Split Pea Soup, but peas aren't dissolving I'm making split pea soup (vegetarian, using the Moosewood Cookbook recipe). I've made this several times before, and I remember that at some point the peas dissolve, making a thick broth. I made sure to soak the peas overnight before cooking them. But the soup has been simmering for over an hour now (very low flame, partially covered, other veggies in the soup for the later 40 minutes) and they don't seem close to dissolving.

Did I do something wrong? How can I fix the soup? And how can I avoid this in the future?

I make split pea soup (with a hambone, which is an unavoidable source of salt - I don't add any extra salt until the very end) pretty regularly. I don't soak the peas. It takes more like 3 or 4 hours for the peas to dissolve. It's not a gradual process either - for ages and ages there are little peas floating in broth, and you can eat one and it's soft, but they don't lose their shape, and then the next time you stop by the stove, it's a uniform puree without having done anything. Just keep simmering, is my advice.


What would this sauce be called? I have a nice sized chuck roast in the sous-vide circulator, I can see that there are some great looking juices accumulating in the bag. I want to make a sauce out of those juices with butter, garlic, herbs and wine reduction. There is a name for that kind of sauce, but it's escaping me at the moment. So that I can Google for recipes, what would a sauce like that be called?

Using the meat juices from cooking is a jus :) adding wine along with the aromatics might change it to be a "red wine jus" or I've also seen a "port jus", or the jus could be used in a Madeira sauce, etc.

  served in the natural juices that flow from the meat as it cooks.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/au%20jus


Possible to get Sugar Syrup and Coconut Oil to solidify together (Emulsifier needed?) I'm trying to make a 'magic-shell' like topping from burnt sugar syrup by mixing burnt sugar syrup (sugar + corn syrup heated until dark copper color, cooked with water until smooth) with coconut oil. The idea being to serve on ice cream and have a crispy or at least hard shell that tastes like burnt caramel.

When I tried this the first time, the result was a layer of hardened coconut oil on the ice cream, and a pool of syrup at the bottom of the ice-cream dish.

It feels like I need a better way to keep the coconut oil and the syrup emulsified so that when the coconut oil hardens up the syrup is 'locked up' in the solid. Is there something that I can add to the mixture to encourage this happening?

Thanks!

Coconut oil isn't ever a 1-1 swap with dairy butter, which has a small amount of water in as well as compounds that allow it to emulsify.
If you're avoiding butter, try using a good quality margarine instead of coconut oil.
Lecithin granules work well. Add half a teaspoon at a time, whisking it or using a hand-blender. Agar and xanthan gum are both good emulsifiers but might cause it to thicken up a bit too much as a lot goes a long way.


What can I substitute for lager beer in a chili recipe? Possible Duplicate:
  What are some good substitions for alcohol in cooking?

My Husband is a recovering alcoholic.  One of our favorite slow cooker chili recipes calls for using Lager beer.  Is there a good beer substitute?

Beef broth would be what I would go with if I had to substitute beer in chili.  While obviously not the same, it still has a rich flavor that should hold up well.


What is a good technique to make Iced Tea? I've seen methods that call for different variations of boiling tea bags - throwing in ice cubes, soaking tea leaves overnight - refrigerate, slowly pouring the tea over a large chunk of ice after boiling loose leaf tea.  It seems as if they all make sense, but I would like to see a technique that works well consistently - what are the pros and cons of these techniques and what works for the different varieties of tea: Bags, Loose Tea, Tea Leaves?  I'm not concerned about levels of sugar ect. but the actual techniques involved to make the tea...

The general method for iced tea is to boil water, and use double the tea for the amount of water and steep it for twice as long. Once steeped, add an equal amount of ice, and the ice will water down the tea as it melts and cools it down. If you want to sweeten with sugar, do it while the tea is hot.

This is the fast method, as you'll have iced tea as quickly as you can cool it (an hour or so in the fridge).

Alternately, you can steep the tea overnight in cold water in the fridge, using a normal tea:water ratio. This is the slow way. :-) If you want to sweeten the tea, make a simple syrup and add it (sugar won't dissolve very well in cold water).

Whether you use loose leaf or bags is really up to you. Tea purists will always say that loose leaf is better, but bags will work fine if you don't have a refined tea palette. Fruity teas often make really good iced tea, even if you're not a fan of fruity hot tea.


What is the traditional way to layer a lasagna? I am following this recpie to make a lasagna (minus the ragu because jewish law) and I always wonder how to best layer the lasagna.

Below is a picture of how I layer my lasagna. Is this the correct way in terms of white/red sauce ratio, cheese and seasoning? Is it ok that the sheets don't cover the entire casserole?

Traditionally, you start with a layer of pasta at the bottom, then go ragu-bechamel-lasagne-ragu-bechamel-lasagne, and finish with a layer of bechamel directly on top of the last pasta layer, followed by a liberal covering of grated parmesan.

It is also common to add a sprinkling of parmesan on top of the bechamel in each layer.

Ratios are subjective but I would say it is normal to have roughly twice as much ragu as bechamel


First time making fudge. Will it be okay if I forgot to add vanilla? My mom always made chocolate fudge, unfortunately I never learned how she did it. I tried making it for the first time and I forgot to put the vanilla in. Will this be okay. Should I toss it and start over?

Vanilla is not an essential ingredient in fudge. The essential ingredients are sugar (or an equally calorie-rich sugar substitute like corn syrup), milk and butter. Everything else you might find in a fudge recipe is just added to modify the basic flavor, texture and/or color. There are lots of fudge recipes around which don't use vanilla at all (it's a treat which is very open to experimentation in general).

So if you don't add vanilla, it won't taste like vanilla, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will taste bad, have the wrong consistency or behave differently when cooked and cooled. It's certainly worth a try to complete the recipe, even if just to collect some experience with the non-trivial phases of making fudge which are going to follow.


Is there any advantage of applying dry rub overnight for baby back ribs for smoking? Is there any advantage of adding dry rubs to ribs overnight? I'm looking to improve the texture and moistness of the ribs.

Some forums are saying that applying a rub overnight may risk removing moisture from the baby back ribs. Is this true?

I plan on smoking these ribs in an electric smoker.

Many people have strong opinions on when to apply a rub -- some say to allow at least a few hours and preferably overnight.  Others literally apply it as they are putting them in the smoker/oven.  Since people do it both ways and both claim to end up with terrific, moist ribs, whatever effect this might have is probably small.

It may change aspects of the "glazing" effect that a rub might give, depending on what is in the rub.  A rub left on for a longer period will become more mushy and more like a paste or a glaze/sauce, while a rub put on fresh before cooking won't have time to become as moist.  You will get slightly more flavor penetration with a longer rest, but there are diminishing returns there too after the first hour or two.

I don't have experimental evidence to back this up, but I think the "early rub will dry things out" argument is pretty flimsy from a food science perspective.  It is true that rubs which contain significant amounts of salt, sugar, or other hydrophilic substances will cause some moisture to come out of the meat.  On the other hand, most people tend to cook ribs for quite a few hours anyway (and some smoke them for many hours), so the rub will have plenty of time to draw out that moisture regardless of whether you put it on ahead or time or right before cooking.

It's not like you're salt-curing the meat and leaving the salt on it for months.  Once the salt (and/or sugar) draws out the moisture from the outermost thin layer of meat, it generally takes much longer for moisture to migrate from inner parts of the meat.  That surface layer of meat will release most of its moisture within an hour or so after you put salt or sugar or whatever on.  So, even if you put your rub on immediately before putting it in the smoker, that moisture will tend to be drawn out in the first part of the cooking time.  Adding a few more hours or even overnight to the rub shouldn't result in significantly more moisture loss from the meat's interior -- and the exterior will always dry out a bit as it cooks anyway.

Moreover, you aren't generally draining away moisture from the surface.  With ribs, you often have them wrapped up to rest, which means the meat sits in that moisture.  And guess what?  About 10-15 minutes in, the brine produced by the moisture combined with the salt in the rub will begin to break down the outer muscle structure of the meat and cause it to absorb more moisture than usual, so much of that liquid lost will be reabsorbed back into the meat within an hour or so.  (Note that the salt and water are carried back into the meat with some of the other spice compounds which are in the rub, so there is perhaps some flavor advantage to applying the rub at least a little in advance.  On the other hand, again this mostly affects only the outermost layer of meat, so more than an hour or two probably won't make more significant changes in the flavor.)

If you're talking about searing a steak, when you salt it might have some impact, since you generally don't want to time your sear at the point at which moisture is being released at the maximum rate.  But for ribs or anything with a long slow cooking time?  It's really not a big issue.

As mentioned above, the larger effect will generally be what happens to the rub as it sits on the meat for many hours.  You may find that the change in texture there may change the final appearance or texture of the outer surface.  But the idea that the interior will dry out significantly?  It doesn't seem likely.


How critical is it to store spices in constant temperature? A typical bit of advice on the subject says:

Store your herbs and spices in a cool, dry place. The ideal temperature is one that remains fairly constant, averaging right around 70° F."

You're also supposed to keep them dark and dry.
I do this by keeping my spices in a drawer, but I'd really like that space for something else, and to put my spices in opaque magnetic jars on the fridge. The opaque jars would keep out the light, and the cap would keep out the moisture, but my fridge is only two feet away from the stove, and there's probably more light, moisture, and temperature variation there than there is in the drawer.
Is this difference worth worrying about?

The small temperature variation is probably not as important as buying whole spices, then toasting and grinding small amounts when you need them. Pre-ground spices lose their flavor and aroma very quickly.


Can you substitute blood for the eggs in an ice cream base? I read somewhere (Facebook) that you can use blood as a substitute for the eggs in an ice cream base due to to the similarities in protein composition shared between the two.

Does anyone know more about this?

Have you made Blood Ice Cream?

What would be some good flavors?

Would the blood give the ice cream a metallic flavor because of bloods high content of iron?

The Nordic Food Lab, founded by René Redzepi, has experimented with blood as egg substitute, full blog entry including recipes here.

Apparently texture-wise the substitution can be possible, but the typical bloody aftertaste is hard to mask, which might have to do with the physiological way the metallic taste is perceived. It seems especially women tend to recognize this ingredient quite easily.


How to choose a premium dual fuel range (Viking, Wolf, Aga, and the like...) All,

We're considering buying a high quality range.  We have arrested our choice on 36" dual fuel ranges (gas top, electric oven, preferably convection).

Some of those have fairly typical and unique characteristics (e.g., Aga multiple small ovens).  Others are more easily compared (e.g., Viking and Wolf have similar product offerings).

What are the key things to consider before buying a range?  Are there good online resources to understand the quality of those premium brands, especially some frank assessment of Wolf and Viking?  Also interested in personal experiences - customer or repairpeople reviews and assessments.

Many thanks,

JDelage

EDIT:  We eventually got a Wolf set, because I read and heard slightly better things over the Viking, and I couldn't find true comparisons with some of the lesser known premium brands.  Overall, I am happy.  I find that the gas burners don't heat things as hot as an electric top, and ideally I would have liked to have 3 gas burners and one electric element.  We selected to have a grid in the center rather than 6 burners, and it's great but not used very often (but then we wouldn't need 6 burners very often either).  I love to grill veggies on it.

The 36" oven takes a while to heat up. You get used to it, but for the first few weeks, it was obnoxious.  Also some recipes call for changing the temperature of the oven from very high to much lower (e.g., for some roasts), and an oven that size takes a long while to cool off.  The size is convenient to make large batches of cookies, but we haven't needed the width for anything else really.  If I had infinite means or were building a kitchen from scratch, I would get two smaller ovens.

My wife and I are currently doing our kitchen, and have done some shopping specifically in this area. We think we are currently leaning towards a gas cooktop, and then a separate wall oven, for cost and design reasons.

But as we originally planned to do a 36" dual-fuel, and did most of our shopping to date around this, here's a few thoughts/things we learned. Our most important feature was the stove top, so most of these thoughts are about that. We're still not finalized, so I'm also curious what answers others post.

We talked to multiple sales people from multiple local and nationwide stores. There were sales people that told us that Viking & Wolf were comparable. There were sales people that told us that Viking is overrated, not comparable in quality, and even that Viking was the preferred brand. Essentially, we got conflicting reports to where Viking sits. There was no discrepancy however on the quality of Wolf. They all seemed to agree that at that price point Wolf is top (or very near to) in quality, durability and performance.
For the stove top Wolf and a few others have a double stacked burner. This means that you can do a extremely low simmer (melt chocolate on a paper plate), on the same burner you do max it out to stir-fry. There was one brand (dacor I believe) where the smaller burner was hidden behind a cast plate. This seems to me to negate the fast response of a gas stove, but that might be just my perception.
In addition to the double-stacked burners, different brands varied greatly on the versatility of the 5 available burners. 1 15K BTU+ burner, 1 simmer burner, etc... vs. 5 that are generally more versatile. That might not be a problem, you can move pots around as you are cooking, but I'd prefer to minimize the amount of moving I have to do by getting more versatile burners (like the Wolf burners mentioned previously) if I'm at that price point.


How to decide whether to reduce a sauce or thicken it? The approach I always adopted to thicken a sauce is to reduce it so the water can evaporate, leaving a sauce that is more concentrated. Earlier, I watched a video where the host was talking about thickening agents such as flour. Looking up on google, It seems that the thickening is a term commonly used when employing other substances to thicken the sauce rather than just letting the water evaporate. I wonder how to decide whether to reduce a sauce versus thickening it (or both)?

The best way to decide whether to reduce a sauce or to add a thickening agent is to taste it. If the flavour is as strong as you want it to be, then reduce it no further and add something to thicken it.
If the flavour is too weak, keep reducing it.

Other points to consider/caveats:

reducing will increase salt concentration, so even if the flavour is too weak you might make a sauce inedibly salty if you reduce it too far
some flavour compounds will get destroyed by too much boiling, so consider how the flavour might change as you reduce it (e.g. lemon juice will lose some of its fresh, bright flavour, alcohol will lose some of its kick)
various thickening agents will thicken the sauce in different ways. it may be useful to familiarise yourself with them
some thickening agents will have an effect on the flavour of the sauce (especially wheat flour, egg yolks, but also to a lesser extent cornflour)


vinegar pickles safety I recently made a large batch of mixed vegetable pickles (cucumber, onion, carrot, peppers, cauliflower, garlic) with a brine of 1 cup white vinegar to 3 cups water and 1/4 cup salt. I used a clean, not sterile method, and didn't process the jars. Ten days later some of the jars are cloudy, and some of the lids are fizzing.

I've pickled a lot in the past, sometimes using a water bath to process and sometimes not. This time I skipped the step thinking the acidity would be enough to prevent nasty things like botulism.

I'm belatedly researching and learning the difference between fermented pickles and vinegar pickles. I had simply assumed the process was similar and adding vinegar would keep it safer by increasing the acidity.

My question now is, will the high acidity and high salt (works out to 1 tablespoon per cup of brine) prevent botulism from growing and keep them safe to eat (as long as they don't smell bad)?

Reading about fermented pickles, I see that cloudiness is a good sign. Can the cloudiness be lacto-fermentation, or would the vinegar disrupt that process?

Another thing that might explain the cloudiness is the iodized salt (I didn't have access to pickling salt).

I want to experiment with fermentation and would definitely do things differently next time, but for now, I'm just wondering if I can salvage anything, and what would be a clear indication that they're unsafe and I should throw out the lot.

The best advice anyone can give you is to please stop experimenting and use tested recipes.  Particularly for acidified pickles, there are huge numbers of resources out there with tested recipes verified by scientific protocols.  (That is, they tried them many times under many conditions and tested stored versions for microorganism growth to verify they are safe.)

The National Center for Home Food Preservation is one place to start for both general information and many specific tested recipes.  Many states (particularly agricultural ones) have similar resources online.  The Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving and the Bernardin guidebooks are also classic resources for such information.

From your description, it sounds like you have left unprocessed, unsealed containers out at room temperature.  No, this is not a safe storage method.  Yes, the acid and salt will likely inhibit botulism growth, but without using a verified recipe and procedure (as mentioned above), you can't guarantee this.  Large chunks of food, for example, may not acidify fast enough to prevent botulism growth, or depending on your recipe, some of the vegetables may release a lot of water when placed in brine, which could dilute the salt and acid to the point that nasty bacteria could grow.  That's why there's no magic formula that will guarantee safety by telling you X amount of salt or Y amount of vinegar for all foods.  Individual recipes need to be developed and tested.

Botulism is certainly not the only dangerous bacteria, though -- Listeria, for example, is a common bacteria that can grow even in mildly acidic conditions and can cause illness in improperly processed foods.  Surface mold can also easily grow in situations like you describe, sometimes with serious toxic effects if eaten.  With less acidity or sufficiently diluted conditions, all sorts of things could grow.  That's why processing with heat is absolutely necessary for safe room temperature storage, to pasteurize and seal the foods from spoilage agents.  (Food stored in the refrigerator is a bit different: without processing, acidified pickles may still be safe for several days or weeks, depending on the recipe.)

Use of a verified recipe is also essential for preservation that will include room temperature storage, as you can't guarantee sufficient acidity, salt, etc. without microbiological tests.  Food scientists have worked hard to develop such recipes over the past century, since before that canned food made many people sick.  If you really want to store food at room temperature, please don't trust any recipe on the internet or even from some book that doesn't come from an organization which actually does testing.

As to what happened with your current batch and what you should do with it -- first, it is possible that some lacto-fermentation went on during room temperature storage, even despite starting with an acidified recipe.  Obviously with all the fizzing, some sort of fermentation has happened.  Unfortunately, without microbiological testing, you have no idea what sort of stuff you may have grown or whether it is safe.  Lactofermentation usually depends on a higher salt content in the initial phase to select for the right sort of bacteria, which then grow and acidify the mixture to the point that nothing bad will likely grow.  However, without knowing exactly how acidic your initial mixture was (again, taking into account possible liquid released from the vegetables you added to your brine) as well as actual salt concentration, it's impossible to know whether you had a good "healthy" fermentation or whether you grew something that could make you sick.  Many types of dangerous spoilage bacteria don't necessarily produce a smell or taste sufficient to warn you that they could cause illness.

The only 100% safe recommendation at this point is to throw this batch out and start again with a reputable recipe.  And if you plan to store at room temperature, please process with hot water accordingly and seal properly.  It's possible (given sufficient acidity and salt) that your current batch may still be edible, but no one here can guarantee that.


What are Omaha Steaks "Potatoes Au Gratin" actually? Over the holidays my uncle sent my parents steaks from a website called Omaha Steaks.  Included with the steaks were, among other things, some potato appetizers, that the packaging called "Potatoes Au Gratin".  Now I've had Potatoes Au Gratin before and these things are quite dissimilar.  A cursory web search also reveals that these are not Potatoes Au Gratin.

I'd like to make these myself but without knowing what they are it is pretty hard to look up a recipe.  What are they called?

Here is a picture from their website:

and here is the order page.  The description reads:

  These make a unique appetizer or an elegant side dish! Creamy shredded potatoes in a light breading prebrowned to a delicate golden brown. Available in individual servings. Just bake, serve and enjoy!

These are very similar to potato croquettes, for which there are tons of recipes. Those are usually made with mashed potatoes instead of shredded, but otherwise pretty much the same deal. You can find recipes with varying amounts of creamy things and cheese; I'm guessing the Omaha Steaks ones are on the higher end of that.

If you want to try to match the shredded texture better, you can probably start with a potato croquette recipe and just bake and grate/shred the potatoes instead of mashing them.

As Cindy noted, you can also find recipes by searching for "au gratin potato balls", plenty of which are mimicking the Omaha Steaks ones. I might be inclined to use a croquette recipe, because it's a more common name so it's easier to find obviously trustworthy recipes, but you'll probably be fine either way.


What is this Burmese/Myanmmarese Brown to Black dried tea leafs? While in Phra Khanong market, the only Burmese market I know of in Bangkok I bought the following seemingly-to-me similar products of Brown to Black dried tea leafs (pictured below).

I dranked a small glass of a hot tea of these leafs and it had a very mild comforting taste.

What is this Burmese/Myanmmarese Brown to Black dried tea leafs?
What is the English name please?

These could be leaves to make "Lahpet" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahpet), so perhaps you can drink them too?


Why use an acid when doing a scallops dish? I'm trying to understand more about balancing a dish and I was wondering, why would you add some acidity to a seared scallops dish?

Shellfish is usually somewhat sweet in flavour. Acidity is the natural balance to sweetness.


Poached eggs dissolve while cooking? I typically use a little white vinegar to hold my poached eggs together better while cooking (plus, I like vinegar).

Recently, I ran out of white vinegar and swapped in red wine vinegar instead. The egg white nearly dissolved while cooking, leaving behind only the yolk.

Is this due to the change in vinegar? Or might there be other issues at play (heat, pot, egg quality, etc.)?

The likely contributing factors are (and probably more than one, and perhaps all apply):

Older, weaker red wine vinegar, which didn't sufficiently acidulate the water to denature the egg white proteins quickly, thus removing their ability to dissolve
Older eggs, with weaker, looser whites that spread more easily in the poaching liquid, and thus dissolve more easily due to greater surface area
Lower heat of the poaching liquid which would also slow the cooking of the white, allowing it more time to potentially dissolve before the proteins are denatured from heat, and thus can no longer do so


Cooked Cottage Pie, refrigerated. How to reheat Last night, I made a cottage pie and cooked it in the oven for 30 minutes, once cooled down I placed it in the fridge.

What would be the best way to reheat this? I've read somewhere that 180 for 45 minutes would do it, but I wondered if this would overcook the mash, which is already crusty from the cook last night?

Further to this, if I was just going to prepare (Cook mince and mash), could I do that and then cook in the oven the following day?

180 for 45 minutes should do the trick. Just make sure it is piping hot in the middle before serving.

Cover the dish with foil to prevent the crust getting any crustier. You will still want to take it off for the last ten minutes of cooking to crisp it though, as the foil will make it soggy.

You can absolutely prepare Cottage Pie to the pre-baking stage and fridge (or freezer) it until the next day. You need to cool it relatively quickly though - hot food shouldn't sit around for more than a couple of hours. Place the dish in cool water (obviously not over the lip of the dish) and change the water a couple of times as the pie warms it, then cover and put in the fridge or freezer.


Why is there cow cheese but no pig cheese? I have always wondered what there is no cheese made from other milks other than cow, goat or sheep. Are they not suitable for humans? Do they taste bad? Is it even possible to make dairy products with them?

There are several main reasons, historically:

Cows, sheep and goats have udders, and can be milked by hand into a bucket. Pigs (or cats, or humans for that matter) have nipples, where you need to suck the milk out. Consider that most of the cheese in the world was invented before machinery was able to create a vacuum, this means that the only option would have been to suck milk from the pig and spit it into the bucket.
For making cheese, the fat/protein ratio in the milk is important. It changes, obviously, from species to species, which is why there aren't many hard yellow cheeses made of goat's milk.

Lastly, I have actually had camel's milk ice-cream, which goes to show that it's just a cultural thing mostly.


How to best keep a bunch of coriander fresh? I bought this bunch of coriander at my local fruit shop. What is the best way to keep it fresh as long as possible? I usually cut off about 1 cm of the stems and then put them into a glass of water, at room temperature. I wonder if I would be better off putting them into the fridge, with or without the water. Or if there is another option I'm unaware of.

For almost all delicate green herbs, the best thing to do is

Hold them by the bottom of the bunch and gently swirl in plenty of
cool water to remove all the dirt
Gently shake to remove excess water
Wrap loosely in a damp paper towel
Place in a plastic bag and store in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator

This will keep most herbs fresh for many days.


How to skewer a baked potato without leaving bits of foil My preferred method of cooking baked potatoes is to lightly coat them in olive oil, then wrap them in foil and skewer them before baking for a couple of hours.

The purpose of the skewer is mainly to help the heat conduct through to the centre of the potato, but also to stabilise the potatoes in the baking tray (I balance the skewers across the corners and it lifts the potatoes up out of the tray a little way). The purpose of the foil is to stop the skins drying out and mean you can leave them in the oven for as long as you like without worrying about scorching the skin.

The problem I have is that it's very hard to wrap foil around an already-skewered potato, and if you stab the skewer through the foil-wrapped potato you sometimes end up with "flakes" of foil where the foil tore at the entry and exit points.

Is there a trick I am missing here?

While I have not tried doing this myself, I would imagine cutting an x into one side of the potato should give you an opening through which to skewer the potato, without dragging foil into the potato itself.


Can I use hot water for skim milk powder? I was trying to make milk tea from skim milk powder and black tea bags today, and found that after adding hot water to skim milk powder, that powder doesn't fully dissolve in the water. There are lots of white tiny particles in the hot water that doesn't disappear after 20 minutes.

I checked the instructions and it said use cold water to mix the powder. Are the white particles I saw normal? Or are they only a result of me incorrectly using hot water?

Thanks.

I always use hot water and it has worked fine. In fact i find milk powder dissolves quickly in hot water than cold.


Fire alarm keeps going off when roasting in oven. Advice please? The problem started recently. I cook a lot and especially love baking cakes and roasting all sorts of vegetables in the oven. Recently when roasting, I noticed smoke coming out of the oven and the fire alarm went off.

It was because a lot of grime and food drippings had accumulated (for over a year) at the bottom, and it was getting charred. The next day I cleaned up the whole oven (applying baking soda paste overnight then scrubbing with vinegar and steel wool). Except for the top of the oven which I simply can't get perfectly because that would require me to bend over backwards and clean, the rest is all squeaky clean.

However now when I try roasting above 350 F, it still causes the fire alwarm to go off. There's nothing else in the oven that's getting burnt, even the veggies I placed in the oven weren't done completely. I am really puzzled. Any suggestions?

Make a cover for the alarm. Get velcro tape from a hardware store and attach one side of the tape to the alarm or to the ceiling. Then, make a cover out of foam rubber or whatever is convenient and attach the other side of the tape to the cover. Obviously, it needs to be airtight. Note that frames can be made by bending a coat hangar. Coat hangars can be cut by a chicken wire cutter, available at any hardware store.

When you cook, attach the cover and when you are done pull it off and put it away.


How do I know if water in supermarket's seafood tank is salty enough? Undoubtedly no body is to taste water tank in supermarkets with live seafood!
Don't ask me rely on supermarket salespeople. When I ask, they either don't know or can't answer straight. They say "Oh water's fine. Don't worry!" or "There's got to be enough salt in water", and they add "We've been putting shell fish in water for decades, and we still business! Stop worrying!"

Does the vendors’ storage method affect shellfish quality? - Seasoned Advice

  From the British Columbia Center for Disease Control (pdf)

  "Do not put live shellfish in a closed container or into fresh water (the shellfish will suffocate and die)".

Does the vendors’ storage method affect shellfish quality? - Seasoned Advice

  For shellfish like clams and mussels, keeping them in clean, cold, circulated SALT water is also good, because that allows them to stay alive but dormant. Obviously, it doesn't get fresher than live.

There are several ways to measure water salinity (water salt content), most are impractical for that situation. A very effective and quick way to measure salinity to use a salinity meter, these are small electronic devices which measure the conductivity of the water. You just dip it in the water and take a reading. More salt = more conductivity.

These can be bought at many pet stores that sell salt water aquarium equipment and fish. Good ones aren't super cheap, expect to pay about 100USD. There are super cheap ones on the market but they generally don't work very well.

Keep in mind salinity is only one factor, there's the purity of the water, oxygen content, temperature and other factors you need to consider as well. Before they are put into the tanks how were the shellfish collected and treated during transport?

The fact is even if you check the salinity and it is good (I'd be surprised if it wasn't) the other factors make it impossible for you to know how good the shellfish is. This is why tax money goes into food safety inspectors - so you can shop with confidence. Look at the food safety rating of the store or chain, see if there's any reputation based ratings from customers and base your choice on that.


yeast-less pita bread sometimes inflates I started making pita flat breads at home using only whole wheat, water and salt. I usually make it really fast by putting all the ingredients together and start giving it a roudish shape straight away.
Then I just put it in the frying pan both sides for a couple minutes.

Now, I noticed that sometimes it starts to puff, which is good as I can simply cut trough it and fill it easlly, lile a kebab.

However it only happens sometimes, and I wanted to know if there is a way to make it always inflate... It seems pretty random to me so far. Any help?

Puffing is caused by steam evaporating inside the dough. The gluten matrix holds the steam in, especially after you've cooked it on one side. If you cut into the puffed dough, you'll notice that a lot of hot steam escapes.
Be careful when you do that. You can burn yourself. I speak from experience. Besides, the texture is better if you give it a few minutes to set up completely: cut it too early and the cutting force can glue the edges together.
You get similar effects in naan, tortillas, and chapatis. These are also generally un-yeasted. The yeast doesn't have time to produce that much air, and it's quickly killed. (I use yeast in mine anyway because I like the texture and flavor.)
As for getting it to puff every time... it seems to be a knack. Preferably learned from one's grandmother, I gather, but I didn't. The way I do it is to mimic a tandoor. While I shape the dough, I preheat a cast iron pan and the broiler. When ready, I put the dough on the pan and pop it into the oven. Cooking on both sides simultaneously means it cooks on the outside, making a steam-proof seal.
It can be done just with the frying pan. It's a matter of timing, flipping it when it's sufficiently cooked on one side to set, but not cooked through. I haven't mastered that, I'm afraid, but many others have.


How to make mint sauce I seem to have the basic ingredients. Mint (from the garden), sugar, vinegar. However I seem to end up with vinegary mint, or minty vinegar depending on the relative quantities.

From a jar, it seems a lot richer in flavour and more sauce like. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

You seem to be saying you have two issues: weak flavor, and watery sauce. There can be many separate causes for each, but one problem that causes both issues is a lack of reduction.

What are you doing to reduce the sauce down and concentrate it?
Are those the only 3 ingredients you are using?


Are homemade versions of popular food more liable to spoil? I tend to make ice cream from frozen bananas and other fruits as flavors and would like to know how much time can I store it. In general, is the homemade version of a popular food item (bread, sauces and condiments etc) more liable to spoil if you bought their industrially made version from the store? If so, what can be made to counteract that?

Its less that the simple act of cooking it at home causes shorter life of the product and more that at-home cooks are cooking for the sake of avoiding the chemicals and preservatives that are what give the commercially made things their long shelf life.

In some cases it is preservatives (sulfates in dried fruit (I think)), in some cases it is an extra processing step (ultra-high-temp-pasteurization for organic milk), while in other cases it is a matter of equipment that is simply not available for the home cook (for example canned pureed pumpkin - this is not safe to make at home (even with a proper pressure canner) but with the commercial equipment and processes it becomes shelf stable). Usually I think it is a combination of all three of these.

That being said, in regards to ice cream - I recently read somewhere that if you put the container with the ice cream in it into a Ziplock baggie then it helps it stay soft for longer.

I still have some ice cream (technically sorbet) in my freezer from over a year ago that I keep forgetting about. When I decide to chip some off the solid block it has become (I did not store it in a Ziplock baggie, just a container) it is still quite good.


Include salt in dry premix? Should salt be part of the dry premix? I plan to start making dry premixes, as normally done in factory operations. Separated for different pastries, the premixes will include any of the ff: flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and cocoa powder. My question is, can salt be part of a premix, or should I reserve it for the wet mix on the day of dough-preparation?

Reason I ask is because the original recipe for cookies that I used, instructed to mix in salt with the dry ingredients. However, knowing that salt is a polar compound, I figured it might fare better by being homogenous with the eggs, butter, and sugar. On the other hand, by mixing salt with the dry ingredients, I know that it would already be set and I won't have to worry about forgetting to put salt in my batter.

Thanks in advance.

I say, go ahead and include the salt with the dry ingredients. Polar or non-polar may be critical if you are in a chem lab, but in the kitchen this is my reasoning:

1) Most recipes I have seen for baked goods, call for mixing the salt with the dry ingredients.

2) I have never seen a commercial mix (biscuits, pancakes, cakes, muffins, etc.) that ever called for the baker to add salt to the mix, making me think that salt is included in the mix as purchased.

Maybe the polar/non-polar thing is less important than convenience.


Pour over coffee : what is needed for a good pitcher replacement? My pourover coffee pitcher just broke. Its the second time it does this this year, so i guess the maker of this pourover kit is making flimsy glass for their pitchers.

So is there a good replacement for those kinds of pitchers? What is important in a replacement? Does the mouth of the pitcher need to contain the whole filter? Do the sides really need to follow the filter?
Here is how the filter looks like

There are plenty of pour-over coffee funnels with a flared bottom so the funnel can sit on top of a normal pitcher, carafe or coffee cup.

So presumably the pitcher doesn't need to cover the sides of the funnel. Try using a mason jar or any similar heat-resistant container that the funnel fits into the mouth of. If you don't notice any flavor difference, then you know you don't need the glass sides.
There are also pour-over sets that use a stand to hold the funnel, for example:

You could probably improvise a stand. All it really needs is a ring for the funnel to sit in, and a stand to hold the ring the proper height over your pitcher or carafe. An erlenmeyer flask stand or a tripod  for using over a bunsen burner would work, eg
 (This one is only 5" tall which might be a bit short, but taller ones are available.)
As moscafj pointed out, some carafes are made of boro-silicate glass so they can be used on the stovetop. If that is your intended use, be sure that your substitute carafe is stovetop-safe.


How Do I make My Casserole (with Noodles) Less Dry? Okay, I know why pasta absorbs the sauce and it can be dry if left in the sauce, but what about making it not so dry in a casserole you cook in the oven?  Did a great casesrolle last night and it was REALLY dry!  Do I need to begin with more sauce?

First, you might want to try parboiling (cooking about halfway) the pasta to remove some of the starch and help the pasta absorb some water before combining it with the liquid in your casserole.

Second, if you didn't already, I would rinse the pasta before cooking it in a casserole. Because it is mostly flour, pasta obviously contains a lot of starch, a lot of which gets transferred to its cooking liquid. If that cooking liquid is your casserole, then the starch will combine with the liquid and thicken everything as if you were adding flour to it.

Third, I would cover the casserole to prevent liquid from evaporating during cooking. If your casserole depends on a browned top, just crank up the temperature for the first few minutes and place your casserole on the top rack close to the burner, then after 5-10 minutes, reduce the temperature to the recipe temp and cover with foil.

And of course, you can always add more liquid! This may not be ideal, so I would try the first three techniques above, and only add liquid as a last resort.


Stir-frying: how much of the oil evaporates? When you're stir-frying or sauteeing, I'm sure some of the oil get evaporated due to high temperature. How much of the original oil evaporates? Since I suppose it depends on the kind of oil, temperature and duration, can you give example for several typical cases? (for example, vegetable oil, medium heat, 15 minutes, etc)

How does this affect the nutrition and energy calculation? For example if 50 grams of vegetable oil contains ~400 kcal, how much calories does some food cooked with that much oil has?

The boiling point of most cooking oils is much higher than their smoke points.  The boiling point of olive oil, for example, is around 300°C (572°F), which is hotter than the temperature of a pan on a typical residential range/cooktop.  With that said, alcohols and esters which make up the flavor and fragrance of the oil will have lower boiling points and will therefore evaporate.  That should not significantly alter the nutritional content of the oil.  Furthermore, much of the perceived loss of oil is likely due to a combination of absorption of the oil into the items being fried, and also due to splatter.  The latter cannot be easily quantified due to its connection with the cooking vessel and the technique of the cook.


using polenta to make hamburger Hello I am cooking vegan today and I want to know, if I can use polenta to make some kind of food, that is similar to hamburger meat.

( I want to use polenta, because I already bought it and try to find a use for it. )

I don't think you're going to get a good ground beef substitute from polenta, for that I would recommend TVP or other vegan soy crumbles, seitan or even mushrooms. However, if you're interested in making a veggie burger out of polenta, I'm sure you could look online for a recipe (for example here, but you may find others). It's certainly not going to taste anything remotely like beef, though.


My Cream Pull Candy doesn't always cream Anyone familiar with Cream Pulled Candy?  It's a traditional Appalachian (Kentucky) candy where sugar and water are cooked to the soft ball stage, then milk, butter or cream and a small amount of baking soda are added and the mixture cooked on to the hard ball stage.  It is then poured onto buttered marble, a small amount of vanilla is sprinkled over and the mixture cooled until cool enough to handle, then pulled taffy fashion until light in color and very stiff.  It is cut into small pieces with scissors.  At this stage it is still very much like taffy (chewy and elastic), but normally after a period of time it transforms into a soft, chalk-like consistency (think of butter mints) with a hint of caramel (caused be the effect of the baking soda on the milk or cream added) and vanilla flavor.

My problem lately is that my candy is failing to cream; rather it remains hard but chewy like taffy rather than undergoing the creaming process.  Any idea what could be going wrong?  I haven't changed ingredients (cane sugar only) or the pot or cooking method either.  Any clue what's happening (or not happening)

I found a few discussions online in which multiple people say this sort of candy won't form properly (will stay taffylike) if the weather isn't cold and dry. Could that be the problem?

This article suggests pulling the candy in front of a fridge if it isn't cold out. Maybe worth a try.


Soy Sauce storage container I use a fair bit of Soy Sauce for cooking as well as the occasional Chinese take away. My question is fairly simple. Can I store Soy Sauce in a glass vinegar type shaker narrow neck bottle that's not sealed as it has a 1/16 inch hole in top plastic cap. If I can store in that bottle, is it best in a cupboard or refrigerator. Thanks in advance.

Soy sauce is extremely salty, which will inhibit growth of pathogens; Eat by date suggests 2-3 years, once opened, if kept refrigerated.

With the small hole, better safe than sorry.  I would recommend keeping it in the refrigerator.

If you are not going to use it for a longer time, give it a better seal by placing plastic wrap over opening.  Depending on the exact nature of the container, you may be able to remove the top, place plastic wrap over the opening, and then replace the cap.


Baking Adjustments When Using a Countertop Oven I'm planning to bake some scones for a friend, but they only have a simple countertop oven. Although it's rated up to 250W, I would like to know if I should make any adjustments (I'm used to baking with a conventional, fan-assisted oven). Should I:

Change nothing
Keep the temperature unchanged and lengthen the cooking time (originally 15 minutes)
Keep the time the same and increase the temperature (originally 180°C)
Something else?

Sorry if this is obvious, but I just want to be prepared as I've never used this kind of oven before. Thank you in advance!

I've found that smaller ovens do tend to crisp the top (or bottom) more quickly, as the heating element is closer to the food surface.

For scones, you may want to

prepare it in smaller batches,
lower the temperature by a few degrees, and crank it up for the last 3-5 minutes to get a more even bake and better cooked insides, while still getting a crispy crust.
arrange each batch along the "spine" so that it is evenly spaced between the two elements on the top (strictly speaking, not necessary, but it compensates for any faulty fan action and allows the top to crisp more evenly)


Xanthan Gum in sauce/gravy I'm making Salisbury Steak  (https://www.skinnytaste.com/skinny-salisbury-steak-) but would like to substitute xanthan gum for flour to reduce carbs AND use coconut or almond flour (and / or psyllium husk powder) instead of bread crumbs. Instead of 2 T. Flour how much xanthan gum should I use?  Can I use coconut/almond/psyllium husk powder instead of bread crumbs to hold the patty together?

The flour in this recipe is for thickening the sauce.  You can use xanthan for this purpose, but in very small amounts...0.25 to 0.75% for a thin to medium running sauce.  As you increase the amount, xanthan will make your sauce take on an unpleasant, mucous-like texture.

This is most easily calculated in weight (and metric).  I'll have a go, and convert it back:

You have 2 cups of broth = about 480 grams + some other liquid.  I would suggest 500 grams is a reasonable estimate.   .25% of 500 grams = 1.25 grams of xanthan (start on the low end.  You can always add more).  There are about 4 grams in a teaspoon.  I would suggest 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan as a reasonable starting point.


Are mushy plums OK to use in cooking? I have some plums that have started to go soft and squishy. Would they be OK in crumble / crisp / cobbler type recipes?

(I can't taste them before cooking because I am allergic to raw fruit).

As long as they aren't spoiled they'll be fine for a crumble/crisp/cobbler. You'll want to have someone else taste them to make sure first. They may need less sugar and less or no precooking. If they are really, really mushy then you might want to add some firmer plums or other fruit to give some texture.


How much time does it take to boil salmon? Most recipes for salmon soup say that you cook it in just 5-10 minutes. If that were beef or pork, I would boil it for hours. Then why do they say such a short period of time will work with fish?

I have no access to fish that is safe to eat raw so I have to properly cook it through. Will salmon really get cooked safely in just 10 minutes?

It just has to get to 145F for safety, and in boiling water that happens really fast. 5-10 minutes is totally believable. On top of that, fish is really unpleasant when overcooked, so you really want the minimum possible cooking. (For that reason, boiling is not usually a great way to cook fish - you tend to overcook it easily, especially the outside.) Note that this is the conservative, safe temperature, intended to be good even for people with weaker immune systems. Many people prefer it cooked to a lower temperature.

When you cook beef or pork for hours, it's presumably because it's a tough cut with lots of connective tissue to break down so that it's tender enough to eat. For cuts that are pleasant to eat as soon as they're cooked through, there's no reason to cook longer. You wouldn't cook a steak or pork chop for hours, and that's if anything even more true for fish.


What's the purpose of a bread box? For some reason I always thought bread boxes were supposed to be wood, and that some property of wood helped keep bread fresh.  Like a cigar box, perhaps.  But after looking for a bread box, I see that many are plastic and metal.  Before I buy a bread box, I should probably understand what exactly I'm purchasing.

What is a bread box for, and do all types of bread boxes accomplish the intended purpose?

In my experience, they're best at concentrating mold spores, and hiding away unsightly loaves.

While chic, and quite popular in the days before plastic bags, they're not much use now. Pretty much the same as the "pie safe"


Can a cast-iron casserole be used for steaming? I just got my first cast-iron cookware -- a 2.5qt casserole (similar to the Le Creuset ones, but a fair bit cheaper). I understand that cast-iron cookware has some caveats regarding cleaning and storage, and I've heard conflicting advice about water-heavy cooking with them because of the potential for rust buildup.

I'm planning on steaming some potatoes for a recipe this weekend, and while I could use a cooking tray and aluminum foil, I'd like to see how it turns out with a cast-iron casserole; would this potentially damage or cause rust on the cookware?

Enameled cast iron pots, like the one you have, can be treated as if they were steel for purposes of steaming.  You don't need to worry about rust unless the enamel is chipped or cracked. It'll take a bit longer to heat up, but it'll also retain heat better -- so keep in mind that it won't stop steaming until 15 minutes or so after you take it off heat.

If you had a non-enameled cast iron pot, I'd say that you shouldn't steam in it until you had a chance to build up a good seasoning. But that's not an issue for you.


Gluten-free replacement to coat something with before roasting, to obtain crust A recipe calls for coating (slightly cooked) fennel bulbs in flour before roasting them, presumably to obtain a bit of a crust. Is there anything I could coat them with that is gluten-free?

Rice flour should work well for this; it produces very crispy crusts.


Effects of elevated storage temperature on bread quality It's pretty well-known and scientifically established that rather cool temperatures are bad for bread: putting your bread in the refrigerator will tend to dry it out and accelerate chemical reactions in the starches that cause staling (as discussed, for example, in some answers to this question).  Freezing, on the other hand, stops some of those reactions and is a common method for maintaining bread quality for longer storage.  Regardless of quality issues, both types of cooling will help to prevent molding, so there are trade-offs.

My question is: what happens when we store bread at warmer temperatures, say in the 90-130F range (about 35-55C)?  How will quality be affected?  Will the shelf-life be altered?  Are the effects only good, only bad, or mixed?  I'm particularly interested in short-term holding (less than a day) at elevated temperatures.

Also, are there any food safety issues raised by a practice like this (i.e., worse than bread storage at room temperature)?  Bread is not a particularly good growth medium for bacteria, but I imagine that Bacillus cereus or something might be at least a potential concern.

[Background, for those who are curious: The reason I ask this question is because I sometimes need to store bread temporarily in a hot car.  The only bakery near me that I trust to make decent bread sometimes has "day-old" bread on sale for half price.  Their normal prices are, to my mind, excessively high; so if I can't buy their loaves for half-price, I usually just make bread myself.  Occasionally, I'll pick up some loaves on the way to work, but it's inconvenient to take them back home immediately.  And while I have sometimes carried them into work with me, it would be easier to just leave them in my car.  I also can't pick up the bread on the way home, because the half-price bread (when they have it) generally sells out by mid-morning.  Although I can sometimes park under a tree or something, the reality is that the summer sun will often raise the temperature of my car interior to above 100F.  Thus, the bread will be subjected to quite a few hours of elevated temperatures.  I've done this once or twice without a major change in quality, but I'm wondering if there are benefits to justify the inconvenience of keeping it near room temperature.]

Summary:

If the loaf is kept at an elevated temperature in a plastic bag for a period of 6-12 hours I believe you will see little to no difference compared to storing at room temperature.

Stored at an elevated temperature in a paper bag the loaf will start to dry out to a noticeable extent.

Note that the answer below does not address possible food safety issues.

Long-winded details:

My previous answer provided some information up to 36°C (97°F). Since the question asks about the temperature range 35-55°C I did some amateurish experimentation of my own.

Using my fan assisted oven at the lowest setting, I halved a store bought sourdough loaf and placed one half in the oven overnight and kept the other half at room temperature (25°C).

I should note that my oven temperature fluctuates between ~37°C and ~47°C (99-117°F) measured using using a Thermapen at various intervals. I'll also note that I wrapped the loaf-half that went into the oven in a tea towel to protect it from the oven fan.

In the morning I taste tested the two loaf-halves. The room temperature loaf had started to stale slightly but the half from the oven had also started to dry out. It was noticeably more difficult to cut through the loaf-half from the oven and I saw about 8mm of visibly dried bread extending inwards from the outer surfaces.

This test was quite obviously flawed in that you would neither use a tea towel to wrap your bread whilst in the car, nor would you first cut the loaf in half.

The next experiment I did used 5 smaller loaves of the same variety, from the same store. I placed two in a plastic bag and two more in the paper bag in which the loaves were purchased. The fifth loaf I kept at room temperature in order to compare later.

Using the same oven setting I kept the bagged loaves in the oven for 6 hours. After six hours I removed two loaves, one from each bag, and taste tested.

Comparing a small slice of the loaf from the plastic bag to a slice from the room temperature loaf I sensed no obvious difference. The loaf from the paper bag was noticeably drier. I marked the loaves from the oven and saved them for comparison again later.

Keeping the remaining two loaves in the oven for a further 6 hours, I did another taste test this morning.

The loaf that had been kept at room temperature had now slightly but noticeably started to stale. Comparing this to the 12 hour loaf from the plastic bag I noticed hardly any difference. I really couldn't say whether one was less stale than the other. Comparing the 12 hour loaf from the paper bag, once again drying was pronounced.

I also made a second comparison using the loaves that had been taken out at 6 hours. Again I sensed no obvious difference between the loaf from the plastic bag and the room temperature loaf. The 6 hour loaf from the paper bag was no less dry than it had been 6 hours before.

Update:

I followed up on @Athanasius question from the comments and did another test with the oven fan switched off. This time I had to fight with the oven thermostat to stay within the temperature range but managed to stay just under 130°F. I tested three small loaves of the same variety and from the same store as the previous tests. Again, I kept two in the oven in paper and plastic bags, and one at room temperature (also in a paper bag). As well as taste testing I also weighed the loaves before and after the test. Here are the figures for weight loss after 6 hours:

Elevated temp, plastic bag: no measurable weight loss
Elevated temp, paper bag: ~7% weight loss
Room temp, paper bag: ~4% weight loss

While I don't have any objective means for comparing dryness from the previous experiment (I didn't weight the loaves in the previous test) it does seem like the oven fan led to increased drying. As a subjective measure I offer the fact that following yesterdays testing I discarded both the 6 hour and 12 hour loaves from the paper bag, but this morning I found the loaf from the paper bag good enough for breakfast despite the drying.

The words in the summary are, however, still correct: stored at an elevated temperature in a paper bag a loaf will start to dry out to a noticeable extent.


Does a lid on a pot safely "seal" soup? My in-laws have a practice in which they make soup with the lid on the pot, turn off the heat, and leave the pot on the stove without lifting the lid until the next day when they eat it.

Their claim is the heat destroys any existing pathogens, and the lid prevents outside contamination, and that the contents are thus safe to consume.

I found this all a bit dubious. It seems to me that if the lid did have such a good seal, there would be a pressure differential giving significant resistance when trying to remove it.

Is this a safe means of short-term room-temperature preservation?

The seal, the pot, none of it really matters.

You don't sterilize food when you cook it, you pasteurize.

Even if it was perfectly sealed, there's still baddies that didn't get killed.  Pasteurization brings food bateria to a safe level, not a 0 level.  Once food gets back in the 'danger zone', it can start growing pretty quick again.

This is the same reason you can't cook a sous vide meal and then leave it on the counter forever.


How to store organic cold press sunflower oil for long term usage? I have opened the bottle and I will be using very little amount daily.
It is not going to be finished soon.

What are the storage instructions?  Should be stored in fridge?

Keep it sealed and in the dark. It will last for a long time so long as it doesn't get contaminated.

Do NOT put in the fridge, it will get ruined overnight.


How to properly slow cook lamb's head? There is a (Turkish?) specialty, boiled lamb's head.

In restaurants, I've noticed it's boiled to an extent that you can pull apart skull segments easily and access the brains.

Whatever I try I can't reach this state. Recently, I used sous vide for about 18 hours, 84°C.

Any experiences with this?

I don't have any experience with cooking heads, but the problem sounds familiar enough.

The quality of meat in restaurants is often far better than what you can buy at a regular consumer market. What you - a regular layperson - buy as a "lambs head" might actually be an old rams head. What a restaurant chef buys is fresh meat from suppliers the chef trusts to deliver high quality. I don't want to imply that you aren't able to distinguish the head of a young lamb from that of an old sheep. People just try a lot of things to earn more money for less quality wares.

The reason why I suggest your sheep might have been old is that the segments of the skull are seperated at birth and fuse with age. From a certain age (I'm not sure what that age is in sheep) the upper skull is one solid bone and no amount of cooking can seperate the individual segments. Especially male sheep have a very solid skull to protect the brain from damage while ramming their horns into opponents.


How do I avoid dry meat and burned masala and rice in biryana? I have tried to make Biryani several (3, lol) times using this recipe but never got it right. The meat gets too dry, and the masala and rice often get burned. How can I avoid this?

Most people get burned biryani because of the rice. It must be soaked and the par cooked
before going into the pot. Also the quality of the rice is important. IMO that would always
be Basmati rice. I always soak my rice for an hour for any dish.
The cooking vessel has to be heavy and sealed. This ensures that the cooking happens
in an almost pressure cooker state inside the pot. Some people seal their pot lid with
a flour dough. Cast iron pots are the best.


Is there some sort of gun (or a way) to decorate cookies with chocolate chips or nuts? I've started producing 1000 cookies a day, and I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to decorate cookies faster with chocolate chips or nuts than doing it by hand.

Some sort of gun or something that would push/throw nuts and chocolate chips?

Note: the photo shows peanut butter cookies topped with peanuts

thanks

It very much depends on the scale you desire.

Industrial Scale

From my quick youtube research, it seems like most commercial cooking making machines use an extrusion approach and are focused on dough deposition. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-R9nYHNTAE.

A machine like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP6WuXUKK_M, is the most promising that I have found. There is probably some clever mechanism that could, instead of punching out the middle of the cookies, deposit a chocolate chip or nut.

Personal Scale

This is harder, because of the inherent variability in environment and types of use. I doubt something already exists/haven't been able to find it. However, I have a couple of preliminary ideas. You need several parts:

hopper to hold chips/nuts
mechanism to deposit/press chip or nut into the dough
barrel or something similar to connect the two parts.

Airsoft or paintball guns have hoppers that deal with similar style objects and are designed for handheld use. You could start by researching loading mechanisms for these guns.

The hardest part is designing the mechanism that will actually press the chip into the cookie, because of the delicate nature of the operation.

If you wish to discuss this further, feel free to contact me using the information on my profile.


Why do my caramels turn out hard in the center? I have made several batches of homemade caramels, and they have all turned out the same - soft around the edge of the 9x13 pan I use to cool them and hard as a rock in the center of the pan.  Seriously, the caramels at the sides are soft and chewy, but the ones in the center are so hard that if they're bent at all, they crack (with a cracking noise).
I have noted that the part that is hard is also the part over the area on that pan where the caramels are first poured out. Coupled with this, the top of the entire pan of caramels is slightly crunchy.  There is no discernible grain to them and they look and taste like they should (except for the center caramels, which is like a really grainy toffee).  Of course, the recipe is from my mom, who manages to make them without any problems -sigh-
Anyone have any ideas about what I'm doing wrong??  Thanks for your help!
Here's the recipe I use: (I do not deviate from this, at all)

2 c. superfine sugar
3/4 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. butter
2 c. whipping cream

Boil all ingredients except for 1 c. of cream over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  Stir in remaining cream.  Reduce heat and stir occasionally, until candy reaches 240°.  Take off heat, stir well, and pour into buttered pan.  Cool completely before cutting.

The higher the temperature, the harder the caramel. That is basically the whole story. So I think what is happening to you is that the caramel in the middle is still going up in temperature due to residual heat, while the stuff at the sides cools down quickly because it can vent heat through the pan to the outside world. Have you checked the calibration on your thermometer? In any case, I think the things you can try are (1) cook to a slightly lower final temperature (back down a couple degrees at a time) and (2) set the pan over a tray of ice to cool it more evenly. Also, be sure to do a really good job of that final stir before pouring into the tray.


Fridge door left open I know its probably a silly question but i left the fridge door cracked slightly open last night for around 3 and a half to 4 hours and was wondering if the freezer would have been affected in anyway?. I worry needlessly about everything and overthink compulsively so cant let this go. I imagine all the fridge items would be ok also as i said it was only cracked about 1 inch open for just about less than 4 hours..

If the door was only open a small amount, but the refrigerator was still running, it is likely things remained cold enough. However, there is no way for me to know for sure. Temperature is the key.  If the interior remained below 40 degrees F, your food is fine.  If it crept up into the danger zone for more than 2 hours, then you should be concerned.  In terms of the freezer, unless your food thawed, you are probably alright.


Cracked Eggs & Safety I bought some fresh eggs the other day which don't expire until next month.

They've remained in the fridge in their carton. I just realised that a few of the eggs are cracked.

Is it still safe to hard boil and eat the eggs from that carton that haven't been cracked?

It does seem dangerous to me. You don't know where they have been before you bought them, so bacteria and other stuff can contaminate the eggs with their shell broken. You can safely eat the eggs that didn't break. Their shell and membrane protects them. The broken ones should be thrown away if you want to be sure you are safe.

This reference puts it this way:

  Cracks in the shells of eggs can allow bacteria or other pathogens to contaminate the egg and make you sick. While cooking does reduce the amount of most contaminants, it does not remove them completely.

And from the USDA:

  Bacteria can enter eggs through cracks in the shell. Never purchase cracked eggs. However, if eggs crack on the way home from the store, break them into a clean container, cover it tightly, keep refrigerated, and use within 2 days. If eggs crack during hard cooking, they are safe. Remember that all eggs should be thoroughly cooked.


Can a pan "cook too fast"? This is not a product request. I was looking to replace a couple baking pans, the 9"x13"x2" that serve many uses, brownies or cakes among them.

Even with the dimensions stated, to be clear, I'm talking about these. I don't know if there is a more specific word for them.

One review for the product I'm likely to buy said "These pans burn everything I bake in them.... They cook too fast. Have to cut bake times in 1/2 from what recipe says and things still burn.... cakes, brownies, even granola...."

Does this even make sense? I've had to change times when I changed ovens or stovetop burners. The complaint here makes no sense to me, and I'm curious if it's something I should take seriously.

Cook's Illustrated has demonstrated that different baking sheets can cook differently.  They found that some of the sheets would cook unevenly or would even cook faster than other sheets, in the case of a double-layer one they tried.  Their results were that finish (light or dark) was not as important in determining how a sheet behaved. More important was thickness and material.  Sheets that were thin would cook faster than thicker sheets (overcooking the bottom in the time it took to cook the top) and aluminum sheets behaved better than steel sheets.


Which types of apples are considered to be "quick-cooking" apples? In my great-grandmother's recipe for Open-Face Apple Pie, she writes, "Cut apples in eighths if they are not quick-cooking." I assume that this means some apples will cook more quickly than others, but I can't find a list of such apples anywhere.

One of my favorite topics, having grown up close to two apple orchards...

Most likely, by "quick-cooking," the recipe intends you to use a pie or sauce apple, i.e. one that softens readily with heat.

Sauce apples. Use these for a pie if you like VERY soft pie contents. Personally, I prefer applesauce that has some chunks in it, so I don't use "sauce apples" for sauce; however, the standard is to list for sauce those apples that practically dissolve (like McIntosh).
Pie apples. An apple listed for pie is typically one that retains its shape but softens well (like Cortland, Mutsu, Empire, Jonagold, or Fuji).
Consider the taste. Some apples (Gala, for example) lose a lot of flavor when cooked, and are best for eating raw. Others gain tremendous flavor when cooked (Empire).

Which apple to use is certainly a matter of preference. Some people like their pie apples to remain quite firm (using, say, Granny Smith), while others like them to be VERY soft (and thus use a "sauce" apple).

Here's some apple lists/charts ... I'd say look up the varieties readily available to you, and see which ones are listed for sauces or pies.

http://www.baumanorchards.com/chart/index.htm
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/kitchart/kitchart71.html

Look up the website for your local orchard - they may link to a usage chart for the apples they grow!


How do I keep track of how old food is? I've been paying more attention to food safety but I don't understand how people remember exactly how long a given item has been sitting in the fridge.

If I want to make sure to stay safe, do I have to just write down what I bought/cooked/took out of the freezer and when? I have started doing that but I never used to and doubt that most people do that. Or do I just label everything?

Label everything with the date it goes in the fridge. That's about all there is to it. In my house we keep a marker and a roll of painter's tape in a drawer near the fridge, which makes labeling food easy; then you just stick to the system, religiously.

Incidentally, if it's not instantly obvious what's in a container (e.g., you have a container with opaque sides, or similar-looking substances like gravy and soup), put that information on the label as well.


How long does parmesan sprinkle cheese last in the refrigerator? My boyfriend says parmesan sprinkle cheese is bad because it has been in the refrigerator for a long time. But I still use it long past it's date and don't seem to have any problems with it. What do you think?

Use-by dates are set as the very minimum time that the product in question will be good for, provided that it is stored properly.

In addition, and as a general rule, because Parmesan is a dry, hard cheese, with very low water content, the use-by date is almost always far shorter than the actual time that the cheese will be good for, again, provided proper storage.

By "parmesan sprinkle cheese", I assume you are referring to the ones that come in a parmesan-wheel shaped box, such as this:

Their shelf life is far longer than their expiry date, and I would not be worried about using it beyond that date. However, for those boxes, most manufacturers tend to use the youngest cheese possible (for Parmesan this means 12 months), meaning it has not had as much time to age (some parmesan is aged for as long as 36 months, and some manufacturers age it for even longer than that), meaning that there isn't much flavor in it.

Personally, I stopped using the boxes a few years back, when I realized that I used far more than I would if I simply used a grater and a piece of parmesan, meaning that it I spend less (if memory serves, I calculated the annual savings to something like 300 Norwegian Kroner/50 US Dollar) on parmesan, getting more, and I think better, flavor from it.

It should be noted that my family uses a LOT of parmesan (depending on how often we have guests, we go through anywhere from 1/4 kg to 1 kg per month), so the savings argument may not hold true for you.


What is the best wine to use in a fondue recipe? Assuming I'm willing to pull out all the stops, what is the best wine to use in a "standard" gruyere-based fondue, like this one?

Any white with a sufficiently high acid content. The canonical fondue wine is Fendant, which is made in the valais region out of chasselas grapes, so any chasselas (see Wikipedia for a long list of alternative names) will work well.

One notable alternative is a dry champagne. This will make your fondue very light and fluffy, due to the carbonation.


Very very soft bread I was reading comments about oil or no oil. I use butter, but when cooking a 50/50 white/wholemeal loaf it is so soft its like cotton wool and nearly impossible to cut. Any ideas how get the loaf a bit firmer

For a firm loaf you want more gluten development. So:

Cut out the fat: it impedes the reactions forming gluten.
Make sure your yeast or sour-dough starter is active, or use instant yeast (very reliable in my experience): the carbon dioxide created as a by-product of fermentation promotes gluten development.
Use stronger (that is, higher protein) white flour rather than AP flour
Work the dough thoroughly: it is hard to overknead by hand. Several short kneads can be more effective than one long knead.
Try giving the dough a long rest, for instance overnight in a fridge.
Avoid granary flours or seeds with sharp edges: these cut the developing gluten network and make for a weaker loaf.


Why are olives always better at the restaurant? Between olives I've been served at restaurants as a starter and various brands of olives I bought in supermarkets I have found that the ones in restaurants often taste much better. In particular they are often less salty, less bitter and more buttery in taste.

Is this a bias on my part, maybe because I tend to be more hungry when I go to a restaurant or are they actually better. Are there particular varieties of olives  (eg. specific region or method of preservation or preparation) that taste like the ones in restaurants? Is it that they are fresher at a restaurant?

EDIT: I'm referring to plain olives here, not a processed. The kind you get as a starter, sometimes with some bread on the side. In particular mediterranean or middle eastern restaurants serve them that way.

Assuming that you are buying from supermarket shelves,(and not, say, from olive bars that some supermarkets have) there is a quality difference between shelf-stable canned and jarred olives vs. olives available in olive bars like Whole foods or in a Mediterranean deli. These come oil cured or submerged in water, and cannot be stored for long term, and they taste much better.


How to make a smooth crème brûlée top I make crème brûlée from the Alton Brown recipe and it ends up delicious. However I am still in search of a method that will produce a smoother crust on top.
I use a thin layer of turbinado sugar and a torch directed down from above with slow swirling motion. The crust smells good and makes a nice  sound, but it feels a bit grainy in the mouth, and looks more like a scabby surface than something you could ice skate across.
Are those smooth crusts ones that are melted in a separate dish? Can you get that from a torch? If I sift my sugar might it be smoother? I have tried putting a thicker layer of sugar to start, but it just gets really heavy and too solid.

You should pour a little heap of sugar on top of the dessert, then swirl the dish around so that the surface is evenly covered with sugar.  anything that's left over, dump on to the next one (or into an 'extra sugar' dish).  This is important - there shouldn't be any loose sugar on top.

Now use the torch as long as you need to, although in my experience it shouldn't have an absolutely 'smooth' finish - there should be some texture.  Also, too much torch and the sugar will go past caramelization and just be burnt.

Source: worked in a fine dining restaurant for ~5 years and did this quite often.


refrigerating cooked waffles I have a gluten free recipe to make waffles:

2 cups gluten-free all-purpose (plain) flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Since I wont be able to eat them all in one sitting and I would like to make this once and last a few days to save time cooking every day. Would it be ok to refrigerate them for up to 2-3 days? Or maybe try to keep the batter?

It is certainly safe to keep them refrigerated for a few days, but you will probably get much better results by freezing them.

The cooked starches will re-crystalize if you refrigerate them, making them hard and unpalatable--this is one of the major modes of staling.

By freezing them, you reduce this effect.

You can then heat them directly from frozen in a warm oven to use the left overs.


A salad chopper I can put in the dishwasher? You probably know these kind of gadgets that help you cut vegetables quickly:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C7069MI/ref=s9_topr_hd_bw_bjuyUN_g79_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=CQ3ZZHAVEXQ376TYPCZK&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2223171242&pf_rd_i=678514011

https://www.amazon.com/Onion-Chopper-Vegetable-Fruit-Salsa/dp/B01CSZQFW6/ref=sr_1_13?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1473544287&sr=1-13

I've had a couple of them over the years so I could make simple salads quickly, but I always ended up throwing them away after a few uses, for a simple reason: They're difficult to clean. You may be saving 3 minutes by using a fancy chopper rather than a knife and a cutting board, but then you're losing these 3 minutes right back because you can't put the chopper in the dishwasher, so you have to carefully clean all of its twists and turns. Some of them have parts that you can put in the dishwasher, but so far I haven't seen one where the main part, the one that has the fancy mechanism, can be put in the dishwasher.

Do you happen to know a salad chopper that could be put in the dishwasher entirely for easy cleaning?

A lot of formally not dishwasher-proof gadgets - if they are not electric, and do not contain wood or non-stainless iron parts - do fine in the dishwasher. The most critical thing here would be the blades, and at least one of the ads suggest the blades are dishwasher proof - no sharp blade LOVES being in a dishwasher, but this suggests the alloy chosen being corrosion-proof enough to get by.

Alternative or "green" detergents, or minimizing detergent use, might be a bad choice though, since these are often less effective at dissolving/dislodging food scraps inside things.


Storing cut up potatoes (chips/fries) I have fallen into a slump at the minute where i just don't feel like preparing food when i get home from work, and i would prefer to cut up a larger batch of potatoes in one go and store them in the fridge/freezer in the correct portion sizes, so when i get home i can just throw them into the oven.

The problem i have had with this up to now is, if i put them into the freezer and then try to cook them, the defrosting process turns them to mush. If i put them in the fridge, they have gone off by morning.

Is there a better way to store potatoes that have been cut up?

You can store your cut potatoes in the fridge. Place them in container(s) and cover them completely with plain, unsalted water. They should be fine for at least 2 or 3 days.

I don't know that it's necessary, but I usually drain and rinse them before use.

Alternatively, as you are cooking them in the oven, you could cook a large batch and then store your preferred portion sizes in the fridge or freezer, depending on how long you plan to keep them before use.


My small chuck roast was dry How long should I braise a small beef chuck roast, about 1 pound, on top the stove?  Does it need to be totally immersed in liquid?

Try a self basting lid? My cast iron lids all have self basting bumps on them. This lets the water and oil that's splattered up drip back down on the food rather than running off to the sides.


If I double a bread recipe do I double the salt? I think it was my mom who gave me the rule of thumb that when you double a recipe you double everything except the salt.
I'm willing to defer to her wisdom for the sorts of soups and stews she liked to make, but she didn't do much baking, and I never saw her make bread leavened with yeast.
I know salt and yeast aren't friends and I'm trying to double a rustic ciabatta recipe.

If you’re measuring your ingredients by weight, I don’t see any reason not to double the salt. I usually do. If you’re measuring ingredients by volume, it might be best to err on the less salty side, as different types of salt have different densities. Hope this helps


How thick should be the sponge for a swiss roll? How thick should be the sponge for a swiss roll to roll easily without breaking and hold its shape?

I saw some pictures that look perfect and then some where the sponge looks too thick.

How do I figure out the perfect thickness of the sponge?

Personally when ever I do Swiss rolls or anything requiring me to roll or manipulate the sponge in any way I'll use a Genoise sponge recipe. It's a bit more effort to make than a bog standard pound cake recipe but worth it.

While still warm I've managed to roll it anywhere between 2mm thick and 3cm with little or no cracks or splits.

In my opinion the optimum thickness for a full sized Swiss roll is around 1cm thick, but obviously if making canape sized versions you'll be looking more towards the 2mm thickness.


How can I prevent the cocoa in my hot chocolate from solidifying over time? I make my own hot chocolate by making a slurry of cocoa powder and warm milk being sure that the chocolate is nicely melted and smooth.  Then I add the rest of the milk and heat it the rest of the way.  I just use the microwave for single-servings.  No chocolate clumps -- everything's GREAT.

However, by the time I start to get to the bottom of my cup, the chocolate has started to "fall out" of the milk clumping on the bottom.  I can re-heat and re-incorporate it, but I'd rather avoid the problem altogether.  Any ideas?

Related questions -- These address the initial creation of a smooth mixture and not the longevity.

Dissolving cocoa powder in milk

How can I make milk cocoa powder so it does not stick to the top and bottom?

Apply heat.

It's not quite what you were looking for, but it's probably the only solution that won't involve adding chemicals.

Basically, a set amount of milk can hold a specific amount of chocolate in suspension. The hotter it is (below boiling), the more it can hold. That's why as the milk cools, the chocolate it can no longer hold falls to the bottom of the cup.

The three options are:

Keep it warm, by using a mug warmer (like Catija suggested). If it doesn't cool, it won't lose the ability to hold the chocolate.
Start with less chocolate, that way, it won't be too much for the milk when it's cooling. Obviously, this will affect the flavour.
Add chemical additives, like emulsifiers, which will allow the milk to hold more chocolate.

As I said at the beginning, I think the best option is the first one. Apply heat.


What is the correct way to make "Brazil style" BBQ meat? I'm interested in cooking some meat Brazilian style, like they do at those BBQ restraunts where the meat is served on trays in small slivers.
Is there an effective way to do this without a huge turning slow cooker thingy (sorry don't know correct name/terminology).

Not sure if there is a correct way. It's basically skewered hunks of meat on a wood fired BBQ
You can do your own Churrasqueira by using a Weber "kettle" style BBQ or a B.D.S. (Big Drum Smoker). Use long steel skewers (or swords!) for your meat and BBQ away
Thick steaks of beef and lamb work well. Also try chicken drumsticks and some small Chorizo (spicy sausage)
Don't marinate the meat, but toss some coarse salt onto the meat surface before and during cooking. Don't go crazy with it, but it seems to absorb the roasting flavours and really boost the taste
Use a smoky fire, if your wood won't smoke add some fresh wood or herbs that do. Try lavender bush (wood and flower), grape vine or kiwifruit vine cuttings, or any other fresh cut aromatic wood
Watch the amount of fat dripping onto the hot coals; too much will make the meat taste bad. Shield the coals as required or trim off large chunks of fat
There is no need for motorised skewers that takes the fun out of it. Occasionally turn the meat by hand while enjoying your favourite beverage, and "chewing the fat" with a friend
Serve by taking a skewer to the diners plate, and hold skewer nearly vertically above plate. Use an extra sharp carving knife and slice onto the plate with a downwards cut so juices and other slicing splatter goes onto the plate and not onto the diners
If you are having a Churrasco party, give each diner a flippable symbol (e.g. red/green) to indicate to the server (probably you) "GIVE ME MORE!", or "I am stuffed". Serve a round of each meat as their outer layer becomes done
Coolest Churrasco cooker I could find

The rails on the top are what the skewers rest on
Following the car theme, some more cool Churrasco cookers here http://autozine.com.br/inusitados/churrasqueiras-automotivas


Sodium benzoate the correct amount I would like to know the ratio for using sodium benzoate as a preservative in our jams and relishes. We state on our product that it's home made and no added preservatives are added, would this be wrong when sodium benzoate is added?

Well yeah, adding a preservative is ... just that.
I'd just stick with the "homemade" part; there is so much misinformation about preservatives that get so quickly spread without research.
You can use it to rinse/sterilize containers without mixing it in but not as effective.
Recipes I've used are ¼ teaspoon per litre (mix with 1 tsp hot water to dissolve). Also can be used to sterilize jars by making a hot water rinse (use similar ratio).
Read Wikipedia on Sodium benzoate if anyone is worried about it as all the hype has been debunked and it's safer than the "natural" potassium sorbate used.


Books on advanced desserts? So I got hooked onto "advanced" (dunno how to call it correctly) dessert making and that primary comes from two books that I accidentally got hold of:

"Daren Purchese - Sweet studio"

"Cheryl Wakerhauser - Modern French Pastry".

Now I would like to dig deeper into this subject. Since I'm not an English native speaker, How can I find similar books that are more advanced than a regular dessert cookbook (e.g. they require use of molds, use spray guns, etc.). Maybe this field has a specific name?

Have a look at Amazon's "Customers who bought this item also bought" section when looking at those 2 books.

The book "Elements of Desserts" from Francisco J. Migoya looks nice.

Also try to find El Bulli books, even if they are not dessert exclusive, you will find amazing (hard to reproduce) desserts.


Creating ideal temperature for dough to rise Are there machines that maintain optimal temperature for dough to rise?

I don't know if I'd qualify is as a machine, but they're called either a 'proofer' or a 'proofing box'.

You'll need to check the description, as some boxes are just plastic and are intended to go into a larger proofing room.


Is this mold on my sour dough starter? I received the starter in early June this year. I feed 2 parts flour to 1 part well water. The flour is sometimes organic whole wheat, sometimes white flour. I keep it in the refrigerator. I feed once a week, but sometimes longer. It had been about two weeks when I opened it and saw stuff that looked like yeast granules. They are tan in color. I fed it and let it sit out for a few hours, then back in frig. I just took a look at the starter and it looks filmy, like the same thing is developing. It has a strong yeasty smell.
Is this mold? Is it still usable?

No. You are looking at "hooch", the fermented alcohol released by the yeast organisms, floating on top of the starter with little blobs of starter pushing up from the gas released below. Your starter is just fine.

Pour off the hooch and continue.


Why do fatty foods go with sour ones? Why do fatty foods tend to go with acids?

Mayonnaise and hollandaise contain lemon juice, and fatty fish tends to be served with lemon.  Barbecue pork and pork belly are sometimes served with a vinegar-based sauce.  I've also heard that fatty foods should be paired with acidic wines.

Is there something about the way we taste fat or the way we digest it that makes us crave sourness?

In regards to the general question, our brains are wired to like fats; they are compact sources of energy. However, too much fat in a given dish can feel unpleasant in the mouth, and acid washes that away (in terms of perception, the same way that adding sugars changes the perception of how acidic something is). I believe (by which I mean this is what I think, with no evidentiary basis whatsoever) this is a learned response, but I could very well be wrong.

The pairing of acids with fish, however, does have a scientific basis. According to the bible:

"Acid conditions cause heavy-smelling aldehydes, which accentuate the fishiness of TMA, to react with water molecules and become nonvolatile, so that lighter alcohols dominate the aroma."

(2004 edition, p. 238, hardcover)


What can I do to use Revere Ware copper bottom pots on a glass cooktop? Only after my new GE Profile cooktop was installed did I read the owner's manual which recommended that I not use copper-bottom pots on it.

Is there anything I can do so I can still use my Revere Ware pots? Would a heat diffuser work?

I am more afraid of ruining my cooktop than my pots so I would like a solution that will not compromise my cooktop in anyway.

I'm somewhat confused by your question, as GE appears to recommend copper-bottom cookware. At least if I've grabbed the right manual, lacking a model number.

Note the word recommended right below "copper bottom". Though they do warn you that you have to be diligent cleaning any residues left and not allowing cookware to overheat. (Though, depending on the thickness of that copper bottom, you may find that stainless with an aluminum disc is actually better cookware, and fairly cheap.)


Definition of a "half glass?" I'm making oven baked caponata and the recipe calls for a half glass of vinegar.  No clue how many ounces to a "glass."

From my years of cooking, I would guess this to be about 4 oz. or 1/4 C. as we sometimes used a small 8 oz. juice glass for measuring and half a glass would be half of that or 4 oz = 1/4 C., especially with vinegar, Other than pickles I could not imagine a recipe using more vinegar than that.  Hope this is helpful.


Why does my flour sifter have cup markings I have an inexpensive flour sifter that just has wire mesh and a little hand-crank (like one of these 1, 2.)

It has cup markings on the side ("one cup," "two cups").

This is probably a silly question, but why?  Doesn't the flour just start pouring through the wire mesh as soon as you start adding it, thereby making the markings useless?

Only a tiny amount of flour will fall through the grating before you start actively sifting; there is a reason there is an agitator and crank to help force the flour through.  I am sure the idea was that you could use the sifter as a measuring cup.

Of course, since most sifters are opaque and the markings are on the outside, it is difficult to get a good measurement.

In practice, these markings are essentially useless, and you are far better off using a proper measuring cup, or even better, a scale.

Personally, I am of the opinion that sifters are hard to clean, not useful for anything else, and in general a pain.  I use a simple sieve when I need to sift.


UK scones versus US scones I remember listening to an America's Test Kitchen podcast where they compared UK v. US scone styles. They asserted that they were quite different from one another. And they seemed to favor the UK scone, their comments regarding a UK scone sounded alluring.

My question is, do you think there is a noticeable difference?

The BBC is a good source for classic british food; here is a classic buttermilk scone recipe here, and here is another made with milk. (I'd say buttermilk is the better way to make them.

The correct way to eat one is in a cream tea - a pot of tea, a scone with tea, strawberry or raspberry jam, and clotted cream, served around 3 in the afternoon. Nothing much better in life ;) (Also, I had no idea there was a Cream Tea Society until now.

As a Brit, I'm also a bit in the dark about US scones, but am I right in thinking it's a savoury thing -- I think the nearest British dish would be beef cobbler.