How can I safely use a blender with hot liquids? One instruction in a new barbecue sauce recipe I'm trying out is to take the pot of simmering sauce and run it through a blender or food processor.

I have now learned the hard way that blending hot liquid will cause the lid of the blender to explode off... there is barbecue sauce coating my kitchen, and I have some new burns to treat.

So, what is the proper way to do this? Is there a safe way to use a regular blender like mine, or would I need a different kind of blender?

It can be a bit tricky, a couple of tips:

Use a lot less liquid in the blender than normal. Do batches if needed.
Vent the lid so the steam can escape. A lot of lids have a center piece that can come out. Using less liquid will stop stuff coming out the top.
As Ocaasi suggests, you can cover the open lid with a kitchen towel as you start to insure there's no spray.
Start the blender slow and then speed it up. This may not work depending on how fast your slowest setting is. But once the vortex gets going, the liquid won't splash. It's only when the blades start that you have that issue. Slower start speed means less splash (a vita-mix can start very slowly and have no splash at all, great for hot liquids but the price tag is a bit high).


Is it normal for flames to come up through the slots on each side of the bottom of the oven? Is it normal for flames to come up through the slots on each side of the bottom of the oven? They only come up when the burner is on. If not what do I do about it?

Depends on the design of the oven, but yes, this can be normal.  If you mean 'in the oven itself, some flames are visible below the plate at the bottom'.  If you mean 'outside the oven, flames shoot out of the sides', then you should probably avoid using that oven if at all possible.

An old gas oven I had did this.  When the auto-sparker failed, I lit it manually with a fire-lighter using the vents in the base of the oven, and it worked fine.


How do I bake cakes in a gas oven without a temperature knob? I want to bake a cake in my gas cooking range, but I can't find any option to set the temperature. I just have the time setting knob and flame adjustable knob. How do I preheat my gas oven and long should I?

I agree with Jefromi that the easiest solution is just to get a cheap oven thermometer that you can put into the oven.  I'm not sure where you're from or the availability of them, but they are generally quite cheap.

Before such things existed, people had methods for testing oven temperatures for baking.  The most common one was to put your hand into the oven and count how long it takes until it's too hot and you need to take it out.  Depending on the number of seconds, you could tell the difference between a "hot" or "moderate" or "low" oven or whatever.  Such distinctions are sufficient to determine oven temperature to bake a passable cake, but they require experience to achieve even basic precision.  If you already knew how to do this, you could estimate the oven settings pretty quickly (though only in a general sense, but good enough for basic baking).

But without that sort of previous experience, I'd again just recommend buying an oven thermometer.


Bananas are radioactive...so how many exactly would you have eat to die? Is it possible to calculate? Today a friend told me something disturbing... Bananas are radioactive. Found it hard to believe. But when googeling a bit it seems true. Only thing on the internet that is not consistent is how many would it take to kill a human? And is it possible to calculate how many exactly?

Wikipedia's article on the Sievert, a unit used to measure radiation, tells us a banana's output measures about 0.098 μSv.  The lowest fatal dose listed is 4.5 Sv.  So we know the radiation from forty-six million bananas would be enough to kill.

Annual world production of bananas is around 18 million tonnes, and at 125g per banana, that's enough to kill 3000 people every year if all the bananas are produced on the same day instead of throughout the year and if the bananas are arranged in spheres around the people to maximize radiation exposure. The same mass could probably be used to crush or suffocate a larger number of people.


Refrigerated Beef Brisket I bought some prime trimmed beef brisket on March 9 with a sell by date of Mar. 12. It was kept in the frig in its foam/plastic wrap container until Mar.16. There was some odor when I opened it up and put it up to my nose. I washed it off and cut away some meat and scraped it off. Not much odor anymore. It had reached room temp for a short period of time before I did this and then I wrapped it and froze it.

Is it likely safe to eat? No children or immune compromised people will eat it and it will be thoroughly cooked first.

Throw it away. It could be safe, especially if you thoroughly cook it as that will kill any parasites and break down any toxins present. However, even if may not hurt you it's probably going to taste pretty awful.


Canadian meat/fat "candy" In the 1970's in Canada (Ontario), I ate this food, it was referred to as "candy".  However, it was some sort of fatback/bacon type of stuff (though I don't remember any meat, it was just soft fat inside the crispy outer shell; also I don't remember it as being particularly smokey), that was cut up into bite-sized cubed, and fried until crispy.  Is this some type of traditional Canadian dish? What exactly was it made of?

From what you describe it sounds like čvarci. In the U.S., especially in the south we call them cracklings (or cracklin's). Basically it is what is left from cubing pork fat and rendering the lard out. Makes a quite tasty snack and from what I read was/is a popular delicatessen snack in some areas of Canada. We often make this with fat from a ham or salt fatback.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cvarci for more information.


How much smoke is normal for pan cooking steak? I am on a quest to make the perfect steak on a stovetop. Today I took my first step and frankly there were a few things that were really concerning.

I am using an induction cooktop and a stainless steel pan and no oil. All the instructions said to put the steak on high heat so I cranked the stove up to 9/10 and was surprised when smoke started billowing off of the pan. I took the pan outside to cool and avoid setting off the fire alarm. Then I brought it back in setting it at 6/10 which is about where I cook my chicken breast.

After leaving it there for 5 minutes still a Heft amount of smoke was generated and I eventually turned it down to 5/10. When I flipped the steak that side was still over cooked. I had hardly reached what I would consider “high” temperatures (especially compared to how I cook chicken) and the steak was already smoking and burnt.

So I guess my question here is how much smoke is normal when cooking steak in this matter? What is that “high” temperature that will lock in some amazing flavor without creating too much smoke or burn? Surely it cannot be at a 5/10 on my stovetop.

Is induction cookware effecting anything here?

in my experience, a carbon steel pan is highly reactive in term of temperature, especially on an induction cooktop; it will quickly overheat and burn your food.

Steak will smoke a lot, especially if the fat content is high.

Try lowering the temperature, use a thermometer and continue on your quest for the "perfect" steak.


Can you freeze apples? What is the best way to freeze apples? I am planning on cooking with them when they defrost.

Depending on what you're going to cook, there are a few ways you can freeze them.

For most uses, I find the simplest method is just to peel, core, and slice them.  First, you want to keep the slices from browning using one of the following methods:

Dip them in lemon juice.
Dip in a salt water dip (2 tbsp salt to 1 gallon water)
Quickly steam/blanch (1-2 minutes) to stop the enzymes that cause browning,
Pack them in a sugar syrup (usually used when you plan to serve the apples as-is after defrosting, see link referenced below).  A good ratio is 2 cups sugar to 3 cups of water, plus 1/2 tsp of ascorbic acid to prevent browning.  You'll want to make about 1 cup syrup per quart of apples.

Personally, I prefer the lemon juice method, it's proven to be quite effective for me and I always have lemons in hand in the house.

Freeze apple slices on a single layer on a cookie sheet (in the bottom of the freezer) then transfer to a Ziploc bag when solid.  The sheet method allows them to freeze as fast as possible in the typical home freezer, and prevents them from sticking together so you can portion them as you need them.  If you're going to be storing for a long time, wrap them in plastic wrap and then foil before putting in the bag.

Some people just wash and freeze them whole, though I prefer do to the prep before freezing so I can just pull them out of the freezer and use them.  They will freeze well whole, however I find that the ruptured cell walls cause them to be harder to peel/core after defrosting using this method.

If you're going to make a pie, you can also freeze them with sugars and spices etc (prepared just as you would make a pie filling) in a pie pan.  You can then take them out of the freezer like that, drop the prepared, shaped mixture right into a pie crust, and bake your pie with a slight increase in baking time.

As far as how long they'll last, they'll be safe indefinitely, but will lose flavor after a few months, I wouldn't recommend going past 6.  Stilltasty says 2-4 but I've pushed it further than that and there wasn't a ton of flavor loss.  Might depend on variety of apple as well.

The suggestions on this page are in line with my personal experience (and expand upon them!)


Are there any cooking techniques that employ "Dry Ice"? I was watching a cooking show and one of the chefs used dry ice to "flash freeze" some fruit for a dessert - are there any other uses for Dry Ice that can be employed in preparing different foods?  Obviously, you can't eat Dry Ice, so my question is based on using it as a Cooking Technique, not as a recipe. I never noticed before, but my neighborhood grocery store (Large Regional Branch) sells it....

Yes, you can use it to carry aromas in modernist presentation or to make an anti-griddle (for making rapidly frozen items with a liquid center).


Using decorative loaf pans I bought a really nice loaf pan based on the picture on a magazine cover.  It is a Bundt harvest loaf pan and the bottom is molded into the shape of fallen leaves, a pumpkin, whatever.  But that is the bottom.  But it becomes the top for serving purposes, right?  But the top of the loaf is still going to rise into a traditional loaf which is mounded.  So really, how useful is this pan when it seems like I am going to have to trim away a large portion (the best part too) so that the load is flat.  Does anyone have any experience with this type of pan.

If you bake a slightly undersized loaf for the pan, you won't have to trim much off, just enough for it to sit flat - maybe even that wouldn't be needed.
But I'd regard that as a first step - do that once or twice to get the quantity, then bake with a baking sheet over the top, so that the loaf expands against a flat surface.
With a yeast bread I'd probably take off the baking sheet lid half way through, but with a quickbread you'd have to wait a little longer. If the dough isn't too liquid, you could also try loading the dough into the pan, putting the baking sheet on top, then flipping the whole thing over. Again you could remove the upper piece for the end of cooking.
I've also seen very similar pans used to cook other things than bread, that don't rise, such as meatloaf, but in general they work best for things that don't stick too much as they can't be lined and are awkward to grease properly..


Bread Making - Ideal times I have read a few of Recipes but I failed to get the times lines and proportions of preparation or I could not read it well. Here are my doubts.

For a Ideal bread making (In general)

How much time I must keep the Active yeast + sugar solution aside before I mix in flour to make dough.
What is the Ideal time I must keep aside dough before I put into bake

Your expert opinion will help me understand and read the Recipes better. Thanks a lot.

Keeping "active yeast + sugar solution aside" is for the purpose proofing the yeast:  that is, determining that it is still alive, active, and is going to give a good result for your bread.

If you don't see significant activity (foam or bubbling) in 5 minutes, 10 at the very outside, then the yeast is no good.  Otherwise, you can use it as soon as you see the foam.

The second question about rising times is not answerable in the general case.

It really depends on the bread you are making, and the method you are using.  The answer could range from as short as 15 to 30 minutes for a fast bread or pizza dough, to several days for certain artisan style or no knead recipes.


How Is Microwave Popcorn Flavoured? I want to make brown paper bags of popcorn kernels and flavouring to give as gifts, but i can't seen to get the popcorn flavouring to stick to the unpopped kernels.

How do companies that sell microwave popcorn make sure it's flavoured when it's popped in the microwave? I don't want to add anything after, just have it already flavoured when it's popped.

If you inspect any commercially sold bagged popcorn, you'll notice that one side of the bag (before it's popped) is denser than the other.  They put all the butter and flavourings on one side of the bag and it disperses as the corn pops.  The flavoring should be on the side labeled "this side up".


I wanted to make homemade pickles, does it matter what type of salt I use? I've got the spices, jars, etc. I was wondering if there is a special salt, or can I just use table salt?

"Pickling salt" is sold, the main difference being the absence of iodine and anti-caking agents. The anti-caking agents can cloud the pickling liquid, but shouldn't effect the flavor. Iodine can impart a bit of a bitter aftertaste, and some sources say can "react adversely with some foods".

I've never noticed a difference between the taste of table salt and that of kosher/pickling salt, but apparently others can. In any case, the differences are fairly minor. I would recommend investing in some kosher salt (its cheap) and using that in place of normal table salt. See Why do some recipes recommend Kosher salt?


Where can I purchase Banquete Chilero Sauce from Costa Rica in the US? I have been to Costa Rica twice and I fell in love with Banquete brand Chilero Sauce.

It is a hot sauce with a wonderful flavor but it has some fairly unique properties -- specifically that it is very similar in color and consistency / viscosity to asian sweet and sour sauces.  This lets the sauce cling in a thick layer on the food to which it is applied.

I have tried looking for this sauce but it is hard to find even by mail order in the US and the price for shipping from Costa Rica costs many times more than the sauce itself.  Apparently a lot of places carry Lizano sauce but this brand of Chilero seems to be left out.

I enjoyed this sauce from Costa Rica as well, and ordered it from Ticoshopping.com.  However 2 of the bottle arrived broken and the contents spilled all over the place. It would help if someone showed them how to pack items for international shipment. 12 bottles loose in a cardboard box with packing peanuts doesn't cut it.

:(

Well, I just heard back from them and they are reshipping some bottles to replace the broken bottles. So they do have GREAT customer service.


safety of using chamotte stone from hardware supplies store for baking Should I be concerned about heavy metal poisoning when I use said chamotte stone in an electric home oven? The dough would be placed directly on the hot stone.
I didn't want to buy a dedicated Baking Stone, because the dimensions didn't match as well as the prices seemed to be too high. So I picked up a chamotte plate from a hardware store.

General consensus is that you should not use something that is not food safe for cooking.
And in particular something made for construction/building, it probably contains lot of non-food safe chemicals, and they are probably not obligated to list the ingredients; so you do not know what is inside.


How do I determine roasting temperature as a function of time? TL;DR
If it takes 90 minutes to roast a leg of lamb at some temperature (perhaps somewhere from 350 to 450 °F?), and it takes 840 minutes to slow-roast a leg of lamb of the same exact weight at some other temperature (possibly 175 to 275 °F?), what is the temperature setting that one should use if one wants the leg of lamb to spend 420 minutes in the oven? Is it suitable to calculate the temperature using linear interpolation?
The mid-length story:
The purpose of the question is to avoid the tyranny of recipes, where I have to go to my tablet, computer, or book shelves to do anything. I'd like to understand the ideas (in this case, for roasting lamb or beef) well enough to be able to cook without the handholding of recipe authors.
In this era of internet-sourced recipes, recipes seem to be, by and large, copied, or inspired (possibly even sometimes plain plagiarized). For example, search online for "roast leg of lamb" and you will find a hundred pundits claiming to provide a recipe. Search for "slow roast leg of lamb" and you will find more results. But these recipes are not gospel. We should be able to do anything we want, so long as it's flavorful and healthy. Is there such a thing as semi-slow, average-slow, and rather-fast-than-slow roasting, or are we stuck with just "roasting" and "slow roasting"?
The long story:
Cooking a whole lamb, starting by defrosting it, will have to remain a 5- or 10-year project, when I will know that I can nail every detail right, and when I will know that a 40-or-so-large family reunion will happen, if they're ever in the same place at the same time.
At this time I have the much more modest objective of properly cooking a leg of lamb, defrosted for 36 hours in the fridge

and smeared with mustard, rosemary, and garlic

My intention was to leave it in the oven overnight at 275 °F / 135 °C. Slow roasting is much more of a foolproof method, because I don't have to calculate precise minutes-per-weight numbers. If it's in the oven two hours more or an hour less, it's still perfectly alright. (Yes, yes, no need to lecture me about food safety; I do make sure that the internal thermometer reading reaches whatever the thermometer says.)
Here is the problem: I really don't want the flavor, the texture, or, as mentioned above, the time sensitivity of roasting at 375 °F / 190 °C. I would like the fall-off-the-bone tenderness of 275 °F / 135 °C, but.
I was much too tired (tennis for just one hour did it) to think about standing on my feet for the 5-10 minutes that it takes to prepare the roast before going to bed. I'm starting to roast early in the morning instead, for guests who will arrive 420 minutes after the roast went to the oven.
If I need 90 minutes at 375 °F / 190 °C and 840 minutes (14 hours) at 275 °F / 135 °C, I am speculating that there is a precise temperature that I can use for 420 minutes, and the roast will be just perfect when the guests arrive. (Then the roast will rest outside during chatting and appetizers.)
How do I determine roasting temperature as a function of time? Would, for example, linear interpolation
375 + (420-90) * (275-375) / (840-90) = 331 °F

make sense?
N.B.: This might be a difficult question, in the sense that cookbooks do not discuss it. Feel free to "throw me a bone", figuratively speaking, and make a suggestion that I can try. If the roast is under-cooked, I can always use one of various remedies and apologize that I didn't get it quite right. The guests will be gracious. But if a better answer comes along later, it's fairer, and better fitting for a reference site, that I update the "correct" answer. Cooking is an art form anyway. There isn't just "right" and "wrong".

I have not seen this discussed in terms of oven cookery, however, it is certainly a part of the conversation when cooking with sous vide.  Douglas Baldwin, noted expert, has a guide.  Here, I have linked his appendix, "The mathematics of sous vide." Now, I am certain that you CAN NOT use this guide for oven cookery, because in the oven, you have a significant amount of evaporative cooling happening, which I think would dramatically change these calculations (I'm no mathematician).  However, I do include it to point out that the size and shape of your food must be taken into account.  You can't just consider time and temperature.
How do you know you need X minutes at Y degrees?  For how much lamb and bone?
I googled "slow roasted leg of lamb."  There are plenty of recipes, I don't see anyone cooking them for 14 hours.  I think you can achieve the texture you want in much less time.  So, I doubt you need to be as precise as you are suggesting. You might err on the side of your roast being finished early, rather than late, but even if it were finished well before your guests arrived, that is workable for a delicious meal.


Ball Canning Jars: Use them over and over? A simple question:

Can I seal and reseal Ball canning jars over and over?  How long before the seal gets busted usually?

Also, how do you clean the rubber seal ring without damaging it?

Sure you can use the jars over and over, but the lids should never be reused.  That rubber seal is damaged the first time you use it.  They are designed to soften during the canning process in order to form an air-tight seal.  They may not form that seal upon reuse.  You should always use new lids when canning.


Why did my mango vodka infusion have a gelatin residue? Can Mangoes in vodka create their own gelatin?

I used overripe mangoes in premium vodka and sealed them in a clean glass jar for 6 weeks. The infusion is delicious but the clear gelatin seemed a bit odd. i just dont want to make anyone ill if there was some bacterial invasion instead of a naturally occurring gelatin from the mangoes.

It is almost certain that you do not have a gelatin in your mango infusion:  gelatin is formed when an animal connective protein called collagen is hydrated at moderately high temperatures in the presence of water.

Instead, what I suspect happened is that the pectin, a gelling agent present in fruits, including mangoes, has had long enough to dissolve into the liquid phase of your infusion (it will thicken both water and alcohol), making it seem somewhat thicker.

Pectin is the same substance, by the way, that makes fruit jellies and jams thicken—the same effect has happened to your infusion, just over time, instead of from heat processing.

Assuming you had a sufficiently high ratio of vodka for the alchohol's preservative effect to apply, your infusion should be safe.


Food processor for pizza dough I'm happy that the recipes for New York style pizza from Serious Eats and from ATK both use a food processor to make the dough. I'm giving those recipes a shot as soon as my baking stone arrives from Amazon. I have a request for homemade pizza from a neighbor who wants it tomorrow to eat while watching Nascar with a friend (OOOH! Look, he's turning left again!). So I'm looking at recipes that don't require a stone or 3 days in the fridge. I have found a few that look good, but alas, they ask for a stand mixer, which I currently don't have.

The one I'm most interested in is Grandma Pizza from Cook's Country (AKA ATK). It calls for:

  3 tablespoons olive oil,
  3/4 cup water,
  1 1/2 cups (8 1/4 ounces) bread flour,
  2 1/4 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast,
  1 teaspoon sugar,
  3/4 teaspoon salt.

  Coat rimmed baking sheet with 2 tablespoons oil. Combine water and remaining 1 tablespoon oil in 1-cup liquid measuring cup. Using stand mixer fitted with dough hook, mix flour, yeast, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined. With mixer running, slowly add water mixture and mix until dough comes together, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium-low and mix until dough is smooth and comes away from sides of bowl, about 10 minutes.
  Transfer dough to greased baking sheet and turn to coat. Stretch dough to 10 by 6-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1½ hours. Stretch dough to corners of pan, cover loosely with plastic, and let rise in warm place until slightly puffed, about 45 minutes.

Then it's topped and baked at 500F.

Will it work in the food processor too? If I mix it on the lowest possible speed (which is still much faster than the mixer) and give it a bit of hand kneading as soon as it comes away from the sides of the bowl?

Advice? Caveats?

Frankly it should work fine.  As good or better than the mixer.  You probably won't need to do much by hand.  If you follow directions for food processor kneading for other doughs, then you should be totally good.  Do a windowpane test and a rest if needed.


How much yeast is in a "package"? Our Better Homes and Gardens cookbook calls for "1 package active dry yeast" in its pizza recipe, which is less than helpful, since we keep a container of bulk yeast in the freezer. What is the standard volume (e.g. in teaspoons) of yeast in a package?

According to Red Star, a very common yeast brand in the US:

  The strip contains three packets; each packet in the strip is considered one package.  Each package contains 1/4 oz. or 2 1/4 teaspoons of yeast.

This is approximately 7 grams, or 11 ml.

This is representative of all of the US brands.


How far in advance can a vegetable filo strudel be made and kept in fridge? I would like to make a roasted vegetable filo pastry strudel 2 days in advance of cooking, is this OK or should it be made the day before?

From a food safety perspective, 2 days should be totally fine. Especially since it doesn't sound like you're using animal products.

From a quality perspective, the strudel's freshness might depend on whether you used fresh vs. frozen vegetables and filo (phyllo) dough.


Chocolate layer cake tears easily I really like the chocolate cake recipe that appears on Hershey cocoa boxes. It's very rich and moist. It uses oil and boiled water to give you an idea of the type of recipe.

I always make it in a rectangular pan for a single layer because when I bake two round layers and try to stack them, I find that the cake is too tender and the top layer splits and the pieces slide off. This is without any handling other than assembling the layers. Note that it's not cracking/splitting in the pan during baking.

How can I prevent this? I've tried cooking the cake well after it's done, which it seems to tolerate, but that hasn't helped.

I've also considered adding less water, beating the batter longer or adding more eggs but haven't tried these ideas.

As cascabel mentions, it sounds like the bottom layer may be domed - if so, that uneven surface can encourage splitting by having uneven tension along the bottom.

One possible remedy, then, is to level the bottom cake.  you'll end up with scraps, from cutting to smooth the cake top, but it should help keep the level from splitting and sliding.

Another possible remedy is, flipping the bottom cake over before stacking the upper layer.  This will give a smooth top, and the pressure should even out the rounded bottom without need for cutting.  I've only heard of this, not tried it, so I can't say for sure it will work - but it was mentioned as a possibility for a for soft tender cake, which this is (I can see it not working for a denser or sturdier baked good).

One outside possibility... you might try cooling the cake before stacking.  Hot, or even warm, cake tends to be more fragile, and warmer icing more slidy.  If you are already waiting until the cake is fully cool before trying to stack, you might try going even further and chilling in the fridge (or even freezing) before assembly with the idea it can come up to temperature before serving - it'll be more likely to stay put warming up when already stably affixed, under the theory an object at rest likes to stay at rest :)


Should vacuum sealed food be exposed to air when thawing? Must food packaged and vacuum sealed be exposed to air while thawing?

I seal chicken or fish in a vacuum bag. I freeze the same. I transfer to the refrigerator to thaw with the expectation of cooking sous vide. Should I cut the vacuum bag while thawing and then reseal after thawed?

My fish monger's policy always is to thaw so the product is exposed to air, saying that salmonella grows only in a vacuum.

Members of the Genus Salmonella are facultative anaerobes. That means they'll grow in both air and in what you bag sealer calls a vacuum.*
I'd just leave the bag sealed, unless you want to check it for smell before cooking. That could be informative.

*Not putting down your bag sealer. They just don't pull a lot of vacuum. You've probably got half a psi or more in the bag when its done, plus air diffuses into even 5mil freezer bags over time.


How do you stop tomato sauce from splattering? In order to reduce tomato sauce to make a nice thick tasty topping for pasta, you often need to let it simmer with the lid off for a very long time. This always seems to result in tomato splatters all over my kitchen.

How can one prevent the splattering without preventing the evaporation of liquids that allows the sauce to thicken? Thanks!

You can lower the temperature to simmer and reduce your sauce, it will take a longer time, but will do the job.

or

Have a look at splatter screens at your local stores (or online)

or

Or just put the pot lid on with a wooden spoon to keep it slightly ajar.


What is acceptable tolerance for heat distribution in frying pan I have purchased a crepe pan but I think my question applies to any frying pan.
In my case I'm on halogen as a heat source but I don't believe that it matters too much.
I think the goal is for pans to distribute heat evenly. I appreciate there is like hundreds of reasons why this is hard to achieve for the manufacturers.
What is unclear is what type of tolerance should be seen as acceptable. For example, if my pan was at 200 degrees in the middle and 190 degrees at the side, I'd feel this is OK.
In my case, it is out by around 100°C

Please note, the crepe pan was in the middle of the halogen hob and the difference in temp was not due to the pulsing nature of the hob. The difference in temperatures was consistently out over a period of time
Is this type of loss normal or will it likely make cooking difficult. Is there a tolerance that people find acceptable?

You say the heat source doesn't matter, but it's probably the biggest effect.

Gas tends to give a hotter ring, possibly with a central burner giving a central hotspot on big burners.
Electric (resistive) depends on where it makes good contact - and both pan and ring probably aren't perfectly flat.
Induction should be quite even over the element (if the pan is good)
Halogen should again be fairly even over the element, though there's often a cooler spot in the middle.

In almost all cases a pan that overhangs will be cooler at the edges, which may or may not be a bad thing. Often a pan exactly the same size as an electric ring will be cooler at the edges, because more heat is lost there. On gas this may be reversed due to hot air rising up the sides.
The contents will tend to reduce the difference in temperature. This is obvious in boiling, where you've got convection and hotspots are limited by the water. In frying there's less to even it out, but moving the food around has the same effect when that's possible. Crepes (similarly omelettes), after distribution of the ingredients, of course don't get stirred, but still usually cook evenly.
I suspect in your case the ring is smaller than the pan; you may also find it gets more even with longer preheating. For some things, especially on gas, it can be good to preheat on maximum then allow the temperature to drop to what you want - part of the dropping is heat spreading out.


What can I substitute for Cointreau I want to make cocktails that call for Cointreau (Orange Liquor), but it's rather expensive for a college student as myself.

What can I substitute Cointreau for that wont break the bank?

Options should be obtainable at SAQ (in Quebec, Canada)

Note: I heard of Meaghers triple sec, is this a good option?

Cointreau is just one particular brand. You can substitute any other triple sec/orange liquor. Some may suit your tastes better than others, but there's really no reason to insist on the fanciest most well-known brands, especially since you're mixing it into cocktails. So sure, try the Meaghers, or anything else that looks promising. And when in doubt, just ask the folks at SAQ to help you out!


Is this type of vegetable peeler effective? On eBay there are cheap ceramic vegetable peelers like this:

Do they work well? Right now I have a simple, knife-like peeler with a hole in the middle which I hate and I'd like to change. Does this type work better?

The difference between that and what you already have is really just the position of the blade with respect to the handle. With that, you pull along the direction of the handle to peel, while with your current one, you push perpendicular to the handle. (Assuming I understood your description of your current peeler right, anyway.) Which of the two you prefer may be mostly personal preference, though I find that the angle you end up holding your hands at is nicer when you're pushing perpendicular.

You haven't said why you hate your current one, but I'm guessing it's because it's dull, and possibly uncomfortable to grip the handle in order to exert the force you need. (Note that it takes more force when it's dull.)

So your problem may well be solved simply by getting a new, sharper peeler, preferably one with a handle you find comfortable to hold. I'd suggest going to a physical store and actually holding them to get an idea of what you like.

Ceramic vs metal blades is a factor too, of course - ceramic holds the edge better. But I'd worry first about getting something comfortable to use. Better to have something comfortable to hold that has to be replaced a little more often than a nice sharp ceramic blade attached to a handle you hate.


What spices taste umami? Are there natural spices that taste umami? I don't want to use MSG in my food, but I'd like to add some umami flavour.

As others have said, there are few spices with umami. However, if you're looking for something that you can use in the same way as a spice, then I suggest simply blitzing dried porcini (cep) mushrooms in a blender or grinder into a fine powder and using that. It has a deep umami flavour - try rubbing it on a steak before cooking and you'll be blown away.


Garlic substitution in marinade/paste I'm trying to find a substitute for garlic in a chicken pulao recipe. The masala paste calls for 4 cloves of garlic, which are ground with the other ingredients into a paste. I'm already substituting radish for the onion. (My sister has celiac disease and is very sensitive to/finds it difficult to digest onions and garlic and related -- no chives, shallots, etc. Even garlic and onion powder are out.)
I'm not sure what to substitute here. If it was a small quantity, such as one clove, I'd be ok in just omitting it entirely. But 4 cloves is not an insignificant amount. Further, the canonical 'onion and garlic subsitutions' question suggests a lot of other ingredients still in the garlic/onion family -- which are all out. Asafoetida, which it suggests, I've only ever used as an onion replacement. And even in that other question it says to fry it in hot oil first. My current use is as part of a paste which is used to marinate the meat overnight prior to cooking so I'm not not sure how having to fry it in hot oil first would work into that (assuming I can even find it in a store.)
I don't want to use ginger since the paste already includes ginger. Can I use horseradish? Garlic adds a certain kind of 'umami' and sharpness/pungency that I'm unsure how to replace in a marinade like this.
Basically the recipe is to grind a bunch of ingredients into a paste, coat the chicken, and let sit overnight. The coated chicken is then cooked with rice and spices to make the pulao. The other ingredients in the paste are onion, ginger, yoghurt or buttermilk, and spices.

I would still suggest using asafoetida (also known as "hing").  Bloom it in just a couple tsp of vegetable oil,and then add it to the paste.  Since your marinade already has fat in it from the yogurt and buttermilk, a little extra fat from the oil won't change it significantly.  Frying spices in oil separately and adding them to liquid is a common Indian food technique, called a "tarka" or "tadka".  And asafoetida really is the best garlic substitute ... that's the whole reason it exists, as a food.
In terms of obtaining it, your best bets where you are (your profile says Rocky Mountains) is either to find a grocery store with a substantial Indian food aisle (there are Indian groceries in almost every major Western US and Canadian city), or online ordering.  The nice thing about hing is that a little goes a long way, and it keeps for a long time if it stays dry, so the one little jar you buy should be good for dozens of dinners with your sister.
Substitution ratio: 1/2 tsp is equivalent to 2 cloves garlic, or 2/3 cup minced onion.


Beets too big for quality? I left my beets in the garden too long and they are very large (some 10 - 12 inches in circumference).  Can you recommend a good way to salvage these or should I just "use them as a learning tool"?  They are red and white varieties.

Thanks!

Just because beets grow big does not mean they can't be good to eat, if mine ever grew that big I'd celebrate! One beet can feed your entire family at that size.

Try roasting one of them until you can stick a prong into it easily, then remove it and let it cool. The skin will just pull off, they you can cut it and try it. If it tastes like a beet should then treat it like any beet. If it is a bit bland then you can still use them, you just may need to add extra flavors.


How can I rescue a soft boiled egg that is too soft? I love a boiled egg, but it has to be soft.  On occasion I get it just too soft, so some of the white is still 'snotty'.  Oviously I only discover this once I have opened the egg, when it is too late to put it back in the pan.

Is there some trick I can use to continue to cook the white a little and rescue my egg so that the white is set but the yolk is still runny?

Let it sit, pray carryover cooking does the job (unlikely)
Wrap it in plastic wrap, tightly spin the top to close. Twist 'the tail' into a knot or secure with string.  Put it back in the water.
Position it 'hole-up' on a  baking sheet, put in an oven (time-consuming)
Crack the egg over a bowl, finish in a pan on low heat (not ideal for runny yolks)
Microwave (sad, but could work)

I vote for number 2.


Why is my meat grinder getting clogged with sinew? Last Christmas, I got a meat grinder and I've stared experimenting with sausage making. My previous batches have been around a pound of pork, and I noticed that it seemed to slow down as I went. Today, I pushed through five pounds of chicken thighs and pork fat, which was a huge chore -- almost immediately, it the grinding would slow, and after maybe a half pound, I needed to take the blade out and clean the sinew out of the die. I could then go back and grind maybe a half pound again, before things clogged up.

Is this normal? I can't really imagine it is, or no one would ever grind meat.

I've tried the blade both ways -- one way is definitely the correct way; the other way doesn't cut at all.

I've cut the meat into cubes about the diameter of my thumb -- definitely smaller than the augur spacing.

I know, this isn't the world's best grinder (it's a "Back to Basics" brand). Does my blade need sharpening already? Is there some basic meat grinder technique I'm missing? Is the grinder just crap?

Is this normal?

Yes, it is. Sinew and other connective tissues (silverskin/fascia, ligaments) are very tough stuff; you need to remove as much as possible by hand before grinding.

Sinew and ligaments are strong, whitish strands or "cables" connecting bones to muscles and to other bones, respectively. They'll be in the same place on every piece of a particular cut of meat: a poultry drumstick has an easily-identifiable piece of sinew -- actually the "Achilles' tendon" -- heading from the fleshy part to the exposed end of the bone.

Silverskin is a connective boundary between muscles. It's a thin, clingy, and annoying sheet, translucent silvery white, that you will find on the surface, and defining the divisions of, various cuts of meat. It might make it through the grinder if your blade is nice and sharp and the piece isn't too big, but it's best to take it off (your teeth can't deal with it much better than the grinder can). You'll need a thin, sharp, narrow blade for this: a filet/boning knife, sometimes a good paring kife.

Essentially, anything that's not fat or muscle needs to be taken out before the meat goes into the grinder.

Chicken thighs have a lot of connective tissue. Some of it is hidden inside the muscle segments on the underside of the thigh; make sure you cut those open.

Depending on the particular piece of meat you have, you may end up with what seem like extremely small bits after this process. Even a nice pork shoulder can result in 1/4" or thinner pieces after the internal connective tissue is removed. This won't have any real effect on the grinding process; the only thing to watch out for is thorough and even mixing if you end up with many different sizes and are marinating/curing the meat before grinding.

You can grind without removing all the tissue (it gets frustrating sometimes), but you'll have to be prepared to stop the grinder and clean the blade and plate frequently -- the instant you notice that the meat is not coming out of the plate in clean, cohesive, and separate lines. If you see any signs of smearing or over-grinding (the grind will start to be too fine and become pink as the fat and meat combine), stop and clear the blade. Otherwise, the mixture won't emulsify properly, the fat will melt out when you cook it, and the sausage will be dry.

  Does my blade need sharpening already?

It may very well, but this still won't help with sinew and ligaments.

You should treat your grinder blade the same way you treat your kitchen knives -- maintain its edge, rather than waiting for it to become completely dull. I'd say that I put my blade onto a sharpening stone every 50 lbs. or so. The nice thing is that it's extremely easy -- you are grinding all the arms of the blade at the same angle: flat. The plate also needs to be maintained by grinding the surface where it meets the blade (the edges of the holes should be sharp), but I'd say that this can be done much less freqently. The blade and the plate can both be maintained quite successfully and easily with a piece of fine (800 grit) wet-dry sandpaper slapped on a table.


Breaking down a turkey for storage - brine before or after freezing? The subject should sum this up. We're taking advantage of the seasonal prices for 2 fresh turkeys which I'm breaking down into boneless breasts, thighs, and legs to be frozen for future use. The back and rest of the carcass will be boiled down with some chicken carcasses we have frozen for poultry stock.

For the cuts goal will most likely be to thaw and smoke them in the BBQ.

So, is it best to brine before freezing, or brine after freezing the birds?

I have tried searching for this but everyone seems to just be asking whether it is ok or not to store a brined bird. Nothing that really examines the results of each approach.

According to Handbook of Food Science, Technology, and Engineering, Volume 3, edited by Yiu H. Hui,

the freezing of any meats, (particularly red meats), causes cell
walls to rupture
the rate of rupture is inversely proportionate to    the rate
freezing

Since household-grade freezers are of the slower sort, owing to an effort toward energy efficiency, when we at home freeze meats we are doing about as much damage as possible to the structural integrity of the meat at its most fundamental level, to wit, its cell walls.

The reason this is relevant to the question [of brining before or after freezing] is as follows. To brine meat is to infuse it with water or, as the wiki on Brining states here,

  ...makes cooked meat moister by hydrating the cells of its muscle
  tissue before cooking, via the process of osmosis, ...

Since water, unique among all molecules, is the only substance which actually expands when frozen rather than contracts, the absorption of additional water into the individual cells of the meat is now guaranteed to facilitate further rupturing of the cell walls, that is, if brining is performed prior to freezing.

Certainly therefore it is counterproductive to attempt to brine meat before freezing it, at least in the home setting. The greater quantity of ruptured cell walls, caused by the introduction into the cells of more water prior to freezing, ensures that the meat once thawed and undergoing preparation will have that many fewer cell walls in tact, that is, cell walls by which to keep the moisture in the cell. The result will be a product less moist than one would have obtained had brining not been performed.

Here we find a perfectly thorough blog entry on the brining of turkey where, it must be said, we find that the author does not present a brine-to-freeze option. The author does however confirm that "11% sodium" on the label represents a turkey brined by the manufacturer, (which we'll hope to find refrigerated by our grocer, not frozen). The above graphic, which applies only tangentially to the question at hand, was obtained from that blog entry. Its relevance however speaks for itself.


Uses for tzimbalo fruit of varying ripeness? First post! I like growing unusual fruit, but I'm a bit of a cooking novice, especially when it comes to fruit. We've just ripped out our tzimbalo (Solanum caripense) plants for the season, and now I have hundreds of these little fruit and no idea what to do with them.

Ripe tzimbalo are juicy, super sweet, and pretty tangy. I've heard some say that they have an aftertaste reminiscent of artificial sweetener, but I don't find that to be true -- then again, I can't remember the last time I knowingly ate artificial sweetener. I find the ripest ones make a nice snack on their own, but they pack so much punch I can only eat a few at a time.

Unripe tzimbalo don't have much sweetness and are so zingy they aren't really edible.

As you can see, there's a lot of green in my harvest, and I'm not sure these fruit will do much post-pick ripening. (Tzimbalo take a notoriously long time to ripen, and we're not exactly in their preferred South American climate...)

Ideas that have been suggested to me include making chutney or a jam. I've never done either and wonder if:

The varying ripeness (or general under-ripeness) will be a problem
There are any tricks for ripening these little guys up
There are ideas other than jam or chutney that I should consider

Administrative note: I know that recipe requests are discouraged, but I don't think this is exactly that, since:

there is a question about how the (varying) ripeness affects the culinary uses of the fruit and/or the ability to make jam at all;
there appears to be precedent for posting this type of question; and
the highest voted answer in the Culinary Uses Guidelines affirms its validity, as my Internet searches have turned up exactly zero recipes and to the best of my knowledge the fruit is not available in U.S. supermarkets.

Thanks in advance for your ideas!

When it comes to the part about underripe fruit: that's ok to use in chutney, pickles, and other preserved recipes. There are recipes which are made intentionally for underripe fruit, like mangoes. You may want to adjust the sugar to your taste.

As for other uses, while I've never had tzimbalis, there are several methods typically used for very tangy fruit. Pickled pieces of it (alone or as a mixed pickle) and liqueur come to mind. Aside of that, you could try pureeing it and see if it is a good substitute for tamarind paste. Or mix the puree with random creamy ingredients and see which combination strikes you as a good dip.

Also, these being a solanum, try them as a substitute in recipes for unripe tomatoes. Although these will have a high overlap with the pickle suggestion, you might find a salsa or two that work.


Why does industrially produced tagliatelle come in nests? I can buy industrially produced tagliatelle only in nests¹.
Why is it delivered in this form?

Some considerations I made myself or found in a dissatisfying Reddit on the subject are:

It might be somehow possible to exploit or preserve this form during preparation, yet I failed to do this.
A package of nest tagliatelle has more than six times the volume than a package of the same amount of spaghetti, so I doubt that it’s logistically advantageous.
Self-made pasta may be easier to produce this way, as it is easier to dry them, but I doubt that this translates to industrial scales. Also, if it did, why not deliver spaghetti in nests?
The price is the same as for other pasta of comparable quality, thus I doubt it’s a marketing gag.
It may help measuring the pasta, but then people are not that stupid.

¹ Currently this is the only pasta available at all, because it’s not very famous with hoarders, but that’s another story.

When making egg pasta at home if it's not used right away it's common to flour slightly and wrap into nests to dry. This is a simple and effective way to do dry your pasta without it hanging over every cupboard door, door knob, your dog, etc. I suspect that manufacturers package this way for marketing reasons to make it feel more authentic.

When I make pasta I generally dry it in batches by hanging for just long enough to not stick then I create nests on parchment paper until more dry. These are also easy to store and pop into a pot of not as much water as previously taught by everyone.


Should I eat the head of an octopus? I'm cooking a 2kg octopus at home. Can I eat the head, or just the legs?

Update: Thank you to both answerers for the useful info. The head was amazing, as delicious as the legs!

The parts that are inedible in an octopus of any size are the "insides" and beak. If you got it frozen, no need to worry about the insides but if you caught it yourself, you need to turn its bag inside out (it will fight but once it's inside out it will calm down!) and remove the white soft stuff in there with your finger.

The beak is the only hard bit and amazingly determines the widest hole an octopus can fit through. It needs to be removed before cooking (I have been told but not sure there's basis for it). It's fairly easy to cut around the beak and discard the mouth.

A REALLY important point however you choose to cook your octopus is to NOT USE ANY SALT! It has a lot absorbed in it already and it will lose about half its volume while cooked.

I would simmer it in a pan without any water (the rest of its lost volume is water) until you can easily pierce it with a fork and then chop the head and tentacles and finish them in a grill or oiled pan.

---edit---
Actually, the brain and eyes are not particularly appetising, so you might as well remove those as well...

And while we are at it, I assume you mean a common, mediterranean octopus with two sets of suckers on each tentacle; if you are referring to any other weird exotic things disregard my answer completely


What are examples of spoiled food that is part of a culture's cuisine? Today my brother-in-law told me that he's going to Iceland for vacation. He also told me that one of the delicacies in Iceland is aged/rotten Greenland Shark.

This then brought up a curious question for me and I think this forum is the perfect place for it...

What are some other foods that are essentially allowed to rot or go bad that some cultures call food. If you can name it and maybe give some background about it, describe the taste/texture and maybe how it is used that would be great.

I'm turning this in to a wiki. So please put one food per answer. This way, people can add to and/or comment on each food. I will add the Icelandic delicacy of the rotten shark as an answer below...

The difference between "rot" and "ferment" is extremely thin. The use of bacteria and fungus to partially break down foods is as old as any cultivation process. "Rotten" is just the word we use when the microorganisms have done something we don't like.

Fermented (rotten) foods are incredibly common, from cultured butter, ghee, buttermilk and yogurt to cheese, wine, soy sauce and beer. Not to mention bread, Tabasco, Sriracha, kim chi and sauerkraut, or heck, salami, chorizo, kombucha and fish sauce. Wikipedia has a huge list. We use bacteria like Lactobacillus, yeast like Saccharomyces cerevisiae, mold like Penicillium roqueforti and thousands more. Some are cultured specifically for their task, and others occur naturally and are allowed to do their business without interruption.

A few that come to mind that are less commonly considered and fairly interesting to me:

Bonito - Fish are dried, smoked and inoculated with mold (Aspergillus glaucus). A staple flavoring in Japanese cooking.

Kumis - A carbonated, fermented milk product. Lightly alcoholic, and traditionally made from mare's milk, and fermented with wild yeast and bacteria. Quite the beverage, I hear.


How to keep my pizza stone from smoking? We have 5 year old a pizza stone that use to make homemade pizzas, pita bread, etc...

For as long as I can remember every time we preheat it in the oven (before adding any food on it) it produces a huge amount of smoke. The oven is clean.

Depending on what we're using it for the temperature varies, but on average I'd say ~400°F. I'm not 100% sure of the stone material, but I would guess Cordierite because it looks similar to this stone.

Is there anyway to prevent the smoke?

(1) Wikihow suggests "As a last resort, soak your stone in water," and also "Baking soda is a sodium bicarbonate and is great for cleaning off dirt and grease," and lastly, an a one-shot hail mary, "Using The Self-Cleaning Function."

http://www.wikihow.com/Clean-a-Pizza-Stone

(2) Caveat: I've not tried any of these methods myself.  I bake pizza on a flat cast iron pan, which I use for everything else.  It works fine, you can put a bit of oil on the bottom of the pan.


How to make bread with plain flour? So... Since the lock-down everybody turned baker (can't understand why, since there is plenty of bread in the shops) and I can't find bread flour anymore.

Is there a way to use plain flour instead?

I have 1.5kg of strong flour left, can I mix it with plain flour and get decent results?

You don't need bread flour to make decent bread, plain flour doesn't generally have as much gluten content but it has enough to make bread that's perfectly fine. You won't get the same texture as with bread flour, it won't be as elastic a result.

Gluten is a protein, strong flour has more protein in it than plain flour, but there isn't always that much difference between the two. It depends on the brand. In my cupboard my plain flour has 10g of protein and my strong 12.5g, that's not that much more. In the past I've had plain flour with a lot less, like 6g, so your plain flour may have more gluten than you think.

If your plain is a little weak you can use your strong flour to bulk up the gluten content, a 30/70 mix will give a small boost and a 50/50 mix more so. But, remember if plain is all you have you can still make bread. You may want to reduce your hydration a bit with lower protein, and give it a longer proving time to develop the gluten you have.


What's the purpose of nutmeg in mashed potatoes and white sauce? I've seen lots of recipes that call for a pinch of nutmeg in mashed potatoes and in white sauce.  It's not very much and just provides a slight elusive flavour.  I do enjoy it, but often don't bother with it and I'm just wondering what the purpose of it is?

Is it just a tradition, or does it actually serve some specific purpose?

Is it a little like the ubiquitous teaspoon of vanilla in baking, which is ostensibly to promote other flavours and you usually don't really taste it in the final item?

I think you've answered your own question. It adds an elusive flavor that most people feel enhances the creamy flavors.


What is the purpose of nutritional yeast? I have several recipes for seitan which call for nutritional yeast.  I've never used it before and am curious about its purpose.

Is it for flavor, texture, nutritional value?

I use nutritional yeast for the taste.  I think comparing it to a milder form of Marmite flavour, or even miso is apropos - it has a similar tanginess - in my opinion.  When I choose something low caloric for a good flavour enhancer, this is a good thing to keep around.

A good introduction for you to try nutritional yeast might be to sprinkle it on popcorn, or add it to a tomato sauce, or even on buttery toast. Use it like a flaky spice.


How can I use self made cream of celery as a replacement for mushrooms in green bean casserole? I follow Alton Brown's Green Bean Casserole for the most part and have had great success making this recipe. My dad always complains about having mushrooms in the dish and he would have to pick them out. But this year I would like to try making without mushrooms.

My goal is to use another vegetable to replace the mushrooms when making the creamy sauce. From what I have heard you can use cream of celery soup but I would still like to make the cream myself. Can I use cut up celery as a replacement in Alton Brown's recipe? Do I need to alter cooking times? I think I would use 1 cup of chopped up celery.

After reading your original question, the revisions, and the comments, I have what may be an option for you. As noted in comments, you can use just about any vegetable you want.

To keep the flavor profile the same, make the creamy sauce as you usually do and then strain it well through a colander to remove the mushrooms. (You can also do this with celery.) By doing this you will have the flavor of mushrooms, celery, or whatever vegetable you choose in your dish.

The other option would be to purée your sauce.

Then, if you want a vegetable (of your choice) to add for texture, sautée them in a very small amount of butter to your desired consistency and add to your casserole.

If you don't feel the need for adding another vegetable, simply don't add any.


Is an unrefrigerated canned ham safe to eat? I just cooked a canned ham for my family. It was fully cooked, and I reheated it well. The problem is that we ate it and then I realized it was supposed to be refrigerated. I had kept it on the shelf. I thought the label meant it should be refrigerated after opening. What is the likelihood that we will all get sick from this? I didn't see or smell anything unusual about the canned ham, and I keep my home pretty cold. I think I have had the ham on the shelf in the pantry for approximately 1-2 months, give or take. Help?

If the words "Keep Refrigerated" are on the label, and the ham was kept on the shelf for weeks or months, the only answer I can responsibly give is that you should call poison control: 1-800-222-1222 in the USA. If you're not in the USA, Google "Poison Control (your location)" or call a medical professional. Since you've already eaten it and we can't assure you that it was safe, it has become a medical issue - not a culinary one. We are not qualified to answer medical questions.

  Canned hams labeled “keep refrigerated” require
  refrigeration and, unopened, will keep 6 to 9 months in
  the refrigerator. Processed at a time and temperature sufficient to kill infectious organisms (including Trichinae); however the ham is not sterilized so spoilage bacteria may grow. - USDA


Cooking lean pockets in toaster oven? I've been revisiting frozen food due to COVID, including one of my old favorites, hot/lean pockets.

Years ago, I used to always make these in the toaster oven; they are much, much better that way than microwaved. I also tried to avoid lean pockets — couldn't exactly say why, maybe a notion that they are less flavorful or have more artificial ingredients¹ — but any more only it's hard to find vegetables (other than tomato); if you want green, you have to go lean pockets.

However, the cooking instructions are "not recommended for regular oven or toaster oven", and no (oven) directions are given. This makes me very sad!

Does anyone know why this is, and can I cook them in my toaster oven anyway? (If necessary, I'm willing to invest in a probe thermometer so that I can cook to temperature rather than having to guess at cooking time.)

p.s. I can't figure out what tags would be useful; help from folks that know the tags better would be appreciated!

(¹ Yes, I realize the likely idiocy of this. Please don't judge me .)

First and foremost, this.

Second, according to the company their test kitchen tests all products in the microwave and oven and they have instructions for what they find works best. If the oven doesn't cook to a certain standard they only list microwave instructions. Note that all their products are pre-cooked so you don't have to worry about not fully cooking from a food safety standpoint.

I suspect that some hot pockets have a higher thermal mass and cooking in an oven would easily lead to overcooked shell and undercooked interior. I looked at their web site and some lean pockets have microwave instructions and some do not. I would suggest cooking in the toaster oven at a lower temperature for longer and they should turn out fine. But let us know how it goes. Obviously don't use the sleeve.

You may also want to turn up the temperature at the end of the cook to brown better after the inside is properly heated.


How long will a vanilla bean stay potent? I am in the habit of using vanilla extract but I would like to start using whole beans sometimes. They are expensive and if I buy them online I will have to have some on hand rather than buying them right when I need them.

Will vanilla beans lose their flavor over time like other spices? If so how long can I expect to keep them without significant degradation?

It depends highly on how fresh the vanilla is when you buy it. At least here in Germany, vanilla beans from the most common super market brands are mostly parched and IMHO already out of order when you pick them up in the store. For several years, I have ordered my vanilla in larger batches from an independent importer (current price is about 30US$ for 60 beans) and I've at least kept them for a year and a half or perhaps two. The quality of course deteriorates with time, but they are not going bad as in "cannot be used anymore".

One problem is however that if the beans are too fresh, they are a little bit tricky to store properly. As scientifics already wrote, it is usually recommended to keep vanilla in an air tight container to prevent them to dry out. If the beans are very fresh and still moist, this will cause water to condensate and I suppose it is not good for the beans to soak in water for a longer period of time.


Difference between old fashioned and quick oats? What are the difference between old fashioned and quick oats?

Can they be substituted for one another in recipes?

Old fashioned oats are rolled whole-grain oat kernels. In quick oats, on the other hand, the oat kernel is first cut into smaller pieces before being rolled. This makes it much easier for quick oats to absorb water than an old fashioned oat. You can visibly see the size difference.

For baking quick oats can be used in place of old fashioned oats. However, if a recipe calls for quick oats, you may not get expected results using old fashioned oats. Typically, a recipe that calls explicitly for quick oats generally has too short a cooking time for regular oats to fully cook (e.g. pancakes).

Another thing altogether is instant oats. Do not substitute these in any recipe. Instant oats are parboiled, dried, and often has sugar and salt added.

Nutritionally, quick and old-fashioned oats are identical.


What kinds of coffee beans are more successful at producing crema on espresso? This question mentions one factor in crema production to be the choice of beans.  I have tried many types (brands), all approximately equal in darkness of roast, and had some wildly different results.  Why would this be?  I'm sure the beans may be grown in different areas, but are all (probably) arabica beans.  There even seem to be a lot of variance with different product lines in the same brand.  Can someone explain why, or what I can look for in the future?

The question you linked to has some answers about which type of beans to use (Brazil, arabica, robusta) but equally important is bean quality including/especially: freshness.

For crema, you want fresh beans, a good machine, a good grinder, and good technique. This page has great advice on crema: http://www.coffeekid.com/espresso/cremarule


How long does yeast live after baking? I am pretty sure I know the answer to this, but I need to know for sure to settle an argument with someone... Is yeast still active after the bread has been baked and cooled?

Yeast dies at about 130-140F.

Bread is done baking at 200F or so.

Almost all the yeast is dead when the bread is done.

Edit
I wrote "almost" because in the context of cooking nothing is ever 100%. Not all alcohol boils it off a sauce. Not all microbes are killed. Etc.

The longer and hotter you cook the more are killed until there are too few to be an issue. We're content if 99.99% of bacteria or yeast are dead - but there are always a few that survive.

As an example- Russian kvass is made by putting well toasted black bread in water with a little sugar until it is carbonated. There is enough yeast alive in the bread even after baking and well toasting.


Do metal skewers make a considerable different cooking time than wooden? When making kebabs I usually use the metal re-usable skewers. However do they differ at all than their wooden counterparts? Dishes are fun to do but only if the meal is good.

Absolutely!  Metal skewers contribute to cooking the meat from the center as they pick up heat from the exposed parts and conduct it throughout.

It is a good idea not to crowd your metal skewers with pieces of food to promote this.  Not crowding the skewers also exposes more surface area for the food to caramelize.  Doing this on a wooden skewer runs the risk of burning the skewers and losing food into the grill.


Thicken stew/sauce twice with flour When making a stew, I forgot to add flour before the liquid. To thicken the stew, I added some slurry (flour + cold water). However, it was not enough. I would add more slurry, but I found this website (2012) that says

  If you've prepared a dish that started out with a roux and you feel it needs a slurry at the end for additional thickening:  use cornstarch or arrowroot to prepare the slurry.  Why?  Because a chemical reaction occurs that will prevent the same starch used twice to thicken it any further.

I could find not any other sources supporting or opposing this claim, so I'll ask here:

Can I thicken a sauce/stew twice with flour (roux+slurry or slurry+slurry)?

A reaction that prevents starch from the same plant thickening if you add it later instead of all at the same time seems very unlikely. And anyway, a roux could be made with non-wheat flour even though it's not traditional - what do they think would happen then? Or if you make a roux on another pan and add that. I can confirm that works.

There is a good reason not to add a slurry late in cooking - the raw flour flavour it imparts. That's why I'd use cornflour (corn starch) for late thickening.


Can I use fat-free milk in béchamel? Can I use a fat free milk to make the sauce? Should I add more butter to the roux if I do so?

Yes. The important fat is the one the starch first goes into. The higher temperature reached by fats (as compared to water or milk) helps cook the flour, creating flavors.  The liquid added later dilutes the mixture into a sauce. The liquid's fats are not as crucial for the sauce's thickness as the liquid's proteins.

I think of the cooked butter-flour mixture  as a thickner that can be added to milk, broths, and even a saucy dish.  The roux thickens way better than just a slurry of flour and a cold liquid.

Jack Lang has written a long post on Béchamel and Hollandaise and the science is summarized in chapter 4 of Vaclavik and Christian Essentials of Food Science


How can I check if my flour is self-raising or plain? If I have some unlabelled flour in the cupboard, is there a way I can determine if it is self-raising flour or plain flour, before cooking with it and just checking if the cake rises? :)

Put your flour in water.  It should be slightly fizzy due to the presence of baking powder if it is active self raising flour.  If it is plain it should react like normal flour.


Refrigerate and separate patties I make up several burger patties in advance with peppers, onions, and spices.

I use wax paper to separate them.

If I put them in the freezer they separate fine.

If I just refrigerate they stick to the wax paper.  I don't want to coat the wax paper with oil.

How can I refrigerate the patties so they will easily separate?

The soft fats from your hamburger are still 'sticky' at refrigerator temps, but once frozen are solid enough that they no longer cling to the wax paper.

I typically use either cling wrap or parchment paper and never have a problem with either when pulling the patties from the fridge.


How to cook fried chicken gizzards that are tender? There is a local place that cooks amazing fried chicken gizzards.  Somehow they are really tender, and yet the breading on them is still crispy.  Every time I try to make them they turn out extremely chewy.  What could their secret possibly be?

I have tried getting really fresh (never frozen) gizzards from local farms, but I still can't cook them right!

According to my grandmother, chicken gizzards should be parboiled before being breaded for frying. She suggests a 10- to 15-minute parboil (clean your gizzards, put them in a pot, fill the pot with cold water until the gizzards are just covered, and time the parboil from the moment you achieve a hard boil). She also suggests thoroughly cooling and drying the gizzards before breading them.


Copper saute pan metal lining is melting? So, I tried using a copper (I bought 2nd hand recently) pan to brown some beef. The lining is melting and bubbling.

Am I not supposed to use it for this?

Or has it been lined with something other than tin?

Thanks,

I am worried to eat from it now.

You overheated it, tin melts at 450 F . It may have a few per-cent of other metals in the tin that would raise the melt temperature slightly.It should be fine now except if the surface is now rough ,it will be difficult to clean. The tin can be remelted and smoothed. Unfortunately that requires some skill/experience. I have retinned at least one, I added some pure tin (not commonly available- no solder is pure tin.). I managed to get an OK result, not as good as the original very smooth surface.


Big Chicken vs Small Chicken: weight and stuffing volume ratios I need to adjust a recipe for a stuffed chicken. The recipe calls for a 2kg chicken, and say W grams of stuffing. Now I plan on buying a smaller chicken because it's for less people, how can I estimate the amount of stuffing I'd need for the smaller chicken? Is the ratio the same as for the weight ration?

As an example, suppose I buy a 1kg chicken instead of a 2kg one. The ratio is now ½. For the small chicken, do I need ½ x W grams of stuffing, or more, or less?

I think you are over thinking this...

One one hand, the size of the cavity in the chicken is approximately proportional to the width or height of the chicken, and the width is approximately proportional to the cube root of the weight.  However, for small values, the because of the cube law, the volume of the cavity is not going to change by huge amounts--a 2.5 kg chicken will take almost as much stuffing as a 3 kg chicken.

From 2 to 3 kg, you are looking at a ratio of approximately 1.4 versus 1.7, or very approximately 80 percent as much stuffing.  For most cooks, this is in the noise, I would suspect.

However, speaking culinary:

You can simply look at your chicken and estimate the volume of the cavity, or stuff it until it is full--see item 2.
You can bake any excess stuffing separately in a casserole dish.  Or you can bake all of the stuffing (technically, now dressing) in a casserole, which is my preferred method--then the amount you want is directly proportional to the number of guests you have.*
Many folks, including myself, believe roasting the chicken (or turkey) without stuffing leads to better meat, is easier, and the chicken will certainly cook more quickly.
Lots of folks like the stuffing the best, so your guests might want lots.
Leftover stuffing is delicious, and can be frozen.

*Geeks may point out that the guests may have to be weighted by a hunger factor...


What's a good bible on vegetarian cooking? Some years ago I decided to eat less meat and to successively becoming a vegetarian. I haven't learnt any particular dishes though, mostly just improvising with veggies/beans/nuts/cheese as staples – and that's fine, but I would now like to have some new inspiration from a good vegetarian cookbook (meaning less animal products is preferred, but dairy products and eggs is ok).

To make this question possible to answer, this is what I'm looking for:

A sort of a vegetarian's bible. Doesn't have to be very new, I'm thinking bible like Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Should be very comprehensive.
Should have some dishes that are quick to make and some that are slow cooking.
The dishes should be something you can eat on a regular weekday. Some special ingredients can be hard to find or be a bit expensive, but the staples should be quite cheap and easy to get (I live in Sweden, but have Asian and Middle Eastern food stores nearby).
The recipes should try to follow the (Swedish/European) season if possible.
The cookbook can very well be of Indian cuisine (I hear they like their vegetarian dishes), so some ingredients have to be imported in that case of course.
Language: English or Swedish.

I'd recommend Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian", I use it all the time. It's certainly what I would call comprehensive; besides containing tons of recipes for everything from entrees to breads to soups, the sections are prefaced with tips on how to improvise or switch up the recipes as desired, including vegan alternatives.


How do I tell if a cantaloupe is ripe? I have a tough time telling if my cantaloupe is ripe (without opening it and trying it. Any suggestions?

Cantaloupe should feel heavier than it looks and smell musky and sweet.  Also you should be able to press your thumb in slightly on the bottom and there shouldn't be a lip around the stem.

If it smells over-sweet it's most likely over ripe.  You can let a cantaloupe ripen on your counter top if you get one under-ripe


Will I never be able to cook anything needing tomatoes in a seasoned cast iron Kadhai? https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/5863/6168

  If you put any acid in cast-iron, you are harming your seasoning, and leeching iron into your food. This will affect the taste of your sauces, I find pan sauces taste metallic when made in cast iron.

Indian dishes often require tomatoes in most of the dishes. I am not intending to cook any tomato sauces in the Kadhai. Will I never be able to cook any Indian dishes requiring tomatoes in a well seasoned iron Kadhai (assuming I'll re-season again)?

The PH scale ranges from 0 - 14 with the lower numbers being more acidic than the higher number. Canned tomatoes are generally around 3.5-4.5 on the acidic scale, in other words just above the half way point below neutral 7.

As long as your tomato based sauce is not left in your seasoned Kadai (as Kristina rightly points out) for a long timeframe and your kadhai is washed out immediately after use no damage to the seasoned coating should occur.

Just remember to wash out your Kadai (with warm water and a cloth) immediately after use to preserve the seasoned coating.


What is the difference between microwave and convection microwave combo? I have been using microwaves for a long time and just a few weeks ago, I saw a convection microwave combo in my office. I didn't know before that it existed.

I saw people putting aluminum foil in it, which I can't use in a normal microwave. How does that work?
I have also heard that we can not put any metal in microwave but the bottom rotating plate itself was made of metal. How does that work?
Regarding heating, I want to know if it still uses microwave technology or a different heating technique, because I have heard it does not use microwave heating. Will convection oven be better for reheating food?

Most of this has been asked and answered, just not all together in one place.  See:

What are the pros and cons of Convection Microwave Ovens?
Is it wise to use an aluminum foil in the microwave? Is there a substitute for the aluminum foil?
Why is some metal safe to use in a microwave, but others not?

The combination oven by its very nature has a two different cooking modes:  microwave, and conventional heating.  Some can do both at the same time, to speed cooking while mitigating the disadvantages (no browning or crisping) of microwave cookery.

The mode you choose to use when reheating food will determine  how it gets reheated.  Some foods are best done by microwave (such as soups, stews, braises, saucy curries), and some by conventional cooking (fried foods, some breads or toast).  This is not to say there is an ideal way to reheat everything:  some foods (like pizza or deep fried foods) are notoriously difficult to reheat well.


How long should meat be steamed for? I am told it's better to steam meat (over boiling) so that all the dangerous bacteria and parasites are killed but too many nutrients aren't lost in the process.

So how does one figure out how long to steam meat? (So that it doesn't get overcooked, but is safe and nutritious to eat.)

EDITED out the part that said it's for the dog, as the context is unnecessary here (as suggested by @rfusca).

There are charts for when bacteria and parasites die. You will just have to check the internal temperature of the meat with a thermometer. Once it has reached the minimal temperature which makes you feel safe, you can remove it from the heat. It doesn't matter if you are steaming or using any other method.

This is a safety-oriented chart from Jeff Potter's book Cooking for Geeks.

And this is a detailed protein chart from McGee's On food and cooking


What is the typical shelf life of grains and seeds? I would like to make a large amount of multi-grain porridge mixture in one batch, to store and use small amounts of when I need it.
The recipe says that the fattier seeds will go rancid if kept for too long, but doesn't say how long that might be.

The recipe includes:

oats
barley
rye
linseed (flax seed)
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds

Of these, the linseed and sunflower will be the most fatty.

How long can I keep these, and seeds in general, for?

Here is a site https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information-center/self-reliance/storage-life-of-dry-foods#link7 which addresses many of the items listed, but unfortunately does not address the ones of most concern to you, the fattier items of sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Flax they call a hard grain and put at 10-12 years with wheat and such.  Rye, oats, and barley they class as soft grains and 8-10 years in dry 70 degree temps.  Lower temps would extend.

I would think that pumpkin and sunflower would be considerably lower, possibly treated more like a nut.  For very long term storage, canning, or vacuum sealing may be an option for reaching the 4+ year stage.  I have had several year old nut meat which was canned then frozen with only minimum degrading beyond the initial softening caused by heating to can.  All long term storage will cause some degrading though.  To minimize, you would want cool, dry and no sunlight.


How to work with Dried Mushrooms? I was recently given a bag of dried mushrooms and am unsure how to work with them.  What's the best way to use them?

Soak them for a while in warm water, and you'll be able to use them, yes.

However It is equally important to know that you should reserve the liquid for its essential mushroomness, and yet also that said reserved liquid should be run through a coffee filter to remove grit.


Is Torta de Santiago supposed to be very moist? Is a Torta de Santiago supposed to be moist?  I cook it on convection for full time but the cake is still moist, so much so that  my 95 year old mother-in-law cooks pieces I give her again! A couple of days later even!  I did get an internal temp of 190 F.  Any suggestions?  Cake tester seemed clean!

Torta de Santiago should be moist, but I wouldn't describe it as very moist. Bear in mind that the standard presentation is to dust it heavily with icing sugar and then drench it in liquor when serving. If it's so moist that the icing sugar turns to icing, that's a problem. Otherwise, it would be moist from the liquor anyway.


Making Nutella flow Smoothly I need a little liquidy version of Nutella for a recipe, how can I achieve this?

I tried blending Nutella with milk but its a messy procedure, is there a clean way to make Nutella more liquidy?

If it's okay for it to be warm, just heat it a bit in the microwave. (You could also use a double boiler, or even just carefully use a pot, but it's extra effort.)

If you don't want it to be hot, you probably want to try to incrementally mix in some other ingredient from the recipe. If you do it all at once it's difficult to get it mixed evenly, but if you add a bit at a time, it'll slowly thin and you can keep mixing well.


How to make skyr more fluid I am currently trying skyr, an Icelandic yoghurt/cheese. I am preparing this mostly with fruits, nuts and cereals. I would appreciate if anybody has a suggestion on how to make it more fluid in order to be used as basis for recipes with pasta, meat or fish.

Skyr is a milk-based product that is thickened with lactobacillae and similar bacteria and sometimes rennet. It falls in the same category as yogurt and quark.

For thinning, use either water or milk (possbly cream for a richer taste), the latter keeping a more "milky" taste. Wikipedia states:

  In its traditional use, it was diluted with water when used as a beverage, or mixed with milk and crumbs of flat-bread as a quick meal.

If you want to use skyr for hot foods or sauces, be careful. Like yogurt it won't take heating too well and is likely to separate or curdle.


Why are my homemade lobster rolls so much worse than those at the restaurants whose recipes I'm using? I lived in NYC for many years and love(d) the (mayo-style) lobster rolls at Pearl Oyster Bar and Mary's Fish Camp - big chunks of lobster meat in a simple-seeming mayo-based dressing on buttery toasted hot-dog buns. Rebecca Charles (chef at Pearl) has published her lobster-roll recipe and I've used that recipe (lobster, mayo, celery, lemon juice, salt+pepper for the filling, served in Pepperidge Farm top-loading rolls toasted in a buttered skillet) as the basis for many attempts to replicate the restaurant lobster rolls I crave. The ones I make don't even come close. Which is to say: it tastes as though I did the recipe "right" but the final product is just much less delicious than what I'm aiming for.

The other day my wife and I were in Manhattan and we went to Mary's Fish Camp. The lobster roll was insanely good, and as usual the predominant flavor was of sweet, faintly briny lobster meat. My homemade rolls just tend to taste drab.

I've experimented in lots of different ways with the sauce, and with my cooking method for the lobsters. I've learned how to keep the meat from getting waterlogged, how to avoid overcooking the lobster, how to toast the rolls to perfect butteriness, how to get a meat-to-sauce ration that seems correct. But my total product is still essentially lame.
At this point my best guess is that the lobsters I'm able to get - even when I get live ones from the fish market - just don't taste as good as the ones that buyers for high-end NYC restaurants get. Which is a depressing conclusion because it means I should just give up and accept the fact that the only way for me to get a really great lobster roll is to travel across state lines and drop a ton of money on lunch.

But if anyone can offer an alternative explanation (super-secret lobster-cooking techniques? Secret ingredients?), I'd love to read it.

Restaurants in general use WAY more salt than home cooks do.  I'd try increasing the salt and see what happens to the flavour.  The same is often true of butter.

Also, some restaurants that publish recipes, do not actually publish something that is faithful to what they serve.  I noticed it with a dish with which I was very familiar from a favourite restaurant. Certain ingredients were completely missing from the published recipe.

Edited to add:
The sweetness diminishes with storage time and the meat from the smaller claw is sweeter and more tender. (reference) It's also possible that a particular type of lobster or size of lobster is more or less sweet. Maybe you need to get multiple fresh lobsters and use only selected meat for your roll (and do something else with the leftovers)?  In On Food and Cooking, there is a suggestion that vanilla (normally used for sweet cooking) can be used when cooking things like lobster.  It doesn't directly state what the vanilla does, but it's possible that it might increase the taste of sweetness.  A bit of googling does turn up mention of lobster roll recipes with vanilla as an ingredient, so it might be worth experimenting.


Gloves for newbies pulling sugar? I have an upcoming project which is going to involve pulled sugar.

Everything I've read on the project suggests that I'm going to end up blisters or at the very least first degree burns (similar to sunburn) until I've built up some callouses.

Are there any heat-resistant gloves that are good for pulled sugar work?  I'm okay with some loss of control -- I'm only making a few arches, nothing really of fine detail.

If not, at the very least, are there materials that I should favor or avoid in this sort of work?

My preference for sugar work is to either use a pair of rubber-coated cotton gloves like this:

or to use basic cotton gloves and put latex or nitrile disposable gloves over them.


Help! Chicken and Wild rice soup needs some extra flavor I made a creamy chicken and wild rice soup for the first time following a recipe I found online.  However, now that it's finished, I think it needs more flavor.  The only seasonings I used was a the package of seasoning included in the Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice box.  What's the best way to add spices to it now that it's finished, and what are some good spices to add to this soup (Ingredients thus far are:  Chicken, long grain and wild rice, carrots, celery, onions, chicken broth, heavy cream).  Thanks!

Thanks for the extra questions. Here's the recipe I used:
http://www.food.com/recipe/copy-cat-panera-cream-of-chicken-and-wild-rice-soup-438883

As for what's in the seasoning mix.  It was the pre-package of seasoning in Uncle Ben's Long and Wild Rice Box. Per the box, the seasoning blend contains a mixture of the following:  Hydrolyzed corn/soy/wheat protein; dried onion; dried parsley; sugar; autolyzed yeast extract; dried spinach; garlic powder; salt; spices; torula yeast; celery; onion powder; hydrolyzed yeast protein; nautral smoke flavor; natural flavors; dried tomato; dried carrot; extractives of paprika

This may not be your issue, but the number one problem that cooks have is in the area of salt. Soup needs a lot of salt unfortunately or it tastes bleh and insipid.


Why has my honeycomb toffee set in layers? I made honeycomb toffee today, but it's set in 'layers'. The top is crispy and bubbly, as it should be, but there's a layer on the bottom of chewy sticky toffee without bubbles. Can anyone tell me why this is and how I can stop it happening in the future? Google has turned up nothing.

You can see the definite layering in this photo:

It's normal for some layering in home made foamed sugar (hokey pokey, honeycomb etc.)

The problem is that you can't stir it quick enough to get an even distribution of acid to alkaline (the bubble making process) throughout the mixture before it cools to the point you can't stir it

Factories use fancy heated augur style stirrers to avoid this, and they don't make domestic sized machines like that

Mixing in the alkaline while the pan is still on the heat. Mix fast and carefully with a rubber spatula so you can get into the corners on the pan, and then scrape out with the same tool. Time is very short

Make sure you acidify the sugar (a tsp of white vinegar will do). Carefully sift the alkaline powder a few times, and make sure you add it to the pot evenly, not in one big lump

Also, adjust the recipe acid and alkaline quantities, you may have insufficient to fully react with the quantity of melted sugar?


When does the rule "only flip meat once" not apply? Title says it all and this is not just a burger question, what about those steaks, chicken breasts, pork chops on the grill?

I believe the goal is to get the best sear possible on each side of the meat. Moving the meat around too much could cause it to cook completely without getting a good sear on the outside.

Clearly this doesn't apply when doing anything "rotisserie" style, as you're trying to do the exact opposite: slowly cook the interior of the meat without burning the outside to a crisp or unevenly.

Also, see this similar question: Grilling burgers: flip once, or keep flipping?


Can I bake a quiche with a flaky crust? I want to bake a chard quiche. Normally, I would use short pastry for the crust, but I want to practice my flaky pastry skills. Still, I plan to bake it in the normal quiche form. It is white glazed ceramic, slow to heat up, slow to release heat, and doesn't get as hot as metal.

Will this be OK? Can I expect the flaky crust to turn out nice, or do I risk it to become soggy/non-crispy/whatever?

Flaky pie pastry works beautifully for quiche.  You can improve the texture with two techniques.  The first is "blind-baking," or a partial pre-bake to toast the crust lightly.  The other is to brush a wash of egg white onto the crust before blind-baking.


How much time do I need to achieve a smokey flavor in bbq? What is the minimum amount of time that I need to smoke food (in particular meat) in a smoker to achieve a noticeable smokey taste (assuming I have plenty of smoke)?

Is there a maximum time after which smoking will not appreciably add to the smokey taste? If so, does this imply that I can switch cooking methods without adversely affecting flavor (for instance transition from wood to charcoal, smoker to oven, or wrap in foil)?

Is smoking more effective for flavor transfer at the beginning of cooking rather than the end?

Do these answers vary based on what type of meat is being smoked?

Smoking time depends very much on what you are smoking and the size if it.

It is possible to smoke meat too much, it is important not to strangle the original flavor of what you are smoking.

Mussels for example, should only have a couple of minutes, since they have a very delicate flavor. Fillet of trout should have some 20 minutes, sausages a couple of hours depending on the stuffing and a whole ham even longer, maybe a day or two.

Smoke is not necessarily most effective at the beginning of the cooking process. Some meats may benefit from being cooked first, followed by smoking for flavor.

When I make spare ribs for a lot of people it can be cumbersome to do it on the barbecue. Instead I divide the process up.

Boil the meat
Smoke the meat (to give it the taste of barbecue)
Marinate the meat
Finish under the broiler


Does capsaicin lose potency with oxidation? I have a packet of ground garam masala and if I make a stew with it it tastes very bland and has no taste.  Two of the ingredients in the garam masala include pimento and cinamom which I know contain lesser amounts of capsaicin.

However even so I cannot taste any heat in the stew.  Is this because the capsaicin content is too low or does the capsaicin lose potency with oxidation and time?

The problem with saying yes is that most chilli powders seems to be hot even after they have been oxidised over time.

Garam masala is not a "hot" (piquant) spice mixture. It doesn't taste spicy because it's not supposed to. I'm not sure if cinnamon contains capsaicin, but it certainly doesn't contain a lot; otherwise it would taste hot, like cayenne does.

I suggest that you try to think less about chemicals and more about tastes. Taste some garam masala; that's what (your) garam masala tastes like. (The taste will change somewhat during cooking, but it's not a night-and-day difference.) If you're going for heat, taste other spices until you find one that's what you're looking for.


Thinned yogurt instead of milk A tortilla bread recipe calls for 3/4 cup milk, is it okay to use yogurt which is thinned by water?

  Flour 2 cups
   Baking powder 1 and 1/2 tsp
     Salt  1/2 tsp
  Oil 2 tbsp
  Warm milk 3/4 cup

Many other recipes call for water instead, but I believe milk makes the bread softer and affect the texture. That's why I'd use yogurt.

Yogurt is acidic, much more so than milk. So when you substitute it for milk, you're affecting the acid-base balance in your recipe, and you may need to change some of the baking powder to baking soda to restore it.


Problems with rising sponge in larger tin For years I've made classic 6/6/6 and 8/8/8 Victoria sponges (and many variants) in two 7inch tins, with good results.

Now I've tried to bake the same recipe in one 8 inch spring form tin, and had to almost double the cooking time as the centre remained uncooked. Eventually the middle was still moist, while the edges were almost brownie-like in texture, and the cake hadn't risen much at all.

The same result occurred with damp towel around the tin edges, to even cooking pacing, and extra baking powder, so I'm concluding that somehow either something is fundamentally wrong with my approach, or the tin is cursed. Any insight would be much appreciated.

I see nothing wrong here. The two 7 inch tins have a total area of almost 310 square inches, while one 8 inch tin has a total area of 200 square inches. So your batter is 1.5 times thicker in the one tin.

Baking time does not increase linearly with thickness, so a doubled time is not out of the ordinary. Time is not a prescription in baking anyway, you have to bake it until done and not until the timer goes off.

The "hard on the edges, gooey in the middle" is a classic sign of too high oven temperature. Reduce the temperature to bake the thick cake.

Alternatively, make only 2/3 of the batter, or find a 10 inch tin (314 square inches area).


What exactly is 'osobaya sayanskaya' in House of Cards S03E03? In the S03E03 of House of Cards, the Russian president brings this vodka for the US president. Is this real or just a made up vodka since I couldn't find any results on google.
Cheers!

Nope, it appears to be totally fictional.

It's referred to as $750,000, with a bottle of gold.

That could be real, except that it doesn't appear to be.

You can spend that much on a bottle of Russian vodka, but none of the bottles look like that.

10 Most expensive vodkas


How do you know if stone-ground flour is truly milled with stones? I ran across this article that originally appeared in USA Today in 2006. The author makes the claim that the label is unregulated and that manufacturers can simply say "100% stone ground" even if it's processed by a roller mill.

Does anyone know if, 6 years later, this is still true? If so, does anyone know which brands truly are stone ground?

The FDA does not currently have a legal definition of stone ground.

Companies like Hodgson's Mill, Bob's Red Mill, and Arrowhead Mills have petitioned the FDA to set a definition in the past under the concept of truth in labeling, to no avail.

Petition example


How can you prepare turnips to make them less bitter? I peeled and quarted turnips, then roasted with carrots and onions in olive oil and maple syrup, but the turnips were really bitter. Is there a way to roast them (or even another cooking method) to remove that bitterness? How long should they be roasted?

Or do I simply need to pick a better batch of turnips?

Yeah, maybe you just had some bitter turnips.  It sounds like you did all the right things to hide the bitterness.

If you want to try a different cooking method, I tend to like turnip boiled and mashed.  If the turnip is old (and likely bitter) you can add an apple.  I've also read that you can stir in baking soda after the turnips have boiled to remove the bitterness. You would then need to rinse thoroughly. I've never tried this however.