What's the fastest way to seed grapes (e.g., Concordes)? I've got a bunch of grapes, with seeds. I need to seed them for a recipe. Cutting them in half and prying out the seeds with a paring knife makes me yearn for stringing beans. Any suggestions on how to get through this process faster?

If you just need the pulp (for pie, ice cream, jam, etc...) then cook them down and run them through a food strainer.

If you need them raw, or halved/skins on, then find a good audiobook...


Reference for Hydration Levels I'm trying to find out how to compute the approximate hydration of my dough. I'm not sure what the hydrations are for the following:

Butter
Margarine
Evaporated Milk
Buttermilk
Heavy cream

Any ideas what might they be? Or can anyone point out a good reference guide?

There is no such reference. In the strict sense, hydration levels are only strictly defined for non-ennriched breads (those without dairy or other sources of fat).

If you want, you can calculate some kind of hydration level for enriched breads, but they become less informative. One option would be to count the whole weight of the fat/dairy as "hydration", the other option would be to count only the water proportion of the product you are adding. I would generally prefer the second one, but it has the problem of getting very misleading when the fat proportion goes up.

Both methods don't create reliable comparisons. For example, if you have a bread at 70% hydration, where all the hydration comes from 700 ml water, a bread at 70% hydration where you are using 795 ml milk, and a "bread" at 70% "hydration" when using 4.1 kg of butter (!) will be really different in their behavior. Similarly, a dough with 700 g water, or 700 g milk, or 700 g butter will not behave the same.

You will get closer to comparability if you also track the fat amount added, that makes it of course also complexer.

If you still insist on calculating something, here are the numbers for the water proportion in the liquids you asked for (needed for the "second method"):

Butter: 17% water
Margarine: different, depends on each brand
Evaporated milk: 35%
Buttermilk: 87% water
Heavy cream: 67% water


How to make chocolate fondant? I am willing to add a 2-3mm thick chocolate fondant coating to my home made biscuits. I believe this is very common, but I have no idea how to do this.

The fondant should be pretty solid (not liquid or fluffy), opaque and should not melt at room temperature.

Thank you for any suggestion!

You can't really substitute marshmallows in that recipe. I have had some luck with the following procedure:

Get a good quality chocolate of the flavour you would like to use. Do not try chocolates with 70% cocoa solids or more. They are good for some things, but not for this.
Melt it in a double boiler. Do not make the chocolate boil or heat it directly (some can do that but most people end up with burned chocolate). Remove it from the heat.
Fold in 2 spoons of glycose syrup (for regular nonmilky chocolate) and mix fast. Let it cool and when it gets close to room temperature, put it in the fridge. For darker chocolates, use a bit more glucose and less for lighter chocolates.


Can meat spoil outside the fridge if it's baked into bread as a filling? I made some meat buns tonight (that is, buns with cooked chicken stuffed inside them before being baked), and I'm wondering if I should bother keeping the buns inside the fridge, because that would mean having to reheat them later.
Will the chicken inside them even go bad if the bread's there to protect it? It seems to me that the bread will act basically like a tin can and keep the meat preserved as long as the bread is, since the meat inside was heated and all the bacteria that might have been on it was cooked to death.
Is this a wrong way of thinking? Should I just refrigerate them just to be safe?

There are two differences between your buns and a tin can.
First, your buns were heated to a core temperature of under 100°C. Yes, your oven was probably set way higher, but the water content in your filling prevents it from getting hotter than boiling water. Commercial canning is done in the vicinity of 120-130°C, which is possible because the cans are cooked under pressure. So unlike in a can, most pathogens were destroyed, but not necessarily all of them. For human consumption, that’s perfectly fine as long as the remaining ones don’t get the time-temperature combo to regrow.
Second, a bread dough may be dense (although the aim is usually something different), but by no means airtight. Interestingly, wrapping meat in dense dough was used as preservation method in medieval times - the “ancestor” of today’s pork pies and pastries. But while the hard flour crust (not intended to be eaten originally) did form a protective layer and usually extended the shelf life more or less, it was by no means food safe judged by modern standards - although some pies were stored for months. But your fluffy buns are truly not a protective layer. Which means you should refrigerate your buns, but also that you get to enjoy the whole dish.


Can you substitute white wine with rose? My recipe calls for white wine, but I only have rose. my rose is dry.

Will this work? It's paired with mustard and tarragon for a steak

If the rose is dry this should work. The combination of flavours you've listed should go well with a dry wine


If a recipe calls for 'ready-prepared potato wedges', what exactly does that mean Does it mean the frozen potato wedges you can find in supermarkets, or does it mean fresh potatoes that I've cut into wedges (if so, does that include/exclude the skin, or is that optional?)

"Ready-Prepared" typically means a packaged product.  Many 'ready-prepared' potato products are par cooked and coated lightly in oil before freezing, so cutting your own may be a problem.

A specific recipe would be useful, so that we can give recommendations on how to deal with freshly cut potatoes (par cook vs. adjusting time/temperature of the whole dish)


Some minor changes in recipe: Is it okay to use carrot marmalade instead of orange? A recipe (Florentine Lace Cookies) calls for the following ingredients:

  2 cups slivered almonds
    3/4 cup heavy cream
  4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
  1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
  1/4 cup  orange marmalade
  3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
  1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest
  1/4 teaspoon salt
   4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

I have a few questions regarding it,

Is it possible to substitute orange marmalade with carrot?
And use lemon zest instead of orange?
What if I don't use almonds at all?

The almonds are pretty much the whole cookie. They get ground up and provide all the bulk and some structure. You could substitute a different kind of nut, though it'll obviously change the flavor and may affect texture too, since different nuts have different hardnesses and different amounts of oil. But leaving them out isn't possible.

The lemon zest is fine, just a different flavor.

And carrot marmalade... again, different flavor, but as long as it's the same sweetness and not any wetter than the orange marmalade it should work. I don't think it'll be as good, personally, though, this recipe is going for a nice strong orange flavor.


Right baking temperature Problem with the right baking temperature. I have a gas oven. To bake a cake I pre heat the oven at 150 C for at least 1/2 an hour while I prepare all the stuff required for preparing the cake . After baking the cake for 45 minutes and checking the cake with the tooth pick which comes out clean. I put off the gas and leave the cake in the oven for 10 minutes. But once the cake is cut it looks like the bottom layer of the cake is raw though it is cooked. Please suggest a right method to bake a cake and at what point I am going wrong.

If this is a reocurring problem, and not just a single failure, there are a few things that you can try:

Change the type of pan you're cooking in.  A dark metal pan or a clear glass pan will cook the bottom faster than a shiny metal pan.
Place the cake lower in the oven, so that the bottom is closer to the heating element.
Shield the top of the cake so that it cooks slower, by placing a sheet of aluminum foil or a sheet tray on a rack above the cake.  (note, don't cover the cake, we're just shielding it from radiant heat).
Put less batter in the pan.  Spread it into two pans, and stack them together once baked.

And if none of that helps, you can also try cooking the cake at a lower temperature for longer ... it'll end up more dense as you won't get the oven spring, but it'll help prevent the chance of over-baking it.  You can also start it warm, but then lower the temperature 25-50°F once it's been in for a few minutes.


Are potato fruits (not "potatoes") edible? My uncle has a fairly expansive garden and he grows potatoes. He asked a question, that being if they'd ever seen tomatoes growing from their potato plants. I've done some research (and remembered some things I had been told), mostly coming to find out that potatoes and tomatoes are both of the nightshade family and so they share some similar traits (one of which that they have similar fruit, i.e. tomatoes and my uncles potato fruits).

My question is whether they're edible or not? (They're from the nightshade family, they could kill you for all I know)

If they ARE edible, how could you cook them?

You cannot; they are full of solanine, which is poisonous. You can use the seeds however to grow new potatoes, though they won't breed true to the parent. This website has some great information: http://tinyfarmblog.com/potato-fruit/


Did I do anything wong when making fries? I bought these Maris Piper potatoes. In the instructions for deep fry to make chips, it says put in a bowl of water for 30 minutes to remove starch, dry, then fry for 6-9 minutes.

I did so however when eating the potatoes they tasted a bit sweet on the inside. I'm not sure but does this mean the inside wasn't cooked properly?

Usually I believe you need to boil potatoes before frying. Since it didn't say to do this I didn't, would that have caused the result?

The outside layer was quite brown and I think I left it in too long(9 minutes). I also only left it in the bowl for 15 minutes to remove starch.

Does anyone know if I did anything wrong besides maybe leaving it too long which made the outer layer brown?  Does the sweet tasting inside mean anything?  To be honest, the end result tasted like the sweetest chips. I never really experienced it like that before so I'm guessing I did something wrong?

I haven't noticed regular potatoes being sweet when overcooked, undercooked, or even raw. So I don't think the sweetness was due to cooking time.

However, according to

http://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-cooking-potatoes-2

(and many other places on the internet), potatoes stored in the refrigerator will turn sweet as their starches convert to sugars at the cold temperatures.

Is it possible you kept these potatoes in your fridge for a significant time after purchasing them, or maybe they were kept refrigerated at Tesco for a while before you got them? If so that could explain it. I routinely keep my potatoes in the fridge, and when they go sweet, it's really noticeable. I happen to like them OK that way, but they are really quite a bit sweeter than you would expect.


Making a pocket-type french omelette without the curd sticking to the pan? I'm trying to make the pocket/rugby-ball shaped type of omelette, basically the second omelette in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10etP1p2bU . I want it to be runny on the inside and untorn on the outside.

I also use chopsticks instead of a fork because I saw advice to use them for this recipe, chopsticks being less harsh on the nonstick coating, and better for mixing everything up in the pan.

The problem is, when I come to the shake-and-stir bit, where the heat of the liquid should rise relatively evenly, instead I get a sticky curd on the pan, which is also difficult to move around because it's too dry and even if I leave more liquid around to curd with it, it doesn't cohere.

Anyone have an idea on what I'm doing wrong here? Is the pan too hot/cold? Am I using too little butter? Are chopsticks the wrong tool for the job? Or is it really more about technique?

Start with examining your pan closely.
I suspect Pepin's has a good base with even heat distribution (no heat spots) and a good working non stick surface.
Also consider using a wooden spoon/spatula or non stick compliant tool, as you might not be moving the curds quickly enough.

Without pictures or detail, your pan temperature and amount of butter can't be advised.  BTW, it is known as a (French) "Classic Omelette"


Will dry roasting a chuck come out tender? I plan on dry roasting a beef chuck, I've only ever braised chuck before though. Is this cut suitable to a slow and low dry roast or will it come out tough? It's a 3 lbs roast, I'm thinking 300 degrees (convection) for and hour and 15 minutes.

Roasting is, by definition, "dry."  Beef chuck can certainly be roasted, and your plan sounds reasonable. It can also be smoked, at an even lower temp.  There are plenty of recipes online.  Whichever your preference, I would measure temperature, rather than rely on time.  I will also add, the texture will certainly be different from a braised chuck, if that is what you are used to.


Breaking down a lamb "square shoulder" I recently sent someone out to get a lamb shoulder roast which I would typically braise, but said person returned instead with a "square shoulder" which is a larger and bony cut.  Short of just going at it with a knife what is the best way to extract the roast from the larger cut and is this even possible without a cleaver or saw?

You can treat the square just like a plain shoulder roast (assuming both with bone in?)

While boning it out may make carving easier, the less you cut it the better it will cook (speed, moistness etc.)

A whole lamb can be butchered with just a decent boning knife if you know where to cut. You may need a small saw to section the large bones depending how you cut it

For the square shoulder you need to knife out the rib, backbone (if attached), and then the blade. All from the non meat side of the roast


Is Glass and Ceramic cookware suitable for high-heat frying and stir-frying? Is Glass and Ceramic cookware suitable for high-heat frying and stir-frying?
Can open flame (gas burner) make it shatter or crack?

Speaking as a potter:

No.
Yes.

Stovetop glass and ceramic stovetop cookware are sold and used all over the world, and come in a variety of different types, including earthenware, flameware, stoneware, borosilicate glass, and high-temperature ceramic materials like vitrelle.  They have several advantages over metal cookware, primarily for slow, even cooking, like braises, stews, and oil-poaching.

All of them should be either heated slowly, or with a large quantity of liquid/food inside, to prevent them from heating too quickly or unevenly, which can cause them to crack.  Earthenware pottery like cazuelas are even soaked in cold water before heating.

This means that high-heat, empty-pan techniques like stir-frying or dry pan searing just aren't a good idea.  You can get glass and ceramic cookware up to high temperatures, but you need to make sure to get there slowly ... and also to cool off slowly.

References:

La Tienda's cazuela FAQ
My Kitchen in Spain, Cazuelas
How
to make sure your Pyrex doesn't shatter
Tagine cooking tips


Making a carvable cake My son and I want to make a cake shaped like a frog.  Our plan is to bake two layers, cut them out into shapes, stack one on top of the other, and then finish carving the cake into the shape of a frog.

In the past, I've found it very difficult to cut and carve cakes into shapes.  The cake crumbles when I try to cut it.

I'm looking for tips on how best to do this.  Either ideas I can use during baking or techniques to use during cutting/carving would be great.

I usually use a mix when I bake a cake, and most of the mixes at the grocery store say "moist" and "pudding in the mix."  Would the cake be firmer if I used a different mix?  Is there something I could look for when selecting a mix that would give me a firmer cake for carving?

Freeze the cake - it carves much, much easier.  Make sure and wrap it tightly before going into the freezer, otherwise it may pick up odd freezer smells easily though.


How do cooking utensils remain safe for use? Say I were to be cooking chicken in a pan, and I'm using tongs to flip the chicken periodically. By the time the chicken is done, how can it still be safe to use the tongs I started with to handle the chicken? Obviously it's come into contact with raw chicken, so why would I want to handle my food with it. Should I be switching utensils or washing them mid cook?

There are several aspects to this:

first, consider the meat. Chicken from the supermarket, ground beef, or a piece of steak? Chicken is more likely to be contaminated - I treat anything that has touched raw chicken as contaminated and do not reuse it. A steak I am a little less worried about, partly because I like my steaks well seared on the outside so they are hotter on the outside towards the end of cooking than other meats.
second, do you have to use tongs to put it in the pan? I often use my hands and then wash them, and only start using the tongs once I'm dealing with hot (cooked on the outside) meat. Same for burgers: I don't put them in the pan with the flipper, it gets involved when they're ready to turn for the first time
third, consider that if some bacteria did get onto the tongs, after 10 or so minutes on the counter while the meat cooks, that bacteria would not have grown considerably, not all of it would then get on the meat when you reused the tongs, of those that did reach the meat, some would be killed in the remainder of the cook time or just from contact with the hot meat surface, and after 5 or 10 minutes of resting whatever remained would not have a significant growth. Compare to picking up yesterday's raw-chicken tongs from the counter where they've sat for 23 hours and using them to handle today's rare steak. That would be nasty.

My rule is to minimize reuse of utensils, but I don't have 10 pairs of tongs and someone to wash them for me, so for some meals it happens, and as long as it's not chicken, I don't worry about it.


Why do canned beans have less FODMAPs than dried beans? Several sources have claimed that canned beans (after discarding the water in the can) are significantly lower in FODMAPs, particularly galacto-oligosaccharides, compared to cooked dried lentils. I'm interested in reducing galacto-oligosaccharides as a way of reducing flatulence and indigestion symptoms.
For instance, https://www.glnc.org.au/resources/hot-topics/how-to-enjoy-legumes-on-a-low-fodmap-diet/ seems to claim a two-fold reduction:

Canned legumes are much better tolerated than dried legumes, due to having a lower FODMAP content. Canned lentils are safe at 1/2 cup, whilst butter beans and chickpeas are low FODMAP at 1/4 cup. Keep in mind that if you choose dried over canned, it is likely the same portion won’t be tolerated if you are sensitive to GOS.
Dried red and green lentils: dried lentils require a little more prep and will take some time to cook prior to being ready to eat. Keep these to 1/4 cup serve of cooked lentils – they’re are a fabulous addition to curries and soups!

Lentils may be cooked without prior soaking, but presumably cooking dried chickpeas involves soaking them, which should reduce the galacto-oligosaccharides. Why would canning reduce this process further? Could soaking the dried legumes for a longer period of time and replacing the water a couple times reduce the FODMAPs to the same level as canned beans (maybe in the fridge to prevent bacterial growth)? Maybe I should soak the beans, cook them, and then soak them further? Or is there something else special about the canning process compared to using dried beans?

Why would canning reduce this process further [than soaking]?

Because canned beans are cooked.  Cooking adds to further breakdown of many flatulence-causing elements.  In fact, if the primary concern is flatulence and indigestion, several authoritative sources have recommended skipping soaking and just using longer cooking.  I'll quote from my answer to a previous question here:

The main reason often cited for soaking is to prevent flatulence. However, if you throw out the soaking water, you also throw out lots of nutrients. Recent research suggests that long slow cooking is a better solution and probably gets rid of more of the flatulence-causing components than a soak followed by a quick cook. And you get to retain more nutrients. To quote Harold McGee from On Food and Cooking:

  One kind of troublesome carbohydrate is the oligosaccharides [which
  are water soluble].... But the latest research suggests that the
  oligosaccharides are not the primary source of gas. The cell-wall
  cements generate just as much carbon dioxide and hydrogen as the
  oligosaccharides--and beans generally contain about twice as much of
  these carbohydrates as they do oligosaccharides.

Based on this research, McGee suggests:

  [Soaking] does leach out most of the water-soluble
  oligosaccharides--but it also leaches out significant quantities of
  water-soluble vitamins, minerals, simple sugars, and seed-coat
  pigments: that is, nutrients, flavor, color, and antioxidants. That's
  a high price to pay. An alternative is simple prolonged cooking, which
  helps by eventually breaking down much of the oligosaccharides and
  cell-wall cements into digestible simple sugars.

Specifically regarding galacto-oligosaccharides, there are studies that have attempted to quantify the role of soaking and cooking. That linked study concluded:

  During soaking, total α-GOS content decreased between 10% (lentil and
  faba bean) and 40% (chickpea). [...] Cooking further decreased α-GOS and
  increased total dietary fibre content.

The explanation for the cooking effect is given later in the article:

  Cooking after soaking led to a further decrease in raffinose (−32%),
  stachyose (−25%) and verbascose (−35%) and to a significant increase
  in galactose content (+54%) in the whole dish. [...]
  This should be attributed to further enzymatic degradation, due to
  better conditions for the expression of α-galactosidase activity.
  Alpha-galactosidase from lentils are active in the temperature range
  20–50 °C and up to 65 °C, and have optimal pH of 4.7, 5.5 or 6.1,
  depending on their isoforms. [...]
  During heating, the temperature increased
  progressively and conditions were met for higher α-galactosidase
  action.

Basically, elevated cooking temperatures increase the activity of the enzyme alpha-galactosidase, which is naturally found in beans and lentils (and is perhaps better known as the active ingredient in many anti-flatulence supplements/medications).

Hence, canned beans that are thoroughly cooked likely get both the breakdown of the cell-wall cements that McGee mentions as well as increased breakdown of GOS through elevated enzyme action.

I would note, however, the detail in the abstract to that study that each type of bean or lentil will likely respond somewhat differently, as each has its own particular makeup of problematic elements (and those elements will be affected in different ways by cooking).  For example, this study on red kidney beans showed significant reduction in lectins, raffinose, and stachyose during soaking, and significant further reduction in lectins and raffinose during cooking.  But cooking provided no significant reduction to stachyose.

Could soaking the dried legumes for a longer period of time and replacing the water a couple times reduce the FODMAPs to the same level as canned beans (maybe in the fridge to prevent bacterial growth)?

Well, as seen in the charts for example in the last linked study, increased soaking time shows diminishing returns.  Replacing the water could help a bit, but refrigeration may also slow down or stop some enzyme activity that could help in breakdown.  (The linked article notes that 77F was chosen for a soaking temperature because it is used by commercial canned bean producers.)

Maybe I should soak the beans, cook them, and then soak them further?

Again, while this is possible and likely to have some effect, there will be diminishing returns.  And with each replacement of soaking water, you will like lose more beneficial nutrients from the legumes anyway (along with the things you are trying to get rid of).

Or is there something else special about the canning process compared to using dried beans?

Well, the only thing that might be special about the canning process is the high temperatures canned beans are subjected to for sterilization.  In a cursory search, I didn't immediately come up research that quantifies what that might do, but my guess is that it could lead to further breakdown of some flatulence-causing elements.  However, I'm not sure about the effect of high-temperature cooking on galacto-oligosaccharides in particular, as the first article linked above postulates that much of the breakdown is caused by enzyme activity that wouldn't happen at canning temperatures.  So, in that case, it's just the long cooking process for canned beans in general that may have some benefits.


Large Aluminium foil bakingpan When a large aluminium foil bakingpan is usd to bake rusks or biscotti can you use the pan a second time

I don't see why not.  (In general, aluminum foil can be reused in a lot of contexts, unless it's damaged in some way that makes it unusable.  Or perhaps if it's dirty and can't be cleaned.)

With a pre-made aluminum foil pan, you can probably rinse it if it gets a bit dirty.  One problem with these pre-made pans is that they often have a lot of little "wrinkles" that capture food and make them difficult to clean.  But with hard biscuit-type baking, this isn't really a food safety issue, and simply rinsing/scrubbing gently/brushing may be enough to get an old batch's remnants off.

Eventually with a few reuses these pans may develop small holes.  Again, that's more of an issue with liquid materials that could leak through them than with biscotti.  But eventually they will wear out.


Flourless cookies form "skin" that seals in moisture I've developed a sort of recipe for flourless low-cal cookies which, so far, actually works pretty well, resulting in a soft scone-type confection, but I'm having one problem with it: upon baking, the outside of the cookie everywhere except where it contacts the bottom cooks into a sort of skin which seems to keep moisture on the interior from cooking out, so the inside of the cookie stays much more moist than I would like. The recipe actually uses cabbage which has been ground to a rice consistency and wrung out as its base. The recipe for the batter in a batch size that made three pancakes and five large scones was:

Cabbage prepared thusly, between 1/4 and 1/3 large head,
4 egg whites,
1/3 cup pumpkin puree,
1/3 cup almond milk,
Just over 1 tsp glucomannan,
2 tbsp water,
Spices and extracts,
Stevia/erythritol blend for sweetness

To bake the cookies, I put "blobs" of them(~3-4 tbsp each I think) on parchment paper which had been sprayed with cooking spray, preheated an oven to 410 F, then lowered the heat to 375 once the tray was in the oven. I left it like this for ~30 minutes before lowering the heat to 270, then after another 15 minutes lowered it to 230, and they cooked for one hour in total.
So back to my question: how can I cook out more moisture from the interior of the cookies? Would I want to skip the higher-temp. earlier stage, or maybe go for even more of a low-temp long-time method? Would puncturing them like with a fork after they're part-way cooked help? Maybe adding baking powder to the recipe? Or would reducing the liquid used in the recipe achieve this?

Unless you are salting (or sugaring) your cabbage first then draining and patting dry, baking will release more liquid than the egg whites can bind.

Recipe could use something absorbent


How long should I wait until I put new jars in? Currently canning some banana peppers. I have a large stock pot set up with a 3 jar canning rack. I just finished a round of jars in the stock pot and the water was boiling. How cool should I let the water get before I put the next round of jars in to start heating up? I don't want to break my jars by putting them into the pot when its too hot.

I realize this is an inefficient way to do this, but I don't have another pot big enough to heat my jars (the only other one that is close currently has my hot vinegar solution in it).

Preheat the jars with hot tap water, and then just dump them in the boiling water (with tongs or other appropriate utensil, of course).


What to do with broccoli stalk? It is kind of annoying to buy broccoli and pay per weight when there's this huge and heavy stem, so I was wondering what I could do with it?

I know that it can be cut and steamed/cooked like the rest of the sprouts, but are there any specialities for it?

Just slice it into thin discs (a mandoline is quick) and the kids use it as chips'n'dip. Try some natural or Greek style yoghurt and whole seed mustard as a dip. Very crunchy and tasty

If the skin is dry or blotchy I quickly run the potato peeler over it first

Otherwise, just grating it into soups or stews is a nice vegetable filler

EDIT Doh, forgot the best thing to use it for Coleslaw, it replaces cabbage perfectly. Or you can mix cabbage and broccoli. Just coarse grate it with some carrot, onion. Blend it up with a little mayo and yoghurt, or lemon juice and olive oil. Add some ground fennel and cumin seeds or some chopped mint for extra zing


How do you stop chickpeas exploding in the microwave? I put chickpeas & beans in my curry but when microwaving some the next day it exploded. How can I prevent this?

(Like with eggs you just prick the yolk and no explosions)

First rule of the microwave...
Always use a loose-fitting lid.
It reduces the cleaning frequency of the interior from once a day to every 6 months or so ;)

I'm pretty sure that unless you want to prod every single legume with a cocktail stick before putting it in the microwave, then you can only do so much to mitigate this issue. Closed containers will go 'pop', almost without fail if you're nuking it mercilessly.

Mitigation could include :-

Stirring more frequently than usual
Reduce the heating time, or segment it - 30s, 1 minute rest, 30s...
Make sure they are completely covered in sauce - like a can of Heinz Beanz.


Can an opened pack of dried yeast be stored for later use? I purchased a 25 gm active dry yeast. It says to use it with 500 ml flour. However I just want to make a couple of pizza bases, 100 gm each max. So can I use 40% of it today, and use the rest later? How to store the open pack, do I need to seal it and pack?

Yes, you can store an opened pack of dried yeast without a problem. Seal the pack as well as you can (plastic clips for just that purpose are very common, or you can just use an office 'bulldog' clip), and put it in the fridge.


A “puck” of frozen food I found a recipe that calls for 5 “pucks” of frozen spinach. I cannot find a definition of the term. I need to know how many ounces are in a puck?

The term "puck" is not in general use for food, but it seems to refer to a hockey puck-like volume of frozen spinach. (Spinach is commonly found frozen into blocks.) Presumably the author of the recipe had a particular brand - and therefore size standard - of spinach in mind. The spinach "pucks" in my freezer are about 4 oz each, but other sizes are also common.

Find a better recipe, or ask the author for clarification.


Thai beef meatballs, how to get chewy texture and how corn flour and baking powder function in recipe? I have attempted to make thai beef meat balls for about 10 times now and failed almost everytime. Thai beef meat balls need to be stretchy and have a chewy texture when finished.

I have tried mince with no fat, mince with 10% fat, high quality mince with no fat, still cannot get the right finished texture like the one in this video: Thai Beef Meatball Recipe

So I was wondering, what does cornflour and baking power do to the mince?
Why is it so necessary to have the mixed mince very cold before shaping it into a hot water?

I have followed exactly what the above video says and still cannot get it right.

Baking soda or baking powder? Powder will produce gas bubbles.

Both baking soda (but not baking powder) and corn starch are prevalent in chinese cooking and its derivatives elsewhere in Asia. I am reasonably sure that they are used even in home cooking.

Corn starch is used as a binder and texturing agent in minced or finely chopped meat. I have also seen it used in home cooking on sliced meat in stir frying for texture, mainly to capture the meat juices and allow that to become a thin coating of sauce adhered to the meat.

Baking soda is used as a meat tenderiser, more often in commercial cooking and less so in home cooking from what I have seen. Again, this is used commonly in sliced as well as minced meat.

As for meat balls (and fish balls/fish cakes too), the bouncy/chewy texture comes from kneading a meat paste (just ground beef if not fine enough) and also the way they are formed, effectively by extrusion - a pinch of meat in the palm of your hand, form a fist and squeeze it out through gap between your curled index finger and thumb. These are always cooked immediately, I suspect for hygiene because of excessive handling.

addendum

Though I have never seen it used, I can see how double action baking powder could produce those little bubbles in the puffier fish balls that you sometimes observe. This would certainly justify keeping everything cold and a hot bath immediately after extrusion. Much if not all of the tenderising function of the soda inside baking powder would be lost however.

I do not know any more today. The only other idea is that some sausages have a very similar bouncy texture. Perhaps someone can chime in with that know how.


Is there a way to incorporate air into a gel made from starch and will the pockets of air stay when dehydrated? I'm experimenting with creating puff cereal at home. I was wondering if creating a gel, dehydrating it and then puffing it in an oven with high pressure is the only way. I actually had an successfull experiment with making a puff cereal mix mainly made of cooked starch, dehydrating it and then putting the dehydrated balls into the microwave. The remaining moisture made the balls puff into puff cereal and it actually worked quite well. This is a technique used for shrimp crackers as well. Now here is the catch. It works well, but only with a few balls at a time (one ball works best). This is due to the uneven distribution of radiation which causes some balls to puff quickly and others to take forever, while the other ones burn. So I'm thinking about other ways to incorporate air into the gel without using something like egg whites which would change the texture of the final product. The goal is to avoid the uneven cooking of a microwave oven while also avoiding the need for a professional puffing gun or extruder.

You can create a "puffed" texture with methylcellulose.  Chef Jose Andres made a popular dish, based on this concept, at one of his restaurants, using beetroot.  Methylcellulose is whipped into the base, and it foams like whipped egg white.  Then you can pipe the mixture onto a dehydrator tray and dehydrate.  There is no need to bake or cook after that.  I am not sure how well it will work as a cereal. It might not hold up well in the presence of milk.
It is also possible to puff many grains simply by overcooking (to gelatanize the starch), dehydrating, and deep frying.


How do I properly mince garlic? I often need to mince garlic to add to any number of dishes. If I don't want to use a garlic press or microplane, how do I mince it with a knife?  What type of knife should I use and how should I cut it?  I'm most interested in the techniques associated with efficiency and safety.

You can try to treat it as a really, really small dice if you have a sharp enough knife.

But it's easier to use a chefs knife to cut it in one direction, and then try to start cutting it into sticks .... but when it starts getting difficult, just rock your knife back and forth, slowly moving it through the pile.

After a while, turn your knife (or the board) 90 degrees, and rock it some more.  As the pile starts spreading out, use your knife to pull it back into a tighter pile ... and keep rocking and turning until it's down to the size you want it.

...

If you're going to be using it right away, you can also give it a quick crush before mincing -- but this damages cell walls differently than cutting, and can cause some chemical reactions that change the flavor (the intensity fades quicker).


Stir fry rice clumps I love stir fried rice but can't get close to restaurant quality.  Mine seems to clump or turn almost gummy.

What can I do to improve the texture?

You want your rice to be fairly dry for stir frying.  If you cook some rice specifically to fry, put in the minimum amount of water for whatever method you're using.  As others have mentioned, it works well if you use leftover rice that's a day or two old.

Then, when you're actually frying it, it helps if the rice isn't clumped together (as it usually is when you use a rice cooker), so break it up before putting it in the pan.  Use very high heat, a good oil (I like grapeseed), and be sure the oil is very hot before putting the rice in.

If you want that nice yellow colour, when the rice is almost done, make an opening in the middle of the pan, crack an egg into it, and very quickly stir the rice into it.


Couldn't make pesto in a blender I was making pesto one day and couldn't find the lid to my food processor. So first I tried mixing it all in a blender. Didn't work, the leaves wouldn't go down to meet the blade. I had this pastey pesto at the bottom and full leaves on top. Transferred it to the magic bullet thinking the blender (it's a really old blender) was just busted. Same thing.

This frustration prompted me to find the food processor lid once and for all. I did and put everything in processor and worked like a charm.

Why can't you make pesto in a blender? What's the difference in the design of a food processor and blender?

You need enough liquid in the blender for it to work; if the leaves get stuck in blender canister, they won't reach the blades to get ground up.  It's mostly an issue of width of the container relative to the size of the basil leaves.

I typically make my pesto in a blender rather than a food processor, but I do the following:

Pack a few inches of basil (or other herb) down in the bottom of the blender
Add some oil on top to 'wet' it.
Blend for a second or two 'til it liquifies.
Pack some more basil in there, shoving it down into the liquid, with a few pinches of salt.
Blend again.
Repeat 4&5 until you have all of the basil in there.
Add the nuts & oil until you get the consistency you want.

I pull it at this point, as I get better results freezing it without cheese, and just stir in the grated cheese separately.


looking for edible paper At some point I came across some edible paper.  I don't know which company makes it or where to find it?  I think I recall that it was possible to write on it.  I encountered it back in the '80's.  The texture was semi-flexible, nothing like the little round cracker-like paper given in church.

I believe you're talking about edible rice paper. I know it is used in popular Asian candys, such as the White Rabbit Creamy Candy which was a childhood favorite of mine and I've also used rice paper while making a candy dessert called Turrones de casuy, a Filipino nougat candy which is wrapped in rice paper sheet. You can order from Amazon or here for variety.


Are there any tools / "life hacks" to cut sphere-shaped potatoes and carrots? Salad Olivier - The modern version contains peas, potatoes, carrot, eggs, etc.

It would be cool to cut everything into same-size spheres...

I think @ChrisH is on to something with the melon baller. They come in various sizes such as 1 cm, 1/2", 3 cm, and 1", to name a few. While 1 cm is the smallest I could find, it will still be larger than the peas which have an average size of .5 cm.

That said, you could use the 1 cm or 1/2" melon baller for the rest of your veggies and the egg. Of course, the egg will have to be cooked before scooping. But I think that is the answer for the carrots, too. Clean them and cook them whole before scooping.

While you could go either way with the potatoes, I think I would peel and cook them first.

With the harder veggies, you want to be sure they are fully cooked, but be sure not to overcook them. Too soft and the scooping could be a disaster.

The other option for the harder vegetables would be to partially cook them, scoop the balls out, and then finish cooking to your desired doneness.


Does the beef cut matter when making stroganoff? I would like to make a stroganoff recipe I have that calls for cubed Sirloin Tip Roast, but I was recently given some raw steak that I would like to use in its place. The steak I was given was not labeled, so I don’t know what cut it is. How interchangeable are beef cuts in regards to stroganoff making? Is it important to know what cut of steak it is? I’m not sure if this information is relevant, but it is a pressure cooker (instant pot) stroganoff recipe. Thank you!

Beef cut does matter. Sirloin tip is a relatively tender cut, cuts that have done more work like shoulder, round, leg cuts have more connective tissue and need a significantly longer cooking time. In a pressure cooker this isn't that long, 1 hour is what I've seen for instant pot recipes using working cuts.

Also what matters is fat content. Whatever you put in the instant pot is going to come out of it, if you put a fatty cut in you'll have a fatty result, so think about trimming.

I would fry a portion of one of the steaks and see how tender the result is, that's a good gauge. Plus you get to eat steak.


How can I prevent my Béarnaise sauce from thickening over night? I'm sometimes making my own béarnaise sauce, and it tastes great and has perfect thickness the first day after making it. But whenever I leave leftovers in the fridge over night, the béarnaise gets really thick (like when whipping cream to much).

I'm trying to keep from overcooking my egg yolks, so I don't think that's whats wrong. I follow a pretty classic recipe with taragon, black peppercorns, white wine vinegar, shallots, egg yolks and clarified butter.

Is there a way to keep it from thickening like this when left in the fridge over night?

When the butter cools in the fridge.... It's going to thicken up. I can't see a way around this? When you heat it up again, it should return to consistency...


Does the speed of opening of a bottle of wine influence its flavour? While having a (good) bootle of wine at a friends place I've been told the following:

  The bottle should be uncorked slowly and silently, not to spoil its bouquet.

This statement came as something completely new to me, and I do not understand what kind of physical/chemical reasons could justify it. Unfortunately, social reasons prevented me to ask directly to the upholder of this thesis.

Has anybody ever heard such a statement? Is it correct? A scientifically supported answer would be appreciated (therefore I add the tag chemistry to it).

Thank you for your support!

This seems to be a myth based on the idea that wine can be 'bruised' by popping the cork or handling the bottle roughly.

'Dr Vinny', Wine Spectator Magazine's advice expert, has this to say on the subject:

  Someone asked whether or not making a cork "pop" when you pull it will bruise the wine. Others have also asked about bruising in relation to decanting. I've never had a wine that was fine one moment and damaged the next because of handling, and can safely say that bruising wine is a myth.

Source: http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/5369

and also:

  A wine does not get “bruised” by moving it around. And let me address some other myths, such as that wine will bruise if you make a cork “pop” or bruise if you decant it: no and no. Outside of smashing a bottle on a concrete floor, there is nothing I know of that will take a perfectly fine wine and damage it in one movement.

Source: http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/40542

You are more likely to have a problem with an old, crumbly cork falling into the wine than some pseudo-homeopathic magic going on when the cork pops.


What can I do with leftover "Sweet and sticky" marinade? I've been cooking SWEET ‘N STICKY BAKED CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS, though instead of marinading the chicken, and baking it separately while reducing the marinade, I've been cooking the chicken with the marinade together, effectively half boiling it, half baking it.

The result is quite satisfying but I'm left with a half a Pyrex roaster of marinade.

Can I reuse that in a completely different dish instead of washing it down the drain ? (First thing that came to mind was a salad to use as a dressing)

The main concern with re-using anything that has come into contact with chicken is salmonella, however as you are talking about using marinade that has been cooked you shouldn't have any safety concerns, so you can use it in a different dish.

As for what to do with it that's hard to say for sure, it depends on how thick it is. If it's really baked on then you're likely to find that all the goodness has been cooked out of it and it will have a burnt taste and not much else. If it's more of a gel and tastes good you could use it for a variety of things, anywhere you'd use barbecue sauce basically, for instance:

Dipping sauce for fries, breads, etc
Substitute pizza sauce
Sauce for burgers


How do I heat up pre-made crepes with cognac? I bought some pre-made crepes from the store the other day. I know that when making crepes, cognac is used. The advice I found online points to heating the ready-made crepes in the microwave (I don't think this is a good idea) or the oven.

I happen to have some cognac, and was wondering if it is a good idea to heat up the crepes with the cognac. If so, what would be the best way to do this so that the integrity of the crepes and the texture and flavor are best preserved?

I am a relatively beginner cook, so I know this may be a very stupid question, but any advice would be very helpful.

Given that you ask about flaming cognac, I'm going to assume that you're making Crepes Suzette.

If that's the case, it's not complicated.  Follow the recipe I just linked; you'll see that even though it includes making crepes from scratch, that's a separate, first step.  You then heat the crepes in the orange butter and sugar.  if they are too dry to fold, heat them briefly in a dry pan over low heat.

Flaming with cognac is the last step, and it's done by setting fire to the cognac in a cup and pouring that over the crepes.  Again, this is all in the classic Pépin recipe I linked above.


Did I ruin my stoneware dutch oven by heating it on a gas stove? I was following this baked beans recipe. Relevant excerpt:

Place a cast iron Dutch oven over medium heat and stir in the bacon, onion, and jalapenos until enough fat has rendered from the bacon to soften the onions, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, dark brown sugar, and molasses.
Drain the beans and reserve the soaking liquid. Add the drained beans to the Dutch oven. Place the soaking liquid in a measuring cup and add enough vegetable broth to equal 4 cups of liquid. Add the liquid to the Dutch oven and bring to a boil over high heat.

I don't have a cast iron dutch oven and wasn't sure everything would fit in my cast iron pan, so I started the process in the pan and transferred everything to my stoneware dutch oven (smooth and shiny - possibly enameled?) once it was time to add the beans and broth.
I had preheated the liquid in the dutch oven on low on my gas stove, and once I added everything else, I cranked it up to high. After a few minutes the bottom of the dutch oven darkened quite a bit, so I googled and found that you're not supposed to put stoneware on a direct heat source. I turned off the heat and transferred everything back to the pan (where it thankfully just fit) and resumed the recipe from there.
The dutch oven returned to its normal color once it cooled off, but I know that not all physical changes are clearly visible. It probably spent 5-10 minutes on low and 5-10 minutes on high.
Is the stoneware now significantly more likely to crack when heated? Or because it survived the endeavor, is it still okay to use it normally?

It sounds like you had a lucky escape. It's not temperature itself that would damage stoneware as it's fired at over 1000C in manufacture (Wikipedia). Differential thermal expansion is what breaks things, e.g. heating the base much faster than the sides, or heating a thin layer quickly before the rest has time to warm through. By preheating it slowly you probably avoided that.

I would however be a little wary for one or two uses - handle it carefully and use it when you wouldn't be devastated if it broke and ruined the meal. Also inspect for cracks.

The temporary darkening is a bit odd but unlikely to mean anything.


How to adjust Baker's Percentage when Adding Ingredients I have a recipe of Old Fashioned Donuts that I love... I would like to add some Cocoa Powder to the recipe, but I don't know how to do that and keep the percentages correct. Basically, I don't know if adding Cocoa Powder will muck up the percentages the same as say adding more flour.

The Current Recipe is as follows:

600 g Flour
12 g Kosher Salt
90 g Egg Yolk
30 g Unsalted Butter
15 g Baking Powder
380 g Sour Cream

As a bonus... how much cocoa powder for a recipe like this would be appropriate? I'm kind of new to baking.

Cocoa powder is a drying agent. So you would want to remove a portion of the flour, and replace with a smaller portion of the cocoa powder plus an extra pinch of baking soda to counteract the acid nature of cocoa powder.

So if you were to follow the advice of 480g flour and 120g cocoa powder, (which sounds good) I would add a 1/4tsp of baking soda in addition to the baking powder.

I would try that out, keeping in mind that cocoa in addition to being acidic acts as a drying agent and so you may find that the above suggestion yields a slightly dryer donut than the original recipe. Adjust incrementally by tbsp of milk.

As a side note, we've all had fried chocolate donuts before and they probably haven't been bitter or burnt tasting. If you use way too much cocoa, sure. Creating recipes can be tricky, keep in mind it often takes some experimentation to perfect.


berberis vulgaris vs berberis aristata I was reading about zershek (dried berberis vulgaris fruit) in Iran and being Indian , I searched if this is grown in India. I found that berberis aristata is grown in Himalayas and it's fruit is edible too.

Does anyone know if I can use  berberis aristata in cooking ? Can it replace berberis vulgaris ?

The Genus Berberis commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world (apart from Australia). This Genus containing both Species:

Berberis Aristate
Berberis Vulgaris

and berries of both of these have not only culinary uses but medicinal uses in folk medicine.

Zereshk (زرشک) is just the Persian name of the Vulgaris variety and they both can be used for cooking without changing the recipe except that the Iranian variety mostly comes in the dried form due to climate, whereas the Arista variety might come fresh instead of dried, so adapt your recipe to account for the extra amount of water the fresh variety might contain.


What is a stable frosting for a cake that will be in warm temperatures at an outside party? I'm hosting a party for my son who's turning three at a park. We'll be under cover but not air conditioned - and we're in the middle of a hot Texas summer. The party is early in the day so it's likely to only be around 80-85 Fahrenheit. Still not an ideal temperature for my go-to, a simple American buttercream.

Is there a frosting type that will keep looking good on cupcakes and be stable for assembling a small two-layer cake at this temperature for the two hours of the party? It's also the only part of the cake my son is likely to eat, so it should taste good and I'd prefer to avoid shortening-based frosting.

I'd read that Italian buttercream does well at warmer temperatures but it's also got uncooked egg whites, which isn't great sitting outside for a while and with kids (2-3 years old), I'm hesitant to use it.

Here is an interesting entry from King Arthur Flour, who should not have a major stake in the game.  They hit a bunch of varieties with a hair drier to see how they held up.  Their test though was only on holding up to the heat, not safety though.  One could suggest using pasteurized eggs as an option though to get around safety concerns.

Quick summary, they liked Italian Buttercream among the buttercreams they tested.  Shortening over butter helps, but I am in the group who really dislikes the taste of "buttercream" made with shortening over butter, but would go by taste on that.  Of the ones they tested though, cream cheese frosting held up the best, so if the cake is one that would match with cream cheese it might be a good choice.

Fondant is another option which may hold up well to heat though personally, I find it for looks only, not taste.


Olive oil is extremely bitter - has it gone rancid? I recently bought some organic certified extra virgin olive oil from Tunisia.  However

It is a cheap brand (only $10 a litre)
The manufacturing date is Dec 2012 so its over a year old
It is packaged in a heavy, dark green, glass bottle and states it is best before 36 months from date of manufacture
It is extra virgin and organic certified by EcoCert
It tastes extremely bitter (almost as bitter as bitter-melon - if you've ever tried it )

Has the oil gone rancid? Should I throw it out?

Good EEVO from young olive trees will have a green tinged yellow colour, be astringent or peppery tasting (astringent is different from bitter, as in lemons are bitter, spearmint is astringent)

The astringent taste is a mater of preference. In my experience most people don't like it

Olive oil that has gone rancid is yellow, smells more like peanut oil or just like old grease, and tastes bitter

Oil from Dec 2012 would most likely be rancid by now, unless it was stored in light and air proof containers


Does it matter what kind of sugar is used in baking? The baking recipes I use specify many kinds of sugar e.g. caster, raw, white, soft etc.

Generally, I always just use raw sugar, mainly for convenience.

Does it really make a difference?

Yes!

Sugar is often used as a "wet" ingredient in baking.  That means it needs to be dissolved in the water in order to prevent too much gluten from being produced (making the result fluffy/flaky, and not chewy).  Different sugars hold different amounts of moisture (for example, brown sugar holds more than white) and using sugar with crystals that are too large (or too small) will make the texture come out completely wrong.  Too small and your cake will be rubber; too large and your biscuit will fall apart.

Also, if you're using the sugar for creaming (with fat), you generally need to use a coarser sugar.  Superfine sugar will dissolve too quickly and won't allow enough air to be incorporated.  Confectioner's sugar is good for creaming but has completely different properties from crystal sugar - it's been "processed" and has cornstarch added, so you can't just substitute in equal quantities.

Of course, it goes without saying that the taste is different as well.  But even more important than the taste are the solubility characteristics which, as explained above, will have noticeable effects on other parts of the recipe.

It does depend what you're baking; if the sugar is being used purely for flavouring, then you can use whatever sugar you like.  Much of the time in baking though, sugar is used for more than just sweetening, and it's important to be aware of that.  If the sugar is being creamed or dissolved, don't substitute unless you're sure you know what you're doing.


What actual effect does a Parmesean rind added to soup have? The answers to this question state that adding a Parmesan rind to a cooking soup will add a cheesy flavor to the soup.

How much flavor does a rind really add?  Does it flavor the soup to a degree that it will replace freshly grated Parmesan?

Does it thicken or cloud the soup?

What parmesan rind adds isn't so much cheesiness (an extremely difficult to pin down set of flavors, considering how many cheeses there are), but rather "umami".  Umami is thought of as the "fifth flavor", after sweet, sour, salty and bitter.  It's normally described as savory/musty.  Common foods with umami flavors (other than parmesan rind) include mushrooms, beef, anchovy, seaweed, soy and fish sauces, and (somewhat less so) tomato pastes.

In the right recipe (beef stews, coq au vin), a blast of umami can be amazing.  Parmesan rind is subtler than that, but still a good tool to have at your disposal.


dehydrator temperatures I just bought a nesco dehydrator. Used it a few times with good results. Yesterday I sliced up some fresh pineapple and placed it over 4 racks. I let it run at 140-145 for 6 hours. The thinner slices were dehydrated but still moist.

My question is, how does the temperatures affect how food is dried? One would assume that the higher the temperature, the faster the drying. Obviously that isn't the case...or is it?

The higher the temperature the faster the drying but also the more damage will be done to the food. As high as 140 and it is being cooked. For something like pineapple this is fine but for delicate things like basil that is not ok.

If you live in a dry climate the heater might not be necessary at all but it will save time.

I don't know exactly why your pineapple didn't turn out but here are a couple notes:

1- Things that are thick or very moist take much longer than usual. 6 hours is not a long time. Obviously pineapple is both. Try letting it go overnight.

2- Really really sugary things are so hygroscopic that they have a hard time drying completely and staying dried.

3- Commercial dried fruits are usually candied and chemically altered before being dried in equipment that I can't reproduce. This shouldn't discourage you by any means but don't expect your product to always be exactly like commercial dried fruit.


How are maraschino cherries pitted? How are mass-produced maraschino cherries pitted? I looked on wikipedia, but it doesn't mention much about pitting.

I'm going to assume you're talking about the "whole fruit" style and not the "halved" style.
It depends on the producer and variety of cherry, but the cherries that I've seen are pitted in two different ways: in a similar way to olives and simply "brute force" pitted.
Like an olive:
The cherry is centered over a round(circular or elliptical) cutter and then a blade(you've seen the cute "X" shape at the bottom of an olive) pushes the cherry onto and the pit through the cutter.
Brute Force:
Since most cherry pits are "free"(they don't cling very hard to the pit) it is possible to simply center the cherry over a hole and press out the pit with a dowel or rod.  The pit simply "squirts" out and the skin is split a little and the flesh on the opposite side is bruised a bit.  This results in a cherry that looks more "whole" and retains more flesh and sometimes you can barely tell where the pit left the fruit.
However, like all industrial processes this can be done many different ways up to and including by hand depending on the producer and/or target cost/quality of the final product.


Cooking duck breasts I've just purchased some locally reared organic duck breasts from a local farmers market and have decided to cook them according to the Five-spiced duck breasts with honey and soy   recipe.

My concern is that having not cooked duck breasts before (yes, I know, shameful! =) and having picked the recipe based on the fact that it sounds good and appears to have fairly detailed instructions, my inexperience in handling duck could result in a poor end result. So:

Are there any tips, things to look out for or techniques when cooking duck breast to obtain a great outcome?
Are there any glaring mistakes in the method for cooking duck breast in the recipe detailed?

I would say that recipes technique sounds ok, but when I have cooked duck before I have always cooked skin side down on a medium heat till the fat all runs out and skin is golden but this always takes longer than 3 minutes more in the 10 minute range.

Maybe this is because I use a lower heat.  the recipe doesn't say how hot the pan should be.  The aim is to render most of the fat out from under the skin of the duck.

I usually baste with the fat whilst it is cooking then finish off under the grill (broiler - not underneath the BBQ :)), but some times finish in the oven too.


Add Cocoa Butter to Chocolate Chips to Temper? Thanks to a well meaning neighbor, I am now the less than proud owner of 8lbs of Nestle Chocolate Chips.  Not only do I not really love making cookies, Nestle Chocolate Chips came in dead last in a recent Cook's Illustrated taste test of chocolate chips.

I've never tempered chocolate, but that's something I'd like to get into.

I could swear that I read somewhere that real but "bad" chocolate can be improved and tempered after adding 10% cocoa butter. Is that true? For the life of me I can't find the source for that info.

If it is true, would more cocoa butter be better? I know that couverture chocolate can contain up to 40% cocoa butter.

I understand that no amount of cocoa butter will turn Nestle chips into Callebaut, but I would like to practice the process of tempering with the cheap chocolate that I already own before I spend real money on fine chocolate. I can get a good price on organic, food grade cocoa butter.

Ingredient list of Nestle Semi-Sweet Morsels: Semi-sweet chocolate (sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, milkfat, soy lecithin, natural flavors)

The nutritional information says that the total fat is 4 grams in a 14 gram serving. That makes the chips 29% fat. If I'm not missing anything, that means that they are at least 15% cocoa butter, probably more. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Keep in mind that if you mess up tempering of 'fine chocolate', you can always heat it back up and do it again.

All you are doing is trying to make one of the three types of chocolate crystals the dominant one, and form the crystal lattice.

This article chocolate alchemy describes it.  In practice, having a fast digital hand thermometer is really helpful since you can actually see the changes at the critical temperatures.

As far as the Nestle stuff goes, try practicing with them as they are.  I'm afraid I can't advise to throw good cocoa butter into it.  You may be able to get chocolate ice cream mileage from your 8lbs. Otherwise, just go ahead temper your favourite chocolate.  Worst case, a badly tempered good chocolate still tastes great.


What is the smoking point of salmon fillet oil? What is the smoking point of salmon fillet oil cooking in oven (baked in a foil parcel)? (could be a range)

There is one Q&A at What is the best time and temperature for taste when cooking a salmon fillet in the oven?, but it doesn't answer what's the smoking point.

According to this anecdotal Reddit post [1], salmon oil holds up to 460F, 232C. However, most fish oils are considered unstable and unsuitable for cooking as their Inherent Oxidation Stability is relatively high [2].
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AskCulinary/comments/7dx0cp/fish_oil_as_a_cooking_fat
[2] http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/oilchart.html


Spray oil with hydrocarbon propellants on non-stick pan surfaces I have heard that using spray-oils with hydrocarbon-based propellants (e.g. butane, isobutane or propane) can, over time, be detrimental to the effectiveness of non-stick pan surfaces.

Can anyone categorically confirm or deny this with references? There appears to be a lot of hearsay on the topic, and I'm after an authoritative source (like a study, or published  experimental result).

EDITS

As @rumtscho points out below, as well as Sam Ley in this answer, small amounts of oil (particularly if sprayed on thinly) which overheat in a hot pan may polymerize and bind to the surface in much the same way as you'd season an iron/steel pan, reducing the effectiveness of the non-stick surface underneath. So, perhaps the problem is not actually with hydrocarbon propellants in spray oils (for which I haven't found any good references), but with the overheating of thin layers of oil applied by sprays which polymerize.

I don't know about the propellants, but you're probably doing yourself a disfavor if you are using an oil spray on nonstick.

The problem is that you're using way too little oil with them. It won't matter if you're making stir fry, but people tend to plop a single piece of meat or fish on the pan. Then what you have is vast ares of pan bottom, hot, covered by nothing by oil. What happens is that the oil polymerizes, just like in seasoning a cast iron pan. You end up with a tacky gunk which is sticky enough to have a grip on the teflon. As you cannot heat the pan enough to actually make a good seasoning out of the stuff (and it won't work well on top of nonstick anyway), you end up with mini droplets of sticky substance on top of the teflon, which reduce the non stickiness.

The oil is also too little to prevent the pan from overheating, which means that your pan can get destroyed by the heat itself. Use an infrared thermometer to see which knob setting is low enough for your pan and only use a naked or sprayed pan under that setting.

I don't have any studies about that, I've just made a similar mistake to my own pans and have seen enough of my friends' and relatives' pans covered in that oil residue to know it's a common problem.

Of course, this problem is not inherent in the spray. You could spray until you have enough oil to not get that effect, a depth of at least 3 mm of a continuous oil puddle seems to be sufficient. But if you are going to use that amount of oil, it's easier and cheaper to get it from the bottle, not out of a spray can.

It is possible that there is an additional problem caused by the propellants. Or it could be a wrong theory by the people who notice the negative effects of frying on a sprayed non stick pan and don't know enough about pan seasoning to recognize the process I described before. My guess is the second, as the whole point of teflon is that it's as close to chemically inert as they could get. I'd like to see another, better sourced answer clarifying this point. But for me, the above problem is reason enough to keep the spray for other purposes, no matter what the propellants do or don't do.


How much meat do I need to serve 26 adults? Hello everyone i am cooking for 26 adults and 4 children
menu is :

rare roast beef served on crusty bread with horseradish
main:
slow roasted pork belly with cider and cream gravy
roasted lamb
served with Mediterranean veg and Yorkshire puddings

I really need help with how much raw meat to buy please thank you I am in south africa
Kind regards Lea

Generally speaking, a 1/2 lb per person should be plenty assuming you have some food other than meat they will be eating, and it sounds like you do. I'd recommend buying 15 lbs total and you will definitely have enough.

Since you are going to have multiple meats, that makes it a bit more challenging because you have to guess which is going to be eaten more/less.

This article from The Kitchn would actually recommend a bit less than 15 lbs for you since the meat is not really a main dish on it's own in any of your dishes.

Go with 15 lbs to be safe, and just think through how much of each meat you will need.


Cooking multiple dishes at once in the oven What is the rule of thumb for adjusting temperature and cooking time when cooking multiple dishes in the oven at the same time? In particular, if the dishes have different required temperatures and/or cooking times, when and how is it feasible to cook both at the same time?

There aren't any very good "rules of thumb" for specific temperatures or cooking times.  I'll take a stab at the question in general terms, but it really will vary depending on the specific dishes.  There are other questions which have been asked here that ask about specific cases.

First, timing and temperature are separate issues.

The general answer about timing is to bake until done.  Most recipes that require a very particular doneness have some sort of test to determine it (e.g., final internal temperature, texture, brownness level, solidity, etc.).  Pull the food from the oven when it satisfies the doneness condition.  Most foods will eventually get done at lower temperatures; they may just take longer.  Other foods are often not as picky about doneness levels, e.g., stews, casseroles, braises.  Longer cooking will often just make the texture more tender, which is often a benefit.

If your goal is to try to have multiple things done at the same time, timing can be more tricky.  In that case, you'll just have to take a guess, put foods that need longer cooking in first, and keep an eye on everything.  If one particular dish is getting done too quickly, you can often remove it, cover with a lid or foil, and return to the oven when the remaining dish(es) are approaching doneness.  For baked goods, they should probably be nearly done before removing and resting.  (The gluten structure needs to be stable, usually with interior temp of at least 180-190F.)  For other dishes, you may be able to remove from the oven in mid-bake and return after other dishes have "caught up" in doneness level.  For food safety reasons, you don't want to "rest" the food too long before returning to the oven, but it can help to balance timing as you're approaching doneness for everything.

There are various charts and tables available for determining how timing will be affected by temperature changes, but frankly they're rarely accurate.  Only experience and trial-and-error can tell you how a particular dish or recipe will be affected.  This is even more true for full ovens, where temperature fluctuations, steam from other dishes, variations in radiant heat and air circulation produced by other baking vessels, etc. will really create differences in baking times.  The only general advice here is to monitor the cooking frequently and use whatever doneness criteria you have.

For temperature, things get a little complicated, but here are some general thoughts for different food types.

Baked Goods

Temperature has to be determined by the foods that are most sensitive to temperature.  These are usually baked goods, which depend on a particular balance of high heat (to rise or create oven spring, and to "set" the dough/batter after expansion) and lower heat (to avoid overbrowning or burning before the center is cooked through).  If you have baked goods involved, you may need your oven set at the temperature required by the baked goods.
If you have multiple types of baked goods to bake at the same time, it may or may not be possible to get good results: the best you can do is take something close to an average temperature and pull them out when done.  When in doubt, I'd err on the side of a slightly lower temperature.  Some types of baked goods won't rise as high, but that's often a lesser quality problem to deal with than baked goods that are burned on the outside but raw or dried out on the inside (which can happen with a high temperature).  In fact, despite warnings about the necessity of pre-heating, a surprising number of baked goods can even be successfully baked starting from a cold oven and will still achieve perfectly sufficient rising/oven spring.  However, you will generally need to get up to something close to the recipe temperature to achieve sufficient setting of the batter/dough (before collapse) and then browning.
Any sensitive pastries (and related complex desserts, e.g., souffles) are generally best baked by themselves.  Aside from balancing temperature and timing, the moisture introduced into the oven by other dishes can significantly affect the baking process of pastry.  So, I'd recommend against trying to combine pastry baking with other things unless you really know what you're doing.

Roasted Meats/Large Pieces of Roasted Food

These are generally quite flexible.  The primary reasons to roast at a high temperature are (1) to achieve adequate browning (with its flavor elements), and (2) to cook at a fast pace.
If you're flexible, there's no reason to worry about (2).  Roasting at a lower temperature will still get things done, and even doing a "low and slow" roast will improve the quality of just about any meat.  There are charts and rules of thumb to estimate different roasting times for meats at various temperatures, but these really can't substitute for a good probe thermometer.  If you're on a schedule, you can make adjustments to the oven temperature to ensure the meat finishes on time.
As for browning, you can either sear the meat first on the stovetop or in a high oven (probably best for poultry) or do a "reverse sear" where you turn the oven up right before serving and blast it with high heat for 5-10 minutes (works well for beef, pork, lamb, etc.).  Also, the reverse sear can give you time to get your other food into serving dishes, make gravy, etc. before serving.
If you're roasting at a higher temperature in order to accommodate baked goods or other foods, the outer layer of meat may get done too quickly.  Covering part or all of the roasting meat with foil may help.  If this is insufficient, cover completely and remove from the oven for a few minutes for the meat to rest and "even out" a bit in temperature, then return.

Roasted Vegetables/Small Pieces of Roasted Food

Again, these are fairly flexible, but if cooked too long they can dry out and shrivel, and if cooked at too low of a temperature, it can take a long time for dense vegetables to soften (e.g., potatoes, carrots, etc.).
They also often release a lot of moisture into the oven, which can affect other dishes, particularly those where browning is desired.  This latter point applies to most roasted items cut into small pieces.  It is often helpful to temporarily remove any items that release a lot of steam during the browning phase of other foods.  (Cover with foil and return to oven to warm before serving.)

Covered Dishes/Casseroles

The above dishes are often primarily baked uncovered in the oven.  Dishes baked inside of pots or in other covered vessels are usually less sensitive to temperature changes, unless the temperature is really high which can cause some foods to stick and burn to the cooking vessel.  Again, most foods will eventually cook at lower temperatures, though the total time can be hard to predict until you experiment.
Using a cover over some of your dishes will also prevent excess moisture in the oven.  Excess moisture is usually undesirable in most circumstances, since it can interfere with browning.  However, it can be used to your advantage in limited circumstances, such as during the first 10-15 minutes of baking for bread and similar baked goods, when oven spring is required before the crust dries out and sets.
Consider making adjustments as necessary to dishes that request a phase baked covered and another uncovered.  Often continuing the covered bake for a longer time will only result in more tenderness in the dish, and it may be an effective way to allow the oven to be used at a lower temperature with a longer bake.  Just like the "reverse sear" for meat, a dish that needs to be uncovered for a final portion of the bake can often be finished with a final high-heat blast or a few minutes under the broiler.

General Tips and Summary

Most foods need to achieve a certain doneness level throughout; aside from some baked goods, this can almost always be achieved with a lower oven temperature (to a point -- going below about 250F will introduce complications in some dishes).  Some foods need a specific outside texture, flavor, browning level, etc. which is best achieved at higher heat.  If you need that latter effect, either choose an intermediate temperature, or do a phase at the beginning or ending of baking at higher heat for those items specifically.  Convection oven features can often also be employed for this, if they're available.
For baked goods, the production/expansion of gas in leavening needs to be balanced with the time that the dough/batter sets, making baked goods more sensitive to temperature.  Unless you know what you're doing (which might involve making adjustments to leavening agents or choosing a different stage of proofing for yeast-based products before baking), baked goods often need to be baked close to their normal recommended temperature.
Overloading: too much food can introduce complications.  Always ensure adequate air circulation is possible around all dishes, but particularly around uncovered ones.  As mentioned above, excess moisture can also be a problem when too many dishes are in the oven, which will influence the speed at which food cooks and browns.
Consider placement of dishes within the oven.  Placement of heating elements will affect this greatly.  But generally speaking -- with ovens that have a heating element on the bottom or bottom and top -- dishes on the bottom of the oven will brown faster on the bottom, while those on the top of the oven will brown faster on the top.  Don't put things that will burn quickly on either surface in the wrong place.  Heat rises, so with a lot of food in the oven, the top of the oven will be hotter (and the temperature difference will be greater when the crowded), so place things that need a higher temperature farther up.


What is the best cut of beef to use for stews? What cut of beef should I use for a beef stew?  I heard that you want a little bit of fat in the meat, but what part the animal is best to use?

Assuming a long, cooked stew. I cut up a well marbled chuck steak usually and chuck is what I'd recommend.  You want enough fat that as the stew cooks long, the fat will render and leave nice, tender meat.  Too lean and you're left with boiled shoe leather.

If you want a quicker stew, use a leaner cut of meat like sirloin.  It will have a lot of flavor but you shouldn't cook it long at all.  A fatty cut in a short stew will end up very fatty and often tough (with a cheaper cut like chuck).


Hot sauce; Remove seeds? I use a recipe that calls for removing the top third or more of Cayenne peppers in order to remove most of the seeds. Seems like a waste to me. Aside from having to strain out the seeds after cooking, what would it hurt to just cut the stem and cook the peppers with the seeds in there? Would it have an ill affect on the taste? I wouldn't think so since the seeds are also used for crushed red pepper.

I just made a batch of hot sauce that was very cayenne-heavy myself. Keep the seeds.

You want to get every last bit of heat out of those babies, especially if you are diluting with a significant amount of vinegar.

The only use case I can think of for chopping the tops off as described in your recipe is if you aren't already planning to strain out the pulp as well.

Even if I was eager to keep pulp but avoid seeds in my final batch I would rather scrape seeds from the individual peppers than waste that much product.

I personally don't think you'll notice any off flavors from the seeds.


Why does tilapia and swai fish taste like catfish? I have been cooking fish for over 40 years. Catfish is a fish I can not stand.  My family buys and loves tilapia and swai and no matter how I cook, grill, bake, fry, season, marinate, flour it, breadcrumb it, and use panko and even try to make fish fingers, it still tastes like catfish.  I bought farm raised and wild USA and outside.  Lemon, soy, different vinegars and spices from all over the world and marinated overnite and even fried like fish and chips with a beer batter. The only thing I did not do is put bar-b-que sauce on it and ketchup.  My family and friends love it whatever I do to it but it still tastes like catfish to me. I love fish but this is really terrible and no matter how it is brought to me, I recognize these two fishes by raw filet sight and it never has a fishy smell.  Are these two fishes in the catfish family?

Swai and catfish are biologically related, but Tilapia is a Cyclid and as such quite far removed. I think the biological relation is not all that critical to their similar taste which you dislike though.

The taste of fish relies on a few factors such as:

Their living environment (Fresh, brackish, salt water)
The type of soil on the water bottom (silt, sand)
The diet of the species (other fish, water based plankton or bottom dwellers)

Catfish is a bottom feeding freshwater species and likely to have a relatively similar taste to other species that share their living environment and diet. As such I'm willing to bet you also don't like the taste of Carp very much.

Perhaps the solution lies in finding a fish that has a similar texture to Catfish but is a sea dwelling fish eater. That way you might get the appreciation from your eaters while being able to enjoy your own dishes more.


Shallow frying safety I've recently begun shallow frying a lot of chicken in batter - which have been turning out perfectly tasty for what I need them for.

However, frying with more than a splash of oil is scaring me - especially in my rented appartment where a fire would be extremely serious. Without regard to how these practices affect the quality of my cooking; how safe are the following:

Shallow frying in a deep-sided saute pan, with ~2cm of oil
Overcrowding the food in the oil
Continuing to use the same oil, even when it's starting to fill with lumps of burnt food
Not refilling the oil when it starts to run low
Refilling the oil when it starts to run low, in the middle of cooking
Stirring the food I'm shallow frying
Using a high heat when frying (level of heat you'd use for cooking steak)
Covering the pan with concentrated dish-soap once I'm finished cooking

Any fat can self-ignite at sufficiently high temperature, so your fear is in principle not unfounded – however, all common cooking fat/oil have a kindling temperature high enough that it should never be reached during normal shallow-frying. In particular, as long as you have any significant amount of moist food in the pan, evaporation will prevent the temperature from going much above 100°C. I.e., the more food you have in the pan the safer it gets, actually.

At lower temperatures, oil is hard to ignite, unless soaked into fibrous material. So especially refilling the oil in the middle of cooking is generally safe.

Stirring the food often required, and not unsafe per se. What can be unsafe is if fat splashes onto hotter surfaces or into a gas burner, but unless you're doing it in an extremely violent manner any splashes should be small enough to not cause disaster.

For e.g. steak, you may as you say need high heat for the right crust, and that can indeed lead you in risky territory: to get to that heat, you need to pre-heat the pan without anything in it, and then the temperature can easily reach autoignition range. Here, for safety:

Don't use more oil than necessary. 2cm is way too much for frying steak. A layer that just covers the bottom of the pan will do.
Know your stuff. An infrared thermomenter gives best control, but with some experience you'll already know how long the pan needs to get to a certain temperature at a given setting.
Be prepared. If the oil does ignite in the pan, first of all don't panic. Next, shut down the stove entirely. If it's a ceran stovetop, carefully slide the pan to the coldest spot on it. Then cover the pan with a lid, with another pan of matching size, or with anything else solid that can't melt. That will cut off the oxygen supply and thus quickly squelch the flame without problems.Never put water into burning fat, since it will violently expand and spray the flaming oil all around. That's the only thing that could really cause a quick disaster here!


Oil soaked lettuce leaf found on counter - food safety issue? I found a lettuce leaf that had been part of a very oily salad under a bowl and wet from dishwashing water. I think the oily lettuce has been there up to four days (someone else in household didn't clean up) and has been wet under the bowl probably up to 22 hours. Is that considered anaerobic (botulism-y)? Or is it okay because it's not completely in oil (but under a bowl)? I put it and paper towels I cleaned it up with in two bags in garbage using gloves. I would like to not be so worried about greasy dishes and oily salad leaves but don't know if I should be bleaching the counter and my gloves.

I think you over did it (2 bags and gloves!!).

Just pick it up, throw it and clean with your regular cleaning routines.


Crisping chicken skin after braising I have a go-to chicken dish that I like a lot. I marinate thighs in a soy based marinade and then brown them. Then I mix the marinade flavors, chicken broth and rice and put the thighs in skin side down, cover, and cook over medium-low heat until the rice is nearly done. With 10 minutes or so left to go, I turn the thighs skin side up, lay them on top and finish cooking, uncovered, until the rice is done.

I like the skin done this way. I start the browning in a cold pan which really renders the fat nicely (you can see the fat in the first picture, I added no oil), but I know that a lot of people only like chicken skin crispy. The skin here isn't flabby, but it isn't crispy either. Does anyone have a good trick for crisping chicken skin that is already fully cooked by braising?

As some of the commenters have noted, this just might not be possible. Water is the enemy of crispy, and unfortunately for your chicken skin braising is all about moist heat. I would try searing the skin before braising, if you don't already, in order to get some of the fat rendered out and the Maillard reaction on it's way. Braise as you would, but remove the chicken five minutes before it hits doneness and place the thighs on wire rack. Put the thighs under a screaming hot broiler until, god willing, they're crispy. A torch or the searzall could also do the trick.


Holding a Shepherd's pie until dinner I made a Shepherds pie for dinner, its assembled and ready to bake.  I'd like to hold off for a few hours though, maybe 4-5 hours.

I have no room in my fridge and I don't want to leave it on the counter, so I think the oven is my only option.  The instructions say to bake it at 450 for 30 minutes.  Should I bake it as instructed, then hold it at 200 until ready to eat?    Are there any other methods to do this?

Thanks

Yes, keeping it in a 200F oven will keep it safely outside the bacterial danger zone, but it may also dry out a bit. Covering with foil or adding a pan of water to the rack below may help that, though that may also make the crust soggy. You'll have to experiment a bit.


70% chocolate from 53% and unsweetened My mom has a cake recipe that calls for 70% chocolate. She called me and said she has 53% chocolate and unsweetened chocolate. Can she mix them to get 70% and in what ratio?

She could mix them, and it would be about 8:2 semi to unsweetened.

  8 part semi - 56 units cacao
  2 part unsw - 20 units cacao
  ----------------------------------
  10 parts mix - 76 units cacao, or about 75%

Still, most cake recipes are very forgiving, and the unsweetened chocolate will have a different flavor and possibly smoothness than the semi-sweet, so it may not be worth it.


Recipes - Adding up calories and nutritional info? When cooking, a recipe has a list of ingredients. If I wanted to find the calories in the recipe would I just add up the calories of every ingredient? Same situation with carbs, protein fat ?

Or does cooking change the number of calories the ingredients originally had?

SAJ14SAJ's answer is very good for the basic case. There are a few exceptions.

First, if you have an ingredient which is partly discarded, it can be hard or impossible to find out what part ended up in your final food. If you deep fry vegetables in oil, you will have to calculate the change in oil weight to find out how much oil got absorbed. Worse, if you soak cookies in milk, the cookies will absorb lots of whey, but no milkfat, and probably no lactose. On the other hand, some of the sugar in the cookies might get leached out into the milk. So, in this case, you can't get a good calculation even if you measure the amount of milk you throw out.

Second, if your cooking process involves fermentation, all bets are off. Yeast and bacteria will eat some of the carbohydrates, but not all. They will convert them to alcohol (which has calories) and carbon dioxide (which does not have human-digestible calories). It might be a small error in something like bread, where there are so many carbohydrates that the amount eaten by the short fermentation is noise. But if you are fermenting liquids with relatively little carbohydrates (kwass, alcoholic drinks), the result will be very different.

Third, alcohol also has calories (about 7 per gram). In most recipes, a part, but not all of it, evaporates during cooking. You can't control well for that, and it can make a significant difference in dishes with lots of alcohol, like coq au vin.

Fourth, the rule will hold for the macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, fats) and their energy content (calories), as well as some stable micronutrients (predominantly trace minerals like calcium). Fragile micronutrients such as vitamins can break down during cooking. Also, if you are interested in a specific subtype of nutrient, that can also change. For example, you can start out with sucrose (table sugar) and end up with a mixture of glucose and fructose. This will still be the same total amount of carbohydrates, but for some diets, the difference in sugar type is important.


How do you fillet fresh salmon? I want to buy a whole piece of fresh salmon, head to tail intact, and fillet it.  Is there a technique that can be shared for a novice?

Filleting a roundfish is really quite easy but is better explained in person or through pictures vs. text.  Here's a link that will provide step-by-step photos.


Can I pastuerize eggs for eggnog without sous vide? I would like to safely make eggnog with raw egg. The options I have read about are buying pasteurized eggs (can't find any locally) and sous vide (I don't have specialised equipment).

Is there any other way to pasteurize the eggs without special equipment, and without compromising the texture of the eggnog? I do have a blender :)

A simpler option (recommended by the FDA food safety website) is to use a cooked egg base:

  Combine eggs and half the milk as indicated in the recipe. (Other ingredients, such as sugar may be added at this step.)
  Cook the mixture gently to an internal temperature of 160 °F, stirring constantly. The cooking will destroy Salmonella, if present. At this temperature, the mixture will firmly coat a metal spoon (but please don’t lick the spoon if the custard is not fully cooked!).
  After cooking, chill the mixture before adding the rest of the milk and other ingredients.

Cooked nog recipes can be easily found by Googling.

In my family's traditional recipe, the egg whites are whipped separately and then folded into the yolk/cream/sugar mix. This wouldn't really be an option with a cooked egg base, but you can substitute whipped cream (which is far more readily available pasteurized) to get the same texture.


Benefits or effects of salt on fruit fruit cleanliness with regards to wax, pests, pesticides, insecticides, etc? There's a language barrier here for context.
I have heard from a family relative that they think using salt in the preparation of some fruits to be beneficial from a cleanliness perspective, which they heard from the radio. I inquired about the mechanics of how and why this works and did not receive any sort of explanation that satisfied me (e.g. Kenji J lopez style experiments or references to any scientific models/theories of why)
I understand that not all scientific models/theories work in all cases and some become historical as more cases and knowledge is discovered. However I do enjoy/prefer theories/models with experiments and tests with reproducible and measurable results to help prove things.
In all examples the salt used is normal table salt.

Preparing an apple to be eaten raw, putting salt on it first and rubbing. Then washing off the salt and washing like normal. Something about the salt is supposed to do something about insecticides and pesticides? I'm not sure if a case could be made for the salt being used as an abrasive for removing wax?

Grapes, Berries (blueberry, raspberry, strawberry)  Rinsing them off with water like normal, then briefly soaking them in salt water, then dumping the salt water, then rinsing with water again. The salt water soak is supposed to do something for possible (insect) pests, pesticides, insecticides?

Let me know if these kinds of salt operations have any substantial effects good or bad, with regards to cleanliness, taste, nutritional etc. I have heard of brining meat, but never thought or heard of these kinds of practices.
I would be happy to see this debunked or explained.

According to this article, submerging strawberries in saltwater will make fruitfly larva leave the berries. Apparently the idea was popularized in May 2020 by a TikTok post. But the author goes on to say that it's probably not necessary, that consuming fruitfly eggs or larvae is not harmful (they site USDA for this claim), and soaking your strawberries in saltwater may ruin the flavor. I get the impression that the author of this article didn't actually wash any strawberries in saltwater themselves (given that they only say "may" ruin the taste).
This article cites India's Centre for Environmental Science as recommending washing fruit in 2% saltwater to help remove pesticide residue from the fruit surface. They say that  most pesticide residue will be removed by washing with normal cold water, but saltwater removes even more pesticides. Here's an article from the Centre for Environmental Science, which has the information cited in the previous article.
Apparently there is also a myth that washing fruits and vegetables with salt water is a bad idea, that it will make pesticide residues "more durable." That myth is debunked here. This article cites Dr. Jessada Denduangboripant of Chulalongkorn University, as saying “salt water can be used to wash fruit and vegetables” and "Most insecticides come in oil form so salt will make the oil compound separate from each other."
Since point of the salt is to help remove oil-based pesticides, you might think of washing your produce with detergent. The problem with that idea is that detergents are not tested for food safety, and you risk leaving some detergent residue on the produce (or even of the produce absorbing the detergent) which you then eat. Eating detergent is not good for you. The advantage of salt is that if you don't manage to rinse it all off, the remaining traces of salt are non-toxic.
All the sources I found about this mentioned using saltwater, not dry salt. So I don't think the salt is meant as an abrasive. Maybe it would work for that, but I didn't find any references for it.

You mentioned a language barrier with the relative who told you about using salt to clean vegetables. Given that two of the top search results were from India and Thailand, and that I've never heard this technique recommended here in the US, I wonder if this might be a technique which is more common in southeast Asia, and perhaps originated there. Some of the recent sources referenced Covid, so perhaps the idea came about when everyone was (unnecessarily, as it turns out) trying to sterilize their vegetables in the early stages of the pandemic. Or perhaps the idea already existed, and it had a surge in popularity for the same reason. Pure speculation on my part.


Cooking a 5 pound pork sirloin roast Put a 5 pound pork sirloin roast in oven at 175 degrees F for two hours. Then turned up oven to 350F for two hours. Is it safe to eat?

The only way to tell if a pork roast has been cooked long enough is by taking an internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer in several places around the thickest portion of the roast.

The National Pork Board recommends cooking pork chops, roasts, and tenderloin to an internal temperature between 145° F. (medium rare) and 160° F. (medium), followed by a 3 minute rest. Since large cuts increase approximately 10° F while resting, remove them from the heat at 150° F. followed by a 10 minute rest.
Pork Cooking Times and Temperatures


How can I get dry rub to stick to cooked chicken? How can I get dry rub to stick to baked or deep fried chicken wings after I've cooked them?

If you miss your time window when the wings are hot enough to have seasoning stick, I know of two other options:

Spray the wings with a spray oil like olive or coconut oil and tumble them with or in the seasoning

Rub the wings with mustard, which is like a glue and then tumble them with or in the seasoning.  Herb-crusted meats or fish is often done this way


How much salt and pink salt do I need for pork sausage? How much salt and pink salt (in grams) do I need for 50kg of pork sausages?

I have worked out for 50kg of pork meat I will need 1200g of salt and 155g of pink salt. Is this correct?

According to Smoking Meat Forums, you would need 2 ounces of pink salt for 50 lbs of sausage, which is a ratio of 0.0025 pink salt to meat (they provide three significant digits) for short curing time sausages.  These are sausages which will be cooked or smoked.

Therefore, converting to metric, 50 kg, you would require 125 grams or so pink salt.

Note that the regular salt is not really a curing agent at concentrations used in this type of sausage, but for flavor and texture:

  Although salt is not generally used in concentrations sufficient to
  effect preservation it exerts some antimicrobial activity. Some
  bacteria are already inhibited at 2 percent levels of salt. Other
  microorganisms tolerate a much higher concentration of salt.

You would need to provide an original recipe or formula on which you have based your calculations to get any validation of your computation of the regular salt amount.

See also:

How to dry homemade pork sausages with proper humidity and temperature?
Rhulman on meat curing safety issues