Ways to Make Matcha Powder Less Bitter in Baking? I want to use Matcha powder in some baking recipes (cake, macaroons, cheesecake, etc), and while I think it tastes fine many others have told me that it is too bitter. So I was wondering if anyone knew a good way to kind of keeping the unique matcha flavor but reducing the bitterness to make it more sweet or palatable for others.

For example: I made a matcha cheesecake the other day.

Ingredients:

24 ounces of cream cheese
8 ounces of sour cream
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 tablespoons of matcha powder
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
3 eggs

I combined the cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar until smooth and creamy. Then I added the matcha powder and vanilla extract for flavor; this also thickened the batter. Finally, I mixed in the eggs individually until just combined to make the batter smooth again. The cheesecake turned out excellently and I thought it tasted good, but all my friends and family thought it was too bitter. So I want to keep the matcha flavor while reducing the bitterness for others who are less familiar to the matcha flavor can enjoy.

My thoughts to counter the bitter flavor were to either combine:

mix 1/3 cup heavy cream with 2 tablespoons of matcha powder
mix 4 ounces of melted white chocolate with 2 tablespoons of matcha powder
add 1 tablespoon of honey with 2 tablespoons of matcha powder
Or some combination of the three

If anyone knows if these combinations work or has other suggestions I would be happy to hear them.

So, first things first... matcha is not supposed to be overly bitter. It has a certain bitterness to it, but good, well-prepared matcha is not overpoweringly bitter. (I'm talking about the actual tea itself, not anything made with it)

I'm going to add a few precautions you should take when making anything matcha-flavored:

Make sure what you're buying is good and authentic matcha, even if it is culinary grade.
Good matcha is very bright green and very finely powdered.
Look for shade-grown, stone-ground matcha made of tencha from Japan. It is going to be expensive, but it will keep you from disappointment.

That being said, matcha doesn't like to be heated past 80-90 degrees C and needs to be quite thoroughly aerated for the flavor to spread and blossom. This is why the best-tasting products made of matcha are usually things that are not boiled or baked, like mousse, icecream, or cookies with matcha frosting.

Potential solutions:

Switch to a no-bake cheesecake recipe (so you don't cook your matcha)
Prepare the matcha in milk (or other very fluid, easy to aerate liquid) and incorporate that as an essence / extract in your recipe - the usual proportion for drinking is 1-2g in 80mL of water so you can go from there for adjusting your liquid quantity


Why are bay leaves used whole and then removed rather than crushed up like other spices? Recently when making a 5-bean-stew "kit" my son finely crushed up the bay leaves and added them to the other spices, rather than adding them whole to be removed after cooking.

When I pointed out his error, he asked me why bay leaves were different than the other spices.

NOTE: I have read the answers to this question and they all address the risk of not removing a whole bay leaf but not why you couldn't just grind it up.)

Dried bay is sometimes left in, for example this herb mix from Schwartz includes bay leaves (at less than 3%).

Dried they can easily be crushed and added as a powder, but you don't often want a lot of dried bay as the flavour can be quite overpowering.

I only use fresh bay as I have a plant outside the kitchen door and it's evergreen. Fresh, I have been known to get them fine enough to leave them in, but it's much less effort to just use them whole, perhaps slightly folded or torn (without tearing them into pieces). To leave them in you really need to make a paste or of them, using a blender/food processor (except you generally wouldn't be using enough for them to blend well). Pieces of fresh bay leaf are rather tough and prone to getting stuck in teeth, but fresh bay has a better flavour than dried.

Unlike many herbs, you don't have to put in any extra effort to prepare them for removal - they're tough and obvious, so no tying sprigs or little bags.


How much citric acid to use to preserve vegetarian jelly? I am making a vegetarian jelly using Carrageenan. I am hoping to make a batch to give out as samples to friends etc. (hoping to market it eventually).
Does anyone know what concentration of citric acid to use as a preservative. Also, some commercial products include sodium citrate. Is that always needed?

You will have to use the amount specified in the recipe you are using. It varies with each fruit or vegetable. Further, making up your own recipe is not wise because of possible bacteria that could set in. You will want to check out recipes from sites like http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/faqs.


How to create a nut roast and stuffing that don't taste and feel too similar I'm going to be preparing a vegetarian Christmas dinner this year and will be using a nut roast as the main dish, but I'm worried that it will be too much like a giant piece of stuffing.

The nut roast will contain mushrooms, celery, leek, breadcrumbs, chestnuts and cranberries.

I've checked the recipes for both and they all sound very similar - nuts, fruit and breadcrumbs. Is there any way I can make these two distinctive dishes?

Chris

I think you're going to struggle to make two distinctive dishes whilst essentially using the same ingredients for both of them - therein lies your problem.

Do you have to use cranberries and chestnuts in both? There's many different types of vegetarian stuffings you might use that would compliment your nut roast rather than almost copy it.

How about an Apricot and Hazlenut stuffing to go with your nut roast? C'mon use your imagination, run free and wild! Do a search for Apricot and Hazlenut stuffing there's plenty out there. How about a pureed butter bean and truffle sauce to go with it?

Your cooking is only limited by your own imagination.


If doubling a chocolate mousse, should gelatin be doubled as well? I am making a chocolate mousse that includes gelatin, and I want to double the recipe. Do I need to double both the gelatin and the amount of water it’s dissolved in?

You need to double the gelatin, as it’s responsible for the texture and “stiffness” of your mousse.

You don’t have to double the water, but you can, of course. The water is no essential ingredient, it’s just a means to dissolve the gelatin. But of course the gelatin will dissolve easier, if enough water is present, so I personally would use perhaps 1.5 times instead of double the water amount.

Please note that this answer is only valid for the kind of recipes where gelatin is dissolved in a small amount of water and used to thicken a larger amount of cream / mousse / cream cheese or similar. For recipes that dissolve the gelatin directly in the liquid, e.g. a gelatin dessert or jello, this liquid is an essential ingredient and must also be doubled.


Slow cooked ham hock black eyed peas Getting ready for some New Year’s eve cooking. I want a hearty black eyed peas casserole, which I’ll be throwing into the crockpot tonight with a couple smoked ham hocks (a first try for me). I want the casserole to be fairly meaty, for which I got some smoked ham to throw in dices. I plan to get the meat from the hocks after and mix that in as well.

I intend to cook the dish overnight and keep it warm to serve in the early evening. Would throwing the diced ham into the mix from the beginning ruin that component’s texture, or can it benefit the casserole as a whole? Would I be better off cooking the BEPs with the hocks and adding the diced ham in the morning to sit with the casserole on warm for 10 hours?

Many thanks for the pointers!

Diced ham is a great addition to any dried beans, peas, or lentils, especially for those of us who like a lot of meat in them. I would encourage you to add the diced ham later in the cooking process rather than at the beginning.

You should get plenty of seasoning from the ham hocks. And while the ham can add additional flavor, you run the risk of "washing out" the taste of the ham. (I learned this the hard way may years ago.) Long cooking doesn't hurt the texture of the ham so much, but it does seriously hurt the flavor.

Plus, it is possible to over-season or get too much salt in your dish. You don't want to do that either.

Ideally, the ham only needs to be added for enough time to heat it thoroughly and incorporate it into your dish. Your 10 hour idea may work fine, but I would think 4 to 6 hours would be sufficient. Again, you want to avoid losing flavor in the ham.

As a side note, slow cookers vary widely as temperatures go. Be sure to check the temperature of your dish on warm to ensure that it is not in the danger zone for many hours.


Cake with an impenetrable crust? I recently baked the golden vanilla cake from King Arthur FLour's website. It baked nicely, and looked really nice. However, when I was at my cake decorating class, I had to level and torte that cake, and for the life of me, I could not get my cake leveler to go through the cake! It just bounced off and would not go through the cake, no matter how hard I pressed, or sawed. I eventually resorted to using a serrated knife, but even that was incredibly difficult to cut through.

Is there something I did when making the cake? I know I used a 9 inch pan instead of the 8 inch it asked for, but that was the only change I made. Or is this just an impenetrable cake?

I blame the recipe, which calls for absurdly long mixing times, well past the point of overmixing.

After you add the wet ingredients, the recipe has you mix for:

30 seconds at low speed for the milk
30 seconds at medium speed for the milk
An unspecified amount of time at low speed to incorporate the first egg
2 minutes at medium speed for all the eggs (30 seconds after each)

That is simply way too much mixing for a cake.  Personally, I don't even like the concept of using an electric mixer at all, except to cream the butter.  But that's over 3 minutes of mixing and it is simply too high.  You'll end up with extremely tough, chewy cake, practically bread.

If you look at the top-rated from-scratch cake recipes on various recipe sites (e.g. Epicurious) you'll see that they all either call for incorporating the wet ingredients either by folding with a rubber spatula (best) or with an electric beater at low speed.

Beware of "manufacturer" recipes - I don't think I've ever had a positive experience with one.  You would think that they are authoritative sources, but in practice you'll achieve much better results with a search engine and careful reading of the reviews.


When is an avocado considered bad? I'm generally an avocado purist, so I throw out any brown spots, but I notice that many restaurants serve avocado even with the brown stuff...

When is an avocado considered bad, and when should the chef be notified that there's something wrong?

If it's fully green or even yellow the chances are it's still rock hard.

Personally a little brown on an avocado is a sign of ripeness,

I'd regard an avocado that's gone black as completely past it.

https://nuxx.net/gallery/v/moblog/IMG_20100831_090647.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1


Can I make a buttercream using cacao butter? My nephew have lactose allergy and I want to bake his birthday cake , were we live we don't have a lactose intolerance products but I found a cacao butter can I used to make buttercream frosting??

Cocoa butter isn't like regular butter as it is very hard at room temperature. It's what makes chocolate so hard when cooled, so it's not ideal for a creamy frosting. There are many other alternatives that would work better, for instance vegan butters which are designed to mimic butter's properties. Some vegetable shortenings can work as well, although they don't have much flavor.


Does the preparation of chicken liver mousse require force feeding of chickens? The force feeding of ducks or geese required to prepare foie gras (French "fatty liver") is widely known and banned in some states. I was at a restaurant last night which offered "Chicken Liver Mousse." It was creamy, delicious, and quite reminiscent of foie gras. In fact, many chefs are turning to this as a foie gras alternative.
The only discussion I've found on this is from this Reddit post. Other sites' preparation instructions do not discuss initial chicken treatment to get such a liver texture.
I'm curious if chickens are force fed to marbleize their livers in much the same way that ducks are. Have we just transitioned from one bird to another?

There's no need to force-feed the chickens.
Chicken Liver Mousse is just a posh word for a smooth paté, with sometimes a bit of extra aeration.
For every chicken, there's a chicken liver. The world eats a lot of chicken these days, so there's a lot of chicken liver to spare. All you need to add is butter for the extra fat content & resulting mouth-feel.
At its simplest, it's chicken liver, lightly sautéed in butter &/or oil, added onion or garlic, herbs & spices, alcohol, cream etc to taste, then whizzed in a blender until perfectly smooth. It's often not really a mousse, as it's not really fully aerated, but extra aeration makes it tend further towards an actual mousse, which the cooling butter will attempt to hold in place. You could go further perhaps using gelatine etc to hold the mousse as it cools.


Does vanilla powder really prevent melted chocolate from seizing? Don't want to mention the company, but they have a product that is pure powdered vanilla (contains maltodextrin, whatever that is).  They say it prevents melted chocolate from seizing.  Does that sound right?

Thanks

I just reviewed the Nielsen Massey website and under their FAQ's they suggest that vanilla powder be used for "liquid sensitive products".  The powdered nature of the vanilla would allow you to add it to melted chocolate without causing the melted chocolate to seize up.  While vanilla has a unique and characteristic flavor of its own, it also helps to heighten and intensify other flavors, chocolate being one of them.

When chocolate seizes the emulsion of cocoa butter and cocoa powder has been interrupted  by the introduction of a small amount of moisture. You either need to keep all liquids out of melted chocolate or add in a significant amount.

So...it only prevents it from seizing if you were going to be adding vanilla in extract form but no other liquids.  It would not be something you add as a preventative measure.

Prevent the seizing through proper procedures in the first place:

Do not allow water in the water bath to touch bottom of the bowl that you're melting chocolate in.
The steam produced by the water is what's doing the melting so as long as wafts of steam are rising from the surface it's hot enough.  The water doesn't even need to be simmering - cocoa butter starts to melt around 83-85 degrees F.
Make sure all utensils are dry so water droplets aren't introduced
Make sure the bowl you're using is large enough for the edges to flare out beyond the edge of the pot.  If the edges just meet the edge of the pot then steam will condense on the edge and get into the chocolate causing it to seize.


Spritz cookies not sticking to pan when pressed from cookie press We're having a good deal of trouble getting our spritz cookies from our cookie press to separate from the cookie press and stick to the cookie sheet. Is there something we can add to the cookie batter to make them separate from the cookie press and attach to the pan more easily?

As I understand your question, the problem is really that you can't get it out of the cookie press, and not an issue of the dough "flattening" once it hits the baking sheet.  If that's correct, then there are a few different factors that could be contributing:

You might not be using a strong enough flour.  I've always used a 1:1 mix of bread flour and pastry flour.  All-purpose flour isn't great for spritz cookies and many home baking recipes do odd things to try to strengthen the dough to compensate, such as increasing the quantity of egg.  Not much more I can say without knowing the specific recipe, but try to find a recipe that doesn't use AP flour.
You might not be using enough flour, or you might have added too much water or milk.  The dough should feel relatively firm once it's well-blended, not soggy or watery.  The preparation I use also contains a good quantity of icing sugar, which has its own starch; if you're using regular granulated sugar instead then that will be a contributing factor to sogginess/stickiness.  Also don't forget to sift the flour.
Home baking recipes often make wild guesses as to the quantity of eggs, based on assumptions about the size and age of eggs you'll have.  The ratio I use is 20:13:8:6:3 (flour:fat:sugar:eggs:milk/water), by weight obviously.  If you use too much egg then you'll end up with a slimy texture that's hard to separate while raw.
You may have added the eggs all at once, which makes it difficult to incorporate without overmixing the dough (or not incorporating well enough, which again will give you that slimy texture).  Make sure you're only adding one at a time.
If your recipe calls for oil as a fat, or you're substituting oil for something else, that could be a problem.  Typically you'll want to use a mixture of about half shortening and half butter.  You don't necessarily have to use shortening, but butter has a low melting point and melting will, again, cause your dough to become too wet.
Did you cream the fat(s) together with the sugar?  That's another important step to getting the right consistency of dough.  You should have a mixture that's light and fluffy before you add the flour, eggs, or milk.
Make sure you're adding the flour last, otherwise you risk overmixing.

As far as sticking to the baking pan itself is concerned, just line it with parchment paper and don't grease it.  If you've made the dough properly then it will "set" and not sink.

FWIW, I also find it easier to pipe spritz cookies than to use a cookie press.


When dissolving natural organic yeast in water, is it supposed to bubble? When I made a dough, I dissolved natural organic yeast in water, but it didn’t make bubbles. Is this a sign that something is wrong?

Based on your comments, it sounds like you're adding the dry yeast powder to water. The yeast typically won't bubble or do much of anything else at this phase.

Yeast are microscopic organisms that produce gas by consuming sugars and excreting carbon dioxide. This requires that they have sugar to eat, which plain water of course doesn't. The main purpose of water is to rehydrate the yeast and revive them from their dried state.

Once you mix the yeast into a dough (which does contain sugars in flour that the yeast can consume) they'll start producing gas, but this isn't a fast process. You may not even see visible bubbles, just the end result as your dough rises over the course of hours.

So there's not yet any indication of problems with your yeast. If you have issues once they're mixed into the dough, there are many skilled bakers here who can provide diagnosis.


Can you freeze chopped zucchini? I know that I can easily freeze shredded zucchini for long-term storage if I stored it in a vacuum sealed freezer bag. However there is a recipe that I really want to make over the winter that requires chopped zucchini. So I am wondering if I can use the same method for freezing zucchini when its chopped like I do when it is shredded. So all I have to do is :

chop it
fill freezer bag
extract air and seal it

Would this method work? Am I able to freeze chopped zucchini and have it taste the same when I thaw it? Is there a better method? Is there an ideal size for the chopped zucchini?

It is generally recommended to "blanch" vegetables before freezing them. Blanching is heating the vegetables (by boiling or steaming) for a specific number of minutes. You typically follow blanching immediately with an ice-water bath, to stop the cooking process.

From The National Center for Home Food Preservation:

  Blanching slows or stops the action of
  enzymes which cause loss of flavor,
  color and texture. Blanching cleanses
  the surface of dirt and organisms,
  brightens the color and helps retard
  loss of vitamins. Blanching also wilts
  or softens vegetables and makes them
  easier to pack.

For vegetable-specific instructions on blanching, see this list.


How can I make my black beans less dry? The dish is simple. I usually just boil beans, add sautéed onions and garlic, season with cumin, then eat with steamed rice. I love the flavor as it is.

I have a problem with the texture. If I leave the water in the beans, the dish becomes, well, watery (I don't want soup). If I drain the water, I'm left with a rather dry rice and bean dish.

Rather than draining the water, I'd like to add something that would change its texture.

I've tried thickening the dish with flour and cornstarch, but I end up with a pastey texture. I'd like a more syrupy/creamy texture (think baked beans from a can).

Suggestions?

What I would suggest is rather than adding a syrup, to take some of your cooked beans, cook them a bit more, then liquify them in a blender. This should give you a thick sauce that tastes like the beans, therefore compliments them perfectly. You can then thicken them very slightly if the consistency is still too runny, be sparing with the flour though.

In fact, you could probably make something satisfactory by simply using less thickener. If you have a pasty, sticky sauce it's a classic symptom of too much thickener. Try making a roux with some butter and flour, cook it awhile for a dark roux which gives deeper color and more flavor. You can then add the roux in small amounts to your cooking liquid until you get the right consistency.

If you are pressed for time and have some available a couple big spoons of refried beans may just do the trick too.


Substitute for sesame oil? An Asian recipe I'm trying calls for sesame oil. However, the only bottle I found is $6, and since I'm only using a tablespoon of it, and am on a tight budget, I don't want to spend that much just to not use most of it. Is there a good substitute for the sesame oil?

The recipe I'm making is a "cheater" Korean beef dish if that helps at all.

Update: I tried it with extra virgin olive oil instead and it turned out fantastic! I'm not sure how much different it would have been with the sesame oil, but it was pretty great without it. The recipe can be found here.

Since your recipe only calls for a tablespoon, I am inferring this is toasted sesame oil, which is used for its strong and lovely flavor.

There really are no good substitutes for this purpose.

I would recommend investing in the bottle, which kept in the refrigerator should last a long time, and will bring flavor to many dishes.

If you choose not to do that, I would simply omit the sesame oil, although your dish will lack certain depth and complexity the oil brings.


Adding too much flour to bread dough in Kitchenaid Stand Mixer? I own a Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer and everytime I try to use the dough hooks to make bread, I always end up using WAYY more flour than the recipe calls for.

For example, I was trying to make bread using this recipe that calls for:

1 cup water
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp yeast
1/2 tbsp salt
2 1/8 cups all purpose flour

After mixing all the ingredients together using the paddle attachment and everything is clumping together, I switch to the dough hook. After a bit of kneading, I probably add close to 1/2 more cup of flour because I see a bunch of dough sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Even when I lift my attachment up, I can see the dough drooping down. I just keep adding more flour until it doesn't stick to the bottom, at which point I feel like I added close to a cup extra of All purpose flour (Robin hood flour). I'm worried that this will make my dough too dense and I don't know what to do. I knead it on speed 3 for about 10 mins and then for another 15 until I can see the dough hold its shape. Am I doing something wrong?

I agree with rumtscho that your dough is probably way too wet, but I'd like to make a few other points as well:

You don't necessarily need to add extra flour just because your dough is sticking to the bottom of your bowl. And definitely don't add any flour until your dough is fairly smooth (unless you already have a feel for the recipe). The flour will absorb a lot of water as you work the dough, so dough that seems way too wet after one minute of kneading may be fine after six.

Also, I've found that with the hook design in the Kitchenaid, dough frequently sticks to the bottom even with proper hydration. Just use a scraper to turn your dough out of your bowl and give it a fold to make sure that there isn't an underworked spot on the bottom.


Emulsifying ingredients for vinaigrettes My weekday vinaigrette recipe goes something like:

1 part olive oil
1.5-2 parts seasoned rice vinegar
dollop of Dijon mustard
put into sealed container, shake, pour

This emulsifies nicely thanks to the mustard, allowing for quick and easy preparation (instead of a laborious whisking of oil a drop at a time).

I'd like to try other flavors for salad dressing.  In particular, I'd like to make some sesame oil + soy sauce + rice vinegar dressings, and the Dijon mustard would be out of place.

My question is:  Are there other common ingredients that have this emulsifying property?

According to Serious Eats, mayonnaise is even better! Honey or egg yolk work too. Whatever you do, use some kind of emulsifying agent. The same article shows the havoc a non-emulsified dressing will play on a perfectly innocent salad.


How long to store slow-cooked chicken in liquid in fridge? I cooked some chicken in the slow cooker and stored the leftovers in the fridge. I put it all into a sealed tupperware container, but I put the chicken in with the liquid.

It just occurred to me that storing the chicken in liquid might have been a bad idea. It's been about 4 days now, is it still ok to eat? Does the liquid or the slow cooker change how long it could be stored for?

Thanks!

Assuming it has been treated appropriately in all other ways (not being left out at in the "danger zone" of 40-140 F / 4-60 C for more than about two hours commulative over the entire life time, raw and cooked)) cooked chicken should last 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

See for example, the example of fried chicken per South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control.  It is the only example of cooked chicken in the list, but should be well representative.  Similarly, Still Tasty advises 3-4 days on chicken broth, which would represent the juice or gravy—they indicate the same for chicken Parmesan.

You may be noticing a trend here: all chicken based dishes have about the same storage lifetime.

The fact that it is stored with the juice or gravy, or that you cooked it in a slow cooker is not really important.


Does searing cause more or less oil to be absorbed than frying? Let's assume that I have two identical pans, with equal amounts of oil in each, and two practically identical slices of tofu (or whatever else, but I'm referring to items that would be more spongiform like tempeh, seitan, etc). Further, I would like a crisply browned, non-oily filet to come off the pan.

In this experiment, the independent variable is that one is heated to medium  (a generally specified temperature for frying tofu), and one is nice and heated up for searing;

If I apply the tofu to both pans and let each one stay on the heat for as long as it takes to brown equally, will one absorb more oil than the other?

For further detail;

Does the moisture level impact oil-aversion?
If so, will a wetter block cause less oil absorption?
Would a dusting of flour or quick rub of salt benefit one or the other method?

Higher temperatures, as a rule, mean less absorption of oil because the force of the steam trying to escape from the food pushes against the oil.  Here is a link to a scholarly article discussing the mechanics of fat absorption in the production of french fries (complete with a table of results and diagrams).  Interestingly, the author says that potatoes deep fried at more than ten degrees Celsius below the recommended temperature of 180-185C leads to 40% higher fat uptake.  I expect pan-frying leads to a much lower total uptake of fat, but I am sure the principle is the same.

(For a fun explanation of the mechanics, here's Alton Brown in part II of the "Man Food" episode of Good Eats.  Enjoy.)

Now, your question was aimed at tofu (or some spongy equivalent), and you asked about the effects of flour vs no flour.  I could not find any articles with data on those exact elements of your question, but I suspect the answers will all derive from the same underlying principles.  In other words, as a rule, cooking at low or medium heat means that the spongy and/or dredged product will tend to absorb more fat than at high heat.

So, then, why do the recipes you have seen typically call for cooking tofu on "medium" heat?  My guess is that the recipe authors found that high heat makes the outside brown too much by the time the inside is "done" to the authors' preferences -- and perhaps a little extra oil in the tofu makes it taste better.  I am not sure, however, because most of the recipes I've seen call for searing a crust onto the tofu using medium-high heat.


Best pan to use for cooking in olive oil? I have just bought a Tefal Pan with nonstick Teflon coating. The instruction manual says that using olive oil to cook will gradually ruin the nonstick coating.

What are the best options for buying a pan where one could cook and fry in olive oil without worrying about the toxins entering your food.

Thanks

First of all, a Teflon pan will get gradually ruined anyway. Even when you don't use oil, the heat and the food itself will wear out the coating, it is just very sensitive this way. Using oil will speed up the process.

Second, both existing technologies for nonstick pans, PTFE (Teflon) and ceramic, will get ruined by oil. If you want to cook with olive oil and the pan to last forever, you will have to switch to pans without nonstick coating. Practically any other pan will work here (except tinned copper, where the coating also gets worn, independently of oil this time). But you will have to build up much better cooking skills to prevent your food from sticking to the pan. You will also have to increase your oil use. Seasoned iron or carbon steel pans offer a certain amount of nonstickiness (certain combinations of food/temperature still stick), but they also require a bit of maintenance and knowledge.

For many people, the tradeoff is not worth it, and they stay with teflon, replacing the pan every now and then. If it is worth it for you, there is no single answer to suggest, different pan types are optimal for different applications.


Does adding salt help water boil faster? I've always heard adding salt to water makes it boil faster.  Is this true?  If so, why?  If not, why do people do it?

No. The amount of salt you would have to add to water to make an appreciable difference is enormous.

Salt is added to water for various reasons: to season whatever is being cooked in it; to maintain colour; to maintain structural integrity.


Are pumpkin sprouts edible? While pumpkin flowers are common in some gastronomical cultures, are edible the sprouts of pumpkin? I've cooked the sprouts (the first two leafs) of melon, which are close relatives, and it's delicious.

Looks like it might be. According to The Self Nutrition Data (© Condé Nast):

This food is very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Calcium, and a very good source of Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

And there are proposed ways to cook them.


best way to keep fresh basil leaves? My basil often spoils after 2- 3 days of purchasing them from the supermarket. I have tried wrapping them in a wet paper towels in order to keep them hydrated, but it doesnt seem to have any effect.

How do you preserve your fresh basil leaves for longer than a few days?

Best? Potted plant.

Not just always absolutely fresh, it's also self-replenishing!
There may exist tricks like moist towels, keeping them in cold (refrigerated), or preserving them in ways that keep most flavor (in oil), and combinations thereof, but they all are a trade-off between freshness time and quality and all make the leaves degrade in order of at best weeks. Considering that as potted plant basil remains fresh nearly indefinitely, they are all far inferior.

The information about proper care of the plant is abundant on the Internet; here's one comprehensive guide, but in fact the plant is quite durable and grows lush; just give it some sun and water and don't pick it bare and it will keep growing for a long time.


Apple Pie in a Jar Drink I was recently out of town for a business trip and heard some people talking about some type of drink that they had at a party called Apple Pie in a Jar.  I was curious if anyone else has heard of this and would know how to make it?  It sounds interesting especially since I like Apple Pie.

Sounds like you're talking about this recipe.

Looks like some apple juice, cider, cinnamon,sugar, and some grain alcohol.


How to avoid elephant skin on no-knead bread? When I make my no-knead bread, the bottom of the bread always becomes extremely thick - almost like the skin of an african elephant.

I bake the bread in an IKEA 365+ pot made of stainless steel. The bottom of the pot is quite thin.

Do you experience something similar when baking and do you have any suggestions on how to avoid breaking the teeth on my guests?

My recipe:

600 g flour (I have tried all variants)
5-6 dl water
A small hand of salt
A pea of yeast

Dissolve the yeast in some water. Add flour. Add the rest of the water. Add salt. Mix the ingredients well. Wait for 12 hours. Pre-heat the oven and the pot to 275°C. Take out the pot, open it and add the mixture. Put it in the oven. Wait for 30 minutes. Take of the top of the pot. Wait for 15 minutes.

Take out the pot and take out the bread. Eat it now if you like hot bread, or wait 20-30 minutes if you want the bread to become less moist.

I have been baking no-knead bread in a heavy porcelain 2-qt.soufflé dish with a glass lid with great success and consistent crust on all sides. My recipe is based on Jim Lahey's magical recipe  at http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread but I use only 1 1/2 cups water, 1 cup white whole wheat flour, 2 cups of bread flour,1 1/4 tsp. non-iodized table salt, and 1/4 tsp. instant yeast.  SAF red label yeast provides consistent results.  Once, I forgot to turn and shape it before baking so now I usually fold the dough a few turns in the bowl once earlier in the day and allow it to continue fermenting until baking time. (If I do turn it out to shape it as described by Lahey, I prefer rice flour to wheat bran to prevent sticking.)

I preheat the oven, pot, and lid at 550°F for half an hour and then pour the bubbly, risen dough into the pot. The nearly-liquid dough has visible gluten 'legs' as it is poured and sizzles as it hits the pot.

I reduce the oven temperature to 475°F and bake the dough for 30-35 minutes covered and another 15 or so minutes uncovered or until the internal temperature is 210°F. It can be baked directly on the rack for the last 5-10 minutes for a drier crust. I allow it to cool to 80-85 degrees before slicing to be certain that the final phase of bread baking, gelatinization, is completed and this very hydrated bread's interior isn't gummy when cut.

Heavy porcelain, ironstone, glass, cast iron all work well - slow cooker inserts or all manner of heavy vessels as described on baking blogs can be used. This dough is so wet that the bread takes the shape of the vessel in which it is baked.

The thermal mass of the vessel is important for storing and radiating heat energy to the bread dough. A vessel that is thick and dense such as cast iron, dense ceramic, or glass will more closely replicate the heated mass of the brick ovens traditionally used for artisan breads than will a thin vessel with less mass.


Minimum amount of fat in Roux Most (all) recipes I know talk about 50/50 butter/flour for roux. However, at home I'm using something like a 40/60 butter/flour mix. It's thicker, but it works.

Does anybody know what the absolute minimum butter content is for roux, so it will thicken with a low fat content. As far as I understand, the fat is there to align the starch molecules.

Cheers

The purpose of using a roux, as opposed to just plain flour, is to improve the dispersal of starch molecules in the sauce.  If you just toss a bunch of flour into a simmering sauce - or do the reverse, pour hot liquid onto dry flour - then you'll immediately start getting gross glutinous lumps and will find it nearly impossible to smooth them out.

Starch is not actually soluble in fat; instead the fat coats the starch molecules, making it difficult for them to clump together when incorporated into a sauce.  Making a roux out of the flour (and making sure to give the sauce a really good whisking after incorporation) basically helps to ensure an even distribution of starch so that your sauce ends up smooth, not lumpy.

So to answer your question, the minimum amount of butter (or other fat) you need is however much it takes to fully incorporate the flour.  If you've still got dry clumps, you haven't used enough fat.  More fat is okay, but if you don't use enough then you'll suffer some of the same lumpiness as if you didn't use a roux at all.

I'm not sure if there's a magic number - it's going to depend on the specific flour you're using and the specific fat.  Even if you narrow it down to, say, all-purpose flour and butter, it can depend on the brand of flour, the fat content of the butter, and whether or not the butter has been clarified (which, if you have the time and patience, it should be).

The 1:1 ratio (by volume or mass) gives you a pretty decent safety margin; you won't need more than that, but it's also not so much that it'll make your sauce greasy.  But you really don't need to measure it out at all; I don't, I just add fat while stirring until the flour is fully incorporated.  Sometimes I might be more generous with the butter simply for flavour purposes.

Bottom line, it's really pretty obvious when you haven't got enough fat.  If it looks good, it is good, and after a few sessions without the measuring spoons, you should very quickly get a feel for how much fat you really need.


Too much leavener in self-rasing flour? I made scones with this recipe today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/scones_1285

And I followed it very thoroughly (weighing all the ingredients in grams, etc). They came out looking great with a nice rise, but they had a 'base'y flavor to them that surprised me, almost as if too much leavener had been used. But since the recipe calls for self-raising flour, I didn't add any at all.

So either:

I'm very sensitive to basey  flavors (which is possible, I'm pregnant and sensitive to all things right now)
The scones are supposed to taste like this (the commercial scones I've had before haven't)
There was something wrong with my flour.

I don't generally use self raising flour for baking, so I'm not sure about its leavener content. Do self rasisng flours usually contain enough to taste it in the baking?

Self-raising flour shouldn't leave any off flavors, and the recipe looks fine. I suspect the flour, maybe you got a bag that got too much leavening agent in it. Manufacturing processes aren't perfect, sometimes the agents are not distributed. I would suggest trying again with a new bag of flour.


Giant Cream Puff shells The German restaurant where I worked was famous for their 'giant' cream puffs.  The shells are at least 6" in diameter and 4" high.  I know they used commercial convection ovens to bake them, but that is all I know.  Is it the fan that gives them the size?
I tried to bake them in a conventional oven and failed.  Small ones, no real size.
I have seen them in grocery store bakeries in that area so somebody knows how to make these.
Can anyone tell me how to make these huge choux pastry shells?

You haven't really explained what you did, so it's a bit hard to give useful advice on how to overcome a failure, but my patê à choux pastries have always come out sized proportional to the amount of pastry I use.

Since choux doesn't tend to spread much, make sure your base is close to the diameter you're after; I just pipe inside out, creating a connected spiral, until I reach the desired diameter. I continue piping inward through the middle of the original grooves. My preference is to make tiny ones, but if I needed to make larger ones I'd just continue spiraling in and out as needed until I get to the point where I only have a "tip" left. With a typical Ateco extra-large tip you'll probably get about an inch of puff for each layer, so you probably just need about 3 layers, because you can probably compensate with an overstuffed filling. With more layers than that you may lose structural support.

Some "giant" cream puffs I've seen online just used a large ice cream scoop, but I think that'll probably only get you to about 3-4" diameter at the most. If you don't like the piping approach, you might cluster three scoops near each other and wet-pat them so that they touch.

From then on, it's just a matter of adjusting time and temperature. Larger ones likely need a longer baking time. Additionally, larger ones may benefit from a larger proportion of egg white to encourage a bit crisper outer layer.


(How) can I prevent pasta water from boiling over with the lid closed? I always cook pasta with the lid of the pot open, because otherwise foam starts to build up and eventually boils over, maikng a huge mess. I would prefer to keep the lid on for energy saving purposes. Is this possible at all? What makes the foam build up, why does it not when the lid is open?

You can use a larger pot. I always use my 12 qt stock pot to boil pasta in. I fill it anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 full and have no problems with boil over. I too always use it with the lid on. Granted, you're going to use more energy to heat a larger quantity of water, but meh. I'd bet that your refrigerator and A/C use gobs more energy than your range.

As to why it happens? I'm speculating here, but maybe it's the back pressure on the foam bubbles when the lid is on. With the lid off the bubbles can expand rapidly, and break. With the lid on, there is slight back pressure which could restrict the bubbles ability to expand as quickly.


Is there a difference between Kansas City strip and New York strip? Wikipedia gives the impression that Kansas City strip refers to the same cut as New York strip. Are they really the same cuts? If so, which name is more "authentic"? And if not, what's the difference between them?

The Kansas City Strip and the New York Strip refer to the same cut of meat.  Apparently restaurants in New York City in the 1930's decided they couldn't sell a fancy steak named after Kansas City (where the stockyards and slaughterhouses were located).  So, they just started calling it a New York Strip.

If you want a steak renamed by a egotistical chef, order the New York Strip.  If you want a steak named for the cut of beef originally selected by butchers working next to the stockyards, order the Kansas City Strip.


Differences between coffee made with french press or espresso machine? I've liked coffee for years and I'm thinking on buying a espresso machine. Before that, I want to know why the coffee seems more tasty when it is done that way than with a french press or a drip coffee maker and what are the pros and cons of a espresso machine. Thanks!

To answer the second part of your question ('the pros and cons of an espressomachine'):

Pros:
 - Taste. If done right, you will capture much more of the coffeebean in your cup.
 - Milk foaming. Most espresso machines have the possibility to froth milk for cappuccinos or lattes. Look up 'latte art' on Google Images for some inspiration :-)
 - Process. The making of coffee becomes an enjoyable ritual with shiny machines, hot water and steam.
 - hobby: there is an enormous amount of ustensils, tools, cups, coffees, online forums etc. to discover for enhancing your espresso.

Cons:
 - Taste! as much more taste ends up in your espresso cup, you will also taste the defects much better (bad or stale coffee, badly grind, wrong water temperature etc.) will give you a sour or bitter cup.
 - Technique. It takes practice to prepare a good espresso (except if you opt for a machine that takes coffee pads - but your choice of coffees will be limited and often not fresh).
 - Cost. Espresso machines (good ones) are costly. And it doesn't stop there. To make really tasty espresso you might want to grind the beans yourself, so you'll need a grinder that can grind fine enough for espresso. After that you might start to suffer from upgraditis...
 - Room on the kitchencounter. An espresso machine can take up quite some space.

Hope this helps!


Pink curing salt turned yellow - safe to use? I have a bag of pink curing salt (Prague powder / instacure) #1 that has been in a cupboard since November 2019. It has been stored in its original packaging: a zip-lock style bag, which I have opened and resealed several times. The seal has been reinforced with a clip. The powder has now turned yellow, and I can't figure out why or whether it is still safe to use. Curiously, a plastic container containing a mix of the curing salt with sugar and 'regular' salt has kept its color, while being stored next to the bag of discolored salt.
I know the pink color comes from food coloring which could oxidise or be affected by light, but why would this only have happened to one of the two containers?
The discolored salt:

The mix of curing salt with sugar and regular salt:

That's our brand "Home Curing UK" or "Surfy's".
The colouring used at that time was a natural colouring. Unfortunately the colour deteriorates over time due to the action of light and the nitrites, however the loss of colour does NOT in any way affect the efficacy of the product, 100% guaranteed.


How do I stop the pressure cooker from clogging up when cooking lentils? When I cook yellow lentils at home, the valve of the pressure cooker seems to clog up. How do I prevent this?  By clog up, I mean that the pressure cooker sits quietly on the burner and then all of a sudden there is a gush of steam coming from the valve. My pan is ten years old.  I soak the lentils for a few hours, rinse, and add some oil and salt to the cooking water.  The lentils and the water only take up the bottom quarter.

You may need to add more oil, say a generous tablespoon. Also, I don't think you should need to soak those lentils first, the pressure cooker should be more than able to take them apart without any advance soak. Also be sure to use plenty of water. At least 8 cups for 1 pound of beans.


Can I substitute almond meal for breadcrumbs in meatballs? I am gluten-free and want to make some turkey meatballs. I was thinking about putting almond meal in the mixture. Would that be okay instead of breadcrumbs? If not what would be a good substitute?  I don't really want to buy breadcrumbs or bread for one thing of meatballs. This is not something I make very often.

Go right ahead and use the almond meal.

In its list of uses for almond meal, this source says:

  Use almond meal in place of breadcrumbs in meatballs.

In fact one of the recipes on the site is for Meatballs Parmesan. It calls for ground meat without specifying a type, so I assume your turkey would be fine.

In addition, the description of this
almond meal product states the following:

  Use almond meal in place of bread crumbs in meatballs, or as a coating for chicken and fish.


My dough won't rise the second time I am trying to make dill rolls and I am following the recipe but cut it in half. Instead of margarine I used butter and vegetable oil. Those were the only changes I made. I also used the kitchen aide dough mixer and mixed it for about 3-5 minutes. I let it rise and it doubled in size, but for the second rise my dough went flat. It never rises again. It also would not brown and did not taste good at all. What am I doing wrong? I'm at normal altitude. I have included the link for the website.

http://monasterykitchen.org/savory-dill-rolls/

I can't say what you did wrong or if it was the yeast at fault as suggested as we can only go by your results. I'm not so sure the yeast would be faulty though since you said it doubled in the first rising.

They look like they 'sort of' rose but more sideways since they're melded against one another. Or did you put them touching each other to begin with? The baked buns in the link have a wide spaces between them so if you spaced them that way, the did rise but not properly.

If you left spaces between them and they spread out when rising but didn't hold their shape, how soft was your dough? Softer dough with higher hydration don't rise high and keep their shape as well as lower hydration doughs.

If that doesn't fit your dough, is it possible that the temperature used in your first rising was too warm? A couple of times when I was trying to hurry the process (even though I know better), I've subjected the dough to too much heat. It rose quickly and doubled in bulk but most of the yeast was killed. The second rising didn't go well with most of the yeast dead. Is it possible you did something similar?

Sorry to ask questions instead of giving a concrete answer but all we can do, from our end, is guess and hope something fits. Looking carefully at your photo, there are air pockets like bread should have but with a mix of small and big spaces like dough with high hydration has. The surface of the buns are uneven too. When you shaped the buns for the second rising, we're they rounded and smooth like the unbaked buns in the link?

Hopefully if you provide more information, others may see other possible reasons.


How do I remove oil from soup? Sometimes I want to avoid oil and oil-related food. How do I remove oil from soup?

The easiest way, is to cool (fridge) it down and remove the hardened fat that should have floated to the top.

You could try doing while the soup is hot by using a shallow spoon and spoon the liquid fat from the top, or use absorbant paper to absorb the fat.

In both cases, it will never remove all of the fat, especially if the soup contains meat or is not a clear soup (like a consommé)


What kind of oil and vinegar are used on italian subs? I'm a huge fan of sub sandwiches of all varieties, especially the type usually advertised as "italian". One thing I've come to love is oil and vinegar - whenever it's offered as a condiment in a sandwich shop, I always ask for it.

I'm working on duplicating my favorite sandwiches in my own kitchen, but I'm getting stuck on this - what kinds of oil and vinegar do sandwich shops use? Would it just be olive oil and balsamic, or something else? Are there specific types or varieties that will give me better results?

I understand that this varies by shop (one of my favorite places touts a top-secret proprietary blend of oils), so I'm looking for what types of oil or vinegar are most commonly used by sandwich shops.

It depends. At Subway sandwich shops (the fast food chain), "oil and vinegar" means a blended vegetable oil and an inexpensive red wine vinegar. That is all. Some Subway shops may have one oil bottle and one vinegar bottle and put some of both on when you ask for oil and vinegar. A better Subway will have a third bottle that is a mix of oil and vinegar that can be shaken before applying to make it temporarily suspended, which also ensures a consistent proportion of oil and vinegar.

I find that at Subway, the oil and vinegar topping really works best if you also have the "Italian seasoning/herbs" and "salt and pepper" added as well. The latter is just salt and pepper. The former is actually Italian herbs including oregano, thyme, I think rosemary, and maybe some basil. The oregano and thyme are definitely prominent.

Other delis and sandwich shops are probably doing something similar to Subway. They may be mixing different proportions, using better or cheaper oils and vinegars, and/or they may mix the herbs and salt and pepper in with the oil and vinegar to make a complete dressing.

If I were doing this at home, I would make my own blend inspired by my favorite sandwich shop. I would use:

100% extra virgin olive oil instead of an oil blend, but if you find the oil to be too strongly flavored you can switch this for a canola oil or soybean or blended oil. Nut oils like peanut might give a strange flavor.
A nice red wine vinegar and not balsamic, because balsamic could be too strong and wasted on a sub that already has strong meat and cheese flavors. I'd go with about 2/3 oil to 1/3 vinegar and adjust to taste. You could try a white wine vinegar, malt vinegar, or cider vinegar but the latter two will taste much less "Italian".
Salt and finely ground pepper to taste.
Herbs, strong on the oregano and thyme, I might put in dried basil also. Rosemary would have to be finely ground or omitted because it can be "spiney" if not cooked in.

I would put it in a bottle I can shake vigorously right before I apply it, and I would want to apply it to a pile of shredded lettuce and other vegetable so it doesn't just run out, and I Would want the bun to soak it up a bit.

Instead of shaking vigorously, you could add a little bit of mustard flour or prepared mustard or an emulsifier and whisking it or shaking it to emulsify it before applying. Again, this helps ensure it applies evenly and the proportions stay constant.


How Does a Grocery Store "Self-Rising Crust" Work As far as I understand, frozen pizzas sold at the grocery store are par-baked and then frozen, to be fully baked when they are put into your oven at home.

I noticed that some of these pizzas describe themselves as having a "rising crust."  Those crusts get quite tall, an inch or an inch and a half (probably about 3-5 cm).  My homemade thin crust pizza is maybe half that height.

Yet these crusts have much more in common with a thin crust pizza than a Chicago style, or the not-too-tasty bread-y imitation of Chicago-style that passes in most Chicago-style recipes and at some chain restaurants.

How do these pizzas work?  I have trouble seeing how they could rise after par-baking, so are they not par-baked?  How could I duplicate this crust from scratch?

I believe they use a combination of hydrogenated oils, yeast and standard leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda.

My experience is that without hydro, the super rising crusts are just tougher to make. I have settled for a medium riser but an awesome taste. I like to use yeast in my pizza crusts. Generally, chemical reactions go faster at higher temps, so yes temperature does matter...

However, since the reaction starts immediately, I would say it is more dependent on the amount and how long you let it work. The trick is the optimize the timing so that you bake the shape you want (i.e., fluffy and big) into the crust just as it gets to that point from the leavening (the most risen and fluffy). If you wait too long it will depress...

I read a bit about this here as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder


What is the 'best' flour to use for brownies? Cake, Bread or AP? My goal is a 'chewy', 'moist' brownie. I have always used AP in the past, but am wondering if an alternative flour might improve the final result.

Short and sweet... Use cake / pastry flour. At 5-7 % protein vs. 11% for AP vs. 13% + for bread flour, that means a lot less gluten formation. This protein, when mixed with water and subjected to mechanical working is what produces gluten. The higher the protein percentage, the 'tougher' (due to the gluten) the final product. Always use cake or pastry flour when making any type of cake, even brownies. And a little extra egg won't hurt, either.


Help on understanding frosting A couple of disclaimers:

I know there are a number of websites already devoted to this; I needed to ask for clarification because the info out there does not help me understand how they taste
Apologies if this seems like a list question (which may violate a rule of this exchange).  I will try to focus a scope of the question

What are the differences between popular frostings, for cakes and cupcakes?

The reason I ask is because my wife and I have particular favorites, and they aren't the same, AND (most importantly) I can never identify either type by looking at the description or frosting itself.

The kind of frosting that my wife likes is very sweet, very grainy, and very pasty.  The kind(s) that I like are less sweet, definitely not grainy and have some cream to them.

For the kind I like, it would seem that cream cheese frosting suits my needs.  I should say also that my favorite cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  We got a piece and shared it last night.  Neither of us liked it.  It seemed to have none of the characteristics that either of us liked.  While I do like cream cheese frosting, the chocolate frosting I mentioned usually isn't a cheese frosting, but instead almost like a pudding.  But that's not what it was last night.

Could I ask for some help in identifying these frostings going forward?  Thanks.

Based on your description, I am 99.999...% certain that your wife likes the good ol' American-style Wilton buttercream. It's literally butter and powdered sugar whipped together, with a little milk, salt, and flavoring to taste. Thick, heavy, sticky, grainy and pasty are all good descriptors.

For what you like-- the most likely possibility, since this sounds like a storebought cake(?), is that you're just getting an American buttercream with corn syrup and vegetable shortening used instead of some or all of the butter, basically a cool whip without that signature cool whip taste.

There are a lot of more interesting options though. Italian and Swiss meringues are both less sweet than American buttercream and are not grainy at all, but since they only contain egg whites, butter, and sugar, might lack a noticeable cream taste. Or noticeable taste of any kind. French buttercream is similar, but replaces some or all of the egg whites with yolks. It has a richer taste, but... well, eggs don't taste like cream. The European buttercreams are higher in fat proportionately, and I'd describe them all as a little slick and quick to melt, but they seem to coat your mouth a bit. But in a recognizable, buttery way, which is very different from storebought frostings.

Since your frosting has a pudding-like consistency, and a creamy taste, then my guess, or rather recommendation, is an ermine frosting, or perhaps a German buttercream. Both of these start with a sort of pudding which is then beaten with butter to make a frosting, lending them a dense but fluffy texture. Both of them offer custom sweetness-- especially ermine buttercream. You can make that with no sugar at all if you want to. Ermine buttercream starts with a cooked starch and milk pudding base, and German buttercream begins with a pastry cream base -- cooked starch, milk, and egg yolks; Sugar to taste for both, but in the case of the German buttercream, the less sugar you use, the more likely you'll end up with scrambled egg bits.

Overall they have the capacity to be the least sweet of all frostings, and because of the higher liquid and starch content, they're actually a little lower in fat proportionately. While less sweet to taste, they're still just as high in carbs due to the starch. They have a very thick, sticky, but smooth texture, without necessarily being "rich" as these things go.

The fact that you're using a chocolate frosting as a frame of reference does make it more complicated. As mentioned in a comment, you could be looking at a ganache, or a glaze made with cocoa powder or syrup. When you say pudding, I think of instant jello pudding. If that's what you meant, then again, I think you're looking for ermine or German buttercream.

However, be aware that vegetable shortening-based frostings are much, much more common, as they are cheaper, less labor-intensive, and easier to make. If you aren't familiar with the more traditional options, I could imagine describing them as "pudding-like."


To refreeze or to refrigerate? Due to my busy schedule, I've started preparing all my meals on Sunday and cooking one a day for the rest of the week. It's generally defrosted chicken or meat.

Is it better for me to refreeze the meals (without cooking and with new liquid introduced) or to keep it in the refrigerator?

TLDR; If you defrosted the chicken in the fridge, go ahead and refreeze it.  If you thawed it on the counter, cook it, then freeze it.

I was always taught: DO NOT REFREEZE uncooked meat!

But, I did a search and found this somewhat contradictory statement from a reliable source:

"Refreezing
Once food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze it without cooking, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through thawing. After cooking raw foods which were previously frozen, it is safe to freeze the cooked foods. If previously cooked foods are thawed in the refrigerator, you may refreeze the unused portion. Freeze leftovers within 3-4 days. Do not refreeze any foods left outside the refrigerator longer than 2 hours; 1 hour in temperatures above 90 °F.

If you purchase previously frozen meat, poultry or fish at a retail store, you can refreeze if it has been handled properly."

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Focus_On_Freezing/index.asp

There's also this: How long will uncooked chicken keep in the fridge?

Which says 1-2 days for raw chicken in the fridge.


Making Kombucha - problems and questions This is my first attempt at making kombucha. For the 2nd  fermentation I had one bottle and one jar.  When it tasted ok I put the bottle in the fridge and am drinking it now and it's pretty good (although maybe a touch vinegar-y). The jar I left in a cupboard at room temp because there was this film on the top after several days, I didn't know what it was, it was creeping me out a bit, so I avoided the whole thing. Now, about 10 days later, I just need to deal with it.

In the photo, the top scoby (and the one at 4 o'clock position) is what was in the jar at room temp with a long 2nd fermentation and never put in fridge until just now. They are both totally soft, flabby and fragile, not at all firm like the pictures of scobies that I see. That brownish stuff in the middle that reminds me of chicken livers was on it and I sort of pushed it off. The kombucha in that jar is, I'm afraid, too strong although once cold in a few hours I'll see how it really tastes.

The bottom scoby is the one I grew and used for the first fermentation. It has been sitting at room temp in a jar soaking in some of the 1st ferment.

I'm relatively new to even drinking kombucha let alone making it. I liked what I bought so I thought why not make it. But I have to admit I'm a bit squeamish about these scobies that just aren't what I expected, plus the food safety aspect is making me hesitant.

So here are my questions:
- Do those thin, fragile scobies look healthy and why do they look and feel the way they do?
- If I want to make another batch, do I use all three?
- Neither jars developed any carbonation. Any ideas why?
- Any other advice or comments are welcome!!
- Are there any recommended threads on making kombucha that might help me?

All of your scobies look safe and healthy. They will start out thin and slimy. If you want to grow a more substantial scoby, leave your ferment for longer than usual until it is strong enough to not crumple completely and can continue to grow in future batches.

For your food safety concerns, you want to avoid anything green, blue, or fuzzy. One method of reassurance of safety would be to keep track of the acidity of your kombucha.

The preferable pH for Kombucha is 3.5-2.5. You can get hold of some pH strips to test this. Any pH below 4/3.5 is considered safe, amd will prevent any harmful micro organisms from growing, due to the acidity. When you first mix a new batch it will likely be above this mark, but should drop below 4 within a couple of days.


Recommend decent, sturdy steamer basket? I've gone through a couple of cheap metal collapsible steamer baskets in the last year and am looking for something that will last longer.  Do you have one that you like?  I've seen the silicon ones but have read that it may alter the taste of the vegetables. What is your experience?

I've commented this but I may as well make it an answer.

Asian bamboo steamers are cheap, especially at Asian supermarkets. They're also durable, easy to clean, and usually come in layers so you can steam multiple dishes at once (for example fish and vegetables).


Extra built up mold on brie cheese I had a brie cheese in the fridge and got extra mold built up on the area where it was cut. Note that I had other food getting moldy in the fridge, but those were dark mold. The brie got a white mold, similar the one of the rind.
Is it safe to cut and eat? I'm coming out of a stomach gripe, so would not like to take a risk.
Thank you!

....Honestly I'm guessing it is the penicillium candidum (the normal white brie mold), but you can't know from looking at the picture. Common sensically speaking, if the brie was properly wrapped up, then the other molds in your fridge are unlikely to have gotten a foothold on your brie, BUT it is possible for the other completely unknown molds in your fridge to have taken up residence without having formed visible colonies. So from that perspective, better safe than sorry.

Personally, as someone with a healthy immune system, if it were a fairly pricey brie, I'd cut off and toss the exposed edges of the brie, wrap it in puff pastry or pie crust, and bake it. But if it were fairly cheap, I'd probably toss it, and I hate wasting food and money.


Salads that are made of tomatoes, onion, chilli, coriander, salt and lemon Recently I've been making salads that are made of tomatoes, onion, chilli, coriander, salt and lemon. Then, I eat them with bread. I have no idea where this recipe is coming from. Do you have any suggestion on making recipes with these ingredients?

How can I improve this recipe, or make variations?

So, you're making a pico de gallo salad?

Throw some fresh garlic and fresh lime juice in there.  It's delicious and will prevent salmonella poisoning, which is surprisingly common with uncooked salsas.


Can you call the stuffing you put in Turkey "filling"? They seem a bit similar to me, but a lot of people argue that the answer is "stuffing" and that you can't call it "filling".

I am from Eastern Pennsylvania, where we call it "Filling".
Good luck convincing the rest of the world, though. I catch crap for it all the time.

Filling, Stuffing, Dressing....It's all the same, regional dialects aside.


How to clean an electric kettle? I have an electric kettle that I clean by scrubbing the insides with plain water. I was wondering if there was a better way to clean it. I remember hearing somewhere that you can clean a coffemaker by running a solution containing vinegar through it and was wondering if there might be a similar solution to clean the kettle?

You can use a solution of vinegar and water to descale your kettle (unless, as hobodave mentioned, the manufacturer advises against using vinegar). Fill your kettle with water until it's half full; add about 1/2 cup of vinegar to the water, and then allow it to boil for about 10 minutes. Allow the water to cool and unplug your kettle. Gently scrub away the scale with a non-metallic pad (don't scrub the heating element if it's exposed; wipe that with a sponge). Rinse your kettle several times after removing the scale, and then boil one or two fillings of water in it to ensure that you remove all traces of the vinegar.


What is the benefit of a pasta pot with an inset? All my life I’ve cooked pasta in regular pots. The most fancy thing I had in regards to pasta cooking was a pot with little holes in the lid and a locking mechanism, so that you could use that to drain the pasta:

Said pot now broke, and as I am looking for a new pasta pot, I see a lot of large pots with some strainer-ish inset:

What is the benefit of such a strainer inset pot over a regular pot?
These strainer pots seem more expensive, taking up more space, and I'd have to clean more.
I can see that the strainer may be useful for other things like steaming vegetables.

Anything else, especially when it comes to cooking pasta?

I find these gadgets inconvenient, so, I would say no real advantage.  I cook pasta in a large stock pot, and remove with a spider to the pan with the condiments. I can even cook several batches in a row this way. I don't really find inserts helpful, and don't need the extra "stuff" in my cabinets. Your point about extra expense, space, and clean up is accurate. I will also add that the insert takes up significant volume in the pot, so you actually lose usable space.  They are just not necessary.  Spend your money on a good, solid, multi-purpose stock pot.


Should I be able to make a tarte tatin in a glass dish? I saw a question about meatloaf in a pyrex dish, and one of the answers said that glass gets hotter than the metal when in the oven, which got me wondering.  I made a tarte tatin but didn't have a metal dish, so I used a glass dish and it came out terribly, mainly because the sugar didn't seem to have gone caramely enough.

I put it down to the glass (I'd made it in a cast iron griddle pan before and the caramel was much better, but had different issues), but maybe that was premature...

Technically you should be able to make almost anything you'd be able to make in a metal dish, in a glass dish, but if the preparation calls for one then you can't simply substitute the other willy-nilly.  It will likely require a good deal of fine-tuning.

Glass is an insulator.  It absorbs heat.  That's why solar panels are glass and why having a window in your home is not like having a gaping hole in your wall.  As a consequence of this, (a) it will take a longer time for the dish itself to come up to oven temperature, (b) it will cook much more consistently and evenly, even if you have an oven that turns the element on and off to maintain temperature, and (c) it will continue cooking the food after you remove it from the oven, unless you remove the food from the baking dish immediately.

What this means is that you generally have to extend the cooking time by at least 5-10 minutes (more if you are baking at high temperatures) when substituting glass bakeware for metal, to let the dish "pre-heat."  Except if you're going to let the food cool inside the baking pan, in which case you might actually need to decrease the overall time to prevent burning afterward.  It's hard to be precise because it depends on what you're cooking, how long you're cooking it and at what temperature.

To be honest, I probably would not use a glass dish for any recipe requiring caramelizing because caramelizing relies entirely on finely-controlled conduction; ovens are less sensitive than a stove top but nevertheless, a few minutes too long and it's burnt, a few minutes too short and it's still solid.  Better to choose a material that's highly conductive for that, i.e. metal.  Glass is best when you need slower, more even cooking, like casseroles.


Short term storage for fresh soup I make and sell freshly made, plant based soups. (no dairy, oil or meat in them) I sell them in quart jars.  I'm wondering if I hot water can them, will they last longer in the fridge, for my customers?

I was also told to just boil for a quick 10 minutes to prolong the freshness so they would be good for 7-10 days.

Right now I'm telling people to eat them within a few days, or to freeze them in a freezer safe container.

There is no such thing as "last a little bit longer". You either kill off all bacteria, which makes the soup shelf stable, or you don't, and then you have a 3-5 days of refrigerated lifetime.

All kinds of canning are only safe when you use recipes which have been tested for safety. I assume your soup recipe has not been tested. What is worse, it is very unlikely that it could ever pass the test, since foods with the right acidity to be hot water canned are rarely eaten as soups - they will taste more like a pickle.

Your only option seems to be pressure canning. Luckily for you, the USDA has a "make your own soup" pressure canning recipe. You are restricted in the ratio of vegetables and meat to water, but you are allowed to use any vegetable which is approved for canning on its own, and meat is also OK. Herbs and spices are allowed. You can find the actual recipe on the Internet.


Is it possible to get American-style cream cheese in the UK? As far as I can tell, the "cream cheese" in UK supermarkets isn't much at all like the foil-wrapped cream cheese blocks I remember from my youth in the U.S. (not even the ones sold under the Philadelphia label). The UK cream cheese is more of a spread, definitely seems much more processed, different texture, and different — though similar — taste.

I have several reasons for wanting it: Baking a cheesecake, a couple of other recipes² that use it, and I frankly just prefer it.

Other than from absurdly-expensive¹ American import boutique shops, is it possible to get U.S.-style cream cheese in the UK? Some other term for it or...?

¹ (along the lines of £24 for 1.3 kg)

² ("recipe" may be a bit over-the-top for one of them: taking the block, dumping salsa over it, and eating it with tortilla chips)

The best way to 'get cream cheese' is to make cream cheese, fortunately it isn't difficult. Here is a great video detailing how you can make cream cheese yourself with whole milk (full-fat) milk and lemon juice. This will be very much like the Philadelphia brand cheese you are looking for.


How can I address watery eggs in a microwaved breakfast sandwich? My blessed wife fixes me batches of breakfast sandwiches consisting of a sandwich thin, some ham and egg whites and freezes them. It's a great breakfast, except for the fact that as it defrosts in the microwave, the egg whites release a huge amount of water and soak the sandwich thin.

It seems to me that the problem has to get solved pre-freeze, but if someone sees another approach, that would be great. Somehow commercial folks get around this with packaged breakfast sandwiches...if anyone has any idea, any help would be appreciated.

I see two possible problems with what you've described --

If you don't freeze the egg quickly enough, you're more likely to have larger ice crystals form, resulting in a puddle of water no matter how you defrost it.  You should be able to test for this case by just putting the frozen egg in a covered bowl and let it come to room temperature.  If this gives you a lot of water, you can freeze the eggs on a sheet pan lined with waxed paper or parchment, then assemble the sandwiches to freeze.
Overheating eggs will cause the proteins to tighten resulting in puddles of moisture.  (this is mainly a problem with scrambled eggs or egg casseroles).  The solution to this is to heat it as little as possible.

As for the bread soaking through -- you can also look for alternatives.  Bagels and crusty rolls hold up much better to moisture, but bagels in particular can end up really chewy after microwaving.  A thicker roll would also have more crumb to absorb moisture.

You can also try spreading something on the bread to prevent the moisture from soaking it (although, it can make for messier eating if the sandwich is dripping).  For egg sandwiches, I like hot pepper jellies.


Ginger starting to sprout - can I still use it? I have two beautiful ginger roots (rhizomes) which I had planned to turn into gari (pickled ginger). But I also have two children and the ever-changing schedule that goes with this. So the ginger sat in a bowl for a while, waiting.

While Wikipedia states that the rhizome

  ...it is immediately scalded, or washed and scraped, to kill it and prevent sprouting.

mine obviously weren't and appear to have gotten spring fever and started to sprout:

Now, I could put them in a planter, let them grow and harvest in fall when they start to wither, but before I sneakingly sell them to hubby as the latest addition of our ever-growing collection of plants I'm wondering:

Can I use sprouting ginger? Just like regular/dormant ginger? Or is there something to keep in mind?

My main focus is on the culinary aspect:    While sprouted ginger isn't toxic, I'm wondering whether it requires special or different preparation, how to handle the sprouts, and do sprouting ("growing") and mature ("dormant") ginger taste differently in dishes.

(Should I decide to plant my ginger, I will ask the guys over at Gardening SE for advice, if required...)

From a culinary perspective, I find that when sprouted, the ginger just loses a bit of flavour, that's all. If you let it grow for a very long time and it becomes all shriveled, then you are talking about a flavourless piece of ginger. I've even used such shriveled and even moldy (cut the mold off, though) pieces... no flavour at all!


Advantages of metal vs glass stockpot lids I just ordered a new 6 qt stockpot (that I use for soups and stews) and it came with a metal lid.  All the stockpots I owned before had glass lids with a small vent hole to release some steam.

An obvious advantage of glass lids is that you can see the food being cooked and monitor the level of boiling.  Are there any advantages of metal lids?  E.g. do they keep more heat inside if you keep it on vs letting heat out?

They don't break if you drop it on the floor. That about covers the advantages of a metal lid here.

The "heat kept in" is largely a matter of the steam condensing on the lid, and is pretty much exactly the same for metal or glass lids, or a sheet of tinfoil over the pot. If they are on, it is, if they are off, it's not.


Why don't my cookies flatten? I have baked Betty Crocker's Giant Honey and Oat Cookies three or four times now, and every time, my cookies do not spread out, I just get thick cookies. Is there something I am doing wrong? As far as I can tell, I am following the recipe exactly. Does it have something to do with my oven? With my technique?

From looking at that recipe, those cookies look like they are designed to not spread out.  Why do I say that?  There is a lot of structure in the beginning - the egg whites and butter are beaten together with the sugar and honey for a strong structure made by a hybrid of the creaming method (beating butter with sugar) and the foaming method (beating eggs with sugar) used in cake baking.  There are no egg yolks, and the fat content isn't that high.  Fat helps cookies spread.  So I'd say your cookies are quite possibly doing what they are intended to do.

What you want to do is learn how the various components of your cookie affect its texture - the amount of fat (butter and eggs), the amount of sugar, the method you use to create it, and the temperature all affect your cookies.  You can learn a lot about cookie texture through the questions and answers on this site.

This answer links to a Good Eats episode that talks about three different kinds of chocolate chip cookies, including a soft and thick one.
The question that sparked the above answer has two answers referencing a Cooks Illustrated recipe, their Thick and Chewy cookie.  To get a thick and chewy cookie they melt the butter, add an extra egg yolk, and up the sugar.  A softer, cakier cookie is made by using the creaming method (creaming about 70 degree F butter and sugar).
This answer points you to Michael Ruhlmann's book Ratio, which in the ratio for cookies discusses the varying effects of sugar and fat on your cookies
This question talks about what makes cookies hold their shape versus spread.  One answer suggests the book Bakewise for a comprehensive discussion of gluten content, fat, etc. and how they work in making baked goods.
This answer about how to make cookies without creaming them describes cookies made with melted butter as "pancake cookies" that spread everywhere

As a note, remember that there is also a difference between the temperature your butter is when you make the cookies (especially if you are trying the creaming method versus using melted butter) and the temperature it is at when you cook them.


How to make gingerbread more moist and fluffy? I have a gingerbread recipe (http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/gingerbread-loaf) I recently made with gluten free flour and honey instead of white sugar.  While it was somewhat moist I wanted to make it a bit more moist and fluffy. How can I make the recipe more moist and fluffy?

Also, I did some research and noticed that most other recipe's for gingerbread online have butter in them, the recipe I am using does not contain butter.  Will butter help to lighten and moisten the recipe?

The biggest issue's your facing is the lack of Gluten which helps trap the air created by the baking powder (Fluffy) and the lack of fat (Moisture). I also sure the sugar would be adding a little extra strength. However the Picture on the original recipe looks dense and dry anyway.

I'm assuming you're not using butter purposely, for much the same reason you're using honey instead of sugar.

Taking these two as a basis and working on the recipe you have provided. I think the following may work for you:

3 cups Gluten Free flour
1 cups Honey (Warmed to around 50°C)
1 Packet Instant Yeast <--Previously Baking Powder
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 teaspoon ground ginger <--- Not one
2 eggs <-- Stays at 2 instead of halving.
1 cups milk (Warmed to around 50°C)
1/2 cup maple syrup (Warmed to around 50°C)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil <-- Increases to 3 instead of 2.

Modified version of: Tasteofhome.com Gingerbread Loaf

Mix the warm Milk, Syrup, Milk, Oil and Yeast and leave to ferment for a while (15-25min)
Mix the dry ingredients, sieving to trap some extra air.
Beat the eggs until fluffy and pale (This would be easier with a couple of teaspoons of sugar if your willing to add a tiny amount?)
Mix beaten egg to yeast mix, then add to dry mix, mixing well preferably with a dough hook if you have one. It's going to be hard to do by hand as it'll be sticky as hell.
Add to baking dish(es) and leave to prove for an hour. Then beat it back down and leave a further 40min.
Bake as described in the original recipe. May need a little longer.

We're aiming for more of a brioche type dough rather than a soft batter or firm bread dough here so more flour may be needed.
The above recipe should work well. The only issue may be trapping the air, if this is the case adding 2tsp of Xanthan gum to the dry ingredients will make it work much better.
The texture will be much lighter (Fluffy), the additional Oil and Egg should increase the moisture side of things.

Hope this works well for you :), I see no reason it shouldn't.


What's the white liquidy substance that can appear when cooking salmon? When I cooked salmon filets on the grill last night, after the filets had been on the grill for a while, I noticed that the salmon secreted through the surface of the filet a white liquidy substance that looked sort of like mayonaise or ranch dressing.  What is it and why does it come out during cooking?

That white stuff is albumen, the same protein that makes the white of chicken eggs.  The albumen is part of the salmon's blood, which means that your fillet was fresh.  A trick for dealing with it was developed by Bruno Goussault while collaborating with chef Michel Richard from Citronelle in DC: soak the salmon pieces in an ice cold brine. The article in the New York Times that told the story recommends soaking the salmon fillets for ten minutes in a 10% brine (by weight).  To make the brine, dissolve three tablespoons of Kosher salt for every cup of ice cold water and make as many cups as you need.


Stewing meat with vinegar or adding it after Wild turkey legs are rather tough, and some hunters even throw them away, but I decided to give it a shot in a slow cooker set at the lowest setting for 8 hours, with vegetables. I definitely like vinegar or citrus in my stews but as a condiment before eating. I was wondering whether adding it before or while stewing might be a good idea, such as helping tenderize a questionable piece of meat as is the case here.

At the same time, it's a rare cut of meat so I would rather not experiment too much: Is long stewing tough-ish meats with vinegar a good idea or should I add it after stewing or before eating?

Probably the turkey legs are frozen right now.  Why don't you experiment on some turkey legs from the store?

Probably acid would be good to help break down tough cuts.  I have not heard of stewing in vinegar but definitely stewing in wine.  I stew in V8 juice pretty often.  If vinegar is what you dig, try stewing some regular turkey legs, with an onion, cinnamon stick + star anise and some navy beans to soak up flavor.  I would pick apple cider vinegar for turkey if you had to use vinegar.  If I were doing it I would use apple cider +/- cheap white wine and save vinegar for a condiment.  Or I have heard of these things "recipes" you might find.

If you like what you make with the farm turkey, then you can try it with your wild turkey. If you screw up farm turkey it will still be edible and you can tweak it for round 2, and round 3, until you get it right.


Leaving out Frozen Tilapia i took some frozen fish out the freezer Tuesday night and sat it in a sink of water, how ever my parents decided to get pizza and i thought the put it up, but it sat in the sink over night and the next day (Wednesday) it sat in the fridge till the next day. i feel bad for wasting over is so i am wondering is it still good to bake or grill or to just dump out, ive already cleaned it and 10 mins ago? i need help on this.

Please see this thread for general storage questions (edit: and this thread for questions related to leaving food at room temperature).

Since the fish had been sitting in an open, unrefrigerated sink for what sounds like several hours, I would generally regard it as unsafe by this point.  Putting it back into the refrigerator would not sufficiently inhibit the growth of any bacteria that made their way into the fish during that time.  But there is no way to know with absolute certainty.

I'll take a cue from rumtscho's answer to another safety-related question and note that we can't tell you here about what you should do.  Kitchen professionals generally err on the side of caution, but you must make your own decisions about the risk involved, and whether that outweighs any qualms you have about waste.


What are different ways to roast Bell Peppers? I was wondering if anyone had any tips for roasting bell peppers so that they get a nice blacked skin.  I live in an apartment, and if I were to put the peppers directly on the burners, it would not go over too well.  (I did start to do that, but when it started to heat, the pepper started to stick to the burner.)  I tried to use my George Foreman grill, but wasn't able to get the char on the skin that I was looking for in order to take the skin off.  (Note: the flavor did turn out well for what I was making, but I know it would be even better if they were charred.)

Thank you for your suggestions.

Roasting them under the broiler creates a nice even color and flavor.


Can you use sundried anchovies for myeolchi yuksu (Korean anchovy broth)? I am wanting to make myeolchi yuksu (Korean anchovy broth) which is based on dried anchovies. My local Korean supermarket only has these Chinese sourced dried anchovies, which were also labelled as sundried anchovies. They look quite different from the ones in the recipe I was following.
Would there be any issue using these?

Yes, you can.
It looks like the Korean dried anchovies are very similar to the ones you have, just with the skins, heads, and guts removed, then flattened or 'spatchcocked'. For a fish stock like this, the specific type of fish you use won't matter too much. Also, I noticed the ingredients on your pack include salt, so you might want to taste and adjust the salt levels in wherever you're using the stock.


What, if at all, is the difference of cooking an egg on high or low heat? When I fry an egg I frequently cook them on medium-high and it takes 2-3 minutes with one flip.  Some of my family will cook eggs over a very low heat that takes as much as 10 minutes.

Do the eggs come out differently this way? I personally don't taste/see much of a difference between my high-heat approach and my families lower-heat approach.

The proteins in egg white and egg yolk behave differently at different temperatures.  It is an ingredient that responds to very subtle temperature variations.  That is why it is a favorite item to cook for those of us interested in low-temperature cooking using an immersion circulator (sous vide).

However, predating the immersion circulator, the Japanese lowered eggs into the Onsen hot springs, cooking them low and slow, to produce a texture that was not able to be produced any other way. More recently,  Dave Arnold created a handy chart that illustrates eggs cooked sous vide at various temperatures.

Of course, when cooking in a pan, you have less precise control, however, you can certainly come up with different results by using high heat, medium heat, or low heat.  In fact, ChefSteps has instructions for a "fried" egg that they called the "emoji egg." It uses very low heat and takes several minutes.

All of this to say is that you are able to control the texture of the white and yolk with subtle variations in temperature. Also keep in mind that at higher temperatures, the browning of fat in pan and egg white will contribute to flavor. There is also an added bonus of lower temperature egg cookery for some people who experience, and are turned off by, the sulfur aroma that eggs cooked with higher heat have.  It turns out that cooking below 72.5 C (162.5 F) keeps these aromas at bay.


Why does my fondue call to wipe the pot with garlic? I got a Le Creuset fondue pot a year or two ago. Since then, we've found a bunch of great cheese fondue recipes, but there's a common thread that makes no sense to me. Often times, a recipe will call for a clove of garlic. The instructions of the recipe will call for you to rub the clove on the inside of the pot before starting the recipe. The recipe will make no further reference to the garlic.

Why do I need to do this? Am I supposed to use the garlic in the dish after the rubbing? Does the rubbing of garlic really affect the dish? How? Why?

This seems like it wouldn't have any significant effect and seems like a bit of a waste. We usually end up sautéing the garlic for 15-30 seconds and then proceeding as normal. Are we missing something?

You rub the garlic in the pot to gain a subtle garlic flavour. Same idea as rubbing a sliced garlic clove on grilled bread, or on meat prior to cooking.

Raw garlic is also moderately antibacterial in nature, so I suppose that could be a reason too.


How can I save flour from little insects? Red and white little insects appeared in the flour.Are these harmful for flour? How can I save flour from those?

There's no way to make your flour completely safe after it gets infested with bugs. You could sieve the flour and the mesh will separate the bugs, however any diseases carried by the bugs would be left in the flour as will bug droppings (i.e. insect excrement). Cooking it may kill whatever nasty stuff the bugs leave behind, but it may not so the safest thing to do is throw it away. If it's use the flour or people go hungry then sieve it and cook it, but if you don't have to it's not worth the risk.

I keep flour in a sealed plastic container, it keeps it fresher and bug free.


Pandan extract in small quantities I've just returned from a year-long trip abroad, and now have some interesting recipes to try. I was thinking of making Indonesian kelopon but I'm having a hard time finding one ingredient.

The ingredient I'm having trouble with is pandan extract. It's an extract of the pandan leaf. While cooking in Indonesia and Malaysia, I was able to get small squeeze bottles of it -- between the sizes of a squeeze bottle of food coloring and a small bottle of vanilla extract, up to maybe 2 or 3 fluid ounces. This is what I'm trying to get my hands on.

Back in the states (I'm in Baltimore for a month), I'm having a difficult time finding this. I've found that McCormick sells a correctly sized bottle that the front claims is pandan extract, but the ingredients label indicates it's primarily propylene glycol, water, and sugar, with some imitation pandan and food coloring. This is the only thing I can find in brick-and-mortar stores.

On the internet (Amazon, really), all the small bottles of extract turn out to be imitation with similar ingredients as the McCormick. They do have real extract: but only in 14.4  ounce cans. Since the ingredients are only water and pandan (and sometimes sugar), it's not shelf stable. It's also more extract than I'd use in 10 years.

So. Is it possible to buy small quantities of real, non-imitation pandan extract (preferably without added sugar but I can live with it, definitely with no propylene glycol) in the US or on the internet to be shipped to the US? Do they even sell such small quantities?

Or, alternatively, is it possible to convert the pandan paste or dried pandan leaves to extract form without overly-specialized equipment?

From the recipes I've seen, it looks like the pandan extract tends to be made from fresh leaf and water - essentially it's a juice.  This might make it easier to substitute rather than if it had required other ingredients or preparation, use of alcohol or other solvents.

So, it looks like the pandan paste is the nearest substitute - the recipes look like it can be made from pandan leaf and water, it is just blended and kept - simple straining should make the extract.  Of course, commercial processed paste may have preservatives and stabilizers and such, but it might be workable anyway... or perhaps you can find a good product with few of the extra additives.

Another alternative is to pick up pandan leaves - frozen ones are available, even online, though it might take some looking, extra charges in shipping, or something like that.  Fresh might be available somewhere, but it's likely harder to depend on and will perhaps take more work.  Frozen will work for most applications - especially since freezing usually helps with extracting juice (extract, recall), will store better, and will perhaps be easier to find.

If you're using the dried leaves, you can soak them, boil, essentially make tea.  The flavor is weaker, and you will need more to get the same flavor, but since the dried leaves are just pandan - you should be able to reconstitute the leaves and extract the flavor the same way.  Dried pandan is available as a tea, it just takes a bit of looking.

As for the pandan extract, the advice I found was to buy the large cans of good, pure extract, and portion it off (like ice cubes) and freeze.  It will store well - at least as well as frozen leaves - and it will have just the pure flavor, so more flavor for the same amount of freezer space.


Clotted cream broke in the fridge Yesterday, I purchased a package of Kaymak (the Turkish version of Devonshire clotted cream). Normally, it would act just like clotted cream. It was in the fridge when I purchased it and looked fine. I put it in the fridge at home, and it broke. Now, it's just a container of thick cream.

Why would that have happened? Can I rescue it? (Maybe use the cream and try to heat again?)

I believe you're talking about the breaking of emulsion. The solution is to simply whip it again, a food processor should also be fine for Kaymak.


How do they Prepare Steak so fast in Restaurants? I've been wondering how restaurants are able to serve food so fast. How are they able to serve thick steaks in 20 - 30 minutes?

Here's the process that I know of:

Bring the steak to room temperature (20 minutes)
Pan sear it for around 2.5 minutes on each side
Put it in the oven 15 minutes.
Rest it for 10 minutes.

That's like 50 minutes.

Another question is how do they manage the steaks? Do they have several in freezer ready and when the stock goes down, they start to thaw the one that's frozen? Or they don't even have frozen steaks? How are they able to keep the steak for a long period of time without it going bad (let's say it's a slow week for the restaurant)? When I buy a steak and put it my freezer, it only last 3 days before it turns gray.

When I worked the wheel at a local restaurant, we served 4oz medallions of filet mignon that went from fridge directly to grill. Only took about 5 minutes on each side, then the steak was plated and sent to the table. There was no "wait until room temp", oven or rest stage. The rest stage wasn't necessary because we weren't pre-slicing the steak before sending it out. By the time the steak leaves the grill and makes it to the table, it has hit a satisfactory rest period.

Larger cuts would require the oven, but those too, would not require waiting until room temperature nor the rest period.

  Another question is how do they manage the steaks? Do they have several in freezer ready and when the stock goes down, they start to thaw the one that's frozen?

I can't speak for chain restaurants. The restaurant I worked in would order and prepare the fresh protein twice a week (Thursdays and Mondays). The protein was held in the walk-in cooler. When rush comes, the chef that works the wheel uses several 6" pans that separately contains all the proteins in a smaller fridge nearby.

Of course this is only my experience. Like I said, I can't speak for larger restaurants.