Minimum amount of oil that should be used in deep fryer I have bought a 3 liter deep fryer. There was a 1.5 liter one available too but I wanted a larger basket. This 3 liter deep fryer requires 2.5 liters oil minimum. I had no idea about this. This quantity seems too much.

Can I use less? Has anyone any idea what would happen if I use less than the recommended? If I cannot use less than the minimum what do I have to do to make it last longer?

If you need a larger basket to fry the amount of food you want to cook, you need more oil as well. If you don't always want to make that much food (or use that much oil) then you need a smaller vessel for deep-frying, such as a second fryer or a small wok or kadai.

If you put less oil in than the minimum it may not cover the food and/or the oil could overheat, depending on how the fryer manages its temperature settings.

Overheating oil can be dangerous and will also burn your food while leaving it raw inside. All around, something to avoid.

You can save and reuse frying oil. There are some good tips at the sites below.

Let it cool fully then filter out food particles (I use coffee filters and a funnel for this; it can be a slow drain, be patient)
Refrigerate used oil to retard bacterial growth
Stop using it if it looks weird or smells funny!

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/ask-the-food-lab-how-many-times-can-i-reuse-fry-oil.html

http://extension.psu.edu/food/preservation/faq/questions-and-answers-about-re-using-frying-oil

http://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/you-can-reuse-frying-oil-article


How to easily minimize waste using a potato smasher? I have a new tool. At Walmart they didn't seem to have the kind of potato masher I'm used to, so I bought this thing.

(The can of soup is there for size reference.§) From a young age I'm used to the tool with a long stiff steel wire extending out of the handle about 3", zig-zagging on itself several times in a flat plane, then returning back to the handle. Since that thing mashed, and this thing smashes, I call it a potato smasher.

I had not yet cleaned up, so you can see some mashed potato in a few of the holes. Therein lies my problem. As I smashed the boiled potatos, potato would extrude through all the holes.  It was easy to remove potato from top and bottom for multiple mashes -- just wipe it off with a fork.  But with 24 little holes, I did not know how to efficiently remove the contents of the holes and return it to the smashing bowl when done.  Is there an easy way to remove potato from all the holes without waste?

In the end, after I was done smashing, I cheated. Using my mouth, I just sucked out as much potato as I could. It was good! Even with my big mouth, I could not get it all, though.

§ I lied, sort of.  The can is also there because that was our gravy.  We lacked normal gravy ingredients, so I got some help from Necessity's kid. Using heated split pea soup as gravy ended up tasting great. More vegetables, plus the ham in the soup provided a bit of meat. (I'm not pushing the Progresso brand; it is just what we happened to have.)

There is no need to remove potato from the holes on each stroke, which appears to be what you are describing doing. Just pick it up and smash it down on some un-smashed potatoes until there are no more of those. The potato already smashed through the holes will eventually fall back into the pot during this process.

Then, when done smashing, turn the tool sideways, knock it on the rim of the pot to dislodge most of the potato on it, and use a rubber spatula to scrape off what's left.

Or expand your shopping beyond wal-mart - I'd bet $20 I can find a wire-type masher at a thrift store nearby, probably for $1 or $2 at most, and certainly by using the same technology you use to post your question you can have one shipped to your house for a bit more money, if this type offends you. You can also mash them with a hand or stand mixer. Or, indeed, a fork.


Blackstrap molasses vs regular molasses I'm aware of how molasses and refined sugar are made from sugar cane and how brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added back to it.
But -- how "different" are the three grades of molasses (light, dark, and blackstrap) when they can be used together with sugar?
I understand light molasses have more sugar than dark or blackstrap. But does that simply mean that light molasses is exactly the same as "white sugar + dark molasses" ? And likewise, dark molasses is identical to "white sugar + blackstrap molasses" ?
I'm curious if I can simply just use blackstrap molasses only and just add however much white/refined sugar as needed (to balance out), rather than having to specifically use "light" or "dark" molasses (especially in things that might get blended, where everything is going to get very "well-mixed" anyway!).

Blackstrap molasses isn't exactly just light molasses with less sugar. It's been cooked for longer during the refining process, leading to more Maillard browning. But that's not a major effect. If you add some sugar and a bit of water to blackstrap molasses, you'll basically have light(er) molasses.


How to dry a fish for grill Whenever I grill a fish (red snapper), even after grilling for a recommended grill time (about 10 to 15 mins), it comes out no less juicy compared to when it was put to grill. And when put in a plate, its skin is like floating on its flesh due to moisture.

I need a complete dry fish after the grilling is done with crispy skin, How to achieve that?

Note: I dont know how to dry a fish before grilling, I am assuming that all the drying can be done during grill with heating (which currently doesnt happen), any tip that works is welcome.

You could pack it in dry salt for a while to suck some fluid out via osmotic pressure. Should end up with damp salt and a drier fish. I'd guess if you only packed the outside and brushed it off before grilling it might not have too much salt transfer inwards to oversalt the fish, but I have NOT tried it, just speculating on a method that should work.


Can I brine meat after cooking it? I cooked up a bunch of beef to slice into luncheon meat, and did some reading afterwards... and have decided that I want the meat to be brined, so it is more tender and moist, like the storebought stuff.

...except, I already cooked it. I now know that the brining should be done before it is cooked, and that is what really helps with moisture retention. But would I pick up any of the benefit by brining it now? Thanks!

It won't do anything useful.

Brining works on raw meat by denaturing some of the proteins inside the cells so they gel and hold tightly onto their water. It also gets tasty salt in.

Cooked meat has already had its proteins denatured by heat. Brining will not cause the meat to hold on to any new water.

Basically all it will do is wash away some of the surface flavor into the brine.


soft then stiff baguette dough I am trying to make baguettes. I didn't really follow any measurements, but my ingredients are: 1:1 all purpose and wheat flour, salt, water, instant yeast. I don't have a machine. I eyeballed the dough until its the sticky yet intact consistency during the folding phase.

Whenever I fold the dough, after leaving it to rise, the first fold is fairly loose, compliant, and sticky. But when I try to fold it again, the dough somehow becomes stiff. It becomes malleable again after leaving it but is still again by the second fold. Why does this happen? I think there is something wrong with my technique rather than the recipe.

Baker percentage should help you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_percentage
For baguettes the baker percentage is between 73% and 80%. If you knead your dough too much or let the yeast proliferate too long then the gluten breaks down. Find a recipe that suits you.


Are plastic (vs metal) immersion blenders safe for hot mixtures? I have a braun stick blender that I bought about 10 years ago. I love it because it's really versatile and I can make puree soups, etc. I usually will stick the immersion blender into the pot of hot mixture to puree the mixture. Is this safe?

CLARIFICATION

Is putting plastic in the hot mixture safe?

Short of the danger of splashing hot liquid on you, or the standard immersion blender dangers of having it slip and hit you, there's no additional risk with using immersion blenders on hot mixtures.  Making hot soups creamy is pretty much exactly what they are designed for.


Cooking on top of hob covers I've recently moved into a new flat and the oven has very rusty iron hobs. I've bought some stainless steel hob covers to hopefully protect them and keep them clean (as I don't fancy cleaning a rusty iron block). But I was wondering if I could keep the covers on while cooking. I'm pretty sure the cover won't melt, and as it is steel should be nicely conductive. I don't care if the steel changes colour because of the heat because that's still better than the rusty hob.

So basically would it be safe to cook with the hob covers still on the hob?

The covers are just ASDA Hob Covers.

Those covers are only for cosmetic appearance, they are not a cooking surface. It is not safe to cook with hob covers on:

If you are using a gas hob the covers could block airflow and put the flame out. Gas gushing into your kitchen is a bad thing
The metal is way too thin to handle high heat, it will probably warp when heated, perhaps enough to tip a light pan off. You don't want pans of boiling water or hot oil shifting around

Even if it was safe you wouldn't get a better cooking result as you are blocking the transfer of heat from the source to the pan. You are better off removing them before cooking.


Is there a way to make delicious donuts with a small amount of oil? I like donuts but I don't make them at home because for a bowl of donuts I consume a lot of oil.

The oil gets a sweet taste to it afterwards and can't reuse it for cooking something else than cakes. I also don't cook sweets very often and if I store the oil for a longer period of time it gets a somewhat of a stale taste.

The question is for a way to make delicious donuts with a small amount of oil but I'm opened to any idea: change in process, changing the dough type, different type of donuts etc.

Donuts are a deep fried food. The texture of deep fried food is unique and cannot be duplicated by other methods. If you bake doughnut dough, you will get small rolls, which will have a similar aroma, but not the same combination of moist, soft inside and fat-crispy outside. You could bake it, as with any other yeast dough, only nobody will recognize it as a donut.

Assuming that you want to get actual donuts, you must fry them. And no matter what you do to them, the more oil you use to fry them, the better your donuts will turn out. The physics of deep frying include throwing pieces of food with a starchy surface (potatoes, or breaded items, or dough pieces like donuts) in oil at around 190 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the outer surface of the dough/vegetable/breading crisps immediately, preventing from any oil getting into the item and any vapor getting out of the item.

This only works when the oil in the vicinity of the fried item stays within a few degrees of the target temperature during the first ~30 seconds of the frying process. Which means that you need a stable temperature in your fryer. Now, thermodynamics tells us that, if you throw a 25 degrees piece of food into a puddle of 190 degrees hot oil, they will exchange warmth proportionally to their mass. So, if you want the oil to stay close to the correct temperature, the mass of the donut has to be very small in comparison to the mass of the oil — which means that you need lots of oil.

The options you have to do with less oil are all unsatisfactory from my point of view, you might decide to pick one of them.

Put up with the quality reduction. Use less oil in the pan, maybe even shallow frying in oil up to the half of the donut only. The donuts will lose moisture and soak up grease. The less oil you use, the worse the grease soak will be. Also, you will use up more oil, because you will have to constantly add the amount soaked up by the already fried donuts. You may consider it well used instead of wasted, because you get to eat it, but from my point of view this is the worst option.
Trade time for oil. You can use a small pot, and fry a single donut at a time. Frying 50 g donuts should go well with under 500 ml oil. You are still a bit constrained by the fact that the oil temperature will fluctuate more due to factors not related to the oil, but it should be manageable, if you have the patience. Note that if you place multiple donuts in the small pan, you are getting towards the first or third solution.
Try to manage a stable temperature in a donut-crowded small pan by using a very hot setting and letting the oil get too hot before adding a new donut. This is a very complicated thing to manage, especially seeing that you are trying to not burn the other donuts in the pan at the same time. I don't think I could manage it, and if I could, the oil wouldn't be worth the stress. There is also the extra energy to consider — not as expensive as throwing out more oil, but probably worse from an environmental point of view.

In the end, if you want good donuts, you have to use a pot/fryer where they can swim freely in oil. Any change you make to this setup reduces the quality of your donut, making it less donut-like.


When is the right time to pick blueberries? My neighbor brought over a fresh batch of blueberries.  Some are sweet and some are sour.  He told us to come over and pick some whenever we wanted, but I don't know the right time to pick them so that they taste the best. Any advice?

When it's plump, and happily jumps off when lightly tickled. :-)

Seriously, you can put a container under the berries and whichever ones easily fall off (with gentle encouragement) are the right ones to get. If you had to really pull them off, then they're not ready yet.


What are the tradeoffs between spiral and C-shaped dough hooks? I have misplaced the dough hook attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer, and I'm debating what type of dough hook attachment to purchase to replace it, and specifically if there are performance tradeoffs between the two common types. I usually knead by hand but I lean on the mixer for higher-hydration dough or just when I'm feeling lazy.

I'm aware of two dough-hook types for home mixers:

"C"-shape hook (seems most common; also called as "J" shape) -- example from Amazon;
spiral-shaped "hook" (also called as "pigtail") -- example from Amazon.

Is there an objective advantage of one style over the other? I assume there is some difference in performance.

My experience: The latter (spiral-shaped) dough attachment is what originally came with my "professional" (in name only) KitchenAid model. I find that it really only seems to perform well for medium-hydration dough (lower and higher don't work as well), and for a medium amount of dough (too much or too little doesn't seem to work as well). Perhaps I'm just having too-high hopes for this attachment in the first place, or I'm missing something else.

Some examples that would be most helpful to me: Does the spiral version simply work better in all cases if it's compatible with the machine and bowl? Is there any benefit to the C shape? Are there reasons to have both types? Does one work better with lower/higher hydration or more/less dough?

Other research: I haven't found anything satisfying...

I see just a couple questions on SA about dough hooks, but they're really about how to prevent dough walking up and wrapping, like this one and this one. Sounds like the C-shape tends to hold onto the dough too much (dough wraps and climbs) and that the two styles put different wear on the mixers.

A bunch of other sites have some comment about this, but I only found a few that have helpful tidbits:

A thread on KAF forums suggests spiral develops gluten better and may be easier on the machine;
A thread on Chow has roughly the same conclusions;
A thread on The Fresh Loaf suggests that the spiral hook might not work in all bowl shapes, and might put upward strain on the mixer gears both of which could be bad.

The C, J or spade hook is a dismal excuse, having an older "professional" (as you say, in name only) 5-quart Kitchen-Aid mixer that came with one. Per comment above one evidently cannot just swap to the spiral hook on that era of mixer due to the bearings being different. The C hook works against the sides of the bowl, while the spiral works against the bottom, so it pushes up on the shaft.

Of course, I'm comparing against the way that a 30 quart real commercial unit works, with its spiral hook. I wanted a mixer for my kitchen that worked just the same, but smaller, and it's not...

So while you may find the faux-commercial spiral disappointing, you may not have plumbed the depths of the well of disappointment; unless you really want to go there, stick with the spiral, bad as it may be, it's probably better than the C.


What to do with leftover whey from vinegar-based cheese preparation Whey is a valuable protein-rich by-product of cheese preparation. There are many advises for using whey came out of cheese preparation by culture. However, the whey produced after cheese preparation with vinegar (without culture) should be different.

Ricotta is prepared by boiling the leftover whey, but in my experience, the cheese prepared using vinegar is similar to Ricotta, and the remaining whey has no more cheese. Thus, I think this whey is different from normal whey referred over the internet.

Due to the presence of lots of vinegar, it should be more acidic and stronger sour taste.

For these reasons, I believe that common usage introduced for whey is not directly applicable to the whey remained from vinegar-based cheese process.

What are the suitable usage for this highly acidic (and probably cheese-free) whey?

The use of vinegar in the cheese production is irrelevant. Cheese made with the acid from vinegar or cheese made with the acid from a bacterial culture should be similar.

The difference is in how high the milk was heated when the cheese was made. The albumin in milk denatures and precipitates at about boiling temperatures. If the milk was boiled before the acid was added then you are correct that there will be no ricotta.

Many quick cheeses, such as fast mozzarella, call for the milk to be warm but not boiling. You can make ricotta from that whey regardless whether the milk was acidified with bacteria or any other acid.

As for spent whey- it is very high in acid and vitamin B. You can use it in bread in place of water.

I had read of Scandinavian desserts made from condensing whey. I tried that once and found it inedible.

Roses like acidic soil. That's where most of my spent whey goes.


What was this pickled vegetable which I was served at a middle eastern restaurant? I was eating at an Iranian/Persian restaurant and they brought a bowl of pickles to the table. Among them was the usual wild cucumber, green tomato, pink turnip, etc. but there were also several strange ones I had never seen before.

They were small, between the size of a cherry tomato and a small plum, with a smooth (not ridged) shape. They were round/oblong (again kind of like the above fruits). They had a very fine coating of fuzz/hair. The taste was not pronounced in any way (it tasted much like the other pickles). The colour was muted green.

I thought they might be gooseberries but the texture was a lot firmer than a berry.

Do they pickle greengages, or unripe plums, or unripe apricots, etc.? If so, does anyone know the Arabic/Persian/Farsi/Pashto/etc. name for these?

Thanks

I suspect that these will be pickled almonds. Almonds are a favorite ingredient in many middle-Eastern dishes. The green color and fuzz give it away, most other fruits like apricots and plums lack enough fuzz to be noticeable at the unripe stage and are very hard when unripe.

I found a recipe with this photo:

Are these are what you are after?


Why do some recipes call for kneading pie/tart dough? I've have read many times that pie dough is meant to be held sparingly to avoid creating gluten, but kneading the pie dough does exactly that. So, what is the motivation?

Recipes usually specify lightly kneading pie dough to help it hold together better (especially when fitting it into the pie dish) and to orienting the gluten and fat into flaky layers instead of crumbly crumbs.  Over kneading blends the fat and flour into a mortar/paste that  takes longer to cook through and is tough and cardboard-like.


At what point should carrots be thrown away? We tend to buy a big bag of carrots from the supermarket (mainly because it's cheaper than a small bag), but usually these are starting to go soft halfway through the week.  My current rule of thumb is that I'll cook them until they are so soft that I just can't peel them, and won't eat them raw after they have started to go soft.

Given that this is entirely based on my guesswork, can anyone tell me at what point they are actually inedible?

If your carrots are going soft after just a few days, you're not storing them properly. Mine keep for weeks and weeks. I leave them in the plastic bag, and keep that in one of the vegetable drawers in my fridge. How are you storing yours?

A rubbery soft carrot isn't bad for you, it just isn't very pleasant. A slimy carrot is bad for you, don't eat it.


What can I do with vegetable water? I just steamed some vegetables and the water below is greenish-yellow vegetable sweat basically. I don't want to waste any thing unless I have to for a valid reason. Any suggestions?

Make bread with it (let it cool enough that you don't kill the yeast,
first.)
Make soup with it.


How do I substitute stevia for sorbitol? I have a cake recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of sorbitol. I would like to use stevia instead since I am concerned about the side effects of sorbitol. How do I make that substitution? I could just add water to the stevia equivalent for the sorbitol amount to bring the stevia to 1/2 cup of volume. But I don't know if that will have the same effect as using the sorbitol. I know that using unsweetened applesauce will help with moisture retention. Any suggestions?

According to stevia.net one tablespoon of stevia (in powder or liquid form) is the 'equivalent' of one cup of sugar.

Similarly, lowcarbdiets.about.com tells us that sorbitol is 60% of the 'sweetness' of sugar.

Using sugar as a common denominator, 1/2 cup of sorbitol = .83 cup of sugar and so you should use ~.83 Tablespoons of stevia to gain the relative sweetness.

  1 cup of sorbitol = 1.66 cups of sugar 'sweetness', so .83 cups of
  sugar would be 'as sweet' as 1/2 cup sorbitol

That calculated, I would mix 1 tablespoon of stevia with 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce and then use 3/4 of a cup + 1 tablespoons of the mixture, and then adjust from there.

  1 cup = 16 tablespoons, .83 cup = 13.3 tablespoons

Conversions like this are admittedly 'imprecise' but this should give you a good approximation to start from...your mileage may vary.


What causes a tomato sauce to have a bitterness and getting rid of it? My tomato sauce is coming out great, lots of flavor, especially after I was able to reduce it following the tips here

However, it is still slightly bitter.
What causes a tomato sauce to have a (in my case, slight) bitterness and how do you get rid of it?

Is there an anti-bitter technique that is commonly used.

A few things can cause tomato sauces to become bitter:

Overcooked spices.  Both basil and oregano can become bitter with long simmers.  Add them near the end of the process.
Under-ripe tomatos.  Store bought tomatoes are often picked green and ripened in the store.  These tomatoes make less sweet sauces (which may be contributing).
Cooking in an aluminium pan.  Aluminium reacts with the acid in the tomatoes and adds an off-putting flavour.
Seeds/skin in the sauce. Both seeds and skins can be bitter.

You can improve a bitter sauce by adding a small amount of baking soda (or salt), and something sweet (but not too much).


How can I achieve even browning on the bottom of baked buns? I've taken to using my go-to Honey-Oat Pain de Mie recipe to make sandwich buns. I just separate the dough after the first rising into eight dough balls on a sheet pan. As a loaf, I always make this bread in a Pullman pan, so the crust isn't an issue. As buns, this dough browns quite a bit (not surprising considering all the honey) which would be fine if it browned evenly. Unfortunately, the bottom of the buns (in contact with the pan) don't brown at all. In contrast to the toasty tops, that isn't a nice effect. I've tried flipping the buns halfway through baking, and that helps a bit, but the bottoms of the buns never get as brown as the tops. If I flip sooner, I end up up with even browning, but flattened buns. Can anyone help?

You may wish to try a dark colored baking sheet, such as this one from Chicago Metallic (not an endorsement, I haven't tried it.)

The dark finish will help absorb radiant heat, which is a major mode in baking, and better brown the bottoms.  In fact, such a tray probably would bake too fast for the bottoms of cookies.

Buttering it will also help conduct heat from the pan to the bottom crust, although you will also get a touch of that almost-fried texture (I like it, but it might not be what you have in mind).


What are safe temperature ranges for fermenting miso paste? I'd like to make some miso paste. The recipes I've seen recommend keeping the miso in a cool, dark place. Unfortunately my house gets hot in summertime and there is no cool place like a cellar or air-conditioned room to store the miso during the summer months.

Does anyone know what are the safe temperature ranges for fermenting miso? How hot is too hot? What happens if miso gets too hot?

Recipe #1 http://permaculturenews.org/2012/02/04/making-miso/
Recipe #2 http://japanese-cooking-class-tokyo-mari.com/recipe/2013/11/01/how-to-make-miso-paste-home-made-miso-recipe/

According to http://www.soya.be/make-miso.php

"If temperature is too high the koji culture could become inactive."

"The container should be place in a clean room with moderate temperatures (15°C – 25°C)."

Like yeast I think the only danger is that if temperatures get too hot it will stop working or living. Your best bet at keeping it cool is likely putting it in a dark cupboard or somewhere dark with some kind of insulation ideally to stop large temperature fluctuations and stop it getting too hot. You get foil insulated picnic bags for example. Or newspaper or foam would also help insulate.


Are eggs left in car trunk for 3 days safe to eat? I had purchased eggs at the supermarket and i forgot them in the trunk of my car for for 3 days are they still okay to eat?

Would you risk getting sick for ~ $4.  It's not like you left a tin of Beluga caviar in the trunk for 3 days.  Toss them!


What makes pizza flour different from normal flour? The stores where I live do not sell pizza flour. How can I make stretchy pizza flour from raw or all purpose flour? You should be able to spin it.

Of course, you can make a stretchy dough from almost any flour, but stretchy isn't necessarily the only characteristic you are looking for.  Firstly, which style of pizza are you making? The next question you want to ask yourself is what final result you are looking for.  Then, see which ingredients, tools, and techniques are available to achieve (or get close to) those results.  You will not be able to convert AP into some other type of flour, but there is often the opportunity for mail order for specialized ingredients. Additionally, Serious Eats did a comparison of flours in pizza dough.  It might be instructive to have a look.  To troubleshoot the dough you are making, search this site.  If you don't find help, create a new question with your recipe and process.


Planning for sandwich sales I make a really great smoked brisket and usually give quite a lot away when cooking at rallies, races, tail-gating etc. This time I want to try selling the sandwiches.

I have no clue how to figure out how many sandwiches per pound. How would I figure that out?

What about prices - how should I select a price per sandwich? How can I estimate how much money I might make selling them?

Dennis,

Welcome to the site!  Generally we focus on the "how to make food" side here, but I thought I'd suggest some things to consider from a layman's perspective.  There is no standard formula for how to figure this out because so much depends on your exact situation.  (The amount of meat per sandwich is the result of your own cooking style.)  Be forewarned - lots of research and math is ahead of you!

You need to make a profit, so first you need to figure out how much it costs you to make the brisket sandwiches.  What are your food costs (include transportation costs)?  (It's important to keep your portions uniform for all units; consider using a measuring cup to dish out the meat per sandwich.)  What is the cost of your time (including shopping, cooking, cleaning, advertising, and selling)?  What is the cost to construct it (your charcoal / electricity, and new equipment)?  How much does it cost you to sell it (napkins and other service ware, table, stall rental, advertising,)?  Even if you're working "under the radar" for now, eventually you'll have to get licenses, permits and a food-legal kitchen, and you may have to change your prices then.  Consider it all, and add it all up.

Once you've got a well researched amount for the costs, divide that by the number of units (sandwiches) that you produce.  You need to make at least that much to break even.  Probably you want to charge at least twice that (probably higher).

Analyze whether that price you've come up with will work in your target market.  Do you need to increase the price to avoid leaving money on the table?  Look at your competition - how much are they charging?  Price is a funny thing - and you'll have to massage it a lot.  (If you undercut the competition by a lot, you may just have a lowered perception of quality rather than more customers.  But if you're much higher than the competition, customers may never try you.)  You can also consider selling the sandwiches at not much of a profit, and hoping to make up the difference with soda pop or sides.

Good luck!


Why are grape preserves so hard to find in the USA? When I was much younger my grandmother was always complaining that she could never find grape preserves anymore. That was maybe 20-30 years ago.

I recently started looking for grape preserves and am unable to find them. I can find black currant preserves, blueberry preserves and just about any other fruit under the sun. But why is grape preserves so hard to find?

I thought maybe it has something to do with fermentation and wine? But I cannot find any information. I am not talking about grape jelly, I am specifically talking about grape preserves.

Other than making them myself, where do you find any in a store?

** If you do not know the difference between jelly and preserve, you can read about it here.

  In jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice. Jelly has the
  smoothest consistency and is usually clear.
  In jam, the fruit comes in
  the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit. This makes jam less stiff
  than jelly.
  In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks in a
  gel or syrup. Preserves will have more fruit in them than jam will.
  Marmalade is a type of preserve with citrus fruits in it.

TL;DR: likely because demand was too low to sustain commercial distribution

Barring any relationship to a specific historical incident, it's very difficult to find out why a specific food is no longer commercially produced. In the absence of specific reasons, we can see a number of contributing factors as to why grape preserves would have gone off the market:

In the US, sales of preserves in general trail sales of jams and jellies considerably.  Grape jelly eclipses sales of grapes in other forms (sorry all refs behind paywalls).  This distribution is very skewed with 9 varieties constituting 80% of the market.  So it could be quite possible for grape preserves to "fall off" the bottom of the market.
For historical reasons having to do with the Concord Grape, Americans are used to eating their grapes as jelly, so preserves may seem quite oddball and hard to sell.
From what I could gather from the one grape preserve recipe I found, the runny texture of grape preserves are possibly off-putting to most consumers.

Not terribly satisfying, I know, but that may be as much information as is out there.


What are 'boiling potatoes'? If a recipe calls for 'boiling potatoes', what variety(ies) is it referring to, and why?

Example Recipes:

Punjabi-Style Cauliflower and Potatoes with Ginger (Aloo Gobi)
Potato and Cauliflower Curry
Roasted Portobello Burgers with Rosemary Garlic Oven Fries
Chorizo-Cod-Potato Stew

This most likely means waxy potatoes, typically white or red. In some contexts it might also mean you want small ones so that you can boil and serve them whole, but it doesn't look like that's the case here.

There are two main kinds of potatoes, starchy and waxy. Starchy ones (like russets) cook up fluffy and dry, desirable for things like baked potatoes and fluffy mashed potatoes, but are prone to disintegrating when boiled or mixed into potato salad, and can get waterlogged from over-boiling. Waxy ones (like most red and white potatoes) on the other hand stay relatively firm, making them good for boiling.

So "boiling potatoes" meaning "potatoes for boiling" would indicate waxy potatoes, and that's consistent with the recipes you linked to. For aloo gobi, you want firm ones so they don't fall apart when you mix it all up. For curries and stews, you don't want them to get waterlogged or fall apart. Fries are much easier to handle if they're not falling apart! And two of the recipes even mentioned red and white potatoes.


Is It Possible to make corn tortillas at home without a press? I don't own a tortilla press and until I have more cabinet space, one is not in my future.  However I value making as much as I can from scratch and love using tortillas in my cooking.  I have made whole wheat tortillas using a variation on this recipe, subbing oil and butter in for the shortening to try and get a bit more flavor out of the tortillas.

I'd like to move to homemade corn tortillas, but every recipe that I have seen instructs one to use a press.  With flour I was able to roll my tortillas as thin as required, but will I have trouble when moving to masa trying to do it with a rolling pin, or will I be able to get thin corn tortillas without a press?

Yes, you can do it without a press. Place a ball of dough between two layers of plastic wrap. Use at least twice the area of wrap that you think the final tortilla will be. Squish the ball flat with a pan, book, or your hand. Now use a rolling pin to roll the dough between the sheets of plastic. Make sure the thickness is even, and don't get it too thin or it will break when you cook it. Bonus: you can store the uncooked tortillas in the plastic until using and they won't dry out.


Why does Anova sous vide tell me to cook salmon to unsafe temperatures I started using the Anova Sous Vide as a means to cook more meals at home and so far I really like it.
I wanted to try out some salmon so I did it with olive oil and tyme in a sealable bag using the slow immersion and then sealing at the top method. The guide said 45 munites at 120F which I did. When I pulled the salmon out and blotted it with a paper towel to get it dry, my thermometer was about 120F as expected.
However looking at the USDA food safety regulations they say salmon should be 145F in the middle. I have always been paranoid about food safety so I have not eaten this yet. Instead I took off the skin like the guide said and refrigerated them.

So what is the deal with this pretty major temperature disparity. Doing some research I get that some people eat salmon at this temperature, so what's the deal with 145F? Will I get sick eating this? Anything I should look out for? Thank you.

A fair amount of cooks and recipes disagree with the official guidelines when it comes to salmon's desired cooking temperature. The 145F guideline applies to all fish and shellfish, and is meant as a safety standard, not a culinary guideline. I've seen target temperatures for salmon ranging from 120 to 150F (most being in the 120-135F range).

The main reason for the 145F temperature is parasites such as Anisakis, which requires the following to kill:

  How can I prevent anisakiasis?

  Do not eat raw or undercooked fish or squid.

  The FDA recommends the following for seafood preparation or storage to
  kill parasites.

  Cooking (Seafood in General)

  Cook seafood adequately (to an internal temperature of at least 145° F
  [~63° C]).

  Freezing (Fish)

  At -4°F (-20°C) or below for 7 days (total time), or
  At -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid, and storing at -31°F (-35°C) or
  below for 15 hours, or
  At -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or
  below for 24 hours.

You should research what other parasites and bacteria may be found in the salmon you source, and what mitigation strategies there are (such as freezing, as seen above). If all of them can be done without heating the fish above 120F, you may have a way to follow those guidelines safely. Otherwise, stick to what the USDA, FDA, and CDC agree on :)


Steamer with single vent instead of bottom holes My family has owned a stainless steel steamer for a long time with a single raised vent to let steam into the upper compartment. It's great because there's no way for food to get into the bottom compartment so it (mostly) never has to be washed. It only ever contains water.

I really want to buy one of these but the only steamers I can find for sale have a perforated bottom in the upper compartment. Does anyone know where I can buy one or if any company still manufactures these?

I have a stainless steel steamer/juicer similar to the one picture w/o perforation. It has a tube that dispels the juice into any container you choose right from the middle pan as it extracts.  I purchased mine from Amazon and it is a product of Cook N Home.


When cooking tomato sauce for a long time, should you add water? I know tomato sauce should be cooked for a long time to develop flavor. To prevent it burning you have to stir constantly, though I find it burns on the stove (and the oven) too much without adding water.

I wonder however if adding water can stop the sauce from developing flavor since boiling food cannot reach 300+ temperatures required for flavor to develop. Lately I found putting a lid on the skillet reduces evaporation and thus chance for burning, though I think it may defeat the purpose.

When cooking tomato sauce, does adding water to prevent sauce from burning stop the flavor development?

Tomatoes are mostly water anyway. They're not going to get above boiling point whether or not you add water (or at least not by more than a very few degrees even with salt added - less than the effect of altitude).

On the other hand the browned bits from the bottom of the pan (often called fond in the US though I've never heard this in the UK and the usage in France is a bit different) do give a nice flavour to the sauce so long as they don't catch.

If you do add water, you'll need to simmer it down anyway, making that the stirring step still happens, just later. But adding some water fairly early can give you some flexibility. A good time to do this is when it's starting to need constant stirring but you need to get on with the rest of the meal. A low heat and a heavy pan help too.


What happens to yeast in bread after it dies? I have been told by someone that afterm the yeast dies in bread when you bake it, it "disappears". Is this true? I always thought I could taste yeast in really good bread but I could be wrong.

Nothing truly disappears even in thermonuclear reactions and baking bread is not even close to that.

When you bake bread, water evaporates into the atmosphere and the CO2 and other volatiles released by the yeast bacteria dissipate there as well, which means that the solids of the yeast just remain inside the bread.

So you can tell your friend that their statement is untrue. and that with each bite of bread they're eating a graveyard full of dead yeast bodies...  ;-)


Commercial Kitchens in the UK How would you find a commercial kitchen to rent in the UK? I cannot seem to find any resources for them, the only ones i've found are attached to store fronts.

Would this be a case of renting a generic workshop/manufacturing space and kitting it out yourself, or are there specific facilities for catering companies etc

I had assumed this was off topic but found this: How do I find a commercial kitchen?

while my question is similar I'm specifically asking for the UK

Depending on the size of kitchen, the length of time you need it for and the number of people you are catering for etc., many community centres, pubs and large churches are willing to hire their catering facilities out and dining space as well if need be.


Why does cheese sometimes slide off my pizza and how can I prevent it? I eat pizza constantly and have noticed that one of the most annoying pizza properties is cheese sliding. You take a bite and all the cheese is dragged off and often swings down and burns your chin with hot tomato sauce.

I have noticed this effect with home-made, frozen and delivery pizzas and the effect is not always consistent. Sometimes my frozen pizza has sticky cheese and sometimes it slides off despite being the same product prepared in what would appear to be the same way. The same can be true for delivery pizzas where even two identical pizzas ordered together may not act the same way.

What causes the dreaded cheese slide and what measures can be taken to prevent it?

Let it cool a bit.  Then eat. Added bonus: You don't sear the roof of your mouth.


Why does my chard taste bitter when I cook it? I've tried cooking it in various ways, but it always ends up tasting bitter. What am I doing wrong? I'm using fairly young chard (homegrown), using the whole leaves.

Your chard most likely tastes bitter because chard is bitter.  You can't really change that with cooking technique alone, but you can:

Use older chard, which tends to be markedly less bitter than the young chard you're using;
Avoid bringing out the bitterness, by cooking at lower heat;
Mute any remaining bitterness with salt, which is pretty common for leafy greens.


Canning with Quart Jars Most of the recipes I'm finding on reputable websites for canning pickles (or banana peppers) are designed for pint-sized jars. So, naturally, I have a full dozen quart-sized jars that I'd like to use but I'm worried about the processing stage.  Does increasing the size of the jar from pint to quart change how long I need to process it? If so, how much?

Increasing the size of the jar generally increases the canning time.  When processing, you are heating the food all the way through to a particular temperature to kill any microbial contaminants.  For an item with more volume, it will generally take longer to bring the center up to a particular temperature.

How long you have to process it depends on how big of step you take in the size of the jar, and what you are canning.  I would imagine it would usually add 5-10 minutes to the processing time.

Here is a link explaining it. It also refences the USDA canning guidelines. The second link includes canning times for many items; most increase with larger volumes, but not all.  These should get you started, and you can research further if you are canning something that isn't in these documents. I suppose there is a general processing time that is safe for any size, but it would probably affect the flavor and texture of the food to process it too much more than is necessary.

NOTE: While I may play fast and loose with some USDA guidelines, canning is ALWAYS serious business. Improperly canned foods can lead to botulism, which is hard or impossible to detect, and you can't "cook it" out of the food.  Use tested formulas and correct procedures.

PS: Here is the direct link to the pickle guidelines. It looks like for anything larger than gherkins or sliced (bread and butter) pickles, you will add five minutes to the time. MAke sure though...


Do I need onions when making thai curry paste? or can I just add onions to the dish I'm cooking later with the paste? I've been experimenting with making green thai curry paste this week and I have a pretty decent tasting curry resulting right now.  However, in all the green curry paste recipes I see, they say I have to add onion/shallots to my paste when crushing in the mortar.

My question:  Is it necessary to have onion/shallots present in the paste?  Or can I make a green curry paste without onion, then just add onion to the actual curry when I use the paste to make a full on dish from it?  Is there any cooking theory behind this as to why onions must be crushed in the paste as opposed to just added later when cooking the dish?  Will it affect the taste of my curry in any noticeable way?

The question is more from a practical perspective, as I have a pretty small mortar, and adding the onions/shallots tends to cause it to overflow and make crushing pretty difficult.

If the mortar size vs volume of ingredients is truly the only concern, you can crush things in batches and mix them in a bowl afterwards. :-)

I think the main reason for adding them into a prepared paste is for convenience in adding that paste to recipes later. If it has everything you need already in it, then it works better as a base. If it doesn't have everything in it already, you will have to make sure you have more ingredients on hand later when you're preparing the recipe. If you're making the paste and using it in the same cooking session then this doesn't make any difference at all.

Adding the onions to the paste vs adding onions with the paste won't affect the flavor as long as you add them at the same time.

If you add the paste early in the cooking and the onions significantly later in the cooking then that can affect how thoroughly the onions get cooked and how well they impart their flavor to the sauce.

Also, if you are storing the paste for some time in the fridge, the flavors of the various ingredients may change a little over time, and onions in particular might mellow somewhat, but I don't think they would change significantly enough to matter for the end result. This is just where you get into the convenience factor -- if you have added the onions already, your Thai green chili paste is a complete ingredient in itself and you don't have to worry about having the shallots on hand as well.


How to pack items that may leak liquids for lunch? Today my husband packed me some shrimp burritos for lunch. They were very tasty, but unfortunately, a lot of liquid drained from them between morning and lunchtime, so the bottom burrito in the pile was too soggy to eat without a knife and fork. Is there a better way to pack foods of this type so that they retain their expected consistency?

For your situation I would recommend packing the burritos individually (or 2 at once) so this does not happen.  You can achieve this by using foil, plastic wrap, or bags.  Alternatively, you may try putting a sheet of wax paper (or foil/plastic wrap - but remove before microwaving) between each layer of burritos.

If this does not work for you, try the following:

Here are two methods that can be used to try to preserve expected consistency:

The easiest, and most sure to actually work:

Store the components that are wet and going to leak liquid in a different container.  Unfortunately, this may involve you having to build your burrito when you want to eat it, yet this is sure to prevent a soggy burrito.

To do this you can use separate containers, bags, or however you normally package a burrito.  One can also purchase plastic food containers with multiple compartments specifically made for this purpose (separation of different food items).  For an example, here is a product listed on Amazon.

The second way:

This isn't a long-term fix nor is it as efficient as a multi-compartment food container.  One can strategically build certain food items so that they are less likely to make bread or tortillas soggy.  You have to place a food item, that will not let the bread absorb the liquid as quickly, next to the bread.  The best example I can give you is that when I make a BLT sandwich that I am not going to eat immediately, I place the lettuce right next to the bread instead of putting the tomato right next to the bread.  The lettuce provides a barrier between the two.  Like I said though, it will not be as efficient as multi-compartment food containers.


My jello is not getting firm in the refrigerator The procedure I followed this time:
I started using the microwave to heat up the water. Then I pour both cold and hot water in a bowl, then the package of jello.

Previously I always cooked on the stove. After boil I would pour the jello in the pan, then to a bowl and then the cup of cold water. Never had a problem with that.

With the new method my jello is not getting firm in the refrigerator. Why (not)?

It's not working because you're trying to set jello to lukewarm water - from mixing the hot and cold and then adding the jello.

The hot water needs to be added first, then the jello, then the cold water, then refrigerate, in that order.


Can tempered chocolate be seeded with a different chocolate? I have unsweetened chocolate, which is stored in seized form (soft, grainy). I use it for chocolate sauces. Is it possible to temper this chocolate by:

Sweetening it with white or brown sugar?
Then seeding it with Some
Callebaut 811 dark chocolate chips that I have? Therefore, the
melted and seeding chocolates are different.

I just recently learned to bake donuts. I tried to glaze it using my regular chocolate sauce recipe made a little thicker. Wasn't good. I revisited tempering chocolate, and thought that having it crystallize over the donut would be perfect and less messy.

You cannot use sugar unless you do not mind having crunchy sugar crystals. There is no way of sweetening chocolate by adding sugar, even powdered sugar, without a conche. I think if the cacao contents are not too dissimilar, you should be fine. I have got away with 70% seeding 85%, but I cannot tell you whether you could get away with any mix. You can also sweeten your 100% by mixing sweet dark chocolate.

I would not use whole chips though, you want it grated. In fact, I would temper the Callebaut first and grate it. Keep a stash of that as seed. I have also routinely tempered dark chocolate without seeding.


Home outdoor cooking apparatus for high heat cooking (wok, stir fry) I am a chef over in Western Australia and love to cook outdoors in my spare time as we certainly have the weather for it. For Asian cooking (stir fried, in a wok) I'm looking for equipment, but there seems to be no proper market in this field for home use.

There are what is call the Rambo burners which seem excellent , but they do not have a proper housing kit for stylish outdoor entertainment.

Asian charcoal cookers look good but are not available for purchase here.

Is there a home outdoor cooking apparatus capable of high heat cooking (specifically for wok cooking) which is perfect for backyard entertaining??

I don't know what's available in Australia, but in the US they market high-output outdoor burners for deep-frying turkeys. This one is marketed as 200,000 BTU, twice the output of the ones often used in Chinese restaurants. (This $1,000 restaurant wok is marketed as 90,000 BTU.)

Most outdoor turkey fryers are marketed as 60,000 BTU, which will probably work reasonably well. They are decidedly not to be used indoors; YouTube has many videos of people setting their houses on fire.

Getting one in Australia may be a challenge, but they're very common in the US, and many kitchen stores and (oddly) hardware stores. I imagine you could have one shipped, though I'd verify that your propane tanks are compatible.


Squashing cookie balls vs slicing them I have two cookie recipes that I plan to enter into a competition.  Both of them call for dropping balls of cookie dough onto the sheet pan and then squashing them to 1/4".  If I want to make the dough ahead of time and freeze, can I roll the dough into a tube and freeze that way and then slice 1/4" slices when I'm ready to bake them?  Or is there a reason I should squash them?

From a food science point of view, in terms of the quality of flavor and the texture of the cookies, there is little reason to choose slicing over squashing; both will give very similar outcomes.

You may find the aesthetics or appearance of the cookies will be slightly different with the two methods.   The sliced cookies will be more regular, especially if you cut them with dental floss; they will be quite round and even edged.  The squashed cookies will be more irregular at the edges and perhaps show more texture on top.


How can I cook more flavorful Chicken through and through? When I cook chicken, the flavor seems to be concentrated in the skin.  But when I get a rotisserie chicken from Costco, it seems to be very flavorful through and through, beyond just the skin.

I've experimented with various seasonings, including salt/pepper, soy sauce, or various store-bought marinades. They're all good, but again, all the flavor seems to be in the skin.

In my chicken quest, and out of admiration of Costco chicken, I've purchased a Ronco Showtime Rotisserie oven, which I use regularly.  I'm quite the novice cook, so it has certainly helped the level and consistency of my chicken. However it seems to make little difference when it comes to flavor.

From what I know, cutting the chicken into pieces gives the chicken more flavor. But I'm looking for other solutions please.

How can I achieve more flavorful chicken through and through?

One option to consider to add flavour to a chicken is brining. I've personally never brined a chicken, but everytime I come across mention of it in a foodie blog, forum or elsewhere, it always seems to be considered a good way to impart additional flavour into the meat.

Since writing this answer I've followed Nigella Lawson's recipe for Spiced and Superjuicy Roast Turkey which has resulted in fantastically tasty and moist turkey at Christmas every year, to the point where I won't countenance turkey at Christmas without brining it now. If this translates as well to chicken (which I fully admit I should've tried by now!) then it's well worth the time and effort.


how does turbo chef oven work and technology in it? Anyone know exactly how the turbo chef oven works like what technology does it use and how does it supply heat ? I'm interested

From a quick google: It looks to be a combination of 3 different technology, radiant heat, hot air and microwave.

From the turbo chef web site: Tubo Chef Bullet

"The Bullet oven uses radiant heat, high-speed air impingement, and side-launched microwave to cook food rapidly without compromising quality."

Air impingement seems to be high pressure, high temperature air jets:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/air-impingement

Video describing air impingement


What to look for when purchasing a blender? I currently don't have a blender after purchasing my own home and am looking to get one for making smoothies primarily, but also for pureeing for soups, etc.

I had a smoothie maker that I won as a prize; it was very obviously a cheap unit. It barely handled frozen fruit and yogurt. Ice cream and frozen fruit burned up the motor.

I am aware of the extreme "Home Improvement"-style "Binford-3000" Blendtec blenders (also as proposed in this question) but they are extremely expensive and I don't plan on incorporating cell phones or garden rakes into my smoothies.

What should I look for to get a quality blender? I don't want to purchase an inexpensive one three or four times in the next few years. I'd prefer one that will last a long time and prove to be a good kitchen tool.

Edit:

In shopping for blenders, it seems that most seem to be between $30 and $150. Obviously there are some questionably cheap ones and many that exceed that range. So for the purposes of this question, assume that range to be the budget.

Look for a strong motor and thick blades. If the blades are thin, they're likely to warp over time. The motor needs to be able to spin those blades through the liquid.

Look for a thick glass container. The plastic ones are unlikely to deal with the heat of things like soups and sauces being dumped in.

Check the gasket between the glass container and the piece that attaches the blades. A thin, flimsy gasket is likely to start leaking before a thicker, softer gasket.

Look at the number of teeth on the connection from the motor to the blade. The more teeth, the greater the surface area being used to distribute the power to the blade mechanism and is less likely to wear out.

Overall, as with many things, one of the quickest ways to tell a good one is to weigh them both. The heavier item is better. No one pays for shipping extra weight unless it's there for a good reason.

(note that the "heavier" rule doesn't apply to electronics like cellphones/computers, etc. where the cost of making it small is actually higher)


Differences/Similarities between cinnamon and nutmeg I read a while ago that nutmeg and cinnamon are really similar and you can easily substitute one for the other. Yet many recipes call for both cinnamon and nutmeg so it seems like there must be some kind of difference.

What are the specific differences between cinnamon and nutmeg? And are they significant enough to justify buying both cinnamon and nutmeg?

Try to remember where you read that. And then don't read them anymore.

If you find your nutmeg and cinnamon tasting at all similar, they've both turned to dust and should be discarded.

And next time, buy whole nutmeg - it tastes much better freshly-grated, and keeps much longer without turning into vaguely-spicy-bitter dust.


Can I use caster sugar instead of cane sugar? I am making a ginger beer and I do not know if I should use caster sugar as a subsitiute for my cane sugar, as I do not have any. Is this OK?

Yes you can, so long as you work by weight not volume. Unrefined cane sugar (or refined sugar with some molasses added back in) would contribute a little to the flavour, but sugar mainly provides sweetness, and in brewed ginger beer, a source of nutrients for the culture.

Caster at the same volume as granulated would be too sweet (the finer crystals mean more will pack into the same space), but at the same weight it would be fine.


How can I cook more efficiently in a campervan using a single pot over a gas-powered flame? I am using a campervan 3 nights per week, 40 weeks per year.  I have a single gas powered hob (like most camping stoves), a sink with running water and am seeking advice to cook efficiently with as minimal cleaning as possible.

Caveat: I don't have a fridge/freezer but median temperature in the UK is extremely low (my olive oil froze today! haha)

Ingredients
Techniques for protecting the pan from cooked food residue
Efficient cooking and storage techniques without a fridge / freezer

I've done a lot a single ring camping cooking. My camper van has a bit more kitchen than yours but I still take a similar approach when staying in it and going to work. Here's a typical example that worked for me.

I cooked a curry at home and put a portion in the fridge (freezing is also an option).
When camping I boiled water and put it in a vacuum flask.
Then I heated the curry in my larger of two pans, with a lid on but stirring frequently. Heating gently meant it didn't stick.
Cooking the rice (using the recently boiled water, and an excess of it rather than measuring) took place in the smaller pan, using the larger as a lid to keep the sauce hot.
Then I drained the rice water into a mug or similar, added the sauce to the rice, and poured the cooking water into the sauce pan with some washing up liquid so it could soak while I ate and would be easy to wash up. (I used mess things to cook in and eat from when in the tent, it's easier with a few more containers).

The same thing works with pasta. Noodles (ramen) cook much quicker than spaghetti, saving fuel, and make a perfectly acceptable substitute. The principle of keeping one thing hot over the top of the other is key, as is a vacuum flask. Washing up in starchy water doesn't work very well, but soaking and prewashing do, allowing you to wash up in a minimum of water.

If you don't want to rely on taking home made ready meals there are plenty of books and blogs devoted to one-ring recipes (recipe requests are off topic here anyway).

Pasta, rice and noodles all work quite well, needing no preparation. Frying can be a pain if you're cooking in the van - it makes things greasy and the smell lingers, but in dry weather it works outside (if you can take the stove out). A canned (jar/packet etc. ) sauce can be used with something like tinned tuna if you don't have fridge space. Defrosting in a cool bag can take 24 hours or more and it uses a lot of gas to defrost on the stove.


What foods to cook in a new cast iron skillet that will help improve the seasoning? I've never cooked with cast iron before and just picked up a couple Lodge cast iron skillets  (6" and 12"). They come preseasoned, but I imagine some additional seasoning is desired.

I tried bacon, which took a lot longer than I expected, and left a lot of brown bits. I also tried grilled cheese, which wound up being a terrible mess that I threw away, since so much of the bread stuck. I had buttered the bread, and put some oil in the pan, but still went back to my non stick pan.

I know there are some foods that really require a good season on the skillet to cook properly (like eggs). Are there any foods that help improve the seasoning?

To improve seasoning, any frying or searing will help. Frying chicken, searing steak, etc. Anything that has to do with heating oil. The things that can damage the seasoning are acidic mixes, and in long duration. An example: Simmering tomato sauce.

I would also like to add that actually seasoning the pan, and proper handling and storage will give you much better results in improving your seasoning. One good starting point is Kenji Lopez alt's advice on cast iron pans. There are other very good sources on this too.


How to make and keep long grain organic brown rice tender I am trying to meal prep brown rice. The brand I have bought, with no particular thought other than calories/carb amounts is this Long Grain Brown Rice 365 Whole Foods brand. The way I cook the rice is put in about 2 cups of rice and 2.5 cups water/broth mixture into my instant pot. I then pressure cook for 15 minutes. Occasionally I have also added spices to the rice/water mixture before cooking. I then immediately transfer to a container and store it in the fridge. To reheat, I just put in the microwave for 2 minutes.

The problem is that the reheated brown rice is firm and unpleasant. I feel like I am eating pebbles. I know brown rice will be naturally firmer than white rice but there should be a way to make it palatable. I read somewhere that long grain brown rice contains more of something that when refrigerated causes it to crystallize, so short-grain/medium-grain rice is better. In addition to that, what else can I do to make the rice come out as soft as possible and maintain that even when reheated?

I know that most people here probably cook rice on the stovetop but I would really prefer to use the instant pot because it's extremely convenient and I don't have much time to cook other than a few hours on Sunday.

When reheating any kind of rice, you will need to add water to it (with white rice, just covering the container with a damp paper towel works). However, brown rice does not reheat well at all; and from personal experience it is exactly how you describe it. So what we do when we cook rice for our meals, is we throw it in the rice cooker as we shower and get ready for the day to limit moisture loss as over the course of a day or night in a fridge.

However, when it comes to cooking it the first time, the easiest way is to use an actual rice cooker. The one I have has a separate setting for White, Brown (short and long grain) and steam (like for veggies). It was not expensive (like 40CAD). If you have a preference for the convenience of an Instapot, that would be my recommendation. You can add spices, herbs and other flavouring agents into it as well (just do it after you add the water and rice so it staying on top to remove when it's cooked, no one likes eating star anise by accident lol).


Do I need to wipe/clean my knife after sharpening/honing? I'm sharpening honing my cutting knives with a (honing) steel. I'm sure I read/saw somewhere that you should wipe your knives after sharpening honing to remove any shards of metal. Is this correct or necessary? Am I getting confused with something else? It doesn't seem plausible to me that this would create metal shards, but obviously it being a safety issue I wanted to check. Thanks.

Depending on the type of honing rod and the technique you use for honing, you will remove more or less metal from the blade. You can confirm whether your rod removes metal by wiping the blade on a white tea cloth after honing. If you see a grey residue on the cloth then metal has been removed and you can decide yourself whether you want that in your food.

Types of Honing Rod

Steel rods, of the type that are perfectly smooth will not remove noticeable amounts of steel from a blade. Polished honing rods are used for straightening a curled blade edge. Other types have shallow grooves cut down the length of the rod that bite into the blade and shave off metal particles.
Ceramic rods are slightly abrasive and will remove small amounts of metal.
Diamond coated rods are used for sharpening in place of a whetstone and will remove relatively large amounts of metal.

What technique you use for honing depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you only need to realign the edge of a well maintained knife, then two or three swipes on both sides of the blade, maintaining light pressure should be sufficient.

If you do this with a polished steel, then I would be surprised if you need to wipe the blade afterwards. If you use one of the other types of rod, then you are also removing metal from your knife and you may want to strop the knife and give it a quick wipe after.


What's the best way to store unused sushi rice? Let's say, I only want to make 1 sushi roll right now.  Is there a good way to store the rest of the rice for tomorrow's rolls?  And what about storing the nori?

Storing cooked rice is generally not a good idea.

With the high starch content in rice, it is simply an excellent growing ground for bacteria. Add to this the fact that uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus Cereus which when germinated to bacteria can lead to food poisoning causing vomiting and diarrhea.

Bacillus Cereus spores can survive cooking, so when rice is left to cool they can germinate and start multiplying in the rice. It isn't the bacteria itself that is dangerous, but a toxin they produce. This toxin does not disappear from re-heating.

If you do want to store the rice, make sure to cool it really quickly and store it in the fridge for no more than a day. Personally I never do that and only cook as much rice as I need.

Anecdotal: In fact, a friend working at a big sushi chain in London told me recently that over the course of four or five years they had one incident of proven food poisoning in one of their many restaurants. The source of the food poisoning was not the fish, but actually the rice which had been standing too long.

Storing nori I don't know much about, but if you seal it in an airtight bag and keep it dry I see no problems with that.


can I use regular green cabbage to make kimchi? Can regular green cabbage be used for kimchi? I've made several batches with Napa cabbage but it's expensive and not as easily available.

Yes, you can use any cabbage you like.  You can also make kimchi with cucumbers...bean sprouts....really, many vegetables.   It's really just fermenting/pickling.


Is it safer to wrap or cover your food when warming them in the microwave? I heard from a friend that if nothing covers the bowl or plate of food, there is a direct radiation affect on the food you eat. Is that true?

Many plastics used in the kitchen are unsuitable for use in contact with hot food, whether wrapping it or sagging onto it when used as a cover. Freezer bags are a relevant example. These may melt, or leach into the food. I don't worry about this as much as I probably should; some people are very cautious.

A sealed wrap is also a bad idea, as it can burst under steam pressure. For example leaving a bag clipped shut. This is rare though, and also applies to an unvented cover of cling film.

A loose or vented cover is a good idea for keeping the microwave clean.

Your friend is misguided. Microwave ovens use a form of radiation similar to radio waves, and this is what heats the food. It's very different to ionising radiation which we are rightly cautious of.

Microwave radiation isn't blocked by anything you'd use as a microwave cover/wrap, because then your food wouldn't heat up. So it's a good thing your friend's cover does nothing.  Microwave radiation is blocked by metal, including the mesh in the door. The emission of microwaves stops instantly when you open the door, because we're made of meat and would cook quite easily (plus the WiFi would be jammed).

All links are from Wikipedia and are further reading for the curious.


Making Douchi from scratch How does one make Douchi (Chinese fermented black beans) from scratch?

I've tried searching the web and haven't found anything. I imagine it can't be too hard, since it's mainly just fermented soybeans. Anybody have any idea of how Douchi is made? Or at least resources that will point in the right direction?

Sandor Katz's Art of Fermentation has a recipe for douchi (link).

  Soybeans (yellow or black) are soaked, cooked until soft, cooled, inoculated with Aspergillus spores or mixed mold cultures, and incubated around 80–90°F/27–32°C for about 72 hours, until the mold on the beans turns green, indicating sporulation. In contrast to the hamanatto method described above, in the douchi method the beansare not dried at this stage but rather washed, to remove the spores, which would impart bitter flavor. For the second-stage fermentation, the beans are fermented in brine, sometimes with sugar and/or hot chili paste, for four to six months, then dried.


How many times can cheesecloth be reused? I've only needed to use cheesecloth a few times in the kitchen and was curious to know if it's reusable.

If so, how is it cleaned and how many times can it be reused?

I've not been able to use store bought cheese cloth more than twice and then only if I used it gently. And I'm not gentle on the stuff. I use it for cheese making regularly as well as juicing and random filtering.

I gave up on normal cheese cloth because it is too fragile and way too expensive for what it was.

I now use instead a tightly woven polyester mesh fabric. I found a yard of it in the scraps section of the fabric store for $1. A yard is about 3 times more than I will ever need. I cut it into smaller pieces and hemmed it. It is strong enough to be rung out full of grapes as well as laundered and a tight enough weave to filter small particles out of beef stock.

I was surprised how often I end up using these cloths and highly recommend them.


Why does whipped cream use nitrous oxide instead of nitrogen gas? It seems that nitrous oxide (N2O) is frequently used to create whipped cream. But why can't just regular nitrogen gas (N2) be used instead?

To aerosolize the cream to make whipped cream requires the gas be able to be dissolved in the cream.  Nitrogen just does not dissolve in cream that well.  It could be done with O2.  But that would cause it to spoil almost as soon as it was made.  For these reasons Nitrous Oxide is used instead of just Nitrogen or Oxygen.


Does cornstarch affect the pH of what I'm cooking? I'm considering canning some fruit compotes to use with yogurt, and the recipe I want to use (which was not designed with canning in mind, found here: http://www.simplebites.net/how-to-make-your-own-fruit-bottom-yogurt/ ) calls for cornstarch to be used to thicken everything up.

Now, I do not have a pressure cooker, so I would be doing this with a water bath canner, and I'd like to know if the cornstarch is going to lower the acidity of the fruit mixture, or if I should use some other thickening agent or method.

Thanks!

I don't have any info on the affect of pH, but cornstarch can make your compote separate when canned: http://www.sbcanning.com/2011/08/canning-pie-filling-education-in-clear.html.

Two alternative thickeners are tapioca and clearjel.  I've used clearjel for canning with excellent results.  I haven't used tapioca to can, but do prefer it in my pies.

(posted as an answer per Sobachatina's recommendation)


What kind of peppers are used in Gochugaru (고추가루)? I'm trying to make kimchi, but I don't have any chili powder (gochugaru  -고추가루). Does anyone know what type of chili pepper(s) this is made from? I'm trying to find it at a normal western grocery store (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Remke...) I figured if I knew what type of peppers it was made from I could find something equivalent.

When I go to the Korean supermarkets in LA, I usually see half an aisle just dedicated to 고추가루 in all kinds of forms (mild to spicy, fine to coarse grind) and colors. I don't know that there's any specific pepper than it is all about how sweet and mildly spicy 고추가루 is supposed to be. You could start from there to make your own by sun drying and crushing whatever peppers are available to you.

If you are looking for a substitute that you can buy at a western store, try crushed red pepper flakes (the kind you see in the shakers at pizza places). You're going to be adjusting for taste/spiciness anyway, so not much of a dealbreaker.


White stuff on the top of my apple cider vinegar? This white stuff has appeared on my Apple cider vinegar. Is it good or do I remove it?

It has been 4 weeks. I was going to strain the apples out today and let it sit for another 4 weeks.

Smell of the vinegar is nice and doesn't have a bad odour.

That is mold. You should skim it off and throw it away. It's probably an indication that your acid to sugar balance is not correct. If it comes back I'd throw away your batch and try again.


Why is my dough not very stretchy? I have tried simply dough recopies for potsticker wrappers or dough's slightly more involved like corn tortillas and no matter what, whenever I press the dough for shape it doesn't keep form and just shirnks back up.

I have tried rolling pins and tortillas presses, but as soon as it flattens within seconds it shrinks back up again.  I use a stand mixer to mix all the ingredients.  Does my issue maybe relate to not mixing long enough or maybe mixing too long?  any tips would be appreciated on how to make sure the dough keeps its shape after flattening.

you aren't letting it rest long enough....When I used to ruin (run, i meant run, but ruin is just too funny so I am leaving it there) a pizza restaurant, if you forgot to prep the dough the night before and allowed the dough to rest in the refer over night, the dough would be very stiff and springy....

In your case, without really knowing your recipes and so this is a stab in the dark, you probably just need to let the dough rest at room temp for 30 minutes.


Having trouble getting lower fat fluffy pancakes with baking soda approach I have a baking soda and vinegar pancake recipe that uses too much butter for my liking. When I reduced the butter content, the pancakes seemed too thin and crisp. I tried yogurt, but they seemed too heavy and didn't rise enough. Any suggestions on how I can get a fluffy, light pancake?

One thing you can try to increase the fluffiness of your pancakes is to separate the egg whites from the yolks so that you can incorporate more air into the batter.  Gently combine all off the ingredients except the whites, whip the whites to stiff peaks, and then gently fold the whites into the rest of the batter.


What does make ice cream smooth and silky? I tried to make a simple ice cream by mixing heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla into a common ice cream maker. After 30 min of stirring, it produced an acceptable ice cream, but as I used heavy cream only without milk (which is advised in some recipes), I expected a smooth and silky ice cream.

However, the resulting ice cream contained very tiny ice crystals, which were melted quickly when serving.

What makes ice cream smooth and silky? What is essential for a basic recipe of silky ice cream?

I used heavy cream separated from top of raw milk.

A number of factors come together to determine the smoothness of ice cream, which is almost exclusively a product of the size of ice crystal within the finished ice cream.

How fast the mix is frozen--the faster it is frozen, the smaller the crystals
Emulsifiers or stabilizers which interfere with ice crystal growth

The amount of milkfat is actually not that important; it contributes to richness on the tongue and mouthfeel, but does not really reduce the graininess.

The single best thing you can do to ensure a smooth product is to use an ice cream maker which freezes the mix as rapidly as possible, preferably within 20 minutes at the slowest.  The slower the freeze, the larger the ice crystals grow, and when they are large enough, they will feel gritty or grainy on the tongue.

One of the best ways to help your mix freeze quickly is to chill it thoroughly in the refrigerator, over night if you can.  This will have the side benefit of improving the flavor of your ice cream.

Adding so-called stabilizers or emulsifiers which interfere with crystal formation will also help.  While some of these have scary names like xantham gum, guar gum, or agar, many come from natural sources.  The most common emulsifier of all is common egg yolks.

Making a French style ice cream, whose base is a (very thin) egg custard or creme anglais will help you get a smoother, richer texture.  Of course, it will also contribute a custardy, eggy flavor which may or may not be desirable depending on your preferences.


Banana bread in disposable foil plates I am considering using a disposable foil plate to bake banana bread. Is this advisable or can it be harmful? If it is acceptable, how will I amend the temperature and cooking time versus the original 350°F, 55 minutes.

Quick breads in disposable foil is the lifeblood of bake sales across the land.

There are loaf sized foil pans you can use. The 'plate' that you mention sounds like a pie-plate, which would make a very different shape and therefore baking time.

If you use a loaf pan that looks like a regular steel or aluminun pan, then your cooking time,etc will be very similar. I would advise checking it 5 minutes earlier than you are used to, as the thin pan will allow faster energy transfer.


Preserving whole potatoes What is the best way to preserve potatoes for a long time with minimal loss of nutritional values?

I tried freezing, but the potatoes lost their taste and were unsuitable for cooking.

I tried cutting and drying, but the result was again tasteless.

When I just put the potatoes on the shelf, sometimes they remain good for a long time, but sometimes they rot. How can I lengthen their shelf time, and what is the maximum shelf lifetime I can hope for?

The ideal storage for potatoes is approximately 42 to 50 F /  5.6 - 10.0 C in a dark space, with good humidity.  This is historically what root cellars were for.  With proper storage you should be able to get them from one harvest to the next—but ideal storage is rare at home.  Nonetheless, at least a few weeks is more than reasonable.

Burying them in clean sand can be effective.

For more information than you ever wanted to know, see this article from Options for Storing Potatoes at home (PDF) from the University of Idaho extension.


Extracting the flavour of single vegetables for the purpose of sauce I am interested in making vegetable sauces that are concentrates of a particular vegetable. So a concentrated sauce that has just the flavour of a chosen vegetable.

Which vegetables would be suitable to make such concentrated sauces?
What methods are possible to make a refined vegetable sauce?

EDIT: I want to attempt this with either: Carrot, Broccoli, Celery

I will steam the vegetable till softened but not mushy, then puree. I want the result to be a thick puree that I can place a 1/4 teaspoon (or the less the better) on a piece of Sashimi. Should I reduce the puree over low heat?

I am afraid that the result will be too flavourless, Is there a better method to reach the result? Can you detail any mistakes to avoid in the process? (i am not an experienced cook, it is a hobby i am getting into)

Any vegetable can work.  Cook vegetable (let's say carrot, for example), puree, pass through tami...you have a sauce.  As @Stephie suggests above, better advice will depend on your plan.  Vegetables can be juiced...that juice can be clarified (more like the result of the distillation process mentioned by @Fabby).


Can I substitute potato starch (katakuriko) for cornstarch in a cookie recipe? I have a cookie recipe that calls for cornstarch. I was wondering if I could substitute it for potato starch (katakuriko, in Japanese).

We keep both in the house, and i always seen to find myself in the middle of prep and not being able to find the one I'm looking for. As a consequence, I have subbed katakuriko for corn starch and vice-versa in equal amounts on several occasions, and never had trouble with the results having the wrong texture or tasting strange.

That being said, I have never used a substantial amount (more than a teaspoon or two) in any recipe, either.


Do you hone paring knives? I have finally invested in a nice Wusthoff Santoku and a Mac paring knife and I want to keep them up and running well! The knife shop I bought from taught me how to hone my santoku, so that's fine, but I was wondering if a)do you hone a paring knife? and if so, b)is there any differences in the technique for honing a paring vs a santoku?

Thanks!!

Yes, you should hone your paring knives.  The technique is much the same, except that paring knives are smaller.

Since physical skills are hard to describe in text, and you have already had in-person coaching,  won't try to describe the technique; just use the one that you are most comfortable with.

Note that some santukus may have a different bevel angle than a paring knife, but given that honing is about straightening the microscopic burrs, not about sharpening or removing metal, this tends not to matter very much.


What makes store brand mayo white? So, I've finally accomplished making mayo. But it has a yellowish hue to it, obviously this is the case because of the egg yolks.

My question is this:  Why is store mayo white?  What makes it white?

I'm fine with mine being the color it is, but now it's driving me crazy as why it's white in the stores. Is it a preservative thing?  Is it an appearance thing?

Short answer: store mayonnaise has less yolks per volume oil, and yolks give most of the yellow color.

Mainly the reason is that store mayonnaise adds water, rather than relying on the moisture in the egg yolks and vinegar.  To quote On Food and Cooking, page 634:

  Though cookbooks often say that the
  ratio of oil to egg yolk is critical,
  that one can only emulsify a half-cup
  or cup of oil, this isn't true. A
  single yolk can emulsify a dozen cups
  of oil or more.  What is critical is
  the ratio of oil to water: there must
  be enough of the continuous phase for
  the growing population of oil droplets
  to fit into.

This means you can use less yolks and just add water to get your volume.  Since yolks impart most of the yellow color (from plant pigments called xanthophylls), this reduces color considerably.

Store mayonnaise also uses some whole eggs, not just yolks, which do not emulsify as well, but are cheaper.  This further reduces the amount of yolk in the result. Note that while home mayonnaises use yolks, store mayonnaises can get away with including egg whites by using very powerful machines to emulsify the mayonnaise, and in some cases add emulsifiers such as lecithin to help stabilize it.

The Experiment!

One whole, very jumbo egg, with a little white wine vinegar (around 15 mL). For oil, I used vegetable oil with a small splash of olive oil.  The total amount of oil used was 1.5 cups, or 350 mL.

First, I tried to create mayonnaise by hand whipping with a mini-whisk.  It turned out a pale yellow, and thickened some, but refused to thicken fully.  This confirms that making a homemade mayonnaise by hand requires yolks or some sort of mechanical beating/blending; whole eggs just don't emulsify well enough.  It's fair to say that the result is quite yellow when it isn't fully blended.

Next, I gave it a shot with my immersion blender:

See how much lighter and paler the mayonnaise is! I can only speculate that the blender created a much finer emulsion, and incorporated more air, reducing the impact of the oil and yolk color on light scattered off the micro-droplets.

Finally, I went ahead and added flavorings (a little dijon mustard, a ton of paprika, salt, pepper, and more vinegar). In this comparison against commercial mayonnaise, you can see that the result is now darker and more orange, courtesy of the paprika.  It is also clear how close the color was before adding paprika.

Clearly, the use of whole eggs is the biggest part of the equation.  It is clear that by adding more water to thin the emulsion and then adding oil to achieve the proper consistency, I could make this even paler, very close to store mayonnaise. The use of mechanical blenders may assist in the process, producing a finer and paler emulsion.

Recipes that include paprika also yield a more yellow-orange result; I think it is for this reason that my commercial mayonnaise uses "paprika oleoresin" in place of ground paprika.

Finally, the use of more heavily colored olive oil appears to darken the resulting mayonnaise. Given how bland my mayonnaise was with only a touch of olive oil, I would encourage you to blend in water and additional oil, rather than avoiding the olive oil.  Ideally, the water would be added about a tsp at a time, when the mayonnaise is still somewhat liquid.


How to know when bread/cake is bad I have recently opened a air tight package of castella. It, however, is expired by about a year and a half, but, other than being a little bit dry, it tastes fine. I have only tried a little bit. Is it safe to eat as long as there isn't mold, and does this apply to other breads/cakes?

The rule around here is when in doubt, throw it out.

That said, personally, I doubt there is any issue, especially if only healthy people are eating it.  I've never heard of an age-related problem with cakes and breads other than mold which would be visible, or rancidity when the fats spoil from age which you can both smell and taste easily.


How much experience is needed to work in a restaurant? I've always thought it'd be cool to work in a restaurant as a chef or own one (though I could be sorely mistaken). I'm speaking of small town, mom and pop kinds of restaurants; the kind you'd see on Food Network or other TV shows. I enjoy cooking quite a bit, but the only experience I have is cooking for myself and random learning (via here or talking with people or reading other things). I'm curious to know how much experience is needed to work as a chef in those types of places and what kind? Is cooking school pretty much mandatory?

I also liked home cooking and thought it would be a good idea to try it professionally, and here's what I learned:

The best way to learn to cook professionally is by getting an entry level job. This is what I did. People will hire you without experience if you seem humble, reliable, and willing to learn. Come in cocky or expecting a lot right in the door, and you'll be ruled out. You should apply for a chain/fast food fry cook, or in fine dining, a prep cook or dishwasher.  Culinary school can help speed this up, but you'll be paying tuition to learn a job that starts out a little above minimum wage.  In my mind, this is a really craptastic deal, although the schools make out like bandits.

Once you get your first job, even if you've done culinary school, you'll be useless for a few months.  Home cooking emphasizes creativity, but professional cooking is all about speed, efficiency, and consistency.  Think of it as assembly-line cooking. Restaurants are the very definition of "School of Hard Knocks." Be prepared for hazing and getting grief from the other staff. You'll get your ass kicked for a while, and then slowly start to become useful.  But once you get the hang of it, it can be an incredible rush!

If you're a fast learner and can handle the environment, it's possible to start out as a dishwasher and end up owning your own restaurant.  It's also  very possible to end up a single, scarred alcoholic with an empty bank account.  If this already describes you well, then you'll fit in just fine.  How well you do is entirely up to you and your abilities.

The industry advice for anyone who says they want to become a chef is "Don't do it!"  Go read Kitchen Confidential.  Now imagine you're responsible for managing that madness of drugs and mayhem, working 60 hours a week for a wage that barely touches middle class! Still sound good to you?

There are 5 different skill-sets you'll need to make it to head chef:

Line cooking skills. You need to be able to manage your time to cook rapidly and reliably, with every dish turning out the same. Culinary school can help a bit with this, but experience is the real teacher.
Stress management and calm.  If you aren't the type to keep your cool in a crisis, you'll never make it. Professional cooking is one of the most stressful jobs out there; you will have nights where the dish machine breaks and a cook walks out, all before a busy weekend.  In those situations, it's up to you to figure out what to do.
Management. You need to be able to earn the respect of a team of cooks, many of which will be "difficult personality types," ranging from prima donnas to lazy assholes to hardened felons.  The only way to learn this is experience.
Business sense.  The restaurant industry is a challenging business at best, with high rates of failure and slim profit margins.  You need to be able to cut deals with suppliers, figure out how to promote your establishment and build business, and manage expenses.
Creative cooking.  You need to be able to come up with delectable specials to use up the 20 pounds of squash you got for a steal, or something special for a catered dessert.

Buying a restaurant with no food service experience is a phenomenal way to get rid of excess money. Excess money, as in everything you have. On the other hand, starting from the bottom is a good way to see how you'd do. To open a restaurant as chef/owner you'll want a minimum of management & business experience plus 3 years in multiple restaurant kitchens. That's the minimum if you're very talented and driven.  Honestly, 5-10 years experience is a more reasonable expectation.  If you try to do it without the experience... well, new restaurants have a failure rate of about 60%.  Even restaurants with experienced management and a solid business model can fail.

I don't want to crush your hopes and dreams, but this is something you really don't want to jump into without trying it at a lower level. The Food Network makes a chef's job seem glamorous, but what they do is just the opposite.


Is it safe to wrap food in aluminum foil before baking it? It's hard to clean the baking sheet from the stains left by baking food. I was wondering if it is safe to bake the food wrapped in aluminum foil, or whether some aluminum may be leached into the food?

Not only is it safe but there are entire collections of recipes developed around "foil pack" cooking. Mostly centered around 'campfire' cooking, where one prepares all of the ingredients, wraps them tightly in aluminum foil and places the whole pack in the fire (or oven) to cook the dish.


Why did my sponge cake go moldy so quickly? I made a no-oil sponge cake for a swiss roll. I filled it with fresh whipped cream and then stored the cake in the fridge. It has gone moldy within 4 days of filling it.  Since filling it, it has been stored in the fridge. Why did it go moldy so quickly?

Not sure exact fridge temp and it was stored in a plastic rubbermaid covered container. but I think oil does have something to do with it since other cakes with butter such as pound cake does not grow moldy so quickly.


Help with homemade vegetable yogurt After making several batches of failed vegetable yogurt (10 is a good estimate), I'm at my wits end and running desperate.
My attempts have been with either coconut or almond milk. Coconut milk, I've tried homemade and canned with 68% coconut and only 4 ingredients; I also tried pureed fresh coconut but I couldn't achieve the right consistency in my blender. Almond milk, I've tried homemade and store bought with 5 ingredients.
Thickeners: I've tried tapioca starch, cornstarch and xanthan gum.
Probiotic: I'm using something called Beneflora. I'm confident in my probiotic, I know two people who use it with good results. But one of them is using a kitchen robot (I don't own one), the other lives in another country and the milks she uses aren't sold in my country.
I'm using a brand new yogurt maker and I culture anywhere between 8 and 12 hours. I've thought there may be an issue with the yogurt maker but I tried putting an oven thermomether in it and the temperature seemed right (around 40ºC). My oven doesn't have a light so the oven method is not a possibility.
The recipe that's closest to success is 1 can coconut milk, half a teaspoon xanthan gum, 1 teaspoon fructose and half a teaspoon probiotic. Add milk, xanthan gum and fructose and mix with a stick blender. Add probiotic and stir with a fork. Get it on the yogurt maker and culture for 9 hours.
When I finish mixing in the probiotc my milk is a dreamy, creamy consistency. But after I remove it from the yogurt maker, it's runny! And it doesn't thicken in the fridge.
What could I be doing wrong? I feel completely desperate. I bought a yogurt maker exclusively for this. And I'm determined to make this work. Let me know what you think. Thank you.

An update: the things I were the most confident with (my probiotic and my yogurt maker) were the ones malfunctioning. I was successful making yogurt with lactose free milk and homemade coconut milk using store bought lactose free yogurt as starter and a yogurt nest (basically a thermal bag made of fabric and cork). As for the almond milk I believe removing the peels will solve the problem. I've made 3 batches so far. Super happy!


Sourdough Starter Crust forming I am creating a sourdough starter and read to use a "non-airtight" container and store in a warm location for the first 24 hours before beginning the feeding schedule.  My issue is that 12 hours in my dough has formed a crust.  It is obviously drying out from the open air.  How do I prevent this and have it remain "open"?  I have it covered with plastic wrap.

You should be stirring ("aerating") your sourdough every twelve hours anyway. If a crust has formed, simply stir it in.

If the crust really bothers you, stir more often, cover partially or use a closed container - it works equally well in my experience.


Making cheese without rennet What can I use in place of rennet to make mozzarella cheese? And what cheeses can we make without rennet?

You cannot make mozzarella without some form of rennet.  It can be natural rennet, synthetic, or vegetable-based rennet, but you need it to get the correct cheese texture.
This goes for the vast majority of cheeses.  The only ones you can make without any type of rennet are the soft, heat-and-acid-set cheeses such as ricotta, farmer cheese, chevre, and paneer.


Is it safe to eat food cooked on a dish on which breaded chicken has been cooked and which wasn't washed? I cooked a frozen breaded chicken steak on a baking tray over 12 hours ago and I have absent-mindedly put something in the oven without washing the tray prior.

Am I in danger of giving myself food poisoning, should I eat this food? (I plan to have it in the oven at 200 Celsius for 30 minutes)

Maybe strictly speaking there's a slight risk, but assuming you're a non-pregnant adult with a healthy immune system I would think the chances of any serious food poisoning would be pretty slim.