard about putting a pot with water into the oven to increase moisture.
How about existence of oil in dough, does it change anything?
How about flour type?

I generally use a fairly wet dough and add oil as well. One of the keys is to keep kneading to a bare minimum. This makes for a lighter dough because it has more air bubbles - kneading kills them. As for flour type, I like '00' type, but there are advantages to other types of flours - as 00 absorbs less water.

If you want to read a completely comprehensive guide to a lot of the factors, this is worth a read...

http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm


My french bread dough did not rise on the second rise after forming the loaves My dough looked great after the first rise. I punched down the dough and formed into long loaves and used a jelly roll pan, not loaf pans.  They did not rise fully,  I went ahead and baked them. The final product was dense and not chewy. I'm not sure what may have happened.

There are many variables that could be at play here - some of the obvious ones have already been suggested, e.g., ambient temperature.  The yeast fermentation process is very temperature sensitive, and can vary 100% in time for a change of less than 10 degrees Celsius, depending on your yeast strain.  Other factors might include moisture level - if the dough is too loose, it will not "rise" in a jelly roll pan, but rather "spread" as it expands.  There is also a possibility that if the dough has over-fermented (too much time spent on the first rise), the gluten breaks down, and cannot sustain the subsequent rise - this is sometimes known as the dough "going to rags" (excuse my English).  In the case of lower gluten flours, particularly rye, the second rise may actually occur, but not seem as evident as it did when in the bowl.

If you are working in winter in a particularly cold or drafty kitchen, you can raise the temperature of the dough slightly if you very carefully turn the oven to 100-110 degrees Celsius (gas mark 1/4 -  200-225 F) for a short time, 4-5 minutes MAX, then TURN THE OVEN OFF.  Cover the dough with aluminium paper to keep the crust from drying out, and place dough in the warm (NOT HOT) oven for an hour or so - this boost in warmth gives the yeast a wake-up.  The interior of the oven should be no more than 50-55 degrees Celsius, or you will kill the yeast.


How to peel chestnuts? The chestnuts on an open fire question reminded me: Is there a trick to peeling chestnuts easily? I always end up with bits of hairy skin stuck to the chestnuts (ick), and/or stuck under my fingernails (ouch). We usually roast them in the oven (after slitting them suitably, of course); is there a cooking method that results in easier peeling?

In case it matters, I'd want the chestnuts either for eating out of hand, or for making chestnut puree.

My experience has been that the freshest chestnuts can be peeled pretty easily if I do it while they're still hot (I usually roast them). This does mean that one's fingers can get burned, though! I wonder whether some of the recommended techniques for peeling garlic cloves would help with "sticky" chestnut-skins? [Choosing fresh chestnuts over moldy ones is a problem in itself; off to see if there's a question about that!]


What kind of pie is this? So over the thanks giving holiday my wife asked me to go get the apple pie out of the chill chest.  However there were three different pies in there and they all looked alike, and neither of us knew which was which.  We ended up cutting all of them to find the right pie, and made the blueberry pie we took to my parents house look really bad. I was wondering how can I determine what type of pie is in the refrigerator without breaking the structural integrity of the crust? Because I'm sure I'll do it again in the future.

If you do this often I would make a little pastry cut out of the fruit type of the pie and use some egg wash to stick it onto the pie - it looks good and eases identification.


Coooking the Turkey the night before If I cook the turkey the night before then cut it up, put in refrigerator wrapped or covered in container is it safe to reheat the next day and if fluid added in pan will it moisten it?

It is perfectly safe, however you don't want to as it won't be anywhere near as good the next day. Even if you handle it perfectly the turkey is going to lose a great deal of moisture in the fridge overnight. Moisture in the meat comes from fat in the tissues rather than water, once it's cooked out it's gone, so putting water or pan juices in the container isn't going to do a thing for you.

Turkey is usually the centerpiece of the meal, and you want your centerpiece to be perfect no matter what it is. If you cannot make it fresh, or using a method that will preserve flavor and moisture  better, then my advice would be to chose a different centerpiece, or adjust your methods. You could cut your turkey into parts and cook them separately, who is going to know? Make a Turqui au Vin the day before and re-heat it, it will visually look amazing and taste great. Or you could cook something else like a leg of lamb, beef, or pork joint.

If you are concerned that you won't have the time to make all the accompaniments and the turkey at the same time then you are in luck because much of what goes with a turkey can be made ahead of time and reheated without losing much quality. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, pies, and many other things can be made ahead of time and re-heated. Even some green vegetables like thick greens can be made the day before and re-heated, some would say the flavor's better the day after as well. Many of these things can be frozen as well, so you could start cooking for a big dinner party weeks ahead of time. So perhaps you need to turn the question around and think about what else could be made the night before.


Would brining help the texture/flavor of ribs? I'm trying to get more flavor into my Memphis dry rub ribs. I'm cooking them slowly in an Applewood smoke oven, but I was also considering soaking the ribs in brine before cooking, to add flavor and moisture.

Would this have the same effect as (for example) brining poultry before roasting? If not, what effect would it have on the ribs?

Brining pork—especially a thin cut like ribs—before barbecuing (in the low and slow sense) is not traditional.  To see why, you have to understand the functions (and myths) about brining:

It helps retain moisture.  This is true. Water enters the meat cells during the brining process.  Not all of this water will come out during the cooking process.  Additionally, due to the third effect below (delaying the final coagulation of the proteins), less water will be squeezed out at early phases of cooking.
It seasons the meat.  Absolutely true.  Salt will penetrate into the meat, providing a depth of seasoning throughout the cut.
It helps keep the meat tender.  This is sort of true for some cooking methods.  The salt which enters the muscle fibers helps by (per Kenji Alt's Food Lab):

  ... dissolving some of the muscle proteins (mainly myosin). The muscle
  fibers loosen up, allowing them to absorb more moisture, and more
  importantly, they don't contract as much when they cook, making sure
  that more of that moisture stays in-place as the turkey cooks.

This makes it more difficult to overcook the meat to the point the proteins seize up into tight little balls (well done meat, with its characteristic tough or rubbery texture).  This also helps retain moisture since less is squeezed out.

Salt helps mitigate this shrinkage

It flavors the meat (other than the seasoning from the salt).  This is a myth although many on this site will vehemently disagree with me.  Okay, it is sort of kind of a little true, but only in the weakest possible sense.

Any flavors that penetrate the meat due so at a pace of about 2-3 millimeters per day, which is trivial.  Flavors are big molecules, and don't cross cell walls.  At the small scale, muscle tissue is essentially a big bunch of straws (the cells) with essentially no inter-cellular room for brine to penetrate.  Any flavors in the brine are left at the surface for all practical purposes.

And there are some downsides of brining:

Added water weight reduces flavor.  Its simple, more weight of water means less flavor, simply through dilution.
Brining changes the texture of the meat, moving it on that spectrum towards "hammy" at the extreme end, if overdone.

So how does all of this apply to low and slow barbecue?

Moisture retention.  By the very nature of barbecuing, you are going to cook the food until it is meltingly tender.  All of the proteins will be fully coagulated, and at their toughest anyway!  The reason barbecue is not tough is the cuts of meat chosen:  they are high in connective tissue and fat.  The connective tissue, a protein called collagen, converts to gelatin over the long cooking period starting when the meat hits about 170 - 180 F.  This, together with the generous melted fat creates the unctuous texture of barbecue.

So brining will not help here.
Seasoning the meat.  It does.  However, you can apply highly flavored sauces, dry rubs, or so-called dry brines which do just as good a job, without adding to the water weight of the cut.  And that water weight does what water does:  reduce flavor intensity by diluting it.  Literally.

Brining might help season, but not better than other methods.
Keeping the meat tender.   As described above, preventing the protein from being well done is not a goal in barbecue.  It is the low and slow conversion of gelatin to collagen which is the hallmark of the tender barbecue.

Brining does not help.
Adding flavor.

Its just a myth. No help to barbecue or any other cooking method.

Overall, then, I would say you are better off looking at your dry rub, your sauce, and your smoke to create flavor and enhance your ribs.

A good dry rub, with salt, applied 24 hours, will serve as a dry brine, and give you all of the benefits of brining without the drawbacks, at least insofar as they apply to this method of cooking.  And it is less messy and less fussy!

One thing some advanced barbecue artisans do is inject brine or seasoning into the heart of a cut of meat using what is essentially a giant syringe.   Once inside the meat, the bring will begin to act normally, but from the inside: spreading seasoning over time, and flavoring at snails pace.  Since ribs are thin, this technique normally does not apply to ribs.  It does however, literally, get the flavor inside the meat.


Source for comestible cracked corn Over the summer, I had the opportunity to have some cracked corn which is similar to pop corn but with a different species of corn that had bigger kernels and the chef that served them said they were starchier which meant that they popped differently, the texture was the same as the type of kernels that are at the bottom of a bag but only slightly popped.

I've had a hard time looking for a source except for cracked corn as animal feed which I wouldn't trust for my own consumption. Does anyone know of a place to find some to pop?

I've seen them called "pop pops". NatureBox sells them:
https://naturebox.com/product/sea-salt-pop-pops

Trader Joe's has a variant:
https://www.amazon.com/Trader-Joes-Partially-Popped-Popcorn/dp/B00WOQ31AY

There's also a brand called "half pops" at halfpops.com.

Googling turned up a recipe for making them, but I haven't tried it:
http://www.jenosmon.com/blog/half-popped-popcorn/


Which is better to use baking soda or baking powder for making cakes? I'm confused. I would like to know which is better to use: baking powder or baking soda for making cake. Or which is best for what recipes.

They are different ingredients and one does not replace the other. Baking soda is an alkali which can react with acidic ingredients in a recipe to produce carbon dioxide which helps baked goods rise. Baking powder includes baking soda (or similar) and an acidic ingredient, so it is more 'self-contained' rather than relying on something else in the recipe. (Self-raising flour is basically flour with baking powder mixed in, to be even more self-contained.)
But you should just follow whatever is in the recipe you are making or adapting. If you have found a recipe you are trying to follow which does not make it clear you could post it in your question and we could try to work it out from the other ingredients.


Removing that eggy smell from cakes I've been baking for not that long now and I usually peruse the web and the hundreds of books I have at home before I attempt a recipe. However there is one thing I am just not able to get down right.

Whenever a cake or something involving eggs is baked, I get a really strong eggy smell that puts me off. Even after it has cooled down, the egg smell and taste remains. But I don't notice this in cakes from stores or bakeries. I don't know what to do to neutralize this, or is it completely normal?

I use brown farm fresh eggs that aren't pumped full of stuff (at least that's what they say on the packaging).

Update: I will try to figure out what the cheap eggs taste like in the next cake that i bake. Furthermore, i will also compare with results i obtain from a new professional line oven that i am purchasing soon. One of these is the culprit, since whenever i eat baked goods elsewhere this issue is rarely experienced.

Hi i have the same problem and the only way to cut this smell is by adding lemon and orange zest to the batter. Also you can try a table spoon of whiskey or cognac.


Crème brûlée without torch Is it possible to finish a crème brûlée without a torch? Are there any other creative methods to get the sugar to crisp up on the top of this delicious dessert?

The classic method is to do it under the broiler (grill in UK parlance).

You have to watch it carefully, so that you can take it out when it is done but not burned, but otherwise that is is it.


Boiled chicken breast skin tastes like soap I often buy full chicken in supermarkets and boil it. I noticed that its outermost breast skin part (only skin, and only that part where you would expect nipples) tastes like soap. At first I thought that maybe I didn't clean the dish-washing liquid from the fork completely or something, but then I realized that this happens with ALL chickens I bought... They were from different sources, of different sizes and complexity. Does any body know the reason? Thanks

Maybe it's not soap that you taste.  At least here in the US, most chicken bound for the supermarket is sprayed or dipped in a bleach solution.  It could be you are picking up on that, but it is not a taste I've ever noticed.


What is the best temperature and method to cook bacon in a grill pan? Weekend mornings is always a breakfast feast in our house. When it comes to the bacon it's a war zone in the kitchen with hot fat drops shooting everywhere, and sometimes I get hit.

The texture of the bacon is never the same from soft to crispy, probably because I play with the heat so much that its never consistent. I am only doing that because I am trying to eliminate the hot fat drops.

I use a cast iron grill pan to cook the bacon on medium heat (most of the time) on a gas stove. I do preheat the pan, and use about 3 teaspoons of olive oil per 300g of bacon.

I presume I am missing a trick here or my heat is wrong. SO: What is the best temperature and method too cook bacon in a grill pan?

Please help me bring back the peace to my kitchen. :)

I use two methods for bacon, depending on how much I am trying to make:

For small batches, I use a cast iron pan. I place the bacon on the pan cold, and cook over medium heat, turning and swapping strips around as necessary to cook evenly. I find it easier to control sticking with the cold pan over a preheated one. I do not add oil because there is so much fat in the bacon already.
For large batches, I prefer the oven where you can cook more at once. I place the bacon in a single layer on a large pan(s), and cook at 300F for approximately 30 minutes.

I find people can be very particular in their bacon preferences for fatty, crispy, and degrees in between. This may change your cooking time substantially.


When, if ever, are dried herbs preferable to fresh herbs? Sometimes I see a recipe call for dried herbs. If I have access to fresh herbs, should I go for fresh herbs instead? Is there any benefit in using dried herbs with some recipes?

Dry rubs are one case that I can think of where dry is specifically necessary, so you can grind them up properly.

The main advantage to dry herbs is that they're available year round.  When you're dealing with winter dishes, dry herbs would've been the norm to have used at that time.

If you are going to substitute, you'll need to add more (typically about 3x as much, as the dry is usually more concentrated), and you'll want to add it late in the cooking process, while dry herbs are usually added early.

One exception to the rule is bay leaves -- you'll still need to add them early, and you'll want to reduce the number.


Baking in gas oven does not brown the top I need advice from those who bake in gas oven without fan. I bake on the middle rack and have an oven thermometer(my oven is -20 deg off). My cakes get baked darker on bottom and paler on top. Cookies can get burnt at bottom if I wait for them to change color on top. The result is that the cookies, puff pastry are not crisp, the sheet cakes are sticky on touch when they cool down.
Really need advice from those who had faced and overcome this. Many thanks!

Edit: What I really want to know is how to increase the top heat? The cake or pastry is getting baked faster at bottom but since top heat is less though the cake rises fine it does not get browned on top. If I wait longer for it to brown it starts getting burned at bottom.

This is an issue I've had to come to terms with myself. I spent most of my catering life spoilt by having a massive fan assisted electric ovens with space for 24 trays at once. Then one day I left it all behind to work in a tiny 2 chef kitchen where all we had was a bottom heated gas oven. The first 6 months was a nightmare. It's still not easy even to this day but I'll share a couple of tricks me and my colleague have found.

Its all about the airflow:

Forget about the middle shelf for baking it's useless. It's there for roast joints and ... Stuff. Get your baked goods on the top shelf. The reason you are not getting browned tops is all the heat is hitting the bottom of your tray, by the time it reaches the top of your oven and bounces back down to your food it's nowhere near the temperature required.

In order to help cushion the bottoms of your food and direct the heat towards the top, you need to put a tray slightly larger than the tray you are cooking on, on the shelf below. You can add water to this tray for bread and Yorkshire puddings as the steam helps regulate the heat also, but when cooking pastries I find it makes the pastry more likely to split and crack.

Locate the thermostat in your oven. In ours, it's at the top right, in the middle. Always ensure there is sufficient space around it for the heat to hit it. If it's blocked in any way you'll find the oven just keeps pumping heat out. It'll be 300c at the bottom but the thermostat will still think it 100c.

Sometimes you will find the tops are now cooking perfectly but the bottoms are a little less done. At that point, you will be safe to either move the food down a shelf to help crisp the bottoms or if making scones you can safely flip them over just to finish off.

Good luck.


Can pickled pepper oil be used as cooking oil? I have about a half jar of pure pickled pepper oil as I have recently used up all of the peppers. The oil is a strange translucent color of yellow; I'm imagining a cup of highlighter fluid (if there is such a thing).

I'm wondering if this oil is okay to use for cooking oil or as a substitute for other oils in other dishes, or am I better off throwing it out if it cannot serve as an appropriate substitute whatsoever.

I would use it for anything other than deep frying or high temperature frying. It would be great for anything that requires oil but not cooking, like hummus.


Why is this croissant dough not behaving as expected? I followed this video recipe for croissants, but whereas the video shows a soft, silky dough that proofs beautifully, I ended up with a dense, dry dough that has not risen appreciably after 90 min. I measured with a scale and proofed the dough in a warm environment, so I'm confident that neither of those is the problem. I did substitute dry yeast for fresh, but I also used yeast from the same package to make bread just the other day, so I'm confident that the yeast is healthy and active. What else could be going on?
1. Recipe

500g flour
70g sugar
10g salt
20g fresh yeast (which I converted to 8g dry yeast according to a website that claimed the correct multiplier is 0.4)
125g water
125g milk
350g butter

Combine dry ingredients; combine water, milk, & yeast; combine the two mixtures; knead in stand mixer 12 min.; proof until doubled in volume...

Obviously the recipe goes on from there, but that's the relevant part.
2. Further details

I did use a scale.
I have not verified the accuracy of the scale.
I proofed the dough in the oven, with the light on. I did not measure the temperature in there, but I'm going to say 30C/85F.
I proofed the dough for 90 min.

I am afraid that you will never know the answer. At least, from your description, there is no obvious cause for failure, and there is just no way to guess what exactly went wrong this one time. The recipe and your process seem fine and should work in principle.
Typical causes can be:

You didn't wait enough. You say you only waited for 90 minutes - yeast doughs can easily need more, and I would wait for at least 6-8 hours before I pronounce a yeast dough dead. While this shouldn't be the case at 30 C, your estimation for your oven's temperature at this setting might be wrong. Or maybe the dial was visibly turned to this setting, but due to some mechanical problem, the oven didn't actually turn on.
The opposite of my last sentence may have happened - maybe the oven turned on to one setting higher, and you warmed the dough enough to kill the yeast.
You may have been distracted and made a wrong measurement without noticing.

If you are accustomed to high-hydration doughs, then this dough can be expected to feel on the dry side for you, it is at 60% hydration. Or maybe the original recipe assumes that people will proof the live yeast in some water additionally to what the recipe calls for.
The "stiff" part is likely because you apparently kneaded it for exactly one interval of 12 minutes with a stand mixer. You should have let it relax when you saw it becoming stiff. Also, consider transitioning from kneading for some amount of time to recognizing what properly kneaded dough looks like and stopping when it's done.
Anyway, neither the low hydration nor the unrelaxed gluten should interfere with rising. You eithr made a mistake (wrong measurement, wrong temperature or waited too short a time as explained above) or it was some weird fluke, these happen too.


Is the white hemolymph that comes out of a lobster (when boiling) edible? I know most parts of a lobster are edible except for what was afore mentioned in your content. But there is no mention of the hemolymph, the white substance that comes out of a fresh, live lobster when boiled. I was thinking about blending it into a bisque for intensifying the flavor.

Yes. I'm sure I have eaten some, on multiple occasions. Frankly there aren't many animal parts that we can't digest.


Trying to adjust a recipe to recreate Peruvian "Tres Puntas" rolls Having visited my family I fell in love with "Pan de Trigo" that we call "Tres Puntas."  This is a wheat bread that appears to be folded over to have three points.
After baking, it puffs up and a large hollow exists in the center; the bread "shell" itself is chewy and slightly sandy in texture. I believe the hollow exists due to the folding. It reminds me a bit of a focaccia-style roll flavor and texture.
I found a recipe a while ago on a site that is no longer active, and have copied it here for comparison. I'm sorry that it's partially in Spanish but I am posting it here as I found it.  I did try to make it but it didn't resemble what I was hoping to create.
It had more of a crumb than a "hole" (if that makes sense) but this may be due to my method more than anything. Having mentioned focaccia, I was thinking of reviewing the process and recipes for this style of bread and combining the two so maybe this is the trick.
Could someone more knowledgeable in bread making review this recipe and see if I'm on track?  Could this recipe create what I've described provided I adjusted my technique?
Here is the recipe.  Note that this is not the wheat version that we prefer.  I'm concerned that a wheat version would be even heavier if not done correctly.
PAN DE TRES PUNTAS
INGREDIENTES:

1 lb flour
1/4 C + 1 t sugar
3/4 t salt
2 packets active dry yeast
1 C water
2 Kilos de Harina sin preparar
1/2 taza de azúcar
1 y 1/2 cucharadita de sal
70 grs. de levadura fresca
2 tazas de agua

PREPARACION:

En 2 tazas de agua tibia disolver la levadura con una cucharadita de azúcar. Dejar fermentar en un sitio tibio por una hora.
Agregar el resto de la harina hasta conseguir una masa que desprenda de las manos y la mesa. Dejar reposar por 1/2 hora en un lugar tibio y cubierta por un plastico.
Aceitar la mesa de trabajo y comenzar a tomar pedazos de masa. Hacer bolitas de mas o menos 50m gramos.
Sobre latas aceitadas darles la forma de 3 puntas y dejar levar por 1/2 hora mas.
LLevar al horno de panaderia por 10 minutos con calor fuerte

There is not enough water in your dough to form the hole you want (focaccia is a good point, look at focaccia hydration). You probably want at least 375 g water per 500 g flour, more is better if you can work with the dough.
Your conversion is off, your English recipe contains double the amount of sugar of the Spanish one. I would go with the smaller amount first, 25 g sugar for 500 g flour. Makes the dough easier to handle, and the taste isn't too sweet.
That's way too much yeast, both the Spanish version (21 g fresh yeast per lb flour) and the English version (a correct conversion from the Spanish would have had 7 g active dry yeast per lb, 2 packets is probably more than twice that). 21 g per 0.5 kg would be around the upper limit of yeast, used for richer breads like brioche. Use 10-12 g fresh yeast or 3-4 g active dry yeast per 0.5 kg flour. A bigger amount of yeast rises quicker, but the first cells die and start stinking of the waste products of their own fermentation (including acetic acid and ammonia). Don't rush the recipe, let it rise well in a not too warm place, you'll probably need more than 1/2 hour per rise.
Don't forget that for high hydration dough, you need bread flour, not AP. Else the dough will fall apart. Also, bread flour will make it chewy.

The procedure with a quick sponge, a rise of the kneaded dough and a rise of the formed shapes seems pretty standard (I hope this is what your Spanish text says, because I don't understand it well). As I said, rising times will be longer with less yeast, giving you better taste. The dough will be somewhat hard to handle because of the higher hydration, but it shouldn't be too problematic. Once you have mastered it with 75% hydration (375 g water per 500 g flour), you can try more water.


Separating gelatin from Jell-O powder So I've been doing a bit more cooking while confined to my home and I wanted to make a recipe that calls for gelatin. I don't have any and I don't expect to be doing another grocery run for a few weeks.

However, I have two things for sure: Jell-O powder and time. The powder, from the looks of the description, is mostly gelatin, sugar, artificial coloring, and flavoring. Let's assume for simplicity's sake that this is the only combination, and also that I don't care if some coloring makes it into my final product. I also won't care if a little sugar gets in. I mostly don't want the artificial flavoring.

I don't remember my chemistry well (and honestly I never learned too much about physical chemistry or materials chemistry), but here are some thoughts I had:

DIY centrifuge. I don't know whether this works with powders.
Dissolve in water and boil off some of the materials. I imagine this will require a higher heat than I can produce, seeing as Jell-O needs to be boiled in the first place, and I don't know what it'll do to the gelatin.
Dissolve in something in which gelatin is (or isn't) soluble, then filter. I don't know what this would be.
Dissolve in water and precipitate out undesired substances via a chemical reaction. I don't know what this would be either.

This task is probably impossible for me with my current experience and materials. Even if so, I hope it's an interesting question to ponder.

Not guaranteed:

If you don't mind just wasting the Jello, or winding up with Jello as a snack*, you can try this to kill some time:

Try to dissolve the whole thing in very cold water. Maybe even ice water. The water must stay cold for this to have a chance.

The sugar should dissolve at least some, and with stirring a little more. The sugar in the packet is superfine compared to table sugar if my memory is correct.

The gelatin will absorb water but not dissolve. so it should precipitate to the bottom.

Decant the liquid off. take care to keep everything cold.

Then maybe try it all again to further purify.

This should reduce the percentage of sugar in whatever you have.

The flavoring is probably citric acid and esters, so they are probably very water soluble.

The problems:

You will not know precisely what percentage of whatever is left is gelatin vs. other stuff.

You will not know how much "dry" gelatin is left as it will be hydrated now. So for example, will not know how much of your gelatin = 1 tsp of dry gelatin.

The chemistry
Taking advantage of relative solubility of the components in cold water. This site says gelatin will absorb but not dissolve in water under 40*C (about 104*F).

*If it fails, just heat the whole thing up in a sauce pan until all dissolved (do not boil), stir well, and then pour into bowls and chill.


Is 1 cup of rice powder equal to 1 cup of uncooked rice? Is 1 cup of rice powder equal to 1 cup of uncooked rice? The recipe I am following states, "1 cup rice." I want to use rice flour. Does the density and volume differ?

I agree with your evident suspicion that 1 cup of whole rice will not be the same amount of rice as 1 cup of rice flour. There would be quite a bit of air in the cup with the whole rice, and not in the cup of rice flour. To get an equivalent amount of "rice-matter", you really need to use weight measurements.

But aha!... Look at this handy-dandy rice unit converter
           http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/rice_amounts_converter.html

(somebody had too much time on their hands)

Anyway, I tried it out, and according to them, 1 cup(USA) of rice => 185 g => 6.5 oz.

So if you want to get an amount of ground up rice equivalent to 1 cup whole kernels, try 6 and a half oz. ... But, as Catija & GdD point out in comments, the two rice products, even if materially equivalent, aren't going to act the same at all, so be very wary, ready to adjust your amounts empirically, and don't expect your first attempt at this dish to impress critical people.


"Post-marinating"? Is it a real term or do my taste buds deceive me? Two nights ago I cooked some chicken on my George Foreman grill, just plain (a bit of non-stick spray but that's it). Then I chopped it up and put it in rice and stuck it in a tupperware for lunch today. I then rummaged my fridge for something to add flavor. Well I had some soy sauce and some teriyaki marinade, so I poured some of both in the tupperware, making sure to mainly coat the chicken with them.

That was two days ago; this morning when I got it out of the fridge before leaving for work, the sauce seemed to have soaked into the chicken, so I wondered if it's any different from marinating before cooking. And just like I thought, I just finished my delicious chicken and rice and if I didn't know better I would swear the chicken was marinated before cooking.

Is there any difference between marinating before or after cooking? I mean obviously if you cook, then marinate, then eat it right away it won't be soaked into the meat at all. But something like this where I cooked it and THEN marinated it, is there any difference? Does the meat marinate just the same, and is there any reason I shouldn't continue to do it this way rather than preparing better next time and making sure to marinate my chicken beforehand as is generally done?

Sorry if I sound completely naive, I am indeed very new to cooking (being a college student and all) and I've just never heard of post-marinating something, so I wonder if it's commonly done.

There are several reasons why you should marinate before cooking:

Many marinades contain raw ingredients that should be cooked along with the food being marinated, such as garlic or ginger.  In some cases this may actually be a health hazard (raw garlic can harbor botulism), in other cases you'll simply end up with an undesirable pungent flavour.
Many marinades also use some amount of acid, which helps to kick-start the process of breaking down the connective tissue and tenderizing the meat.  This is an especially big deal for chicken breast meat and tougher cuts of beef or pork, because most cooking methods (except for slow-cooking) don't do much of this and tend to produce a tougher, chewier end result.  Once the meat has already been cooked, using an acid-based marinade won't give you much more tenderization; you need the combination of acid and heat.
Finally, many spices release most of their flavour when heated (cooked).  Examples are cinnamon, saffron, star anise, and various types of hot pepper or chili powder.  If you marinate after cooking, you won't get much flavour from these.

Of course if you are using a very simple marinade such as soy sauce and are marinating only for flavour purposes, then it might not matter much, but that's the exception rather than the rule.  Marinating afterward can certainly improve the taste, but most of the time you'll end up with better results by marinating beforehand.


How to make muesli/granola bars crunchier? I made a simple muesli bar yesterday, and being lazy, I just left it in the dehydrator for some 3-4 good hours or so. The mix is composed of the following ingredients:

Oats mix (the ones that are already a mix)
Wheat germ
A bit of chocolate whey protein (the kind bodybuilders use)
Unsalted whole peanuts

I just mixed them with honey and milk, spread them to even thickness (around 1 inch?) on top of a baking sheet, and put them in the food dehydrator for said 3-4 hours.

The taste turned out OK (it seems to have lost some sweetness from dehydration?) but it's not crunchy enough.

Would leaving it on the dehydrator (on the highest heat) longer do the trick for making it crunchy, or would I have to use the oven no matter what?

I would use the oven. The dehydrator will obviously remove water, but it won't toast the granola like an oven would.

You could always try super-dehydrating half a batch and ovening another.


Why is my cake sinking after baking with a soggy-like line in the middle? I've lately been facing an issue with my cakes whereby they sink and have a soggy-like line near the bottom.
It's strange since I am using the same ingredients, same oven, same recipe however the cakes are turning out like this..

It's quite frustrating since these are commercial cakes and I can't sell such cakes to customers.

Those cakes are underbaked, that line at the bottom is a clear sign that the batter hadn't crystallized when it was removed from the oven, so it could not support the cake above. There's a few things that could be happening:

You changed the recipe or ingredients: if you've made a substitution or changed the recipe you should look at changing it back
You aren't baking them long enough: changes in the starting temperature of the batter can change the baking time. In the winter your kitchen may be colder so your batter may be colder, or maybe you're pulling ingredients straight from the fridge, if your batter is colder than you need to lengthen the baking time
Your oven is cooler: it's possible your oven thermostat is mis-reading and your oven is cooler, or maybe you're cramming the oven with many cakes and your oven can't keep to temperature. Also, maybe you're opening the oven door lots and losing heat. Try using an oven thermometer to check the temperature

I would suggest you start testing your cakes for doneness before taking them out, it's not uncommon for ovens to fluctuate so you can't assume that a cake is going to be done at an exact time. Use the poke test and/or an instant read thermometer to check them.


Why do bananas turn black in the refrigerator? I've noticed that a banana in the refrigerator will turn pitch black in just a few hours. Why is this?

Your fridge speeds production of polyphenols, which speeds the blackening process. Unrefrigerated bananas ripen by ethylene gas which will also eventually turn them black, but the cold short circuits that process.


Grind coffee with a blade grinder for a moka pot? I'm thinking about buying a moka pot.

I have a blade grinder.

Will a blade grinder grind coffee beans fine enough for a moka pot?

I can't really afford an expensive grinder and I don't want to use pre-ground coffee, because I heard it loses quality quickly.

Yes, you can, as long as it's a decent quality blade grinder.  It's how I fill my moka pot, which I've been using 5 days a week for the last 4 years.

You can't do actual espresso in a blade grinder (it's not possible to get the grind consistent and fine enough).  But moka pots are a lot more flexible in the grind of coffee that they will accept.  Just grind it almost as fine as you can -- this takes about 30-40 seconds of grinding in mine -- and put it in the basket.


How do you emphasize the yeast flavor in bread? How do you amplify the yeast flavor in bread?

Use lots of yeast, and short fermentation times. Prefer cake yeast over the dried types.

Fresh yeast has a specific taste and aroma, which disappears during fermentation, giving you a different, bready taste, which is not the same as yeast taste. Pro bakers are normally trying to achieve perfect fermentation, using low yeast amounts and long fermentation types. Household recipes are trying to take a more convenient route, preferring speedy fermentation (so baking times are reduced) and lots of yeast (because 1. this allows for even quicker rising, and 2. some decades ago, yeast quality was not so good, and you had a chance that the culture in a cake you purchased was barely alive, so it wouldn't rise if you used the minimal amount pro bakers with fresh daily supplies went for). This results in lots of unfermented yeast, which gives homemade breads a specific yeasty taste. While pro bakers will try to avoid it, many people associate the taste with pleasant experience of homemade bread made by a beloved family member, and like having it in their own bread.

So, use cake yeast. About the highest amount you can get away with would be 10% (50 g cake yeast per 500 g flour). But if your bread starts getting a whiff of ammonia, reduce it a bit. Ferment at warm temperatures (30°C is good, yeast starts slowing down over 35) and wait for volume doubling at each stage - should take 30-40 minutes per stage. Be careful to not overproof, because with this ammount of yeast, the dough is fickle, and may not rise if proofed for too long.


How can I check if a blind baked dough is done? Often, when I'm blind baking things, I'm always unsure whether or not the dough is finished. I always put a piece of foil between the crust and the rice.

Is there an easy way to check the middle of the crust, or do I need to rely on timing or remove the rice on top to see? Removing the rice is difficult without making a mess, so I'd very much like to hear some tips :-)

assuming you put a piece of foil between the crust and rice, just lift up an edge to check it..


How is UHT milk heated to a high temperature for only 1–2 seconds? I've read that UHT milk is pasteurized by heating the milk to a high temperature (e.g. 135 degrees Celsius / 275 °F) for an extremely short period — around 1–2 seconds.

But this glosses over the question of how quickly the milk cools down — surely the milk doesn't cool down instantly, so it must spend a bit of time at 134, then 133 (271 °F) and so on until it gets down to the temperature of the fridge.

So: how quickly is the milk cooled down, and how do they do it?

According to this product page from Machine Point:

  MachinePoint Food Technologies manufactures injection direct heating
  systems where high pressure steam is injected into pre-heated liquid
  by a steam injector leading to a rapid rise in temperature between 80
  and 145 ºC for 0,5 seconds. Following the product is flash-cooled in a
  vacuum to remove water equivalent to amount of condensed steam used,
  until we reach the 80ºC. Then temperature keep been reduced by a heat
  exchanger.

Physics is fun.

I suspect the various methods are proprietary, depending on what is being pasteurized, but for economy of scale, they are all going to involve a continuous process similar to the one described, where the product enters a heating phase, then very quickly moves into a cooling phase in the machine.

In these continuous types of processes, of course the product will move continuously through all temperatures, but it will do so very quickly.


Eggs used as Binders Eggs are commonly used as a binder in meatballs and other foods.

If separated, is one part of the egg a stronger binder:

Is the white a stronger binder than the yolk?
Is the yolk stronger than the white?
Is either separated portion a stronger binder than the whole egg?

Further research using Google has provided the information I was seeking though not in the form I had posed my question. It might be helpful if I first state what I'm ultimately trying to achieve:

I want to make chicken nuggets using only chicken thigh meat (and possibly chicken skin).

On my previous attempt, I used whole egg as a binder and achieved less than satisfactory results: over here I found a recipe mentioning that using the egg white, which has much more protein than the yolk (mostly fat), would give me the best shot at succeeding:

Lean Poultry Patties:

Unlike beef, ground turkey and chicken, either alone or in combination, benefit from the addition of egg whites when forming burger patties.
The egg whites help the lean meat to bind together, especially if you're using additional ingredients such as chopped vegetables.
To form patties made with ground poultry, use a food processor to chop vegetables such as onion, pepper or mushrooms into small pieces.
Use one egg white per 1 pound of meat.
A tablespoon of savory flavoring to the meat mixture, such as soy sauce or barbecue sauce, adds body and moisture


How long can eggs be unrefrigerated before becoming unsafe to eat? A friend of mine accidentally left a carton of eggs on her counter, unrefrigerated, for three days. The eggs had been previously refrigerated both at the store and at home. Now she's planning to do some more cooking which requires eggs, and is wondering if it's still safe to use them for baking. I believe she is planning on baking cookies with them, so they would be baked at fairly high temperatures for probably at least 10 minutes. Would this be safe, or are eggs left unrefrigerated for that long not safe for consumption?

I never refrigerate eggs. They are marked for room temperature storage in UK and perfectly safe up to (and after) the use by date. Three days should be no problem unless you live somewhere really hot.


Scratched coating in old ice-cream maker: is it safe? I got an old ice-cream maker at a thrift store (Vitantonio's Gelato Modo II). The bowl has a Teflon coating. There is a chip in the bottom about half the size of a dime, below which there appears to be plastic, not metal.

What I've looked up about Teflon safety seems to say that the major risks are high heat (fumes) and exposure to the aluminum under the surface of many coated pans if the coating is damaged. Since this is an ice-cream maker and the basin appears to be plastic, those wouldn't apply. Is this thing safe to use, or are there additional risks I haven't found?

I would not use it given the fact that you will be using it to make a mixture for ice cream, pieces might end up in the mix. You can try it out a couple of times and if no parts fall out then should be good to go. Would not recommend to use it at a business but for personal use only.


Why does yoghurt need to feed on milk products? Why not plain sugar? My understanding is that yoghurt is is the biproduct of a yoghurt culture, a bacteria, eating lactose and excreting the yoghurt.

My question is - why does it need to be lactose that the yoghurt culture is eating?

For yeast to produce alcohol, for example, the yeast can eat any sugar, and it's up to the brewer to decide whether that's sucrose, corn, barley, grapes etc to affect the taste.

Why is that that yoghurt cultures need lactose specifically?

Lactobacillus is the genus of the bacteria responsible for making yogurt.

These bacteria consume sugars and excrete lactic acid. The acid denatures the proteins in the milk, causing them to coagulate into a delicious gel.

Lactobacilli can consume sugars other than just lactose.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus

The reason they eat lactose when making yogurt is because that's what they have. There is more than enough lactose in milk to make yogurt. There's no reason to add other sugars.

Lactobacilli are also responsible for the fermentation of pickles. In that case, even though they still produce lactic acid, they are consuming the sugars available in the vegetables, not lactose.


How to write the so called wooden tomato / wooden potato in Chinese (and where to find it)? I once went to a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese friend, and there was this sort of yam which was white colored and covered with a whole bunch of red/pink dots resembling freckles and these dots would be found inside of it whenever cut. This food was then boiled in a pot of water and other stuff on the table and once soft it could be eaten just like a yam or potato and was very delicious.

My friend said in Chinese it's called wooden potato or wooden potato (something like "mu shu", perhaps 木薯). However, I wasn't able to find this anywhere on the Internet (or, at least, I was not able to find the one with all the red/pink freckles). Anyone know what this kind is properly called (in Chinese and in English), where to find more information about it, and where to buy it?

Thanks.

By your description I would say it's taro or 芋头 (yu tao) in chinese

https://www.google.ca/search?q=mu+shu&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=J862VLp1ivxSvZODoAM&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1394&bih=827#tbm=isch&q=%E8%8A%8B%E5%A4%B4&imgdii=_

It can be bought in most chinese supermarkets

For more info http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taro


Substituting glucose syrup for glucose I've noticed that many pate de fruit recipies call for a small amount of glucose in addition to sugar. My local store didn't have any glucose, but I have glucose syrup around. Can I use glucose syrup in place of glucose (I'm assuming they mean the dry kind)? If so, what ratio should I use?

As an example, this is one recipe: http://trissalicious.com/2010/02/25/family-gems/

This question isn't specific to that recipe, though. Most pate de fruit recipes seem to call for glucose.

In boiled syrup candies like this one, glucose is often used as an insurance policy to keep all the rest of the sucrose in the recipe from crystallizing. The dissimilar sugar molecules in the solution interfere with the sucrose crystallization and they instead form smaller crystals and the candy has a smoother texture.

You can easily use glucose syrup in this recipe. As it adds a little water you will have to boil the syrup a little longer to reach the desired concentration (and thus temperature.)

As far as the ratio- You can look at the label of your syrup to see the glucose content and use that as a starting point but don't worry about being too exact in your conversion. As the glucose is simply for interference small variations aren't going to make much of a difference. Often when I am making candies like this I will just eyeball a tablespoon or two depending on how much candy I am making.


What cooking techniques can be used on a barbecue? I was a vegetarian for several years and still live in a vegetarian household, thus all of my cooking experience is with vegetarian food. My partner and I have made an arrangement that I can cook meat for myself on our gas barbecue. Since I have no experience with cooking meat, I'd like to learn as many techniques as I can. Are barbecues only good for grilling or are their other techniques I can try such as pot roasts, tagines etc?

First off, you can use a gas grill as a gas burner, and cook anything you could on the stove. It won't be very efficient, and won't be as pleasant as using a stove, but it'll work. The one big inconvenience is that since the burner won't be appropriately sized to the pan, or directly beneath it, you'll need pots and pans that can handle heat all around - in particular, you can't use anything that can't take the heat on the handle. Cast iron might be your best bet. But from there you can do whatever you want - saute, sear, etc. You're not really limited to one technique.

You can also essentially use the grill as an oven if you want to. You won't have precise temperature control like you would in the oven, and the temperature will vary more from side to side and top to bottom than it would in an oven, but it can reach the same kinds of temperatures. If you get a thermometer with a probe that can be left inside the grill, then you'll be able to adjust the heat as needed and get a sufficiently precise temperature to do most things you could do in the oven.

You'll want to use indirect heat to do this, so that whatever you're cooking isn't incredibly hot on the bottom. If you have three burners, you can use the two on the sides and put the food in the middle; if you have two you'll have to use one on one side and put the food on the other, resulting in somewhat less even heating.

Here again, you're not really limited to one technique. You can do braised things inside a dutch oven (like a pot roast). You can wrap things up in foil and roast them. You'll have a bit more trouble with things that are meant to cook open and care more about even heating, so for example thinner slices of meat (or fish filets) on a baking sheet might not be a great idea, but there's still plenty you can do.

All-in-all, I wouldn't think of this as learning a list of techniques. I'd just look for recipes you're interested in trying, and see if they seem like they'll work on the grill given all that.


My sous vide chicken is tough and stringy - did I cook it too long, or too little? So far I've attempted it twice. The first time I cooked legs and thighs at 60C for an hour and a half; the second time I cooked two breasts at 60C for about 45 minutes. Both times the chicken came out really tough, and the muscle was really stringy. I assume this means I didn't cook the chicken long enough, am I correct? If so, how long should I be cooking the chicken, and at what temperature?

EDIT: I meant stringy, not sinewy as I had said previously.

You cooked it at too low a temperature.

Sous vide is intended for meat where you want the protein to remain tender. It shouldn't have any sinews. Think chicken breasts, or the long filet along the spine of a pig. This meat gets nicely cooked at 60-65°C (depends on the animal), and tough and dry above that.

Meat marbled with sinews has to be cooked at a temperature where the sinews (collagen) melt into gelatin. This happens at about 70°C at least, and takes hours. Since the muscle fibres are already toughened at that temperature, there is no reason to hold it low; you can put it at full boil in a normal pot and cook it there, you just have to wait long enough. In theory, you could do it in a sous vide bath too, but you won't get any of the benefits sous vide gives to tender meat.


Can I substitute a beef round rump roast for brisket? I am making a slow cooker recipe that calls for beef brisket. Unfortunately, my grocery store only had obnoxiously large cuts of brisket so I just grabbed a reasonably sized beef round rump roast. In the back of my head I thought I remembered that the two could be substituted for the other, but in trying to confirm that I'm coming up short.

Can I substitute a beef round rump roast for brisket? Do I need to adjust cooking time for the differing cut?

Pretty much no, they are totally non-alike. The beauty of brisket is that it is full of connective tissue and other odd stuff that translates to succulence when cooked low and slow. Round is pretty much the opposite, it has very little in the way of interest.


baking time adjustment when baking large quantity of fish Do I need to increase cooking time when baking many more fish fillets than receipe calls for.

On a Single Rack
A preheated oven will cool down depending on the amount of food put into it, but will lose more heat due to the opening of the door.  As long as they are spread out enough, the cooking time will be affected very little.
On Multiple Racks
Assuming you do not have a convection oven: when baking on separate racks of the oven, the heat radiated by the coils is now blocked by the other food.  This will increase the time necessary and will also require you to rotate the dishes.


Do fava beans need to cook longer than other kinds of beans? I typically cook my beans a total of 1:45h - 2h after soaking them overnight.  On a couple of occasions, I noticed that did not make fava beans as tender as others get after that much cooking.  Do fava beans need to cook longer than other kinds of beans to get them to be nice and tender or is there something done to them other than the length of cooking?

First, they have to be released from their shell.  Then each bean needs to be peeled.  To make this easier, blanch the  individual beans for 30 seconds.  Once peeled, they can be cooked.  You don't need anywhere near an hour. Depending on the recipe 15 minutes or less.  It sounds like, maybe, you did not peel the individual beans.  Edit:  My advice is for fresh beans.  I realize now that you may have been asking about dried, which I am personally not a huge fan of.


Substitutes for Turkish red pepper paste (biber salçası)? I'm interested in trying out a few Turkish recipes that call for red pepper paste (biber salçası). This is the only ingredient I can't seem to find at any local stores.

Are there any good substitutes for this? I would imagine gochujang is probably not a good fit (it's too sweet) and that other pepper sauces (sriracha, tabasco, etc.) probably have the wrong flavor profiles.

If you're wanting to make some different Turkish foods, I'd hazard a guess you enjoy cooking, so why not make your own? I found a recipe classed as 'Easy', taking 1 hour to prepare and 50 minutes to cook. I read it has the consistency of tomato paste (contains no tomatoes) and looks to be from the photo.

Among the list of ingredients is bullhorn peppers. Perhaps a local name but when I looked up what they were, they looked exactly like Hungarian sweet peppers. The name 'bullhorn' comes from their shape as they curve and taper to a point like horns. Here's a photo:

Give it a try! If you really enjoy the Turkish recipes you make,  you'll likely want to make them again so having some biber salçası around will come in handy.
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/pepper-paste-biber-salcasi


Pecan Sandies-Baking powder in the recipe vs. recipe without a leavening agent? When my children were young, we baked cookies every weekend. One of their favorites was 'Pecan Sandies' without the pecans. The ingredients were: 1)butter, 2)sugar, 3)flour, 4)vanilla extract, and 5)water. This recipe created a buttery cookie that was neither dry nor hard and seemed to almost dissolve in your mouth. I loved this recipe because it was so simple and contained much less sugar than most  cookies. (The kids loved them straight from the oven without any added sugar for decorating.)
Recently, I wanted to make these cookies with my granddaughters but I couldn't find my old recipe. Simple fix, I'll just look it up online! What I found were very few recipes with only the 5 basic ingredients I listed above.  A majority of the recipes contained a leavening agent such as cream of tartar or baking powder.
Now for my question: How will the cookies made with a leavening agent differ from the well loved cookies I made years ago?

If you take the pecans out of pecan sandies, what you have left I believe is basically a short bread cookie, although those are traditionally presented in wedges.

Starting by searching for shortbread cookie recipe will give you a much better starting point.

These recipes tend to have a basis as simple as you list, although some embellish by dipping in chocolate and so on.   Others substitute cornstarch for some of the flour, to help promote the frangible, delicate texture (cornstarch has no gluten precursors like flour, so it doesn't bring risk of creating a tough or rubbery cookie).

The recipes you are reading which contain baking powder probably (without reading the recipe, its difficult to say for sure) use it to... well... literally create a small amount of leavening, or airiness in the cookie. This will contribute to its crumbly texture, especially if some toughness from overworking the flour is present.  As you have noted, it is not necessary in this type of recipe.

Side note:  cream of tartar is an acid, not a leavening agent.


American recipe using 'a can of tomato sauce' I have an American recipe which lists a 'can of tomato sauce' as an ingredient.  Does anyone know if this just means chopped tomatoes or is an actual sauce maybe onion, garlic, tomato, seasoning?  Do we have an equivalent here in UK?

I pulled out some cans of tomato sauce to answer your questions. The details are listed below, but it looks like they are generally diluted tomato paste with spices. If you can get tomato paste (canned or in a tube), that should get you the consistency that you want.

The ingredients as listed on the Hunt's brand are:

  Tomato puree (water, tomato paste),
  water, less than 2% of: salt, citric
  acid, spice, tomato fiber, natural
  flavor

Shop Rite brand (a supermarket house brand) contains:

  Tomato concentrate (water, tomato
  paste), onion powder, garlic powder,
  citric acid, natural flavorings,
  dehydrated bell pepper

And a can of Rokeach brand (a kosher food processor) tomato sauce with mushrooms contains:

  Tomato puree (tomato paste & water),
  mushroom, modified potato starch,
  peppers, cottonseed oil, sugar, onion,
  apple cider viengar, garlic, celery,
  white pepper, bay leaves and citric
  acid.


How much magnesium is in Hinode Calrose rice? I was looking for foods high in magnesium and I stumbled into Calrose rice. One source said 3000% for a quarter cup which is rediculous must be mistake but there is no other source that talks about magnesium content.
So I assume it has probably never been measured. Does anybody know?

This shows that 1 cup of cooked brown rice contains 80mg of magnesium. and white rice contains 50mg.
The wikipedia for brown rice show that for 100g of raw rice it contains 143mg of magnesium, and for white rice it's about 127mg.
The wikipedia page for calrose rice does not display nutritional information.
I would imagine it is similar to regular white rice or it would be stated, especially if it was 3000% of the base value (or about 3810mg) which would be very high.


Pork loin in slow cooker What temperature should a pork loin be when cooked in a slow cooker or how long should it cook?

Loin or tenderloin is a very lean cut of meat and should not be cooked in a slow cooker.

Slow cookers are better suited to cuts of meat with high amounts of connective tissue, like pork shoulder or chuck roast, that turns into gelatin as it cooks for a long time.

IMHO, tenderloin should be grilled or broiled just until the center is 145° or so. Then rested and sliced.

Good luck!


Can i freeze dough without killing the yeast? I want to freeze unbaked dinner rolls.  Can I do it after the first rising or the shaping or the second rising or do i have to partially bake them to prevent killing the yeast?

Yeast can definitely survive in the freezer, yet timing for the final rising will be altered by unfreezing.

After several attempts, I found it best to freeze viennoiseries such as croissants, pains au chocolat (croissants leavened puff pastry), pains aux raisins (danish leavened puff pastry) and brioches suisses (small brioches filled with chocolate chips and crème pâtissière) after shaping and before the final rise and coating.

I leave them at room temperature at 10-11pm, directly from the freezer and brush them with dorure (blended eggs) in the morning (6am) while the oven is pre-heating. (I also freeze blended eggs in ice cubes and unfreeze the proper quantity for every batch). This works for a week, not that the yeast dies afterwards but it matches the family consumption rate of these viennoiseries.


Cast iron cookware restoration I recently purchased a cast iron corn stick pan that appears to have been spray varnished. How can I remove this varnish to use this cast iron pan safely?

You have 2 options to remove varnish at home:

Mechanical removal by sanding or scraping by hand or using a rotary tool. If you are too aggressive with this you could damage the pan, but if it is done right you will get a lot off. This could be tricky because of the shape of the pan, all of the curves and few flat spots, hand sanding will probably give you the best results in the curved parts
Solvents like varnish remover dissolve varnish and lacquer chemically, allowing you to wipe it off

Personally I would do both: start with my dremel and see what I can get off with a fine grinder attachment, and see how it comes off with sandpaper and a bit of elbow grease, then I'd use a varnish remover to get off the rest. Make sure you don't do this in an enclosed space and have good ventilation when you use the solvents. Eye protection is important, you don't want to get a fragment of varnish in your eye, trust me on this.

I have left out media blasting (sandblasting or glass bead blasting) as an option because it would probably cost more than buying a new pan, but if you know anyone with a machine it would make short work of it without chemicals.

Whatever method you use make sure to season it straight after, or at least heat it and run it down with oil to prevent rust.


100% Whole wheat sourdough bread method I've recently started making 100% whole wheat sourdough breads and have experienced trouble that the dough wouldn't rise much. I have discovered that this is because of the bran cutting the gluten strands whist they are developing. The solution I have found to this is to sieve the flour and soak the bran, and later incorporate it into the dough. Is there any other method of solving this issue (that doesn't include adding any extra ingredients)? Would just soaking the flour over night do the same?

The first thing I would say is to be sure this is your main problem.  Whole-wheat sourdough is tricky, and low dough volume could be caused by a number of things.  Perhaps most common is a weak starter: a weak starter will take longer to rise, and whole-wheat sourdough often requires a longer rise even than normal sourdough bread to achieve sufficient dough volume.  On the other hand, a rise that takes too long will start increasing dough acidity too much.  That not only results in a loaf that can be excessively sour but also will start breaking down some of the gluten and decrease final loaf volume.

I've frankly never had a significant issue with loaf volume with whole-wheat bread once I was sure I had a super-strong starter and started practicing better techniques (stretch and folds during bulk rise to develop more gluten, proper shaping, proper slashing, etc.).  I've heard of these issues with "bran cutting gluten," but I personally found my techniques and weak starter were much more significant barriers to loaf volume.

Anyhow, if you're sure the bran/gluten is the issue, there are several ways of solving this problem.  As John Dyer's comment notes, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book goes over many of these methods in more detail.  (I have to admit that I find his recipes to be overly complicated and fussy, though.)

But to summarize:

Do a soaker, which is generally just flour and water (no leavening).  This is most effective if done for many hours, often overnight.
Do a mash (or scald), which is like a soaker, except with hot water.  They will be more effective and will act faster (though letting stand overnight is still a reasonable practice).  Some people actually heat the grain and water directly, but I'd recommend simply pouring hot water over the grain.  Many people just use boiling water, but if you are careful not to get the grain too hot (over ~150-160F), natural enzymes will also extract more flavor and sweetness, thus providing an additional benefit.
Do a preferment, which uses part of the flour but also with leavening (in this case, your sourdough starter).  There are many different names for them (poolish, biga, etc.), with different consistencies, but they all basically do the same thing.

Any of these -- or a combination of them -- will hydrate portions of your flour (which addresses your problem), will get gluten formation going ahead of time (particularly if you use a smaller water-to-flour ratio in these), and will add significant flavor.

Personally, I've found the best results (good rise with good flavor) came from doing a multi-stage firm preferment for 100% whole wheat sourdough.  (That means: I start with a firm dough ball of starter saved from a previous batch (the chef), then gradually build it up by tripling/quadrupling in size a few times every 12 hours before using it to build the final dough.  This is close to a traditional method used by old-school French bakers in natural yeast breads in general to maximize yeast growth/gluten development while avoiding excessive sourness.  It's not as laborious as it sounds once you get used to it.)  If you wanted a sweeter, richer tasting bread, you could also do a mash with some of the other flour before mixing the final dough.  But everyone has their favorite techniques.


Pressure cooking for one? I just got myself a pressure cooker, one of those modern ones with both "sautee inside the cooker" functions.

The problem is I'll be cooking pretty much for myself, and that most recipes I saw are for 4-6 people. The pressure cooker itself looks like it's meant to be used for no less than 1 portion.

My question is, would halving/thirding/quartering the recipe still be alright with these huge pressure cookers? I imagine with less water, the meats will be less likely to be covered fully, and things like that. Would the pressure just magically take care of everything, and cook things evenly?

You should never use less liquid than is recommended by the manufacturer.

If you use less you run the risk of boiling your food dry or burning it since the level of heat to maintain the pressure may increase.

Get used to leftovers.  You can cook several portions reserve the excess for later use.  This will save you time and money.  I usually will cook a whole chicken and shred the meat and use it for several meals until it's gone.


What stops commercial ice lollies from being rockhard? In the UK you can purchase ice lollies/suckers that are pretty soft to eat.
However, if you were to make your own in an ice lolly mold they'll be rock hard like ice normally is.

What do commercial companies do to their ice Lollies to make them soft to eat.

I'm unsure if this applies to other countries such as the US, I'd assume it does.

If they are rock-hard, they need more sugar (or you're one of those people that use artificial sweeteners and they don't have the same effect that sugar does.)

About 30% sugar is a typical proportion that works - feel free to experiment. i.e. mix 300g sugar with enough water and flavoring to make 1 liter of mixed solution. If using juices, calculate how much sugar they contribute from the label information and add enough more sugar to reach 30%

Pectin can also be helpful. You need things that interfere with the size of ice crystals. Jam is one way to get it, (and some sugar - again, read the label to find out how much) or you can get the pectin made for canning your own jams.


Why punch down knead free bread? on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX_6l2bmvQI at the 1:30 mark the guy punches the dow down. And its a mere light turning. What process is started? or how will the bread differ if I don't do that? I usually don't and I can't seem to notice a difference..

If you punch down a no-knead loaf, on average, you'll get a more consistent crumb and fewer large holes in the finished loaf.


What is the real difference in lo mein, chow mein, mei fun, and chop suey? Prompted by the question  How to cook Lo Mein?  and some of the answers regarding types of noodles, I started wondering what the real differences are in the 4 named dishes.

I know what the differences are in American Chinese restaurants and I understand that there are variations. (E.g., lo mein is usually wheat noodles while mei fun is usually fine rice noodles.) So, that is not what I'm looking for.

I would like to know, if I was in China and ordered each one of those dishes, what would I expect and what would be the difference between them? I understand that there may be variations based on region but I'm just asking for the fundamentals.

Also, did chop suey really originate in China?

Edited to clarify: I'm just asking a basic question, not for ingredients, per se. For example - Dish "X" is stir-fried vegetables (with or without meat) in sauce served with soft rice noodles.

I understand that much of the difference is in the type of noodles used and how they are prepared. However, I've always heard that much of the American-Chinese cuisine was loosely adapted and not really the same thing or possibly didn't originate in China. So, I'm just trying to find out what is authentic.

The problem with your question is that you're kind of asking something akin to "what is the universally accepted traditional preparation for Spaghetti". While conventionally in much of the English speaking world, that refers to spaghetti and meat sauce. The word/dish itself refers to a specific style/type of noodle and could be topped with anything.

Lo Mein and Chow Mein refer to the method of preparation and not the contents ("Stirred Noodle" and "Fried Noodle" respectively). They are both often wheat based egg noodles. Lo Mein is typically cooked in a broth, whereas Chow mein, by definition will be cooked in oil. Sometimes it'll be cooked till crispy, sometimes not.

If you happen to be in some location that serves authentic Chinese food, you could order dozens of different preparations for each of the above; It could include various combinations of proteins, vegetables. There are also different types of specific noodles used (eg: the small flat ones usually called "chow mein" in north american restaurants, larger round noodles often referred to as Shanghai Style Chow Mein, etc...). If I walked into a chinese restaurant in Hong Kong and asked for "Chow Mein" in Chinese, I imagine the response would most likely be, "what would you like on it?" Generally speaking there would be some protein and one or more vegetables. This is highly dependent on what is available locally. This varies greatly in China. Hong Kong will have access to more ingredients having been an international westernized port for a long time. The rest of China is more subject to local farming/fishing. That said, Seafood is very common in Hong Kong Cuisine given that it's a port. My friend from the north grew up with a lot more pork. But now my answer is becoming less about the dishes themselves.

Mei Fun means "Rice Noodle". Again, there is no accepted universal rule for what goes into it. My mom who comes from Hong Hong cooks those noodles half a dozen different ways depending on her mood.

Chop Suey like @Ching Chong said, just means "miscellaneous leftovers" or "assorted pieces". The origin is heavily debated and full of myth (see the wiki page). It is most commonly found these days from my understanding in Americanized Chinese restaurants in the US. I don't remember seeing it in Canada for example. Wherever it started, what makes it difficult to answer as it depends on what the cook wants to put in it. Anecdotally, I'm Canadian Chinese and have eaten at Chinese restaurants all over the world since I was born and have never actually ordered this dish, so take my answer for what it's worth. :-)


How can I make homemade tofu more flavorful? Background: My wife (for some unknown reason) bought a huge bag of dried soy beans. In my efforts to dispose of it I have been experimenting with making soy milk and tofu.

Tofu has a bad reputation for being overly bland. It struck me how tofu making is identical to cheese making except with soy milk. As such I wondered if I could flavor tofu the same way cheese is flavored: salt, fermentation, additives, etc.

I tried adding salt after the curd was drained but before it was pressed. This helped a little but I found I had to add a lot more salt than I do for cheese to taste the difference.

I added quite a bit of smoked peppers at the same time and could only barely taste it at all.

1- Is this a valid approach and I should just add a lot more of my flavoring agents?
2- Are there other flavoring agents that will present themselves more forcefully (and pleasantly) in tofu?
3- What easily accessible bacteria would be able to ferment soy curd in a pleasant way?

** Edit to clarify per comments below **

It is true that marinating tofu is the traditional way to infuse flavor. Marinating seems to only penetrate very shallowly. I want to see if I can introduce flavors that are spread homogeneously through the curd so I can use the tofu in non-traditional applications.

1- Is this a valid approach and I should just add a lot more of my
  flavoring agents?

Yes, you can make additions to your curd prior to pressing/knitting just like with cheese.  Adding bits of dried peppers ala pepper jack cheese sounds like a great idea.  The main concern in this regard is to avoid adding so much adjuncts that the tofu curd fails to knit together during the pressing/draining phase and falls apart as you're handling it during subsequent cooking.

A secondary concern is that tofu generally weeps significantly more water than cheese curds. And since you've added your adjuncts already, part of the flavor of those adjuncts will run off as the tofu curd weeps.  The only real suggestion I have for that is to use assertively flavored adjuncts.

  2- Are there other flavoring agents that will present themselves more
  forcefully (and pleasantly) in tofu?

Soy beans have fat in them.  The fat in the beans becomes emulsified in the milk when processing the beans into soy milk.  The majority of that fat ends up in the soy curd when curdling the soy milk.  The majority of the fat in the soy curd will remain in the curd during pressing/knitting into tofu blocks.

You can use this to your advantage.  When grinding the soy beans into milk, you can fat based flavoring, some of which will end up in the soy milk, some of which will end up in the resulting curd, and thus into the tofu blocks.  If your fat based flavoring is particularly intense, then it should be noticeable in your tofu blocks.  A common type of intensely flavored (aromatic) fat based flavoring is essential oil.  You can add essential oil of lemon or orange and that flavor will certainly carry through into the final tofu blocks.

  3- What easily accessible bacteria would be able to ferment soy curd
  in a pleasant way?

Fermented tofu/bean curd has been made for centuries.  There are number of fungii strains commonly used to ferment bean curd.  There are likely many other bacteria that could be used.  Lactic acid bacteria could feasibly grow in tofu/bean curd, though I'm not sure a sour tofu is something I'd personally enjoy.

Aside from blocks of tofu/bean curd, there is also a long history of fermented products with amazing flavor that use soy beans but not in a curd/block form.  There is tempeh, soy sauce, koji, miso, etc.


Sauce with Jalapeno, garlic, cumin and lime? I created this sauce/topping with chopped jalapenos, fresno chilies,minced garlic, cumin, olive oil and lime or lemon juice. I used it as a topping for steak or fish. I'm pretty sure I've had this type of sauce or something close to it at restaurants and wondered what the name of that type of sauce would be?

This looks great, and if it was offered in a restaurant I expect it to be called a 'Fresh Jalapeño Salsa'.  That would give me all the information I would need when deciding to order or not.


How does pineapple react with water? After having bought my first pineapple, I had been instructed to be careful about washing my hands if I ever got pineapple on it (after slicing it open). Furthermore, I was told that I shouldn't wash the pineapple fruit with any water, but that I could only do it after cooking the water first. Both of these were explained as their being a sort of reaction that the pineapple has on contact with water. Reminds me of those chemical reactions with sodium and water.

The problem is, I couldn't get a satisfactory explanation of what the reaction was. The reasoning behind the reaction was not given, and when I asked what the reaction caused, the only explanation I received was "it is like that funny taste you sometimes get in your mouth when eating pineapple". I should note that I've never had a funny taste in my mouth when eating pineapple, so this explanation wasn't helpful.

What is the reaction that pineapple has when it comes into contact with water? Does it have dangerous effects, or is it mostly just affect the flavor of the fruit?

I have never heard the water-pineapple thing. It may be a confused result of the fact that fresh pineapple cannot be put in a gelatin because there is an enzyme in pineapple (and papaya) that breaks down the structure of the gelatin and it will never set. Canned pineapple is fine to put in gelatins though, the canning process breaks down the enzyme. I have definitely gotten water on pineapple (in fruit salads from other fruits) though, and I didn't explode... It might also just be that pineapple doesn't need or benefit from washing and it turned into 'NEVER GET IT WET' at some point.


How long can pie batter stay in the refrigerator? If I prepare a mixture for pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie, which has eggs in it, how long is it safe to stay refrigerated before I pour it in a pie shell and bake it?

Still Tasty gives raw eggs out of the shell 2-4 days. Since they rely on the USDA and other (conservative) sources, I'd go with 4 days for reasonable quality, perhaps a bit longer (assess your own risk) for safety. I can't really predict how it would affect quality, but you could certainly try freezing it if you wanted to try to keep it longer. As with all frozen foods that were safe when frozen, the filling would remain safe indefinitely if kept frozen at 0F or lower.

Incidentally, King Arthur Flour has a very highly rated recipe for pumpkin pie, and they specifically recommend making the filling in advance and keeping it refrigerated to give the spice flavors a chance to blend. Put plastic film directly on the surface to keep an unpleasant film from developing.


Is there any way that we can harden US store bought Cottage Cheese to make Indian Paneer? So today I got a box of Daily Chef Cottage Cheese unaware that it will have lumps of cheese flowing in gooey liquid. What I wanted to make was Indian Paneer Curry! Is there any way I can harden it by hanging or something?

Unfortunately, even if you press it, it will tend to crumble. The way the curds form in small curd cottage cheese forms a skin that makes them tend to fall apart. The same thing can happen in making Indian style paneer if you let the curds boil. (At least, I think it is why it happened!)

Probably your best bet is to drain it then make something like vada or kofte (for malai kofte) out of it, mixing in some maida or cooked potato or besan and kneading it into a dough, then forming it into balls or patties. I think it will still be tasty, even though it isn't what you planned for.


How to re-season only the "high" sides of a cast-iron pan I read most of the already existing threads about seasoning a cast-iron pan, but non quite covers my weird case. The thing is, this pan I got seems to be seasoned well enough (could probably use more) where it matters, meaning the bottom of the pan (it's a Skeppshult if that matters)...

But: The sides look really ugly and "unhealthy" (as much as you can say a pan looks healthy), some examples:

Now, the way I understand seasoning is that you need: heat and oil. But, how would that work on the sides of the pan?

Mind you, it works perfectly fine and I'm happy cooking with it and never really had problems so far. But I cannot imagine it's good for the material to be used in this state...?

Should I just leave it or go through a whole re-season process, like described here?

Quick Update

I came back to this after quite a while because, by accident, I realized that I can actually screw the handle off the pan! That means I can do a "normal" reseasoning in the oven as described. Yay! Just to let anyone stumbling to this know that the handle of this particular pan can be screwed off :-)

The first picture looks like rust. The second picture looks like the sides are oiled but never really cured properly through proper levels of heat for drying and polymerization.

For this I don't think you need to strip your pans, but you do need to create a proper finished seasoning.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Using regular dish soap, hot water and a green scrubby, scrub the pot until it's smooth. Get any rust and food deposits off, but don't worry so much about the oil, it's ok if it's left thin. Don't scrub off the good seasoning, just polish it a bit with the scotchbrite.

Place the pot in the oven until all the water has been driven off the pan. This will warm the pan up, let it expand some and if any of the metal is actually bare, will allow the oil to also warm up and fill any pores if they are exposed.

With a pot holder or folded towel take the pan out and using a strong paper towel, smear your favorite seasoning oil and wipe it around the whole pan, inside and out, and in and around the handles very thoroughly. Makes sure you get all inside the handle where the peg hole is for hanging the pan.

Once it's covered thoroughly with oil, get a fresh paper towel and remove all the oil that you can. You don't want any oil to be able to form any drips during the curing process.

Put a cookie sheet on the bottom shelf, and then place the pan upside down on the top rack. Set your timer for 1 hour.

When the timer goes off take a look at the finish of the pan, does it look dry? Does it feel dry or does it feel gummy or tacky? If it's not dried solid, put it back in the oven until it is completely dry. Your choice of oil will be the significant factor in how long it takes to dry. Oils with low smoking points will dry faster than those with high smoking points. Olive oil will smoke much cooler than peanut oil for instance, and therefore will dry faster. That's not necessarily a good thing, but choice of oil to season with is a whole different topic, and it's a complicated topic with more than one factor, so let's not worry about that here. If you want to choose a different oil, it may make sense to strip your pans to start over from bare metal, but I don't recommend that to anyone except zealous advocates who insist on it.

Once it's dry, wipe on and wipe off some more oil, and put back in the oven. This time set the timer for however long it took before for the pans to dry completely. Repeat this between 4 and 9 times. After 9 times you aren't gaining anything more and if you care for your cast iron in the proper way, your seasoning will thicken and harden naturally without needing a dedicated seasoning process. It's good for the seasoning to cycle through the cooking process getting hot and cold, wiped clean and re-oiled.

Always wipe your pan down while it's still hot so the oil left over from cooking can glue itself to the hot pan and polymerize the next time you preheat your pan.


Bread Dough Dried out in Fridge Last night, I mixed and worked some dough and put it in the fridge overnight.  I didn't account for enough rise, and it rose out of the bowl and out from under the plastic wrap covering it.  The edges of the dough which are exposed to the air are hard.  Can I just trim this part off and still have a successful bread experience, or is this dough ruined?

I think if you knead the dried out part back into your dough, and spritz in a little more water, then let it come back to room temperature, it will be rehydrate and be fine. I'm assuming it is say 5% of the dough that is dried out. If it is 25%, go ahead and cut it off.


What is the "grated yam" in okonomiyaki? Wikipedia lists "grated yam" as an ingredient of okonomiyaki. Is it a particular type of yam? Can it be purchased outside of Japan?

== More Info ==
As Mein suggested, I did some more searching on Wikipedia and the internets.

The "yam" in question is Dioscorea opposita or Japanese mountain yam. In Japanese it is known as yamaimo (kanji: 山芋; hiragana: やまいも).

Unlike other yam varieties, dioscorea opposita doesn't need to be cooked before consumption. (Most yams contain harmful substances in their raw state.) The dioscorea opposita still contains "oxalate crystals" in the skin which can irritate the skin.

Image copied from wikipedia

This video shows the yam being grated. I've seen this yam grated before and the grated result was very slimy and gooey.

The grater used for yamaimo is different to western style graters. Oroshigane graters have small spikes on the grating surface.

There may be more than one variety of Japanese mountain yam. I saw a reference (now lost) to a variety with dark skin.

It's "a slimy potato" - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_opposita.  It might be available in Asian grocery stores.

You could probably get by without it.  Okonomiyaki translates literally as "cook as you like it".  It's a savory pancake-like batter, to which is added whatever you want; often whatever you happen to have lying around the kitchen.  Much like an omelette, okonomiyaki is a pretty free form thing.