Why is my muslin (cheesecloth) sticking to my seitan? Why is my muslin (cheesecloth) sticking to my seitan? I've cooked it in broth for two hours (flipping once), and now I'm trying to remove the cheesecloth, but it's all stuck to the outer layer. Did I leave it too long? Is there anything that can be done to salvage the outer layer?

The cheese cloth is porous enough for the seitan to expand through during the cook process. Try a looser wrap with the cheesecloth. If you steam it in the cheesecloth it will absorb less liquid and not expand as much.
When this has happened, I have had limited success removing the cloth and preserving all of the outer layer. If the seitan is not too embedded, let it cool on a rack 5 minutes and then try to slowly peel off the cloth. More than 5 and it is a hardened mess.


how to use ktc pure coconut oil? I bought a bottle of ktc pure coconut oil but as far as I can tell, it is in solid form and not liquid as I sort of expected. How can I use it?

In case anyone has used it, is the oil going to cause the food to impart a coconut flavour?

This is the bottle I have at home:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31evWfwu6-L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Coconut oil is a saturated fat, which makes it solid at room temperature. Above room temperature, it behaves exactly like any other oil and has a very high smoke point. You don't need to treat it in any special way.

I personally just use a knife or spoon to dig a little bit out of the container.

Coconut oil is considered to have a neutral flavour (with the exception of some "virgin" coconut oils). It's much weaker than, say, olive oil. You'll most likely not be able to detect any coconut flavour from oil alone - you have to use something like creamed coconut (a common ingredient in satays) for that.

P.S. Although it might appear to be similar to butter or margarine, keep in mind that it is actually a cooking oil, unlike butter which has milk solids that burn, or margarine which is hydrogenated to make it solid. Coconut oil is just barely solid and won't always work as a substitute for those other things.


Citrus allergy, need substitute I’m allergic to lemons, limes, and all citrus fruit. what can I substitute in making my own jams/jellies, other items that seem to require the juice of a lemon?

If you are not allergic to citric acid you can use it as a substitute for lemon juice in canning.

Related  Can I use citric acid instead of lemon juice when canning?


Can state of chicken affect brine? I have been trying to brine chicken and it never seems to brine successfully.  I have followed the brine procedure correctly.  I added 2 litres of spring water to a stainless steel pot with 140g  kosher salt and stirred until completely dissolved. I then added the chicken(weighs 1kg) and left for 8 hours.  After cooking I always notice the brine hasn't reached some parts of the chicken, usually parts of the leg.  It also doesn't taste salty, plump or juicy.  I have varied salinity(up to 10%) and even left the brine from between 12-40 hours however the brining still varies and I never get a fully plump, juicy and salty chicken.

I am guessing the birds I am using are the problem, I have used birds from 3 different shops but they never brine properly.  I even got one from an organic shop but that didn't work properly either.  Any idea what the problem might be?  I know this sounds strange, It seems I am the only person in the world who is having this issue.

edit:
Jefromi, I am indeed boiling it.  I followed your previous advice however slow cooking does not absorb salt in the same way brining does, otherwise you would get plump, tasty and juicy meat(like brining) which you do not.

The reason I am not using dry heat methods is because I have a gastric health disorder and I cannot tolerate grilled, oven or fried foods.  These wreck havoc on my stomach.
My gastric disorder is so bad that I cannot absorb proteins unless they have absorbed a lot of salt(equal to brining).  This is why I am brining and converting the meat and brine liquid directly into a soup. This is also why simply salting the broth isn't sufficient, the meat needs to absorb salt to the level of brining otherwise it will wreck havoc on my stomach.

Jefromi, you say the problem is simmering, if so why would simmering cause salt to leave the meat cells especially if it is simmered in the original brine solution?  Why would some parts of the bird brine properly and not other parts as I am finding with simmering?

How do you 'notice' when the brine hasn't reached certain areas?

Its easy to see if the brine is working and you're possibly just overcooking - weigh the bird pre and post brine, before cooking.  If it weighs more, you've got the liquid.

A properly brined bird shouldn't taste like 'omg, thats salty!'.  I think two things are going on here:

Your expectations may be off.  Brining isn't magic.  It just gives you more liquid in the bird so that when you cook some out there's more at the end.  (It can enhance flavor if you add herbs & spices to the brine also).
You may just be overcooking the chicken.  If you overcook it enough, the brine will appear to have done nothing - you've just cooked out all the juiciness you put it.  Use a meat thermometer and make sure its 'just right'.

Brining definitely works though, and it shouldn't be overly bird specific.


What counters astringency? I've been attempting to make green smoothies lately as part of a health kick. The way I've been doing it is to use a normal smoothie recipe, but to add handfuls of spinach.

In general, the results haven't been bad, and certainly better than I expected, but I do find the spinach to add a bit of undesired astringency the smoothie.

Now I know that certain tastes can counteract the perceived effect of other tastes. For example, sweetness can counter sourness, or salt can counter bitterness.

I tried experimenting a bit with adding (separately) honey, lemon, and salt, but none of these seemed to make a difference in the astringent feeling the smoothie left in the mouth. What taste, if any, can counter astringency?

Many leafy and dark green vegetables have high tannic and dicarboxylic (including oxalic) acid levels. Though these are weak acids, they have a powerful astringent effect. Some of the main tricks to hiding and/or removing these are soaking in:

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C, lemon juice)
Fats
Food grade lime
Milk

So if your smoothy is milk based you will be extracting the maximum tannin from the spinach :-)

A pre-soak in a small quantity of milk and then discarding that milk, or a pre-soak in lemon juice and then a quick fresh water rinse are probably the simplest "fixes" of the spinach's astringent effect


Fish always giving bitter/unpleasent taste/smell When I make fish in a soup(no ingredients, just water, salt and fish) I notice the soup water tastes bitter/unpleasent and I stop eating it.  This can happen with any fish - it's the same taste and smell.

Sometimes when I cook whitebait from from frozen(which was apparently frozen at sea) that too can get this nasty smell.  I've recently been buying line caught mackeral which isnt old and it doesnt usually have the same problem(above smell and taste doesn't occur), note I usually eat it within 2-3 days.  However the other day on the second day I boiled the mackerel for a while and the same stink and taste happened.  I imagine the prolonged boiling caused the issue to prop up.  On the 3rd day from the same batch of mackerel I didnt overcook the mackeral and the smell didnt come.  This tells me it may be something in the way i'm cooking which is causing the issue.

Do you know what it might be and how I can prevent it?
Are frozen or small fish more likely to have this problem and if so why?

Do you know what the smel//taste might be and how I can prevent it?  I especially notice it consistently appear when I cooked sardines, whitebait, anchovies and other small fish though mackerel can get it as in the example I gave.

Thanks

Start with a fish stock instead of water. Cook that with whatever vegetables you want to put in it, add seasoning and get the broth to the flavor that you want.

During the last 3 - 4 minutes of cooking, add your cut fish and just allow it to poach in the broth for a minute or two, cut the heat, let it sit for a few to finish poaching gently, then serve.

It sounds like you're trying to extract flavor from the fish as you cook it, that's not going to work, you'll just overcook the fish which is what's giving you that awful taste.

Fish stock is made from the very gelatinous bones of the fish, skin, scales, heads, etc - then strained. You can buy it in most grocery stores, just read the label to see how much sodium it contains (go for the least amount, add salt yourself).


What kind of cabbage to use in cabbage poriyal (Indian stir-fry)? I tried making this with a savoy cabbage, and it tastes like Irish cabbage - the spices were overwhelmed by the cabbage taste. When I have had this dish in Indian restaurants, the cabbage taste is milder.

From what I can find, it seems like the cabbage used for many Indian dishes is what we in the US would call green cabbage. In the pictures of cabbage poriyal that I saw, the cabbage appeared to have a smooth texture rather that a crinkly texture like Napa or Savoy cabbage would have.
Here are a couple of excerpts from  an article about cabbage use in Indian cooking :

Cabbage commonly known as Patta gobhi or Band gobhi in India is a very integral part of Indian cooking. It is usually used to prepare salad, soups, pickles, curries, kootus, added to dals and cooked with other various vegetables etc. There are many types of cabbage available in market which is different in colour, their flavours, texture etc.
There are many varieties of cabbage based on shape and time of maturity. Cabbage has a round shape and is composed of superimposed leaf layers. There are three major types of cabbage: green, red, and Savoy. The color of green cabbage ranges from pale to dark green. Both green and red cabbages have smooth-textured leaves. Red cabbage has leaves that are either crimson or purple with white veins running through it. The leaves of Savoy cabbage are more ruffled and yellowish-green in color. Red and green cabbages have a more defined taste and crunchy texture as compared to Savoy cabbage’s more delicate nature.

Here is a picture of cabbage from a recipe for an Indian curry. It does appear to be a typical green cabbage.


What makes a 'primary' taste? I just noticed this proposal that 'starchiness' should be recognised as the sixth primary taste (after sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami). I've never really been clear on the distinction between a 'primary' taste and any other sort of taste - is this purely about whether the taste is detectable by receptors specifically on the taste buds? I have heard this as an argument against the recognition of 'pungency' ('spiciness') as a taste, since the mechanism of sensing pungency is different, but I believe some cultures do also recognise pungency as a primary taste - so is this a cultural definition, a scientific definition, or neither?

Unless they found a taste receptor, it likely is a part of the texture (including heat conductivity, solubility etc.) part of flavor. Spicy heat actually is related to temperature and texture (triggers heat - as in literal heat - receptors, does not trigger injury receptors and/or temperature receptors deeper in tissue, so we will not mistake spicy for actually dangerously hot).

The five/six basic taste system (the sixth being fat, currently being scientifically debated) does not describe flavor completely: It completely ignores the factors of aroma, texture (including how non-flavor ingredients will just mechanically keep most of some flavor compounds from ever getting near your tongue), temperature and their interactions. It assumes that bitterness is one dimensional, which is also debated.

Adstringency is considered a separate taste in some cultures, one could also consider it a textural factor (excites tissue in a certain way, just as capsaicin does).


Bottling cream-based salad dressing. Preservative advice? I would like to bottle my home made salad dressing that is mayo- and cream-based. I was wondering what kind of preservatives I could use to lengthen shelf life. Also, I am using garlic powder as an ingredient. Are there any problems using garlic powder with mayo?

Switch out the cream.
Mayo is stable, cream is not. Yogurt as a replacement may give you a slight extension (higher pH).

There's no issue using garlic powder.


Hygiene-wise, need to clean grill/broiling tray after each use? Hygenically speaking, is it necessary to clean an outdoor barbeque
grill and/or an oven broiling tray after each use? Thoughts:

Many people don't clean their barbeque grills all summer long, in
part because it "seasons the grill".
Hygiene-wise, this seems safe (to me), since the grill temperature
when cooking meat is more than enough to kill any germs on the grill
surface.
Would the same argument apply to broiling trays in the oven?

I realize that broiling trays would get nasty if I never washed them,
but how about once a week or so? Safe?

For the grate in an outdoor grill, I think you can feel safe not cleaning it, but only under the following condition: Before each use, you heat the grill to a temperature in excess of 250 degrees (F) for at least 15 minutes. Gotta heat it up to make sure you kill everything that might have got onto it since you last used it.

Since you really ought to heat the grate up pretty seriously before trying to cook on it anyway, this is almost a no-effort thing.

In terms of extending the life of your grate, it's good to give it a good burn-off AFTER cooking if you're not going to clean it outright. Burning off will make sure there aren't any wet or corrosive things still left on the grate.

As to the broiler pan, I would never let that one go unwashed. Unlike a grill grate, you don't preheat it, so you don't have a chance to kill the beasties that might have grown up in whatever you left on it from last time. If you cooked a steak yesterday and didn't wash the pan, the grease and juices have had 24 hours to attract and breed bacteria and whatever by the time you use it today. Then you pull it out, plop another steak right on your bacteria colony, and broil. What's exposed to the heat directly may get hot enough to kill germs, but what's directly under your steak almost definitely will NOT.

Will you get sick if you don't clean your stuff? Maybe not--it's your life. But please, please, please, don't be so casual about cleaning if you're cooking for ANYBODY else. And really, cleaning a broiler pan isn't that hard. You can man up and just do it.


Using powdered salt vs regular While tasting some chocolate chip cookies I made, I noticed a salt taste in one bite and I wondered; if the salt was powdered, could it be incorporated better?
Would this change the taste?
Would there be any chemical changes in the baking process?

In cookies ordinary sized salt crystals should always be dissolved and evenly distributed by the mixing process, if you are hitting salty areas the batter may not have been mixed enough or it's possible there were clumps of salt. Mix the flour, salt and leavening agents together before adding them, and break up any salt clumps with your fingers.


What happens if I use my sourdough starter too soon? What happens if I use my sourdough starter before all of the good yeast and bacteria are fully developed? Would the bad bacteria make me sick? Or would cooking it kill all of the bad bacteria and make, whatever it was I made, safe to eat? For instance, I hear that you can make pancakes from the stater you would normally throw away during feedings. I'm not entirely sure my starter is ready for its debut, I just began growing it 5 days ago from course flour and water.

It won't be viable to leaven bread. Too soon and you'll just be using it in the leuconostoc stage which is bad bacteria and isn't good for anything. I wouldn't use the starter or discard till it becomes viable.


Is adding guar gum and lecithin alone enough for homemade ice cream? I am trying to make decently smooth and scoopable ice cream. I don't have any thickening agent at the moment and I also don't have an ice cream machine, so to make a decently viscous blend that isn't more fat or sugary than a Ben & Jerry's I mixed whipped cream with a base of (boiled and later cooled-down) milk, sugar and 15% fat sour cream. I also combined 1 teaspoon of soy lecithin into this ~800 gram solution.
The fat and sugar concentration should have been close to 20% percent (it was too sweet for me, perhaps due to the taste profile of the dissolved sugar); it was close to being scoopable but still required 10-15 minutes thawing and wasn't as smooth as you'd like.
The reading I made about the different thickening agents often said they have somewhat different properties and are best combined to reach a balanced chemical effect. It was sometimes said locust bean gum might perform a bit better then guar gum, but a main point was that all of these thickeners cause the milk proteins to separate when the ice cream starts melting, and that it is advised to combine guar gum (for example) with carrageenan to mitigate this effect.
I can see in the Ben & Jerry's ingredient list that it indeed contains lecithin (both from the eggs and from soy lecithin), guar gum and carrageenan. But I read some people's claims they made great ice cream adding only inverted sugar and guar gum, and it was also claimed somewhere that "food grade carrageenan" is often adulterated and is considered a possible carcinogen and a cause of gastrointestinal illness.
So to summarize, is it still possible to make descent ice cream using only whipped cream, milk and sugar thickened with guar gum and soy lecithin, or is the mentioned protein-separation effect that detrimental?
Thanks in advance.

@TLSO All industrial/semi-industrial processes involve aeration to make the ice cream fluffy and scoopable. So, you have to introduce some air continuously in the mixture until it sets (using an ice cream maker probably). This trick will make scoopable ice cream just with milk, cream, sugar and optional essence of your choice with no need to add gums or alginates.
It is equally important that the tub of ice cream is returned to the freezer as soon as you have scooped out the ice cream. Because melted ice cream will harden and will need thawing as there is less/no air inside the mixture.
Try and let me know.


How can I remove sticky residue from a pot I boiled salsify in? Yesterday I made black salsify. I got the salsify fresh and peeled it myself. Knowing what a hassle that is, I rinced and scrubbed it, put on disposable gloves and peeled in my sink, which afterwards I scrubbed down with a cleaning agent. I put the salsify in water with vinegar to avoid discoloration.

I peeled the salsify very thin, however. There were a few small spots of black peel left here and there, but since I was cooking for myself I didn't mind if it looked less than perfect. However, this might have left a bit of the sap on there and after cooking them, it has settled in my stainless steel pot on the sides, at where the water level was. The residue is sticky and extremely resilient.

I've tried scrubbing with a brush and detergent to no avail. After that I put in a mixture of water and vinegar hoping that would soak it loose, but without much success. Just now I took a scrubbing sponge to it with some kitchen cleaner, but no dice. I guess with continued use it might eventually start disappearing, but it's unsightly and probably not too hygienic. Any advice on what could successfully remove this rubbery substance?

When trying to remove gummy, rubbery substances often something oily will penetrate and soften the goo so that it maybe cleaned as usual. Things to try, cooking oil, peanut butter or something like Goo Gone or WD-40.


Can I freeze raw liver and meat? I noticed that my friend freezes raw liver, raw red meat, and raw chicken.

I have the intuition that the fat goes bad (due to lipid peroxidation) even when frozen. However, I am not sure if this is bad for the food in terms of quality and safety.

So can I freeze these things raw?

Of course you can freeze meat. If it would be unsafe, your local supermarked wouldn't be allowed to sell it.
What you have to keep in mind when freezing your own meat:

Storage time is limited, for guidelines see here or here.
Freezing does nor remove bacteria, mold and other "nasties", but stops them from multiplying. Rule of thumb: What's on the meat when it goes into the freezer comes out again. So follow the usual safety procedures for raw meat before and after freezing.

-----EDIT------
As the subject of fat going rancid has come up several times in comments: That's one of the reasons the recommended freezing time for bacon is 1-2 months only, for game meat up to 8-12 months. Rule of thumb: The fattier the shorter.


Why do my meat burritos not heat well? I've been making freezer burritos and eating them for lunches this week. The first batch I made microwave beautifully: just 45 seconds and they're hot all the way through. They were layered with rice, beans, and corn, nothing else (I don't eat cheese and I wanted them to be non-spicy so I can eat them when I'm feeling unwell).

The second batch replace the corn with ground beef, cooked and seasoned. The exact same beans, the same rice made the same way. They're smaller, due to using a different package of tortillas; after almost 2 minutes of heating in the same microwave, the meat burrito I had brought still had cold spots in the middle.

What causes this? Can I avoid it somehow? Should I mix the ingredients instead of layering?

I agree with Brendan's answer above. Having also made freezer burritos ahead of time, I find that it helps if I put some source of re-heatable 'liquid' in the wrap while preparing them (e.g. salsa, not sour cream, for example). It might have something to do with steaming the food instead of directly heating it, maybe? Let me know if that helps.


Why did my Crème Fraiche split? I have made a recipe where I take a number of ingredients and cover them with Creme Fraiche and then bake it in the oven for a while. I have been making this recipe for a few years.

Recently the recipe has been failing as when I take the food out of the oven, the Creme Fraiche has split and the "sauce" is very watery.

Any suggestions as to why this might be happening?

Almost all fermented dairy products curdle under heat. When this happens, the milk proteins bind to each other into a rubbery mesh, which can't contain all the moisture from the original product, and it is squeezed out.

Creme fraîche tends to be an exception. It contains a high amount of fat. This fat lubricates the proteins and gets in the way, so they can't bind to each other and form the mesh. However, the fat content of creme fraîche isn't all that high (just enough to allow for the effect I described), so it is finicky when heated.

As you don't seem to have acid in the recipe, the trouble probably comes from water. It dilutes the creme fraîche, making it more probable that proteins will meet and bind without a fat droplet coming in the way. So, if you want to keep the recipe as authentic as possible, try to reduce the amount of water exuded by the other ingredients.

The first thing to check is whether you are actually using creme fraîche. Sometimes people make a substitution with a similar product, but continue calling it the name of the original product. Sour cream, smetana, creme legere, plant substitutes, etc. won't work in your case - 30% fat is the minimum for baking, the higher the fat content, the better is it suited. For the rest of the answer, I am assuming that you are using the creme fraîche.

My suggestion would be to drain the broccoly very well (I assume you mean blanched or nuked broccoli, baking them in the oven would be strange), maybe even try to use a salad dryer. If the salmon comes from a vacuum package, drain it well too, and pat it dry with a paper towel. Take the potatoes out of the boiling pot and leave them alone for a while, the cooling startch will absorb some moisture. Also, use a mealy type of potatoes, the starch in these could absorb some liquid from the other ingredients. Another thing which should help in any case is to reduce the oven temperature, as the gentler heat will affect the creme fraîche less.

If this fails, you should consider adding other ingredients to stabilize the creme fraîche. It will change the taste, but not necessarily for the worse.

A stabilizer should help. For dairy, carrageenan is very effective and its taste is not noticeable, but most people don't have it in the kitchen. Starch will also act as stabilizer, take just a small portion, maybe a teaspoonful per 200 g creme fraîche. Dissolve it in a teaspoonful of cold water before adding it. You could also use flour. Both will affect the taste somewhat, the flour will be more pronounced.

The second solution would be to raise the fat content. Adding pure fat is counterproductive, as the fat droplets in dairy products are much smaller than what your blender would achieve. But you could mix or substitute the creme fraîche using a dairy product with a higher fat content. Mascarpone, kaymak, katuk, clotted cream, or creme double should work. Or maybe cream cheese, even if it doesn't have a higher fat content, because it contains stabilizers. A full substitution will alter the taste substantially, but a partial one will probably be OK.

If all else fails, you could try if you can't change the recipe to accommodate a more traditional gratin liquid (how is the stuff called in English?). While I agree that pure creme fraîche will work best with what you listed, a mixture of eggs (or just yolks to keep it more liquid), milk, the creme fraîche, and a tiny bit of flour would also provide a moist binding. Use less eggs/yolks than in a normal gratin to keep it from setting too much. It will be a big change, but if nothing else works, it will still taste much better than curdled creme fraîche.

Or if you are a risk-embracing nature, you can continue using pure creme fraîche, just with the moisture reducing techniques, hoping that this will be enough. Each time it separates, you should drain the whole dish, catching the liquid. Scum off the curds, or strain them. The whey will have a nice taste, similar to a stock. Take out some new creme fraîche (not heated), and mix it with the liquid. (Reduce it first to avoid making it too liquid). Add it back to the remaining ingredients. This will keep the taste even if the curdling occurs, but will require lots of work.


Authentic Asian Sweet & Sour Sauce - Recipe Although its a well known fact that the Sweet & Sour sauce we have come to expect is not really an authentic sauce served in Asia, its one that we have come to love in North America. The problem is sourcing that perfect recipe.
Although I live in the Asian capital of British Columbia and have an extended network of colleagues in the food industry, I am still stumped and cant find the recipe for this sauce. There are plenty of hacks available online, but still nothing that compares.
If there is anyone with an Asian culinary background that is willing to post and share a recipe for this sauce, I would truly appreciate it if they could post it here.
Thank you & kind regards in advance.

Mark

You're only going to get an approximate answer to this because there isn't "one sauce" that is sweet and sour, even in Vancouver.  Instead, there are multiple sauces that fit that description, having both acid and sugar in them.  Common ingredients include any of white sugar, brown sugar, honey, vinegar (of several kinds), soy sauce, lemon juice, plum puree, ginger, ketchup, various sour fruits, and spices.

This blog has multiple recipes for sweet-and-sour sauces from Sichuan, which might suit what you're looking for.


Is it possible to can hummus? The question was prompted by running out of suitable sized plastic boxes for some home-made hummus, so I used a couple of old jam jars.  This was for freezing, but it got me thinking.

I assume a simple recipe of cooked chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon and spices, such as this one from Felicity Cloake at the Guardian (which happens to be the recipe I roughly follow).

Hummus is normally sold refrigerated, but is there any (safety) reason why it couldn't be canned?  Obviously any form of canning means that the final product gets cooked, but the chickpeas are already cooked and the other ingredients shouldn't suffer too much (the garlic will mellow, for example). Ideally I'd think of water-bath canning, but I'm not sure if the pH is low enough.   Pressure canning would also be interesting but only in an academic sense as I'm not equipped for it.

No, it is not safe to can hummus, even with a pressure canner. The problem is that it has a paste consistency, and the temperature has trouble penetrating through the middle of the jar. No safe home canning process has been established which can consistently reach the required temperatures.

You can buy canned hummus, but that's no contradiction. Home pressure canners operate at nominal 10 PSI, while industry has access to different equipment.

Some people go around the problem by canning everything that goes into the hummus whole - so a jar of chickpeas, seaseme seeds (not the ready tahini!), spices and lemon juice in liquid. They stick a blender into the can after they open it, to make their hummus. That's a safe practice, since you can can chickpeas on their own.


Which one of the five mother sauces is Sauce Messine derived from? I'm organising the sauce recipes I have and I'm uncertain as to where I should place Sauce Messine. I'm inclined to say it belongs in the bechamel category, or is it a veloute based sauce? I'm not sure. Also where would sauces like parsley and watercress sauce fall in the system of the five mother sauces?

Thanks.

Sauce Messine should fall into the bechamel category. Velouté sauces incorporate stock rather then cream or milk.

This is a basic answer to the difference in the two, from  YIANNISLUCACOS .

  The difference between velouté and béchamel is that the milk is replaced by a stock, i.e. chicken, beef, fish etc.

  In every other respect velouté sauce is almost identical to béchamel.

  In general, it is used as a base for a number of white sauces. Its main applications are:

  Base for sauces
  Base for soups
  Basic ingredient for mixtures and fillings, as it offers moisture and a rich texture, such as patties, pies, pasta fillings.

As for other sauces with parsley, watercress, or other ingredients, they would fall into certain categories based on the mother sauce base, not the flavors or other additions.

It is a fairly easy internet search to get more information, should you need it.


What is a substitute for corn syrup in boiled icing? What can I use as a substitute for corn syrup in a recipe for boiled icing?

When heating sugar up in boiled icing or in making candy, the problem is sugar crystallization.  This happens because the solution becomes supersaturated and any movement can cause it to shift back into a crystal state.

The corn syrup is there to prevent this from happening by providing glucose to 'get in the way'.  You can get just 'glucose' at the drugstore to replace the corn syrup.  Any other sugary thing that's high in fructose or glucose should work.

Another option is an acid.  Some acid (like lemon juice) should make some of the sucrose break apart into simpler sugars and prevent crystallization.


Why does my bread burn at the bottom before it is done? I bake my bread for about half an hour. At the 15 minute mark, the bottom is already slightly burnt, but the bread is clearly not done.
My oven doesn't have a thermometer, so I don't know exactly what temperature it's at. I preheat it for 15 minutes at the highest setting, and then I drop the temperature when the bread goes in. I also put a container with water at the bottom to create vapor.
How do I stop the bread from burning?

It is highly likely that the temperature of your oven is too high.  While I would recommend simply buying an oven thermometer, which are not very expensive, if you are in a part of the world where that is not feasible, according to this post at Tip King:

  You can check your oven's temperature with this simple test. After
  preheating it, lay a sheet of plain white paper on the centre rack and
  leave it for five minutes. The paper's colour will tell you the oven's
  temperature:

  pale biscuit, 150°C/300°F or less
  light brown, 180°- 200°C/350°-400°F
  golden brown, 200°- 230°C/400°-450°F
  dark brown, 230°- 260°C/450°-500°F
  black, over 260°C/500°F

Hopefully, this method will let you estimate the temperature of your oven accurately enough to adjust it within the range that your bread is successful.

Note that I have not verified this method personally.

If this is not the cause of your problems, you will need to describe how you are baking your bread (the recipe, whether you are using a stone, a pan, how you are shaping the loaves, what their size is, and so forth) in much more detail to get a better answer.


What makes a good quality pasta brand? When I browse the pasta aisle I see a number of different brands (De Cecco, Rummo, etc.).  Are there any notable differences between these brands?

If I have a choice between different brands of the same pasta (spaghetti, penne, etc.), how should I determine which brand is appropriate for me?

The biggest indicator I've found of quality dried pasta is how rough it feels when you rub it between your fingers.  Compare Barilla and De Cecco spaghetti to see what I mean.  The best brands use copper dies when extruding their pasta and this lends a rougher texture that will hold sauce better than plastic or teflon extruded pastas.


Adding sugar at the end of the mixture for apple bread My apple bread recipe called for adding the sugar in with the sourcream, eggs and vanilla. I forgot to add the sugar until the dry ingredients and the apples were added.  I added the sugar to the batter just before putting it in the oven.  Will this make a difference in the taste or texture?

It is a bit of a guessgame without having seen the exact recipe, but applebreads tend to use rather robust recipes. So there is a very good chance that you will not notice much of a difference.

If the batter was on the dry side, you might get undissolved sugar. This will give you a grainy texture, possibly you will also perceive the applebread as drier, but the second effect can be subtle. In any case, it will be perfectly edible - it is just that, if the sugar is undissolved, it will deviate from usual expectations. Whether this is a problem or not will depend on the individual eaters.


Is it worth checking beans for stones? I've heard from many sources to check beans for stones before soaking/cooking them.  I've been cooking with beans for years (mostly black beans, chickpeas and lentils), and I've never encountered a stone before or after cooking.  Is the stone thing a myth, or no longer the case with modern agricultural technology?

I've found stones in dried beans, so it's no myth.  Not common, but I'd say I find one every year or two.  If you simply swallowed a small stone, it would almost certainly pass without harm, but as TFD pointed out in his comment, biting down on one could be an expensive and painful dental experience.  What I do is spread the beans out on a kitchen towel in a single layer.  For dark beans, I use a light-colored towel and vice-versa for light beans.  It's very easy to spot any foreign objects that way and it takes less than a minute, so it's worth doing in my opinion.  You can then easily toss the beans into a pot by just picking up the four corners of the towel and dumping them in.

I should add that I've found little balls of dried dirt far more often than actual stones.  Those would most likely dissolve and get washed away when you rinsed the beans, but it demonstrates that stones can be in there.


Need to dry grain before milling? I have recently received a 1983 Magic Mill III. I read through the owner's manual and accompanying documentation and it says that moisture or oil can gum up the mill but does not mention drying your grain anywhere.

In general (bonus points for answers specific to my Magic Mill), do I need to dry my grain before milling? Like by leaving it in the oven on low heat for a while beforehand? I milled some pumpernickel flour last night without drying the rye berries and the flour bucket felt a little hot and there was some flour stuck to the millstone outlet area.

Grains would typically be dried for storage so that they remain dormant and don't sprout or mold. Assuming you're storing them in a sealed container and your ambient humidity isn't ridiculously high, this is probably dry enough for your purposes. Just don't wash or soak the grains without drying them thoroughly.

There's also going to be a small amount of natural oil contained in the grains which you can't really do anything about - that's probably what caused the flour sticking. The mill is designed to accommodate this, just make sure to clean it after use (to avoid any buildup) and don't add additional oil or moisture.


baking bread with all-purpose flour I'm a bread-baking novice and have acquired a vast quantity of all-purpose flour.

If I follow a typical bread recipe, for example one of these, but use all-purpose flour instead of the recommended variety, what will happen?  Will the bread be edible?

[How] could I modify such a recipe to work with all-purpose flour?

update

Used Canadian all-purpose flour with this recipe, unmodified; results were delicious.

Bread is basically just flour, water, and yeast, so it's pretty hard to make it inedible unless you burn it to a crisp in the oven.

The difference between all-purpose flour and bread flour is gluten strength; if you substitute all-purpose flour then your bread won't rise as high or be as strong; this is a desirable quality in, say, cake, but not bread.

However, AP flour isn't that far off from bread flour in terms of gluten; while cake flour may be as low as 6% and bread flour can be as high as 14%, AP flour tends to weigh in at around 10% or more, which is why it's called "all-purpose".  As Michael says, yeast bread is actually not as sensitive to the exact quantities as (for example) most pastries, but it's still better to use a recipe that was actually built around AP flour instead of just trying to substitute it for bread flour.

If you are determined to make the substitution, then I would suggest you try to find some wheat gluten and add a small amount of that to the AP flour.  Mathematically, if you assume that you're lacking some 3% protein, then you'd want to add about 1 tbsp of gluten for every 2 cups of flour.  It's really not much, though, and if you don't have or can't find wheat gluten then your bread would probably survive anyway with AP flour, it just might be a little denser than you expect.


How to recover vegetables that get "refrigerator crisper chill"? Sometimes my fridge is set to be too cold and if there is not much in it, I find the vegies in the back of the crisper start to freeze. This week it happened to mushrooms, bok choy, and radishes.

I tried to "recover" them a bit by letting them sit in warm water for 5-10 minutes before chopping up for a stirfry or pasta sauce (i.e. not heaps of cooking time). (Although not the mushrooms - I have some idea you're not supposed to wash mushrooms because they go slimy, although soaking might be different.)

The mushrooms were OK even though frozen...but the radishes were horrible. They still had heaps of ice crystals inside, and even some I cooked, I thought the ice would melt and they would be OK, but somehow they were unnaturally crunchy and it was quite unpleasant to eat them.

So is there anything else I should try in this case, or is prevention the only answer?

(And yes I turned up the temperature on the fridge ;))

I'm sorry to say this, but I think prevention is the best answer. Once you're vegetables freeze things happen at the cellular level that changes the nature of the vegetables. For example, ice crystals pierce cell walls which destroys some of the structure, which is responsible for the crispness and crunch of the vegetable. I don't think there is really a way to "fix" this, once it happens.

That said, cooking does something similar to vegetables. Cooking destroys cell walls, which is why cooked carrots are so much softer than raw carrots. I would think that vegetables that stand up to cooking would survive freezing the best (such as your mushrooms). On the other hand, somthing like lettuce is a lost cause, once frozen.


How do Crispbread manufacturers use so few ingredients? I'm curious if anyone is familiar with how the major Swedish crispbread manufacturers like Ryvita, Wasa, Finn Crisp, etc., manage to produce those crackers with ingredients lists as short as "rye flour, salt" – with, perhaps, water and in the less traditional varieties, yeast, thrown in – whereas every crispbread recipe I've seen involves an additional combination of yeast, butter, honey, etc.

I hope this isn't veering into recipe request territory – my apologies if so.

For reference:

Wasa Whole Grain Crispbread
Ryvita Whole Grain Rye Crispbread

All crisp-bread recipes use water (or at least some ingredient with a high water content), but the bread is baked and then hung from the ceiling to dry further until the water content is very much reduced.

The real mystery is how structure is introduced without leavening. Wikipedia has good information on this point,

  [...] bubbles are introduced into the
  dough mechanically. Traditionally, this was done by mixing snow or
  powdered ice into the dough, which then evaporated during baking.
  Today, the dough, which must contain a large amount of water, is
  cooled and mixed until bubbly.

  Another method is to knead the dough
  under pressure in an extruder. The sudden drop in pressure then causes
  water to evaporate, creating bubbles in the dough.

Presumably knäckebröd was only made during the winter months before its production became industrialised. For the modern home cook, the difficulty of introducing structure still remains, so it is unsurprising that you didn't find many recipes with very basic ingredients.

Some recipes for home cooks introduce structure in the form of seeds and whole grains. Others, as you noted use yeast.

Some Swedish crisp breads such as tunnbröd, have no leavening, no gas incorporated into the dough and are wafer thin. These can be made at home with a very short ingredient list, no specialised equipment and during any season :-)

At least some of the major Swedish manufacturers do use yeast. My favorite, Leksands knäcke, for instance uses,

  swedish wholegrain rye flour, fresh water from our own spring, yeast
  and a pinch of salt.

So if you are considering baking your own knäcke, you don't necessarily have to avoid recipes using yeast.


Can commercially sold, vacuum-packed beetroot (cooked) be stored under room temperature? I don't have any experience at all with beetroots. But a couple days ago, I received some vacuum packed cooked beetroots by post (without special temperature control) as part of a vegetable basket.

They had no instruction printed on the package so I didn't put them in the fridge. Today I went to the supermarket and saw they are actually sold in the chilled section (as with milks and salads).

In general, are they safe to be stored in cool room temperature (20-21 C) for a few days? Or is there a difference between packaging that makes some okay but not others?

Forgot to update.
They went bad (blew up actually) after a week or so, when the expiry date on the packet is months away.
So at least in my case, some beetroots in vacuum packaging should be stored in the fridge, although there are beetroots that can be stored room temperature (which I saw in another market).
You should probably err on the safe side if you find no instruction on the package (like in my case).


Why do my huge bone broth ice cubes become tiny puddles when melted? I made some bone broth soup and froze it in ice-cube trays.

When I melt these huge ice cubes (via microwaving), they melt down to a tiny puddle of bone broth.

What gives?

We (humans) can be pretty bad at estimating volume by eye, especially if you're putting a bunch of cubes in one bowl - they don't pack efficiently (there's a lot of air in there). You might not actually be losing that much volume.

For example, I just dumped out an ice cube tray full of cubes, and they looked like a bit over 2 cups, but once melted (and I checked by weight, I didn't lose any!), they're about one cup:

The ice is a bit (~7%) less dense than water, but the rest of that apparent 2x reduction in volume is just the packing inefficiency. Depending on the size/shape of your cubes and the size of the vessel you're melting in, it could get exaggerated even more.


Sherry Wine vs Sherry Vinegar Is sherry wine the same as sherry vinegar? My recipe calls for sherry vinegar and I currently have sherry cooking wine. Can I use it?

Not really. Sherry vinegar is made from sherry wine. It is naturally more acidic in flavour. You are better off substituting another vinegar such as white wine, cider or balsamic.


How do I keep rice based noodles from sticking together? I've already read a related question: How can I keep pasta from sticking to itself?

However, I've found that rice noodles behave very differently than wheat noodles.

I've tried:

Adding oil to the water
Rinse with cold water
Leave in small amount of water while stirring until required
Move noodles immediately from pot to strainer to pan with oil and stuff (ala scampi)
Undercook the noodles, expecting the final "cooking" to be in the resting or sauté

However, every time, I end up with a blob of noodley stuff that doesn't want to separate and have a nice even coating of sauce and other bits.

What needs to be done differently for rice pasta vs wheat?

Note: This is for ramen/pasta made from rice and/or rice flour. The pho/vermicelli noodles are a completely different food with different prep.

I have only experience with pho noodles. I don't know if the pasta you are referring to behaves fundamentally different to the noodles that I'm familiar with. The ingredients seem to be almost the same: rice flour. Some kinds of rice pasta are made with brown rice flour but this is basically white rice flour with the bran layer and the germ. I guess rice starch in pasta and pho noodles should behave quite similar.

Regarding the pho noodles which are also very prone to sticking to a noodley blob you have two options:

Soak the rice noodles for about one hour (I don't know the exact time) in (luke)warm water until the noodles are soft. They will not be as soft / chewy as cooked but rather can be bent to a certain extent until they break. When soft, remove the noodles from the water (optional: and store them in a closed container in a cool place until you need the noodles). Reheat your sauce and put the desired amount of noodles in the same pan. The noodles will cook very quickly. Instead of this you can sautée the noodles first and then add the sauce (very tricky, I always end with a ball of noodles; my parents do better). It is almost rather reheating the noodles than cooking.
Cook the noodles and rinse them thoroughly (!) to remove the starch. (Sometimes the noodles did stick after rinsing. Then oiling helps.)


How to avoid soft bottom of home-made bread? The bottom of my bread is not hard. When I knock the top of the loaf, it gives a beautiful hollow knock sound but when knocking the bottom part -- it's not. I wonder what is the reason? How could I improve my baking procedure?

Bread baked in a baking tray with baking paper. Maybe it is the baking tray that blocks the heat supply?
~450F for 15 minutes, with top and bottom heaters turned on and a fan turned off,  then ~420F for 30 minutes;  all the time with baking tray sitting in the middle of the oven; the original recipe requires some 15F more but that's beyond my oven capabilities. I did not want to extend the time too much, because the top of the bread is already well-baked.
At the bottom of the oven I keep an ovenproof dish with water to increase evaporation. Maybe it limits the heat flow from the heater to the bottom of the bread?

In the first photo you can see a corner of bread. The left side is better baked, has larger "holes" in the crumb than the right side, because the left side was closer to the crust, and the right side was cut in the middle of the bread.

The bottom of your bread looks a little underbaked, by maybe 5-10 minutes. You can see that the crumb is tighter A few tips:

There is no need to keep the dish with water in the oven past the point where the crust of the bread is set. It is possible that water vapour from the dish interferes with the bottom of the bread cooking. Try taking out the water when you drop the temperature of the oven.
Times in bread recipes are a guideline, not a rule. If your bread comes out (a little) underbaked, put it back in the oven and/or adjust your cooking time next try. When you put the bread back in, you can also put it in upside down to encourage the bottom of the bread cooking properly.
To encourage the bottom of the bread cooking, you can use a pizza stone/steel, or even a baking tray. Leave it in the oven while preheating, then put the tray with the bread on top.


How do I replicate the taste of prepopped movie theater popcorn? To clarify, I'm not asking how to make popcorn that tastes like movie theater popcorn (which typically comes from a popper), I want to know how to make the bad pre-popped popcorn that small theaters sometimes sell.

It's hard to describe the flavor, but it was almost this hint-of-mustard salty taste with semi-stale, but large and uncannily round kernels. The closest I've found (and it is close) is the plain popcorn that comes in those tins. My guess is that there's a preservative used that's imparting a taste.

Any ideas?

There's a different variety of popcorn used for pre-made popcorn, as it comes out more spherical and thus less prone to breakage once it dries out.  I've always seen it called 'mushroom popcorn'.

I've never made it specifically, so I don't know if the flavor is something to do with the variety of popcorn used, or if it's something added to the popcorn before storage.


Coverting grilling time to oven time My recipe calls for grilling a pork loin for 25-30 minutes over medium high heat with the lid closed. How do I convert this to oven cooking time?

Cooking meat by time is ill-advised, whether it is on the grill or in the oven.

Instead, you should cook by desired outcome, which is the final internal temperature.  Pork is done around 155 F / 68 C, so you should roast it in an oven until it is just a few degrees below the target temperature, as measured by an instant read or probe thermometer inserted into the thickets part of the loin.

With a 400 F / 200 C oven, that is likely to take somewhat less than an hour depending on the size and shape of the particular loin you have, but the internal temperature is what will tell you it is truly done.

Note:  you may want to remove it from the oven when it is a few degrees shy of the target temperature, and allow so-called carry over cooking to bring it up the rest of the way as you let it rest.  Personally, I like my pork a little more done so I stop roasting when it registers 155 F, and let it carry over a few more degrees.


Cooking a nice pan seared steak for picky eaters So here's the situation:
I love a tasty steak. I also have really particular family. If the meat is not cooked all the way (aka very little or no pink left) it's still partly raw and no one will eat it. If the meat has globs of fat on or in it, they dissect it and remove them. My Mom buys steak on the principle of the less fat you can see, the better meat it is (and is therefore convinced that more expensive steaks are worse, not better, and not worth the outrageous price). Obviously, my goal is to convince my family that this is not true, so we can have some better beef sometimes. They like delicious food, so I know they'll still love the taste of good beef, IF I can work around the aforementioned roadblocks. After much pleading, I convinced my mom to get to some better steak as a treat for me. She brought me some NY strip (what I asked for), though it's thin cut (it is a bit under 1/2 inch thick, I think). I'm hoping that the thinner meat may actually work in my favor, since it has to be medium well to well done anyway or no one will eat it.

So, a lot hinges on the results of the meal I'm cooking tomorrow, and I want to get it right. After much internet research, here's my game plan:
Remove steak from fridge about an hour before cooking, pat dry and salt it.
Heat a thick bottomed stainless pan to super hot (we don't have cast iron).
Dry steaks off well, coat them in canola oil, and put in the pan. Sear a couple minutes on each side.
A few minutes before finishing, add some butter and minced garlic and spoon over the steaks while they finish cooking.
Take em out, discard the garlic, let them sit a few min while finishing other meal prep stuff, and then slice them up in thin strips (against the grain, of course!) and serve them.

Am I missing anything? Anything else I should know? Thanks!

P.S since I haven't cooked with these before I'm not sure about all that fat my mom is so offended by. I know the marbling makes the steak tender and juicy, but will it cook down somewhat and be less "present and offensive"? Or if I trim what's along the edge before cooking to help avoid complaints, will it ruin the way the steak cooks? Any help here on how to still make a still pretty tasty steak that my family can't be overly snobby about is welcome!

Also, please: if the only thing you have to say is "if you're going to cook it near well done then you're ruining it anyway, so why bother?" DON'T. It's not helpful unless you also have some nice tips on how to make a more thoroughly cooked steak better.

UPDATE: Steaks were actually closer to 1/4 in upon closer examination, and so they cooked really fast. Ended up a bit overdone even for what I had in mind. BUT they still tasted much better than what we usually have, weren't noticeably fattier after cooking, and even overdone weren't as tough as some of our usual beef. I got more compliments than complaints and they seemed to be a hit, so I consider this one a win. My brother said it was the best thing I'd made since I took over most of the cooking. :) The only thing I did differently from my original plan was I cut back on the amount of garlic I used, since I didn't want to overpower the meat's flavor too much, as someone pointed out in their answer. Thanks guys!

The method you describe should work, timing wise you have it about right, except it will need longer if you are aiming for well done. Salting and oiling before cooking works well, as does letting the meat come up to room temperature (if you are aiming for rare medium-rare a cold steak isn't a bad thing as it lets you char the outside more while having the inside less done).  Maybe you're better off leaving garlic out unless you know that's their taste. If they don't like fat adding butter may backfire on you, plus, butter and garlic can cover up the flavor of the steak that you want them to enjoy. You know your family and what they might like best, it's a judgement call.

The thing you are missing is that a steak doesn't have to be a monolithic thing, and by treating it that way you miss the opportunity to have something the way you like. If you have 4 steaks then cook 3 medium well to well and cook 1 to your taste, if you have 1 steak cut a quarter off and do the same thing. They don't have to eat your steak and you don't have to eat theirs.

A couple of things:

Don't trim fat before cooking as you will end up with a dry steak. As you plan to serve it carved trim the fat after cooking as part of the carving process
If fussy eaters don't like the look of food raw they won't eat it cooked, so keep them out of the kitchen if you can


Best moment to put salt in spaghetti? Different friends have conflicting theories about the best moment to pour salt into spaghettis:

Before putting the spaghettis, so that the salt infiltrates inside the spaghetti.
Just a bit before throwing out water, because salt reduces the boiling temperature.
After throwing the water out.

What is usually considered best practice?

Salt should be put before putting the spaghetti (or any other type of pasta for that matters) in the water.

For 200g spaghetti (2 people) count ~2-3 liters of water and 20-30g rock salt.
You can reduce the amount of salt if the sauce you are using is already quite salty.

As a note to your point 2, the salt INCREASES the boiling point of water (a process known as boiling point elevation)

However, the increase in boiling point when adding 20g of salt to 2l of water is practically insignificant.


Reducing fat content in thick chicken stock My chicken stock is very gelatinous (good) but it didn't have a layer of fat to skim off.  How can I reduce the fat content?

Gelatin and fat are different.  Chill your stock.  If a layer of fat solidifies at the surface, remove it.  If you see no layer of solidified fat, you've probably eliminated as much as possible.


Are the NAAN flatbread {from simply chef} ok to eat without warmed up in the microwave or oven? So I was getting something to eat. I didn't think they had to be warmed up. So yea is it safe to do that.the ingredients are enriched wheat flour, wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron,enzyme,ascorbic acid added as a dough conditioner ,thiamine mononitrate,riboflavin,folic acid,water,sugar,baking powder,sodium bicarbonate,cornstarch,monocalcium phosphate,inactive yeast, wheat gluten, calcium propionate (preservative)vitamin D2 Bakers yeast,potassium sorbate,preservative,fumaric acid,lactic acid,calcium lactate. (Contains wheat) may contain soy milk and eggs

Yes, they are safe.

The reason why warming up is recommended is simply taste and texture:
When cool, they are more rigid, dry and crumbly, warmed up they become soft and more pleasant to eat. So if you are just hungry, start nibbling.

Regarding the food safety aspects:
Warming up will in no case make unsafe food safe, see our generic post (about meat) why even boiling won't do that. Bread is not a food that is prone to super-fast spoiling and can be safely stored at room temperature. Apart from that, those pre-packaged breads contain preservatives (see your ingredient list) and are typically sealed to prolong shelf life.


Scientific results on which oils to use for pan-frying I am trying to find out which oils are suitable for pan-frying at high temperatures (when frying steaks or pancakes where smoke points are typically reached). Since there seems to be no agreement and a lot of false information about this in non-scientific sources, I want to consider scientific sources only.
I am more interested in home use, i.e., short pan-frying with little oil (no deep-frying) at higher temperatures (around 200 °C), so many papers researching commercial deep-frying applications (below 180 °C but heated/reheated for multiply hours) seem to be less relevant to me.
So far, I have found two sources that seem to be very relevant to me. Unfortunately, they come to very different conclusions.
In [1], different oils were slowly heated to 205 °C and then retained at this heat for another hour. They used Raman spectroscopy to analyze samples before, after, and at specific temperatures in between.
They concluded that sunflower and canola oils present high thermal stability and are therefore recommended for frying.
Coconut and olive oils showed significant degradation starting at 165-175 °C.
In [2] however, olive oil is recommended for frying because “when different oils were compared, olive oil was considered to be the most stable liquid fat” (p. 665). One source for this is another study of one of the authors [3] where sunflower and olive oils were heated to 180 °C for 5-10 hours. There, sunflower oil showed significantly greater degradation than olive oil (if I interpret the results correctly).
What is the current state of research on this topic? Is this a well researched topic and I just couldn't find the majority of relevant sources? If not, is there a proper conclusion summarizing these two studies? Is [2] less relevant to me because they don't use the high heat that occurs in pan-frying? Is the more recent study [1] more relevant because it uses modern techniques to analyze the oils?
Refs:

[1] Alvarenga, B.R., Xavier, F.A.N., Soares, F.L.F. et al. Thermal Stability Assessment of Vegetable Oils by Raman Spectroscopy and Chemometrics. Food Anal. Methods 11, 1969–1976 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-018-1160-y

[2] Velasco, Joaquín & Dobarganes, M.. (2002). Oxidative stability of virgin olive oil. European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology. 104. https://doi.org/10.1002/1438-9312(200210)104:9/10%3C661::AID-EJLT661%3E3.0.CO;2-D

[3] Dobarganes, M. C., Marquez-Ruiz, G., & Perez-Camino, M. C. (1993). Thermal stability and frying performance of genetically modified sunflower seed (Helianthus annuus L.) oils. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 41(4), 678-681 https://doi.org/10.1021/jf00028a033

I would also consider the health implications as there seems to have been quite a lot of medical research into the carcinogenic effects of repeatedly using oils. This may well run parallel to what you are looking for e.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28925728/ etc.


Bread making, lightly oiled bowl covered, why? Every dough recipe I have ever seen follows the same paradigm. Mix ingredients, kneed, rest, kneed, roll into a ball and place in a lightly oiled covered bowl, separate and form. Allow to rise again, bake.

I don’t understand the significance of the bowl step. Why the ball?  Maximizing surface area?
How does the oil help?   Is that just to stop it from sticking to the bowl?  Why the bowl?   Why cover it?  Is this to limit oxygen?   Bread yeast shouldn’t need anaerobic production should it?

The bowl is simply to contain the dough.  You can use any container you like.  Depending on the type of bread you are making, you often need to build gluten strength, this ends with pre-shaping and shaping.  Shaping matters at this point. With kneaded bread, the "ball" is simply an artifact of kneading or stretching and folding.  Covering reduces the chance of the surface drying out, and helps maintain temperature.  Oil in the bowl is not necessary in most situations, and is not part of "every recipe."


How to fix grass finished beef that tastes like fish? I bought a 1/4 grass finished cow (I had a good experience with a 1/2 pig from the same seller, so didnt feel the need to start small).

We cooked some ground beef, and it was fine. But the second cut we tried were the NY strips and the fat on them tasted strongly of fish. I prepared the steak as i would any other store bought steak. I salted then fried in a cast iron pan on high with a little oil, removing the steaks from the pan at 125F. This normally produces steaks I enjoy a lot.

Based on a little research, it is common for grass finished beef to have some odd flavors if you are used to grain finished beef (almost all beef is raised on grass, the difference is what they are fed in the end to fatten up).

So, if all my steaks did taste fishy, is there a preparation method to mitigate the fishiness?

I'm familiar with gamey flavors of meat, having eaten quite a lot of moose, caribou, rabbit and the parts of a cow most people don't seem interested in. This fishy flavor was not like those. The fat tasted like I had bitten into one of those fish oil pills, and it was only the fat that tasted this way, I separated it from the flesh to check.

Grass-fed (and finished) beef fat tastes fishy because it effectively is similar to fish oils.  In particular, grass-fed beef fat is dramatically higher in omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acids) as opposed to omega-6 (linoleic) fatty acids; this NIH funded study for example found:

  ... overall average of 1.53 and 7.65 [omega-6 to omega-3 ratio] for grass-fed and grain-fed, respectively, for all studies reported in this review.

Meaning that grass-fed beef might have a 3:2 ratio of o6:o3 fatty acids, while grain-fed beef has a 13:2 ratio - a ratio over 4 times higher.

Fish tends to have even more omega 3 fatty acids, tending to a ratio of less than 1 (so, more omega 3 than omega 6); so I wouldn't imagine your beef tastes entirely like fish.  But you're definitely going to taste some 'fishiness' in there in grass-fed and grass-finished beef as compared to grain-finished or grain-fed.

As far as how to prepare it, the challenge with beef is the strong beef flavor that you don't want to entirely cover up (or you wouldn't be buying a nice grass-fed side of beef, you'd be buying something from the local megamart).

My suggestion is to take your cue from fish itself: specifically, from strong tasting fish, and fish that is commonly eaten in steak-like preparations.

Steak Tartare or Beef Carpaccio is one suggestion.  By not melting the fat, you're not going to release as much of the 'fishy' flavor, and in fact this is a common preparation for fishier fish as well (Tuna and Salmon in particular).
Add an acidic sauce, such as hollandaise.  Acidic flavors cut the fishy flavor well, just as spritzing some lemon juice onto your salmon does.
Braised preparations such as how short ribs are commonly prepared work well because not only can you introduce an acidic flavor but you also allow some of the oil to be extracted from the fat and blended into the meat where it's not quite as concentrated as simply eating the steak.  While braised beef can be very heavy on the sauce, a simple braise in red wine might be effective at counteracting the oil flavor while still keeping the beefiness.
Removing the fat before cooking (trimming) will work well for cuts that have solid fat. Even something like a ribeye (which has a lot of both marbling and solid fat), simply doing this might be sufficient if the taste doesn't bother you too much.
Frying in butter, or in a fat that is not high in omega-3 fatty acids, may help as well.  Olive oil should be fine (very little omega-3); avoid flaxseed oil or blended oils that list omega 3 fatty acids as a health benefit. This probably won't help with the solid fat, though, only with the marbling.
Finally, you will get used to this taste just as you did with gaminess.  So, simply eating it and not trying to alter it may be the right path if you are going to continue buying grass-fed and grass-finished beef in this manner.  Many tastes are possible to get used to after five or six meals of them.


What is the minimum amount of sugar needed for getting the desired texture in this banana marmalade? I've been trying to make banana marmalade(1) with the least amount of sugar possible. I've tried the following basic recipe - with variations in the amount of sugar, I've tried the following three versions:

500g water;
500g banana;
One tablespoon of flax seed;
70/100/130g sugar.

(Yes, I don't like to follow recipes, I like to make a guess and experimentally trying to find the right ratio of ingredients). When I use 130g of sugar, it cristalizes(2) and the color changes (ambar color) but this doesn't happen when I use 70g or 100g it gets more like sweet boiled banana. Is there a way to know - given certain amounts of ingredients - what is the correct ratio of sugar? I'd like it to be as minimum as possible.

In the first version of my recipe (130g), I've tried without flax seeds. Perhaps the flax is changing the cristalization/coloring process?

(1) The nomeclature seems problematic: In Portuguese we call it "doce", which literaly translates to "sweet" but when I change the languange in wikipedia, it suggests that "doce" is "marmalade" which - for us - is marmelo marmalade.

(2) This is a gross translation of the word we use here, but it refers to the hardening of the substance and color change.

There is no way to predict the amount you want. If you want to know it, the only way is extensive experimentation.

You observed two outcomes, which I will call "amber" and "boiled" for short. If I got you right, you assume that the difference between them is determined by the amount of sugar, and are asking about the minimal amount of sugar to reach the "amber" state.

Preparation: isolate the responsible factor

You admit that the amount of sugar was not the single factor you varied. You also left out the flaxseeds, which is a major factor in texture. So, before you start the experiment proper, you will have to prove that it was not the flaxseeds, by making the 130g version with them. If you get the amber version, the experiment can continue. If you don't, the whole idea is moot anyway, because it was based on a false assumption. You could set up a similar experiment without flaxseed then - or simply make the recipe without flaxseed and with zero sugar, to see if it doesn't provide the effect you wanted all by itself.

The theory behind the experiment

So, assuming that you have proven that it is not the flaxseeds. Then you have two possible cases. Either this is a linear system, or a nonlinear one. In a linear system, there are not really two states of "amber" and "boiled", but a long, smooth spectrum, of which you observed two (or actually three) points. In that case, versions made with a middle amount of sugar will have characteristics somewhere between "amber" and "boiled", it is just your human brain with its penchant for dividing the world that assigns some of them into the "boiled" and others to the "amber" category. If that's the case, then the question of the boundary between "amber" and "boiled" is subjective. The only way to know where you personally will assign that boundary is to continue the experiment by making many more batches with different amounts of sugar and find out where your personal minimum lies.

The other interesting possibility is that of a nonlinear system, where there is no spectrum, but the end state is always objectively either "amber" or "boiled" and there is a tipping point in the amount of sugar which makes the whole system fall exactly into one of those states, without an in-between state. If this is it, you will never be able to mathematically model the process which creates the two states - humanity does not yet have the mathematics for that, and there are signs it may never have them. If this is the case, then there should be a wide swath of parameter space (= sugar amount) that practically always produces the "amber" state, another wide swath that produces "boiled", and a border region between them of unknown width that produces either the one or the other, without a way to predict which one will be. The only way to find out the minimum amount of sugar to produce the amber state, as opposed to being in the border state, will require repeated series of experiments.

The experiment itself

We don't know which case we have, but luckily, the experimental protocol for both will be the same. First, you should do a simple binary search to quickly find something that looks like a border region. This means: make and record batches of 130 and 70 g (the best thing would be to run the experiments in one day and keep samples, since you probably cannot record all relevant parameters in a home kitchen, and keeping the samples will make them change with time), then search in the middle (maybe that's why you tried 100 g already), then the middle between the two changing states, etc. After you have ran that, you will also have a good idea if you are dealing with case 1 or 2 (unless your search converges too quickly). Once you have it, you should enter the second phase, where you randomly choose 5-10 amounts of sugar close to the turning amount indentified in the binary search, and make those. The reason behind it is that your border will have some width in both cases, in the linear case because of subjectivity (if you are faced with something in the middle between amber and boiled, on some occasions you will perceive it as belonging to the amber category, on some as belonging to the boiled category) and in the nonlinear case because the border is not one-dimensional, but fractal-dimensional, so it has some width. In the end, you should have determined what amount of sugar reliably gives you "amber", and what amount produces different results, which you sometimes classify as "amber" and sometimes as "boiled".

A word on why this complicated approach is needed

You said that you dislike following recipes. But at the same time, you want to get to a well defined end state, and do so under a constraint (minimal amount of sugar).

You have a few choices how you can approach cooking. If you want freedom and creativity, and are happy with a random outcome, you can do random experiments. A little bit of kitchen experience will be enough to get good results most of the time. Alternatively, if you want a very specific outcome, you can strictily follow a recipe where somebody did all the work needed to find out how to achieve it. If you have decided that you will not follow a recipe, and if you have set your mind on a specific outcome, you have no choice but to invest the work needed to develop the recipe for that outcome. And the more constraints you have, the more work it is.

If you hoped that it is possible to take a look at the outcome of an experiment and predict the conditions which will give you the same results under a constraint - no, the chemistry and physics of cooking is way too complicated for doing that. The experimental approach is long and boring, but it is still the most efficient (and actually the most effective) one you can take.


Webshop to buy vegetarian/vegan products online delivering in Canada? I would love shops with bulk of almonds, various beans (soy,lentils,chickpeas), speciality cereals like quinoa/amaranth, seitan mix, vegan fake chiken, broths, wheat grass, vegetarian/vegan fake meats ...

As I buy from Quebec, it could be harder a little ...

Go Dairy Free's list of online food retailers is a good start.

Have a google of Indian/Asian/Baking supplies too. Doesn't have to be an all Vegan online source, eh?

I relied on a middle-eastern import company for pulses years ago before they were available locally. Had to order 10K sacks! Learned to share the bargain with friends.


storing crispy fried onions I'm looking to know how to store home made crispy fried onions. I'm not looking to refrigerate for a week or two. I want to be able to know how to store them in a glass bottle for long term storage.

There are three things to watch out for regarding long-term storage: moisture, oxygen, and light.

Too much moisture and your product is potential food for spoilage organisms. If you are making onion strings, it is likely that the frying process will have already dealt with that and the moisture is down to an acceptable level. Larger onion rings might be a problem as the onion pieces would typically have a lot more moisture - the reason that those thick crispy onion rings from the burger joint you put in the refrigerator are never as good the next day. I have been unable to find an actual number for this value for percent moisture, but if you have the equipment to measure this as a number it is highly likely that you would not need our assistance to answer your question.

Second, are two factors that impact your product going rancid: light and oxygen. If you are frying in any oil that is less than fully saturated (pretty much anything other than lard or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils), you have double-bonds in the fatty acid chain susceptible to oxidation or UV degradation, and in sufficient quantities the resulting compounds are highly unpleasant (butyric acid being one example).

Rancidification wiki link

You will need to either 1) replace the oxygen in the container with something like dry nitrogen, or 2) put an oxygen scavenger into the container (those little "do not eat" packets in some bagged foods you purchase). Also, the reason that many potato chips are sold in mylar bags is to prevent spoilage related to light exposure, so using a brown glass bottle would be better than clear, although not entirely protective.

I do not know that "canning" would be a great idea, as surrounding the jars with a water bath would risk introducing more moisture and there may be insufficient water remaining in the jars to purge the air by boiling off, which is how the vacuum is formed with canning. It might be better to use a canning jar in a vacuum chamber (yes I have one in my kitchen, but I'm not normal). The side effect of this would be that prolonged exposure to a vacuum would remove additional moisture by boiling off residual water, and you could then refill the chamber with an inert atmosphere (the dry nitrogen) afterwards, so less of a need for the little oxygen scavenger packets.


Powder to prevent foam in egg white protein? I have a bunch of egg white protein powder to take as a supplement. Only when I mix it in a shaker bottle, it foams up. Reading the answers about souffles I got the idea that if the egg yolk prevents foaming, and that yolks contain lecithin--that must be what the soy lecithin is for in the commercial egg proteins which don't foam up at all. But that didn't work. What is a powder--natural if possible--that I can add so that it mixes like the store bought stuff?

You're looking for a "food grade" antifoam agent. A brief look at the linked search results shows antifoam powders look to be mostly silicone based. They may or may not work for your heavy protein foam.


How to re-melt bitter chocolate? I melted bitter chocolate (40%) via bain-marie to make chocolate-covered strawberries. As the melted chocolate dried out before I finished dipping all the strawberries, I tried to melt the rest again with the same method but it became sort of muddy and dry.  (I didn’t have any problem with milk chocolate.)

What could be done (other than repeating the process with small amounts) to "re-melt" it without losing the bitter taste?

Chocolate is a sol, consisting of solid particles suspended in cocoa butter. It is something similar to a hard emulsion. And it can separate just the way a liquid emulsion does (think mayonnaise). This happens when you melt the cocoa butter completely, so the solid particles separate from the fat. If it happens to a chocolate bar, your chocolate looks grey. If it happens to a bowl of melted chocolate, the chocolate seizes the way you describe it. This happens with both milk and dark chocolate. If you haven't experienced it with milk chocolate before, you either had luck, or your milk chocolate was of a lesser quality than the dark one and contained non-cocoa fats and/or emulsifiers, which change the behavior of the sol.

The only way to prevent seizing is to work within the correct temperature zone, which is extremely narrow (2-3°C). Even as an experienced confiseur, it is extremely hard to judge it intuitively. If you insist on trying to watch the chocolate and guess when it is OK, you will have inconsistent results, with a seizing once every few tries.

What you need is to get a candy thermometer. Keep it in the chocolate and, whenever the temperature nears the danger zone, put the inner bain marie vessel in a basin of cold water you keep near the stove for this purpose. It will cool rapidly and stay tempered. It isn't a problem if you cool it off so much it hardens again; you can remelt chocolate as often as you want as long as you never exceed the seizing temerature.

And now for the numbers. All kinds of chocolate (milk, white, bitter) harden at 27°C. Between 27°C and 30°C, they are soft, but unworkable, because they are too viscous (hold unpacked chocolate pieces in your hand for a while to see what I mean). The workable zone is 30°C to 32°C for milk (and white) chocolate, and 30°C to 33°C for dark chocolate. Above this, your cocoa fat melts and the chocolate seizes. So, keep an eye at the thermometer, as you see, the zones are narrow.

Edit: I just noticed that you call 40% "bitter". This is a very low cocoa percentage, and I wouldn't let it go up to 33°C. The numbers for "bitter" are probably safe for 70% cocoa and above.


Are there any particular type of corn chips that are made from masa flour? I am wondering if the type "Mexican Style" or "Restauant Style"  or "Tortilla" corn chips also means they are made from masa flour? I cannot tell from the ingredients list. It does not say what process was used to make the corn flour.

Tortillas are made from masa.  So, if the chip is truly a "tortilla chip", then it was made with masa.  Corn chips, like the brand Fritos, are made from corn meal, I believe.  Masa is made from nixtamalized corn.  Corn meal or corn flour is simply ground corn.


Green tomato soup calls for creme fraiche. I cannot have creme fraiche. If I add heavy creme will it be ok? I want to make green tomato soup but the recipe I have calls for creme fraiche. I cannot get creme fraiche. Will using heavy cream as a substitute smooth out the sourness of the green tomatoes and still be pleasant tasting? I prefer a little sweet to tart tasting anyway.

If you add only heavy creme the final result will be more smooth and a little bit sweeter (even though green tomatoes are very sour to taste). If you have access to a white yogurt (non sweetened) or greek yogurt you can add that to the soup, maybe by adding it gradually and correcting with cream if the taste degenerates.


Suggestions for storing homemade frozen custard I've been having a hankering for Rita's ice cream because I love frozen custard. It's so much richer than vanilla ice cream. I've decided to try to make it myself with this recipe.

I have the Cuisinart ice cream maker to mix it in. I'd like to make a big batch (quarts or gallon size would be good) of it can anyone recommend good storage containers? I would like one with a lid because I wouldn't want the custard to smell like "freezer" or get frozen crystals on top. Any tips or suggestions? Thanks!

Comments for other frozen custard recipes you've liked would be awesome too if you know of any! :)

Any air tight plastic container will do to keep smells out. I use either cheap, disposable plastic leftover containers, or used ice cream tubs that I saved from previous purchased ice cream.

As for the crystallization- The only way to prevent that is my having no air in contact with the ice cream at all. I don't know how to solve that completely. I avoid the issue by not making more than we can eat in a reasonable amount of time (a week or so).


What's the difference between orange extract and orange blossom water? I bought some extract for dessert making and got the blossom water on a whim, since it was right next to it on the shelf. The blossom water smells a little sharper, but they both taste the same straight and I haven't played around with them enough to get a gut instinct on which one goes in what. What's the base difference between the two and how they're used?

Orange blossom water is distilled from actual orange blossoms, and will have a subtle orange flavor, probably more delicate and complex than orange extract, at least on a per volume basis.

Orange extract comes from the zest or colored part of the fruit, and is a very powerful flavoring with a strong orange presence, but no acidity.

You will find that blossom water is more commonly used in recipes from the middle east and northern Africa, that have migrated up into Italy and France as well.

Orange extract is used in more assertive, more typically western recipes.

Given that fresh oranges are readily available, and the zest can be removed and use directly, using either of these is not as common as it otherwise might be.


Can I reduce a prawn/shrimp broth I have a freshly made shrimp broth.
 Onions, parsnip, tomato paste and white pepper corns along with shrimp shells.

https://www.msc.org/where-to-buy/product-finder/products/cfpsproduct-19BA7EBA-B7E7-40E4-8C33-8566D3AF25A0  is similar to the shrimp I have used.

It was simmering for about 15 minutes, then I strained it.

It is my experience that more simmering makes it turn bitter or too compact  (I'm lacking a better word).

Can I simmer/reduce the liquid to about half without imparting any off flavours?

Remove anything you suspect might affect flavour negatively (or, more simply, strain the whole caboodle), then reduce to concentrate flavour.

For fish broth, you shouldn't simmer the fish bones / heads for more than half an hour and I assume a similar rule applies for shrimp.


Is there ever an advantage to using a light-bottomed pan? I have seen many recipes where cooking with a heavy-bottomed pan is advised, as the heat is distributed more evenly and avoids "hot spots".
With that in mind, is there ever a situation where it would not be beneficial, or even be a hinderance, to use a heavy-bottomed pan? If not, why do light-bottomed pans exist?

Firstly, light-bottomed pans exist partly because they save cost and weight (the latter being relevant for, say, taking a pan when hiking). However, there are applications for which a light-bottomed pan can be preferable. These are when you need responsiveness to external heat more than heat retention and evenness. Taking a light pan off the stove will more quickly halt cooking, because it has a lower thermal mass. The pan will also heat up more quickly, but this is less relevant when compared to a properly preheated, thicker pan.
This article goes into some detail on considerations for pan selection. Crucially:

For sautéing and other cooking that calls for quick temperature changes, a pan should be responsive. This means that the pan is doing what the heat source tells it to, and pronto. For example, if you sauté garlic just until fragrant and then turn down the flame, the pan should cool down quickly so the garlic doesn’t burn. Responsiveness isn’t as crucial for boiling, steaming, or the long, slow cooking that stocks and stews undergo.

Additionally, as mentioned by @Blargant in a comment, while responsiveness is less relevant in situations where a relatively large amount of water is used, the positive properties of a thicker pan are also less useful in those cases. Thus, cost becomes a concern, which is why commercial stock pots and the like tend to be thin.


Is it possible to make homemade mascarpone? I had a piece of tiramisu that had a layer of mascarpone that really balanced the other flavors out perfectly.  At the grocery store it's sold in such little/expensive containers I was looking for an alternative homemade version - any ideas?

Yes, you can. You'll require heavy cream, an acid (vinegar or tartaric acid), au bain marie technique and patience and a refridgerator.

Check out preparation here.


What are ‘fresh noodles’ in a salad I am missing my favourite salad. It’s 5 hours from my house so I am stuck trying to recreate it at home. It’s called an Asian Goi Mi Salad. As you can see by the photos it’s loaded up with yummy stuff. I will be able to figure out how to create most of it but the ‘fresh noodles’ has me hung up. What type of noodle are they? They were tasty and I would love to include them.
Here’s the ingredient list and hopefully you can zoom in and see the noodles (there’s bean sprouts in there too).

Sweet chilli pulled pork
Fresh noodles
Spicy sesame peanut dressing
Crisp veggies
Mint
Cilantro
Crispy shallots
Organic greens

Fresh - as opposed to dried.
Specifically in the UK, 'noodles' can only be Chinese/South-East Asian. Pasta is pasta, it is never called noodles over here, so we don't have the confusion the US has with the term.*
Fresh noodles you can find in the supermarket, usually refrigerated slightly, in with the 'delicate veg' section - near mangetout, pak choi, beansprouts, chillies etc.
There are usually a minimum of three types, The one you want will be just labelled 'Chinese noodles'[1] [pretty much the same as fresh spaghetti, made of durum wheat but has been through a fermentation phase giving a darker yellow/brown colour & stronger flavour, then tossed in oil to prevent sticking] alternatively, rice noodles [usually very skinny, vermicelli, very white, less oil] & then the bright yellow, pre-flavoured, Singapore noodles [again rice vermicelli but with 'flavourings' (avoid;)]
If you can't find them in the fridge in your store, then second best is 'vac-packed' which will be near the 'insta-food' sauces - [pad thai in a bag, just add chicken] type of things. These are similar to fresh, often with monikers like "straight to wok" etc. They're nowhere near as nice as fresh & always look to me more Japanese than Chinese, as they're quite white by comparison, so possibly not fermented].
If you can't get either of those, then it's back to dried. Soak in hot water 5 minutes, stir-fry.
Sometimes, I actually prefer dried. It depends on what I'm making.
The difference is very similar [unsurprisingly] to fresh vs dried Italian pasta. Some dishes are OK using dried, some have got to be fresh. Fresh doesn't have the bite, or al-dente that dried has. Just the same with noodles, except the 'bite' can often be slightly more rubbery [not in a bad way] compared to pasta.
One additional tip - you can pretty much pick the strength of flavour in dried noodles just by the colour. The browner they are the stronger the flavour [assuming no-one cheated & put colourings in them.]
If you're really really stuck, ramen noodles are very close to 'Chinese noodles' but only if they're good ones. Most ramen in cheap foil packs you can't see what's in it until you open it. Avoid unless desperate ;)
*Just to keep a balance, we have many other things we can get linguistically confused over… coriander, chili, to name but two ;)
[1] After comments, it's quite likely that these would be called 'chow mein' noodles in the US.


How to Everything Soup / Anything Soup / Build It Yourself Soup / Stone Soup Saute onions, fresh garlic, in the pot using 1 tbsp olive oil.

• For every cup of chopped veggies, use approximately 2 cups broth [or water be used for a cheap imitation?]

• For every 2 cups broth, use 1 bouillon cube [or not?]

• For every 2 cups broth, stir in 2 teaspoons onion powder and garlic powder

• Bring everything to a boil and cook until the veggies are fully cooked [for approx how long?]

https://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-build-it-yourself-vegetable-soup/

Why have onions and garlic twice? Why not just saute more?
Why broth and cubes?

Can water be used for a cheap imitation? Yes, though you'll probably want to use more bullion in this case, or else end up with a bland soup.
Use 1 buillion cube (or not)? Up to you.  More bullion could add more flavor and will definitely add more salt (which is an important element of flavor).  I note in the link you provided that they specify no-sodium bullion, so in that case you'll just be giving more enhanced flavor.
How long? [until fully cooked] It depends on the type of vegetables.  Things like carrots and parsnips can take longer to soften, if you prefer to have soft vegetables in your soup.  Potatoes will take a little less time, but still need to cook for a while.  Other vegetables can get overcooked (very mushy) if simmered for too long.  Some people don't mind mushy vegetables in soup; others do.  In any case, I'd say after bringing to a boil, turn down the heat and try simmering for about 30 minutes.  That should give time for flavors to blend.  If you don't have particularly hard vegetables to cook, you might even try 20 minutes.
Then taste.  If some vegetables aren't tender enough for you, cook longer.  (Unless you have large chunks of hard vegetables, it shouldn't take much longer -- perhaps 45-60 minutes at most; after that, you'll start to break down some of the most subtle vegetable components and lose some flavor.)  If some vegetables get too soft for you, wait and add these more toward the end of cooking next time.
Why have onions and garlic twice? Why not just saute more?  The recipe you linked lists the powders actually in the ingredients, but then it contains a note at the end about "if you have fresh onion and garlic, saute them first."  I think that's pretty clear: the soup doesn't assume you have any particular fresh vegetables on hand, so it's just using the powders for flavor.  IF you have fresh onion and/or garlic, saute them first.  And in that case, I'd say you could omit the powders.
Note that garlic powder and onion powder do often introduce a different flavor (which I wouldn't usually find as pleasant in vegetable soup) compared to their fresh versions.  You could experiment as to what you like better.  (Personally, I'd just saute both fresh and skip the powder, assuming you have fresh onion and garlic.)
Why broth and cubes? Well, I'd have guessed this was about adding salt, but again your linked recipe clarifies that they are using low sodium broth and no sodium bullion, only adding salt to taste at the end.  So, I guess this is just about adding more flavor.  Note that most vegetables will release water as they cook, which will dilute the broth a bit -- adding bullion is a way to enhance the flavor a bit more and counter this.  (Yes, the vegetables will add flavor to the broth as they cook too, but an all-vegetable soup can end up tasting watery.)  I also suspect that this recipe is using extra bullion (and perhaps extra onion and garlic powder too) to add flavor, because of the lack of salt in everything.  I understand why some people want to limit salt intake, and I personally prefer to make stock/broth with no salt and add it later myself, but if you don't add any salt at all, you'll end up with what most would consider a rather bland soup.  This recipe appears to be trying to make up for that by adding other flavor components.


smoking chicken know how I would like to make smoked chicken as it is not available here in UK - I used to be able to get it in S.A. and I think it is fab. I live in a small flat in cold, very cold UK.  My question is;
Can I smoke chicken breast in a "Go Chef" cooker or my oven maybe and how would I go about it if I do not have a smoker. (do not have space for one) I read somewhere that you should cook the chicken first and then smoke it, is this correct?  Thanks. Rose

I could find nothing on a "Go Chef Cooker" so I cannot speak for that.  When I did the search, I found some Pressure Cookers, and those won't be a very viable choice for smoking foods.

There are a couple of ways that you can smoke meats indoors.

One of the ways is to do it in the oven.  There is a "smoker" box that is used for indoor smoking.  The box contains a rack and the smoker chips sit below the rack in the bottom of the box, while the meat sits on the rack suspended in the box.  The oven causes the chips to smoke. But, because it is completely enclosed (sealed), the smoke does not infiltrate the kitchen/house.  When you open it, after cooking, you might want to open it outdoors so that the smoke is not released indoors.  I also suspect that the cooking time might vary because it is a different method of cooking. Note: I do not have one. I use an electric outdoor smoker. My FIL uses a smoker that is a 30" diameter steel pipe mounted on an old axle with wheels, tires, a trailer hitch, & a license plate.  I expect this will be your best bet for smoking without an appliance that belongs outdoors.

Another way would be to have an indoor grill, like a Jenn-Air range with a cooktop that has burner racks and a downdraft exhaust. But, this is only good for grilling thin meats & I would not expect them to give much smoke flavor to a bird.

Another way would be to use some Liquid Smoke type product.  With this, you could use it in a baste or marinade, then simply bake in the oven as you would any bird.  Doing this will give you a couple of limited choices on flavor, like Hickory or Mesquite, but using real wood chips in a physical smoker (either stove top or outdoors) will give you the option to vary the flavor by using some pecan, oak, apple, cherry, or other woods.  Doing a search for "stovetop smoker" will provide some good results.