What is the Purpose of Using Onions in (Almost) Every Soup Recipe? Almost every soup recipe seems to call for sauteed onions. For instance, I'm looking up recipes for squash soup, and every single one calls for onions -- but every soup recipe I can think of uses onions, so it's not just this type.

So what's the purpose of adding onion?

Sauteed onions can provide both caramel flavors (from the sugars in the onions) and Maillard reaction compounds, depending on how they are sauteed.  Thus onions can supply a range of "umami" flavors for soup which otherwise you need to get through roasting animal bones and other tissue (e.g. brown veal stock).  Of course, even beef stocks often add onion as well for extra flavor.

As an extreme example of this, I often prepare a vegetarian French Onion soup using a meat-free broth made entirely from onions, onion skins, and cheese rind.  Blind tasters often fail to distinguish it from a store-bought beef stock.

You can get a lot of the same flavors from combinations of other browned vegetables, but onions neatly supply a perfect package of flavor compounds in one inexpensive, long-keeping root vegetable.  Why use anything else?


Baking time and temperature difference I am baking a canned sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving. The recipe calls for the dish to be baked at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Problem is my other sides call for an oven temperature to be 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Is it possible to put the sweet potatoes in at 350 degrees and just bake a little longer?

You sure can. Bake the casserole for a while longer at 350, just crank up the heat (to 500 even) at the end to get the browning on the top after you remove the other stuff. Casseroles are very forgiving by nature.


Cooking through thick liquids I'm a big curry aficionado and am trying to cook curries that both taste good and require minimal preparation during the week. I like to make both vegetarian (usually, green/red lentils, fresh) and chicken-based curries.

For that reason, I'm starting by blending the masalas, tomatoes, onions, etc, in a blender, frying, adding the rest of the ingredients, adding water, and then reducing until finished.

I've noticed that both the tubers and the lentils cook very slowly using this method.

If the blended mix is particularly thick (e.g., it includes the tubers themselves or ground nuts), I've found that it hardly cooks at all.

I've figured that the problem has to do with the viscosity of the cooking medium (starches obviously make it the most 'gluggy') and feel that things would work much better if I cooked the lentils in water and then transferred, once cooked, into the sauce, but the recipes I've read all use the all-in-one method that I'm following without much success.

In addition to not cooking, things seem to require very frequent stirring and sticking is a big problem.

Is there any solution to this?

This answer presumes your worry is that by not putting in the pulses/tubers from the beginning, you're actually not ending up with the "correct" result.

My experience with recipes (even from reputable sources) with regard to slow cooked, stewy dishes, with ingredients that take time before they're done, is that they're either short on time, or short on liquids. Either that, or I'm bad with measuring, use ingredients of lesser quality, or suck at cooking (most of the time I suspect the latter two are the guilty parties).

But most likely (and here's the good part), the pulses/tubers are there from the beginning to act not only as a nutritional component, but also serve a dual function as thickener. They're most definitely (IMHO) not there from the beginning to impart flavor to the curry.

So one of the solutions you've already found yourself:
Cook the pulses/tubers separately, and add them in the end. The curry will not suffer any loss in flavor. If it's to thin, either squish some of pulses so the starches can thicken it, or reduce a bit longer.

Second solution: Start out with more liquid than the recipe prescribes, and cook/reduce longer, until the desired thickness has been achieved.


Should I sharpen a brand new knife? I recently bought a Wusthof Chinese chef's knife. When I tried it out the other day I was a bit disappointed by how sharp it is. Compared to the no-name £20 knife I have had a few years and sharpened myself on a 6000 whetstone (I'm not an expert by any means, but I guess I did a reasonable job) I had trouble getting through whole carrots and onions.
Would it be crazy to sharpen it out of the box? Or am I just using it wrong?

I'm by no means an expert on this, but a couple of thoughts…
Firstly, I wouldn't risk an amateur hand-held re-shape on an expensive factory-edge knife without due caution.
In the past, I've often thought that a knife fresh out of the box is not as sharp as once I've sharpened it myself - but as my sharpening skills are a bit hit & miss, I've been hesitant in the past. My current favourite veg knife spent 10 years in the drawer unloved because it just didn't cut well. After some TLC on a series of whetstones, & more recently a 'pro' electric sharpener which really pulled it into shape, it's now almost never out of my hand.
Having said that, before sharpening it, I'd most definitely try just honing it. The current factory edge might actually be just a bit too smooth, something a quick hone might see improvement on.
Secondly - drag. How much drag there is on a deep-bladed knife compared to a slim blade. An onion is kind of middle ground on this factor, a whole solid white cabbage might be your decider.
A skinny blade [both narrow and shallow] will make short work of a tomato, so long as it can make the initial incision in the skin.
By the time you're up to cabbage, then drag becomes a much bigger factor. A blade that is too deep [top to bottom] yet skinny [thickness] will quickly lock in a cabbage. A fat blade will push the cut portions apart & prevent this sticking.
So you have two things to consider before you risk taking off a good factory edge - not just how sharp is the blade, but also how 'fat' is the blade?
I'd try the tomato test for sharpness, & a cabbage for 'fatness'. See how they both feel.


What is the impact of high heat on wine? I usually use wine in my tomato sauces, which are usually slowly simmered on the lowest heat setting.  I'd really like to make this recipe from The Pioneer Woman blog. However, I'm concerned about boiling the wine, especially over direct heat.  Will it ruin the flavor? Is there any difference in quality/taste by heating to a boil using low heat vs high heat?

Update:

This article on The Academic Wino website gives some good data but still doesn't address intentionally heating the wine to a boiling temperature.  To the current commenters, it is my thought that the pan deglazes rapidly and by the time you've poured the liquid, the pan temperature has dropped substantially. Even still, the fact that wine is used at high heat doesn't mean that it doesn't experience ill effects from that exposure.

I'm really looking more for the Alton Brown nitty gritty science of what, if anything, happens to the wine when it hits high cooking temps.

As a side note, the recipe was out of this world good, and I did in fact boil the wine I used.

De-Glazing a pan with liquid (including wine) to make a sauce is a very common technique. It involves boiling the liquid to remove browned bits of food from the pan.

De-Glazing Instructions

This technique has been used for years and it seems move severe than what the recipe you mentioned is doing so I don't think you have anything to worry about.


What can I substitute for rye flour? I am trying to make marbled rye bread, but around here I can't find rye flour. All I can find is all-purpose flour, bread flour, and maybe cake flour. Is there some way I can substitute stuff to replicate rye flour without actually having any?

Do you want rye bread, or do you want "the taste you may associate with rye bread?" (caraway seeds)

If you want bread that tastes like seeded rye, caraway seeds will get you 99.5% of the way there - they are rather overpowering and appear to be what most people "mean" when they say "rye bread" in my experience. They can be put in wheat bread without most people being any the wiser as to the actual grain in the flour.

If you want it marbled, mix some molasses or carob in part of the dough.

If you are not in some terribly inaccessible/inconvenient location, ordering in rye flour should be possible, though you might make sure you have checked all the markets in the area, as what a "supermarket" might not have, a "health food store" or cooperative market might. In some cases, the "baking aisle" won't have what you want, but some other aisle in the same store will (natural foods or some such.)


Do eggs have to be very fresh for baking? Assuming an egg is old but still good (not rotten or otherwise detrimental to health compared to a fresh egg):
Does it make a difference whether I use this egg or a freshly laid one in baking?

Fresh eggs are best when...well, when you want to eat eggs.  However, there has been some dispute about the impact of age in baking situations.  As eggs age, the whites thin.  Some people think that this leads to better elasticity in baked goods...as in, you will achieve a better rise.  However these folks disproved that theory, as cake made with older vs. fresh eggs rose to the same height.
Now, when it comes to meringues, older might be better, as thinner whites lead to better air incorporation, but plenty of people make successful meringue with fresh eggs, and simply allowing the whites to come to room temperature helps a great deal.
Related, and in the case of macarons, I have found nothing definitive.  Is it tradition...is it science?  Many recipes call for separating the eggs and leaving them in the refrigerator for 24 hours before use (some call for leaving on the counter, but I would not recommend this for safety reasons). However, plenty of folks (me included) have made macaron with supermarket eggs, same day, with no problem.  Obviously, those are not "farm fresh" from the chicken.  However, you can find evidence on the internets of people using "farm fresh" eggs.  The issue is related to the point about meringue above.  The difference doesn't appear to be so dramatic, that there is an accepted practice here. One needs to begin with a stable meringue.  There are ways to get there with any egg.
Another consideration is that the flavor of eggs changes with age, and not necessarily in a good way.  So, especially in delicate applications, I would want my eggs to be relatively fresh.


Why does my coffee sometimes taste sour? I typically drink light roast single origin coffees from a third wave coffee roaster.

I'm brewing with either plunger/french press, or swiss gold filter.

Often with the french press, the coffee will taste quite sour.

I suspect that this isn't just how the beans taste, other times it will taste quite good.

Any idea what causes a coffee to taste sour?

Excessively sour flavor in your coffee brew is a likely sign of underextraction, i.e. the coffee has not brewed long enough and has an excess of acids. Acids are extracted early in the brewing process, whereas other balancing flavors are extracted later in the process.
Per Wikipedia:

[The coffee is] "under-extracted", specifically "under-developed" – desirable components have not been sufficiently extracted – and "unbalanced", specifically sour, because acids are extracted early, while balancing sugars (sweetness) and bitter components are extracted later.

Making good coffee involves a multitude of factors, and it can take some trial & error to hit the sweet spot. But let's mention the major ones:

Yields depend primarily on temperature, brew time, and grind size, and in a complex way on method.

For your case, I'll just call out the most obvious thing: Because you're using a French press, you have to use a coarser grind than something like a drip machine requires. Those larger coffee grains are going to require more extraction time.
So it could be that it simply needs to steep a little longer before pushing down the plunger. I personally like to give my coffee a stir for about a minute after pouring in the water to help encourage thorough extraction.
Hopefully some experimentation along those lines will help you achieve the perfect cup. Happy caffeinating!


Suggestions for convenient and safe methods of transporting a few meals without a vehicle? I'd like to prepare a few meals for a cousin who recently gave birth. She lives about an hour and a half away, and I will be walking and taking public transportation to get there.

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips for convenient ways to tranport the food? I am looking for sturdy, easy to carry bags that will keep the food from sliding around and will keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

I think in general it is much safer to transport food cold (frozen, even) than hot. You can buy soft-sided insulated bags with straps - I see them in the grocery store - that should be ok for a trip of that length. I buy frozen food and then drive home for an hour with it, put it straight in the freezer, and would laugh at the thought of there being food-safety issues with that. So one approach is to make a lasagna, casserole, or the like in a disposable container, freeze it at home, take it to your relative's and put it in her freezer. Now she has a semi-quick (but at least easy) meal waiting for her.

(A side note from remembering my days with an infant: something that heats up FAST and can be eaten with one hand will be more useful than a serves-12-needs-a-fork-heats-for-an-hour option. In other words burritos (2 min in microwave, can eat while holding the baby) beat lasagna (60+ min in oven, you can forget and dry it out or burn it, then you need a plate and a knife and fork to eat it.) Samosas are good one-handers, too.)

If you want to take something that is ready-to-eat, you could use the same bag to keep hot food hot, but I would probably suggest heating it up again on arrival.


The art of Sushi: using wasabi to kill parasites I've been to many sushi places and last night I went to a place that I've been to before (not that long ago either). When the sushi came, we noticed that it had wasabi spread on the rice, under the fish.

When we complained we were rudely told that the chef had been doing sushi for 30 years and wasabi is used to kill parasites in the fish.

This is believable since I know in some countries, red peppers are used in foods all the time for the same reason.

However, my understanding of sushi is that the chef is a craftsman who not only picks great fish, but also knows how to find and remove parasites.

My question is, is this normal? Is it proper for the Sushi chef to add wasabi to the sushi to help prevent parasites? If so, how come I've only encountered this practice once out of the many sushi places I've frequented?

This is perfectly normal, however, I find the common claim that "it is to prevent parasites" a bit dubious (I would think that it would have to be uniformly applied to the entire fish to have any measurable effect).  The wasabi is really there to add flavor.  In really high-end sushi restaurants in Japan, for example, it is relatively uncommon for the guest to be served a mound of grated wasabi.  Instead, the chef applies the perfect amount of wasabi to each piece of sushi.  Some chefs will not even serve soy sauce, instead individually brushing on the sauce on each piece.  If wasabi is served separately from the fish, it is generally also considered bad form to mix it with the soy sauce (as is commonly done in the US).

Edit: To answer your question about why you've never seen this practice before, here are some possible explanations:

It takes more time/skill/effort to do it properly.
Many sushi restaurants in the US do not have properly trained sushi chefs.  In fact, in most areas of the country with little or no Japanese population, don't be surprised if your sushi chef is a Salvadorian who learned from the Oaxacan who learned from the Korean owner of the restaurant.  Not that there's anything wrong with that; one of my favorite sushi places is run by an Indonesian.  Just keep in mind that the people making you your sushi may have never experienced the "real thing" themselves.
"Real," fresh wasabi is very rare and expensive.  Most of the stuff that is used in the US is basically horseradish paste plus food coloring.  Restaurants that can both procure and afford to use the real stuff will want to use it sparingly; they wouldn't want to waste it by putting a mound of it on each plate.  Therefore, they might be more inclined to use the "proper" technique.

Edit 2: Here is a video in which you can see famous chef Naomichi Yasuda using wasabi in the sushi.  It all happens very quickly, but you can clearly see him dip into the bin of wasabi, rub it on the underside of the fish, and then apply the fish to the rice.  Here is another video in which Anthony Bourdain explains the "rules" of high-end sushi eating, while dining at the super-famous and super-expensive Sukiyabashi Jiro (the proprietor of which is actually designated as a "living treasure" by the Japanese government).  That second video shows the chef brushing on the soy sauce, and the general lack of both soy and wasabi on the plates.


Why does my 1 tablespoon of coffee grounds not equal 15 ml? The bag of coffee I am using instructs to "Add 2 1/2 tablespoons (37 ml)" of ground coffee. When I measure out 2 1/2 tablespoons onto my food scale, it only comes out to about 13 ml.

Why does my 2 1/2 tablespoon measurement not equal 37 ml?

Your scale is measuring weight, not volume.

Some scales do have an option to "convert" to volume, but they have to do so based on density; they don't actually know what's on top of them. So unless yours is really fancy, and has a bunch of densities programmed into it, so that you can say "this is flour" and let it convert, it's probably just assuming everything is water, with a density of 1g/mL.

And this should be really easy to confirm. Just toggle it from weight to volume. If it says 13mL is 13g, then that's what it's doing.

So then it's telling you that your 2.5 tablespoons of coffee is 13g, not 13mL, because it's around 1/3 as dense as water.


Does stollen dough keep overnight? I am making stollen for the first time, and discovered I don't have time tonight to bake the dough. It is on its first rise right now. Can I keep the dough refrigerated overnight and complete the preparation in the morning?

Most yeast doughs develop additional flavor complexity if retarded in the refrigerator overnight, and there's nothing about a typical Stollen recipe that would cause anything to undermine retardation.

The only caveats: If you've already let the dough rise for several hours before retarding, there's a chance that you may not have enough food for the yeast to digest when the dough comes back to temperature, and the dough may not rise as much as you'd like. Also, if you've already shaped the dough with the almond paste inside, you'll need to take some care to seal in a bag without deforming the shape, and leave enough room in the refrigerator for the dough and the gases in the bag to expand.

But if you've only let the dough rise for an hour or so, as long as you refrigerate, the eggs won't be a problem, and you aren't likely to risk over-fermentation. In my experience, you usually need about 30-40 minutes time for the dough to become active again, assuming a moderately warm room.


Do I still add sage? I have a recipe that calls for 3/4 tsp of "Italian seasoning" plus 1/2 tsp sage. My Italian seasoning already has sage in it although I am aware that some do not. My question is do I still add the 1/2 tsp sage as it may be overpowering in sage, or do I just increase the Italian seasoning from 3/4 tsp to 1 tsp or 1 1/4 tsp? My gut tells me up the Italian seasoning to 1 tsp or 1 1/4 tsp and don't add more sage. As I am not much of a cook, I could use some experienced help. Btw, I have McCormick Brand Italian seasoning.

I guess the answer to you is that we really can't give you one perfect answer.

The recipe is sort of vague. It calls for "sage" rather than "dried sage" or "fresh sage" and it doesn't specify a brand of "Italian seasoning", so there's no way to know whether or not theirs included sage already.

So, I'd ask myself a couple of questions:

How far down the ingredients list is sage in my Italian seasoning.

In a list of, say six ingredients, is it second or last? Or, are there twelve ingredients and it's tenth? Remember that ingredients lists are required to be listed from highest percentage to lowest. If it's high up the list, I'd be tempted to omit the sage. If it's really low down on a relatively long list, I'd guess that there's very little actual sage in the seasoning and go ahead and use the full amount in the recipe. If it's in the middle, use half.

How much do I like sage?

Sage can be a very strong ingredient, so it's understandable if you don't like it. If that's the case, I'd be more likely to leave it out. However, if you like sage, use it.

If I had to guess, sage is going to be pretty low on your ingredients list, so my general recommendation based on the information I have is that you use somewhere between half and all of the sage as listed in the recipe's ingredients and hope they mean dried sage because if they mean fresh, it's going to be really strong (dried herbs are much stronger than fresh herbs).

If you really aren't a fan of sage, leave it out entirely! It's not going to hurt anything one bit.


Is my wok carbon steel (it is magnetic)and how do I proceed - seems I am ruining it I found what appears to be a new wok at Goodwill.  It came with a lid that is very light with a wooden knob on the top and it seems to be aluminum.  The wok however is much heavier, with two side handles of metal that are welded/stuck to the wok.  The outside of the wok seems ribbed in texture and the inside shows the rib lines but is smooth.  There is absolutely no marking/stamp on the wok or the lid.  A magnet does stick to the wok so therefore it is steel of some sort.  There is no Teflon at all.  I went about the process of boiling water in it to help release the manufacturer's coating as it appeared new and there was a film/residue inside the wok.  I then scrubbed with a metal type scrubber (not brillo but similar).  The bottom got a duller spot/s on it.  I repeated the boiling and scrubbing while hot and I am getting brownish spots all over the inside of the wok that appear black when boiling water in it, and brown when empty and in the sink.  This was a new wok for sure.  I can still see some of the film and it is spotty and I can't seem to remove any more.  Do I go ahead and season it or should I still try to remove more film?  Is there an easier/better way to remove the remaining film?  Is it possible I ruined this wok because it was not carbon steel?  It has a round bottom.  Not sure how to proceed but went vegetarian years ago and almost vegan a few months ago and stir fry has become a staple in my diet.  Need help please.  thank you.

the thin film that was uniformly all over the inside of the wok, and is still there in a multitude of places, was almost sheer. It was not a seasoning like I see described on the web where people use oil and heat to put a colored coating on the wok. Did I ruin this wok? It had no instructions with it, no name on it or label, nothing. I just followed the advice on the web. I also dried it by hand and heated it up dry before leaving it be for the night so it would not rust. I don't see orange-brown rust. I see what appears to be more of a bare metal now.

Dollars to doughnuts, the film you have been fighting so valiantly to get off there is polymerized vegetable oil - aka "seasoning." The odds that it was coated with anything else are quite low.

Since you're well into having destroyed whatever seasoning it had, go ahead and burn off whatever is left (place in oven on "self-clean" cycle, or place in a wood fire) or else attack it with abrasives such as steel wool or sandpaper (stick to fairly fine sandpaper or you're going to need to run through several grades of finer sandpaper to get the surface back to usable/smooth if you scratch it up with coarser stuff).

You can also try running it through the dishwasher - harsh dishwasher detergents will often strip seasoning.


A spicy vegetable which stays in a sandwich? I make a vegetable sandwich which I find very good. It has tomato, red onion, avocado, and cucumber. However, it lacks spiciness. I want to avoid spreads and use a vegetable for mild heat.

I tried an anaheim pepper. It has some kick but the texture does not work. It slides out. With the cucumber I cut them the length of the sandwich so they have structure.

Is there something with texture of cucumber but the spice of mild pepper?

My home pickled beans get spicy because there's a dried red pepper or two in the jar, along with a dill head and some garlic cloves. The beans are very nice in a sandwich. But you could pickle-and-spice anything at all and use it to jazz up the sandwich. The texture is that of a soft vegetable.

Also, look into mustard greens and their relatives. They look like lettuce or kale, but taste distinctly spicy. The texture is more lettuce-y than cucumber or slices of pepper, but it wouldn't be out of place on a sandwich.


What is the measurement of 1 cup? This recipe requires 1 cup milk and 1 cup oats.

What is the measurement of 1 cup in milliliters?

A US cup is 237 mL.

It is more practical to use grams though:
   256 grams of milk and 156 grams of oats.

WolframAlpha is the perfect place to look up these kind of things:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1+cup+of+oats

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1+cup+of+milk


I use 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter in baking chocolate chips cookies but they always fall flat Unless I put pecans in my chocolate chip cookies they always fall flat when I take them out of the oven.  What do I need to do for them to stand up.

Maybe you need to buy a new box of baking soda or baking powder?
Baking soda & baking powder can & do lose 'oomph' over time.

Otherwise try chilling the dough for at least 4 hours before baking.
Chilling the dough usually helps butter/shortening based cookies hold their form a tad bit better.


Replacing egg whites with whole eggs when baking cookies I want to make the recipe here: http://www.shutterbean.com/2012/flourless-coconut-chocolate-drops/

This recipe states that you should just use four egg whites. I really, really don't want to waste 4 egg yolks (I know you can make scrambled eggs out of them. I always try to remember but often they do go to waste.)

What would happen if I used whole eggs to replace the egg whites in the recipe? I assume I would need fewer eggs, but what else would happen?

Egg yolks and egg whites have very different roles in baking. You can almost never replace them. And in the cases in which you can, you will end up with a different texture.

In this case, it won't be sure disaster to replace, but I would be very reluctant to do it. Flourless recipes are finicky. Flour holds stuff together. Nut flours don't hold anything together, they need a binding agent. Egg whites are a good binding agent. Egg yolks are not only not good as a binding agent (except in certain circumstances, for example in custards - but you don't have this here), they are even a lubricant and as such will interfere with the binding done by the egg whites.

If you substitute here, you will not only change the taste, you risk your cookies crumbling apart in your hands.

In general, don't replace stuff in baking recipes. They are hard to design right. Even if you have some issues (e.g. allergies), it is easier to find an existing recipe without the offending ingredient than to try to tweak an existing one to work with different ingredients. Eggs are especially hard to substitute. Such a reason like "not wanting to waste" loses its sense if what you end up with is bad cookies, which are a much worse waste of products. And besides, you can do many more interesting things with a yolk than just scrambled eggs. In fact, I am frequently throwing out whites because I have found no use for them after doing something with the yolks.

If you still want to go ahead and try if the cookies work for you, try using 3 whole eggs. 2 eggs are nowhere near enough to substitute for 4 egg whites. Not only are the yolks smaller than the whites volume-wise, they will also not deliver you the binding proteins you need so badly.


Why you shouldn't use soap to clean a pizza stone? or some pans and pots? I was reading answers to this question How do I season my new pizza stone? and many people advised not to use soap on a pizza stone, I don't have a pizza stone but I have read similar advice for some pots and pans,

My question is why you can't use soap to clean this stuff, is it just unnecessary (because a pizza stone is always in the oven and every thing on it will burn) or there is a reason NOT to do it?

Some cookware are 'cured'. Mostly cast iron pots and pans. I never heard of a pizza stone being cured, so I'm guessing this is to avoid eating soap. Other than that, I wouldn't know.

Cast iron gets cured for two reasons: 1. Create a non-stick layer 2. Avoid oxidation. Neither of these reasons apply to stones (or do they?)


Why is it necessary to remove skins from soybeans before making soymilk? I have made soymilk and tofu a few times. All the recipes I have looked at say that you must remove the skins from soybeans before making soymilk, but none of the recipes explain why you must do this. It's kind of a pain and I'd like to skip that step if I could do so without ruining the end product. Do you know why it is suggested that we remove the skins from soybeans before making soymilk and if it is worth the time and effort?
Thank you very much for your advice!

I've never heard of the advice to remove skins from re-hydrated soybeans before processing into soy milk. It does sound like a hassle (is it even possible?). I just grind them in a quality blender before heating.  I've never noticed any problem.


How to make canollis without a deep frier? I absolutely love cannolis but every recipe I see requires a deep frier. Is it possible to make them without one?

The very nature of cannolis is that they are deep fried, but you don't need a fryer for that, a large pot, a half liter or so of neutral oil and a thermometer are all that you need. Like doughnuts, fried is the way to go, but they can be baked (if you must). Here's a sample recipe: Baked Cannolis.


What is the expected shelf life of salted butter? I have just purchased 250g of Lescure salted butter (Beurre Demi-Sel) with a best before date of 23 July 2011. Today is the 2nd July 2011. I thought that butter has a shelf life of months, not 21 days!

What is the shelf life of salted butter supposed to be?  Is my shop holding old stock or am I just being paranoid?

There is a possible case that the butter isn't old. McGee writes that butter made from unpasteurized cream should be eaten within 10 days, else its unique aroma is lost. Maybe the addition of salt and/or other preservatives stretch that to over 20 days, or the manufacturer is being optimistic.

On the other hand, even if the butter is old, there is no need for concern. Butter doesn't catch germs or molds. It can go rancid, but this is a chemical change, which happens slowly. The affected parts are visible, and after removing them, there is no problem with the remaining butter - this is no invisible penetration as with mold. The butter must get really old (maybe > 6 months) to get small pockets of rancidity on the inside which are too much trouble to remove. And even if they aren't removed properly, eating small amounts of rancid butter isn't a health concern (although the taste is ruined).

Butter also doesn't undergo signinficant changes when it ages - it isn't like eggs, which are good to eat for weeks, but behave differently when fresh. So eating old butter isn't worse than eating fresh butter (with the exception of the raw-cream butter mentioned above).

For these reasons, I wouldn't worry about the butter. Unless it was sold as raw cream butter, it is probably old stock. But it is still good to eat, and will be good to eat well past its stamped date. If it should develop an oxidized layer on the outside, just cutting it away will be good enough.


How can I prevent cross-contamination when applying a dry or wet rub to meat? In either wet or dry rub prep, if you use both hands, you will have likely contaminated the rub by the end. How can I prevent this from occurring?

You can save yourself the waste of making double, while preventing cross-contamination, by using one hand (clean) to scoop and sprinkle, and one hand (dirty) to direct the spice falling, pat/tamp, and rub the spices.

Typically I begin by applying a "glue" (previously I have used honey and mustard, once I was vegan I went with just mustard; both worked well on smoker) to the cut of meat or vegetable before smoking or bbq.
I follow applying the glue by washing my hands, then proceed with whatever rub I am using after the glue has had a chance to adhere (typically thirty minutes medium, but I have followed instructions to let set and congeal for up to eight hours).
Then, you can apply the rub following the method above: keep one hand clean to pick up handfuls of rub and sprinkle the rub down, use the other hand to press that rub you are sprinkling down against the cut.

This sequence minimizes the number of steps, the times where you need to wash your hands, and makes for great bark. Hopefully you can rotate the cut with one hand, if not it adds one hand-wash. I started doing it this way because I hated having the spice turn into clumps from the moisture. Now I not only have no clumps in the spice after, and sanitary spices for further usage, but also a clean left hand for turning on the sink to wash my right hand.


Does reducing fruit change its composition? I like fresh fruit reductions like cranberry coulis or lingonberry and huckleberry sauce. But I am worried that I'm not merely evaporating the water, but changing the sauce in other ways.

Does simmering a fruit reduction cause anything other than water to evaporate?

Does reduction reduce or destroy the vitamins by heat? A comment by Johnannes_B mentioned this.

Any molecules more volatile than water will be evaporating more than water molecules, less volatile molecules will evaporate less than water at the boiling point. This is the basic principle behind distillation.
The heat will for sure be driving chemical changes.


Quantities of lactose, lactic acid, and other metabolites in yogurt It's common to see vague statements about how people with limited lactose tolerance may be able to eat yogurt, because the bacterial fermentation eliminates some of the lactose. However, I haven't been able to find any quantitative information on how much lactose remains. I'm sure it varies widely with different cultures and methods, but I'd love to have even a few specific examples where someone fermented some yogurt and assayed it for lactose.

Similarly, I'd like to know how much of the lactose ends up in the form of lactic acid vs. glucose and galactose monosaccharides vs. other metabolites. This seems potentially important in terms of predicting the caloric content and metabolic effects of yogurt (e.g., blood glucose response).

I've done some searches on the web and in the scientific literature, but I haven't been able to find information on the carbohydrate composition of yogurt or other fermented foods. Can anyone point me to a source?

The following is quoted from this site:

  If you're lactose intolerant and looking for yogurt, go Greek. Greek yogurt, which is thicker because much of the whey, the watery part of milk, has been strained out in processing. This also removes much of the lactose. Greek yogurt supplies less than 6.8 grams of lactose per 6-ounce serving, compared to less than 8.5 grams in whole-fat yogurt or 14 grams in non-fat yogurt. Hard cheeses such as cheddar have even less lactose, between 0 to 2 grams per ounce. Milk, in comparison, has approximately 11 grams in one cup.

(Emphasis added.)

Also note that probiotic yogurt (ie: with the cultures still living intact) has the additional benefit of breaking down lactose in the gut where there is a lactase deficiency.  See here.

Sorry I don't have more specific info on other metabolites at this stage.


Serious buildup outside of cast iron skillet I recently was given an old family cast iron skillet and noticed that the outside of it had serious buildup. Basically I can take my fingernail and lift several, thick, black pieces off. The inside of the pan is fine. I was wondering where this comes from and if this affects cooking on the pan. Also what would be the best way to remove the buildup? Thanks

The inside looks absolutely fine, so assuming you will protect that if you do any actual work on the outside I see a couple of routes you can take...

You can ignore it & see if it will reach a new equilibrium with your own cooking equipment & technique.
You can clean it off & quite quickly return the outside to a lesser seasoned state - as you're not cooking on the outside the seasoning is far less important, & as you've already discovered, the outsides of pans can get a lot more build-up over time than the insides*.
You could attack it with sandpaper, or a drill & wire brush attachment, though you need to beware of the mess that can make if you do it indoors... or you could take it to somewhere that could shot-blast it for you. This is an industrial cleaning process, depending on abrasive type can be extremely vicious, but it's rapid & they could clean the outside back to shiny iron in 2 minutes.

You can then re-season the outside.

*You should have seen my old wok before my partner threw it away. I eventually forgave her ;)


How can I tell if my raw meat has been pre-brined/injected? I've heard that some grocery store meats (whole turkeys, ribs, etc) are sold pre-brined so as to avoid toughness. Of course in a lot of situations you'd want to start fresh and brine or inject the meat yourself.

In the US, is there any way to know based on labeling if the meat has anything added to it? Should it be on the ingredients list?

Seems like they can get away with injecting water without labeling it but I'm not sure about salt/seasoning. In particular I'm wondering about Farmer John ribs.

I always thought that the pre-brined meats are sold as being enhanced, usually followed with a percentage and what they are "enhanced" with.


can you make a mud cake using cooked quinoa instead of normal wheat flours I have been told you can make a mud cake substituting cooked quinoa for normal wheat flours. Is this possible and do you need to add anything else?

Making substitutions to baking usually requires a bit of experimentation, so unless you're set on converting a particular recipe, your best option is to start with a recipe that is designed to use it.  There are tons of chocolate quinoa cake recipes on the internet.

If you are hoping to convert a favourite recipe to gluten-free (the usual point of these cake recipes), then the proportions of the recipes I looked at are generally similar to flour cake recipes (2 cups cooked quinoa for a 2-layer cake), but the cake batters are mixed in a blender or food processor instead.  I assume this is to make the quinoa finer, more similar in texture to flour.


What are some alternative uses for bread heels? I often buy bread loaves at the store and use them for sandwiches, french toast, etc. I don't particularly like using the heels for those purposes though, because of the texture and taste - heels don't make for a good sandwich, they can't absorb the eggs for french toast, and they get way too crispy for regular toast (and don't soak up butter!). This means that I end up with dozens of leftover heels.

I hate throwing away food, so... what are some alternative uses? Is there any good use for leftover bread heels?

Bread crumbs - dry them and grate them
Bread dumplings - some recipes, like serviettenknödel, work well with crust (for softer heels)
Crispbread - cut them into rectangles, and toast them for a long time in a low oven.  use to serve cheese (for more chewy heels)
Bread-thickened soups, such as sopa de ajo (for softer heels).
Feed birds or ducks


What to do with egg whites after stiff peaks collapse & you can't re-beat So weird situation... beat eggs to stiff peaks with intention of making meringues. Forgot about them somehow (dinner party), but now, my friend's mixer that we borrowed is no longer available and the peaks have collapsed... anything else I can do with them? They already have sugar and vanilla and cream of tartar

You could try making coconut macaroons: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012523-coconut-nut-macaroons

The egg whites only have to be lightly beaten until they're foamy, so deflated egg whites might work.


What substitutes work with a capsaicin allergy? I recently found out that I'm allergic to capsaicin, so that means no spicy Mexican food, which I love.  Are there any substitutions that I can use? I can have black pepper, but too much black pepper and that's all you taste.

You could try other piperine containing types of peppers (Piper genus), these include P. longum (long pepper) and P. retrofractum, as well as white pepper P. nigrum, though any member of the Piper genus should contain some piperine, but amounts and hence spiciness will vary.

You could also try ginger (Zingiber genus), as well as mustard seeds and shoots/leaves (Sinapsis genus and Brassica juncea), all of which are objectively "hot", though also with different (and strong) flavours and heat levels.

Wikipedia also has a list of peppers under their Template:Herbs and Spices, which includes such things as Alligator pepper (Aframomum), Schinus genus, Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum), and a couple of others.


Chicken without all that fat? Whenever I make chicken, I end up going through and trimming a ton of fat. I have heard that free-range chicken is leaner. Is this actually true? What, generally, is the best way to make sure you end up getting high-quality meat that doesn't require a huge amount of fat-trimming?

Depends what sort of "chicken" you want to make. If you roast chicken on a rack or rotisserie and make some slashes in the skin, most of the surplus trimable fat will drip away during cooking. Most of the visible fat is directly under the skin

Other form of cooking generally do not allow enough fat to drip away, so skinning and trimming is the answer

Free-range is not inherently lower in fat, better tasting or anything better than other chickens. The fat content depends on the variety of breed, the food they eat, and the conditions they are raised in. You have to make your own call on this

Shop around and find the brand that has least visible fat. I have tested a variety of local chickens myself, and there is a huge difference. Strangely enough for me the large dominant brand is the leanest?


how long to boil rice for Biryani? Whenever I boil rice to cook biryani, I end up over-cooking it and rice break into pieces after the steaming stage 1. So I want to know how long to boil rice for biryani?

1 Biryani is a rice dish, very popular in indian subcontinent and surrounding regions, made with Indian spices, rice, meat (chicken, goat, beef, prawn, or fish), vegetables or eggs. For biryani, meat and rice are cooked separately before being layered and steamed together to finish off cooking.

Different rice varieties have different cooking times. This is how I do it.

Wash and soak your rice according to the packet instructions (usually about 20-30 minutes).

Bring water to boil in a big pot (I use roughly 3 litres of water for about 1.5 cups of rice). Once it starts boiling, add the rice and the required amount of salt (I use about 1tsp for 1.5 cup of uncooked rice).

Boil the rice on a high heat until it is about 70-75% done. Check its doneness by holding a grain in your hand, it should be hard enough and only be mashed when you press on it firmly. Remember, it's going to be cooked again in the steaming stage when you layer it with the gravy, so you don't need to fully cook it. The grains should still have a slight bite to them.
Another way is to judge it visually. The uniform solid color of rice starts to change as they cook. Rice grains cook outside to inside, which means the outer part of the grain starts becoming translucent first as it cooks while the inner part of the grain still remains the solid color. You should be able to see a thin line in the centre of every rice grain. This is where you want to stop the rice from cooking further. It takes a bit of practive to be able to use this visual method but you can estimate the % of doneness this way.

Drain the rice immediately to prevent overcooking.


How do I prepare a pizza stone? I did nothing to it before I cooked my pizza, and the pizza stuck bad. I need to know what I was suppose to do, and I need to know how to clean it properly?

Option 1: Season the pizza stone just as you would with a cast iron pan.

Option 2 (with or without Option 1): Ensure that the bottom of your crust is well-floured, or sprinkle some corn meal on a counter and press the dough onto it before transferring to the stone.

Option 3 (actually not very optional): Always, always, always pre-heat your pizza stone to your baking temperature or slightly higher. I generally opt for 15 to 20 degrees higher, then turn the oven setting to baking temp when I put in the pizza to bake. It results in a crust that is crispier on the bottom and less likely to stick.


tortilla recipe with longest shelf life I searched for tortilla recipes and I found several, sometimes very different one from another - for instance, Mexican ones are mostly made with wheat flour while other ones are made with white corn one - or mixing the two, sometimes. Plus several other variations.

I am interested in making tortillas for backpacking, eventually for trips that could last up to a week and in warm weather.

what kind of flour, or flour mix, should I use to get the longest shelf life out of my tortillas? Are there any other recommendations about what is the best way to make them so that they last as long as possible?

Start with dent corn or flint corn. You get it in 50Lb bags at the local feed supply store $12. Nixtamalize, grind into masa add salt and water, press and cook into tortillas. Thye'll last a couple weeks. Wheat flour or sweet corn recipes will spoil faster. Yellow corn tortillas also have the advantage of actually tasting like corn; and they won't dissolve when you try to make enchiladas out of them like commercial, hyper-palatable tortilla-like-objects.


Which rack level of oven is suitable for baking choco lava cakes? I've always done baking and cooking in microwave ovens but I don't have any idea of the ovens installed under the cooktops..
Today I'm trying it first time..baking choco lava cakes (funfoods bake mix).
On the pack it is mentioned-bake at 200 degrees for 15 mins.
There are four rack levels in the oven but I don't know in which one I should bake it.
Please help!
Thanks a lot!

When a recipe doesn't specify a rack level, try to place whatever you are baking in the middle. So, with 4 levels, you place it on the second (counted from bottom to top). It is the default for most things. Generally, a recipe will tell you if another level is needed.


How can I make coffee syrup with caramel taste? I have seen several recipes for coffee syrup, but none of them with a simple caramel taste. Is getting the caramel taste as easy as using brown sugar instead of white sugar, or do I need to find some store selling caramel flavour (essence)?

I would actually just make caramel. Place about 1 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup in a heavy bottom pan and dissolve over low-medium heat then crank up the heat and let cook, without stirring, until the mixture turns a golden amber colour and starts smoking. Then use the resulting caramel to sweeten your coffee :-)


What red wine goes with fish? I have been wanting to try a nice red wine with fish and I'm not a huge fan of white.
Recently I have been drinking Pinot Noir. But I'm looking for one more suited for fish (I know this isn't traditional)

Pinot noir is generally made as a light bodied red wine, and in many cases, tends to have enough acidity to make it a wonderful pairing with lots of different kinds of foods.  (Barberas from Italy are similar).  Knowing that red wine is not a traditional pairing for fish, I would go ahead and see if you like Pinot Noir with whatever fish you like.

Dry rosé (there are some lovely French, Spanish, and Italian dry rosés) is also a nice choice, as they are generally light, easy to drink wines.

Remember, what YOU like is the right wine for whatever you're eating, no matter what the experts say.


How to reduce the taste of horseradish in hummus? I followed The Pec Shef's hummus recipe and I am getting a strong horseradish after-taste in my hummus. I only used 6 cans of chickpeas instead of 8, and a 9.25oz jar of horseradish. Is there anything I can add to the mix to reduce or neutralize the strong horseradish taste?

Yes. Make it again and don't add horseradish. I'm totally serious - no traditional hummus recipe in the known universe has horseradish in it. There is nothing you are going to be able to do to your existing batch to remove that flavor, other than diluting it, but I don't think you'd be able to dilute it enough to be worth the effort.


Baking cakes and breads I am a very experienced baker. I have over 50 years of experience with at least 4 electric ovens. Three years ago, I moved out west and bought a deluxe model LG oven. Since that time, I have had several failures with cakes that I have made many times over the years with no problem. This has also occurred with breads. I have baked pies and cookies with no problem in this oven. The cakes that I have had problems with are sour cream coffeecake and Jewish apple cake. The coffeecake fell apart after having baked past the alotted time. It also tested to be ready. The apple cake while holding together is heavy, wet and soggy. I have had breads fail to rise in this oven. I have used an oven thermometer which shows the correct temp when checked. I am beside myself to come up with an answer. I would hate to give up baking and cannot justify getting a new oven.

I note that you say you ‘moved out west’; I wonder if you have moved from a low to a high altitude location?

The USDA has some helpful information

  Most of the western United States (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) are wholly or partly at high altitude.

Although many baking sites classify ‘high altitude’ as being over 3000 feet, the USDA site suggests that differences may be experienced with baking anywhere over 2000 feet.

What you describe for cakes, cookies and pastry is what many sites suggest is likely, cakes either crumbling apart after an extended baking time or failing to set at all.  Low air pressure means liquids boil and evaporate at a lower temperature

  Quicker evaporation also has several ramifications. It makes baked goods more prone to sticking. And sugar becomes more concentrated. Some cakes won't set. Or by the time they do set, they've become dry and crumbly.

However your description of bread matches less well, do you find the dough just never rises or might it be a case of it overproving and collapsing?

Many sites offer advice and recipe adjustments for baking at altitude, including King Arthur Flour and AllRecipes.


Can I substitute granulated sugar for caster sugar in Marzipan? I'd like to make marzipan, but I don't have caster/superfine sugar, only "regular" white sugar. Will it work, or are there any tricks to make it work without a grinding implement?

I just finished a batch after using a blender to grind up the sugar (the almond was already in powder form). The consistency might be a bit coarser, but I'm not sure I can tell the difference.

No, you can't do it. Marzipan has a smooth paste consistency. Granulated sugar is not suitable, you'd end up with a preferred mixture of sugar and ... almond crumbs? Without a grinding implement, you couldn't reduce the almonds to the needed consistency either.


UK laws regarding consumption of food or beverages in a commercial kitchen? When cooking in a commercial kitchen in the UK, what are the rules about consuming food or beverages while on shift?

I was previously trained to not eat or drink freely in the kitchen. If hydration was required, we had to drink our water it at the allocated sink and go back to work. The place I'm at now seems to allow sipping constantly from a mug of tea or bottle of water leaving the bottle or mug here and there on work tops.

Does it depend on place of work, or is there a food hygiene law about it?

About the only perk to being a chef is eating the fancy foods, which you have not even the dream of being able to afford on the measly less than minimum wage you get paid for slaving over rich ungrateful customers food night in night out.

No safety law I've ever heard of, probably just some over cautious owner trying to increase their bottom line by ensuring nothing is ever eaten or drank that may possibly cost them any pennies.

In one place I worked, we had to learn to shove full sandwiches in our mouths, so the boss didn't catch us eating during our 14 hour shifts (with no staff food or dinner breaks).


Why would a recipe call for pouring boiling butter into egg-whites? I made a sponge cake using a recipe from an old cookbook and at one point it told me to melt and boil butter and pour the boiling butter into beaten egg-whites, let sit for a minute and then mix gently. This procedure puzzles me. Why should I pour in the butter while hot?
If you want the whole thing, here goes (no measures, 'cause it's in Polish and uses Polish measures, where "one cup" is not what you would call "one cup"):

beat egg whites with powdered sugar until stiff
pour in melted and boiling butter (or shortening), mix gently after one minute and let sit until it cools.
Start mixing again and add egg yolks one by one, then lemon juice and finally flour mixed with baking powder.
Mix a bit more.
Bake for at least 50 minutes at 160 degrees C

The batter looks fine, it's baking nicely, but the long time is also strange for me, most sponge cakes that I made require just 20-25 minutes of baking. I skimmed the book, but didn't notice any other sponge cake recipe with this approach.

This is from a low-carb blog, specifically a gluten-free fluff marshmallow frosting recipe with that specific instruction – I asked the writer why she does it that way and here is her response:

  There are a few reasons why the hot butter is poured into the beaten egg
  whites. First of all, the egg whites are beaten first to give the
  maximum volume to the frosting. Secondly, the butter mixture is poured
  while it’s hot to prevent gelatin forming lumps or erythritol
  crystallizing. The hot butter also gives some shine to the frosting
  when poured into the beaten egg whites.

This is step five on her list of directions; her response is at the very bottom of the page in the comment section.

http://www.lowcarbsosimple.com/low-carb-marshmallow-fluff-frosting/#comment-276


What kind of beer for beer brats? I have a package of bratwurst that I am going to cook within the next few days. The only two beers I have in the fridge are a stout and a lager. I'm sure I could use the lager and it would turn out just fine. But what about the stout? What kinds of beers are good with beer brats?

And while I'm at it, what is the most popular method of cooking beer brats? Just off hand I'd say marinate the brats in the beer, then maybe start cooking them by boiling them in the beer and then move them to the grill. Is that about right? Would that be too much exposure to the beer if I tried it with a stout?

Since most are pre-cooked (in US Supermarkets anyway), and you are just re-heating, your (still tasty) options are pretty limited with respect to beer brats

From the perspective of UW Madison (self-proclaimed "Brat Capital of the World"):

Simmer in beer first, then grill. For more info here is a post regarding prep; this method would definitely be the preferred method for upping the intake of moisture without losing it during grilling (so long as you don't lose the brat flavor by wasting the beer you boiled them in)
For an incredibly "persnickety" method:

  I have found that if you cook the brats on the grill first, then put them into the beer they don't shrink as much.  Here's how I do it: I brown the brats lightly on both sides, then I place them in 'warm' beer for a few minutes.  Repeat several times until brats are cooked thoroughly.  Now you can put the brats into 'hot' beer to hold for individual serving...  When I said brown the brats lightly, I meant about 20 seconds per side on hot coals then into a 180 degree beer bath.  Any hotter and they will shrink.  I continue alternating the grill and beer bath until they are fully cooked.  It's a lot of work but my brats weigh almost as much cooked as when they went on the grill.  Another thing you might try is adding chopped onion to your beer bath."

In a non-tailgate, just getting them cooked in a hurry setting:

For grilling, I put them whole on the rack, otherwise you will lose moisture. Adding beer (while grilling) won't really do anything but cool them and the charcoal down; but you could make a beer-mustard
For stovetop, I barely cover the brats in beer (typically watery domestic like Miller High Life) in a pot/pan that can accomodate the quantity of brats being cooked and heat until beer reduces like a glaze. Wait until casing browns up a bit, then enjoy. In this instance I fork them a few times to absorb beer.
For microwave, same as stove basically, fork and nuke covered with beer.

As for type of beer, I think watery domestic does it best for the boiling since the carbonation is high and the sugars glaze up nicely before the brat is over-done. For the beer mustard pale ales are recommended by some, but I like brown, spicy mustard and might try something sweeter like a porter and banging heads with some punch from horseradish.


What are the consequences of leaving the fridge door cracked open overnight? My girlfriend accidentally didn't close the fridge properly and left it open 2 inches all night (more than 8 hours). I had a lot of raw chicken breast and raw salmon in there. Is it still edible? When I touched the meat, it was slightly colder than room temperature (21 C).

The back part of the meat was still a bit cold though because it was closer to the back of the fridge.

Is it edible?

If the food had reached a temperature of 21 C for an unknown amount of time, you should definitely discard it.

See:
How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?

As a more general rule, there really is no way to provide a definitive answer; it depends on your specific refrigerator, the cooling power it has, how much air was able to move through the gap, and how much mass was inside the refrigerator to provide a thermal buffer

If you had a refrigerator thermometer and looked at what temperature the interior rose to, if it was below 40 F you are good.

If you don't have a thermometer, you don't know exactly what happened inside.

You must assess how much tolerance for risk you have.


Alternatives to borax for minced protein recipes (fish balls, kebabs, etc.)? Borax (sodium salt of boric acid) is used in some recipes as a texturizing agent.
From Wikipedia:

borax imparts a firm, rubbery texture to food.

It does this by binding polymers in the food:

Borax acts on these polymers just as it acts on other polymers and will bind polymers together forming cross-linkages which change the texture and structure of the proteins.

However, it is banned as a food additive in several countries due to concerns about its safety.
What is a safe alternative which will have the same textural/binding effect on meat proteins but without the possible risk?

I use salt and STTP when I make burgers and bakso, (that’s the hard meatballs).
Sodium Tripolyphosphate (STPP)
There is an article on it that may be of interest.
https://journal.ugm.ac.id/istapproceeding/article/view/32675


23 Year old, looking for first cookware set with longevity, suggestions? I am ready to start cooking in my new apartment and I am looking for a cookware set that users on SA have purchased and would recommend to a beginner chef.

My main goal is buying a set that will last a long time. There was this set I was interested in on Woot! but a lot of bad reviews were claiming that during the first two weeks of use the pans would already start to show signs of wear, and black spots would appear, apparently signifying a break through to the aluminum core inside a lot of the cookware.

The main factor I worry about is whether or not the metals will leech into my food. I don't know much about cooking but I don't want to be poisoned by my cookware.

One last factor I consider is price, but I'd rather pay for quality over shoddy, toxic pots and pans.

Does anyone have any brands they trust and would recommend?

Thank you for your help!

Buying piece by piece is generally a better option than buying a set, because you can get higher quality individual pieces versus spending money on things you need.

Nonstick doesn't last forever, so spending a lot of money on nonstick doesn't make a lot of sense.

The Food Lab and America's Test Kitchen both have lists of pots and pans you want to have (as well as recommendations(+reviews in the latter case) for brands easily found in the US). They're smaller than a cookware set you'd buy, but may still be too much depending on what you do. Buy what you need -- I cook almost everything I eat in a stainless steel skillet and my other pans don't really get all that much use (and you can always buy them later; I don't need a dutch oven for example). I think the Food Lab list is a bit more reasonable (but some of the stuff is clearly dependent on cooking style, e.g. woks).

Also, note that you can re-use a lot of pots and pans or work around having specific ones on a list -- for example, a rimmed baking sheet + wire rack takes up less space than a roasting pan (and works fine for roasting birds or whatever; it doesn't do everything a roasting pan does, but its way cheaper for good quality stuff).


Name of an Indian dish with stuffed whole potatoes I had a lovely Indian meal which I would like to find the name of. There were small whole potatoes with a little hole cut into them and filled with spices and (I think) some lamb mince. They were served in a spicy tomato sauce. Any idea what this dish is, or how I could figure out how to make it?

I think what you are referring to is the Kashmiri Dum Aloo, it's a vegetarian dish where potatoes are stuffed with a mix of paneer (cottage cheese) & cashew, and then cooked in a thick gravy. It's best enjoyed with any kind of Indian bread like roti, naan, paratha, etc.


What is vietnamese pho? What exactly does it consist of? What exactly is pho? I know it's a type of vietnamese cuisine.

What does a bowl of pho typically consist of?

What are the bare requirements to consider it pho?

Full disclosure — I'm not Vietnamese :-)

The word "pho" (actually "Phở") is a corruption of the French word "feu", as in "Pot au Feu", the dish that it can claim as its ancestor. (That's from a Smithsonian Magazine article about Vietnamese food from sometime in the past few years.)

It's a stock-based brothy soup, usually with at least onions and rice noodles and often (by customer choice) one or more meat additions.  Sometimes the meat is added raw to the boiling hot soup immediately before serving. The dish is almost always served with a side platter of fresh herbs, bean sprouts, sliced-up chiles, and lime.  The herbs are usually something like mint, Thai basil, and cilantro (or equivalent).

It's not a super-fancy dish, and to my knowledge there's no International Phở Licensing Board, so the rules as to what is and isn't "correct" are probably pretty loose. I've had an awesome veggie-broth Phở, for example.


Cooking with sourdough starter I have recently begun a sourdough starter. General advice is to throw away half the starter every few days then feed what remains with additional flour and water.

Is there a reason why most instructions say to simply discard half of it? I just fryed up some "wholemeal starter pancakes" instead of chucking it in the bin. Is this advisable? I've got a fear there's a food hygiene issue here that is more pronounced because I'm not baking it at 200c for 20mins.

Bad idea or good use of what is otherwise waste?

--FOLLOW UP--

I've been going for about a week now and the starter is really acidic and doesn't taste very nice in pancakes... I think i might have found the real answer to why it isn't suggested to do 'something' with the waste before the first bake - it doesn't taste very nice!

The instructions should read to throw away half the starter if you haven't used it to make bread (i.e. the starter needs to be refreshed in order to continue living). If it doesn't get new flour and water, it has nothing to keep it alive. So it tells you to get rid of half (by baking or, at worst, chucking it out). You could keep it, but you would end up with a hell of a lot of starter (exponentially!).

As for food safety, I don't think you have much to worry about... However I'm sure some of the other food scientists on this site will regurgitate a bunch of stats for you soon...


How to get Coco Lopez in Serbia? How can I get Coco Lopez cream of coconut in Serbia? I've looked everywhere on the internet, and it is always around $90 shipping or so. I bought it in Italy before and it wasn’t that expensive.
I need it to make Piña Coladas. I know the drink can be made from similar things, but I am only interested in this here.

this looks like a question about logistics and I really don't know about shipping things to Serbia, but since you mention you only need it for Piña Colada, I have good news: you can make your own cream of coconut!
Find a can of full fat coconut milk (this should be way easier to source than Coco Lopez), ideally not under 10% fat content. Add sugar (Darcy O'Neil, who popularised this recipe, says 375 grams) and a pinch of salt, heat to dissolve, and you're done.
Homemade cream of coconut will not last as long as Coco Lopez and needs to be refrigerated, but it's as good (or better), cheaper, and easier to come by


Frying potato with little oil When I fry potatoes with only a small amount of oil, one side gets brown but the other side stays yellow.

How can I make my fried potatoes with a reduced amount of oil but get them to be uniformly fried?

My problem is turning the potatoes over after they are fried on one side. Is there a simpler way, which will consume less oil without burning the potatoes?

French fried potatoes (or as the British say, chips) are a deep fried food.  In fact, the US term "to french fry" orignally simply meant to deep fry, although simply "french fry" has now come to mean the dish of french fried potatoes.

As such, they inherently are not a low fat or small-oil-volume food.

If you are asking how you can create these with less volume of oil than required for deep frying, the answer is simply:  you cannot.  There are appliances that claim to "air fry" but I am skeptical of their outcomes.

You can make alternate dishes, which may be very similar, but they will be different.  Oven fries are one close alternative--here is a recipe from Tyler Florence of the food network.

You can minimize the amount of oil that penetrates the actual fries by cooking them properly:

Use a large volume of oil (counter-intuitively) so that when the potatoes are added, the temperature drop is minimized.
Use a deep-fry or candy thermometer, to ensure the oil is at the proper temperature.   This will reduce the amount of oil that penetrates the fry.  When proper deep frying is happening, the rapidly vaporizing water expressing from the potato prevents the oil from entering.  This is by far the most important factor.
Make sure the potatoes are dry before putting them into the oil.
Immediately upon removing the fries from the oil, put them on a wire rack to drain.  Paper towels are good, but they leave the fries in contact with the oil, and as they cool, some will enter the fries.

With proper technique, only a small amount of oil from the deep frying will actually remain in the final product.


Can I substitute a biga or poolish in recipes that call for a sourdough starter? Can I substitute a biga or poolish in recipes that call for a sourdough starter?
If so, what should I take into account? Will the resulting dough require a shorter leavening time?
If not, why?

I understand that substituting the sourdough starter with a biga or poolish won't give the same flavours to the dough, but I am not concerned about flavours. I am concerned only with the feasibility of the substitution without compromising the execution of a recipe.

It depends on whether the recipe relies only on the sourdough starter for leavening, or if it also includes commercial yeast. If it relies on the starter for leavening, you cannot substitute a biga or poolish, as they will not provide sufficient leavening power (even if the biga contains a small amount of yeast). If, however, you find a recipe that uses both a starter and commercial yeast, you can substitute a biga or poolish with a similar hydration level for the starter. I'd recommend a biga with a touch of yeast to provide leavening like the starter would provide.


Whats a good light or fat free substitution for sour cream? The normal sour cream tastes good while the light or fat free does not taste good at all.  Are there any brands that taste nearly as good as original?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking - whether you want brands of sour cream whose reduced-fat version is as tasty as the full-fat version, or if you want to substitute something else in place of sour cream.

For the latter, it depends somewhat on what you're using it for. I find that in a lot of dips, substituting plain lowfat or fat-free yogurt works fine. It might result in a thinner consistency than if you use sour cream, but it generally works.

If you're looking for a substitute that has the consistency of sour cream, try lowfat or fat-free Greek yogurt. It's thicker than regular yogurt and much closer to sour cream's consistency. I sometimes do this is with dips or when baking (Greek yogurt works very well as a substitute for sour cream in sour cream coffee cakes, for example).

Substitutes typically work well when the sour cream flavor isn't all that important anyway. In this case, you could use the light or fat-free versions of sour cream and probably not notice much of a flavor difference.

If you're looking to replace sour cream as a condiment, however (on tacos, burritos, or as a topping for soup), you'll definitely notice a different taste if you use regular or Greek yogurt. For many things, a yogurt substitution still works; it just tastes different.

As far as brands of lowfat or fat-free sour cream that taste as good as the full-fat versions, that's an extremely subjective question and would probably be limited based on your locations. As such, it's not a very good fit for this site.


Microwave sponges or not? I can't decide between the conflicting research! Who's correct?
Stop Microwaving Your Sponges, Immediately.
“When people at home try to clean their sponges, they make it worse,” Egert said — similar to how people can encourage antibiotic resistant bacteria if they don’t follow the doctor’s orders.", from a Seattle Times article
Our research suggests that long term cleaning might select for potentially pathogenic and/or smelly bacteria. We think this is because some bacteria can adapt to the cleaning process, survive the microwave or dishwasher, and can easily grow to higher numbers again. from a blog
The microwave was one of the next most effective, zapping 99.9% of germs.
"Basically, what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes," says researcher Gabriel Bitton, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Florida, in a news release. "People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave." from WebMD

The question in the title is unanswerable. Your own search shows that there is no simple prescription of what you should do.
The question "who is correct" is: both of them.
The side you are interpreting as "you should microwave sponges" tells you that microwaving kills most of the bacteria. The side you are interpreting as "you shouldn't microwave sponges" tells you that, after you have microwaved the sponges, the next generation of bacteria that grows in them is harder to kill, and potentially more dangerous to your health. Both statements are completely compatible with each other.
What is wrong is to interpret these tiny pieces of data as a general prescription for optimal behavior. They are simply not sufficient to draw any conclusions from that kind. And the way it looks, nobody has done further research (which would be immensely complicated) to determine whether it is better to microwave or not microwave, and if you do microwave, then in what pattern. It would probably take several professors' full careers to settle such a question (because you would need longitudinal studies too), and I doubt that there is enough public interest to finance that, seeing that nobody has identified a major public health problem stemming from washing your dishes with a sponge.
So in the end, you will have to base your personal decision to microwave or not, and base it on some criteria other than which one presents a higher risk to your health, since that information is presently unknowable.


Why is there vinegar in the bread recipe? Yesterday I made bread based on a recipe I found on the flour bag. It contained both rye and wheat flour but also three tablespoons of vinegar. I've never seen it used in bread before, why is it there?

If it contained a high amount of rye flour, an acid would be needed for the bread to leaven. This is because bread with lots of rye rises due to polysaccharates called "pentosans" (if i remember correctly) being sticky and holding in the carbon dioxide bubbles. With heat, an enzyme in rye called "amylase" will start eating up the pentosans, unless the amylase is deactivated with acidity (wheat flour uses a protein called "gluten" to trap bubbles, and its amylase is deactivated with heat anyhow). The acidity is traditionally lactic acid, produced by lactobacilli bacteria in sourdough, but could be vinegar.

If it's mostly wheat flour (i.e. if you have to knead it), the vinegar would just be for flavour.


Can Southern Blue Whiting replace Cod? Can you use Southern Blue Whiting (which is a small codfish) in place of Atlantic Cod in most recipes? Other than the size difference between the two, are there any important differences to bear in mind when substituting?

(Southern Blue Whiting from a few miles up the Queensland coast was the only cod-like fish the local fishmonger had in stock)

Cod is cod, a smaller variety's characteristics won't be so different as to make much difference in a recipe.

Really any mild-flavored white fish with a medium strength flesh is a reasonable substitute for cod, in fact due to cod stock depletion you'd be doing nature a favor by picking something locally caught.


Wrapping in aluminun foil and place it in a skillet pan If I wrap something in aluminum foil and place it inside a non-stick skillet pan while cooking something is that something that could e.g. ruin the pan or ruin the food?
Specifically I had in mind wrapping vegetables

Yes, it can ruin the pan. Non-stick pans are very sensitive to overheating. When their bottom is well covered with fat or fluid and pieces of food, the heat coming from the stove gets conducted from the pan to the food, and it usually doesn't overheat. But if you place a bundle on the pan, there will be large spots not in direct contact with cooling fluid (food) and so the teflon will get destroyed by the heat.

Wrapped cooking techniques are not usually meant for pans. They are much more typical in ovens (or in fire/embers, in more traditional settings). Sometimes wrapping is also done in steaming. But doing it in a pan is highly unusual. So consider looking up typical recipes and following them.

If you really need to do wrapping on a stovetop, use a pan material which can take the extreme heat, this would be cast iron (seasoned, not enameled) or uncoated stainless steel.


How to know when a recipe shouldn't contain onion/garlic? When travelling at a campsite, our resident cook made a Bolognese, and for fun I asked the Italian campers what they thought about it (playing on the stereotype that they are serious about their food) not expecting them to actually be serious about their food! They looked at me kind of disappointed and told me there was garlic in the Bolognese... "There shouldn't be garlic in a Bolognese" they uttered quietly.

Since then this question has driven me crazy. I want to know technically what garlic and onion is adding to the flavour, why and when it is desirable, and when it isn't.

Bolognese is (to Italians) a specific dish with a precise ingredient list. You wouldn't put garlic in a chocolate cake, but that's because it probably wouldn't taste nice. Imagine a chocolate cake to which you added coffee. Some people might enjoy the cake, some might not, but assuming it was a cake and had plenty of cocoa and/or chocolate, nobody would say it wasn't a chocolate cake. Now imagine you made a Tarte Tatin but you used pineapples instead of apples and you added chocolate, too. Some people might say "this isn't really a Tarte Tatin" because you're not following the traditional recipe for that pie. That's how they are feeling about the Bolognese sauce.

I expect that to you "Bolognese" means a vague category of tomato-and-meat sauce for putting on pasta, and you figure you can put in whatever you like as long as you like it. The Italians aren't complaining because garlic ruins the taste, but because when the sauce has garlic in it, it's not really a Bolognese any more, just as a Tarte Tatin with chocolate and pineapple isn't really a Tarte Tatin any more.

So the literal answer to your question is: garlic and onions do not belong in any dish that has a capital letters name and a generally accepted traditional recipe for that dish, where that traditional recipe doesn't include garlic or onions. If the dish doesn't have that kind of name (eg beef stew, grilled steak, roast chicken) then you're free to put in anything you like. It's not a matter of "not needed" or not, but of following a particular recipe or not.

As for the Bolognese with garlic, you could call it precisely that. Or "tomato and meat sauce with garlic." I bet it was yummy.


Jellies and jams: what is most important to preserve the food? I've seen many jelly and jam recipes. Some with and without gelatin, generally all with sugar and in varying amounts. However, I am wondering what is most important for the preserving the food.

I know that gelatin helps preserve the jam/jelly by cutting the flow of air. However, is there something else in gelatin that is doing the work? If not can it be substituted by Irish Moss or Agar?

Sugar seems to have a gelatinizing effect also (less than actual gelatin though). Is it the gelatinizing effect that is helping to preserve the food, or is something else happening chemically?

Cooking is also used for food preservation, but it seems you can also have raw preserves.

Just asking the question has me asking many more. I also realize there are many books on the subject, but I guess this is my first step in a deeper understanding of the subject.

Jams and jellies most commonly use pectin, not gelatin. But in either case, the purpose is to make it set, i.e. gel up. It's just about texture, not preservation. Without that you'd have a thick liquid, not really much good for spreading on things.

The main ingredient that contributes to safety of canned jam and jelly are is acid: the natural acidity of the fruit you're canning, plus possibly added citric acid or lemon juice. They create an inhospitable environment for whatever survives the canning process. The sugar content does help too, but the pH is the primary concern.

The canning process is also critical. Primarily, it creates a vacuum seal on the jar so that no recontamination happens. Without that, pretty much anything would eventually grow mold. Additionally, pressure canning allows the contents to reach an even higher temperature, killing even more bacteria, allowing for canning of foods without high acid and sugar level like vegetables.

All of this is pretty hard to verify on your own, and the consequences of improperly canned food can be pretty bad (severe food poisoning, possible death), hence the usual recommendation to only use recipes from trusted sources.

If on the other hand you're talking about small batches of jam or jelly that you just keep in the refrigerator without ever canning them, you don't exactly have preserved food. It'll last a while, much longer than raw fruit, but there's a good chance it'll eventually mold.

It's still the acid and sugar that make the difference, though. I'm don't think air flow is really an issue here as you suggest. If you didn't use gelatin or pectin, that thick liquid would still only have air contact on the surface, which is already pretty much the best possible scenario.


When you fry fish or meat, does the interior fat stay inside or does it come out and the surface absorbs the cooking oil instead? My question applies to both deep frying and sauteing.

With boiling, grilling or roasting, fat will come out of the meat.  So much of the fat or oils in meat or fish will leave the meat.

Does this happen to fried foods too i.e. do most of the fats and oil come out of the meat and get diluted in the cooking oil?  Thereafter only a small amount of the now diluted fat and oil is reabsorbed back into the meat or does the saturated fats and fish oils not come out during frying?

Chemically, yes. Heat turns solid fat to liquid form once it reaches its liquid phase temperature. That's why meat turns dry and chewy once oil dissolve (unless it gets cooked long enough the meat or protein chain decomposed into stew). People seared meat in high heat or breaded meat in deep fry in relatively short time to shield both the juice and marble fat from excessive dissolving and evaporation.


How can I tone down the heat in hot oriental mustard, without making it sweet/significantly altering flavor? I recently attempted to mix up my own hot oriental mustard using a powder, bought in the local supermarket. (S & B Oriental Hot Mustard)
Following the directions on the can. I mixed with water only. I found that, I could not put enough water in the mix, to dilute the heat, without making it too watery.

Is there something else I can add, that will dilute the heat without making the mustard too watery, sweet, or otherwise significantly altering the flavor?

The ingredients in the can of mustard powder I used, are Mustard & Turmeric.

I am trying to imitate the flavor & spiciness of the dipping mustard that is served in Chinese restaurants.

I came across this article.

It explains where mustard get its heat from:

  Mustard seeds come from the mustard plant, a member of the cabbage family. They contain two sulphur compounds, myrosin and sinigrin, as well as an enzyme, myrosinase. When the seeds are broken and water is added, the enzyme breaks down the sulphur compounds. The result is the sharp tasting oil that gives mustard its pungency, and helps explain why the name mustard comes from the Latin words mustum (much) and ardens (burning).

In addition, it recommends adding some flour to tone down its heat.

  In the case of prepared mustards, the reaction is toned down by using additives such as flour.


Pattern in carrot's body Is this rhombus-like pattern in carrot totally random or is it a specific variety? If so, good to know for decorating ideas.

It is a symptom of unusual growth conditions not variety or anything

Over-watering is the most likely culprit. This resulted in rapid growth. As carrots grow from the center, the formerly small outer parts weren't able to grow rapidly enough to keep up with the middle and resulted in spaces left behind.


How to make white whip cream? I'm trying to make a regular circular cake with cream in the middle and top. A lot of recipe online will just tell you to whip the cream from a mix if sugar and heavy cream.

I did that, it works but the whip cream done this way is yellowish. Well the heavy cream is yellowish to begin with and I tried a couple of brands same thing.

This is different from white cream that you would buy out of a spray can. Pure white.

Is there a way to make pure white whip cream at home?

Heavy cream can vary in color depending on the feed given to cows and the breed of cow.  Where I am, it's rare to find heavy cream that's very yellow, so my whipped cream usually is white enough that it's not a problem.  (It's not generally bright white, but not noticeably yellow.)

If you can't find white cream, as Joe mentioned in a comment, try white food coloring.  I've usually seen it in paste or liquid form, but powdered versions exist too.  If you can't find it in a grocery store, it's available online (and your local bakery might be willing to sell you some).  I've never used it for whipped cream, but it's the common remedy for icings when you want them to be bright white rather than the off-white/light yellow you might get with a traditional buttercream made with a lot of (yellow) butter.


what to make with a very high hydration dough? I have accidently (due to tiredness and unit-conversion) made what I think is roughly a 100% hydration dough. I have used strong white bread flour. I was intending to make some "no-kneed" bread, so after mixing the ingredients I have left it to rise for 18 hours, and it has been in the fridge for another 24 hours. It is very sticky and runny.

Are there any types of bread that call for a dough of this level of hydration? Is there anything I can use it for? Other than trying to incorporate more flour (which I'm not sure is a good idea this far into the process)? What will happen if I just put in a bread tin and cook it?

Bake it in a dutch oven:
http://www.grouprecipes.com/27935/no-knead-dutch-oven-bread.html


How do I knead this dough by hand? From this whole wheat ciabatta recipe:

  Once the dough has rested, knead the dough with the dough hook
  attachment at medium speed for about 15 minutes, until the dough has
  pulled away from the sides of the bowl. It should be smooth and
  elastic at this point.

Is is possible to knead the dough by hand?
Any advice on kneading by hand? Do I need a mixer? I have strong hands.

Long term if it works I will get a mixer but I have no other needs for a mixer so I want to prove it out first.  I am trying to create a low fat, low salt, whole wheat ciabatta. I have never been a baker and I know ciabatta is involved but it fits in for what I want to do with a few menus.

Ciabatta is usually a fairly high hydration dough.  You probably won't be kneading as you are thinking.  You can use the "slap and fold" method to build the gluten network.  There are plenty of videos illustrating the technique, just google.  Basically, dump onto counter top.  With a hand on either side, lift and pull the dough toward you.  The end farthest away should stick to the counter.  Stretch but don't tear.  Quickly flip the side in your hands onto the dough, essentially folding it in half, and trapping air.  With both hands, lift the mass, flip it over, slap it back down, and repeat.


Slow cooking without a slow cooker I frequently hear people telling me about how wonderful their slow cookers (AKA "crock pot") are.  In many cases they're right - meat that tends to come out tough in normal cooking comes out very tender from a slow cooker.

But do I really need a slow cooker to pull this off?  It seems like such a basic concept - simmer and/or steam at low heat.  What's so special about these devices?  For kitchens with very limited space, can a slow cooker be "synthesized" from other cooking implements, or is there really no substitute?

Your best bet would be a dutch oven on a low to medium low heat in the oven. You could use a regular pot in the oven, but you'd need to stir it regularly (maybe every hour) to stop everything from sticking to the sides and burning.


Should I boil red potatoes before roasting them? I would like to try roasting red potatoes instead of regular idaho potatoes-should I boil and then roast or roast them raw? Also, covered in a ceramic container or uncovered--any tips?

In my opinion, it's a matter of how much time you have and what temperature your oven is set on already. I make these a lot, with a variety of dishes, so I've used multiple cooking methods.

Ideal: They roast best, I think, being boiled just for a few minutes then roasted at 475 F for 30 minutes.

Oven's already on low: If I have a more slow-cooking item already in the oven at 350 F, then I'll go ahead and put the potatoes in raw and leave them to roast for 60-90 minutes.

Need them quickly: When in a time crunch, I've also had success boiling them until softened completely then broiling until browned (maybe 5-10 minutes).


How does fat affect gluten development in strudel/phyllo dough? I'd like to prepare a strudel/phyllo dough from scratch,
and I have noticed that the recipe calls for about 10%-12% of olive oil mixed into the strudel dough.

I have learnt that oil and/or fat inhibits gluten development. On the other hand, I've read that oil makes the dough more flexible so it can stretch easily (I don't know why or how it does it).

Can you please explain these features of oil in the context of strudel dough?
Also, why does resting the dough help it to be more flexible?

Fat can inhibit gluten development in things like cakes, where the fat is allowed to coat the flour before other liquids are added. In things like bread dough, it slows down the gluten development a bit, but since the flour has already come in contact with water, it doesn't stop it. In the context of your phyllo or strudel, the oil serves a couple of purposes. First, oil in a dough helps to keep it from drying out which is very important when working with such thin doughs. Second, adding oil to a dough can help to make it easier to handle (less sticky).

The resting period of your dough both allows enzymatic reactions in the dough to further develop the gluten, and it allows the gluten to relax. You can think of the gluten as strings in your dough. As you knead the dough, you're winding these strings tighter and tigher, but when you let it sit, they can begin to stretch and loosen. This relaxation makes the dough much less "tight", so that it can be rolled out more easily without springing back as much.


Keeping Hot Sauce From Separating Last fall I tried my hand at making a homemade hot sauce. Essentially: roast peppers, blend with vinegar, garlic, salt and other spices, put in jar for three weeks, strain and you have hot sauce.

The sauce was great, but after about a week of sitting in a jar in my fridge it separated and became rather unsightly. Of course, after shaking it up it returned to normal. Is there a way to keep a sauce like this from separating?

Thanks!

Whenever you see a sauce separate, it's because you have an Emulsion, which is two or more immiscible liquids.  In cooking, these liquids are typically water and fat.

To stabilize an emulsion, you use an emulsifier.  The most common food emulsifier is lecithin, and the most common natural source of lecithin is egg yolk.  If you don't want the taste of egg or your food is not going to be cooked (i.e. a vinaigrette), then it you can actually go out and buy pure lecithin (soy lecithin is common to find).

As the wikipedia entry mentions, there are other natural emulsifiers such as honey and mustard, and often when you see recipes calling for mustard when it seems to be a strange ingredient to add (such as cheese sauce), the reason is to help stabilize the emulsion.

Additionally, the most common emulsifier used in packaged or processed foods is sodium stearoyl lactylate.  It sounds scarier than it is; you can buy it in the store just like lecithin.


What is an alternative in Feijoada to smoked ham or beef? While smoked ham and beef are great, are there alternative ingredients that can still impart the 'smoked' flavoring?

If you want to remove the meat completely, many "meat replacements" like tempeh and tofu are available in smoked varieties.  Most of these simply have liquid smoke AKA "Natural Smoke Flavoring" added as part of their process, but actual smoked varieties do exist.

Smoky flavors can also be attained from the following

Freshly roasted cumin
Spanish style smoked paprika
Chipotle or other smoked chiles
Liquid Smoke
Some porters, stouts, and especially rauchbiers
Lapsang Souchong tea
Smoked salt
Katsuobushi/Bonito flakes (also adds a distinct fish flavor)


Is this canning method safe to use for spaghetti sauce? (Boiling the sauce in the jars in the oven) This technique has been used by my family for decades but I'm wondering how safe it is to kill Botulism spores.

Step 1, cook the spaghetti sauce in a large pot (tomatoes, meat, fruits, vegetables, sugar, spices, etc).  pH unknown.
Step 2, Fill mason jars with water. Bring them to a boil by putting them in the oven.
Step 3, Put the boiling sauce in the jar.
Step 4, Put the mason jar lids on but not fully closed.
Step 5, Put the mason jars in the oven and bring the sauce again to a boil.
Step 6, Close the lids and wait until the lids become sealed.
Step 7, Wait until they cool down before storing them at room temperature.

Thanks in advance!

No, it is not safe. You need a pressure canner. That's what the USDA says about anything containing meat:

  There are no safe options for canning these foods listed below in a boiling water canner.

See http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/soups.html for a table of pressures and processing times.


is Doubanjiang (sezhuan hot bean paste) an acceptable substitute in recipes calling for gochujang (Korean hot sauce)? These days I keep on seeing repeated shout-outs to gochujang, which is not available where I live. However, I do have a container of Doubanjang just sitting there in my fridge, taking up space. Would it be a reasonable substitute in recipes calling for gochujang?

Both are mildly spicy, but the similarities end there. Gochujang is tangy and slightly sweet, whereas doubanjiang is more salty, savory and fermented-tasting. Even the textures don't match up: gochujang is smooth, while doubanjiang is chunky and ragged. I wouldn't substitute either one for the other.

Incidentally, if your doubanjiang is just sitting there because you got it for some elaborate Sichuan recipe involving like eight other seasonings... doubanjiang is more flexible than that, and will work well as an addition or even just on its own. Try frying up some ground pork with a bit of doubanjiang and some scallions, served over rice.


Are there any calories in roasted coffee beans? Why is black coffee 0 kcal? Are there any calories in roasted coffee beans?

And why do they seem to 'disappear' when turned into black coffee?

According to some websites, there are (I've seen values between 300 and 400 kcal per 100 g).

At the same time, when I check nutrition facts about black coffee - it says 0 kcal.

Where do all the calories of the coffee beans go when they turn into black coffee?

I read that when coffee is filtered (with paper filters), some oils are absorbed in the filter. But this alone does not seem enough to account for the missing calories. Also note that although the nutrition facts for black coffee are 'diluted' (i.e. it's expected they would be a lot less than the actual coffee in powder form, because there's water added), that is also not enough to bring the value to 0 kcal (however the rounding is performed).

And what about coffee that is not filtered (French press?) or even about eating whole roasted coffee beans - what would the calories be then?

Thanks

Below are some sources with confusing/conflicting data:

Sources:

Coffee beans kcal per 100 g:

406 kcal: http://www.waitrose.com/shop/DisplayProductFlyout?productId=28551
417 kcal: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orzo-Coffee-Ground-Roasted-400/dp/B00EXPZIT6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443103310&sr=8-1
300 kcal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/generic-whole-plain-medium-roast-coffee-beans-eaten-227569387
267 kcal: http://www.nestle.co.uk/brands/coffee/dolcegusto/dolcegustopods

Flatly, the calories are in the filter: in the grounds that you dump on your compost.

In the water that went through the grounds, there are mostly aromatic substances and traces of coffee oils, few enough that a cup of coffee has (rounded) 0 calories.

The caloric values given for coffee beans are valid if eaten - which is rarely done in significant amounts (except perhaps the occasional chocolate-covered bean or truffle garnish). That the values differ between sources is typical - it happens with other foods as well. Measurement methods vary and so do nutrition contents in different batches / breeds / origins of beans.

If you prepare your coffee with a method that leaves some coffee grounds in your cup (e.g. Turkish coffee) and you consume them (as opposed to leaving the dregs), your cup will have some calories. Yet probably not enough to be relevant for your daily calorie intake. My estimate would be that an amount of black coffee that would supply a significant amount of calories would have you shaking that much that you would burn them again just from the side-effects of the caffeine or from the additional trips to the bathroom.


Bread machine yeast substitute active to quick rise Bread machine calls for active dry yeast. I have quick rise yeast can I still use it.The recipe calls for 1/4 cup water.Do I need to add the water to the recipe.

Changing the type of dry yeast used shouldn't change the amount of water you need. However, it will probably change the timing, so you'll want to keep an eye on the bread machine and adjust its rise times as needed.

(And keep track of the new times, so you can re-use them if you make the same recipe again).