Is there a way to tell the grit coarseness of an unmarked sharpening stone? I've received a few sharpening stones with different coarseness and even one double-sided two-colored stone. Is there any way to tell how coarse each stone is and which stage of sharpening it would be appropriate for? I'm not experienced in sharpening and I'd like to learn.

I was suggested to mark the edge of something made of metal (not necessarily a knife I'd like to sharpen) with a black marker and slide it once across each of the stones, make a macro photo of the removed black paint and compare the scratched areas. Is this a viable method? I don't have a macro-capable camera so I can't try it myself.

With some experience you can tell by running a finger over the surface.

As a general guide:

grinding stones used for serious repair of knives form damage of long ngelect; will feel disticly rough, not as rough as sand paper but you can definitely feel an abrasive surface.
sharpening stones : these will have a smooth surface but will have a definite 'drag' or friction to them, a bit like rough paper. These are used for normal sharpening of knives.
Polishing/finishing stones : these will feel very smooth with just a hint of texture, a bit like magazine pages. Used for refinement and polishing of a cutting edge .


What is in eel sauce? I've always love eating this dark eel sauce that goes with eel rolls at our favorite sushi restaurants. It's got a dark color it's sweet, a little salty, and slightly savory.

What is in eel sauce? What makes it sweet and so concentrated with flavor? Also, why is it called eel sauce?

Components:

sweet -> sugar+mirin (rice wine)
salt -> soy
savory -> soy+mirin+eel bones

At home, you probably won't be able to manage eel bones boiled down into stock. Ignoring that, it's all a matter of mixing and reducing.

Sugar+soy+mirin, reduce to 1/3, revel in the joy of caramel and salt and sharpness.


How best to melt and reform chocolate I'm planning on making a custom box of chocolates using a home-made silicone food/ice-cube tray.  I think I'll need to get the chocolate pretty hot and runny so that it will pick up the details in the tray with few air bubbles.  I expect this might take some experimentation but would like some idea where to start.

What is the best process to use to melt and reform the chocolate so that it keeps as many of its original properties as possible rather than turning crumbly or loosing its creamy taste?  Should I be melting slowly/quickly? should I add anything to the chocolate (milk, butter, etc.)? should I leave at room temperature to solidify or refrigerate immediately?

If it maters, I'll be using galaxy chocolate (and possibly milky way chocolate) which I think melts at a lower temperature than most?

Chocolate IS tricky to get right, and I have had mixed results using a double boiler, I have also tried using a microwave- ten seconds intervals, checking temperature each time and waiting till the chocolate is good and warm before stirring. I have also used this method- place chocolate in a plastic bag and leave it in a warm sunbeam or outside if it is a warm day until melted, IF you have the patience for this method, I have consistently had good results with this method. In regards to your concerns about air bubbles, I would definetely use either room temperature molds or warm molds, gently banging the molds on your contertop after you add the chocolate will cause air bubbles to rise to the top. I would also suggest letting the chocolate cool to room temperature on your countertop before placing in the fridge to harden. Hope this helps.


What's the difference when smoking in a spherical grill and in a smoker? When smoking in a spherical grill like the Weber One-Touch, will the result be different then when a real smoker is used? What is the difference?

No, it won't be different. It is, however, a bit harder.

The issues are mainly:

It's harder to get the heat away from the food. So you end up cooking with some direct heat. This can be avoided by using a small amount of well soaked, large wood chunks and get them smoking with some normal charcoal. You should also use indirect heat by stacking the chunks on one side of the grill. If you use wood chips, this won't work. They burn too fast and need too much of an ignition source.
Heat insulation isn't very good. The walls are thin and you have to remove the whole lid to tend your food. The heat dissipation can be a real issue for long low and slow recipes. Smokers either tend to be well insulated (brick or ceramic) or have small doors so you can access your food from the side.
Adding fuel can be a pain. It's made easier if you have a grill surface that is hinged. If you don't, I'd suggest getting one if you are seriously considering smoking. It makes adding fuel much easier. Of course, adding fuel causes the above heat dissipation issues, so add fuel as infrequently as possible.

That said, I smoked for years on a Webber grill, and it worked just fine. I did, however, upgrade to a Big Green Egg at the first available opportunity. The results are more consistent and the process is much easier. But you'll be fine getting started with the webber.


How to make good quality onion powder at home? I chopped some onion and put it in an old gas oven. It had 3 issues:

Some pieces or parts of pieces are burned while other pieces are
still not dehydrated.
It sticks with the bottom of the aluminum plate.
It has a bitter taste.

How can I solve the 3 issues to produce high quality onion powder at home?

It's likely that your oven, even on the coolest setting, is too hot. That's why the onion burnt, and the bitterness comes from the burnt bits.

I occasionally use my electric oven for dehydrating fruit and veg but mine goes down to 50°C. I tend to preheat it to about 100°C and turn it down when the food had been in for a few minutes, at which point I open the door as well.

A gas oven has another problem - burning gas produces water vapour, which makes drying harder even with ventilation (you really do need the door ajar to let the steam out). Drying on a rack (borrowed from a grill pan, or a cake cooling rack) makes a huge difference.

I also have a dehydrator, but it's not all that  much better than the oven for a small batch in winter, so I leave it stored away except when I've got a lot to dry. It wins on capacity and the fact I can run it outside - worthwhile for chillies and presumably onions.


How do I cut bones in preparing a fast brown stock ("fond brun rapide")? I tried to prepare the bone and skin from a ham shank for use as a kind of brown sauce or stock. The purpose was to fold the reduction into a beef/pork chili. I was very pleased with the flavor that resulted, but want to push it further. However, I had to use them whole and my guess is that the fast process and uncut nature of the bones made them less effective.

First I roasted the (hickory smoked) ham shank (meat and skin on) at 350'F for about 2 hours. Then I removed it and pulled off the meat and skin from the bone. I took an old boning knife and was able to separate the two bones from each other; covered with water (added some onions and salt etc) and boiled vigorously for about 3 1/2 hours (covered in a high-walled frying pan), replacing water as necessary. Shortly after beginning that, I kind of pan steamed the skin from the meat and added the meat to the chili and the skin to the stock pan. What resulted was a good broth.

Basically, I would like to know how I can take it from good broth to a demi-glace or essential oil; one pungent enough to be rendered with a roux or other thickener and incorporated into a chili. (Forgive me, there are better words for what I am asking; I just don't think I know them.) After the process I had about 8 ounces of the oily liquid, and per the scale of 4 quarts of chili the ham stock was just not as pronounced as I would have liked.

Any initial suggestions or red flags that my process may have brought to mind are appreciated.
The process I wanted to follow but couldn't (no cleaver, are they necessary?) involved cutting the bones into 1-2 inch segments and pan-frying those (instead of the two whole bones) then vigorously boiling. What knife is actually suited for this purpose where there is some required accuracy in the portioning?
There was a time constraint on me originally, but does really getting to demi-glace require a minimum of 6-8 hours simmering and reducing?

Yes, making a demiglace will take a long time. There isn't much of a way around that, as liquid will only evaporate so fast. For a proper demi, you will need to include lots of connective tissue in order to convert collagen to gelatine.

To make a stock, don't boil, it's not necessary. A simmer should be fine. And whatever size pot you're using, you'll want to have approximately 1:1::bones:aromatics, the solids should fill the pot completely, add just enough water to cover.

There isn't that much accuracy required in chopping up the bones, as long as they're relatively around the same size. I wouldn't pan-fry them, I would roast. And yes, you will need a cleaver (or a saw) to cut through the bones; you will destroy your other knives.


Why are there holes in pasta dough when it is cold I made some pasta dough this morning and put it in the fridge. When I ran the first batches thru the roller there were some holes in the pasta after it came out of the roller. But for later batches, when the pasta heated up from being out of the fridge, there were no more holes. Why is that? I am partially asking about the chemistry and physics underlying this observation.

Viscosity of the cold dough is probably too high for good rolling. It's tearing and blobbing rather than feeding smoothly through the rollers.

I'm not finding a ref for rolling, but for extrusion:

  The ideal temperature for pasta extrusion is between 45 and 50°C, as anything above 50°C will
  denature the proteins, impeding gluten production and therefore resulting in a soft sticky product.
  Using a cold water jacket will cool the dough and barrel too much, resulting in undesirable
  dough viscosity.

Nice plot of dough viscosity vs temperatures here (fig. 4.3), but it only goes down to 30°C (86°F) Lower temperatures, including heating within the extrusion die, are likely not usually encountered.

This pasta rolling cook states:

  In making pasta it is important to avoid cold so use room temperature eggs.  Also, do not work on a naturally cold surface such as marble or stainless steel.


What are the best potatoes for baking? What are the best varieties of potatoes to use for baking with a roast that will give a nice golden brown finish on the outside?

[Edit: to clarify, I'm from Australia and we don't really distinguish between baking and roasting potatoes. What I'm referring to here is "roasting" potatoes to be eaten with a roast lamb or beef]

Your clarification means a lot -- "baked" potato in the U.S. tends to be a whole potato cooked on its own, where the insides become fluffy and creamy, and is done with larger starchy white potatoes, or sweet potatoes work well, too.

Roasted potatoes, on the other hand, tends to be (in the U.S.)  be smaller "new" potatoes, waxy potatoes, or even larger starchy potatoes cut up (eg, 'oven fries').

The starchy potatoes only really hold up well when roasting if it's very high heat or a short amount of time -- if you're going to be cooking them with the roast as there's going to be moisture in there, I'd go for a waxy potato (eg, Red Bliss).

As for the browning -- probably coat them well with oil, and if they're not brown enough for your liking when you pull the roast, as you're going to have to rest it anyway, drain the meat juices, crank the oven up to somewhere around 450F (230C) and leave the potatoes in for a few extra minutes.

ps.  yes, I know a sweet potato isn't a potato.  And I also tend to use Yukon Gold for just about everything, as it makes great baked potatoes, and roasted potatoes (although, not sure how well with a roast at the same time) and they're good in pot roast and stews if you don't add them too early.


Smoking pig butt: how to resume? I set out this morning to cook a pig butt. Found out that I was going too a birthday party at such a time that the butt would smoke for six hours and then I would need to pull it.

The shoulder was a seven pound boston butt, bone in, fat trimmed neat, no marinade period, rubbed with "glue" (1/2 cup mustard, 2 tbsp honey) salty rub with marinade injected. I cooked it for 6 hours, flipping every 60-90 minutes, adding chips, mopping and shaking rub on it. Unfortunately (?) the butt never got above 130'F, but it got 6 hours of cooking in. I pulled the meat off, let it cool down a bit, wrapped it in foil, and refrigerated.

So, how should I finish it off? I used plenty of wood chips and I am pretty confident that the flavor is good on it. It seems the two first-glance options are:

Start it up smoking again, and put it over more direct heat this time. This would be helpful in really crisping up the bark on the outside, but quite a bit more hassle than...
Throw it in the oven, maybe wrapped in foil with some orange juice, or coffee and jalapenos, or a little rub of oil. Cook it at ~325'F...

So which technique would yield the best results of just getting it done, but without sacrificing too much in the way of time or flavor? (Aside from using a meat thermometer to ensure it's over 145'F, probably 155-160'F,) How will I be able to tell if it is done or not (if any additional considerations)?

Sadly no mater what you do, you are going to come out with non-optimal results.  I would go with the oven method over the grill as you need to get the meat up, but you want to do it with out losing all the juice/fat you have already taken all the trouble to convert to gelatin.  The grill is going to raise the outside of the meat much quicker that the inside (mostly, you can use your grill as an oven but in this case I don't think it brings anything to the table that you regular oven doesn't).

The best way, and by best, I mean the one with the tastiest results, is going to be put the butt in a 200 to 250 degree oven and let it come up to temp.  This method is going to take the longest but will preserve the meat that come off the grill as close as you could.

Or, you can heat just like a roast and let the outside overcook a bit.

or, depending on how you are serving the finished product, you can slice cold and finish in a skillet to heat though... this would be great if you are doing sandwiches or pulled pork.

If you are feeling adventurous, 130 degrees plus smoke is a little on the rare side but it would still be delicious... not for this one as you let is cool on the counter top and fridged it but on the next one, I might just eat it then.


will wine marinade kill bacteria? After grocery shopping, my husband left vacuum sealed 2 jars of wine marinades herring outside the fridge on a shelf for 2 days.  The shelf is in a cool spot. Can we still eat it?  I have put them back into the fridge.

Lots of bacteria aren't killed by wine or any acid marinade.
Anyway, if jars were sealed and content pasteurized they probably didn't grow any bacteria meanwhile. You can consider cooking it if you're unsure.


Substitute for vanilla caster sugar I'm planning on making a lemon tart and the recipe calls for "100 g vanilla caster sugar". Over here (Netherlands) vanilla caster sugar isn't really sold in supermarkets, so I'm looking for a substitute.

One thing I do have acces to, is sachets of vanilla sugar. I have a feeling I can't just use those however, since usually only one sachet(9 grams) is used in a recipe. I'd have to use 11 of those sachets to get the same amount of grams, which would probably make it taste way too vanilla-y.

Should I just use regular caster sugar instead and add some vanilla extract, or maybe regular caster sugar and a singe sachet of vanilla sugar?

The answer depends on what happens to the sugar in the recipe.

If the sugar is used as a flavoring/sweetner inside the tart  filling (i.e. not sprinkled over the top or in the crust), you can do a number of things - you can take some caster sugar and vanilla extract, as you suggest. This will add some moisture and dissolve the sugar a little, but if this is in the filling this shouldn't matter. You could also add some vanilla seeds (the scrapings from inside a bean).

If it is used in the crust or as a topping, I would get some vanilla bean and scrape one into a volume of caster sugar. Alton Brown recommends 1 bean per 2 cups of sugar.


Nonstick Pans: Purpose, Cleaning and Heating Three newbie questions:

Purpose - I read somewhere (can't find the link again) that nonstick pans were purposefully designed to be used without oil.  Is this really true?  Or just that food generally won't stick?
Cleaning - I also read that one of the options for cleaning grease off is boiling a vinegar-water mixture, based on the principle that oil and vinegar don't mix. It seems the hazard is that the oil can stick to the back wall of the pan when pouring the mixture out.  Has anyone tried and/or have tips to prevent oil on the wall? I was thinking I'd get a paper towel and lay it on top to soak up the grease but not sure if it'll work.
Heating - It seems that it is unsafe to heat up a nonstick pan without anything in it. How do I safely heat up the pan to the right temperature, without any oil in it?  If you put the ingredients you're to cook as it's heating up, doesn't that affect cooking the food?

Well nonstick pans were created so that the likelihood of food sticking to the surface of the pan is reduced and the idea that they were designed to be used without oil is not true. You certainly can use it with oil.

Secondly, cleaning oily residue from the pan can be done as mentioned here. It is suggesting to do the following:

Fill the pan with water
Pour in half cup of vinegar
Bring the mixture to a boil
Allowing the oily residue to float on top the surface.
Use a paper towel to skim off the residue
Pour out all the liquid in the pan
Finally, wash the pan with soapy water and non-abrasive nylon.

Thirdly, about heating nonstick pans, its alright as long as you don't cross the limit of 470 °F/243 °C as it will cause the Teflon surface to melt and release toxic chemicals. When heating up a nonstick pan empty start with a low temperature instead of going all high at the beginning which might pose a risk. The previous facts were taken from here.


Dosa Batter Fermentation How do you know when the batter is fermented enough but not too much? Is it to taste/preference?

When the dosa batter gets fermented, it doubles in volume and aereates well. To know if the dosa batter is over fermented, just taste a small part, it turns out sour.
To prepare dosa batter, be sure the temperature is not too hot. If it is, it won't take much time to ferment the batter (5-6 hours). Refrigerate the batter so that it does not get over fermented.


Can I substitute Hong Kong curry cuttlefish with pre-cooked Joya octopus? I want make Hong Kong cuisine Dim Sum  Curry Cuttlefish at home.

Because COVID19, my supermarket is not selling cuttlefish or squid or uncooked octopus, just this pre-cooked Joya Octopus.
My issue is octopus is much bigger. Thus how substitute Cuttlefish with Octopus? Will this  Joya octopus work?

Yes you can, please try it and report back.
When using precooked octopus, you need to cut them in small bite size pieces and add them to the curry at the last moment so they get up to proper temperature and soak up the flavors of the curry.
Remember that when substituing ingredients, the original recipe might not taste or feel the same as the original recipe.
Next time, please link to a recipe; it'll make answering easier.


How can I know when my yogurt is ready (in a generic, basic, non-us yogurt maker)? I've bought this yogurt maker (the only one I've been ever able to find in the country I'm living), and it only has a simple on/off button.

Somewhere in the manual, it's written that "Good yogurt takes eight to 15 hours, depending on the type of milk used."

Now I'm wondering how can I know when my yogurt will be ready.

The manual says:

  Preparation of the yogurts

  ...

  [ yogurt making instructions ]

  ...

  When the yogurt maker cools off (eight to ten hours after having turned on), make sure that the yogurts have been set. If they haven't, the starter culture did not have enough time to work: start over.

Instructions are really confusing on this point, and it's been something like 15 years since I used a yogurt maker, so I'm not such an expert in yogurt making at home. Does the maker cool off by itself, or do I need to turn it off?

According to http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Yogurt, you can you tell if your yogurt is ready by "gently jiggling one of the containers . . . the yogurt will not move if it is ready and you can take it from the yogurt maker and put it in the refrigerator then. Or you can wait and let it get more tart for 12 hours or more."  It also gives more specific instructions about the three types of yogurt makers, so you can see which one you own and follow more recommendations based on that.


Baked goods with Teff flour turn out gritty. How can I prevent this? I like the idea of using Teff flour for its health properties but find that results are unpleasantly gritty.  It's as if I am using sand as a medium.
This is the Teff Date Bread recipe I tried, and I tried several different ones.

Can anyone suggest a solution?  Is it the brand that's faulty?
Thanks

I don't know about the brand, but flours which are sold for health purposes are often whole grain. If it has the bran milled together with the corn, there is no way around the grittiness.

I don't know if something like "teff cake flour" exists, as it is probably the opposite of what teff eaters want. You could try calling the producers of your brand and asking. Else see if cycling through brands helps. But for such a niche product, it might be that all brands do whole grain only.


How does the quantity of salt change after the steaming stage when cooking pulao? When making pulao1, I taste the salt in the broth before the steaming stage (also called dum). At this time, the saltiness is just right. But after the rice has finished steaming, it is less salty than before.

Why does this happen? What is the effect of steaming on the saltiness of cooked rice?

—————

1 Pulao is a very popular rice dish on the Indian subcontinent and Middle Eastern countries in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth. The broth may contain cooked onion, garlic, ginger along with spices. It may also contain meat, fish or vegetables. It is sometimes also called rice pilaf.

Dum is the steaming stage of the cooking. This is the stage where rice absorb water and the flavor. From my experience and what all our generations have been told on how to cook pulao/rice, you taste the water/broth just after adding rice. It should be a bit saltier than what you would normally like. This way the saltiness in rice will be just right when you finish the cooking.

EDIT (with the comments from Stephie):

Rice absorbs water and with the water, some of the salt.

In the beginning, you are tasting the water : salt ratio. After cooking, you are tasting the (water + rice) : salt ratio which means you are getting something that tastes less salty.


Is there any way to kill bacteria in food without using heat? The title says it all. Context: food preservation

As Lars Friedrich already wrote, curing with salt is a way to kill bacteria. A high sugar content and the removal of water in general alters the water activity.1
Some chemicals are toxic to bacteria (and to some extend also toxic to humans) like borax (which is used to preserve caviar; I'm not sure if it only inhibits the growth of bacteria) or ethanol (drinking alcohol). Sulfites are used - not exclusively - in wine making and on dried fruit.
You can alter the pH. I doubt the food will be edible as-it-is.
Last but not least you can irradiate the food to sterilize it. Irradiation is also commonly used to sterilize (disposable?) medical equipment.

Please note that freezing does not kill any bacteria.

Side note: There are some other bacteria that survive even in such adverse environments but they are not common as foodborne pathogens. If you really want to be sure that the food is sterile without cooking, you have pressure-sterilize, "poison" it or irradiate it.
You can also preserve food even with bacteria and fungi: A sourdough has an almost indefinitely shelf-live. It basically only consists of flour, water and a mix of many different bacteria and yeasts. Cultured milk also has a very long shelf life.
For further reading: The FAT TOM rule describes the six favorable conditions required for the growth of foodborne pathogens.

1 Caveat: (Botulinum) spores survive in honey. Do they count as bacteria?


raw chicken in an "off" crockpot I put chicken in a crock pot and thought it was on low. It was off. It's been two hours. Do I need to throw out the chicken? It was fairly cold because it was mixed with a cold teriyaki sauce among other things. Thanks!

The official guideline (in the US, at least) is no more than 2 hours, total, between 40°F (4°C) and 140°F (60°C). So, if your room is fairly cool, and all the ingredients were cold, at two hours in the off crock pot, you're just inside the guideline.

But the problem is, if you just turn the crock pot on, it will take at least another hour to get up to 140°F. That puts you firmly outside the guideline.

Instead, assuming this is chicken pieces (in a stew, soup, or similar) and not a whole chicken, I'd suggest you bring it up to at least 160°F (70°C) stove top over fairly high heat (this should only take a few minutes), then transfer that to the crock pot. You can then cook it in the crock pot on low.


Can you oversteep herbal teas? Herbal teas don't contain tea leaves (Camellia sinensis), which means they do not release tannins into the water. Does that mean you can steep herbal teas for as much as you like without worry of them becoming bitter?

In general bitterness isn't an issue but I wouldn't recommend it - I've brewed many herbal teas, and I've never had one that benefited from being steeped too long. You can steep them longer than real tea, but not forever as you end up getting an "overcooked" flavor. Mint is a good example, you steep it for 10 minutes, but after 20 you start to get murkier flavors.


Do yeast pancakes contain alcohol? I fed my 2 year old pancakes that required yeast: yeast, mashed banana, warm water, whole wheat and buckwheat flour, and salt. I left the batch in the fridge overnight, and in the morning added a teaspoon of sugar, some more water, and a bit of oil. Fried them up on a shallow pan for just a few minutes and served.
My concern? How much alcohol/ethanol would yeast pancakes contain? Should I be worried about having fed these to a two year old???? I feel ridiculous in all sorts of ways...

Yes, yeast-risen foods such as bread will contain trace quantities of ethanol. The concentration will likely be lower than that found in fresh fruit.


Mathris broke as soon as I added it into medium hot oil Why did my Mathris break apart (they didn't bind together) while frying?

I was making Methi Mathris-Kasuri using 1 tsp methi, peppercorns, ajwain, salt, cumin seeds, 1 tsp besan

I added quite a lot of oil while kneading the dough

You may have added too much oil. Reduce the amount of oil, or try adding butter instead. Butter usally tastes better and binds better too


What do green spots on the inside of a butternut squash indicate? When I was cutting a butternut squash, I noticed a greenish discoloration near around third of the seed pocket.  I scraped it off, but I was wondering

if it would have been safe for a young toddler to eat (whose the primary consumer)?
with the green parts scraped off, is it safe for a toddler to eat?
was it in the process of going bad, so I'll know what to look for later?

I always go with my gut in these situations, so scraping it off is probably a good idea.

If the green was not really dark and moldy looking, or really soft in comparison to the rest of the flesh, it could be that it just wasn't fully ripe yet in that area.

Either way, you're planning on cooking the squash, correct?  I believe that this would be perfectly safe to eat now that the questionable parts have been removed.  I'd eat it with no qualms.

If the rest of the squash was firm, and not bad looking on the outside or inside, then I am guessing this is not a problem, unless said green part was much softer than the rest of the squash.


How to cook and plan meals when ingredients are not reliably available? My wife and I have just moved to Mozambique Africa for her job. She works all day it's my job to do the cooking. I've never been much of a cook, but I could always follow a recipe and the results were acceptable.

The problem is that here in Mozambique, the availability of ingredients in the stores is limited and unreliable. For example, last week the supermarket didn't have carrots, unflavoured yogurt or plain bread--all things I know that they've had in the past. For someone who cooks by following recipes it's very difficult to plan if the ingredients you need are not reliably available.

What I'm looking for are tips and strategies to cook and plan meals without recipes using available ingredients. Currently the lack of ingredients has reduced my repitoire to a small set of basic dishes for which I know that I can get all the ingredients. I'm not afraid to experiment, but without a recipe many of the experiments don't end so well! I feel like I'm lacking a basic knowledge of cooking techniques that I could build on to improvise meals.

Finally, it's difficult and expensive to get books here so any pointers to online resources would be the most helpful. Perhaps there's a basic cooking course online that I could start with? I have the motivation to improve my cooking, but I don't know where to begin....

One of the things that we forget in the U.S. is that foods are seasonal -- if we didn't have food flown in from the southern hemisphere, we wouldn't have berries and most other fruits available year round.

Learning to cook based on what's available isn't something that's typically taught, but I'd recommend the following:

Learn different techniques, and what can be prepared with that given technique, so that you can more easily improvise.  You might consider reading Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart. (unfortunately, not available as a download, sorry.  And no, not that Pam Anderson, this one used to work for Cook's Illustrated), which goes over some basic things that can be easily varied using whatever's on hand.
Stock up on non-perishable stapes when they're available.  I wouldn't recommend clearing out a small store of all of their flour, but if you know they don't always have it, pick up some extra so you'll have some on hand when they don't.
Learn to make 'ingredients'.  There's a lot of stuff that we take for granted in the U.S. as being an ingredient, but are processed foods to some degree.  You mention bread and yogurt, but also pasta or stocks.  If you can't always find it, you might still be able to find the necessary stuff to make it.  (although, I admit, some of them require being prepared in advance)
Ask the natives.  The local recipes are going to be made to use the local ingredients, so if you're going to rely on recipes, use theirs.  You could also ask the local shopkeepers for advice on what to use and how to prepare it ... odds are, there are going to be produce that wasn't available wherever you used to live, so you're not considering some things when shopping.  There might be some good local alternative to carrots.  (eg, yams come to mind, and not what we get in the U.S. as yams, but African yams, which are firmer than sweet potatoes)

... as for the online resources ... well, the only one that comes to mind right off the top of my head is The Cook's Thesaurus aka. foodsubs.com, which offers substitutions when you can't find an ingredient, but unless you're going to either look in advance of shopping what all of the alternatives are, you're going to need a smartphone and data service wherever you're shopping ... it might be easier to just ask the shopkeeper what they'd use as an alternative, as they'd know what they have, rather than your trying to look for 5 different alternatives that aren't in stock, either.


Is there a food that is halfway between a cheesecake and regular cake? While living in Korea, there was one special bakery I found that had a cake that I can only describe as being halfway between cheesecake and regular cake. It was creamy like a cheesecake, but had a density somewhere between an actual cheesecake and the airy texture of a regular out-of-the-box cake.

It had the wonderful flavor of a cheesecake, but was lighter and fluffier. I would love to bake something like this so I can try it again. Is there a name for such a cake?

The dessert looked like cake from the outside: it had tiny holes everywhere, albeit smaller than what you would see in a regular cake. It was also shaped into a loaf, and the top would rise a bit. It was more dense than a regular out-of-the-box cake, and definitely had a flavor similar to cheesecake. I would have called it a "cheesecake flavored cake" at first impression. It also had a bounce to it, if I pressed it down, it would bounce back up to a degree.

Perhaps you're looking for the soufflé cheesecake, which has a moderate amount of flour in it. This style is also popular in Japan.

The other style popular in Japan is the "rare cheesecake", which is set with gelatin instead of being baked. I think this is probably denser than what you're referring to, so I left it out of my first edit, but worth considering if the soufflé style doesn't match your expectations.

In Germany, some quark cheesecakes have flour in them as well, and those often have a more sturdy texture with a bit more air than the New York style.


How many times can you reuse bones to make broth? I recently cooked a chicken and made chicken broth from the bones. I also kept a few pieces of meat to add to the broth to give it more flavor.

I know you can freeze the broth and use it for later but specifically how many times can I reuse the bones to make broth? Is there a time when it loses flavor or is not good for you? Does it differ depending on the animal/meat?

Beef bones can be used multiple times, but less flavor and gelatin will be extracted from each additional use. Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" describes this.

  Because a standard kitchen extraction of eight hours releases only about 20% of the gelatin in beef bones, the bones may be extracted for a second time, for a total of up to 24 hours. The resulting liquid can then be used to start the next fresh extraction of meat and bones.

I would imagine chicken bones would be similar, although, since they are smaller, the first batch may be more effective than 20%.


What are the optimal conditions in making wild yeast starter? I recently learned that I don't need to buy packets of yeast to make bread. I can create a sour dough starter by utilizing the wild yeast floating around in the air. Take a look at this article for more information:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/sourdough2.htm

What are the optimal conditions for creating a sour dough starter:

Are there optimal locations that has a higher concentration of wild yeast? (such as a cold/warm place or a place with alot/little light)
What type of flour would work best?
I also read somewhere to use acidic fruit juice to help accelerate the process. Is this true? And if so, why?
Some starters call for sugar and milk. What would these additions do?

(1) One critical element that hasn't been emphasized in answers so far is that the microorganisms that establish your starter mostly come from the flour not the air.  The idea that the creation of a starter involves "catching wild yeast from the air" is commonly repeated in many, many books and resources, but I'd be interested if anyone has ever seen a scientific paper that actually verified that airborne yeast is a significant source for establishing sourdough cultures.  (I've looked a bit, and I haven't seen that.  On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence for a variety of microorganisms, including local ones, in established cultures.  But the primary establishing microorganisms come from mainly from the flour.)

A number of people have reported experiments to test the conditions necessary for establishing a successful starter, including ones where they tried their best to kill all starters.  Sterilized containers and mixing equipment, sealed containers, and sterilized water have little impact.  But sterilized flour will almost always fail to produce a viable starter.  (It also makes sense that yeasts and bacteria that would like to eat grain would be likely to be found living on it at a higher concentration that floating around in the air....)

In any case, now that we've established the primary source of the microorganisms, the main goal in a new starter is to provide them with adequate food and a growth environment that will weed out other undesirable organisms.  Personally, I've had the best results in beginning with a starter regime that somewhat simulates the life cycle I ultimately want for my starter.  Since I generally raise dough at room temperature and expect to feed a room temperature starter roughly every 12 hours to keep it healthy, I do the same when beginning my starter.

But that's just my preference.  You can get a starter going with temperatures anywhere from about 55F to 85F -- below that, and the yeast will grow way too slowly, and above that, and you're likely to grow bad stuff in the first week of a new starter.  As others have said, 70-80 degrees is probably optimal for quickly establishing a starter.  On the other hand, lower temperatures will tend to produce an acidic environment more quickly, which will weed out the first batch of bad bacteria.  So, take your pick.  As for feeding schedule, it really depends on your preferences, temperature, and hydration level.  I wouldn't wait more than about 24 hours between initial feedings, but extra ones don't seem to hurt.

In terms of other conditions, you mainly just want to avoid contamination from other bad stuff, since you're encouraging growth from the flour.  Thus, keep the container covered (though not sealed tight -- it can explode, which I know from experience), and out of sunlight (which encourages mold growth).  Trying to "catch the yeast from the air" by placing it near an open window or something is more likely than not to contaminate the starter and cause it to fail.  I haven't been overly fussy about sterilizing containers or stirring utensils, as long as they are reasonably clean.  I also haven't personally had any problem using tap water from a number of different municipalities -- I know some people have said it kills starters, but it never killed mine.  To be safe, use water without chemical treatments.  But if you plan to use tap water in your doughs, I do believe that you want to start selecting microorganisms that won't be killed from it at the start.

Hydration varies a lot, and I've seen successes with all types of starters.  Most people seem to go with about 100% hydration (equal weights of flour and water).  That starts out as a thick paste and will become a little "goupy" as the days go by.  Others go with higher hydration (like pancake batter), while others make a very dry dough, kneading as much flour as possible into the water, and then bury the dough in a container of flour to ferment.  I haven't really seen anyone compare success rates of these various approaches, since everyone seems to have their preferred starter type, but I've found that all of them can work.  If anything, the most problematic for me seems to be high hydration: they tend to grow weird stuff in the first week unless fed frequently.  With a dry ball starter buried in flour and kept at a cellar temperature, you could probably feed it only a couple times a week and still be successful in getting a starter going.

That covers a lot of the "conditions" question.  In sum, a wide range of conditions can work -- just avoid contamination and keep out of the sun.  Feed on a regular basis.  Don't throw any random stuff in your starter (milk, sugar, grapes, potatoes, beer, whatever) -- in most cases, it is more likely to hurt through contamination rather than help.  (See the note about acids below, however...)

Moving on to the other questions:

(2) Whole grain flours work best, since they have a greater number of microorganisms than white flours.  I've had greater success with rye, which has different sugars than wheat, but I know other people who swear by whole wheat.  I've had a few starters with white flour fail, though, so I've given up trying to start that way.  I'd suggest if you want a white flour starter, establish it with whole grains first, and then transition it to feedings with white flour after a couple weeks.

(3) Acidic ingredients can help a starter in the first 3 days or so.  Basically, most starters go through a phase after about 2-3 days where you'll see very rapid growth.  Don't get hopeful -- that is rarely due to good yeast.  Instead, experiments have shown that it is due to a bad bacteria, and unless it is weeded out of your starter, it can prevent the good yeasts and bacteria from getting established.

Luckily, the bad bacteria produce waste products that tend to acidify the starter anyway, and eventually they will acidify it enough so that they can't grow anymore.  Sourdough yeast and bacteria are selected to live in acidic conditions (hence, "sour" dough), so they will eventually take over.

Nevertheless, you can help out this weeding out process by giving an acidic boost early on.  The simplest way to do this is built into many recipes.  Instead of doing a typical sourdough feeding where you double or triple the weight of the starter, many recipes suggest only feeding the same amount for the first 3-4 days of a new starter.  So, if you start with 10 units of flour and 10 units of water, you just keeping adding 10 units of each at each feeding.  By the fourth or fifth feeding, you're only going to be adding a small amount of new food compared to the overall size of the starter.  That will still help the yeast grow, but it will concentrate the acid produced in the starter so far and stop the bad bacteria from establishing itself.

(Note: You don't need a lot of flour to get things going.  Even a small amount has a huge amount of microorganisms ready to grow.  I usually start with a tiny amount, say 10 grams each of flour and water, and then feed 10 grams each with each feeding.  Don't throw any away.  After a few days to a week, you'll often be ready to bake your first loaf, and you don't end up wasting any ingredients.)

A number of online experimenters have tried using other acidic components at the outset, and the easiest option does seem to be pineapple juice used in place of water in at least the initial feeding.  Orange juice and apple cider can also work if used in the feedings for the first few days.  Other acids (e.g., vinegar, lemon juice) can work, but it's harder to get the "dose" right.  The most effective seems to be a dose of ascorbic acid powder added at the outset, but most people don't have that on hand.  (Don't try crushing vitamin C tablets -- they usually have buffers that will negate the acid effect.)

Personally, I find feeding once every 12 hours for the first few days (as opposed to every 24 as recommended by many recipes) and keeping the feeding amount the same, but not throwing any away for the beginning is sufficient to overcome the bad bacteria.  The fruit juice can also add contaminants, so I don't usually use it, but it appears to improve your chances significantly if you use widely spaced feeding schedules or higher hydrations.

By the way -- note that the acid will only get you over the first hump.  In most cases, it will take a week or two before you've really weeded out most of the bad stuff from your starter for good.  Keep up the regular feedings.

(4) Milk and sugar.  Just don't do it.  Milk can provide a slight acidity as it sours, but it's more likely to bring in bad bacteria or grow mold than the fruit juice option mentioned above.  Sugar helps a lot of microorganisms grow, but at the beginning of a starter, it's more likely to grow bad bacteria than good yeast.  I know some people add sugar to a mature starter with each feeding, but it's not necessary.  I don't have a lot of experience with this, but anecdotally I've heard that it can throw off the "rhythm" of yeast and bacteria growth even in a mature starter, effectively reducing the rising potential of your starter.

Sometimes with a mature starter, you should add milk and/or sugar as part of the recipe to build the final dough.  That will depend on the type of bread.  But I never use either in regular feedings.


Do I cover a fermenting a bread starter do I need to cover the jar that the fermenting bread starter is in?
If so, cover with what?

You want easy airflow, but you don't want dust or bugs. Cheesecloth held on by a rubber band would be perfect.

If you have a container especially for this purpose, and it has a lid, punch or drill a bunch of small holes in it. This is mine:


How to balance the spiciness in any kind of dishes My question is about the spiciness of any kind of dish. I am having trouble balancing the spiciness in food. Sometime salt becomes sharp, and sometimes peppers are too sharp.

First, where you can, use a recipe. This doesn't have to be from a book. If you like a particular dish that you often ate as a child, ask the person who made that dish how much salt, how much peppers, and so on, they used when making the usual amount. (But if you're only making 1/4 as much, make sure you reduce everything in the same factor.)

Second, again where you can, start by adding a little, then later tasting and adding more. There are a few dishes where this is not possible, but not many. For example salt is often added at the end of cooking: taste, add a little salt, taste again, add more if you need to. For some spices that must be cooked first, you can cook up the spicy sauce, but then decide towards the end how much of that sauce to add to the actual dish.

Third, learn how to counteract too much salt, too spicy a dish and so on. There are many questions and answers here about this - the specifics vary dish to dish so I won't try to summarize them here, but they generally involve adding something else to balance things out a bit.

Fourth, keep track of what you try. If you put 8 peppers into a stew and it's far too hot, make a note. Next time try 4 peppers. Over time you'll just remember these things instead of needing written notes, but when you're starting there's nothing wrong with writing things down.


I need to keep blacks beans and rice warm. In about an hour I need to leave with a pot of black beans and rice. I don't have a crock pot, but I do have a cast iron pot with lid. To keep it all warm can I put it in an iron pot, and put it in the oven at 375F. Am I going to burn it if I leave it there for an hour? Should I lower the temperature?

I would place cooked beans and rice in a warmed pot (cast iron is good) and then place it in your oven set at its lowest temperature...Maybe 175F, and certainly below 200F.  At 375F your rice and beans will continue to cook.


Dehydrating fruit/veg, temperature, and safety I have a food dehydrator, which I've used in the past for chillies, apples and herbs.  I intend to dry some tomatoes with it soon, a process that apparently takes about 8 hours at 60°C (140°F) (it actually took considerably longer in my case).  This temperature is exactly at the top of the US FDA's danger zone and is unlikely to be maintained in an entire dehydrator with a thermostat in the air stream.  Dehydrators also allow lower temperatures to be used (mine does 35–70°C).  Sun-drying tomatoes takes place at an uncontrolled temperature, which we can assume is sometimes ideal for bacteria/mould growth. Apple rings are often dried cooler and take 12+ hours.

These are sliced/halved fruit/veg, so aren't protected by their skins; they wouldn't dry if they were (as I found with blueberries).  And for much of the process they're rather wet.  The pH is usually uncontrolled; apple slices may be dipped in lemon juice but only to keep them from turning brown.

So why don't we get mould/bacteria growth during the dehydration process?

where you need to be very careful about the amount of moisture in the air. water should be possible at a minimum. It would also be extremely good if you can provide a dry air flow that goes through for a long time to dry. The presence of any molds can be controlled by magnifying glass.


Preparing spaghetti without boiling water I saw a commercial on televison for preparing spaghetti without boiling the noodles, just place them in water for about on hour.  Can this be done?

You can certainly cook spaghetti in water as low as 180 F.

Soaking it in cooler water will hydrate the starches if you wait long enough, but won't cook the proteins, so may not be optimal.


Is it possible to make "finely ground corn flour"? https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/crunchy-cheese-puffs

I'm a beginner DIY-er homecook who would like to make everything I eat without setting foot in a supermarket.

My answer here would be "no". Even if it is not impossible, it is rather impractical to pursue this.
This may surprise some people, because as a home cook, it is pretty easy to take some grain and process it into small-sized particles. But what is difficult is to take some grain and process it into particles which are

very tiny
of consistent size
contain only the parts of the grain you want (typically the endosperm only, without the bran or the embryo)

Most instruments in our kitchens are not intended for grinding, and if you try them, the results are somewhat usable, but not especially good. To get really good quality fine flour, you need a precise mill and good sieves, plus the knowledge which sieve size to use at which step of the process.
In some applications, you could try just using the best grinding-like instrument you have lying around and see if you are happy with the result. This functions well if you want to do something like include unusual grain flours in a rustic bread. But this recipe (which looks amazing btw!) seems to be quite dependent on the proper flour texture and absorption ability. So I wouldn't bother trying it with the result of corn thrown willy-nilly into a food processor.


How much does a "large" potato weigh? I have a recipe that calls for "6 large baking potatoes." So the question becomes, what is considered the average size of a large baking potato?  I've looked online, but sadly do not have time to continue my search and the results appear to be all over the place.

Tough question - there are a lot of non-scientific ways to measure small/medium/large potatoes and nobody seems to agree on exactly what weight each is.  However, there are a few ways I identify large vs medium at home.

In my experience, a large potato is about the size you would get in a restaurant (I know, not very specific).  That is, when I cook at home, the potatoes I purchase tend to be medium - round (not oval) and about the size of a tennis ball or baseball.  When I'm at a restaurant their potatoes are noticeably larger, and generally more oval shaped it seems (closer to a sweet potato in shape and size), which makes them great for stuffing like for a loaded baked potato.  Luckily most of the recipes I have at home that involve potatoes don't require precise measurement, so I just stick with my eyeball measurements and don't even bother weighing them.

I found a source online that says this:

  According to Shape magazine, eatbetteramerica.com and prevention, a medium potato is the size of a computer mouse, so somewhat bigger than that.

And I think I can get behind that answer.  I'd say your average computer mouse (like, one you would get with a new PC, not a fancy third-party mouse) is about the size of an average medium potato.  Another way to eyeball: I'm a 30 year old male with hands that are neither very large or very small.  The medium potatoes in this bag are about the size of a loose fist for me.  So a large potato would be bigger than either of those things.

As for measurements, I have a bag of medium potatoes and it says they're 5.3 oz (150g) a piece.  I weighed one and it was closer to 6.5oz (185g).  Based on that I'd say a large potato would be anything over 8oz (225g), pushing as high as 12oz (340g).

I found a way to search online for this info: calories.  By searching for "large potato calories" I was able to find pages with weights and measures:

3 to 4 1/4 inches in diameter
300 grams (about 10.5oz)

So, in short, it seems like I would consider these good numbers:

Medium potato: 2 to 3" in diameter, 5-8oz (140-225g)
Large potato: 3 to 4.25" in diameter, 8-12oz (225-340g)

Below is a picture of the medium potato from my bag, compared to some common household/kitchen items.  The gift card is the size of a normal credit card, and the knife is a common steak knife from my utensil drawer.  Apparently a medium potato is almost exactly the size of a 1 cup measure!


What is the difference between Seed, Grain, Nut, Kernel, Pit, Bean? What is the difference between Seed, Grain, Nut, Kernel, Pit, Bean?

Seed (as in apple)
Grain (as in wheat),
fruit
Nut (as in almond)
Kernel (as in corn)
Pit (as in olive)
Bean (as in fava/broad bean)

Hierarchy: Bean <- Seed <- Grain

Is Bean super type of seed?
Is seed super type of grain?

My some assumptions:

Kernel is the soft, edible part of a nut. Kernels refer specifically to nuts.
Grains are small, hard, dry seeds.
central part of a fruit that contains the seeds e.g. He threw the core of the apple away.
A nut is a fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, which is generally edible.

Your assumptions and "hierarchy" are incorrect. "Seed" is the most basic term, the other terms are characterizations of seeds.  However, the use of any given term in a culinary settings may have little to do with the term's strict botanical definition.  For culinary purposes there are no definite rules for which things are called nuts, pits, beans, grains, etc.

For example, the term beans used to be exclusively used for broad beans (fava beans), but today we use the term to describe plants as biologically and geographically disparate as soy, garbanzo, coffee, legumes, castor, and cocoa.

Kernel does not only refer to the center part of a nut.  It is also regularly used to refer to the individual seeds of corn/maize, wheat, buckwheat, and barley.

Grains used to refer specifically to the seeds of grass food crops like wheat, barley, oats, and corn/maize.  Today it is also a catch-all term which is used for similar food crops that are not grass seeds such as amaranth, millet, quinoa, rice, buckwheat, and even soy.

As a culinary term, "nut" has also undergone an expansion of meaning from, as you put it, "a fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, which is generally edible" to include basically any relatively large, oily kernels found within a shell and used in food. In fact, the majority of the "nuts" we commonly eat are not true nuts.


Should I par-boil my pickled potatoes before roasting them? I am attempting to make some pickled fries, similar to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnRvRDUtgY4

However, I don't have a frier (nor do I want to fry on the stove top), so I was thinking of cooking them in the oven like I do usually with potato wedges - par boil for 5 mins, season, then add to roasting tin with hot oil.

This yields nice crunchy wedges.

My question then - my potatoes are pickled, should I par boil them before I put them in the oven? Or will this in some way... de-pickle them?

It shouldn't "de-pickle" them (I'm fairly certain there's no way to accomplish that) but you should definitely par boil them shorter than you normally would because they will be somewhat softened by the pickling already.


Contamination implications of eating peanut butter with a spoon Say I'm eating peanut butter out of a jar with a spoon, thus presumably transferring some of my saliva into the bottle.

Some research indicates that this sort of double-dipping might be a health hazard if the food is then going to be consumed by others.

But are there any meaningful risks of contamination if I'm the only one who will be eating the peanut butter?

In addition to actually adding unwanted species, you're also adding moisture to a food that's otherwise very low in water. This will change its ability to support the growth of mould and bacteria in the damp bits.

If you polish off a jar in a few days and always eat the bit you previously got saliva on, I'm sure the risks will be vanishingly small. If you leave it for a couple of weeks after dipping in a well-licked spoon, I'm less confident.

As a practical measure it would seem easy to spoon out as much as you want into another container, then eat that. That also means you have the option of sharing it rather than having to refuse on the basis that you might as well have spat in it.


What is the best way to open a tightly fitted lid of a jar? Help! I need to get a jar of pasta sauce open but can't seem to budge it. I've tried using a dishtowel, and running it under hot water, but the lid is still stuck. What else can I do to open this jar?

Go around the edges, tapping the rim with the handle of a butter knife (leaving little dents). That should allow you to twist it off.


How do I prevent tomatoes from falling in a green salad? When making a green salad, I have taken to grating carrots instead of dicing them so they will mix better with the leaves.

I can't grate tomatoes. No matter how small I dice them (short of pureeing) they always precipitate out and fall to the bottom of the bowl.

How can I prepare the tomatoes or the salad to keep them mixed?

I work around this by serving tomatoes on the top of the individual salads after they've been portioned out.  I'm not sure of a way to keep them incorporated.


Why salt AND pepper and not salt and/or pepper Which is to say--narrowing things down--do the two actually have any mutual enhancement effect, such as, say, in the manner in which salt can fool the tastebuds into perceiving sweet as even sweeter? (thus reducing cost for sweetening)

I have never "observed" any such effect of salt and pepper used in tandem...at least I don't think so. Is it simply that the two are typically found together, and handily so, in most any food prep area? (The recommended reading elicited by the question suggests such an interpretation but does not address the aspect of s&p mutuality when shaken, used, or tasted together)

If there is, in fact, no such mutual complementary effect, it will suffice to simply say so--I will accept that as an equally affirmative answer.

Pepper is likely just lucky to be a very commonly used spice that gets to hang with Salt all the time, though Salt really makes everyone else look good anyway.  Pepper just doesn't look good on its own.

Uh... Yeah.

I say you do see salt paired with plenty of other spices, but because "Salt and Pepper" is pretty engrained in our culture (refer to the potential duplicate thread), you don't really take note. Therefore, you will always see "Salt and X" as a matter of fact but rarely do you see "X" alone without that ever so essential Salt.

This answer's getting pretty close to the Answer in the other Salt and Pepper question, huh?


Reformulate a marshmallow recipe to remove lactose and HFCS I'm trying to modify the marshmallow recipe in this post to make it vegan:

http://moleculargastronomy.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/molecular-gastronomy-carrageenan-kappa-and-iota/

The first hurdle is removing the lactose. I did a bit of reading to try to understand its purpose, and wondered if I could replace it with something like calcium lactate? In the post, it mentions that carrageenans are very effective even at very low concentrations in milk, and I remember reading about the presence of calcium salts being a factor, which was why I guessed at the calcium lactate substitution.

Also, this recipe calls for HFCS. I wasn't even aware that you could purchase that (I guess I thought it was more industrial). Regardless, I think the people I am marketing these marshmallows to would freak out if they saw HFCS on the label. How might I go about replacing that? Would invert sugar perform a similar function?

Thanks for any advice! I know this will require a lot of testing (the fun part!), but I figured I'd ask since I am very new to this area.  =)

I think you're taking an overly complicated approach to this, I've had great success with a recipe from the DIY Cookbook from ATK, in their version, they use:

confectioners’ sugar,  cornstarch, unflavored gelatin, corn syrup (not high fructose), granulated sugar, salt, vanilla extract

The only non-vegan ingredient in this manifestation is the gelatin, which you can sub using many different vegan gelling agents.

Here is one website detailing the recipe procedure: http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2012/11/how-to-make-homemade-marshmallows/

As well as a post on "The Feed", an ATK website with a video: http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/do-it-yourself/2013/01/how-to-make-marshmallows/


Can you freeze gravy? I made gravy for supper today and I have more than we can eat. So I was wondering if it was possible to freeze gravy after it has cooled down in the fridge. If it is possible than what would be the best method to approach it?

If you freeze it, the gravy may separate or curdle after thawing. Stir well, though, and it should be fine.

Cooked meat will be less dry if frozen in a bit of gravy... so if you have any leftover meat, that would be a great way to save both.


Need help I made this recipe and I doubled the recipe and it looked dry I need help to fit these batches I already rolled them up can I go ahead fix it. what can I do to fix these batches so it doesn't crumble and look dry. i have I included the recipe I used. Like I said I doubled it . thank you

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
1 c

You're starting from the same ingredient list as Nestle Toll House Cookies but are rolling it out? Please add more information to your recipe: how are you preparing and mixing the ingredients? Do you let the mixture sit for a time at one or multiple stages? How are you doing the rolling? How big are the portions? The baking? What is the final product? How long did they sit and under what conditions before you tested them and found them too dry and crumbly?

It's hard to give good advice without more detail, but if you're ending up with dryer, crumbly product, things you might try:

Increase your brown-to-white sugar ratio (keep the total amount of sugar the same),
Instead of two eggs, use one egg and one (or two!) egg yolks,
Make sure your baking soda is still OK.

If you're shooting for something cookie-like, Dan might have some advice for you.


Chocolate spread preservation I have tried and made chocolate spread at home. I made it using a melted milk chocolate slab added to boiled Amul fresh cream. After a few days, it grew some fungus. How can its life be increased? What should be added to act as a preservative and in what ratio? It was kept in a plastic container under normal room temperature as I want to sell it in market. Also, what precautions can be taken before sealing the containers? What is the minimum life expected in a sealed plastic container under room temperature? 1litr boiled fresh cream mixed with 1.2 kg of melted chocolate slab.

Use sterilised glass jar/s similar to jam making and pickling, you can place some plastic wrap (cling film) over the top of the jar before sealing as an additional air/moisture barrier.  Also think of possibly dividing into smaller portions.


Do blini have to be thin? In case you're wondering, Blin (or Блин) is just Pancake in Russian.
It was given by my favorite YouTuber that these pancakes have to be thin to be a proper blin. Is this true?

This seems to be more of a linguistic question to me.
It depends on who you ask. In the region where I live: not necessarily, both the American style and French crêpe style pancakes are sometimes called "блин" and "блинчики" (little pancakes).
But for a lot of people it's only the French thin ones. And they call the other one "оладушки". (Read: oladushki)
It's not exactly defined by region as much as simply what you're used to.
Also: the word is also a curse word, although a very childish one. The English version might be 'crap', I  think.


Preserving culinary oils I've been making a chili oil and green onion oil for my friends for months with a lot of interest in buying. I want to start selling it at farmers markets & stores but want to ensure it is properly preserved. Can anyone advise on how to do so? How can I find the expiration date?

You don't realize it, but you've asked a hot-button question.  Expect to get lots of comments about botulism, etc.  This is a result of a report a few years back about folks getting botulism from homemade garlic oil.  I'll keep my answer practical.

First, depending on where you live, your state, city, county, or other regional government may already have health codes for infused oils.  You need to research these and follow them; regardless of the actual safety of your oils, if you don't follow the rules you could be facing a hefty fine and a court order to never sell food products again.

Second, contamination of infused oils by anaerobic bacteria (of which botulism is only one) is a real danger, so you need to treat your oils to prevent it.  These methods include dehydrating the seasonings before adding them to the oil, acidifying them, or even pressing out the oils from the seasonings and using those instead of the whole seasoning.

You can also make the oil safe through pastuerization.  Heating the oil (ideally dehydrated first) up to at least 121C/250F for 4 minutes or more should kill even botulism spores (the hardiest of the anaerobic bacteria).  You need to make sure the water is gone from the solids before you heat the oil, which means either using dehydrated seasonings, or straining out the solids and then pasteurizing the oil.  Also, depending on the type of oil you use, this pastuerization may harm its flavor; certainly unfiltered extra virgin olive oil will change flavor if heated this way.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your new business!


Is there a significant difference between French press coffee and Moka pot coffee? Assuming they are from the same bean, is there a significant difference between the two? How would it be best described?

Yes there is a significant difference between the two. I would put them at pretty close to opposite ends of the coffee spectrum.

French Press: Generally made with a coarse grind, longer steeping time. Result is a weaker (less concentrated) more typical American style coffee. This will likely be consumed in the same way as a typical filtered, drip coffee would.

Moka Pot: Made with a much finer grind. And while many will argue it's not true espresso. It is much closer to being an espresso. I don't really care what you call it, but it'll be a much stronger more robust coffee. The same amount of coffee will be extracted to a smaller quantity of water. This would be consumed in the same way as an espresso would. You can water it down to make an Americano, etc...


Apple cider vinegar in roasting pan I am smoking a turkey and don’t have broth to use in the base of the roasting pan. The turkey was brined over night.

I was thinking of putting the turkey on a bed of celery and carrots with 3 cups of water and 1 cup of apple cider vinegar. Is this a good idea or is this too much vinegar?

If you don't have any turkey, chicken, or vegetable stock or bouillon on hand, I would recommend using all water. That said, without stock or dissolved bouillon, your vegetables will not get the added extra flavor.

I would recommend adding a small amount of salt and/or other seasonings to the water so the vegetables won't be bland. E.g. of others, white or black pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, or a spice blend like Mrs. Dash. Go light, as you can always add more later.

As others have commented, one cup is a huge amount of vinegar. And even a small amount of vinegar is likely to give the turkey an off taste and definitely will hurt the taste of the vegetables.


How long will flour keep in the freezer in Food Saver Vacuum Sealed Bags? I found some flour in my freezer that I stored 5 years ago in Food Saver vacuum sealed bags.  Do you think it's still safe to use?

I'm reasonably sure that flour stored this way is safe.  Obviously, if there are any obvious issues with the flour - off colors, tastes, or textures, or evidence of poor storage that allowed the flour to thaw and refreeze, or leaked moisture into it enough for quality concerns - you would want to be safe and discard it, but it should be reasonable to expect the flour to still be safe if it was properly stored.

Flour has a shelf life of 5-10 years if well stored.  On top of that, freezing usually doubles the shelf life of grains - and that doubled time is best-before time, the flour may still reasonably expected to be safe after that amount of time, just with reduced quality or nutrition.  Storing foods in the freezer, if kept consistently at temperature and well wrapped against moisture, is often about loss of quality rather than safety in any case.

So if the storage was uncompromised, flour stored in the freezer should be best used before 10-20 years.  As for how long after that your flour may be edible for, well, hardtack has been known to last fifty or a hundred years, and still work for rations without killing or starving the eaters - I would guess probably modern freezers intended for food preservation are at least as efficient as baking the flour into dry dehydrated cakes (which is really all that hardtack is).  That may explain why flour is said to last indefinitely if properly stored in a freezer.


How to rest meat but not let it get too cold? Having read this question I am persuaded that resting meat is good for its flavour. But if the meat has a good temperature straight after it's been cooked, it seems as though it will be too cold after resting it for a few minutes.

How do you rest meat in such a way that it is not too cold for eating?

Straight after it comes out of the pan it will usually be too hot to eat.  Regardless of resting or not, you can't fully taste things which are too hot, they need to come down to a comfortable temperature before you eat them.

Some things you can do to stop the meat being too cold when you serve it:

You can rest the meat wrapped in foil, this will stop it from getting too cool too quickly if you are not ready to serve once its had the time to rest.
you can rest it and then warm it again before you eat it, either under a hot grill for a little, or in an oven.
serve it with a hot sauce which will warm the meat
serve it on a warmed plate which will stop it cooling more too quickly on the table

Although I think you are worrying too much about nothing IMHO.  Even once rested the meat will still be at a good temperature, especially as you have not cut it yet and most of the heat will be retained in the middle of the meat.


Does it matter what order ingredients are sauteed in? If I am making a stew say, does it matter if I dump in onions, garlic, bell pepper, tomato all at once or one by one?

My speculated reasons are:

Giving enough space for each ingredient will allow it to dry out and the maillard reaction or caramelization to take place
Ingredients have different 'hardness' so will take shorter or longer to break down. To get a similar consistency, each ingredient needs to be added at the right time

Your first suggestion is only partially valid. Let's say you add your onions first as many would do. After that your stew as a whole will most likely be too wet to get a maillard reaction going for subsequent additions. For me, the order of additions to a stew is roughly determined as such:

Put the ingredient that you most want to caramelize in first (usually meat or onions, but never garlic)
If you have ingredients that transfer their flavour more easily to fat than water, always put them in early, because once your stew becomes more watery that flavour will no longer be transferred
Put items that rely on their fragrance in late (For instance fresh basil)
Bell peppers always go in late for me, but that is partially because I always peel them
Give everything a cooking time that allows the ingredients to transfer their flavour to the stew while also maintaining some texture (basically your second point)

In the end it all comes down to adjusting your process so that everything you add to your stew is able to do what it's there for, which might be adding flavour, texture, colour, wetness or anything that takes your fancy.


Sprinkle colors that bleed into icing When adding sprinkles to iced cookies, they adhere and are fine to begin with.  However the longer they sit, the sprinkle colors start to bleed into the icing.  How can I avoid that?

I see two factors involved in this process. The sprinkles' tendency to release their colors, and the icing's ability to absorb them.

Moisture is undoubtedly involved in the color transfer, so the drier the environment they're stored in, the less likely it will be to occur. Of course, this also means your cookies will become dried out sooner.

If you are able to acquire different brands of sprinkles, you may find that some are less likely to bleed than others.

You might also be able to control the color transfer by modifying your icing recipe to include less moisture, or allowing a period of time for the surface of the icing to dry before applying your sprinkles.

You could easily experiment with this the next time you make a batch of cookies. Apply the sprinkles to some of the cookies immediately, but wait a while before applying it to others.

If you wait too long to apply the sprinkles, they may not adhere as expected. Through trial and error, you might find the "sweet spot" of timing that minimizes color bleeding, while allowing for proper adhesion of the sprinkles.


How to mimic Giordano's Pizza CRUST at home ? (part 1) Yesterday I indulged in a real luxury, I had Giordano's Pizza, (from Chicago) delivered to me in Oklahoma. It takes two days notice and six hours to thaw the pizza before you can 'finish' baking it; BUT OH IT IS WORTH IT...

Of course, what would be better is if I could make Giordano's style pizza at home. There are really only two things I need to accomplish this, the CRUST and the sauce (part 2). How do you make a deep dish pizza crust that will mimic Giordano's?

The crust at Giordano's is in (what I would call) the 'hand tossed' thickness, but when baked is 'substantial enough' to hold up the (considerable weight) of the pizza but is not 'too crispy'. It browns up nicely on the outside and on the top layer (is this possibly a 'different crust') it bakes thoroughly while inside the pizza. (possible 'technique' sidebar: should the pizza be partially baked before the top most layers of sauce and cheese are added?). When I have tried to make this style of pizza at home the crust has either failed to bake through, when burnt on the outside it isn't 'done' (too doughy) on the inside.

(note: this 'recipe request' falls under the "restaurant mimicry" rule for Seasoned Advice)

Unlike Neopolitan pizza crust, Chicago pizza crust is made with a heavy, relatively low-moisture dough with a LOT of oil (or, in some cases, butter) in it.  These crusts are not blind-baked in any way; instead, they depend on the long cooking time (45min) and the high oil content to become crunchy despite being buried in toppings.   If the frozen one doesn't take that long, it's probably because they're par-baking it before they ship it.

Having had Giordiano's pizza at the restaurant, the crust seemed to me to be typical for a chicago pizza crust, so try a general recipe and then tinker with it if it doesn't seem quite right.

Cooksillustrated did their typical workup of a butter-based Chicago Pizza crust in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue; I know people who have made that one and liked it (you can get it from Cooksillustred.com with a fee; there's also a video).  Other internet resources:

Discussion of the recipe for crust and sauce for Gino's East
Food.com Chicago Crust recipe


Sashimi Recommendations? I've recently been to China, and I've tasted an extraordinary dish I wasn't used to. Later, I've found out that the name is Sashimi, which is made with raw fish (salmon) and wasabi. Now I want to make it my self.

Can this be made at home? Is it difficult?

Welcome to the site Tomas. Sashimi is actually a Japanese delicacy. It's quite simple because it's just raw seafood, that has been sliced into bite-sized pieces. It is typically served with soy sauce and wasabi paste. Pickled ginger is also served as a palate cleanser between bites.

There really isn't a "recipe" to speak of, you simply buy really fresh "sashimi grade" fish.

If you are buying fish with the intention of eating it raw, there are a few things you should know:

Don't buy from a supermarket
Buy it from a fishmonger, preferably one you know and trust
Make sure you let your fishmonger know that you intend to eat your purchase raw.
Bring a little cooler with some ice to the store with you, take your fish home in this.

If you have concerns about the safety of eating raw fish, you can find more info in the answers to this question: Is it safe to eat raw fish?

Cutting sashimi is rightfully considered an art. Sushi chefs in Japan go to school and apprentice under masters to learn all the intricacies involved. You can approximate in your home, and it will still taste great, but won't be as pretty.

Here are some common, and popular cuts you should try:

Salmon (Sake)
Squid  (Ika)
Shrimp (Ebi)
Bluefin Tuna (Maguro)
Fatty Tuna (Toro)
Yellowtail (Hamachi)
Scallop (Hotate-gai) my favorite!


Can I make French onion soup with red onions instead of white? All the white onions have been used for something else, all I have is the red onions, I would cook the red onions the same way, according to the directions, correct?

While I've never seen it done, a quick review of several popular French Onion Soup Recipes either do not specify the type of onion or specifically allow for it.
So the answer to your question would be 'yes you can'. The food police will not come busting through your door for making "French Onion Soup" with red onions.

Now, the next question is "Will anybody like the results?"

You should probably start with a simple substitution of the red onions and follow the same recipe. (The linked recipe doesn't distinguish between red or yellow onions in amounts or process)


Nonstick pans blistering after dishwasher? So I have a nice 12 inch nonstick pan, which I always run through the dishwasher, and it's always fine. There's nothing unusual about the pan. But tonight, I needed it for dinner and the dishwasher was just finishing its run (the heated drying cycle ran too.) I took the pan out, dumped out the remaining water, and put it on the stove. About a minute later, I started hearing "shhhkk!" noises, looked over, and saw the nonstick coating blistering along the rim. Since this has never happened before, I only had one hypothesis - that despite the pan appearing dry, the heat and pressure of the dishwasher had gotten tiny water droplets underneath the nonstick coating which caused the blistering when they heated into steam.

Is my hypothesis correct? Is this what caused it?
Is there anything I can do to prevent this, other than waiting a few hours before using the pan?

edit:

The pan is a Cuisinart 12" Black Aluminum Non-Stick Skillet. Looking at the reviews of the set, it seems I'm not the only one with this problem.

How old is the piece? Is the piece actually rated for the dishwasher?

I don't know what the latest stuff is rated for, but I've always been under the impression that non-stick coatings are pretty fragile, and that while they are better today than ever before, I just assume that I'm not supposed to dishwasher them.

Assuming that it is rated for the dishwasher, this seems odd, unless the pan was a bit old, and the coating had degraded somewhat, allowing it to fail in this way.

I REALLY think you should contact the manufacturer about this - they should have some clue what happened, and should be able to give you hints on prevention.


What side effects should I expect by replacing cake flour with chickpea flour in all cookie recipes? Last time I replaced maida with chickpea flour (keeping all other ingredients and their quantities same) in carrot cupcakes.
The only difference I noted was in rising. The cupcakes didn't rise much.
There was absolutely no difference in texture/softness/taste. In fact these cupcakes tasted a lot better.

So, I was wondering if I replace maida/cake flour/all purpose flour with Chickpea flour in all cookie recipes (keeping all other ingredients and their quantities same), what side effects should I expect?

This article, from the Examiner, indicates:

  Garbanzo bean flour (a.k.a. gram flour, chana flour, besan, chickpea,
  or cici flour) should be a pantry staple. Unlike other bean flours,
  garbanzo bean flour does not have to be combined with other flours
  (although you can do it if you wish). Garbanzo flour is high in
  protein and gives a slightly “beany” flavor to baked goods.

However, they are not focused on food issues, and may not be the most reliable source.

According to Living Healthy Mom, you can use chickpea flour as a flour substitute, but they recommend no more than 75% replacement (garbanzo bean is another name for chickpea):

  Garbanzo bean flour- I know this gluten free flour doesn’t sound appetizing, but it is delicious, healthy and is a wonderful primary
  gluten free flour that you can use up to 75% in a recipe. And…………..NO,
  I know what you are thinking……… it doesn’t taste like beans! (I
  thought the same thing!)

Again, not the same as a university extension center, but at least a practicing individual who tries these kinds of things.

Given that cookies are made from a structure of starch rather than gluten, the lack of glutens from wheat flour should not be an issue.  However, chickpea flour also contains less starch

One brand of garbanzo bean flour indicated that it had 18 grams of carbohydrates per 30 grams of product on its nutritional information; that same brand's pastry flour (a wheat flour) had 27 grams of per 34 g of product.  As you can see, chickpea flour has significantly less available carbohydrates (mostly starch, some sugars) to form the structure of the baked goods.  This will change the texture and structure development.

In general, gluten free baking experts recommend using a mix of flours to substitute for wheat flour, depending on how it is being used, in order to get the best possible outcome.  If your goal is not to be gluten free, only substituting for 50% of the recipe amount may provide good compromise on the outcome.

Bottom line, in a cookie, you would expect when substituting 100% chickpea flour for wheat flour:

Different texture, due to less starch and more protein.  My best guess is that it will be a little more fragile, due to less starch structure, but I have never tried this.
Different flavor, due to the fact that beans taste different than grains

Update after the question was edited to talk about the effect of leavening:

In a cookie, the structure of the final product is based on gelatinized starches.   With the reduced quantity of starch in the chickpea flour compared to wheat flour, there is simply less of a starch network present.   This may reduce the capacity of the cookie to retain the gas generated by the baking powder or baking soda, and thus a flatter, less airy product.


Why did my "goat cheese espuma" flop? I recently got myself an iSi Creative Whip and have been having a lot of fun playing around with it.  Tonight I tried one of iSi's recipes, which uses the following ingredients:

250 g goat cheese
125 g sour cream
125 mL cream
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Preparation is basically to purée the goat cheese, sour cream, and oil, mix in the cream, strain it through a sieve, load it into the whipper, then charge and cool it.

At the denouement, I was greeted with a brief but ominous fizzle followed by an even briefer splatter of yogurt-like liquid, very much like the explosion of snot one witnesses after somebody sneezes a little too hard.  After clearing the cheese blobs from my shirt and hair, I proceeded to scrape the remains (which was in fact the majority of what went in there to begin with) with a rubber spatula and spread it on some crisp toast; it was delicious in spite of not even being remotely close to an espuma.

I'm well aware, as the manual makes sure to mention about half a dozen times, that the whipper will fail to perform any actual whipping if the fluid inside is too thick or viscous.  I was quite skeptical myself, before charging it in the first place, but until now I haven't really tested the limits of this thing, and I figured, if I was able to strain it through the sieve (with much mashing, I might add) then it would be whippable.

So I already know, superficially, why this failed, but that only leads me to a deeper why which I have been unable to answer myself:  Why did this happen with one of iSi's own recipes, found in the very recipe book that is included in the same box as the whipper itself?  I have to assume that iSi knows what they're doing and it was me that screwed up; but how?  What did I do wrong and how could I have fixed it?

Some possible avenues of investigation:

There are a great many different types of goat cheese available; I used the standard soft/unripened type, but there are also goat cheese "spreads" that are probably less rich.  Perhaps the recipe was actually referring to one of these?
I used ordinary (14%) sour cream; perhaps the fat content was too high and the recipe intended for light or even fat-free sour cream?
I had a lot of trouble actually puréeing the mixture; using a blender, I found that the mixture didn't really move around much, so I had to keep scraping it back into the center so that it would hit the blade.  The recipe actually says to use a blender or food processor but I assumed that a blender would be better.  Should I have used a food processor instead, or maybe even a stick blender?  Would any of this have actually made any difference, given that the consistency of the final mixture was very smooth (albeit thick)?

Are any of these likely to be the root cause?  Is there anything else I might be overlooking?

Goat Cheese is dry compared to many other cheeses.  We make a goat cheese pizza but have to moisten the shredded goat cheese with goat milk into a kind of slurry.  Very low in lactose and tastes good but it doesnt even melt much because it is so dry.  Probably lower in fat too I would guess.  If your espuma is too dry try adding more goat milk to the mixture until it just moves in the blender.


Can I safely pressure can potato soup with milk in it? Can I safely pressure can potato soup with milk in it?  I made potato soup and would like to can it for later use. Problem is I already put milk in it.  Do I have any alternative ways to preserve it?  I had 20 lbs.of potatoes I had to do something with before they went bad!

According to USDA National Center for Home Food Preservation, no:

  Caution: Do not add noodles or other pasta, rice, flour, cream, milk or other thickening agents to home canned soups. If dried beans or peas are used, they must be fully rehydrated first.

From Penn State Extension:

  ...there are some commercially prepared foods that just cannot be reproduced safely by the home canner. Creamed soups are not suitable for home canning because their ingredients interfere with the proper transfer of heat during the processing step and can result in food borne illness.

From BUTTER AND MILK…WHY CAN’T THEY BE CANNED?
By Ruth Woods
UCCE El Dorado County Master Food Preservers

  Look no further than a post by Dr. Elizabeth L. Andress, National Director of Home
  Food Preservation, University of Georgia Department of Foods and Nutrition. Dr.
  Andress, a Professor and Extension Food Safety Specialist, commented on several
  questions posed regarding the safety of home canning soups that contained butters and
  milks. According to Dr. Andress, there are no established safe procedures for canning
  dairy products. She echoed the stance that many personal internet sites that share
  canning recipes and information pose safety concerns: For a recipe to be safe, it needs to
  be thoroughly challenged in microbiology studies to confirm a safe product is achieved
  every time it is processed. Dr. Andress further explained that the “amount of heat that
  would have to be applied to kill harmful bacteria” that grows in dairy products in a
  processed jar held at room temperature would be “extremely detrimental to its quality.”
  She went on to say that, “Milk is a finely balanced emulsion of proteins in water. If the
  proteins are over-heated, they drop out of suspension and the milk separates.

There are commercially canned foods that contain dairy, but they use processes that are not available to home canners. To be safe, do not use dairy in recipes that will be canned at home.


can i use candiquik in baking recipes? I was gifted a ton of candiquik, which I thought was baking chocolate. However, after looking over the package, I learned that it is a candy coating. I checked out the product FAQ and learned that I most definitely should NOT add butter, milk, egg, or any liquid to it. Why shouldn’t I use milk, butter or other liquids with this product; and, can i use candiquik in baking recipes?

The ingredients it lists are

  Sugar (Sugar, Corn Starch), Partially Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Corn Syrup Solids, Nonfat Dry Milk, Milk Powder, Cocoa, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavors

This sounds like a product which has been very much engineered and fine-tuned to produce a very specific consistency when melted and cooled. I suspect that the "do not add" list means to not add those when using it as a glaze, because any of those will either cause it to seize, or make an inferior glaze texture when firmed up, if it firms up at all.

In principle, you could try using it as baking chocolate in a recipe, for example when making the dark part of a marble cake, and see what happens. The result will probably be edible, although you are running a risk of creating weird textures in some recipes, and it is almost impossible to predict which will go well and which won't. The taste will suffer - baking chocolate is already an inferior substitute for real chocolate, and this product has only a small proportion of cocoa-derived products (cocoa powder only, and no cocoa butter). It may turn out that it is good enough for you, not every eater expects to get the complexities of an original Sacher torte in a muffin.

So, the bottom line: it is OK to experiment. Just don't do it where it has to come out perfect, for example when you are time pressed to bake something for an occasion with guests. Make a dessert for your family now and then and see if it goes well.


Graham Cracker Sheets Please tell me what are Graham Cracker Sheets? I live in Australia and have not heard of them but I'm sure we have an equivalent, any advice appreciated.

From what I've been told by a relative, Australia doesn't really have an equivalent of Graham Crackers. Given how rarely you can find them at the import stores, you're best off making your own. I use this recipe at King Arthur Flour.
 I like it because the measurements are adaptable between volumes and weights, so the recipe can work in any country. Any quality brand name of flour will work. It doesn't have to be KAF brand.


Why did my chowder turn out watery? I made sausage and corn chowder the other day. I added both corn starch and Knorr's instant leek soup as thickeners. It simmered over the stove for 25 mins. I thought it may have been too thick, but I resisted the urge to add any more liquids. I let it cool, then took it to work to share. It was reheated in a crockpot at low for several hours and became very soupy or watery. What happened to my chowder?

Unfortunately, cornstarch does that. It does not reheat well. Potato starch is even worse, and that's the thickener in Knorr's Leek Soup.

If you want to reheat something thickened, your best bet is to thicken it with a roux. There are other more modern thickeners (think molecular gastronomy), but I don't know much about those.


Can I refreeze sauce made from frozen tomatoes Hi  I have some frozen tomatoes and I would like to blend them in my Vita mix and make sauce. My question is can I re-freeze the sauce once it's been cooked.

Probably. Depends on your sauce; some sauces do not tolerate freezing (e.g., they "break"). The fact that your tomatoes were frozen at one point doesn't matter.

Mostly warnings about not re-freezing foods are due to quality loss. For example, each time you freeze a vegetable, it will turn closer to mush.

Safety warnings are primarily about quick thawing (e.g., in the microwave) where the food may get into the danger zone (between 4°C–60°C/40°F–140°F); the recommendation is to cook it before freezing (if you thaw in the fridge, this is avoided). You've already got a cook step between the thaw/freeze, so even with a quick thaw method, there aren't any extra safety concerns.


Mixing baking ingredients separately Why would one need to mix the dry ingredients (flour, salt, soda) separately and before mixing into the liquid (butter, sugar) than just mixing everything into one bowl at the same time when making cakes? What would be the result if done ?

By mixing the dry ingredients separately and whisking them a bit before adding them to the liquid, you are making sure that the baking soda/powder/salt, gets evenly distributed throughout the flour.  Also, the flour will be able to absorb the liquid easier and more uniformly without the flour becoming over-worked.

From my personal experience, when I didn't do it this way my cakes seemed to be drier than cakes I had made when I combined them as instructed.  But this is from my personal experience, and others may have had different experiences.


tumeric as coloring for cookies We want to make christmas short pastry cookies this evening and I can't find the food coloring. So what alternatives can I use to color the dough? Cocoa for brown, and what about other colors? Would be tumeric a good option? Or are there unwanted side effects such as orange hands or a burned taste?

Tumeric has a distinct flavor, as does cocoa.  These will color your cookies, but also flavor them.  If you don't want these flavors, you have to seek out flavorless food coloring.


How to make Ice cream less-creamy Hey I'm making dole whip at home with my ice cream maker and when I made it, it was a bit too creamy and stretchy. Would there be anyway to make it taste less creamy? Would I have to reduce the ice cream mix or the water? I used 1 1/3 cups of mix and 2 cups of water. (Dole whip is supposed to be made without milk for those that don't know)

I never thought anyone would have me going out and looking up the ingredients in Dole Whip! Anyway, here goes.. Dole whip looks to be a mixture of sugar, coconut oil (the fat content), maltodextrin (for mouth feel, thickness), the fruit flavorings, and gum stabilizers, which will help keep the fat in suspension, preventing the cream from splitting as it melts.

If made according to instructions, it will be as creamy as they want it to be. The trouble is, if you make adjustments to make it as creamy as you want it to be, you may wind up compensating for the other ways in which you have thrown the flavor, feel, freezing point, stability. By the time you've done that, you may as well be starting from scratch.

So why not start from scratch? You'll find recipes out there for anything from sorbets, which have virtually no fat, and are not really creamy at all, through gelati, which are less cream-based, more fruit/nut based, to Cornish dairy, made with clotted cream!


How do I choose to avoid brown stringy fibres in avocado? How do I choose to avoid brown stringy fibres in avocado?

The brown stringy fibres in avocado taste not good and looks not good when there are brown stringy fibres, especially making avocado dressings or serve in slices.

The brown stringy fibers form in the avocado flesh after it is bruised or the avocado is past ripe.

The way to avoid this is to plan ahead. Buy your avocados when they are green and very hard. Try to select ones that have not been abused (at least if you see one being knocked around, take a different one). When you get the avocados home, set them aside in a safe place for a couple/few days, & don't drop or manhandle them in the meantime. When they are ripe (yield slightly to gentle pressure, as they say) you have a couple days to use them. Putting them in the refrigerator can prolong their niceness a little bit if you are not quite ready to use them. Unless some mishap befell them before purchase, they should be beautiful and without those horrible stringy lesions.


Spice with no Flavor or Aroma? I lost the label on a bag of some sort of spice, and trying to figure out what it is got me really curious of what it possibly could be and what use it could ever serve.

It is light brown, even slightly tan (reminiscent of natural sugar).
It has a very slight woody smell, with possibly an undertone of heat.
It has no real taste, possibly woody again, and is slightly gritty. It makes me think of ground up bark, if 99% of the flavor was removed.

What spice does not have any flavor or aroma? This seems like an contradiction.

What spice does not have any flavor or aroma?

A stale, old one. The flavors in spices are volatile— they don't last forever.