Is all bee's honey the same? At the supermarket, I found many different brands and varieties of honey. Each came from a different place, but most were marketed based on flower-type. I bought a few different brands, but could not identify a difference.

Does the taste of honey vary depending on which flowers the bees lived around? Or are there other factors that create variety in the taste?

It's ALL different from year to year - from season to season, from area to area.
Honey is nectar that has been converted to an invert sugar by the bees. Then moisture removed to < 18%, then sealed with wax over the comb.

The flavors and quality depend 100% on where the bees are collecting the nectar. I have found no difference in the type of bee, however.   Some bees collect more nectar, work longer hours, swarm easier, and have other traits that make life easier for the bee keeper, but in my apiary - I found no preference to the flavor of one type of bee over the other. (Italian vs. Carniolan, vs. Caucasian).  Some were a bit different because I think some flew earlier and foraged longer, and may have gotten nectar that was from different mix of flowers.

There is also almost NO  true "organic" honey.  This is because you cannot guarantee that a bee ONLY has access to property that falls under the organic guidelines. With a flight radius of 2 Miles or more, thats a LOT of acres that would have to be certified 100% organic.

Most Clover honey will usually taste about the same, mesquite, about the same - but having sampled lots of it - it DOES change from season to season and area to area.  Various regions and seasons have different mixes of flowers and trees producing nectar at any given time, and that is what flavors the honey.

For the best honey, get Pure, Unfiltered, Raw honey, from a Local source. You may try a farmers market. It's a hot, hard job, and the pay is not so great, but most beekeepers (as most other farmers) do not do it for the big bucks - but for the love of the land, the bees, and farming. Note that some honey may be adulterated by the use of pesticides that are not allowed in the USA. And some large companies buy honey from anyone and any place and it all gets mixed together.


One base cake mix and then make several flavors Does anyone know how to make one base cake mix and then make several flavors for cupcakes? I was thinking a basic white cake mix then SPLITTING mix into Vanilla Bean, Chocolate and Strawberry.
Thank you in advance.

Adjusting a basic cake (either from a boxed mix or from scratch) is easy if the cake has no or very little flavour of its own.
Using a boxed mix might be more difficult because they often have a generous amount of flavouring, typically vanilla, even if it does not explicitly say so on the box front. Check the ingredients list or use a mix you know - a little vanilla is ok.
You can either prepare the basic recipe, then divide the batter (I'll call this method 1 for now) or divide the ingredients and make separate batches (method 2). The latter might be difficult if you need to split eggs, but it's possible. See this question.
Now for the adjustments you asked for, amounts suggested should be enough for 1/3 to 1/2 of normal recipe:

Vanilla bean
Assuming you want real vanilla, split 1/2 vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. For method 1, add seeds to finished batter (to avoid lumps, mix with a few pinches of sugar until "sprinklable") or stir into liquid according to recipe  for method 2.
Chocolate
Add 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp of cocoa powder (the real stuff, not drink mix!) either to the dry ingredients or flour (method 2) or sive over the batter and stir (method 1). You might have to add a tsp of extra liquid - or not. Hard to say w/o knowing the original recipe. Do not use normal chocolate, because this may ruin your batter, especially if you started from a sponge-type, pound cake is a bit more forgiving. You can make chocolate cake with molten chocolate, but this needs more adjustments / a different recipe.
Strawberry
A strawberry taste can only be done with artificial flavouring. I have never used this, so I won't give a recommendation here. Read the label.
Bonus: Rum, Whiskey, Brandy,...
Replace ca. 1 tbsp of liquid with liquour of your choice (method 2) or add 1/2 tbsp at the end (method 1). Poking the baked warm cupcakes a few times with a skewer and drizzling with 1/2 to 1 tsp of alcohol (or alcohol with sugar syrup) might be considered method 3.
Bonus 2: Spices
Don't forget the powers of your spice cupboard: Cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, even ground cloves, give a lot of flavour w/o the danger of throwing tipping the dry-to-liquid balance of your recipe. A very small pinch (cloves, be careful with these!) to a shake or two (cinnamon) is all you need.

Note that you can mix-and match the methods above, e.g. add one tbsp cocoa and 1 tsp of brandy or dissolve the vanilla bean scrapings in a bit of of whiskey. Chocolate goes nicely with a pinch of cinnamon, you could even go all "Christmasy" (ha, and to post this on Easter...) with gingerbread spice or brandy, cinnamon & nutmeg for "eggnogg".


Psyllium husk as gelatin replacement. Does anyone have experience using psyllium husk in place of gelatin. (My particular situation is making marshmallows)

Do not use psyllium husk. It tastes terrible and no amount of sugar will mask the taste.

Try using agar-agar instead, that's what vegans use for vegan marshmallows.

In Asia, they sometimes use konjac for it, but you will have to be very careful eating it because people die from accidental choking.


Why does honey prevent porridge congealing? I like my porridge cold so I typically prepare it in the evening and store it in the fridge for breakfast the following morning. My recipe normally includes 1/2 tbsp of honey for sweetening. When I remember to put it in, the cold porridge next morning has a nice goopy consistency that is easily stirred with a spoon. If I forget the honey, though, the porridge seems to congeal or set into a thicker, more jelly-like consistency, which can be broken up but not stirred so easily. What is it that makes the honey have this effect, and does it do something similar to other foods?

Honey is hygroscopic - meaning it has the ability to absorb water. Even if you covered your porridge after adding the honey, there's still enough moisture in the container for the honey to absorb.

You don't say whether your honey is from a local beekeeper or heat-treated store honey. The more honey is heated, the more natural enzymes found in honey are destroyed. One of the enzymes in honey is distaste (amylase). It has the property of hydrolyzing starch (breaking starch down into sugars). I can't state for a certainty as I'm not a food scientist but I'd guess the additional sugars might be liquid. But even if not, it would mean less cooked starch, hence less gelling ability of the porridge.


Why can't I get a seasoning layer on my carbon steel pan using an induction hob? I recently purchased a carbon steel pan (DeBuyer Mineral B Element), and have attempted to perform pre-seasoning on it. I checked out a bunch of videos on the process, and ended up doing the following steps:

Warm up pan
Coat pan in a thin layer of canola oil
Heat pan until oil begins to smoke
Take pan off heat when oil stops smoking
Cool to room temperature

I repeated the process around 6 times, and the flat surface of the pan still felt pretty smooth. Sides of the pan were slightly sticky though. I proceeded to cook bacon, which immediately stuck to the pan (I added about a tablespoon of oil before cooking too).

Any idea what I'm doing wrong, and why no seasoning layer is forming on the carbon steel frying pan? It's getting discolored but not turning black. Sides are turning brown, albeit slightly gummy.

Induction hobs (cooktops/ranges) use magnetic fields to heat the pan directly, only metal that is directly in contact with the hob gets heated by the hob, the rest gets heated through conduction. On a large gas hob burner the flame goes up the sides, heating them. On my induction hob (not my choice, there when I moved in) I find that the heating area does not range as far as the lines on the hob indicate that they should, so you may not be getting direct heating on the entire bottom of the pan.

My recommendation would be to season it in the oven rather than the cooktop presuming the handle and other parts are oven safe. That way the whole pan gets heat evenly. The answer to this question will be of interest to you as it's about induction and metals.


What cost-effective things can I do to help my knives stay sharp longer? I'm a poor college student that doesn't know much about his knives, pots, and pans. Specifically is there anything that I can do to make my knives stay sharp longer and maintain them without spending too much money?

Here are a few rules I follow with my own knives.

Don't put your knives in the dishwasher. Hand wash and dry immediately after use.
Store knives where they won't be banging up against other hard things: my favorite is in a wooden knife block.
If you must store your knives in a drawer, protect the edge. You can use a commercial solution like this guy, or cardboard and tape if you're on a shoestring budget.
Don't cut on a glass cutting board. They look nice, but will dull your edge.
Get a steel and use it. A steel is not for sharpening, but for maintaining a sharp edge. Honing with a steel before each use will help keep the edge straight and sharp.
Don't use dull knives. Either learn to sharpen yourself, or have them professionally sharpened.

Slightly off topic, but if you're a starving college student who wants to have a high-quality knife or two at a very reasonable price, take a look at Forschner/Victorinox.  Yes, the Swiss Army Knife people. I was turned on to them by professional chefs, and have found them every bit as high-quality as my much-more-expensive Henckels and Wustof-Trident knives.


Not sure my meat spent long enough on high in the crock pot? Last night, I was making chili and realized I'd forgotten to thaw the meat. I was most of the way through putting the veggies and sweet potatoes in, so I put them on high and let the meat thaw in the fridge. I took the thawed meat from the fridge and put it in the crock pot before I went to bed, but I'm pretty sure my crock pot (which is a digital model) had actually switched to the "warm" setting by that point, or shortly thereafter. I was tired and not paying close enough attention. When I woke up, the food was still really hot and steaming, but now I'm scared to eat it because I don't know how long it spent on high, if at all. (I guess that'll teach me to cook while I'm tired ...)

Would it be safe to eat? Or should I toss it?

Check the crock pot manual.

Usually, the "keep warm" setting will keep a temperature of between 145°F to 165°F (62°C to 74°C). This is the recommended food safety temperature to keep hot food in that is not immediately served (which is likely why the "keep warm" temperature is in this particular range in the first place). 145°F is also the safe internal temperature for beef, pork, lamb and veal.


Proper way to calculate the amount of sugar in a drink I have recently read an article (in Spanish) about a sugary drink (water-based) with stated the following facts:

Ingredients of the drink: natural mineral water, organic cane sugar, lemon juice made from concentrate (7.9%), ascorbic acid, pectin, natural basil flavoring, natural lemon flavoring and other natural flavorings.
Nutritional values per 100 ml: 18 kcal and 4,1 grams of sugar.

I'm trying to calculate where did that amount of sugar per 100 ml come from. The list of ingredients must be ordered by weight in decreasing order by Spanish law. We do not know the percentage of sugar, but we know it must be at least a 7.9% (the percentage of the following ingredient) of the weight of the product. The nutritional values are calculated per 100 ml, but the density of this drink (as it is not a carbonated drink) must be around 1 kg/l. So asuming that 100 ml of this drink weight approximately 100 grams, in that amount there must be around 7.9 grams of sugar, and not 4.1 grams as the label states (if we do not add the amount of sugar in the lemon juice). Besides, those 7.9 grams of sugar must contain 28 kcal, above the 18 kcal stated.

So given the discrepancy, and assuming good faith on the side of the company that manufactures the drink (and assuming the article copied the values properly from the label), where did I go wrong?

Thanks to all the people who commented in the question post. I wrote a tweet to the manufacturer of the drink and they told me that the ingredient list is wrong because they increased the amount of lemon juice from what was originally planned but did not fix the label, so the sugar should have been after the lemon juice and not before in the ingredient list, hence making the nutritional values compatible with it.

They also told me that the label containing the ingredient list will be fixed in the future.


How to decide between a French or a German pattern chef's knife? I'm getting ready to buy (or commission) a nice 10" chef's knife.  I need to decide between a French or a German pattern.  What are the pros and cons of each?

It really is an issue of personal preference.

If you prefer a rocking motion, the German profile suits your style better; if you are a push-and-slide person, the French profile is more suitable for you.  It also possible to find models at various points within the range.

See this Chef Talk thread for an in depth discussion (with diagrams at one point). The original poster concludes, quite correctly in my opinion:

  But... let's keep our senses of perspective and humor.  A German knife
  won't turn a good cutter into a bad one, and a French knife won't do
  the opposite.  Both profiles suit the classic, European and American
  styles of food and knife skills.  It comes down to taste and training.


How to make a beef or vegetable broth more dense? The broth tends to be very low in density, it's basically water with a flavour, and I would like to make it a little bit more smooth and dense like a good pasta sauce; nothing like gelatin or something that will generate blocks or blobs, just a more dense preparation that will still retain the properties of a liquid or smooth sauce .

What can I use for this ?

You're very likely going to need a thickener, especially if you don't make your own stock. (On a side note - I highly recommend making your own stock at least once. You end up with a vastly different stock/broth when you do, and in this case, it might achieve the consistency you're looking for, because a good animal based stock has gelatin in it already.)

Gelatin shouldn't generate "blocks or blobs" when incorporated correctly, but if you don't want to use gelatin, you can also add corn starch, arrowroot powder, potato starch, tapioca flour, or other starch to thicken the broth. (Flour is an option, too, but I prefer other thickeners, since in my experience, it often takes more flour to thicken something, especially later in a cooking, and the dish takes on some of the flour's flavor and texture.)

Gums (the compounds often used to give non-dairy milks their creamier qualities) can also work. Xanthan gum is pretty easy to come by, though you may also be able to find guar gum. These usually only require fractions of a teaspoon, so shouldn't be enough to affect taste or most of the other properties of the broth except thickness.

For all of these, the usual way to incorporate them correctly, so they don't create blobs, is to thoroughly dissolve them in some water before adding them to the cooking pot. You'll want to use a whisk or similar utensil, to ensure any blobs are broken up.

If you want something more akin to stew, as opposed to gravy, you should only need to cook down the liquid in the broth for a while, or just drain off some of the broth when serving. The increases the ratio of vegetables and meat to liquid, which gives the dish as a whole a heartier and more filling feel, without actually making any of the components thicker. This is essentially how tomato sauce vs paste works -- the sauce has a higher water content than the paste. Because the tomato puree doesn't dissolve in the water, the result is a thicker or thinner solution. You can puree the ingredients in the soup (vegetables, meat, etc) to get a tomato sauce/paste kind of consistency.


White residue emerging while cooking bacon When I pan-fry bacon I usually see a curdled white residue emerge from the strips as they start to become cooked. This residue forms a sticky film on the pan that burns if not scraped off during cooking. It appears to be a some sticky goo composed of proteins, fat and water.

What exactly is this residue and what causes it/where does it come from? Does it pose any health concerns? Is it common practice in professional kitchens to wash the bacon before cooking in order to reduce this residue?

The answer is related to a similar issue appearing in this question.

Basically, that residue is mostly water, along with denatured proteins from the meat.  When meat is cooked and the cells expel moisture, there are a lot of dissolved proteins which sometimes make the liquid light-colored and thick.

People tend to notice it more with certain meats than others.  With bacon, it tends to show up a little more because a lot of commercial bacon is now wet-cured by injection.  The extra moisture in the bacon flows out quicker during cooking and carries protein with it.  This is also more of a problem with thinner cuts of bacon, since the more "damaged" cells, the more this protein leaks out.  Thinner cut bacon -- like the ground beef mentioned in the link above -- has a higher ratio of cut and damaged cells than thick-cut bacon.  (There are other factors that can add to this too, e.g., freezing, which also damages cells.)

It's safe to eat, though not particularly pleasant textured or tasty.  Rinsing the bacon wouldn't help.  A few ways to lessen it:

Try a different brand of bacon, perhaps one that adds less moisture
Buy thicker bacon
Cook more slowly: this may not help much with some bacon, but the faster the meat cooks up and shrinks, the faster the liquid flows out
If possible, buy traditional dry-cured bacon with no liquid injected (sometimes hard to find these days)


How to conserve kefir grains for 2 weeks? I guess there's no need to freeze them, just keep them dormant, so I guess this question doesn't apply. My thought was to put them into clean milk and into the fridge, would this do or is it risky?

Yes, you can refrigerate them for up to three weeks. Refrigeration slows down the fermentation without killing the culture.

Three precautions:

Use a jar with a tight lid. This will prevent cross-contamination with other flavors in the fridge. If you have other cultures there as well, such as yogurt, that's an additional reason for the tight lid.
Use a large enough quantity of milk. You will need at least two cups of milk per tablespoon of grains. You want to put in enough that the milk sugars aren't entirely processed before you can switch out the milk. If you put in too little milk, the bacteria will covert all the sugars, then run out of food and die.
Leave adequate headspace, around two inches. The tight lid will prevent the carbon dioxide from escaping. So if you fill the jar too high, a lot of pressure will build up and in theory, the jar could explode. Or at least, the kefir will spill out when you open the jar, as soda from a shaken can does.

You might need a couple of milk changes after your return to get your grains thriving again. But I've refrigerated grains for two weeks or so and they always jump right back. Also, the kefir that results from this long refrigerated fermenting is eminently drinkable. Due to the slow action and the tight lid, it's not as tart and somewhat more carbonated than the countertop stuff.


Difference between "Sweet" , "Yellow" ,"White" and "Chives" So I am working on this recipe here. I have previously used this meal service, but I loved it so much I am making it again. But I don't want to pay for all the ingredients again.

I have a small farm and have grown my own lemongrass just for this purpose. But, I have also grown my own "Sweet onions" as well.

They look similar to this, but are not done growing. They have a larger bulb though (And on the picture of the seed bag, it showed a much larger bulb).

So, can I use my garden onions or are these different? The tops of my onions are hollow (Not sure if that means anything).I heard that Yellow and Sweet are the same, but I thought they were not. I live in Texas, and I think it might be a kind cultivated in the area? Or not. I don't know.

Also, what exactly is a chive. I am not sure. All these onion things are confusing me.

There's a great guide to onions that covers most of these and more over on Serious Eats (all of the quotes below are from this article). But, in relation to your question:

White onions are the standard onion you'll see. They are white.

Serious eats describes them as:

  The white versions are somewhat sweeter and cleaner in flavor, but don't store quite as well as yellow onions do. [. . .] Milder in flavor than yellow onions, white onions can be eaten raw.

Yellow onions are apparently the most popular type of onion in the US. They are yellow but otherwise pretty similar in appearance to white onions.

  Yellow onions are undoubtedly Americans' favorite: nearly 90 percent of onions grown in the US are yellow. Their deep but not-too-strong flavor makes them endlessly versatile in cooking. Larger, slightly sweeter yellow onions labeled Spanish onions are often found right next to plain old yellow onions; they're a milder choice that works well for raw applications.

Sweet onions are specialty onions... there are a bunch of varieties. In Texas, you're probably familiar with the "Texas 1015". Similar varieties are the Vidalia of Georgia and the Walla Walla of Washington.

These onions are yellow like a yellow onion but they are more saucer-shaped than round. They're very sweet and can be eaten raw pretty comfortably.

  Super-sweet and crisp, ideal for eating raw.

Your "sweet onions" are probably what the Serious Eats description classifies as "young onions" they fit your description - visually similar to green onions/scallions (they are the same thing) but with a more bulbous base.

  Though spring onions resemble scallions in appearance and flavor, they're actually just very young storage onions—yellow, red and white—that are pulled out of the ground at an earlier date, when they're still thin-skinned and mild in flavor.

As to your question about chives, they resemble tiny scallions. They're sold in bunches but aren't really layered the way a scallion is.

They're generally sold in bunches and don't have white bulbs at all. They're generally just used as a topping, like on baked potatoes. They have a pretty mild onion flavor.

Here's a fun infographic from Buzzfeed about different types of onions:


How do I make my own chocolate chips? I'd love to make my own chocolate chips from scratch.  But everything I've produced seems to melt during cooking.  It would be nice to make them based on the percentage of coco I like and it would be fantastic to make sugar-free chocolate chips for some diabetic friends.  Any suggestions?

What I need is a recipe for making chocolate chips that I can bake with.

Update:

I now have a family member that is soy-intolerant.  Most chocolate chips and chocolates that can be chopped up have soy-lecithin in them.

So I still have this problem.  I'd like to make a sugar-free, soy-free "chocolate chip" for my family.  It doesn't have to be teardrop shaped or look pretty, that was never a goal.

So my question is still:  How can I make a chocolate product at home that can be broken into pieces and used like chocolate chips.  It makes sense to buy pure chocolate that has already gone through the conche process.  What should be done then?  What is the recipe to change the pure chocolate into something that has coco-butter, sweetner etc.

Chocolate chips are a convenience product meant to simulate chopped up chocolate.  Your best bet is to find the chocolate that you like, and chop it.

If you really want the droplet shape, you would need to temper the chocolate, and then pipe it into little droplets which would be incredibly tedious, and almost certainly not worth the effort.


Will coated chicken fry up ok if not fried right away? Will coated chicken fry up okay after keeping in the frig for an hour?

How are you coating it? Is it coated in eggs and then flour? If so, then yes. That's exactly how I make mine. The egg ends up sticking better if you do that. I learned this from Alton Brown's cookbook, and use the method all the time.


what is the correct consistency for cream cheese frosting I'm having an issue making decent cream cheese frosting.

I have a recipe that says to use:

  1 pound (450g) cream cheese, at room temperature
  4 oz (110g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  2-3 cups (240-360g) powdered sugar, sifted
  a few drops of vanilla extract

and then to

  To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar (do this on low speed to avoid a dust cloud) and mix until light and silky. Add the vanilla.`

The problem I have is that it comes out way too runny to frost anything with.  I've tried adding a bit more powdered sugar and it still maintained it's runny state.  I'm using the K paddle for my Kenwood mixer to mix the frosting.

I've put the icing in the fridge for the moment to see if it will harden up a little.  Is this standard or am I doing something wrong?

EDIT:

So after putting the cream cheese in the fridge for a few hours, it still didn't harden up, just turned a cold runny goo.

One thing I have noticed is that the supermarkets in the UK sell "Soft Cheese" as opposed to "Cream Cheese" which makes me think there is a difference between cream cheese and soft cheese.  Philadelphia in the UK is sold as Soft Cheese, and many UK based recipes that include a cream cheese frosting often include lemon juice.

My current favorite cream cheese frosting recipe comes from Thomas Keller's book Under Pressure - page 218. The proportions of the major ingredients include:

cream cheese: 100%, butter: 68%, sugar: 132%

Your recipe uses:

cream cheese: 100%, butter: 24%, sugar: 80% (using the maximum recommended amount).

It may be that you just need a lot more sugar (or more sugar and butter), or it may be that the cheese being sold in your part of the world is not the "cream cheese" we know of here in the USA.


Roasting large leg of wild boar I have a very large joint of wild boar that I'm intending to roast, but none of the recipes I can find have in mind the size of joint I'm about to cook and I'm very worried I'll undercook it.

I want to slow cook it in a (electric) oven; it's a leg joint of ~ 6.7 kg/14.8 lbs.

How long and at what temperature should I cook this?

I couldn't find a recipe I was comfortable online with as none of them seemed to be able to take into account a hunk of meat that size.

In the end I cooked it for 220 C for 30 mins and then 170 C for 6 1/2 hours, rebasting it every hour with the overflow juices and straining off the (copious amount of) excess fat so it didn't deep fry itself.

Result? Delicious


When making chicken soup, should I reuse the vegetables I used to make the broth? When making a chicken broth I'll chuck in some onion, carrots, celery, leeks, whatever I got lying around.

When I make the soup, I usually strain out all the bones and veggies in the broth and put in new vegetables along with the meat. Should I be transferring any of the veggies from the broth into the soup or putting in all fresh veggies?

It's definitely just a matter of preference. I'd expect the vegetables from the stock to be overcooked for my tastes, I like a little texture in my soup.


Why isn't my dough doubling? Today makes twice that I've tried to make brioche and twice I've failed. I have some suspects:

Kneading-I don't have a stand mixer and mixing everything by hand, and perhaps I'm not kneading well enough. ¿Would poor kneading prevent the dough from doubling?

Yeast-I've tried dry active yeast and instant yeast. I mixed the dry yeast with water. And the second time I made brioche I mixed the instant yeast with whole milk heated to 99 degrees F and then I let it sit for 20 minutes; this was 4.5g with 0.5 cups of warm milk.

Overall, I have a feeling it's the kneading. But I dunno.

From your comment that the dough does not rise at all, it is almost certain that your yeast is dead.

Poor kneading will not cause the dough not to rise.

I suggest proofing the instant/active dry yeast in lukewarm water to isolate as many variables as possible. You can even use room-temp water.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to the water, add the yeast, mix it well and wait for it to start to foam up. There will be no doubt about the foaming - it will foam up like thick root beer. If the foaming takes significantly longer than 10 minutes, then you will need new yeast because the stuff that you have is mostly dead.


How to make a passion fruit mousse without gelatin? I am Brazilian amateur cook.

I wonder if there is any original recipe to make passion fruit mousse. Every time I do it, consistency is too runny and slightly aerated. Maybe the consistency to stay firm with the use of gelatine, but avoid using because I don't like to do it.

Most recipes that date make use of:

heavy cream;
sweetened milk and
passion fruit juice or pulp.

At the same time all mixed in a mixer or in a blender. Apparently, using too much juice or passion fruit juice is what brings more acidity and taste the result, making the more liquid mousse. I don't know if the climatic condition here change something.

PS: Use whipped cream would make the consistency of mousse more aerated and firmer too? What could I do (without gelatine) to make the mousse as expected?

There are two things you can do to make the mousse stiffer:

Reduce the water from the fruit. So use some kind of concentrate instead of the pure fruit. For example, you could cook down a syrup or jam and add it to the mousse. Or see if dehydrating juice gets you somewhere.
Use more fat. Instead of whipping cream at 30 to 35% fat, you could use double-cream at 45%, or a mix of cream and mascarpone. Or fold whipped cream (for aeration) and some cooked down passion fruit into something even stiffer. Maybe base it off a whipped white chocolate ganache.


Wild Mustang champagne cocktail Does anyone know of a champagne cocktail with vodka and Grand Marnier called a Wild Mustang. We used to get it is Whistler but the bar has closed and we can't find the recipe online anywhere.

Looking online, I found this  menu from a Monk's Grill that appears to be in Vancouver. Under Champagne Cocktails it lists a Wild Mustand as having Skyy vodka and Grand Marnier. See below, copied from the menu:

  WILD MUSTANG splash of Skyy Vodka & Grand Marnier

Searching on end, however, I have not been able to find a recipe for the drink. Based on some other recipes I've found that are similar, here's a suggestion you might start with:

In a martini glass,

Pour 1 oz. Grand Marnier
Add a splash of your favorite vodka
Fill the remainder of the glass with well-chilled champagne or sparkling wine
Garnish with a slice of orange

Hopefully this will get you started and, as with all mixed drinks, you can refine to your taste.


Will this pan works with induction? I am thinking about buying two pots online. I looked at Amazon.ca but I have a hard time to know whether the pots I am looking at will work on induction. How can I know without being able to stick a magnet on it?

Consider this product for example. Do you think it is going to work on induction?

You can call the manufacturers and ask them if it is "INDUCTION READY" The packaging & the insert with specifications & instructions should say that. Youu can ask the customer service at Amazon too, may be they will have the answer. But I also located  an answer on the internet, which I am including the link: amazon.com/H36009-Stainless-Steel-Stockpot-16-Quart/forum/Fx7ZGB2U7J21S8/-/1?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B008RF6310


My bread is tasteless I'm in the middle of trying to tackle making baguettes without all the fancy equipment of a typical bakery.

I'm getting closer and closer to a perfect texture on the inside and out, but I have yet to tackle why they always seem to come out bland. Is it the water I'm using or do these things just need a little butter?

Sample recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/baguettes-recipe

Expert recipe: http://www.chewswise.com/chews/baguette-traditional-fromartz-recipe.html

You do not need the fancy equipment of a typical bakery.  It helps, but it is not necessary.

What will likely take your bread over the top is some sort of pre-ferment, which I see you've already found in your recipes, but I have a slightly different suggestion than those recipes provide.  The simplest way to do this is to make a small amount (perhaps 1/3) of your dough one night in advance.  Let it rise once, then retard further proofing in your refrigerator overnight.  Before making your full dough, remove it from the fridge and let it warm to room temperature for about an hour.  Cut into several pieces.  Add to your dough when you add the liquid.  The pre-ferment gives your dough something similar to what a bakery with a 9 hour full cycle for making a baguette would have.  Your dough should go through an additional proofing plus rising time after shaped.  When shaping your dough, be careful to degas it as little as possible.

For a good texture, bake your baguettes on a pizza stone with plenty of corn meal underneath.  Pre-heat a thick, ovensafe metal pan with your stone.  When you put the bread in, put a cup of boiling water in that pan to add steam.  This will help create a great crusty bread crust and oven spring in your dough.  I have found that the same baguettes with oven spring taste 100% better than those without - something about that key activity during the first minutes of baking really brings the tastes over the top.

More information on amazing bread can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice or, for whole grains, Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads.


How best to toast/brown marzipan? The recipe/picture that I'm following calls for cutting out Christmas stars from marzipan and for the stars to be browned somewhat (does look nice).

Last time I did this, the stars deformed quite a lot and lost the sharpness of their points, as the marzipan melted and softened.

So, for something prone to melting like marzipan is it best to toast quickly / high heat or  more gradually? Any ideas?

I'm just grilling them under heat.

Either use a blow torch or a very hot grill. Either way be very careful as it can burn extremely easily. I've only ever done it with balls of marzipan (on top of a simnel cake), so haven't had deformation issues, but I would suggest blowtorching the marzipan in the cutter, then letting it cool to prevent the points softening.


I had ripe bananas so I peeled them, put them in Rubbermaid cont and in the fridge. Are they still ok to use? They are darkish in color but not black. Still ok for bread?

The fridge is  the best method to store ripe bananas, and should be fine for 5 to 7 days. Refrigeration will make the skin of the banana black, but the flesh will remain unharmed.


How to recook a roast? I bought a chunk of vacuum packed beef from the discounter. The label said "roast meat", and didn't indicate which cut of beef it was. It was lean meat (4% fat), but that's normal in Europe.

I roasted the meat with some glaze, at 175°C, until the probe showed 63°C. Then I seared the crust on a 320°C iron pan. It turned out somewhat rare (I suspect the probe isn't good enough), but still looked like a perfectly good roast. But when I started eating, I discovered that the meat has enough connective tissue to be practically unchewable in this state.

Now I want to recook the meat and eat it. My first idea was to make goulash, in chat I got the advice to make a stew. The point is, while I know that theoretically it should work, I've never recooked meat, and I don't know if there are some details I'm overlooking. Also, is there a special kind of stew particularly well suited to my case?

Is there something special about making a stew or a goulash with precooked meat, different from using raw meat? Am I forgetting something here? How long should I cook the meat? (Assume that I start measuring after the center of the meat pieces - whatever size - has reached 68°C). I have roughly 20% to 25% connective tissue, the thickest fascia are maybe 3 mm. The meat is already roasted, seared, rested and cooled (and will be refrigerated when I start recooking).

You don't have to explain the food safety implications, I am aware of them. Just assume that in this case, I am willing to take the risk of eating the recooked meat.

Edit I am not all that interested in recipe suggestions, I guess a common stew will do. What I want is to know how the usual technique of slow cooking changes when the meat is precooked, and if somebody has already done this and can confirm that it works. By the way, the meat is now cut in chunks and marinating in the fridge.

Stewing tough or thoroughly connective-tissued meats is, by design, something you do for a long time at pretty decent temperatures. Since your meat has already been cooked once, if anything you are going to be cooking it slightly less than what is described in whatever stew you decide on. Your food safety concern is admirable, but as long as you observe good food handling safety and cook the meat thoroughly, you should be good to go.

I will reiterate the chat's suggestion for a stew as a good one. However, a stroganoff (which is an American version of an Eastern European dish, I believe) would also be a good option. Basically any beef dish where the beef is diced up evenly in size and stewed in a sauce for a long while will work in helping you to use up this meat.


Acceptable to cut steak before searing? I have a rather dumb issue; I have some cuts of steak that are too large for my cast iron, and if I tried to cook them, the ends would be lifted into the air which I assume is not preferable (although I am no expert). Is it fine to cut the steak when it is raw or will it do something terrible to it?

I am of the mindset that it is just cutting the raw beef, so no juices or anything will run out like cutting a steak before letting it rest, but again, I'm no expert!

Why would it not be acceptable to cut raw meat? It was already cut from another larger piece of meat that was cut from a whole animal. Nothing terrible will happen. A steak is not a bag of juices, nothing significant will leak off of it.

It's indeed better to cut in a smaller piece that fits your pan, the whole steak should touch the bottom of the pan otherwise you might have uneven cooking  / raw ends.


Why do industrial drinks mark caffeine as a flavoring? The ingredients list is sometimes written "Flavors: ... Caffeine" (Arômes: ... Caféine) on official Coca-Cola cans and home-brand cola bottles here in France.

Why is caffeine marked as an aroma rather than an ingredient? It makes it sound like there is a caffeine substitute rather than the real thing.

It could be because food ingredients are supposed to be listed in the order of their "amount":

Here's the definition from FDA:

  The ingredient list on a food label is the listing of each ingredient in descending order of predominance.
  FDA Food Labelling Guide

Periodic videos channel on YouTube showed how 6-cups of coffee leads to only 100mg of caffeine. So the amount of caffeine is insignificant by weight when compared to other ingredients (milligrams vs grams). It would likely fall below the reportable requirements if caffeine did not have the effect it does.

For example, according to FDA "Average of 1 or more rodent hairs per 10 grams" is "OK" for ground allspice.

So it would make sense to still list it, but under the other category of aroma/flavour.

In Addition, as noted by @Sneftel in the comments, caffeine does have a very bitter flavour and adding "bitters" is obviously considered flavouring.

Interestingly, and to your point, some pain medications do contain caffeine and it's surely not listed as a flavouring or aroma on those labels.


English name for cut of meat (Cacho de Paleta) I was given a cut of meat that I am unfamiliar with. I was told the Spanish name is Cacho de Paleta. I'm not sure how to prepare it, and was hoping to find some recipes and preparation tips online. To do that, I was hoping someone could tell me the English name for this cut of meat, so that I can search for it online.

The cut appears to come from the upper leg of the cow (the shank, perhaps?). You can see a picture and a diagram of the section of the cow it comes from here.

What is the English name for this cut?

Cacho de paleta means "hunk of blade" as far as I can tell, however blade comes from the shoulder and that doesn't look the right shape for a shoulder cut. It looks more like leg to me, in the US that would be called shank and in the UK it would be shin if the front leg and leg if it's from the back leg.

Whether it's shoulder or leg meat preparation is similar as both are working cuts with lots of collagen. Roasting is out - you won't get the collagen breaking down and the lack of fat will mean a tough, dry result. Use a long, slow and wet method like stewing or better yet braising. Put it in the oven at 120C for 4 hours with a cup of water and a cup of red wine in a covered pot as a basic preparation method.


Drying store bought bread for stuffing I am drying a loaf of sourdough on my counter. There is a lot of it, so I will need to store some of the dried cubes. My question is, how do I store it and how will I know if it is no longer good to cook with? Also, is it better to just put it in the oven to dry it rather than on the counter?

There are two types of bread for stuffing.  If you're aiming for the dry type, a very low oven would be better.

If you have room in your freezer, that would be a good place to store the bread you're planning to use later to make stuffing.


Tomato Soup substitute in cake Can I substitute Carrot Juice for Tomato Soup, in 'Tomato Soup cake'? Do I need to adjust the recipe in other ways?

Tomato soup is thicker and richer than carrot juice. Using carrot juice will change the moisture content of the cake, and it will not rise or bake properly.


Fighting flash rust on cast iron pans I completely stripped the seasoning off of two pans with the intention to start the seasoning process over from scratch. One pan I had messed up the seasoning (skillet) and the other (sauce bowl) was on clearance because part of the seasoning was scratched and was an "easy" fix.

I used the oven cleaner method and finally got everything down to the bare metal. I went to wash everything off and did a vinegar rinse to neutralize the oven cleaner and rinsed everything in cold water.

Initially, I tried drying the pans in the oven before applying any Crisco to start the seasoning process, but the flash rust got to the pans first. I started completely over again from square one repeating the oven cleaner method. I had read that you can do a quick dry and apply your oil pretty much immediately then place the pans in the oven to dry at a lower temperature. Tried that and began the seasoning process by wiping off any excess oil and baked the pans at 450 deg for about 1 hr. After the pans had cooled, they came out looking brown, almost like flash rust stuck through the seasoning process as opposed to the beautiful iconic black everyone thinks of.

My question is - did I miss anything or do something wrong in this process? I had watched so many videos and read so many blogs and I thought I had followed along pretty well yet my results didn't match anyone else's.

The brown stuff is presumably polymerized oil, AKA "seasoning". At sufficient thickness, it appears black (but blackness is unnecessary for it to be effective as a surface treatment). I don't see any sign of rust in those pictures.


Chocolate covered cookies stuck to cooling rack I have some glazed chocolate cookies that I accidentally put on a cooling rack to let the chocolate glaze cool off, but now the chocolate glaze is completely stuck to the cooling rack. Any ideas on how to get the cookies off the rack without destroying them?

Turn the rack upside down, suspend it so that there is about a quarter inch between the cookie and the surface it will fall onto when it detaches from the rack, then heat the chocolate underside of the cookie (which is now the top that you can see because the rack is upside down) with a hairdryer/low temp heat gun so that it melts enough for the rack metal to move through the chocolate and for the cookie to fall/push off the rack


Will flavors marry in compound butter if given sufficient time to rest? Edit: I plan to actually do a blind taste test to put this question to bed and satisfy my curiosity. If anybody wants to beat me to it, please feel free.

If you make a salsa (for example) and store it in the fridge the flavors will marry over time.

Is the same true of compound butter? My hypothesis is that a compound butter that includes multiple flavoring agents (perhaps two different herbs) will taste essentially the same right after it has been compounded as it will after an overnight banishment to the refrigerator.

My initial reaction is that the magic that is helping salsa ingredients mingle is water (a solvent extraordinaire & excellently thin transport medium). Will butter insulate this wonderful exchange?

This Alton Brown recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/compound-butter-recipe/index.html) suggests chilling for two hours before serving. He's one smart cookie, so I tend to follow his lead, but is it worth waiting?

Image from another recipe here: http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2009/03/27/fresh-herb-compound-butter/

If you leave the butter uncovered in the fridge, it will eventually pick up the tastes from everything else in the fridge.  This really is why there is a special compartment for it.  The compound butter has to do less work to infuse.

Our chef school teacher said they made their compound butter ~2-days ahead of the event so the flavours would infuse properly.  The piece of butter I tried had no strawberries in it, but it sure smelled and carried the taste of strawberry.

I've even done the lazy-man's compound butter by rolling the butter stick in Thyme and stick it in the fridge.


How do the batter and technique differ between crepes and pancakes? What are the different ingredients in crepe mix versus pancake mix?

I'd like to try my hand at making crepes from scratch...

How is making crepes different from making pancakes?

Crepes do not contain baking powder or baking soda for leavening.  They also typically use melted butter vs. oil in pancakes and have a higher liquid to flour ratio.  Basic crepes contain only eggs, milk, water, a pinch of salt and flour.

You can however make them more sweet or savory by adding chopped herbs or a bit of sugar (not too much or you'll have too much browning), cocoa powder, spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc.

For additional help & recipe for Black Forest Cherry Crepes:  Tips for Successful Crepes


Why do flames shoot up from restaurant pans? If you watch video of a restaurant kitchen you always see, sooner or later, a spout of flame from one of the pans on the stove. That doesn't happen when I cook at home, and on the rare occasions when I eat in a restaurant with an open kitchen I don't see it there either. So what's going on? I'd think the cooks are using brandy or something, but it seems to happen too often for that explanation. Is it some kind of optical illusion, like when cars on TV look like their wheels are turning backward?

There's no optical illusion, what you are seeing is real flame shooting up. In a kitchen flare-ups have 2 common sources - alcohol and fat. Alcohol in concentrations 50% and above is flammable when cold, you add some brandy, vodka, etc and away you go. When heated 40% alcohol will burn in the pan, anything above 40% can be used for flambes.

Fats (ie lipids as in oil or fat from animal of vegetable sources) can also burn when very hot and exposed to an open flame as anyone who barbecues will know all too well. Fat flares can happen in any kitchen in the right conditions (even at home), say when something is being vigorously stirred and a bit of hot fat splashes down the side of a pan and ignites, trailing back to the pan itself and giving a quick burst of flame.

As for how often it happens it really depends on what is being cooked, the equipment and method used. If there's a lot of steak action happening then some flames are pretty normal, if they're making vegetable stew ... not so much. It could be a bunch of chefs being showy for the camera, or just going about their normal business, it's very hard to say.


What is the difference between sautéing and stir frying? I put 1 tablespoon of oil in an iron Kadhai. Then after it gets a bit heated, I put a chopped onion in it, and start moving it with spatula so that it doesn't get burnt and gets cooked evenly.

So, what am I doing, stir frying or Sautéing?

It mostly depends on the heat used. If you are cooking at a high enough heat that vegetables and thinly-sliced meats (if using) are cooked through in only a few minutes then it matches with the term generally used as "stir-frying". In this heat, if you stop stirring even for a moment, pretty much, the food at the hottest part of the pan (at the base, near the flame) will start to burn. It needs to be in motion constantly.

That's the stir part of the stir-fry -- constant motion up the curved sides where it is cooler and letting other parts of the food go to the bottom to the heat and around and around. A full dish of meat, veg, noodles, etc can be completely cooked start to finish in just about 5 minutes.

This recipe demonstrates stir-frying baby bok choy in 2 1/2 minutes of cooking time for the veg, this one for 2 minutes, and an outlier at 3-5 minutes.

Sautéing should also be at a fairly high heat and generally with less oil (although stir-frying doesn't use a lot of oil either, usually). The heat is lower than what is implied by stir-fry. With sautéing you are still generally keeping things moving, but it doesn't need to be quite as frantic. You can let things stop a moment, and it can help to let them start to brown and caramelize.

To demonstrate, this recipe for sautéed baby bok choy cooks them for 7 minutes, this one for 9-11 minutes, this one is another outlier cooking it for 4 minutes. The fastest of these is twice as slow as most of the the stir-fry or about the same as the slowest stir-fry. The slowest of these sauté recipes is nearly 3-5 times as slow as the stir-fry with fairly similar ingredients, especially similar to the slowest of the stir-fry recipes.

But to be fair, in my comment on the other post I was, strictly speaking, abusing the term sautéing by conflating it with even more moderate temperatures (which are more properly simply called "pan frying").

A kadai is a good implement to use for stir-frying, but a kadai can also be used for cooking at a slightly lower temperature. Simply using a kadai does not 100% determine the end result will be either a stir-fry or a sauté or a gentle fry, or even deep-frying. It's a versatile vessel. :-)


Fat content in chocolate chips Recently I got a bag of dark chocolate chips, 12oz (340g) for $3.95.

(15g per serving) It's total fat content is 4g, 2g of which being saturated. The bag does not state the cocoa content percentage.

(40g per serving) In comparison to another bag of chocolate chips of the same brand labelled as semi-sweet. It has 14g of total fat and 8g of which is saturated fat. However, this pack cost $6.20

My question is, does the fat content affect the 'meltability' of the chocolate when used in chocolate chip cookies? I'm aiming for a cookie that is filled with gooey chocolate rather than firm chocolate chips around. Should I get the semi-sweet pack instead?

The second pack is a very slightly higher fat content, but as chocolate is cocoa solids+cocoa butter+sugar, we still can't be sure about the total cocoa content.

The melting point of cocoa butter isn't well defined, but two different dark chocolates will have a very similar melting point, so both will melt in baking, and solidify when the cookies cool.

The solidifying behaviour of chocolate is interesting in that it cools to around body temperature while still liquid, than solidifies rather slowly, which is why it can seem cool but still be gooey in freshly baked cookies.

In the end, if you bake the cookies then serve them almost straight away, both will still be molten. If you let them cool fully, both will eventually solidify. In between, you can probably make more difference by serving them on a warm plate, or leaving them to cool in a warm kitchen rather than a cool living room.  The more expensive ones may end up nicer overall (on texture or flavour), but unless you want to arrange a blind taste test, there's no obvious reason to pay the extra.


Are seeds in melons and other fruits good to eat? I usually throw away seeds in melons (and other fruits) and I paradoxically buy different seeds from the store. Are seeds in such things good to eat and where can I use them? Because they are not dry, how can I store for future dishes? Do they have the same nutritional profile as other seeds for sale?

In Northern India, we eat Musk Melon and Water Melon seeds. In fact they are used like nuts. We make sweet dish too.
The de-kernelling process is done by hand at home, which is quite lengthy.

We deseed melon. Put the seeds to dry for approximatively 2 days; with fingers or tweezers, break the kernel and get the yummy seed. Of course, it can be stored for months, if dried properly, and for years, if kept in freezer.


Thawing frozen turkey slices This is something I've planned on trying but haven't wanted to spend the $ for experimentation.

Buying sliced turkey for lunches at the deli is a tad pricey. At my local market I can get frozen turkey breast for a much better price per pound. But, the turkey breasts are 3+ pounds, and my household would use ~ 1# a week.

I figure I can just get a turkey breast, roast, make slices, and freeze a couple of batches for upcoming weeks. So, for the question. Do turkey slices thaw out ok in terms of texture and taste?

For short term freezing they should be just fine as far as texture and taste are concerned. Just make sure you avoid freezer burn by wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and then either aluminum foil or a freezer bag. If you store them more than a few months then they will start to degrade.


How do I tell if my cheese culture is still good? I made cream cheese in November and prepared some of my own starter culture from that batch to save money down the line when I wanted to make cheese again. Well, I haven't made cheese since then (now about 4 months later) and I don't know if my starter is still good.

I kept the starter in the freezer since November in ice cubes, and I kept my environment pretty sterile when I made it.

How can I test it to see if it's still good?

I think that your culture should be fine, given your storage method and sterility in handling. All you can really do is try making some cheese, and see how it turns out.


Is there a simple rule of thumb for time when pressure cooking? Pressure cooking reduces the time of cooking, but I want to know if there is a simple rule to follow. Let's say that I find a recipe that says that something should boil for one hour when boiling it the regular way, can I from this draw the conclusion that it is enough with (just picking a random number here) 20 minutes? Is the relation linear? Does it depend on what you're cooking?

As found on Chowhound:

  some "rule of thumb" are available but there are always exceptions!
  As usual things at high pressure cook three times faster -
  The thing is, that the rules aren't always cut and dry. Chickpeas, for example, cook 90% faster in the pressure cooker (13 minutes instead of 2-3 hours). Your chicken stock, only 30-45 minutes at high pressure!
  These "rules" should be a starting point for figuring out the cooking time.
  Your main resource should be your own cooker's manual. It should include a good list of cooking times as they relate to your pressure cooker. The online chart that smtucker linked to is culled from pressure cooker manufacturer instructions books. There are other, more reliable versions online that have been updated with first-hand experience.
  For example, the chart in the link lists asparagus thick and thin pressure cooking time as the same - actually, you should ONLY pressure cook thick asparagus lest your expensive purchase of thin asparagus turn into soggy mush - a reputable timing chart will make this distinction.
  the given link can help you alot...
  http://www.hippressurecooking.com/p/p...


Food industry: where does buttermilk go? I've recently home- made butter.
Starting from 500g of cream I've obtained, let's say, 250g of butter and 250g of buttermilk.

The fairly big amount of by-product/scrap, the buttermilk, due to:

half of the initial cream mass
the high cost of cream
(at least in Italy) it is a ingredient used in really few recipes

This, let me think on how dairy industry deals with it, because I do not see many uses of buttermilk so:

Does dairy industry produce buttermilk in that way?
Are there any other uses for buttermilk?
Is buttermilk converted into other food?

EDIT: First, mine it is a pure curiosity. I do not need to use buttermilk anywhere or in any recipe.
Second, here in Italy, buttermilk is a very rare product: I've never neither seen my mother or my grandmother using buttermilk in recipes for e.g. cakes nor listed as ingredient in industrial cakes or other desserts; furthermore, I've never used it as beverage. Even tough, Google returns some recipes with buttermilk.

If it's made from 'sweet cream', and not soured milk (it's easier to churn soured milk, so this was typical in the old days), then what's left is skim milk ... although there might be an extra buttery taste to it.

Some of it's used to make powdered milk; I don't know if any is actually resold as skim milk.  It's possible that cultures are added to make 'buttermilk'.  And you might think 'there'd be way too much milk powder left over vs. the amount of butter made' ... but it's used in protein powders for body builders and infant formula.

... and it can be used for animal feed.  (and it's safer than other milk by-products, as it won't cause as much indigestion as the whey left over from cheese making (salty), or drained from greek yogurt (acidic).

Update: I was basing my answer on something that I saw years ago (How It's Made, Unwrapped, some other similar TV show), and some knowledge of uses of powdered milk.  However, in doing some additional research:

Skim milk is separated off before the butter making process.  It's done by centrifuge, so the input to the butter making process is higher fat content (and lower moisture) than what a home butter-maker would be working with.
Protein powders are typically made from whey powder, not non-fat milk powder
Much powdered milk gets shipped to developing countries, as it's cheaper to ship and store.  (less weight and volume, and doesn't need refrigeration) ... but much of that is full-fat powdered milk
Non-fat milk powder is used in a lot of baker products and processed foods, as it can serve as a thickener, increases protein content, and promotes browning of baked goods.  (and it can be lower cost, due to reduced shipping and storage costs)  So when you see 'milk' on an ingredient list, it might actually be powdered milk.

So, there's probably not as much left over as we'd expect based solely on knowledge of home butter churning and the amount of butter production.  And I was off on where all of the non-fat powdered milk gets used.


Reducing the saltiness of commercially prepared seasoning I've been cooking a certain brand of noodles, and noticed that the seasoning provided is quite salty than you'd expect. Is there a way to reduced the saltiness without a noticeable change in flavor? And if it does change the flavor, please describe in what way it changes.

The only way to reduce saltiness is to dilute it. This will also dilute the flavour. You can, up to a point, mask excessive saltiness with quite a lot of sugar, but that won't work here. Don't believe anyone who tells you that putting a raw potato in whatever you're making will absorb extra salt; this is an old kitchen myth and has absolutely no basis in reality.


Building pressure chamber for fizzy fruit - PVC safety I'm building a pressure chamber with some basic brass plumbing parts and a cylinder of CO2. The goal here is to infuse fruit with CO2.
I'm aware of the various safety aspects to consider since the system is under pressure. I had intended to use PVC for the chamber along with PVC cement to bond the plastic pieces. The setup is that the fruit would be placed inside the chamber in a food safe bowl, and CO2 would be injected into the chamber at around 45-60 psi. For reference, a soda bottle at room temperature is ~60psi.
PVC has a smell to it, and I was wondering if there are any food safety issues in using PVC in this way?

I would advise against your approach, as you are potentially building something that could explode and seriously injure someone.  If you have an ISI (or other brand) whipper, you can do this safely.  Alternatively, you can use dry ice and a Styrofoam cooler for the same effect.


Why do people bury chili underground? I remember watching a chili cookoff and saw a few contestants burying the pot of chili into the ground.  What's the reason for this?  Is there a way to replicate the effect in the kitchen without requiring a 2x2 ft pit in the ground?

EDIT: To answer the comment below, I believe some had charcoal they buried it with, while others just flat out buried it into the ground covered by dirt. Not everyone did this, just some of the contestants.

Typically, dutch ovens and other heavy, especially cast iron pots would be buried to allow a slow dissipation of the heat.  This will allow the contents to continue to cook at a very low and slow pace, usually to allow the release and melding of more flavor.  In the case of chili for instance, this could allow more of a dried chili essence to reconstitute and become more uniform throughout the pot.  The insulation of the ground will slow the cooling and allow this process to extend much longer than air would.  Additionally, packing soil around the pot would tend to act as a barrier to hold in more of the aromatics than in air, combined with the slower cooling to again allow more absorption and a more even distribution for a more mellow taste to the dish.

Especially pots such as dutch ovens, this process is often done without additional heat, or in ground warmed by a fire, or with added coals or hot rocks depending on how long you want this process to continue and if you want more actual cooking to occur.

Fully duplicating this process inside would be difficult, but a somewhat close approximation would be to heat up an oven.  Put in your covered pot, preferably tightly covered.  Close the oven then turn it off or down to a very low setting, and keep it closed for a few hours and you should get much of the same effect.  I would call this process marrying or melding the flavor rather than saving it.


Are dark walnuts ok to eat? I bought a bag of walnuts from the local farmers market (in NZ), but some of them are dark colored on the outside and almost black inside. Is this normal and are they ok to eat?

Also noticed some of them are slightly open.

I'm not sure what causes it and what food safety issues may be involved but I used to have a walnut tree and got a few from time to time that looked like that. I had a small taste once and they were really bad, not worth keeping. I'd put it down to some sort of rot and  I live in Tasmania with a relatively similar climate.
Looking for a reference on common causes the best I've been able to find is from "Diseases of Temperate Zone Tree Fruit and Nut Crops" by Joseph M. Ogawa and Harley English that has a section on kernel mold of the English Walnut, which I'm guessing is the most common variety in New Zealand. This is from a Google book preview that I can't copy / paste so I'm skipping over some parts probably not relevant using an ellipsis:

Under certain conditions several fungi are able to penetrate the walnut shell and cause cause a moldy condition of the kernel. This disorder varies from year to year depending on environmental factors. The invading fungi commonly coat the kernels (...) and also may form masses of greenish blue or grayish-black spores. (...)
The weakly pathogenic fungi that cause kernal mold belong to genera such as Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria, and Rhizopus. These organisms may invade the nuts as early as midsummer if the hulls (husks) have been damaged by sunburn, drought or husk fly.

The book is available for limited preview / purchase for anyone further interested in the topic, but I think the short answer is they'll taste nasty (regardless of any safety issues) so probably best disposed of and maybe complain to the supplier if you got too many in that state and ask for their comment.


How much do I reduce the sugar when using a sweeter fruit in a pie filling? I've got a surplus of Bing cherries at the moment, since they're in season and therefore on sale everywhere.

I have a handful of made-from-scratch cherry pie filling, but most call for tart cherries (and a relatively large amount of sugar, 1/2 to 1 cup, about twice what I put in a typical blueberry filling). How much should I reduce the sugar to allow for using a sweeter variety of cherries?

It's mostly a matter of taste. In theory you could leave the sugar out completely, it's not needed to "bulk up" the filling, but that would probably not match our expectation of "pie filling". Your own question mentiones blueberries, which have about the same degree of sweetness as Bing cherries. I would start with the amount from your blueberry pie recipe.

Apart from that, consider adding a tart/acidic flavour aspect because it nicely complements the sweetness and intensifies flavour. (Probably one of the reasons many recipes use tart cherries.) A dash of lemon juice or, if you have it, some fresh red currants (also in season right now).


Is hummus a condiment Is hummus a condiment? What makes a condiment a condiment? What makes something not a condiment? What makes something a condiment vs a sauce/seasoning/spread/ingredient?

Interesting question.  While I realize that dictionaries are descriptive, they're what we have to go by for common usage, so let's consult three:

Wikipedia: A condiment is a spice, sauce, or preparation that is added to food to impart a particular flavor, to enhance its flavor,1 or in some cultures, to complement the dish. The term originally described pickled or preserved foods, but has shifted meaning over time.
Merriam-Webster: something used to enhance the flavor of food; especially : a pungent seasoning
Cambridge: a substance, such as salt, that you add to food to improve its taste

Given that Hummus is usually treated as a food in itself, rather than as a spice or sauce to enhance another food, one could argue that it's not a condiment.  However, it's not uncommon for veggie burger purveyors to top a sandwich with hummus, which would, in usage, make it a condiment.  Certainly tahini sauce would be a condiment.

So, my answer: It Depends.


Can ruined whipped cream be rescued? If you whip mayonnaise too long and ruin it, you can restart with a new yolk and reuse the ruined mayonnaise.

Is there a similar way to rescue whipped cream that has been whipped too long?

I don't think so. In the mayonnaise case, all that has happened is the fat has come out of emulsion and gathered together again, so you can re-emulsify it. In the whipped cream case, you've started to create large fat crystals (butter). I guess technically it might work to heat it up to melt the butter, re-emulsify it into cream and then beat it again, but I don't think it would be worth the effort. You could go ahead and finish churning it into butter and buttermilk if you want to avoid wasting the cream.


Roasting smaller, thinly skinned peppers - removing peel I roast red bell peppers all the time. I use a number of methods, but most typically I slice them in half longitudinally, roast at 450F cut side down on a foil lined sheet tray treated with non-stick spray until they are thoroughly blackened and blistered. Straight out of the oven I put them in a sealed Tupperware type container (to steam) until they are cool enough to handle, then the blackened skins come right off. Easy, and I love the results.

I'd love to do the same kind of thing with smaller, sometimes hotter peppers (jalapeno, serrano, poblano and even habanero), but my attempts have always failed. The outermost skin doesn't blister away from the "meat" of the pepper the way it does for bell peppers, and by the time the skins are blackened, the meat of the pepper is mush.

The biggest problem seems to be that the bell pepper has a thick, meaty, juicy (ready to generate steam) wall, while the other peppers do not. I can get that roasted caramelization effect easily with any pepper, but I'd like to eliminate most of the peel while maintaining some of the structure of the pepper. Does anyone know of a way to pull this off? (so to speak)

I've been slacking! Here are my (very overdue) experiment results.

The blowtorch worked like a charm for almost all of the smaller peppers. I skewered the peppers, charred the skins with the blowtorch, just holding the pepper by the skewer, then put them in a tupperware container to steam. After which, they peeled beautifully.

Before and after peeling.

These are all roasted and peeled. Can you believe how colorful they still are?

The one pepper variety that gave me trouble with this method was the habanero. The surface is so wrinkled and the walls of the pepper are so thin, that the steaming didn't make them easy to peel. So I plumped them with salt water before charring using a needle and syringe. That worked!

The pepper on the right was plumped before charring. Like the rest of the peppers, it maintained it's meatiness that way.

Thanks Guys!


Reusage of deep frying oil and flour coated vegetables I deep fry different mashed vegetables for various recipes. (For example, Indian Malai Kofta).
When I do so, I usually coat the vegetables in flour or corn flour, to prevent them from breaking in the oil. The problem is that afterwards the oil becomes tainted with the left over flour, changing the color of the oil, smell, and probably smoking point.

Is there any workaround to prevent this from happening? And is the oil still reusable if I use it within a few days?

Cool oil.  Filter through coffee filter.  Store in refrigerator.  You can reuse.  Heat oil to deep fry temp.  Fry a neutral piece of bread.  Taste.  You can reuse your oil as long as it doesn't impart an off taste to the bread.  My guess is that, in a stove top situation, you won't get more than one or two uses before the oil is degraded too much for frying.


What are the differences between a Dutch oven and ceramic casserole? I've been looking for information about the difference between cast iron Dutch ovens and ceramic casseroles.

I use my Dutch oven for baking bread and would like to know if ceramic will have the same effect on the crust.

Aside from the fact that cast iron and ceramic require different care, I have found little information about the relative properties of the materials.

I imagine that cast iron is a conductor and ceramic is an insulator potentially leading to different effects during cooking. However, both have been traditionally used for slow roasting and baking.

Is there any difference and if there is, what is it?

First, fully generically:

The main distinction made by The New Food Lover's Companion (Fourth edition, 2007) is that a "casserole dish",

  can be glass, metal, ceramic, or any other heatproof material,

while a Dutch oven is

  usually made of cast iron.

Another distinction is that the Dutch oven may be a kettle, which typically implies the presence of an overarching handle from which the entire pot may be hung (as over a fire), while no such option is offered up for their definition of a casserole.

This is generally confirmed by the fact that while, yes, both we and the marketplace (sellers) seem often to use the terms casserole and Dutch oven interchangeably, whenever the vessel is equipped with an overarching handle retailers seem to avoid referring to it as a casserole. More specifically, when you turn to high end concerns in service to restauranteurs, such as here, there's no confusion on the matter. Casseroles invariably lack overarching handles and, unlike Dutch ovens, may come in quite small sizes and don't necessarily require lids. So while Dutch ovens may or may not have overarching handles, they invariably have lids and are invariably substantial in size. The compiled side-by-side photos below, as extracted from WebstaurantStore, goes to show just how severe the contrast can be between the two items.

Second, to the question of browning:

Here are a couple of examples which seem to speak for themselves, as far as how well ceramics or ceramic coatings can be expected to perform when baking breads.

Williams & Sonoma offers a Cast-Iron Loaf Pan (photo below) about which it says,

  The specially formulated black matte interior enamel contains traces of quartz, giving it additional heat resistance and a rougher surface resulting in better browning.

Williams & Sonoma also offers a Bread Cloche (photo below), for which it makes the following claim,

  Duplicating the benefits of baking in a brick oven, the ceramic bread cloche turns out individual loaves with tender, moist interiors and crispy, evenly golden crusts.

I'm sure there exist any number of additional examples of bakeware, each of which possesses similar properties to these. (The links provide a good deal more information.) I hope this however is enough to help you take the plunge, so to speak, toward this option if that's what you're interested in doing.


Do I roast leg of lamb differently when shank is still attached? I am going to avoid using the terms american or frenched because I don't fully understand what they mean.

But I am going to be roasting a full leg of lamb, including the shank.  Most of the recipies I am looking at don't really make any distinction, they just say leg of lamb.  In general, do I need to prepare anything differently when I am roasting a full leg of lamb vs just the upper part of the leg?

Lamb shank (lower leg) is best served by long, slow cooking.  (It is my favorite cut of lamb.)  The upper leg is, in my opinion, best roasted until just pink, although it does not suffer unduly from longer and slower cooking than does, e.g., its beef counterpart.  BBC Food, e.g., has a couple of brief discussions on shank and leg.

The trick with cooking both together is to marry the times and temperatures so that both are at their best.  My suggestion (I have not tried this) would be long and slow braising with both, then, when the shank completes, remove the shank and liquid and finish off the leg at a higher than normal roasting temperature to give it a nice surface.  I don't think it will quite the pinkness I like, but it should still be a tasty meal.


Is it possible to make soymilk without a "beany" taste? I've made soymilk several times using dried beans. I've done it using a pot of boiling water to cook the pre-soaked beans, blending in a blender, and straining. I also have a SoyaJoy soymilk maker. No matter what I've tried, I always wind up with a "beany" taste, certainly like nothing you get at the grocery store which always tastes so delicious. I honestly don't know how they make soymilk taste so unlike soybeans! I've tried blending with oats, adding sweetener (which I don't like doing), etc. Does anybody know if it's possible to make home-made soymilk taste like store-bought?

The beany flavor is destroyed by heat. Some recipes do call for boiling the beans before grinding as you said.

Most recipes that I have seen call for boiling the milk for a while after it has been strained. I find this more convenient as the milk is strained and pressed cold and then heated.

If your milk is still excessively beany then you may not be boiling it long enough to break down those indigestible compounds.

As for making it like commercial- most commercial soy milks contain a lot of extra ingredients to enhance the flavor and texture. Vanilla and sometimes sugar are added as well as calcium carbonate for creaminess, preservatives, etc. You can experiment with these if you would like but I found that I developed a taste for the flavor of fresh soy milk. It seems crisper and more naturally sweet to me than store bought.


What size were Baker's Chocolate bars when they were first introduced? I have a recipe from my grandmother that calls for a bar of Baker's Chocolate.
What size (weight) were these bars made by Baker's Chocolates when they were first introduced?

Bakers Chocolate Bars prior to mid 2013 were 8 ounce bars, after mid 2013 they became a 4 ounce bar.


Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk? Is condensed milk the same as sweetened condensed milk?

I have a fudge recipe that calls for condensed milk and I can not find strictly condensed milk, only sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk.

Just to add to Marti's answer: If the recipe was written in the US within the past 30-40 (maybe more) years, "condensed" almost certainly means sweetened condensed. Sweetened is just assumed if the milk is described as "condensed". At least in the US, unsweetened condensed milk is never called "condensed", it is called "evaporated".

To boost my confidence in this answer before I posted it, I searched Amazon for "Condensed Milk". In 22 pages of results, I was not able to find a SINGLE product described as "condensed milk" that was unsweetened. I did however find several that used "condensed milk" without the word sweetened in the name of the product page, but without fail, these ALL turned out to be sweetened.

If the recipe is old or if its origins are outside of the US, I can't be absolutely positive what the author intended, but I have never seen "unsweetened condensed milk".


What are the positive effects of adding celery to a sauce? Many sauces include celery. It's not a flavour I'm particularly keen on, particularly in sauces so I'm wondering why it's included. Is it included simply as a flavour or does it serve some other purpose?

Celery is an aromatic, and 1/3 of a mirepoix. It's used for the base flavor of a lot of French and Cajun/Creole cuisine. It doesn't serve any important chemical role that I'm aware of, so you can omit or substitute it if you really don't like the flavor.


What is Heel of Round? The Us cuts of beef are very different from the cuts of beef in my country (the Netherlands). In the famous book "The French Menu cookbook" Richard Olney talks about the Heel of Round and the Bottom Round. Could anyone explain those sub-primal cuts or maybe say how you can translate those cuts to British cuts or French cuts of beef ? Olney uses these cuts of beef for preparing pot-au-feu ....

The Beef Heel of Round represents a cut from the beef round immediately above the hock. This roast is composed of many small muscle groups, has a lot of seam fat, and is one of the least tender cuts of beef.

Braising for long periods of time works best for that cut.

Bottom round is rump roast and the top part furthest away from the hock.

Source: https://animalscience.unl.edu/beef-meat-identification


How much to cook fennel? I would like to prepare a dish with fennel (foeniculum vulgare) as it has blossomed recently. Should I cultivate the leaves, fruits and afterwards the bulb or should I leave the bulb since it is a perennial. Further, how am I to cook and include these or can they be eaten raw?

They can be eaten both raw and cooked. When preparing raw cut, trim and clean then place in ice water to preserve crispness. Serve immediately after taking out of water. Raw Fennel has a much stronger anise flavor.
My personal favorite is to slice bulb, stems and leaves appx 1cm thick and sautee in olive oil until translucent. It will still be quite crunchy so adjust thickness according to taste. I occasionally add garlic. The anise flavor is much more mild


Does package yeast inhibit wild fermentation? I baked my first “sourdough” boules today and there was zero detectable sour or tartness.

After about day four of zero activity in my baby starter I added a packet of packaged yeast I bloomed bloomed with a tiny bit of honey.

Ever since then it has been happy and healthy. I made my levain on day 7.

I’m concerned that the package yeast has beat out any wild fermentation that could have been happening and now I will never get any sourness from the starter. Is that true?

Should I start over and be more patient or keep feeding my current starter and hope deeper flavors will develop over time?

I’ve been feeding twice a day with 90 degree F filtered water. My house is cold but it’s in the warmest room and it has some towels for insulation.

Pic of my first attempt for funsies

If started from packaged yeast, over time, your local wild strains will probably take over.  The same is true if you start with a starter from someone else or the dried sourdough starter packages.  But, it takes longer even than starting from scratch more than likely for them to slowly replace the current strains.

I would suggest following the link Spagirl gave and some others you can get here and starting again from scratch.  Maybe use what you have in the mean time to help stave off the impatience (which I share ;) )

Mine, I was very impatient, so I found that adding some whole rye flour gave the starter a huge boost and got it going much quicker.  The theory at least is the bran had a lot of wild yeasts in it and reduced how much the starter had to capture.  The somewhat downside was they were not really my local ones, but local will slowly replace those and take over as you starter matures.  Long ago though, I made a start as you did, by adding commercial yeast.  For months, I was disappointed by the lack of sourness but just before I gave up it turned the corner and the wild strains finally overpowered the domesticated little buggers, so it is possible.  I personally though would probably do the restart rather than waiting for that to happen.


Live Tomato Zucchini Lasagna - what does live mean? I was looking at the menu of Candle 79 - a vegan, organic restaurant in Manhattan.  One of the items on the menu is titled:

Live Tomato Zucchini Lasagna  - cashew cheese, marinated wild mushrooms, tomato sauce, basil, pine nut pesto.

What could the 'live' possibly imply?  What might it mean?

Since the restaurant is vegan, nothing is actually alive in the traditional sense...

I'm pretty sure the word "live" means that it's raw and uncooked. I found a recipe for Raw Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna that's very similar to the menu item you describe. It uses zucchini "noodles", cashew "ricotta", along with marinated mushrooms, and tomato sauce to make a raw and meatless "lasagna". The only apparent difference is that the recipe calls for spinach pesto instead of pine nut pesto.


Is it possible to create the flavour of a food by using the component chemicals? For example, if I were able to identify the flavour compounds of bacon or cabbage, could I take just those ingredients and create the flavour?

Is identifying the flavour compounds something that has been done extensively by food scientists?

I realise that food companies have been trying for a long time to create synthetic flavour, but they are presumably trying to do it cheaply for mass production.

It's a little hard to understand exactly what you're asking, but flavor and fragrance scientists have been at this for a long time, and yes, there are people who specialize in flavor research, using methods like "collecting headspace" (gathering flavor compounds) and analyzing those with techniques such as gas chromatography. They work to figure out what the "most relevant" compounds are in a particular food. Seasoned professionals are usually able to recognize and name specific flavor compounds by smell.

But with a few exceptions, most of those chemicals aren't super easy to just buy off of a shelf somewhere without consulting with IFF or a similar company. (You can buy artificial vanilla, for example, and methyl anthranilate, the dominant flavor from concord grapes used in artificial grape flavoring, as a bird repellant). So for most of us without labs for fermenting synbio vanilla, we will find it more cost effective to use the original ingredient.

Most foods have hundreds of distinct flavor compounds and fooling the tongue, and especially the nose, isn't super easy. But it can be done in some cases, sure. It's worth noting that a great portion of how we experience flavor comes from texture in addition to the flavor compounds, however. Even when you buy a flavored chip that is meant to taste like steak or mango salsa or whatever, you'll often find it a bit off, perhaps the food industry's equivalent of the "uncanny valley" problem, thanks to texture and context differences.


Are cardamom husks edible? I have a recipe for a South Indian "allspice" mixture that includes cardamom among other spices. One begins with whole spices, toasted, and in the end they are ground in a coffee or spice grinder.
Does one have to extract the black seeds within the pod and discard the husks before roasting and grinding? Or does one roast within the seedpod and grind the whole thing, husk and all?

The entire seed pod is edible. With a coffee grinder, you may not be able to reduce the husks to powder (that’s more of a job for a burr grinder), which may affect the mouth feel of the final dish slightly but should be fine. The cardamom taste comes from the seeds, so you can remove the husks if you want, but I wouldn’t bother.
If you do decide to remove the husks, the easiest approach is to squeeze each pod along its longest axis (so, trying to make it shorter). This will tear the sides of the pod and expose the seeds. For fresh cardamom they may be in the form of a slightly sticky cluster. Either push the seeds out with your fingers, or scrape them out with the tip of a knife.


For what culinary reason would a bread recipe choose skim milk? Skim milk is specified for the whole wheat bread recipe list included with my new bread maker. Is there a particular culinary reason to specify skim milk not skim milk/whole milk? The other ingredients are whole wheat flour, self-raising flour, salt, sugar and yeast.

Skim milk contains less fat than whole milk. Fats limit the formation of gluten in bread dough to some extent, leading to a tighter, 'softer' crumb. As the milk is apparently the only source of water in your recipe, the recipe authors could have tried to limit the amount of fat.

That said, there is also a good chance the reason for skim milk is health-related.


How can I tell which fruits etc. contain proteases? After my second attempt at making a ginger mousse with gelatin and finding that it fails, I've discovered that fresh ginger contains a protease. I knew that pineapple does, and that it complicates making pineapple jelly, but I didn't realise that ginger does too.

Is there an authoritatively sourced and fairly complete list of fruits etc. which require cooking when making jellies? (Note that I'm not asking for a bunch of answers consisting of a single fruit, and such answers will likely be downvoted). Or is there some quick and simple  way to tell whether a fruit contains proteases?

Enzymes which degrade proteins, called proteases, are found in many fruits. There is no simple test for it other than holding some in your mouth and seeing if it "eats" your flesh away after a few minutes

Commercial test are not practical or portable as they require maceration, heating, centrifuging and using florescent dye markers. Or just make some in gelatine and see what happens :-)

A quick list would be:

Fig - Ficin
Ginger - zingipain
Kiwi fruit - Actinidin
Papaya (Pawpaw) - Papain
Pineapple - Bromelain

Also to a lesser extent

Banana
Guava
Mango

It is in many other fruits, but at levels where they will not be a problem, of course at different levels depending on the specific fruit variety etc.


Pressure canning tomatoes without added acid I'd like to pressure can tomatoes without adding acid as recommended by the USDA (and outlined here). The reason being is, imo, the additional acid ruins the flavor.

My understanding of the official recommendation is that it specifically relates to food safety for water bath canning.  This is further supported by statements like this:

  High acid foods can be safely canned in a water bath canner. Low acid foods may need the addition of acids like lemon juice or vinegar to acidify them enough to be canned in a water bath canner.  Non acidic foods require the pressure canner.

There are many recipes for safely canning low acid foods using a pressure canner but despite the above statement and a large volume of research to support it, I've been unable to find a single authoritative recipe outlining a safe procedure for pressure canning tomatoes without acid. I did however find a plethora of other threads about this very topic with nothing conclusive and no strong consensus, e.g.:

https://www.chowhound.com/post/pressure-canning-tomatoes-acid-646654
https://www.pa2a.org/thread-pressure-canning-tomatoes-without-lemon-juice

How can I safely can tomatoes using a pressure cooker without adding any acid?  Can I simply follow the procedure for canning another low acid vegetable like carrots or green beans? Like 10 lbs pressure / 25 minutes? Or maybe err on the side of safety and increase time and/or pressure?

According to Putting Foods By, 25th ed. (1982), you can fill tomato jars with just hot boiled tomato juice rather than requiring additional acid, and then pressure-can them:

10lbs pressure / 40 minutes for skinned whole tomatoes
10lbs pressure / 15 minutes for sliced or diced tomatoes

... with some adjustments depending on jar size.

However, their extensive (11 large pages) section on tomatoes notes that whether or not acid should be added when pressure canning is controversial.


Can I add butter to yeast dough which has already risen? I used yeast,water,milk,egg,sugar and flour in my dough. I forgot to put the butter the recipe called for. My dough has risen already.

Can I add the butter after it has risen or can I make something out of what I got already?

No, you shouldn't be adding butter at this stage, it will take too much kneading and undo the rising.

Whatever it is you were baking, just go ahead and bake it this way. There are many breads which don't use any fat at all. The taste will be different than with butter, but it will still be a good bread.


Do I have to wait for frozen steak to defrost? If I have several frozen steaks I wish to cook (and eat) is there some easier way to do so than by just waiting for them to defrost?

You can cook steaks from frozen, it is just a matter of adjusting cooking times.

They will take longer to cook. But you have saved several hours in defrost time.

I take my frozen steaks and sear on both sides, then finish them off in the oven for about 16 mins depending on cut, or with a thicker cut for about 18 to 20 mins.

America's Test Kitchen has experimented with this idea and says that the steaks taste better cooked from frozen (see here on youtube).

I have to watch the temperature otherwise the steak might get a little tough, but I always preheat the oven. For me, 180 °C.


What type of flour should I feed my starter with? Different sites recommend different flours for the feeding of my established starter, so I suspect it depends on the purpose, but I can't find a definitive answer. Should I be using the  flour I plan to bake with next? Will mixing and matching make a difference? Do certain types produce more activity? Better flavor?

Once my starter was established (started with organic whole wheat flour) I've been feeding it with unbleached AP flour (King Arthur) and that's worked fine. I do this simply because it's the flour I buy in large quantities to stock my pantry, and so it's generally the cheapest flour I have on hand.

If you want to "switch over" to a different flour you can always scoop out a bit of starter a couple days before you bake, and feed it with the different flour. Start with a small amount so you don't have to throw any away; just double the volume with each feeding. I don't usually bother, though.


How can I make this curry given my list of ingredients? I'm trying to recreate a dish I had at Alinea a while ago. Their forum actually had a good start for this dish:

  The garnishes on the surface are
  Hawaiian volcanic salt, cucumber,
  garlic chips, fresh banana, young
  coconut, red onion, lime segments with
  zest, toasted cashews, and red chili
  pudding. The glass circle contains a
  basil seed-lime vinaigrette.

  We press the herbs in between two
  pieces of rice paper to form the
  centerpiece. Once the frame is
  assembled the server drapes the flag
  over the frame. We cure the pork belly
  with salt, sugar and aromatics. It is
  cooked sous vide until tender, seared
  and shredded. We make a curry sauce
  from coconut, ginger, mint,
  lemongrass, thai chilis, kaffir lime,
  cardamom, coriander, and lime juice.
  We mix the curry with the shredded
  pork belly to make the ragu spooned
  over tableside by the service staff.

My question is, given the list of ingredients for the coconut curry but no sense of how to make it, how should I go about preparing this curry? Should I just toss everything in a pot an simmer for a while? Should I toast the spices? Sautee the lemongrass?

I don't know if this is how it is done at Alinea, but considering that it is geared towards a modernist dish, not a traditional Thai curry, this is what I would do:

(1) Pound the lemongrass. Toast and then then grind the coriander. Bruise the kaffir lime leaf. Leave those to infuse in the lime juice for at least one hour and up to overnight.

(2) Remove the lemongrass and lime leaf. Combine the infused lime juice with all of the other ingredients, including the coconut milk without heating. Puree. Salt to taste. Strain very thoroughly. If needed, thicken slightly with xanthan gum or ultratex (as they don't require heating).

I suggest this because I know @gachatz's philosophy is to avoid diluting or muddying flavors, and I think this approach would keep them very fresh and distinct.


How long does beef stays good after turning of refrigerator? During this weekend I accidentally turned of my refrigerator connection before going out and It was like this for about 50 hours without the connection. I had raw beef in there in almost an airtight packet ,when I opened it today , it was still cold , but not frozen. Is it safe to eat this meat ?

Nobody can tell you that the beef is still safe, there are just too many variables. However, if you didn't open the refrigerator during the time it was off, and it looks and smells fine; I'd still eat it. However, I wouldn't serve it to anybody else without full disclosure. Obviously, the standard caveat of not serving it to pregnant women or anyone immunocompromised applies.

The safest route is always When in Doubt Throw it Out!


How to make more than one good cup of coffee with a moka pot? I have a moka pot

I'm really happy with the coffee from this.  However, after I've poured the first cup out, if I leave the heat on (however low), the coffee gets a metallic taste to it.  If I turn the heat off then it goes cold.

So, my questions are: is this kind of coffee maker only good for the first cup?  If not, how can I avoid either outcome?  Also, can anyone tell me why it gets this metallic taste to it?

America's Test Kitchen recently tested Moka Pots. In the video, they specifically say to pour all of the coffee immediately when it's done brewing. They don't mention a metallic taste, but they do say that not leaving the coffee in the pot is important for flavor, and that it was equally true for all of the models they tested. So for your purposes, I would recommend that you use a good small thermos or travel coffee mug, and pour your second cup into that immediately upon brewing.

For what it's worth (since I was looking at ATK equipment reviews anyway), this one won their top recommendation for travel mugs:


Why does my kamado ceramic grill fall out of it's stand when I open it? I just got a Large Big Green Egg with a nest. When I was at the store, they asked if I wanted one already put together, so I said yes. They gave me a nest that had a medium sitting in it.

Now, when I put my large in it, it fits fine; however, when I open it, if I push on it a little, it starts to slip out. It looks as if I don't save it, it will fall completely out.

The nest has little rubber protectors on each bar holding the egg. It appears that as it starts to slip, these protectors are slipping off, which very well may be what is causing this.

My question is, is it normal to have these rubber protectors on the 4 middle bars that hold the egg in place?  I'm not sure if the store maybe added these just because they had a medium egg sitting inside the nest which was a few inches too small (the bars did not touch it).

It seems that removing them might solve this issue; however, I by no means want to do this if it will scratch up the egg. Since it was already put together, I don't know if they were supposed to be there in normal use or not.

The nest for the Egg should fit snugly in the grill, and you should never get the sense that it is tipping or sliding when opening the lid. If this is the case, then either the nest was not properly assembled, or it is not the correct nest for your grill.

You should contact Big Green Egg corporate with your issue. It may behoove you to take pictures, and offer to e-mail them to the rep that is assigned to your issue. You should also mention the name of the distributor, as I am sure the manufacturer would want to know if their product and brand are being represented poorly.

That will probably bring resolution to your problem. You can also bring your issue to their online community: http://eggheadforum.com/