How do I convert a grilling recipe to an oven/ broiling recipe? I found a recipe in a magazine that was for grilled pork butt. I live in New York City with no access to a grill. I Googled how to convert from grilling to oven/ broiling. I wound up with a very tasty burned butt.

Since you mentioned a butt in your question, I'll start there. The way to get close to the crispy sear and smokey flavor you get from grilling is, surprisingly, to cook the butt at a very low temp (~200-225 F) until the internal temp. gets to about 135 F.

Before putting the roast in the oven, you want to massage a generous amount of olive oil all over the meat and season it to suit your tastes.

When the internal temp gets to ~135 F (count on 3-6 hours depending on the weight), remove the roast from the oven and tent foil over it. Heat your oven to its hottest temp (~500 F). When the oven is fully heated, uncover the butt and put it back in the oven until the internal temp reaches between 145 F (about medium) to 165 F (well done).

This method will give your meat a nice crunchy sear on the outside, while leaving it juicy and flavorful inside. The high temp at the end will also create some smoke and add to that grilled flavor.


Jalapeno Poppers and getting a thick crust? How can I make my batter stick to the outside of the jalapeno so it is thick?  It seems every time I try a thicker batter it wont stick as well.

I have found that the problem with thicker batters not adhering to peppers generally is to do with the outer membrane protecting the flesh of the jalapeno. Essentially, you need to try to remove or weaken its effect.

You can minimize the effect of the membrane by:

roasting the pepper, then steam in a brown paper bag and remove it
scoring the membrane with a fork

Also, the pepper may have a decent layer of wax on it; this you can try to wash off with hot water and a thorough scrubbing.


Can bad potato salad be made into something good? I was lazy the other day at the grocery store and bought potato salad from the deli instead of ingredients to make my own. That was a mistake. Now I have a big tub of bad potato salad.

It is apparent that the water used to boil the potatoes was under seasoned - severely underseasoned, perhaps not salted at all. The potatoes are slightly undercooked, and the dressing is bland.

I can't afford to be throwing away food, so I want to try to turn this potato salad into something I might actually eat. It doesn't need to continue to be potato salad; I'm open to ideas that might completely transform it into something else. Of course I would also be interested in ideas to turn bland, undercooked potato salad into good potato salad.

A quick online search brought me to a recipe that is probably pretty close to what this was supposed to be (had it been prepared correctly): http://paleoleap.com/dill-potato-salad/. I'm pretty sure that the potatoes in my salad are russet, not Yukon Gold.

Microwave it (or bake in the normal oven in a casserole dish), add salt to taste, perhaps some butter or cream, weird mashed potatoes? Will depend rather on what, exactly is in this "deli potato salad" (which varies IME from potatoes and dressing to potatoes, many crunchy veggies, sometimes eggs, etc., etc. and dressing.) I've had quite decent versions that fit the former description, and some of the latter were terrible...

If the potatoes are adequately undercooked and you want some serious self-penance for buying it, you could possibly scrape the dressing off them and reboil to finish cooking, with salt, while adjusting the dressing (or pitching it, but mustard might save it if you like mustard, and garlic is always an option at my house.)


Can I use boiled potatoes in Spanish omelette? I have some leftover microwaved potatoes. Can I use these potatoes in Spanish omelette? Also, I read that tomatoes are not part of "authentic" Spanish omelette. Is that true?

You shouldn't use boiled potatoes as you have to fry them.

This is a good recipe, and no, tomatoes are not part of "authentic" Spanish omelette. In Spain we call it "Potato omelette" an the only ingredients are eggs, potatoes, olive oil, salt and sometimes onion.


Why do different pasta shapes taste different? I've noticed that even when I buy two different pasta shapes of the same brand (and so presumably the exact same recipe), they still taste subtly different, to the point that I consistently prefer the tastes of certain shapes of pasta. Is there any basis for this, or am I experiencing some form of synesthesia?

Different forms of pasta are going to have different surface-to-mass ratios, which will affect how the pasta cooks; the cross-section may affect how much starch gets rubbed off as the pasta boils.  (I can only assume that more's going to stay in a spiral or a tube than will on something that can rub up against other pasta)

But I'm going to assume that you're not eating the pasta plain ... and the different shapes will hold sauce differently, and that can be quite significant.

The other thing that Tom Gullen mentioned is variation in cooking -- I personally avoid capellini (aka angel hair), because I've had it overcooked so many times ... overcooked pasta is disgusting, in my opinion.


Microwaving chicken before frying How long do I microwave chicken before breading it then frying it? I seen this being done on a cooking show, but missed how long the microwave part was. Thank you

Microwaving raw meats is quite tricky, as its difficult to cook evenly. A different method would be best, sous vide probably being the most reliable. The machines can be pricey, but I've had good luck with a pot of water, a candy thermometer, and some ziplock bags (especially if you're only looking to par cook). You can find some great tutorials with a quick Google search.

If you have no option but the microwave, make sure that you  cook for short periods, rotating and flipping the meat often to prevent uneven cooking. I'd also recommend cooking in a container with a small amount of water and a cover of some kind (but not sealed) to take advantage of some steam.


How do I stop my Crispie/Crispy cake from going stale? I make a Crispie type cake, but with my own homemade ingredients, Mallows,etc when I make it with shop bought Marshmallows etc it lasts for weeks, when I make it with my own ingredients it goes soft/dry, the crispies loose their crisp and the gooeyness goes. How do I solve this? Would thicker packaging work? or vacuum sealer. At the moment they are just on trial and are being ept in thin "boil in a bag" vacuum packaging for home use.
Can anyone give me any advice that might help me please.
Thank you Sarah

I usually store them in an airtight container, with wax paper underneath each layer. They keep very dry stored like this. It could be that your bag is not sealing 100%


Making homemade pasta In making homemade pasta some recipes call for semolina flour. There are two types of semolina that I know of one is the course grind and one is the fine grind which they call durum flour. Both are from semolina wheat. So the question is when they call for semolina flour which one do you use ?

There is not one correct answer to your question.  I've seen recipes with, and have used, both.  So, it depends on the type of pasta. A recipe for capunti (a hand rolled pasta from Puglia) that I enjoy, uses 1/2 semolina and 1/2 durum...  while an extruded pasta noodle might use all semolina. You might be guided by identifying the type of pasta, and its region of origin, to see what is typical. However, I would have to assume that when a recipe calls for semolina flour it generally means the course grind version.


Where can I find dried Great Northern Beans? In a recipe I am trying to make this weekend, I saw the following:

"2 cups dried Great Northern Beans, soaked,
cooked and drained"

Where can I find these?  I could not find them at my local grocery store.  Are there any substitutions that would work well?

They are a small, white, mildly flavored bean. You can use cannellini or navy beans instead.


Why do vegetables cooked with freshly ground spices taste better than those cooked with powdered spices available in the market? I used to use powdered spices (purchased from market) for all my vegetables. Lately I have started grinding the spice seeds myself to use in the vegetables.
I have noticed a remarkable "taste" difference.

I wish to know the reasons.
P.S. I am NOT referring to the smell, but to the taste.

Many of the chemicals in food responsible for how a it tastes are also the same ones which, as they escape into the air, give it it's smell.

These oils and aromatic compounds which give many spices their flavour break down or escape over time changeing the taste as they degrade.

Some spices stay fresh for a long time once ground, others are well worth (as you are finding) doing your self.

Many of these compounds react with the oxygen in air to become new ones, these would then potentialy taste stale. Other compounds may break down if light gets to them; especially natural light as ultraviolet breaks many chemicals down. Other chemicals just evaporate away.

All of these reactions depend on surface area... so the smaller the bits of spice the faster they lose the flavor/smell chemicals.

Very fresh powdered spices wouldn't have this issue. Also if you ground the spices yourself and then left them for a few week/months you would find much of the taste has gone from the powder.


Pre-preparing breakfast scramble -- potatoes I liked to cut up a bunch of onions and bellpeppers once a week so that when I make eggs in the morning I just need to put a scoop in the pan and add the eggs once they are cooked. This has been going well, but I want some more variety by adding sausage and potatoes to the mix as well. For the sausage I plan to precook it and mix it in with the veggies. However, I'm not sure what to do for the potatoes as they take longer to cook.

Should I simply chop and microwave them and add them? Or would I need to fry them a bit in the pan first so they will cook a bit in advanced?

You're right that they will need to cook a bit longer than your other ingredients and you should plan on cooking them separately for that reason.

If you just want them soft then I would dice them and cook them in the microwave until they are done. For the quantities that I prepare it is only 5-8 minutes and they are almost completely cooked.

If you want them crispy then you will need to fry them. Precooking them in the microwave will make the frying go faster and be more even.

After the potatoes are cooked feel free to mix with the other veggies. They will keep in the fridge for a while- the sausage will go off before the potatoes do. If your potatoes were fried you will lose some of the crispiness in storage.

If you need to keep them for more than a week then I would freeze them in individual portions.


Metalic Foil on Indian Sweets I want to make some authentic Indian sweets, but I have questions about the silver foil that is found on some of them.  First of all, I can't seem to find it (in the United States); the closest I get is edible gold leaf.  I suppose I could leave it off, but I was wondering if there was an "authentic" substitute.

Cake decorating stores should have food grade edible foils, both silver and gold.   These are specialty items that you are unlikely to find locally, and may have to order from online distributors.

Surprisingly, even Amazon has a listing for silver leaf.  You will find other sources if you google.


3 types of fish, 3 temperature/time per package I have to have 3 fish items ready at 6:00 PM but they each require different temperature and time and are of different weight.

Can someone please help me ... what I need is the oven temperature and at what times (prior to 5pm when we leave for church) I need to put each item in the oven so they are ready, but not dried out, when we get home at 6:10 pm tonight.

My thought is to pre-heat the oven (ex: to 375 F), put items in when YOU suggest, and set the oven to turn off at 5:00 (so it will gradually cool down ... and the fish will be warm when we get home at 6:10 pm - but not burnt from being in the oven too long)

Here is the list:

Qty Fish Type       Status CookTemp  CookTime TotalWeight
2   Salmon&Sauce    Thawed    375     16 min    0.9 lb
2   Stuffed Salmon  Frozen    350     20 min    1.2 lb
4   Crusted Talapia Frozen    425    16-20 min  1.1 lb

The cook time above is from the package(s) based on if frozen or thawed.

I need one temperature and then at what time to put in each item or tell me what the cooking time should be for each item at your suggested temperature and I'll subtract from 5:30 tonight.

Thanks so much in advance for your help because I'm totally stumped about this and trying to help out my wife.

I would recommend doing what Stephie says in the comments - start the food right when you come in. With 5 minutes to preheat and ~20 minutes of cook time, your fish will be ready around 6:35-40. It won't be ready right when you walk in the door, but that's okay.

To answer your original question of how to cook these three fish in the same oven, here's how I would handle it:

The frozen tilapia can probably handle temperature variation more easily, so let's drop the 425 temperature. Heat your oven to 375. Since we're lower than the 425 the tilapia calls for, you will want to give it a little extra time. Put the tilapia and stuffed salmon in at the same time. Put the tilapia on the bottom rack (it will be a little warmer) and the stuffed salmon in the middle of the oven.

After about 4 minutes, put in the salmon & sauce, also on the middle rack (if there's space). Leave them all in for another 16 minutes. (You may want to check after about 10 minutes to make sure the tilapia isn't overheating on the bottom. It should be pretty warm at this point, but not steaming hot.)

After 16 minutes, pull them out and check them for doneness (or appropriate heat level if they're already cooked, as I'm guessing at least the two frozen ones are). If they're not quite cooked yet, then put them back in the oven, and you can bump the temperature up to 400 for a couple minutes to give them a last boost.

You said you needed this by 5:30 tonight, so I'm guessing it's a bit late for this, but hopefully it will be useful for future questioners.


Lacto Fermented Vegetables - Off Flavors Is anyone aware of some solid reference information on lacto-fermented vegetables? I am especially interested technical information, such as what off flavors may occur due to which circumstances.

The internet seems to be flooded with misinformation on the subject because of the probiotic fad and the air-lock vs open fermentation argument. These articles seem to gloss over the fact that spontaneous fermentation is unpredictable and that this has been done for ages in every fashion imaginable. I am trying to find some good information on how lacto fermentation can go wrong (or right) and why.

In the beer community, it is well accepted that fermentation temp and microbial strain affect the flavors in the final product. Home brewing documentation offers advice such as (this is very approximate):

Bubble gum flavors

Belgian yeast fermented in excess of X degrees Fahrenheit will exhibit such flavors.

Buttery flavors

Attributed to diacetyl, a compound produced by poor temperature control or a pediococcus infection.

In my specific case, I have a batch of fermented cucumbers that have a bit of a band-aid flavor to them (an off flavor also found in beer). I know now that they were fermented at entirely too high a temperature. I have also been consuming them safely for over a week now, so it's more a matter a taste than safely.

You need the bible of lacto-fermentation 'the Art of Fermentation' by Sandor Katz.

That aside, the general rule is: if it smells and tastes appetizing then it's fine. If it has green, blue or black 'mold' on it, chuck it out. White is alright. Botulism is actually very rare with fermented vegetables. Fermenting is very safe compared to other preservation methods.

Sometimes I get a yukky whiff at the moment I open a fermenting crock, but then once I put a forkful on a plate for a minute it is fine and yummy. So don't decide in the first few seconds.

The best advice I can give on what are the prime factors for lacto going right (tasty healthy) rather than wrong (slimy inedible waste of food) is: use organic veg so you know the right bacteria is present from the start (or add a coupla organic cabbage leaves, they are foolproof). Also get your salt ratio right in the brine, it kills off the baddies. Consider the texture of your veg. If you are cutting/grating it finely, it will likely ferment hard and fast (the bacteria finds lots of surface area). Ferment theses for a shorter time than chunky or fibrous veg to get good complex flavours. Last tip- invest in a good crock with an airlock 'moat' on it and weights in it. they are pricey but really improve your strike rate a lot.

On flavour: veg that has been fermented 'right' has an unmistakable pickles tang at the start, then a lingering complex savoury musty ending. No matter what veg you use.

Oh, and cucumbers (gherkins) are widely held to be tricky to perfect, especially hard to keep crunchy. Beginners usually steer clear. Good first experiments are carrots, cabbages and cauliflower.


Why is my fresh pasta tough? I picked up a Marcato Pasta Maker and followed the recipe included to make both fettuccine and ravioli. The instructions that came with the machine offer two basic recipes:

500g soft wheat flour
5 eggs

or

250g soft wheat flour
250g durum wheat (semolina flour)
5 eggs

I've tried both methods, using King Arthur All Purpose flour for the soft wheat flour, and Caputo Semola for the semolina. In both cases, I found the resulting pasta to be tough and have a considerable bite.  I tried cooking both pastas for a bit longer than recommended with the same results.  I am using the recommended thinness that the machine produces as well. The recipe notes to knead for 10mins or until the dough is smooth. I have been kneading it for 10-12 mins and still find that it isn't quite "smooth"; but I'm no expert on what that is.

I would prefer a more delicate, soft, and melt in your mouth type of pasta. Instead I am getting something with quite a bit of bite and that is quite tough. What can I do to improve the result to my liking?

Try using double-zero (00) flour, available from Italian specialty stores. You might also prefer a recipe that uses more egg yolks, or only yolks and not whole eggs. For example: https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/fresh-pasta.


Does Freezing Broccoli Dry it Out? When I used to work for a grocer a senior employee told me that the broccoli suppliers tried not to freeze or pack the broccoli in too much ice to prevent it from freezing. He said that this was because freezing broccoli leads to it drying out after the ice melts away.

Is this an urban myth? Is there anything to this statement?

According to Cargo Handbook (emphasis added):

  Broccoli is not sensitive to chilling temperatures and should be stored as cold as possible without freezing. When freezing injured, thawed buds will be very dark and translucent, and can later turn brown or may serve as sites for development of bacterial decay.

Note that they are describing how to store and ship broccoli which is intended to be consumed fresh.

To freeze broccoli for preservation, it is blanched first.


Preparing a fresh bag of spinach: To Stem or Not To Stem In the past I have always de-stemmed my fresh spinach leaves.  But I am wondering, is that necessary?  I'd like to prepare as-is.

In my experience, stems can be rather stringy even after cooking. Likely varies by time of year, age/size of leaves, soil type, cultivar etc.
Best adivice is probably to check a few stems (raw, steamed, whatever) and see.
I always cut stems off at the base of the leaf, and have yet to have a complaint about the stem bits within the leaves.


Keeping noodles from absorbing all the soup I cook in the summer for a week for about 30 people,and we serve buffet-style over the course of about an hour. This summer, my plan is to make lemon chicken orzo soup for one of the meals. However, I've found that if you put the noodles in the soup, they do what noodles do and absorb all the moisture. Because it's buffet-style, though, I'm having difficulty imagining putting the noodles in a separate bowl (which is what I'd normally do) for people to serve themselves, because I suspect they would turn into a starchy, uniform Borg of noodle. Any solutions?

If it were me, I'd cook the pasta seperately (possibly in some of the broth), and only combine them just before it was to go out in the buffet.

You might also want to take a look at How do canned soup companies keep their noodles from absorbing all the liquid in the can?


Different sourdough starter behavior based on starter composition? In general, what are the different "behaviours" of sourdough starter, based on their composition, all other things being equal?For instance a 100% white flour starter vs. 100% wholewheat flour starter vs. a white/wholewheat combination starter, all at 100% hydration. How would they each differently affect the final dough if incorporated in the same bread recipe?
Also is it recommended to use the same (or closest to same)starter composition as the bread recipe flour composition?
Thank you in advance!

Generally speaking, it doesn't matter that much.  The final recipe, technique, and dough composition are all likely have a lot more influence on the final bread result than the composition of your starter (as long as your starter is healthy).

Some people have suggested maintaining different composition starters for different tasks (or to match final dough flour type), but I've never seen any evidence that this produces a significant effect.

I tend to retain whole-grain starters when I am refrigerating them between uses, as whole-grain flour seems to be a slightly more resilient food.  (I've had a couple all-white flours go bad in the fridge, but I've never had a whole-grain starter go bad, even after not being used for a couple months.  That's just my own anecdotal experience, though.)

If you really want to make sure your starter is ready for a different food in a recipe than it usually has, you can always start feeding it the kind of flour you'll use in the final dough for a few days prior to mixing the final dough.  Again, as long as your starter is healthy, it should work fine.  Some people claim this has a minor benefit; others say they've never seen a significant difference.


How do you prevent veggies from burning in dishes that take longer to cook? I can handle mirepoix like flavor bases well when I make pasta sauces. But if I try something like making a flavor base for chicken pot roast the onions (which were sweated before adding the other ingridients) will burn while I reduce the liquids or when I simmer the chicken. Why?

In a simmered dish, there should be little risk of burning.  Brown your chicken first, then remove from pan.  Add veg. and use it to help release the fond.  When the veg. begins to color, add liquid. Stir and scrape. Use more liquid in your simmer; that is, as it reduces, add more so that the veg does not burn. Return the chicken to pan, and be sure enough liquid remains to avoid burning.


Rendering fat by sous vide I've seen that fat will render at 55-60 degrees centigrade using sous vide - but my question is how long that would be expected to take?

Thomas Keller's cookbook "Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide" recommends 1:30 @ 85C for beef or duck fat, 1:00 @ 85C for marrow fat, and 0:45 @ 85C for foie gras fat.


Does beef/pork stew require a dutch oven? I am learning how to make beef/pork stew.  Every recipe I see says to use a Dutch oven, that will be placed inside the oven.  Couldnt stew be made just as well with a regular stainless steel pot that I simmer on top of the oven range?

It can. There's nothing wrong with braising or stewing with a stainless steel pot. Just know that if you brown your meat before stewing it, it will cook faster in a stainless steel pot than in a cast iron or enameled cast iron pot, because cast iron retains heat well and conducts it evenly. So be careful not to over-brown your meaty bits.

Sometimes, braising on the stovetop is desirable, especially if you want to further reduce your liquid. When we cook in our commercial kitchen, half the time we braise in the oven with our enamel-ware, the other half we do in a stainless steel stockpot on the stove.


Will storing a mix of vermouths alter their taste? The recipe I have for a manhattan cocktail calls for 2.5:.5:.5 Bourbon:dry vermouth:red vermouth.

Will mixing the dry and red vermouth together and storing before making the cocktails adversely affect the taste of the cocktail? Is it safe to pre-mix and store constituent alcohols? If so, for how long?

It would certainly be safe. Vermouth is a fortified wine, meaning that it is wine with added alcohol. The added alcohol gives the vermouth a much longer shelf life, even at room temperature after the bottle is opened. You can store open vermouth for at least several months without any discernible loss of quality. It will continue to be safe indefinitely as long as the bottle is kept closed, keeping the alcohol from evaporating.

That said, I can see no reason why two vermouths couldn't be mixed in advance. As a matter of fact, you could add the bourbon too. Perhaps some kind of alcohol super-taster could tell the difference, but I sincerely doubt that any mere mortal would be able to tell the difference between a just-mixed Manhattan and one that was mixed 3 months ago (assuming, of course, an airtight container).


Using a bundt pan in place of loaf pans If a recipe calls for the use of two loaf pans, would it be ok to use a bundt pan instead?

For almost all baking applications, you can freely substitute a bundt pan for a loaf pan, especially for quick breads like banana bread or pumpkin bread.  I have often made my Thanksgiving cornbread in a bundt to get a more attractive presentation.

You may wish to measure the capacity of your bundt, which is easiest to do by filling it with water to the same level you would batter, and then measuring that.  This will let you compare the volume to your loaf pans.

If you have extra batter after the bundt is filled, you can always make a few muffins to use up any excess.  (Just leave the unused muffin cups empty; it is fine, despite the advise some five to fill them with water.)

Depending on your particular bundt, it may take a little while longer (usually) to bake through than loaf pans will, so make sure you test for doneness instead of relying on timing.

For quick breads, the toothpick test is usually a good one (does a toothpick stuck into the thickest part come out with only a very few slightly moist crumbs on it).

For yeast raised breads, it should also work, although you will definitely want to do your final proofing in the bundt so that the dough can expand into the mold.  You should also use a fairly traditional bundt, not one of the modern ones with many small cavities that the dough might not work its way into.

Again, make sure you are testing for doneness (most yeast raised bread is done around 198 F to 202 F), rather than relying on time.


Can infrared light in electric / induction cooktop hurt eye? Can infrared light in electric / induction cooktop hurt eye? I use them a lot and was wondering if it could end up hurting my eyes somehow. I read around that infrared light can end up hurting your eyes easily and was wondering / worrying about it.

Induction cooktops do not use lights to cook/heat. They use magnetic induction, which means there's a coil with electricity passing through it in the stove, which causes (induces) eddy currents to flow in the pan sitting on it, and as those dissipate the energy is turned into heat.

All of this is completely safe, and in fact safer than other types of cooktops because there's no open flame like gas, and because the stove itself doesn't heat up as part of all this. It'll still be somewhat hot, because it has a hot pan sitting right on it, but not like a regular electric cooktop where the element is hotter than the pan. This also means an induction element won't heat up at all if there's nothing on top of it.

If there are any lights on an induction cooktop, they're visible light only, because the entire point of them is to let you know when the cooktop is on.

All hot things do emit some amount of infrared light, simply because they're hot, but it's completely safe to look at. This is what happens with non-induction electric cooktops: the element heats up so much it glows visibly red, and it's also emitting some infrared that you can't see. All completely safe, just what hot things do, not really different from looking at some glowing coals in a fireplace.


How do you make paneer? I've seen the ingredient list of a brand of paneer with an ingredient list of: Milk, Citric Acid. Ok, so what is the process from there? I have a few specific questions:

What kind of milk do you need?
Can you use pasteurized & homogenized vitamin D milk (whole milk)?
Where do you get citric acid? I've seen some suggestions to use crushed children's aspirin. Is there a better, easily accessible source?
Are there regional variances in paneer? The paneer I am used to, and love, states that it's from the Rajasthan region of India.
How do you actually make it?

This is a recipe that we used for the concierge lounge when I was a chef in the main kitchen of the Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa:

Paneer

5 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Bring the milk to a boil, add the lemon juice so that the milk separates    into the curds and whey.
Add a bit more lemon juice if necessary.  Let set for approx. 5 mins.
Line a strainer with a cheesecloth and strain the milk.
Reserve the whey to use in curries instead of water.
Squeeze the excess whey out of the curd and fold the cloth around
 the paneer to form a 4-inch square.  Place the paneer on a
plate and place a heavy weight on top to squeeze out excess whey.
Leave for about 4 hours to set.


how to dry out flavored sugar Hi I just wanted to know how to dry out flavored sugar, I flavored some regular white sugar with flavoring essence but it got damp, since where I'm from its hard to get these types of sugar so I was thinking of selling some. But when I put it in a bag after air drying its still damp and it gets clumpy and has hard patches. How can I dry it out completely without ruining the flavor?

Place sugar on baking sheet spread out
Place into oven on the lowest temperature for 30 minutes or until no longer damp*
Remove from oven and let cool
Place into bags the amount you plan to sell
Break up any clumps by pinching the clumps in the sealed bag

*if you used an excessive amount of flavoring, you may need to add more plain sugar to the mix.


Can I substitute marmalade for peach preserves? I've got a recipe here for fish done with a glaze made of peach preserves that looks pretty tasty. However, some members of my household dislike peach. Citrus is a classic pairing for fish; can I swap out the preserves for a marmalade? I'm not 100% sure on the differences between the two. Or is there another substitution that would work better?

Recipe: Ginger-peach glazed tilapia

In addition to the sweetness, marmalade has a pronounced bitter flavor that could overpower the fish. It seems that others feel the same way — there are few online recipes for fish with marmalade, and of those few, most are for salmon which has a more robust taste of its own to balance out the marmalade. Perhaps something like an apricot preserve would be more in the spirit of the original recipe?


How to prevent light-colored macarons from browning? I have a problem with baking yellow macarons, or any light coloured macarons.

The yellow (or any light colour) ones always brown, always!

I tried lowering the temperature, I bought the best colours I can get in the UK. The colours are powdered, to reduce the liquid content.

Does anyone have a method they could suggest that is fool proof.

As well as the previous answers and if not already doing so, try using beet sugar (e.g. Silver Spoon in UK) rather than cane (e.g. Tate Lyle in UK)
as beet sugar takes a little longer to Brown.


electric smoking 2 pork loins, increase time and or temp? We're using our electric smoker to do 2 pork loins close to equal size.  We did only one loin before and it was great!

Do we need to adjust the time and or temp to do it right again? We want to do them together.

We are using the "Masterbuilt" brand smoker.

When smoking pork loins (or anything else) it is best to focus on the internal temperature of the meat as the measure of 'doneness' with time and temp as a loose guideline.

Another good point to remember is that if you are smoking at more than 250F your meat will 'coast' (continue to cook after being removed from the heat) for a good deal longer than if you cook it at less than 250°F (120°C). At greater than 250°F you will see an increase in internal temp of 12-18°F (~10°C) after the meat is removed, at under 250°F it is only likely rise 2-4°F (~2°C).


When to add diced vegetables when cooking rice I like to add diced vegetables (or peas) when I make rice in my rice cooker, but I'm not sure when is the best time to add them. I find if I add them too early they get mushy and flavorless, but if I wait until too late they don’t cook at all.

When is the best time to add vegetables to a pot of rice or the rice cooker?

It depends a lot on the vegetable. For frozen peas, I add them just when the cycle finishes; fold them in and close the pot, and 3 minutes later they are steamed to perfection. For a harder vegetable, like a raw carrot, or one where you want more breakdown, like onion, add it at the beginning.

You don't really want to open the rice cooker a bunch of times during the cycle as it loses steam and may affect your results, but if you have vegetables that you feel need something in between, I wouldn't hesitate to open it once, midway through.


What's the best way to store lots of kale to use for smoothies? I am going to start making kale smoothies and wish to buy a couple bunches of kale at a time.  Here's my thought - I was thinking of taking the kale, perhaps blending it with some roots/veggies at a high concentration (maybe adding some green tea or some water to the blender), then pouring this concentrated kale solution into ice cube trays.  When it's time to make the smoothie, I would take a few of the "kale cubes" and blend it with, maybe orange juice or some other liquid.  Does anyone have any better ideas for keeping kale fresh for a long time - and by long time, I mean around 2 weeks.  Ideally, I would want a solution like the one I describe above - it's efficient and quick to make a smoothie doing it this way.

And one other question - does kale (or any veggies for that matter) lose nutrients when blended and frozen?

The party line from Still Tasty is to:

Cut out the stems, wash, and blanche for about 2 minutes
Dry
Store in freezer bags with as little air as possible

They indicate you will get about a year of storage from this method.

That being said, the method you propose is well known for herbs, and kale is certainly much heartier than an herb.  It should work very well, given that the application is a smoothie and you don't mind having the kale pureed already.  It should keep the kale usable for a year or so as well.

So the main issue with the traditional method is, are you willing to blanche your kale?  I know not everyone is.

If you use kale for other dishes and have to blend your daily smoothie anyway, you might use the standard method, and store it in daily sized batches, thus giving you the ability to use it for either a smoothie or some other dish.


Do I need to freeze this puree and syrup? Related questions: What causes a cake to sink in the center? and How can I get the maximum flavor from orange peels?

I ended up simmering the zest of 6 oranges (peeled with a vegetable peeler, so there was still a small amount of pith) without rinsing at all. When they were tender, I added the supremed segments of those oranges and simmered the everything for another half hour. I strained the syrup and gave the solids a bit of a whir in the food processor.

I have just enough puree for one more cake, and this lovely orange syrup. I used a lot of sugar. I can't guesstimate how much sugar because I just kept adding it until I got the level of sweetness I want, but the viscosity of the strained syrup is like Aunt Jemima pancake syrup.

I'll bake the cake again in 3 or 4 weeks. Will the puree and syrup last that long in the fridge? Or should I freeze it?

It has been said:

  Better safe than sorry. You haven't measured the absolute sugar or acidity levels. Freezing it will do no harm. –  SAJ14SAJ Jan 29 at 1:47

I'm definitely not an expert with baking, but I've worked with fruits in other contexts. The only time I would be worried about freezing would be if I added oil, like for a marinade or such. In your context I think freezing is fine, and sounds like it would be a convenient way to make larger batches to reuse throughout the year.

PS: That puree sounds awesome, I might have to try that to marinate some chicken or pork chops!


Chili with bitter aftertaste and not enough kick I cooked chili using the following ingedients:

Oil for sauteing
1.5 pounds beef, minced
1 large white onion, finely chopped
1 red bell peper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 12 oz bottle of beer
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp cayenne peper
1 tsp red peper flakes
2 tsp Tabasco
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 can of cooked red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

The method was, basically:

Saute onions and pepers for approx 5 minutes
Brown beef
Add tomato paste, and mix
Add can of tomatoes and mix
Add beer
Add sugar, salt and pepper
Boil for approx 20 min
Add remaining spices
Cover and simmer for 2.5 hours
20 minutes before it's done, add the beens

Two problems:

A slight bitter aftertaste
Not enough kick

I think that the bitter aftertaste is from the cayenne pepper. I have read that cayenne pepper is quite neutral in taste (not bitter) and carries a lot of heat. Is this correct?

Then I tried this: Put a couple of spoonfuls of chili on a plate. Add 1/4 tsp (approx) of cayenne pepper and mix. Taste. Well, the heat increased, but not TERIBLY so (it was perfectly eatable). Also the bitter aftertaste became worse.

I also tried tasting a tip of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, directly. Ok it was hot, but not unbearably so. Most of the heat was in my throat, not in my mouth (mostly as an aftertaste), and I did have that bitter aftertaste

Can something be wrong with my batch of cayenne peper? Or is this how cayenne peper realy tastes?

I could reduce the amount of cayenne in my recipe, but then I would need something to increase the heat.I could go with more tabasco (I tried this on a spoonful of chili) but this would, also, increase the acidity (tastes a bit sour) which is not terible, but not ideal either

Any sugestions?

I've never known cayenne pepper to have any flavor, so if it is bitter you may have a bad batch, or the brand you are using may have put in additives that give it a bitter flavor. You may have other sources of bitterness:

beer: brewers add hops to beer to give it bitterness, and some beer is more bitter than others, it depends on which type you chose
Tomato paste: this can have a bitter taste if it is not fried off. If you add it directly to liquid it often adds bitterness to a dish
Kidney beans: I've always found that canned kidney beans have a bitter taste, even if rinsed

So there's other ways you could get bitter chili. I'd balance it out by adding some sugar or honey plus maybe a bit of lemon juice or tamarind paste.


How can I remove the little white insects from semolina and flour? Sometimes I feel that little white insects seem in flour and semolina , specially in rainy season. The flour and semolina attacked  these insects can be used ? If yes then how can I remove these insects from flour and semolina ?

One I've never tried - nor needed to, I live in a temperate zone...

My aunt lived in Singapore for many years - she would put anything like that, flour or even sugar, into a tin then put the tin on a low heat on the gas & the insects would climb out & fall into the flame.

Flour can of course be sieved too, semolina may depend on how fine it is.


Failing at making "Fast Mozzarella" First time poster here.
So, I have always been a fan of homemade food and I wanted to try my hand with cheeses.
I live very near a milk farm and I could get some raw milk.
I am posting after 2 failed attempts at getting curdles to form to make quick mozzarella (and even ricotta). I tried making ricotta and paneer in the past and it worked flawlessly.
I have another 1.5L of milk available and I would like to succeed with that at least.
Here is my recipe, I'd love to understand what's wrong...

1L Raw Milk
2-3 Tbps Lemon Juice

Instructions:
Heat Milk to 44-46C and add slowly the lemon juice while stirring. Keep stirring until curdles are formed, keep the temperature constant.
That's it! I don't see absolutely nothing happening even after 30min of stirring gently.
I tried adding more acid (like a lot more) and even getting near to boil. I tried adding rice vinegar and red wine vinegar (at that point I didn't care about the taste anymore).
Can someone teach me?

Looks like the rennet is missing in your recipe.
You also might want to consider to skip the shortcuts and the vinegar and to start off with a more authentic/original formula as you usually can assume that each step and ingredient in them is there for a reason.


What is the texture/taste difference between cured and uncured bacon? I understand that the main difference between cured and uncured bacon is that one is cured and one isn't.

But, is the curing process the same for all slab bacon? And does it make a difference, taste and texture wise, to substitute one for the other in a recipe that calls for uncured specifically?

Unfortunately, some of the answer depends on how you define "bacon", and what you mean by "cured", and "uncured".  The answer could be different depending on where you live.  Are you in the UK?  The USA?  Another country?  I know that what we call bacon can be from different cuts of pork in different regions.

Curing can be different depending on where you live, or what flavors the person doing the curing likes to use.  There will be salt involved in the curing, and again, depending on where you live and the customs/regulations involved, and often some source of nitrate or nitrite, to prevent some nasty bacteria.  A pleasant side effect of these additions is the deepening of the red/pink color many of us associate with bacon, though some of the redness of the meat is based on the diet of the animal, too.

(Whether from saltpeter, or curing salt (a purposely colored curing salt, to distinguish it from white sodium chloride), or celery juice, which contains a high quantity of the same chemicals, the nitrates and nitrites are added in very tiny quantities.  They don't need much, and are usually in smaller concentrations than are found naturally in water and in leafy green vegetables)

What makes the cures taste different (besides the saltiness) is the other kinds of herbs, spices, and sweeteners used in the cure mixture, and whether or not the bacon is smoked, to add additional flavors.

Texture wise, the main difference between cured and uncured bacon is that the uncured bacon will have a much higher water content than the cured bacon, so the fat will not be as dense.


Is leaving eggs out of the fridge, prior to cooking them a direct cause as to how shell break? I have friend who went to culinary school who claims that cold eggs crack cleaner than eggs at room temperature.  Do egg shells crack cleaner coming cold out of the fridge?

Does warming up to room temperature for a few minutes cause the eggs to crack less clean?

Assuming your fridge temperature is around 4 C (39 F) and your room temperature is 22 C (72 F) then that's a difference of 18 C or 33 F. The two temperatures are not particularly polar so why should it crack differently to when it comes straight from the fridge? It won't be like if you threw hot water onto a frozen window where it would crack, the 2 temperatures here are a lot more polar, 1 below freezing point and 1 near boiling point.

The change in temperature would be fairly gradually (I don't have any Scientific evidence for this but I know from experience as when I take an egg out of the freezer and wait for it to reach room temperature -for culinary purposes- it takes around 45 minutes).

Also on a chemical level, an egg shell being mainly calcium carbonate there is no reason for such a gradual change in temperature to weaken its structure especially as it is in the form of a very stable and strong shape. So no is the answer, I don't think it makes any difference in the weakness of an egg or how it cracks!

Hope this helps!


What is the difference between apple juice and cider? I was at the grocery store and saw glass containers of these.

What would be the differences?

Apple cider has two meanings, but they both start with raw, pressed juice from crushed apples.

Soft apple cider (normally just called cider) is simply the pressed juice, bottled.  It is cloudy from suspended apple particles, and turns brown from the oxidation, much as apples themselves do when cut and exposed to air. Hard apple cider is an alcoholic beverage made by allowing soft apple cider to ferment.

Apple juice is essentially the squeezed juice from the apples that has been highly filtered to remove the suspended particulates.  It is usually pasteurized to have a longer shelf life.

UK Usage:  Per ElendilTheTall, in the UK, the alcoholic beverage is called cider, and the other products are called simple apple juice.

See also:  MA government article


Why does food taste bland when we are sick? Once, I had a high fever and everything I ate seemed to taste bland. Why is this so?

Smell.  Smell is a big portion of taste, and you likely had an upper-respiratory infection that blunted your sense of smell.


Binding properties of turmeric Is turmeric known to have any binding properties?

Wikipedia doesn't mention anything, and a google search only relates to iron binding properties of turmeric or similar health benefits.

A few days ago I made a curry (a Madras variant), and put the turmeric, as recommended by an Indian friend (I normally put it when creating the curry paste itself), in the latter stages of the cooking process. The curry was at that point not boiled down enough, but with the addition of the turmeric, the curry bound (binded?) in a similar way to adding flour.

(Sneak side question if the answer is "No, it doesn't": Should You / Why Should You add the turmeric only in the latter stages?)

Turmeric is a rhizome that contains some starches. Those starches will hydrate and gelatinize like any other starch and thicken liquid.

I don't know how its thickening power compares to other starches like flour or corn starch. This paper has a chart of vegetable starch sources that would imply that turmeric's starch content is fairly high at 76%

In many cuisines turmeric is used for color and flavor and isn't present in enough quantity to have this effect. As you have observed in Indian curries enough is used to thicken a sauce.

I add turmeric early when frying all the other spices to toast them. As with other fine powders, frying it early also makes it a bit easier to incorporate without clumps.

The only reason I can think of to add it later is if you are adjusting the flavor/thickness of the curry.


Why do organic eggs seem to be spoiled right after purchasing? I find that the organic eggs are on the verge of inedible/B-grade. They are too runny the very day I purchase them often, let alone after a few days in my fridge. I buy organic whenever I can but I find that my experience here with the ones from Whole Foods/other grocery stores is always poor. I always buy the Grade-A eggs (I can never find AA organic). Can anyone else suggest good brands?

I suggest you find a local farm or a CSA. Occasionally, my farmer will say, "These eggs are warm because we gathered them this morning." It doesn't get fresher than that.


Egg temperature for meringue All the experts insist that a meringue must be made with room-temperature eggs. Why?

I ask because my experience runs completely opposite, at least when it comes to flourless/nut-based desserts where the principal (possibly only) ingredients are egg whites, sugar, and nut meal. If I fold the nuts into a meringue that started with room-temperature eggs, it collapses dramatically. If the meringue started with cold eggs, it still loses some volume when the nuts are added, but not nearly as much. Also, baking the cold meringue is much less likely to result in a runny mess.

Am I doing something wrong, or is there a secret exception to the room-temperature rule that people neglect to mention?

The reason they're supposed to be warm is that cold eggs tend to curdle, and de-emulsify. This is only really an issue if you're adding a bunch of fat (because otherwise you don't get an emulsion). They should also get a bit bigger, which may explain why they seem to shrink more when you fold things into them.

You can always try adding a little cream of tartar in order to stabilize them, which might help.


Can I thaw salmon directly in water? Some online advice says to put salmon in a bag before thawing it in cold water.
My question is:
Is it safe to omit the bagging, and instead thaw salmon directly in water, with no bag? If not, why?

The salmon will get water logged and mushy (and consequently release a lot of water during the cooking process) if you omit the bag. It's not unsafe, but it will decrease the quality of the salmon.


Why fold in ingredients, why not just whisk? Many recipes such as those for soufflé, call for folding in ingredients into whipped egg whites, so that you don't knock the air out.

But why not just whisk the ingredients in? That way there's no chance of you knocking the air out.

Folding is almost always done when you have one ingredient like whipped cream, egg whites, meringue, or similar which has had a lot of air whipped into it, and you are incorporating that with another ingredient.

The folding motion is meant to disturb the whipped ingredient is little as possible, in order to retain the whipped in air, and thus the volume of the mixture.  If you simply whisk, or beat, the air would be beaten out.

Whipping the egg whites or whipped cream alone forms a foam with nothing but the air and the fat in whipped cream, or the protein network in egg whites.   It us unstable much like the bubbles we used to blow as children.

If you add another ingredient, like flour, it can act as an abrasive, popping the little bubbles and deflating the foam.    Ingredients which can dissolve fully, and so won't be abrasive to the buddies, can still dissolve into the foam walls, and change their chemistry to the point where they don't hold air any more, again collapsing them.  So even though the motion still might be called whisking or whipping, the result is not the same.

There are only a few ingredients, such as sugar for whipped cream or egg whites, that can dissolve into the foam walls and not disrupt it, and these ingredients are best incorporated in the original whipping phase where the air is incorporated.

Even with folding, there is some volume loss; the goal is to minimize it.


Should I peel and devein whole shrimps? I bought some precooked whole shrimp. Do I need to peel and devein them before eating or is it possible to leave this step out? I intend to saute them in garlic butter.

I disagree with Daniel, you can absolutely eat the "vein" in a shrimp.  Whole un-peeled shrimp are called peel-and-eat and that's exactly what you can do.  Basically, when you are first cooking the shrimp you get the make the shells on/shells off decision and if you go with shells off, you should de-vein, otherwise you just serve as is.

As for preparing already cooked shrimp, you can heat the butter then toss the shrimp in that off the heat.  You won't get them hot, but you can knock the chill off while at the same time adding the flavors you want to the party.

I agree that already cooked shrimp is inferior to raw, but you can still make it taste amazing.

The fact that the intestine contains waste matter is a non-issue to your digestive tract, de-veining is mainly a presentation decision and not a health one.


Sourdough Breadmaking: Adding Water to Dutch Oven to create more steam? Is there any benefit to adding some boiling water to a preheated dutch oven (under some parchment paper) just before putting the lid back on?

EDIT:

Well I did it. It seems to improve oven spring. Took Some pics.

And here is the crumb

What you are doing essentially allows the bread to rise a little more before the crust toughens. It will leave you with a lighter, fluffier loaf with smaller air pockets and a softer crust. I have never poured water into the dutch oven before, but I often just wet the loaf right before putting it in. You can do that with a spray bottle or basting brush.

I'm not sure how exactly your method will differ in results though, as it will do 2 things: rapidly lower the temperature of the dutch oven (transferring the heat to the water) and start cooking the top of the loaf faster.


Unwanted rise in Japanese Cheesecake When baking a Japanese cheesecake, I will occasionally get an incredible rise in the cheesecake - doubling or tripling in volume. During cooling, this falls back down to almost the original volume. However, other attempts will result in a much more sedate rise - with almost no collapse during cooling.

I'm using the recipe (and advice) as described by littleTeochew, available on the wayback machine.

I'm tempted to suspect the placement of the cheesecake adjacent to the waterbath rather than in it, but I have had both occur when the cheeseecake is adjacent to the water-bath.

Does anyone know why this occurs and how to prevent the over-rising?

Building upon what @Joe already mentioned.

The cheesecake rises because as the temperature of the air trapped inside the mix goes up it tends to move upwards. This creates an effective spring force pushing the mix up. The hotter the oven, the stronger is the force since the bigger is the temperature gradient between the air inside of the mix and the top of the oven.

This phenomenon is sometimes called oven spring, especially among bread bakers (which by the way go crazy trying to maximize it!). As your mix cooks, it loses elasticity and become rigid. In the case of the cheesecake, this is mainly due to the coagulation of the egg proteins. Thus the oven spring effect takes place mainly in the initial cooking stage.

Different from bread bakers, you want to minimize this effect. The key for that is to have the eggs cooked with the least temperature gradient between the center of the mix and the top of the oven. Egg coagulates at around 70 degrees, so you don't really need high temperatures to make the cheesecake set.

One simple but laborious approach would be to start cooking the cheesecake at lower temperatures and only after it has set you to increase it to get browning on the top. One way of checking this is to shake it and see if the top moves or not, or to drill it with a toothpick. The water bath also helps to reduce the speed in which heat penetrates the mix since it effectively 'shields' the cake with a layer which has higher heat capacity.


With which of these 9 cheap dull knives ought you practice sharpening on Shapton Glass Stone 1000 Grit 5mm? My grandpa needs to practice how to sharpen knives with his Shapton Glass Stone 1000 Grit 5mm. So he compiled these 9 dull, but cheap and fully expendable, knives. Which ought he practice on? Please don't hesitate to pick more than one, and rank them in order.

Practise on the cleaver from your other question.

It's big enough to handle, which makes it easier to keep at a constant angle. It also looks to have just about no edge remaining, so there's no chance of making it worse.
Of the ones pictured above, only 5 & 6 look really suitable candidates; 6 I'd guess only has that hard chamfer on one side, making it too lop-sided for a beginner.
They're all going to be pretty fiddly as a practise knife.
When the idea of a practise knife was first raised, the intention was that it would actually be something vaguely similar to the one the practise was for. I'd assumed spending $£€ 5 on a cheap new one would be the solution.
TBH, you could use all of the above. Each would be a different challenge.
You can take the serrations right off a serrated edge knife & turn it into a regular knife [my favourite skinny parer started life this way]. 1, 7 & 9 might be candidates for that. The others I wouldn't bother, they're variants on the 1970's steak knife theme. The others will make better steak knives once they're sharp.
Using 1000 grit, this is going to be a very long journey. I'd have bought a dual-grit whetstone, 400/1000
The 400 is coarse enough to recover a bad profile or set a new one, with some patience; the 1000 is to set the final angle.
Having done all this myself, badly, many many times, I'd still go for the electric I mentioned in one of my earlier answers.
You could do the whole lot in an afternoon, perfectly - even the serrateds.


How to avoid vegetables sticking on heat-resistant glass dish? Sometimes I cook vegetables + fruits in a heat-resistant glass dish (yena/jena/pyrex, -40-300 Celsius degrees). I cut them into small pieces (carrots, potatoes, parsnip, mushrooms, onion, quince, apples, tomatoes, pepper, cauliflower, broccoli), I add some spices (salt, pepper, paprika) and some butter, and I put the dish (with the lid) into the gas oven for about 2 hours.

Everything is good, excepting the fact that some of the vegetables/fruits stick to the dish walls (not on the bottom side) and get burnt. Greasing the dish walls with butter didn't solve the problem.

Does anyone have a solution?

Butter has a fairly low smoke point, and may be burning in the oven. You could try using one of the "yellow oils" like canola (rapeseed), peanut, soybean or corn oil.

Aside from that, it's not completely unexpected for cooking vegetables to stick to the edge of a dish. It may just be normal behaviour. My apple pies will always stick slightly to the edges of the pie dish.


Does using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar make cookie dough drier? I was baking cookies last week using granulated sugar (white and brown) and they were great.

The recipe says to put all 3 sugars into the molten butter and to stir for a while. Yesterday I thought it would be easier to grind the sugars into powdered sugar and add it that way.

The cookies this time are drier and taste less like vanilla than before. Could that have something to do with the powdered sugar?

I hope the question is on point enough. Sorry for the metric units.

250 g     flour
2 g       baking powder
0,33 tsp. salt
170 g     butter, melted
110 g     brown sugar
50 g      white sugar
1 pck.    vanilla sugar
1 pck.    vanilla pudding powder
1         egg
1         egg yolk
200 g     chocolate chips

This answer touches on the problem:

  Superfine sugar will dissolve too quickly and won't allow enough air to be incorporated.

Powdered or superfine sugar will still give you the same sweetness property as the granulated sugar. However, the step of creaming butter and (granulated) sugar is not just for mixing. It also incorporates some air into the fat; a well-creamed mixture will look "fluffy" and paler in color.

  In creaming the butter and sugar together, you are using the sugar to
  aerate the butter and fill it with bubbles that can capture the gasses
  released by your leavener. The more fine bubbles you have in your
  network, the lighter in texture your cakes will be and the finer the
  crumb. This is true for your muffins as well, while it makes your
  cookies light and crisp instead of hard and dense. (King Arthur Flour blog)


Is there a reason to not just cut chestnuts through before cooking them? Most instruction on cooking chestnuts (I'm going to boil them specifically) tell you to score them with an X. I know this is so the steam from the inside has somewhere to escape.

If I'm fine with just having halves/quarters of flesh, is there a reason why I shouldn't just cut through them entirely? Seems like it'd be less persnickety to do, especially with a sharp chef's knife designed for chopping/slicing in the first place. (I have a pound and a half to process and scoring is a silly amount of work.)

I've only ever roasted them, and there, you do want to score them at least enough to create a weak spot, since heat above boiling temperatures will come into play and they will burst. In roasting them, I think they'd be more prone to drying out if halved first.

A small serrated knife is a better choice than a big chef's knife for that task, in my experience. The score does not have to be all the way through, either.

I would think that halving them before boiling would tend to leach flavor (making "chestnut tea" from the boiling water) and that would reduce the flavor left in the nut.

I'd also think that if boiling them, scoring beforehand might not be needed, as I can't imagine them managing to steam to the point of exploding in a boiling water bath. But I would probably try it with one nut, just in case I was wrong, before loading up a pot-full.

Mostly I'd be happier if the darn things were less prone to be moldy, which is really disappointing.


How can I preserve Jamun (Indian blackberry) without sugar? I want to save jamun fruit for a diabetic person so I can't add sugar. Is there any means to store it for 6 months or so by adding salt/lemon or any other thing except sugar?

I usually just puree the Jamun and freeze it. No need to add anything else. It stays good for 4-6 months in freezer


Why isn't my steak fat cooking? Recently, I've been experimenting with trying to cook steak on the stovetop (or in the oven), and I'm having a problem with each one that is really frustrating me. Typically when fat is left in a steak, its white and moist, while seeming to have at least partially rendered. In each steak I've cooked however, there remains chunks of solid, uncooked fat that ruins the dish. They are cold and hard and persistent throughout the cut, as if they hadn't been melted away at all. Its not the typical type of fat one sees remaining in a cooked steak. My question then is, what is happening and how do I avoid it? I've tried broiling and cooking over as high of heat as I can, and I've tried slow-roasting on medium heat for awhile. Is this "fat" mostly a consequence of cook time or temperature, and how can I fix it without obliterating my steak to shoe-leather town.

I should also mention that the steak is cooked past my liking (IE to medium-well) and there are pieces that have none of this fat so it seems like another culprit might be that I'm not cooking it evenly but I don't know what to do differently.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Types of steak include flank steak, sirloin, and petite tender.

Summary: The cure to hard or overly chewy fat is generally longer cooking, but you may also want to consider trying a different source for procuring steaks.

My guess, based on the description in the question, is that this is a collagen issue.  Beef fat will begin to melt over around 100F (~40C), and it will begin rendering in earnest by the time you hit the "medium rare" temperature.  (That's often why "medium rare" is considered ideal for steaks; it's not as tender as rare or "blue" meat, but the fat rendering makes it taste more succulent.)  If the steak is really done to "medium well," it should be plenty warm enough to get the process of internal fat melting going well.

[Sidenote: I'm not sure I understand the question description of the fat as "cold" or "uncooked" -- it's basically impossible for internal fat to have those characteristics when surrounded by muscle cooked to medium-well, unless you have a giant vein of connective tissue running through the middle of the steak.  However, fat has a different heat capacity than muscle, and it often seems to be at a different temperature when eaten.  I'm guessing that's what's going on here?]

So if the fat is still tough, the problem seems most likely to be collagen content.  Collagen gradually converts to gelatin during cooking, a process that speeds up as the cooking temperature gets higher.  While collagen is found in greater quantities in tougher muscles (e.g., the chunk or shoulder), it also helps to hold the structure together even in more tender cuts.  Often, the stuff we call "gristle" in fatty steaks isn't the true gristle of elastin and tendon which wouldn't be broken down with prolonged cooking, but merely fat or connective tissue with a higher collagen content.  In a pot roast cooked for many hours, this stuff would gradually turn into gelatin.

Anyhow, there are many different types of collagen too, some of which take much longer or higher temperatures to break down.  Depending on the diet of the animal, how it is exercised, how old it is at slaughter, and whether (and how) the meat is aged, the collagen around and within some sections of fat -- even typically "tender" fatty cuts like ribeye -- can be quite tough and resistant to breakdown.  The biggest factor is often age: as an animal gets older, the types of collagen networks get more complex and harder to break down.

If this is indeed the issue in your steaks, there are two solutions:

Try buying different steaks.  It could be your source.  I don't know where the OP is from, but in the U.S., grocery stores (for example) often sell ungraded meat under "store brands."  The meat isn't necessarily bad quality, but one reason to not bother to grade the meat is that the animal is a little older at slaughter, which automatically will disqualify the meat from the higher grades most people look for.  Or it could contain very little marbling, which tends to mean that the fat which is present has a higher concentration of connective tissue.  I've had plenty of grocery-store steaks over the years which had flavorful muscle, but most of the fat would never render and would remain tough, likely due to higher collagen content.  This seemed to be much more common in steaks from some stores, but not at others.  (Also, if you're in the U.S., be careful to note that graded steaks should specify USDA grading and generally carry the USDA seal -- it's actually perfectly legal for stores to sell an ungraded steak under a label like "America's Choice," even if the meat is not USDA Choice grade.)
If you can't change sources, or the problem still occurs, the solution is longer, slower cooking.  Perhaps a lot longer.  Collagen breakdown can occur at lower temperatures, but the higher the temperature, the faster it will happen.  If you want to cook for a long time but still maintain a medium or medium-rare steak, the ideal method is sous vide (i.e., sealed meat in a water bath held to constant temperature).  Alternatively, I have had success with a long, slow-roasting method cooking a steak in a very low oven (perhaps one that is barely heated to "warm" and then turned off; you'll probably need to monitor the internal steak temperature with a probe) for a couple hours, then searing very quickly before eating.  This latter method often gets me closest to the "steakhouse" experience at home, since the slow-roasting at low temp effectively does a bit of accelerated dry-aging, and the fat in a cut like a ribeye will often end up soft, buttery, and ready to burst with juices.  (However, even after a couple hours of slow cooking, I've still had some grocery store steaks where the fat remained tough.  I stopped buying steaks at those stores.)
Just as another note: I mentioned above that I didn't really believe the fat could still be uncooked and cold in a medium-well steak.  If, for some reason, I'm wrong, and that is actually happening here, the solution will still be longer, slower cooking to even out the temperature as the meat cooks.  You may not need to go to the extremes I mentioned in the previous point, but you'll perhaps want to slow down the cooking process significantly.

Of course, these alternate cooking methods will take long, and most people want to cook their steak for a few minutes and then eat.  In that case, I'd strongly recommend trying meat from a different source and see if your results improve.


Digestive cookies - substitute in South Africa? What is a good substitute for UK-style 'digestive cookies' in South Africa? It's for a crumb crust for a chocolate mousse cake.

You'd probably get away with any kind of sweet hard biscuit.

I'm not South African, so I can't help you if you want a local biscuit, but looking at Woolworth's online shop suggests you might actually be able to find Digestives, or there's Bourbons, Shortbread, or even Ginger Nuts if you fancy trying something a little different from the recipe.

Note that although the recipe calls them cookies, it's just using the American term for biscuit (even though it seems to be a British website).


How do I properly mince ginger? I often need to mince ginger to add to any number of dishes.  If I don't want to use a microplane, how do I mince ginger with a knife? What type of knife should I use and how should I cut it? I'm most interested in the techniques associated with efficiency and safety.

It's almost exactly like mincing garlic, but you want to make sure that the first cut is across the fibers of the ginger.  (you'll be cutting it into coin-like shapes)

... and then julienne what you can, and start the rocking to chop it up as fine as you want it.


Why does my ice cream get crispy in my float? I float my ice cream with Diet Pepsi. I'm always excited for when the ice cream gets crispy. It gets crispier when I use cold soda instead of room temperature. Is my soda freezing in the ice cream?

I think I know what you mean, but is the ice cream "crispy" only on the surface? Unless your ice cream becomes crispy in its interior as well, (which I could not explain), I think it's simply as you speculate, the water in the soda is freezing into a crust of ice around the surface of the ice cream ball. This would explain why it is more noticeable when the soda is cold.


Do I need to season an old cast-aluminum pan? I received a cast-aluminum pan as a hand-me-down from my mother's grandmother. As far as I know it was never seasoned while in my mother's possession. A little food will stick on occasion and I wash it just as a I would a cheaper teflon-coated pan.

Can I / should I season the pan or am I better off just leaving it as it is? Anything else I should know about taking care of this guy? I'd like for it to last as long as possible.

Yes, cast aluminum should be seasoned.  Here are some instructions from cookingforengineers.com:

How Do I Season It?

Wash the cookware with hot soapy water.
Dry it and then coat it thoroughly with vegetable oil. The easiest way is to pour the oil onto a paper towel and work it well into all the surfaces.
Put the well-coated cookware into a 250 degree oven and leave it there for 2 hours.
Never use scouring pads or detergent on cast ware. Simply wipe it out using a damp cloth.
If food starts to stick to the cookware, just season it again.

How Do I Look After It?

Repeated washing in a dishwasher will strip off any seasoning, can cause discoloration and is not advised. Remove the staining by boiling something acidic like tomatoes or apple peelings and then re-season.
Don't leave it to soak in soapy water
Don't use steel-wool pads to clean it
You can use non-abrasive cleaners or a paste made with baking soda and water. Use either of these with a gentle, synthetic scourer and your sheet or cast aluminum will shine!

Here's one more tip I learned the hard way.  Don't use aluminum cookware on glass ceramic stovetops!  The aluminum can permanently discolor the glass, or perhaps even fuse to it.  I've never actually seen an aluminum pan fuse to a stovetop before, but I did permanently mark my stovetop the first time I put an aluminum pan on it.


Irish cream left in hot car I recently left a new unopened bottle of Irish cream in my vehicle for 24 hours. It probably reached temps of over 100F. How do I know if it's bad?

It's fine. There's enough alcohol to prevent anything from growing in it. The worst that will happen is that it could get clumpy, which would be unpleasant and obvious.


What's the skinny on fat asparagus? I had always heard that pencil thin asparagus is the best, and that has always been what I look for. But now I've heard from a few (what I would consider reliable) sources that skinny isn't better when choosing asparagus. My local grocery tends to get really fat (stems easily an inch in diameter) asparagus that otherwise looks great (nice color, tight tips, no wrinkling). I've always avoided this asparagus even though I love roasted fresh asparagus, because I've expected it to be woody. Is that the case?

I've never peeled asparagus, I've just snapped off the ends at the "break" point. If the consensus is that this fat asparagus is worth trying, should I peel it before roasting?

Martha's Vinyard Magazine suggests that the diamater of the stalks is not directly related to their age as one might suspect:

  Some might assume thinner spears are younger and therefore more
  tender. The diameter, however, has more to do with the age of the
  plant itself and the particular asparagus variety.

They go on to cite Cook's Illustrated, saying:

  [T]hin and
  thick spears as equally sweet, nutty, and grassy, but ...
  thicker spears have a slightly better, more tender texture. The reason
  is that the fiber is somewhat more concentrated in thinner spears.

You can peel asparagus if you choose to.   Personally, I peel the base of thicker stalks.  Mark Bittman recommends peeling from just under the flowers to the base of the stalk on the thicker stalks.

Thinner stalks may be easier to saute or grill, and thicker ones more suited to steaming, poaching, and so on, but this is more related to the time it takes them to cook through.

See also:

Mark Bittman writing in the New York Times
Better Homes and Gardens
Martha's Vinyard Magazine


Refrigerator Fruit/Vegetable Bins Is there anything that makes the bins in the fridge particularly good (or bad) for storing fruits and vegetables. Previous refrigerators had a moisture control slide that altered humidity in the bins. My new fridge does not have this. I would rather store bread, meat and cheese in the bins and have my fruits and vegetables accessible on the shelves. Any reason not to do this?

You can store whatever you want in these bins - I regularly use one of mine to store bottled drinks.

However, depending where the cold air outlet is in your fridge, placing relatively fragile items such as fruits and vegetables on the shelves could cause them to freeze or form ice crystals internally, damaging the item.

Things like bags of apples or oranges tend to take up a lot of shelf space, so a bin helps contain them a bit by forcing them to stack vertically more-so than a flat shelf would.

So, pay attention to where the air vent is and your fridge overall temperature, as well as what's next to the items - otherwise it's OK to store fruits and vegetables on the shelf.


What is the fastest appliance/utensil to cream butter and sugar with? I have:

but even with the whisk on the stand mixer, it seems to take for ages compared to when I was a kid and used a:

I'm using room temp butter and mix it for 10-20 seconds before starting to add the sugar. What's the preferred tool?

Information requested by @Ward:

Cake batter is what I'm creaming the butter and sugar for.

The 10-20 seconds I just do initially before adding the sugar to spread the butter around. Probably not needed. I could be going for up to 10 minutes after that with the sugar before I give up, unhappy with the fluffiness, concluding that I must have too high expectations. I also find the resulting cake too dense as well.

Update

Just tried using the paddle but at night when it's not so hot and had better results. I think using room temp butter before during the day saw the butter melt before it started to cream.

Kenwood/Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.  Yes room temp butter.


Should I bake cookies with the oven heated from the top or the bottom? Last time I made a chocolate chip cookies, my cookies became black because I did not know which side of heat to use. Should I heat the oven from the top or the bottom? I thought maybe I needed to heat from the top to help flatten them?

1.
Definitely heat from the bottom but bake on the center rack. Place a thermometer inside the oven to check that the temperature is accurate--home ovens can be off by 50 degrees or more, making a huge difference for cookies. 350 degrees Fahrenheit is a good temp for chocolate chip cookies. If the cookies turned black, they simply got overbaked. They will flatten naturally as the dough gets warm in the oven, so no need to worry about that.

2.
If perhaps your particular recipe yields slightly "puffier" cookies than you desire, you can try any of these steps:

Use whole butter only instead of margarine or shortening--butter causes cookies to spread out, while the other two cause them to keep their rounded shape.

Add a tablespoon or two of water to the recipe.

Do not omit any sugar from the recipe--the cookies will be puffier with less sugar.

Let the dough become room temperature before baking.


How long does it take for milk to spoil unrefrigerated? A half gallon of milk (in the paper carton, not plastic) got left in the car for 1.5 hours in about 80 degree (~27 °C) weather (evening so no direct sunlight). Is it still probably safe to eat if one has a strong stomach or pretty risky? Any particular signs to watch for to indicate it is no longer safe? Carton bulging? Off smell? Etc? How quickly will milk spoil (unopened) in warm summer weather like that?

I don't think anything will be wrong with that milk.

If it's fresh milk, which I doubt, you should consume it in less than three days.
If it's pasteurized milk, which is much more likely, it'll be unaffected.

Signs of spoilage are a sour smell and sour taste. You should make a habit of always smelling your milk (food) before drinking (eating) it. If it doesn't smell like you'd expect, taste it. If it doesn't taste like you'd expect, ditch it.

Milk is cultivated with lactobacillus, a bacteria that's beneficial for us. So, even though milk may taste sour, it doesn't mean that it's undrinkable. In Holland, there's sour-milk (karnemelk), that some people consume (I don't like it, myself).

Under the right circumstances, milk will turn into yogurt, thanks to the lactobacillus...

At any rate, if in doubt, throw it out.


What type of chorizo is this? I have been given a gourmet hamper which includes a chorizo sausage.  There are no instructions on the packet to say what it is.  I have had cooking chorizo before and know what it looks like.  This chorizo is about 8 inches long, has string at both ends and is quite soft.  I don't want to give anyone a stomach upset.  To cook or not to cook.

Regards Carol.

A couple of the largest clues to help you

If it's Spanish, it's probably OK 'raw', if it's Mexican, probably not.
If it's soft & squashy, it needs cooking, if it's firm & wrinkled it's OK as it is.

Left is cured & ready to eat, right must be cooked first.

 I'm ignoring the fact that for this photo someone has cross-contaminated, making the properly smoked one no longer safe

One additional tip I learned from my mother-in law, who lives in Spain - even though completely safe 'raw', if the skin comes off easily in one piece, it's better raw; if it tears off in bits, cook it anyway in red wine. It's not as good.


Traveling with chicken In a few days I'll be cooking for my grand parents. Now I want to make it special so I decided to brine some pieces of chicken fillet before going there. But they live an hour traveling by bus from where I live, so I would have to carry the chicken in my bag. I was thinking of putting the pieces in a tupperware box along with some of the brine and wrap it in foil so that it won't spill in my bag. But I don't whether or not it will be still safe after I'll arrive. Any comments on this?

Thanks

If you cook it immediately on arriving, an hour is a safe period.  Remember the chicken will take a little time to heat up. Usually 2 hours is the limit for meat at room temperature.

On the other hand, there's no harm in playing it safe, with both spillage and spoilage.  I'd suggest you put the brine and chicken in a zip-seal bag, then put ANOTHER bag around that to protect against leaks, then throw the whole thing in a larger tupperware container with ice packed around it.

This way you're not going to worry about leaks, and if you get stuck in traffic for longer than expected, the chicken will still be fine to cook and eat.


oven cleaning help and tips our house have a built-in oven that hasn't been used since we moved in (a year and half ago). I think the owner didn't clean before we move in. Do you think I can still use it? will it be safe? should I be worry of food poisoning if I use it? How can I check if there is insect or something nesting in it. Thanks in advance

Look in the oven. Smell the oven. Turn the oven (and exhaust fan, if any) on to the maximum temperature. If you smell nothing untoward (there might be some "normal" smallish amount of smoke/burnt smell when you fire it up hot for a while) it's fine.

If it smells like rodent urine, or you see rodent scat, you might have a problem, and firing it up might smell very bad and/or cause rodents to come running out of the insulation. Other than that, most issues of disuse will be cured by heating it throughly, once.

Since few, if any baked items come into direct contact with the oven (most are in a pan on a rack) there's no health/safety difference between a shiny clean oven and a fairly filthy-looking oven. Most oven cleaning chemicals are far scarier than what's baked on the oven; and all self-cleaning ovens need is to be run hot enough to burn off whatever is on them.


Substitute apricot with some other fruit in this Sunny-Side-Up Apricot Pastries recipe This recipe (scroll down to the bottom of the page) calls for apricot to use on the topping of the pastries. What fruit do you recommend to use that will be as good, along with its jam for the glaze? What about mango? I have no idea about cooked mango, have never eaten one!

If your objective is to maintain a similar color/texture/firmness, then cling peaches are the way to go. Except they are almost always found canned (I live in California and sometimes find them fresh at farmers markets where vendors come from the Sacramento valley).

I'm a fan of the pear.  Bosc and Anjou will hold up well during cooking (Bartlett pears may fall apart).

Both should work well with the pastry cream and vanilla in the recipe.

If you end up using pears, consider adding just a hint of almond extract or amaretto to the pastry creme.


Best way to hold deep-fried foods? If I'm deep-frying foods and want to hold batches of them so I can serve a large amount all at once, or even prepare a couple hours ahead, what's the best way to hold them until ready to serve?

Should I put them on wire racks above a drip pan, or should I place them on paper towels?  Or even in a paper cone?

Should I keep them warm or should I let them cool and reheat them in a very hot oven (450F)?

Or does it depend on the type of food, its shape, or the batter?

What I'm looking for here is someone who's done some comparison testing between different methods of holding over deep-fried foods.  Some example foods: garlic & pepper shrimp, tempura vegetables, latkes, felafel, and french fries.

The method I used in the past (which might not be the best way) is to lightly fry the food initially, drain it of all oils, and put it in the refridgerator until it is almost time to serve the large amount of food. Then you can finish deep frying the batches. The initial frying will dramatically reduce the time it takes to refry each batch. I found this was the best solution for myself as I was able to serve hot and (almost)fresh out of the deep fryer food to a large group of people at lot faster. I think the result is way better than if you had to store the fully deep fried food for 2 hours and had to reheat it up somehow.


Is there any other difference between the cakes and the cup cakes besides the size? I don't have the small cups, so I place the cup cake batter in big vessels, and I think I have prepared cakes.

Now, I'll get the small cups and place the same batter in the cups, and call them cup cakes.

Does this make sense? Or I am missing a point?

You are correct: Cupcakes are just regular sponge cakes cooked in approximately cup-sized tins.


Is it absolutely necessary to season a carbon steel pan? I am buying my first carbon steel pan and am new to the whole "seasoning" process for pans. I realize that pans by default stick, and you need to "season" them, however can't you just use oil? Is it absolutely necessary for me to season my carbon steel pan or can I just use oil?

I would never leave it unseasoned.

Carbon steel rusts. If you just cook with sufficient oil, and let it cool down with the oil still inside, and then clean gently (preferably without any soap), the inner bottom will indeed session itself with time, as tfd mentioned. But the rest of the pan will be exposed to the air and will create a layer of rust. If you don't use it frequently enough, or if you prepare acidic food in it before it has gathered some seasoning (and most vegetables are acidic), you will get rust on the bottom too, before seasoning has had time to build up on its own.

Ingesting rust is not an immediate health risk, but it is better to avoid it. Our bodies weren't designed for it, and you might end up with too much iron in your diet. It is also porous, so the pan would be hard to clean well. And it looks really shabby to have a rusty pan in the kitchen.

And if this is your first "normal" pan after years of non stick, you might be amazed at the amount of oil needed to prevent food from sticking. It looks terrifying to our modern "fat is bad" eyes. And you still have to be careful, despite the oil. With time, you will learn to cook the right way, but having it seasoned first certainly helps.

There is no law requiring you to season, but to me, the above reasons are enough to always season.


Replacement for alliums? I am going to be cooking for someone who, because of Crohn's disease, is unable to eat pretty much anything from the allium family (ie. onions, garlic, shallots, chives, scallions and leeks; this includes garlic and onion powder), as well as spicy food (so that excludes chilis and piquant spices). I have seen Substitute for onions and garlic but because the suggestions there are pretty much other alliums, it is not very helpful for my purposes.

Because onions tends to be in a lot of things (if nothing else, as half of a mirepoix, which tends to appear in many recipes, and is also the base of stocks, which makes things complicated -- I am not 100% sure if the two degrees of separation from onion to stock to whatever the stock is used for is enough to make it "safe", and unfortunately I won't have time to make an onion-less stock), I am not really sure what I can use instead.

I realize that it might be hard to substitute onions and garlic with other similar tasting ingredients without using other alliums, so instead, I am looking for suggestions to replace onions and garlic with things that will still let me cook flavourful food (that doesn't necessarily need to taste the same as it would with alliums, though).

For example, I was thinking about roasting a chicken and making a couscous dressing, but the chicken would sit on mirepoix (can I replace the onions in it with something else?) which would be used as a base for the sauce as well; and my couscous dressing recipe uses shallots (as well as sage, thyme, oregano and pine nuts). General suggestions would be useful as well, though.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

There are some varieties of Hindu cooking (especially as practiced by Hare Krishna / ISKCON folks) that don't use onion and garlic for religious reasons. They always use asafoetida powder (a spice), which has a taste similar to aged garlic, and supposedly good for the digestion. Use it in very small quantities, like 1/4 teaspoon in a curry for 4, to get started. The Indian name for this spice is hing. Don't be put off by the smell when raw, it gets milder when cooked.


What is a French Rolling Pin? I was recently given a 'French Rolling Pin' as a gift.  To me, it just looks like a fancy dowel-rod.  What exactly is it, and what is it useful for?

A French rolling pin is a real thing. It is also a very convenient thing. I find that I have much better control over my rolling using one rather than the foolish little pins with the handles that get filthy and hurt my knuckles.

As for the 'French' part of the name. I don't know, having never lived in France, whether they actually refer to that style of rolling pin as French. However, I find it extremely unlikely. Probably some English speaker coined the phrase to differentiate that style of pin as one commonly used in France. Hopefully there is a French speaker who can provide more insight. (If you didn't insult them with your question.)


How to know (without a thermometer) whether an egg is cooked when we put a lid on the top of it? Last time I tried to cook sunny side up eggs on a metal skillet. I put butter on the skillet, allowed it to heat and then I cracked two eggs on it. Immediately I placed a glass lid with a hole on the eggs.

I found that the eggs did NOT turn "brown" from below (I kept on checking them periodically by lifting them up by a spoon).
After waiting for quite some time I saw the egg yolk wearing a white layer on them (from the top). I turned off the gas, and to my horror those were the most "hard" eggs I had ever eaten.

Without a thermometer what is the way to know that the "time's up"!

P.S. I DO want the salmonella to be killed.

Watch the area around the yolk for it to become translucent. Jiggle the pan a little to see if it's cooked.


Can I adapt a baking recipe for a Dutch Oven to a Casserole Dish? I'm cooking a recipe for a Bread that requires a Dutch Oven.

All I have is a Casserole Dish.

The recipe calls for 40mins then 20 mins in a 400F Oven in the Dutch Oven.

My question is: Can I adapt a baking recipe for a Dutch Oven to a Casserole Dish?

They are different terms for the same object, so yes.

In the images you have chosen the first is metal and the second ceramic; these would have different properties in terms of browning the food that comes into contact with the base and sides. But products branded as 'Dutch ovens' come in metal and ceramic, and products branded as 'casserole dishes' come in metal and ceramic too.

In addition, for the specific recipe you are using the author has added:

  You can use any 6 quart dutch oven, cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or
  ceramic bakeware (with lid) that can heat up to 500 degrees F.

So I would have no concerns about the equipment as long as it has the desired volume.


Why is my soy milk frozen? I bought a quart of soy milk for the first time ever last week. It has been sitting unopened in the door of my refrigerator since. I pulled it out today to use it in a bowl of cereal and it was frozen solid.

My refrigerator is not particularly frigid; regular milk and juice products stored in the back do not freeze. It's even more shocking to me that it froze in the door of my fridge, since that is the warmest place.

Is this normal for soy milk? If not, what went wrong? How should I store soy milk?

*The expiration date is sometime in March 2011

Have you ever put a quart-sized container of plain water in the spot where your soymilk froze? Perhaps that spot in your fridge is actually very cold--not cold enough to freeze milk with all its fat content (even skim as some), but enough to freeze soymilk (especially if it's settled and separated a bit).


term for the fact that's easier to mix 2 things if the amount are different I am asking this for a friend because we cannot find the answer in google (but did learn a lot about  cocaine, dj mixers, bread, concrete and ligers).

Seems like there must be a term/principle/something for this thing:
It's easier to mix cocoa powder into a tiny bit of water than a whole cup of
water.
Is it easier to blend two things of different textures or consistencies or forms when
the amounts of each type are quite different? When the wet thing is much less?

For example:
In making a tea blend that involves two main textures: powder and granules, it's easier to mix the powder with the granules when I do all the powder at once and just a small amount of granules, then add that mix to the rest of granules.

What are the words for this?

There exists a term in organic chemistry called miscibility which is the property of substances to mix in any and all proportions and form a homogenous substance. Now, I believe this word is a start in the right direction in our search for what seems is a highly specific and seldomly used term (if it even exists?), being it feels as it fits in the same scope.

Our instinct could now be simply to negate the word miscibility - immiscibility. But this isn't right either as it means that our substances will not mix.

I guess we could say that both of these terms are partially correct, meaning our substances are partially miscible, or better yet conditionally miscible - conditioned on the proportions used.

I realise that this isn't exactly what you were looking for, as it doesn't carry the desired connotation merely on it's own, but I believe it's as close as we can get.


How to convert slow cooker recipes to pressure cooker with different cooking times? Google results for this question either don't answer the question at all or don't address what happens when multiple ingredients have different pressure cooking times. I'm specifically looking to convert this recipe:

This site says if it takes 8 hours in the slow cooker, it'd take 1 hour in the pressure cooker. Okay, but the recipe involves parsnip and turnip, which my pressure cooker manual says to cook for 1-2 and 3-5 minutes, respectively. I have a 4 quart Presto pressure cooker that goes up to 15 psi which I believe is the standard pressure.

Is there a better conversion rule than 8 hour -> 1 hour (assuming 15
psi)? In my experience, at 15 psi, stew beef would fall apart after
only 30'.
What do I do about the different cooking times? Am I supposed to
cook the meat by itself for 1 hour, quick-release the pressure under
cold running water, add the turnips, bring the cooker back to
pressure, quick-release again, add the parsnips, and finally bring
the cooker back to pressure again?

There is no rule, you should use the cooking times in your chart or a reputable timing chart, I use this one hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooking-times

Basically, you'll want to phase-in the ingredients. That means, cook the beef roast for the time your cooking chart says, say 30 minutes, then open the pressure cooker and add the vegetables and pressure cooker them for their cooking time 4 minutes.

BTW, that same blog has a section where you can post a recipe and they will convert it to the pressure cooker for you. That's here: hippressurecooking.com/recipe-conversions


What is an optimal way to make tandoori roti and naan in big green egg? Big green egg (and other kamado style ovens) can be used for many kinds of different breads. What is an optimal way to bake naan and/or tandoori roti in an egg( large size)?
Traditionally clay ovens is India have long hollow cylindrical structure where the bread is stuck, not sure how we can replicate the same behavior in Big Green Egg. Use in on the plate setter or use a pizza stone or stick it on the inside of the upper some?
What should the temperature be? How long should it be left? Any other useful information regarding this?

I make naan on my BGE all the time. You can't replicate a tandoor, however, the results are very good. I find it best to cook the naan directly on the grill, and over the coals.  I find lower heat is best.  I either bake them at the end of a grill session, when the heat is dying, or I completely close the bottom vent (leaving the lid open...not just the lid vent). Depending on the heat level, it only takes a minute or two on each side.  I place the rolled out naan on the grill, lightly brush with melted butter, wait for bubbling/puffing, flip, brush with butter, wait for puffing (or peak underneath and look for doneness), then remove to a towel for holding...repeat.


“For optimal flavor, open the package 30 minutes before eating” - only temperature or also chemistry? Packages of ham or smoked fish sometimes have a hint like the one I quoted in the title.
They are usually stored in the fridge, so one part of the reason to take it out of the fridge and open it earlier is probably just the temperature. But is there some chemical reaction with oxygen that is important for the flavor? I think the packages are sometimes sealed in a pure nitrogen atmosphere.

Some food is indeed packaged in a protective atmosphere. This is done in order to prevent the outer layers of the food from changing due to oxidation.

I am not aware of any food that would be vacuum-sealed or packaged in a protective atmosphere which would benefit from the chemical processes after the package is opened.

The reason why manufacturers suggest opening the package is most likely just to facilitate heat exchange with the surrounding air in order to bring the temperature up to improve the flavor and aroma of the food.


Can old eggs affect my Creme Brulee? I have about a dozen eggs which are very near the expiration date and about half a dozen week or so old eggs.

Now I thought I could either  take advantage and whip up a Creme Brulee.

My question is, do old or near old eggs have any sort of positive or negative impact in the cooking process... meaning whipping, baking, serving, eating the Creme Brulee?

Please keep in mind: I have little experience in cooking.

As long as the eggs aren't expired you should be fine. I've made creme brulee many times with both fresh eggs and not so fresh with similar results.