What can I substitute for the egg used to seal egg rolls? I would like to make a vegan "egg roll". In a normal egg roll, the filling is cooked and then placed in a wrapper, which is folded and sealed with egg before frying. I know how to make substitutions for the filling to make a vegan end product, but what can I substitute for the egg sealant?

Flour paste. Mix flour with water and a bit of salt. Go for a thick glaze-like consistency, and use it instead of the egg. Give it at least 10 minutes to hold before frying, and try to hold the edges closed with tongs when initially frying.


Is nigella oil (black cumin or black caraway) aromatic? I have a weak spot for aromatic oils. Not essential oils, but the cooking oils like hazelnut oil and avocado oil. I love making dishes where they are the primary flavour component (e.g. a veloute sauce poured over something bland).

Just now, I was shopping in a Turkish grocery store, and they had nigella oil (I am not sure which plant it is exactly. The label says Nigella big, then Black cumin in the English translation and Schwarzkümmel in the German translation. Schwarzkümmel is usually translated to English as Black caraway). I almost bought it, but at the steep price (14 Eur for a 250 ml bottle) it would have been too bad if it turned out to be a neutral tasting oil.

Has somebody tasted it? How strong does it taste? The stronger, the better (for my purposes). Does it taste at least as strong as avocado oil, or is it a weak aroma, like grapeseed oil, or even neutral, like sunflower? Also, if it has a taste, is it a taste most people are likely to accept (like macadamia, or almond oil) or one which is at best an acquired taste (like the overly bitter flaxseed oil)? For reference, I like black caraway seeds as a spice.

I bought a bottle some time ago and wanted to share my experience. The nigella oil has turned out to be one of my favorite oils. I don't have any other like it.

It has a very strong aroma, more similar to fresh carrot than to black caraway seeds. It is slightly bitter, and also slightly hot. The hotness is weak when compared to most hot spices, but it is there. The bitterness is very pleasant. It doesn't have the fatty, clingy quality of flaxseed oil bitterness (and has no fish taste at all). All in all, it is a very green, fresh taste, more like a herb than like an oil. "Robust" style olive oils taste this way, but the nigella oil is much stronger.

It is too strong for combinations, but it is easily made the main star of many dishes. Frying an omelette in it completely changes the taste, no need for other spices at all (it does get more bitter at low frying temperatures, but does not lose the strongest part of the flavor, just the overtones). It is also very good for dipping a rustic bread. It is also economical in the sense that a little bit of it goes a long way (using too much of it makes it really overwhelming). Conclusion: a great thing to have in the kitchen.


What to do when a recipe calls for dutch process cocoa and you only have regular cocoa? In the recipe here: enter link description here the chef requires a mixture of sour cream and dutch process cocoa because they neutralize each other, creating a leavener. There is no dutch process in Israel though, so i need to use regular cocoa.

What to do?

I am making a devils food cake.

It's all about whether you should be using baking powder or baking soda.
Cocoa is acidic, thus you don't need to use baking powder while using it, you can just use baking soda directly and they will react.

On the other hand, dutch-processed cocoa is almost ph-neutral you need to add some acidity for baking soda to react, which is provided through the tartaric acid in the baking powder; thus you should use baking powder instead of baking soda.


Why would a rice seem "non-absorbent"? I wanted to make a mushroom risotto with some very nice mushrooms I had acquired. I have made risotto countless times, using traditional methods and "cheater" methods. I didn't expect to have difficulty, but I did.

I always use Arborio rice for risotto; generally I buy it in bulk by mail order or any brand that they might have at the grocery store. I've never paid any attention to brand name or where it comes from. Arborio rice has always behaved as I expect Arborio rice to behave. I bought this last time just because it's what my grocery store had:  Amazon

The first time I used this product I just set out to make standard Parmesan risotto. I sauteed the rice until vaguely translucent, deglazed the pan with wine and added simmering broth bit by bit while stirring. It was taking forever and I suddenly decided to scrap it and go with plan B. I really didn't give it that much thought at the time, but it should have been moving towards done well before I gave up on it.

So today I had these mushrooms and wanted to use them in a risotto. I proceeded in my usual way; I sauteed the mushrooms, added the rice and sauteed it, deglazed, and proceeded to add the simmering broth and then,...and then, nothing. It was as if I was simmering pebbles. After 10 minutes the first ladleful of broth was gone (apparently due to evaporation), but the rice was still hard. I kept it up for the better part of an hour and used more broth than the dish should have required, but the rice was still hard. This rice doesn't seem to want to absorb water.

I'm still 2 years out from the "best by" date and I'm using tried and true technique.

Do you have any idea what could be going on? BTW, the Amazon reviews are fine, no clue there.

UPDATE I used the same rice again, this time following the new recommendation on Serious Eats. I soaked the rice for a few minutes in the broth, agitating a bit to loosen exterior starch. Then I strained the rice for several minutes, reserving the starchy broth. I used that broth to make the risotto. By golly it worked. This doesn't answer the question, it still doesn't make any sense that that it didn't work without soaking, but at least I know a way to deal with it now. Serious Eats recommends that method for the creamiest risotto, and it doesn't really add much effort, so I'll probably continue to do it that way - even with my next batch of rice.

I'd still like to figure out what was going on.

Based on your edit, my best guess is that this particular rice has a really high amount of surface starch, which gelatinized when you first tried to cook it (liquid from the mushrooms might have been enough to get this result).  That would have created a moisture-resistant layer around the grains that inhibited moisture from soaking in further.  Your soak would have washed that away and allowed the rice to properly absorb the broth.

That's definitely weird - probably a byproduct of how this particular brand gets processed.  A further experiment worth trying would be to briefly rinse off the grains in a colander for your next batch.  That would also get rid of surface starch without quite the same effect as a soak.  If they work after even a brief rinse, I'd consider that pretty good evidence for this theory.

Another thing you could try might be sauteeing the rice in a completely separate pan from the mushrooms, so that they're exposed only to oil and the surface starch gets toasted instead of gelatinized.  Maybe not quite as desirable from a flavor perspective, and of course you'd have to clean another pan, but it's worth testing if you really want to figure out the root of the problem.


Powdered Goat Milk in Bread? A lot of my favorite bread recipes call for powdered milk (cow's milk). Particularly in some of the tangier breads, it would seem that goat's milk might be really tasty. Is there anything I should know before buying powdered goat's milk and using it in bread? It's spendy stuff, so an answer of "it's not worth the money" could be useful, particularly from someone who has actually tried it.

I haven't used goat milk in my baking because I don't like the taste of goats milk. I suspect it would be a good idea for you to taste goats milk first to see if you like it if you haven't already. Other than that, there's no reason to not use it.

As far as fat content goes, I only use full-fat dairy in my bread. No adjustments to the recipe are needed.


Is sour milk, soured milk, and milk that has gone sour, all the exact same thing? Is sour milk, soured milk, and milk that has gone sour, all the exact same thing?
Related to this question:
Is buttermilk another term for sour milk or some part of sour milk?
and especially this answer to it:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/115571/93811
and two of the comments appended to that answer, specifically:
"Is soured milk the same as sour milk as in, 'I kept this milk in the fridge too long after opening, and now it is sour, although it was okay yesterday, and so I need to chuck it out and buy some more'. – Matthew Christopher Bartsh yesterday
@MatthewChristopherBartsh Not exactly. “Kept in the fridge and something grew” is the problem - you don’t know what grew. Way back before commercial milk production, there was a good(-ish) change that something desirable grew - souring meant “let stand, it’ll be thick by tomorrow” or it meant “add some of the existing product and let the microorganisms from that multiply and do their thing”. It’s too complicated for a comment to explain why exactly the former is less likely to work today than back in our (great...)grandparents’ time. – Stephie♦

Yes, it is the same. It refers to milk which has been left out until it has gone sour with whatever wild bacteria it has managed to catch, be they pathogenic, healthy, or neutral. It curdles a bit and changes in smell and taste.
If you find a person or author who makes a difference, then you have discovered either some regionally restricted distinction which is not widespread (maybe even restricted to that one author), or a too-literal translation from some other language.

Update, since you seem to be asking about the exact meaning of Stephie's comment. What she means is that back in the day, when milk went sour, the actual risks were lower than when today's milk goes sour. (not to speak of the perceived risks and of the implicit risks/reward calculations people make by gut feeling). The difference in her comment is not between "sour milk" and "soured milk", but between "milk that was freshly milked from a single healthy cow and left at room temperature until it went sour" and "commercially produced and processed milk which was distributed to me and left in the fridge until it went sour". There are no terms in the English language which make this distinction, both are called "sour milk" or "soured milk" - so the product is probabilistically different, but the words are not.


The inside of my grill lid is rusting I've seen lot's of questions in regards to the grate on a grill rusting (like this one: Can I still cook on my propane grill with rust?) but my situation is a tad different in regards to the lid. When I rub my finger on the inside top of the grill lid, small amounts of rust particles/shavings are falling down.

I have a 5 burner Kenmore grill and the inside top of the grill lid is rusting. It appears there is actually a heat shield of sorts attached to the inside of the lid that is the part rusting. The bolts appear to be rivets or something that I can't remove. The lid is not made anymore so replacing it is out of the question. Actually the thing is only 3.5 years old and a lot of the parts aren't made which has been a frustration to this issue.

I can't remember the color and metal type of that inside lid cover shield when new but I thought it was stainless steel, however I suppose I was wrong. I'm thinking about taking the pressure washer to the inside of the lid, followed by a wire brush, repeat of the pressure washer, and then dry as a remedy. I'm assuming painting is a really bad idea because of fumes, food, etc.

Is it time to pitch the grill because of that lid rusting, or does some type of maintenance to it seem like a good idea? At the end of the day I don't want rusty burgers and steaks!

If you're particularly anal about the looks of the inside of your grill there may not be a solution, otherwise clean the inside as best you can and coat with an oil based cooking spray. Season the inside after spraying by bringing it up to cooking temp (about 350 degrees) without food for about an hour and let it cool. If you over heat the grill sometime during the summer or you live in a particularly corrosion prone environment you may have to repeat this at the end of the season for winter storage without rust.


What to use for chocolate flavouring? I've been making chocolate sponge using some Swiss hot chocolate - because I happened to have that in the cupboard. But now I've run out. So I need to go out and buy something.

So is drinking chocolate actually the best way to flavour a cake? Or is there something better I could try?

Drinking chocolate is a bad way to flavor a cake. It consists of cocoa powder mixed with sugar, and has nowhere near enough chocolate taste.

The correct way to flavor a cake is either baking chocolate (the real thing, not "fat-containing cocoa glaze"), or cocoa powder. You should choose the one to use depending on the recipe; don't just add it to a normal sponge cake recipe, both change the texture. Cocoa powder is easier to use, as it will only add starch to the cake. Baking chocolate will give you a richer texture due to the cocoa butter it contains, but finding a good recipe for it is more complicated, as the classic proportions have to be adjusted not only for the starch, but also for the fat and sugar it adds. Also, the fat it adds can't be creamed, which interferes with leavening, and it has to be melted before adding it to the cake, which requires some skill (mostly temperature control) and is something I would recommend for an intermediate rather than a beginner baker.

In short, find a good recipe which uses cocoa powder. Drinking chocolate is not only prohibitively expensive, it also gives an inferior result. After you feel more comfortable with cake baking, you can consider advancing to recipes which include baking chocolate. My personal favorite are Desaulniers' recipes, but the Gourmet magazine recipes are probably more accessible, as many of them are freely available online (try searching on Epicurious). You can also look around for other sources; I would advise against trying out random recipes off the Internet before you have gathered enough experience to be able to judge the quality of the results by just reading the recipe.


Help identifying Turkish dessert Anyone familiar with Turkish cuisine know what this is? I had this in Istanbul. All I could gather from the owner was that it is made of milk.

The texture was like a very moist cake. The taste was milky and sweet (but not very sweet). That is definitely raspberry jelly on top.

This looks like Trileçe which is indeed a Turkish take on tres leches:

  Trileçe’s heritage is a lot more complicated than that of the éclair. Chasing down the elusive origins of this cake – a Balkan cousin of the Latin American classic tres leches – leads to a deep, dark, global rabbit hole.

And it's certainly got milk in it!

  At Köfteci Arnavut they claim to mix kaymak, the heavy cream of water buffalo milk, and cow’s milk together for the characteristic soak given to the cake. At Baltepe Pastanesi, İdris Beğiroğlu called his recipe a secret but admitted that there was plenty of krem şanti, whipping cream, in there. Tuğra’s menu lists it as a cake of three milks – cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s.


Health department food safety How do you temp a raw carrot for a salad bar setup per the health department and what should it temp at?

The comment of local food safety is spot on, they are the authority on legality for you and that is one of the criteria you must meet for your own protection and that of your clients/guests.  As you ask specifically about health department requirements, they are the authority, so go straight to the source to satisfy them and that is more of a legal question, so outside of what we can really answer.

Bacterial growth danger zone is 40-140F, so in general the advice is usually to stay out of that zone.  Now, on you specific item, raw carrots are not going to be a high illness risk I would think. However, going much into that range is also going to put you into a zone that the quality, not just the safety of the product will deteriorate more quickly if you are in that range.  Personal observation is that carrot will hold up fairly well up into the 50's, but why?  If you are in a salad bar setup, you likely have other items that may deteriorate more quickly so to handle them you want temps at least close to that 40F number or lower such as using an ice bath if the items will remain for an extended time. And if you have items such as those made with mayonnaise, boiled eggs or other cooked items, any meats, those must be outside that high growth zone so above 140F for hot items and below 40F or so for cold.  If you need to chill or keep warm some items, you might as well do all.


Is there a way to remove sodium tripolyphosphate additive from fish? I bought fish online but I noticed it had tripolyphosphate additive.

Is there some way I can at least reduce the content without compromising the fish?

I was thinking soaking the fish in water as it thawed or boiling it for a short time just before baking it.

You can remove any salt like this by diffusion/osmosis - basically by soaking with multiple changes of water over a period of time. This technique is used to make preserved salted-fish edible.

How long you need to do this for will depend on the thickness of the fish and the concentration of the salt. You can determine this empirically by experimenting, but you need some way to measure how much salt is coming out at any one time (e.g. in a change of water), which will be difficult to do without some analytical chemistry skills.

However, in your case, you have a fish that has had some small amount of salt added to improve texture for keeping it longer. The amount of salt added is not enough to preserve the fish and prevent it from rotting, so soaking it comes with the added risk of causing the fish to spoil. If you are going to do this, keep the soaking fish in the fridge. This will slow the diffusion process somewhat. It is also likely that it will alter the texture and probably the flavour of the fish and result in soggy, not so great tasting fish.


Do nuts ever go bad? I have some walnuts I found in the back of my cabinet that are probably 5 years old.  The packaging says best if used by 2010.  I tasted them and they taste alright, maybe a little tartish but I don't mind.  I was wondering if walnuts and other nuts actually ever go bad considering that they are dry.

Yes, nuts are very fatty, and they will eventually go rancid— if this is the case, they will taste very poor.  They can also dry out, or in more rare cases (especially if stored improperly) be infested with insects or molds.

Generally, they should be good for six months to a year at their best flavor, depending on the variety (in the shell).

Five years is a little long.  I am not sure I would want to eat nuts that old.


how do you rest your steak after cooking Possible Duplicate:
  How to rest meat but not let it get too cold?

I have been over the last year perfecting the home cooked steak to my liking and have read with interest the questions and answers on cooking steak How do you properly cook a steak?  and How do you cook a steak like those found in fine steakhouses?

But I find that when I rest it properly it gets too cold and the marbles fats cool too much becoming undesirable (in scotch fillet) . If I wrap it in foil and a cloth it seems to loose the nice crisp surface.

SO what is the best way to rest it?

Place the steaks on a wire cooling rack over a half sheet pan and cover with foil.

Additionally heat your plates in either a low oven or your dish washer on the plate warming setting which will help keep the steaks as warm as possible once plated.


What are some alternatives to xanthan gum for stabilizing mayonnaise? Xanthan gum helps keep mayo emulsified through the jar being pasteurized, shipped, stored on the shelf for months, and kept in the refrigerator after opening. The diet of my customers does not allow for highly processed additives or anything made from grains or legumes. What alternatives are there to Xanthan gum, and in which amounts should I use? How do the alternatives compare? What is the best way to learn more about this topic? Additives that fit the diet include agar, acacia gum, and chicory root inulin.

Xanthan gum emulsifies by being a hydrocolloid, so agar and acacia have a chance of also working since they are also hydrocolloids. The amounts would have to be altered as agar sets much more solidly than xanthan gum, and gum acacia sets less solidly.

Lecithin is a commonly used emulsifier in mayonnaise (probably even more so than xanthan gum). It's normally obtained from soy, but sunflower lecithin is also available. Usually a fairly small amount is sufficient. My experience is with soy lecithin, but only a very small amount was needed: about a teaspoon to emulsify a quart of mayo.

Of course,t he most traditional emulsifier is simply egg yolks, which most homemade mayonnaise will already contain. Unless you need to keep it emulsified for really long periods of time, the yolks alone should suffice.

Even without the eggs, you can keep mayo emulsified for shorter periods of time using vegetables. Serious Eats did an article on it.


frozen chips always take longer Often I cook frozen oven chips and frozen fish (in batter) in the oven at the same time. The cooking instructions for the chips usually say 20 minutes (or less); the fish usually more than this. They require the same temperature, usually 220C
Why is it that (if I follow the instructions) the chips are always undercooked and the fish is always overcooked? It's the same with any manufacturer's product; the coking times always seem to be wrong. I have tried using different positions in the oven but always the same result.

My personal experience with frozen oven fries is like Wayfaring Stranger's, it takes longer to cook them than what the manufacturer suggests. I think though this comes down to personal preference. If I do follow the instructions then I get fries that strictly speaking can considered cooked, they're hot throughout, but they can be fairly soggy and not anywhere near as crisp and brown as I like. So I generally bake them as long as they can stand, to the point where a few the tips are black and maybe one or two smaller ones have gone completely black and inedible. This takes the fries to the other extreme, arguably I've overcooked them and they're dried out, but that's the way I've come to like them.

In addition to simply cooking your fries until you think they're done, regardless of what the manufacturer says, you should make sure that you're baking them the correctly. The answers to the question How to bake Frozen French Fries have some good advice. In particular, it's important that the fries be spread out evenly in a single layer on a pan. Try not to crowd the pan too much, that will make them take longer to cook. Also flipping them half way through will help them cook more evenly and faster.

I don't have much experience with cooking frozen fish, so I don't know why they would end up being over cooked when you follow the manufacturer's instructions. You might try cooking them separately. You can bake fries in a toaster oven if you don't need to cook that many, and you can probably do frozen fish in one as well.


Brown spots on new stainless steel pot I bought a stainless steel pot, soaked it in water and dishwashing detergent overnight.

When I went to dump the water, there was a brown ring around the top.
I then boiled water and a muddy appearance showed up on the bottom and sides.

Can you tell me why?

"Stainless" steel is an exaggeration at best. It will stain. Chances are you have some level of mineralization in your water (hard water), and that's what's causing the discoloration.

If it really bothers you you can use Bar Keepers friend or something similar to polish it, but it's unlikely that anything that doesn't come off with normal washing will come off in your food.


Keeping uncooked Christmas pudding mix I have a Christmas pudding mix recipe intended for a 1.5 l pudding basin, but I need to slow cook it in a 1.2 l, so I'll have a little left over to make one or two miniature puddings. They won't fit in the slow cooker at the same time as the big pudding so I'll need to keep them uncooked. The recipe consists of a large amount of fruit bound together with flour, breadcrumbs, sugar, suet and 2 eggs. The eggs are why I can't just scale down a little - plus I want the mini pudding(s).

I assume the uncooked mix will keep in a fridge, but for how long? The main pudding will take all day to cook and ideally I'd cook the other pudding the next day.

I assume it will be safe given that I'm talking about 24 hours in the fridge - correct me if I'm wrong - but will it keep nicely? Should it be mixed again after keeping it in the fridge? Another assumption is that it will be more forgiving than a typical cake mix given that there's more fruit than anything else.

In the end I tried it, or something similar.  I made a batch of mini puddings, but only 4 out of 8 individual pudding basins fitted in the slow cooker at a time.  So the second half of the batch went in the fridge for 7 hours while I cooked the first 4.  The second lot were cooked overnight, starting from fridge cold, but with the water topped up to as deep as I could go, straight from a boiling kettle.  The two batches are indistinguishable -- I've sampled both.

What didn't work so well were the few I made by microwaving in silicone muffin tins after I ran out of pudding basins before using all the mix.


Veg Burger Advice, Am i missing something? I used to eat burger at home rather than buying from MCDonalds. But i feels the taste can be improved. I am mentioning my method now. Please help me improve it as the Burgers are not crunchy.

I used to buy Empty Burgers Buns from Market (Have seeds on top)
Buy Ready made Patty from Reliance Fresh store
Buy Amul Cheese Slice from Store.

Chop onions in slices
Chop Cucumbers in slices
Chop Tomoato in slices

Now Cut the burger in half. Add a tomato ketchup sauce layer, Mayonaise, Salt, Sometimes (Pudina/Mint Ready Made sauce) and patty and slice, onions, tomato, etc

Then put in on Frying PAN, add some oil, put the burger and try to press it. The change the burger side and done.

I tried putting in Microwave also (But the burgers become so soft and start to break while eating)

Question:
Is my cooking method wrong, or i am setting microwave setting wrong (what will be the temp, microwave/grill) etc

I prefer to avoid long tasks.

To get crunchy buns, you can toast them in an oven beforehand. Here is how I do it:
Take the bun out of the package, slice it open and put it in a preheated oven (180C / 350F) for about 5-8 minutes. Keep an eye on them!

Depending on the brand and model, you could also put the bun halves in a toaster.

Then assemble your burger however you like. I would not fry it afterwards.


Different ways for aging steaks I'd like to know what techniques people have used for aging their steaks, i.e. dry or wet aging.

I use a sheet pan under a cooling rack. Put the steaks on the rack and then cover with paper towel and slide into the fridge. Check the towel each day or so and replace if wet.

I've used this method for both steaks and prime rib and it has worked very well.


How to cook cubed fish for a fish taco (tortilla) Today someone at work described eating a delicious halibut taco. I've never had one before but it sounds awesome, so I'm going to try to make one some time this week (but since I have a lot of salmon in stock, I'm going to make it with salmon instead of halibut). I'd rather not grind the fish - ground fish does not sound like something that's too interesting to eat. So, I was thinking I'll just cut the fish into cubes, and fry them up, then throw the cooked cubes into a tortilla, roll up with some sauce, and serve (to myself). If it turns out good it would be a great recipe to share with friends and family.

However this is not something I've done before. I know fish breaks apart quite easily when cut into small bits, so is it even possible to preserve "fish-cubes" in a frying pan or will all the little cubes break into a flaky mess? Or, maybe it would be better to cook the whole fish first and then dice it afterwards?

If anyone has any advice or suggestions on how to create awesome fish-cubes (or just any general advice about how to prepare a salmon for a fish taco) please let me know.

Don't cut it up before cooking, do it after cooking. This is a common issue with many Mexican style recipes

Coat the fish with your spice mix, and cook as desired. When done, cut into cubes/chunks or flake onto your tortilla

Usually thinner fillets work best for this style in regards to surface area exposed to spices etc

Do the same for beef tortilla, spice and cook a steak, then slice it up thin and add it to your tortilla


Does an acid actually stabilize meringue and if so why? Is it scientific fact that acid stabilizes meringue or is this a fallacy? If so does anyone know actually why and are there any other substances that do this well also?

Acids allow more air to be beaten into a meringue. In order to make meringue, the proteins in egg white must be denatured. In their natural state, the proteins are curled up into tightly packed balls. When the egg is beaten, they uncoil into long strands.

These strands then begin to coagulate, or join together, with the help of the sugar you add. The air you whisk in gets trapped between these joining strands, giving the meringue its characteristic light texture.

Acid delays coagulation, which means that there is more time for air to get trapped in amongst the proteins, resulting in a lighter meringue.

The acids usually added to meringue are white wine vinegar, lemon juice, or cream of tartar. Fresh eggs are more acidic than old ones, so these help too.

Some cooks use copper bowls to make meringue, because copper ions from the bowl bind to a particular protein (conalbumin) and strengthen it.


How do I keep the paddle of a bread machine from damaging the bread upon removal? I love my bread machine. However when the bread is done baking, removing it from the machine breaks the bread where the paddle is. I know the paddle is embedded in the bread and it will break the bread a little. I am looking for ideas on how to prevent it or at least make it smaller.

Should I:

Remove the paddle before the second rising/the baking?
Oil the paddle before I add the ingredients? (tried it, does not work very well)
Do something else?

I used to remove the paddle before the second rising to avoid breaking the bread. Did not find any other good way of doing it.


How long can I store cooked lentils? I love lentils mixed with onions, spinach and tuna in the morning, unfortunately I am having a really hard time finding cheap canned lentils in my area. So I wonder, if I cook a big batch of dried red or green lentils how long can I then store them?

Also any tips on how best to store cooked lentils will be much appreciated.

Depending on the temperature in your fridge, cooked lentils will be safe to eat for 2 to 5 days when using a sealed container, filled with the cooking water. By immersing them, your lentils won't dry out and they'll be ready to use whenever you need them - just drain the amount you need.

If you've got sufficient freezer space you could also freeze the cooked lentils. Just prepare a whole lot of lentils and divide them in individual portions to put in small freezer bags. Make sure you push out any air before sealing the bag. Freezed lentils will be fine anywhere from 4 up to 6 months.

However, I would strongly recommend using dried lentils, which I'm sure you'll be able to find in Copenhagen. Just make a habit of soaking the amount of lentils you need for your breakfast and you'll never have to worry about storing leftovers. It's a lot cheaper too! But above that, dried lentils tend to taste much better than canned lentils. :)


What could it be the white fatty substance I found in raisins? Hi, as you can see in the pictures, strange white, fatty substance collects in raisins irregularities. May it be something natural origin or could it be that producer dumped these in palm oil to make them shiny? Is it safe to consume?
I have tried to ask the producer, unfortunately no answer was given :(

The vast majority of dried vine fruits are coated in one vegetable oil or another. The ones I’ve seen which name the oil tend to use sunflower oil or cottonseed oil. They use them to prevent the vine fruits clumping.
Sunmaid are one of the few mass producers which declare that they don’t use oils or glazes.


How does sous vide cooking time affect moisture (final weight) of meat? I know cooking meat at higher temperatures will cause meat to lose moisture as the proteins "constrict". This is well known. Cooking a steak sous vide at 160F will lead to a much drier steak than cooking it at 140F. The 160F steak will therefore be much lighter when removed from the bag.

How does sous vide cooking time affect moisture of meat? Imagine cooking one steak at 140F for 1 hour and another for 5 hours. Will the 5 hour steak be drier and weigh less?

Imagine cooking one steak at 140F for 1 hour and another for 5 hours. Will the 5 hour steak be drier and weigh less?
Briefly: Yes, it will be drier, and yes, it will weigh less.  And no, 140F isn't the tipping point, though higher temperatures definitely will dry things out faster.  Moisture loss will increase with increased sous vide time even at 131F (the minimum temp I'd recommend for long cooking).  It likely will happen at even lower temperatures too.
For one set of experiments in this regard, see these two posts, which compare moisture loss with different duration, different temperatures, and also a comparison with a reverse sear/oven method.
To summarize the relevant bit:

How long is too long?
It depends on the thickness of meat of course, but here is some data for 1.25-1.5 inch steaks:
131F for 100 minutes -- 6.1% juice release during serving
131F for 3.5 hours -- 1.93% juice release during serving
131F for 5 hours -- 1.6% juice release during serving

Those results in juice release also mirror observed weight loss in the meat.  The 100-minute steak was 90% of its original (before sous vide) weight when pulled from the bag, while the 5-hour steak was 84% of its original weight when pulled from the bag.
I've observed similar patterns in my own sous vide cooking.  While there's a certain minimum time needed to bring a thick steak up to temperature and get the juices moving, going past that time will just result in a drier steak and less juiciness.  The effect is much more pronounced (in my experience) with ground beef, which seems to dry out quite a bit even at low temperatures with prolonged sous vide cooking even at low temperatures (likely due to the greatly increased surface area that can release juices).

I had hoped that Serious Eats would weigh in on this, but interestingly they don't.  In that link, they note that the meat changes texture with long cooking, but claim that a 24-hour steak "is still plenty juicy (a steak cooked 24 hours loses barely any more moisture than a steak cooked for one hour)" but there are no accompanying stats to explain that claim or how much "barely any more moisture" might be.  I've personally noticed that steaks seem to get drier with more liquid in the bag with long cooks, so now I don't tend to go past an hour or so myself unless it's a very thick cut or I deliberately want to focus on tenderness over juiciness.

EDIT: For those who want more than a random blogger's word on this, or who question the metrics in that post for how "juicy" a steak might seem to be when you eat it, here's a scientific paper showing that perceived juiciness decreases with increased sous vide time (even at low temperatures).  As that paper has a paywall, there's a summary of the findings in this blog post.

EDIT2: In response to a comment that the sample size was not large enough in the blog post, here's an entire master's thesis on cooking sous vide, which shows that "cook loss" (i.e., moisture loss during cooking) increases with sous vide time.  One of the studies (n=14 samples) in that thesis shows a statistically significant difference in longer cook times at 55C (131F): after two hours, cook loss was about 14%, whereas at 10 hours and 30 hours, it increased to about 19.5%.  The second study (n=40 samples) compares shorter times and various temperatures and does not show a statistically significant (p < 0.5) trend at 55C for 2, 4, 6, and 8 hour cooks.   But the graph still indicates an overall trend toward greater moisture loss with greater time past 2 hours even at 55C.  For higher temperatures (60C/140F or above), the increased cook time definitely increases moisture loss significantly, from about 14% at 2 hours to about 22% at 8 hours at 60C/140F.  At 70C (158F), the effect of time is even greater, increasing moisture loss from about 20% at 2 hours to about 32% after 8 hours.  The literature review toward the beginning of the thesis also lists several other published studies that have shown similar trends.
I also would note that cook loss only indicates that less moisture is present in the meat.  Perceived "juiciness" is a somewhat different thing, as that depends on free moisture that can be easily released during eating and chewing.  Which is why I also linked a study in my first edit above about the perception of juiciness (which declines with increased sous vide time), along with the actual decrease in moisture in the meat.


How can I boil an ostrich egg to ensure it is soft boiled? Is there some guide I can use for cooking soft boiled ostrich eggs?

You can't easily get a set white and a runny yolk, but 62.5°–63° (145℉) for 3.5 hours gets a cooked yolk that's still runny; the white will not be set, however.
You may be able to get a soft-boiled ostrich egg with two-phase cooking though.
The fundamental problem is that ostrich yolks coagulate at a lower temperature than ostrich whites. Thus if you just cook to a constant temperature inside, by the time the whites are set, the yolk will also be set.
Ostrich egg whites do not coagulate the same as hen egg whites, but the yolks seem relatively similar; thus you can follow hen egg guidelines for the yolk, but the white will be off.
I tried cook sous vide at 64° (~147℉) for 6 hours, and ended up with an egg with the yolk fully set, but a gelatinous white: almost the opposite of what we were looking for!

For another attempt, you can see Nicole Miizuka: The Ostrich Egg, who cooked it at 145℉ for 3 1/2 hours, and got a runny yolk (and runny white).
I found a paper discussing this: Gelling and color properties of ostrich (Struthio Camelus) egg white, and it found that at 65°, hen egg white rapidly coagulated completely, but ostrich eggs only coagulated to 70%.
Thus, if you'd like to have a soft-boiled ostrich egg, I believe you would need to cook it for a long time (3 or 4 hours?) at ~62.5° for the yolk to cook, and then raise the temperature to close to boiling, but only leave it for a brief time (10 minutes?), so the white sets, but the yolk stays liquid.


Pizza dough is way too wet, already in the oven. Fix? I'm cooking some pizza with homemade dough, using rice flour. I put all of the toppings on the pizza already, and put it in the oven. It's been there for quite some time, but the dough is just way too moist for it to cook properly. It's just a mushy mess.

I turned the oven off and it's cooling down now. The tomato sauce and cheese on top is almost burnt already.

What are my options to salvage this mess?

Thanks!

You're probably out of luck trying to save it as a pizza, but one thing you might try is finishing the cooking on the stovetop. Put in in a big skillet or even on some foil and start with medium heat. It's worth a shot. Good Luck.


can a person taste the difference between coffee that has been ground 8 hours prior to brew vs 12 hours prior to brew? I have read the other threads and understand that the fresher the bean the better. Also that the closer to brew the better. This question directly relates to the use of a morning cup that is brewed with a timer set drip maker in which the grind takes place the night before. Can someone truly taste the difference between a grind done 8 hours before a brew vs 12 hours before a brew? Will that 4 hours truly make a difference in the chemical composition in a perceptible fashion after it has already been sitting for 8?

While the timeframe between grind and brew affect the taste of the coffee I wouldn't go as far as measuring it down to hours. Of course it is best to grind directly before brewing, but in your case, as you use a timed drip maker I don't think it acutally does make that of a difference.

Plus other aspects also affect the flavor of your coffee (water temperature, temperature of surroundings (kitchen), way of extraction (in your case it could be the way the grounds sit in filter) and, for a great deal, the age of the coffee itself. So if you taste a difference, it could be the result of (an)other factor(s) as well. Not only the + 4 hours of 'sitting time' the grounds had.

To sum it up: Simply try it yourself (as Pete Becker mentioned in the comment).


Are these worms in my black eyed peas/beans? I was cooking some organic black eyed peas earlier today and I found what appeared to be worms. I had the peas for about 1.5 weeks before I cooked them.

Is this common?
I did rinse the peas before cooking them, but clearly that wasn't enough. What steps can I take to prevent this (assuming this the norm for organic black eyed peas)
How long are these good for? (Should I eat them sooner?)
I had taken a few spoonfuls before I finally realized this -- should I be concerned?

I apologize for such an elementary question. I've recently been told by my physician that I need to make some diet changes, so I've been cooking with foods I would otherwise not eat.

To take one concern away - practically none of the worm-looking parasites in food are dangerous. They are yucky, but harmless, even nutritious.

But as far as I can see it from the picture, these are not worms at all. Beans and related plants have an embryo in their seeds. In white legumes, the embryo is a light pink color and looks indeed like a larva. The way to check is to look at the still-intact beans. They are all made up of two symmetrical halves inside. Cut them open through the plane which separates the two halves. If they have your suspect at the concave part of the bean, where it used to attach to the pod, then this is the embryo, just a normal part of the seed which is supposed to grow into a new plant when planted.

If the embryo of multiple beans looks differently from that (or is too small to notice), then these may be larvae after all. In this case, you will probably choose to discard the food because of the disgust factor. It is still not objectively unsafe.


Smoked ham roast: what do I do with it? My girlfriend's parents recently gave us a bunch of pork from my girlfriend's grandpa's farm. The bacon and sausage we know what to do with but there's also a hunk of meat labeled "smoked ham roast" that we're not quite sure about.

We've made a beef roast before so we were thinking maybe we could just throw the smoked ham roast in the crock pot with some carrots, potatoes and onions, but for some reason I'm not terribly enthusiastic about that idea.

Any suggestions?

If it's been fully cured (smoked, then hung for a few months), it likely just needs to be warmed through for serving (or even just sliced).

If it's soft, you might need to cook it, and then you could roast it in the oven ... a crock pot might be okay; it's hard to say without having seen it.

But if it's quite firm, I'd likely just slice pieces off like you might other dry cured hams like Prosciutto, speck, jamón or country ham.

If it's heavily salted, I'd be more likely to use it as a flavoring than a meat -- cut off bits, and add to vegetable dishes when cooking.  It goes great with dark greens or in bean dishes.  (I just had an excellent bean & ham soup last night at a meeting that a few of us treat as a pot-luck)


Air bubbles in canned tomatoes I've always been told that if you see air bubbles in canned food, you should treat it like toxic waste. Today I opened a can of tomatoes and saw a few air bubbles form along the edges of the can. Is this what I was warned about? Or are they talking about food that looks like it's fizzing or oozing out of the can?

Here's a picture. There were ~2-3x that many bubbles when I first opened the can.

Notes:

I didn't notice whether there was a sound of air escaping when I opened the can. It was noisy in the room.
The can hadn't been extensively shaken or agitated before opening.
If it's hard to tell from the picture, that's enough of an answer for me. I just want to know whether this even remotely resembles what the "air bubbles" warning is talking about, or if it's totally unrelated.

Octern,

It's a realative thing.  What you're trying to determine is: where these gas bubbles generated out of something inside liquid portion of the can?

The reason that can be hard to determine is that many cans have a little air trapped in them.  If the can has been agitated at all (doesn't need to be extensively), then you can get what look like bubbles coming from the tomatoes themselves, and it can be pretty hard to tell.

I generally look at it from a quantity/location standpoint: are the bubbles throughout the liquid, or are there only a few along one edge?  In the end though, with tomatoes, I'd do what SAJ said.  While they're probably OK, the penalty if they're not is pretty darned severe, and canned tomatoes are cheap.


How do I cook a cottage pie from chilled? I made a cottage pie yesterday afternoon but did not cook it. I cooked the mince and veg and the mash, put it in the dish but did not put it in the oven. I then allowed it to cool and then placed it in the fridge. I want to serve it tonight, how long should I cook it for and at what temperature?

It's very difficult to give an answer, as the size and shape of the casserole can greatly affect the reheating time.

I've found to get the best results, I start the casserole covered in a cold oven (put it in the oven, then turn the heat on), and cook it at low heat (300°F / 150°C) until it's heated through.

Once it's up to temperature, I uncover the dish and turn the oven to broil (called 'grill' in some areas ... when only the top element is on at very high heat), and brown the top.

If you need to, once the dish is warmed through, you can turn the oven down to its lowest setting and hold it there until you're near time to serve it.  (it only takes a few minutes to brown the top, especially if you adjust the oven rack so the casserole is an inch or so (2.5cm) from the heating element)

I'd probably give myself an hour minimum to heat it, preferably 1.5 hours, and 2 hours if it's an especially large dish.


Teabags vs. instant coffee The only common way I can think of tea being sold is in teabags.  However, there are several ways coffee is sold:

Instant
Ground
Beans

I'd say instant is the most common, at least in the UK. Why would I struggle to find tea grains not in a bag, similarly to finding coffee in a bag?

It just seems odd that we wouldn't make them in the same way. Any reason why?

The equivalent of coffee beans would be loose leaf teas.

This is the traditional way to enjoy tea, and is generally preferred by tea connoisseurs.  Just like whole-bean coffee, loose leaf tea keep fresh longer than bagged tea, and generally has a richer flavor.  Tea bags are generally prepared by the cut-tear-curl (CTC) process, which breaks up the leaves more than orthodox tea rolling, meaning they steep faster and more consistently.  As a rule, bagged teas are generally made from lower-grade leaves, and CTC processing helps hide defects.  They may even be made from fannings; these are basically the dust and broken pieces that settle to the bottom of a pile of tea leaves. Both of these mean that bagged teas can be prepared more quickly, but the flavor suffers.

The tea leaves are prepared by measuring them out into a ball or basket, which is immersed in hot water to steep.  Once the tea is steeped, the basket is removed to prevent the tea from developing a bitter, over-steeped flavor.   There are also a variety of other ways to prepare loose teas.

Despite the generally better flavor, loose leaf tea is not as popular as bagged tea in some parts of the world, because you have to measure out the tea and use a utensil to prepare it. Tea bags represent a greater convenience, which explains their success.

Below are three examples of loose leaf tea. The differences in color and shape of the leaves are the result of different processes used in preparing the teas after harvest.

Loose Sencha (a Japanese green tea)

Loose Keemun (a classic Chinese black tea)

Silver Needle (one of the finest Chinese white teas)

Powdered Tea

Powdered tea is also available, although it is not as well known as bagged or loose tea.  One of the best-known is matcha (shown below), a Japanese powdered green tea prepared by grinding up the whole tea leaf. It is generally prepared by whisking leaves and hot water together in a bowl  until foamy, using a traditional bamboo whisk known as a chasen (pictured).  The result is a powerfully flavored, heavier drink with a higher level of caffeine and antioxidants.

Powdered black teas are also popular with Indians, and are used in preparing masala chai.  Spices are boiled in milk, and then powdered black tea is prepared in water separately.  There are a lot of variations on this procedure, but it seems to be the most popular approach for Indian customers.

Note: Since I now work for a tea company, I could write quite a bit on any of these parts but am trying to keep the answer brief. If you feel like more detail would be helpful, post a comment and I'll expand on the subject a bit more.


What's the name of this dish (or name of fish) in these pictures? the following dish calls for Roasted Tomato and Saffron Vinaigrette (also called bouillabaisse?). My cookbook says they're excellent for fish dishes. Do you know what's the name of the fish (or dish) in the following pictures? I'm trying to recreate what's in my cookbook. Thank you for your help!

the Roasted Tomato and Saffron Vinaigrette has: mustard, shallot(minced), garlic(minced), red wine vinegar, thyme (chopped), orange juice, orange zest, red pepper flakes, saffron, tomatoes (chopped and roasted), mild French olive oil, salt, patis

Bouillabaisse is a traditional fish stew originating in the French port city of Marseille.  While the sauce in your recipe might have some ingredients in common with that dish, it is not a bouillabaisse.  Pictured is a firm, white fish.  I'm not sure I can identify the exact species, but it might be halibut or cod.  Given the sauce and the plating, I would say any firm, white fish would work in the recipe.


Boiled a stainless steel pot dry, safe to eat food from the episode? I steamed some broccoli and asparagus and let it boil dry. Is it safe to eat the food?

Thanks!

The broccoli and asparagus should be safe to eat. That being said they may not taste the best or have a good texture depending on how long they left.  If you forget about them and leave them in the steamer the texture and flavor will be off. If you just didn't add enough water to the steamer and "steamed" them for the appropriate amount of time they probably will be o.k. flavor and texture wise.  I'm assuming that they were covered the whole time while being "dry steamed".


Can you make porridge out of P.A.N. harina? I don't have proper polenta, but I do have P.A.N. arepa flour, can you successfully make a porridge similar to  soft polenta or grits out of this type of cornmeal?  What ratio of liquids is required?

You cannot make grits, because by definition, true hominy grits are treated with alkali which is what makes them different than plain cornmeal or polenta.

Searching for harina pan polenta indicates a variety of recipes are possible (most are in Spanish, so I cannot read them).  However, it doesn't appear that a porridge type dish is the usual application for this product.

Still, the nature of the product indicates it should work, although the result may be slightly different in texture and flavor from more traditional Italian style polenta, since the harina PAN is precooked before being dried and ground.   It should therefore cook up much faster than one made with regular corn meal, analogous to the difference between instant oatmeal and traditional outmeal.

There would be no single ratio of water to grain, however, as polenta can range from a thin porridge to a thick enough to cut into slices and fry.  You will have to experiment to find the ratio that you like the best.  I would suggest starting out at about 2:1 liquid to harina pan by volume.


How to make a good pie dough like the industrial one? Whenever I follow a pie dough recipe the result is not great. The dough is tearing easily while rolling it, impossible to make it as thin as the on you buy in the supermarket.
And when it's cooked, it's crumbling very easily. The texture in mouth is rougher and "sandy".
The last recipe I used was:

200 g flour
½ cs salt
100 g butter room temperature
0,5 dl water

Mix flour and salt, add butter, mix well.
Add water, knead until smooth looking.
Keep it in the fridge for 15min.
Roll it out.

At this point, moving the dough from the the work surface to the baking sheet was tricky due to how fragile the dough was.
How is industrial dough made to be so different from the homemade flour+butter+salt+water ?

So first things first, a short crust pie dough is usually made with cold butter and ice water. This leads to a flakier, more tender dough. You also typically don't want to knead the dough. Too much gluten development leads to a tough, chewy crust.
A more typical shortcrust would start with cold butter cut into cubes. Put the flour, salt, and butter in a food processor and pulse just until it looks like wet slightly clumpy sand (there should still be intact bits of butter in the dough). If you don't have a food processor, you can either use pastry cutters or a couple of forks to cut the butter and flour together or my favourite method: freeze the butter and grate it before rubbing it into the flour with my hands. Slowly add ice water until the dough can be shaped into a rough, shaggy ball. It should not look smooth at this point. Cover and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
Then you take the rough, not smooth looking ball of dough and roll it out on a floured surface. The first time you roll it out, it will be very crumbly. Just roll it out as well as you can. Then you can fold in the rough edges and roll it out again. Repeat as needed. I typically need to do two or three fold+roll iterations before I have a smooth, easily workable pie dough. Folding and rolling will get you a smooth dough without as much gluten development as if you kneaded it smooth and you will keep the little bits of butter that give you flakiness when the pie bakes.
There are of course endless variations on shortcrust pie dough recipes. There are people who swear by using lard or vegetable based butter substitutes, use vodka instead of water, or add different flavourings to the dough. But the basic method for shortcrust is cold fat + cold liquid + minimal handling. And industrial recipes add various preservatives and chemicals to force certain reactions that are hard to get hold of as a home cook. However, you can still make very good pie dough at home without those additives.


Cooking rice on a fire pit vs gas burner It is widely believed in East Asia that cooking rice on a fire pit, with firewood as fuel, allows one to make the most tasty rice. Both Cantonese pot rice and Japanese kamameshi, for example, call for cooking in firewood-lit fire for best taste.

Is there a scientific explanation to why cooking rice on a pot in a fire pit, with firewood as fuel, allows one to cook rice better than e.g. on a gas fire, or using a rice cooker?

The simple explanation is firewood produces smoke and other sources of heat don't. Smoke imparts aroma and flavor to the dish. Firewood doesn't cook the rice any better than a gas or induction range or a rice cooker, it's just about the smoke.


What features should I look for in a hand grinder (for peanut butter)? I want to make my own peanut butter.  I've read of various grinders--both hand-operated and electric.  I'm most interested in finding a durable hand-operated peanut butter grinder.  I know there are many spice grinders that can be used for peanut butter, but I don't want to skimp and get something that will break if I use it primarily for making peanut butter.

What should I look for?  How do I know if a grinder will survive a large number of peanut-butter batches?

I am answering my own question with information I have gathered after doing some of my own research.  Several hand mills claim to make peanut butter, but the mill that seems to have the best public following and reviews for flour making, the Country Living Grain Mill, does not claim to make peanut butter in their marketing literature. I contacted the manufacturer, and got this reply:

  We do not recommend doing nut butters in our mill.  However,  we are applying for patents on a nut butter attachment for the Country Living Mill that does a superlative job.. We hope to have it available by this Fall.

  We have noticed that other grain mills on the market claim nut grinding ability and even show butter coming out of their mills.  We have purchased these mills and tested them and quickly realized that it was an arduous task at best to produce anything resembling nut butter...we can do the same with out mill but feel that it is misleading and certainly unfair to make such claims. Hope this helps.

Of course their answer has every reason to be biased, and not tell me if there is a good peanut butter hand press available on the market.

Another popular press, the Wondermill Junior Deluxe claims to make creamy peanut butter with their stainless steel burrs, and one Amazon review agreed it was possible, but too messy to be worth the effort.

Reviews of two different griners at http://www.grainmillcomparison.com/ seem to agree with the general consensus that hand-made peanut butter isn't the state of the art (yet):

  The nuts wouldn't feed, so I had to mash them into tiny bits. At this point the bits began to feed into the grinding plates. Unfortunately, those bits never exited--even when I loosened the grinding plates. The only peanut butter that I managed to produce was the goo stuck between the plates. -- GrainMaker Review

And:

  My test with peanuts resulted in the grinding plates clogging almost immediately, and I produced only a few flecks of peanut butter during the five minutes of grinding. Many companies claim their handmills will grind nutbutters and oily seeds, but I've yet to see one that wasn't a miserable failure in actuality.  -- Wondermill Junior Review

I have not been able to find a single first-hand account of making peanut butter with a hand mill that said it was worth it. As already mentioned, the amazon review mentioned above said it was far too messy. Many other reviews I've found have said the end result only vaguely resembled peanut butter--and never creamy peanut butter.

In an effort to directly answer the question at hand, though, the only feature I so far have been able to find that is required specifically for peanut butter is that the mill have steel burrs, as opposed to stone which are desirable for finely ground flour, as the stone will absorb oil from nuts, causing the system to clog.

EDIT: I got an additional reply from the Country Living Grain Mill manufacturers, explaining (in no great detail) what is required for a nut-grinder:

  There are a number of factors such as the mill must reduce the nuts to a manageable size prior to grinding, and propel them with enough pressure to be squeezed out between appropriately designed grinding plates.  It sounds simple, but the reality is that it's a very tricky thing to manage.


In a cheesecake, what’s the purpose of creaming the cream cheese and sugar? I did a cheesecake following this recipe (first time).

I didn’t know I had to use cream cheese at room temperature, so I took it directly from the fridge, and also I don’t have an electric mixer. So as you can imagine, it was extremely difficult to "mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth". I decided to give up on that mixing and just continue, given that with the eggs and the milk it would be much easier to mix.

In the end, I got something which looks like a cheesecake (the texture is uniform) and seems to taste like a cheesecake (not that I have much experience), but is very dense and I feel that my stomach has trouble digesting it.

Looking at the Internet, everyone says that it’s important to cream together the cream cheese and sugar very well, which I didn’t really do, so I was wondering what’s the purpose of it? Would it explain the fact that my cheesecake seems a bit too dense?

Creaming the cream cheese (fat) and the sugar grinds the sugar crystals making them smaller and also puts air in the globules of fat. Later when you bake the final mixture the air pockets expand making the baked mixture fluffier (increases rise...).


What determines total heat when using chilis? Quantity × intensity? I recently tried a bite of a Bhut/Naga Jolokia pepper, which is rated to be 3-10 times hotter than a "standard" habanero.  It was hot, but the total experience was not worse than a habanero, and definitely not worse than Buffalo Wild Wings' "Blazin' Challenge," which is more about the volume of hot wing sauce you can consume.

Granted, my peppers were farmed in California, not India, but they should be well within an order of magnitude of its variety's rating.

Given the wide range of chili varieties and heat levels, I'm wondering how best to harness the heat of each.

What determines the intensity and mouth location of a raw chili pepper experience?
Most of the capsaicin is contained in the pith and seeds, so is it a matter of how well you chew that portion and move it around in your mouth?
Are there other chemical factors at work in each pepper that affect the release/reception of the capsaicin?
When cooked down, is it just a simple equation of pepper volume × Scoville rating?
Is a large fruit likely to contain more capsaicin than a small fruit, or about the same?
Since Thai chilis are around 75,000 SHU, are they 7 times hotter per volume than Serranos at 10,000 SHU?
Would you want to use a tiny bit of a Naga when all you want is heat with little to no pepper flavor?

Granted, my peppers were farmed in California, not India, but they should be well within an order of magnitude of its variety's rating.

Actually, they shouldn't necessarily. All chiles, are very sensitive to the environment they are grown in. Even trivial changes in temperature, humidity, and soil pH can affect the heat of the chile. The Naga Jolokia in particular can be at least as low as 500,000 Scoville units. The hottest one has been recorded at over 1 million. Many American growers intentionally grow them much milder than those found in India; this makes them much easier to sell.

The Scoville scale is a measure of capsaicin concentration. In other words, quantity of capsaicin per fixed volume. Originally, it was measured by a panel of five tasters who tasted a dilute solution of capsaicin oil which had been extracted from a fixed quantity of dried chile. The degree of dilution at which the capsaicin is undetectable is the Scoville rating.

Modern methods use high performance liquid chromatography to precisely the pungency units of a chile, this is equivalently the parts per million of capsaicin. Multiplying the pungency rating by 15 gives you the equivalent Scoville rating.

What does all this mean? Well, since it's a measure of concentration it's important to realize that by eating one chile or 20 chiles the concentration doesn't change. However, with more chiles you are exposing your mouth to a greater quantity of capsaicin. If this is what you mean by "intensity" then sure, it's more intense with an increase in volume. Personally I think of intensity as concentration instead of volume.

Those paragraphs should answer your question overall, but I'll go through your list just the same:

The intensity is the Scoville rating. Again, intensity to me equates to concentration.
The capsaicin is most concentrated in the seeds, so chewing them will release a greater quantity of it.
Not that I am aware of.
Not sure what you mean by cooked down, but yes both volume and concentration affect the quantity of capsaicin.
A larger fruit of the same Scoville rating (concentration) will contain a larger amount of capsaicin.
Yes, the capsaicin concentration is seven times greater.
Yes that is a reasonable use.


eco-friendly whipping siphon I have been looking for a whipping for a while, but I am a bit put off by the N2O and CO2 cartridges as they don't have great reusability but can only be recycled, also because of the small size recycling is not very effective. Especially since I would have to ship the cartridges a long way to get recycled.

Are there any more eco-friendly alternatives?

There may be a siphon manufacturer that makes a pump model that doesn't use chargers, but I have never seen one and I can't find evidence of one online.

The most eco-friendly route would probably be to whip the cream with a mixer and use a pastry bag to pipe it onto things. You could either use a reusable bag or disposable bags which should be more easily recyclable.

Edited to add: There are countertop whipped cream dispensers that do not use chargers. You add cream to a cavity in the top and they dispense from a nozzle in the front when a button is pressed. These require counter space and electricity though, so they're not practical for everyone.


My gravy for my mash potatoes tastes bland So I'm completely lost on what to do. I have no idea why my hamburger gravy for my mash potatoes is so bland. 1lb ground beef, 2tbsp worcestershire sauce, 1onion, 1/2 tbsp of garlic powder, 2cup milk, 3tbsp flour, and salt&pepper to taste.
I doubled everything except only 3cups of milk instead of 4. When actually eating it the gravy just seemed kind of bland.

The recipe says "Salt and pepper to taste" maybe you did not add enough ?

In any cases, the recipe looks really bland; there's not much flavor in there.

You need to build the flavors from the start.

This is what I would do.

I'd cook the onions first to golden brown and put aside.
I'd cook the meat until brown and crispy (add some salt and pepper)
Add the onions back to the meat.
(my addition) Add some tomato purée; add some herbs, add some spices; continue cooking until "dry"
Continue with the recipe, adjust seasoning.


What is ' chicken garlic chicken ' I was at a Brewers Fayre pub and saw this on the menu (pictured)
When it arrived it was an egg on top of a garlic and breadcrumb chicken breast. Why call it chicken garlic chicken? The waitress didn't react in the slightest to the name, and it's still on the menu now
Am I missing something here?

Purely conjecture but...

You've heard of chicken fried steak... right?
We also have chicken fried chicken... which is chicken prepared in the same way as chicken fried steak. It's different than "fried chicken " because it's a boneless (often pounded) piece of breast meat.

It's amusingly recursive.

So, based on the description on the menu, it sounds like a version of chicken fried chicken but with lots of garlic, so maybe they decided to replace the "scary" word, "fried" with the delicious word "garlic".

Unfortunately this conjecture falls apart somewhat since chicken fried chicken is a staple of the southern US and the menu seems to be from a pub in England somewhere.


What cheeses work 'best' in melted cheese sandwich applications? I enjoy both toasted and grilled cheese sandwiches, but I generally only alternate between havarti and muenster cheese. I would like to branch out but don't know where to start. These are the factors I think are important in melted cheese sandwiches:

Melt well and fairly quickly
Fairly mild taste and texture
Generally available
Be a natural, dairy cheese (aka not Cheeze Whiz or American cheese)

What cheeses fit these requirements? Are there other components that are vital to the cheese element of melted cheese sandwiches?

Gruyere is DELICIOUS. It melts without getting too gooey or soupy, and it is the traditional cheese component of a Croque Monsieur (if you're into that ham thing...). You could actually probably use any of the cheeses in that "variations" list, but I love Gruyere so that's my recommendation. It's widely available but tends to be kind of pricey here in the US.

Brie is also a good choice; since it is soft to begin with, it melts nicely. (Just make sure to cut off the rind before putting in the sandwich - that would be a weird texture combo.) It's great in grilled or toasted cheese sandwiches because of the richness and slightly buttery flavor.

As a local reference, check out Gorilla Cheese's menu for some tasty ideas; they do classic grilled cheeses with cheddar, American, gruyere or mozzarella, but they make others that have additions of other non-cheese components.


Using a large pot/pan on a smaller burner My fiancée and I recently got a bunch of new (very nice) pots and pans for our wedding shower. The thing is, several of the pans are 12", and the burners on our stove are nowhere near that large! (maybe 10" at best)

Are these pots/pans useable on the smaller burners? Will they evenly distribute the heat so it won't be so much of a problem? Or should we take them back? They are nice, hard-anodized pans.

The pans will distribute the heat for you.  No burner that I've ever seen covers a 12" pan, but quality pans will still give you pretty even heat distribution.


What's a good spicy salt with only heat, and not a lot of flavor? I'm looking for something I can sprinkle on my food to add heat, but not change the flavor.  I typically add salt to just about everything I eat anyway, so I am considering a spicy salt, however, if there is some other spicy "powder", that would be perfect.  I have started using crushed red pepper flake, but it takes a fair amount to get the desired heat.  When I do that, the flavor is still normally fine, but the pepper flakes make the food gritty, and I can feel the dried bits as I chew... it ruins the texture of the food.  I've looked into pure capsaicin from an eye dropper, but that will be hard to spread over my wife's prepared dinners without adding too much heat.  Any idea's?

Try mixing up some salt and cayenne powder into an old spice shaker. That should make life easier. Start with a low amount of salt and adjust up to your level of heat.  If you end up putting it in a paprika container you may want to label it!


Which foods are certain to never cause food poisoning? After a nasty bout of food poisoning lasting nearly 5 days (rare I know) my trust levels and appetite for certain foods have dropped considerably however my inquisitiveness kicked in...

...from a data perspective (ignoring allergies) which foodstuffs are almost guaranteed or are actually guaranteed to never induce food poisoning in a human being?

My first thought ran to protein powders mixed with certified-safe tap water.

I assume that all raw meat runs the possibility and all take-away or restaurant meals are discounted as well.  I know fruit and vegetables fertilised with human manure in certain countries which potentially rules out fresh fruit and veg.

Are there any foodstuffs guaranteed to be completely safe?  Beef jerky perhaps due to the dehydrated nature?

There is almost no food which is guaranteed to be safe. If it has nutritional value for a human, it has nutritional value for many microorganisms too, some of which are human pathogens.

So, out of the FATTOM rule, you can already throw out F: you cannot remove the food. A is also not a good candidate - no food is naturally acidic enough, and while there are foods preserved by acidity, an error in processing can lead to the food being dangerous. Also, there are some bacteria and molds which thrive in quite acidic environments (although few of them are pathogens). Oxygen is even worse, as botulinum is anaerobic and very dangerous. Also, once you open the canned food, it can get contaminated again.

Time and temperature are quite good, but they are no guarantee for no food poisoning. First, processing errors are common. Second, you can't sterilize the food in a normal pot, and the remaining bacteria resume multiplying even before it's cooled off enough to eat. And, if it was contaminated before the cooking, the pathogens can have produced temperature stable toxins before you cooked the food.

Moisture is probably the only factor which can produce completely safe food. Most dehydrated food is not 100% safe. Beef jerky, cured hams, dehydrated fruit, nuts and similar can easily grow toxic mold during improper storage. Depending on how much water was removed in the preservation process and where you live, the kitchen shelf can turn out to be "improper storage". Flours are quite safe too, but you have to cook them, and the cooked product is again not guaranteed to be safe.

The only foods which will be completely safe will be the ones which never had any moisture to begin with, and will remain bactericidal if they acquire some moisture from the air. So sugar (either granulated, or hard candy),salt and pure oil can be declared safe from pathogens, but not from some kind of factory mishap where toxins can have contaminated the sugar and oil. A protein powder may fall in this category, I'm not completely sure how little moisture would be sufficient for a mold to grow on it.

And don't forget that you can infect yourself with digestive tract pathogens by handling the food with contaminated utensils or fingers, even if they don't get the chance to build a colony in the food. You could in principle hold your dining room clean to operation room standards, but people get infections in operation rooms too.

Nutrition is off topic for this site, so I won't discuss the wisdom of eating nothing but sugar, oil, salt and boiled water in order to eat guaranteed pathogen free food. For me personally, the trade off is absolutely not worth it.


What to do with crumbled muffins? I made some muffins that apparently didn't have enough liquid to stick together (perhaps substituting Greek yogurt for sour cream was not such a good idea, as that, butter, and an egg contributed the only liquid).  So the muffins crumbled completely on leaving the greased tin.  Are there any culinary uses for them, or am I stuck trying to eat the big chunks and throw the rest out?  They are so crumbly that packing them to the office for breakfast like I usually do won't work.

The specific ones I made are cinnamon coffee cake flavored, but I'd be curious about the general case.

I would make "cake balls" out of them.  Maybe make this Apple Butter Frosting, combine with the crumbles and form balls out of the combo and then freeze or refrigerate them.  I think these would be best served "uncoated" so maybe a quick cream cheese icing drizzle across the tops.  Serve as a dessert and enjoy.


How does sourdough (wild yeast) starter differ from location to location? I understand that sourdough starter (made from wild yeast) will differ from location to location, based on the different yeast bacteria. How will this change the flavor and type of the starter? What factors will affect the yeast in the wild (e.g. climate, altitude, etc.) and how does this affect one's ability to make a good starter?

You're right, sourdough starters are different everywhere, based on what yeasts and bacteria are prevalent in that specific location. Certainly climate and altitude affect the living things that float around, so in turn those variables affect starters. I don't know about the poles or the peaks of Denali or Everest, but you can make a perfectly good starter everywhere else, they will have their own character everywhere you go. Even a distance of a few miles can drastically change the flavor and behavior of your starter. Some places have less or slower to grow natural yeast, so starters can take longer in some places to be ready, but it will happen eventually.

Some places, San Fransisco for instance, are well known for their local starters. You can buy San Fransisco sourdough starter online, but your bread will only taste like San Fransisco Sourdough for a few days or a couple of weeks. If you keep that starter alive, it won't take long before it takes on local yeast and bacteria and creates bread that tastes like the sourdough made by everyone else in the neighborhood.

The bottom line is that without speaking to another maker of sourdough in your immediate area, you can't really predict how fast your starter will grow, how often it will need to be "fed" or what your bread will taste like. Allow for some variance due to location, but standard recipes and techniques will work just about everywhere. Once you've made a few loaves, you'll get to know your local yeast!


If Nutrition Facts states 0% Cholesterol does that imply the food is vegan? On the side of a package if it states "Cholesterol 0%" in the Nutrition Facts does that mean the food is vegan?

Your question implies that cholesterol only comes from animal products. This is not correct. Cholesterol is present in many plants.

Other answers and comments claim that only amounts "less than 0.5" (units omitted) of cholesterol is permitted to be listed as 0, and that "no cholesterol" is an added claim that a product is truly cholesterol free. This too is incorrect. The FDA permits amounts less than 2mg/serving to be listed as both 0 and "cholesterol free". There are additional caveats which can be read at the link.

The bottom line is, not only does 0 mg of cholesterol not indicate anything regarding the presence of animal products, but neither does the presence of cholesterol.


traditional italian pasta: with or without eggs? I read that in the north of Italy they would use eggs in their recipes (the recipe to make the pasta itself). Is it an actual tradition or is it just a recent trend? I always thought that the pasta was something simple, made with the heart, durum semolina and water.

Although nowadays both are ubiquitous in Italy (and abroad), dried pasta and fresh egg pasta are traditionally associated with different regions of Italy.

Dried durum-wheat pasta originated in the old Kingdom of the two Sicilies, which encompassed the entire Southern Italy, including the island of Sicily, and had its capital city in Naples. Oldest historical records associate the production and consumption of dried pasta with Sicily, but one of the best renowned home of pastifici (artisanal pasta production places) from time immemorial is the town of Gragnano, in the province of Naples.

Still today, the humble spaghetti with tomatoes and basil is one of the iconic food of Naples.

Fresh egg pasta ("fresh" here is referred to pasta, not to eggs, as in "not essiccated") is linked to the historical region of Emilia, part of the River Po Valley.

It is worth mentioning that from a historical point of view this is the reason why spaghetti alla bolognese, one of the best known Italian dishes abroad, is actually a fake one: "bolognese" means "from the city of Bologna", which is the largest city of Emilia. For this reason it was always supposed, from its very own "design", to go well with tagliatelle, which is a classic fresh pasta format.


Make quinoa sticky like rice? I make a nice curry, and for presentation I would like to place the quiona on top of curry as shown in this picture:

But to be able to do that, my quiona needs to be sticky (I think it's the starch in the rice that allows it to hold its shape)

Any of you cooking geniuses can think of a way that I can have my quinoa hold its shape without affecting the flavor greatly?

Edit: My standard cooking technique, is to wash the quinoa thoroughly (I'm told this is a necessity), then simmer in two parts water to one part Quinoa.


Is there a Welsh recipe called cacan menyn? In the Wikipedia article about the Breton delicacy Kouign-amann, there is the following statement:

  The Welsh equivalent is the etymologically identical cacan menyn, literally 'cake (of) butter'.

It isn't clear from the article whether there actually is an equivalent Welsh recipe, or if the text is pointing out a similarity between the Welsh and Breton languages.

Is there a Welsh recipe called cacan menyn?

I've had a whole lot of Welsh desserts based largely on butter :-), but never anything approaching a kouign amann.  Never anything approaching it anywhere else than in Brittany in fact, or made by Bretons.  Your problem may be a lot greater than a linguistic translation.  There's a reason there's not an equivalent in French for instance.


White chocolate baking in cake batter Can I chop up a white chocolate baking bar or melt it all and then fold it into vanilla cake batter? I'm wondering if that could make me a white chocolate cake.

Should you chop up the white chocolate baking bar and fold it into the batter, it will behave like any chip in a batter, melting slightly and leaving little surprises throughout. If you wish to incorporate into the cake, melt it either over a double boiler or very carefully in the microwave (checking every 10 seconds), and let it cool. After following your vanilla cake recipe (creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs, flour, milk), stir in the cooled white chocolate and mix completely. You could amp up the white chocolate effect by adding melted white chocolate to the frosting and topping with white chocolate shards or curls.


What is the egg mixture used in gratins called in English? This is one of these weird cases of synchronicity. I was wondering today how it is called in English. Then I answered a question, and needed the word for the answer.

The dishes I mean may not always be called gratins in English, sometimes they are called stew. They are a mix of diced vegetables and sometimes meat, mixed in a pan and put in the oven. When they are cooked enough (or when using parboiled vegetables), a mixture is poured over them. The mixture consists of eggs, a very small amount of flour, and one or more milk and fermented milk products. Soft or grated cheeses are sometimes mixed in or strewn on the surface to brown. The vegetables aren't swimming in the mixture, some of it seeps between them to fill the air pockets, but it mostly stays on top and sets and browns nicely.

I have only encountered this kind of dish in Mediterranean recipes. Typical examples are moussaka, ratatouile, gyuvech (although I know variants of all of them which don't have the mixture). In Germany, they'll be called a type of Auflauf, but an Auflauf is not necessary made with this eggy type of liquid, and I haven't heard a German name for the liquid either.

I wouldn't call it custard, as it is mainly used in savory dishes (although there are sweet variants where something else than vegetables is baked). Also, I haven't heard of custards without milk or cream, and these often contain something else, e.g. a mixture of yogurt and mashed feta. It isn't a batter either, the flour isn't enough to thicken it noticeably, and can sometimes be left out altogether. It is not a sauce, it is expected to set after baking.

Of course there is a probability that there isn't a name for it in English, because it isn't used often in English speaking countries. In this case, probably everybody could make up a well-sounding combination to refer to it, like "the egg mixture for moussaka crust". But I am not interested in such descriptive creations. What I am asking is, is there a single term which, when I say it without further qualifications, as in the sentence "I am making a [term]" will let my communication partner understand that I am cooking a dish of this kind and currently preparing the mixture for it.

Edit
I don't mean a word which describes the content of the thing (although such a word would be nice too, if it were used only for this type of liquid and not for other liquids with similar content like custard). I am expecting something more of a purpose-based word. A comparable word would be "topping": A topping could be smoked ham or caramel sauce, depending on the dish. But it always has the same function. In this regard, I'd say that bechamel can be used as [term] sometimes, as in mfg's answer. But I wouldn't think of bechamel when I say the word. They are definitely not synonyms. "Custard" is problematic for the same reason: it has many other uses.

I would call it a custard, I think, if not only for want of a better word. A custard consists of milk, egg and a thickening agent i.e. flour, so it fits the description well enough.

It might sound a bit odd to English-speaking ears though. I think 'savoury custard' is probably more appropriate. I must admit I always thought moussaka et al was topped with a white/bechamel sauce; I'm pretty sure that's the more common topping in 'the West'.

As for the dishes themselves, I'm not sure if there is a catch-all English term for them - 'pasta bake' is an English version of the Italian pasta al forno, but that obviously only applies to dishes that use pasta.


Mondernist Green Tea Microwave Sponge Cake - Siphon charging I just saw a recipe for microwave sponge cake. The mixture is strained before putting in a siphon and charging. However, there is no mention if that is a NO2 or a CO2 cartridge. Can someone confirm?

This type of "modernist" microwave sponge cake is usually charged with NO2.

One tip, since they can collapse rapidly after cooking: It is best to flip the cakes over when you remove them from the microwave, so that the cup is upside down.  Let them cool a bit that way, then release them from their cup.


Baking with regular skillet vs. cast iron for apple pie I have a recipe for apple pie I want to use. The recipe asks for a cast iron skillet.

Can I use a regular skillet in the oven instead of the cast iron skillet?

Technically, yes, though the crust will likely be less brown and evenly brown than if you use a cast iron skillet, especially if the sides of your regular skillet are thinner than the base.  If that is the case, the sides will be less brown than the base of the pie.

You might also have to adjust the cooking time on the recipe as well, so if you're a stickler with following a recipe to the "T", then I'd ask someone to borrow their cast iron skillet :)


No-Knead Bread: How long should I raise the dough in different tempratures? The famous No-Knead Bread recipe said:

  Let dough rest at least 12 hours,
  preferably about 18, at warm room
  temperature, about 70 degrees (21 Celsius degrees).

But I don't have the ideal 21 Celsius degrees room temperature or any device that can keep the dough 21 degrees for 18 hours.

In summer, my room temperature is around 25~30 degrees, in winter, it's 3~10 degrees.

My questions are:

How long should I raise the dough under 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 degrees?
I guess I shouldn't raise the dough for too long, say 48 hours, so how long is too long?

Thanks.

Update:

(sorry for my English) I just tried to raise the dough for 30+ hours under 25~27 Celsius degrees. The volume of the dough was increasing in the first 10+ hours, and the max volume was 2x of the original size. But later, it began to shrink! After 30+ hours, the volume was about 1.3~1.5 times of the original size. I tried to bake it under 250 Celsius degrees for 40 minutes... it tastes like rocks.

I was taught to bake bread when the dough is around 2x the original volume or slightly less. Looks like the peak time for you is around 10 - 12 hours.

I'm afraid you missed the peak time and it has to get heavier!


Moldy bread smell but no mold? I have Nickles brand multigrain bread. 2 slices of it are just stale. The others though smell moldy but I don't see any mold whatsoever on any of the slices. They taste strange too. This I know because I ate one of them to releive my heartburn last night.

So why would my bread smell moldy when I don't see any mold? Usually if it is dry and has no mold it just smells and tastes like stale bread.

The mold is growing and producing that smell.  Mold spores form on ALL bread when it is exposed to air.  That's why it takes a few days for the mold to actually be visible. The mold doesn't just instantly grow, it "forms" over a few days and when enough of it accumulates, you see it.

Bread with preservatives, have a longer shelf life because they contain a mold inhibitor.  After the expiration date on the bread, that "inhibitor" will no longer keep the mold from "blooming" and it will rapidly appear and multiply.

If the bread smells bad/moldy, DO NOT eat it!  You can get sick on moldy bread.

My daughter(we) did a Science Fair Project on Mold Growth in Bread and this was some of the information we found.

Hope this answers your question.

An added note:  Storing sealed bread in the Refrigerator does NOT extend the expiration date.


How can I keep tomatillos submerged in water during boiling? I like making enchiladas verdes, but I have an annoying time keeping tomatillos submerged when I boil them. The top part of them remain out of surface.

I try to keep them held down with a long wooden spoon. But I can't just stand there holding them for 5 to 10 minutes.

Any suggestions.

Use a metal wire strainer turned upside down in a larger cooking pot so that the tomatillos can bob around in the water but always be under the surface.  If for some reason the strainer doesn't stay down under the water, put some weight on the top.


Tempering chocolate: ± 2 °C too much? I am planning to buy a laser thermometer to measure the temperature of melted chocolate for tempering it. As I have found out, the thermometer I want to buy has a measuring tolerance of ± 2 °C. That means even if it shows the correct temperature on the display, the chocolate can be 2 °C too hot or 2 °C too cold. Will this cause any trouble? Do I really need a thermometer that has a smaller measuring tolerance?

FYI: 2 °C are about 36 °F

Edit: 2 °C are about 3.6 °F, thanks msh210!

Yes, it is too much. Chocolate has very tight working intervals. Dark chocolate must be used at 32°C. Below 30°C, it is too thick for use, and at 35°C, the cocoa butter separates from the chocolate. An error interval of 4°C when your complete workable interval is 5°C wide is simply unacceptable. You want a thermometer with a much higher precision, actually one which shows you tenths of degrees centigrade.

You also want a thermometer which reacts quickly enough. If you are working with small quantities, a ten seconds delay in measuring can give you errors of over half a degree centigrade, which is also a lot, given your tight working interval. Try finding a thermometer with a 4 sec response time or less.

Also, you don't want a laser thermometer at all! The difference in temperature between the surface of the chocolate and the mass of it near the bottom can be substantial, I once measured 4°C difference in something in a bowl with about a litter of stuff (it can't have been chocolate, probably it was custard, I forgot exactly). You need a candy thermometer for chocolate. Buy a laser thermometer separately for measuring the surfaces of pans, if you need it.

As a last note a 2°C interval is not 36°F, it is just below 4°F. The formula is 32 + 5/9, so your converter probably meant that when there are 2°C outside, a Fahrenheit thermometer shows 36°F. This is obviously incorrect for calculating intervals.


Restore Luster Craft I recently inherited a very old but complete set of Luster Craft stainless steel waterless cookware. I know I can use barkeepers friend to clean but what should I use to polish the steel and the handles?  I already have a set of chef’s ware and plan to restore/refurbish the Luster craft for my daughter and keep them in the family.

Given you're going with BKF for the cleaning, I'd recommend the specific cookware formulation - https://www.barkeepersfriend.com/cleaning-products/cookware-cleanser-polish/


Slowing motor and electric smoke coming from Magic Bullet blender? I have a Magic Bullet blender at home and I have been using it for the past month or so everyday to make some smoothies. I always blend fruit (both frozen and fresh). I'm not sure if the contents that are blended are related, but I've noticed the blending seems to have slowed down lately. The motor runs noticeably slower and the machine doesn't vibrate as much as it used to.

Has anyone had this experience? In addition, the blender has some smelly gas coming from the bottom, where there is a vent for the motor. Does this mean the unit is already wearing out? I only started using this a month ago, and I'd be surprised that it's already breaking.

Does anyone know what the gas signifies, even in other similar kitchen appliances?

It's basically dead. The insulative enamel surrounding the wires in the motor has become overheated. That is where the smoke is coming from. If you continue to use the unit the enamel will degrade completely resulting in an electrical short. It is actually a bit of a fire hazard, so I would suggest discontinuing use of the unit.

It is possible that the unit is defective. Given its age I'm sure its covered under warranty. Early failure of electric motors can also be from excessive load. It may be that your unit is not intended to process something so substantial as ice. Another thing to note is that if the unit is jammed and cannot spin, you should release the power immediately. This is the fastest way to burn out any electrical motor. That goes for a cordless drill and the like.


How to make softer biscotti? I made this biscotti recipe yesterday - Fruity Christmas Biscotti. It contains plain flour, baking powder, mixed spice, golden caster sugar and eggs. The recipe also calls for raisins, dried cherries and nuts which I substituted dried cranberries and white chocolate chips for.

I love the recipe but it was a bit hard - I know biscotti is supposed to be hard but is there any way I can make it chewier or softer? I'm really looking for an ingredient to add, or to change the quantity of something that is already in the recipe rather than storage suggestions like putting an apple in the box with the biscuits.

My kids love a similar recipe, but they also like them softer. What I do is reducing the second baking time by half.
Be aware that the shelf life of the biscotti is also reduced! ... Not a problem in my case since they don't survive more than two days ...
Edit
Some history:

Though modern biscotti are associated with the Tuscan region of Italy, the popular Italian cookie traces its origins to Roman times. The word biscotto derives from “bis,” Latin for twice, and “coctum” or baked (which became “cotto,” or cooked). The Roman biscotti were more about convenience food for travelers rather than a pleasurable treat for leisurely diners. Unleavened, finger-shaped wafers were baked first to cook them, then a second time to completely dry them out, making them durable for travel and nourishment for the long journeys—Pliny boasted that they would be edible for centuries. Biscotti were a staple of the diet of the Roman Legions.
After the fall of the Roman Empire in 455 C.E, the country was repeatedly sacked by the Visigoths, the Vandals and others. The people did their best to survive; there was no culinary development. But with the Renaissance, cuisine also flowered. Biscotti re-emerged in Tuscany, credited to a Tuscan baker who served them with the local sweet wine. Their dry, crunchy texture was deemed to be the perfect medium to soak up the wine (and how much more flavorful than dunking a donut in coffee!). Centuries later, many still agree that dipping biscotti into Vin Santo is a perfect way to end a meal, or to while away an hour at a café.


Why do we use the term Quick "Bread"? I know there are questions here already about Quick bread vs cake, or muffins vs cupcakes. But I'm not asking about the sugar, fat ratio thing. I'm more interested in the "bread" part of it. To me whether it is American white bread, or Italian or French bread, it is a sugarless loaf used to make a sandwich. Even biscuits and rolls that can be made with baking powder instead of yeast can be used for breakfast or lunch sandwiches with sausage and eggs.  But you can't make a sandwich with banana or pumpkin bread, you treat them as a cake. so why "bread"?

Cooking terminology is vague and has evolved to suit the avilable ingredients in various places at various times. This means that the categories are not clearly defined.  Here are some examples to indicate the continuum between bread and cake.

There's a whole range of unsweetened soda breads (note: most yeast bread isn't completely sugarless).  Many cornbreads fall into this category (though the one I make has some honey in it).

Teabreads, banana bread etc. are usually baked in a loaf tin and sliced like bread.  They may be buttered; similar loaves are even served with cheese in case you're not confused enough.

But teacakes are bread, in that they're yeast-based.  Not all have much sugar in the dough, though the recipe I've linked does.  Chelsea buns are an unsweetened yeast dough with a sweet filling rolled and baked in.

Brioche is undoubtedly a bread (yeast), but is often sweet.


What is a substitute for maple extract? I am making cinnamon rolls with a maple flavoured frosting, however, I am having trouble finding maple extract for the frosting. What can I substitute it with? I have vanilla extract - will it change the taste of the topping too much if I use this?

Well, you are not going to get a maple flavour with anything other than maple extract (or maple sugar or syrup or some similar maple product).

That said, I've substituted rum for maple in some recipes and tend to think of it as a better approximation than vanilla.  The caveat of course is the amount; a tablespoon is fine to substitute, an entire cup is going to impart a pretty strong alcohol flavour that you probably don't want.

If you don't have rum or don't think it would work for your recipe, then vanilla extract is probably the next-closest thing.  However, it will change the flavour; whether or not that change is "too much" is really a matter of opinion.