How much difference is there between brands of flour? How much real difference is there between flours (specifically all-purpose) such as King Arthur, Gold Medal at a considerable savings and a store brand which is even less expensive?

There is a difference beyond just the price.

All-Purpose flours are not the same:

Southerners tend to make more quick breads, pies, cakes, etc. where tenderness is the primary quality factor.

Southern brands of all-purpose flour such as White Lily, Martha White, Red Band, Adluh and others are typically milled from wheat that naturally has a lower gluten percentage.  They also blend it to achieve an overall lower percentage.  In addition, southern all-purpose flour is usually bleached, often with chlorine gas which weakens the gluten structure of the gluten in it and creates an acidic nature in the dough.  Gluten doesn't develop as easily in an acidic environment.

On average, people living in the northeast/midwest tend to bake a lot more yeast-based products (dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, pumpernickel bread, rye, wheat, white, french bread, etc.) which benefit from a higher gluten percentage.

Northern/Midwest brands such as King Arthur, Hecker's etc. tend to use wheat that has a higher gluten content for the milling of their flour and they typically leave it unbleached which allows the gluten to better develop during mixing/kneading.

National brands such as Gold Medal and Pillsbury are being distributed across the country so they blend their flour to fall within the mid-range of gluten content.

As for store brands, those that are national (such as Kroger/safeway) are probably being milled by the national flour mills and should probably perform about the same.  If it's a regional store brand (such as Piggly Wiggly here in the south or Wegman's in the Northeast) I'd be willing to bet that it probably falls within the scope of those regional types of milling practices.

For a chart showing the range of gluten content for various types of flour from cake flour to bread flour (including the all-purpose brands mentioned above) see Flour Power.


How to recover jam that has set too hard? Every time I make jam I always manage to set it too hard. Is there any way to recover it once it's done this?

The only way I know is by adding some more liquid and warming the mixture, It may or may not improve things...

For what its worth, the consistency of the jam after cooking, tends to be related to the amount of sugar added for a given fruit, with hard skinned fruit typically requiring a slightly different process to soft skinned fruit. It's also controlled by the amount of pectin added to the brew as well as the overall cooking time and temperature.


How long should I bake a hamburger meatloaf, and at what oven temperature? I invented my own recipe for meatloaf: hamburger, bread, 1 egg, dried onion bits, Worcestershire sauce, a bit of ketchup. Put into the oven at 350 degrees F.

Please advise the ideal oven temperature, and length of cooking time. Also, should I cover it with foil for part of the time?

it will be cooked when it reaches the internal temperature corresponding to the "done" temperature of whatever meat you are using. From the US food Safety Chart:

Category................................................Food.........................Temperature (°F)

Ground Meat & Meat Mixtures......Beef, Pork, Veal, Lamb.............160

Ground Meat & Meat Mixtures......Turkey, Chicken.......................165

I'd guess that it will take about 45min-75min depending on what size and shape of pan you are using. I personally don't cover my meatloaf with foil but I have a ketchup mixture I spread on the top so while that caramelizes it doesn't really "brown". If you have a "dry" top you may want to consider covering it, but I do find that covering with foil can increase the cooking time somewhat..


What specifically makes microwavable frozen food taste so delicious? Update: Here is an objective and non-opinion based question.

I recently asked another question on how I could make a weeks worth of pasta on a Sunday night and have it still taste good throughought the week. I've been advised to store the sauce separately from the pasta and use hot water instead of the microwave to heat it up, in addition to cooking the pasta less al dente than normal.

However, when I buy frozen pasta, notably fettuccine Alfredo, I cannot believe how good it is. I'm referring to the boxed frozen food that you throw in a microwave as opposed to cooking on a stove or heating up with boiling water.

What precisely enables these cheap ($2.50 plus tax) frozen meals taste so good, and more importantly, how can I replicate it? I overdose my pasta with salt anyways, so that can't be it.

You were advised to not cook your pasta at once, because we assumed that you are going to keep it in the fridge. With liquid water, your pasta will grow mushy or dry, depending on how wet you store it. If you freeze it, these processes will not happen, and the pasta will not degrade.

The pasta in the supermarket frozen packages tastes good for other reasons beyond just not being mushy. It has exactly the right proportions of fat, flavoring agents and the like which will make it both cheap and tasty. Nobody can tell you the exact recipe, it is the company's secret. Their food technologists have created it after years of empirical research backed by theoretical knowledge and the availability of industrial ingredients and instruments. (If they list "modified starch", then something was done to the starch to ensure it has some characteristic; we never know what exactly was done, or what characteristic was created).

You can try to make it for yourself, by making a sauce you like, freezing it together with the pasta and see if you like the result when defrosted. If you like it well enough, you've won. If you don't, it depends on your skill of analysing food shortcomings whether you will be able to improve it substantially. You are welcome to ask us concrete questions about concrete faults once you've done the experiment.


I have a recipe that calls for a Cubanelle Pepper, but my dad can't eat peppers. I've got a recipe that asks for a Cubanelle Pepper. I was going to just leave it out, but I'm not sure how much it's going to alter the flavor.  It's a flounder and scallop saute in a garlic cream sauce.

Additional ingredients: Italian parsley, lemon zest, Greek seasoning, corn, green onions

Is there anything I can add to help make up the flavor?  Thanks!

Note that Cubanelle peppers are not hot peppers — they're similar to green bell peppers. So if your father's restriction is restricted to hot peppers, then he'd be just fine.

Otherwise, there's nothing else quite like the flavor of peppers (other than paprika, which of course, is made from peppers). Your recipe has so many other flavorful ingredients, that it's sure to be delicious if you simply leave out the Cubanelle pepper.

However, celery might be a good substitute in your recipe, being similar in color and texture to Cubanelle peppers. The flavor of celery is subtle and would work quite well with the other ingredients you listed.


How to thinly slice chicken thighs? I'm having trouble thinly slicing chicken thighs for a recipe, I don't know if I have a tooling issue (dull chef's knife?) or it's an issue with the direction I'm cutting the chicken thighs (against the grain), or if attempting to cut chicken thighs is simply supposed to be a difficult endeavor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSmH01K76lY
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/08/oyakodon-japanese-chicken-and-egg-rice-bowl-recipe.html
https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/09/how-to-sharpen-a-knife-on-a-mug.html

You are certainly correct to cut against the grain.
Certainly slicing meat would be difficult with a dull knife, but I have no way of knowing how sharp your knife is from reading your question. While "sharpening" a knife with a ceramic mug may be a neat trick in a pinch, you should look into a better solution. Using a whetstone is often recommended, or you could pay someone else to sharpen your knife occasionally. Having a reliably sharp knife is essential for precision and safety in the kitchen, and will make a lot of tasks easier.
Once you get your knife sorted, the usual trick to slicing meat thinly is to partially freeze it before cutting. These instructions from Japanese cooking website Just One Cookbook go into more detail about slicing meat thinly, but are primary aimed at large pieces of beef or pork. But the basic idea still works. Chicken thighs are on the thin side, so about 15-20 minutes before slicing, place them, flattened and wrapped, in the freezer. Once removed, they will be just firm enough to cut precisely. If they are too firm, let thaw briefly; too soft, freeze further.
Now, this is a matter of person preference, but for oyakodon specifically, I do not like the chicken cut too thinly. Paper-thin chicken overcooks easily, turning mealy and sometimes even breaking up in the broth. I cut my chicken to between 1/4 and 1/3 of an inch (0.6 to 0.8 cm) thick, cutting at a bias for more surface area. At this thickness, I can often get good slices without freezing.


How will the taste of black tea change when I infuse it with water colder than 90-100 degrees Celsius? I recently bought a small glass teapot. I want to use it at work. On the box there's a warning that 80 degrees Celsius is maximum for this teapot.

I know that you shouldn't brew green tea in too high temperature, as it makes tea more bitter, hiding the real taste we're after. I want to prepare black tea in my teapot. How will the taste change I infuse it in 80 degrees or less?

TFD's answer is true: the most likely change is the reduction in some astringent flavors.

I would just add that people have been brewing black tea for iced tea for many years at or near room temperature (e.g., the traditional "sun tea" method), or even in the refrigerator ("cold-brewed" tea).  The flavor notes which come out are different, but a lot of people still find the tea produced to be acceptable or even preferable to "hot-brewed" tea.

Granted, these processes are used mostly for tea meant to be consumed at cooler temperatures.  But my point is that those who insist that black tea must be brewed as close to 100C as possible are just brewing one possible "version" of tea from those leaves.  In my own experiments, I've found that certain black teas taste good when brewed at lower temperatures for a long time, though others end up "unbalanced" in some way.  (Sometimes, they simply taste "weaker" for some reason, even when still brewed longer to take into account the lower temperature.  Sometimes this can be fixed by adding more tea leaves per cup; other times this still creates an imbalance.)

I could cite a number of studies which show the various amounts of certain chemical components in tea and how fast they dissolve at various temperatures.  But those really won't take into account the balance of individual flavor components in a particular black tea.  In this case, I think it's really a matter of personal judgment to see whether your particular tea tastes fine to you brewed at a lower temperature.


How can I fix my caramel sauce? I just made caramel sauce using 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup butter, and 1/2 cup milk. I was supposed to use 1/4 cup milk but i poured in extra by accident so I doubled the other ingredients. But my caramel sauce came out grainy and buttery, it also crystallizes as soon as it cools. What can I do to fix it?

Okay. Yes you can save your sauce if it's crystallized without seriously impacting flavor. You can always start over with sugar, so to speak. Unless you burn the whole dang pot, candy can always be saved.

First of all, take your caramel (assuming you've tasted it and it tastes okay) and put it back in a pot with a fair amount of water. How much isn't important really because you'll be boiling it all off. But you do need enough to dissolve everything, and get all those wannabe fudge crystals back in solution. It will take some time to boil off and because of the butter and milk in there you will want to stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't burn. Because burning is the only real way to ruin things.

Stirring can indeed cause crystallization, but its not instantaneous and frankly it's... Not even a problem? I made walnut caramels for Christmas and they all decided to crystallize and turn into fudge after a couple days. They're still delicious. So there is literally no reason to throw away a batch of candy that's crystallized. Even if you can't turn it into what you wanted, it's still good stuff that's nicer than what you'll get at a store. (I am hurt by how many stories I hear of "ruined" candy being thrown out.)

But how do you keep crystallization from happening here? There are several methods to help prevent crystallization. People attach supernatural importance to "not stirring" but... I stir my caramels a lot and don't get crystallization. Stirring won't help you as much as reducing the heat and rotating your pot to prevent hot burny spots, but if it's stir or burn, stir, friend. Stir with my blessing.

That said, the more reliable method to prevent crystallization (where I am) is to add some corn syrup. Literally just add a tablespoon or two of corn syrup to your new pot of dissolved caramel liquid, cook it up to the consistency you want, and you probably won't get crystals again.

You can use any inverted sugar syrup in place of corn syrup though. So glucose syrup and rice syrup and golden syrup and honey (and more) would all work to keep it from crystallizing, but they all have their own character both texturally and flavor wise, so you might want to play around. Honey might be the best texturally, but has a pronounced flavor. Corn syrup is second best texturally in my opinion, but has a very mild flavor. Rice syrup has a lovely maltiness but tends to be stiff and stretchy.... So, playing around is a good idea here.

You could also add a little acid to the mix, but I would say maybe a teaspoon of lemon or preferably a pinch of cream of tartar. You will taste the addition of acid, but in a small enough amount, it would add a tang reminiscent of dulce de leche. Just be careful since you won't be able to take the acid back out.

The other thing I would emphasize is not to heat too high. Use the pot with the thickest bottom you have to try and prevent hot spots, and be willing to use a lower heat and take more time. If you have a glass top stove, you may well have more trouble with crystallization because the glass top doesn't actually keep a good steady heat. A coil top stove or open flame are both better if they're an option, but you'll probably want to stay on low or medium low heat with them. If you use a lower temperature, you'll be able to avoid stirring as well, for any good that actually does.

In short: you can always fix candy. Adding some corn syrup helps prevent crystallization. Acid does too but affects the flavor more obviously. Use a lower heat to prevent hot spots and avoid stirring if you can. If it's stir or burn, just stir. Haters gonna hate. If it stubbornly insists on crystallizing, so what? Let it be fudgey. Dissolve it in coffee. It's still good.


Australian Thickened Cream Can anyone tell me the UK equivalent of Australian Thickened Cream. Not sure if it's what we call Single or Double cream. Thank you

Thickened cream is cream that has a thickener in it with a minimum fat content of 35% - it whips well. I would look for something like this; I've seen cream called whipping cream which I would assume is the same, with the added thickener. If you can't find that the most similar cream is double cream - it's the most versatile  - it's got a higher fat content of about 50%, it doesn't have a thickener, but you can whip it.


Why bring steaks to room temp before grilling It is standard advice to bring steaks to room temp before grilling.  (Actually meat generally, and I absolutely agree w.r.t. roasts etc, but I am talking aout steaks on the grill here).
I like a pretty hard sear on the outside and almost rare inside ... well-rare as opposed to medium-rare.   I find it easier to do this (without ending up with well-medium) if I start with the steak at a cooler temperature.
Is this wrong?

Giving your steak a hard sear in a ripping hot cast iron pan (which usually is heavy enough to hold a lot of heat) probably takes a minute or two on each side. I personally find that throwing steak directly from the fridge into the pan, seasoning before I put it in the pan, will give me a sear no problem, but the interior won't have time to come up to the temperature I want - about 55-57 °C (130 to 135 degrees F)for medium rare, 49-51 °C (120-125 F) for rare. That's why I rest it for about 20-30 min before searing, during which I do my other prep work. If your method gives you the internal temperature you want, no problem.

I think you will get a steak that is cold in the middle though if it's too big, i.e., if it is heavier and thus needs more time to warm up internally, even in a very hot pan.


How long will a refrigerated risotto stay safe to eat? First time posting here.

I made a risotto Sunday (Arborio rice, butter, onion, white wine, chicken stock, mushrooms, asparagus, peas, turmeric, lemon, parmesan).

It's been refrigerated since cooling completely. It's now Thursday. Am I better to be safe than sorry and toss the last of my leftovers, or should I be okay giving it a good nuke in the microwave before eating the last portion today?
There is not any notable off aroma.

Edit// There's no information in that wonderfully long detailed list of food storage/safety pertaining to cooked rice whatsoever. Thanks anyways...

The reason people won't answer these types of questions is that there are too many factors, and are (perhaps errantly?) concerned about liability. Was there any cross contamination? How long was it left out before it cooled? Will it be reheated to cooking temperatures before it's consumed? What's the internal temperature of the refrigerator?

Many foods, such as rice, also have special concerns. Bacillus Cereus can survive cooking, and if the rice was left at room temperature for a number of hours before it was refrigerated, can produce toxins which will make you sick even if the rice is reheated. This has a tendency to hit sushi places particularly hard.

The truth is that there's no binary "safe/unsafe" with food— it's all about reducing risks and making judgment calls. Considering we have the binary choice about whether or not to eat it, that makes questions like yours a bit difficult to answer remotely.

All that said, if it was my rice, I'd make some risotto balls, bread them, fry them, and eat the ever-living-sh** out of that tasty leftover risotto. Should you do the same? Uh... Let me point you to a stackexchange answer-turned-community-wiki-entry on the topic... ;-)


How to recognize fizzy wine? I don't have much theoretical knowledge about wine, but I like the taste. So I often get a random bottle from the wide selection at the supermarket, avoiding only the bottom line of TetraPack wine. I have noticed a few trends (e.g. I don't like Chillean wine), but it is still mostly a hit-and-miss. One of the "bah" moments I have had several times recently was fizzy wine.

I don't mean wine sold as sparkly, such as champagne or prosecco. I mean bottles which look like normal wine, which are closed with a normal cork instead of a pressure-containing plug, but on opening they turn out to have a special kind of carbonation. Not the big, rising bubbles found in soft drinks, but small bubbles which are sometimes not even visible in the glass. Sometimes they are visible, but they stand there, instead of rising. When I drink the wine, the carbonation is noticeable from the slight bite.

I don't like carbonation. It not only makes the drink more acidic (and gives it a very unpleasant soda taste when there is not enough taste to cover it, such as in sparkly water), but the physical sensation distracts from the taste. I can tolerate it in soft drinks (if I have to drink one at all), but I have higher expectations of wine.

I looked at the bottles of carbonated wine I've had, but the labels don't seem to contain an indication of whether the wine is fizzy or not. I have seen it in red and white wines, cheap and expensive ones, local and important ones, without any pattern. Am I missing some important clue? Is it printed somewhere where I don't think to look? Or is it specific for certain grape cultivars? For certain regions? How do I learn to recognize the fizziness of a wine in a closed dark bottle sitting on a shelf?

You could check whether a wine is carbonated which should be indicated on the label (it's one of the processes to produce wine).

If it's not indicated on the label, then it's normally a young wine. The way to get rid of the off flavour is very simple: wait! A glass of evil smelling, lightly carbonated, wine can become a very nice drink if left to breathe.

You can see the carbonation in a glass (not in the shop), if you see some tiny bubbles at the rim. Once you see these bubbles, you can leave the bottle open for about half an hour to let it breathe.

Young wine is this year minus one. So, we are living in 2012 and a young wine should be labelled 2011. It would be very surprising to see a 2010 wine with carbonation.

The reason you get carbonation in young wines is that they are bottled while the sugar hasn't been completely consumed yet. It's not considered a defect of the bottle, as it will disappear with time. You can check that out by yourself, buying a number of bottles and opening one each month. Maybe the first two or three will have carbonation, and the rest will be fine.

Edit: This is called Spritzy.

  Very slight sensation of carbonation, most common in very young wines and can be considered a minor flaw.


Why does the pasta I make with my extruder always stick together? I've tried a few times now to make pasta with my Kitchen Aid extruder and EVERY time it sticks together and tears when I try to separate the strands. What am I doing wrong?

I am new to homemade pasta and although I've tried several times I've never actually gotten an edible product. I started with 4 eggs 2 cups "pasta" flour but the dough didn't end up picking up all the flour. It wasn't sticky and I let it rest about 30 minutes before putting it in the extruder.

Your dough is too wet.

Four eggs is a lot for 2 cups flour - the KPEXTA user guide suggests 4 eggs + 1 tbsp water for 3-1/2 cups flour. Assuming you're using the mixer to mix the dough, it should be crumbly and not form a ball, but it should hold together when you pick some up and squeeze it in your hand. If you have a kitchen scale handy a typical egg pasta ratio is one large egg (about 1/4 cup) per 100 grams flour.


Browned butter + roasted flour = baking magic? I love the flavour of browned butter, and I've tried baking sable cookies with roasted flour (delicious). Is there a good reason why, in a bog-standard chocolate chip cookie recipe which calls for melted butter, I could not use browned butter? Will the fats react differently in the baking process?

You can absolutely do this. I do it in brown-butter cornbread, for example. A good trick to boost the flavor even farther is to add non-fat milk powder to the butter as it browns, to supply even more protein for the Maillard reactions.


Brie Cheese and expiration date I have a Brie Cheese that has not been opened. It shows an expiration date that is 6 weeks ago. Is it still safe to eat?

Cheese is a durable food, and the date printed on it is more of a best-by date than an expiration date. While brie is rather soft (which is normally a problem because soft cheeses are more welcoming to bacteria), its colonisation by noble mold fills the ecological niche which would be otherwise claimed by pathogens. So, especially if you kept it in the fridge, eating it a few days or weeks after the date printed should not be a problem food safety wise.

As with most mold cheeses, you may find that it has overripened. Overripened mold cheese will have a gooey to liquid core and a somewhat funky smell. It is still safe to eat, but you must decide if the taste is still good enough for you.


Is it safe to deglace a cast-iron pan? I've heard that pouring a cold liquid into a very hot cast-iron pan can destroy it (because it's more brittle than a steel pan for instance). Is that true or do most of you deglace in cast-iron pans as well?

A metal pan will not crack simply from cold liquid.  If you heat it up to a very high temperature and submerge it in cold water, that's not such a good idea.  But deglazing is just a tiny amount of liquid.

Now, aluminum is another story - if it's hot enough and you pour cold water (or cold anything) on it, it can warp, even with a relatively small amount of liquid.  And for Teflon and other "coated" cookware, you can ruin the coating that way.  But heavier steel or cast iron - no way.

If you're really concerned, just keep the deglazing liquid at room temperature.  Deglazing is usually done with vinegar and you keep that at room temperature anyway, right?  I deglaze my CI all the time with cider vinegar and have never experienced even the tiniest crack in 10 years.  I'm pretty sure it's safe.  It's great, actually; CI deglazes very easily, you just need a small splash of vinegar.


Could coconut cream be used to create a non-dairy ganache for whipping? A few days ago I made a batch of profiteroles and éclairs, with a minor twist:  For half the profiteroles, instead of chantilly cream I used a whipped ganache made from about 2 parts dark or bittersweet chocolate to 1 part each butter and whipping cream, then whipped it to a medium-brown consistency for piping into the cream puffs.  Needless to say, these ones turned out to be everybody's favourite and disappeared within seconds.

Then I got asked if I could make a non-dairy version, for various dietary reasons which I won't get into here.  At first I laughed, but after some further thought, it seems like it might be possible.  The choux paste uses only shortening for fat, so it would just be a matter of imitating the chocolate ganache.

I've seen various "substitutions" using soy or rice milk.  In my humble opinion, they taste wretchedly awful.  I also found a tip saying to use coconut cream, which sounds much more promising, but I haven't worked with coconut cream very much and have some concerns:

Does coconut cream actually whip, or would I have better luck whipping coconut milk?
Given that cartons of whipping cream are already loaded up with carrageenan, and the recipe linked above suggests the incorporation of starch - will I need to add emulsifiers/stabilizers?  Any ideas as to which ones would work best for this and in what quantity?* I don't need it to be stable for days, but it should keep for at least a few hours at room or refrigerator temperature.
Are there relative perceived differences in sweetness between coconut cream and whipping cream?  Will I need to incorporate sugar to make up for the mild natural sweetness of whipping cream, or, alternatively, is the coconut milk/cream going to be too sweet?
If I do need to incorporate sugar, would it make any sense to use icing sugar to act as a (partial) stabilizer, or should I stick to superfine and handle the stabilization aspect with dedicated additives?
Can I rely on the coconut cream (or milk) whipping with the chocolate, or would I get better (airier/stabler) results whipping it separately (perhaps using an iSi?) and then folding it into melted chocolate (presumably adulterated with some water or butter substitute to prevent seizing)?  Or could I get even better results by doing both - whipping it separately, then blending and whipping the entire mixture again to full volume?
Finally, I am pretty sure that I can substitute cocoa butter for the regular (dairy) butter, but is there any reason why this part of the substitution would cause problems?

* My instinct says lecithin and xanthan gum, but that's only because I know it works for a dairy chocolate/cream whip, I have no idea about coconut.

Abstract: Ganache is delicious, but not everyone eats dairy. We examined whether coconut milk can be used for the creation of a non-dairy ganache. We ran a series of experiments. The answer is that, with some creative techniques, you can use it, but it does not come anywhere near to the real thing.

Introduction. Someone wrote a question on Seasoned advice about coconut based ganache and we got curious.

Background. We love ganache even more than pure chocolate, and make it often ourselves, so we think we have all the prerequisites needed to create and judge a coconut based ganache recipe. Our favorite ganache recipe 1 (which we used as a starting point) is: 100 g chocolate, 72% cocoa (only made from cocoa, sugar, and cocoa butter, no vegetable fat or emulsifiers); 100 g cream, at least 30% (non-UHT), 25 g butter.

Method. We prepared the base mix as follows: 25 g coconut milk were heated until boiling. They were removed from the heat. 25 g chocolate (72%) and 6g cocoa butter were added. Everything was left to dissolve. After 5 minutes, the mixture was whipped with a handheld mixer at the second-to-highest setting. This was Version 0. It was divided in two batches. Different versions were made from each batch by gradually adding guar (a knife-point-ful), egg yolk (1, in lieu of lecithine) and sugar (8g per batch). Each version was whipped for at least 3 minutes. The final versions (1c and 2b) where put for 30 min in the refrigerator, then taken out and whipped again. As there were no observable changes after the cold whipping, we do not treat them as a different version. We also made a small portion of dairy ganache for comparison purposes.

Results. These are listed in Table 1. The numbers in the ingredients columns of the table represent the order of adding the ingredients to the mixtures.
Table 1. Experiment results.

The final consistency of version 1c is documented in Figure 1. Note that the peaks do not drip and you can rotate the bowl at 180° without anything falling out. The piece of chocolate was added for color comparison.

Figure 2 shows a zoom of the blue bordered area in Figure 1.

Discussion. It is possible to make a profiterole filling with coconut milk based ganache, but it isn't quite like the real deal. Also, it resembles non-whipped ganache more closely than whipped ganache.

The basic ganache recipe can be done with coconut milk instead of cream and cocoa butter instead of butter. However, it tastes fattier than real ganache, and it is runnier. Unlike dairy ganache, whipping does not result in aeration.

We think that eliminating the cocoa butter altogether will somewhat alleviate the fatiness problem, but we did not test this proposal yet.

A thickening and or emulsifying agent can improve the ganache texture. Even though egg yolk improves aeration, is not a good choice, as it results in a slimy feel. Guar is a better solution.

The addition of sugar ruins the chocolateness of the taste. If bitterness is not desired, a sweeter chocolate (50%) should be used. Only dedicated sugar lovers or Americans should resort to adding sugar. In that case, it should be added before the guar (we would suggest dissolving it in the coconut milk before boiling it) as not to interfere with the texture of the final product.

Threats to validity. First, there was a single tester (the quasi-royal we). Second, this tester is already biased in favor of dairy products in general and specifically for dairy based ganache. Third, many interesting combinations (including xanthan gum and corn starch) could not be tested due to lack of resources.

Conclusion and outlook. We found the experiment very inspirating. It was also yummy. But we'd like to issue an warning: This experiment is dangerous. In the preparation phase, we discovered a penchant for guared coconut water deep fried in coconut fat we'd rather not have known about. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to offering the results for peer preview to a chocolate-loving lactose intolerant co worker.

References: 1 My own recipe book


Using Rainbow Chard for Spanakopita Just for giggles I am planning to make spanakopita using rainbow chard instead of spinach. It's been years since I've worked with chard, so I have forgotten how it behaves. If I were using spinach I would steam it until it wilted and volume was reduced by half. Then I would chop it and wring the hell out of it with a tea towel. I wouldn't use any stalk that extended beyond the leaves. I want to use more of the stalk of the chard, because that's where most of the color is.

So, will treating the chard leaves like spinach be enough to dry it out for spanakopita? Keeping the bottom layer of filo crisp is paramount. Is there anything more I should do? Concerning the stalks, I'm thinking that I want to dice them fairly small, salt and drain them, steam them until tender, and then wring them with the leaves. Does that sound like the best way to handle them? Is there anything I should do differently?

The color of the chard is the whole reason for this little endeavor. Is there anything I can do to help keep the color bright?

Finally, the flavors in my traditional spanakopita include parmesan, feta, yoghurt, lemon, dill, mint and nutmeg. Is there any reason to consider different flavorings with the chard instead of spinach?

Chard isn't as tender as spinach and will require more than just light steaming lest it be chewy and fibrous.

You said you want to keep its bright colors, so I would recommend blanching it in salt water. You need to add quite a bit of salt, such that it tastes like seawater. This keeps plant cells from bursting and releasing pigment. You can rinse your chard after pouring it off to tame saltiness.


Is ginger drying out the same process as when making ground ginger? If you Leave fresh ginger out it ‘goes bad’(looses its zingy flavour and becomes tough and chewy).
Some recipes call for dried ginger which I believe is achieved by heating in an oven or just leaving it out in the sun.
Is the process to get dried ginger doing the same thing as when ginger ‘goes bad’ from leaving it out so you don’t have to heat it or put it in the sun you could just leave it out?
Put another way is what I have described as ‘bad ginger’ usable to make dried ginger or is this not suitable?
Thanks

Drying any food is a race, if you do it too slowly it spoils or grows things. In hot and dry climates you can leave it out in the sun, in your kitchen it will just rot. You would need to use an oven or a dehydrator, otherwise it's just bad ginger.


What to do with rotisserie chicken juices I bought 2 rotisserie chickens yesterday for the meat.  I use it for chicken soup.  I saved the juices at the bottom of the pans in the refrigerator.  This morning it is a gelatin with just a bit of not so hard fat on the top.  I threw away the fat, but is the gelatin good for anything?  Is it a kind of stock?  Can I add it to the soup?

I threw away the fat, but is the gelatin good for anything? Is it a kind of stock?

Oh yeah.. you can use it. That is some great chicken stock. You just don't recognize it as such, because it's cold, which gels it.

When that gel is in a heated dish, it will taste very good. Superior to any canned broth, better than any bullion cube.


Does ginger have to be peeled? If so how? I noticed that many recipes that call for ginger explicitly call for peeled ginger.

When I use ginger I don't bother to peel it. As it is almost always minced fine the tiny bits of papery peel are almost undetectable.

Is there some reason that I should start peeling my ginger? Are there some dishes that are better served by using ginger that has been peeled?

Ginger is knobbier than a potato. Is there a better way to peel them than to just take a vegetable peeler to it?

FWIW- The recipe that provoked this question can be found here.

There's no reason to peel besides the aesthetics of it. There's no major flavor or nutritional difference either way. If the ginger is going to be seen then peel it, if not don't bother.

The best way to peel ginger is to use the edge of a small spoon to rub it off, it works really well, takes seconds, and doesn't waste as much as using a knife or peeler.


Ingredients: Icelandic local specials The question is similar to this one. I'm going to Iceland and I'd like to bring home some ingredients which are specific for Icelandic cuisine but are hardly purchasable in Central Europe.

Anything simple like snack would work fine.

It should survive the flight as well.

Any recommendations?

Being a treeless island with a harsh climate, there are few natural ingredients that are specific to Iceland that are not available on mainland Europe.  Some exceptions include puffin and whale meat, however, it is likely illegal to import those into your home country.  Iceland does have some amazing quality lamb and dairy goods (e.g., skyr), however, it might also be difficult to take those home.  With that said, there are a number of prepared foods that are unique to Iceland and are difficult to find elsewhere:

Hákarl: dried putrified shark;
Harðfiskur: dried fish;
Brennivín: liquor, similar to akvavit; and
Tópas and Opal: licorice/menthol liquors.

The makers of Opal also make a candy of the same name that tastes just like the liquor.  It's great for getting the children hooked on the flavor from a young age ;-)

While you are in Reykjavík, make sure to get some hot dogs at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur; they are perhaps the best I have had anywhere in the world.  I am not sure if they sell their raw sausages, but if they do, that would definitely be something I would want to take home if I were there again.


Is adding garlic powder to pasta with oil safe? Semi-food related but wasn't sure where else to post it.

I was just cooking up a quick late night meal and ended up throwing a little garlic powder onto my pasta (which already had a small amount of olive oil on it) after eating it I found out about botulism and it's causes and effects.

Question is do I run a risk of botulism because of this? Or will the fact I ate it right away help?

Doubtful. The botulism risk usually arises from long term storage of garlic cloves in olive oil under anaerobic (no oxygen) conditions. You with your garlic powder are nowhere near those conditions. Cooks cook garlic in olive oil all the time, with no ill effects.

Promoted to answer as requested. I was not sure where we draw the line on food safety concerns.


How do I pickle hot peppers? I don't know how to pickle cayenne and jalapeno peppers. I tried putting them in a mason jar w/ vinegar. They didn't last too long because the top rust. I don't know what 'brine' mean and I don't know what 'water bath' mean.

Peppers do well as a "refrigerated pickle" meaning that they don't need to be cooked at all (or brined in advance, or exposed to a water bath). Just pack the clean jar with your peppers and add anywhere from 50%-100% vinegar (the rest water) brought to a boil. They will be fine as long as you don't expect the pickles to last more than about a month. If your lid reacts to the acid, just put a layer of plastic wrap between the lid and the jar. Of course, pickles made like this do need to be kept refrigerated. Salt, sugar, garlic cloves and whole spices are commonly added. Dissolve any salt and sugar in the vinegar, other additives can just be thrown in the jar with the peppers. You can cut up the peppers any way you like or keep them whole. Here's a typical recipe, but the possibilities are endless: http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2013/08/sweet-and-spicy-pickled-peppers.html

EDIT: I should note that "anywhere from 50%-100% vinegar" assumes a vinegar of at least 5% acidity. To expect your peppers to last a month under refrigeration, aim for at least 3% acidity of the "pickle juice". Salt helps too, try to use non-iodized, some people taste a bitterness in pickles made with iodized salt.


Do fresh ramen noodles come in a curly form, or only instant? Put another way, if I am served curly ramen noodles in a restaurant or for take-out, does that mean they are necessarily instant noodles? If there are fresh noodles that are curly, can someone provide a reference?

Here's a picture of what I mean. I don't eat instant ramen often, but they look as curly as instant noodles that I have eaten. Has this place served up instant ramen?

Picture from Wikipedia of which I am referring to as 'fresh ramen', distinct from the fried dried stuff coming in packages, which I don't think would cook up the same way:

The short answer is yes, they can come in a curly form. There are several types of fresh noodle used in Rāmen, which can be classified mainly according to thickness and shape.

Noodles are classified in shape into the straight sutorēto-men (ストレート麺）, the curly chijire-men（縮れ面）, and the more rare flat hirauchi-men（平打ち麺） . With the exception of the flat type, these are further divided into several degrees of thickness: the extra thick gokubuto-men（極太麺）, the thick futo-men（太麺）, the middle thick chūbuto-men（中太麺）, the middle thin chūboso-men（中細麺）, the thin hoso-men（細麺）, and the extra thin gokuboso-men（極細麺）. The thin types are also further differentiated in the amount of water they have in their dough.

Which shape and thickness of noodle is used depends on the style of ramen and on the chef's preference. For example, hakata rāmen（博多ラーメン）, of the sorts served by Ippūdō in their Japanese stores, usually uses straight gokuboso type, but the same franchise uses chijire gokuboso type for their spicy rāmen and chijire gokubuto for their tsukemen. Likewise, yokohama tonkotsu-shōyu （横浜豚骨醤油）, also known as ie-kei（家系）, uses chijire-gokubuto.

The choice of noodle is related to many factors, but cooking time is an important one. In hakata rāmen, where the practice of topping up your noodles (kaedama／替え玉) is common, one has to be able to cook the noodle quickly, and hence the very thin noodle. Thicker types of noodle need longer cooking time (aprox. 10 min for gokubuto-men), and are only used by rāmen traditions that do not offer a noodle refill.

Another factor affecting the noodle type is the type of broth. Thicker broths ask for straight type of noodles, and thinner broths for curly noodles.

These are not rules etched in stone, however, as rāmen itself is a sort of creole food born from a mix of Japanese and Chinese cuisines. Some would say that there is not right or wrong in rāmen, and that anything is possible. However, what I have described above is what is customary and what you will find if you go to rāmen shops in Japan.

By the way, not all rāmen dishes in Japan use fresh noodles. There is a type of rāmen that originates from Chiba prefecture and is called takeoka rāmen（竹岡ラーメン）, which was originally cooked by part-timer old ladies hired from the neighbourhood, and uses dried (what you would call instant) noodles because they are easier to cook.


What material is best for a pour over coffee brewer? Pour over coffee will be my next venture in the coffee world, and I'm trying to decide between ceramic and plastic. The ceramic devices are much more expensive, and I'm hoping to understand if there is a justification for the extra expense.

Ceramic will - if preheated - prevent some cooling of your water, but plastic filter-holders don't have much heat capacity so you don't lose much with them, either.  Plastic filter-holders and paper filters have the advantage of not costing much so you can have one at home, one at work, one anywhere else you want...

As with most coffee preparation, a good grinder is paramount and getting freshly roasted coffee is also extremely important.


Refrigerating olive oil I made some mojo de ajo using Rick Bayless’s recipe. He says that it will keep for up to 3 months in the refrigerator, so I stored it in the refrigerator. The oil seems to have solidified in the refrigerator. If I leave it out for a bit, it melts again, but I am worried that refrigerating olive oil will harm its flavor. Is it bad to refrigerate olive oil to the point that it solidifies? Is it normal for olive oil to do this?

In my experience, that is completely normal and will not harm its flavor at all. You just need to warm it up before serving so that you can re-mix / emulsify your sauce / dressing. It congeals in the fridge much like any other fat will (think butter or bacon grease). Apparently, extra virgin olive oil may suffer from condensation in the bottle affecting the flavor. It may also turn cloudy.

But in general, you should be fine. Even if it does go bad, it should just affect the flavor and not be harmful, just gross. So if it tastes bad, toss it. Otherwise you're fine. Note: I'm just talking about the oil going rancid, not anything else you might mix with it.


When adding eggs to scratch cake batter, why are you supposed to add them one at a time? When making a cake from scratch I have always added my eggs one at a time, mixing in between each, because this is how I learned from my mother. I just can't remember why this is supposed to be beneficial. Does anyone know why this should produce a different result than adding them all at the same time?

The key thing here is a substance called Lecithin and it is found in your Incredible, Edible Egg!
Doing the adding of the egg one-by-one, plus a few other things are...

in the service of creating a stable emulsion of liquid and fat in the batter. When this is done correctly, the cake will have a springy, even crumb, great flavor, and light texture. If the batter is not properly emulsified, the resulting cake can be uneven and flat, flavorless, and have a heavy texture. It's even possible for the cake to "fall" or sink into itself when baking.
An emulsion is the suspension of small globules of one liquid in a second liquid with which the first will not mix, such as oil and vinegar. To create an emulsion, we slowly add eggs to the butter mixture, one at a time, beating rapidly to suspend the water from the butter and egg whites in the fats from the butter and egg yolks. Lecithin, an emulsifier found in eggs, helps to stabilize the emulsion, as does aeration from steady, rapid beating.
Adding the eggs slowly makes it easier disperse the liquid, and promote even suspension of liquid in fat.

So to recap, liquid and fat do not mix together. The egg has Lecithin that acts like a bond that keeps those 2 together. By flooding the mixture with the substance that will act like a binder (egg), you actually make it harder for all the water in the butter / eggs to bind to the fat in the butter / eggs.
Picture of Emulsion

Take note that in this picture, the oil to make the mayonnaise was added too fast in the failed picture. Take a look at thesproatingseed.com link below for even more information on emulsion!
This answer was made possible by SeriousEats.com, IOANA.BLOG, and TheSproutingSeed.com


Boil water first when cooking what foods? The directions on some packages of raw food (frozen vegetables, dry beans, dry pasta, rice, and the like) indicate that one should first boil water, then add the food, wait for the mixture to boil again, turn the heat down, and cook the stuff for some length of time. The directions on other packages indicate that one should combine the water with the food first, bring it to a boil (or to the boil if you're British), turn the heat down, and cook the stuff for a length of time. (That is, the latter directions don't include boiling the water first: the water is heated with the food in it.)

What determines which types of food are cooked each way? Or is one set of directions right (for all foods) and the other wrong?

There is no single universal answer to this question, as it depends on the specific food and outcome desired, but there are a couple of common themes that influence whether starting from cold water or boiling water is the preferred method:

Larger foods that need to cook through may overcook on the outside before the inside is cooked, if started in boiling water.  For example, potatoes are usually started in cold water so that they cook through to the center.
Some foods contain enzymes that will be deactivated at boiling temperatures, but may act more quickly at lower temperatures.  Starting in boiling water would be for when it is desirable that the reactions be inhibited; starting in cold water facilitates the reactions continuing.
Sometimes it is simply for precision to get a repeatable recipe.  Boiling water is always the same temperature (at least for a given altitude), so beginning cooking at the boil is reliable and repeatable compared to starting with cold water which may have an unknown temperature curve as it comes up to the boil.


Using the Fruit soaked in vodka Does anyone have recommendations on using the fruit that has infused vodka? Can you bake with it or reuse it in any other way?

If it's only been soaked briefly, these options might be for immediate eating even if they'd otherwise keep. They're necessarily fairly general solutions as I don't know what sort of fruit you've got.

Drain well and cover in dark chocolate. This works best for pieces that are 1-2 bites; smaller would be nice to eat but fiddly to make. Very good with cherries, damsons or sloes, but if the stones are still in, bite carefully.
Serve on top of ice cream, or as part of a sundae. If you're feeling fancy, use some of the vodka, thickened, add a sauce. I've done this with the blackcurrants from making creme de cassis, as well as with commercial cherries in spirits.
Drain well and bake into a fruit cake. You probably want to start with a recipe using fresh fruit (as opposed to dried).
Mix with apples in a pie/crumble (or even without the apples if you've got a lot).
Garnish hot chocolate, or even try blending and stirring in (an idea for an experiment, but a shot of fruit spirits is great in hot chocolate).


How do cooks prepare belly pork in a restaurant? In a similar style to the question on preparing risotto in restaurants..

When cooking belly pork, to a texture that's soft, tender and still moist, long cook times at a low temperature (around 150 degrees celsius for 3 to 4 hours) are generally required, yet when ordering it in a restaurant it obviously doesn't take that long to arrive at the table!

My question therefore is, what tricks or techniques do restaurant chefs use to serve belly pork on demand. Can it be cooled and re-heated later, or is there another "trick" that's used?

No trick. It's par-cooked, cooled, and held cold until service. Then when it's on order, you finish the cooking. That is true for most long-cooked dishes.


Stripping seasoning from cast iron After reading this article, I want to try to re-season a skillet with flaxseed oil; I'm fairly certain I did a terrible job when I seasoned the skillet several years ago. Is it possible to do this with steel wool or vinegar? (I don't have a self-cleaning oven, so that method is out.)

Do you need to remove a bunch of burnt-on stuff as well as the season? If the pan is clean but not rust-resistant or non-stick like you want, I'd suggest just treating it like you were doing it for the first time and just season over the old. It's not like you care about hurting the old season--you'll just be thickening it and filling in gaps.

If you need to get it back to day zero, there are definitely questions here with good answers about how to do it.

But the first thing I'd try, since the day zero cleaning methods are fairly drastic, is to make sure it's as clean as you can manage, then just go ahead and season. I have had good luck rehabilitating pans that were poorly seasoned but otherwise OK by doing this.

Based on your response in the comments, I would definitely heat up the pan in the oven as high as it will go, and let it go until it stops smoking (put the cold pan in the cold oven to start). That should burn off/dry any excess oil, which it sounds like you have. Then I'd let it cool enough to handle, then season as if it were new. I don't care for the "tacky" seasoning because it's too easy to get a buildup of unseasoned grease. So I'd cook that down/off and start over. And I always rinse with the hottest water my sink makes, to prevent buildup--no soap, though.


can i use yeast instead of baking powder in a cookie receipe? I currently have no baking powder in the cupboard and I'm just wondering if i can use yeast in a cookie dough recipe instead of baking powder

Your usual cookie recipe can't simply be adapted, but there are plenty of yeast cookie recipes (chocolate chip example). Some of them look rather interesting, but unlike the one I linked have significant rise times.


One whole duck and extra pieces - how long in the oven? I have a duck (a bit more than 3 kilos) and two additional breast pieces (each around 300g). Now I am wondering how long this should stay in the oven. Rule of thumb is usually one hour per kg. So I would put the duck in the oven at 180° for three hours. But what about the additional pieces? Should I add them after two and a half hours? Or does this extend the oven time?

Anyone who tries to match the variability of an oven (over time, no two heat identically, even the same brand, and most are inaccurate) with the irregularity of the food (no two whole ducks have the same mass and shape, and the side breasts don't have bones, which affect heat conductance) is doomed to be disappointed.  Anyone who suggests that you put in the breasts X minutes before the bird is done is leading you down a primrose path.

By all means, use the rule of thumb to give you a rough guess, but don't plan your meal around it. Get yourself a probe thermometer -- two, in this case: one for your whole bird and one for your separate breast.  Pull each piece out when it is done.  Plan your menu around that reality.


How far will my summer truffle and water go? As a gift, I received a summer truffle preserved in water. It is in a glass jar. Net weight of the truffle is 13 g. There's 7 g of water in there too. I plan to serve it for two. I'm going to make a simple olive oil and Parmesan pasta with an egg on top.

How much should I plan to use in the dish? Should I use the water?

I was planning on shaving the truffle thin and then adding it to the warm pasta and olive oil. Is that the best way to handle this?

13 grams to serve pasta for two is generous, but not extremely so. I think you're smart to keep the dish simple, you don't want to complicate things with extraneous flavors to muddle the taste of a star ingredient so special. Despite the very topical and interesting link provided by SAJ14SAJ, I'd be wary of sauteing the truffle in anything truffle flavored, even if it was 100% genuine (which most truffle products are not). If I was using truffle for the first time, I would want to be sure that I was actually tasting the truffle, not an additive designed to taste like truffle. I do like the idea of giving the truffle a light saute though, I'd just use butter or olive oil. If you do saute, you don't want to waste a molecule. Give the pasta a bit of a swirl in the pan used for the truffle to wipe up any of the precious oil left in the pan. Save a bit of the truffle raw to give the final dish a garnish of truffle shaving, if even just to taste it both ways.

As far as the water, it's worth a shot. How about making mushroom risotto the next day using the water (or more likely, brine) in the broth component of the risotto? Not knowing exactly what it's going to taste like, I wouldn't use it for your special dish. If it negatively affects risotto, at least you haven't lost much in the way of expensive ingredients.

EDIT: Oh, I'm jumping to the assumption that your truffle is black and will therefore stand up to sauteing. If it's white, don't cook it, just shave it over the dish.


How to "harden" sugar caramel? Is there anything can be done such that the caramel becomes structurally strong. i.e. less brittle to external pressure without changing its shape?

Edit: I am building a dessert miniature, and need to use caramelized sugar as structural support, like a pillar.

I'll take a shot at answering, but unfortunately I don't think you can just harden your caramel directly. The candy stages are what they are, as I'm sure you're aware. The soft crack stage, between 270-290 F is where your sugar will become solid, but still be a bit pliable. It will bend slightly before it breaks. Depending on the exact shape your making, and how much weight it will be supporting, how long you need it to last, etc, you may consider only cooking your sugar to soft crack, instead of to the hard crack or caramel stage.

Past 290F, you're approaching hard crack. The sugar will be even harder than before, but will become more brittle. You know that toffee is cooked to 300 F. As you get past 300 F and actually caramelize the sugar it will become increasingly brittle.

If you want less fragility, but still want the color and flavor of caramelized sugar, you could caramelize the sugar initially, add water (carefully. Use a big pan and make sure you stand back) then cook again until it's only at soft crack or the earlier stages of hard crack.

I tried looking into different sugar substitutes to see if they have different properties when melted and re crystallized, but unfortunately I couldn't find anything. I've seen isomalt used to make edible hair, but I haven't worked with it personally, so I can't say if that's an avenue worth exploring.

The only other option I can really think of is to change the material. Does it have to be pure caramel? Could you use chocolate or make some kind of nut flour based candy? Or even using toffee instead of pure caramel? I acknowledge those suggestions are basically ways to make an inherently thicker substance, which would not set clear, or allow for fine details or delicate strands of sugar magic.

Lace cookies (basically toffee with nut flour) come to mind as being thin and pretty/delicate, but having enough strength to make a small cookie sandwich with.

Hopefully, this is some help.


Is it possible to make salty avocado Ice Cream without a machine? I'm trying to make salty avocado ice cream for a culinary school project, but don't really know if it's possible.

I've found several no-churn recipes, but most of them use sweetened condensed milk. I'm trying not to use any sweeteners (or as few as possible), as this will be a cold entrée.

Would it be possible to have some sort of mix made of processed avocados, some heavy cream, lemon and a bit of salt/pepper (resembling a simple guacamole) and have this turned into ice cream?

I've thought about using dry ice for it but not sure if it would work. I might also be able to use a KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment.

On the question of dry ice, yes...it makes excellent ice cream using a kitchen aid and the beater in the standard bowl.  It is best if you pulverize the dry ice in a blender first.  You will want to avoid using too much (your base will become carbonated, but you can allow it to off-gas). Add a little at a time until the appropriate texture is achieved. Make sure it is not possible for someone to eat a chunk of dry ice!


Yeast Nutritional Values Like most food products yeasts are labeled with nutritional values for calories, carbs, etc.
When yeast is 'activated' it is said to be 'reproducing' (or making more yeast). So, my question is,

"If I start with a tablespoon of yeast in bread, does the nutritional value change as the yeast grows?"
.and if so

Is there a good scale for knowing by how much?
Are the nutritional values of the other ingredients (sugars) altered by by being consumed by the yeasts?

Well, it's a vanishingly small amount of sugar lost to the CO2. Nevertheless, from first principles, I would say that the answer is definitely yes: the nutritional value of the yeast-plus-bread food complex will change as the yeast consumes the sugar. All metabolic activity comes at the cost of energy, and while the nutritional values of the other ingredients will not, from first principles, be altered merely by being consumed into a yeast cell, once inside the yeast cell, they will be broken down by metabolic activity; and in the case of sugars, the metabolic byproduct of sugar is CO2, the gas which causes bread to rise.

Thus, one rough measure of how much CO2 has been produced would be to measure the volume of dough at the beginning of yeast activation, before and after any punching-down of the dough, and then at the end. Once getting those measurements, you'd take the total increase in volume over the total baking process, assume that that volume is equivalent to the volume of pure CO2 produced inside the bread, and then calculate what number of moles of CO2 would be required to take up such a volume at the relevant temperatures measured. You'd then calculate the number of moles of sugar that needed to be fermented (not fully-metabolized) in order to produce that much CO2, and convert the moles likely first to dry weight and then to calories, and voila! You have your number, specifically (according to the below comments) 3.75g of sugar per liter of CO2.

One caveat about this measure (beyond merely its internal assumptions about CO2 volume) is that it assumes the yeasts are primarily using glucose/fructose as a power source. The reality is that the metabolism of unicellular organisms is complicated, and there may be other compounds other than these in there. However, these minor metabolic side-effects will be even smaller components of the nutritional loss than that of the sugar, negligible in scope.


What is boudin made from, and how is it made? What is boudin made from, and how is it made?

I'll attempt to expand upon daniel's answer above.

Boudin describes a sausage that is generally created from a blend of beef, rice, and/or pork ("What is Boudin", Cajun French Blog 2009). Sometimes other types of proteins are added to create variations: Gator, Shrimp, crawfish, etc.

Boudin is widely known to be used in Cajun cooking. Other various types of Boudin exists. As wikipedia defines various different types of boudin:

  Boudin blanc: A white sausage made of pork without the blood. Pork
  liver and heart meat are typically included. In Cajun versions, the
  sausage is made from a pork rice dressing [...] In
  French/Belgian cuisine, the sausage is sauteed or grilled. The
  Louisiana version is normally simmered or braised, although coating
  with oil and slow grilling for tailgating is becoming a popular option
  in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
  Boudin noir: A dark-hued blood sausage, containing pork, pig blood, and other ingredients. Variants of the boudin noir occur in French, Belgian, Cajun and Catalan
  cuisine [...]
  Shrimp Boudin: Similar to crawfish boudin, it is made by adding the shrimp to rice [...]
  [4] Boudin rouge: In Louisiana cuisine, a sausage
  similar to boudin blanc, but with pork blood added to it. This
  originated from the French boudin noir.
  Brown Rice Boudin: Taste is very similar to traditional pork boudin, except this boudin > is made with a brown-rice substitute for those looking to cut down on white rice intake.


I made Kolaczki dough with cream cheese butter and flour how long can i keep it in the refrigerator? I made kolaczki dough with butter cream cheese and flour how long can i keep it refrigerated

Butter and cream cheese contains some amount of water. And water from cheese and butter + sugars from flour makes it more friendly to mold and bacteria than any of ingredients separately. Also, your kitchen is not sterile. I wouldn't dare to store dough refrigerated for more than a week or two, wrapped well. Of course, your mileage may vary.

If you expect to store it longer than a week, cut it to smaller portion and freeze, in a way that you will allow you to unfreeze only the amount you want. Or, better yet, bake it all and give it to your friends. And when you need more, make more.


Where can I get Chocolate Bar shaped silicone molds from in the UK? I need to find some chocolate bar shaped silicone molds, ideally about 100 grams in each bar,  although I could go for smaller bars but not much.

Could you please let me know where I can get some from in the UK as I could do with ordering them by the weekend, only I have got fudge bars I need to make.

Amazon have a couple:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silikomart-Silicone-Easy-Tablette-Mould/dp/B002VLQNBQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1320833045&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ScrapCooking%C2%AE-Silicone-Bakeware-Chocolate-Tablets/dp/B0058GI0BW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320833045&sr=8-2


How to get good color steak without sous-vide The internet is filled with videos and pictures of people using sous-vide and obtaining rosy, almost red steak "fibers".
For the last couple of months, I've been making bone-in ribeyes by reverse searing from air-fryer oven to carbon steel pan.
The temperature I shoot for was always 55 to max 60, no matter how many times I try, the steak fibers always comes out not as bright colored or "pink" when sliced, instead they are gray-ish with lots of bright reddish colored "juice".
My wild guess is that the reason for not getting the rosy colored fiber in sliced steak is that the temp is not precise. Could it also be the steak itself and the diet of the cow?
Is the only to get good colored steak as seen all over the internet the sous-vide?
My ribeye cuts aren't very marbled, they came from a younger cow.

You can certainly get good steak without sous vide, both in color and taste.
The quality of the meat matters, but is not the only variable. You should get the proper cut, and while the cow diet is not necessary for a red color, if it was slaughtered too young, the meat will be lighter in color. Not grey though, just a less saturated pink-red. And make sure that you have a thick enough cut, something very thin will not get a pink center.
The more important part, especially with your greyish results, is the temperature. If you get grey meat that is not juicy enough, you are overcooking your steak. It could be that your thermometer is inaccurate (hopefully you have a digital one, the analog ones aren't very useful), or simply that you are not accounting for the proper cooking process.
The temperature you see on the temperature chart is the final internal temperature at the core of your meat. You have to account for additional temperature rises both from the sear and from carryover during resting. So, if you think you want a 57 C steak, you should stop cooking it at maybe 54 (depends on thickness), and even earlier if you are doing a sear. The sear itself should be on a really hot pan, so you get a very short duration, maybe 15 seconds per side. It could also be that your preference is for a steak that is rarer than the average medium rare (that would be at 57 C), and/or that your thermometer is consistently undermeasuring the temperature.
Whatever the reason, just continue taking the meat out at lower thermometer readings until you get a result you are happy with, then stick with repeating it that way no matter what the thermometer shows.


gel substance to keep food moist? I've seen this in mostly chain supermarket and Costco.

When they make sushi, they would brush this clear gel like substance on the sushi maki roll either to keep it moist or fresh for long period of time. Anyone know what that stuff is call?

This is likely to be guar or xanthan gum

http://www.uwec.edu/Dining/locations/upload/SushiDO_Ingredients.pdf

(Look at one of the items like a Philadelphia roll).

Not very appetising but does keep in 'kind of' fresh


Easiest way to peel pomelos? What is the easiest way to peel a pomelo and obtain skin-free wedges that are ready to eat?

Ever since I bought them a couple of years ago already peeled in Thailand, I have felt I am missing something.I will normally peel off the outer skin, then remove the wedges and remove their skin.

Does anyone know of a more clever way?

Here's a summary of what I do:

Chop off the top part. About a little less than half an inch.
This will tell you how thick the skin is, and make it easier to peel.
Cut the a slice down the length of the fruit, and then repeat 3 more times, so your skin is then segmented into four quarters.
Peel as much of the skin off as possible.
Take your knife and peel/scrape off as much of the pith as you can. I ususaly take my paring knife, dig between the fruit and pith and then pull it off in large chunks. Once you're down to the translucent skin, you should be able to separate the segments easily. If you want, to just get in there and pull it apart, you can do so skipping this step.
With each individual segment, I put a slice near the centre from end to end, so I can pull the skin back in one large piece.

Here's a video that summarizes it somewhat.


How can I improve the presentation of the food I serve? Cooking great tasting food is an art of it's own, but to create a restaurant quality dish requires the food to be professionally presented.

I have no formal training in cooking and really struggle trying to make my dishes look as stunning as you would see on the food channels or gourmet magazines, so I ask:

What simple techniques or tips exist that a novice chef could use to enhance the presentation of a dish (i.e. make it more visually appealing?)

For example: balancing colours of food, drizzling this or that, stacking items vertically.

Try to get some verticality in your dish. Everything just laid on a plate is boring. Instead stack your meat on top of your potatoes, stand a large asparagus spear upright, put some onion straws on top of your dish. Anything that gets some differing heights to your dish will make it more visually appealing.

Use your colors. Avoid dishes that come out with nasty colors, or do something to correct them. My wife likes to select vegetables that have complimentary colors. It makes the dish look more interesting than if it is mono-tone. You can sprinkle fresh herbs over the top to add some more color and flavor.

Add some flair. You see this all the time with desserts in restaurants but can do it with thick sauces on a main dish too. Put sauce on your dish in a nice pattern and then run a tine of a fork through it at a perpendicular angle to make sharp streaks through it. Dollop a sauce in a spiral pattern in ever smaller amounts so that you get smaller circles around the edge.

Watch Grant Achatz at Alinea preparing a dessert straight on the table. If this won't inspire you, nothing will.  He uses all three things I mentioned to make this interesting. Not to mention that he's doing it straight on to a silpat table cloth. And one of America's greatest chefs makes dessert for you table side, there's more than a little "presentation" in that alone. We ate there for our anniversary, and he signed a copy of his book for us, even his signature uses the circles and lines so common in dessert prep.


12 count versus 24 count cupcake pan I have a commercial oven, 2 to be exact,  each one can hold 10 dozen standard size cupcakes at one time.  My question is this, would I be better off using the regular 12 count muffin pans or going with the 24 count muffin pans?  Do they still bake evenly regardless of which one used?  thank you!

You're probably better off going with the bigger pans. A more influential factor than "how evenly the pan cooks the muffins" will probably be the time you're taking things in and out of the oven. So, if you have to remove ten, rather than just five pans (and/or to rotate them), you may get some unevenness.


How to contain the smell of truffle spice? From our trip to Venice, Italy we brought home some truffle spice. It says "truffle powder" on the small container and mainly consists of salt, flour, truffle and dried mushrooms.

It smells delicious, but very intensive. A very small amount of powder is enough to add a nice and subtle taste to any meal. Too much could easily ruin it.

When I first opened the packaging, the smell immediately struck me. After using it for the first time, I stored it in a ziploc bag. After a day, the whole kitchen smelled like truffle as soon as I opened the spice cabinet. Since a sealable plastic bag did not seem to do the job, I took a small airtight container with the perfect size to fit it in and returned it into my cabinet.

This was some days ago, and in spite of regularly opening all windows during the day, the smell hits you when you enter the apartment. How can this spice possibly smell so intense? It is locked airtight! What else can I do?

I make tiny pouches, sousvide and then store them in a vacuum container. It works well. Takes some time to do but when you make tiny portions the rest will stay very fresh .In case you have some left in the little pouch you can put it in a small bottle with a good olive oil and use as a dressing over fried eggs or mushrooms or veg or potatoes or a deli salad...your choice. Vacuum containers are very handy since you can reuse them every time and everything stays perfect.
I even put them in the freezer myself and the freezer does not smell at all.


What is the difference between roasting, baking, and broasting? For example, when making a turkey for Thanksgiving, I generally place it in the oven (covered in foil or a turkey bag), and cook it for many hours at the recommended heat setting.

I can crock-pot a "roast" cut of meat for many hours, or put it in the oven (again covered) for several hours at a low temperature.

How is that different from "baking", other than when baking the top is generally not covered?

Traditionally roasting used radiant heat to cook meat. This would have taken place over an open flame, typically on a rotating spit. In modern times this method is now called Rotisserie. Modern roasting refers to dry heat cooking that takes place in an oven, the food is cooked by convection. Until the late 19th century this method was referred to as baking.

Baking is essentially the same as roasting in modern times. Baking most often refers specifically to the cooking of "baked goods" (breads, pastries, etc.). However, the terms baking and roasting are often used interchangeably (baked chicken, roast chicken). There doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule here as to which term is used. For example, you roast asparagus, turkey, chicken, but bake lasagna, casseroles, and also chicken.

Braising uses a combination of moist and dry heat to cook the food. This is what occurs in a crock pot, or in dutch oven/stock pot in the oven. Your meat will be cooked in an ample amount of seasoned liquid such as wine and/or stock.

Broasting I had never heard of before. According to Wikipedia it's a trademarked method of pressurized deep frying. I doubt this is what you were referring to.


How do I avoid chunks of butter in non-homogenized milk? I bought a half-gallon of non-homogenized whole milk for something different. I gather that I need to shake it to mix the cream with the milk, but towards the end of the carton (after using it over a week or so), I'm starting to get increasingly large chunks of butter. Is that just the way it is? Am I drinking my non-homogenized milk too slowly?

Yes, this is the way it is. The point of homogenization is to prevent the chunks of "butter" (it's actually kaymak, halfway between cream and butter). If you don't want them, you should drink homogenized milk.

As for "too slowly", yes, you are drinking it very slowly. Normally, you should end a carton within 3-5 days of opening, regardless of the end date on the carton (it assumes that a carton remains sealed). If it's raw or standard pasteurized, you'll know when it spoils, so you can still continue drinking until it curdles. If it's high temp pasteurized, it won't change its taste and appearance when it spoils, it will only turn slightly bitter, but most people don't notice the difference, especially if not drinking it pure.

You could, in principle, add emulsifiers and beat it smooth again. But you will change the taste and texture to a point where it would be to most people's taste to either drink the semiseparated milk or to buy homogenized.


Is it safe to mix vegetable and animal fats? There are so many russian internet-resourses that - without any proof - warn about mixing the above, because it can "drastically increase the fat absorption", but I couldn't find the same claim in english internet.

So now I am confused, if it is safe or not and, more important, why.

Safety, from the perspective of this site, is short term.  Will you get acutely ill if you eat something, within about 2 days?

From this perspective, there is absolutely no safety issue with mixing fats of vegetable and animal origin.  Frying a steak in vegetable oil, or sauteeing vegetables in bacon fat is perfectly safe.


Hazelnut oil as a sub for olive oil I'm looking to make a pea purée but all I have is hazelnut oil. I know olive oil is the standard. Would hazelnut oil give it too much of a nutty taste?

I have found that hazelnut oil (I use roasted hazelnut oil) is a more-than-adequate replacement for olive oil. I use it in cooking, on salads, in baking and in making purées and pâtés. It does lend a nutty flavor, but it is such that it enhances rather than overwhelms the base flavor(s). If by some chance you do find it a bit too nutty, adding a few dashes of extra salt will help correct the taste. For the record, I no longer even buy olive oil anymore. That is how well the hazelnut oil works. The only drawback is that it is substantially more expensive than olive oil.


Making my salads a little better I eat a lot of salads for lunch. It's not hard for them to taste bland because I don't use creamy dressings and try to use healthy greens.

Here is an example of a typical salad I make: Spring mix, tuna (sometimes mixed with a dash of mayo), cucumbers, dressed with a mix of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Sometimes I will add avocado to this.

It works, I feel good after eating this, but i'd like to make this a bit tastier.

To make  salads "better":

Add nuts or roasted pumpkins seeds to add some crunch.
Use bitter greens (arugula, radicchio,, white endives...)
Add some root vegetables (carrots, radish...)
Add some fruits either fresh or dried.
Make different type of dressing (asian, middle-eastern...)
Use different kind of protein(I hate that word) use smoked salmon, chicken, flank steak...
Add noodles (rice noodles, ramen...) or do a simple pasta salad.

Don't know if you already do this, but only put the dressing before eating the salad.
If wanting to use fruits or other "fragile" ingredients, try to pack them separatly and mix them up before eating to keep everything fresh


Everyday drink that won't destroy my teeth/shoot up my sugar I have this weird thing where I find it very hard to drink still water, as in it scares me to do so (yeah I know it doesn't make a lot of sense but bear with me) so I drink anything but. So to down food everyday I drink coke, fizzy water, beer and especially juices. Now, my dentist complains to no end that this is bad for my teeth and she's even threatened not to treat me unless I fix the root cause. Which I understand 100%. However in the meantime I have to drink something, so...

I barely drink coke as it's extremely sugary and acidic which is terrible for the enamel (and can't be good for my overall health either). So I switched to fizzy water (fizzy drinks go down easily, water or otherwise, for some reason) but that's bad for your teeth as well. Fruit "juice" isn't good either. (note quotes, stuff from the shop isn't really juice, it's probably more like sugary water). Tea is hot and anyway it's meant to be had afterwards, so it's out as well.

So, my question is, is there any drink at all besides still water that can be had everyday which won't destroy my teeth and/or get me killed earlier than necessary? Preferably something that can be bought, though I'm not sooo lazy that I won't prepare it myself if I have to.

EDIT: the main reason I'm asking this is that I can't really drink plain water. as in, it kind of comes back up when I try to drink it (but only if it's plain water and only when I am not 1000% thirsty) (yeah it's weird). it's not quite that I'm addicted to sugar and I want to knock it off.

Have you tried flavouring still/low-fizz water? There are so many more options than lemon juce!

Cucumber: A thin slice or two per glass or use a peeler and dump a few long, thin strips in a pitcher. Looks cool, too.
Lime or Lemon: Same as with the cucumber - and less acidic than the juice.
Herbs like a sprig of mint or lemon balm. Let it "steep" a bit, similar than you would do for sun tea or "muddle" (crush gently) them a bit like for a mojito.
Flowers if you can get your hands on non-toxic, organic ones. Elderberry, lavender and rose petals come to mind.
Fruit like berries or apples are not totally acid-free, but if used within reason should be mostly harmless. They are good for the "transition" from juice to water, because you can start with juice-water mixes, then gradually decrease the juice content. If using berries, gently crush them to release some juice.

Or mix-and-match: cucumber-mint or lemon balm-lime, whatever you like.

And of course most herbal teas are really delicious cold and can be prepared in advance - but stay away from the "red" ones like hibiscus, because they can be quite acidic.


How much baking powder or soda can I add to cookies without the taste being affected? I like to do a lot of baking without eggs, and so I realized I should be adding either extra baking powder or baking soda to make up for the leavening that an egg would usually provide...
How much baking soda or baking powder should I add per egg I replace without it leaving a taste in my cookies?
Thank you!

Your question is based on several misconceptions, I'm afraid. The very short answer would be, "don't do it".

First, you cannot add more baking powder without affecting the taste, baking powder is already there at levels that affect the taste in standard recipes. If you add more, it'll be noticeable.

Second, my first point left out baking soda on purpose. Just adding baking soda is unlikely to change the leavening, since you probably won't have enough acid in the recipe.

Third, even if you have enough acid to react with your baking soda, or are adding baking powder, this doesn't mean you'll get more leavening. Recipes which need a lot of leavening and use chemical leavening are already optimized to get the most leavening that the baking soda (or baking powder) can provide. A greater amount won't give you more leavening.

Fourth, I can't imagine a situation where this makes sense. The typical things people mean when they say the word "cookies" without further qualifiers, say American chocolate chip cookies, are not egg-leavened. Other types which are egg-leavened, such as French macarons, are generally not doable without eggs, and adding baking soda won't change that.


Ate steak with the layer of fat kind of undercooked, is it dangerous? I bought a nice steak from a very good butcher yesterday. It was marinated in garlic and oil.

Tonight, I cooked it for about three minutes on each side (probably more).

The layer of fat on the steak, when I cut into it, was still kinda pink. It looked "raw". I ate it (or basically, sucked the juices out because I couldn't eat the fat as it wasn't breaking down [it never does really]), and it tasted great, but I'm a bit worried that it was dangerous.

Like I said, I fried it for at least 3 minutes on each side (the two sides). The rest of the steak was fine -- probably about medium to well-done, just the layer of fat on one end which was attached to the meat was kind of pink and fleshy. I think it's the bit that connects the fat to the rest of meat that was pink, and maybe some of the meat nearby it as well.

Will I get ill?

I saw the other thread on eating undercooked steak but I think my thread is different.

It is not (immediately) hazardous to your health.  I say immediately because I would not recommend eating fat or gristle en masse.

I used to marinate my steak every time I prepared it.  I have gotten away from this habit.  Marinating breaks down the integrity of steak.  This is desired if you are cooking a less tender cut.  I eat steak less frequently now, and for that reason, I choose to get ribeye or strip.  If you decide to go this route, using dry rubs in concert with a good sear, or grilling, will offer you a very tasty meal.  Also, you will be able to gauge what fat and gristle really are - tasteless with a sickly texture.

As far as why eating steak like you mentioned isn't hazardous, given your description, it was cooked at least medium.  There is a large segment of the population which chooses to eat rare steak.  This type is deep red and cold in the center.  While it's not for me, I've never heard a Surgeon General warning that says rare steak should not be eaten.


Pressure cookers -- why are they good at things normally cooked at low heat? Can someone please explain why pressure cookers are recommended for recipes that normally require low heat (about 180F).  Normal recipes for braises, beans, stock, etc suggest cooking them as low and slow as possible, ideally without reaching the boiling temperature of water.  I don't have a pressure cooker yet, but I hear it's great at "low-slow" type dishes.  The part I find confusing is how does it achieve good results at a higher temperature (250F).  If 180F is better than 212, wouldn't 250F make the braises tough and dry and make the beans burst?

I am thinking of getting a pressure cooker for beans.  Do beans simply take less time to cook, or do they actually come out better in a pressure cooker?

Braises are, by their very natures, cooked to well done.  They achieve an internal temperature well above 165 F which will make every meat well done.

Please see:

Why would a pressure cooker shorten a braise time?

for a detailed discussion on how the collagen to gelatin conversion takes place over time, and is made faster in pressure cookers.

The fact that the cuts that are suitable for braising are exactly the ones that allow the slow conversion of collagen to gelatin is what makes the pressure cooker suitable.

The real issue with cooking braises low and slow in the conventional oven is that at sea level, the internal temperature cannot get very high, so you need time for the gelatin to collagen conversion to take place.  There isn't much point in raising the oven temperature higher than required to allow the time for this conversion, and it prevents overcooking or drying out the outside of the food while the conversion takes place.  The meat will still be quite well done; it is only moist and succulent because of the melted fat, and the gelatin lubricating the meat fibers providing that slow cooked unctuousness.

In a pressure cooker, the ceiling temperature is raised, so the time can be shortened.  The inside of the food is still quite well done.  No loss to quality (since the food would be well done anyway), but a much shorter time.

If the food was not suitable to be cooked well done, the pressure cooker would be far from ideal, as it would certainly overcook the inside of the meat.

Note also that you have listed two special cases where foods are cooked at lower temperatures to avoid agitation (from the bubbling and boiling of the water), rather than because of issues directly related to time and temperature:

Stock.  Stock is cooked at a simmer to avoid the turbulence and circulation from the bubbling and boiling leading to more dissolved, emulsified or suspended particles in the final product.  That is, the goal is to keep the stock clear instead of cloudy.  If you are not concerned with this aspect, it can be cooked at a full boil.
Beans are cooked slowly for several reasons, of which the main one is convenience.  Cooking them at a full boil would require more attention (so they don't burn on the bottom), and is not terribly feasible in an oven, which is the easiest way to do them.  Also, by cooking below the boil, there is less agitation in the pot, and so less splitting and sloughing of the bean skins, which some people find less than pleasing.

In the pressure cooker, you will not get this kind of agitation, because once the pressure is achieved and the food is at equilibrium, it is not going to be going at a full boil, but more of a simmer, but a much higher temperature simmer than is possible at sea level pressure.


How should we divide the recipe ingredient? I followed this pasta recipe some days ago. I wasn't aware of the amount of people it was intended to serve, which is 6. I followed it completely but I am serving 3 people.

If I were to reduce the quantity of the ingredients by half, should I treat all the ingredients in the same respect? For example, I might of want to reduce the amount of cheese because the difference between 5 ounce of cheese and 2.5 ounce is quite large. I think it is a matter of personal taste, but should I reduce them equally in order to achieve the best result?

Serves 6

1 pound spiral-shaped pasta
1 pound slender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1- to 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon plus more for garnish
1 5- to 5 1/2-ounce log soft fresh goat cheese (the pre-crumbled stuff will not melt as well)
Fresh lemon juice to taste (optional)

For most recipes, if I'm halving the servings, I'd halve everything. If the amount of cheese is insufficient at the half quantities, you'd probably find it was insufficient to begin with. That all said, looking at the recipe you've posted, if I was making that I'd probably find myself not really measuring anything in there and adjusting everything to taste...

The one exception might be the oil. As you're cooking things, you probably still need a minimum amount to coat the pan... Maybe someone can think of something else that wouldn't warrant being halved, but I can't.


help with consistency of dough being made in bread machine If I am making dough for sweet cinnamon rolls in a bread machine how can I tell if the dough needs a little more liquid or a little more flour  when the paddle is mixing it? Is there a finger test or similar?

In my experience with the kind of bread you're making, you want it fairly wet. But breadmaking is all about experience. You need to get familiar with the dough and see what works, then try altering your recipe and see if it's better or worse. Change just one variable at a time, and if possible, bracket (make your rolls with what the recipe calls for, then make a batch with 1/4 cup more water and a batch with 1/4 cup less water).

I don't know about your particular recipe, but in traditional breadmaking it's possible to make good breads with the same recipe with widely varying hydration. I recently saw FoodGeek make loaves from 100-120% hydration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XCbonAQkWU.

The video is instructive because it also shows the effect the three different hydration levels have on the loaves.

The other thing I'll say is that often you can knead dough successfully with higher amounts of water than you think. You just have to be patient. Once the gluten network gets strong enough the dough is surprisingly workable.

Just remember that all those batches of cinnamon rolls are going to be delicious even if they're not perfect. So share with friends and have fun with it.


To pre-slice or not to pre-slice fajitas? In both skirt and flank steak, and when cooking indoor, is it more ideal to preslice marinate then cook? or marinate cook then slice?

My understanding is that pre-slicing allows you to marinate more, but at the price of meat juice.

Marinating only works on the surface of the meat as salt is the only thing that can get inside the slice of meat. So I suggest marinating the meat sliced and then cooking it. Extra bonus - cooking time is shorter!

I have some extra tips, take if you want. A good idea is to cook it hot and quickly like in a wok, but if you don't have a wok then that's okay (I don't have one myself). That way you sear the outside of the slices and what juice there is in the small piece of meat should stay in. If you do cook at high heat remember to use an oil with a high smoking point, like avocado, ghee, lard, or coconut oil.


How should I layer the ingredients in a taco salad? When making taco salad, I often run into problems:

If the beans or sour cream come in contact with the tortilla chips, the chips will become soggy.
If the cheese comes in contact with hot ingredients, such as meat or beans, the cheese will melt too early and lose flavor.
Ingredients placed the top are often eaten more quickly, so the dish becomes too plain near the end.

What is a good way to layer or assemble the ingredients in a taco salad, which avoids these problems?

While reading your question it sounds like: 'How can I make a salad without the ingredients to touch each other'. So I think what you actually wants is not possible.

So if you want all of your 3 points to work for, I would suggest you don't make a salad, but serve the chips/cheese separated from the rest of your ingredients. Also, then you can mix the ingredients easily such that your dish does not get plain at the end.

Maybe it won't look as nice as you want it to look, but it's about taste in the end isn't it! So just:
-Serve the chips/cheese separated from the rest of the salad
-mix the other ingredients such that your dish does not get plain near the end. (I would say, except for the sour cream, you don't want that to be fully mixed with the other ingredients)
-I also think that serving your chips separately gives you the change to eat them with some  side dishes, like guacamole or a salsa.

If you really want it to be a salad, you can maybe make smaller portions, so give every person it's own plate. Then there is in total more 'edge' on all plates together to put the chips on, there they will become get less soggy. Also a personal plate will be less 'deep' and so you won't have the problem of getting a plain dish at the end. You can put on the cheese afterwards at the table, so it is not already melted before being served.


Substitute Hon Dashi for Bonito I understand that the ingredients are not even nearly the same
If making a bonito dashi, grams-for-grams, how much Hon Dashi granules to substitute for bonito flakes?
This could partly be worked out from dashi packet or powder package recipes, but the powders and packets are not just dried bonito flake extracts
I do understand all answers will be approximations, and approximations are appreciated
thanks!

Hondashi isn't really a substitute for the bonito flakes. It is a concentrate to make dashi...sort of like a bullion cube.  It is made of msg, salt, sugar, yeast, and dried bonito.  In general, one would use about a teaspoon to a cup of water to make dashi.  If you are beginning with prepared dashi, and looking for more umami, I might just add a bit at a time (1/4 tsp) and taste until you are satisfied.  Alternately, you don't need bonito to make dashi.  It can be as simple as kombu and water.  So, this might, in part, depend on your use.


How to safely handle raw milk? I have a couple of questions how to use fresh milk (not pasteurized) coming directly from cow in village (in traditional way, of course).

How long it should be boiled before usage?
Is it better to immediately boil it and store in fridge or store it in fridge and boil before usage?
How long it is can be safely stored in fridge?

Handling raw milk is risky, and please note this information is not professional advice and is not to be taken as an authoritative response.  I will, however, attempt to provide some thoughts on handling raw milk below.

Selling unpasteurized milk is illegal in some countries, and official sources usually discourage the consumption of raw milk instead of offering handling instructions (for good reason).

The FDA has this article on dangers of raw milk.
There are other real dangers such as Brucellosis or Maltese's Fever with which I bouted as an 8-year old.  Think of 107F fever.

Also, keep in mind when you boil the raw milk you are going through a similar process as pasteurization in regards to the theory on breaking down the complex proteins and milk protein allergy.  Probably even more than pasteurization since that occurs at lower temperatures.  Those theories, however, aren't proven (yet) as far as I know, but you do burn some of the sugars in milk if you go above 70C.

The actual answers:

2: It is better to boil first for sure.  Don't store raw milk for lengths of time.
3: Theoretically, if you do everything right and vacuum pack the milk, it might last a couple of weeks, but the longer it stays, the more dangerous it can get.  Freezing might be a better option (we keep our pasteurized milk a couple of months in the freezer).
1: I can't tell you how long to boil it for, though the last time I had fresh milk, it was kept simmering on the burner for about 5 minutes by the folks at the farm.  It was also minutes after it was collected (fresher is better).

one of the safest things you can do if you're going to have raw milk, is to know the source and get it from a farm that takes care of the conditions.  If you know the farm, the farmer, and the cows conditions are safe, you're more likely to be able to enjoy raw milk in peace.