Should I use my microwave's 'popcorn' button? My microwave oven has a "POPCORN" button. Its manual reads:

  Touch this pad when popping popcorn in your microwave oven. The oven's sensor will tell the oven how long to cook depending on the amount of humidity it detects from the popcorn. See page 31 for more information.

Page 31 clarifies:

  POPCORN lets you pop commercially packaged microwave popcorn.

(As opposed, I suppose, to popping kernels in a paper bag, which I also do.) Fine. Other microwave ovens have a similar button (though I must admit I haven't checked their manuals).

The problem is that my "commercially packaged microwave popcorn" bag reads:

  Do not use popcorn button.

I've seen it on other microwaveable popcorn bags, too.

So... which of the two manufacturers is correct, and why? And why does the incorrect one claim what it does?

A better instruction would be "do not rely entirely on the functionality of the popcorn button on your microwave, since microwaves vary widely as do bags of popcorn." But that's longer, and kind of complicated, so they abbreviate it "do not use popcorn button".

There's no problem with the power setting of the popcorn button, only with the timing. You should hang around near the microwave, and when you hear the pops slowing, stop it, no matter what your popcorn button thinks. And if you get a lot of unpopped kernels, and the popping didn't slow before the button said the microwave was done, consider doing it yourself next time and letting it pop for a little longer.

The problem with leaving it in too long is that the corn scorches (usually from the centre out) and the whole bag is inedible. If the energy is no longer going into popping kernels, it's going in to scorching what you already have. Get it out before that happens.


How can I grind sesame seeds in my coffee grinder better? When I grind sesame alone or with flax seeds, I can see that many of the sesame seeds are not ground.

When I grind several things together including sesame, flax seeds and mixed nuts, like walnuts, almonds, and cashews, the powder becomes more stuck together, and I can't see unground sesames.

Does the second way indeed grind sesame seeds finer or are the unground sesame seeds hidden in the powder?

My coffee grinder is KRUPS F203 Electric Spice and Coffee Grinder with Stainless Steel Blades, 3-Ounce, Black:

Grind the sesame seeds separately using a pestle and mortar (if the seeds really have to be ground).

Grinding sesame seeds manually isn't as hard as grinding the other nuts/seeds that you're mentioning - I think it's just the size that helps them not be hit by the grinder blades so effectively.

So, pestle them down and add to the mix afterwards.


Choux pastry (Chocolate eclairs) doesn't rise Last time I tried to make Chocolate eclairs (similar to cream puffs), the choux pastry just sat in the oven and basically fried.

It didn't rise/grow and so I couldn't hollow out the shells.

Any suggestions?

Recipe was from The Australian Women's Weekly Original Cookbook (Golden Press Pty Ltd, 1977) p. 204

It is almost identical to the one published on their website http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/food/cookbooks/787237/chocolate-eclairs, with the exception that the cookbook recipe used 1C water and 1C plain flour.

It's actually been a few years since I made éclairs, so I might be forgetting a few things, but here are my immediate reactions to the recipe:

"Plain flour" (by which I assume they mean all-purpose flour) is not appropriate for choux paste.  You should be using bread flour (AKA "strong flour"), you need the extra gluten for this.  That is probably the most important reason why your choux paste didn't turn out right.
The ratio of fat to water is off.  You want a 2:1 water:fat ratio.  Use 50 g of butter or shortening for every 100 mL of water.  For reference, if you're going to adjust the ratio then you also want to use approximately 2.4 eggs per 100 mL of water.  The recipe mentioned in the question is close, but slightly short, so be careful if scaling up.
The ratio of flour to water is blatantly wrong, for both the posted recipe and what you say is the cookbook recipe, and you should never ever use volumetric measurements for flour in such a sensitive baking recipe.  You want to measure out 75 g of flour per 100 mL of water.  For a cup of water that's about 175 g of bread flour.  Don't even try to calculate the volume, weigh it.  This is extremely important, if you don't use enough flour then the choux paste won't fully gelatinize!
A "pinch" of salt is probably OK at this small scale, but if you ever decide to scale up then you need to be accurate; use 2% salt (2 g per 100 mL of water).
The recipe is correct in warning you against letting any of the water evaporate, and telling you to cook and stir the roux until it clears the side and forms balls when shaken.  You should also see a white film on the bottom of the pan.
One thing that the recipe doesn't mention that is extremely important is that you need to wait for the roux to cool before adding the eggs.  Whole egg coagulates at 65° C (149° F) so it is absolutely imperative that the roux is cooler than that, otherwise you will end up with scrambled eggs.
Make sure you completely incorporate the eggs.  Scrape the sides of the bowl if necessary.  And don't try to cut corners by adding all the eggs at once; you really need to add them one at a time, otherwise you'll end up with lumps.  Missing this probably won't cause failure to rise, but you don't want lumps, trust me.
When you're done, you should have a paste that resembles the consistency of a meringue, but heavier.  That is, it holds its shape, even against gravity, but is still soft enough to spread.  I check with my finger.  If it's too stiff, you can add milk to soften it, but if it's not stiff enough, then you didn't get enough of the flour gelatinized and your paste is ruined.  (So don't overmilk!)
I don't agree with their "very hot oven, then lower the temperature to 180° C" instruction.  180° C is a very low temperature for baking choux paste, and I don't think that the 10 minutes of "very hot" temperature (whatever that is) are going to compensate for it.  I have always baked choux paste shells at a straight 200° C (390° F) for 30 minutes.

That's about it for tearing apart their choux paste recipe.  I'm not even going to touch their "custard cream" recipe, which is just not even remotely close to the chantilly cream that éclairs are supposed to have.


Does vinegar increase the iron we can digest from Spinach? I heard tale of people using vinegar to break down or concentrate the digestible iron in spinach. Is this true?

If it's true, the key things to know would be:

What vinegar do you use?
How do you prepare it?
Does it impair the flavour?
Is the benefit measurable and significant?

My thoughts are there is something in it in a similar manner to this question.

You know, I have always liked to eat spinach with vinegar.  Just steamed and with a splash of plain white vinegar.  It is a very common way to eat spinach around here.

Anyway, I suppose it could have some affect on iron absorption.  Large amounts of vitamin C can increase non-heme iron absorption by as much as 200%.  This article, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf0203040, seems to indicate that acetic acid, the main component in vinegar, may also increase iron absorption.


Salmon patties with cream cheese? So, I have this jarred salmon here, caught up in Montana in 2010 I believe, cooked (not sure how) and sealed in a mason jar since. I opened the jar yesterday and tried a bit of the salmon on saltines. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it smelled and looked good upon opening the jar, nothing like the canned salmon you find in stores.

Anyway, there's a bunch of salmon left, and I'm not sure how long it will keep, and I don't want to eat it all on crackers. So, I figured I'd make either salmon patties or salmon dip, and, not being completely decided, I picked up ingredients for both.

When I returned home, I realized I only have one egg, not enough to make salmon patties; but now I'm leaning toward the patties, as I'm starting to get pretty hungry and the dip seems like more of a snack.

I'm wondering if there's any chance I could use the cream cheese as a substitute for the eggs, and make the patties that way, but lots of recipe searching has lead nowhere.

Will the cream cheese work as a substitute for eggs as far as doing the work of holding the patties together? Will it cook right? More importantly, will it taste good? Or should I put this idea out of my head and either go buy some more eggs or just make the dip?

The only thing which can hold patties together is raw protein. Other things can thicken them, but they don't glue them. Egg is the easiest source of raw protein. In theory, you can also use the gluten in flour, but in practice, you will have to make a dough with just a little salmon mixed in it, not lots of salmon with a little flour sprinkled, and this would taste very weird. Cream cheese won't help at all, because all the protein in it (which isn't much) has been cooked/curdled during the process of turning milk to cheese.

But if you say that the only difference between the dip and the patties is cream cheese instead of eggs, why do you say that the dip is a snack and the patties are a full meal? The dip is likely to have more calories, by the way.


Safety of cake in oven with faulty thermostat My new apartment's electric oven has a faulty thermostat.  I made a cake from scratch, which took two hours to bake. Yesterday, I made a box mix cake as a gift, which took well over an hour to bake.  I'm now concerned for the safety of the recipient. Is it safe to eat a cake that took so long to bake?  Are the eggs in it safe?  Eventually the cake cooked through, and is not raw in the middle, but I'm worried about the eggs not cooking at the correct temperature.  Should I throw it out and go buy one at the bakery, or is it safe to give it as a gift?

First, we have to clear up a common misconception here. The safety of a food product is not the same thing as the sum of the safety of the ingredients that went into it. Neither is it the same as their minimum, nor is there any easy-to-apply rule where you arrive at the safety of the product by looking at the safety of the ingredients. You always have to regard the product as a whole, period. In that sense, egg safety has nothing to do with your situation, because you are dealing with a cake, not with eggs.

From here, you have to apply standard food safety rules for any "cooked" food (and merely mixing ingredients before cooking them counts as cooking for that definition). This means that, before you ended up with a baked cake layer, you are allowed a total of 4 hours of unrefrigerated shelf life. So if the time from starting with making the batter to the time the cake left the danger zone (= it had an internal temperature of 60 C throughout), you are safe. If you didn't use a thermometer and clock to find out the exact time your cake passed the 60 C mark, you have to go with the first moment at which you were sure that it was passed, which is the time you took the baked cake out of the oven (since being baked proves that the cake has had an internal temperature of 96 C).


How to peel boiled quail eggs without breaking I can peel chicken eggs fine, but boiled quail eggs are much smaller & easier to break. I tend to use my finger nails to help with peeling but it's easy to cut it too much due to the thin egg whites. Sometimes, even just pulling a half-off shell piece is enough to break the egg in half.
I've tried thermal-shocking the shell with cool water right after boiling & lightly cracking the shell before peeling, but the shells tend to come off as small pieces rather than whole big ones, making each egg take >10 seconds to peel, which adds up really quickly. Even peeling them underwater doesn't seem to help much, as it doesn't separate the shell from the white.
What's a good way to more quickly peel such small & delicate quail eggs without breaking?

Start with eggs near their sell-by date, not ones you only just bought. The shell gets less attached to the egg with age & air builds a gap.
Boil as desired [hard-boiled is easier, of course].
Use the pan lid to drain off the water, then hold it tight & shake the pan to smash the shells into smaller [still mainly attached] pieces. Hard enough to break the shells, not hard enough to mince the contents.
Fill the pan with cold water. This will rapidly cool the eggs & as the water seeps in between, will aid separation of egg from shell.
Once cold, pull one at a time, roll gently on a hard surface - your aim is lots of tiny pieces, no large areas remaining - & pick an easy start-point. The shells should come off in one go.
I found backup to this, from a quail egg supplier…
How to easily peel quail eggs


How to pound chicken breasts without a meat tenderizer? I do not have a meat tenderizor. I want to fry my chicken breasts but need to pound out the meat. What can I use instead?

This might seem silly but, . . . I use my fist. I always cover my chicken with plastic wrap to contain the mess before I pound it. You can also glove up instead/as well.

I have found that punching it is just the right amount of force for the job. And the uneven surface of my knuckles acts as a meat tenderizer and breaks up the tissue just a little. (But not too much.)


Why is my fragrant rice pudding (Gordon Ramsay recipe) dry? I was trying to follow the Gordon Ramsay's recipe for rice pudding.

It's the first time I try a spiced rice pudding (i.e. something more than rice, milk and sugar) and I am quite happy with the flavors. The problem is that it gets very dry. I added about 750 ml liquid (milk and coconut milk) for about 250 ml of rice (yes, i measured it by volume). I was using short grained, risotto rice.

It seems to me that the mascarpone cheese and the egg yolks clump toghether in between the rice grains, and everything gets rather dry. I would prefer a creamier texture, while keeping the rice from going to mush. What did I do wrong?

He uses Pudding Rice.

When using Risotto rice, if one wants it more starchy and to cook into a creamy texture, one usually needs to stir for like 15 minutes.

If at the end the result seems too dry, stir in a bit of milk at a time until you get the consistency you want.


What is this food "cr of leek and pot 21814"? I was given some food, one of which is named "cr of leek and pot 21814"

I am not sure what it is. Can anyone tell me how to cook it? Is it vegetable, staple, or  ...?

should I store it in freezer or the warmer part of a refrigerator?

Google suggested it's a CReam OF LEEK and POTato soup.

Just follow the instructions on the package to cook this dish. Apparently it is only half-way cooked. Empty the tray into a pot, add as much water as the tray holds to the pot. Heat the soup until it boils, stir frequently. Then, reduce the heat and let it simmer. The package says something with 100°F (?), I can't read it.

If the package is still frozen, you can leave it frozen in the freezer; otherwise you can leave this package up to 5 days at 40°F in the refrigerator prior cooking (as the package says).


Why some fruits are less common for making jam? Some fruits are more common to make jam from them (like peach in Hungary), but sometimes even widely available fruits are not common to make jams (like grape). What's the reason and what is it depends on?

The historical purpose of jam is to preserve fruit from a time of bounty to a time when it is less plentiful.

Therefore, to be a candidate for jam making, the fruit must be reasonably plentiful in the region where it would be preserved.

Technically, in order to form a jam or a jelly, there must be sufficient pectin and sufficient acid in the fruit to thicken it.  In some regions, there are traditional combinations of high and low pectin fruits, in order to get a viable jam from the low pectin fruit.

Some fruits need acid, in the form of vinegar or lemon juice usually, added in order to help them gel; others need additional pectin.  Canning Homemade has lists of high, medium, and low pectin fruits.

Other than this, it is down to the cultural preferences in a given region.


Non-glass baking containers for both microwave and oven use Are there any lightweight baking containers that can be used in both microwave and oven.  I have bought prepared meals in these but have never seen them for sale. I do not want glass.

The material you'd want is silicone.

For example, there are silicone baking molds. They are often used in professional kitchen settings, but I'm sure you find find some online. Here's an example.

There are probably other kinds of silicone containers that can handle oven well, and they can definitely handle microwave.


Herb infused oil - what went wrong I tried to make herb infused oil, but not matter how long I blend it it's still bitty.

I used 250ml of grapeseed oil, 15g of basil, 15g of chives, 15g of parsley, 15g of dill.
I blanched the herbs, then squeezed excess oils out.

I then poured all the oil into my first blender, waring pro. Fail
I then transferred into my magimix and blended again. Still bitty.
I then anded up using a powerful hand blender for about 10mins and I still had bits.

Any ideas?

thanks

Hmmm, funny you should ask that. Just now I am experimenting with using oil and other edible stuff to extract various chemical compounds from herbs without waste of those compounds. Grit or any identifiable vegetable matter is definitely a negative. It is very much the same thing you are talking about because flavor compounds vary in particle size and solubility.

So far, this product has shown great promise in my experimentation:

They work like cheesecloth, but the filter has holes measured in microns (25 - 220) instead of millimeters. You can wring the heck out of them, wash and reuse. They are constructed kind of like paper grocery bags, each about 1 gallon or 4 liters capacity. The bottom panel is a mesh filter.

It may be an odd off-label use because these things are actually for making hashish, but I saw their culinary potential when I first saw them at a fair. I'm using them now and they really work well to keep infused oils made with ground dried herbs grit-free. You can't wring them too hard, they can handle it.

If a clear, grit-free infused vinaigrette with finely ground dried herbs or food-processed/blended fresh herbs was my goal, I'd definitely give these a shot. Think of them like adjustable, reusable coffee filters.


Has anyone solved this problem with braising (other than by sous vide)? I've been braising food for a number of years as a home cook.

PROBLEM: Whenever meat is braised (pot roast, short ribs, oxtail etc.), the flavor/juice/water from the meat leeches out onto the cooking liquid that it is braised in.

The result is a tender, soft, texture of meat but lacks a lot of flavor, which ends up in the cooking liquid.

I know some might say, very low heat at shorter time, would help (and it does) but the flavor always leeching out into the cooking liquid is inevitable.

It seems that sous vide, very low temperature to soften the meat without the high temperature where meat loses too much juice is the only solution (other than eating it raw, where tenderness and juice is retained).

Is braising the same for you in the above? It would be good if someone's technique was better and it saved a lot of the juice and flavor in their braise.

Hervé This has an interesting discussion on this problem in this book.

The process of losing juice when cooking a piece of meat is in big part mechanical. Meat is basically composed of muscle cells tied together by collagen, which is sensitive to heat. Quoting Hervé:

  When a temperature of 50°c (122°f) is reached in the outside layer, the collagen contracts, compressing the juices inside (although the degree of compressibility is small because the juices are mainly water) and expelling the juices of the periphery outward. The center of the roast, composed of liquids and largely incompressible solids, cannot receive these juices. Anyone who is not convinced of this has only to roast a few pieces of beef, weigh them, and determine their density before and after cooking.

Since heat is transferred from the outside towards the inside by convection, the core of the piece of meat is usually at lower temperatures and retain most of the juices which were not expelled by the contracting collagen in the outer layers. Thus the importance of resting the meat after cooking. Outside the heat, you lose this compressing force and the liquids concentrated at the core diffuse towards the outside and redistribute, giving an improved feeling of juiciness. Following your question, Hervé suggests:

  Given that the juiciness of the meat depends on the amount of juice it has, why not use a syringe to reinject the juices that have drained out from the roast during cooking?

From this simplified physical picture, I suppose cooking-sous vide for long temperatures and below 50 degrees (temperature at which the collagen contracts) will avoid this phenomenon of expelling juices.


Canning Vegan White Sauce I have a white sauce recipe similar to Alfredo that I made up and a vegan friend of mine and I recently made it but substituted all vegan products and it turned out fantastic.  I was wondering if it would be possible to can said recipe.  I looked up canning Alfredo and because of the dairy it seems it's not possible, but I was wondering since there is no dairy if it were possible to can and if so how long it would last?

UPDATE
I figured I should include the ingredients. So the recipe contains:

Vegan Butter
Flour
Soy Milk
Vegan Parmesan Cheese
Onion
Garlic
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
Basil

There are no current safe recommendations for home canning oils/fats as it’s considered unsafe for a verity of reasons. Although you are using alternatives for dairy many will still have high fat and oil content that can cause botulism which is a type of food poisoning that can lead to death. I would recommend that if you make a large amount of this sauce to freeze it instead and to not exceed storing it longer than a couple months. I know this can be really disappointing considering that it’s a vegan sauce and you probably would like the ease of “reach and pour” but I wouldn’t risk it. Please use your own discretion. https://www.healthycanning.com/fat-and-oil-in-home-canning/


Canning potatoes in instapot canner I just realized that I canned some potatoes for 25 minutes instead of the recommended time of 35 minutes last night. The jars all sealed. My question is,  do i throw those out or do i just have to use them quickly? Thank you in advance,  I'm new to canning potatoes.

Joe's comment is correct.

If you haven't canned them as long as the recommendation then you can't have confidence that they will be safe for a long period at room temperature.

Your options are to try again or treat them as not shelf stable.

The downside with trying to can them again is that the food is likely to be hopelessly overcooked. For something like potatoes, I don't know how much of a difference that will make as they will be thoroughly cooked anyway from the first time. If the potatoes have broken down into a mush, I would not recommend this strategy. The canning recipes are tested against food in a particular state. Potato chunks in liquid would conduct heat differently than mashed potatoes.

There is also the downside that you will have to use new lids which is an added expense, albeit small.

If you treat them as not shelf stable- simply put the jars in the fridge and use them soon as you would any leftover, cooked, potatoes. Realistically speaking, I believe you will find that they will last a long time in the fridge as they would have been sterilized- just not to a high enough confidence level.


Differences between haddock and cod I saw haddock on sale at our local grocer. It's really cheap this week. It grew my curiosity.

Are there any similarities in flavor between haddock and cod?

I often see haddock and cod interchangeably used in the context of fish and chips.

Haddock and Cod are two quite different fish. However, they can be used interchangeably in many fish recipes. So if you want to substitute one for the other you can easily do so. When cooked, many people can't easily tell them apart. Even large food producers and supermarkets get them mixed up.

  ...Three of the 59 samples purchased from Asda failed to contain the right fish.
  Its cod fishcakes actually contained haddock whilst a haddock pie and a haddock fillet were made using Atlantic cod.

  At Waitrose two out of 28 samples tested were mislabelled.
  One of them, a mini smoked haddock pie offering ‘flaked North Atlantic haddock’, actually contained cheap Pacific cod.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380164/Mislabelled-fish-products-Asda-Tesco-Sainsburys-Morrisons-Waitrose-Lidl.html#ixzz1UCukDoa2

The main points where they may be treated differently are in long term storage. Haddock is not usually salted where as cod is. Haddock can easily be dried or smoked.


Why are my tangzhong bread doughs so wet? I've started experimenting with tangzhong bread recipes after reading about it in one of the questions here. I have been baking bread for many years.
I believe I'm doing it correctly, but I find that the doughs are very wet and sticky - like, almost like a wet muffin batter that you might pour into a muffin tin instead of the usual smooth, non-sticky mass of bread dough that I am used to.
The recipes I've tried so far are:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-sandwich-bread-recipe
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/soft-cinnamon-rolls-recipe
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pillowy-white-bread-recipe

They have all turned out OK, but only after I added a fair amount of additional flour, above and beyond what the recipe calls for.
Taking the milk bread recipe as an example:
The recipe calls for a total of 2 1/2 cups (dough) + 2 tablespoons (tangzhong) bread flour and 1/2 cup (dough) + 6 tablespoons (tangzhong) milk and water. That's a total of 2 3/8 cups flour to 7/8 cup of liquid.
The recipe calls for mixing & kneading "until a smooth, elastic dough forms". I use a stand mixer, and the recipe advises that this could take up to 15 minutes. So I did that, and after that time I did not have a smooth, elastic dough - I had a sticky mess at the bottom of the bowl. So I proceed to add more flour, two tablespoons at a time, until it becomes the smooth mass that I'm used to - in this case, I had to add close to another cup of flour to get it to what I believe bread dough should be.
The end result was good, but given that I've had the same experience three times with three different recipes, I have to wonder if it's something I'm doing or if there's something wrong with the recipes I'm trying (they are all from the same source, after all, so maybe there's something wrong there).
Am I doing something wrong or are the proportions off in the recipes I've tried?

I make the milk bread recipe almost every week: the proportions are not off (unless, perhaps you have an extremely humid kitchen). The usual advice to measure carefully by weight applies, of course. But I will assume your measurements are correct. Then I don't think the issue here is the tangzhong, but rather the butter content of the dough. Each of those recipes calls for at least half a stick! Because butter is liquid at warm temperatures, it can certainly lead to wet, sticky dough. I have two tips to deal with this.
During mixing and kneading: combine all the ingredients except for the butter, knead using a stand mixer until smooth, about 5 minutes. Then add the butter, unmelted, in one tablespoon chunks. Continue kneading until the butter is incorporated.
For shaping: stick the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes before shaping. Always shape on an oiled surface; do not add extra flour. If the dough ever seems too wet or greasy, return to the fridge to "firm up".
Very buttery enriched doughs are quite different to work with than straight doughs. As you work with it more, you should get a good sense of the correct consistency to look for and how to manage the temperature. Should you attempt something with even more butter, like a brioche, these differences will be even more extreme.


What type of sausage for bangers and mash? On a recent trip, I ate at an authentic Irish pub that served the best bangers and mash I've ever had. As there's nowhere around town that regularly serves the dish, I've decided to try my hand at making it at home. While I think I can manage the potatoes just fine, I'm at a loss as to what type of sausage to use. So my question is: what brand of sausage would best approximate a traditional recipe? Ideally, it would be something I could pick up at the local supermarket.

The good thing about Cumberland sausages is that the meat is supposed to be coarsely chopped and in of itself has a very high meat content. However, all good sausages have this quality also!

So in essence look for a sausage with a high meat content (80%+) and you can't go too far wrong.


Why did my organic chicken come out like rubber after roasting? I had two chicken halves that were frozen. I thawed them out most of the way.  I put olive oil and rosemary and sage on them, placed them into a dutch oven with the lid off and a bit of chicken stock in the bottom, and put the dutch oven into the oven at 375 degrees until the inside of the breast was done (according to meat thermometer).

The chicken came out chewy and rubbery.  It was still moist, but just almost inedible.  Can I blame the chicken?

It sounds like your chicken was simply overcooked.  If you used a built in pop-up timer, these almost always are set to a temperature which will overcook your poultry.

Some authorities recommend cooking white meat to 170 F (77 C), but this will leave your chicken dry and overcooked.

My personal preference is to cook white meat to about 158 F (70 C) in the oven, and then let carry over cooking bring it up a couple more degrees while it rests.  This should leave your white meat much more succulent.

Similarly, dark meat should be cooked to a temperature (to my preference) of at least 165 F (74 C) although it is much more tolerant of being overcooked.  This can be tricky when roasting a whole chicken.

Some things you can do help cook a chicken more evenly:

Cut it into parts, and roast the parts (obviously, this is ideal as each can be removed when done)
Use a high quality probe or instant read thermometer, in the thickest part of the breast or thigh, to get an accurate internal reading.   To ensure accuracy, check a couple of spots, and apply the lowest temperature.
If you don't want to fully cut it up, butterfly or "spatchcock" the chicken
Brine the chicken (although I personally prefer simply to not overcook in the first place)


Raw meat/seafood over bottled beer Our other chef feels that is okay to store raw meat/seafood on a rack in our walk in cooler that sits above where we store bottled and canned beverages. I disagree, but he considers the beverages to be "sealed" and not a food safety concern.

Common sense tells us that beverages can contact some of the outside surface of their container while being poured, especially with cans (which also sometimes open by pushing a bit of the outside ... INSIDE the beverage). Also, if bottles or cans are served as-is, people's lips are not unlikely to contact surfaces that were exposed in storage.

Also, beverage containers are typically served from raw, unlike other canned ingredients.

Also, while pathogens might have a hard time surviving on a reasonably clean metal or glass surface, storing them like that could potentially coat that surface with a layer of gunk that can harbor them.

While these risks seem to be commonly accepted, negligently exposing the containers to a risk of having their outside surface contaminated with concentrated pathogens - and nourishment for them! - seems to be something that might or might not be against regulations, but is certainly negligent and putting patrons at an avoidable risk.


How can I avoid windswept muffins in a convection oven? I have a very small multi-function oven (about the size of a microwave) and for baking, the recommended setting is the "convection" one.  Things bake fine in terms of taste, but muffins and cupcakes often get a sort of windswept look.  The fan has clearly blown them into a lopsided shape while they're rising, but before they've set.  With cupcakes, it's easy enough to trim them and hide it with icing, but not for muffins.  Is there any way to avoid this effect, other than trying to bake them on a setting without the convection fan?  Does this happen in larger convection ovens as well or is it just because mine is so small?

Quite often that look can be from having the temp too high on the oven.  A convection oven should always be at least 25 (and some people will say up to 50) degrees cooler than a 'normal' oven.  If you haven't tried it yet, knock down the temp of the oven.  We used to call this 'lava tops', because basically the outside is baking and setting quickly, and then the insides pop out of the gelatinous surface, and they go in a funny direction (often the way the fan blows).  I'm not saying that is the problem for sure, but if it were me, it would be the first thing I tried to eradicate the problem.


Dauphinoise potatoes: not fully cooked in cream? I am attempting to make dauphinoise potatoes using this recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/402620/dauphinoise-potatoes

I am preparing them for tomorrow. So the aim is to put them directly into the oven tomorrow. I've done the cream and the boiling and they are in the tray ready to go, sans cheese.

My question is: I followed the recipe but I'm not that great with the knife and thus my slices were a bit thick, probably 5-6mm.

It said to cook them for about 3 minutes in the simmering cream, or until cooked. I must have cooked the potatoes in the cream for what felt like forever (well over ten minutes) and they did not seem to be thoroughly cooked. It did not want to boil the cream lest it split. So I just continued with a simmer and kept turning them so they didn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

After well over ten minutes I was concerned about burning the cream though the potatoes still didn't look all that cooked. So I dished them out.

My question is, will this be OK if the potatoes are not fully cooked through? Providing it's going to go into the oven with a layer of milk and cream it should cook the potatoes through so they are soft? Should I cook it a little longer and lower than the recipe states?

You don't want to serve under-cooked potatoes, they will not be pleasant to eat and might give people indigestion. However, there's no reason you would need to as they'll cook in the oven, in fact that's the idea, if you cook them in the cream until they are done they'll break apart. You don't need that step at all really, when I make Dauphinoise potatoes I don't cook them in the cream, I layer them raw in a baking dish, then heat the cream, garlic and a bit of nutmeg in a pan until bubbling before pouring it over the potatoes and putting the cheese on top. Then I bake at 165 fan until a skewer goes through easily, about an hour, maybe longer. Budget 90 minutes in the oven if it's a deep pan. This gives awesome results every time and is less hassle then par-cooking them in the cream, frankly I see no benefit in that method although there's nothing wrong with it.

In your case as the potatoes are par-cooked then it will be less than 90 minutes, but it will take some time to get the dish up to temperature so it's very hard to say. Once you see the cream bubbling you'll  know it's cooking, check them in 20 minutes and then every 10 minutes after until they pass the skewer test.


Does ginger infused honey or vodka ever go bad food-safety-wise? I have sliced ginger stored in a jar of honey, and another jar of a small ginger knob in vodka. Both were stored in the refrigerator. Both are about 2 to 3 years old. They do not have any off odors. However, they both have a white powdery substance that has settled to the bottom. Could it be mold? Or bacterial growth? Before I noticed the white substance, I started to mix up the honey-ginger and it mixed up milky cloudy. I'm inclined to throw it away, but if there's no chance something can grow in a gingered honey or vodka infusion, I'd be happy to keep any use. Appreciate any expert advice.

Crystallized (or Stem) ginger preserved in honey is a known thing. Shelf-life is supposed to be about 3 months for the homemade kind, and I'd say twice that (at a minimum) for store bought...Those are both pretty conservative. It should have been properly prepared/canned at the start, which would reduce the possibility of some nasty microbial infestation, but obviously your mileage may vary depending on who prepared it and how it was stored.

Honey is a known reservoir of C. botulinum endospores, but C. botulinum doesn't really grow in honey (the low water activity (.6) makes it an extremely unfriendly environment for microorganisms). Honey by itself has an indefinite shelf-life.

Vodka pickled ginger is also a known thing. Shelf-life estimates are all over the map, from three months to forever. Three months is definitely low: ginger is a tough, astringent root, and lasts three months without any particular preparation at all. Soaking it in high proof alcohol should easily multiply that.

Any alcohol of at least 80 proof in sufficient concentration should be sufficient to prohibit the growth of micro-organisms. Concentration is critical, however, and insufficient alcohol is no barrier to bacterial growth.

I'd say that 2-3 years is pushing it. And if you see anything that doesn't look normal, I'd toss it. Botulism is one of those things that you can't always detect via smell.


Can Kale be hot like horseradish? I just made a fruit smoothie with Kale, banana, Apple, blueberries, vegan protein powder, chia and flax. It was like drinking a smoothie with horse radish. The blueberries were the only difference with my favorite smoothie. Did the blueberries cause this drink to be spicy hot?

There's a chance the extra sugar from the blueberries has helped bring the peppery taste from the kale out a bit more. Kale is known for its light peppery flavor much like watercress but not any where near the heat of horseradish. The addition of sugar, much like salt is great for intensifying flavors.

Rather than try and describe the taste of kale myself, I'll use the words of someone else instead.

  The flavor is peppery and assertive, and can have a pleasantly bitter edge.

Source: A Sweet and Savory Life <- A good read if you are more interested in kale.

So, in reply to your question. Yes, Kale can taste hot like Horseradish.


What are the crunchy bits on top of Thai mango with sticky rice? My favorite Thai restaurant makes a fantastic mango and sticky rice dessert, and it seems like it'd be pretty simple to recreate at home. I've searched around the internet for mango and sticky rice recipes, and have found many, but none seem to have the crunchy bits that I find in my local restaurant's version.

Obviously, I can ask at the restaurant next time I'm there, but I'm curious if anybody here knows what these could be?

They are crunchy and about the size of grains of rice, which make me think they might be toasted grains of sticky rice? They could also be some kind of seed or nut...

Does anybody know of any crunchy bits that are traditional on Thai sticky rice with mango?

Aha! Found the answer myself!

This recipe includes the step "Garnish with toasted sesame seeds or fried salty mung beans." -- I googled "fried salty mung beans" and found the picture below, which is exactly what I was looking for:


What results can I expect from egg and sugar variations in spritz cookies? Some Spritz cookie recipes call for powdered sugar vs granulated sugar, and some recipes use egg yolk only vs whole egg. Without trying every recipe, what differences might result from these differences?

Powdered sugar would produce a smoother textured dough than granulated sugar, I think, as it would more easily be incorporated with the other ingredients than the larger grained, sandy texture created by granulated sugar.

Egg yolk only would have a higher fat content than whole egg, and the lack of egg white might produce more rich taste, but likely more tender cookies than those with the egg white, as protein in the egg white would hold crumbs together better.


Does fruitcake made with alcohol stay alcoholic after aging? I'm trying to keep up a tradition of sending fruitcake out to families, only I know some families are more averse to alcohol in general than others.
The recipe I have uses 170 grams of brandy as well as regular basting/brushing for the aging process. Will this make the end result alcoholic or a concern for people with a difficult relationship to alcohol? Should I make a non-alcoholic alternative?

Yes, fruitcake will retain almost all the alcohol added to it, whether added before or after cooking. Whether you should make a non-alcoholic alternative is a matter of opinion and individual circumstances and not on-topic for this site, but if I were averse to consuming alcohol and someone who knew that about me sent me an alcohol-infused fruitcake, I would judge that to be inconsiderate at best.


What kind of vegetable has pink and white concentric rings? What kind of vegetable is pictured here with the pink and white concentric rings? They look like they might be some kind of beet or radish.

That is a chioggia beet, I believe, but watermelon radish is also colored similarly.


How to slash bread to let steam out I'm trying to make loaf bread with filling swirled into it.... I had issues with the chestnut paste because it had butter so it left gaping holes...the redbean paste held up better..but it was really dry and I need to make it wetter...

On an other thread, Why does bread with filling separate and how do I prevent it? they mentioned using slashes but I don't know how it would work?
Do you slash before you let it rest for the final proof or after? If you cut after, wouldn't it deflate everything?

help please

A major problem (that I have had, and sounds like you're having) with filled-and-rolled bread is that the filling (e.g., if it contains water, butter, etc.) will steam and expand, yielding gaping holes in the middle of the bread.  You want this in things like, e.g., croissant and pastry, but not in stuff like cinnamon swirl bread or so.  It will also be very different between a batter bread (e.g., quick breads) versus yeast-leavened breads (which it sounds like you're using here).

I don't think slashing the loaf will be effective in this case.  You've got a rolled bread, which might have many layers -- you'll need to slash through every layer in order to have the steam escape.  Here are some other possibilities, depending on the nature of your loaf:

Try docking (poking the loaf with a bunch of holes); I can't find any good link on this. Use a chop-stick or wide-ish skewer to poke many holes, all over the loaf, all the way through the bread, after you have panned it. This can be effective for breads where you want some steam to escape without slashing the top.  Poking LOTS of holes all the way through may allow steam to escape during oven-spring.
Try a Russian braid. Roll, then cut through lengthwise, then and twist or braid, then put into loaf pan. For example, ATK did this with their cinnamon swirl bread, and this yields a similar swirl but without trapping as much steam.  Do an image-search for more examples.

Aside from slashing/cutting etc.,

If you roll very tightly with minimal trapped air, you may be able to improve the situation.  But this is tricky and may not be effective anyway.
How about mixing in the paste into the batter or dough?  If you do this at the right time in mixing, you'll end up with chunks of the filling (similar effect as swirl) with perhaps less steam-trapping effect.

Hope it helps.  Let us know how it comes out!


How to prevent greek yoghurt getting more sour My mum has always liked making home made yoghurt, but the major problem with it has been the fact that it gets more sour over time. The night after she makes it the flavour is usually a perfect balance between creaminess and sourness (very much like the flavour of many supermarket greek yoghurts).

The only problem is that whereas supermarket yoghurts flavours do not change, our home made flavour does, and we have no idea what we can do to it to stop it doing so. Any ideas please?

Unfortunately (actually… let's say fortunately) homemade yoghurt still contains a lot of active cultures which will continue to work even after you refrigerate it. Refrigeration will slow that process down, but it will not stop it completely.
There are two (well, three) things you can do to avoid that tart flavor from the active cultures at work:
Refrigerate a portion of the batch early
When you (or rather, your mum) is making a batch of yoghurt, refrigerate a portion of the yoghurt before it is quite "done" and let the rest continue as normal. The refrigerated portion will continue to finish in the refrigerator while you consume the portion that was allowed to achieve that "perfect balance". You can estimate how much yoghurt you should set aside by noting how much you have have left over when it starts to become too sour for your taste. The next time you make yoghurt, set that amount aside (in the refrigerator) to be consumed after the first batch is gone.
Freeze what you cannot consume quickly
This option is far from ideal. You can slow or just about stop the fermentation process by freezing a portion of the yoghurt just after you make it. Unfortunately, when yoghurt is frozen then thawed, it can separate and become somewhat watery and grainy. Sometimes you can mix it back in, but it may not have that wonderfully creamy consistency of the original. You may have to try it and see. Defrosted yoghurt will still be healthy to consume, but some believe you will lose much of the health benefits as the live bacterial cultures can be destroyed by the freezing process.
Or keep it as a frozen treat
You may also consider not defrosting the frozen portion at all. Some people actually enjoy the experience of frozen yoghurt as a healthy snack alternative. If you consume some fresh and some frozen, you can think of it as two treats in one.


Mustard Flavor disappears I make my macaroni salad with mayonnaise and mustard, but the mustard flavor always disappears so I have to add more.
Why does the mustard flavor disappear?

The flavour of water-based mustard reaches its peak about 15 minutes after you make it. After that it declines quite rapidly. If you're making fresh, then you really should make just enough for 'today'.
The predominant 'hit' of mustard is very volatile & will quickly dissipate.
Store-bought mustard is vinegar- & oil-based, which makes the flavour last longer, but at a loss to the overall mustard hit.
It shouldn't degrade in anything like the short time water-based does… it will be as bland tomorrow as it was today ;)


How to convert knife edge angle "ratios" into degrees? European-style Japanese knives seem to be described (also here and here, and in my most recent post) in terms of "ratios" that always add up to 100. It's not exactly clear what this means in terms of angles off the center plane of the blade.

It appears that, even on knife forums, there is some confusion as to what these numbers mean. My first thought was that they were actually angles, since a 30 degree angle is common on European knives. Upon reflection, though, that can't be--when you're sharpening a 70/30 knife, dragging across a stone at a 70 degree would be a catastrophe. What, then, is that magic number, and how does it vary in relation to these "ratios"?

I found this on  chefknivestogo  and I think it explains it quite well.

RAY <> A "50/50" usually references an edge. So on the cutting edge, it is an even 50/50 "V". It can be 50/50 at 12 degrees or 50/50 @20, but each sides angle is equivocal.
A double bevel is a knife design created by grinding. So from the spine to the cutting edge, there is a blade face that has been ground (most of the time). It can be a flat grind, a convex grind, a hollow grind, and any of these grinds can be symmetric (50/50) or asymmetric. So for instance, my Ginsanko Hiromoto Western Deba has an asymmetrical semi convex grind. It has a flat ground left blade face at around 30% of the total included angle and the right side blade face has a distinctly convex grind that is the other 70% of the total included angle, but the actual cutting edge has an asymmetry, as well. The actual cutting edge does not look like a "V" as it is, in fact, a 60/40 right-handed bias. It's a particularly unique blade, but exemplifies your point, quite well. :mrgreen:

In short, the numbers like 50/50 or 70/30 represent the percentage of the included angle on each side of the blade. So, for a 50/50 knife with an included angle of 50°, it would be ground to a 25° edge angle on each side of the blade. See diagram below:


Trick to making perfect egg ribbons? I'm looking for a time-proven method for getting perfect egg ribbons in egg drop or hot and sour soup.  The result I'm looking for is a clear soup with the classic gossamer egg ribbons.  I'm not really asking for soup recipes(although feel free to share along with your answer!).  I'm asking for specifically how to add the eggs.

I've read plenty of "beat eggs, pour into soup", and I haven't quite been able to nail the technique.  I end up with some ribbons, but a cloudy soup.

This question is meant to delve into specifics.  I'd like to know explicit details of your ancient, family secret.  How far to beat the eggs...light, or foamy?  Drizzle in slowly, or fast?  Drizzle the eggs into the soup using chopsticks...fork...whisk?  Stir the soup while adding or not?  Before or after adding cornstarch thickener...or do you use a different thickener(perhaps another previous egg addition?)  Please provide as much detail on technique, tools, and process as possible.  I don't mind spending some time practicing a new technique, as long as I end up with a good product and am able to repeat it.

Thanks!

I can't speak to your specific recipe, but I worked in a Chinese take-out restaurant for a few years, but that was a ways back....if I remember correctly, the process was extremely simple.

Start with a broth of hot water, white vinegar, salt and a drop or two of yellow food coloring (ancient Chinese secret - food coloring)
Get it nice and hot and add a small amount of cornstarch slurry, whisk and wait for it to thicken.
Meanwhile, scramble some eggs, just like normal. Nothing special. We used a fork and scrambled the eggs in a take-out soup container.
Pour the eggs into the broth at a steady rate while stirring the broth at a medium and consistent speed (roughly one rev/sec).

And that was it. As far as specific technique? I can't recall anything that really stands out. Like I mentioned, we used a take-out soup container and a fork to scramble the eggs, and cut a hole in the top to pour them. I suppose if you want to get really specific, we used a box cutter to make a triangular hole, roughly 3/4 inch per side. The soup was cooked in a round-bottomed wok, and stirred with what Google is telling me is called a hand-spoon - imagine a one-cup ladle, except bend the cup so it's more or less parallel to the handle.

Hope this helps. If you'd like any more information I'll try and see what I can drag out of the back of my dusty memory - it was about six-seven years ago, but I might be able to persuade my feeble old mind to provide some more details.


Nonstick Pan Ruined in High Heat? I bought a nonstick Greenpan at Williams and Sonomo. It was kind of expensive like $100.  It was working great.  Then someone used it on high heat.  Now it sticks a lot.  Visually, I don't see anything wrong with the pan, but it seems to be totally broken.

I'm surprised that using it just a single time with high heat was enough to ruin the nonstick surface entirely.

Was this my fault? Or should an expensive nonstick pan be a bit more durable than that? (I am new to cooking so sorry if it's a newbie question.  Any info appreciated!)

Yes high heat can burn off the nonstick coating.

My roommate's girlfriend did one of my pans that way, heating it very hot while dry.  It was pretty spectacular.  Everyone in the house had this weird little cough like from dilute pepper spray.  Anything silver in the house tarnished.  I presume the nonstick was burned off and floated around in the house, causing these effects.  The pan was still usable after, just no longer nonstick.


Comparing store-bought chopped garlic When shopping for chopped garlic at my local grocery store, I noticed that although there were several brands there were basically two price points.  Looking more closely, I saw that the less-expensive brands were all packed in olive oil while the more-expensive brands were not.

Does the fact that the garlic is packed in oil somehow relate to its quality and therefore price, or is the olive oil just an inexpensive filler that brings down the price per weight?

Edit

Brands and ingredients:

Botticelli and Badia:
Garlic, water, extra virgin olive oil, citric acid, sodium benzoate

Victoria:
Garlic, filtered water, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, natural flavor

Bellino:
Natural garlic, water, phosphoric acid

I didn't see Joe's comment in time to check whether some are imported.

Olive oil isn't cheap enough to be an inexpensive filler, and the garlic has to be in something -- either another (cheaper) oil or vinegar.  Garlic and olive oil is a common combination.

The sort packed in vinegar also has its uses and keeps well. It's the only chopped option I can easily find without added salt.  But when the proportion of garlic in the dish is high the vinegar flavour isn't always desirable (so I use fresh then).


Substituting vegetable oil spread for oil in cake mix My cake mix calls for 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and I am out of it. Can I use Blue Bonnet 53% vegetable oil spread in the place of the oil? Thanks!

I have heard that you can. However, I would be reluctant to do so because rather than using 100% veg oil, you would be substituting a product that has only 53% veg oil. Most likely your end product would be drier.

Also, most veg oil speads contain salt, which could affect the flavor. And most contain water that could affect the texture. Depending on the specific product, various other ingredients may be present that could cause other issues.


Why does my pavlova always look like this? It has circles on it every time I try to make it. And sometimes it just won't dry - it's soft; it doesn't really crack like I hope it would! It always sinks and the bottom is kinda sticky and dark brownish.

(click for full size)

Here's the recipe I used this time:

3 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp corn flour
3/4 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

I baked it at 150C for 1 and 1/4 hours. I have a small oven. What did I do wrong? Would beating the mixture longer help?

A pavlova is similar to a meringue. (The additional starch and vinager change the texture a bit, but not the preparation).

The key to baking a pavlova is not baking it. You want it to dry, rather than bake.

What does this mean here?

If it turns brown, the heat is too high. (A very slight tinge is ok...) Especially with a smallish oven, the heat elements or oven walls might be too close or hotter than your thermostat setting. Also, oven thermometers are notoriously incorrect - and 30° can be a major difference here. You could invest in a good oven thermometer, but I'd probably just use a lower setting next time and see what happens.
If its sticky, there is too much humidity left. This might be due to you using a small oven. You want to keep the oven door slightly ajar to let the water "escape" after baking. Normally you shouldn't open the door while baking due to the risk of the pavlova collapsing, but I'd probably try leaving it slightly ajar (like for meringue) once, just out of curiosity...

Would longer beating help? I can't say as I don't know how long you are beating now. But this link describes the desired texture quite nicely.

As far as the rings are concerned: No idea, sorry. (Perhaps beating time...)


flash fire from self-cleaning oven We have a self-cleaning oven (GE). We put in some stewing beef in a roaster into the oven at 300F for 45 minutes. After about 20 minutes there was smoke coming from the rear vent. When I noticed it I opened the oven door to see what was going on and had an extreme flash come from the oven, which burned my eyebrows and the hair on top of my forehead.

There were no spills in the oven (e.g. grease) of any kind. The side of the range was hot as if the self clean feature was on.

The first sign of something wrong was a week ago we were baking a frozen pizza. After about 20 minutes @400F (called for 23 minutes), smoke was coming from the vent and I just turned it off and left it as I didnt want to fill the house with smoke.  When I took out the pizza, the bottom was like thick rubber soles of boots and the top was scorched. Not a normal baking cycle.

Three weeks before this we baked a normal pizza. No spills on the bottom of the oven as the pizza was on a cookie sheet.

Can anyone tell what happened in the oven?

I don't think it really matters exactly what happened. Unless you've left out something important, it's not working right, and you need to get it repaired. The best case is that it keeps burning your food, and the worst case is that you set your place on fire.

If you want to confirm that it's doing something wrong, you could put a thermometer in it and turn it on (no food) and confirm that it's getting way too hot. (Edit: but please be careful, as Aaronut said. If there's any sign things are going wrong, turn it off, and leave the door closed.)


Wok clean up after every use I wanted to ask, if i really have to clean up the wok after every use. You see those black spots on it ? Am i doing it wrong? Or.. is it ok to leave it so? Just fyi, this wok costs about 230 eur. Thank you for your advices.

You are seeing oil polymerisation, otherwise known as seasoning. It is not required on stainless steel, but it can happen on its own under some conditions (a very thin layer of oil, or only a spray of oil mist, on a very hot pan surface) and wokking produces these conditions at least on parts of the surface.

It is your choice whether to keep it or clean it. You won't be able to maintain a great seasoning on stainless steel, it will be somewhat patchy because it cannot cling as well as it does to reactive steels or iron. But since it is not functional on stainless, the quality of the layer is not really important. Just pay attention that it really stays a seasoning (made from burnt-on decomposed oil) and does not become char from carbohydrate deposits.

If you decide to clean it, you won't get far with physical efforts or everyday cleaners. The more convenient way is to use boron based cleaners, but they are not sold in some parts of Europe due to safety and environmental concerns. The other way is sodium lye, which does not have the boron toxicity but needs safe handling procedures because it is very corrosive.

You can also choose to retire that wok and switch to a carbon steel wok, which can hold better seasoning (and also, being many times cheaper, causes less consternation if it stops looking good). For that solution, you also need to season properly, which does have a learning curve at the beginning.

A side note:

  Am i doing it wrong

You may have a somewhat wrong wokking technique - I am surprised that your bottom is so clean while the walls got so much oil polymerisation. My suspicion is that you are overcrowding the bottom and not pushing enough food up the wall. But that is only an aside, since it matters mostly for taste, not for cleaning.


Is it normal to find something in tea? I often buy Chinese tea by weight in some local stores and at times I find some inclusions that should not be there. Up to this date I have found:

A human hair
Some sand
Some white dots (presumably parts of a plant) that always come with Pu'er stones and float on the surface
Parts of other plants or a trunk parts of the tea plant that was not meant for tea
Some kind of fluff (https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/74851/identify-fluff-that-i-have-found-in-tea)

Finding the fluff finally got me and I decided to ask here.

Is it normal for tea to contain various inclusions like that? I understand that tea processing is a complex process performed by humans at factories in huge batches. So is it common for something like that to get into the process?

I ask because, for example, if you consider some kind of grain, there are often inclusions of other things (other grains or something else) too, and this is known and normal for lower quality (cheaper) grain. You don't throw away the pack if there are some other kind of grains and you simply remove them. Various manufacturers differ in quality and you can choose. You know that the more expensive grain should be better processed and have no inclusions, when a cheaper one is ok to have them. Now this is not the case with the Chinese tea. There's no (obvious) choice of the manufacturer, it simply comes from a particular part of China. I can only choose a local vendor and which tea grade to buy (where tea grade tells what part of the tea plant was used in the making, and nothing more, not the quality of the manufacturing).

I have started drinking Chinese tea not so long ago, and I don't have much experience of it. So my question is: are the inclusions that I have described above common and known for tea, or should I consider buying at a different store, from a different vendor? If the tea is coming from China, will it be different, or is it the same in all the shops? What would you do in a situation like this?

Short Answer: No. Change your tea vendor.

Long Answer:

My sweetie is a tea drinker, and gets Chinese teas from many premium vendors in the US, including Ten Ren, Jasmine Pearl, Silk Road, Vital Leaf, Red Robe, and others.  We currently have a kitchen cabinet so full of teas that bags fall out every time I open it.  Most of these teas are from China, as that country is both the origin of tea and the biggest producer.

In 10 years, I don't recall ever encountering garbage like you describe in tea.

I suspect that you are getting your tea from a bargain-basement source, were you buy tea for $10/lbs or less.  That's going to be one of the things that makes cheap vendors and grades different from premium ones.


Is there a good way to make vegetarian carbonara? My partner is now a vegetarian, and one food I miss cooking for dinner together is spaghetti carbonara. What would a good substitute for the pancetta/bacon be? The role of the pork is not just the flavor, but the hot liquid fat also emulsifies the rest of the dish and cooks the egg. So a different approach would need to fill both roles of the pork.

Do not look for all these functions in one off-the-shelf ingredient.

For the smoky taste and bacon texture, try various brands (there are differences in taste and texture) and cuts (as in, HOW you cut it) of smoked tofu. Dulse seaweed is also often recommended as a bacon substitute (but can taste too fishy).

Where hot saturated fat is needed, you will need to add that separately at the right time - or separately fry the abovementioned ingredients with excess butter/oil (getting some smoky flavor infusion) and add them with (or before) that excess oil. Butter or ghee/clarified butter (probably preferrable due to heat tolerance) are chemically closer (mostly saturated fat) to bacon fat than an oil.


Kneading bread with arthritic hands-any tips? I love to bake bread, but its too painful to knead it by hand for long enough! Anyone have any work-arounds? I'm not a seasoned bread maker, and I have a bread machine, but I don't like bread baked in it!

There are a few options:

Most bread machines have an option to knead/mix only - you can then take the dough out and shape and bake as you would if you were doing things by hand.

You can also get "dough hooks" for most stand mixers (e.g. Kenwood or Kitchenaid), these are a bent arm or corkscrew sort of shape designed to knead the dough, and are what is often used in commercial kitchens: here's a picture of a Kitchenaid one. Edit: Dough hooks also come with some hand mixers, but I can't imagine that this would be any better for arthritic hands than kneading unaided.

You can also make "no-knead" breads, these might be quick breads such as scones or soda bread, which basically you mix the dough, shape, then bake. Or they might be a yeast based bread, where all you do is mix the ingredients, incubate to rise, then bake. These last ones are a specialist area of bread baking, so I don't have any advice on good recipes. I would google for highly rated ones.

@Joe reminded me in a comment, there are also a ton of recipes for food processors, which basically mix and knead in the the processor. This does not require a special blade, just the standard sharp metal blade.


Substituting almond milk for evaporated Can almond milk be substituted for evaporated milk in a custard pie recipe?

Almond milk is much, much thinner than evaporated milk. Do you specifically need to use almond milk, or are you just looking for a non-dairy option? I've used coconut milk for custards with some success; you might also be able to use a soy creamer (since you can get away with subbing cream for evaporated milk).


What cheeses have the least amount of whey in them (or not at all)? What cheeses have the least amount of whey in them or not at all?

When cheese is made, milk solids, in the form of curds, are separated from the whey.  The curds are then pressed to further release the whey.  Hard cheeses are pressed with greater pressure for a longer time.  So, the simple answer to your question is hard cheeses.


Is there any way to make whey powder at home? Any way to make it.Whey powder is pretty expensive here and I want to use it for baking.

If you really do mean turning liquid whey into a powder, then the answer is "no" unless your have access to some specialised equipment. You need a membrane filter, ultra-filtration to be precise, to concentrate the protein to a syrup with about 70-75% water. You will also need a dryer of one type or another to remove most of that water, spray drying gets you a powder, or you can freeze dry and mill the dried cake into powder. Both membrane filters and dryers do exist in lab-bench scale and therefore it is entirely feasible to install them at home.


Fudge not setting up-- any salvaging possible? Alternate uses? I made fudge with evaporated milk I made myself. Added this to butter and sugar and heated.  Added this to chocolate and stirred enough to mix.  Poured into 8x8 dished and left to set up. No such luck.  What I have is silky thick hot fudge sauce-like chocolate.  Kind of like soft caramel.  What can I use this for now or do y'all have suggestions as to how to fix it?

It sounds like your fudge simply wasn't heated enough. Fudge is basically a superconcentrated syrup, and it sets when sugar dissolved in the water (from the butter and milk) comes out of solution as the mixture cools and forms crystals. Temperature is your proxy measurement for the concentration of sugar - if you don't hit the right temperature, the concentration will be off and your fudge won't set properly.

Here's a useful little article with some tips for fixing your fudge. Essentially, you want to cook the syrup right up to 237° to 239° F (that's 114° to 115° C) in order to get the proper concentration. I generally heat my syrup up to 235° F and let carry-over do the rest of the work. If it's overcooked (resulting in grainy fudge) or undercooked (resulting in poor setting) all you really need to do is add a bit of cream, reheat the fudge to the target temperature, and let it set again.


Can I use a nonstick or stainless steel pan to bake a cake in a microwave Can I use a nonstick pan or a stainless steel pan to bake a cake in a microwave?

No, but you can cook in microwave safe cups or basically anything that is microwave safe. If you don't have anything big enough to cook a cake do you maybe have a large based jug?


Why do you use sugar when canning peaches or pears? I’m going to be canning peaches and pears and most instruction say to use sugar.  Is sugar a preservative for the fruit or is it just for taste?  I would prefer not to use sugar if I don’t need to..

It somewhat depends on your definition of preserving.

Sugar is definitely added for and too taste.  If you prefer less, then by all means use less using a light syrup rather than heavy, or possibly even none.  But, one of the purposes of sugar in canned fruit is for texture.  Canned fruit in light syrup will deteriorate in texture more quickly that in heavy syrup.  At least in theory, the sugar syrup will work through osmosis to replace some of the water in the fruit with sugar making it more firm especially after being subjected to the heat of canning.  Without this, the cells will break down and turn mushy.

It seems counter intuitive to me at least, but to get this to work, the syrup needs to be higher in sugar than the fruit being canned, so very sweet peaches for instance would need a heavier syrup to firm when canned than a less sweet batch.  It is sad to risk over-powering that natural fresh flavor but is a cost of that type of preserving.

In things like Jams and meat cures sugar is definitely used to help preserve, but those are different techniques.  In this case it helps preserve some of the quality, but not really against spoilage.


Best way to cook rice to serve cold later? I thought it wasn't possible to find a prepared rice that is worth being eaten cold, but I tried a prepared meal from a catering which came with tender and moist rice (even without reheating). Mine gets dry and bland.

I think it should depends on the fat added during cooking and the cooling method (covered vs uncovered, and refrigerated vs at room temperature).

I want to replicate it for preparing meals to take out.

You want to use oil as just any fat.  More to the point, you want something that is liquid at refrigerator temperature.  Butter becomes solid at that temperature and makes for a terrible texture.  Beyond that, err on the side of using an overly flavorful broth, as flavor is far more subdued at colder temperatures.  Beyond that, to ensure tenderness cook it slightly past al dente, as the texture will firm up as you cool it.


How many ounces is a British "tin" of tomatoes? If I have a British recipe that lists "1 tin chopped plum tomatoes," how many ounces is that? In British English, does "tin" usually refer to a specific size? In the US, cans generally come in 14 and 28oz sizes - which one is likely closest to what the recipe means?

It is likely the same as a 14 oz can of tomatoes.

From the Wikipedia article on Tin Cans:

  A standard size tin can is roughly 400g; however, the weight can vary between 385g and 425g, depending on the density of the contents.

UK shops selling tins of tomatoes quote 390-400 grams based on what I'm seeing.

This is equivalent to 14 oz.  American cans will generally say the weight in ounces and in grams if you want to double check.


Are there any other gums that work in gluten-free baking besides xanthan and guar? I'm curious, are any other substances that could substitute for guar gum or xanthan gum in gluten-free baking?  Xanthan isn't an option because of allergies, and while guar gum seems to work OK for most things, I'm not a fan of the slick or slimy texture that sometimes results when I have to use a lot of it.

Thanks in advance. :)

It's not quite as effective as xanthan gum but I find arrowroot flour works wonders.  You can also try locust bean gum or psyllium husk (soak it in water before mixing so that it can dissolve)

Those are more starchey than the gums and are meant to be mixed with amaranth, rice, quinoa, or other more coarse flours it gives you that same "slimey" start that hold the bubbles as the bread cooks. That's generally gone by the time it's cooked.

When you're using guar gum, try to keep the quantity down to about 1% by weight of the dry ingredients. Also give it time to fully hydrate before adding the rest of the ingredients.  I normally mix mine in dry with the flour and then add milk or water to get things wet and then leave it for a couple minutes before continuing.

If the gum (or even the arrowroot flour) is properly hydrated it will be more effective in baking.  Plus you can use less liquid overall which is good because it's easy to overdo the liquid in GF bread.


What are the different flavors of sources for homemade baker’s yeast? I have been making sourdough bread for about five years now, and have made my own starter several times.  I've been beginning to use baker's yeast, but between an interest in not paying for things and an interest in not being limited by stores' supplies of yeast, I'm looking to make my own baker's yeast culture.
From what I've read, there are a variety of sources one can get such a culture from, including boiled potato water, garden-fresh tomatoes, and a variety of fruits.  I've also heard that the resulting flavor of starter is a little different for each source, but I haven't been able to track down what those differences actually are.  I'm considering just making one starter from each source I can get my hands on, but before I delve into that, does anyone know the differences in flavor between different sources?

The differences will be down to the strain or variety of the yeast that you cultivate from the source. Generally baker's yeast is considered to be Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is a eukaryotic organism with a large genome. Many of the genes produced are involved with metabolism of various sources of energy for different environments and disposing of waste compounds from metabolism. In addition, the yeast that you "isolate" is very unlikely to be a single strain or even a single species, all of which taste and smell subtly different to each-other. For instance another yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is also present on grapes and is commonly used in wine making. If you used grapes as your starter source, you are likely to get this yeast too or maybe instead of baker's yeast.
Some of the waste compounds involved are things like esters which are produced as by-products of metabolic activity of different carbon sources. Esters are often short-chain volatile compounds with distinctive smells/flavours - if you like candy/lollies flavoured as "banana", the flavour is often the ester amyl acetate. These are the different flavours that you get from different yeast strains.
As to which flavours they are exactly - well that will depend on exactly which environment you have got them from - grapes will be different to tomatoes, which will be different to apples etc. Now you might think "well, I'll just get some [insert favourite yeast source here]" and that each time you did this you would get the same result, but it isn't that simple - the yeast that you get will also be dependent on where the yeast source came from, the time of year, the stage of fruit ripeness, how the grower treated their plants, what's floating around in the air at the time... etc. and finally exactly which mix of yeast strains are present at your location.
Some of this complexity is seen in wine and beer manufacture - not all locations are equal in terms of wine flavours because of the wild yeasts that are present on the grapes or barley when they are crushed/malted to get the fermentation started, so most vineyards and breweries now add bulk stocks of single-source yeast to overcome this problem and standardize the flavours their vineyard/brewery produces.


Is my honey fermented? I have a gallon of honey, stored in an ice cream bucket, that smells like sour krout and has little air bubbles all the way thru it. Should i consider it unsafe to use? will baking with it make it safer?

Promoted to answer as requested:

Bubbles suggest fermentation is going on. A vinegary smell suggest it's aerobic fermentation. I'd guess you're heading towards vinegar, not mead. Simmering will reduce water content, which will inhibit bacterial and fungal growth. A gallon weighing 10-12 pounds, At $8 to $10 per Lb, 10Lbs is well worth trying to rescue. I'd simmer off about 10-15% of your volume. Should be enough to reduce water activity below where things will grow, and get rid of any vinegar. Watch the stuff. It may still be a bit too watery. I've made a rough guess here.


Food mills versus food strainer/sauce makers I'm looking for a new food mill, likely for everything from berry jam to apple butter to tomato sauce. There seem to be two primary choices.

There are traditional food mills, with the rotating bent plate forcing the food through discs:

and there are food strainers/sauce makers, with a spiral conveyor forcing the food through a frustum-shaped screen:

Why might I choose one type over the other?

Both types force food through a perforated screen and what makes a difference (for the food) is the size of the holes.
The conical version (bottom picture) can process more food before the screen is fully clogged (more screen surface), and usually you can just pop out the cone and empty the skins and seed.  Whereas with the traditional food mill you have to disassemble.  With some foods (whole tomatoes) you may have to pass them a couple of times through the mill to get everything.
Why you might choose one over the other:
If you are processing bushels of stuff, I wouldn't even think of the traditional food mill.  We use a 1/2 horse power belt driven spiral sauce maker and it already takes us hours to make ~200 jars.  I'd become a zenist if someone handed me a traditional mill with bushels of tomato.
For home use and cooking for under 20 people the traditional mill is great since you can just place it over the pot, go, and throw in the DW.  No mounting fuss, and fits into a normal cupboard.  You CAN find decent Italian made ones for $20 in North America.


Should I season a Teflon-coated stainless steel frying pan I am not sure if I am allowed to say the brand & model, but here is the spec

Can also be used in the oven since it is made entirely of metal.
Thick base with one layer of aluminium between two layers of stainless steel. Gives an even and energy-efficient heat, which reduces the risk of food burning and sticking.
Made of stainless steel, which makes the pan durable and easy to clean.
Treated with Teflon® Platinum plus, a very hardwearing non-stick coating that makes the pan suitable for everyday use.
The exterior is made of brushed steel which means that stains do not show as much as on a high-gloss surface.

Should I season it?

Related question: What's the best way to season a cast iron skillet?

No. Neither plain stainless steel nor non-stick pans (which yours is as it's coated with Teflon) need to be seasoned. Not only is seasoning unnecessary, but it will only cause your pan to look dirty. It would do no good at all.

Seasoning is all about preventing rust and sealing "pores", making the surface more resistant to sticking. Neither of those things are an issue with stainless steel or Teflon, and it's unlikely that the seasoning would even stick to your pan. On your pan you can even use soap!

Some people (a distinct minority) do season stainless steel (Do I need to season a stainless steel saute pan?), but absolutely don't try to season Teflon.

EDIT: It is often recommended use a paper towel to wipe a small amount of oil on Teflon before use. Apparently some people do call that "seasoning", but it bears no resemblance to the seasoning of cast-iron. NY Times


Making lemon juice gel for cooking I often make tilapia fillets in the oven. I put two pieces of fillet on an oiled Corelle plate, put some lemon juice, salt and basil on it, and cook it at 170°C for 15 minutes.

This is my routine breakfast, so I've cooked this meal over a thousand times now. I love the taste of lemon juice on the fillet, and I don't like how most of the lemon juice just collects at the bottom of the plate rather than sticking to the fish.

I was thinking, is it possible to add something to the lemon juice to give it a gel-like texture? If it's viscous like that, maybe I can just spread it on the fish, and have a nice thick layer of lemony taste.

I looked at gelatin, agar agar and Gellan Gum. The first two seem to not be able to withstand high temperatures (I need 170°C). There's a page about Gellan Gum here and it says "Hydrates between 167-203°F/75-95°C, Gels from 50-122°F/10-50°C, Melts from 176-284°F/80-140°C". I'm not sure what that means though.

Can you think of a solution to make lemon juice be more like a gel, and withstand 170°C?

You could make a lemon curd.

It will not be baked at the same time as the fish, but could be a good way to do what you want,

See this recipe.

https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/cod-fillets-with-an-asian-lemon-curd-glaze-164296


Preview for "The New Best Recipe"? Suitability for vegetarians? Is there a site that offers a "look inside" preview of the book "The New Best Recipe"? I checked both Amazon and Google Books, but I couldn't preview it in either.

The approach of the book sounds interesting, but before ordering, I'd like to see for myself how the recipes are laid out and how much explanation is given for why a particular recipe worked out the best. Also, I'd like to check that it contains enough recipes suitable for vegetarians to be useful to me.

If no online preview can be found, some description from someone who owns a copy would be useful too.

It is an excellent book. I pretty much learned how to cook out of it. All the recipes are wonderful. My favorite thing about it is the discussion of what else they tried in order to get to a particular recipe. Finding out what didn't work about a recipe and why you're doing things the way you are has taught me more about cooking than any other single source. There are no pictures, if that's your thing. But I don't really find them necessary. The book has tons of standard recipes and is well organized. I highly recommend this book to everyone....

...except you. Actually, that's not entirely true, but the book has a strong meat focus. I don't know what the standard is for a vegetarian to buy an omnivore cookbook, but I'd guess that at least half the stuff in this one has meat. If you're comfortable subbing out ingredients and ignoring large portions of the book, then it's great. But you will need to ignore quite a lot of it.


Can I use tomato paste in dal? My current method for making an Indian dal include using whole peeled tomatoes, almost always canned. Would substituting Tomato Paste, the thick stuff from cans, change the taste, and if so, how? I don't mind the change in texture

Tomato paste is far more concentrated, and it's produced by actually cooking down the tomatoes a couple times. Since tomatoes contain a lot of sugar, this will actually caramelize those somewhat and produce a richer, sweeter flavor.  Even canned tomatoes will taste more acidic and less sweet.

So your finished dish will likely follow suit - it'll be a bit sweeter, have a slightly richer flavor, and it will have a bit less moisture.  That's not necessarily a bad thing; you may find that those different flavors interact with the spices in an interesting way.  Just make sure that you don't use a 1-to-1 substitution; because tomato paste is much thicker you'll want to use less of it or its flavor will totally dominate.


What's a substitute for pastis? I ran across a recipe (bouillabaisse) that calls for pastis, but grocery stores in my area don't carry pastis. Is there a substitute for pastis? Thank you!

Yes.  In recipes like bouillabaisse, Pernod, Ouzo, Sambuca, or Ricard would all work as substitutes.  Basically, almost any anise-flavored liqueur will work, although you might steer clear of high-alchohol ones like Raki.

If your local liquor selection is really poor, then maybe either skip it entirely, or add 1/4 tsp ground anise seed to the recipe and some dry white vermouth.


Suggestions for easy peanut butter clean-up I have a family member who sometimes likes to eat peanut butter by itself -- no bread, crackers, etc.  For sanitary reasons, we do discourage eating directly from the jar, but that poses a quandary in terms of clean-up.  (He also has a habit of not quite finishing, leaving a spoonful or two of peanut butter on the plate/bowl/whatever.)  Not only do I generally end up with a couple dirty spoons, but also some small container or plate with leftover peanut butter.

Of all the things I have to clean in the kitchen, I have to say peanut butter is perhaps the most annoying.  If you put it in the dishwasher directly, I still sometimes find residue left (and if there's too much peanut butter left on, the oil can even leave residue on other dishes).  It doesn't dissolve easily even in hot water (at least not in any reasonable amount of time), it "gunks up" just about any cleaning device you might use (sponge, rag, brush, even gloves worn while dishwashing, etc.), and the oily element ends up contaminating any dishwater or other dishes around.

My only solution so far is to always leave any peanut-butter contaminated stuff to the very end of any handwashing of dishes I'm doing, then use the remaining dishwater to rub off most of it with my bare hands (to avoid contaminating other scrubbing devices), then put the stuff in the dishwasher for a final cleaning.  That still often coats the sink or any dishwashing bin with a bit of peanut-smelling oil, which then has to be rinsed again (with more soap).  And my hands end up smelling of peanuts.

I always feel that I end up wasting a lot of hot water just to deal with a few peanut butter utensils or containers.  Alternatively, I have sometimes resorted to paper towels, which also seems wasteful.

Is there a better/easier way to wash away peanut butter, or even a better way of handling/finding an eating surface for peanut butter?

EDIT: I perhaps went into too much detail about my own situation, but I'd also be interested in any general suggestions for cleaning up peanut butter more easily.  (I'm sure we've all wished for an easier way to clean dirty jars, etc.)

The problem is the fat. You would have the same problem with a spoon full of shortening.

Since fat doesn't normally mix with water the fat makes a film that gets on everything. The solution to fat- or rather to make a solution of fat- you use soap.

You are trying to wash away a very large quantity of fat so it takes a lot of soap. Instead, scrape the majority of the fat into the garbage. Apply a liberal amount of soap and work it into a solution with the peanut butter residue.

The peanut oil, now in solution, will wash away nicely without coating everything.


Pizza stone as floor pizza oven vs firebrick I’m building a pizza oven stainless steel and what i have seen is that they normally use firebrick as the floor but I would like to know if I can use pizza stone 3/4” as the floor having all the woodfire over it.

Thanks

Short answer: No.

Long answer: this could probably be made to work, but only for a short time.  At some point, and probably within a few uses, the rapid heat cycling from the fire would cause the pizza stone to crack.

Pizza stones are made from corderite or clay, sometimes with grog.  This offers a smoother surface than firebrick, but that smooth surface is because of a higher amount of vitrification and less airspace in the ceramic.  This means they are less resistant to cracking due thermal shock, and the fact that your pizza stone is 1/4 a thick as firebrick makes that worse.

In contrast, firebrick is a standard 2.5" thick, and made from higher-temperature materials with more airspace in the clay itself.  These properties give it both higher thermal insulation, and higher thermal mass (so that it cools down slower).  Both of these properties help it resist cracking.


what determines the texture of cookies so the question is pretty much straight forward..

I ate all kinds of cookies, some of them are soft and fluffy, other chewy (like granola bars or choc chip cookies) and others really crispy and hard (like some gingerbread).

I tried to compare the ingredients on some of the products, but didn't find any significant difference.

So what is it really, that determines the texture of the baked goods?

First, it is the ingredients. For example, shortbread cookies don't have liquid, while other types do have liquid. This makes them quite different. Also, there might be ingredients you didn't pay much attention to (mono- and diglycerides, for example, which might have been present at the end as an E number only), but they still can change the mouthfeel a lot.

The second thing is the ratio of the ingredients. The same ingredients in a different ratio will work to give you a different texture.

The third thing is the process. Depending on the order of combining the ingredients, and the amount of mixing, and whether you chill them (and when, and for how long) you end up with completely different textures out of the same ingredients. It is like starting with carbon and ending up with graphite, graphene or diamonds, depending on how you do it.

The fourth thing is the baking process. You can change the temperature and time to achieve different final results.

I realize this list is very, very general. But listing all possible results which can be achieved at each step would make this a small book. Each of the four steps gives you a large number of parameters to change, which changes the end result too.


Can I use “All-Purpose flour” instead of “cake flour”? Possible Duplicate:
  What is the difference between various types of flour?

The recipe calls for cake flower, I have all-purpose flour. Can I use what I have? Or should I go get the cake flour? I know some things can be substituted, but not all the time. I’m  making a n old fashioned pineapple upside-down cake.

This can depend on the specific recipe and the goal, but in general know that cake flour has a lower resulting gluten content than all-purpose flour, thereby resulting in the cake having a "lighter" texture. Experimentation with the specific recipe can tell you whether it matters, but in general I would caution substituting if any of the following conditions are called out by the recipe;

a very specific kneading/mixing time, i.e. with breads
a specific attention is called to the temperature, i.e. with pie crusts
the cake should have a very fluffy, spongy, or otherwise specific texture (as opposed to a more loose end result as with cake brownies or other hybrids where some flex either way could yield a nice result)

In some recipes, and especially mediated by the type of fat you use*, it may not matter if you use cake flour. However, if you want to make a spongier or fluffier loaf of cake, it will be detrimental to have all-purpose flour as the main building block. Some recipes can be specifically cut with cake flour to reduce gluten in the end result. The inverse obtains as well.

*If a recipe with a higher gluten flour calls for a room-temperature liquid fat (canola oil), and you substitute it with a lower gluten flour and a room-temperature solid fat (i.e. coconut oil, shortening) you can tweak to approximate a similar end result with pleasant nuances. I do this with otherwise oatmeal and whole-wheat cookies relying on a puree (i.e. pumpkin, sweet potato) for flavor, and cut in some APF with coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, thus resulting in a crisp cookie with a pleasant toothiness.


Why is putting an egg in the microwave not recommended? I would like to know why it is not recommended to put an egg in the microwave.
Where does this "legend" comes from ?

This probably refers to whole eggs mostly...

A microwave can boil water very rapidly, and a tight but fragile container like a whole egg will violently rupture if such rapid boiling happens inside it, because the overpressure inside it is already significant when the shell finally breaks.

Here is a video showing an experiment with ca. 180 eggs in a microwave oven, which after a minute or two rupture simultaneously and with enough force to blow the oven open, with debris being propelled several meters.


Quantity of Orzo when using other ingredients I am making an orzo salad, and I am adding Rotisserie chicken, green onions, cherub tomatoes artichoke hearts, lemon juice and zest as well as herbs. I am making this for a BBQ party with apprx. 25 guests and am not sure how much orzo to cook. Can anyone give me an idea. I want the ingredients to be evenly matched, not heavy on one over another. Thank you for any answers.

In my experience orzo behave much like rice, in the sense that grow a lot in volume after cooking.

I'm supposing that the orzo salad will be an apetizer or at least not a main dish, and you are talking about pearl barley which requires only 20-25 minutes of cooking with no pre-soak(but remember to wash it before cooking), so you can count about 50g per person.

50g x 25 = 1.250Kg (which can be rounded up to 1.5Kg just to be safe in case someone want a second dish)

If I recall correctly for every cup of orzo you add at least a cup and a half of water, so you'll need at least ~3.50L of water for the cooking


Time effective technique for separating mint leaves from stems Separating mint leaves from their stems seems like a hard task for me.
It is taking too much time to separate leaves from the supporting stems in order to use mint leaves in my curries and juices.

Specifically,

is it recommended to separate the leaves from the supporting stems? (It is practice in my place to separate leaves and to not include stems in diet.)
if yes, then is there any time-efficient procedure for separation?

Separating the leaves of mint from the stem is only necessary if the stem is woody, which partly depends on the variety and age of the mint. The stems of young mint shoots on most varieties of plant are tender and full of mint flavor, so can be used in dishes. Once they get older the shoots become stiff and woody, and can't be left in dishes or pureed. You can still use them to flavor dishes if you remove them before serving, but if you want the leaves to stay in you must remove the leaves.

The best way to remove leaves is to hold the tip of the branch with one hand and loosely grip the branch with your other, then slide your hand down the branch. This pulls the leaves off without you having to pick them off.


Slow oven brown rice Is there a slow method of cooking brown rice in the oven?

Next week, I'm cooking for a group of friends. I'd like to start the rice, go to a meeting (~3 hours) and come back to finished rice.

I'm using long-grain (not Basmati) brown rice. I have an old oven, so no on/off timer available. Could I cook the rice on low heat for a longer time, or should I just plan to cook it ahead and reheat it?

Slow cooker

If you have a slow cooker as Catija suggested, you can totally do exactly what you want. Search for slow cooker rice pilaf if you need a starting point. I know you don't want new appliances, but slow cookers are a bit more general purpose, so maybe you have one or would be okay buying one, and future readers certainly might.

Oven

I'm also pretty sure the oven will work, but it might require a little experimentation to get the timing right. There are again a lot of recipes for rice pilaf in the oven, but they normally start with boiling water then take perhaps 45-60 minutes for white rice or 60-75 minutes for brown rice, at 350-375F, so they'd be very overdone after three hours. But if you reduce the temperature, you can extend the cooking time and make it more tolerant of cooking past done. A slow cooker isn't really very different from a tightly covered dish in an oven at a low temperature.

So, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd take a normal oven rice recipe (with the water boiling before starting), and reduce the temperature to 250F, then see how long it takes to be done and whether it's okay after three hours. It'd really be best to do a trial run sometime when you can actually check on it, though.

If that doesn't extend the time enough, you can probably stretch it even more by starting from non-boiling water, but I unfortunately don't have a good sense of what combination of water and oven temperature would accomplish a three-hour cooking time.

Reheating

If you don't want to experiment, your fallback of reheating can work too. The key in my experience is to add a bit of water then cover when reheating, so that it steams and moistens again, rather than getting dry and hard.

For one to two servings I just drizzle a little water in, maybe a couple teaspoons, before popping in the microwave. For a larger quantity like your situation, probably a bit more than that - the idea is that it mostly but not entirely boils away by the time it's all reheated, so that the rice isn't wet, but has been surrounded by steam the whole time. You can always check on it in the middle and see if it's nice and steamy, and add a bit more if it's starting to seem dry.