Basil Pesto Vinaigrette - what kind of vinegar? I have had this amazing pesto vinaigrette at a local restaurant recently, and I have been trying recreate it in my home quickly and easily. I know the best way to do it would be from scratch, but does anyone have suggestions on the type of vinegar to use to mix in with store-bought pesto?

I have tried about 3 TBS of pesto to 1 TBS of white wine vinegar. It has some of the similar taste, but what I am looking for is a bit sweeter and a little less acidic. I don't want to add too much more vinegar, because the consistency I am going for is pourable but not overly watery.

Any thoughts? Has anyone tried this with a different type of vinegar?

Or should I just ask the restaurant for their recipe?

They likely used white balsamic vinegar which is not cheap but has the kind of taste that sends people searching on the net ;) In character, it is sweeter than white wine, rice wine, and normal white vinegar and less acidic.

btw, you can easily make your awesome own pesto in your blender using fresh basil, pine nuts, and olive oil.  If you blanch the basil, it'll stay bright green and pretty for the life of it.


Is there a way to make pink peppercorns properly grindable in a pepper mill? Dried pink peppercorns are softer than their black and white cousins and have skins that come off easily. Consequently they clog up the grinding mechanism in my mill. If the setting is coarse enough for them to come out at all they come out whole or in very big pieces. Is there something I can do to them to prevent this from happening? If not, what is the best way to dispense them?

Honestly this isn't something I've thought about before, as when ever I've used pink peppercorns they've been mixed with black, green and white ones. Which I assume help's dry out the softer and wetter pink corns stopping the grinder from clogging.

Moving forward my first and main suggestion would be to treat it like any other spice, and use a pestle and mortar. Asides from definitely not clogging with this method, you will also have much greater control over how fine/coarse the result is.

Another possibility would be a spice grinder though, probably no use for small amounts.

On a side note:

Apparently pink peppercorns can affect persons who are allergic to tree nuts.

They are also deemed as a toxic by the FDA, although not at a life threatening level

https://nutgourmet.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/warning-pretty-pink-peppercorns-can-be-dangerous/


How much does a 2 1/2 square of graham crackers weigh I have a recipe that calls for 8 dozen 2  1/2 inch squares of graham crackers, since they no longer are 2 1/2 inches I would like to know how much this would weigh.

Oh, BTW they now measure 2 1/4 in squares.

It would help if you provide the recipe.  Generally, there are two treatments for graham cracker in baking/cooking: layering or crushing.

If this is a recipe where the crackers are layered, it certainly won't matter, as you can estimate.

If you need to crush them, you might need to be more precise.  I can't provide the weight, but I think I can offer another way to consider the problem.

I am assuming (perhaps erroneously, but it probably wouldn't matter all that much) that the thickness has not changed.

Thanks to @Chris H for correcting my first attempt (is there a way to change this answer to his? I'm happy to hand it off...)

8 dozen 2.5 inch cookies = 600 square inches

8 dozen 2.25 inch cookies = 486 square inches

You will need about 25% more, or another 22 of the smaller cookie.

I think that should get you in the ballpark.


What kind of cookie breaks easily into multiple pieces when dropped? Background:

I'm going to be running a science workshop for kids, where kids build a "ballistic reentry vehicle" out of a cardstock paper, holding cookies inside it.  The kids will be dropping the vehicle from a height of about 6ft.  The kids will be designing the box in such a way as to keep the cookies from breaking.

I'm looking for a type of cookie that breaks easily when dropped from such a height.  I'd prefer not to bake the cookies myself if I can avoid it.  I just need to know what kind of cookies I can buy from a store that are most likely to break apart into multiple pieces when dropped.  I imagine the cookies would have to be brittle, but I don't know what kinds of cookies tend to be the most brittle that would be readily/cheaply available in a store.  I think most cookies are made to retain their shape rather well, but I'm sure some types are more breakable than others.  I would prefer cookies that fracture and break apart into multiple pieces easily when dropped, not cookies that simply fracture or flake off the surface.

What kind of cookie breaks easily into multiple pieces when dropped?  If I had to bake the cookies myself, what would I have to do to ensure that they come out brittle and easily breakable?  Without buying and testing all kinds of cookies to find the the right kind, what properties of the cookie should I look for (e.g. ingredients, style of cookie, etc...) that increase the likelyhood of it being easily breakable?

See if you can find a cookie that is both thin and crisp -- the thinner the better. Minor damage will be more destructive on a thin cookie, while on a thicker one it would just cause some crumbing.

A tuile came immediately to mind as one that gets relatively fragile once it cools. They come in wafers or rolled into cigars. (Pepperidge Farm sells a version, Pirouette, that are filled with chocolate -- but filling might buffer the cookie too much.)
A pizzele can also be pretty breakable, but when I've seen them in commercial packaging they are a softer version.
A fortune cookie might be too robust to break on a six foot drop, depending on the angle of impact.

If you decide to make your own, do the opposite of advice to prevent crumbly cookies: use a "softer" flour (cake flour rather than all-purpose, which has less protein), use too much flour, use not enough fat, overbake, and use a dark cookie sheet. These cookies aren't likely to taste quite as good, though, so if your secondary goal is a tasty treat it might not work out!


How can I extract color from food ingredients that won't add flavor when making mocktails? I want to extract color from anything like flowers, fruits, powders, etc, to make a colorful mocktail to drink!

It's important that the produced color doesn't change the taste of the drink. (so less flavor is better).

My goal is to get colors like green and purple.

How can I do this?

It is basically impossible to do that in home conditions.

Assuming that you are starting with the whole vegetable (or fruit, or flower...), the closest you can do is to turn it to juice. Actual extraction is almost always futile - the solvents in the kitchen are limited to fat, water and alcohol. Fat is completely out of the equation, both because it won't extract much color and because it won't taste good in a cocktail, a water extract would be inferior to a juice (which is already water-based), and for alcohol extracts, look at traditional homemade liqueurs - besides getting a lot of taste along, you will also get colors in the brownish range. Pale pinks or yellows could be possible too.

The juice method will give you a decently colored liquid, but with the caveat that you won't be able to concentrate it or preserve it. So, if you want a green cocktail, you may have to mix it with equal parts spinach juice to get a good color. Also, you will face an unpleasant tradeoff between color and texture - the more you filter the juice, the paler your color. Also, expect a shelf life of minutes to hours before the juice starts browning.

If you are really OK with something industrially produced, such as the powders Megha mentioned, you can of course try them, but then again, you could just go for industrially extracted food coloring.


Vacuum sealing with a submerged ziplock vs home machine vs professional machine Typically I'll seal food for storage or sous-vide in a Ziplock bag, submerging it in water whilst closing the final inch to remove air.

How close to a machine seal is this, and is it worth worrying about both for storage and sous-vide?

Can salts be dissolved in the water or some other process to both increase the pressure of sealing and maintain a vat of water for longer without nasties growing in it?

With a ziplock under water, I feel goods without concavities seal perfectly and definitely don't crush the food. Plus of course liquids easily seal. Sealing soup bones however will have the plastic somewhat conform to the concave contours, but bridges are seen. Does the plastic somewhat stretch or bunch perfectly to the inner contours with a pro sealer?

For storage, the biggest issue is whether you have a high-quality thick plastic bag that will prevent oxygen incursion. Have a few small bubbles inside isn't a big deal, whether you use the water method or a vacuum. But cheaper/thinner bags will allow oxygen in over time, and your bag will start to separate from the food, and you'll start to see ice crystals.

For sous-vide, I'm not an expert, but I think the biggest issue is that air insulates the food and prevents it from attaining temperature quickly and evenly. I think people who do home low-temp cooking recommending having a sauce or fat in the bag along with your protein to reduce the issues with bubbles. I do know that professional chefs will use the ziploc-in-water technique at home, with good results.

I don't think adding anything to water will affect the density/pressure enough to matter.

And yes, professional vac machines don't have this problem.


Watery Russet Baked Potato I have tried cooking baked potatoes (Russets) using the Alton Brown recipe here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-baked-potato-recipe.html

For some reason they keep coming out very watery. I seem to get the same results even after cooking the potatoes for >3 hours at over 400F.

I am definitely poking >20 holes with a fork, as deep as I can.

Can someone explain what I am doing wrong?

If your oven is working correctly, it sounds like the potatoes are the culprit.  Try finding another store/source for your potatoes.  Also consider how you are storing your potatoes. Are they in a particularly humid environment?


Proper cook times for mushrooms, onions, and peppers One of my favorite meals is poached chicken cut into strips and stir fried with mushrooms, onions, and peppers and a bit of oil-based salad dressing for flavor.

However, most of the time I get the timing wrong and end up with over or undercooked veggies by the time the chicken is done cooking.

How long should I cook the mushrooms, onions, and peppers for? It seems to work best to add the onions first so that they cook down a little bit but I'm always guessing when to add the peppers and mushrooms to the skillet.

I am going to make the assumption that you're stir-frying in a really hot pan. The onions and peppers are going to take around 5-8 minutes to get good color but retain their snap.

I would cook the mushrooms separately - they're going to take a little longer 8-10 minutes, because they give off a bit of moisture.

So as you're poaching the chicken I would

Fry the onions/peppers - remove and keep warm
Fry Mushrooms
When the mushrooms are done, add everything else to pan to meld flavors.


Can cast iron with non-metal components be seasoned? I have a cast iron mortar and pestle, but only the interior is raw cast iron - the outside and part of the handle are enameled, and the majority of the handle is covered in some kind of hard rubber. Is there a way to season something like this, maybe at a lower temperature for a long period of time?

If not, what's the best way to care for this and keep it from rusting? If I just wipe it with oil after using it, it gets gunky pretty quickly.

Bonus question: any idea who made this? It has no brand identifier on it, and I bought it years ago.

Le Creuset say 450°F/230°C is the maximum temperature their enamelled cast-ironware will take. Other manufacturers seem to be sometimes lower, though that could be a handle/lid requirement rather than the enamel itself - see Why are most enameled cast iron dutch oven's only rated up to 400-450 F?

Your problem, assuming you season the mortar with a low-smoke-point oil is that your pestle is going to have to be carefully done over a flame. That handle is not going to survive in the oven. If it's silicone, then about 180°C is about all it can take… that's if you're certain it's silicone.

 I'm gonna have to edit that apostrophe out of the linked question, it's burning a hole in my OCD ;)


Chinese cooking troubleshooting: still biting into pieces of ginger I'm trying my hand at Chinese cooking.  I doctored a mung bean soup that otherwise turned out okay. I took the spices, veg, added them to stock, waited till boiling over medium heat then simmered away (standard method in Asian cooking...?)

The trouble's the ginger. I chopped up pieces of ginger pretty finely because I assumed that more surface area = more flavor released. However, I wound up wincing every two bites as I'd bite into the bits of ginger.  Not fun.

What to do?

I like using a microplane to very finely grate the ginger (that's easier to do if the ginger is frozen), or making a paste with the ginger in a food processor or blender. Just peel the ginger (you don't have to be perfect), cut it into chunks, add just enough water to get almost a baby food consistency and puree. Then you can stir-fry the puree to flavor the oil, add it to soup, add it to anything that you want, and use as much as you want but you'll never bite into a chunk, nor will you ever need to fish it out of anything. The ginger paste will last quite a while in the fridge and won't suffer a bit by being frozen for up to a year or so. Make the paste with half ginger and half garlic and you've got a great convenient ingredient for all kinds of applications.

EDIT: This question inspired me. I needed a housewarming gift for my new neighbor and landlord. When I freeze ginger/garlic paste for myself I have always just used ice cube trays, but for a gift a little cookie scoop worked great. I just scooped the paste, froze the little rounds on freezer paper, then packed them in Ziplocs.


Do lentils need to be soaked? Everything I have read says that you do not need to soak lentils like you would beans.  Unfortunately the last several times I have cooked lentils they have seemed a little chalky.

Should I be soaking my lentils before I cook them?

No, it's not necessary. You can do it, and if you'd soak them for about an hour, the cooking time will diminish strongly (half).

I'm not sure if this would affect the chalky taste.
Which kind of lentils do you use?


Effect of metal colander on jerky meat post-marinade I make a lot of beef jerky. I always marinade in for at least a day in a Ziploc bag. After marinade, I leave it in a colander for several hours to drain and speed up drying. The colander I've always used for this is just a cheap metal one from a garage sale. I know you're not supposed to marinate meat in a metal container, and lately have been wondering if the time in the colander is having any effect on my jerky. I've never noticed any metallic taste or discoloration. What are the odds the colander is effecting the jerky in some way?

Stainless steel, ceramics, and glass are considered "non-reactive" in the kitchen, while vessels made from aluminum, copper, iron, and steel are considered "reactive".  The latter category are reactive with acidic and alkaline foods (lemon and tomato, for example).  The result is that these foods can take on a metallic taste.

If you have not noticed any off-taste, you are probably using stainless.


How can I extract palm sugar from a container? I have a plastic tub with a screwtop lid, full of palm sugar.  It's a 500g tub, about 10cm high and about 10cm diameter.  Usually I buy the individual cubes of palm sugar and this time I thought I'd cut down on packaging and buy the bigger size, but now I have a problem.

My problem is getting the palm sugar OUT of the tub.

It's like cement, and I have tried using spoons (they bend), knives (ditto) and a corkscrew (just bores a hole rather than breaking it up) to get some of the sugar out.  Tonight I also tried sitting the tub in a bath of freshly boiled water (approx 90 degrees celcius), and sprinkling some over the surface of the sugar to try to soften it a little.  No success.

This question describes how to deal with a rockhard piece of sugar like mine, but without packaging.

Does anyone know how to get it out of the tub in the first place so that I can go ahead and grate it?

You could use the corkscrew in its classic role. Bore a hole, and then use the corkscrew to pull the sugar out in one piece.
You should probably lay the tub on its side for this, as the sugar weight is probably too much to stay on the corkscrew.

The other option, though rather extreme, is to cut away the plastic tub with wire cutters or shears. That way, you're peeling the tub away, and will be left with the same lump, but no tub.


Preparing soy milk at home How can I prepare soy milk at home? Is it as simple as: soak soy, then blend and strain the milk, or is some centrifuge technique used?

It is basically as simple as you say (soak, blend, strain) ... just that you should also boil it (for long enough - cca. 10 minutes) to get rid of the fresh bean (grassy) flavor (mainly caused by oxidation of polyunsaturated oils in the beans), together with some other unpleasant side effects of eating uncooked beans (like the infamous gas-producing effect of some oligosaccharides).

McGee, On Food & Cooking says:
The key to minimizing the development of beany flavor is to inactivate
the beans' enzymes quickly, before they have a chance to attack the
oils. This is done by soaking the beans to speed subsequent cooking,
and then immersing them in boiling water or pressure-cooking them.

There is a vast number of soy milk preparation instructions online ... this one has always worked really well for me: http://justhungry.com/milking-soy-bean-part-1-soy-milk with all steps and techniques described in detail, and you will also find some continuing posts on how to further turn it into tofu, if you wish so.
Depending on further processing steps and your personal preferences you might choose one recipe/preparation method over another, so I will not recommend any specifics, but in general this should set you on the right track.
p.s. I found that straining/squeezing through cheesecloth/cotton muslin/nut milk bag over a colander is a winning technique ... no need to go any fancier.


How does a pinch of salt make a difference to a recipe? Many recipes ask for a pinch of salt. How can such a small amount of salt make any difference to the taste of the recipe?

The simple answer is: people can taste (and smell, when the substance in question has a smell) substances in very low concentrations. A pinch of salt is not a small amount at all, it is a sufficient amount to be tasted.


Rack vs Baking Pan vs Roasting Pan and Position What are the differences in cooking in the oven between putting the food directly on the rack, putting it on a baking pan, and putting it in a roasting pan?

How does the existence of metal under the food affect the food vs rack? Do the higher sides of the roasting pan make a difference over a baking pan? Do different types of surface/material make a difference?

While we're at it, do these vary with position in the oven (top, middle, bottom rack)?

I'm recovering from a surgery and we ordered some freshly prepared meals. Directions for Eggplant Parm said to place in 350F oven for 15-20 minutes. We placed in a roasting pan in case it bubbled over and it took a good 40 minutes. I'm wondering if the pan was the cause or just that the directions were terrible. The oven was properly preheated and while I've never checked the temperature of it, we use it regularly and have never had the same issues with time variation.

A higher-sided pan can end up holding more moisture in near the food, and prevent it from cooking up quite as quickly than in a sheet pan.  This won't be as noticeable in a convection oven.

If something calls for placing it directly on the rack, it likely won't crisp up if you put it in a pan for this reason, as well as reflecting (shiny) or absorbing (dark metal) the radiant heat before it gets to the food.  Glass dishes will let the radiant heat through, so the bottom will brown a bit better, but there's still the moisture issue.

If by 'roasting pan' you mean a rack suspended above a pan, then it'll be a little between the two -- you won't have the food necessarily steam underneath as much, but you still have a pan there to deflect radiant heat.

As for location in the oven, it'll often affect how quickly the top of the food cooks vs. the bottom.  (closer to the top element means the top will cook more quickly)


Pork: sirloin vs tenderloin. Which one is most tender? What is the difference between pork sirloin and port tenderloin?

I usually buy center cut pork chops and may buy one due to the sale price this week.

Preparation is key, as with most meals. The difference (in tenderness) between a pork sirloin and a pork tenderloin is relatively minor but the tenderloin is generally more tender (as the name implies). In this diagram you can see that they are adjoining cuts from the same primal cut (the Loin). Once you start preparing these cuts the final dish may result in sirloin that has been rendered more tender than the tenderloin. A slow-roasted sirloin may end up 'more tender' than braised tenderloin.


How can I replicate the flavor of Mountain Dew? Mountain Dew is often described as 'citrus' flavor but that is a broad range of fruits with infinite possible combinations. It does have orange juice in the ingredients, but also "natural flavor". How can I recreate the flavor of Mountain Dew using ingredients available to me, such as fruit juices, with no added sugar or caffeine?

OK, this is dangerously close to a recipe request, but far enough away that I feel OK to answer.

Use the rule of two.

2 cups of sugar
2 two oranges
2 limes
2 lemons

Juice and zest the whole fruit.

Strain and and fill to 1 gallon with water. Filter if you want it to be clear.

Carbonate using whatever technique you normally use whether that's a Cornelius keg or soda stream.


Regarding Connecticut style steamed burgers - is the container necessary? To my knowledge, Connecticut style steamed burgers are only found commercially in Connecticut, but thanks to the Internet, they have become a kind of thing elsewhere.

If you don't know what they are, here's a video that shows one of the burger joints making the burgers:

Ted's Burgers

Basically they stuff the ground beef into miniature loaf pans which then go into the steamer. They do the cheese the same way, separately.

America's Test Kitchen (sorry, paywalled) has published a recipe that just puts the burgers straight on the steamer:

I plan to use washed out tuna cans for the cheese because the pouring of the cheese is pretty cool. But is there any good reason to open two more cans of tuna for the burgers themselves? I kind of don't see the point, but I don't want to miss any of this bizarre experience.

The cheese needs a container such as the tuna can so it doesn't just ooze everywhere, but the burger does not. You could steam the burger by just placing it in your steam tray. Since it's solid, it won't go anywhere!


How does salmonella get into eggs? Since a few hundred million eggs have been recalled, I'm wondering how salmonella gets into eggs in the first place.
Is it getting on the shells from the environment (or the hen)? Is it inside the egg?

This is mostly a curiosity/science question, so please don't take it as fear mongering, FUD, or any such non-sense. I realize that many eggs are perfectly safe.

There are two basic mechanisms:

the salmonella is on the shell and when the egg gets broken the interior gets contaminated; or
the chicken's reproductive system is contaminated and lays an egg with contaminated interior.

To reduce the very common (a few percent) shell contamination, eggs sold commercially have their shells treated (typically washed). After washing only about 50 in every million eggs will still have some shell contamination. The shell contamination may have been there when the chicken laid the egg, from fecal matter, or as a result of plant processing.

In some rare cases the surface salmonella can make it to the inside without breaking the egg: if it was there while the cuticle dried, if the egg is stored at room temperature, or if the environment is moist.


How to efficiently separate bad from good pomegranate arils? I've read about various techniques to get arils out of a pomegranate, including from this StackExchange site ( e.g. how to peel a pomegranate efficiently? ), but a problem that continues to vex me is the "bad" arils: those that are mushy and turning various shades of brown, and are unappealing both visually and to taste. I find them in nearly every pomegranate I take apart - it's been truly rare that I've ever taken apart a pomegranate without at least a few of them.

Is there any efficient way to separate these bad arils from the good? They appear to sink in water along with the good arils, so floatation-based separation in water doesn't seem to work, unlike with the pith.

In the absence of any better technique, I've just been separating by visual discrimination, which adds to the tedium of the aril extraction, and certainly doesn't feel efficient.

I always cut the skin along the ridges as described in this answer to your referenced question. This has the advantage of breaking the individual segments out of the fruit mostly undamaged (with all arils still in place).

Once you've broken loose a segment, it's easy to seperate the arils from the white flesh by gently brushing your fingers over them. If there are any bad arils around, you can either leave them in the segment by not brushing them loose or you can dispose them into a seperate container.


Is this canned Asparagus any good? What are the odd sprouts at the ends of them? Exp date is good.

I've seen this frequently now.  I usually just cut off the ends and eat it anyway.

The opening up is not really a sign of spoilage.  With Asparagus, what we are eating is really only the sprout.  The actual plant if allowed to grow is a branched plant like a fern.  They canned some that were starting to open up, a bit older than really should be picked.

So yes, the entire asparagus is safe to eat.


Substitute instant coffee for brewed black coffee If I need to substitute 2tbsp of instant coffee for brewed black coffee, how much should I put in/ how much of the other liquids should I take out to compensate?

Why not just prepare it based on the instructions on the package (add water, mix), and then use it exactly like you would the normal coffee?

EDIT:

You mention in the comments that you actually need it the other way around (replace instant coffee with brewed). I was at the store recently so I took a look at instant coffee and all of them recommended between 1 and 2 teaspoons of instant coffee powder to 6 oz. of water (3/4 cup). So for 2 tbsp of instant coffee you'd need 4 1/2 to 9 cups of coffee to replace it (depending on how strong you want the coffee flavor to be).

If there's not that much water in the recipe already, it's probably why it uses the powdered version and I'm not sure there's anything you can do.


How long should chia seeds soak? I am new to use chia seeds.
   I soaked them in water for about an hour and there was no significant difference in the size.

As per websites it could grow like 12 times the original size.

How much time does it need to be at its maximum size?

I usually let it soak overnight, though it isn't necessary to soak that long. You should soak it till it forms a paste/gel like consistency and it would take at least  2-3 hours, though this website claims under ten minutes (time might vary depending on the batch of the seeds). You could also soak it in any juice or fruit extract as well.

Additionally, you can also use it in its raw form without soaking, the way one would use poppy/sesame seeds.


Can mushrooms be re-heated safely? What happens inside mushrooms when you reheat them?

Is it always unsafe to reheat them or is there something you can do to safely reheat them?

In France, white button mushrooms are called champignons.  Before refrigeration was common, books suggested not to keep cooked mushrooms or reheat them, because undercooked mushrooms would quickly spoil.  If you cooked them and later keep them in the refrigerator, it is safe to reheat mushrooms.  Treat mushrooms as you would treat meat.

Mushrooms are mainly water, so they reheat well in the microwave.  Do it on low power. Depending on the cooking technique, the texture may change by using high power.


How to cook and store fresh okara for safe consumption? I just made soy milk for the first time in my slow juicer and want to utilize the leftover okara. I've heard that without cooking it and breaking down the enzymes, okara can be toxic to consume. I juiced the soybeans before boiling the milk, so the okara hasn't been exposed to heat yet. Apparently you're supposed to cook it down for 25 minutes or so.

I want to cook the batch and store it in the freezer so I can easily add it to meals later. What is the best method for cooking down okara that you're not ready to eat yet? Steam? Boil into a mesh? I live in a student flat and unfortunately do not have a stove, only a stovetop burner, so I cannot dehydrate it.

Much thanks!

I have never heard that uncooked okara is toxic to consume, so I don't know about that part, but you could try dry roasting it in a pan until it is dry and golden brown, that would cook it and also dry it out for storing. I have made muffins and brownies with okara with success (more or less), and I've also added it to scrambled eggs for a bit of protein boost.


Microwave rice cooker vs low-end electric rice cookers So, at my parents home we had a two part microwave rice cooker which created relatively dry rice in my experience (though I only used it myself a couple of time), but I actually like it better than traditionally boiled rice on a stove (which in my experience turns out quite wet-ish no matter how you make it).  Now, I am not a huge fan of rice either way, so I am not planning on investing much into a rice cooker, but I was wondering what advantages a low end electric rice cooker would give as all comparisons I was able to find were comparing electric rice cookers to traditional boiling methods.

I never used a microwave rice cooker but if you are getting dry rice then it's a matter of the amount of water used. The same goes for electric rice cooker, if you don't like wet-ish rice then use less water.

The main drawback of the microwave cooker is you can't use the microwave while making your rice.

Electric rice cooker can keep warm, you can turn it on and come back the next morning if you want to (a decent model).
Some have time counters, clocks and other similar features.
The rice never sticks since it is a non-stick pan.
You can most likely make more rice with a rice cooker than the microwave container (googled an image).

Also when you have guests, some people might not like the idea of rice made in a microwave even though it might taste and look the same. Some rice cookers also comes with steam baskets so when cooking the rice you can steam veggies at the same time. A rice cooker can also be used to cook other stuff as well.


Does freezing non-freezable liquids affect life span I've created my own sauce, bagged it and left in the freezer for many days. It is still not frozen stiff (details to follow). I'm struggling to know how to phrase this question but, I'm concerned that since it's not frozen stiff that it's life is therefore reduced.

My freezer is to -18°C.

The ingredients are 300ml water, 100ml white wine vinegar, 2tsp tomato sauce, 2tsp plum sauce, 120g sugar and 2tsp corn flour.

I've Googled freezing white wine vinegar and corn flour to see if these prevent freezing (due to the alcohol in the vinegar and it was just a guess to search for corn flour) but my searches provided no answers.

So, my 2 questions are why does this mixture not freeze and does it affect the life it can remain in the freezer because it's not frozen or is the fact it's still in the very cold environment (-18°C) the thing which means it's safe for a month or two?

Most sauces do freeze solid, but it is the temperature, not the solidity, that matters for food safety.

The hardiest bacteria, temperature-wise, are psychrophiles and can grow in temperatures as low as -15° C. Since they can't grow in temperatures above 10° C, they are very rarely found in food, but if your freezer is actually at -18° C (and you've verified this with a thermometer) then the food is quite safe.

Practically speaking, most of the common foodborne bacteria are mesophiles (Salmonella, E.coli, etc.) and don't grow well below 20° C. It's impossible for any of these to grow at even a "warm" freezer temperature.

Bottom line: Check your freezer temperature (and, if you're really paranoid, the food) with a thermometer to make sure it's working properly, but otherwise, don't worry about it.

P.S. Vinegar lowers the freezing point slightly, but more importantly, sugar causes the other liquids to freeze into much smaller crystals, which may give the appearance of not really being frozen (think of "soft" ice cream). Plum sauce also tends to contain various gums such as xanthan gum as thickeners, which are also used to keep commercial ice cream soft.


What is the difference between sour cream & butter in baked goods? I'm a little unsure what the difference is between the two. I found a banana bread recipe that specifically called for the use of sour cream for the batter as opposed to butter; the same applied when I looked for other recipes for banana bread.

Is there a difference between the two? How does sour cream affect the baked good as opposed to butter? Is there a difference or is it simply just to make the flavor richer, which is what I'm guessing the reason for adding it is in for.

The difference is that they're two completely different ingredients and serve different purposes.

Butter is 81 grams fat per 100 grams - or about 80% fat.

Sour cream is only 20 grams fat per 100 grams - about 20%.

In a quick bread like banana bread, recipes often call for fat in the form of oil, not butter, which is almost pure fat. Either way, these recipes need to add moisture (much like a cake batter) and sour cream has lots of moisture and, additionally, adds a slight tang. So, recipes usually call for a combination of butter or oil and some sort of wet ingredient like sour cream, milk, yogurt or buttermilk.

The more appropriate substitution comparisons would be either:

Why butter vs oil?
Why sour cream vs yogurt vs milk vs buttermilk?

From Baking Illustrated Banana Bread, page 23:

  We still wanted more moisture in the bread, so we tried mixing in milk, buttermilk, sour cream, and plain yogurt. Sour cream added richness to our bread, but it also made for a heavy texture and an unattractive, pebbly crust. Milk added little flavor and created a slick crust. Buttermilk added a delightful tang, but yogurt let the banana flavor stand out. And because yogurt has more solids than buttermilk, it made for a somewhat more solid loaf, which we preferred.

As a note, their final recipe uses both melted butter and yogurt.


How is south african paprika different from Hungarian paprika? I am planning to make a spice blend, and the recipe I am using calls for south african paprika.  Stores near me only have Hungarian paprika.  How different are the flavors between these two varieties of paprika?

The variety of the original pepper might be slightly different giving out different result when dried and ground up.

There might be a difference in spiciness.
There might be a difference in smokiness (if the paprika is smoked).

Hard to tell.

Just try it and report back.


In which kind of food items can Asafoetida be used? I have heard about the medical benefits of Asafoetida.

I used it once in Brinjals (which while cooking contained only Ginger powder, Fennel powder, salt and red chilli powder). The addition of Asafoetida resulted in the diluted flavor of the remaining spices in Brinjal curry.

In which kind of foods does it make sense to use Asafoetida?

I have only seen it used in dahl dishes, presumably because of it's claimed digestive properties. Asafoetida is incredibly pungent; anything more than a pinch seems too much and unpleasant.

I think of it as a flavour-enhancer, a natural, Indian MSG rather than a spice in the normal sense. It makes your mouth water quite intensely and seems to stimulate the savory tatse buds (umami). This is lovely when done subtley and kept in the background.

Therefore, I suspect you could add small pinches to all kinds of savoury food.


How long will spaghetti and meat sauce last in the refrigerator? Today, I accidentally forgot that I had brought my lunch in - leftover spaghetti noodles and a meat sauce (sauce from a jar, meat cooked fresh and added to the sauce) that we had last night. They are in separate containers.

I'm going on an anniversary trip with my wife this weekend, so this lunch will be left in the office fridge for the next three days - one of which is a work day where people will be putting things in and taking things out of the fridge, but I won't be there.

Will my spaghetti and meat sauce lunch, that was cooked on Thursday, put in the company fridge Friday (today), and will be left in there until Tuesday (four days) still be safe to eat?  Or should I toss it when I get back?

Sauce = 5 days

Meat (Left Overs) = 3 or 4 days

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-long-foods-stay-fresh-in-fridge/


Name the vegetable from Nilgiri hills I bought this in Ooty market and was told that it is a Nilgiri hills specific vegetable. It is pink on the outside and white inside with two hard black seeds in the upper half of it. It tastes sour, very similar to unripe strawberry.

Now, I'd like to know what the name of this vegetable is and whether it can be used in any dishes. Until know, I've been eating it as a snack, just like I would any other bite sized food.

I think it is a fruit called Chambakka.

There are a few recipes for chambakka achaar, which means pickled chambakka.

But I would try this chambakka jelly recipe. It looks delicious!


Can I substitute Molasses for Honey in Baking Recipes? Can I substitute one for the other in baking recipes?

Yes, you can substitute molasses for honey.  They're going to function essentially the same measure for measure since they are both syrups.

Keep in mind however there will be a difference in flavor (not necessarily bad, just different...which would be the case for one honey over another...different tastes).


How can I safely reuse tea? I regularly reuse my tea bags, sometimes over as much as a five hour span.

I am sure that there are limits to the safe re-use of tea, but I can't find any USDA or other authoritative guidance.

What are reasonable precautions I can take to ensure that I am not putting myself at risk for foodborne illness?

Please provide evidence-based answers, not anecdotal reports.  I don't mind if the answers are somewhat speculative based on evidence from analogous food preparations.

The issue here is how long do you steep the tea, at what temperature, and under what conditions do you store the used tea bags? The reason "sun tea" has been discouraged has been because of the likelihood that the tea leaves that are in the bags are contaminated with bacteria such that a long soak in luke-warm water such as that of the "sun tea" causes them to multiply to the extent that they become a serious health risk. Tea leaves are not typically pasteurized during their processing, and may carry viable bacteria and/ or bacterial spores.
If you were to soak the tea bag in warm water not hot enough to get a good bacterial kill initially, there may be enough viable bacteria in the tea leaves to grow during that 5 hour interval such that the next cup may be seriously dangerous (some may divide every 15 minutes, for example). However, if you were to adequately kill the bacteria and spores off by a nice hot soak (for this example, you would need to use a pressure cooker since some bacterial spores are not even killed by boiling water at atmospheric pressure), refrigerate the tea bag afterwards, and then reuse it 5 hours later it would likely be perfectly fine.
I think the final answer to your question comes down to your own personal risk tolerance and the conditions above. If you brew in luke-warm water or for a very brief time and then leave the bags out at room temperature you are just asking for trouble and eventually you may hit the loaded chamber in your own personal Russian roulette game.
For empiric answers, take your particular brewing temperature and time and compare it to the USDA tables for pasteurization. Then, look up the growth curves for the major pathogens at your storage temperature and figure out how many would likely be present after 5 hours (20 generations at 15 minutes per generation or 2^20 times more bacteria than viable after the brewing event at the end of the storage interval).


Seasoning refuses to stick to carbon steel pan. Tried various techniques Please before you mark this as a dupe, I did refer to this stackexchange question.

I have a Matfer carbon steel that won't hold seasoning at all.

I first attempted the Cooks Illustrated flaxseed oil technique.

I was very careful to follow the instructions carefully.     I got a nice root-beer colored seasoning that looked tough but food stuck to it like there was no seasoning at all and it came right off.

I redid this several times, each time I:

made sure each coat was very very very thin, wiped all but the sheen off
baked the pan for a full hour each coat at 500F with full hour cool-down
ensured each coat was not tacky
applied 5 to 10 coats
used very fresh pure flaxseed oil
Completely cleaned the pan of seasoning between attempts with ovencleaner and scotchbrite

All very time consuming and ultimately ended in failure.

I also referred to this article and followed the tips there.

I additionally followed everything on this stackexchange article.

I just can't get this to work.   I also tried a traditional seasoning.   That doesn't stay either.

I use wooden utensils.   The food just sticks and pulls the seasoning right off. I don't ever wash the pan.

One other thing I've noticed - on subsequent seasonings, no matter how thin I have the flaxseed oil on the pan, at the end of a baking cycle, it appears to pull together into little droplets.   Even with the oil practically wiped off the pan with just a nanometer thick coating.   I'm wondering if the oven cleaner messed up the pan or something.  It didn't do this when I first had the pan (though the seasoning still was a failure)

Any ideas?   I'm about ready to send this pan to goodwill.

Note I have no problem keeping seasoning on a lodge cast iron pan.

Before you go scouring your pan with steel wool.

When you said you followed the instructions, did you follow the manufacturer's instructions, or some other website?

Because although random websites might have good advice on building up the seasoning, they don't know how the pan was treated by the manufacturer, and what needs to be done to remove the protective layer that they put on it.

As you said this is a Mafter, their instructions are on the warranty page:

  Black Steel Frypan Seasoning

  Before the first use – Place the frying pan under hot running water for a few minutes, to remove what remains of the protection layer, with a brush if necessary. Dry the frying pan, then fry in a portion of oil, slices of sprinkled potatoes, and large portion of salt for a few minutes. Discard contents, then briefly reheat frying pan with a little oil, remove from heat and wipe with paper.

  After use - Wipe with paper or if necessary rinse under hot running water. Clean without dish washing liquid. Dry and re-grease lightly.

  Pan and Blue steel Preparation

  Do not use pans or new molds before under going preliminary treatment. Pans and molds must be warmed in a temperature of 230º F to allow a good hot cleaning with a cloth. After they have been cleaned with a cloth, they are put back in the oven, one of two times more, until the cloth has very little soil left. Then the pans or molds are greased with vegetable oil of quality and subjected to a temperature of 390 degrees F for two hours. You have to clean them a second time with a cloth, then grease them. Now they are ready for use. The greasing must be repeated before each use.

  Reminders

  The blue steel molds are sensitive to dampness. Do not stock in a humid environment, such as a cold room. You must clean with a dry cloth. DO NOT use an abrasive sponge, it could damage the upper coat of metal, which would lose its properties. Washing is not recommended, however, if a wash is done, you have to dry and grease the molds or pans immediately according to the process described above.


Does heat distribution vary between uncoated stainless steel pans and non-stick pans? The refrain about non-stick cookware being easy to scratch is well-known, but setting that aside, can the choice between those two types of pans change the end quality of your food?

Are the two types of cookware better at different things? For example, does one conduct heat in a way which makes it easier to sear things, while the other one is better for stir frying? Are there times when I should deliberately reach for either uncoated stainless steel or non-stick pans to get different jobs done?

Non-stick pans have a coating on top of metal, this metal could be aluminum, stainless steel, copper, or any  other metal or alloy. The coating doesn't make a whole lot of difference to the heat distribution, that is the property of the metal underneath it.

Heat distribution doesn't change the end quality of your food, it determines how quickly heat spreads through the metal of the pan. What determines the quality of your end result is your technique in using the combined properties of your heat source and your equipment to cook food well. You can make great food with the most basic of equipment if you know how.

The type of range you have should have a big influence on your pan choice. I cook on gas which produces a nice, steady heat which I can control very finely, I prefer using a set of inexpensive non-stick aluminum pans as they are light and heat up quickly. I can keep the pan at a steady heat by adjusting the flow of gas. If I (god forbid) had an electric stove I would opt for stainless steel or cast-iron instead because these materials even out the fluctuations in heat from the on-again-off-again nature of electric heating elements.


Sauce bubbling out of jar I successfully canned one batch of roasted red pepper pasta sauce but had to step away from the kitchen for a half hour. When I came back the sauce was still warm so I heated it a bit more while I boiled my next set of jars. Everything looked good going into the water bath canner, but when I started to pull them out sauce started bubbling out of the jars. Did I somehow ruin the sauce by letting it cool then reheat? Can I somehow save it and re-can or should I bag and freeze it. Thanks all.

A few questions to consider:

Were you following a recipe that used an additional acid (like citric acid or lemon juice) in addition to tomatoes and peppers?
Does your recipe include significant amounts of garlic or onion?
Does your recipe specifically call for water bath canning?
How many years old is your recipe?

The reason I ask these questions is that most modern-day tomatoes grown for conventional stores do not have the PH levels that our grandmother's tomatoes did, making most canning recipes for tomato sauces unsafe for traditional water-bath canning methods, unless you are adding an acid like lemon juice or citric acid.

Likewise, large amounts of garlic or onion will also affect the PH in a way that makes them less safe for water bath canning.

I tend to agree that your bubbling is likely from over-filling the jars.

To be absolutely sure and on the safe side, boil the sauce from those jars again - bring to a boil, then simmer for 10-12 mins., then can again, leaving approx. 3/4" minimum of headspace at the top of your jars.

I wouldn't recommend leaving the cans as-is that bubbled over, as it indicates the seal is broken or a strong, clean seal was not created in the first place.

Good luck with your canning adventures!


What is the bright red ingredient in Japanese chicken curry katsu? I have had chicken curry katsu at different restaurants in different countries, and there is always a diced bright red ingredient, the color of a tomato, put on like a garnish. Some told me it was a red pepper, others a variety of carrot. I could not ascertain the flavor from eating a small bit of just that.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Curry_rice_by_Hyougushi_in_Kyoto.jpg

This picture seems to have it hiding in the back behind the rice, and I alway have seen it served in a pile in the corner, although I often have seen it chopped into smaller bits.

Does anyone know what ingredient is used? Is that intended as a garnish not to be eaten?

This appears to be a Japanese pickle mixture, made with daikon radish amount other things, called Furkujinzuke.

  Fukujinzuke is a mixture of Japanese radish (daikon), lotus root, cucumber and eggplant which are preserved in a soya sauce and sweet cooking wine (mirin) base. The sweet brown or red relish is served as a garnish to Japanese curry (kare raisu).

Source: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2349.html


Can I re-can a batch of salsa that is missing an ingredient? At the end of last summer we made up a huge batch of salsa and successfully canned it (approximately 8 months ago).  My wonderful hubby finished it when I was at work. Now I opened a jar and realized it is bitter and he forgot to add the sugar after cooking it and before sealing the jars. Is it safe to reopen and add the ingredient from my recipe and re-can them after this much time?  They were all successfully sealed and I was hoping to not have to doctor each jar after opening it before consuming. Thanks for your help.

The conservative answer is that you should only do canning based on an approved, known to be safe recipe from a reputable source such as a university extension or a safety agency.

Having canned the salsa without the sugar, you have deviated from such a trusted recipe, and so the contents of the jars has to be considered at risk, as the sugar may have been a part of the reason the contents was safe or required less processing time than it otherwise might have (sugar in solution reduces the biological availability of the water).

This is especially true if the salsa was not made to have a pH of less than 4.6, to qualify as a an acid food.

Therefore, you should not adjust and re-process as the major ingredient may contain toxin.

Please see the information at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.


How to cook baby octopus? I bought some marinated baby octopus that I am cooking for dinner in about 2 hours. This is the first time that I ever bought it and have no idea how to cook it. The instructions on the packet, just say light pan fry or grill but doesn't say for how long. Can someone please help me with tips to cook baby octopus? Is the head edible or do I chop it off?

This recipe for Grilled Baby Octopus has instructions for cleaning them.  You can either cut off the heads, or if you choose to retain them:

  Make a shallow cut along the head, being careful not to cut too deep
  and puncture the innards. Carefully but firmly pull out everything
  inside. Cut the head off, turn it inside out and use a knife to scrape
  away the innards.

  In both cases, if a small black, triangular beak does not come out
  along with everything else, then push your finger up through the
  middle of the body and the beak should pop out.

As explained in this question, you will want to cook octopus very briefly so it does not get rubbery, or for a long time, to move past the rubbery stage.  If, as mentioned in the question, you wish to fry them, the cooking time may be around one minute.  Some recipes suggest 2-3 minutes per side.

For specific recipes, you can google "baby octopus recipe".


When changing recipe size, do I proportionally change bake time? I'm making chocolate cupcakes and halving the recipe. Do I halve the baking time as well? I'm not changing pans, it's a normal cupcake tin.

Baking times are based on the size of what's in the oven. If making 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 or 48 cupcakes of the same size, you bake them the same time, as each one "sees" the oven the same way or has the same volume/thickness from the outside where the heat is to the center.

If making mini-cupcakes or giant cupcakes, or baking a cake using a cupcake recipe, the baking time needs to change with the size of what goes into the oven full of batter, as there is more or less batter to be cooked through from the outside edge and bottom/top of the pan.


How can I tell the difference between instant yeast and active dry yeast? I have a jar containing yeast but I'm not sure whether it is instant or active dry. Is there any way to tell the difference?
Thanks.

You can't really tell by looking, at least not without a known sample of the same brand.

The good news is that they are usually interchangeable 1:1. Make a recipe you know well. Does it rise as you expect? Or does it take more or less time? That will most likely give you your answer.

If the dough behaves as usual, it's a good bet that you have what you usually have to make that bread. If it rises fast, it's instant yeast. If it's slower, it's active dry. For the majority of loaves, the only difference you're likely to notice is the time it takes to rise and proof.

Joe says his answer, "When it doubt, treat it as active dry yeast, and proof it first", he's absolutely right if your recipe calls for proofing active dry yeast (not all do). If the proofing seems more vigorous than usual, that's a hint that it is instant. Get it into the dough right away, don't dilly dally while your yeast expending its life force.

King Arthur Flour gets into potential substitutions more detail. One thing they noted is worth mentioning here:

  One time when you might not want to use instant and active dry yeasts interchangeably is when you're baking bread in a bread machine. Since bread machines use a higher temperature to raise dough, substituting instant for active dry yeast 1:1 may cause bread to over-rise, then collapse. When baking in the bread machine, and substituting instant yeast for active dry, reduce the amount of instant yeast by 25%.

So if you do both bread machine and traditional bread making, you might want to do a traditional loaf first using your unknown yeast.


Making Fudge or Candy While it is Raining or Snowing I've heard and old wives tales that when you try to make fudge or candy when it's raining or snowing outside that the fudge or candy will not set.

What is the truth behind this tale? If it is true, how do you make fudge or candy on days that it is raining or snowing?

It's not an old wives tale; it's actually true to a point. I can't say it better than Exploratorium, Science of Cooking

Can weather affect candy making?
Oddly enough, it can. Cooking candy syrup to the desired temperature means achieving a certain ratio of sugar to moisture in the candy. On a humid day, once the candy has cooled to the point where it is no longer evaporating moisture into the air, it can actually start reabsorbing moisture from the air. This can make the resulting candy softer than it is supposed to be.
That’s why dry days are recommended for candy making, although the effects of humidity can be somewhat counterbalanced by cooking the candy to the upper end of the appropriate temperature stage.
Cool weather is also recommended for candy making, because—generally—the faster candy cools, the less chance it has to form unwanted crystals.
At The Fudge House on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, they like to make fudge on cool days for another reason: According to owner and candy maker Tom Lowe, people eat more fudge when it’s cooler.

Huge commercial operations are in humidity controlled buildings, but you can get home dehumidifiers too. Perhaps one in the kitchen could help.


What Kinds of Recipes Should I Sift/Aerate The Flour? We've talked about methods for sifting flour (How can I make sifting easier?), and the purposes of sifting (What is the purpose of sifting dry ingredients?).

How can I tell whether a recipe specifies sifting for aeration?  How can I tell when to bust out the food processor?  In what kinds of recipes will I see a better result by fluffing those dry ingredients?

For example, when I make cookies, I do just whisk the flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl, and they turn out just fine.

Generally sifting is really only necessary when you are dealing with an ingredient that clumps a lot (cocoa powder, cake flour, and baking soda come to mind).  For the average cookie or quick bread recipe, whisking these ingredients in a bowl before adding the wet ingredients will usually do the trick.

Any recipe that requires aeration of the batter (Creaming method, sponge cake method, etc), it definitely helps to get out the sieve and give the dry ingredients a good sifting.  With the ingredients listed above, you will definitely noticed clumps in your final product or a denser texture.  When it doubt, it never hurts to sift.  I recommend using a small sifter with a handle for small batch recipes over a piece of wax/parchment paper.


Can oatmeal be cooked in rice milk in a regular oven and pan? I usually cook a big portion of oatmeal in a big plastic bowl with 1 liter of rice milk at 600W for 5-7 minutes in a microwave oven. however, I don't have one at my disposal at the moment.
Can the same process be done in a regular oven? If so, at what temperature? For how long?
Maybe I should use water instead or rice milk?

Yep, you can make oatmeal in the oven. Mine turned out just fine, quite good in fact.

I used a small casserole dish with a lid in a 350F (180C) oven.

I heated 1 cup each of water and milk with a dash of salt in the covered casserole dish for 20 minutes which brought the liquid nearly to a boil. I stirred in 1 cup of old-fashioned oats (not quick-cooking), replaced the lid, and baked without stirring for 20 minutes.
So a 1:2 ratio of oats to nearly boiling liquid.
It is as good as any oatmeal I've ever made. Rice milk should work just as well, I'd go half and half with water the first time you do it, and definitely use a pot or dish (ovenproof, of course) with a tight-fitting lid.
See Is there an easy way to tell if a pan/pot is oven-safe? for advice concerning the cooking vessel. You can be pretty relaxed about any pan that is meant for stovetop use for this application because most modern cookware is made to withstand 350F (180C) easily - even non-stick surfaces or handles.


How to get those professional looking peaks on top of tiramisu? Most tiramisu-recipes end with the last layer of mascarpone mixture spread on the last layer of lady fingers/sponge cake (and some chocolate powder on top). So you have a flat surface.
I've seen pictures of tiramisu with a bumpy surface, like small peaks (picture of what I mean).

I want to replicate the peaks, but I'm not sure how to do this.
I already tried to form them when the last layer of mascarpone mixture was on top, but this didn't turn out well.
My next attempt will be with a piping bag. And the one after that will be with cold mascarpone mixture, so it's a bit more firm.

However, I'm not sure any of those will work, so in advance of making two batches of tiramisu, I'm asking if anyone knows how to form the peaks, or if anyone knows that my two next attempts will fail.

I've seen also this question, but I don't think that would help me. If you think otherwise, please say so.

You probably wont be able to get that exact result with a pastry bag because the almost perfect square grid they are divided into. I still think a pastry bag will be your best bet.

I am not sure were you got that picture but my guess is that the tiramisu was machine made and the marks and peaks are from the tooling that was made for the machine to deliver the mascarpone topping.

I would try a good sized round tip on a pastry bag and make my dot and slowly raise up and cut it off by stopping the pressure on the bag and pulling straight up.  It has worked for me in the past.

My background is not in pastry though so you may also just go to a local bakery or wedding cake designer and ask how they would do it.  They will probably tell you.


What oils are "required" for a decent home kitchen? What different varieties of oil are really needed in a decent home kitchen?

I ask because I've only two right now (olive & sunflower) that I try to use "correctly" but sometimes use interchangeably. I wonder what I'm missing.

At a bare minimum, you'll want at least one "flavoured" and one "unflavoured" oil.

Olive oil is definitely the most common choice for a flavoured oil, and sunflower/peanut/canola oil all have pretty neutral flavours (not to mention similar smoke points).

Note that for good flavour you'll want extra virgin olive oil, which also makes it unsuitable for frying/sautéing at high temperatures.

So I would say that you already have the minimum requirement.  That said, even the "unflavoured" oils have subtly different flavour characteristics due to their different fat contents, and you'll want to take this into consideration if you like to cook in ethnic cuisines.  A short list (and keep in mind that this is partially subjective):

Peanut oil: Asian cuisine, Mexican cuisine (high-temperature frying)
Sesame oil: Asian cuisine (stir-fry or deep-fry [refined only])
Olive oil: Italian cuisine, French cuisine (low-temp)
Sunflower or Canola oil: American cuisine, esp. deep-frying
Grape seed oil: Decent substitute for any of the other oils
Walnut/almond oil: Great for fried desserts (watch the smoke point though).


What makes a torpedo roll unique In New York I've had assorted sandwiches on "Torpedo rolls". They are quite unique in flavor and texture unto themselves.  I am a hobbyist baker and can't seem to figure them out. Anyone know what technique or ingredient makes them what they are?

In the midwest we have a few restaurant chains that serve torpedo sandwiches, aka gondolas---if they're similar to what you describe, they use sugar in the dough. You can find Avanti's bread recipes online; my family usually adds more sugar than what's called for.


Can you make caramel with evaporated milk? So I love cooked sweetened condensed milk (caramel, dulce de leche, all that).  It's really simple to make - just cook the stuff for a while - and it tastes awesome.  That said, I could really stand it being a little less sweet (not a carb thing, just a taste thing).  So I was wondering - can I use evaporated milk to make something similar?  And if not, is there a way to make cooked condensed milk with a bit less sugar?

Milk contains lactose naturally, so there will always be a minimum amount of sugar that any condensed milk will contain.

Having said the above, the recipe for making lowest-possible-sugar condensed milk, is evaporated milk (which still contains all of the lactose), so that's still sweet as well, but not overpoweringly so like condensed milk.

If evaporated milk is not sweet enough to your taste, keep adding vanilla sugar to it while heating gently and tasting frequently till it reaches the exact taste you want!

Actually, condensed milk and evaporated milk are synonyms semantically. What you're really talking about is "condensed sweetened milk" ;-)


How long will a bread ferment last before it is no good? I have a bread recipe that I would like to try, but it requires a ferment using Guiness.  The recipe says to leave it for 4 - 6 hours to get it going.

All of this is fine, but what I would like to know is how long can I leave the ferment fermenting before it becomes no good?  Can I start it the night before and use it the next day?

Thanks

It's hard to say exactly how long it will take to overprove because there are many variables involved - the amount of yeast, salt and enrichment in your dough, and the room temperature for example. However, it should be fine to ferment overnight, if you cover it well and put it in the fridge.


Can you safely triple the brine recipe for corned beef? I am picking up a full packers cut brisket tomorrow, weighing in at about 15 lbs. I am going to be making my very first pastrami.
For the Corning brine, all recipes I find call for:

1 gallon/4 liters water
1.5 cup/350g salt
1 cup/225g sugar
42g/8tsp pink salt
spices

This assumes a 5lb brisket. I am planning a 7 day soak. I will very likely need more brine given the size of the brisket. Can it be safely doubled? Tripled? I am asking largely because of the amount of sodium nitrite in the solution, and it's potential dangers at higher amounts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_nitrite puts the LD50 at around 71mg/kg. If tripled to 126g, pink salt (containing 6% sodium nitrite) would have 7.56g total. That sounds incredibly high.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

You should be fine scaling this recipe up, as long as you are sure to scale all components equally.

The USDA regulations for commercial brining and curing give a maximum of 200ppm (parts per million) sodium nitrite in the finished product.  They also stipulate a minimum of 120ppm ingoing nitrite for adequate preserving properties in refrigerated products.

Let's use the metric weights for your formula to calculate its concentration by itself:

Weight of single batch: 4000g(water)+350g+225g+42g = 4617g

Weight of sodium nitrite: 42g*6.25% = 2.625g

Concentration of brine = 2.625/4617 = 568.6ppm

Now, that may sound like a lot, until you realize that commercial brining solutions often use concentrations of around 2000ppm.  For example, federal standards also say that 2 lbs. of sodium nitrite can be used per 100 gallons of water, effectively a solution of about 2400ppm, assuming it is injected into the meat at a rate of 10% per original meat weight.  (That's only nitrite and water; once salt is added to the mix, the concentration would come down to around 2000ppm or somewhat less.)

How is this in compliance with the USDA?  Because very little of the solution is generally absorbed by the meat.  Even when directly injected into corned beef, usually the meat only gains about 10% by weight, which means those concentrations effectively drop to 1/10th in the actual finished product.

For a relatively short cure of a large piece of meat (as in your case): if you wanted to be in compliance with USDA preservation standards, you'd need to weigh the meat before brining, weigh after, calculate the weight gain, and then calculate how much solution was absorbed to determine whether the nitrite falls into the 120-200ppm range.  My guess is that your brine wouldn't even hit the low range of 120ppm in the meat unless you injected it.  (With longer curing or smaller pieces, more nitrite could circulate in the meat, so we'd have to do a different sort of calculation then, which would assume that the solution was coming closer to equilibrium with the meat; but that won't happen in 7 days.)  Nevertheless, even lower concentrations of nitrites will add significant preservation qualities, even if they don't hit commercial levels.

In terms of toxicity, you also need to factor in the chemical reactions which happen in the meat (and produce that pink color).  Some nitrite will be converted into nitric acid and bind to other components of the meat, effectively rendering it harmless.  So even if you calculate the amount of nitrite solution that was absorbed by the meat, it may not given an accurate representation of how much is actually left in the meat once various chemical processes occur.  (And by the way, the lowest published toxic dose for humans is 14mg/kg and the lowest fatal dose is probably somewhere around 25mg/kg.  You'd probably need to eat your entire 15 lb. brisket cured at the maximum commercial brining level in one sitting to get near that amount.)

Finally, in terms of efficiency, I doubt you should need 3 gallons of brine for a single 15 lb. brisket.  The Culinary Institute of America's Garde Manger book has a recipe for corned beef involving 3 gallons of water (and 198 grams of pink salt, for what it's worth, higher than your concentration).  But it's for 4 briskets of 10-12 lb. each, and they even do an injection of 10% of the meat's weight before submerging.

Thus, I doubt you'd actually need to increase the recipe that much in an appropriately sized container (maybe 1.5-2 gallons at most?).  Also, if the brisket is oddly shaped and doesn't fit well, I might consider cutting it into 2 or 3 pieces that will fit better and require less brine.  That will also increase surface area and absorption, probably approximating the results of the recipe you found for the 5 lb. brisket.


Chicken Broth & soups are spoiling I have canned for years. Tomatoes, jams, etc. I startedcanning my own chicken broth and sometimes it spoils or smells terrible after canning, even though it seals. It's usually no ore than a few months old when I try to use it, but am disappointed when I open it and it smells too bad to use. Sometimes it's good, but a lot of times not.why?

If it's spoiling frequently, you're using an unsafe process. (Maybe boiling water bath, no pressure?) That means you should not eat anything else you've canned with the same process, because it could've become dangerously contaminated without obvious signs.

The only safe way to can low acid foods is with pressure canning. You should precisely follow a recipe from a trusted source, like this meat stock recipe from the NCHFP.


Separating egg yolks the night before beating meringue When separating egg whites from yolks could a person do it the night before so the morning of making pies turns out faster?

Yes, that's fine - if you take a few precautions.

Once you have opened your eggs, you are exposing the contents to the air. So need to protect the eggs from drying out: A matching small jar or plastic container is a good choice for the yolks. For whites, you can even put them in your mixing bowl and cover tightly, which saves on cleanup.

You need not worry that your whites won't whip properly, many macaron bakers even recommend "aging" the whites, i.e. storing them for a day or so in the fridge. (But there is also a wild debate on whether this is really necessary.)

For food safety reasons, storing your separated eggs in the fridge is a must. And please remember that while you can certainly separate the eggs the night before, longer storage will affect the quality negatively, less so for the whites, but please use the yolks as soon as possible.


How to fix the consistency of blueberry jam? I had purchased a jar of %70 fruit blueberry jam.
After consuming about %25 percent of it, I added into the jar some blueberries (10-15) that I purchased recently and I mixed it.
A day after, the jam has become very very runny.

What shall I do to fix its consistency?

Jam is fruit, sugar, and pectin. You added more fruit but all that liquid in the fruit wasn't gelled with the pectin and sugar.

You could try adding sugar and heating the jam to get the pectin to gel with the new juice. This could work but is likely to be error prone. Pectin gelling is tricky and it might not re-gel.

I would recommend adding some sugar, boil it for a bit, and use it as delicious syrup.

In the future, if you have fruit and want jam, just buy some pectin and make your jam from scratch. It's easy to do.


Glazing bread pre-baking I was at a restaurant for brunch this past weekend and had a pastry basket that included, among other things, a dried fruit focaccia. It was much lighter than a typical, savory focaccia, almost like a yeasted cake.  The top was glazed with what tasted like honey and some sliced almonds.

My question is, when I try to duplicate the dish for an upcoming brunch I'm hosting, how do I handle the glaze?  It seemed like it would have been added before the baking, but if that is even accurate, would I have to dilute the honey with water before brushing it on? Or am I crazy and this would only work if applied after baking.  I certainly don't want the sugars to burn during baking.

I would simply add it near the end baking. If you add it at the beginning it will almost certainly burn, as you said. Pop it on 5 minutes or so before you need to take the bread out and the honey will have a chance to 'bed in' and the almonds will toast a little (if that's what you want).


Egg whites in Crème Anglaise I have seen different recipes for Crème anglaise. Some use only yolks, others uses whole eggs with white.

I usually like this "eggy" taste which may comes from the egg whites, but I would like to know which should be the proper way to make crème anglaise.

The proper way (French Larousse Culinaire reference) is to use only egg yolks.

But like everything else in cuisine recipes, whatever you like is good enough.


How should a washed rind cheese be stored in the refrigerator? There's a dispute about whether to use plastic wrap, wax paper, aluminum foil, zip-loc bags and so on.  Also, I've heard that its a good idea to take the cheese out and let it breath from time to time.

Any washed rind cheese care advice?

Your best bet is probably a specialty product intended to wrap chese—that is, cheese paper.

Cook's Illustrated tested and found that (for cheese in general), wrapping the cheese first in wax or parchment paper, then over-wrapped loosely with aluminum foil performs better than either alone, and almost as well as cheese paper.

They report that the wax paper-aluminum foil wrap kept brie and cheddar almost as good as new for over a month.

They also found that plastic (either bags or wrap) developed mold before any of the other methods.

(Unfortunately, unless you have a Cook's Illustrated online subscription, you won't be able to see that link.)


Should I marinate or dry-brine a steak first? I've read that pineapple contains an enzyme called Bromelain that breaks down muscle fibres, and therefore a pineapple purée makes a great tenderizing marinade for tougher steaks.
I'm also a big fan of dry brining steaks, as in covering them with salt and leaving them for a day or so to absorb it all.
My question, is if I wanted to do both, which should I do first? I don't want the steaks turning to mush if there's any leftover enzyme on them after the marinade. However I also don't want the water in the marinade leeching out the salt that was absorbed in the dry-brine.

The only reasonable thing to do if you must do both separately is to start with a nice long brine and finish with a relatively short marinade.
If you start with the marinade, you run too much risk of any lingering acid/enzyme destroying the proteins during the long brine that follows. There's also the chance that any flavor imparted by the marinade would end up drawn off or diluted by the brine.
That said, I think you're going about this in the wrong way. Brining is a great technique for thick pieces of meat—big bone-in cuts, whole birds, that sort of thing. The main purpose of the brine is to keep them from drying out over their longer cooking time.
Thinner cuts, including steaks, cook much faster and are less likely to dry out. They also don't need a very long brine to be ready to cook. If you're finding your steaks that you've salted for a full day are tough, it's possible you're dry brining them for too long.
Of course, this is all going to vary by cut and thickness, but the indicators to watch for with steak are that after you salt it, the surface becomes visibly wet for a while and then that visible wetness goes away. When it looks dry again, that's how you know that the salt has penetrated fully, because the osmotic pressure has changed enough to allow the juices to be pulled back into the meat. This should only take about 45 minutes at room temperature. If you really need or want to do this overnight or the day before, I would try to make sure you keep it refrigerated from the start of the brining period and don't take it out of the fridge too early.
Continuing to salt a steak past this point seems to get into the realm of curing or preservation. That's all well and good if you're making corned beef, but it seems like a waste of a steak if you ask me.
As far as getting the tenderness you want, other avenues to explore are buying different cuts, looking for another butcher that may be of a different quality, alternative cooking methods.
But if it's the case that you're already buying the right cuts from the right butchers and cooking them the right way, then maybe you'll get some additional benefit from a marinade—in which case I'd do it after brining.


Sourdough Bread Starter Smell? My sourdough starter smells buttery, is this ok, or should I start over with my starter?  I have made the starter with organic whole wheat flour and water.  It is approximately 3 weeks old and I’ve made several batches of bread.  It is just starting to have a buttery smell.  Don’t know if the starter has been contaminated with another bacteria or if this might be normal.

I would only worry about this if the starter began producing off tasting/smelling bread. My starters have always smelled somewhat of alcohol though so I might worry if it stopped smelling at least a little like that.


What is the difference between grits and polenta? I've eaten both and except for the fact that sometimes polenta is a little bit more firm, they taste the same...Any southerners out there that can help?

True southern grits are made with ground hominy whereas polenta is simply ground cornmeal. The proper name for them is actually hominy grits. You can make "grits" out of untreated corn, but these are corn grits and not really found in southern US cuisine. Grits are typically a much coarser grind than polenta.

Hominy is corn that has been nixtamalized, which means soaked and cooked in an alkali solution, typically lye or limewater. This process converts the niacin present in corn into a form more soluble in the human body. Early European importers of corn from the USA dismissed this process as unnecessary, and as corn became a subsequent staple a pretty nasty disease called pellagra took hold caused by niacin deficiency.


How can I get a takeaway style pizza base? I would like to make a pizza base that is similar to takeaway pizza, in other words a base that is quite thick, spongy, chewy and stretchy.  Domino's and Papa Johns are examples of the kind of base, but most takeaway pizza places do something similar.  The base is usually covered in quite a bit of cornmeal.

I have tried all sorts of ways, plain flour, strong bread flour, extra strong bread flour, more oil, less oil, drier dough, wetter dough etc. and I've have always kneaded well for at least 12 minutes.  My base turns out soft but always comes apart really easily, far from the chewy and stretchy nature of a typical takeaway base.

I do not have a pizza oven, my oven can only reach a maximum of 250C.

So does anybody know the secret to a good takeaway style base?

For a chewy pizza base, use bread flour.  Do not use oil.  Bread flour has a higher protein content that will help gluten form.  Gluten makes the connections that keep dough together.  Fat inhibits gluten formation.

A recipe of just water, flour, salt, and yeast mixed, kneaded, allowed to rise until doubled, and then rolled out will get you what you want.  Make sure to roll out quite thin.  Preheat your oven absolutely as high as it goes with a stone inside.  Put your toppings on maximum one minute before they go into the oven so that the sauce does not make your dough soft.  Place pizza on preheated pizza stone - cooking time at high temperatures will be quite short (max 10 minutes).


How to clean non-sticking pan from burnt pepper juices A couple of times I ruin good non-sticking (teflon) pans in the same way - I fry or roast a bell pepper with too little fat, the pepper juices stick to the non-stick surface and I have to use really hard steel wool to scrub them off.

One problem is that no-matter how hard I scrub, small spots remain on the pan's surface and after that almost everything I fry tends to stick there (even with enough oil). The other problem is that at least in a few cases, I've managed to dent the non-stick coating so deeply that metal showed through.

This time, it is my favorite Bialetti pot (water boiled out while I forgot to turn off steamed peppers) and I want to make everything possible to save it.

Any suggestions are welcome...

I don't want to disappoint you, but I have never been able to remove burnt-on pepepr juices - and in my case, they are on stainless steel, which can be cleaned with much harsher methods than non-stick. Most of the stuff went away, but small spots remained on my pot too.

I would advise to leave out all scrubbing. It is not very efficient even on steel, and it can easily damage a non-stick surface. Non-stick happens to be a chemically inert molecule, but it is very susceptible to physical damage.

The nice side of "chemically inert molecule" is that it can withstand a lot of chemical solvents - and these are better for burnt-on stuff anyway. I would go in there with concentrated acid first (citric acid solution at around 2 pH - try it in the same way as decalcifying a kettle, but use a higher concentration than written on the sachet), then, after a really good washing, switch to a base (for example a very concentrated baking soda solution, I would be afraid to use lye on a non-stick pan because it could seep through scratches to the interface between alu and non-stick surface and start corrosion spots). If that doesn't help, probably nothing will.

And I would strongly recommend to not roast peppers in a non-stick pot. Roasted peppers need very high temperatures. Non-stick coatings start changing their properties at around 250°C, this is a low-to-middle hot setting on most stoves (my resistive stove goes from 1 to 9 and 4 is already too hot for non-stick). The best method is a broiler in the oven, but if you don't have that, you can consider using a steel or iron pan which you don't mind accumulating some discoloration and spots (they are not too problematic on steel), or putting alu foil directly on the (resistive) hob and discarding it after the roasting.


What should one look for in the license terms of a crowdsourced recipe website? I'm looking into uploading my recipes to "the cloud" via a crowdsourced-website.  I have been trying to understand the ramifications of the licenses and terms of service.  As I do not currently have that many truly unique recipes (yet!) my question is somewhat about principle...I just have been increasingly skeptical of lock-in like with Facebook and wanting to "take back my data".  So despite wanting to share, I'm skeptical even of something as "innocuous" as a recipe site. (Not as skeptical.  But still skeptical.  :P)

My goal is mostly to help vet the information for other people who might be in the same situation, so they can understand what they're getting into.  So what I'm mainly interested in is making sure that any sites I join have fair licensing terms. Because websites are always being bought and sold, there is always the chance that I could put a bunch of recipes online and then they might disappear if the site changes hands. Or, I might have to pay to access my own recipes someday if the policy changes.

Are there any specific things one should be on the look out for in the terms of service?  Are there certain things that should be non-negotiable from a user standpoint?  Are there things that you cannot reasonably expect any site to have?  (I am sure no free site will guarantee they will not go out of business, and compensate you if their web server and your recipes stop being available.)

Sorry if this is more of a legal/software question than a cooking question.  But I thought there might be a fair amount of cooks on here who are also interested in geekery. :)

(Sidenote: My first try was uploading a few recipes to a site called Key Ingredient: e.g. Lizzie's baked breaded oysters, Howard's kickin' salsa.  The site works well and I like to share these recipes from friends with a broader audience than typing them into Microsoft Word.  But how do I make sure I don't lose them?  What else can go wrong?)

Quick Version

Good question
Read a few EULA, privacy policies and terms of service to get a full answer, but generally:

You are expected to have your own back up of anything you upload
Whether or not the site says you have the rights to the data, they cannot track whether or not users give you credit for what you have shared

Answer for yourself:

What kind of credit are you looking for?
What website features must be minimally available before you'll even bother checking whether or not their terms of service live up to your requirements?

Full Version

I think this is a great question and needs to be addressed in areas far more broad than just cooking and recipes.  "The cloud" is a unique and interesting place to store and share data, but brings up a whole host of issues like:

Who technically owns the rights to the uploaded data?
Who should be responsible for backing up that data?
How is the data accessed?
Who can access it?

And then there's the additional question of, do you want to crowd source feedback on your recipes, or just have them available for people to look at?  And probably a whole bunch more questions.

General Advice

A good rule of thumb when using any cloud service, is that you and you alone are responsible for backing up your data.  Even if a company has the financial resources to back up everything (and most of them do back it up), they're not going to guarantee something like that because all technology is fallible and there is usually someone with a fantastic lawyer around every corner, just waiting for a guarantee to fail.  Read a couple EULA (end-user license agreements) and/or privacy policies/terms of service and you'll get a clear picture of just how often they guarantee your access to your data.  Usually accessing your data isn't a problem (if it was, why would people use the cloud?) and as such, it's something you shouldn't worry about beyond having a copy of your recipes on a computer at home somewhere in addition to sharing them in the cloud.  (That being said, back up your home computer too.)

Another good rule: don't ever expect something stored in the cloud to actually be secure.  Generally with recipes it's not an issue if your data is stolen (like it could be if you were storing tax returns), but all of the marketing around consumer electronics does a really good job of making people forget that even PayPal and the US federal government were hacked.  Cloud storage is not secure storage.  In fact, think of the Internet as the Wild West: we're still trying to figure out who is here and who has enough power to actually enforce laws.

Every EULA, privacy policy and terms of service document I have read states clearly somewhere deep in the pages of legalese that they have the right to modify or change their policies whenever they see fit.  Aka, no guarantee on anything, although this usually doesn't lead to the problems you mentioned.  The few times I have had data uploaded to a cloud and the policy was changing in a way to prevent me from accessing (or having to pay for) my data, I was informed of the change months before it ever started affecting me, with the whole purpose of giving me the chance to download any and all of my data onto my home computer, where I could access it whenever I wanted, even after the change in policy.

My Experience

I have uploaded a few recipes to a Dropbox account to share with a relatively small group of friends.  We all have access to upload, read and download, but there is no place to leave comments or feedback on any of the recipes.  It's also kind of a clunky method of sharing if I ever wanted to give the entire world access because it's just a link, not a webpage full of brightly colored photos that people can click on.  I believe that Dropbox's terms of service state that I am the legal owner of the data in my Dropbox account, but I'd have to double check that, and I have no idea how it works if a friend uploads a recipe to my account.  Whether or not my friends give credit if they re-post any of those recipes, is up to whoever does the re-posting; both Dropbox and the new site won't have a way to track if credit was given where credit was due.

I tend to find recipes on allrecipes.com, although I have yet to upload any of my own.  It's a great place to for people to share recipes, leave feedback, suggest modifications, upload pictures, etc.  I can't even remember if I read their EULA so I don't know if it claims the rights to the recipes, or if they belong to the original poster.  Either way, allrecipes.com can't give credit if a user copies and pastes your recipe onto another site; the only way to give credit is if a user posts a link back to your recipe on allrecipes.com.

Credit vs. Copyright

Credit and copyright are not the same thing.  Credit would be me saying "I got the idea write this answer because of a question that mmcghan posted."  While that is nice and generally what people are looking for when they post stuff intended for sharing, it's not going to hold up in court.  If copyright protection is what you're after, you probably don't want to post your recipe on a crowd sourcing site, but you would definitely want to read the EULA, terms of service and the privacy policy (and likely involve a lawyer who specializes in this) before posting or uploading anything you want to protect.

For that matter, "credit" could be all sorts of things, although I am by no means an expert of how recipes can be legally protected.  In the open source world (think Linux if you aren't very technical) there are actually several different kinds of licenses, which do hold up in court, unlike generic "credit."  I'm not deeply familiar with a lot of them, but here are a couple examples of the differences:

You can use and modify anything, but you cannot make a profit off of any of it
You can use and modify anything, but you have to share your modifications with the world and credit the original writer(s)

What's Next?

It's great that you are thinking about all the legal junk behind sharing recipes (or anything really) because we don't do it nearly enough.  But you'll also want to think about what you mean when you want to "share" your recipes.

Do you want to share them with just friends, or the whole world?
Do you want feedback or comments on your recipes?
Would you like to upload pictures, tips, etc.?  Or just the recipe itself?
Do you want to be able to upload a bunch of Word files you already have written?  Or would you rather have to type each of them into the website by hand?
What kind of credit do you want for your recipes? How enforceable does this credit need to be?

Being able to answer these questions will help you greatly in your end goal.


What is the ideal fridge temperature I notice that in both countries where I lived the fridges are kept at 6 or 7 °C (43-45 °F). When it would be colder, people find their drinks to cold, when served straight out of fridge (especially in winter). Also a lower temperature would cost more energy.

What would be the best temperature for food storage. Would that be even lower? For storing meals, how much time longer would food stay good when the fridge would be colder?

The USDA says refrigeration temperature should be 40°F (4.4°C) or below. If food is in there at a higher temperature (such as the 43-45°F the question mentions), for longer than 2 hours, and they're saying the food isn't safe.

Keep in mind that when too cold, after a while parts of things freeze, which can damage items, or severely diminish their pleasant taste. This especially goes for produce such as lettuce or even tomatoes. If you want to store leftovers longer, consider freezing them.

Edit: corrected to 40°F or below


How to marinate tofu for my mint & lemon juice couscous salad? How could I marinate my tofu such that it fits well with my couscous salad which is seasoned with mint and lemon juice, and also contains cucumber, tomato and bell pepper and onions?

As someone who makes their own tofu, I would season it with citrus juice or zest during the coagulation process. Since you are using store bought I would soak it in lemon juice and toasted sesame oil 8 hours before lightly frying it. You could also use a sesame oil and ponzu marinade.


Will a hot cornstarch slurry added to a cold mixture still have a thickening effect? I'm trying to thicken a heat-sensitive mixture. I would like to use cornstarch as a thickener, but from my understanding, cornstarch must be heated to near-boiling (95 deg C) to gel in a mixture. I would like to avoid heating the whole mixture to boiling. If I make a cornstarch slurry, heat it to boiling, and then add it to a cold or room-temperature mixture, will it still have a thickening effect?

I would prefer to avoid other thickening alternatives like xanthan gum or arrowroot.

It would probably work but for the proper consistency of the finished product, your cooked cornstarch slurry would need to be very thick. This would make it difficult to mix into a homogenized smooth mixture unless you were to use a blender to mix them.

Rather than cornstarch, xanthan gum or arrowroot flour, why not use tapioca powder/flour? It thickens quickly starting around 140°F (60°C) and gives a nice clear gel, especially nice for fruit desserts. It also holds its gelling property and won't separate like cornstarch based desserts can.

I buy my tapioca flour in an Asian grocery store but I've also seen it sold in the Asian foods aisle in many larger supermarkets. It's quite inexpensive.

You substitute the same amount of tapioca flour as cornstarch in a recipe.


Beef in my stew isn't tender My son made a beef stew last night and brought it over to me today.  The meat he used did not become tender. I am 79 years of age and the meat is just not easy for me to eat. I want to try putting it in my pressure cooker to make it more tender for me to eat. Will that work? Or is there another good way to make it more tender?

There are two possible reasons why the meat might be tough.

The right meat, just cooked not long enough
If your son used "stewing meat", that is, rich in collagen layers and marbeled, you are on the right track. Simply cooking longer until the collagen breaks down will give you the desired results. And yes, a pressure cooker works perfectly for this. The higher pressure allows the liquid in the pot to boil at a higher temperature, thus reducing the cooking time compared to a regular pot. (A crock pot / slow cooker does the same in much longer time.)
The wrong meat, i.e. a lean cut
That is the material for a quick sear, often served medium or rare. Longer cooking results in the proteins in the meat toughening up (not unlike when you cook an egg), giving you a "dry" piece of meat. Unfortunately, longer cooking won't really help, you are missing the collagen layers that - when soft - cause the meat to fall apart into small juicy strands.

Conclusion:
I don't know what's in your stew. For stewing meat, by all means keep cooking. For other types, note that the consistency might go from "not easy to eat" to "almost uneatable".


How is this non-dairy creamer really non-dairy when it has sodium caseinate? I was at a hotel recently, and naturally I had brought home those little packets of free coffee by the sink in the room.  I noticed a packet of coffee additives--sugar, Splenda, and most importantly for this question, a supposed non-dairy creamer with the following ingredient list (in order):

Corn Syrup Solids
Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
Contains 2% or less of the following:

Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative)
Dipotassium Phosphate
Mono and Diglycerides
Sodium Silicoaluminate or Silicon Dioxide (anti-caking agent)
Sodium Tripolyphosphate
Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono and Dyglycerides
Artificial Flavors
Beta Carotene, Riboflavon, and Titanium Dioxide (artificial colors)

Given the presence of the ingredient I highlighted, how is this allowed to be called non-dairy creamer?

Title 21 (Food and Drugs) of the Code of Federal Regulation states

  "(d) When foods characterized on the label as "nondairy" contain a
  caseinate ingredient, the caseinate ingredient shall be followed by a
  parenthetical statement identifying its source. For example, if the
  manufacturer uses the term "nondairy" on a creamer that contains
  sodium caseinate, it shall include a parenthetical term such as "a
  milk derivative" after the listing of sodium caseinate in the
  ingredient list"

According to this page on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's website, the term "non-dairy" is actually a by-product of the dairy lobby's efforts to make sure that substitute milk and cream products could not use the term dairy rather than the FDA trying to specify that something didn't contain any dairy.


How do I dehydrate hot peppers in the oven? I have a bumper crop of jalapeno hot peppers that I would like to dry in my oven. I love to roast and grind dried chiles for Chili Con Carne or Enchiladas. The correct oven temperature and drying time are the obvious questions that come to mind.

I've dried out chillies a bunch of times, both with and without a fan-assisted oven. It's much easier with a fan oven, but not impossible with a conventional oven, but it is wasteful of energy in a conventional oven as you have to leave the door cracked. That and you must have an oven that has a very low setting.

The reason that heat works is that heating air reduces its relative humidity as warmer air can contain more moisture. Once the warmer air fills with moisture it will saturate, and won't be able to accept any more, and when that happens your chillies will stop drying. A fan oven will generally cycle the air out and bring in new air which will accept more moisture, but a conventional oven won't, so you either have to crack the door or open it every 10 minutes to bring fresh air in.

All in all it takes days to dry chillies in a fan oven with it being constantly on, and it will stink up your house while doing it. A more effective way (although I've never tried it) would be to use a desiccant like silica gel (available from hobby stores) in a sealed container to dry them out.

A good way to keep dried chillies dry in a moist environment is to put them in a sealed container with a bunch of rice grains in the bottom, the rice will absorb any moisture.