Sushi rolls keep getting thin I'm learning how to make sushi and the last problem I always get now is that my rolls end up getting too thin. I follow the guides I found on the internet to split the seaweed in half and put the amount of rice similar to a lemon sized ball. If I put an amount of rice and a normal sized filling, it is impossible to close.
So, I really would like to know a couple of things, what is the regular size for the seaweed, what is the proper amount of rice to put on it and if this problem I'm getting there's nothing to deal with measurements, but technique.
Note: as I see some tutorials, it seems the seaweed is the same, so they are getting the same size seaweed, and I'm inclined to believe that I'm executing the technique to roll improperly.

I have a couple of suggestions, which have helped me.  First, cut your nori a bit larger.  Rather than using a half sheet, go for two-thirds a sheet.  Of course this will produce a smaller portion, for which you will need to devise a creative use (I've used them for hand rolls), but beginning with a larger sheet leaves you more room for error as you are learning to create consistent rolls.  Second, I like to try to create a layer of rice that is one grain of rice thick.  Of course, it doesn't always happen this way, but it allows me to work at keeping the rice layer uniform. Forget the "lemon-sized ball."  Just make a layer of rice, always leaving some exposed nori along the long edges so you can create a seal when you roll. Use a bowl of water to keep your hands moist, and avoid sticking rice. It does take some practice, so keep at it.  Once you are producing consistent results, you can go back to a half sheet.


Will old corn meal ruin muffins? I have found a recipe for muffins that I'd like to make, and it calls for corn meal. I found some in the pantry, but I don't know when it was purchased. It doesn't smell like much, just kinda like corn.

It might be pretty old. Possibly years. Will it ruin the muffins? Would the muffins be significantly better if I bought some new corn meal from the grocer?

If it is stale or rancid, you will get substandard muffins that simply don't taste very good.  Usually you would smell rancidity.

It is unlikely to have suffered mold or other decay if it still smells just like corn, but....  cornmeal is quite inexpensive, at least in the US.  You might want to buy a new bag.


Rust on unknown metal cooking mold I followed the cooking instructions from a Julia Child's book for making a plum pudding including "Use a special pan made for this purpose....with a very tight lid," "Let the pudding cool in its container.  Store it in a cool wine cellar, or in the refrigerator."  I bought a special plum pudding mold and made my pudding.  I cooled and refrigerator-stored my pudding for a month when my built-in fridge's compressor died.  While in shop being repaired, I stored by pudding in a bucket with ice packs.  Due to condensation, I found rust marks on the plastic bucket from the outside bottom of the mold.  I began to worry about the pudding, with acid ingredients, being left in the metal mold.  I unmolded the pudding and found a small amount of rust spots on the inside of the mold.  The inside of the lid was terribly rusted but hadn't touched the food.  Since the metal content isn't known (although with rust, does it have to be an iron content?), could some poisonous toxins have leached out too?  Are cooking containers made safely now to avoid tin-can type deaths as in the past?  Can just the outside layer of the pudding be cut off and the rest will be safe?

If it's only rust, you should be fine. Rust is oxidized iron and harmless. Check for other discolorations or changes in surface texture, that means something else is happening there
If in doubt, ditch it.

Here's what I'd do: I'd cut off (rather generously) the rusted parts, sample a bit of pudding from the inside and decide if the recipe is worth another try in a new mold. Then, get yourself a new mold. This time, make sure it's appropriate for your intended use: Some puddings are cooked in the mold, then served right away (so no danger of excessive rusting), some , like your plum pudding, need longer time to "ripen". Maybe you coud get a porcelain mold?


What determines how hard or soft a cheese will be? My knowledge of cheese making is extremely lacking, but what determines how hard or soft the final cheese product is when making your own cheese?

It is mostly about how much water is left in the curd- how hard and long you press it, aging, and sometimes microbial growth.

Soft cheeses like cream cheese are only barely pressed. Fresh soft cheeses like queso fresco and paneer aren't even pressed at all- just hung to dry.

Cheddar is pressed firmly and aged for a relatively short time.

Cheeses like parmesan are pressed firmly and then aged for months to over a year. Most of the liquid leaves during pressing and then they also dry considerably.

Some cheeses like Camembert are unique in that the mold that grows on them softens them as it digests compounds in the cheese. This is what gives Brie, etc, their unique texture.


How do I translate microwave cooking instructions to fanless conventional oven instructions? I have a microwavable meal which instructs me to (for a 800 Watt microwave oven) perforate film and cook for 3 minutes on full power, then remove the film and cook for a further 1 1/2 minutes.

Unfortunately I don't have a microwave.

How do I convert these instructions so I can cook my food in a normal (no fan) oven?

How long should I cook for?

What (UK gas mark 0-9) oven setting should I use?

Lots of plastic are quite "transparent" to microwaves, but may turn really nasty when exposed to direct heat or the oven (the rest will turn nasty in microwave too; no such thing as oven-safe plastic...)  So, first step - move the meal to oven-safe dishes.

The expected time grows about x6; medium-high heat. Instead of "perforate the film" cover the dish. Remove the cover for the remaining time.

Also, for a lot of "ready to serve, just microwave it" dishes, a skillet is a better choice - unless the dish is "structured" like lasagna, you can get it hot when heating it in a skillet (stirring occasionally) in about 2-3 times the microwave time.


How is plant based chicken and bacon made using soya and pea protein? I have recently applied for a role at a company which makes vegan meat substitutes (specifically chicken and bacon) and I was wondering how products such as these would be made from soy and pea protein.
Would anyone be able to explain the key steps in the manufacturing process of these?

Those are probably trade secrets (beyond meat ans others...)
There are many recipes/youtube videos out there showing how to make it at home.
I assume industrial plant based meat producers are doing the same but optimized for high yield (and consistency)
for example, this one show how to make "chicken"


Can I fit normal kenwood bowls in the major series I have a Kenwood Chef Major and while it's great, I find the mixing bowl to be a bit on the large size for simple jobs. I'm wondering if there is any reason why I wouldn't be able to fit a normal chef size bowl.

Anyone have any experience in this?

I've put regular ceramic bowls under my mixer before (also a Kenwood, but that doesn't really matter.)

The only things you have to look out for are:

Does the paddle scrape the bottom? If so, raise it up until it doesn't (paddle height is adjustable.)
Does the paddle hit the sides as it rotates? If so, your bowl is not wide enough. Get a wider bowl.

If you were mixing a very small amount, you might find that, due to the angle of the curve of the bowl, it is not optimum in getting everything amalgamated, but for the most part, a bowl is a bowl. Just like with the supplied bowl, you probably have to scrape sides every now and again to make sure everything's mixing together anyway.

TL;DR: a bowl is a bowl, just don't let the paddle hit it, because, well, the paddle is hitting it (if you needed a reason.)


Does creme fraiche contain live bacteria in the same way that yoghurt does? Is crème fraiche 'live', like yoghurt is? Or is it 'inert?'

Unfortunately, I can only give a similar answer to ones you've received in your question about sour cream -- generally, you'll have to contact the manufacturer.

That said, most commercial cultured dairy products do not undergo a second "pasteurization" step after fermentation, and in a few searches on the topic, I wasn't able to find anything about crème fraîche manufacture that would indicate that pasteurization after culturing is common.  Even yogurt that is "heat treated" after fermentation is often not subjected to the same levels of heat and time that would be required for normal pasteurization -- thus, while some (and maybe most) bacteria may be killed off, it's likely that some remain.

I would generally assume that any cultured dairy product (crème fraîche, yogurt, cultured buttermilk, kefir, sour cream, etc.) will contain at least some live bacteria unless the label or manufacturer explicitly tells you otherwise.  The question is the concentration.  Usually high-fat cultured dairy products (crème fraîche, sour cream) contain a lower concentration of culturing bacteria than lower fat dairy (yogurt, buttermilk), but it's tough to know how low.

Regardless, "full-fat" crème fraîche should generally be relatively stable even if you heat it.  So, you could theoretically pasteurize it yourself by heating above 150F (66C) for at least 30 minutes.  At higher temperatures, pasteurization will take less time (the standard for commercial pasteurization of high-fat milk products is usually 15 seconds at 166F (74C)), though at some point you'll begin significantly altering the texture of the product at high temperature.

Keep in mind, though, that even "pasteurized" products usually contain small amounts of active lactic-acid bacteria.  Pasteurization temperatures and time are designed around killing specific nasty bacteria which are known to cause illness.  The kind of bacteria used for culturing dairy products are not generally considered harmful, and many of them can survive longer at high temperatures (hence, the reason why pasteurized milk eventually often "goes sour").  If you're looking for dairy products that are actually sterile (with no live bacteria), you'll need to look at "ultra-high temperature" (UHT) pasteurized products.  These are the sort of dairy products that can often be stored on the shelf without refrigeration for months without going bad.  Normal "pasteurized" dairy products still should be expected to contain some live bacteria (just a lower concentration), which is why they are refrigerated.


Why is it easier to separate a cold egg? A lot of recipes that call for separating an egg, suggest that the egg be separated when cold rather than at room temperature even if it has to be brought to room temperature afterwards. I was just wondering what makes it easier to separate eggs when cold and if there is a chemical reason or the cells of the egg change under different temperatures? What's the science behind it?

It's a simple matter of viscosity, when eggs are cold the white is less runny. When eggs are warm the white is much more runny.

As for whether it is easier to separate eggs when cold or warm it depends on your method. If you use the shells to separate the white, by cracking them in half and then transferring the yolk back and forth between the halves, then I'd say cold is a bit better because once the white starts to drip out it tends to go as a whole. With warm eggs more white will stay in the shell with the yolk.

However, if you use your hands to separate the eggs, by letting the white drip between your fingers (or using an egg separator which does the same thing), warm eggs work much better because the runniness allows them to flow easier. This method works fine for cold eggs too, but warm is faster.

Of the two methods I prefer using my hands rather than the shell for a few reasons:

Less broken yolks: It's easier to break a yolk when using shells
It's faster: especially if your eggs are room temperature you can separate eggs twice as fast this way
You can whip the whites right away: Most of the time the reason you are separating the egg whites is to whip them into peaks, and warm whites whip better than cold whites. If your eggs are warm already then you can whip them right away, if they are cold you have to wait for them to warm up

A handy trick if you are separating a lot of eggs is to separate each white into a separate bowl, then putting the white into a larger bowl with the rest of them. This is so if you get a bad egg, or a yolk breaks into the white you can discard the egg and keep the rest of them.


Cook mashed potatoes in buttermilk I heard somebody mention cooking mashed potatoes in the buttermilk instead of water.  Has anybody heard of this or have a link to a recipe?

I would advise against it. Cooking in acid makes vegetables firm. Sometimes this is a good thing, but if you want to mash your potatoes afterwards, you want them soft. Else you'll get the wrong texture.

There are numerous recipes for adding dairy products to the mashed potatoes after they have been cooked and mashed, and they taste well. You can look for them, or experiment yourself. It's a matter of what taste/texture you like, there aren't any physics involved which you'd throw off with a "wrong" ratio.


Mystery "organ" on the underside of chicken thighs? There is a small, round, black "organ" under chicken thighs, and some people like to eat it.  Identifying this seems to be quite the lingering Internet mystery.

They are there on prepared fried chicken--specifically Popeye's, but I'm sure it's there on any prepared bone-in chicken thigh.  I've read various claims that it's the "oyster", liver, kidney, or a blood vessel.  By "under" the thigh, I mean that it's found on the bony side opposite the meat.

See these pages: 1,  2, 3.  There are tons more if you search.

Photos follow: Chicken thigh with gizzard thing exposed, then removed, then cross section.

As discussed in the comments under the question, I believe the organ in question is a kidney, from the pocket in the pelvis of a thigh butchered in a fairly unusual manner, with that part of the pelvis still attached.

See page 3.21 in the University of Kentucky's PDF of Chapter 3 of Chicken Anatomy and Physiology.   It shows where the kidney's are in the chicken (moderately graphic), and the shape looks quite similar to the mystery item in the original question's photographs, allowing for shrinkage from cooking.


What can I use instead of cornstarch in Turkish Delight? I want to make Turkish Delight but I don't have cornstarch and cream of tartar. They are not available in our country, Bangladesh. What can I use instead?

Both the corn starch and cream of tartar are used for thickening in this case. You could try potato or tapioca starch; from my own experience and experiments, however, potato starch creates a very unusual, stretchy consistency. Tapioca starch would most likely produce better results than potato starch.

As for the cream of tartar, you can substitute each teaspoon of cream of tartar for three teaspoons of vinegar or lemon juice, according to this other Stack Exchange question.


Baking madeleines without burning them I am making chestnut cream madeleines from almond flour. The recipe calls for baking at 320F/160C for 30 minutes, which almost burns the outside but leaves the inside baked.

I baked a second batch for 26 minutes, which leaves the outside a nice golden madeleine color, but the inside is underdone.

If I left them in the oven any longer, the outside would start to burn.

My goal is to get the outside and inside as correct and delicious as possible.

If I bake another batch, would I have more likelihood of success baking at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, or vice versa (high temp/shorter time)?

When I read recipes online, there is a wide variety of baking times and temperatures for this cake, and they use wheat flour, not almond. So I appreciate any advice relevant to baking with that type of flour.

If the insides aren't cooked when the outsides are, you're cooking too hot. Lower the baking temperature... try a batch at 300F for 30 minutes and test them. If that doesn't work, drop it another 15-20 F and extend the time a bit.

It's all a matter of getting the right balance between heat to cause browning and time to let the inside cook completely.


Long chilling of brioche dough? What benefit should I expect from longer chilling of brioche dough? My recipe calls for kneading, allowing the dough to rise until doubled, chilling (without deflating) for one hour, deflating, chilling another hour, deflating by business envelope folding twice, then chilling for at least 6 hours up to two days.

The recipe says longer chilling allows the dough to "ripen". I kind of understand that as it relates to a tangier dough like a ciabatta or certainly a sourdough, but brioche is so cake-like, I can't imagine how "ripening" will affect the flavor? Also, I plan to braid the loaf. Will longer chilling make that easier? Are there any cons to resting/chilling longer than the minimum 6(+2) hours that I should consider?

The effect of long retardation of brioche dough is going to be driven by the same basic processes as in any bread dough:

Slowed but longer yeast activity, producing more of the flavorful byproducts (lactic and acetic acids) which give bread the pleasant, yeasty flavor.
Gluten development through autolysation, as the glutinan and gliadin react in the presence of water, forming bonds that create the gluten network.

All of these processes will be modified by the extreme levels of enrichment, so there will be less gluten development and less yeast activity than in a leaner dough.  I suspect (but do not have a reference to document) that that the enrichment will place a ceiling on the absolute amount of gluten development possible, as the gluten sheets will not able to grow as long and strong as they otherwise would, being physically interrupted by the lipids.


Does it matter if I start boiling hard eggs in hot or cold water? Does it matter if I in which water temperature I start to prepare hard eggs?

Of course, the preparing time will be still measured from boiling - but does it make any difference? - regards the temperature difference between the eggs and the water.

Also, in case it do matters - does it matter if the eggs were in the fridge or in room temperature?

It depends on how fussy you are about your hard boiled eggs. If you wait until your water is boiling and then add the eggs for the same amount of time, every time, then you will get consistent results. If you add the eggs to cold water a variety of circumstances (actual starting water temp, stove setting, size/style of the pan) will make your results 'inconsistent'.

If you know you like a 12 minute hard boiled egg then you need to start with boiling water or you will get runnier eggs. Once the water reaches 212°F (100°C) it will remain there so long as the same amount of heat is being used. The boiling point of your water (based on other chemicals in the water and altitude) becomes a constant temperature to cook your eggs.

For 'consistency' yes, it matters.


Rigging equipment for steaming large amounts at once I am making steamed BBQ pork buns for a work potluck. I have some steamer equipment, but small scale.  I'm looking at making 60+ buns, and would really like to cook them as quickly as possible the morning before I go to work.

How can I create a large steamer setup?  I thought my rice cooker and instant pot could be put to use as steamers. It is a standard large office setup, so not sure if the humidity from the steam would be a problem.

Assuming that you're planning to do the steaming at home (your question is kind of confusing that way), the cheapest way to go is to create ad-hoc "steam ovens" using disposable aluminum foil pans.

Buy some disposable aluminum foil baking pans, as large/deep as possible, like a 20" x 12" x 3.5" pan.
line the bottom of these with cookie cooling racks (if you don't have these, use an appropriately-sized disposable rimmed cookie sheet and punch holes in it).
pour in a little bit of water, below the tops of the racks.
put in the buns (should hold a lot of them in each pan)
seal tightly with extra-wide, heavy-duty foil on top.
bake in your oven at 350F

Now, the catch to this is that the cooking time will be different than it would n a regular steamer, because you're getting some heat from the top, and I don't have a ready conversion for you; you'd have to test a bit.

If this is something you do a lot, I'd recommend buying a Thai/Vietnamese-style multi-level steamer, which would allow you to steam batches of 12 to 30 buns pretty rapidly.  You can buy these steamers at Asian grocery stores a lot cheaper than you can find them online.


Can I use a china oven dish to make a sponge cake? I want to make an ordinary sponge cake.  The recipe says I need to use a metal cake tin.  Can I use an (ovenproof) china oven dish instead?

Yes, it is just fine to bake a cake in a pan like the one we talked about in comments. A pan of that type may stick a bit more than a metal pan, so you might find "cake release" to be of benefit.

It's unlikely that you will have any problems at all, but read Aaronut's answer here.


How to get uniform slices from bread? We make bread for sandwiches a few times a week, but slicing them is always a pain.  The pieces just don't come out uniform. I end up with angled pieces as the knife doesn't end up going straight down.

Is there a trick to getting uniform pieces from a loaf?

Try using a bow style bread knife.  It works well because it allows you to put pressure on the opposite side of the loaf.  Also, the bow helps you visually line up the slice.


How to keep my turkey burgers from crumbling I combined a pound of lean ground turkey with 3/4 cup each of chopped red onion and medium salsa. It was delicious, but it was also pretty crumbly, is there something I can do to make it hold together better without increasing fat content too much?

Ground turkey is usually very wet, I've found that breadcrumbs bind it together well without using egg. I prefer panko breadcrumbs for this, their large size seems to work better.

Adding salsa isn't likely to help you much, the added liquid is going to make it hard to get it to stay together. If you want the flavor of salsa then try adding dry spices and tomato paste instead, those will absorb moisture rather than contribute it. I like a combination of paprika, cumin, and ground sage in my turkey burgers.

Also, I've found that cooking the onions a bit before adding them to turkey burgers gives better result because it drives out some of the moisture and makes them a bit more tender in the cooked burger.


How can I efficiently render 100 lbs of suet into tallow in a home kitchen? As I mentioned in another question, I'm about to undergo a 100 lb suet-to-tallow rendering process.  The problem is, as much as I love tallow, I've never rendered suet myself before and I have a million questions (though I'll try to keep it to a few key points).  After a lot of research, here is what I've come up with:

Trim, chop, and partially freeze suet
Run it through a food processor
Render with or without water
Strain and cool

It seems there are 3 rendering options for the typical home kitchen:

Oven at 250°F
Stovetop on low/very low (I have an electric range/hobs)
Crockpot on low setting

And then there's a difference between rendering the fat by itself, or rendering it in water.  A few convincing articles imply that rendering it in water creates more "pure" tallow.

I figure since I have so much to render, I'll try all three methods above simultaneously.  I have: two crockpots; an enameled cast iron dutch oven and a few large stock pots for the stovetop; and a lot of casserole dishes for my two-rack oven.  Even doing them all at the same time like this, I imagine it's still going to take a few (many?) rounds to render it all.  I'd like to minimize that time if possible since I don't have room to store the suet for long, but producing quality tallow is equally important as I'll be giving some away.

My questions:

Are there any methods for doing this in a typical home kitchen that I'm missing?  The grill, perhaps, or is that too dangerous?  I also have an electric wok.
How can I do this as efficiently and quickly as possible?  For example, can I stack casserole dishes in the oven or do I need to keep air flow maximized and just do what fits on the two racks at a time?  How hot can I have the oven and stovetop without risking quality loss?
Should I render with water or without it?  Will it really make it more pure if I use water, and if not what will?
About how much tallow can I expect to get from 100 lbs of suet?  I have a rough estimate of 20 gallons in my head but that's based on numbers I found from a Google search.

It depends on what you need the tallow for and whether you want it to taste significantly of beef or not, water rendering will give a cleaner tallow.

With 100lbs of tallow, your main limiting factor is driving off all the water. Tallow is about 75% fat, 22% water and 3% protein so you basically need to boil off 22 pints of water. What heat sources do you have that's going to most efficiently boil off 22 pints of water?

Here's what I would recommend: chop about 1 - 2 lbs of the tallow into 1/2 inch sized pieces to start off with and start them rendering in a pan on the biggest burner you have set as high as possible. Place a thermometer in there and monitor when it reaches 250F, making sure to keep the bottom of the pot scrupulously clean of stuck on bits (if there are stuck on bits, transfer to another pot so that the bottom stays clean).

When it reaches 250F, add in another batch of tallow pieces too cool down the pot and wait until it gets back up to temp again. Repeat until all the tallow is rendered.

This process can be parallelized with multiple pots and thermometers if so desired. The more heat you can apply, the faster this will go.


Making a crock pot style stew in an instant pot Can I make a crockpot style stew in an instant pot? What I mean is a stew made in the instant pot, but not on the slow cooker option. If so, how do I do that?
(I am not looking for a recipe, just a technique)

Yes and no.
There are some definite differences when you're cooking with a pressure cooker and a slow cooker.
First off, you need to have sufficient liquid from the beginning in a pressure cooker, so it will actually pressurize and lock shut.  Typically this is about 1/4 to  1/2 cup (~60 to 120 mL), but the type of liquid matters -- you're going to want more if it's something like tomato juice, where there's a lot of sugars and dietary fiber.
There are a number of slow cooker recipes that rely on vegetables or meat giving off liquid as they cook ... those just simply won't work.
But you also have to avoid having too much liquid.  Because the pressure cooker is sealed (at least on an instant pot, some others give off steam as they cook), you won't get any reduction and concentration of the liquids as it cooks.  This can result in stews coming out rather soupy.
For this reason, I would recommend following a pressure cooker recipe if you can.  Some will call for pulling the meat and vegetables and turning the instant pot to 'sauté' to reduce the liquid.  Others will make adjustments to ingredients and seasonings, and might even throw in a cornstarch slurry to try to get the right viscosity.
As there are lots of recipes out there for any given dish, you might want to look for ones that fit your general constraints and then adjust the flavorings more like you prefer, but use the general meat / vegetable / liquid ratios from the pressure cooker recipe as-is the first time.
A few things that I've taken to doing when adapting slow cooker recipes to the instant pot:

Cut up large roasts If you're supposed to brown the meat first, I do it, but I cut large roasts into two or three more manageable chunks.  Then set it aside, deglaze, and pour the liquid out with the meat.

Cook down vegetables that give off liquid. Like for onions, I'll cook down a base of onions until it's almost dry, then deglaze with your liquid making sure it's hot, and then pile the meat and other veg in (possibly some more onion, as that other stuff's going to almost disappear), then change it over to pressure cook.

Replace tomatoes with tomato paste If a recipe calls for a can of tomatoes, tomato puree or similar, I add some tomato paste and cook it for a minute or so before one of the times when I deglaze.  (Note: I'm using the US terms.  In the UK, it would be replacing passata or crushed tomatoes with tomato purée)

Use full salt broths.  If you're not going to be reducing the liquid at the end, you don't need to worry about using 'low sodium' broth or stock, and it keeps it from coming out too flat tasting

Use more garlic.  Pressure cooking seems to reduce the flavor too much for my liking.  I tend to increase it to 1.5 to 2 times what was called for.  If that's still not enough for your liking, you can grind up a clove of garlic with some coarse salt, and stir that in at the end.

Mind you, with the deglazing, you'll lose some of the liquid, so I like to measure it out ahead of time (at least 1/2 a cup (120mL), to deal with evaporation), and then work from that when I go to deglaze ... and add all of the rest of it to bring to a boil just before I put everything back in and seal it up.


What does it mean when a recipe calls for coring a tomato? When I was making gazpacho, I looked up a video, and found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDt0L1-SaRg
In this video, almost the entire interior of the tomato is removed.  I followed this video, and ended up with a less gazpacho than I thought I should have. (I asked this question Cored tomatoes measured before or after coring? assuming that that first video was the correct way to core a tomato).

Now I think that maybe that first video was deceptive--other videos suggest that the core is just the tough part right near the stem.

I assume that there may be a good reason to core a tomato both ways, for different recipes, but if a recipe just calls for coring a tomato and doesn't specify further, is there a consensus on what part is meant, the part by the stem, or the entire interior?

The coring of tomatoes has a lot more to do with tradition than any sound foundations; the seeds in tomatoes can be bitter (and of course will ruin the texture of a smooth gazpacho) but the pulp surrounding them that is also discarded is rich in umami containing compounds:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2007/oct/23/hestonblumenthalstomatosauc

It proves something many cooks already knew or suspected - that the jelly around the pips of tomatoes contains most of the tomato's flavour. This is not so important for us home cooks - we tend to leave the seeds in the final dish we are preparing; but in the professional kitchen, the seeds are often discarded for the sake of appearance and presentation.
The title of Heston's paper that recently appeared in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry is Differences in Glutamic Acid and 5'- Ribonucleotide Contents between Flesh and Pulp of Tomatoes and the Relationship with Umami Taste (with co-authors Maria-Jose Oruna-Concha, Lisa Methven, Christopher Young and Donald S. Mottram from the University of Reading).
The paper's abstract cites the difference in taste we've all observed "between the outer flesh and the inner pulp of tomatoes," and the fact that "the pulp, which contains the seeds, had more umami taste." Umami, discovered by Ikeda in 1909, is the fifth taste, the meaty, broth-like or savoury taste that is now accepted as an addition to the traditional sweet, bitter, salty and sour gustatory sensations.
The paper shows that the inner pulp of the tomato contains up to 11 times the concentration of compounds associated with the umami taste as does the other flesh. This was determined experimentally, subjecting many different varieties of tomato to both chemical analysis and to sensory evaluation by a panel of human beings, who wore noseclips "to evaluate taste attributes" and took them off "to assess all other attributes." And just to make sure they weren't prejudiced by visual clues (such as the deeper red of some tomatoes) all the tests were done under red lighting.


Difficulty Working with Koji I've made a shio koji "starter" using koji-inoculated rice grains, salt, and water, and have added fresh rice to it once in a while to keep it living and fed. I've heard many chefs and home cooks talk about the value of koji's proteases and amylases for tenderizing and increasing glutamate concentration in meats, but I've run into a problem when marinating chicken thighs in shio koji. While pubs like Cook's Science advocate anywhere up to 3 days in a shio koji marinade, I find the salt content generally recommended for use in shio koji just ends up curing the chicken, and you get a very stringy, unpleasant texture in the final result when cooked. Has anyone had this experience? Are shorter marinades the way to go? Reducing the salt content?

The salt can interrupt the fermentation, but the right amount of it depends from other factors also. Try with the skin only and see the result.


Flavour-wise, what is the use of an electric/gas BBQ? I can understand that an electric/gas BBQ is very practical for outdoor events because you can cook a large amount of food in a relatively short amount of time, without smelling up the house.

A charcoal BBQ can impart a smokey flavour to the meat from the briquettes but what can say a gas BBQ do in terms of flavour? Is there any difference between using a gas BBQ and cooking the food indoors with a griddle/frying pan?

When you're grilling food at high temperatures on a barbeque most of the smoke comes from fat that strikes the hot surface of the coals/vapourizer. It's only when you're slowly barbequing food, cooking it at cool temperatures, that the difference becomes important. With a gas or electric barbeque you'll need to add a source of smoke (eg. wood in a smoker box) if you want to add any smokey flavour. Even with charcoal it's normal to add wood to the coals in order to increase the amount of smoke.

When cooking on an indoor griddle or frying pan, unless something goes seriously wrong, there's usually no smoke so the flavour will different than when grilling on any sort of barbeque.


Heating a premade tlayuda? I just picked up some ready-made, already-toasted tlayuda at a Latin American market. I'm wondering:

What is the standard/traditional method for heating these with toppings?
Is there a way to heat them on the grill?  They're big enough (like 40cm diameter) to be hard to fit into my oven.

Like I said, I've done some searching, but have found three kinds of recipes: those that have me making them from masa dough and serving immediately after toasting, those that have them served cold, and those that assume I'm substituting tortillas.  None are the case here; these tlayuda are pretty well toasted, so I'm wondering if I could spread them with black beans and heat them on a low grill.

I've had these at restaurants with melted cheese on top, and it's pretty common to buy them pre-toasted, so there must be a way.

Reheat it like you should reheat a pizza, in the oven in a pan with the tempurture at 325F (162C)

Regarding it being too big that it might not/will not fit into your oven because 1t is 40cm in diameter, just cut it in pieces to fit (half, quarters, etc., whatever works)


Baking bread with spelt flour, without using a bread pan I ran out of "normal" wheat flour a few days ago, so I had to bake my bread with the closest thing - spelt flour.

I noticed the dough was a lot stickier than when using wheat flour, and when baked, the bread came out flat (like a thick pancake). The taste was fine, but because it was so flattened out, there was a lot more crust than usual (and the children don't like crust).

I usually bake my bread directly on the baking plate, not using any bread pan, and for wheat flour, that works fine. Do I need a bread pan to prevent the bread from running out, or is there something else I can do?

Although similar, spelt has more protein and less starch than wheat flour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat#Nutrition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt#Nutrition

This means that it will create a great structure but won't absorb as much liquid. This would result in exactly what you saw- it was sticky from water and protein and too loose to hold its shape but baked with a good crust.

The recipes I have seen use a mixture of flours that includes spelt.

Try adding less water.


Can I make pasta with atta flour? I have purchased a bag of atta flour and am wanting to make pasta - is this flour suitable? And is atta a self raising flour or plain flour?

Atta usually refers to durum flour (often whole wheat) used in Indian/South Asian cuisine. It is  used for indian flat breads like chapati, roti and naan. Where it normally isn't self-rising, you can find special self-rising naan atta (that contains some kind of leavening agent), but it will be then labeled as self rising or at least special naan atta.

That said, like any durum flour most attas are well-suited for making dry pasta (which does not require eggs cause it has high enough gluten contents).

I have used atta flour for eggless pasta myself, it worked well and it was easy to roll it really thin to prepare lasagna sheets and ravioli.


Charles Darwin high altitude cooking of potatoes I just read about Charles Darwin's attempt to boil potatoes while at high altitudes.
In The Voyage of the Beagle you can read:

  Having crossed the Peuquenes [Piuquenes], we descended into a mountainous country, intermediate between the two main ranges, and then took up our quarters for the night. We were now in the republic of Mendoza. The elevation was probably not under 11,000 feet [...]. At the place where we slept water necessarily boiled, from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, at a lower temperature than it does in a less lofty country; the case being the converse of that of a Papin's digester. Hence the potatoes, after remaining for some hours in the boiling water, were nearly as hard as ever. The pot was left on the fire all night, and next morning it was boiled again, but yet the potatoes were not cooked.

At that altitude the boiling temperature should be around 88°C depending on local variance and weather, but as far as I know that should be more than enough to break down the starch and pectin in a potato. There are a number of sous vide recipes which states that you can boil potatoes at 87°C or even lower.

Why couldn't Charles Darwin cook his potatoes? Was it a special kind of potato or was the boiling point even lower where he was?

This is keeping me up at night, could anyone help me understand this?

My guess of what happened was that the potatoes were sitting in an open pot that was not in a rolling boil.  I'm going to assume that they went down from the pass and the place where "they took up [their] quarters" was at 11,000ft.  This region was then, as it is today, almost destitute of vegetation.  Darwin notes in the paragraph just before the potato comment that

  The root of a small scrubby plant served as fuel, but it made a miserable fire, and the wind was piercingly cold.

Temperatures in that region average close in the 2 to 4C in March.  The poor fuel and the winds make it likely that there was no rolling boil and that while parts of the pot may have been at 89C (the boiling temperature at 11000ft) it is likely that the rest of the pot was not.  The poor fuel and the cold and dry wind all contributed to the lower temperatures, not just the air pressure.  Bubbles form at the bottom of the pot and rise, so the water appears to be boiling, but it is far from the boiling temperature near the upper walls.

I have experienced this problem using my modern MSR backpacking stove, so I imagine it must have been harder with a camp fire.  I got the impression they were not carrying tents.  Darwin notes that the next day (after the night of the uncooked potatoes) they found shelter under "some large fragments of rock."   This makes it likely that there was no cooking inside some big tent and given the meagerness of their equipment, that the pots had no lids.

Darwin left Chile towards Mendoza on 18 March 1835 not along what are today Route 60 in Chile and Route 7 in Argentina, but up the Yeso Valley.  When you cross the border you go through the Piuquenes Pass, which is at 13,235ft.  What could be reached within a day's walk in the valley below is 10500ft or higher.  So the assumption of 11000ft for where the potatoes where boiled seems reasonable.

Blanching at low temperatures (between 55C and 75C) for a little less than half an hour is a known technique for adding firmness to fruits and vegetables that will later be cooked in some other form (see page 283 of McGhee).  Figure 2 in the study of potato blanching by Abu-Ghannam and Crowley, shows that potatoes cooked for an hour at 75C or lower had the same firmness of raw potatoes.  As the blanching temperature increases to 90C, the softness of a cooked potato is reached in 30 minutes, with 80C being the approximate transition temperature for going into the cooked state.

The results of Abu-Ghannam and Crowley are in line with some of the sous-vide results I have seen, but not all.  My guess is that depending on the balance between starch and cellulose the temperature at which pectin stops holding things together can vary.

Water boils at lower temperatures at higher elevations, but drops only to 80C at 19,000ft:

3353m  11,000ft  89C
4572m  15,000ft  85C
5791m  19,000ft  80C


How can I substitute English Toffee in cookies? I found a cookie recipe which requires "English Toffee bars". I have never seen them around here, and don't know what they are.

What are these bars? Is there any substitution I can use? How close are Toffifee candies?

If it just said "toffee", I would cook it at home. But I am unsure what the differences are between an English toffee bar and normal toffee. Can I still cook it? How does it differ from normal toffee? Or can I just put normal toffee in the cookies?

It's just a HARD bar of toffee. It often looks like a chocolate bar, as it is marked into break-off segments

Modern "English Toffee" recipes call for toffee with a chocolate coating dusted with chopped nuts. I don't think this is really traditional English toffee

Use regular butter and sugar toffee as a substitute


Mixing Ghee with Other Ingredients I was mixing wet ingredients together for a muffin recipe, and I prepared the eggs, water and vanilla extract.  I melted Ghee butter in the microwave, and tried to cool it down some.  I then combined the eggs/water/vanilla and melted ghee together, and that is where I have been having problems.  Some of what I did:

1) Parts of the Ghee started to harden, causing chunks

2) The eggs did come out of the fridge; the water was roughly room temperature, maybe a bit below

I don't know if that would happen if I used normal butter instead of Ghee, but is there an optimal way to melt Ghee, and not have it harden and have everything mix together well?

There's two methods for this, which can also be combined.

The first, as several people have mentioned, is to make sure that the eggs and water are slightly above room temperature.  At 27C/80F ghee (and, for that matter, butter) is liquid, so if you can ensure that the rest of the batter is that temperature, it will stay liquid when mixed.  The easiest way to do this is to heat the water (to, say, 35C).  Make sure to let the ghee cool a bit before adding, though, otherwise you may cook the eggs.

The second method is the one used for French sweet crepes, where you must add melted butter to a cold batter.  In this method, you rapidly agitate the batter (using a whisk or a blender) while pouring the butter in, in a thin stream.  The butter still solidifies, but it hardens into tiny pieces which are well distributed in the batter.


Substitute for a Standing Mixer using a paddle Many times I'll find a great-looking recipe that calls for a standing mixer. I haven't made buying one a priority yet. Usually I will make it anyway, using my hand mixer with beaters.

I found one where I would be mixing cream cheese, sour cream, and mayonnaise with a paddle. Will it ruin the consistency/chemistry to use my hand mixer with beaters?  Is there another suitable way to mix these ingredients?

A paddle mixes denser ingredients vs a wisk attachment that will aerate light ingredients. Things mixed with a paddle are always intended to be completely mixed- as opposed to folding or cutting which aren't done with a mixer.

This means that you can use whatever you want to thoroughly mix those ingredients (as long as it doesn't melt them): a stand mixer, a hand mixer, a spoon, etc.

Most hand held mixers have much smaller motors than most stand mixers. They can't handle stiff doughs and you can destroy your mixer, stripping the gears or burning out the motor, if you attempt to overdrive it. Better quality hand mixers can handle almost anything a stand mixer can.

That said- any hand mixer should be able to handle cream cheese and mayo with no problem.

TL;DR

Go ahead. Your hand mixer should be able to handle those ingredients just fine without spoiling the recipe or damaging your mixer.


Babi Guling - Balinese Suckling Pig - alternative cuts of pork for it? I love Babi Guling - Balinese Suckling Pig which I've made twice so far.  As I am mostly cooking for 3, I obviously can't use a whole suckling pig.

Here's a typical recipe:  adventurefoodie.blogspot.ca/2011/08/babi-guling-balinese-pig

What I have used so far is pork belly cuts.  Sandwich the Babi Guling filling between two slabs and off to the oven.  They taste great, but just a bit too rich and fatty for my own taste and diet.  At the same time, I am worried that a less fatty cut would end up dry from the cooking.  Or, maybe rather than a total replacement, I would keep the top half as pork belly and the another cut on the bottom?

The pork fat is what gives the taste, so if you would take a less fatty cut of pork, just use a trusted method of preventing it from drying out and that is larding:

add most of the pork Babi Gulling filling inside the cut
smear some pork Babi Gulling filling around the cut
cover the cut with pork belly strips (=bacon) as well
use tooth picks to prevent the pork belly strips to fall off.


Which drinks fit to a Thai Dish? I plan to cook a thai dish this weekend and I search for drinks to serve along to that. In particular it will be a chicken dish with lemon gras.

This is forked from another question of mine.

I think a good Belgian Wit beer would go well with Thai food.   The coriander and citrus in the beer would complement the dish, but a good one will not overpower the food.   The light mouthfeel from a Wit would help cleanse your palate and refresh without filling you up.


What heat should I use to BBQ red/green bell peppers? What heat should I use to BBQ (gas/charcoal grill) red/green bell peppers?

Should it be:

direct or indirect
high/medium/low
duration?

Roasting

I use direct heat, medium-high to high, specifically I use my grill but I've seen people set them directly on a gas stove burner (this seems like a fire hazard, so don't walk away).  You could also broil them very close to the broiler, or roast them, but roasting will take longer than direct heat methods.

To easily peel them, you want to go until they're as black as possible.  The blacker, the easier they are to peel.  On my propane grill on medium-high flame, this takes about 4 minutes per side, my grill burns a little hot so you might need 5-6 minutes per side depending on how your grill works.  edit: I also keep the lid closed so the flame climbs a bit more, especially important on a windy day.

You can find a picture on the top of this page, I actually let mine get significantly darker than that, but it's not required.

There are some great general roasting tips in this thread as well as peeling tips in this one.

Grilling

For grilling peppers, instead of keeping them whole, seed them and then cut them into quarters and lightly coat them with a little oil.  I still use a higher, direct heat, but I flip the peppers more often so they will char a little without completely blackening.  Since you're just going for a light char, this will take a little less time than roasted peppers would, about 8 minutes compared to 12.

There is a good step by step guide with pictures here.


Smell Something Burning. Course of action? What do I do when I smell something burning in my pot of mutton in gravy? Stirring is the best way to prevent this but what if some charring has already taken place? Wouldn't it be better not to stir to avoid mixing in the charred portion? What is the best way to handle this emergency?

PS: What I'm asking here is quite different from: How do I get the burnt aroma off burnt food?

So with gravy, you are talking about a scorched taste. Once you smell it, it is probably too late to salvage it. If you want to try, the best course of action is to remove it from the heat (obviously) and carefully ladle off as much of the top of the pan as you can, leaving the scorched part on the bottom. Then taste what you ladled off and see if it is really edible. In my experience, people try to convince themselves that the scorched flavor isn't really there, but it is, and once it is, all is lost.


Does breadmaker bread need to include milk powder? I'm trying to make vegan bread but all of my bread maker machine's recipies have one or two tablespoons of milk powder. What is a vegan solution?

A basic bread is

flour
water
yeast or sourdough
(salt)

With these base ingredients, just by varying flour type, ratios and preparation method, you already get a wide range of breads, whether made by hand, kneaded in a mixer or dumped in a bread maker.

Extra ingredients influence the crumb texture and / or the taste of your bread. Including some fat, for example, makes the crumb "fluffier", using milk instead of or in addition to water gives finer pores and alters the taste a bit.

If all recipes that came with your bread maker include milk powder, I'd assume this to be a quirk of the author, not a necessity. I'd simply leave it out. You could add a teaspoon or so of vegan fat, but I don't think it's essential, especially if your recipe already has some.

Feel free to ask more specific questions, if the results aren't what you'd want them to be.


How to make a pesto in a mortar? When using an immersion blender, I throw all ingredients into the cup and puree everything smooth. But it looks like the mortar isn't that easy. I can think of four different techniques:

throw in everything at once and start mashing
throw in every ingredient, mash until smooth, take out. Repeat for all ingredients. Combine outside of mortar.
Mix everything. Throw a small portion into the mortar (to make mashing easier/ensure less ingredients between pestle and mortar at each mash), repeat for all portions.
Add an ingredient, mash. Add next, mash. Continue until ready.

And of course, there are many combinations possible.

Which technique is the correct one? And if the fourth, what is the correct order of adding the ingredients? I would like to hear it not only for the common green pesto (basil, parmesan, pine nuts, oil) but also for ingredient types (e.g. nuts, hard cheeses, soft cheeses, soft/cooked vegetables, hard/crisp/fresh vegetables) so it is valid for other types too.

The fourth option is the correct one. The problem is that if you start with oil in the mortar, the pestle will slip and you will not be able to properly mash the rest.

What you usually do is:

Wash the basil in cold water. Put the leaves on a tea towel and leave them to dry (you can delicately pat them with another towel). You don't want extra water in the pesto, so be sure the leaves are dry before starting. Traditional pesto is made with Genovese basil.
Start with the garlic (traditionally Aglio di Vessalico) and a few grains of rock salt in the mortar. You would generally put 1-2 pips of garlic for ~50g basil leaves, but obviously that is up to your taste (if you were to make Provencal pistou you would probably go for a higher garlic to basil ratio). I generally remove the inner part of the garlic (the anima) before mashing it.
Now add the basil and mash them with a circular movement. You have to be quite delicate when doing this. You'll see a green liquid forming at the bottom of the mortar.
Now add pinenuts and/or the walnuts and finally the cheese. A mix of 36 months-aged Parmigiano Reggiano and pecorino (sardo or romano) is perfect for pesto.
Finally add the extra-virgin olive oil slowly, while mixing.
Put in clean pots, let it rest for half an hour, then if necessary cover with some extra oil.

Whether you do this in batches or all at once mainly depends on the size of the mortar and how much pesto you are making. If you are making a big amount or have a small mortar repeat the steps for every batch (I would wash the mortar each time, as it will be oily. Remember to dry it throughly before restarting).

Most informations taken from: http://www.mangiareinliguria.it/consorziopestogenovese/pestogenovese.php (in Italian)


How can I store chopped onions in the fridge without the smell? I am cooking for a large group and am trying to do as much as I can in advance.  One thing I would love to do in advance is chop several onions.  I have done this before with a single onion; I stored the chopped onion in a plastic storage container (sealed with the lid) in the fridge.  About 6 hours later, the smell of onions was very strong both in the fridge and on everything that was in the fridge.  I can't imagine it with 4-6 onions!

What can I do to avoid the smell, not ruin everything in my fridge, but still be able to do the preparation 6-8 hours in advance?

I regularly store chopped onion in my refrigerator (or at least halves & quarters).

I either use tight-sealing plastic containers or zip-top bags. You may want to double-bag in zip-tops to be sure to avoid a smell.

One problem you may be having is onion-ness getting on the outside of the container. Be sure the outside is all clean and dry - no point in having a nicely sealed packet of onion when the outside can get all stinky anyway.


What species of red round watermelon is this? Screenshot's from YouTube.

Is this merely an ordinary Mini Red Watermelon?
My other guess is Japanese luxury fruit, but Ambrosio lives in Santa Monica CA.
Is 'species' the correct term?

Minis are seedless. Looks to me like a Little Baby Flower or maybe Otome. The agricultural term is "variety" or "cultivar".


Are Blood Oranges actually that red I have tried 2 different brands of Taroccan blood orange and I have also had some Moro ones but none of them are that red like you see in pictures. Do I need to let them ripen or is it just hard to get ones that red?

The ones I have had have a reddish tinge but still look like a normal orange. Thanks

The simple answer is they can vary in redness. That would depend on the conditions they were grown in and the particular sort. Generally blood oranges are a deep (blood) red and lack the yellow tint of the other oranges. Your experience sounds perfectly normal.
Hope this helps :)


Shelf life of a caramel apple? How long will the apple in a caramel apple stay crisp once it's been dipped in warm caramel?

Are there any tricks to extend its shelf life?

Let's assume we're starting with a large fresh Granny Smith apple that's been partially impaled on a wooden skewer. Let's also assume that none of the apple is exposed - it's just caramel and stick.

Oddly I have a coworker who bought a caramel apple and then left it in its plastic on his desk for about 4 years. We didn't photo document its decline but I should be able to recall.

After about a week the impalement point became quite unappealing. The area around the stick darkened and softened (it seemed, I didn't touch it). The rest of the skin looked fine.
After several years the caramel looked perfectly fine but misshapen and the apple had dried and shriveled inside of it.

Based on that, and my own experience, I would conclude that a refrigerated caramel apple would have about the same life as an uncarameled apple except for the core which would need to be avoided.

As for extending the life? Perhaps pour wax around the stick entry point to buy yourself a couple days?


Preserve cut potatoes I am going to cut some potatoes tonight for a dish I am going to make tomorrow. Will keeping the cut pieces in water immediately after cutting preserve them? There are suggestions at other websites that say adding some lime juice to the water will help. Has anyone had experience preserving potatoes?

It's pretty normal in many cultures to prepare vegetables for the evening meal in the morning, or even the day before. This has a long recorded history, at least to Roman times

Typically, vegetables that brown badly in that 24 hour period are either stored under water, or coated with a suitable dilute acidic solution (orange, lemon, or lime juice)

Cut potatoes stored underwater do not seem to suffer any detrimental effect over a 12 to 24 hour period. There will most likely be some starch and other nutrient loss to the water, but not to a level that anyone notices


Does ghee make a good substitution for lard? I'm trying out a recipe which requires sauteeing something in lard. A lot of people seem to recommend butter as a substitute for lard, but I'm not fond of sauteeing in butter, because of the low smoking point and difficulty in getting it the right heat.

So does ghee work as a substitution for lard (specifically pig lard)?

Yes, you can use ghee or oil for sauteing instead of lard.

NOTE: You will not get the same "lardy" aroma from butter, ghee or oil, but if you use other stronger aromas / spices in your recipe it might not really matter.


How to use a preferment / poolish? Cake vs ADY? I'm experimenting with a yeasted dinner roll recipe. I'd like to use a pre-ferment (poolish) to enhance the bread's flavor.

According to https://food52.com/blog/17140-preferments-and-how-to-adapt-any-bread-recipe-to-use-one, I should be using 20% - 30% of my flour's weight for the pre-ferment. So, let's say I pick 20% for starters. A poolish uses the same amount of water to the flour, so I'd use 20% water. Let's also say I want to do pre-ferment up to 16 hours in advance. According to https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/more-artisan-bread-baking-tips-poolish-biga/, I should be using .03% to .08% (of the 20% flour).

Once I make this poolish preferment, do I still need to use the original yeast called for by the recipe? Or does the pre-ferment eliminate the need for the yeast?

Also - if yeast flavor is what I am after, should I be using cake yeast instead of ADY?

On the preferment: I have never seen the yeast in it included in the calculation. See it as "just another ingredient" and calculate the rest just as you would if it hadn't been there. For example, Reinhart's formula for poolish ciabatta is:

  poolish: 169%, bread flour: 100%, salt: 3.3%, instant yeast: 1.3%, water: 33%.

It doesn't eliminate the need for yeast at all. But as you see from this recipe, you will mess up the hydration if you try to add poolish on top. You can try recalculating it based on what hydration you already have in the preferment, but you won't end up with the same texture as the same hydration without the poolish, because it behaves a bit differently. So it will be easier to not manipulate recipes, but to choose another recipe which includes a preferment from the beginning.

On the question of taste: if you want the yeasty aroma you smell in cake yeast, you shouldn't be using any preferments at all. This kind of aroma is what you get from an overactive yeast colony, and for that you have to use high amounts of yeast (about 8-10% cake yeast or 3-4% dry yeast) with a very quick and warm rise, ideally around 35 C. Proof for 1-2 hours only, but pay attention to not overproof. It doesn't matter if you start with cake or dry yeast here, it's about the conditions in which the yeast grows. The preferment does the opposite of that.


Flat Thai Panaeng Curry Help! I have tried making Panang Curry several times at home with the canned pre-made paste (forgot the brand name) and it just doesn't taste like the restaurant versions I've had.

I fried the curry paste in the coconut cream off the top of the can, Chakoh brand, for a few minutes until the oil started to separate, added my beef, carrots, and additional coconut milk and simmered it until the beef cooked. Seasoned with kaffir lime leaves, salt and palm sugar.

I tasted the curry as it was cooking and the flavor was decent, but after serving it over the rice, the curry flavor was flat or muted. Also, what was a nice creamy sauce with the beads of orange oil floating on top became dry and stuck to the rice, it seems like the sauce of the curry just dried up (and the rice wasn't undercooked).

What am I doing wrong? I'm aware that making my own curry paste is an option, but until I can master the process of cooking a decent curry with premade paste, I don't want to invest time and effort in homemade pastes. Thanks!

I think what people often don't realize about many Thai curry pastes is what is not in them and this applies particularly to the main brands of imported Thai sauces like Mae Ploy for example. Let's take the Panang paste, this should have quite a pronounced peanut taste but if you check the label you will will search in vain for peanuts; fish sauce so essential to a Thai curry also missing. Why? The answer lies in the way these pastes are prepared on the production line. The ingredients are mixed and ground but then instead of being cooked in the conventional sense of the word they are instead pasteurized. This is a fast convenient process. The problem lies in the fact that there are certain ingredients that you can't use this process on, peanuts and fish sauce being among them. They use salt (a lot of it) to try to replace the saltiness of fish sauce but this lacks the aromatic factor that fish sauce provides. This can make it difficult for the cook to add fish sauce to the dish as it is already quite salty. Also although you may see shrimp paste on the label they are being a little disingenuous here; it is not Thai shrimp paste as we think of it but rather shrimp powder, I suppose if you mix it with some of the ingredients you can get away with calling it a shrimp paste. A poor imitation of the real thing though.

So onto the fact that your Panang curry doesn't taste like a Panang curry you eat in your local Thai restaurant. Well you might be surprised to learn they probably use the same paste as you do! What, you think they make their own pastes? Almost never. Yes there are exceptions, Pok Pok restaurants in the US being a good example with chef Andy Rikker describing the commercial pastes as "horrible" but for the most part many Thai restaurants will use them.

When you see a Thai person pushing their trolley around an Asian cash n' carry that is loaded up with industrial sized tubs of curry paste you can be reasonably sure they are not just stocking up their home pantry in case of a coming Armageddon.
They then customize the sauce for use in the restaurant, in this case maybe ground peanuts or often peanut butter, a lot of sugar so they can then add Thai fish sauce without it tasting overwhelmingly salty. Maybe chop some coriander stems in to disguise the fact that only coriander seed is used in the commercial paste instead of coriander root.Depends on the restaurant, they all have their own methods.
There are also some supermarket brand pastes that may well use peanuts as they use a method more akin to pressure canning, these are generally rather insipid concoctions though and best avoided.

So if you want to try making your curry taste more like one you had in a restaurant that is how you do it if you can't get the fresh ingredients to do it yourself. Also if you google "mythaicurry" you can buy pastes online that are cooked by more traditional methods and are far more authentic and will most likely surpass anything you have ever had in a Thai restaurant. They also have a good section on how to cook with coconut milk.

I'm a chef and worked in the development kitchens of some major food producers hence my knowledge of the techniques and limitations of commercial food production.


Cheesier Cheese Sauce? I'm trying to make some nacho cheese sauce. As the recipe calls for milk, I think the overall cheese flavor is getting diluted. I'd like to make my cheese sauce taste really cheesy. I'm going to try using an aged, very sharp cheddar cheese in my next experiment -- hoping that it'll still taste cheesy after it gets diluted by the milk.

Are there any other things I might be able to do (e.g. additional ingredients) that might improve the overall cheese flavor?

The first way to boost the cheese flavor in any cheese sauce is by adding salt.  In Mac + Cheese, authors Allison Arevalo and Erin Wade give the following tip:

  If you have added the proper amount of cheese to your mac, but it still doesn't taste “cheesy” enough, chances are the problem is not cheese, but salt. Salt brings out the flavors of all kinds of food—meat, chocolate, bread—but it is particularly noticeable with mac and cheese. So if your mac isn't tasting as cheesy as you want, don't start grating more cheese. Try adding a bit more salt first, and see if you don’t notice a huge difference.

Another way to boost the savoriness of a cheese sauce is to add blanched or sweated onion puree before adding the cheese.  Many nacho cheese sauces start out with a bare-bones Bechamel, leaving out the onion and veal fat found in the richest Classic Bechamel recipes.  Adding sweated onion puree and cheese to a bare-bone Bechamel you end up with something richer and more savory.  This is the approach to cheese sauce that Michael Ruhlman suggests as a base for cheese souffle and mac and cheese in his book Ruhlman's 20.

Using aged cheeses can add a ton a flavor, but don't bother using anything too expensive some of the more pungent, barnyard flavors in cheeses like English Farmstead Cheddars can become too aggressive in a cheese sauce.  As others have mentioned some aged cheeses are dry and can lead to seizing if not balanced with other ingredients which help to reduce seizing.  One way to avoid seizing when using dry or aged cheeses is to make at least 20% (by weight) of the cheeses you use process cheese like American or cream cheese.

The more "modernist" method of getting aged cheese flavor in a cheese sauce relies on the use of so-called melting salts such as, Sodium citrate and Sodium hexametaphosphate.  These ingredients resist seizing and are used in lieu of a butter/flour roux in cheese sauces.


How can I Saute Liver & Onions and keep the liver moist? What I'm looking for specifically is a way to keep the liver from getting chewy or rock hard (yes those have been the outcomes of the the first two attempts). I'm not doing much with the liver (except salt) before cooking and only using olive oil in a copper pan - Any ideas?

Liver is very sensitive to over cooking, Fry the onions first and then throw in the liver for just long enough to cook it through


How to make homemade cooking spray I think I tried to put oil in a spray bottle before and I don't recall it working very well. how can you make a cooking spray that will not gum up a spray bottle?

For several years, I've been putting canola in a plastic squeeze spray bottle and using that.
I do not recommend 'vegatable' oil, which in the USA is usually 100% soy oil and I have found that it gums up and can leave a difficult to clean residue

Yes, my system can apply too much and do so unevenly too. just use a paper towel to wipe off ecess and even out.

Far cheaper with canola priced at about $5 per US gallon versus 8 oz of generic aerosol spray at $1.99


How can this kebab have so much protein and so little fat? All my life I've been told that kebab (the meat, not the dish) is high-fat.

However, I was in the market the other day, and I found the following pack of frozen kebab. Below is a picture from that market's website. You can see that it's got 166kcal per 100 grams, only 6 grams of fat, and a whopping 25 grams of protein.

That sounds ... super high protein, and relatively low fat, to me. Not as much so as chicken breasts, but it's close.

What's going on here? Is this fraud, are they lying? Or can kebab really be like this?

Note that I've found similar packs of frozen kebab in other stores, and never did they have 25 grams of protein per 100g, and the fat content was always higher than the protein content.

Nobody is lying, different Doner meats have different fat contents, that's true of the ones in the stores as well as the ones in restaurants. Doner is a processed meat product made of ground meat and fat mixed with spices and usually preservatives. Sometimes fillers and binders are added as well. There's no rule saying a doner must have a specific amount of fat, it's all up to the manufacturer and the product they are trying to produce.

A "lite" doner may sound like a contradiction in terms but someone more health conscious may pick it because it has less fat and calories.


Can jams and compotes be frozen? Suppose that my jams and compotes are in an uninsulated, coldplace, i.e. -20°C in the winter.
Is it possible that they will be frozen, and the glass breaks, or not?

As you would normally fill a jar of jam only to the shoulder there should be room for expansion on freezing and most jars shouldn't crack. Jams are also <50% water, and if they contain significant pieces of fruit won't even be at the same concentration so won't freeze solid at a well-defined temperature, allowing them time to expand into the headspace.

The other main risk is thermal shock (as when you poor boiling water into a cold jar).  This is unlikely except if you bring in a jar to use and put it on a hot surface or try to defrost it quickly.  To be on the safe side (and, depending on your jam, to keep the colour nice) you should probably avoid direct sunlight on the jar.

A further factor to consider is loosening  of the lids from freeze-thaw cycling changing the pressure inside -- expansion of the jam (water) will cause an increase in pressure at low tempertatures but the air will contract and cause a decrease.  The net effect will depend on the relative volumes, the temperatures, and the rates of cooling/heating. If when the jars come back up to room tempearture, the lids are loose, the jam has probably not kept.  So I suggest using proper jam jars with safety button pop-top lids so that you can tell.


Are there dangers to using solid fuel on a propane grill? In another question, a user proposed burning briquettes on a propane grill in order to get charcoal flavor on the meat.

I don't grill myself, so I don't know enough to judge whether this is a great or a terrible idea. But my mom always told me that playing with fire is dangerous :)

So, are there safety problems with this approach, anything one should look out for?

Propane grills mix air with gas before burning it.  Ash from charcoal and other contaminants can clog the flue and produce inefficient burning of the gas, possibly produce carbon monoxide (poison) or even gas build up.

As long as the gas parts (igniter, flue, pipes, etc) are clean and unaffected, the charcoal, hickory stick, etc, should not cause any issues to my knowledge.

On the whole, this idea is more on the terrible side than great.  A charcoal BBQ is relatively inexpensive and with the aid of a hair-dryer can light up in little time :)


Which type of chocolate to use for covering a coconut ball I wanted to try a chocolate ball which is made of:

condensed milk
a little almond powder
raisins

I mix these ingredients into a soft ball and then I want to cover the bar with chocolate that can survive a Southern Indian climate.

I do have moulds of different shapes so I wanted to try this one but the original recipe instruction was to get bitter chocolate and then roughly chopped chocolate has to be microwaved to bring it to a liquid consistency so that it can be filled in piping bags.

Could you please let me know what kind of chocolate to use?

I would use the hardest local dark chocolate I could find that does not melt easily as the other ingredients are quite sweet already and you don't need more sweetness.
However, as I'm advising hard chocolate, microwaving will be out of the question and as you're a beginner, I would  melt the chocolate  "Au bain marie" instead:

Nearly fill a big kettle with water and submerge a second smaller kettle inside it and then put the chocolate inside kettle 2 and put the entire contraption on your stove. Please ensure the inner kettle has a lid on it so that no moisture from the boiling water gets into the chocolate!
Once the chocolate has melted, try putting your pinky in the melted chocolate:  if you can keep your pinky in the chocolate for 5 seconds without burning yourself, it's at the right temperature.  ;-)  If you have a thermometer, let it cool down to above whatever the melting point was (measure while melting: it depends on the chocolate.)
Take a soup spoon full of chocolate and put the ball inside and then drip some more chocolate on top with a coffee spoon: this will not only make it easier for a first try, but will also look good as you'll get that "dripped" home-made effect.
If you have good moulds, fill them half up with chocolate, then put your ball inside and then close them:  the ball should now be encased in chocolate.
Whichever method you use: put them in the fridge for cooling down and take them out one hour before serving.
Enjoy!


What effect have bay leaves in a meat/tomato sauce? A bolognese-type sauce recipe I usually do uses ground beef, canned tomatoes, onions, carrots, chilli, garlic and bay leaf. The bay leaf gets cooked with the rest for a while and the sauce tastes wrong if I forget to put it in.

Now my question is, does the bay leaf do anything specific, like sugar counters the acid from tomatoes, or is it purely that the taste becomes unfamiliar and thus feels incorrect?

It doesn't do anything, it's your second suggestion.

The feeling of "right/wrong" and "like/dislike" is highly correlated with familiarity. This is proven not only by psychometry, but even physiologically, with fMRI scans. People like most whatever they are familiar with, up to the point that unfamiliar things seem wrong. This applies not only to bay leaves, but also to all other tastes (or taste combinations) and many other areas of life, even beyond sensory perception.

You can teach yourself to like bay-leaf-less sauce too, by just eating it frequently enough that it becomes familiar. But I don't see any advantages in doing so. Just cook with bay leaf and enjoy it.


Stuffing meat cannelloni and refrigerating to be cooked the next day Is it safe to make uncooked beef cannelloni with cheese and eggs, stuff the raw shells and leave in fridge overnight?  I would put the hot tomatoe sauce over top just before baking.

Is the meat cooked or not ? it's not clear.

I would prepare the stuffing, cook it all and cool it down and stuff the cannelloni and put that in the fridge.

Personally, I would bake it all, sauce included the day before and cool it down and put that in the fridge. (I treat that the same as a lasagna).


what is the difference between thick and liquidy cupcake batters? I've seen cupcake batters that are thick and scoopable with an ice cream scoop and I've seen cupcake batters that are very liquidy in nature. What is the difference between them in general, what are the ingredients that make either one, and what are the differences in the final outcome?

This is a pretty general question, and there are a lot of different methods and ingredients that can affect the thickness of cake batter and the density of cakes or cupcakes.

Most cupcake batter is really just regular cake batter cooked in smaller amounts. Although there are sometimes different instructions for how to do fancy tricks like filled cupcakes, the actual batter itself is usually the same batter as used for the various other cakes like plain yellow sponge cake, carrot cake, chocolate cake, etc. There are a lot of different styles of cakes and, with very few adjustments, most of them can be made into cupcakes.

Usually the thicker batter will form a denser cake (and thus, a denser cupcake). It may have more egg and/or use butter instead of oil, and may have heavier additional ingredients like fruit (apples, bananas, pumpkin, shredded carrots) or a lot of chocolate, and/or nuts mixed in. If you were making this as a cake instead of a cupcake, you'd probably be more likely to make a quick bread loaf or perhaps a bundt cake or a sheet cake -- it's less likely to be a layer cake.

A thinner batter will generally form a lighter, fluffier cake (or cupcake), the kind of recipe that would work well as a layer cake (or a sheet cake). It may use oil instead of butter, and it may have steps such as separating the egg yolk from white and whipping the egg whites. It probably doesn't have a lot of heavy ingredients that would tend to sink to the bottom through the light batter.


Does the "plunger" type cherry-pitter work? In short has anyone tried this type:

... of cherry pitter?

(example of the type).

Machinery for pitting cherries is a real art form. Anyone know if these work?

What concerns me is that: with the more traditional type:

I guess you "have to" align it nicely (I suppose, with the "seam" at the top),

whereas with the "auto-plunger" type they just sort of fall in randomly?

But perhaps .......... my fears are groundless?

Any comparative experience?

I actually just pitted about 10 gallons of cherries using a plunger style pitter very similar to that one.

The cherries are gravity fed from the hopper into the chute. Only one cherry can fit at the bottom of the chute and it lines up nicely with the plunger.

From time to time cherries would fail to fall into the chute and I would have to clear the traffic jam. The majority of the time they fell in just fine and I could pit about a cherry a second.

The plunger does not have to line up with the top of the cherry, it will eject the pit from any orientation. Manual pitters do make for more attractive presentation because you can pick the exit wound location. I used a metal straw to good effect but it was just too slow to pit in bulk.


What does 'turn out' mean in bread baking? An instruction in this recipe says:

  Gently turn loaf out onto a sheet pan that has been lightly oiled and
  dusted with cornmeal.

I am confused by the use of the words "turn out".  Does this have some special meaning regarding bread dough?  Or do they simply mean "take and put"?

All that is meant here by "turn out" is to take the mass that you have begun to mix in the bowl, and dump it all onto your (floured) counter to begin kneading.

Turn out just means to dump. To move.


Best practices for seasoning cast iron, currently getting mild food poisoning I have been cooking with my two cast iron pans for quite some time now.  Tracking the occurrence of when my wife and I have tummy trouble leads me to believe that my seasoning of the pans is not optimal.

The reason is most likely because I don't always season them the night of cooking (I will do it the next day).  When I thought that this might be the issue I did an intensive seasoning.  Normal seasoning is: brush with hot water, warm on range with layer of oil.  For the intensive seasoning I will put a layer of tinfoil on the bottom rack, and place my pans upside-down on the top rack, then heat the pans at 400° for 45 minutes.

I believe the intensive seasoning does kill any germs that might be there otherwise.  Should I have to do this every time?

Seasoning pans is a method for preventing rust, and it has nothihng to do with food safety. It is done once in a pan's lifetime, and only repaired if it flakes off.

There is no prescription in food safety to cook in sterilized vessels. The germs you eat come from the food, not from the pans. Even if a colony were to form in the pan at some point (what would it eat in a clean pan?) it would be killed in the same cooking process that kills the colonies that live in the raw food.

Nobody but your doctor can tell if your tummyache is indeed caused by food poisoning or something else. So, if you have symptoms, go get yourself checked.

If you really have recurring food poisoning (and not some unrelated illness), you must be hurting standard food safety practices in rather blatant ways. Normally, breaking does rules only rarely results in actual symptomatic illness. You can read our short primer on food safety, including the questions linked from it, to see if you are breakding any of the rules explained there: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/tags/food-safety/info. The pans are not related at all.


How can I skin hazelnuts at home? I am trying to make a hazelnut butter, for the ultimate gain of a vegan Nutella-like outcome, but in order to do so I need to use "skinned" hazelnuts. I've tried the following:

Boil a cup of hazelnuts in 2 cups water with 3 tablespoons baking soda
Drain
Put in ice bath to cool
Rub skins off with towel

I got to the fourth step, but it was difficult to get the skins completely off of the hazelnuts. I was using a paper towel, and it turned out using my fingers was easier.
How can I get completely clean/blanch hazelnuts? Am I doing anything wrong or using something incorrect?

There are really two methods.  The roasting method, where the nuts are roasted, then placed in a kitchen towel, and the skins are rubbed off.  The second is the blanching method, where you blanch for 2 - 3 minutes, then rub the skins off.  I've had more success with the roasting method.  However, it does take some time, and you will have some stubborn ones, where the skin does not come off easily.  In either case, I would not use paper towel, but a more sturdy, cloth towel. You may not get every one completely clean.


Is there an alternative to using oil when baking muffins I make a lot of muffins and I am constantly altering the recipes to try and create the perfect muffin to satisfy my taste and keep me regular.

I also avoid using sugar and oil.

I have been substituting unsweetened applesauce (equal part) for the oil; and I just read a great response on this forum regarding the role that oil/applesauce plays in baking (very informative, thank you!).

I'm wondering if there is an alternative to oil/butter/margarine/lard/vegan butter, etc. that will give me the taste and consistency that I would get had I used the fat called for.

Editorial:
I am not looking for a substitute for the sugar.....There are many ways to add sweetness to the recipe.  The article I mentioned above (role of oil in baking) explained that the fat protects the flour from becoming to glutenous (or chewy) in the baking process.  It further explained that the pectin in applesauce has the same (albeit diminished) affect on flour as does the oil.  However, it said that this is where the comparison stops ~ implying that there are other desired effects from oil in the baking process.

I know from eating my muffins that there is something different about them than had I used oil.  I just can't put my finger on what it is (it is more in the consistency than in the taste). And so I am wondering if there is some ingredient I could add, perhaps in addition to the applesauce, that would make up for whatever else the oil is good for that is missing from my muffins.

Thanks.

Yoghurt, squashes, yams, sweet potatoes, egg yolks, tofu or ground nuts could possible be added as an alternative.


Neapolitan pizza in charcoal barbecue If I make pizza on a stone using charcoal barbecue, can I get the charred bubbles of a Neapolitan pizza?

What is the source of these bubbles anyway?

The bubbles in Neapolitan pizza come from air, emitted by live yeast in the pizza dough, expanding when it's headed up.

While bubbles can be created by baking the pizza on a stone, it's not required.  You'll also get bubbles by just rubbing some oil on the grill grates and placing the pizza dough directly on the grill.  The key to getting bubbles is having well-made pizza dough that includes lots of air bubbles and baking it under high heat (500F to 900F).

If you do use a pizza stone on the grill,

check the packaging for the pizza stone to ensure it can handle the heat you plan to subject it to
pre-heat the stone on the grill before putting the pizza dough on it.  this can take a long time.


How long can cooked, refrigerated chicken breast stay out at room temperature? I cooked up some fresh chicken two days (Saturday) ago and stored it in my fridge sealed in some Tupperware. I made a delicious wrap for work this morning with the same chicken from the fridge, got to work, but forgot to put it back on the fridge about an hour and a half after I initially took it out.

I see that the FDA states two hours is the safe threshold for freshly cooked chicken (straight from the oven), but does this change if the chicken wasn’t immediately cooked? That is, keeping cooked chicken that was refrigerated out at room temp?

Thank you, from a constant worrier

It's very different if food starts out hot, as in fresh out of the oven, or cold, as in came out of the fridge.  There is much more differential between oven temperature and room temperature than between fridge and room temperatures.  That means that hot chicken will cool considerably faster than cold chicken will warm up.  The slope of the exponential rate of change will be much steeper when starting with hot chicken than with cold.

in short, you get a lot more time in your situation than the canonical 2h stated for the hot chicken.


Vacuum sealing jars of Simple Syrup So I'm looking to make some simple syrups (lavender, basil, etc...).  In looking around I see that making 1:1 syrups via the "hot" process it should safely last two weeks and up to a month.

If I were to get a vacuum sealer, would that preserve it longer?  This would be a resealable system, not a one time seal process.   If the vacuum sealer would be effective what product specifically would do so?

Preliminary I was looking at this one:  http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-T03-0023-01-Wide-Mouth-Jar-Sealer/dp/B00005TN7H

Perhaps there is something better or perhaps this is not meant for liquids.

sealing a jar just to reseal it is not practical and would not help preserve the longevity of these syrups and shrubs.


Tools to peel and crush a whole garlic bulb I'm conscious of this other question, yet this is (veritably) a different question that doesn't duplicate.

What are some tools or appliances that peel an entire garlic bulb?
Are there any for crushing it? Are there any that accomplishes both?

I've also tried the shaking method with metalware, but this fails for me.

Google returned the following that requires processing one clove at a time. I'm interested in something more efficient and productive:
http://www.amazon.com/Zak-Designs-E-Z-Rol-Garlic-Peeler/dp/B00004RDDP
http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-1059DB-Garlic-Peeler/dp/B000HJW8MW/ref=pd_sbs_k_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=0VAMW3C7M17D0MDN1RTG

I built a little wooden impeller for my food processor that hits the cloves hard enough to peel them, but not hard enough to gouge or break them:
The center piece is an old dough mixer blade for the food processor. The wood is maple; pine is too weak. The rubber flaps on the bottom, screwed on, keep the cloves moving so they'll collide with the wood.
I've peeled as few as 2 cloves, and as many as 4 bulbs with the device. Peeling takes about 30 seconds.
It works best if you separate the cloves from the bulb before starting. I just cut the bulb end off and pull apart.

If I want small bits of garlic afterwards, I just use the food processor's cutting blade. Otherwise a rolling pin should do a good job of crushing en masse.


Are normal cooking thermometers suitable to use as tea thermometers? Can the thermometers you usually get in cook shops (e.g. meat thermometers) suitable to be used as tea thermometers? In particular, I am wondering whether the temperatures they measure in a liquid will be as reliable as in e.g. meat. The temperature ranges are also quite different.

The flexible generalist thermometer of the kitchen, the instant read thermometer, should be quite suitable measuring the temperature of the water for tea brewing.   It covers the right range, has reasonable accuracy, and responds relatively quickly.

You can get traditional ones such as the classic Taylor model very inexpensively, or high quality electronic ones such as the Thermapen, as well as a large number of mid-range models that offer excellent value, accuracy, and reasonable response time.

Many come with a clip that would allow you to set them on the side of a pot, but you would not attach them to kettle.  Instead, you hold them in, and they register the temperature in a few seconds (depending on the model)—thus the name, instant read.


Can soda bread be successfully frozen, either baked or in dough form? I have to cook for one and soda bread is better for my diet.  Can it be frozen once baked, or in dough form so that I don't feel I have to pig out!?

Soda bread is a simple quick bread, all of which freeze quite well after being baked (most yeast raised breads do as well).

Wrap it well to prevent freezer burn—I like to use a large sized freezer-rated zip type bag for freezing breads.

You can also put some waxed paper or parchment between each slice to help you get them out without thawing the whole loaf.


Should I clean the pan between batches of browning I am a proponent of browning meat at high temperature to get the maillard reaction prior to whatever remaining cooking steps there may be. I usually use a large stainless steel pan and a quantity of food small enough such that once added the pan doesn't cool down much at all. In cases when I have only one batch to brown I end up deglazing the same pan and the fond from the browning ends up mixing with some liquid for a sauce in later cooking stages and this works out well!

However if I have lots of meat to brown I always do this in batches to avoid the pan cooling and the meat steaming instead of browning due to over crowding. My big question is: should I clean the pan between batches? Do people do this?

I find that between batches I like to get the heat back up prior to letting the raw meat hit the pan. It's during this reheating that remnants of food from previous batches can start to burn which causes problems.

Sometimes with solid cuts of meat the fond is minimal or not too hard to scrape off. Recently with some ground pork mince I had a real hard time avoiding burning and smoking between batches. What do people recommend? Should I reserve the oil from the pan, take the time to scrape off partially overcooked fond (maybe even wash), so that I can get it nice and hot again (re-adding the oil) without worrying about burning and ruining flavor and smoking up the kitchen in the process?

I don't think there is a definitive answer to that.

You could remove some of the fat and small residues between batches to prevent them from burning.

You can also lower the temperature, it will take a little more time to brown the meat.

This recipe suggest to deglaze between batches and keep the juices for later use in the recipe.

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-template-how-to-make-be-107019


Converting oven time and temp from convection to conventional I watched a British recipe that instructed for it to be baked at 180 fan. I live in the states and use a conventional oven. What do I set it at. Also, would the baking time change?

180 fan is 180 degrees Centigrade with the fan on. The general advice when converting from a fan to a non fan oven is increase temperature 15-20 degrees, so the range you are looking for is between 383 and 392 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a digital stove I'd say set it for 390, if it's a dial you'll need to eyeball it.


Matcha tea chocolate ganache I have this nice recipe of chocolate-matcha pie in which the ganache is made in the following way.

boil 1dl milk with 2dl cream
add 50g sugar and let it melt
cut the fire and add 200g dark chocolate
mix well until chocolate is melted
wait 10min and add two eggs and mix well

The resulting ganache is then to be put inside an almost cooked dough, and then cooked for 20min at 150°C.
My problem is the following.
The original recipe said to add 1 ts of matcha tea powder at step 5.
The result is good but the flavor of matcha is weak, almost vanishing. I tried adding it at step 4, but same issue. I don't know if I should add more of matcha powder or what could be the problem.
Also : I am filtering the matcha before putting the ganache inside the pie. Obviously the taste would be stronger without this step but then I fear the consistency would be wasted by some lumps.

If the matcha powder has been adequately mixed/stirred in, it should pass through the strainer - on the other hand, if straining/filtering is not in the source recipe, perhaps you should concentrate on mixing throughly so that there are no lumps, and not strain.
As an additional possibility for weak flavor:
I'm always willing to guess (when things don't seem to come out right, especially)  that at some point in the passage of any recipe involving teaspoons and Tablespoons some transcriber might have misinterpreted some prior writer's Tablespoon (T, Ts, Tbs, 15 ml) as a teaspoon (t, ts, tsp, 5 ml) or vice versa.


Private Cooking Lessons I am struggling to find affordable, group cooking lessons where you're not going to learn to make ONE specific dinner dish.  Seems that private lessons may be the only way.

Anyone else do this?  I'm looking at cost comparisons for where I live.

Provision is highly variable. The major city nearest me has a comprehensive adult education programme which includes cookery courses over several sessions and single topic lessons. But where I live there's nothing provided by the local authority. When they do exist, these courses can be quite affordable.

I have also come across a restaurant that doubled as a cookery school, but it closed last year. They tended to run one-off sessions but overall covered quite a range of foods, and there were sessions most weeks for a while.

There's quite a range of cookery schools  in the UK, but these are often aimed more at people who want to be chefs than at enthusiasts. Some however (often based around a restaurant or hotel) run weekend residential courses on particular topics (for example the River Cottage). For a price of course, and not a small one. You can even combine this with a holiday to a region famed for its food, such as Tuscany, and learn to cook the local specialities.

At perhaps the more accessible end of the market, I know of a major organic farm that currently runs single sessions but I'm sure has run courses in the past.


Chop nuts before or after toasting? I have a recipe that calls for toasted chopped pistachios. I'm wondering if I should toast them whole and then chop them up, or toast them chopped?

I don't think it makes any tremendous difference. I'd probably lean towards toasting them whole first, then chopping just because the size will be more consistent so the toast might be a little more even.


How to add lemon flavor to scallops with fresh lemons? I ate at a teppenyaki restaurant. The chef griddled scallops on a teppan. At the end he squeezed JUST fresh lemon juice on them. He never grated lemon or put lemon zest on scallops – trust me, I remember.  I could taste fresh lemon in the scallops! This why I haven't tried lemon zest.

I prefer steaming – no searing or griddling. But I can't replicate this lemon flavor at home. I juiced fresh lemons and tried these different steps! But I didn't taste lemon in my scallops in the end!

When I start steaming scallops in my pan on the stove, I add the freshly squeezed lemon juice.
When I almost finish steaming scallops in the pan on my stove, I add the freshly squeezed lemon juice.
I marinate defrosted scallops in the freshly squeezed lemon juice for 24 hours before steaming.

Add the lemon juice at service, either in the serving dish or on the plate.

Your first 2 methods will probably end up with most of the juice in the steamer water underneath.

For 3: meat doesn't really soak up flavours quite as much as you'd expect when marinating - plus whatever is on the surface will again mainly end up back in the steamer water.


Can I use unbleached flour in quickbread? I'm back with another question. I have been baking zucchini bread for a long time. I always used bleached flour. Now that I am trying my hand in yeast breads I use unbleached flour. Can I use unbleached flour in my zucchini bread? I bake at least 100 to 130 loafs of zucchini bread every summer and some in the winter (I freeze some zucchini for the winter) I make basic kind chocolate, lemon, applesauce and carrot it keeps me bizzzzzy My friends and family love them. I hope I can use unbleached I don't have a lot of space for all kinds of flours

EDIT

Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchen) tested bleached versus unbleached flour in baking and in savory sauces.

They found that unbleached flour works pretty much identically to bleached flour in sauces, but they caution that some testers could taste off notes in some baked applications using bleached flour. The difference is more pronounced in applications where the ratio of flour to other ingredients is high.

  In baking tests, bleached flour was criticized for tasting flat or having “off” flavors (texturally, the flours behaved the same). These characteristics, however, were much harder to detect in recipes with a high proportion of ingredients other than flour, such as cornbread or oatmeal cookies.

According to ATK, unbleached flour is preferable to bleached. You may find that you actually like your bread better using unbleached flour.

Interestingly, the link in @dougal 2.0.0's answer directly contradicts ATK. Kitchn prefers bleached flour for quickbreads, claiming that bleached flour is softer.

So, knowledgeable cooks disagree. I will say that I frequently make quick breads including zucchini. I always use unbleached flour, and I've never seen any reason to buy bleached.

Original Answer

To the absolute best of my knowledge, I don't think there is a difference between unbleached and bleached flours in a particular application other than what quickly becomes obvious.

So, if you have used both flours in your bread, I see no reason other than preference or economy to use one or the other.