How can I wash down spicy food? Say, for example, I eat a very spicy jalapeno and I have a burning sensation in my mouth and throat.

Are there any foods or drinks to wash that away?

The chemical responsible for "the burn" is Capsaicin. The main reason you and everyone else has trouble with the lingering burning sensation is that it's not water soluble (which means it doesn't dissolve in water). So, flooding your mouth with water-based liquids doesn't loosen up those Capsaicin molecules on your tongue and throat.

Like @Iuls says, the most common and effective relief comes from full-fat milk or cream. That's because, while Capsaicin isn't able to be dissolved by water, it is fat soluble. It's also why more than a few people have been upset that the "milk solution" didn't work, when they tried it with skim milk.

If you're looking for a more "fun" solution, it's worth noting that Capsaicin is also alcohol soluble, which might explain all of that tequila and beer they sell at Mexican restaurants.


Why does the water in the recipe for dough making not have a definite temperature or an advise about temperature? The recipes lists 60 cc of milk and specifies 25 C in Summer and 45 C in Winter but for 150 mL of water it merely says lukewarm water. The recipe is in Japanese but I can understand it. The recipe is for wholemeal bread.  It uses 9g of yeast and 150 g each of wholewheat flour and self-raising flour.
It says to mix the dry ingredients and then add the milk and water slowly.

It doesn't have definite temperature because you don't need it. The dough will work with any temperature water you use, anywhere between 0 and 40 C. The difference will be in the time needed for the dough to rise, and the amount needed kneading to get the same gluten strength. But as these parameters are not firm, but you proof until the dough is risen properly, and knead until it is kneaded properly, you don't have to start with a specific temperature.

You don't need it for the milk either. But if the recipe author wants to spend roughly the same time preparing the bread, they must have used this temperature to achieve similar rising times for dough left to rise at room temperature, or maybe yeast left to proof at room temperature as suse mentions in a comment. It is just an additional convenience which can be followed, but is optional. So there is no need to supply it for the water either.


Do successful french macarons really need precise weight measurements? I have no problem with measuring ingredients by weight, in fact, I prefer using a scale; it is much easier. After looking at multiple recipe's for macarons, I have not found a single common ratio in all the recipes. If weight is so important, then clearly the recipes are trying to keep something constant, but I can't seem to figure it out. The sugar to almond ratio varies from 1.66 to 2.5(for the same quantity of egg white), which clearly allows a huge margin of error. Sugar content and almond content also vary a lot(+/- 50g) Assuming that all the recipe lead to a successful macaron, is all the precision really that important?

Note: All the recipes I choose use the french method of making meringue and have a very similar preparation method.

I can tell you that yes, every part of the process, including precise measurement, has really low error tolerance. Do something a bit wrong, and you end up with an edible cookie, which does not resemble a macaron in shape or texture.

My explanation for the different ratios you found is: the really important thing about the ratio is the final moisture content of the batter. Different recipes exist, because there are different ways to reach the same final batter moisture.

both sugar and almonds bind moisture from the egg whites. So it isn't enough to look only at the almond:eggwhite ratio. The recipes with more almonds probably use less sugar, if the process is similar.
the process itself matters a lot. Making an Italian, French or Swiss meringue will have an influence on the amount of liquid available for the almonds to absorb.
almond flour does not have a standard moisture content. If a chef has his almonds cracked daily and processed into flour, they will absorb much less water than if he buys a pack of almond flour at the supermarket.
aged eggwhites will behave slightly differently than unaged, some recipes will be written for aged eggwhites and other for fresh ones.
finally, not every recipe out there is a good one. It's very possible that a few recipes from your sample will never produce a good macaron.

You are, of course, welcome to try it without the precision. Especially after you have mastered them, you can play around and see if a different recipe gives you a slighlty different texture which you prefer. But if you already have a recipe which is supposed to work, I'd avoid changing anything about it.


How do I add healthy fats to my daughter's diet? My daughter is going through a growth spurt right now and having trouble sleeping through the night.  I asked this question on ParentingSE and based on what I wrote, the advice I have gotten is that a little more fat in her diet might help.

Can you suggest some ways to add healthy fats to the cooking I already do so my daughter can get what she needs?

Smoothies would be a great breakfast, snack, or dessert! You can put in a lot of healthy things that would add different nutrients. The nice thing about smoothies is that the other ingredients can mask certain tastes, too.

For adding fats, try adding coconut oil or coconut milk, peanut butter or other nut butter, avocado, or even some other oil that you think is healthy.


What should I look for in a good, multi-purpose chef's knife? If I want to buy a good multi-purpose chef's knife, which characteristics should I look for?

One of the most important things is a full tang. The tang is an extension of the metal of the blade into the handle. In knives with a full tang, it goes all the way through the handle. This improves stability, control, and durability. Cheaper knives with partial tangs will have the handle break off over time.
In a chef's knife, you want a blade from 8 to 10 inches long, whichever is more comfortable.
You can also either get a forged or stamped blade. I suggest reading this article on the differences. To summarize, forged blades are softer, easier to sharpen, heavier, and have a bolster. Stamped blades are sharper, harder to sharpen, lighter, and have a welded on a bolster if any. With current manufacturing processes forged is not necessarily better than stamped. You should make your own decisions. All crap knives are stamped, but not all stamped knives are crap.
This brings me to one of the most important points: It must feel good in your hand. Don't buy an expensive knife just because it's expensive, or you recognize the name. Go to a store that will let you use the knife, Williams-Sonoma will do this. If you can, bring a carrot in your pocket and actually cut that in the store.
I'll do some research on steel quality and update this later.


Making a better caramel for granola bar I came up with a recipe of granola bars where I melt

10 tbsp of brown sugar
4 tbsp of honey
4 tbsp of soy oil
2 tbsp of water
Vanilla extract

and mix with 4 cups of rolled oats + 1 cup of rice crispies, put it in a pan and bake it for 20 min at 200ºC/330ºF. After cooling, I get a nice and firm granola bar for about one day, after that the bar gets soft and starts crumbling.

How can I adjust my recipe to make my bar more solid and for longer?

If it stays the right texture for the first day, I would say the problem is more with the way you store it than the recipe. Granola bars need to be stored in an airtight container, somewhere dry and cool to maintain their texture for as long as possible.


Where can I find (plain) Ramen noodles? I recently thought about trying to make the Chicken Ramen recipe from Wagamama, however I will need to know how to get the correct ingredients from the best sources. I don't know any good sources to get the right noodles for making the Ramen.

Where should I look to acquire good-quality Ramen noodles for a recipe such as this?

Here's the recipe in the book I took a snapshot of.

EDIT: I found a website where you can purchase them from

  http://www.theasiancookshop.co.uk/fresh-ramen-noodles-400g-3570-p.asp

"Ramen noodles" are a predominantly North American term for what the Japanese call "Chinese Noodles" (Chukamen, which I've also seen spelled Yuukamen).

In practice, you can use any wheat noodle that's made with eggs or kansui, including lamian or mee pok, or even buckwheat noodles (notably soba). Noodles made without either of those are not recommended.

It does not matter which of the above you use, although the Chukamen varieties are the more traditional. Much like pasta, it's largely a matter of personal preferences and how you want it to come out in terms of texture and appearance.

You'll find a wide variety of all of these noodles in dried or fresh form at any Asian supermarket or grocery store. Across Canada there's a chain called T&T. You should have no trouble finding some Asian grocery stores in your region with a phone book or maybe Google or Yelp.


Why do frozen vegetable packets advise cooking from frozen, and should I follow that advice? Packets of frozen vegetables often say "cook from frozen" or "do not defrost" in the cooking instructions. For stir frying at least, many people recommend the opposite, such as in this question. I can understand the logic behind defrosting, but the recommendations don't explain why I should trust them over the packet directions.

Why do packets say "cook from frozen", and if I'm not supposed to follow that instruction, why not? Is it based on a myth? Is there a legitimate problem with cooking thawed vegetables that can actually be circumvented to achieve even better results?

I'm particularly interested in stir-frying mixed vegetables and baking french fries but this can apply to other methods of cooking too.

Well, "cook from frozen" comes with instructions on how to cook from frozen, on stovetop or microwave.  So their results are probably best for those methods.

Stir frying is a different process, so, unless they have stir-fry specific instructions, you should take the "from frozen" instructions to be specific to the methods and instructions given on the package for preparation, not necessarily an admonition for all types of preparation.


Which type of fat to make fudge? If you're making fudge, does it matter whether you use butterfat or vegatable fat? Or is it important to get actual, real butter?

For that matter, I've seen recipies for fudge which demand single cream, double cream or even clotted cream. What effect is this likely to have on the final product? (Taking into account that presumably whoever wrote the recipe already took into account the different fat content of these products.)

Like you, I've found a wide variety of fats in fudge recipes.  To name a few;

The chocolate fudge recipe in The Joy of Cooking cookbook calls for both half-and-half and heavy cream. (From my home copy of that cookbook)

On this Macinac Island website, there's a recipe that uses a combination of whole milk and Crisco (vegetable shortening).  http://www.mackinac-island-insider-tips.com/aunt-merrys-fudge-recipe.html

... and I found a recipe for Devonshire Clotted Cream Fudge that uses other ingredients I'm not familiar with such as golden syrup and castor sugar: http://www.food.com/recipe/devonshire-clotted-cream-fudge-238801

I think you may be obligated to experiment by making different kinds of fudge and discover your favorite homemade fudge.  Sounds like a sweet adventure!


What precautions need to be taken while using sour culture for setting yogurt? The home made yogurt culture I have is sour.

Is it possible to get non sour yogurt from sour culture?
What precautions need to be taken while using sour culture for setting fresh yogurt?

Hygiene is your most important tool to successful (and safe) yogurt.

Everything should be spotless and sanitized appropriately.

I have made a yogurt that made me really sick, so take that as a warning to maintain good hygiene while working with cultured foods.


Make ahead dishes in cast iron Could anybody advise if I can leave an assembled breakfast casserole in the fridge overnight in a cast iron skillet and bake it the next morning?
Would the pan be damaged? Or the food be unsafe to eat?
Thanks for your help.

It wouldn't be unsafe to eat, but the overnight storage would be bad for the seasoning on the cast iron.  Depending, it could even result in you needing to reseason the pan from scratch.

I suggest instead using a glass or ceramic baking dish.


Pimenton ahumado vs. Pimenton de la vera Besides the noticeable cost difference between these two, what is the difference between pimenton ahumado and pimenton de la vera? Both are purported to be Spanish smoked paprika.

From the best I can tell, "de la vera" is a regional form of spanish smoked paprika, where ahumado is the more generic form. Sort of like how real cheddar cheese only comes from Cheddar, England or or a true Burgundy wine can only come from Burgundy, France - "de la vera" comes from around the Tietar River in La Vera, Spain.

  Pimenton de la Vera has been protected
  by a certified designation of origin
  since 1998 in order to provide you,
  the end consumer, with a guarantee
  that you really are getting the best.
  The government managed regulating
  council for Pimenton de la Vera
  carefully monitors all steps of
  growing, harvest, and production to
  ensure the strictest quality standards
  are met. No simple pepper can meet
  these standards, only those who follow
  the time-honored traditions exactly.
  Although there are many other
  paprika’s in the world, including
  other certified origin products such
  as our Pimenton from Murcia, only
  those grown and smoked in the La Vera
  valley may bear the certification.

source


Why do my English muffins have such a tough crust? I'm new to the baking of English muffins. I follow the recipe for sourdough English muffins published on YouTube by Culinary Exploration. After accounting for the 100% hydration of the starter, the recipe calls for about 62% hydration. The procedure involves pre-baking in an open skillet to form a light crust followed by oven baking to finish the center. I use Sir Galahad flour from King Arthur, which contains 11.7% protein.
My EMs taste great and the crumb is exactly what I want, but I get a paper-thin outer crust which is very tough to bite through and chew. The crust seems to be the same on both sides of the muffins; i.e., there's no distinction between the side that was exposed vs the side that was against the parchment paper during proofing. Lowering the heat of the skillet and the oven has no discernible effect, other than reducing browning. The crust does soften a bit with storage, but it's still too rugged.
I fear that changing hydration will alter the thickness to diameter proportions of the muffins. Any other suggestions?

I strongly suspect that it's the trip to the oven that's making those muffins tough.
My personal recipe for sourdough muffins does not involve baking them; they are cooked entirely on the griddle.  I checked three different sourdough muffin recipes (1, 2, 3) and none of them used the oven either.
So my suggestion is that you try cooking them entirely on the stovetop and omit the oven.  This will require longer cooking on the griddle to make sure they're done all the way through; I suggest checking with an instant-read thermometer (should be 90C in the center).  I don't suggest lowering the griddle heat, which should be around 175C ... cooking them longer may actually toughen them.
The second thing I notice is that almost every sourdough recipe I've checked has some kind of fat in it, usually butter or whole milk, and the recipe you linked does not.  The recipe I've tried that doesn't is Arizmendi Bakery's, which are also very chewy and tough to bite into (I like them, but I suspect you wouldn't).  So adding some kind of fat to the recipe would probably help your crust texture; it generally does with bread.
There's other general tips to peruse, just in case you're running afoul of something else like using way too much flour during kneading.
It's also true, though, that different sourdough cultures can result in chewier (or less chewy) crusts.  So if eliminating the oven step and adding fat doesn't work, I'd suggest testing a non-sourdough recipe to see if you're having the same issue there.


Is sourdough actually sour? Why is sourdough called 'sourdough'? Is it because it is sour to the taste, or for a different reason?

Yes, a well cultured sour dough is actually sour.

The bacteria in the culture, lactobacilli, emit lactic acid as a waste product of their metabolism, making the dough acidic and sour.


Can I use cilantro instead of basil on a bruschetta? Ran out of basil at the last moment, can substitute the basil for cilantro? I know people will notice the difference but would still be acceptable?

It will obviously not have the same flavour, but I imagine it will still taste good. It will not be a traditional Italian flavour, since cilantro is not native to Italy, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that. There is no chemical reaction that needs to happen with the basil in particular for a bruschetta so you can really top the bread with anything you like.


Heating up with steam Recently I realised that if I don't have a microwave oven, I can use boiling water to heat up certain types of food by boiling water in a deep bowl, putting water and the food in a covered smaller bowl on top of the boiling water.

Is it a commonly used way of heating up? Also, which are the advantages of disadvantages of it, compared to microwave oven?

This is very common. What you are describing would usually be called either a bain marie or a double boiler. It is normally used for things that you don't want to overheat, such as hollandaise sauce, ganache, and some other dairy based sauces.

As for advantages and disadvantages, it really depends on what you're heating. For the sauces mentioned above, the advantage is ensuring that no part of the sauce will get above 212F, the temperature of the boiling water. Microwaving will be faster for most things though.


What is the name of the sauce which is made of Yoghurt and fresh Cucumbers? I had this "Kebab Bombay" in Holland a few years ago, to which belonged a very thick, creamy, slightly yoghurty, very fresh sauce/salat containing fresh cucumbers. Supposedly it was an Indian dish, but that may just have been "inspired by".

(sauce visible on the left, best picture I could find)

What is this kind of sauce called?

Sounds like a Cucumber Raita to me. It's quite a common accompaniment to spicy food as the yoghurt element really helps ease the burn.

Very simple to make and often contains fresh mint along with the cucumber to give it a really cool, fresh taste.

Example recipe here: Good Food Channel


Why is chocolate generally sweet? Apparently there is very little sugar in a cocoa pod so sugar is generally added in the chocolate production process.

My question is why has it become the complete standard to have sweet or semi sweet chocolate, and not savoury chocolate (or savoury cocoa products)?

It's not. The original consumers of chocolate, the Native Americans, had their chocolate in bitter teas and savory moles. They mainly were after its caffeine effects. We could speculate about the overuse of sweeteners in general, especially among peoples of European descent. Other ingredients like mint, cinnamon, and cardamon come to mind. In the European culinary, those ingredients used extensively for puddings/desserts; in Africa and India, these are ingredients for savory stews. The fetishization of sugary desserts and exotic ingredients in Europe is partly to blame. Look up some traditional chocolate moles or consider adding it to a chili con carne recipe for a new way to enjoy chocolate with less sugar.


Dehydrated Fish Bone Broth I'm trying to determine conversion for US. - dry teaspoons to ounces and grams, namely 1 tsp, 1-1/2 tsp, and 2 tsp. Every conversion table I've seen shows different values. The one I often found was: 3t, 1/2 oz, 14.3 g. If there is consensus, I'll just work it backward, but I really want this to be right!

Part of your problem, as stated, is attempting to convert volume measurements to mass measurements. You cannot do that without knowing the bulk density of the materials and tossing that factor into the equation ie. a tablespoom of cornstarch (UK corn flour) does not have the same mass as a tablespoon of fine salt. (In the USA, think weight instead of mass though it is technically incorrect)
One great little program I use for conversions is found at https://joshmadison.com/convert-for-windows/. It is free!
If working with a Roolander's recipe, try to remember that their tablespoons have 20ml volume not 15ml as is common in much of the rest of the world.


How can I learn to sharpen my Japanese knives properly? I have a couple of nice Japanese kitchen knives, and a whetstone in two grades. I can sharpen them reasonably well using the stone, but does anyone have any good tips for improving my sharpening skills?

The Japanese Knife Company has a couple of good tutorials on their website. http://www.japaneseknifecompany.com/sharpening-guides .

Update from Joe:

They have videos on many different ways of sharpening knives (diamond steel, wheel, water wheel, stone, water stone, single sided blades).  If you check their YouTube channel Japanese Knife Company, they also have videos for maintenance of your knives (stropping using newspaper), storage (magnets or blade up in knife blocks; advantages of different blade protectors)

It's almost impossible to describe the process only with text, especially as some of his advice has to do with the sound of the sharpening or stropping, or showing undesired movements of your arm, so videos are the best way to explain the process online.  But even with that, you might not be aware of mistakes that you're making, so you may want to look to see if there are knife or kitchenware stores in your area that offer classes.


What are the best conditions for yeast to develop? I heard that there are two methods to develop yeast: in cold (which makes the dough taste better) and warm places (makes it develop faster). I also heard that I should use sugar to activate it and some mention salt, though I have no idea for what purpose. How to give yeast the best conditions to develop? Do those depend on whether the yeast is dry?

I don't find as much influence on flavor .vs. temperature as is generally claimed - I'd suggest running your own experiments on that front before assuming all that is written is utterly true. I do often drag out bread-making for days, but I don't find my "hurry-up and bake" loaves noticeably inferior, though they are somewhat different.

Once properly rehydrated (or improperly rehydrated, so long as it's not so improper as to kill it) dry yeast or wet makes no difference. My current version of "properly" is based IIRC on directions from Danstar for brewing yeast, but the baking yeast don't seem to mind - water (ideally boiled and cooled) at about 85-95F/30-35C sprinkle dry yeast on, don't disturb/stir/etc for 15 minutes, stir and wait 5 more minutes, introduce to food (flour) and try to avoid drastic temperature shocks. They will put up with much less ideal treatment, but if you exceed 120F/48C you may well finish them off.

I generally provide no sugar to baking yeast, following some book's advice to let them adapt to eating flour if that's what they are supposed to be doing. It works. I tend to delay adding sugar when making a sweet bread with this in mind. Yeast, flour and water should be all you need to get yeast growing. Salt inhibits yeast - some folks think it's vitally important, IME it's not.

When I need bread in a hurry I pull out all the cheats - I get all the liquid to roughly 100f/38c, I add sugar from the start, I knead the dough once (pretty throughly) when mixing and form it straight into pans, I put the pans in a warm (95F/35C) place to rise. It makes perfectly decent bread - try it sometime, you may be surprised. It's not my normal process mostly because it's more effort than my normal process and I'm often not in much of a hurry.

At the moment I have a batch going where I rehydrated the yeast in not particularly warm water which ws not boiled and cooled (and thus has chlorine in it being town water supply), forgot to get any flour to them before leaving the house for several hours, put some flour in when I got home, whatever yeast survived that managed to take off and multiply overnight, I baked part of it the next morning and added some more flour and water to what remained. It's been at 68F/20C more or less the whole time. Later I'll probably add a bunch of eggs, more flour and veer it towards something Stollen-like with some sugar, butter and fruit/nuts.

In my personal experience, yeast and yeast bread are remarkably adaptable and generally forgiving. "Best" really depends on what you want - a few days in the refrigerator is slow, but if it makes bread you like better and you have the time, it might be best. Most folks swear by that for pizza dough. Experiment.


Making drinkable yogurt I like the taste and consistency of danactive drinkable yogurt. Google searches on making drinkable yogurt suggests adding water or milk to store bought "set" yogurt. Another said to use kefir and just blend in fruits for flavoring.

There was one post on how to make drinkable yogurt from scratch:

  For making the stirred yogurt or the drinking yogurt we need to make some changes to the process for a less firm texture.

  The use of different strains and balances in your yogurt culture will change the texture of the final product.
  Less initial heating of the milk (170-185F) will be another major control point, as well as little to no hold time in at that temperature before cooling. Lower temp and time will result in less changes in the whey proteins and thus less linking of these for a thinner yogurt.
  Stirring of the yogurt part way through the final cooling stage (at 65-70F) will break up the firm yogurt texture into a much looser mass. The fruit and other additions can be added at this point.
  Finally, the yogurt should be cooled to its final temperature of 36-39F.  http://www.cheesemaking.com/yogurtplus.html

I've tried adding water to set yogurt and that taste pretty nasty, At the consistency I like, it tasted more like yogurt flavored water. No tartness, not sweetness, just ugh... Am I doing something wrong, or is that what I'm going to end up with if I want really liquidy yogurt? Will any of the other methods be better for what I'm looking for?

There are lots of ways of doing this, depending on exactly what you want in your final product.  If you want an exact flavor and texture match to your specific brand of drinkable yogurt, you're going to have to try various things and experiment to see what works.  Here are some issues to consider and options.  (I'm assuming here that you're using store-bought yogurt as a base, since you post instructions that tell you how to produce a more drinkable style yogurt from scratch, and those should help if you were simply planning to make the yogurt yourself.)

Be sure you buy yogurt without any added thickeners.  Sometimes commercial yogurt adds substances to help maintain a thicker texture; obviously these will get in the way.
Try blending your yogurt (or whisking or whatever you tend to use) to break up the set part as much as possible.  For "homestyle" yogurts, this may be enough to thin them significantly.
If you prefer your "drinkable yogurt" to have fruit, etc. in it, try adding the ingredients first and blending.  The fruit juices may already thin the texture somewhat.
If you still need it to be thinner, start by adding milk.  If the result isn't "creamy" enough for your taste, add a mixture of milk and something with higher milkfat (light cream, half and half, etc.) next time.  If the result isn't tangy enough for your taste, you could add some acidity, e.g., lemon juice could work well if it complements fruit flavors or something.  Or, as an alternative for acidity, you could just dilute with another acidified milk product, like kefir or (cultured) buttermilk.  (This last option would actually be an ideal choice to maintain the "fermented milk" flavor and tang.)

To go further with that last point, frankly in your situation I'd just skip the yogurt completely and use another acidified milk product with a texture closer to what you want.  Kefir and cultured buttermilk both are produced by microorganisms similar to yogurt, they have similar acidity, and (in my experience) they taste pretty similar in a "smoothie" when blended with fruit or other ingredients to yogurt.  On their own, the flavors will be somewhat different from yogurt, but the flavor of a yogurt/milk/juice/whatever concoction will taste different from the plain yogurt anyway.  So, personally, I'd start with a thinner fermented milk product and go from there, unless you have some particular attachment to a specific yogurt brand or something.


Pumpkin Roll Technique How do you roll a pumpkin roll cake without it breaking mid-fold?

I've seen 2 tricks to help.  One is to pre-roll the roll while it is still hot, just out of the oven.  You will sometimes get cracks when unrolling the roll, but they are less visable as the cracks originate on the inside of the roll.  Once you roll it back up, they tend to disappear.

The other is to just bake it on a piece of parchemnt paper and use that to lift, roll and support the pumpkin cake.  As you lift the parchment paper, you roll the cake down into itself and it almost rolls itself as you lift the paper.  Just have to keep it moist, but not too moist.

Good Luck!


How (much) can I minimise the cooking time of red split lentils? As I can't go camping or bike touring at the moment, I'm taking the chance to experiment with some home-made dehydrated meals - doing everything at home but as if I was on the road.  One idea is based on red lentils, with a separate sachet of dehydrated vegetables/vegetable powders/herbs/spices to rehydrate into a sauce, the whole thing served with couscous or pasta.

Stated cooking times for split red lentils range from 10 to 30 minutes; my DIY lightweight alcohol stove runs for about 10-20 minutes on a fill and I'd ideally like to boil water for the accompaniment as well on a single fill (both to minimise the amount of fuel I have to carry and to avoid the risks associated with refilling a hot stove or delay waiting for it to cool).

So how quick-cooking can I make my red lentils?  My first thought is to soak them for a few hours, which I tried today (4 hours soaking) with reasonable success. This simulates knowing by mid-afternoon that I need to cook a dinner.  I may experiment with a shorter soak, as it would be good to be able to cook at shorter notice.  But is it possible/worthwhile to cook them and then dry them again (properly dehydrated so they'd keep)?  Is there some other idea I'm missing?

I can’t give you numbers as I haven’t experimented with it yet (but am very inspired to do so by your post), but assuming that you will be heating water for a morning coffee or so, have you considered putting the lentils into a smallish thermos container, topping them up with boiling water and letting them soak / slow cook during the day? Adding your dehydrated veggies and spices wouldn’t require any serious cooking at all, just a quick reheating or bringing it back to a boil.

The idea is roughly based on the principle of a haybox, where food is cooked by placing the hot out into an insulating environment. And combined with the “quick soak” method for beans, where the beans are not soaked in cold, but boiling water, but for just thirty minutes instead of overnight.

Admittedly, this would probably get the lentils in the danger zone for longer than the canonical two hours, but on the other hand, we are not dealing with proteins like meat, raw eggs or dairy. But you could always adjust the time when you start the lentils to fit stricter food safety guidelines or your personal risk tolerance, e.g. boiling the water at your lunch break.


Substitute double cream for butter? I have a lot of leftover double cream and I was wondering if I could substitute it instead of butter in a biscuit recipe? I know it's a different consistency, so there would have to be some calculations on it - but has anyone done it? Can anyone offer any advice!

I was also thinking I could use it in a butter cream filling? Or would that not be possible?

Any advice welcome!

You can't really substitute double cream for butter as the fat/water ratio is different - it's basically just too wet. However, guess what they make butter out of - cream! If you 'over whip' cream, the fat separates from the liquid leaving you with fresh butter. Naturally this is easy if you have an electric mixer. If you're doing it by hand, prepare to be tired.


Frozen chicken vs thawed chicken in the crockpot I was wondering- if the recipe calls for  frozen chicken and to took for 6-7 hours but I use thawed chicken instead do I cook it for less time? Thanks!

You could cook it for less time, but it equally wouldn't make much difference if you just went for the full 6-7 hours, especially if you are using a forgiving cut like thigh.

I would, incidentally, be very wary about putting frozen chicken in a slow cooker. At the low temperatures a slow cooker uses, there is a good chance the chicken will be sitting in the 'danger zone' for longer than 2 hours, increasing the chances of food poisoning drastically.


Is it normal for collard greens to be red? The collard greens that I have received are red. Is this normal/healthy? Image attached.

Google searching this gives me zero results that are anywhere near relevant. I also can't find any images of red collard greens, they are always green in the image search.

No, that is not normal for collards. Enlarging the picture, the discoloration looks to be a brownish-red. Those leaves look to be very old and quite possibly have been frozen (while still in the field), especially the one on the right. I would be tossing those.


Is there a technique for glacé (glazing) that could speed up the process? I saw a recipe for glacéing (is that a word?) cherries, and at one stage they required anywhere from 10 days to 3 weeks soaking time.  Are there any techniques that could speed this up, or am I just being a nervous New Yorker?

you might try forcing whatever it is into the cherries.  This can be done under pressure, which you might be able to do it using a fizzgizz? or maybe with a creamer, or simply by vacuum packing the cherries with the soaking liquid.  once vacuum packed you might be able to put in a pressure cooker to increase the pressure, but I'm not sure what the heat would do to the cherries.

EDIT:  having read the recipe, I'm not sure any of this would work.


Parboiling potatoes to make them softer in a stew I recently made ciambotta (like an Italian ratatouille) on two separate occasions, first using russet potatoes, and once using red potatoes. In both instances, the potatoes (cut into half-inch pieces) came out too firm for my tastes (and my wife's taste). Both times the potatoes spent about 45 minutes all-told simmering in the Dutch oven before being served, and spent multiple days in the fridge as leftovers.

I thought that maybe if I parboiled the potatoes first I'd get better results. But I also don't want to overcook them and make them mushy. I've seen a lot online about parboiling potatoes before roasting them, but nothing about adding them to a stew.

Is parboiling a reasonable strategy here? How risky is it? I want the potatoes to be softer, but I don't want them to be mushy either.

45 minutes of boiling is more than enough time to soften potatoes regardless of altitude.

Parboiling potatoes before roasting frees up and gelatinizes starches on the outside of the potatoes that then get nice and crunchy when roasted. It will not do anything useful in your stew.

The likely culprit for your potatoes not softening is probably acid.

When potatoes are boiled with acid (lemon juice, vinegar, tomatoes, etc) the acid and heat will cause the pectin in the surface of the potatoes to gel. This is sometimes desirable for things like French fries but it can make them too firm in other cases.

If your recipe has acidic ingredients you can add them near the end of cooking or at least after the potatoes have had time to soften properly.


How do I cook Basmati rice without soaking? I know that all types of rice need soaking, but sometimes there are water shortages and I would like to skip this step to save water. How can I cook Basmati rice without a separate soaking step?

Basmati doesn't need to be soaked, and anyway the water that gets absorbed in soaking would get absorbed in boiling instead. This is because the rice needs to do two things: hydrate, and heat, and the amount it needs to hydrate is fixed.

Rinsing is common and is much more wasteful of water than soaking. In fact if you measure the water, and soak then boil covered in the same water, all the water you use a ends up consumed (except a tiny amount lost to evaporation). 2:1 water:rice by volume should be about right for basmati, and cook gently.

Rinsing affects the surface starch, and it takes quite a lot of water to remove enough starch to prevent stickiness. You have to either tolerate some stickiness or find a good way to reuse the rinsing water, if you're going to save this. I wouldn't want to give too much starchy water to plants, though you could certainly give them some. It should be possible to use this water in cooking, to add to dishes that need a little thickening, but it shouldn't be stored for long.


Melted chocolate + olive oil = lumpy mess I melted chocolate to put on top of some caramel flapjacks.  The chocolate wasn't very runny so I added a little bit of olive oil.  However this made it grainy and lumpy as if I had added water.

Should I have used vegetable oil instead, or should this have worked as I expected?

That happened to me with margarine instead of olive oil. My question is here, but basically Aaronut told me 3 reasons why chocolate seizes.

  Using too high a heat. Double-boiler is the safest, but you can use a saucepan on very low heat.
  Sugar bloom and other impurities. You shouldn't get this with baker's chocolate, but if you use any lower-quality chocolate, this can seep into the melting chocolate and cause it to seize.
  Contact with moisture! Even a tiny amount will cause it to immediately seize, and it's difficult to recover at that point.


By how much should I shorten the cooking time of a slow cooker recipe if I'm only using half the meat? I'm thinking of making either this recipe or this recipe for pork tenderloin in a slow cooker.
As easy as a slow cooker is, I'm no slow cooker expert, and have run into problems where the meat ends up seeming "dry" (even though it's literally soaking in a sea of liquid) when I mess up the amount-of-meat-to-cooking-time ratio, either by using a smaller cut of meat than the recipe calls for, or cooking for longer than the recipe calls for.
Both of the recipes linked here call for 2 lbs. pork tenderloin, and I have a 1 lb. cut.
The first recipe calls for 7 hours on low, and the second one calls for 6-8 hours on low.  So if I only have half the meat, by how much should I reduce the cooking time?  I'm guessing halving the cooking time is not really the right move.

You should probably not reduce the cooking time by a lot, if at all. These recipes assume you are keeping the meet submerged in liquid at some constant temperature for several hours. Assuming your tenderloin is not somehow less thick than a 2 pound cut would be, nothing in the recipe changes. The core temperature of the cut won't take any less time to get up to temperature, and the lower thermal load from having less product will also not affect slow cooking.
Ideally, have some flexibility in when you expect to be done cooking and stop when you have reached the desired results, rather than after some arbitrary period of time.
Apart from that: if you are having problems with meats coming out dry, you might want to check out this question and answers. To summarize: cooking lean meat for long times is usually not ideal.


How does thermal shock affect pans made of different materials? In another question, I had a little comment-discussion with TFD on the effect of shock cooling on pans. In a nutshell, I said that it is bad for the pan, and he said that especially if the pan is made of steel, it should have been at 500°C for the shocks to have consequences, not at candy cooking temperature. I think that if it happens often, even at low temperatures, the internal structure of the pan would be less even (because of microcracks, or maybe some difference in the crystalline structure of the metal), leading to hot spots.

I'd like to broaden the question a bit. I think we will all agree that big temperature shocks have bad consequences on metals (think forging). I think that smaller shocks will have some (but smaller consequences), but after TFD's comments I am not sure. Could please somebody with better knowledge about metals explain what happens in different combinations of following combinations:

Cooling method

Immersion of the whole pan in cold water (as in, I have hot sugar syrup in it, and want to stop the heating immediately).
Pouring a small amount of cold liquid into the empty hot pan (as in deglazing).

Pan material

Stainless steel
Aluminum
Sandwiched bottom
Coated (e. g. enamel, PTFE, ceramic)
Copper
Iron

Temperature difference (our cold water is in all cases in the range 5°C (fridge) - 15°C (tap))

Steak/candy temperature (let's pick a range of 160°C - 200°C because of caramelisation and Leidenfrost)
Hottest stove temperature (because I want to know about the extreme case. 400°C or 500° should do, the first because that's what I am sure have had on my stove, the second because TFD mentioned it).

Let's assume not a single shock, but regular shocks (maybe two shocks a week over the lifetime of the pan). What will be the effects? And also, is there a combination which can (but will not always result in) crack a cast iron pan immediately?

Coated (e. g. enamel, PTFE, ceramic)

I can't answer in general, but that one's easy. Sudden thermal shock causes strain in a material by unequal expansion, either in the same material by high thermal gradients, or in interfaces between materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion. The strain in this case (two different materials) can be very high. If the material in question is not elastic (e.g. enamel + ceramic; I would think PTFE is different, but I'm not sure), then the bonds between the coating and the metal would be severely strained and it would likely crack and chip.
I can tell you from personal experience that I have actually used this to my advantage:
In the spring, I produce a small quantity of maple syrup by boiling sap in an uncoated stainless steel pan. On rare occasions, accompanied by the release of many expletives, I have let the syrup boil down too far, at which point it burns and seems to coat the bottom of the pan with a thin but hard and very resilient layer of carbon black. The trick to removing this stuff is to get some kind of stress crack started, e.g. by scrubbing w/ steel wool or a copper pad, and then what I do is I put the pan on the stove for a while to let it heat up hot (but not red hot), and then bring it over to the sink and spray cold water on the inside pan bottom where the carbon black has stuck to. After a few times, the carbon black will start to flake off and then it becomes easier to remove by a combination of abrasion and thermal shock. (The two pans I've done this on have been fine; both are stainless steel with a thick (>8mm) bottom, and I've put them through at least 30 or 40 thermal cycles of this type.)

edit re: general topic:
Wikipedia says this:

The robustness of a material to thermal shock is characterized with the thermal shock parameter:

where

k is thermal conductivity,
σT is maximal tension the material can resist,
α is the thermal expansion coefficient
E is the Young's modulus, and
ν is the Poisson ratio.

Higher thermal conductivity means it's more difficult to get a large thermal gradient across the material (less prone to shock); higher thermal expansion means more strain (more prone to shock), and higher Young's modulus means more stress for a given strain (more prone to shock).
So theoretically you could compare the different materials. (exercise for the reader ;) Most likely copper would be more resilient than the other metals, because of its higher thermal conductivity and higher ductility.
Thermal conductivity k: Copper = 401, Aluminum alloys = 120-180, stainless steel = 12-45 (units = W/m*K)
σT: no idea:
Coefficient of thermal expansion α: Copper = 17, Aluminum = 23, iron = 11.1, stainless steel = 17.3 (units = 10−6/°C)
Young's modulus E: Copper = 117, Aluminum = 69, iron/steel = around 200 (units = GPa)
Poisson's ratio ν: Copper/stainless steel/aluminum are all around 0.3-0.33, cast iron = 0.21-0.26
So stainless steel is worse than aluminum or copper (much lower thermal conductivity, higher Young's modulus).


Roasting 6kg (13lb) Pork Leg I have a huge (for me) leg of pork that's 5.9kg/13lb. I'm thawing in the fridge for the next 4 days before cooking.

How do slow cook for tenderness/fall off the bone as well as great crackling?

Slow cooking and great crackling do not go hand in hand. Your best bet will be to remove the skin, score and salt it well, and grill/broil it separately.

For the leg itself, low and slow is the way to go. How long depends on how long you've got, but 5 or 6 hours in a low oven  will do the trick. Start off with the oven on as high as it will go, throw some garlic, onions and herbs in the pan with the pork, add a splash of water, and cover with foil, then put the meat in and lower it to 160C/320F and go read a book.

You want to make sure the meat reaches 70C/160F internally, incidentally.


How do I bake chocolate chip cookies like Subway? I want a chocolate chip cookie like the ones Subway has. Those cookies have a smooth top and chewy texture.

I have a recipe for 3/4 cup fat, 0.5 cup sugar 0,5 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup flour, 1 egg, 2 tsp extract. I get a semi stiff dough, but also an airy cookie, not as dense like Subway. I use room temperature margarine.

I have tried to bake cookies with 2 eggs and with 1 egg, but they always come out wrinkly on top, not as stiff. Is it possible that using an egg and a yolk would work? (But wouldn't that waste a lot of whites if that's how they do it?)

I think as part of this I want a stiff dough, that'll leave the bowl clean, to minimize spread and keep the tops from getting wrinkly as stiffness will keep the the cookies from expanding and contracting. Is that true? If so, I'm afraid that if I add more flour to stiffen the dough will make the cookies cakey - is that the case? How would I avoid that?

It would help if you could supply a complete list of ingredients (including the type of flour you used) and the temperature you are using to bake your cookies and even what shelf in the oven you are baking on.  Were the cookies wrinkled when they came out of the oven or did they wrinkle as they cooled?

A lot of different factors determine how CCC's behave in the oven.  Wrinkly cookies usually mean that the cookies expanded during their bake time then contracted either inside or outside of the oven.  What causes that behavior could involve how much fat is in your cookie dough or how much egg white vs. egg yolk you used or how much leavening you use (more leavening doesn't necessarily mean more rise - sometimes if you have too much leavening your cookies can over-expand then collapse leaving a wrinkly top).  There are other possibilities, but it's hard to make a useful recommendation without knowing the rest of your cookie equation.


How long should I mature my mincemeat before making Mince Pies? Having decided on the spur of the moment to make Mince Pies with home-made mincemeat (a mixture of chopped fruit, distilled spirits, spices, and fat), I'm wondering if I really should leave the fruit to mature for some time before I make them?

It's been soaking for a couple of hours, and all the recipe said was that it could be frozen, and if I did I should defrost it and leave to mature for 1-2 weeks. Does this hold for fresh mincemeat too?

On the basis that I'm not dead yet, and the pies were quite tasty, I'd say that I clearly can make them without maturing the mincemeat (the initial question), but is there an optimum length of time I should leave it for?

To clarify, this is about mincemeat as in "a mixture of chopped dried fruit, distilled spirits and spices, and fat, traditionally beef suet" rather than ground or minced meat.

Mincemeat originally had meat in it along with suet and a small amount of fruits and spices.

As the cost of the fruits and spices dropped the quantities started to shift until now, you never see any meat at all besides the suet in traditional mincemeat.
Victorian times they would make the mincemeat in the late fall and set it aside in the root cellar for about 8 weeks but evidently could be held for upwards to 6 months.  The cool cellar and the high percent of spirits didn't cause much harm to them back then.  The longer the better as the fruit and suet would absorb more flavours.

Here's a link to a Google book that has a recipe from 1786:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zZIEAAAAYAAJ&dq=mincemeat&pg=PA423#v=onepage&q=mincemeat&f=false

It doesn't sound that great but then the really old dishes never were.


Why are roasts wrapped in foil? I wrapped a piece of beef brisket in foil and slow roasted it last week.

It was the beefiest tasting beef that I've ever had.

So now I'm wondering, was it beefy because it was a nice piece of brisket from the farmer's market? Or did roasting it in foil make it better?

Would it be recommendable to slow roast belly pork wrapped in foil?

One of foil's main functions is providing a watertight barrier to trap moisture inside the food. This can be especially helpful when slow roasting because you're cooking in a hot, dry environment for an extended period of time. Without foil, your roast would have turned out a lot drier and you'd have lost out on tasty juices. Brisket also has a fair amount of connective tissue (containing collagen) that will melt down into gelatin. Given sufficient moisture, the gelatin dissolves and provides a tongue-coating, lip-smacking richness that's hard to replace, but you don't get the same effect if you dry things out too much.

Foil also provides a barrier to direct heat. In the case of a roast, that reduces browning on the outer surface of the meat. Ordinarily I'd argue that this browning adds flavorful compounds produced by Maillard reactions, but the "beefy" taste you really enjoyed might have been the unadulterated flavor of the meat. If that's how you enjoyed it, just go with that!

Now, as to whether you'd get the same effect with pork belly... you might, but it's a different cut, with loads of connective tissue and very tough muscle that would benefit from some added moisture. You'll also wind up with a lot more fat as it renders. I'd expect pork belly to take longer to cook, and a final searing or browning step would be a really welcome addition to get a good crispy skin. Here's a recipe that came up during a cursory search, which uses foil to seal the belly inside an aluminum pan, so the concept is a sound one. I haven't tried it myself, so I can't speak to the relative merits of this method versus other forms of pork belly preparation.


How to halve a cake recipe? An entire cake is too much food (and temptation!) for me and my husband. Generally speaking, how do I halve a cake recipe? I have heard you can't just cut everything in half due to the way baking powder & soda react.

A particular recipe I would like to cut in half is Red Velvet Cake.

(I would then just put all the batter into one cake pan instead of 2.)

I have halved cake recipes before without issue. The most complicated thing to worry about is halving an odd number of eggs, but this question addresses that. The finished product was indistinguishable from the full recipe.

Edit

One thing to note. In your specific case, because it's a two-layer cake, halving is simple because you're only cooking a single layer. Halving other cakes, such as a pound cake, or a bundt cake involves adjustments to the cooking time. A halved cake will cook much quicker, and could possibly need a lower temperature as well as a decreased cooking time.


Possible substitue for vinegar Hi I have recently really been getting into cooking however the girl I am dating has allergic reactions to vinegar, which is in a lot of sauces and stuff.

Looking for possible substitutes that might work when recipes call for this, currently use lemon juice but sometimes that tastes weird (For example I tried to make ketchup since she can't have kraft ketchup which she use to love, however lemon juice tasted quite horrible for my try at it).

Let me know what I should be using! thanks:)

Citrus juice is probably the most widely available substitute.  However, if you can get your hands on some Verjus (or Verjuice) you will be pleasantly surprised.

Verjus is the juice of pressed green grapes.  It is similar to wine but the grapes haven't had a chance to ripen and there isn't any alcohol.  It has a much more neutral flavor than lemon juice.  It can be difficult to find though.  I buy mine at a local vineyard.  You may be able to find some online.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verjuice


How long will a shooter's sandwich keep? A shooter's sandwich is intended to be eaten a long time after it is made. I understand that it originated, pre-refrigeration, as a meal that could be prepared the night before and taken on a hunt the next day. This recipe recommends keeping it in a cool place for at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight.

I am wondering how safe it is.

Could I prepare it late on Dec 30th, refrigerate it overnight, and then take on a camping trip for New Year's Eve, and still enjoy it (as a hangover cure) on New Year's Day, 36 hours after cooking it, without risking my stomach (as well as my liver)?

Or is that just looking for trouble?

The shooter's sandwich you linked involves cooked mushrooms and fried steaks. In contemporary food safety practice, this is not shelf-stable at all. It can be held 3-5 days in the fridge, or up to 2 hours at room temperature.

I can imagine that hunters did take it on longer trips historically. They lived in a time when mild food poisoning (symptoms limited to bloating and light diarrhoe) was commonplace, and the average person experienced it as often as the common cold, if not a bit more frequently. More serious types of foodborne illness were less frequent, but still appeared with some regularity in a given population.

There are two reasons we don't eat this way today. First, our standard of living is higher. We have the possibility to drastically reduce our risk of food-borne illness by choosing nutritious shelf-stable food for situations we need it, and we have much higher expectations of our own quality of life, including the expectation that the chance of getting bloating from a sandwich should be close to zero, not close to 10%. Second, our meat today well may have much more pathogen contamination than in the past. If you slaughter one healthy animal in your small farm, the worst you get spread over the meat are some E. coli from inside its own guts, and normal E. coli don't cause too bad symptoms (mutations can be very dangerous, but they are also exceedingly rare). Today, animals are penned together by the thousands, exchanging exotic pathogens while still alive, and then are slaughtered and eviscerated in efficient conveyor-like manner, so that if one cow had some unpleasant bacteria from somewhere, they will probably cross-contaminate the steaks from hundreds of other cows slaughtered in the same shift.

Bottom line: It is absolutely not safe. You are free to decide to take the risk and eat it, but by the usual standards in the food industry, this is an unacceptably high risk, and it is foolish to take it.


Toast bread slices in a convection microwave? Does a convection microwave make decent toast, as a toaster oven would or a bone fide oven set to broil?  I have read far and wide on the internet and in operating manuals for Sharp, Bosch, etc. convection microwaves and have come up empty handed.  I know you can't make toast in a microwave, but these are convection microwaves we're talking about here.

Would prefer to hear from someone who actually owns one of these things instead of someone just reading things like "CompuBroil®, CompuRoast®, CompuBake® - automatically compute broiling, roasting, and baking times/temperature settings." from the www.sharpusa.com website like me :-)

Additional specific requirements for our situation are an "Over The Range" (OTR) solution, for which there are often microwave and convection microwave solutions that include 300CFM ventilation and lighting for our cooktop.  We're not looking for a countertop unit.  Hence the desire to see if these convection microwave units can do the deed!

Thanks in advance!

Toasting bread involves the Maillard Reaction and requires a dry heat.  Toasters and toaster ovens (and conventional ovens) use radiant heat.  Convection ovens use convection, as the name implies, and this is most certainly a dry and very even heat; the question is whether or not a convection microwave actually provides a true convective environment, like a high-end convection oven.

And that's where the problem generally lies.  Convection microwaves (AKA microwave convection ovens) are not usually true convection ovens.  They use a combination of microwaves and convection currents, which will quickly cause steaming and inhibit the Maillard reaction.  This isn't really a problem with, say, chicken, but it's a big problem with bread.  You'll have many of the same problems you'd have with a regular microwave - the bread will burn before it toasts.

What you really want is a microwave toaster oven.  They exist, and are often very cheap.  If it doesn't actually bill itself as being a combination microwave/toaster oven, then it's not going to be very good at toasting.


How to keep fresh-squeezed fruit juice? Is there any way to keep  fresh-squeezed fruit juice (especially apple or orange) for at least one week without losing taste and vitamins in it? Would a jar with a tight lid be useful?

Some quick research indicates there are enzymes in freshly-squeezed juice that will degrade it fairly rapidly, and that they can be deactivated by heat. Of course, that also changes the flavor (especially since you're not going to be able to quickly heat and cool it, as it apparently only takes 30 seconds, but any method doable in a home kitchen will keep it hot much longer than that). So heat-deactivation is out.

Even commercially-produced (that is, both pasteurized and enzyme-deactivated) juice is only supposed to keep 6 days in the fridge, so that's out.

Your best bet, then, is to freeze it. According to the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication 8199, you can freeze in clean glass jars or rigid plastic freeze containers. They also note that navel oranges (and their juice) do not freeze well—they will become bitter.

Well, either that, or store the fruit instead, and only juice it as needed.


Tough Stew Meat for a Carbonnade Tonight I made a Carbonnade Flammande (basically just a Boeuf Bourguinon with beer instead of traditional red wine). I have made this stew before successfully, but this time the meat was very tough! I'm trying to troubleshoot, so here are some details.

First, I browned the meat (chuck). Then I caramelized some onions and deglazed the pan with a bit of beef stock. The beef goes back in the pan with enough beer to just cover it. Then I cooked it in the oven (covered) at 175C for about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I had checked it at the halfway point to see how it was going, and the meat was still tough. To my disappointment it was still tough even at the two hour point.

My guess is that either the meat I bought is just a bad/old/tough batch (it was precut stew meat), I didn't have the oven low enough, or didn't cook long enough (though the classic recipe says two hours should be sufficient). I know browning gives you great flavor, but could it make the meat too tough? Should I have had even more or less liquid? What do you think?

I'm really a novice in the kitchen so all of your comments are appreciated.

It sounds like you did everything right except you didn't cook it long enough. Pre-cut stew meat is often from tough cuts, and can sometimes take a long time to get tender. I would suggest lower and slower next time. Also, maybe you didn't rest the meat after cooking, I would suggest resting at least 30 minutes but give it an hour if you can. Try giving yourself 4 and a half hours from start to serve, 3 and a half for cooking at 150C and 1 hour for resting, that should give you a more consistently tender result.


Keep chicken with skin from catching on fire on the barbeque Short:

Is there a proper technique for cooking chicken (with skin) on the barbecue, without little chicken-fireballs?

Long:

My previous landlord loved to cook on the barbecue, much to the displeasure of our tastebuds. (We alternated cooking days).

Her chicken always caught on fire and the skin burned to a crisp. The meat on the inside was fine of course, but the fatty skin was long since toast.

I have never tried cooking chicken on the barbecue with skin, but I'd like to try it, without setting them on fire. Can it be done, and is it really easy?

I've theorized that if I boil the chicken just a little, it might remove some of the fat and help, but I'm not sure. I won't have barbecue access for awhile (currently living in an apartment) so I can't try it, yet.

I have no idea why her chicken burned (high temperature, not paying attention, etc).

The chicken fat layer in the skin is flammable. As it melts, it drips out and down. If there is something extremely hot underneath it (like hot charcoal), it will ignite causing a flareup. Heat rises, so the heat and flame go back upwards to heat the chicken more, causing more fat to melt and drip. It is a self-reinforcing cycle.

To prevent the cycle from beginning:

lower the heat level
put a drip pan between heat and the chicken
move the chicken so it isn't directly above the heat
start with the side of the chicken with skin facing down, finish with it facing up

If you actually get the skin hot enough to catch fire while on the chicken, you're REALLY using too much heat.


What makes fleur de sel different from regular salt? Fleur de sel is the salt from the top of the pot when you heat salted water.

But what makes it different from the rest of the salt in the pot?

I'm not 100% sure but I found this site that explains what fleur de sel is. It says that

  Like other sea salts, fleur de sel is harvested by evaporating sea water. However, to harvest fleur de sel, workers gently skim the top layer of the sea salt from partially evaporated pools, before it sinks to the bottom again. These salt crystals are very fine, light, and delicate, and must be handled with care and exposed to minimal moisture, or they will clump again.

It looks like you are reproducing how fleur de sel is made, through boiling the water which is the equivalent to "evaporating sea water".


Rolling boil has barely any steam? I'm trying to reduce a sauce I've got but I noticed something interesting.

When I raise the heat so the sauce is at a full rolling boil, there is barely any steam coming out so I presume there is little reduction happening.

However, when I reduce the heat to a slow gentle boil, there is quite a lot of steam coming off, so there is a lot more reduction happening.

Why is this the case?

Physics to the rescue:

Contrary to popular belief you cannot see steam.

What you can see is tiny droplets of water that were steam (= gaseous form of water) before, but have condensed (= returned to liquid state) again on very small particles like dust motes. If the amount of droplets is big enough in a certain volume of air, they become visible. In other words, you have created a small cloud in your kitchen.

Now back to your pot:

If the pot is simmering, a lot of water will condense over or near the pot, especially if your kitchen is rather cool.
At a full boil, the steam disperses more, so when the condensation happens, the tiny droplets are spread out wider, making the "cloud" harder to see. Also, the air around the pot is likely to be a bit warmer, so that the gaseous H2O will likely condense at a greater distance from the source anyway.

This may lead to the assumption that a boiling pot emits less steam when actually the opposite is the case.

If you want to verify this, look for condensation away from the heat source, e.g. your cool kitchen windows. There, the different amounts should be very obvious.


Sous Vide Pork Butt Char Siew (Chinese BBQ) I want to make Char Siew (Chinese BBQ pork).  I also want to try it sous vide up to medium rare, then finished under the broiler to get that nice caramelized outside while basting. This way it ends up medium.  My question is, I'm using pork butt, but it's pork butt that I've broken down into long strips about 4" wide and 1.5" thick.  I was planning to cook these about 2.5-3 hours in the water bath at 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

Is this not long enough for this cut of meat, even at this thickness?

My main concern is safety, but I also want the meat to have enough of the fat rendered and meat at least somewhat tender.

If you're concerned about safety, then 135 degrees is definitely not "safe". The FDA recommends pork be cooked to 145 degrees farenheit, and due to the law of thermodynamics your pork will never reach that temperature. You'd need to make sure that your broiling would finish cooking your pork to a safe temperature.  Of course, the FDA guidelines always err on the side of caution, but it all depends on what you're looking for when you mean "safe" :).  However, according to this site (http://www.sousvidesupreme.com/en-us/sousvide_cookingtemperatures.htm), your alloted time seems safe. The nice thing about sous vide is, as long as there are no hotspots, your meat will only ever reach the temperature of the water (135), and so won't overcook, so you can err on the side of caution

Another concern I have is, at this temperature the fat will not be able to render out properly at this temperature/time. Not a huge problem, but perhaps a problem nonetheless.

Lastly, the best part of char siu is the wonderful smokey flavour and the glaze you get from grilling it for an extended period and basting repeatedly. I'm not sure how successful doing this at the end with just a broiler would be.

However, I will say I've never tried making char-siu this way, and these thoughts are only based on my own experience, so I would be very interested to hear how this turns out!


Microwave steaming - venting/holes optional? I see a lot of cooking videos where vegetables like carrots are steamed in the microwave, and the bowl is covered with what looks like a pretty tight lid without any vents/holes. For instance this one. I have always been afraid of doing this because I think that the pressure from the steam created would force the lid out with disastrous consequences. Am I correct? If so, how do the people in these videos not end up with a mess?

It won't explode. If you don't have a lid, try it with tightly secured cling wrap. Just don't put a ton of water in there, follow the instructions. It's a nice way to quickly steam veggies. Even if it does explode, the worst that will happen is steam will escape into your microwave and your veggies might dry out. Nothing crazy!


How to replace Bouillon cubes without making them on my own As far as I noticed the Combination consisting of Bouillon Cube, Wine and spices can make up a good basis for many vegetarian dishes, for instance with Pasta or Rice.

I am using a particular sort of Bouillon Cube and without using it I cannot reproduce the taste. I am suspecting that this sort uses glutamates (or functionally similar substances) in order to give the dish a certain depths.

Now I am in a dilemma since I am trying to use as much natural products as possible. Do you know any good (and rather easy to make) substitutes for Bouillon cubes?

The examples you gave - pasta and rice - are presumably using boullion cubes and water. The cubes are basically supposed to be dehydrated broth, so you can just use whatever kind of stock or you prefer instead of the water. Often boullion cubes are saltier and have more umami than the stock they'd replace, so you may find you want to add back in some salt and some other source of umami (MSG or a more substantial ingredient), especially if you're using vegetable broth.

Depending on what your objection to bouillon cubes is, you might also like a vegetable stock base (Better Than Bouillon is a common brand). It's basically the same thing as the cubes, except in paste form.

But in any case, the bouillon is basically stock (minus water) so you should look to stocks for your substitutions. The primary two concerns will be salt and umami, but you probably are benefiting from some more subtle flavors too - and even if the bouillon cubes are lacking in that department, a good flavorful stock will be a welcome improvement.


Can you freeze yogurt Can you freeze yogurt? It was on sale, and I am going to use it to make smoothies.

Yes, yoghurt can be frozen - according to this Canadian government agency, freezing it extends its shelf life to 1-2 months past its sell by date. Note that they do not recommend freezing an opened container of yoghurt. However, considering that it keeps for quite a while in the refridgerator as well you may not need to. This answer point out a couple of issues with freezing yoghurt, namely that it can get separated - if you put it in a blender that may not be a huge issue, as you kinda mix it together again anyway.


Help me understand why my stainless steel skillet becomes non stick after frying one egg? I've been playing around with making my stainless steel skillet stop sticking to my food. I found that seasoning with oil that's just about to smoke works a bit, but doesn't work that well when frying eggs at high temepratures (to get a good crust with a runny yolk).

However, one thing that's been working with great success in frying an egg with very minimal sticking is to fry an egg beforehand in the same cooking session (even if the first egg sticks completely). I really don't understand why this happens. I don't think the second egg cooks at lower temperature because I leave the pan to heat after taking out my first egg and I can also tell by the way it reacts when it hits the oil.

My best guess was that the cold first egg causes the open pores of the hot pan to close and capture the oil in the pan and that this action is too slow to make the first egg not stick. I tried to replicate this by putting my oil in freezer 20 minutes before cooking and pouring some before the pan heated and then more after it was hot to simulate the first cold egg, but the eggs stick stuck, and the next eggs still didn't. Please help me in figuring out this mechanism so that I can utilize it properly without having my eggs stick at all.

I presume the albumin protein of the first egg coats the pan, maybe even in areas that are not overtly white, and this is what creates the nonstick barrier.


To what extent are dimpled pans interchangeable? We recently got a very popular question, What is the function of this shallow, 19-divoted, eared cast iron piece?. It centers on recognizing exactly what type of dimpled pan is on the picture, and it is obvious that several users don't make a distinction between them. I personally have never used one, and wasn't aware that there are flat-dimpled ones and half-spherical dimpled ones.

If we leave away matters of presentation (assuming that poffertjes are traditionally flatter than aebleskiver), what is the differnce? What can flat dimples do which deep dimples can't, and vice versa? If a cook has only one and tries the recipe for the opposite baked good, what would we expect to happen?

There were five dishes mentioned in that post:

Poffertjes
Dutch pancake puffs.
Small, shallow impressions.
Æbleskiver
Danish pancake balls.
Large, deep (half-spherical) impressions.
Takoyaki
Japanese octopus pancake balls.
Small, deep (half-spherical) impressions with a lip around the edge.
Kanom Krok
Thai coconut pancake snack.
Small, (various depths) impressions
Paddu
Indian lentil & rice ?balls?.
Deep impressions (various sizes), w/ matching lid.

I have tried my hand at making Kanom Krok in a poffertjes pan, and it came out well.  I found that they were a bit too oniony for my taste if I added a pinch of green onion to each side, but it worked out well if I only did it to one of the halves.  (don't leave it out, or it's too overwhelmingly sweet).  If the indentations had been deeper, there would have been more batter, and thus it might've needed two pinches of onion.

You simply cannot make æbleskiver or takoyaki on anything that isn't half spherical — you're not simply flipping it over (like poffertjes & paddu) or joining two halves together — you need to roll it as you're making it.  Æbleskiver can end up with a hollow inside them (that you can fill with apples or such), while takoyaki are often made by flooding the whole pan, and then rolling that extra bit from the top into the sphere so it doesn't have as significant of a void.

You could probably make æbleskiver on a takoyaki pan, but the size difference will mean that you make need a different viscosity and heat to properly set the outside while leaving the inside liquid enough to flow back down to seal the sphere.  Takoyaki in an æbleskiver pan might be more difficult — the larger holes might prevent you from cooking the center through properly.

You can use an æbleskiver pan to make poffertjes, but it's a pain.  Basically, you just put a little bit in the bottom of each one, and then flip it.  You'll still get the right sized puff, because the æbleskiver indentations are much larger (typically 7 per pan vs. 19 for roughly the same diameter).  Not only would it be slower from having less indentations, but it's much harder to get in there to flip.  It'd be like using a Dutch oven to make an omelette — it might technically work, but it's really not the right tool for the job.

If you really had to, it'd almost be easier to make poffertjes on a griddle — just use a squeeze bottle so that you can more easily control the size of the puffs.  It'll be a bit different, but it's better than only making 7 per batch.

I wouldn't make poffertjes on a takoyaki pan — you'd have to make really, really tiny ones, or you'd have to fill it so far that I'd have concerns about the middle cooking properly.

As for the paddu — I've never made it, but it seems to me that it could likely be done it any of the deeper indentation pans, provided you had a good way to cover it to let it steam.  It's quite likely that a poffertjes pan would make for too thin of paddu, as you wouldn't get the expected contrast between interior & crust.

So, to summarize (partially assumptions):

Poffertjes pan: kanom krok
Æbleskiver pan: poffertjes (but it'd be a bit of a pain), paddu (if you can lid it)
Takoyaki pan: aebleskiver (but really small, might be a pain), paddu (if you can lid it)
Kanom Krok pan: poffertjes, paddu (if deep enough & can lid it)
Paddu pan: poffertjes (might be a slight pain), Kanom krok
(Griddle): poffertjes (if using a squeeze bottle & thick-ish batter, but they'll be sub-par)


Vacuum sealed frozen salmon burgers - seal broken due to thawing? I was wondering if thawing something that is vacuum sealed can result in the seal being broken (or if it's the air expansion due to warming). I left salmon burgers on counter to thaw for half an hour so I could separate the two patties and when I came back to the kitchen (actually 40 minutes) the plastic was all loose around the burgers. I put them back in the freezer for now. I think it looked vacuum sealed when I took them out of the freezer. I wonder if I should throw them out. Thanks!

The question I would have is whether it was frozen when you bought it, or if you froze it yourself. If you froze it and the packaging was good when you did then there's no reason to throw it out unless it's gotten too freezer-burned to be palatable. It's the temperature of the freezer, not the packaging that preserves food when in the freezer, so it should be safe providing it was properly handled before being frozen.
As for the bag being loose it may very well have a hole in it, it's more likely to have happened in the freezer than during thawing. Because you froze it yourself and the packaging was good you know whatever happened occurred after you bought it, so it should be just fine.

If you bought it frozen then I would suggest throwing it out because you don't know when the packaging was broken or what the food could have been exposed to.


Can I use the same kind of tools to sharpen my knives as I do my chisels? I'm not sure if this would be better suited for here or the woodworking stack, so please migrate if needed.

In order to sharpen my woodworking tools (chisels and hand planes), I currently use a DMT diamond plate (the fine and extra-fine, what they call 900 and 1200 mesh). I plan at some point to get a ceramic water stone (e.g., Shapton), probably a 5000 grit to start.

My process involves flattening (or polishing) the back of the chisel / plane iron and then flattening / sharpening the bevel on the front. The process is seen here in a video by Rob Cosman, although he uses a much finer stone.

Is this procedure (that is, diamond plate potentially followed by water stone) appropriate for kitchen knives? Obviously kitchen knives don't have a flat back like chisels do, so both sides of the knife would get a bevel.

My knives are mostly Wusthof classic, and use the chef's knife and santoku most often.

Yes. ~1000 then 5000 is a common progression to get kitchen knives to a good working sharpness. Diamond plates can leave undesirable deep scratches, so I would not recommend someone inexperienced in their use (note that the OP is by his own statement NOT inexperienced) to take them to an expensive knife. 5000 might be slightly too fine for a Wusthoff (depending on the vintage and exact steel/temper used) - if the edge turns out unstable, try to omit the 5000.

By the way, some traditional japanese cooking knives (eg sashimi knives) ARE sharpened in a way very similar to you chisels.


How do you test a cake or brownie with a toothpick? When it comes to the toothpick test for checking cake and brownie doneness, where do I poke the toothpick?

The center of the pan is usually the last part to cook.  So, test the center.


How do I keep Clam juice I have about three gallons of clam juice, after steaming about 400 clams. How can I safely keep, can, or store this much juice for further use?

I would suggest to reduce the juice as much es possible (to safe space later on in the freezer or shelf) and either

freeze it or
can it (see here and here for canning with a pressure cooker and here for canning with an oven)

Just putting the juice into the fridge is not sufficient. Neither just boiling the juice and filling it into a jar is sufficient because then you are not sterilizing the juice but only pasteurizing.


Black Spot on Ground Beef? So I bought some Lean Organic Ground Beef about a week ago, went straight into the Freezer. Used 3/4 of it for Hamburger helper, cooked all the way through...smelled fine and looked fine.

However I noticed on the Uneaten ground beef (was gonna save it in the freezer) (of course after i had eaten and was putting something in the freezer). That there was a black...small spot on the ground beef. I've seen spoiled meat/beef before and it's brown, however this was very dark and black and was very small. Now the rest of the meat I looked at/smelled and it was fine. And the meat wasn't past due or anything and it went STRAIGHT into the freezer.

What could this dark spot had been. It was QUITE dark and very small (maybe about the size of a match head). if so....do you think the rest of the meat was ok? considering I did cook it thoroughly, im just curious what the black spot was. Obviously I don't want to get mad cow disease or something lol

Obviously hard to know for sure. The laws and guidelines dictate use of food grade equipment so if a piece falls off and ingested, it does little harm.  If you cooked it, then you have even less to worry.

As a precaution, I suggest taking it to the store and asking about it so other customers don't trip on the same issue. Harmless or otherwise. If they don't know for sure, then suggest to them to send in for a lab test.

In descending likelihood, it could be:

a piece of buna rubber broken off from a gasket (grinding machine, or other). Not a hazard. It's not far from chewing gum ;)
a piece of meat that came in contact with the lubricant oil in the machine. Also usually food grade. They turn dark after a while.
sometimes the meat branding ink on the outside ends up in the grind (also food grade). Though they are usually dark blue.
piece of old blood clot, liver or other organs.
not likely here, but I have heard Listeria shows up black. Though i'd imagine it would spread and look more fuzzy/furry. Most bacterium die during proper cooking.


Can I substitute bread flour for bread machine flour? Can I use Bread Flour instead of Bread Machine Flour when making a loaf of wheat bread?  Recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of wheat flour and 4 cups of bread machine flour.

"Bread machine flour" and "bread flour" are interchangeable terms.

  Bread flour, sometimes called bread machine flour, is what most bread maker recipe books will say to use in order to achieve the best results. (Source)

So yes, you should use bread flour in the recipe. It has higher protein than all-purpose flour and will help your bread rise better and hold its shape.


How to keep onions from sinking in a salad How to keep onions from sinking in a salad?

I like raw and cooked onions.

I like raw onions in a lot of salads but the problem is diced onions end up in the  bottom of the bowl.

This is physics.

There's an effect called: "Granular convection"
It's a phenomenon where if you have materials of different sizes in a container and vibrate or shake them, that the largest objects will move to the top and the smallest to the bottom.

To keep the onion from sinking, you should make the chopped onion pieces bigger relative to the other ingredients in the salad.

As you can see in JBentley's answer, in a salad where all ingredients are evenly chopped you won't get the sinking effect.


Kitchen knife rust after one day of use? I've taken the plunge to buy two expensive kitchen knives and somehow they picked up these stains (rust?) in less than 24 hours of use. I dried them, I thought completely, before putting into the block last night.

I tried to remove with vinegar but the stains didn't come off.

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

Many thanks.

This happens a lot when the knives are more carbon steel vs. stainless steel.  I have many Japanese knives, and this happens when I don't immediately wipe off the blade after washing, or when cutting up more acidic foods, and not wiping the knife off with a damp towel.

I use a Japanese rust eraser, and most if not all rust will come off, and it will not scratch the knife's surface if you run along the grain of the metal.  These eraser are pretty inexpensive at your local japanese market, or you can get them on line.  They have a small amount of abrasive on it.

In your case, it will be a bit difficult, as the grain of your knife is going up and down the knife.  But if you don't care too much about a bit of scratching, then you could run the eraser length wise or side to side, along your knife.

Another alternative is to use a non scratching powdered cleanser, such as Bon Ami or Bar Keepers Friend and a cut potato or dai-kon (asian radish) to polish the blade.  Try a small area first and then if it works, polish the whole blade.  Wash and dry immediately.

To see a demonstration of this technique I would watch some youtube videos by, Jon Broida, at Japanese Knife Imports.  He is a master knife sharpener and knife shop owner in Los Angeles.


How many cells are in one granule of instant yeast? I'm purely curious and google has failed me.

This article estimates 20 billion viable yeast cells per gram of dried yeast. A yeast package is about 7 grams total.

The granule size will vary from brand to brand. Even within a packet, granule size is not completely uniform. To get the estimate, you'd need to weigh out a sample (say 1g or 0.1g), count the number of granules in that sample, then do the math. The larger the sample you count, the better estimate you'll have.


How to hold salmon after cooking for travel to family dinner? We'd like to bring salmon for our holiday family dinner.  Is there a way to cook it at home and then take it to the destination without losing quality? (I expect it would be half to one hour between the time we would leave our house and actually eat.)  Or should I just prep it at home and see if I can use their oven upon arrival?

Most folks rely on smoked or cold salmon when travelling. It's a special treat getting hot salmon brought in.

Cooking it right before you leave and keeping it warm will be the challenge. You might look at pizza delivery carry bags with the foil interior or create your own foil wrapped fish, wrapped in old towels and placed in a covered box with heated foil wrapped bricks (wrap a clean brick with foil and heat in the oven).

If you reheat the fish at your family's house be sure to follow these tips: use an oven (never microwave), reheat at a lower temp, cover the fish to keep it from drying out. https://www.thekitchn.com/5-mistakes-to-avoid-when-reheating-salmon-230418


Is it safe to eat freshwater fish raw? According to this question freshwater fish should not be used in Ceviche--why not?

You should never eat freshwater fish in raw preparations. Freshwater fish are far more likely to have nasty parasites such as the lung fluke, that can only be killed by cooking. There is a slew of other nasty beasts that can be harmful if not killed.

Unless you want to end up on an episode of Monsters Inside Me, stay away.


Prebaking bread, which internal temperature would you go for? I've made a batch of Dutch Stollen and I want to pre-bake them in the oven and keep them in the freezer. I was thinking of baking them to 70ºC internal temperature. The yeast should be dead by then, and I was wondering if the gluten would be set by then?

That should work, as 70C/158F is the gluten coagulation point. I'd probably go to 80C/176F because stollen's an enriched dough with many added ingredients (dried fruit, almond paste) and, as Athanasius says below, 75C/167F is where gluten is "completely set".

[I bake stollen to completion and then freeze them, but you probably have a reason why you want to parbake them. They dry out a lot in the freezer, so I'd love to know if parbaking them helps keep them moist. Can you let us know?

(Addendum. Mine dry out. That's probably because I use too much dried fruit (which absorbs water). (Addendum 2. Try dried Calimyrna figs in the stollen. They're not traditional, but they're wonderful in stollen and compliment the traditional orange zest/flavour and rum/brandy).

Source. http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14281/need-help-par-baking#comment-88647

He's quoting from Jeffery Hamelman, one of the most respected voices in bread.

  There is a number of things (happenings) while bread bakes that you
  need to consider. Since, you will only be keeping these a short time,
  and your freezing them, some may be more important than others.

  Overall, you want a stable product that won't change biologically,
  structually, or chemically while its being frozen, during thawing, and
  final baking, except for browning nicely.

  That means you want to complete oven-rise, kill the yeast,  coagulate
  the gluten, gelatinize all the available starches and stop all
  enzymatic activity.

  I'm using Hamelman's Bread, page 24, as a reference for the necessary
  internal temperature needed to achieve all the above. Yeast dies about
  140°F (60ºC), gluten coagulates between 158°F (70ºC) and 176°F (80ºC), i.e., oven-spring
  will cease, the dough will not collapse. Gelatinization and enzyme
  active is finished at 194°F (90ºC).

  To insure a stable par-baked loaf, I'd bake it covered for 15 minutes,
  as you reasoned, but I'd rely on internal temperature to assure all
  biological, chemical and structual changes in the dough were
  complete.Finishing the par-bake covered or uncovered isn't critical. I
  think reaching 194°F (90ºC) will assure stable par-baked loaves, and
  relatively low or no crust coloration.

  However, you may be able to get away with 9 or 10° less. An online
  source, states the well-known and well-respected La Brea bakery
  par-bakes bread to 185°F (85ºC), with satisfactory results.


How does one stop sushi seaweed wrapping being too chewy? When we make home-made sushi, we often find that the seaweed wrapping (or nori) is too chewy.  The seaweed we buy is from the local supermarket, and nothing fancy.

  Question: How can we ensure that the seaweed is not too chewy?

In addition to what Jason says above, which is absolutely correct, nori needs to be toasted to be crispy.  Sometimes you buy it ready-toasted, but sometimes it's not toasted and you need to toast it over an open flame yourself.  How to toast nori instructions and video.

Additionally, I've found that if you live somewhere high-humidity (like San Francisco, where I live), you sometimes need to re-toast nori even if you're buying ready-toasted packets, because it becomes moist.


Does fresh garlic have any specialized uses? I have some fresh garlic that I have just harvested from the allotment, and am drying out.  I notice that the fresh garlic has a different texture from the shop bought stuff, and I was wondering if there are things that are more suitable for fresh garlic?  Does it slow roast better?  Is it better to use raw?

I love fresh (also called green) garlic. Some uses:

For a quick, simple and delicious pasta sauce, chop a whole bulb of garlic (with peel and all) and sautee in some olive oil, rosmary and chili peppers. Add some white wine and reduce.
Make a soup
Clean whole bulbs from dirt, remove the external peel, wrap in tinfoil, sprinkle some salt, olive oil and thyme and bake for an hour. The garlic will turn into a paste which you can then squeeze and spread on fresh loaves of bread.


Yellow bell pepper with brown spots inside I bought an organic yellow bell pepper today. When I cut it open I found small brown spots inside. The outside looks fine. Is it safe to eat?

Same texture as the rest of the pepper?  ie not raised slimy etc? My guess is sunburn from it's earliest stages of development if from desert or frost if from temperate climes.

At any rate, I have eaten imperfect peppers all my life.


Temperature for making bone broth in slow cooker I've made bone broth with grass-fed beef bones a couple of times in regular stock pots. Yesterday I tried it in my Hamilton Beach 6-qt Stay or Go Slow Cooker after carefully preparing the ingredients - soaking, roasting vegetables and sitting with the vinegar before adding herbs and turning it on - at the low setting. Last night I noticed - after 7-8 hours - the water was boiling. Continued for 19 hours when (duh!) it occurred to me this could be WRONG!

I checked a number of Websites, many of which said bone broth should never be boiled b/c, among other things, it causes the fat to be reincorporated in the broth, without being possible to separate it and it could affect nutrients in the broth.  Other considerations: What about taste? I don't care if it's cloudy since it's for helping a family member with health issues - medicinal rather than show off culinary purposes.

I checked with Hamilton Beach folks who said the low setting is for 180 to 200 degrees, yet it boiled continuously. They also said it would turn off automatically after 14 hours; it didn't! I turned off crock pot and now seek advice re whether it's ruined or if 19 hours at the boil is enough cooking time or WHAT? Any feed back is greatly appreciated.

It's almost certainly not ruined, in the sense of being unsafe or undesirable to eat. A higher temperature can actually increase the extraction of collagen, which is generally desirable for stock/bone broth, though it could also damage some nutrients and more delicate flavors. Given the amount of collagen to be extracted from beef bones, a 19-hour cooking time is certainly not excessive, and you could probably go even longer.

The bigger concern is really with the slow-cooker. A noticeable boil, even just a few bubbles, indicates that the actual temperature is probably on the high end of the manufacturer's given range. If an automatic shutoff also didn't work, that might indicate a faulty component; it sounds to me like the heating element might not be shutting off appropriately to maintain an accurate temperature. That may make the appliance less safe to run unattended and will make its behavior less predictable whether you use it for broth again or something else.

Personally, I'd start looking for another slow cooker before you make another batch. But the batch you made should be safe and fine to consume, assuming it's been handled properly otherwise!


What temperature is the "warm" setting on a conventional oven? I'm making a rack of pork ribs and I want to try and cook them as low and slow as possible, with time not really being an issue. Just wondering if the warm setting is enough to do the trick. I'm cooking the ribs from frozen, with two cups of water in a covered pan and some liquid smoke.

The collagen in the ribs needs to get to a temperature of about 160 F to start breaking down into water and gelatin.  If your oven can be set as low as 175 or 180 F on a normal bake or convection bake setting that is probably a better alternative unless you have access to an oven thermometer and can measure what temperature the warm setting on your oven attains.


Why does fondue sometimes "curdle" and what can I do to prevent it? Once when I was making a pretty standard fondue (50% gruyere, 50% emmenthal, white wine) the cheese somehow "curdled" and became a mix of a slightly fondue-tasting liquid and a rubbery ball of cheese, completely useless for fondue purposes.

Why and how does this happen? Was it the quality of the cheese, did I overheat the wine before adding the cheese, or did I add too much/too little cheese at once?

Normally, you start adding the cheese when the wine is simmering and stir regularly as you add it. If necessary, you can add a tablespoon of corn starch dissolved in some white wine to homogenize the mixture.


BBQ Rib problem, need suggestions I have a pretty fail safe method for cooking BBQ baby back pork ribs at home.

make a rub and apply to ribs
wrap in aluminum foil
one hour at 325 in the oven
the reduce to 225 and cook for two more hours

Add BBQ sauce at the end and maybe back in the oven for ten more minutes.

Usually this yields excellent "fall off the bone" ribs. Last night however I did the exact same thing and the ribs were certainly not fall of the bone and a knife was needed. Too bad really because the rub was amazing. These ribs were more meaty than normal.

Is this a situation where the ribs need to actually cook longer? Further, could I put the leftovers back in the oven a day later and cook them longer to try and achieve the proper tenderness?

There are two things that will help here:

"Low and Slow"; drop your heat to 250°F for about 5-6 hours
and
Add a braising liquid, this will generate steam inside your aluminum foil pack.
Both of these will help to break down the meat to the desired 'falling of the bone' condition.

You can see a demonstration of this by Alton Brown at Foodnetwork.com

Alton provides both a good rub and braising liquid, but I prefer to use beer rather than wine in the liquid and have tried it with other recipes that follow the same 'basic formula'. Mt. Dew or Dr. Pepper are both good choices.


Is it safe to store batter/dough that contains eggs? I sometimes like to make a large batch of pancake butter or cornbread dough, and fry/bake it whenever I want some freshly made pancakes or cornbread. Both these liquids contain eggs. Is is safe to store them in the fridge, so long as they eventually get cooked? Nothing is being consumed raw here.

If so, how long can I reasonably store the batter/dough before things get iffy? I'm wondering about salmonella in particular.

Of course you can store them in the fridge. When things start to smell bad, you should toss it. From what I remember off hand, every pancake or cornbread batter recipe I've read says about a week is safe.