Homemade Buffalo Sauce I live in the Philippines where Frank's Hot sauce is frankly quite expensive. I'm planning to make a homemade Buffalo Wings sauce with Trappey's Hot sauce (which is cheaper) to sell in our entrepreneur food stall.

Does anybody know any good combinations for homemade buffalo sauce with this combination?

So far, I tried simmering 2/3 parts buttermilk with 1/3 trappey's hot sauce, and added 1/8 cup of ketchup (just for the sweeter addition). It kind of lacks the "tangy" "sharp" taste that I taste in restaurants. Can this be amended by adding white vinegar in the mix? Any spicing suggestions that makes a big difference? :D

Know that the traditional Frank's Buffalo Wings Sauce is just Frank's RedHot and melted butter. I'd definitely start there, and tweak with the substitution. The old standard is 1/2 cup (118ml) Frank's RedHot to 1/3 cup (79ml) melted butter.

Vinegar is a distinct possibility, to me neither buttermilk nor ketchup make sense.

You might find this recipe for homemade hot sauce helpful. The reviewers love it and it's supposed to taste like Frank's.

EDIT after comments to OP:

Trappey's Red Devil Cayenne Pepper Sauce contains: Distilled Vinegar (Vinegar and Water), Red Cayenne pepper, Salt, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Ascorbic Acid (to preserve freshness).

Frank's RedHot contains: Aged Cayenne red peppers, vinegar, water, salt and garlic powder.

The Scoville rating of Frank's Original is 450, Red Devil is 800-1200 according to these sources: Franks, Trappey's

So, the only significant difference in the ingredients is the garlic in the Franks. The fact that vinegar is listed first in the Trappey's list and second in the Franks list is meaningless, since Franks separates "water and vinegar", Trappey's lists them together.

Frank's claims that the peppers in that sauce are "aged". I looked into that and found that the peppers in some hot sauces (including Frank's) are made into a mash and allowed to ferment before they are made into the sauce. AHA! I suspect that there's your tang.

For the sake of economy and a special "brand" that could potentially set your product apart as superior and unique, I'd experiment with making your own hot sauce starting with fermenting your peppers. Here's a Google search to get you started. I found a lot of those sites informative. Another thing that you can do right off the bat is ferment batches of peppers of varying hotness and mixing that mash with your Trappey's to create mild, medium and hot varieties of your sauce.

And add garlic and butter.

And ditch the buttermilk :)


How to peel tomatoes easily? I went through several websites and  found that the easiest way to peel tomato is to boil them . So, How long do we need to boil tomatoes so that you can easily peel them?

You don't want to boil them, you want to blanch them. This means you bring the water to a boil, cut a shallow cross into each tomato (scoring the peel), add the tomatoes (few enough compared to the amount of water that the water doesn't stop boiling) and let them boil for ~1 minute. Remove the tomatoes and dump them straight into ice water. Once cooled the peel should come right off.


Is it normal for potatoes to look like they are 'shedding'? I bought potatoes today in a different store then I normally do. When I came home I saw that the potatoes look like they are 'shedding', and I can peel of pieces of skin. Is this normal for some kind of potatoes? I'm not familiar with this with the potatoes I normally buy.
They feel and smell normal. Also they have normal color, no 'bad' spots and when cutting one in half it also looks fine.
Are this potatoes just an other kind then I'm used to, or is there something wrong with it?
I bought 'regular' waxy potatoes from some supermarket.

Thanks!

This is perfectly normal for waxy potatoes; their skins are soft and easily scraped off, especially if freshly harvested and handled roughly.   I saw it just the other day with a batch of new potatoes fresh from the CSA.  The potatoes were just fine.

If you see this with thick-skinned, starchy potatoes it may be a sign of fungus, especially if accompanied by dried out or roughened patches.  Green colors in the peel are also a problem, because they indicate exposure to light and an elevated level of the toxin solanine. Solanine can cause upset digestion and headaches if consumed in quantity.  Don't eat potatoes that are very green.


Should my chicken sit in liquid as it roasts, or not? For the last chicken I roasted, I used this recipe, slightly modified.  The biggest modification was that I added liquid to the pan, it was eyeballed but let's say I used about 1/2 to 1 cup total of a vinegar/homemade chicken stock mixture...enough to come about halfway up the halved onions, in a 12" cast iron skillet.

After reading responses to this question about flipping the bird to get crispy skin, I had decided that some liquid in the pan wouldn't be a problem.

Turns out, when I took the bird out to rest and reduced the liquid (now with chicken drippings added), I was treated to the most delicious gravy I've ever had.  It was like sweet liquid gold.  I think the caramelization of the onions over the 2 hours was the main reason.  I definitely want the same result, gravy-wise.

This time, I don't want to flip the chicken but I still want crispy skin, so I'm going to follow the recipe a little more strictly and not add any extra liquid to the pan and just baste with its own juices as they come out.  However, I don't want to lose that delicious caramelized onion gravy.

So, my question: Will the onions still caramelize properly if they don't have a good amount of liquid around them to start?  Or should I oil my skillet or add a small amount of liquid so there's something in there until the chicken starts to drip?

Also: Any other reasons for or against liquid in the pan that I might be missing?

The secret to really crispy skin has everything to do with rendering the fat that lies directly under it.  Once that fat has removed itself from the skin, a little high heat will crisp it up perfectly.  If I am creating a roast chicken, I normally remove it from the packaging  and allow it to sit uncovered in the fridge for at least overnight, longer if I have the time. Then I start the chicken low to render the fat, you have to cook it at a minimum of 178F (80C) to remove the most fat. Once the fat renders out, which is going to vary depending on the temp you start the chicken at, you crank the temp to the 450 to 500F range and baste regularly.

To maximize the skin that will crisp you want to make sure that your chicken isn't sitting inside the fat while it cooks.  I normally use a inset rack to keep the chicken above the fat but you don't have to.  The other component to crispy skin is cooking the chicken uncovered.


Soaking starches in water for better frying I'm going to make some sweet potato fries here shortly and I'm using a technique that I saw on television.  I cut up my sweet potatoes into fries and I have been letting them soak in water.   My intent is that some of the starch will dissolve into the water and help the fries crisp up better.  Has anyone else tried this?

This is a common technique and should work well. It is important that you dry the fries thoroughly before adding them to the oil, otherwise it will boil out of the pan.

If you have the time, you can lay the fries on a rack and place in the fridge for a couple of hours, which dehydrates the surface nicely. If not, pat them dry with lots of kitchen paper.


Where can I find good ground sumac? An Iranian friend once gave me some ground sumac to eat with a meal.  I loved its tangy,clean taste.  I later bought some online, but there was no tangy taste.  Tried an import store with the same result.  Would like to find the good stuff.

As with almost anything you can purchase ground, you can also purchase sumac berries whole:

You may be able to buy them whole locally, you can certainly buy them whole online, as that picture is from Amazon. Spices lose their flavor quickly once ground, it's almost always better to grind your own.

If you don't have a spice grinder, I recommend checking out local thrift stores for a used, rotary style coffee grinder. Even new, they're very inexpensive, and then you'll always be able to grind your own spices.


How should I store vacuum-sealed sliced salami? I had a whole Genoa salami that I sliced into very thin slices. I would like to save the remaining meat for consumption later, so I separated them into approximately 1-pound bags and vacuum-sealed them for storage.

How should I store the bagged salami, and how long can I expect it to keep? The original salami was rated to be shelf-stable with no refrigeration for about 8 months judging by the date on the label, but I'm not sure how that changes once it is sliced.

You can store the vacuum sealed bags in the refrigerator or the freezer.  It would have been better to leave the salami whole for long term storage, simply to reduce the impact of oxidation and flavor loss. The only other thing that changes with slicing is the potential that you contaminated it, either by touching it or because your equipment was not clean.   If this is the case, you will observe mold forming on the salami.  If that happens, discard.  Otherwise, the only worry you have is flavor loss.  Frozen, I would say you have several months.  Refrigerated, you'll experience flavor changes after a few weeks.


How to replace polenta in Mexican Polenta Casserole recipe The recipe asks for one 16 oz. package of precooked polenta, but I only have yellow corn grits (uncooked, from Bob's Red Mill - also labeled as polenta). How much do I cook for it to be equivalent?

Corn grits are not the best possible substitute for polenta:

Polenta is the Italian name for corn meal
Instant polenta is basically polenta that has been cooked, then dried and ground; it is precooked, and and pre-gelatinized, and so does not require long cooking
Precooked polenta is available, in a tube or tub, which is literally a prepared, cooked polenta.
Grits are a ground corn product, where the corn has been treated with lye (it is made from hominy)

A better substitute for uncooked polenta would be plain corn meal (1:1); for precooked polenta would be cornmeal that has been cooked into a thick porridge (1:1).

If you do substitute hominy type grits for plain polenta, your result will be somewhat different, but you can try 1:1, by volume or weight, either way.

Update:  evidently some processors label their product "Grits" as well as "Traditional Italian Polenta".  While I cannot endorese misusing the word grits, in this case, then, they are the same product so it isn't really a substitution, and 1:1 is the proper use.


How to cook for a diabetic without making the other guests suffer I'm looking to host a big dinner and want to make it as diabetic-friendly as possible. I'm also looking to not make special diabetic-friendly dishes that only 1 person gets. I want to make meals that everyone can have.

I'm aware that I need to keep the sugar in the cabinet and try to reduce the starchy foods I make to a minimum, but are there other ingredients to avoid?

That said, I'm specifically in need of a substitute for pasta that will go well with marinara sauce. It would be a plus if the substitute was good with alfredo sauce. I grew up in a BIG Italian family so the idea of a meal without pasta is almost heresy. With this in mind I'm not very familiar with more diabetic-friendly options that keep sugars and carbohydrates low.

I also want to serve mashed potatoes but wounder if there are other veggies I can mash to come up with something like mash potatoes but less starchy considering the diabetic facts?

Are there any techniques commonly used to make dishes with a lower hypoglycemic index? I've seen things like a bed of veggies instead of pasta but I'm not sure if everyone would like that.

Thanks.

I think the best solution is to avoid pre-mixing or pre-saucing anything. If you bring out a big bowl of pasta tossed (or topped) with sauce, the only way to get sauce is to eat pasta. Imagine instead you bring out:

a big bowl of pasta, perhaps tossed with a little oil to keep it from sticking
a bowl of brown rice
marinara sauce
alfredo sauce
olive-oil-grilled veggies (cauliflower, carrots, eggplant...)
grilled lean meat (chicken breast?)
mashed potatoes
a nice loaf of bread
a big green salad

Some people can have pasta and sauce. Some people can have meat and sauce. Some people can declare marinara sauce to be as close to a vegetable as they want, while others can eat veggies with rice or pasta and ignore the meat. If your alfredo is vegetarian and your marinara is vegan, you're covering a great deal of ground - diabetic, non-gluten, vegetarian, vegan - with one feast.

Personally I would avoid gluten-free pasta, or any kind of substitutions that are supposed to resemble something else. In a big dinner, you want to make it easy for people to know whether to avoid something or eat it. You also don't want people saying things like "ew, no, this is the fake pasta, please pass me the good stuff!" and making the person with a special diet feel bad.


No-bake cheesecake - freeze or chill overnight? Good day, I made a big batch of no bake blueberry cheesecakes for an event tomorrow. My question is, do I put it in the freezer or do I put it in the refrigerator? My concern is that if the temperature is not low enough, the icing I placed around the edges will deform and melt. My mom said that if the temperature is too low, the consistency will be ruined when the cheesecakes get thawed tomorrow.

What do I do? Is it possible to just set the freezer on a slightly higher temp? Setting the fridge to a lower temp isn't an option because I don't have enough space there.

Your refrigerator should be set at a temperature below 4 Celsius. If it isn't, then you are exposing yourself to danger from eating the other things stored there.

At this temperature, the cheesecake will keep perfectly without the icing deforming. Indeed, it will probably even keep well if the fridge temeprature is slightly high.

Under no circumstances should you increase the temperature of your freezer. The cake risks texture change if it freezes. A freezer should always be kept below freezing, or else the other food stored in there will take large hits to both quality and safety.


How to get the pits out of clingstone peaches for peach butter I'm making peach butter.  The recipe I have uses the skin on the peaches (you put the peaches in a blender, put them in the slow cooker with sugar and spices, then use an immersion blender at the end to blend it all again).  Unfortunately the peaches I got are clingstone.  And they are small (like tangerines maybe), but the flavor is really good.  If I just roughly chop the peaches and throw them into the slow cooker (pits and all), will the peaches eventually cook away from the pits, making it easy to remove them?  Or will cooking the pits give off a yucky (bitter) flavor and taint the peach butter?  Or is there a super simple way of removing the pits in clingstone peaches?  Thanks.  :)

Update 20 May:  I forgot to mention that the peaches were about the size of plums.  Of course a little more challenging.  I ended up cutting chunks off with a paring knife and was able to get pretty close to the pit.  Of course it was really messy, especially with the much riper ones!  All the peaches have been blended and are in the crock pot slowly turning into peach butter!  Next time I ask someone else to get me a ton of peaches, I'll make sure to specify freestone!  :D

Update 21 May:  I came home to a disgusting smell and mess in my slow cooker yesterday.  I guess the temperature was too hot (it was on low) and it all burned into a horrible mess.  I only had three ingredients in the slow cooker.  $40 worth of peaches, 2 1/2 cups brown sugar, and 1/4 cup homemade vanilla extract (bourbon and vanilla pods).  It was on for five hours overnight and looked great in the morning but it was still very thin (in fact it seemed thinner than the night before), so I left it on low while I went to work.  I was gone eight hours and came home to a gross looking and smelling mess.  Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to attach a picture. :(

You may try a mango pit remover. Slide the peach up as far towards the small size as possible. This is just a thought, I have not tried it.


How do high-end restaurants promote such intense flavour in vegetables? Yesterday I was lucky enough to eat lunch in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

One course consisted, as far as I could tell, of nothing but a selection of lightly cooked baby beetroot and deep-fried shallot rings. Yet the flavours in both vegetables were enormous, so intense that they were enough to carry such an apparently simple dish all by themselves. Furthermore I could easily differentiate between the different varietals of beetroot on the plate, something I don't think I've experienced before.

While no doubt expertly seasoned, the dish was not overly salty: I drank no more water than usual during or after the meal. And since the beetroot were just halved, they cannot have been reduced in any way to concentrate the flavour.

What do high-class restaurants do to their ingredients to promote such incredible flavour? Given the semi-raw state of the beetroot, I can only imagine it's down to selection of the best, most in-season produce. But at the same time I find that hard to believe. What else could be at play here? And where do I have to look in order to find produce of that quality for my own kitchen?

You actually answered your own question, it's the quality and freshness of the ingredients which makes the food in a great restaurant so good. A heritage variety beet which has been hand weeded and cared for before being picked at the optimal time and cooked within a day will be a totally different eating experience than an industrially grown variety that has been picked for volume and pesticide resistance, grown for size over flavor and then takes a week between being picked and appearing in the supermarket.

Top chefs spend a great deal of time, effort and money sourcing the very best ingredients. Often the chef personally hand picks their ingredients, and some even control their own supply chain by having large gardens or even farms. Of course great chefs also are very good at preparation and flavor pairings, but with such simple dishes the ingredients have to stand up by themselves.

In order to get high quality ingredients you need to find a source other than the supermarket. Supermarkets rely on volume, and the varieties they stock are chosen for volume and shelf life - they are all competing on price so the longer the food lasts and the more that can be grown for less money the better. You aren't going to find the most flavorful varieties in the supermarket, and they will have been picked before they are at their peak so they don't rot before they get on the shelf. Farmers markets, food co-ops and the like are often good sources for high quality vegetables. You can also go to the same markets the chefs do (depending on where you live). Not all suppliers will sell straight to the consumer, but some do. Just be prepared to get up at stupid o'clock and be prepared to open your wallet wider than usual - the best does not come cheap! If you live in the countryside another option would be to drive to farms in your area and see if you can buy direct. A farmer can sell you produce for half the price of the downstream supplier and still make more profit.

Another option to get great vegetables is to grow them yourself, there's nothing better than a tomato picked straight from the plant and it's not hard to do. Growing your own is also incredibly cheap, you just have to be willing to put in a bit of time.


How to effectively drain frozen vegetables? When using frozen vegetables, even if I let them unfreeze overnight, I am finding that they then render quite a bit of water when cooking. How can I drain vegetables more effectively, especially when I need to use them right out of the freezer?

You can't drain them while they're frozen.  If you need to use them quickly, consider thawing them in the microwave, then draining them.

As for how to drain them, it depends on the type of vegetable.  Greens like spinach should be squeezed out.  Chunky vegetables should be drained in a colander and then dried with a towel.

Some of the water you get may be coming from inside the vegetables, though, in which case it's still going to come out only when cooking.  In that case, the only solution is not to overcrowd the pan.


Making cherry ice cream, should I macerate the cherries? I am going to be making cherry ice cream, I haven't used cherries before but in making strawberry ice cream I have always macerated the berries.

Should I do the same for cherries, the few recipes I have looked at don't say to to this.

I am planning to use the Good Eats custard base and add the cherries and some dark chocolate chunks.

tl;dr Either way is fine.

When making ice cream- your quest is to bind up water. Water crystallizes and makes ice cream icy instead of creamy. There are a lot of ways to keep water from freezing in ice cream from reducing the volume of water in the mix, to using natural antifreezes, to binding the water up with gums or starches.

Sugar loves water. The water will eagerly hook up with sugar and won't be able to freeze.

If you macerate your cherries two things will happen-

1- Water will be drawn out of the cherries and
2- The water that is left in them will be saturated with sugar and slower to freeze.

The result is that the cherries will be softer, sweeter (of course), be slightly more concentrated, and not freeze solid.

If you don't macerate them then they will be little chunks for cherry ice.

Both ways are perfectly tasty and I've had ice creams that do it either way. It just depends what you want to make.


I get a smaller volume loaf from mixing sourdough in mixer - what am I doing wrong? I have made my same recipe (74% hydration) of sourdough by both the stretch and fold and the Kitchenaid mixer method. I get a denser, lower volume loaf when I use the mixer, whether I refrigerate the dough or the shaped loaf. The stretch and fold method yields a lighter volume, larger loaf that doesn't collapse when I place it on the hot pan and score it. I like the mixer method as less time is required to make it but it never rises up in the Banneton as much as the other method. Could it be the mixer or my inability to determine when it has fermented or proofed enough at either stage?

That's quite normal. Hand kneading aligns the gluten well, and stretch-and-fold aligns it better than other methods, due to simple mechanics. The aligned gluten can hold the expansion gasses better. When you knead by mixer or autolyze, the resulting gluten tends to be directionless, more like a sponge than like shingles. The difference may not be too significant in a bread made with commercial yeast, but if you are using sourdough as your leavener, you can very well end up in a situation where you have less gas production (because you are not using an optimized yeast strain) and less elastic gluten formation (because the overdeveloped texture of the starter shortens the new dough), and then you can experience what you described.
Basically, there is no easy solution to what you described. You can try starting a new starter from scratch, using a different method, and hope that it is rise-happier - but this is a ton of work. You could try using a different recipe that is easier to leaven, e.g. with less sourdough, or with a combination of sourdough and yeast, or using a very leavening-friendly flour, such as pure white bread flour (in case you are now using a dark flour or a combination of grains) - but this will change your bread's taste. Or you can try finding out if other mixers with other hook mechanisms produce a better result with your recipe, but there aren't such big differences between home models. All these things require a lot of effort, and depend on chance to find an option that is better than what you currently have (if such an option even exists). So for practical purposes, I would say you have to decide what is the lesser evil for you - low rise or spending time for kneading by hand - and go with it.


"Best by date" true for bay leaves? Today I bought a 2 oz (56.7 grams) bottle of Bay Leaves.  The "best use by" date is 01/2015.  I've read that spices and herbs go "off" after a year or so, depending.  Can I believe the 2015 date on these bay leaves?

The use-by dates on all spices are mainly hokum. Most spices last for six months in whole form, herbs can be dried and last about three, after that time the taste is going to weaken and change as essential oils leave the spice. If you keep your spices in an airtight dark container you can eek out a little more time, but I would highly recommend that if you want fresh spices you grind yourself and keep fresh herbs on hand (it's very little work to grow your own).

That said, bay leaves last me quite a while, and even after I know they should be retired I tend to just throw more of them in the pot to achieve the same effect.


Turning toasted, non-crumbly whole wheat bread into breadcrumbs I've got some toasted 100% whole wheat homemade bread that I would like to turn into breadcrumbs. How can I do that? It doesn't crumble easily.

A coffee grinder or food processor both work well. Drying the bread at low oven temperature will aid the crumbling.


How to achieve in my homed-made mayo the same strong 'egg flavor' as in store-bought mayo? I have been experimenting with home-made mayonnaise recently. My favourite mayonnaise brands like Hellmann's and Hienz have three distinct taste 'points' that I have tried to achieve:

Tangy
Salty
A distinct 'eggy', or egg-like flavor

While I have been able to achieve the tangy-ness and saltiness through vinegar and salt, I have no idea how manufacturers make their mayonnaise taste so eggy. Do they half boil the eggs before emulsifying the mayo? Or is it achieved through a blend of other spices? I tried adding more raw eggs to my recipe but they don't seem to have any effect.

I appreciate any advice on what I could add to achieve this strong egg-like flavor in my home-made mayo.

Edit: Thanks for the answers so far. I will green tick the answer that worked best for me once I have tried them.

Edit 2: The answer that worked for me was the one that suggested home pasteurising the eggs. I pasteurised the eggs at 135 F for 1hr 15 mins as recommended but I couldn't keep the temperature (it kept fluctuating high and low). I used a small metal sauce pan. The final result was a mayo that had the strong eggy flavor I was looking for, but was also too watery. Still, in the context of this question it did work. Will be finding more ways to keep the eggy flavor while making the mayo thick and stable.

The sulfur content in the distilled white vinegar used in commercial mayo really emphasizes the egg flavor. If you're using a different vinegar, I think that you should switch to see if it does the trick.

The cooked egg flavor you're looking for comes from pasteurizing the eggs for the mayo. If you've got an immersion circulator, you can do a relatively high-temperature pasteurization for whole eggs in their shell, while not actually cooking them through, and use those for the mayo. There are commercially pasteurized shell eggs available from Davidson's Safest Choice, but they don't taste vastly different from regular eggs— I imagine they pasteurize them at a relatively low temperature for a pretty long time specifically to make them as similar to raw eggs as possible.

Without an immersion circulator, you almost certainly won't have the temperature control you need to pasteurize the eggs without cooking them.

Good luck!


Why does my food turn out poorly using an All-Clad Stainless-Steel Fry Pan? I have an All-Clad frying pan, the precise one shown below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005AL5F

I made this purchase out of curiosity after reading about the benefits of this professional grade cookware (from the above Amazon link):

Beautifully polished, magnetic stainless exterior layer.
Pure aluminum core that not only covers the bottom of the pan but also extends up the sides. This allows for great heat conductivity as well as an even heat distribution so you won’t have "hot spots" when cooking.
Stainless-steel interior layer/cooking surface.
Long, polished stainless, stay-cool handles.
Sturdy, non-corrosive stainless-steel rivets won't react with foods.
Polished stainless-steel lids fit evenly with the pan’s edges to seal in flavor of your foods.
The All-Clad Stainless collection is compatible with an induction stovetop (with the exception of a few pieces) in addition to gas and electric stovetops.
The Stainless collection is dishwasher-safe, excluding pieces with a nonstick cooking surface.

However, as a novice cook, I can't seem to cook anything as well using this pan compared to a non-stick teflon pan.  Food seems to stick or become overcooked easily or just not turn out well.

Have I fallen victim to a weak product sold on marketing hype?  Or am I simply too novice to properly utilize this pan?  What cooking skills might I be missing to properly utilize this tool?  What tools should I be using instead?

What reasons might there be for me sucking at using this pan?

You've got a great pan and in a short time I'm sure you'll come to love it.

When using a standard pan (one without non-stick coating), heat your pan dry over high heat until you can hold your hand about 6-inches above the cooking surface and feel the heat radiating upward.  This allows the tiny cracks and crevices that are imperceptible to the bare hand to expand and when the oil is added, it will coat and create a more even cooking surface.

Add just enough oil to lightly coat the surface.  Adding to much oil leads to pan-frying which is fine if you're frying chicken but not what you want when searing and sauteing meat.  There should just be a thin film across the bottom of the pan.  An additional benefit to first heating the pan is the fact that it will actually take less oil to coat the pan due to the decreased viscosity.  When the oil hits the hot pan it will instantly heat and should shimmer across the bottom like water on a freshly cleaned windshield.

You don't put the oil in the pan first because the longer oils and fats heat the quicker they break down and smoke.  If you were to add cold oil and cold food to a cold pan and then start heating, you just end up with a big sticky mess.

Make sure you're prepared to add the food to the pan once the oil goes in otherwise the oil will start to burn.

The issue with burning and overcooking is going to be a matter of controlling the heat.  Start searing and sauteeing over high heat because as food is added it will suck a good deal of heat from the pan.  If it isn't extremely hot to begin with you'll end up with a steaming mess of gray colored meat or vegetables that aren't doing much cooking.  Once the meat is browned but needs further cooking you can always turn down the heat to prevent excessive browning and crusting before the interior is done.

Even if you aren't planning to do a pan sauce, or if you've burnt what was cooking in the pan, you'll still want to deglaze with some water while the pan is hot (you can reheat it if it has already cooled down) so that you can scraped up the cooked on bits more easily and have less scrubbing to do when cleaning the pan.


How do you dry wet brown sugar clumps? I have seen many people having problem with dry clumps of brown sugar, while I am having a problem of wet clumps of brown sugar. The sugar is in very moist clumps. Is there a way to dry it out to make it easy to work with as other dry minerals?

You could always recycle those food grade desiccants and put them in your brown sugar container.  In Japan, they use bincho charcoal in anything that needs to have a certain level of moisture.  Apparently the bincho charcoal is able to regulate moisture content, release stored moisture when too dry, and absorb it when it's too wet.


When is a Utility Knife to be preferred over a Chef's or a Paring knife? A Utility knife is a kitchen knife that is midway in size between a Chef's knife and a Paring knife.

Although I own a Utility knife, I don't believe that I have ever used it except when my Chef's knife was unavailable. I took a look around to see what uses I might have missed. Wikipedia says (without citation) that this knife is "derided as filler for knife sets" which squares with my experience. A few links call this type of knife a Sandwich knife because it is, ostensibly, good for cutting sandwich cheese and meat. Here's what one source says:

  The utility knife is good for cutting larger vegetables and sandwich
  meats that are not large enough for a chef's knife

I have a hard time swallowing this because, whether I'm chopping very small items, say Kaffir lime leaves, or large vegetables, say an aubergine, the Chef's knife still feels most comfortable in my hand.

Can someone help me picture a legitimate use for this knife where a Chef's knife or Paring knife wouldn't do better?

There's no question that a 4 or 5 inch utility knife is going to see a lot less use than your chef's knife or your paring knife, both of which have innumerable uses.  The utility knife is a lot more specific, really being for cases where the paring knife is too short and the chef's knife is too heavy or thick.  I have a 4" utility knife, which (of course) I got for free with a 6" Sabatier chef's knife.  It gets used a couple times a week, for:

scoring onions in order to mince them
cutting limes in half (a chef's knife seems like overkill here)
splitting small peppers
slicing large California shallots
cutting cheese

... and similar occasional, accessory uses.

Part of the problem with the 4" utility knife is that it's really a dwarf 6"-8" utility knife.  The 6" or 8" utility knife, now commonly called a "vegetable knife", is far more useful; the long, thin blade is excellent for making paper-thin vegetable and fruit slices, and can be used as a fileting knife if you don't have one.  At the 4" size, though, the utility knife is useful only for cutting things which happen to be small, and only if you don't already have a more general knife dirty.

If what you're really asking is "can I get rid of this knife?", the answer is "yes".


Is it safe to eat raw, soaked grains and seeds such as buckwheat? I was wondering about the safety of frequently eating grains or seeds that have been soaked overnight, but not cooked. I'm thinking about buckwheat, barley, spelt, rye...

Soaking in water with a bit of vitamin c or apple cider vinegar should reduce the phytic acid content enough. Is there anything else that would be of concern ?

It's not uncommon and quite safe, but then the ones I have soaked (and sprouted) are not the ones you have listed. I have sprouted black sesame, fenugreek and some lentils. I use a lot of information from sproutpeople. You could try them.


Can Apple Butter be substituted for Apple Sauce in baking? Can Apple Butter be substituted for Apple Sauce (unavailable) in baking muffins?

You start with apples, cook them a bit and you have apple sauce.  Cook that sauce very slowly but for a long time and you get apple butter.

While I think the substitution would generally work, it most likely will be  sweeter. Sweeter because there's less water in apple butter vs. apple sauce thus concentrating the sugars.  Also the brown to dark brown color of apple butter is caramelization of the apple sugar.  That caramelization has to change the taste of your muffins.

Give it a try and see what happens.  Then make another batch with less sugar and see how they turn out.  If your recipe uses brown sugar try changing some or all for white sugar using the apple butter as a kind of substitute.  I suspect somewhere in those tests you'll find a batch that's great!


Can I use a gas oven spring form in my electric oven? I have ordered a spring form online. The package arrived and on the packaging it says "especially for gas ovens".

I don't have a gas oven, but an electric one where I can set many different types of heat. Can I still safely use the form or should I return it? What is the difference between a gas oven form and a 'normal' form?

It's possible that it's designed to conduct less heat from the bottom.

Many gas ovens have the flue in the bottom and the heating is only from below in the oven. To make things more even, most electric ovens have an element at the top and one on the bottom.

Speaking of bottom, the bottom line is that you should be ok. If you find the bottom of you cake not being done very well, move the form to a lower rack next time.


Is it better to wash eggs before refrigerating? I want to know how to store eggs in the refrigerator. Some people say to never wash them, others say it's ok to wash eggs before refrigerating. Which is correct?

I would personally avoid washing the eggs.

The problem is that wet eggs are bad.  This goes for both Europe, where the eggs are sold unwashed, and in the US, where the eggs are pre-washed and refrigerated.

If you did wash your eggs, you need to get them thoroughly dry afterwards.  Otherwise, you will do harm to the eggs.

If you're buying unwashed eggs, you could use a dry brush on them before you stored them, but I wouldn't recommend anything more than that.


How to fully incorporate cream cheese with pumpkin puree? I have tried to incorporate softened cream cheese with pumpkin puree and it's never fully incorporated - small bits of cream cheese are left in the mix. How can this be prevented? I've tried 2 different brands of cream cheese and these bits happened both the times.

When mixing cream cheese with softer or more liquid ingredients, you first need to make sure both things you're mixing are softened and smooth.

Even room temperature cream cheese is sometimes hard to mix. I usually microwave it in a glass bowl for 30 seconds then beat it until it is smooth. A food processor or electric mixer will make this easier.

In a separate bowl, beat the pumpkin puree (or whatever else you are mixing in) until it is smooth.

Now take a few spoonsfull of the pumpkin puree and add them to the cream cheese. Mix until smooth. Add more of the purée, mix. Eventually it will all be incorporated, or if the cream cheese mixture becomes liquid enough, you can add all of it in.

If you're mixing the cream cheese into something more solid like almond paste, reverse the process and start with a couple spoons of cream cheese in the stiffer ingredients.


How to know if I am stopping sharpening too early? I'm having trouble sharpening my knives, and I'm wondering if it's just that I haven't put in enough time. I've tried spending ~5 minutes per knife at one stroke per ~3 seconds, following all the advice I could find online, but no one seems to give any estimate of how long it normally takes to get moderate sharpness.

When I am sharpening a knife by hand with a (dry, high grit) sharpening stone, how do I decide when to stop? When I see unsatisfactory results, how do I know if it will get better if I continue, or if the problem is elsewhere?

So I had to reword the question from "how long does it take to sharpen a knife" to something more answerable, but I am afraid the answer will still be disappointing for you.

It takes as long as it takes - we cannot give you a length of time after which it should be ready. You have to recognize by yourself if the knife is ready or not.
The ability to tell whether your bad results are caused by not spending enough time, or by something else, comes somewhat slower than the ability to sharpen a knife properly. So you cannot use "time spent" to control your learning process.

I hope that the reactions you saw to the question (including my own answer) will not discourage you. It is great that 1) you are picking up a new skill, and 2) trying to actively troubleshoot it by making a hypothesis about what is going wrong, and then acquiring more information about whether this could be the right reason, and 3) looking for that information somewhere (for example here on the site) instead of trying to figure everything out by yourself. I will try to explain why it is so difficult, so at least you can better what you are facing, even though I can't offer you a viable solution.

Sharpening a knife is a skill. It is not learned in the sense we learn stuff in school using declarative memory ("Charles the Great lived in the 7th century CE"), it is learned by training. And unlike a skill which requires you to only interact with information (such as being able to multiply two numbers) it is a skill that requires you to interact with physical objects, and because of that, anything you can learn from information-only channels such as websites will only be of limited information.

The best way to learn how to sharpen a knife is to observe how somebody sharpens it, and then try to repeat it - basically, apprenticeship. The second best is if you only try by yourself, but have somebody who can evaluate your results, and recognize what you are doing wrong. You chose a third way - read the theory, then try it for yourself. This is a viable way of learning, but it is very time consuming, especially at the beginning, when you get almost no successful attempts. (And in my experience, knife sharpening is a skill with an especially high rate of botched early attempts). And while you are so early in the process, you don't know what is the right way to do it. Then will come the phase in which you have some successful attempts and some unsuccessful ones, but you will not have yet built the experience of what causes your good attempts to be good and the bad ones to be bad. And only later will you be able to recognize this, but that comes after you have a great rate of good attempts. So don't expect to be able to correct yourself at tbe beginning, trial and error involves a big deal of random variation and boneheaded persistence.

To address your exact troubleshooting idea again - you are quite right that there are times which are way too short for sharpening. Even the best world expert will not be able to sharpen a blunt knife with two strokes, nor be able to do the necessary number of strokes in two seconds. But this just means that there is some lower limit for the time necessary. Where this limit lies exactly (and exactness is actually impossible here, because there are tons of factors we are not holding constant) is rather immaterial for your case, because at the beginning, you will be doing many more wrong strokes than right strokes, so your first successful attempt (and "success" is also not a binary thing here!) will take a lot longer than the theoretically possible limit. So you should be going at it for a long time at first, and the shortest possible time doesn't affect what your shortest time you should train per knife. At the other end, it does not help you decide on the longest time per knife either - to oversimplify it, if you are doing 100 wrong strokes per 100 right ones, you will never get ready and should stop, but if you are doing 99 wrong strokes per 100 right ones, you will get a successs eventually (taking you about 100 times longer than it would take an expert stroking at your rate) and should continue. And since you cannot recognize if you are doing wrong or right strokes, you cannot recognize if you are caught in the endless situation or in the slow-advance situation.

Summary: forget thinking about time. Just invest all the effort this kind of training requires, or take the working shortcut of working with an experienced trainer.


Best Way To Remove Fajita Contents From Marinade Usually when I marinade something it's just a single piece of meat.  I can just pull it out and discard the rest of the marinade.  However, when I have strips of chicken and vegetables all marinating in a single bag what's the best way to remove the contents?  Should I just strain the bag  over the sink? Or should I just reach in with tongs and pull everything out?

I guess my problem with both solutions is losing too much marinade from straining (don't want to lose more flavor than I have to) or pulling in too much liquid from using tongs (I don't want my tortillas to get soggy)

Any advice would be great

A colander over a bowl. That saves the marinade, so you can use as much as you want. Be sure you completely cook all of the marinade that you use, and discard the rest. It is not safe to reuse it.


How do you safely defrost a whole lamb? Some supermarkets sell a whole lamb.

The food safety rules for meat dictate defrosting in the fridge, never at room temperature.
The next-size down, a turkey, doesn't even take 24 hours to defrost. It takes either 48 or, if very large, 72 hours to defrost.
How do you reconcile these two rules? In other words, how do you defrost a whole lamb before cooking it?

Is this meant for chefs who have a fridge that will fit a lamb?
Are folks meant to start roasting it while it's frozen? I doubt it would cook through, no matter how gentle the fire.
Do birds (turkey, ..) require special attention because they spoil particularly rapidly, and for a lamb one would get away with defrosting at room temperature? Would 24 hours do it? Would that be actually safe?

I suppose if it's October or March, then defrosting outside in some regions at +5C might work, except that the temperature outside is never constant, which doesn't help much (with either defrosting or with food safety), and that you'd have to stand guard overnight to make sure no other wild animal discovers what feast is ready for them.

Food safety rules are written around the ways bacteria reproduce, not around the chefs' convenience. There is no difference in the speed of getting unsafe between different types of meat (or any other type of non-shelf-stable food). Yes, the lamb is also meant to be defrosted in the fridge. And cooking from frozen is indeed not an option.
So yes, you are meant to defrost it in the fridge. You could do it whole, or you could remove parts of it while still frozen and defrost these, then cook, while the rest stays in the freezer. If you don't have the equipment to do either of that, then your kitchen is simply not ready to deal with buying a whole lamb.
I don't doubt that there are many people who buy it and defrost it outside of the fridge, they just either don't know the food safety rules or make the decision to not follow them.


Catering our daughter's wedding My husband and I will be catering our daughters wedding. It's a very simple ceremony with about 120 to 130 people. An afternoon wedding with the reception right after. My question is how do you figure how much meat per person. We will be having chicken (fried), ham and turkey. Potato salad, green salad, and a fruit salad. Would love any input anyone can give me!!! Thanks!!

1/2 pound to 1 pound per person is standard for US when planning meat amount; pending on the overall average guess and type of party.

For sides; figure on 2-3 gallons = 50 people

Another way to look at it; since you have so many sides.
1-1.5 pounds of food per person; total.


freeze then roast red bell peppers? I frequently make a pasta sauce with red bell peppers that I roast in the oven. All of the other ingredients are staples in my house and always available, but it's frustrating to go to the store for red peppers.

Would it work to freeze and then roast the red peppers? If so, then I could keep a lot of frozen red peppers in the house and not have to go to the store so much.

Red bell peppers freeze really well after being roasted. This is the method I would recommend for you.

The problem with freezing first is that it can degrade the peppers (breaks the firm cell walls) and would likely make them more difficult to roast afterwards. If you roast them first, the cooking starts the cell collapse itself and the peppers don't tend to degrade more afterwards, plus your peppers are already roasted, so you've saved yourself that step in your pasta making process.

The process is pretty simple... roast as usual, parcel into recipe-sized portions in small zip top bags (don't forget to date the bags) and freeze or roast, put on a cookie sheet (if you have one that fits in the freezer), and freeze in a single layer. Once frozen, they can all go in one big bag and they shouldn't stick to each other too badly.

Here's a guide that explains the process with some roasting tips. And another here.


Spatchcocked turkey cooking time How long should I plan on cooking a 16 pound spatchcocked turkey?  What temperature would be best to cook a 16 pound spatchcocked turkey?

Kenji at Serious Eats recommends 450F for 80 minutes for a 12-14 pound bird "until an instant read thermometer inserted into the deepest part of the breast registers 150°F, and the thighs register at least 165°F". I would expect a 16 pound bird to take about 20 minutes longer (just by figuring a simple ratio).

Serious Eats goes deeply into turkey spatchcocking, so I recommend taking the time to read the articles.

His video here is great.


How to choose coconut in supermarket? I am an avid eater of coconut... Well, I would be if I had some decent coconut to begin with! It happened quite a few times that when I bought a coconut in a supermarket (you know the brown, ripe fruits? - well, here in Europe there is no abundance of fresh coconuts), and when I ate its content... it tasted like dish-soap (eeek!).
How can I be sure to select a coconut, which won't ruin my day?

Those at the store should be heavy and 2/3 full of milk or more. So shake them and listen, and also judge the weight, holding them in one hand.

Once you buy a coconut, place it between a rock or three. Make one slice with a large heavy knife to remove the top and the top hull inside the outer hull. Pour out the milk and chill if you wish. Then cut the coconut in half. Scoop out the meat. It should be firm but soft. Place that on a plate or eat with your hands.

When harvesting, after dropping a bunch of coconuts, you select the ones whose outer hull is 1/3 to 1/4 brown. Those you sell locally. The green ones you take to the road to sell to the waiting trucks. Those are for shipment.

All extra coconuts should be saved for making coconut rum. The outer and inner hulls are saved for cooking and coconut charcoal. Any that drop from the tree and split open go into the rum also, or can be used as pig fodder.


What happened to my egg? I was making a small batch of chocolate cake and decided to flavor it with peppermint extract (as a substitute for vanilla extract). Foolish me added the extract directly to the eggs (not beaten). A small portion of the white became opaque, as if it had been cooked. What happened here?

Your egg whites were cooked by the alcohol in the extract. Cooked, in this case, means denaturing, which means unfolding the protein molecules. There are many ways to denature proteins. Acid, such as vinegar, will denature egg proteins, which is why some people suggest adding vinegar to the water to poach an egg (a practice I disagree with, but that's another subject).

Ceviche, as another example, is fish which is cooked (denatured) in acid (such as lime juice). Although heat is not used, the fish is still cooked. (Note: the acid will kill some bacteria but is not as effective as cooking with heat, so be sure to use fresh fish from a source you trust.)

This is similar to how burning means combining with oxygen, so you can burn metal (rust) without heat (most easily by adding water).


Oven temp for dishes with different nominal cooking times? I want to cook two dishes simultaneously (for efficiency's sake): carrots, which have a nominal cooking temp of 350 F / 180 C for 30 mins. and chicken, which has a nominal cooking temp of 400 F / 200 C for 45 mins. The Seasoned Advice posts I've read on this subject (here, here, here, and here) suggest the thing to do is cook at the lower temp first, then turn the oven to the higher temp; I can do that if necessary, but if possible I'd prefer to have everything in the oven at once, since the second dish cooks for a while.

If I put the carrots in at 400, how much should I reduce the cooking time? And how severely will it affect the result?

Roasting carrots at 400F for 20 minutes, according to this Food Network recipe: Roasted Carrots

I haven't followed that specific recipe, but changing your temp and time accordingly shouldn't create any problem.


How Does Too Much Oil in Indian Mughlai Food Makes It Tasty? What is the explanation of oily food being tasty? How does extra oil enhances taste?

It is evident  North Indian food specialy Mughlai food uses too much oil and it is also true too much oil makes the food tasty (at least to a large amount of people).

In a forum  one said that  lots of oil which makes dish look complete and well decorate. Even when fish is rich in oil they cook with extra oil to gives spicy taste. But I could not comprehend what he said. I want to know why taste is enhanced.

Could anyone please explain elaborately?

Thanks!

Edit:

There's a book on this: Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us  by
Michael Moss (Author). Oil doesn't improve taste much, but it improves "mouth feel". Imagine you substitute oil with water in peanut butter (google for "PB2"), or mash potato without butter.
Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking”, use the index to find key topics.

Oil is a great non-polar solvent and will dissolve many flavor molecules that don't dissolve well in water.  “Like dissolves like”.  For instance, capsaicins from chili peppers, zingerone from ginger, piperine from black pepper, and many others, dissolve sparingly in water but well in oils.

Not just hot flavors, either - limonene (citrus), carvone (S and R forms, from spearmint and caraway), and other essences are non-polar.

Once dissolved, they're mobile and easier to taste.


When a recipe calls for Wine, does it make a difference what wine to use? In other words does it make a difference in the event that a recipe calls for a Red wine you use a Merlot, Cabernet, Shiraz ect..?

As a corollary to the excellent advice from Aaronut, there is an important rule of thumb when selecting a wine to cook with:

If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.


Is my pressure cooker good for the trash bin? Some serious meat burning occurred in my cooker, and now some of the material on the surface of the bottom of the cooker is gone:

Still usable?

No, you don't need to rash this pressure cooker.  This is only discoloration of the top layer of the stainless steel.  Just polish with a stainless steel cleaner, scouring powder, or barkeeper's friend and it will come right off.

Next time make sure you have enough liquid to bring your cooker to pressure, and when browning meat, if it sticks simply add cold water to the hot pressure cooker.  Attack it with a spatula to lift-up any browned or burned bits - then incorporate them in the sauce. : )


Crispy fried chicken goes limp: picnic disaster I use a simple fried chicken recipe: wash chicken (I use thighs), dredge in seasoned flour, dip in egg with a bit of milk, re-dredge in flour, shake and fry. The dish comes out great on the day I cook it, but loses its crunch the next day when I want to take it as part of a picnic lunch.
Is there a way to avoid the limp-crusted fried chicken on day 2?

P.S. I remove skin and all visible fat, and I drain on paper towels both top and bottom sides.

Once fried chicken or any fried food for that matter is refrigerated it is going to lose it's crispiness.  This is due to the cruncy exterior coating absorbing moisture from inside the food combined with moisture being trapped inside the wrapping/storange container which then is absorbed by the food as well.  It happens even shortly after frying if the food item is placed on a flat surface where the inner steam can't escape and is trapped between the food and the surface under it.  This is why when frying large batches or holding fried food for any extended time, it's best to drain on a cooling rack that's upside down on a brown paper bag or paper towels.  Upside down so that it's close to the paper to absorb excess grease but still allows a small bit of airspace so that steam can escape and if keeping it in a warm oven, hot air can circulate.

You can re-crisp your chicken by placing it on a roasting/cooling rack on a baking tray and place in the oven to re-crisp the skin.  Be careful not to dry it out.


When seasoning a cast-iron pan, should you let the oil smoke? I've looked at seasoning guides online, and they all say that to season, you need to heat the pan to 350 degrees Farenheit.
However, some oils have vastly different smoke points. If my oil starts smoking at 350, should I use a lower temperature? Is the oil supposed to smoke or not?
A more general question is, why exactly 350? What happens if the temperature is too low or too high?

You certainly should let the oil smoke - if you don't, you'll end up with a layer of oil, not a layer of seasoning.
Nothing special happens at 350 F. It is a fairly typical oven temperature, so if you have been looking at guides for oven seasoning, they probably suggest this temperature out of inertia.
I must admit that with my first iron pan, I started out like you, reading a ton of guides, trying to consolidate the information, combining it from knowledge from other sources, and feeling confused. Now, several years and pan purchases later, I would classify such behavior as clear overthinking. There is a wide range of methods (and temperatures) that work, but you do need a bit of hands-on experience to judge how it is going, and intervene if something is not right, and you can't replace it by reading. So just pick one(!) guide, follow it exactly, and use the pan. If the seasoning gets damaged, you will recognize it, and can strip and redo, until you have the skill.


Storage of partially used jar of mustard? Because I use mustard for my own consumption only occasionally, I am buying smallest available packages (350 g) but after opening I can see unused mustard slowly changing into "water" and solid component. I understand that every food deteriorates but I would like to understand something more about this.

Why it does not deteriorate this way in unopened package?
Is there some advice to slow down the process? Or even a way to simply renew its original consistence?

Mustard often separates, it doesn't mean it's going bad. It's likely perfectly fine, mustard stays good for years in the refrigerator. Just stir it up before using it to recombine.

As for why it doesn't separate unopened, sometimes it does. Often you are buying a product that's been manufactured recently, so it hasn't had time to separate yet.


How can I stabilize my hot sauces? I have started producing hot sauces, the taste and consistency is great!
They are cooked sauces, I meant I cook the peppers and vegetables into the vinegar and water, then put them into a food processor. They are not fermented. In time the water and the pulp is separating in the bottle. How can I prevent that?

If possible I'd prefer to use organic ingredients, or at least things produced from plants with relatively little processing.

These products are called thickeners.

Gum Arabic is often used for this as well as karageenan, xanthan gum, sometimes corn starch or potato starch.

You have to experiment with the different thickeners so you get the consistency you want.


Cuisinart frozen yogurt recipes confusing I just bought an ice cream maker (ICE 70) and it came with an instruction/recipe book, but the recipes for the frozen yogurt are confusing.

One example is like this

2 cups whole milk, plain Greek yoghurt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 cups frozen mango pieces
1 teaspoon lime juice

So on the first ingredient they say two different things, whole milk and yoghurt, but am I supposed to use both, or only one of these?

For example am i supposed to use

2 cups whole milk AND 2 cups yoghurt?

OR

2 cups combined whole milk and yoghurt (1 cup each)

OR

2 cups only of whole milk  OR 2 cups only of yoghurt (I choose which one)

Does anyone know?

The recipe says:

I read that as 2 cups of Greek yogurt made from whole milk (ie not low- or non-fat yogurt).  The comma does make it confusing, however.


Can ricotta be made with UHT milk? I live in an area where ricotta cheese is non existent, and all the dairy products I have access to are high temp pasteurized. Will that work?  Are there any herbs in ricotta? I'm trying to make my lasagna without it, and it would just would not be the same.

AFAIK, there are not herbs in ricotta, but there's nothing preventing you to add herb to it, I do it all the time when using it on toasts; and would be acceptable for a lasagna.


Why does my bread have a dip in the center? I made some white bread this evening and was quite happy with it except for the dip in the center:

I suspect maybe I left it to prove too long?  it seems like the air holes are too big and it has now lost it's structure.

Recipe was for 1kg flour I halved it:

500 g flour
12.5 g oil
20 g sugar
4 g dry yeast
10 g salt
300 g water

1) Mix all dry ingredients.
2) Add water and mix till incorporated.
3) Add oil and mix
4) Knead for 5-6 min
5) Leave for 1.5 hours
6) Place in bread tin
7) Leave for 1-1.5 hours
8) Bake at 220 C for 30 min

It was a very wet dough. I may have got the liquid measurement wrong. I ended up working it as much as I could and it remained pretty wet the whole time.

Can anyone indicate what I did wrong to cause the dip?

Apart from the dip I am quite happy with this attempt.

Two possibilities:

Your dough overproofed, or
the oven wasn't hot enough. In this scenario, the dough rises and then collapses before it can set

I would guess it was overproofed. Your recipe seems fine, though with all bread recipes, steps like "Leave for 1-1.5 hours" are highly variable depending on ambient heat in the kitchen, humidity, et cetera, and you should really employ the finger poke test to be certain.

References

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/tips/bread-troubleshooting.html
http://baking911.com/learn/baked-goods/bread/problems-and-solutions/general


Keep dinner rolls brushed with olive oil overnight I received dinner rolls brushed with olive oil from take out from an Italian restaurant (part of the brown paper bad they came in became translucent during the 15 minute trip from the restaurant home due to the olive oil). I would like to keep the dinner rolls fresh for the next day. The environment I live in is 80°F and 70% humidity at night. What is the best way to do this? Seal in a plastic bag to keep the oil from oxidizing? Refrigerate, freeze, or leave on counter?

The good thing is that the oil won’t go rancid in a few hours, which allows you to focus more on how to keep the bread part at its best.
Don’t refrigerate and don’t freeze, the former will make them go stale, the latter can dry them out disproportionately, considering the short time. Either keep them in the closed paper bag or transfer them to a plastic bag or container.
For some rolls, overnight on the counter is also fine, but that depends a bit on how they were made.
Tomorrow, you could quickly warm them up before serving, but don’t use a too-hot oven, I would guess something around 150°C/300°F should do.


Baking two strata at once I want to offer a veggie and a meat strata at a brunch for a large group. They both require the same oven temperature. Can I bake them at the same time, and if so, what adjustments do I need to make? Thanks!

When you put one item in the oven, the size affects the cooking time, because the thicker it is, the longer it takes for the heat to reach the middle. But if you put two things in, that's not a concern, unless they're so close together that they're basically "acting like" one big thing.

According to this site, "The oven has a thermostat that keeps its temperature fairly constant, no matter what is placed in it (within reason). As long as the objects in the oven don't absorb so much heat that the oven can't keep up (or are so big as to prevent even circulation), it is unlikely that the number of things placed in the oven will affect the cooking time. It will take more heat to cook more mass that is placed in the oven, so the flame (or electric heating element) will be on more."

Don't forget that cooking times in recipes are always estimates, as some ovens hold temperature more tightly than than others; most aren't that accurate, and run hotter or colder than set; different sized ovens have different airflow; and food cooks differently at different altitudes. Always check the food when it's "supposed" to be done (or slightly before) and adjust accordingly!


weird smelling chicken I have noticed a smell in cooked chicken that sometimes appears and it is nothing like the hydrogen sulphide from spoiled eggs. It's not a pleasant odor but isn't offensive enough to make you spit out the food as soon as it hits your tongue. It's strongest when the cooked chicken is cut and sort of dissipates if you leave it there. Also, the smell usually comes along with chicken that isn't very white. I cannot find a another smell to compare it with unfortunately. Is this just a bad chicken or is it unsafe to eat?

Unfortunately, the only responsible advice anyone can offer about "weird smells" is to throw it out. Of course, you have to know what fresh, properly stored chicken smells like, but if unidentified or "off" smells have developed in your poultry, you don't want to play with that stuff -- throw it out.

Cooked chicken is a bit trickier. You don't know what unfamiliar flavors might have developed from your seasoning or what other tastes/smells might have been picked up in the cooking process. That is very difficult to comment on authoritatively. The best way to assure food safety is to be meticulous about cross contamination and proper storage of the raw product.

So just a few quick notes on that subject -- the best assurance of food safety is heeding the freshness dates and meticulously assuring proper handling and refrigeration in storage. Spoiled or "off" chicken smells have more of a sour quality than that classic sulfur odor... but don't rely on that. There is no reliable "smell test" to assure food safety, particularly in poultry.


Ballotine of Foie Gras - chop or not? I am in the process of making a ballotine of foie gras.

The liver has been cleaned of veins and is currently in 2 large pieces. It has been marinading in Sauternes / salt / pepper for the last 24 hours. Should I chop the Foie Gras, or leave it in larger pieces when I make my ballotines? To make the ballotines I will wrap in cling film, pierce air pockets etc. and then simmer in water at around 80C for 10 mins before refrigerating overnight for consumption tomorrow.

I looked at five recipes, none of them called for the foie gras to be chopped.

You have already cleaned the liver, and have a different method chosen to form the ballotines, but I really liked these instructional photos from The Renaissance Girl Cooks describing the method from The Squire (a restaurant with two Michelin stars), and thought that later users might find them helpful.


How long can you keep chocolate in the freezer? We get lots of gifts of chocolate and due to health reasons, we can't finish all the chocolate. So we store it in the freezer. How long can or should you  store chocolate in the freezer before it's not safe to eat anymore?

My wife is obsessed with Milka, and last time we were in Germany, she threw out all my clothes in order to fill an entire suitcase with it. When we got it home, it got piled in the freezer (not the freezer-in-the-garage-which-is-seldom-opened, but the regular one where we keep ice cream and frosty beer mugs). Took us more than 4 years to finish it. The last bit was effectively identical to the first. No noticeable change in the product.

Given that quality chocolate has no water (which is the primary freezer-spoilage agent), I'd say it would keep effectively indefinitely. If you're talking about candy bars which contain other ingredients, it may vary.

Generally though, things don't go "bad" in the freezer. They can get brutally freezer burned and disgusting, but there is no safety issue, as long as the food remains frozen. I once made a pie out of a quart of blackberries I found buried in the ice in an old-style freezer chest. Estimated age was on the order of twenty years, but they'd been preserved by the encroaching frost. Pie was delicious.


Sprinkles on rolled icing we are about to decorate some cup cakes and want to know the best way to put sprinkles onto rolled icing without the colours running or the sprinkles falling off They will be no. 3's and they will be placed on a stick to stand on the top of the cup cakes not laying flat on the top of the icing

Is the 'stick' going to be standing up?
if so you could dip it in melted chocolate and then into a bowl of sprinkles before leaving it to dry


What is the correct way to cook thin rice noodles for Vietnamese dishes? I like to make Vietnamese bun (rice noodle bowl) at home, but my noodles never seem to have quite the same texture as at my favorite restaurants. I boil water, turn it off, and then add the noodles and soak them for about ten minutes, then rinse in cold water. Is there a trick to getting that perfect consistency where they are quite soft but still retain an individual bite?

I never boil rice noodles. Just soak them in cold water for about an hour.


Old melting chocolate problem? I have some melting chocolate that is over a year old and wonder if there is anything I can do to get it to melt to a smooth dipping consistency. It is melting, but very stiff and not really good for dipping.

You might try melting it into some water.

When melting chocolate, a little bit of water will cause it to seize (break and become grainy), but if you use more water to start with it will melt smoothly - about a tablespoon per six ounces should work to start, add more till you've reached your desired consistency.  It has to do with the chocolate being soluble in either fat or in water, but having trouble in the middle when they were competing for sugar and cocoa solids.  If you do this, you are basically making a chocolate sauce - even if the proportions mean it is a fairly thick one.  Of course, after you have made it you can doctor it to your tastes, thin it till it is dippable, add flavors or additives, as you prefer.

Alternatively, you might melt it into something richer for your sauce - milk, or cream, or butter.

These alternatives will make your chocolate sauce progressively richer, depending on which one you pick, and may alter the flavors more than plain water (which may or may not be desirable to you).  They do also have water in them (in decreasing proportion), but in an emulsion with fats which means they are less likely to cause the chocolate to seize.  You might start with the same proportions, one tablespoon to six ounces, and keep adding until it has reached your desired consistency.

Of course, you can use other liquids (like alcohol) or fats (like oils) to thin the chocolate and make the sauce, but they will be increasingly less like the chocolate you started with the more flavors you add, and more like a fancy chocolate sauce.  Which can be nice, but may not be what you're asking for.


How to simulate an oven when what you actually have is a gas stove? Well, I currently don't have an oven. And also, I don't expect to prepare cakes on gas. :rolleyes:

But, is it possible to bake things like garlic bread (at least) on gas stove somehow? If yes, then how?

EDIT 1

I should have clarified, that I also want to bake biscuits (from scratch).

Dutch oven

(a proper cast iron one, mind you)

Put your dutch oven on the stove top with the lid on, and turn on the heat until it gets hot
Place the thing(s) to be baked inside (but not directly touching the sides or bottom; a little rack or other standoff will be helpful)
Put the lid back on and turn the heat way down
Wait. And this is a bit of a problem because it is hard to know the exact temperature, so baking is tricky.

This is also how one bakes over a campfire, though there you use coals and can get a reasonably repeatable temperature. Works better with cobbler than cake (I have seen cakes done this way, but more often I've seen them messed up), but it should do garlic bread just fine.

The pure mass of the iron serves to smooth out the uneven heating from the stove. This is also the reason a proper dutch oven has a lip on the lid: so you can put some coals on there to insure the lid stays properly hot too.


Only the seeds of the habaneros I bought are hot - low quality, or simply the nature of chili? I'm a newbie when it comes to any type of chili. I'm alright at eating food with chili, but don't really have any experience with using it.

I bought the one I used at a local supermarket. I first tried eating a small slice to measure its hotness, but couldn't really feel much heat at all. Pleasant flavor though.

Then I tried to eat a small slice with one (1) seed on it, and this time, it was pretty damn strong, I'll admit. But the "flesh" itself was not strong. The food I made (ground beef, crushed tomatoes, onion) was about ~1.5kg total and filled my pan, but when I added half the chopped habanero with ~6 seeds there was not noticeable hotness at all. I didn't notice this until I served since my tastebuds were giving me false readings from the first tasting I did.

So, this lack of hotness, is it because

That's how habaneros work (surprised me that I didn't get any hotness though)
The type I bought was not very strong.
I prepared it all wrong. Extract flavor using oil first?
My supermarket sells non-fresh / low quality habaneros?

Or something else?

I've experimented with growing different varieties of peppers over last decade and found by surrounding one with other types of peppers (sweet, medium or hot) and increasing or reducing water near harvest time you can completely change the heat and flavor of the peppers from that plant. If planted in a pot you can move it around your garden to get different tasting peppers from the same plant throughout the season.


Is it safe to leave a gas oven on unattended? Is it safe to leave a gas oven on unattended the whole day (with a closed dutch oven inside it braising beef etc.), similar to crock pot cooking? It is a gas oven with pilot lights on the stove, so I am assuming the oven also has pilot lights.

The US Fire Administration clearly recommends not leaving cooking appliances unattended when no one is home:

Based on 2006-2010 annual averages:

Unattended cooking was by far the leading contributing factor in home cooking fires.
[...]
Ranges accounted for the largest share (58%) of home cooking fire incidents. Ovens accounted for 16%.

At the time this related answer was written, the Fire Administration said (they have since updated the page):

The leading cause of fires in the kitchen is unattended cooking.

Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the
stove.
If you are simmering, baking, roasting, or boiling food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer
to remind you that you're cooking.
Stay alert! To prevent cooking fires, you have to be alert. You won't be if you are sleepy, have been drinking alcohol, or have taken
medicine that makes you drowsy.


How to save spaghetti squash? I plan on preparing two dishes this week that will each involve 1/2 of a spaghetti squash. In order for the second dish to be 'as fresh as possible' should I prepare the whole squash and save the second half, or save the second half (unprepared) and bake it when I prepare the second dish? (Time to prepare is not a concern). How should the second half be saved? (refrigerate, wrapped, ...?)

I haven't specifically tried to save that variety of squash, but I've had good luck in general holding other varieties of winter squash for a few days by halving, sealing the cut side, and then refrigerating for.  A few notes:

If you have a large enough knife, just make a single cut through it.
Either place it cut-side down on an appropriately sized dish with a flat bottom (eg, a casserole dish), or cover the cut side with plastic wrap ... (of plastic wrap, then set in the dish, so you don't accidentally knock off the plastic wrap in the next couple of days).

When it comes time to use the remaining half, if the cut surface is dry, shave a little off.  Clean out the seed cavity when you're finally going to use it.  (this allows you to scrape back down to moist flesh, and reduce evaporative loss)

How long you can hold it will likely be affected by things like how often you open your frdge. I've never tried putting in the crisper after wrapping (as I tend to have too much stuff in there already).

If you're looking to get the longest possible strands out of the squash, I think to need to cut it from stem to blossom end ... but that would increase the cut surface area.  If that isn't a goal, it's probably better to cut it across the stem-blossom axis.


Substitute for pastry flour The recipe calls for pastry flour which I can't find here. I would like a substitution which results exactly the same dough as they show in the video.

Without knowing what you have available, it's difficult to give a recommendation.  The common substitutions are:

a blend of all purpose and cake flours (either 50:50, or 5:3 favoring the cake flour)
a blend of all purpose flour and cornstarch.  (2TB starch to a scant 1 cup of flour)

The first one will give you closer to what you're looking for.  The second one might not be quite as tender.


Reasonable to store loaves and pound cake in garage during winter? (25-35 F max?) I receive a large package of baked goods from family every Christmas. I do NOT have enough freezer space to keep them frozen until we get to them. They usually arrive about 10 days prior to when we'll eat them (family gathering). We get whole loaves of rye bread, buns with bacon cooked inside and a Šakotis (Lithuanian cake).

Is it reasonable to wrap them as air tight as we can and store any/all in the garage? The garage temperature might be as high as 35F (but often much colder as temperatures drop into the tens).

Is this a ridiculous idea?

There will be no problem from a food safety perspective, as long as your garage stays within refrigerator temperatures, or within freezer temperatures.  However, if you fluctuate between freezing and thawing, the quality of your baked goods will degrade rapidly.


What ingredients will allow me to make a foam with a whipped cream charger? So I have an iSi whipped cream charger. There are a series of recipes that sound really interesting, but I don't quite understand what ingredients you need in order to make a stable foam / mousse. Some common ingredients seem to be cheese, cream, and gelatin. But I've also seen recipes with chocolate and water (melted and combined), lecithin, or even scrambled eggs with sous vide eggs, skim milk, and butter.

So what ingredients are a must for making a foam? How do they work?

I must admit, I'm more interested in the "how" than the "what". The what seems to be pretty well defined in the list or recipes, but I want to be able to create my own culinary treats and understanding the process is invaluable in making things up.

A foam is just a liquid with plenty of air incorporated into it.  You can incorporate air into any liquid; in order to be able to create an actual foam, however, you need to be able to incorporate the air faster than it escapes.

What makes a liquid able to hold the air you're incorporating (and hence form a foam) is a foam stabilizer, also commonly called an emulsifier1.  I know of no specific taxonomy of stabilizers, but the vast majority are hydrocolloids AKA gelling agents and belong to some family of protein.

Agar, carrageenan, alginate, xanthan, and pectin are all types of polysaccharide;
Lecithin is mostly a random collection of phospholipids;
Gelatin is denatured collagen, i.e. animal protein;
Whey protein is the prevalent protein in dairy products;

And so on.  Really almost any emulsifier will do.  Basically everything in your list either is, or contains, one of the the additives mentioned above:

Chocolate is almost always emulsified with soy lecithin;
Eggs contain high amounts of lecithin;
Milk and cream contain whey protein;
Most "supermarket cream" also has emulsifiers like carrageenan already in it.

...you get the picture, I hope.  The most basic answer I can give to this is that if you want to make a foam, you need to either use something that's already an emulsion (milk, butter, chocolate, etc.) or use an emulsifier/stabilizer additive (such as gelatin, lecithin, etc.)

If you want a relatively complete list of all of the food additives that qualify, you'll want to look at the E number, and specifically E400-499 (thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers).

1. As commenter Erik very correctly points out, an emulsifier is not the same thing as a foam stabilizer.  However, by convention, the terms seem to be used interchangeably all over the place, to the extent that I get blank looks when I refer to a "stabilizer" as opposed to "emulsifier".  So, know the difference, but don't get too hung up on it.


Getting oil residue out of a container I have a ceramic oil bottle that I don't use.  It's just not as convenient as I hoped it would be.  I'd like to donate it, but it still has an oil residue inside it.  It has a long curved neck so sticking a bottle brush inside it isn't an option.  Is there a way to get the oil out or are my only options throwing it out or donating it with the oil residue?

You can pour water and detergent inside, let it sit that way for a day to soften, then clean it by shaking the detergent solution vigorously and then filling it with water and emptying until the water comes out non-soapy. This should work, unless you let it sit for a long time empty, but with the residue of polyunsaturated oils inside. In that case, they can have gummed up.

If the brush problem comes because a straight brush can be stuck inside, but can't reach the nooks and the bottom, you could use a curved brush. These are sold to homebrewers in large sizes, I don't know if they are available for single bottles too.


classical sauce-making with induction cooktop In classical french sauce-making lined copper pots are preferred for their responsiveness. Can anyone tell me how induction-capable cookware such as Demeyere Atlantis sauciers or All-Clad D3 equivalents perform compared to lined copper with gas heat? It is really responsiveness more than evenesss of heat distribution that I am interested in.

Cookware has nothing to do with sauces, you can make great sauces with whatever equipment  you have on hand, pan material (steel, aluminum, cooper...) or heat sources (gas, electric coils, ceramic induction or wood burning)
Most sauces need to be reduced to gain the most flavor, so responsiveness is not really an issue.


Can I add fresh minced garlic to a jar of Huy Fong chili paste without risking botulism? Can I add fresh minced garlic to a jar of Huy Fong chili paste without risking botulism?
Ingredients: Chili, salt, acetic acid, potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfite as preservatives, xanthan gum.

According to WHO
"botulinum will not grow in acidic conditions (pH less than 4.6), and therefore the toxin will not be formed in acidic foods (however, a low pH will not degrade any pre-formed toxin)."
Paste is probably acidic enough on it's own to kill any introduced botulinum from the garlic -reasonable quantity added-
To be extra sure, I would sprinkle mince garlic with a pinch of vit C or equivalent acid (and a pinch of salt to draw out flavor) before mixing.
Heat also sterlizes:
"Despite its extreme potency, botulinum toxin is easily destroyed. Heating to an internal temperature of 85°C for at least 5 minutes will decontaminate affected food or drink."


What are some easy methods to cook a top blade steak without stock or wine? I would like to ask about cooking a top blade steak. I am currently out of stock and wine, and am curious about slow cooking it in an oven, although not really familiar with slow cooking. Any input would be appreciated, thanks.

water, seasonings, aromatics vegetables (carrots, celery, onions garlic... ), tomato paste and/or canned tomatoes
Brown the meat in oil in a dutch oven type pan, remove and set aside.
Brown the vegetables in oil, when good you have coloring (not burning), add tomato paste, mix and cook well for a few minutes.
Add meat back to the pot, add water and canned tomatoes to nearly cover the meat.
Reduce heat, cover with a lid and cook until meat is tender, adjust water level so it does not dry out during cooking
You can do it on the cooktop or in the oven.


How to get very smooth, flat cooked potato pieces For an upcoming party, my girlfriend and I have been discussing trying to create "potato jenga."  The idea is to cook smooth, flat pieces of potato and stack them in a tower, so that everybody has to play a game of Jenga with the potato pieces.  If anybody has tried any similar structural potato projects, I'm keen to learn how best to pull it off.  (I'll also accept references to other fun ways to get party guests to play with their food, if this project proves impossible.)

So, what method of cooking will make the most suitable potato pieces?  I need to avoid warping or a rough texture.  Is baking better than frying?  Any particular oil I should use if I fry them?  High heat or lower heat for more time?  I'm at a bit of a loss with where to start because everything I know about cooking relates to the eating, rather than use as a building material!

For Potato Jenga you are going to want to use a French Fry slicer like this one from Amazon. The larger slicing grate will produce potato of about the right square size. You will want to exclude the edges and end pieces.

Some additional tips: several hours to a day before you are going to serve them slice and blanch the potatoes in sweet water (boil water, add sugar, and potatoes boil for about 5 minutes, remove potatoes to and ice bath and store in the fridge.) Just before frying, dry the potatoes on paper towels to remove surface moisture. Once they are golden brown remove the fries to bowl and toss them with a light coat of olive oil.
[Edit added on 12/8/11]

Crispy Pototoey Goodness: Success
Jenga: FAIL

I love questions here that cause me to experiment with food. So after answering this question I decided to try this myself. Well, the potatoes came out nice and crispy and tasty, but I am afraid that @shujaa is correct, no matter how you cook them, you aren't going to get a good game of Jenga out of them...

You can get a good "Jenga Like Tower" this way, but you wont be able to play with your food...
Might I suggest carrot sticks sliced to the right size?


How do I make the chicken absorb more salt by freezing it? I previously asked How to make chicken absorb more salt when cooking a soup? on how to make the chicken in my soup absorb more salt water, as I have noticed that the amount of absorption changes in some days. Note that the recipe is simple: Add 1.5 liter water, 1 kilogram chicken, and 8 grams of salt in a pot; bring to boil; simmer and eat. There are no vegetables.

The major reason the answerer gave was pore size influenced by freezing. Initially I thought he hit the nail, as I do recall the few days the absorption was good were the days I had taken it from the freezer.

Having been using frozen chicken since then, however, the absorption doesn't seem to be occuring while cooking. I am thinking that perhaps it is due to the way the chicken is being frozen. Factors I have thought about include:

If the chicken's skin isn't removed, the freezing doesn't open pores effectively. (However, I sometimes have removed the skin, then frozen the chicken; yet, this didn't help.)
Perhaps the duration of freezing makes the difference. (I used some old chicken, and it didn't work either.)
Sometimes I have cut the chicken into small pieces, where the inner parts of the chicken becomes visible; perhaps, the crystals should only form around the chicken surface, if that is where the pores are.
If I put the chicken in a bag, and tightened, the ice crystals do not form on the chicken hence pore sizes do not open.

Having done a fair bit of testing, I cannot seem to get these pores to open via freezing, which should then lead to high absorption of salt water when cooking. I didn't brine on the days when there was good absorption, so I think the answer has to do with freezing, although I could be wrong.

Do you think it is an issue of freezing, and it might be something about the way I am freezing?

I think your best bet is to change your recipe. While trying to figure out the exact process that sometimes makes your soup work does indeed sound like an interesting science project, it doesn't sound like its going to yield a reliable recipe. Especially since you've got to deal with supermarket chicken from suppliers that may change their processing procedures whenever it suites them—maybe even from package to package, depending on which plant it came from, or the specifics of the chickens the plant processed that day.

There are easy, reliable ways to get salt into chicken. The following two will get you salty chicken, every time you do it:

Put your chicken (chopped up or whole) in the fridge submerged in a 13% brine for a day, and you'd at that point have chicken which would be (once cooked) inedibly salty (among other problems).
You could chop your chicken fairly thin, and pack it (again in the fridge) in kosher salt. Then it'd become dry, and also very salty.

Of course, that'll be far more salty than you want. So you'll want to scale back—use a 5–6% brine, put it in only for a few hours, etc. But that will get flavorful chicken every time.

Then, to keep your soup base from being salty:

rinse the brined or salted chicken before adding to the soup (to remove any salt resting on the surface)
keep salting of the soup to a minimum.
don't overcook the chicken, that'll force more liquid from it.
make sure to use low-sodium chicken broth. Normal store-bought broth/stock is pretty salty.
if too much salt leaches from the chicken, cook the chicken separately and drain it.

</rant>

edit: random suggestions since the above apparently doesn't work

Commercially, many things are quick-frozen (e.g., fish) to prevent ice crystal damage. It would seem to follow then, that since you're trying to cause ice crystal damage, you want to freeze as slowly as possible. Easy way to do this would be (assuming your chicken is already under 40°F e.g., in the fridge) to insulate it before throwing it in the freezer. So, put it in a freezer bag, but then wrap the freezer bag in some kitchen towels, then toss that in the freezer.
In previously-frozen (commercially) chicken, there may be some anti-ice-crystal additives, I have no idea. Previously-frozen isn't always sold frozen. Check the package, it should say (probably in tiny print).
You could try a second thaw/freeze cycle (just make sure to thaw in the fridge, or in cold water, not the microwave, for food safety reasons—keep it under 40°F). This will certainly increase the effects of freezing (and would normally be avoided for flavor and texture reasons)
This isn't freezing, but may accomplish the same goal: you could try one of the 40+-blade meat tenderizers.

Also, as a final note, it turns out that a lo of how we (humans) perceive flavor has nothing to do with the food. The ambiance, how we're feeling that day, etc. affect perceived flavor substantially. Keep this in mind, since you're not using e.g., a salinity meter, its possible you're chasing down differences that aren't due to the food itself.


Are rare burgers safe? On a recent trip to France, I had a burger that was still pink in the middle. I know this is incredibly common in France (and it was delicious!) - but, as I understand it, it would never be allowed in the UK.

I'm aware that common wisdom is that mince needs to be cooked all the way through as any exposed surface area can harbour dangerous bacteria (so almost all of it, in the case of mince/burgers). Do the French take any special precautions when preparing food in this way? Is eating this particularly risky?

Applying USDA standards (which may or may not be the 'same' as elsewhere, but (IMHO) serve as a reasonable standard for "Safe") Hamburger must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F [71°C] in order to be 'Guaranteed Safe', which is typically defined as 'well done'.

On the other hand hamburger may be perfectly safe at medium rare to rare (120°F - 49°C) depending on how the beef was raised and processed. Actual cases of serious food borne illness from even raw meat are fairly rare (or should I say uncommon? ;) ). As far as I can tell the French are doing nothing 'special' to neither decrease nor increase the risks involved.

Many restaurants (in the US) will specify on their menu some thing like:

  All burgers cooked med-well unless otherwise requested

A variety of circumstances from acid levels in the meat to the application of dyes may cause meat to appear 'pink' but be perfectly safe, ground beef may also appear to be brown, but may not be safe at all. Pink is not necessarily a good standard.

Since you are unlikely to get an 'accurate reading' carrying your own food thermometer with you where ever you may go (if your food sits on the counter for a while before getting served the temp by the time it gets to you will be less), the best test to apply in a restaurant is 'cooked' vs. 'raw'

A quick Google search "Hamburger Rare vs. Raw" will display a myriad of images from which you may discern what you are comfortable with.

  By 'serious' food borne illness I am referring to things which might
  require a doctors care or put your life in jeopardy. While lower-grade
  illness maybe 'unpleasant' they are not necessarily 'unsafe'

  "As far as I can tell" denotes the inability to prove a negative.
  Having looked through the Anses website, particularly their
  section on 'nutrivigilence' and 'animal nutrition and welfare' looking
  for any exceptional methods (radiation treatment, quarantines,
  chemical therapies etc) that might have the goal (even if not the
  effect) of making the beef supply more safe...I found nothing to cause
  me to believe that they are actually doing anything exceptional (over
  and above US or EU standards)


How to fry ground beef so it is well-browned I have been using a propane torch to brown up the ground beef at the end of frying it on the pan, but there must be better way that does not involve the torch; can it be done? Here's what I currently do (before utilizing the torch):

Heat pan on high, until sizzling hot.
Lower heat to medium-high and add fat (duck fat)
Lay down the ground beef
Begin breaking it down to small pieces
Stir constantly as I break it down
Stop when no pink pieces remains

Note that I stir constantly, and leave no large pieces on the pan.

At the end the beef is still gray, and not the dark brown color I desire; which is why I use the torch to finish it up.

Use a bigger pan...or much less beef in the pan.  Stop stirring.   If you over crowd the pan, nothing will brown.  It will steam, then braise because the water can't evaporate fast enough.  Secondly, browning happens when an item remains in contact with the pan.  So, stirring (unless you are using very high, wok-type temperature) will only defeat the browning process.  Allow it to brown, perhaps longer than you think is necessary, then stir, and repeat.


How do I accurately take a chicken thigh's temperature? I tried to bake chicken thighs the other day and I used my probe thermometer to tell me when they were done.  Well it seems that I did something wrong when inserting the thermometer because the thighs were still undercooked.

How can you use a probe thermometer on a chicken thigh to accurately take its temperature?

I assume you cooked your chicken thighs to 165–175°F (74-80°C) (depending on preference). 165°F (74°C) is the recommended temperature for safety (at least by US authorities), 175°F (80°C) is often recommended for texture (in legs and thighs; not for breast).

The best bet is to measure in several spots. You generally want to guess the thickest spot of meat, insert the probe past the center, then slowly withdraw it. How slowly depends on the response time of your probe. You then use the lowest temperature you see, especially if you see anything under the food-safety temperature (165°F or 74°C).

If there are multiple pieces of chicken, you should check several. Especially if they're different sizes.

Probe response times are anywhere from 20 seconds on fairly cheap thermometers, down to 3 seconds on expensive ones (like a Thermopen). 10 seconds is typical. You'll know its finished responding when the numbers stop changing quickly.

You also should rest the chicken, loosely tented, for at least 5 minutes (for just thighs, more like 15 minutes for a full chicken) after taking it off the heat—this lets the heat even out, and also will reduce the amount of juice lost when cutting.