Would a cast iron pot work well for chili? If so, why? Is there anything to the cliched image of the big ol' cast iron pot filled with fiery chili?

We have some cast-iron skillets and love them, but I've heard that you're not supposed to cook tomatoes (possibly because they're acidic?) and beans (I have no idea why) in cast iron. I have a 3-quart pot I'm thinking about using as a test.

Does properly seasoned cast iron flavor the chili any differently? (I assume not, but anything else you cooked in that pot would taste faintly of chili.)
Does cast iron perhaps allow the pot to heat more evenly?
Would you season such a pot differently, or simply season it the way one would season any cast iron cookware?

I believe that the "clichéd image" you refer to is popular (and cliché) because of chili con carne's long history of being cooked outdoors in big cauldrons or at least over an open flame. As any camper will tell you, iron is the traditional material of choice when cooking with fire.

As for what actually happens - cast iron is a porous material, unlike stainless steel or aluminum.  The seasoning in cast iron is essentially a layer of baked-in grease that fills those pores and over time absorbs the flavor of everything you cook in it.  It absolutely does impart a characteristic flavour, but what that flavour is depends to no small degree on what's been cooked in it before.  If you don't care properly for your cast iron, that flavour might very well be rancid fat.  So whether or not the flavour you get with your chili makes it better, worse, or just different is largely a matter of personal taste and habits.

As for the acidity: Yes, acids can react with the iron, but cast iron is fairly corrosion resistant.  Cast iron is also used for pipes, so this is pretty well-documented by engineers; you need a pH of 4.3 or less to corrode cast iron to any significant degree.  Pure tomato juice is not a strong acid; it has a pH of anywhere between 4.1 and 4.6, which is just at the threshold; when you consider that this is being diluted with tomato purée, water, meat juices, and various other lower-acid substances, it's evident that you're well within normal tolerances and can cook chili and other tomato products for as long as you like.

Also, the seasoning itself provides some measure of protection for higher-acid foods, since the acid has to penetrate the grease, and water is not good at penetrating fat - that's why food rarely sticks to well-seasoned cast iron.

Now this is not to say that the iron won't react at all, it just won't noticeably corrode or make your sauce/chili taste like metal.  Consensus seems to be that you'll end up with up to 5 mg of iron for every 3 oz of tomato sauce, which comes out to about 160 mg for the whole 3 quarts.  That's not good for you if you eat it all at once, but toxicity doesn't happen until you hit 45 mg or so every day for a prolonged period of time, so unless you're eating an entire quart/litre of chili or tomato sauce a day, it's not going to be a health hazard.

So don't fill your cast iron pot with lemon juice or dump half a cup of vinegar in there - but don't worry about a few tomatoes either.  If anything, it just improves the nutritional content.

As far as heat distribution is concerned, cast iron really does not heat very evenly.  It's far more prone to hot spots than reasonably-priced aluminum- or copper-bonded stainless steel.  What it does do is retain heat very well, so it's excellent at maintaining just the right simmering temperature for something like chili, which you would otherwise need some fairly expensive stainless steel to achieve.  But you have to be very careful of scorching when you cook chili in cast iron; stir often.  A few times I've left my cast iron chili pot sitting around unattended for just a little too long and found some of the meat stuck to the bottom.

Last but not least is the seasoning and the answer is no, you wouldn't season it any differently.  As I alluded to above, the seasoning really doesn't have much an effect when you're cooking a sauce or stew as opposed to a piece of meat or something else that has a tendency to stick.  The only function it really has here is to impart a tiny bit of flavour and insulate the iron from some of the acidity of the tomato juices, which isn't necessary anyway.

All in all, I find cast iron to be very good for chili and other stews primarily because of its heat stability, but it's no panacea, and if you're only using the pot for chili then you won't get many of the benefits (in particular the beautiful "black" seasoning that accumulates after hundreds of rounds of greasing and cooking).  So by all means use your existing cast iron for chili and stews, but I wouldn't recommend for anybody to run out and buy a cast iron pot just for that purpose.


Is there a way to forestall vanilla bean marrow falling to bottom of crème? Every time I make use of vanilla beans, specifically the seeds contained in the pods, the seeds fall to the bottom of whatever it may be that I am making.

I was wondering if there is a technique to somehow, for lack of a better term, render the seeds suspended inside of say a crème?

I often find myself (and it is not seldom the case with others) scraping the bottom of a crème brûlée trying to get at the bed of vanilla marrow that lies at the very bottom of a ramekin.

This can however sometimes create an appealing visual effect and will not take away from the taste/eating experience, as is the case with a panna cotta if served turned out onto a serving plate.

I realise this may be somewhat of a silly question, but it is something that has popped into my head time and time again in the kitchen.

Personally the only way I've ever achieved a good suspension of vanilla in my Brûlée's is by cooking the custard over a bain-marie until thick and... custard like. Once it's nice and thick I'll then pour it into my molds and then bake them for 10-15 min at around 110°c just to finish off. Be very careful not to over cook them the last thing you want, after all that stirring over the bain-marie, is curdled eggs.

The extra thickness of your custard helps stop the vanilla seeds sinking to the bottom. However, you will still get a little sink-age.

The trick for Pannacotta, is to stir them as they begin to set. Or to whip them after they have set and then stick them back in their molds and chill again. This also helps make your Pannacotta lighter and aerated.


Is asking for a "Chinese menu" in a Chinese restaurant a common way to get more authentic dishes? At a Chinese restaurant I went to in Sydney, Australia, I asked for a Chinese menu in addition to the default menu supplied. The "Chinese menu" had dishes' names written in both English and in Chinese, and I found that the dishes listed there were ones I had encountered less often, and seemed more authentic, compared to the default menu supplied.

However, I don't know if this trick only worked for this restaurant, or is a commonly accepted way of politely asking for more authentic dishes rather than the "dumbed down" dishes frequently offered that won't scare off ordinary customers.

The following is what I mean by dumbed down, even though it's talking about the USA, not Australia:

  "Chinese-American cuisine is 'dumbed-down' Chinese food. It’s adapted... to be blander, thicker and sweeter for the American public"

Is asking for a "Chinese menu" a commonly accepted way of asking for more authentic dishes in a Chinese restaurant?

I am answering the question as I understand it based on our discussion in comments.

Step 1 - Choose the restaurant wisely. As a rule you don't want big fancy restaurants and you certainly don't want to even try in a chain restaurant. You want the holes in the wall run by members of the ethnic group that matches the cuisine. When you enter the restaurant, listen to the ambient sounds of conversation (customers and staff), the more you hear the language that matches the cuisine, the better your odds.

Step 2 - Be super friendly, smile a lot and ask lots of questions about the cuisine and the menu.

Step 3 - Be honest, upfront and clear. Tell your server that you really want to experience the cuisine that is the specialty of the restaurant. If the restaurant is Thai, for instance, ask what the most popular menu items are for Thai customers. Now ask if there is a special menu for Thai (or Chinese, or Spanish, or whatever) customers. There may be, if there is one your server will most likely be happy to get you one. You may or may not be able to read it. See step 2 again. Even if there is no special menu, by now your server most likely understands what you want.

Step 4 - Simply ask for what you want. Ask if the cook or chef can make you a meal that is like what would actually be served in the country in question. You may be able to specify, "Really authentic Pad Thai like I'd get on the street in Bangkok" or you may be even luckier and have no idea what you're going to get until it arrives. Either way, express your appreciation that they are allowing you to order "off menu", and be sure to mention that you don't mind a bit of an extra wait.

Step 5 - If you are in a part of the world that doesn't consider tipping to be strange or offensive, tip very generously.

Step 6 - Be brave.

If the restaurant has a bar, do all of the above but have your chat with the bartender.

That's it. I have quite a bit of experience getting authentic food in restaurants with dumbed-down menus. Those steps will work more often than not.

One final note. If the cuisine in question is often hot/spicy, be sure to tell your server about your preferences in that matter particularly if you're sensitive to heat. If you're successful getting authentic food, it would be a shame if you couldn't eat it. If you love heat, be sure to tell them that too. They may hold back a bit otherwise.


How to bake large batches of bread I want to make a double or triple batch of of this Italian bread recipe that I have. It's for a bread similar to what they serve at Macaroni Grill. My problem is that I am using a pizza stone in the oven and I can only fit one loaf at a time and it takes 20-25 minutes to cook a loaf.

My plan is to mix the dough and let it rise as one big batch. The punch down and separate the dough into individual loaves for the second rise.

The main ingredients are water, all purpose flour, olive oil, sugar, and yeast.

Is there a way that I can keep the additional loaves from continuing to rise while a loaf is baking? Or should I just leave them out?

If you were going to take the refrigerator approach, it's important to consider when you want to refridgerate it.

Immediately after making the dough, stash two of the doughballs in the fridge.  Take the first one out after about 25-30 minutes, and the second one out after another 25-30 minutes.  This should give you roughly a 30 minute difference between the rising time of the three loaves.  We go slightly under the 30 minutes, as there's a bit of a lag / recovery time for the bread after having been in the fridge.

If you wanted to refrigetate them after the first punching down, you can do it, but that's normally a shorter rise, and it may have some problems fully recovering before you put it in the oven.  It'll work, but you'll get more variation in the loaves than if you had done it immediately after the first kneading.


How do I make scrambled egg whites more like scrambled eggs? Sometimes I scramble egg whites (or make an omelette) when I have a lot left over from using yolks for ice cream, and want to do something really quick to use the whites. I much prefer scrambled whole eggs - richer, less rubbery, and so on.

So, what can I do to make scrambled egg whites more like scrambled whole eggs?

I'm not going to claim that I know a good answer to this question, and I hope perhaps other people can contribute other ideas.

I think this is a hard thing to find information on (particularly to obtain the "richer" element of whole eggs), partly because many people deliberately eat egg whites alone to save on calories.  But, like you, I sometimes end up with an excess of egg whites after baking or cooking something with a lot of yolks.

Slow cooking -- and most importantly, not overcooking -- seems to be a bigger issue than with whole eggs.  Otherwise, they end up tough.  I haven't tried it myself, but I've read that some people poach them instead (a "poach scramble") just to keep them tender and not overcooked.

But if you want to fry them as "normal" scrambled eggs, the only thing you can really do to improve them is add something else.  Here are a few things I've tried that might help:

Mix in a whole egg per 1 to 3 egg whites.  It's not as rich or flavorful as all whole eggs, but it's more tolerable and has more of the standard "eggy" flavor.  I don't find a 1:1 mixture to be that bad at all.  Obviously the more you dilute it, the less it's like whole eggs.
Add a dash or two of heavy cream (or other relatively rich dairy).  It will add back a little tenderness and richness.
Add more butter than you'd usually use for whole scrambled eggs.  Same effect as above.
If there are any herbs, vegetables, meats, cheese, or other ingredients you like in scrambled eggs or omelets, try adding some.  That can distract from the lack of flavor in the eggs themselves.


How does amount of flour affect cookies? What will happen to my chocolate chip cookies if I add more or less flour than the recipe calls for?

A general answer, because a concise answer would need an entire recipe.

(all ratios that follow are by weight not volume measures)

Flour gives the cookie structure. The commonly followed ratio is:

  Cookie dough = 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part sugar

That 3:2:1 ratio results in the most common cookie texture.

Adding more flour give you a hard cookie like: ginger snaps, short bread, etc.

Reducing the flour, like a 1:1:1  flour-fat-sugar will give a drop cookie and often chewy.

I Googled, and found this informative piece How to Invent a Cookie Recipe.


Blotches on my cast iron pan I am seeing blotches on my cast iron pan.

Are these just water stains after the pan has been dried by heating on the stove top? Or do I need to season my pan more?

Honestly, it looks to me like oil that hasn't fully dried/burnt. If you put it on a hot hob whilst dry for a couple of minutes it'll be easy to check. If it blackens, you're fine


Bitter shortbread - what to do with it? Yesterday I did a batch of shortbread but the cookies have a tangy, almost bitter after taste. Initially I thought the culprit was the lactose-free butter I use, now I know it's probably because the sides of the shortbread browned a bit.
I think I know what I need to change next time I make this recipe, but now I'd like to know what I can do to mask the bitterness in this batch of cookies. I'm thinking of making a caramel sauce to dip the shortbread in. Will this work?
Also, out of curiosity, could anyone explain what makes shortbread taste bitter when they brown?
For reference, the recipe I used can be found here: Simply Perfect Crispy Scottish Shortbread

Based on my experience rescuing overdone oatcakes, I suggest crumbling up the shortbread, maybe cutting off any obviously burnt edges, adding some sugar and then using it as the topping for a fruit crumble. You could add another complex taste by adding crumbled nuts to the topping. (Mix them in, else they will burn during the baking.) There will probably be some bitterness remaining, but I'd expect this to mask it and make something palatable for most people.


Substitute for coconut in macaroons Looking over several chocolate macaroon recipes, several of them use coconut in conspicuous amounts (such as this one or this one).

What is an appropriate substitute for dried coconut here? It seems like it's used as a dry ingredient, so I would suspect substituting other dry ingredients (flour or oats) might make sense. But I'm not sure, since coconut stuff tends to be oily.

You're right in that you don't want to use oats or flour.  Your best alternative is some other form of ground nut.  Almond was actually the original macaroon, with coconut coming later.

Rather than trying to modify the recipe directly, I'd recommend searching specifically for an 'almond macaroon' or 'amaretti' recipe.  Beware of 'macaron' recipes, which is the spelling the French use; it'll work, but they're typically intended as two halves of a sandwich cookie.


Sous vide cooker and beer cooler I just ordered an Anova Precision Cooker. Most of the pictures I have seen show the cookers being used in large cooking pots of water, like Dutch ovens.

Does it make more sense to cook in a small beer cooler, like an Igloo?

Doesn't cooking in mostly-aluminum pots with one of the highest heat conductivities of any metal commonly used in a kitchen cause the cooker to have to work more, and waste more electricity?

People do beer cooler cooks with a sous vide circulator (in fact, its noted by Anova, one of the most common sous vide tool manufacturers) -- primarily for going past the ~20 liter specification of the circulator to say 40-60 liters (e.g. by cutting a hole in the top of a cooler lid and sticking the circulator down in it; spray some insulation in the hole as well).

For a small container (e.g. a stock pot, dutch oven) at room temperature, the common circulators have more than enough power to heat and circulate the water. But, you could wrap the thing with towels (as in the Anova link above) or something to help prevent heat loss. This can help with reaching higher temps too if you're losing a lot of heat. But yes, the circulator would have to work less hard at heating if you prevented evaporation loss and insulated the container.

I normally do meat/eggs, and in my stockpot which I use for sous vide, my Anova (the current bluetooth model) doesn't have a problem maintaining temps. So, I don't use any towels or anything, just because its one more thing to deal with. I suspect most people use dutch ovens or stockpots or cambro containers just for convenience, and also get fine performance from the circulator.


Kutya- Ukranian Christmas recipe It calls for wheat.  is wheat germ the same?  If I can use wheat germ - the recipe says to soak the wheat in cold water overnight, would this be necessary with wheat germ?

No, the recipe means that you should use whole wheat berries, not processed in any way. It's not wheat germ, which is a kind of cereal.

My suggestion would be to use real wheat. If your regular supermarket doesn't carry it, an organic supermarket, a health store, or an ethnic store may have it. Then go on with the recipe as suggested.

Using wheat germ will in principle also give you an edible dish, but it won't be a traditional kutya. You don't have to soak it first. In fact, it may not be necessary to cook it either - but for that, somebody else with more cereal experience will be able to give better advice.


Is pressed cottage cheese a different cheese? Cottage cheese, by definition, is a cheese made by curdling milk using an acid or rennet of some sort, and then draining the whey, but not really going to any great lengths to press out all the moisture. The result is a very loose, chunky cream-like product.

So, the question is, what if you took cottage cheese (either off-the-shelf or homemade), and then went that extra distance by putting it in a cheese press? Would the resulting product be a different cheese known by a different name, or simply another form of cottage cheese?

Cottage cheese is made by separating the whey from the protiens in milk.  If you add lemon juice or vinegar to milk that has been brought up to 180 degrees and then cooled to 100 or so it will separate into small or large curds.  All that is left is to rinse it through a strainer.  If you want a Ricotta type cheese you can put the strained cottage cheese in cheese cloth (hence the name "cheese cloth") and squeeze out more of the liquid.  If you put the cottage cheese in a press it will turn out to be a white firm block of Mexican style cheese.  Many people add a little salt to the cottage cheese prior to pressing to aid in the removal of the whey and prolong the life of final product.  All in all if you press plain cottage cheese you will just have firmer cottage cheese. Store bought cottage cheese will not work in a press.  Store bought cottage cheese has cream added back into it to give it the texture that you are used to seeing in the container. It will not solidify. The cream will stop the curds from sticking together.  Make your own and you will enjoy it way more anyhow.


What reading materials give in-depth coverage of baking with gluten-free ingredients and techniques? There is plenty of reading material on what gluten is and what its function is in baking, so I feel like I have a decent understanding on that topic.  However, I am not finding much on the reasoning behind gluten-free baking, as compared to "regular" baking.  What are some good references that are detailed and thorough?

NOTE:  I am not looking for recipes.  For example, the following is more recipe-oriented:

What are good references for Gluten free baking?

I am looking for a detailed and systematic treatment of questions such as:

What ingredients can help replace gluten in gluten-free recipes?
When considering alternative flours, why choose one type of flour over another?  For example, why choose sorghum flour over rice flour?
When compared to baking with gluten, what differences are there in technique (hydration, kneading, warm rise, cold rise, etc), and WHY do these differences exist?  For example, should your dough be wetter or more dry?  Should you knead for longer or shorter periods of time?
What differences are there in heat (temperature, duration), and what is the reason for these differences?

The reason behind "Gluten-Free" as a buzzword? Humans can be allergic to gluten strands. Unless you are using a recipe that is having low gluten or high gluten content related problems (too soft or hard due to gluten bonds), the only reason to reduce gluten is to accommodate someone's food allergy. In which case you need to eliminate gluten altogether. Many people who have severe reactions simply will not eat food unless they know it was prepared correctly. In a very American twist, I have met some of those people who are not allergic to Gluten, have no sensitivity to it, and treat "going Gluten-Free" as if it were something other than a dietary restriction; more like a lifestyle or weight diet than one that keeps your body from attacking itself.

I can't offer more actual advice for someone with a gluten-allergy related disorder like Celiac's that go work with a physician and get instruction from a real dietician.
For a straightforward approach to learning to bake with gluten-free ingredients, Google has plenty of resources for you to use, like this primur.
For an explanation of typical ingredients, their uses, pros and cons, Living Without has a well-rounded article
Additional ingredients, techniques, and strategies for serving and preparing are covered in the cookbook Gluten-Free Quick and Easy by Carol Fenster, PhD, who develops products for Bob's Red Mill
You would be best served with any further requests for detail on specific ingredients asking about them in particular rather than holding out hope for a vague guide to all Gluten-free ingredients.

This is because items like xantham gum, agar and so forth are only Gluten-Free by coincidence, and you will be crowding out other helpful resources (i.e. if you look for tapioca starch uses, but in a Gluten Free article, you may easily crowd out the myriad vegan resources that reference it's use)

Like any restriction, best practices are input control-based: (1) referencing what contains wheat or gluten and (2) making sure you don't buy any by reading the ingredients. In addition to actual gluten-specific sensitivities, the Candida diet requires that adherents avoid grains due to immune reactions to gluten (this is semi-dubious in that this is applied above and beyond the scope of defined allergy). In terms of any guide to gluten-free'ing your foods, it isn't that complicated. Basically you need to develop a back-catalog of substitutions. There is less concept, more trivia.

The degree of elasticity in bread is determined by its gluten content. In many problem-solving questions you will see offered that vital wheat gluten or other 'hard flours' can be added to doughs needing more gluten, or that 'soft flours' with low gluten can be added where a dough is coming out too chewy.

In replacing gluten-containing ingredients, there are many substitute flours like Amaranth, Brown Rice, and Garbanzo flours that contain no gluten whatsoever.
To substitute APF, Grape Seed Flour is one, a combination of rice flour, tapioca flour, and corn/potato starch can also be made to replicate APF.

How to substitute; Each of the different flours has a different taste (garbanzo flour is nutty, corn flour tastes like corn) and texture (vital wheat gluten can replicate chicken flesh when cooked as seitan; or consider the difference to the tooth between white, whole wheat, and semolina flours). For gluten containing flours, each also has varying levels of gluten.

Assess the taste and texture characteristics of the flour you will be substituting, match them to one with the gluten-content flour you will be using (there are plenty of Google results for any flour). Don't be afraid to make a mix to get what you want.
Some flours will require more flour / less hydration to achieve the appropriate dough characteristics. You can research this, but time and trial are eventually going to be your guide so that you can tell by touch and look whether or not it is accurately mixed.

In dealing with Gluten in flour; for the purposes of food sensitivity, you can't diminish the gluten content by any technique. If it's there, then it's not going to be viewed by most people on a GF diet, and certainly much less anyone with Celiac's, as palatable. Here are some trouble-shooting points to consider with respect to navigating gluten;

Kneading creates the network of gluten strands, this helps the bread stand up on its own (exploratorium has video on this). Also, salt and yeast fermentation help to develop strand development.
The purpose of giving your dough a rest after kneading is to allow the strands of gluten (the bonds mentioned earlier, these strands are what hold the dough together) to return to their  relaxed shape. If you are experiencing snap back (esp. problematic when shaping a dough for a pizza shell) either the dough needs a rest, the gluten content is too high, or you could use a dough relaxer.
Shorter fermenting, higher hydration, high fat (fat inhibits gluten formation), and lower-gluten content make for less elastic doughs. They will break apart rather than stretch. If this is problematic, introduce a flour that has a higher gluten content to the mix.
A good example of a dough that should not have a high gluten-strand formation would be pie crust. To inhibit gluten formation, and get a rocking crust, you should use small amounts of water, not knead very much, ice all of your ingredients somewhat, and use shortening; these things all inhibit gluten formation and give you that drift away crumb texture. Additionally, crumbly biscuits using unscalded milk are benefit from an enzyme that inhibits gluten formation (incidentally, scalding the milk inhibits the inhibitor)


Moisture in Vegetable Bin There is moisture in my vegetable bin. What can I do to prevent this? I do not have a separate control for the drawers. The refrigerator temperature is set at the manufacturer's recommended setting.

Unless you are not storing produce in the vegetable drawer (aka crisper) you want moisture there. It keeps your produce from drying out. If there is excessive moisture in the crisper , make sure you are not putting in overly wet produce. You can line the drawer with paper towels to absorb excessive water and to help maintain a even humidity.


Blowtorch and frying oil - dangerous? I got a kitchen blowtorch for Christmas.

Frying eggs in vegetable oil for breakfast, it occurred to me that the blowtorch would be an effective way to cook the last few uncooked parts of the white on the top of the eggs, as an alternative to flipping the eggs, or spooning over hot oil.

So I tried it, and it worked.

However, I realised soon after that the flame might have ignited the hot oil, causing a really nasty fire.

Is the risk genuine?
If so, can it be mitigated?

I was using rapeseed oil.

Rapeseed oil (aka canola for those across the pond) has a high burning point, but it can still start on fire using a blowtorch. If you are using just a bit of oil in a non-stick pan then there's not much fuel to burn, however if it flames it will probably go quick and the flames will go pretty high. It's unlikely to start your kitchen on fire, but you could get a nasty burn. Also, if you are using non-stick pans and you miss with the torch you could damage the coating.

If you are using lots of oil then the risks of starting a serious fire are higher, if it flames you could get burning oil spattering all over the place. Probably not worth the risks.


How do I make the panko bread stick to my egg-coated chicken? I am trying to do a pan-fried schnitzel with chicken breast coated in a mix of eggs, salt, pepper, some ketchup, a bit of olive-oil and sweet paprika.
Once I coat the chicken in the egg mix, I try to cover it with panko bread, but for some reason it doesn't stick and leaves tiny holes once it's pan-fried.
Somebody says I should coat the chicken with flour prior to the egg, but I'm not convinced that would do the trick.

Does anyone care to explain what to do?

Panko won't stick to chicken (too dry), but will stick to egg.  Egg won't stick to chicken (too smooth and non-absorbant), but will stick to flour.  Flour will stick to chicken.  Dredge first through flour, then through (well beaten) egg, then through panko.  It's a tricky combination, but if you do it right the results are excellent. Any dry spices you want to put in can go in the flour.  While I don't know for sure, I would certainly wouldn't include any oils in the coating, as none of flour/egg/panko will stick to oils.


Can bright green avocados be ripe? I very rarely buy avocado, but now I happen to have two of them in my kitchen.

I'm used to ripe avocado having this colour:

Now, mine are more brightly green, like this:

They aren't very soft, so I guess they aren't ripe yet, but I'm wondering if the colour will change or if this is just a matter of which variety of avocado it is?

Most avocado's are the Hass variety, which will go very dark when ripe

It look like you have bought a Reed or maybe Gwen variety. They are perfectly fine. Their skin colour will not significantly change as they ripen, so to check, gently squeeze near the point, and if it is soft it is ripe. If not a few days by the window at room temperature will fix it


How do I hold my knife to prevent blisters when chopping? I have a Wusthof Trident Classic 8" Cook's knife that I use for chopping.  I thought I was holding it properly but when chopping for extended amounts of time I end up with a blister on the edge of my palm at the base of my index finger where it rubs on the top edge of the knife.

I hold the knife where the blade and handle join together, between my thumb and index finger.  I have no problem with arm fatigue or tension, just the rubbing.

Can someone recommend some tips or point to instructional resources that can help me prevent this? Do I just put a barrier on the spot where it rubs?

Friction blisters are usually the result of continuous rubbing on skin that hasn't toughened up.

If you are getting blisters with normal amounts of chopping, either your knife is moving in your hand more than it should, or you are exerting more force than you should need.

Focus on your technique. Are you pushing down with the whole palm, the front of the palm, or the back of the palm? Are you guiding or forcing with your thumb and forefinger? Is your knife sharp and heavy enough for the materials you are cutting through? Are you using a circular motion to chop?


What is the term for simmering something in sauce? What is the term called for when something, generally meat, is cooked in a large amount of sauce such that the meat is completely submerged.

It is similar to boiling or simmering but instead of water it would be some sort of sauce.

This is one of my favorite ways to cook chicken so that it doesn't end up dry and was wondering the name of this technique so I could look up how other people have done it.

As Tall said, that can be referred to as braising, but generally braising is with liquid that doesn't quite submerge the meat. If the meat is fully submerged, another term is "stewing". Whatever you call it, it is best done at a simmer, not a full boil.


Recommendations: Food with Minimal Stovetop Time, No Oven Available I'm not sure if this will still be too broad or vague, but here's my attempt at a rewrite.  Please feel free to close it if it is still too broad/vague.

Friends overseas have a very minimal kitchen, and where they are, electricity is expensive, and they have a minimal income.

Here is what they have - one single electric burner, a smaller-than-normal dorm fridge (which eats up most of their electric bill, evidently), a very sketchy 80s or 90s microwave that they are reluctant to use because of radiation leakage, one very small pot with a lid, two chef's knives and a couple of bowls. They have access to vegetables, a little meat and a few spices and sauces (salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, onions), but that's more or less it.

They do not have access or easy access to the following - gas-powered or coal-powered products or devices; equipment or devices that are considered safe by most standards at home (they tried to get a hot water heater for coffee and it blew up in a month); ovens; toaster ovens; convection ovens; toasters; waffle irons; grills; George Forman grills; blenders; food processors; salad spinners, zesters, and other things we take for granted.  They also do not have access to processed foods like Oreos, soup mixes, canned broth, instant [fill-in-food-here] etc. Dairy and seafood are also out but those are due to allergies. They also do not have internet access, which is why I'm posting as I'm just learning to cook myself. I'm hoping to have answers for them next time I call.

I am looking for general food categories or formulas that they could make that have minimal time on the stovetop and will help with their bill.  Examples include stir-frys (cut up veg, add sauce, swish around, eat) or tortillas (eggs, add veggies and flavors, wait till eggs set, eat).

Are there other "food formulas" like the two mentioned above - not specific recipes - that they could use?  I used the following criteria

5-10 minutes on the stovetop
easily adaptable - e.g. for stir-frys, they can use whatever veg their market has available
imparts a lot of flavor in a short time
is forgiving

I really am looking for suggestions, not recipes. What can my friends do to make meals under those circumstances?

Thank you for your patience and help.

From my own personal experience, the following are easily made with only a stove top and proper utensils:

Stir fried rice (you can boil the rice, and then fry). Boiling takes minimal time. I'm not sure if this is specifically what you meant with stir-fry, but I thought I would add it here.
Grilled meats (easily cooked on a pan with some olive oil or other garnish). Your time would be spent thawing (if its frozen), otherwise its seasoning + pan.
Stock-based soups and stews. The only problem you'll have is reducing it; but this varies from the specific stew stock you are using.

I would suggest the following, but I am just a "cook by necessity":

Breakfast:

French toast
Eggs

Lunch:

Stir-fried rice
Side of soup

Dinner:

Grilled steak fillet
Roast potatoes (you can roast them by cutting + covering the pan with foil)


What to do with under ripe figs? It has been a cool summer and our tree has a large amount of under ripe figs. The frosts will be here in a couple of weeks so they need to be picked.

So what can be done with a large number of under ripe figs?

Figs are climateric fruits that is, they will continue to ripen after being picked from the tree (because they will start releasing ehtylene). However, contrary to other climateric fruits (such as bananas) this only works if the fruit is picked in the later stage of its developement.
From: Regulatory mechanisms of ethylene biosynthesis in response to various stimuli during maturation and ripening in fig fruit (Ficus carica L.). - Owino et al., Plant Physiol Biochem. - 2006

The fig is a climacteric fruit and treatment with ethylene in the later part of stage II stimulates growth, accelerates the onset of the rise in respiration, induces ethylene production and promotes ripening. A typical respiration climacteric is not displayed by fruit harvested before the natural initiation of ripening on the tree. However fruit in which ripening had been initiated on the tree gave a normal climacteric rise and ripened fully after detachment from the tree. Thus in many aspects the fig behaves as a typical climacteric fruit, but as a result of its growth pattern, the ethylene production preceding ripening occur during a phase of active cell expansion.

What many people suggest, is to put some olive oil on the eye of the fig. I have never done it, but apparently you only need a very small amount around the eye to hasten ripening.
Here are two links to forums explaining this fig-oiling technique 1, 2
Apparently this will speed up a lot the ripening of the fruits (although some people seem to report they are less sweet).
This works because olive oil will increase the release of ethylene from figs.
From the same paper I cited above:

It has been known since the 3rd Century BC that a drop of olive oil applied to the ostiole (a process termed as Oleification) of the fig fruit stimulates growth and leads to uniform ripening of fruits. The application of several vegetable oils such as rape seed oil, sesame oil, soybean oil, camellia oil and linseed oil also had similar effects as the olive oil whereas animal oil stimulated fruit ripening but the effect was less than that of the vegetable oils. It was also observed that refined olive oil was more effective in accelerating maturation of the fig fruit as compared to unrefined olive oil or other vegetable oils.
[...]
A transient induction of ethylene was observed in fruit treated with olive oil, with ethylene production increasing a day after treatment and later declining


What are these tiny kidney bean sized things in my rotisserie chicken I was trying to separate the bone and chicken meat to make soup when all of a sudden I see these tiny kidney bean things.literally the same size and everything but it was inside the chicken. Which is a rotisserie style chicken from the store. What are they. I cut into them no weird stuff and im sure they are too small to be the chickens actual kidney. This chicken was way too big

Your chicken was a rooster and what you found are his testicles. If you are not queasy, this forum entry gives you a picture and some more anatomical details.

While animal testicles are typically edible and often a speciality/delicacy, many westerners are not necessarily familiar with them, especially in animals as comparatively small as roosters. Asian (e.g. Chinese) cuisine knows various dishes based on chicken testicles, and there‘s also a Hungarian dish that’s basically a stew/goulash.

On the other hand, they have confused unwitting consumers as readily reported by the kind of media that favors sensationalism.

So don’t worry, you can simply eat them, if you want. Or get inspired by Heston Blumenthal’s Regency recipe for his Fairytale Feast.


What does it mean for a dish to be called poêlé? I was watching a show and they mentioned Fois Gras Poêlé. Now I know what fois gras is so I looked up what poêlé meant since I assumed it was a cooking technique. However, Google (patent pending) turned up that poêlé was either a kind of pan (basically a frying pan) or meant "pot roasting".
Now, when I look up fois gras poêlé on Google (patent still pending) it returns recipes for Pan-Seared Foie Gras that you then make a sauce for using its drippings, yet when I look up other terms like "chicken" poêlé it is basically cooking chicken in a covered pot with ingredients similar to the sauce step in fois gras poêlé.
My question: looking at these seemingly disparate cases, what does it mean for the dish to be called poêlé? The pan? The cooking method? How you make the sauce?

"Une poêle" (pronounced "pwal") is a frying pan, so we have the verb "poêler"(pronounced "pwale") which means to cook in the pan. So we use the word "poêlée" (pronounced "pwale") for anything cooked in a pan, with a more or less reasonable amount of fat, generally at a medium to high heat. In the case of your foie gras poêlé, it will be quickly seared on each face on a high heat.
Poêler is very similar to sauté, except that sauté is generally used for vegetables you will put in a small amount of fat on a high heat for a short time.
But =D
For professional chefs, when it comes to meat, "poêler" can also mean put in the oven in a "poêlon", which is a different kind of poêle that is thicker and can go to the oven. So very often they will start cooking the meat in the poêlon on the fire to sear it, and then finish the cooking process in the oven in the covered poêlon for a maximum tenderness and juiciness.
Sorry for the complicated explanation but with French cuisine nothing is simple...
Now for your sauce there are many possibilities for a foie gras poêlé : with white wine, red wine, balsamic vinegar, red wine and honey... But they would all start the same way: once you seared your foie gras put it on a plate, turn up your fire to a high heat, and add the liquid to deglaze (you can also add shallots first, but I woulnd't suggest garlic whose taste is too strong for the foie gras). If you're using wine or another alcohol, wait until all the alcohol has evaporated, otherwise it will give acidity to the sauce (you can't really see it but you can smell it!). Let us know how it went!


How do I melt the chocolate in a s'more? It is an age old question.

How can I ensure that the chocolate in a s'more is properly melted. Even when assembling them quickly the marshmallow just doesn't have enough heat to melt the chunk of chocolate.

Any solutions are welcome but I would especially like to know how to do it with no special tools- just a campfire and a stick.

Since you specified not wanting any equipment other than a campfire and a stick, the best I can do is add one more piece of equipment you should be able to find anywhere (i.e., not have to carry with you): a rock.

If you put a flat-topped rock just to the edge of your campfire, you should be able to place a graham cracker and slab of chocolate on top of it. While you are toasting your marshmallow on the stick, the chocolate should start to melt. This technique won't produce totally melted chocolate (unless you have a very large, very hot fire), but the chocolate should get a little melty without being so runny that none of it makes it into your mouth.

This only works if you have thin Hershey bars or other chocolate in relatively thin pieces. Thick slabs won't soften all the way through with this type of indirect heat.

And for those people concerned about dirt, bring some aluminum foil to act as a buffer between the rock/dirty stuff and your s'more.

Extraneous but related note:

Your question got me thinking about ways to achieve melted chocolate with microwave s'mores (a last resort if I'm stuck inside with an electric oven or no oven at all), and I have an idea I'll test out tonight. When I microwave s'mores, I usually microwave the bottom graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow together, then top with the other graham cracker once the marshmallow gets gooey. The chocolate doesn't really get melted that way, though, because marshmallows take almost no time at all to melt. I'm wondering if pushing the chocolate inside the marshmallow before I stick it in the microwave might help the chocolate melt more. I will update once I've had a chance to try this.

Edit:
I didn't really notice any difference between microwaving the chocolate inside the marshmallow v. underneath the marshmallow.


Measurement of water I've been making chicken soup for decades, but today I'm in a little bind. I have two large enough chicken thighs with bone in. How much water and broth should I use?

While I agree that the question is unclear, there is perhaps a clear answer to this from either of the directions that I can see.

If you are intending on making the thighs into stock -, add your other ingredients (veges, herbs etc), if any and cover with water.

If making soup from these and adding stock + water to cook the thighs so that they are eaten as part of the dish as a whole - then again, cover them with liquid. How much of each component you use is up to you, but I would suggest all liquid stock for this scenario. If you have a more concentrated stock, then dilute to taste with water.


Brisket been cooking for 4 hours and rock hard -- what am I doing wrong? I cut it up into 1.5 inch cubes and cooked it at 200 degrees F. I'm trying to make brisket curry and It's just been simmering at that temp for the last 3-4 hours. It's still super hard. Did I ruin it already?

Brisket takes a long time as it's so tough to begin with, just keep cooking it. It may take another 2 or more hours to get tender. Just be patient, with brisket you have to cook for a result not a time.


How do I use a convex crepe pan? I picked up what I believe to be an old cast iron Crêpe pan at the thrift store. I made a batter, and its consistency seems like what I made in the past when using a frying pan. This time, however, I can only get these octopus looking things, or worse, batter all over the stove top.

The picture doesn't help, but the dome is maybe an inch high and eight inches in diameter.

Searching around, it looks like this implement is a little out-of-date and arcane at this point. So how do you do this, anyhow?

As far as I can tell what you don't do is pour the batter onto the pan.  What you do do is dip the warmed pan into batter (I'd think you stick just the cooking surface into the batter, not the whole thing) and put it back on your burner to cook a crepe quickly.

See the product description on this convex pan on amazon and this vintage pan on ebay for where I got my information.


How long do oven elements last under high usage? If someone were to use their oven to cook five-hour pot roasts every 2-3 days, how long would the elements last before they would need to be replaced?

In theory the elements could last 10's of years, there is nothing in typical electric element design that limits their life. I would expect modern oven elements to last at least ten years with daily use

They may fail prematurely due to damage (being knocked) in the oven while hot, from surface oxidation due to improper cleaning, or because of slight manufacturing faults


Can I freeze (unbaked) pate a choux? Can I keep it in the freezer without issue for days? Weeks? Months?

I wouldn't– in my experience, the paste won't puff well if it's been sitting around even for a couple of hours. Baked choux paste freezes very well though– your best bet is to make it into profiteroles or eclairs or gougères or whatever and freeze those if you've got the space.


Is this a true? You should use garlic with pork and ginger with beef and never vice versa? "You should use garlic with pork and
  ginger with beef and never vice versa."

This is coming from my dad who says that fact has been handed down from generations and generations of Chinese cooking.  He says if I mix it (i.e. cook pork with ginger and beef with garlic), there will be an unpleasant taste.  Maybe he's just exaggerating, I'm not sure.  Do you think there is any truth to this saying?

Whether or not it's a good idea is subjective, but the Chinese seem to break that rule a lot!  For example, Northeastern Chinese sweet and sour pork (guō bāo ròu) is characterized by an intense ginger flavor.  The Sichuan classic twice cooked pork (huí guō ròu) calls for boiling the pork with ginger.  A common condiment for beef dishes/sauces is black bean garlic paste (蒜蓉豆豉酱).  Perhaps this saying is associated with a specific Chinese regional cuisine?


Frying only one side of eggs on a pan When you break the egg on the pan directly [the situation when yolk is left intact], what measures can be used to fry the egg from one side only and also kill the bacteria on the non fried side?

Do I need to fry the bottom til it becomes "brown" which will ensure that heat has reached up to the top?

There are three ways I know of to cook the egg all the way through without turning it:

Break the egg into a hot pan and turn the heat down, wait until the egg is cooked all the way through - this would probably be considered over-cooked sunny side up.
Break the egg into the fat left in the pan, or the fat that has been put into the pan (there needs to be a lot of it), once the bottom firms up a bit, use the spatula to sweep the hot fat over the top of the egg, cooking it on top with the hot fat while the bottom cooks from the burner/fire whatever.
Break the egg into the hot pan then cover the egg(s) or the entire pan with a lid and turn the heat down a bit; this will steam the eggs, cooking the top and the bottom at the same time - this is called smothered eggs.

All that being said, understand that undercooked and raw eggs are eaten regularly by many people; some examples are Caesar salad dressing, raw egg in milk shake (protein booster), steak tartare, sunny side-up eggs to name a few.


How can I more effectively remove bones, when fileting a sardine? Sardines ("kilu") are very common out here in Tallinn, and are very commonly eaten raw (e.g. kiluvõileib). It's particularly easy (and cheap) to find whole sardines that you can filet yourself. I have tried this at home in the following steps:

Cut off the head.
Slice open the belly.
Remove gizzards and nonsense from belly.
"Unfold" the sardine.
Using a fork, grab the spine at the head-end of the fish and pull it straight out.
Spend several minutes collecting bazillions of leftover rib bones, one-by-one, for each tiny fish.

The final step is obnoxious. I must be doing something wrong. How do I get the ribs out of the fish, efficiently?

Perhaps a little bit late, but ...

There is a "correct way" to do it:

Of course there is a video :)


Cooking protein marinated in yogurt I'm currently on a no-dairy and low sugar diet. I thought to marinate lamb in yogurt, but some of the yogurt got stuck to the lamb afterward and I cooked it anyway. I think the yogurt gave it nice caramelization or whatever the black spots were. My question is, did I cook off the calories/sugar in the yogurt. I noticed the burned residue on the pan as well. Actually it became one of the tastiest part.

Thanks!

You cannot "cook off the calories". Also, caramelized yogurt is still yogurt.

Some of the lactose in your yogurt surely got converted to something else, but 1) there is no way to estimate how much got converted and how much remained, and 2) it is impossible to say what the result was (it could have been another sugar). So a conservative estimation is that all of the lactose that went in will count towards the sugar allowance in your diet.

Also, baked or caramelized yogurt is still dairy. I can't know why you were placed on a no-dairy diet, but a yogurt marinade is still a breach of the diet rules. Especially if you are dealing with food intolerances, where tiny amounts of a substance can already trigger symptoms.

In summary: yogurt marinades are indeed tasty, but not compatible with the diet you describe. Caramelization does not change that.


shelf life dressing with shalots I understand that one should not keep homemade salad dressing that contains garlic for a period longer than a week or so. Does this also apply to using shallots in the dressing?

Botulism is a concern when garlic (or shallot...or even fresh herbs) is stored in oil at room temperature. An acidic environment virtually eliminates the  risk, meaning that garlic, shallot, and herbs are safe in a vinaigrette (especially one that separates and has those ingredients mainly sitting in the vinegar layer), for example.  Refrigeration makes the whole thing even safer.  You might also take a look at this question.  In general, shallot should be treated the same as garlic when considering the risks of botulism.


Can I heat up overnight oats I’ve recently started having overnight oats for breakfast which works great as they are so simple and easy. I was wondering though, as the mornings get darker and colder it would be nice to have them warm, I’d most likely do this by microwaving them for a minute or so. I’m hesitant however as I’m not sure how all the ingredients would react to being microwaved. I’ll put my standard recipe below;

Porridge oats
Milk
Greek yoghurt
Fresh strawberry
Golden syrup
Banana (optional)

Thanks

Soaking oats in milk overnight makes for very good porridge, with little effort in the morning as you just have to heat it through. So you're very close to something standard.

The golden syrup and fruit won't come to any harm from being soaked then heated, though you could equally stir them, or just the fruit, in at the end.

The only thing needing a bit of care is the yoghurt. It's probably better to start with it mixed in rather than stir it into hot porridge, as adding yoghurt to hot food causes it to separate, as does overheating it. So assuming you put your entire soaked breakfast into the microwave, you should heat it fairly gently, perhaps 1 minute on high, stir, 30 seconds on high, stir and see if it's hot enough (with further 30s bursts until it is). If your microwave is very powerful or uneven, the first step will need to be shorter. You may find with testing that you can just blast it until it's hot; this partly depends how much yoghurt there is in relation to the amount of milk.


How do beets bake up in flour? I am thinking about incorporating some raw shredded beets in a vegan chocolate sheet cake. Since it is vegan, I will be substituting with Ener-G, chia, or flax egg substitutes and earth balance margarine, and can add more if a solution so dictates. In other baking, I have not found any need to make drastic accomodations to accommodate for moisture or texture.

However, I am wondering if incorporating beets will alter the moisture levels. I will be balancing the earthy flavor with a lemon and lavender shortening-based frosting, so I am just basically looking for any confirmation that beets will not drastically add or leech moisture from the cake as I anticipate that they will function like carrots in carrot cake.

If using them will change the baking process, on the other hand, I would like to know so that I can adjust the recipe accordingly. If so please include any tips to balance it out, bearing in mind that extra egg substitute or margarine is doable, but not if it entails one of the specific properties of actual eggs (feel free to include those too, bearing in mind that I am looking for a vegan solution).

I haven't tried baking with beets yet, but, as you said, it must be a bit like carrot cake.

To keep my carrot cake from going soggy while baking (carrots giving off steam), I mix them first with the recipe's sugar to weep them. This also pulls out flavour from the carrot to the cake batter.

With beets, the procedure could be called bleeding rather than weeping, ha ha.


Keep alcohol in spiced rum reduction? I'm working on a new recipe and want to make a spiced rum reduction without losing the alcohol. Don't just want it thicker or I'd use xanthum gum I want less liquid with stronger flavor and the alcohol content to still be as high as possible. Thought about reducing it in a covered pot at extremely low temp to condensate the alcohol back into it but not sure how it would work out because the water would condensate back into it as well. Any thoughts I'm racking my brain here lol.

You can do something based on freeze-concentrating:

Partially freeze it until ice crystals form
Strain the ice off.

The liquid will contain much of the alcohol and alcohol-soluble flavour compounds, along with some water.
The ice will be mainly water with water-soluble flavour compounds and sugars.  There will be alcohol in it, which will be lost.
Up to now this is just freeze distillation (more properly called fractional freezing).

Melt the ice and reduce it as much as possible.
Recombine with the alcoholic liquid.

I've tested some of the process, with some success.

In the following, all temperatures were measured with a very cheap IR (infrared) thermometer; they're probably fairly consistent on the same materials, but not very accurate (as these thermometers make assumptions about the emissivity of the sample.

I froze a small plastic container of about 50ml of rum: 40% ABV, "Negrita" brand (French), that's been on my shelf for years.  With the freezer turned up to maximum and left closed overnight, the coils, on which the rum was sitting, were down to -36°C.  The rum was frozen into slush rather than  solid.  This is more than cold enough to freeze 40% ABV according to this table of freezing points. Starting from anything but the weakest rum you'll need quite a cold freezer or to be in contact with the coils.  The rum was warming rather fast after I got it out of the freezer, so I didn't get a temperature measurement before straining it. I put it in a tea strainer to drip and collected about the first half (estimated, nearer 2/3 in the end) in one glass (sample 1), before letting the rest melt in another glass (sample 2).  Sample 1 was darker in colour and smelt more strongly of rum.

Then I tried to test the flash point.  Both samples, and a sample taken directly from the bottle (sample 3), were warmed in a water bath, before I tried to ignite some on a teaspoon (which had also been warmed in the same bath and dried).  Below 24°C nothing much happened.  At 24°C a flame followed my lighter flame around the teaspoon without ever really catching, on sample 1 only.  At 28°C I saw the same behaviour, also on sample 3.

At 36°C (I wanted an intermediate temperature but added too much hot to my water bath). Sample 1 ignited, as did sample 3.  Sample 2 displayed the flame-following behaviour that the other samples did at lower temperatures.  This doesn't match the flash points listed at my second link, which I blame on the IR thermometer not being ideal for measuring the temperature of a little rum in a glass (but I didn't have enough for a dipping thermometer); also flash points are notorious for being hard to measure. On further reading I was closer than I thought -- the flame-following behaviour approximated the flash point, but of course the lighter warmed the surface.

By this point I was running out of samples so had to stop (when definitely not ignited I could return them to the glasses, but once ignited I didn't risk it).

But clearly sample 1 was a little more alcoholic than the original, while sample 2 was less alcoholic.

However it was disappointing that I didn't get nice big ice crystals that I could easily strain off.  I also didn't have enough to try a reduction.

Note that commercial spiced rum often starts weaker (35%ABV) than I had, so you may get better freezing.

I no longer think it's worth repeating the process as the freeze isn't very good. Beyond the point I reached you'd probably need to reduce the lot and add a high-strength spirit (such as overproof rum) to get the concentration back up to what you want.

Measuring the alcohol content by flash point is tricky. Larger quantities would help as you could use a dipping thermometer (a medical thermometer might be good around this range). Measuring by density would be affected by dissolved sugar (assumed). This is done in homebrewing, but ABV (alcohol by volume) is generally calculated the change from the input density, which is dominated by sugar. The very driest wines have a density slightly but measurably less than that of water.


Can you dry out pickle brine to leave a seasoned salt? Like the title says. Would it be safe and reasonable to dry out pickle brine till it crystallizes? It might have an interesting flavor as a seasoning (the acid from the vinegar, and the salt, and the spices), and maybe could be stored and reused for future pickling.

Reasonable is subjective, but as to safe the answer is yes. The point of pickle brine is to create an environment that will kill foodborne illnesses, and as it gets more concentrated through evaporation it's just going to get stronger.

Things to consider:

it's going to take awhile for the liquid to evaporate. You can speed this up by putting it in a flat pan in order to maximize surface area. You could put it in a low oven, but before you do that read point 2
It's going to stink, and could irritate your eyes and mucous membranes. Your house may spell of vinegar for days afterwards, so you'd be best off doing this outside if possible
It's not going to save you money. Salt and vinegar are cheap enough that going through significant efforts to re-use them are a waste
It's not going to give you a product you can't easily and cheaply buy in most places. Think about salt and vinegar potato chips (crisps in some places). The flavoring is just salt and powdered vinegar (sodium acetate), which you can buy at low cost, or even make at home

So it's certainly do-able and will give you a safe end result although it may or may not be worth the trouble, that's up to your judgement. I'd certainly be curious, and if I had a warm, dry place I didn't mind smelling of vinegar for awhile I'd put it in a pan and see what happens. Remember, you are concentrating salt (an electrolyte) and vinegar (an acid) into something fairly corrosive, so I suggest using glass or a non-reactive material.


Fat in chicken skin after boiling After boiling a chicken for soup and straining with a fat separator, how much fat is left in the chicken? Does it depend on how long I boil the chicken for?

Yes, it depends on how long you cook the chicken.  Much of the fat is in the skin and can be removed by peeling it; other fat (such as in the thighs) tends to stick around.  Long, slow cooking will render more of the fat, which melts at around 95° F.

I'm guessing you're trying to avoid fat for dietary reasons, but consider saving it for future cooking purposes - like where you might use another oil.  It's delicious, and not terribly harmful in small quantities.


What should I use to build a parrilla? Basically, I just need the grate. From what material should it be made, to make it food safe?
Any idea how I can obtain it in a reasonable price?

Per Wikipedia (emphasis added):
Asado (Spanish: [aˈsaðo], Brazilian Portuguese: [assado]) is a term used both for a range of barbecue techniques and the social event of having or attending a barbecue[1] in Argentina (where it is considered the national dish),[2] Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay. In these countries, asado is a traditional dish and also the standard word for "barbecue". An asado usually consists of beef alongside various other meats, which are cooked on a grill, called a parrilla, or an open fire.

What I would do:

Buy a grate that is mean for a grill that is the size you are making your parrilla. Usually you can find square cast iron grates for not too expensive and if you need a bigger surface, design your grill in multiplies of the size grate you choose.

You haven't mentioned the brick work, but make sure you use fire bricks for anything that will be exposed to the heat of the grill.


Is Casu Marzu illegal in the United States? I am having difficulty determining whether Casu Marzu is illegal in the United States. There are reports of it being available, albeit briefly, in New York last year. Also, I have heard that it is illegal because it is unpasteurized.

Wikipedia's description:

  Casu Marzu....is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese, notable for containing
  live insect larvae (maggots). Although found mostly in the island of
  Sardinia, the cheese is also found in the nearby Corsica, where it
  goes by the name of casgiu merzu.

Are all unpasteurized cheeses & dairy products illegal in the United States? Is Casu Marzu illegal because it is unpasteurized? Or might it have something to do with those maggots...

You ain't going to get anything like that into the states legally - not with the chance of livestock still being viable in there. It doesn't need pasteurising,it needs paralyzing before it will get past US customs.

You might get some included as a component of a cooked product, if the paperwork assures customs it doesn't actually cause death.

If you want a strong tasting cheese, try looking for Vieux Lille.


Are there substitutes for Parmesan without the aged cheese flavor? I absolutely can't stand the flavor of parmesan cheese.  Unfortunately, it is a very important ingredient  in Italian cooking.  What is a good substitute?  It can't be anything that even resembles parmesan.  Despite the fact that I love cheese, no feta or blue or any of that strong stuff.

Note by the moderators If you want to suggest a cheese with a similar flavor, there is a separate question for that. Look at the answers there, and if your suggestion is not already listed, add an answer to that question. This question is for food with different flavor only.

A common replacement for Parmesan among vegans is to use a combination of kelp powder, nutritional yeast, and ground sesame seeds and walnuts, and salt. It works in about anything that won't require the cheese to melt. The kelp and nutritional yeast provide umami, the seeds and nuts provide a nutty flavor and some fat, and the salt... well, adds the missing saltiness. It hits most of the same notes as Parmesan without having the "funk".


How to use a pressure cooker for frozen chicken? I would like to cook frozen chicken breasts in a pressure cooker for shredding and making chicken mole.  I do not want to add anything except water, but I'm having a hard time finding specific guidelines on the time to cook frozen meats with no added ingredients or steps.

In my case, I have 3 pounds of frozen chicken breasts to cook.  What are the general rules to follow for frozen meats and, in my case, how long and at what heat should I cook this for?

Based on the recipe to which you linked, I'd guess about 10 minutes after the pressure cooker starts steaming. (Until the chicken thaws and starts cooking you shouldn't get much steam.)

Since you're going to shred the chicken and put in a sauce anyway, overcooking might not be a problem.

Frankly if you have an extra hour put the chicken breast in a plastic bag and fill the pressure cooker with hot water from the tap. Dunk the bag in the pot to thaw the breasts so that you can control the cooking time more closely.


Premium Young Chicken packed in broth Can I freeze a Tyson Premium Young Chicken packed in broth? I bought a twin pack of Tyson's Premium Young Chickens at Walmart. They have a broth packed in them that makes the packages resemble water balloons. Will the broth burst the sealed plastic liner if I freeze one? Thanks for your help. Jw

Usually plastic wrapping doesn't burst from freezing, since its somewhat stretchable (unlike, say, glass). Even if it does burst, it's going to tear a seam or some weak spot—there shouldn't be an explosion.

There is an easy safeguard to take though—just put a gallon freezer bag around it (squeeze out as much air as you can). Or sit it in a container to catch any drippings.


Will unopened jars spoil if you change the temperature? If you store unopened jars of  food in the fridge and then move it to dry storage will the food inside become spoiled?

Not if it was properly processed for room temperature storage in the first place.

i.e. there are "refrigerator pickle" and "refrigerator jam" recipes that are never intended to be stored at room temperature, and do not have appropriate recipes or processing for room temperature storage. Those would not be safe.

But something like a jar of applesauce that was processed for room temperature storage, stored cold in the fridge, then stored warm, without ever being opened, would be fine.


How to pan sear salmon without burning the skin? I cook salmon all the time but one issue I'm having lately is burning the skin. I do most of the cooking on the skin, so I know it's going to be little crispy, but I don't want it to look burnt. Overall, the taste is good; it just looks bad and makes my apartment smell like burnt fish. Any advice?

Salmon's a big deal in my neck of the woods too. Lay the fish skin-side-down (pre-oiled) on a thin piece of foam and poke toothpicks straight through the fillets at regular intervals, (use your judgment), so that each of them comes just barely through the skin. Carefully pick up the fish and lay it into your preheated oil. The points of the toothpicks will separate the skin from the surface of the pan. After a few minutes the skin will have crisped well enough to no longer be at risk of sticking and burning. So for each toothpick press the tines of a fork flat against the fish (with the toothpick in between a pair of tines) and pull the toothpick straight up and out.


Vegetarian gluten free savouries What can I substitute in patties that require one cup quick cook oats for absorption when I am making them gluten free. Is there something other than oats?

Pure oats ARE gluten-free. If you can't tolerate gluten at all, you need to be sure that your oats aren't "processed in a facility that also processes wheat, rye or barley", which can contaminate oats with gluten. The big brands in the US that guarantee gluten-free are Bob's Red Mill and Trader Joe's.
Check the label if you are sensitive to gluten!
Quaker specifically does not make a gluten-free claim for their oats:

The oats we buy are handled and transported in bulk by our suppliers. Cross contact can occur if the oats are grown in fields or transported in vehicles that once contained other grains. Since the kernels of the other grains are similar in size, shape and color to the oat kernel, it is almost impossible to separate them.
Although wheat, rye and barley are not part of the ingredients in Quaker Steel Cut, Quaker Old Fashioned, Quaker Quick Oats, Corn Bran Crunch, Grits and Cornmeal there is the possibility that they could contain trace amounts of these grains.  For these reasons, we've never claimed these products are gluten free.

Quaker Oats
EDIT: I just saw a commercial advertising that Quaker is now making a gluten free claim on their oats (although they have not yet updated their website). So check the label if you need no gluten in your oats.


Should I add binder to a giant, "chicken fried" Latke? There is a roast chicken recipe from Cooks Illustrated that I've made for years now.  You spatchcock the bird (remove the spine and flatten it), place it on a broiler pan, fill the bottom of the pan with sliced potatoes, and roast at 500F for an hour or so.  The chicken is good, and the potatoes both prevent the chicken drippings from burning and become delicious cooked in the chicken fat.

Recently when making the recipe I threw some sliced onions in with the potatoes and the flavor profile reminded me of a latke (Jewish potato pancake traditional around Hanukkah).  This made me wonder whether I could shred the potatoes rather than slice them and make a giant chicken-fat-fried latke to go with my chicken.

My question is whether I should add a binder to the shredded potato (and if so, if I ought to use more or less than a standard latke recipe).  Normally to make latkes I add flour and egg to the shredded potatoes and grated onion.  My concern is that the extended high temperature cooking might be too much for the binders, causing them to overcook.

I wouldn't add binder in this case. When you cook the chicken over the potatoes the drippings have a lot of water, not just fat. Also the baking dish isn't going to reach frying pan temperature. Under those conditions flour will turn gluey and you'll get an uncooked flour taste with it. Egg is more likely to work, however it's a long cooking time and likely to get rubbery. I'd treat this more like a hash brown, shred the spuds long, then get as much water out of them as you can before using them. I'd be interested to know the results if you try it, potentially sounds delicious.


Can I shorten bean soaking time if they'll be slow cooked? I'm making something using butter beans (fasiola gigandes) which will be cooked for a long time (12+ hours) in a casserole dish with liquid covering them.
Normally I would soak the beans first for a long time before discarding the water and using them. Can I reduce/skip the soaking stage given that they will be soaking and cooking in the oven for a long time?

I use a slow cooker almost every time I cook dried beans, and I don't recommend cutting down on soaking.  I typically soak overnight (with a little bicarbonate of soda), and start cooking in the morning, so 10-12 hours soaking + 8-12 hours cooking, avoiding adding (much) acid/salt until towards the end.
It's possible your beans soften more easily than mine,  but with a much shorter soak (say 4 hours, and 10 hours cooking, because I forgot to soak them overnight) I've found several types to be barely edible - I ended up cooking down my chilli , blending it, and eating it as bean burgers.


How are food dyes affected by heat and ingredients? I made a cake today using bog standard marge, white sugar, eggs, self-raising flour and a pinch of baking powder.  I added enough pink food colour (supermarket brand that comes in the tiny bottles) to make it look dark pink to red.  It baked perfectly but lost the pink colour although it did look a bit more golden that it would have done if the colourant was not in it.  The date on the bottle was "best before November 2019".

As @GdD has said, a lot of the liquid dyes sold in the baking aisles of supermarkets while adequate for icing etc, are not really designed for baking. If you are intending to bake with a colouring, the powdered food dyes used in Indian and Chinese cooking can produce very deep colours, but they are nearly always synthetic and have been linked to some food allergies. The post What makes food dyes heat-safe? explains more about heat tolerant dyes and lists some good alternatives.


What does adding dark rum give to a fajita stir-fry? I'm looking at a recipe for a fajita stir-fry that includes an optional 2 tbsp of dark rum. The introduction for the recipe mentions,

  Latin spices combined with the optional kick of dark Jamaican rum make an interesting marriage of flavors.

What does the rum offer to the recipe? I ask because I'm not sure I want to buy a whole bottle of dark rum just for one recipe.

It adds the flavour of rum.

I'd love to go into a detailed exposition of how rum is a fantastic pairing for "latin spices", but as far as I can tell, no such relationship is documented.  It's just a theme ingredient, something that the author evidently felt would make an interesting combination.

Rum is more commonly associated with sweet fruits, chocolate, and apparently certain dairy products.  It's not something I'd consider adding to the typical fajita mix (peppers, onions, cumin, chili) - seems like a waste of perfectly good rum to me.

If you don't want to spend the money on rum, just buy some rum extract in the grocery store.  It's not as good as genuine rum, of course, but as a first-time recipe experiment it will give you a pretty good idea of whether or not it's worth using real rum the next time (assuming you like the recipe at all).


Why stuff a roast chicken with lemon, onion, and thyme? I just made a classic roast chicken and the recipe called for stuffing a lemon, thyme, and onion inside the cavity of the chicken. Why even bother stuffing the cavity with anything? What does it accomplish?

Lemon, herbs, onions, and garlic too are all aromatics that infuse into the chicken as it cooks giving it a lovely flavor. It doesn't absorb the flavors enough to call it a lemon chicken, but gives the chicken some flavor depth and acts as an enhancement. Stuffing the chicken helps these flavors to infuse better into the meat than spreading them around. Salt and pepper,too, should go in the cavity.


How do I prepare tofu so comes out like at Noodles & co I really enjoy the texture of the tofu in the pad thai with tofu dish at Noodles and Company. In particular, it comes out much firmer than it does when I make tofu at home by cubing it and cooking it in a pan with vegetable oil. How do I prepare the tofu so it comes out in a similar way?

To make your tofu more firm, you can press it.  Before cubing it, place the block of tofu on a plate, put another plate on top of it and weight it down with something (like a can of tomatoes) and leave it for 15 minutes.  This will compress it further and squish out extra water.


How can I make fluffy chocolate mousse without gelatin? I'm not a vegetarian but I don't want to use gelatin.

I have seen various recipes for making mousse but they seem to be the gooey type. I'm looking for a recipe which will set so I can make a mousse cake which can be free standing.

This picture is similar to what I'm looking for:

I have a stand mixer and am happy to use eggs, double cream, etc. and to experiment, but don't want to make a massive amount. I can use agar but so far am always lost as most recipes which call for gelatin cannot easily be converted for use with agar.

Gelatine has nothing to do with a mousse. That means it's no problem to find a recipe without ;) .

I'm doing Mousse au Chocolat like that:

melt 200-250gr (more is better for stability) of chocolate (70%+ cacao) in a baine-marie
whip 400gr of cream
whip one egg yolk in a baine-marie until fluffy *
mix the chocolate into the egg yolk
carefully fold the cream under the chocolate
refrigerate for a few hours

This mousse is pretty solid after a few hours in the fridge...without gelantine.

*if you want any flavor like vanilla or some liquor in your mousse it is a good idea to add it now to the egg


Discoloured white chocolate chips When baking rasberry and white chocolate muffins, the chocolate chips come out brown and discoloured on top and white in the middle. The taste of them is not affected. Does anyone have any (hopefully simple) solutions to make sure they come out nice and white. Also, the muffins were not overcooked, they came out nicely baked, fluffy on inside, not burnt anywhere.

This is a very easy fix.  If you simply coat the chips in flour before adding them to the mix, and then gently fold them in, you should get no discoloration, and the chips will stay suspended and not settle to the bottom.  For gluten-free recipes, coating with 10x powdered sugar will also work, as it contains cornstarch.  The trick is coating the sugar-containing items with starch of some kind.


What is this cutting spatula with holes? (See photo) What is this tool? What is it called and what is it for?

It's like a steel angled spatula with a cutting end and holes on the tip. It's not big (see the finger for reference), little more than a centimeter wide in the tip. The cord in the photo is just something in the floor.

I've tried to find this in Google Images several ways to no success.

It's a zester, for getting zest off of citrus fruit.

The photo from that Wikipedia article shows it in use:


Preserved lime is browning and fading inside the brine I read a lot about preserved lemons (TLDR: quarter them, and keep them in a mix of lemon juice and salted/brined water for 10-30 days), and I'm trying it with limes. But...

Two things concern me about my current mixture:

The lime skin, which was a nice vibrant green, is turning a dark greenish (almost brown) colour
In some places, the colour leeched off entirely and it's white (like the inside of the rind

Am I doing this right, or is this starting to rot?

I brined them in a combination of salt, water, and lemon juice for about three or four days prior to noticing this. Now (another four days later), they're even more dull-coloured.

(I don't have a picture, sorry. On closer inspection, the dark green/brown looks like it's fading.)

I have since sliced them open, and they seem to be doing okay.


Boiling things using salt Since recently i have to cook for myself and a lot of products mention i should boil some water with salt and when it boils add the product.

Why on earth do you have to add salt to the water?

This is generally to season the thing being boiled whilst it is cooking.  The salt will infiltrate the innards of the thing being cooked infusing it with some seasoning.

Try with something basic like pasta or rice to see the difference between cooking in plain water and cooking in salted water.

This quesion and this one might also provide some insight.


Property of Bread Dough I've been looking at the dough that Cinnabon uses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtTIS6apXIc. How would one describe the property of their dough? It almost looks like Play Doh, as if it were some sort of rubbery-like material.

Is this property called "elasticity?" If so, what factors affect the elasticity of a dough? If I wanted dough that had similar properties to Cinnabon's, what would I need to look out for in my recipe?

The video doesn't really show much of the dough or how it is handled, I only see a prepared square sheet being filled. But if you actually want dough which handles like play-dough, then the property is called not elasticity, but opposite, plasticity - it is a material which can be formed without springing back.

If that is what you want, for a bread dough, you can achieve it by
- reducing the hydration
- adding more butter
- using a flour with little gluten content
- not using any prolonged rises or techniques like stretch and fold, just doing a short rise, without getting it to go too voluminous

But bread dough is not really a good candidate for that, because it is usually elastic by nature. If you have a need for plastic dough, the best option would be to make a pasta dough with eggs and AP flour. It is plastic like no other. Or also salt dough for ornaments, it is not only a better play doh substitute, and keeps its shape after baking.


How do I make sure spice mixes don't make my curry grainy? I'm making a curry, with an unknown dry mix of spices (smells remind me of cumin, turmeric and cinnamon) in the form of a powder.

When I've used it before though it's ended up grainy.

Have I been using to much spice mix? It have I not cooked the mix enough? How can I reduce the grainy texture?

I make a homemade enchilada sauce that calls for 4TB of chili powder for 2C of chicken stock.  I make my own chili powder by grinding dried chilis in a coffee grinder that I use for spices.  I make sure that the powder is finely ground. To make sure the final product is not grainy, I cook the sauce for at least 25-30 minutes at a bare simmer, whisking every couple minutes.  The end result is a reduced sauce that is silky and creamy without the graininess.  Even though your powder may seem fine in texture, you might try running through your spice grinder and add some extra cooking and whisking time.


substituting white all purpose flour with whole wheat flour I thought it was one to one (more like, assumed) but I did it with a pound cake and let's just say the product could break a plexiglass window. Is there some ratio to substituting white all purpose flour with whole wheat? are they simply not interchangeable?

Whole wheat flour is denser, has more protein and tends to dry out products. To compensate, sift more, do not overmix, and up your wet ingredients slightly. From eHow. TLC confirms that whole wheat flour is higher in protein because it is milled from hard wheat which is naturally higher in protein, and then ground whole wheat flour is 25% higher in protein than all-purpose flour.

Some sites (including TLC) recommend only subsituting out up to half of white flour with whole wheat, except if you're using white whole wheat flour (see below).

My secret weapon is white whole wheat flour, which is lighter than standard whole wheat flour and tastes more like white flour but has the same health benefits as the whole wheat flour we're used to. Because so many people are looking for whole wheat recipes, you may want to try a recipe that is specifically designed for whole wheat flour--both for taste and texture. Try King Arthur Flour for recipes (they make my favorite white whole wheat flour, and they have a recipe for whole wheat biscotti!).


How do you substitute brown rice for white rice in recipes? 90% of recipes that use rice do so with white or Basmati. I would like to spice up my rice routine using these recipes, while having the health benefits of using brown rice - but it cooks in a much different fashion than white rice.

When substituting brown rice for white rice in a recipe, what should I adjust in terms of cooking time and technique?

Mostly, it will take longer to cook your recipe with brown rice. You will also need to add a bit more water. That's OK, you can do that. Figure about 1/4 extra water (1/4 again above what you had already planned for white rice) and about 1/2 again as much time.

Consider your other ingredients - don't mush them all to hell to cook your rice.

So, figure 1/4 more water and 1/2 more time, add your other ingredients at the time you would otherwise - counting backwards.

In other words, add your other ingredients at that time in which you think the brown rice should be done simultaneously with your other ingredients.


Selection of potatoes for frying Why are some potatoes better than other for frying or making French fries? What is the chemistry in that? And how do I apply this method in selecting different veggies for different uses?

It's all about starch content of the potato. Waxier potatoes are wetter, meaning they have a lower start content and higher water content. They don't fry that well because they have too much water to crisp up properly. Starchier, drier potatoes are better for thin fries, but they aren't as good for chunky fries as they are actually too dry to give a fluffy inside. For chunky fries (aka chips), wedges or roast potatoes you want a potato with a medium starch content.

As for application to vegetable selection nothing comes immediately to mind, potatoes are vegetables from a botanical point of view but from a cooking point of view they are very different from most other things you prepare. Potatoes are just big balls of starch and water, so the advice above would only apply to foods that are structurally similar, like sweet potatoes and yams.


What is the best way to reheat a sub-style sandwich? So you go to a deli, pizza place, or any number of places that will sell you a 12"+ hot sandwich (e.g. a philly cheeseteak).  You eat half and save the other half for another day.  When that other day comes, what's the best way to reheat it?

For many other foods, the most common ways are microwave, toaster oven, regular oven and skillet.  Unconventional ways I can think of would be steaming and sous vide (though the latter seems excessive for a sandwich).

The goal would be to get the sandwich hot enough to remelt any cheese, but to not render the bread too mushy or too crunchy (toast).

What method or combination of methods would you recommend to reheat a sandwich from the refrigerator?  Be sure to specify whether you'd use higher or lower temps or power.  If no one method would work well for all sandwiches, could you post guidelines?

I would suggest opening the sandwich so the filling is facing up, removing any toppings that you would prefer to remain cold, and sticking it in an oven or toaster oven for a bit. That gets the heat to the center of the sandwich immediately, though you'll want low heat (maybe 250F?) and not to heat it very long or the bread will get too toasted. It won't ever be as good as the day before, but I find that microwave reheating tends to result in poor-quality bread.


Tips on cooking Christmas dinner for large group Hi all and Merry Christmas.

Ok so I stupidly volunteered to cook Christmas dinner for 11 people (9 adults and 2 children) this year!

So was looking for tips/hacks on timings for getting everything cooked on time.

Initial ideas are;

Roast the Turkey for the time it takes to cook, then take it out and let it rest for up to 2 hours. Towards the end of cooking the turkey, stick in the stuffing and cook so it comes out at the same time as the turkey.

In the 2 hours resting time, roast the Carrots and Parsnips for 11 people (these are going to be par boiled bight before). Once they are out, stick in the roast potatoes (again par boiled). Towards the end of the potatoes roasting, start boiling the brussel sprouts. At this time I will warm up pre-made gravy and add turkey juices.

At the end of the potatoes cooking, stick the stuffing and other roast veg back in the oven to heat back up. Take the turkey out and carve, then serve everything warm.

Does this sound like the best way to do things? What is the maximum time you would let your Turkey rest?

We did the best turkey ever on Thanksgiving. Butterflying was the key http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/11/butterfiled-roast-turkey-with-gravy-recipe.html.

It cuts down massively on oven time, tastes great, was fun to prepare with my son.

The oven is fairly hot, which is better for doing potatoes etc at the same time. You can do oven potatoes in the skin: no foil, just poke the potatoes with a fork a few time and rub olive oil on the skin, 45 minutes or so at 425. It also makes the turkey very easy to carve, so that's faster and a lot less messy when dinner time comes.

If you do potatoes and turkey in the oven, you have still the whole stop top for the rest, so perhaps you should choose dishes that not need an oven.


Keeping food warm: does cast iron make a suitable potluck vessel? I'm making this hash recipe for a potluck at work tomorrow.

Tonight I did all my prep:

Peeled, diced, roasted the sweet potatoes
Diced the  onion
Diced the apples (stored in water w/lemon juice)
Cut the bacon into lardons
Sliced the green onions

So tomorrow morning should be a strait-forward "pluck from the fridge, heat it all up" affair.  I was initially going to do this in a big saute pan but am now considering using my lidded cast-iron fryer.  Basically when the hash is near done, I could just put the whole lot into a bag (w/proper heat protection, of course) and head to work.

My questions are:

Will the reactive qualities of cast iron be undesirable for this type of "longer term" food storage/serving?
Will the hash actually stay warm for the 2.5-3 hours I'll need it to?

If anybody has better tips for keeping a hash-like dish warm long enough for a lunchtime potluck, I'll take em!

All the cast iron pans I've got came with instructions that read along the lines of "suitable for serving, but not storage of food".

I'm not sure what would suffer most though, your pan, or the food, or both, depending on length of time. My guess is that the length of time you actually can store food in a cast iron pan/pot safely somewhat depends on the ingredients used. For example, a tomato sauce would be less good to store in a cast iron pan than fried potatoes.

Regarding the temperature, I'd say it depends on how well insulated your "bag" is. Cast iron distributes temperature very nicely, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will cool less quickly than another type of pan (of same size/thickness) when taken off the heat.

Regarding keeping food warm, I did see insulated pots similar to a thermos flask you'd use for hot coffee or tea, which are made to store food. They have a big enough opening to be filled, and to be eaten from.


Are special recipes needed to preserve using a pressure canner? I know that it's best practice to use tested and true recipes for water bath canning due to botulism risk, but is it necessary to find special recipes for use in a pressure canner?

edit: What I mean is that, if I have a recipe for my grandma's chicken soup, can I can this according to instructions for pressure canning a similar soup?

The trusted recipes you get from, e.g., a university extension are tested to make sure that they actually heat through entirely and for long enough to destroy bacterial spores, in particular botulism (but also a few more less deadly ones).

In water bath canning, you're using acidity (primarily) to make sure botulism can not grow from the spores, which are not destroyed by boiling water canning. The inside of the jar isn't actually sterile.

In pressure canning, you're actually destroying the spores. So you can can things where the bacteria could otherwise grow—because the inside of the jar is sterile.

Destroying the spores requires reaching a particular temperature for a long enough duration. If you don't do that, once the food cools down, the spores will germinate. A very bad outcome.

The key thing is that (as always) the outside of whatever you're canning heats first. The heat then transfers in towards the center. But the rate of heat transfer can vary greatly depending on what it is.

If heat transfers slowly, you have to pressure cook longer. If heat transfers quickly, you don't have to cook as long. Generally, you'd like to process for as short a time as possible, to preserve texture and flavor.

When developing a safe canning recipe, multiple batches are prepared and each is canned with special equipment that allows measuring the temperature at various points inside the jar, during the pressure cooking. They time how long it takes for all the points to reach safety, and of course repeat this multiple times. That's ultimately where the processing time comes from.


Why does my bread collapse in my bread machine? I have a bread machine and when I follow the recipes in the included booklet that came with the machine, the bread rises for about an hour, but the collapses back on itself and comes out rock hard and, usually, undercooked (doughy). I've tried adding flour, which helped a little, but didn't cure the problem.  When I bake bread in the oven (hand-kneading, etc.) it comes out just fine.

Some additional info: I've had similar problems with chocolate-chip cookies.  Recipes that work perfectly for other people collapse in our kitchen (even the recipe from the Nestle chocolate chips package).  My only theory is that since we live one block from a very large lake the air is somehow more humid, or dense, or something.  Adding almost twice as much flour to the cookies has make them stay up, but now they taste "cakey."

Does anyone know what might be going on and what I could try to help the problem?  I'm stabbing in the dark, since I don't know the science behind what's going on.

It may be because of the type of yeast being used.  Quick-cooking bread machines (1 hour cycle) typically requires "instant" yeast which rises much faster.  Standard-cooking bread machines (2-3 hour cycle) need regular yeast, which is active longer.  It sounds like you're using instant yeast in a standard recipe; thus the yeast stops working before the bread machine gets to the second rise cycle.  Under-cooking may be because the resultant dough is denser than the machine expects, thus doesn't heat through in time.

Unfortunately the trade names for "Regular Active Dry" yeast and "Instant Dry" yeast can be very confusing.


I accidentally added butter into flour/cocoa powder/baking soda without beating first I am making cookies and accidentally added my butter directly into my dry ingredients. Now I have chunks of butter and dough that is basically powder.

Is there any way to salvage this even if the cookies don't come out perfectly?

Think shortbread / pie dough:

If you have a food processor, dump the butter & dry ingredients in, pulse until you have a coarse crumble. Add some liquid - either your egg (beaten!) or, even simpler, just as much milk as needed to help the dough to stick together. I personally would use milk instead of egg for lighter cookies. Eggs might make them too dense. Chill for half an hour or so, then roll and cut or shape otherwise.

If you don't have a food processor, a pastry cutter or two knives works just as well. Or rub the butter into the flour mix.

You might not end up with your planned cookies, but the result should be nice enough to eat. No need to discard the ingredients.

And remember:
Sometimes the best recipes started as accidents!