Are you supposed to get most of the air bubbles out of dough before the second rise? I am confused about the air bubbles in my dough. Some of the recipes that I have  say to get most of the bubbles out. I have other recipes that say nothing about the bubbles. The way I understand it the more air bubbles you have the lighter the bread will be. Which will make the holes in the bread. So I was wondering should I try to get most of the bubbles out? Does it really make that much of a difference? I know French bread has a lot of holes in it. But I don't want holes in my loaf breads.

Whether or not to get the bubbles out is a matter of what type of bread you are making. Something with a tight crumb structure, like a milk bread or bagel will probably have a pretty vigorous punch-down before a second rise, but something like a ciabatta might just have a gentle fold.

Any air bubbles left in your bread for the second rise are only going to get bigger (and eventually collapse). If you want a fine crumb, punch it down and get rid of them. If you want an open crumb, try to keep them


Can i cook a hash brown differently than the instruction? So in the package the instruction is only on an oven, but i know you can fry a hash brown.

So long as the end result is cooked, you can do it however you like.
I'm assuming frozen, ready-made, supermarket hash browns [pretty much all you ever see in the UK]

Oven bake - the lower-fat alternative, 220°C 15 - 20 mins. Nutrition content as stated on the pack.
Shallow fry - medium heat, same total time, turn halfway through. More fat than the pack says. Good crisp & brown exterior.
Deep fry - for when there's just not enough fat in your diet ;-) Probably ½ - ⅔ the time of shallow-frying. Should crisp up well without browning quite so much.
Microwave - probably 1 - 2 mins, just check for when it's piping hot. Cooked, yes, but a texture like porridge.
Dry fry or dutch oven - might work if you've patience & don't burn the bits that touch the surface before the heat reaches the rest. Wouldn't try this myself.

& just to be silly - you could boil them… but really, no.


Does brining a chicken/turkey before roasting really make a difference? I've tried brining a chicken (brine = 1 cup salt to  16 cups water, over 10 hours) and couldn't taste a difference.

Assuming you don't normally buy pre-brined / injected birds, you should notice a difference... As roux notes, it should be noticeably moist and tender, especially the white meat.
A couple of things to try:

Increase the time in the brine. 10 hours is plenty for breasts or quarters, but a whole chicken may take longer. A whole turkey will definitely take longer!
Check your salt. A cup of small-crystal table salt per gallon of water should be fine, but if you're using flakes (kosher and some sea salt), you may be producing too weak a brine! If in doubt, weight it out.

See also: What are the basics and options of brining meat, for example chicken?


My gelatin didn't gel I made two small packets, boiled 2 cups of water, then put in 8 oz of frozen pineapple filled with cold water the rest of the way to the 2 cups mark.

The Jello sat in the fridge overnight and today it wasn't set. I put in a big packet of mix and a cup of boiling water. 4 hours later it is still not set.

What can I do?

As the instructions on the box say, you shouldn't put fresh pineapple (or kiwi-fruit) in the Jell-O. Apparently pineapple has an enzyme called bromelain that breaks up the gelatin into its component amino acids.

You can use canned pineapple instead as the pineapple is cooked during the canning process and this denatures the bromelain.


Do bananas ripen better in rice sacks? Okay, I know the title is a little ridiculous, but I swear I am not making this up.  When I was a kid, my parents bought a lot of rice and a lot of bananas (among other things).  They would get the big 25# sacks of rice, which seem to be made of several layers of kraft paper, and put them in a cabinet.

When they bought bananas that were a little too green to eat, they would put whole bunches into the rice sack for a day or two.  Does that actually make any difference for ripening?  If so, is it because of the rice?  The paper bag?  The cool, dry, dark environment in the cabinet?  Something else entirely?

  This question looks related, but I don't know if the extra conditions I've noted make a difference beyond what was noted in the answer there: Why does a brown paper bag speed ripening?

Yeah, I would agree with the people in the comments, and make the assumption that it had to do with concentrating the ethylene gas from the bananas.

After a bit of googling, it looks like the rice bag trick might be popular because it apparently results in a nearly ideal, stable environment for ripening.

I imagine that the rice would keep the moisture level at a lower point, the bag would contain the gas, and the mass of the rice would decrease the temperature variants (assuming that is conducive to ripening)

I found an informative article which mentioned rice bags here:
http://monsterguide.net/how-to-ripen-bananas-quickly


What is the difference between Microwave, Microwave Oven, and Oven? Some sites say that a "microwave" is only for heating or re-heating cooked food. Whereas, in "microwave ovens", you can microwave and bake. Is that true?

If it is, then why I can cook main course dishes (chicken, rice), soups, etc. in my microwave oven? I even have a recipe book with 100+ recipes using a microwave oven.

So, can someone please clear up this fog? What's the difference between Microwave and Oven and Microwave Oven?

First off, the terminology issue.

  So, can someone please clear up this fog? What's the difference between Microwave and Oven and Microwave Oven?

"Microwave" is just short for "microwave oven". Both terms mean the same thing: an appliance that uses microwave radiation to heat food. Cooking food in this way is called "microwaving". An oven, on the other hand, has a heating element which heats the air inside, which then heats the food. Cooking food in this way is generally called "baking", though there are a lot of other things (e.g. roasting) you can also reasonably do in an oven.

So if all you have is a microwave, then all you can do is microwave (not bake). And if you have an oven, then you can bake (but of course you can't microwave).

There also exist combinations, which are capable of both microwaving and baking, i.e. they have a microwave emitter and a heating element. However, remember that in the US - and thus on much of the internet - something talking about a "microwave oven" likely does not mean this combination, but simply microwave heating. Names like "convection microwave oven with grill", "combination microwave/oven" do refer to these combinations, though. I've also seen "speed oven". You may sometimes have seen people referring to these combination microwave/ovens as a "microwave oven" (I think this may be common in Indian English), but that's really just imprecise language.

  Some sites say that a "microwave" is only for heating or re-heating cooked food. Whereas, in "microwave ovens", you can microwave and bake. Is that true?

It sounds like in this statement, "microwave oven" is careless language, referring to a combination microwave and oven. (It doesn't make any sense at all otherwise; the two things are the same thing, so of course you can do the same things in them.)

So the question is really, what can you do in a microwave vs an oven, or a combination microwave/oven?

It's true that microwaves are mainly used for reheating cooked food, and it's true that they can't actually bake. However, they can do a lot more than reheat food; there are a lot of kinds of cooking besides baking. For example, microwaves are great at simmering/boiling and steaming, and it doesn't matter if the food was cooked already or not. The recipes you're talking about are probably mostly in those kinds of categories, but if you're interested, How do I know if a food or recipe can be made in a microwave oven? discusses in a bit more detail what works in microwaves.

The big things that you can do with ovens but not microwaves are the things that actually need the steady dry heat of baking. You can't bake bread or cookies or roast a chicken in a microwave. Microwaves hold in a lot of steam and don't get terribly hot, so you can't generally get things to brown or crisp up. They also don't really hold a temperature like you need for baking, they just pump more and more heat into the food.


Advice on how I can make my own 1 cal cooking spray like frylight I've been using frylight for years, but I'm trying to swap to a healthier version with no chemicals.

I've been doing some research on the internet and some people have talked about making their own version by getting a spray bottle and mixing 1 part olive oil to 7 parts water. Then just shaking the bottle well before each use. However I'm concerned that the lack of preservatives could mean that the water will go stale and will be dangerous to drink.

Has anyone done this or can you offer any advice for the best way to do it?

Thanks in advance!

Why not just pick whatever oil you want to use, put some on a paper towel and wipe the pan with it? It'll have the same affect or just skip the oil all together and get a really good non-stick pan?

The only way to get oil and water to mix is to use an emulsifier.


How do you salvage a topped pizza that sticks to the peel? This is a scenario I've encountered multiple times.  The dough is stretched to the right size. It's coated with flour.  The pizza peel has some flour in it, but maybe not enough.

The pizza gets sauced and topped, and when it comes time to put it into the oven, it's sticking to the peel.  Sometimes in the process, a hole gets opened up and sauce leaks through.

There is a lot information on how to prevent this from happening, but very little has been written on how to recover when it happens.  Is there anyway to salvage this?  Turning it to a calzone is an acceptable option, but sauce on the peel seems to exacerbate stickiness.

This has happened to many of us.  Your oven is hot.  You have a beautifully crafted pizza ready to cook.  You are minutes away from food time.  You give your peel one last shake, but only part of the pizza moves.

If you can't get it unstuck with shaking alone (and this typically isn't enough if you have a leak), you will need to try to carefully lift the stuck spot.  Using two spatulas, and even a third hand, if available, can help out greatly.  I recommend easing a large plastic or metal spatula to start with. While it may have limited reach, a larger spatula will allow you to lift the pizza without stretching it too much or disrupting your toppings.  Then, using a second, smaller, rubber or silicone spatula, shove some flour or corneal under the first spatula.  If you see a sauce leak, I recommend using flour.  Think about it this way: if you spilled oil on your driveway, you would probably try to soak it up with kitty litter rather than tennis balls. If the stuck spot is large enough, you will need to repeat this process from another direction.  As you work to unstick the pizza, keep shaking, and work the pizza towards the edge of the peel.  If you get the pizza unstuck, try to keep shaking it until you are sliding it into the oven. If you can't get it to stay unstuck and all else fails, get your large spatula(s) under the sticky spots, place the leading edge of the pizza on the baking surface in the oven, and shimmy/shove the pizza off of the peel.  Only try this if the oven temperature is low enough that you can do this safely. If you are using your standard home oven, you should be fine, especially if you use something to protect your hands. It also helps to have another person to open the oven and help you out with another spatula if needed. You might end up with a pizza that is shaped like Texas or a donut, but it probably won't be a total loss, and you will probably get better with time.

While I am at it, I will share some prevention tips, specific to your situation, that I have learned, but haven't found elsewhere.  You can find a few more here, but it sounds like you're already familiar with those tips:

If you see a weak spot in your dough once you've stretched it out, you can preempt it with extra flour underneath it before you start adding toppings.
If feasible, you can also try using little or no sauce on that spot.
If you are making pizza, there is a good chance that you have another human around, waiting to consume it.  Conscript that person to either help with toppings, or to shake the peel at regular intervals.  This can help you get to the oven faster, giving your pizza less time to stick.  If you use that person as a shaker, you will know as soon as your pizza starts sticking.  Try to handle any adhesion as soon as it happens, when there aren't as many toppings to disrupt.


Why is my cake crumbly? I used a new cupcake recipe. It has raving reviews about how moist it is. Mine turned out moist but it's very crumbly. Any suggestions?

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (16-oz.) package light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8-oz.) container sour cream
1 cup hot water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended (about 5 minutes).
Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate; beat until blended.
Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.
Gradually add hot water in a slow, steady stream, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla.

This looks very similar to a recipe that I make for chocolate cake. Mine was always a bit crumbly until I changed my measuring technique for the flour. Instead of scooping and leveling I spooned the flour in to the cup and then I leveled it. That made a huge difference. Of course, weighing is even better.

It could also be an issue of slightly over baking. You could try testing them 5 minutes earlier.

Those two things tend to be the crumbly culprits in cake.


How do I create a meat like bite resistance/snap and texture in Vegan sausages? I have been trying to create a vegan and gluten free sausage. The flavors thus far are tasty and enjoyable.  I just want a better snap/bite/tear when I bite into the dog.

I use soy isolate (I have tried pea isolate as well) to make an emulsion for fat delivery (canola oil). Am trying for a 'country' texture of chunks of visible veggies (cauliflower or eggplant or mushrooms or tomatoes etc.).  I use a TVP or a TPP as a filler to increase the sponginess a bit.

I have been trying gels of carrageenan and konjac powder, I have used guar gum and xanthan gums.  The gels work a bit but soften at temps above 150F.  The gums are not able to bind the core ingredients before the gumminess takes over.

I have experimented with methylcellulose but that too loses its texture at high temperatures and overwhelms the taste at high doses.

I want to replicate the 'tear' effect that the Beyond Sausage has when it is cooked to 200F or so.  According to their ingredient label they use coconut oils, pea proteins and methylcellulose.  But I can not seem to replicate their product.

I haven't been using coconut oil because it is a saturated fat and I wanted to avoid that if possible.  I am not sure the practical structural differences between sat fat and unsat fats with respect to this project.

Free beer/wine for whomever solves this riddle.

Zambian Chikanda has a meat (more of processed meat/saussage) like texture, it’s made using ground peanuts and orchid tubers. The polysaccharide (glucomannan) in the orchid tubers once cooked above a certain pH level, will form a heat stable gel upon cooling. I think this texture is what you’re looking for.

Even though you say you have tried Konjac powder (which also has GM in it) I think you should look into how it behaves in a high pH environment and with presence of fats.


How should I store eggs in the refrigerator? We just bought a new refrigerator, and it came with the obligatory open egg tray container, which went promptly into the recycle bin--which got me thinking.  I have never understood the purpose of this accessory, as I keep my eggs stored in the original carton.

What is the best way to store fresh eggs in the refrigerator?

Keeping Food Fresh by Janet Bailey says:

  Keep stored eggs covered. Eggs readily absorb odors from, and lose
  moisture to, the air circulating in the refrigerator. The best
  container for them is the carton you bought them in. Don't use the
  open egg racks in the door of the refrigerator. The rack is too warm
  and unprotected.

  Store eggs with their broad, rounded ends up. This position helps the
  chalaza keep the yolk centered in the white, away from the air pocket
  where it might encounter unfriendly bacteria. The rounded end of the
  egg is also less likely to break when accidentally bumped.

  Don't wash eggs before you store them. If they have been coated in
  oil, you would be washing away that valuable protection.


Would raw soy sauce marinated chicken be more salty when cooked the next day? If I had unused soy sauce marinated chicken, would it be more salty when cooked the next day?

If you leave it marinating overnight, definitely, as it will absorb more soy sauce. Otherwise, probably only a small amount saltier, if at all as nothing has been added.


Inside of the cookies turn up soft, almost uncooked? I don't know what temperatures I have to be using to bake cookies but I am following a European cookie recipe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LON4tuXR93A

The problem is I searched for the same recipe and found out many different ones with almost the same ingredients but their baking instructions vary wildly from cooking for 35 mins at 150C to cooking for 15 mins at 200C.

I am not sure what temp I have to use so I used 380F for 25 mins (+5 min preheat) that barely made the outer layer firm enough. It's not very hard but definitely formed a cookie shell which would be enough.

The problem is the inside of the cookies are very soft, almost like pre-baking.

Lastly I use baking paper and put the cookies on top of the pizza stone as I thought it wouldn't hurt to leave it. I read that it helps regulate heat throughout the oven.

In any case this is the ingredients:

350g sugar
150g almond flour
7 egg whites
almond extract

Don't use the pizza stone for cookies.

Stones absorb a ton of your oven's heat and will really mess up your baking times. They're designed to be preheated in your oven before you ever put a pizza (or other item) on them. I have never tried it before but you might be able to use the pizza stone if you preheated it but then you have to put your cookies on a hot surface which may cause them to misbehave in other ways.

Cookies should be baked on light-toned heavy-duty metal baking sheets (or as close as you can get to that) because the metal transfers the heat, it doesn't absorb it.

That's how you get well-baked cookies.


What ingredients to use to prevent steak from drying out on the grill? I know from experience that finely crushed onions mixed with vinegar, work well on keeping the meat from shrinking while on the grill. I also know of honey, but have yet to try and incorporate it into the marinating mixture, since I'm unsure whether or not it might clash with the taste of onions.
There is also this study which mentions quite a few spices which contain Protease, the enzyme which breaks down proteins. Chief among which seems to be Black Cumin.

There also seem to be a number of fruit like papaya and pineapple, but I am lost on how these will effect the taste of a steak.

So my question would be what ingredients work best and in what technique should they be employed during the actual Grilling part of the cooking, in order to keep the steak juicy, even while it's past well-done.

I was going to address your post point-by-point, but I think it's probably better to start over. It sounds like you've done quite a bit of workshopping here. I disagree with a number of the conclusion's you've reached. If you really do want a juicy steak beyond well-done, I don't think you're going in the right direction to get the results you're looking for.

In a steak— which for the sake of this answer I define as a quick-cooking cut of beef, rather than the more accurate definition which specifies which way it's cut— the thing that makes it 'juicy' is the moisture that's trapped in the muscle fibers. When that muscle fiber tenses up, either through heat or acid, it squeezes out the moisture. Asking how you can keep a steak juicy beyond well-done is like asking how to keep a bag of sponges wet after you've rung them all out. The most likely explanation for your vinegar onion mixture keeping the steak from shrinking is that it already shrank from the acid in the marinade before you put it on the grill.

Enzymes will only succeed in killing the structural integrity of the muscle fiber. By the time they're decomposed enough to not squeeze out the moisture when they're cooking, you're going to have meat gruel rather than a steak. If you're interested in eating mushy steak, you could probably succeed in using enough of an enzyme like papain (which is usually what's in the 'meat tenderizer' jar in the spice section of your grocery store) to do that for you.

Taking a standard steak cut, marinating it, and grilling it ded is going to produce a dry, powdery, and/or mushy piece of meat every time.

Now, consider a piece of braised beef. It's FAR beyond well-done, (over 190F/88C) but it's pleasant to eat. This is because good braising cuts— think brisket, short ribs, chuck, or anything that would go in a beef stew—have a whole lot of the connective tissue collagen, and when cooked gently for quite some time, that collagen dissolves into gelatin. The muscle fibers themselves are quite dry and stringy, but each 'bite' is juicy thanks to all of that gelatin packed into the meat in between the muscle fibers. If you were to take some shredded, braised pork and rinse it in some water, it would immediately cease to be a luxurious rich shredded meat, and become a pile of dry stringy garbage.

The only way I can think of having beef beyond well-done on the grill which is not extraordinarily unpleasant to eat is to use a cut like chuck, lightly braise it first (you don't want it falling-apart tender,) let it cool in the braising liquid, and then finish it on the grill. It will keep in your refrigerator quite nicely after it's braised, and you can reheat it on the grill; no need to heat it beyond 135 or so when reheating it, so it won't dry out. If you reduce the cooking liquid, it will make an incredible glaze that you can brush onto the meat as it grills. If you're looking to get more of that raw-steak-on-grill flavor, sear the meat on very high heat on the grill before you braise it. The flavor will be infused throughout the end product.


Too much help - my kitchen Maybe this is not he correct site but how do you tell people to leave my cooking alone.

Unless it is a big complex meal there is rarely a need for more than one chef.  Others can assist with cutting and cleaning but one person can handle 4 burners. In another kitchen as a guest I always ask what I can cut or prep but I stay off the stove.

I am a better cook than my mom. I worked as a short order cook for 7 years. For example over the holidays she will ask me to cook breakfast and I will start sausage on low while I prep other stuff like cut hash browns. Mom will come in the kitchen and turn up the burner (often when I am not looking and I get blamed for burnt sausage but pink in the middle). It is her physical kitchen but she asked me to cook.

Or BBQ for guests and they will open the grill and turn the meat (I bought).  Or I am smoking and they will check on the meat which loses 15 minutes of heat and then ask when will it be done.

How to politely but firmly tell people to leave my kitchen alone?

If it's not your kitchen, you really can't tell them to leave it alone.  My approach is to save the "serious" cooking for when I am alone, or in my own home cooking for my family.  When I am with extended family, or at a friends house, I try to think of cooking as more of a social activity.  Give people easy jobs.  This politely clarifies roles and ensures anyone who wants to be involved can be.  For the smoking, maybe a small sign: "Please ask me why you should not open the smoker."


Is it dangerous or unhygienic to deshell an egg over the bin? I have been reprimanded at work for de-shelling egg over an open bin. My hand is not touching the bin, as it is opened via the foot pedal. So is it dangerous or unhygienic to deshell an egg over the bin? Anything in a hygiene hand book?

Not aware of anything in the handbook specifically.  But the intent and spirit of the handbook is important. While what you've done isn't a kitchen crime. I'd be proud to go to, or work in a kitchen that is this pedantic about safety. here are some points to think of:

Generally you want to treat the vicinity of the bin as a one way. Food goes to the bin and doesn't comeback.

One issue might be that if you lose the egg, you can't recover and the optics of it is not good.

The other problem is that you know there is bacteria in the bin and long past the food safety safe zone.  Why hang out there with food to be served and with eggs which bacteria love.

Presumably you're standing over the bin and there may be splashback, shrapnel, or other spoilage making into your apron/hands etc.

Part of Mise en Place is a clean set up and what you describe isn't exactly Mise en Place.


Is there any advantage to freezing a cut of meat after putting a rub on it? I was told once that the secret to great BBQ and roasts is to put your rub on it, freeze it, and then thaw it back out before finally cooking it. This sounds weird to me, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Is there any advantage to this technique?

It may be that the advice to freeze is meant to help with browning the outside while not overcooking the interior. See here for an experiment on freezing steaks. If this is the case, my recommendation would be to not thaw completely before you start cooking.


If roasting meat doesn't generate much juices, why do gravy recipes assume it does? The accepted answer to this question states that you shouldn't expect a roast to generate much in the way of juices left behind in the pan, and that accords with my experience (which admittedly has always been very small roasts).
But if that's the case, why do (British) gravy recipes very commonly expect you to have significant quantities of meat juices to start to make gravy with? For example, here ("up to 200 ml meat juices") and here (unspecified amount of juices and "2 tbsp meat fat").
It feels like I'm missing something obvious that these recipe writers expect readers to understand. Any thoughts?

They may or may not assume a significant amount of pan juices and there are quite a few ways to get more than “just a bit”. Including low-quality meat, bad temperature control and other ways to extract the water from the meat. Unfortunately most are also ways to get dry meat, especially in lean cuts.
Fattier cuts are usually cooked a bit longer and to hotter temperatures in comparison, which will give the collagen time to “melt” and also create more juices as a side effect. The drippings will also contain more fat, than can be used for the roux to thicken the gravy.
There are also lots of recipes that “top up” the pan juices with stock, water or wine (your links both add stock), and small but concentrated amounts of pan juices can bring a lot of flavor to a gravy - just add liquid and boil all bits off the roasting pan, don’t just pour the liquid out of the pan. And finally there are also many ways to “cheat”, from simple box mixes to separately cooked sauces or jus made from bones and scraps.


Can I use brown sugar instead of white sugar in making fruitcake? Can I substitute light or dark brown sugar instead of white sugar in making fruitcake?

When substituting brown sugar for white sugar, be mindful if you are measuring by volume. Brown sugar packs down a lot and you may end up using more (by mass) sugar than you intended.

Your cake will be tasty. You may notice a slight texture difference, but it should be fine.

Alas, it will still be a fruitcake.


What is an elegant way to serve whole duck livers? Duck livers fried in butter are my favorite "chef's snack".  I sometimes opt for roast duck for dinner so I can have my 4:00 treat.  I've recently found a source of same day slaughter duck livers in 1-2 pound quantities.  This sounds like a great opportunity for a delicious appetizer.  I'm thinking of a Chinese spoon presentation, but it needs something to make it special.  Are there any classic presentations/pairings or other novel ideas?

For presentation:  Philo dough cups precooked with either sprigs of dill or whittle blueberries on a Sterling Silver Plate or Platter.  Sterling Silver makes anything look elegant.


Cooking beans with intact skins When my grandmother would cook dry beans, she always soaked them overnight, and they came out "perfect" in the sense I liked, which was that the beans were soft, and in particular, the skins were unbroken in the process.  The beans remained whole until eaten.  I've tried to reproduce this but have not achieved it.  Whether soaked overnight or not, the bean skins would always crack open during the cooking.

Researching this, I read a lot of concerns about whether the skins are hard or soft, and solutions to deal with that issue.  But none of them ever associated whether hard or soft skins would prevent breaking or cracking.  This has also uncovered some suggestions like quick pre-cooking, soaking cold, soaking luke warm, adding salt, etc.  Yet nothing has mentioned which of these methods avoids breaking up the bean skins.

Anyone know how I can avoid the skins breaking up?  I'm guess I need to make sure they can expand as much as the bulk of the bean does.  I'd like to apply this to a wide range of bean types (kidney, pinto, white northern, black beans, and even unsplit lentils).  What should I do to get the unbroken bean (without getting an undercooked bean, or sloppy mush)?

According to this extensive bean cooking guide from University of Alaska Fairbanks, the secret is to simmer the beans gently.  Unfortunately, they have little more to say on the matter.

Kenji Lopez-Alt, in his column on Food Myths at Serious Eats says (emphasis added):

  Most of us have been told at some point in our culinary careers that
  salting beans will cause them to toughen. It's incredible that this
  little bit of culinary mis-wisdom still lingers, for it couldn't be
  further from the truth. A simple side-by-side test can prove to you
  conclusively that salting beans (both the water used to soak them in
  and the water used to cook them) actually tenderizes the skins.

  It's got to do with magnesium and calcium, two ions found in the bean
  skins that help keep the structure of the beans' skin intact. When you
  soak the beans in salt water, sodium ions end up replacing some of the
  magnesium and calcium, effectively softening the skins. Your beans
  come out creamier, better seasoned, and have a much smaller likelihood
  of exploding while cooking.

He provides this image of the contrast:

I believe the take away from this is:

Pre-soak your beans overnight, as your grandmother did using salted water
Cook them at bare simmer, stirring them minimally, to prevent physical damage to the skins.

The second can easily be achieved by placing the bean pot in a moderate (350 F, 180 C) oven rather than doing it stove top.


Is there a non-penetrative method for checking cake doneness? Is there some way to check a cake is done without using a toothpick or other penetrative device?

I like the thermometer idea, but no one seems to know how the heck to use them.

If the reason you don't want to use a toothpick is that it leaves a big hole, you can buy a cheap little item called a cake tester that is just a thin piece of wire with a little handle. It leaves such a small hole that as to be unnoticeable. As a bonus, it is quite useful for checking the doneness of vegetables. This is the one I use.


How can I save wet cookie dough I accidentally added 2/3 cup milk instead of 1/3 to a cookie dough. Now dough is too moist. What can I add to absorb the moisture?

You could go ahead and add each of the other ingredients (other than the milk) again, doubling the recipe.

If you really want to get fussy, you probably should follow the recipe instructions regarding "creaming butter and sugars"...etc. with that second round of ingredients, but honeslty cookies aren't that particular about technique, so I would just dump them in and mix-em up. Your result should be quite reasonable.


Help with raw shrimp color I bought raw, red Argentina shrimp. In the fridge, I noticed the legs looked like they turned blackish-blue. Does this mean they went bad?

No, blue legs in and of itself is not an indicator of bad shrimp.  Many, if not most (or all), shrimp, lobster, and crayfish are coloured various blues, aquas, and greens before cooking at which point they get their traditional red look.


Why yoghurt comes out different every time? When I make yoghurt at home the result is different every time even though I follow exactly the same procedure:

Bring a gallon of milk to 85°C
Cool to 43°C
Add yoghurt culture from the previous time
Keep it at 43°C for 2-3 hours or until ready
Cool it to refrigerator temperature

Milk is always of the same kind from the same store (Costco). I use thermometer and keep the temperature with 1°C precision.

Sometimes it is extremely creamy, soft, homogeneous, and almost sweet, and sometimes a lot of whey forms on top and it becomes very sour.

Obviously I like the the former outcome rather than latter one.

I can't figure out what is wrong, why it is different every time?

I also noticed that when I start with the store-purchased culture the first batch is likely good (creamy).

The explanation is easy, the correction isn't.

Bacterial growth is an exponential process, but with all the environmental variables, you get even more trouble than a simple exponential. Tiny changes in the initial conditions can result in completely different end states. What you are seeing in the "sour" state is either too much bacterial activity for your taste, or activity from the wrong kind of bacteria - thermophilic cultures produce a more sour yogurt than mesophilic ones.

Note that the low-sourness state is not obviously the preferable one, and your recipe may well have been geared towards producing the sour state.

The way to getting to the exact result every time is to be more consistent in the initial conditions. A laboratory works with much higher precision than what you describe, not only in temperature but also in selecting the culture type and the culture density and reinoculating with pure culture.

Your best chance here would be to try using lower temperatures and see if it gets better. If you can find a temperature in which you can get the creamy style yogurt consistently, great. If not, you might need to find other ways to ensure precision, such as using a commercial culture and not reusing your own.


Accidentally microwaved stainless steel travel coffee mug. Still safe to use? The image isn't my exact coffee cup, but it is similar. I didn't read the label and microwaved it until I smelled something strange (probably a minute and a half). Luckily, I when I took it out, only a small part of the plastic on the rim of the mouth was melted, but is it still safe to use for future use? I didn't see any damage done inside the mug.

Normally you don't put metal object in a microwave because it can make sparks and ruin the object, the microwave, and be potentially hazardous (though pretty nice, check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_yg5eKjA4U for example).

Plastic doesn't absorb as much heat when metal does (induction  phenomenom), so local heat started melting the plastic. As with any melted plastic, it's not necessarily good, but once cooled and washed I don't remember having thrown away melted bowls or plates, nor do I think it was specially advised in the past.

About this dioxin polemic, it's rather the fact that you shouldn't heat something directly in a plastic that may release dioxin when heated, which is not your case since I think your cup has had time to cool down since yesterday.


Why does my tuna Casserole turn sour? I've never had trouble making Tuna and Pineapple casserole before coming to Turkey. After making the white sauce and adding the cheese, tuna and fresh pineapple the whole mixture turns sour. No amount of adjusting with salt or sugar can save it. This has happened at least 3 times now. Could the cheese be making it sour or some other chemical reaction. I used to use canned pineapple in Australia but fresh is more readily available here. Could that cause the sourness because there is less sugar?

Basic Nutrition
One cup of fresh pineapple chunks has 82 calories, 21.7 grams of carbohydrates, 2.3 grams of fiber and 16.3 grams of sugar. One cup of drained, canned pineapple chunks has 109 calories, 28.2 grams of carbs, 2.4 grams of fiber and 25.8 grams of sugar. The calories, carbs and sugar in canned pineapple are higher than in fresh pineapple because the canned fruit is typically packed in fruit juice.

I think that it is probably the pineapple affecting it. If you can buy pineapple juice, adding some of that may help the problem.
Livestrong.com


Should indoor ripened tomatoes be used for sauce? I was talking with a person about getting all my green tomatoes in and ripening them for one last batch of sauce. She told me as a matter of safety that you shouldn't use tomatoes that were picked green for any sauce but couldn't explain why. It was just something she was told and and that's what she does. Is their any credibility to this? I usually just let everything ripen on the vine but we have a lot and the squirrels are beating us to most of them now as temperatures are getting lower.

I've never heard that. I have picked end of season tomatoes when they were green and let them ripen and used them for any purpose that I would normally use ripe tomatoes. And I know others who do also. It's much better than losing them to a frost or to animals.

If there is any downside, it would be that they might not be as flavorful as vine-ripened, but that still beats losing them.

Also consider that most of what we get in grocery stores come from large farms where they are picked green.

Just for the sake of saying it, many stores now also sell vine-ripened or locally grown tomatoes but they do cost more.


Use chia seeds to help thicken a pot pie Can I put chia seeds in a pot pie filling to help thicken it? If so, how would I do it? (i.e., how much chia seeds, how much cornstarch, do I need to pre-soak, etc.)

Edit: It was this recipe, and it was IMO quite runny with 2tbsp of corn starch.

If your problem is that a pie with 3 cups of liquid (750 ml) was runny with 2 tbsp of corn starch and some water sucking ingredients such as potatoes, and you say it tasted like corn starch, then you probably just didn't thicken the starch. You should try cooking the original recipe correctly before deciding whether to change it to something exotic.

Starch needs to be cooked to almost 100 Celsius to thicken. It is certainly above 90 for all types of starch. After thickening, it practically has no taste. Use a thermometer to ensure that it happened, 96 should be a good temperature to aim for.

You can probably thicken it with chia seeds instead of the starch, although I can't tell you the exact procedure and would like to see somebody posting an answer which explains how to do it. You might or might not like the result, which will be very different from a starch thickened pot pie.


Frying Steak - disappointing gray crust, not pink inside Ok so I'm a teenager and I'm starting to get interested in this cooking thing, and in particular, steak.

So anyway, this past week I decided to try my luck at preparing a steak. My family's grill is broken, so I tried to cook it in a pan (after reading and watching plenty of articles and videos on how to cook steak).

So I used some sort of heavy metal pan (I'm not sure what material), and let it heat up on high heat for about 5 minutes. After letting my 3 thin flank steaks sit out for around 30 minutes, I put salt, pepper, and olive oil on them. Next, I put them in the pan and immediately the room filled with smoke.

I opened up windows, doors, and used the vent above the pan but to no avail. Despite all the smoke, the steaks would only seem to turn a bland grey. After a while I had to take them off because I didn't want them to get overdone.

I put the steaks on a plate and covered them with tin foil. After around 10 minutes, I cut into them and they only had a little pink in them. Not the medium rare I was hoping for. Plus, there was the disappointing gray crust.

What did I do wrong? Any help is appreciated.

It sounds to me like you've made a good start and almost got there. You picked a heavy pan and got it hot, and you had in mind the outcome you want. You also recognized that you needed to get your steaks off the pan before they overcooked, showing you have the theory and practice down.
Here's the tweaks I would make to get the result you want:

Oil: Olive oil is a great cooking oil for low temperature but it is not a good choice for high temperature as it will 1) smoke, 2) set on fire in some cases (it's flare-up city on the barbecue) and 3) produce off flavors (as in taste bad). Canola (rapeseed), peanut, sunflower, safflower, ie most vegetable oils will work fine for this. You only need a small amount ensure good heat contact with the pan, not a liberal coating
Seasoning: salt is fine to put on your steak, pepper will burn and turn bitter, I suggest you pepper it just after cooking
Steak choice: Even on a hot pan there won't be enough time to get enough crust on a flank steak (or any thin steak) before the meat inside is done, if you want a crust then you're better off with a thicker steak. A grey outside without any crust is typical with a thin steak. When buying a steak remember that you're better off getting quality over quantity, a small piece of good quality filet or ribeye is better than a slab of a tough old rubber. Personally I have no problem with flank steak, I suggest you marinade it first and get your barbecue working again as a searing hot flame is the way to go for flank


What is the reason for the automatic fruit and nut dispenser on some bread makers? What is the difference between putting fruit or nuts into a bread maker at the beginning and adding them via the fruit and nut dispenser on some bread maker models? I thought it might be due to the the fruits/nuts sinking but with the amount of stiring/kneading done it feels like they should be pretty well mixed anyway.

Fruit and nuts can potentially soak up some of the liquid. The liquid is then removed from the hydration of the bread during rising/proving, so you might end up with a mix that is too dry to form a loaf or that is unable to be kneaded properly or to rise properly.
Adding the fruit and nuts after some mixing and kneading means that there is much less available liquid for them to soak up, as the liquid is bound in with the flour already.
Edited to add: In many instances bread machines are on a timer, so that the bread is ready when the person wants it to be. If fruits were added into the liquid before a timer-controlled loaf, then they may well not only absorb a portion of the water, they may over-swell and become so soft that they disintegrate into the bread during kneading. This is generally not the desired end-point of having fruit in breads, where most recipes have the fruit as visible pieces.


Unambiguously referring to "spiciness" Anyone who likes (or hates) spicy food has been in the situation: You're at a restaurant, your mother-in-law is preparing dinner, or you're preparing dinner for your best friend, and the question comes up:

  How spicy do you want it?

But how can one answer (or ask) this question unambiguously?

I'm aware of the Scoville scale, but that applies to a specific (dry) ingredient in a recipe, and not the finished dish (which will typically dilute even the spiciest of peppers).

Restaurants often rank dishes from 1-5 "stars", "peppers", or other units of spiciness, but even this rating system varies greatly by country, region, or even the specific restaurant. What is "5 star spicy" in the Netherlands, might be "2 star spicy" in the midwest USA, for instance.

Is there any unambiguous way to discuss the spiciness of a dish?

I don't mind if I need to take 5 minutes to explain this method to my mother next time I cook for her, or to the waitress next time I order a Phad Thai. The key is that it must be (mostly) unambiguous in communicating one's preferred level of spice/hotness in a dish.

Does such a thing exist?

As an analogy, one might describe a beverage's or dessert's sweetness in relation to a commonly-known item, such as table sugar, honey, or even a Coca-Cola.  "I want a sweetened iced tea, but only half as sweet as a Coke."  While not precise, this is (basically) an unambiguous request. A similar, common point of reference to use when discussing spiciness would satisfy me.

Spiciness is a taste perception, and as such, it is simply subjective. There is no way to create an objective scale for rating it.

I read your comment about "objective spiciness", but it is not something that can exist. It is based on the erroneous assumption that the spiciness you perceive is a 1:1 measurement of some quality of the food. This is not true. Even foods with the same amount of capsaicin will taste differently spicy to the same person, or the same food can taste differently spicy to the same person in two separate meals. So no, all scales will be subjective, with all the usual consequences of subjective rating scales.


How can I handle black pepper without sneezing? Every time I am using black pepper, no matter how little, no matter how I turn my head to avoid sneezing, it still triggers it.  I have to run from the work area, release myself and then go back.

Are there any quick fit kitchen masks (I am serious) for this purpose, or at least special dispensers that can reduce this problem?  What can I do to avoid sneezing?

Your local hardware store or DIY shop will likely have an assortment of dust masks you could try. The simplest ones would be cheap and very quick to put on and remove, and should help.

It seems a little over the top to have to put on a mask for using pepper, but perhaps you're extra sensitive and it's just something you'll have to deal with.

Do you have any reaction at all from eating things with lots of black pepper?

Finally, you might look at how you're physically dispensing the pepper. If you're shaking it from a container you're likely to stir up a small cloud of fine pepper dust. If you're not already doing so, consider trying to use a tiny measuring spoon or even the wrong end of a regular spoon to scoop a little pepper out of the container directly and add it to your food--less sprinkling/shaking, less irritant in the air.


Why did my Turkey Stock turn into gelatin? We took our left-over turkey carcass and parts and simmered them for a few hours with water in a pot with some herbs and veggies.  After removing the solids, and separating the fat, we placed it in the fridge to be frozen the next day.  When we pulled it out, the entire bowl - not just the top - was completely gelatinous.  It is truly like Jello.

Is this OK?  Why did this happen?

We plan to vacuum seal and freeze it if safe.

If your stock turns to jelly in the fridge, it means you did it right!

Simmering the bones breaks down the collagen and turns it into gelatin; that's the very essence of stock-making.  The gelatin is exactly what you want from the stock; at low temperatures it has a very jelly-like consistency, but at higher temperatures it melts and provides a very rich texture.

The more you reduce the stock, the more gelatinous it will become, so if it turned out stiffer than you expected, it's probably because you let a lot of water evaporate.  Typically, when making stock, you use a very low simmer; just a few bubbles per minute.  Any more than that and your stock will reduce.

But reducing is perfectly OK, and many cooks will reduce an entire pot of stock down to a few tablespoons; it's like bullion, only without all the salt and preservatives.  Heavily-reduced stock is called glace de viande and is often used to give a sauce or dish a little bit of extra kick, imparting a powerful meat flavour.  But you probably didn't reduce it that much.

If you're finding it to be too concentrated or gelatinous, even at higher temperatures, you can feel free to dilute it.  For soups or sauces you can probably dilute it 1 for 1, but taste as you go along just to make sure you're not watering it down too much.

When only the top layer of a stock solidifies in the refrigerator, it is probably fat, which you should skim off and discard (or reserve).  The rest is your actual stock, and in your case it sounds delicious.

Also, since you mention vacuum-sealing - I prefer to use covered ice cube trays for freezing stock.  That lets you portion it out much more easily than a big solid blob.


Perfect Hollandaise every time using a blender/food processor? I was a cook at a cafe recently that was buying in Hollandaise. I started making the sauce from scratch following the same basic procedure each time but got varying results. sometimes the Hollandaise would be too thick; more like a butter spread than a sauce. Then, for a real long stretch right up til I got my current office gig, the stuff wouldn't thicken at all and just stayed runny.

This is the procedure i followed every time:

Melt half a pound of butter in the microwave
Carefully separate 2 eggs
Add egg yolks to blender and blend until aerated
Add capful of white vinegar
Add pinch of salt
Slowly add melted butter

What changes should I make to this procedure so my Hollandaise will come out perfect every time? What factors were likely for causing the failed (too thick or not thick at all) batches? And how does the temperature of the liquid butter factor in?

No offense intended to any food purists, but I'm not interested in answers that feature whisks and/or double boilers. Answers featuring blenders/food processors only please. Thank you!

I have used the exact same procedure that you describe on a number of occasions, and the result has always been a thick butter-like consistency, and I think that this is pretty much unavoidable when using a food processor. Maybe you can get a thinner consistency if you use the whole egg like ElendilTheTall suggested.

Anyway, since the sauce never emulsified, I think you have been pouring in your butter too quickly. It is important to just add a few drops at a time until the sauce has started emulsifying. After that you can go faster, but it should still only be a thin stream.

Also, something that I have noticed is that when using a food processor with only a small amount of egg yolks (or any ingredient, for that matter) is that the rotating knives will actually rotate above the ingredients and not actually mix them. When making hollandaise/mayonnaise, that will be fatal since you will just be pouring butter on top of a thin layer of egg yolks. So you might want to check your food processor and see if it works similar to mine.

While I realise that you use this recipe because it is easier than making hollandaise by hand in a bain-marie, I would suggest that you at least try making it "for real" once before settling on this method. The consistency is so much nicer. I think the flavour is better too but that may only be my imagination.


Can you use CO2 cartridges in a N2O dispenser? UNlike this post (Are N2O and CO2 chargers interchangeable for culinary purposes?) I want to know whether you can use the same dispenser for both carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
I see that the heads look aesthetically similar but is there any technical difference between downward- and upward-facing spouts?
i.e. what would happen if I put water in a cream dispenser and used a CO2 cartridge instead of cream and a N2O cartridge?

In general, yes, but check the manufacturers instructions...if you put water (or any liquid) in a whip cream dispenser, and use a CO2 cartridge,  you can carbonate the liquid...though there is some technique to employ if you want a well-carbonated liquid.


Replace the mouthfeel of consommé in vegetarian soup? In soups that traditionally include a consommé as the base, such as French Onion Soup, what are some ways to replace the mouthfeel of the gelatin-rich stock when converting the recipe to be vegetarian?

Background - I am quite happy with my vegetarian French Onion Soup recipe, using Vegemite to add umami, and homemade vegetable stock for a solid base, but the one aspect left somewhat unsatisfying is the "richness" or unique mouthfeel of the consommé. I know there won't be any perfect replacement, but I need some inspiration. Most discussions on gelatin substitution seem to focus on more obvious gelatin applications (jello-style desserts). I'm hoping that for soup mouthfeel there might be some other options I haven't considered.

Agar...derived from seaweed.  Used in McDonald's milk shakes because it's vegetarian and cheap, lab petri dishes and vegetarian cooking.  Doesn't have a flavour.  You can find it in health food stores but I think many grocery stores are carrying it these days.  Heat it up in water like gelatin and when it cools you have jelly.

You could use Arrowroot to give a slight thickening for texture or even cornstarch but I'm thinking those won't give you quite what you're looking for though Arrowroot will be closer.

I think there is a Chia seed gelatin too but don't have any first hand experience with it.  Chia seeds when soaked in water give off this thick gelatenous substance, very weird to see it happen.  Ask about it at the Health food store too.

Here's a website for a few more substitution ideas.

http://www.vegkitchen.com/tips/vegan-substitutions/

Good luck!


Does resting stew lead to more succulent meat? My wife makes a very delicious chicken curry. Part of the "recipe" is let it rest for 2 hours or so until it reaches room temperature. She claims the meat relaxes and reabsorbs gravy from the curry, making the chicken more tender and succulent. She claims if it is served immediately or chilled in the fridge, it never gets this opportunity.

I've heard of resting steaks or roasts. The idea is getting the moisture that's already inside the meat to stay there. But will resting a stew in fact help make the meat pieces more tender?

It has nothing to do with meat absorbing liquids, that doesn't happen just as you explained it. Once meat has become dry, it doesn't get succulent again by somehow spongeing up liquid. The recipe is right to have you wait before serving though, because the flavors keep improving at least for the first day after cooking a stew. It is about aroma, not about texture.

For more detail, see What causes flavors to "marry"? and What happens chemically when flavours 'mingle'?, probably also other questions.


What sushi-like dish consists of various fish in a light sauce? I recently ate at a sushi restaurant where we just asked for "chef's choice," so we ended up with some dishes and rolls I was not familiar with.  The first one was small pieces of various fish tossed together with a light sauce.  Is there a name for this dish/preparation?

In general, slices of raw fish or other meats are called sashimi.  These are often served un-sauced, but occasionally they are served brushed with any number of soy-based sauces.

From your description, you could also be describing a Japanese-inspired version of a dish very common in Hawaii called Poke.  Poke is most often made with tuna, but could also be made with other fish or seafood.  The other ingredients included in Poke are highly variable.


If I'm reheating things in tins and I don't have enough oven space, can I stack them on top of each other? I'm reheating a bunch of leftovers, all stored in aluminum tins. I don't have enough oven rack space to lay it all out flat. Can I stack the tins?

(Additionally, is it safe to leave on the paper/aluminum covers - the ones that are cardboard on one side and silver on the other?)

As long as the containers can support eachother, it is likely safe to stack them. You biggest issue will be uneven reheating. Containers at the center are likely to remain cold. If you do stack them, insure that you occasionally rotate them. If possible, try to stack them in a way that allows for air flow around them. Stack layers at 90 degree angles.

The flash point of paper is about 450F so you should be fine with the covers.


American pancakes: Why not substitute some wheat flour for starch? please bear with me:
I've only eaten pancakes once (not even in the US), so I might not know how real American pancakes taste like.

In pancake recipes the mantra seems to be not to over-mix the batter because of unwanted gluten formation. If you leave the normal batter a little bit longer uncooked, too much gluten will develop. Hence, I would expect the last pancakes of a batch to be worse than the first few. So I was wondering: Why don't you substitute some wheat flour with pure (potato / corn or even wheat) starch to get a more tender result without worrying about over-mixing? The batter would also stay good to a longer time because resting would be mandatory to let the gluten and starch bloom; one would avoid a too strong gluten-network due to a rest that was accidentally too long. Of course then you will need a double-acting baking powder. (Though I read some additional baking soda is good for browning).

I'm asking because I saw many recipes for German Bundt cakes (those recipes with copious amounts of butter and eggs - resulting in a very heavy batter) that call of starch for a more tender cake.

I think using cake flour or another type of low gluten flour would have the same effect.
But, the gluten (together with the eggs) do help the pancake to hold its shape (shear strength or tensile strength). It needs this strength to withstand getting flipped over and taken off the pan.

In my experience, this gluten talk is a red herring. If you overwork the pancake batter, letting it rest for a while brings it back to normal again.


Cooking in a Gas Oven? I've recently moved into a home with a gas oven, but I've never used a gas oven before. What general differences might I expect compared to cooking in an electric oven? Humidity? Cook times? What rack setting to use? What temperature to use? Different cooking characteristics? Etc.

My experience with gas ovens is that they are much more susceptible to heat 'zones'. The top of the oven is markedly hotter than the bottom, and the back, nearer the flame, is hotter than the front. Other than that they are pretty similar to electric ovens.

Gas ovens may use gas mark settings rather than a temperature scale - converters abound online if so.


Are there any tricks to making a light-textured "whipped cream cake"? During a web search, I found a cake recipe that uses heavy cream instead of butter.

However, when I made it, the cake texture was terrible; thick and doughy even though I tested the cake with a toothpick and the toothpick came out clean.This is the recipe I used:

2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
dash salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/3 cups white sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 8" cake pans; line with parchment paper; grease again.

Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
Using an electric mixer, whisk the cream with the sugar until stiff peaks form. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after the first before adding the second. Stir in the vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Divide batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes, then invert on to cooling racks; re-invert so that the tops of the cakes are facing upwards. Cool completely.

I live in Boulder County, Colorado, so I decreased the sugar to 3/4 cups (I do this routinely, eve when I lived in southern Indiana, because I believe excessive amounts of sugar are used in American baked goods (leavened without yeast).

I WEIGH all ingredients and mixed the cake according to the directions; I folded the flour mixture just until there was no dry flour. What did I do wrong? Are there adjustments that should be made to the recipe, such as increasing the baking temperature? I understand that this type of cake should have a velvety, melt-in-your-mouth texture. How can I make this type of cake successfully?

If the directions say that you should beat your cream and sugar until you have peaks, then whisk in eggs then that may be a possible cause of your results. You've just put loads of air into the cream, then you're supposed to beat eggs into it, which will punch some of the air out. What I would do is beat the eggs separately (I'd not just beat them until mixed but beat them until they start to turn pale, that adds more air), then fold them and the flour into the cream.

Be careful not to overbeat the cream as well, if you overshoot stiff peaks you'll start to turn it to butter, and then you've lost your lift. I'd stop a bit short of stiff peaks, leave it a bit looser.

Leaving that much sugar out without reducing the amount of cream would mean that you've got too much liquid in your cake. If you have too much liquid it won't be able to crystallize and the cake, while it will rise, will not be able to hold shape and will collapse. I would compensate by leaving some of the cream out. If you weigh all the dry ingredients you can work out a ratio of dry to wet ingredients (the eggs and cream separately). Then if you weigh the amount of sugar you plan to remove you can work out how much of a percentage of each wet ingredient to take out. Or you could just wing it and use 1 1/4 cups cream and 1 3/4 eggs and see how it goes, that's probably about right anyway.


Pork chops: low and slow or high and fast? How hot/long should I bake my porkchops (bone-in)? I've done a bit of google searching and have gotten mixed results. Is it better to do the low temp slow baking or high temperature but quick? Why?

Depends a lot on how thick they are. Thinner chops would work well with just a high-temp sear under the broiler. Whereas a thicker (for example, a double-cut chop) would be better with a two-temperature process.

I.e. Bake them until they reach the right temperature at 350 or 400, then finish under the broiler for color and flavor.

Same thing applies if you want to pan-sear first, then bake until they get to your desired internal temp.

A really-long and slow cook (AKA 225 for 4 hours) won't work well with a loin-cut, as it doesn't have enough connective tissue to breakdown.


Prevent noodles from sticking when leftover in fridge and sorry for the basic question but I'm a... basic cook.

I'm trying to replicate a simple meal I buy at the local shop which is fine when eating hot, but when cooling, leaving in the fridge and eating during the week, the noodles always stick together.

These are the noodles I use - and I cook it with chicken, sweet chilli sauce and other veg etc. I've read drizzling in olive oil helps but it didn't help me, so I assumed that's when cooking and not when putting into tubs to keep during the week.

I have also read that instead you should cook the noodles separate, then rinse them - now I haven't tried this yet as when cooking my noodles I add herbs/spices etc, wouldn't then rinsing wash the flavours off the noodles?

Or am I supposed to rinse first and then throw into the saucepan with the flavours from the chicken etc, and then add my flavourings?

Thanks in advance!

(I will eat the noodles cold the next day, no need to reheat).

The cooking method for the noodles you're using says:

  Allow 1 block of noodles per person.
  Plunge them into a pan of boiling water and simmer for 4 minutes.
  Drain well and toss in a splash of soy sauce.

  When serving as part of a stir-fry: Rinse in cold water, drain, then add to the wok, tossing all ingredients together just before serving for a spectacular stir-fry with masses of flavour.

The first part of the method i.e. cooking the noodles separately is for when you want to use them plain.

The second paragraph of the method is what would be applicable in your situation. Cook your chicken/veg with the flavorings. Rinse the noodles in cold water, drain and then add to the pan mixing everything together just before serving.

When you cook the noodles with other ingredients without rinsing the noodles first, the starch washed off the noodles causes them to stick. So Yes, you're supposed to rinse them first.


What's the point of "cheese alternative" that has dairy in it? I was at Trader Joe's again, and I bought this cheese alternative.  Being hungry out of my mind, the thought to check the ingredients never crossed it.  Now I, a vegan, am stuck with having to eat a "cheese alternative" that contains the following (lest a portion of my finite grocery budget be spent in vain):

Almond base

Filtered water
Crushed organic almonds

Casein

Milk protein

Expeller pressed canola oil
Modified potato starch
Natural Parmesan cheese flavor (adds a trivial amount of lactose)

Parmesan cheese
Pasteurized milk
Cheese cultures
Salt
Enzyme
Water
Salt
Xanthan gum

Vegetable glycerin
Sodium phosphate
Sea salt
Citric acid
Psyllium husk (a plant fiber)
Calcium phosphate

My question is this: What is the purpose of a cheese substitute that contains dairy?  It's not suitable for people allergic to or otherwise averse to dairy  Apparently it is, to an extent.  So what's the thought process behind the development and release of this product?

Lactose intolerance (which is different from a milk allergy, which is a smaller group) comes in varying degrees, so this may be useful for people who can have a bit of lactose (who can process casein fine).

For example, many lactose intolerant people (who often avoid dairy) can handle non-dairy creamer fine (and varying amounts of cheese), even though it has casein. Many cheese substitutes still do use casein.

The parmesan adds glutemates to the mix, while casein gives a lot of structural properties to cheese (like melting ability for real cheese).


How to replace icing sugar and glucose in a cake icing? I love cooking especially sweets but I'm not a professional.

This time I tried to make ready-to-roll icing for the first time to decorate cupcakes but it was horrible (I used crystallized sugar instead of icing sugar which I can't find and another kind of syrup instead of liquid glucose which i can't find either) so the dough was barely holding together.

So here is my question: What can I replace liquid glucose and icing sugar with?

PS. I live in a country where it is hard to find this kind of ingredients.

If you cannot find these ingredients, it will be hard to get this type of icing made.

The first thing is the liquid glucose. If you used any old thing labelled "syrup", chances are that it contained water, and this is what made your mix a sugar. Liquid glucose is mostly sugar, with almost no wetness to it. Substituting something very wet will not work.

Things which will work instead of glucose syrup are agave syrup, treacles, corn syrup, mollasses, golden syrup and honey. You should be aware that most of those will give you a more or less strong coloring and will have a bit of taste on its own. It depends on the type of your cupcakes whether the taste fits them. Corn syrup and golden syrup will be the best alternatives, but they are also less popular around the world.

The other thing is the sugar. It absolutely must be in a powdered form. Crystals won't work. If you have a food processor, just put the crystalized sugar in there and process it. Use it immediately, or it will fuse together due to air moisture.

But you may still be able to find icing sugar. It is just another word for powdered sugar, and it is used in Middle Eastern cuisine (your profile says Lebanon), for example for dusting lokum, but also in some halva recipes. If you can find a confectioner who does these things, you can ask them for a source of powdered sugar.

If you cannot find ingredients which produce an acceptable quality of icing, you can also try other types of icing recipes for decoration. Most do use powdered sugar for easier incorporation, but some are made with sugar dissolved in a liquid.


Swedish/Finnish dinner pancakes I was reading a Moomin book (Comet in Moominland) recently and there was a part in which Moomintroll and Sniff fry up some pancakes for dinner (40). I don't know if these are normal pancakes or if they're meant for dinner, but if possible, could you give me the name of this type of pancake (if it is in fact a different type of pancake)?

Here's the original:

-Ole varovainen, sanoi Muumimamma Muumille tämän lähtiessä.
-Tule pian takaisin, minä teen lettuja iltapalaksi.
Be careful, said Moominmamma to Moomintroll as he was leaving. Come back soon, I'm making lettu for an evening snack.

The Finnish lettu here is essentially the same as the French crepe.  In Finland, they're typically eaten for dessert, in which case they're sweet and served with jam (always) and whipped cream (often), although there are also savoury variants that mix in spinach, blood (!), etc.
Also note that the word iltapala (literally "evening piece") is a bit ambiguous, but usually implies a snack, not a full-sized meal.


Separating Chlorophyll didn't work I tried to extract chlorophyll from spinach by blending up some spinach and water and straining out the green juice, then heating the juice.  I've done it before, but this time, it wouldn't separate. Does it not work if you overheat it?  I brought it to the boil and I'm wondering if that was the problem.

This author says to avoid overheating or boiling the green juice.  I suspect that your end product is actually clumps of chloroplasts not chlorophyll.  Overheating or boiling the chloroplasts could destroy their delicate membranes and allow the chlorophyll molecules to mix into the liquid.  It is not water soluble though, so you may be able to collect it using something like filter paper instead of a mesh strainer.

Boiling can also lead to conversion of chlorophyll to phaeophytin, a olive-green pigment.


How to recover a cast-iron pot? I heated up a cast-iron pot in an oven and might have burnt the lid. Is it possible to restore it back to its formal glory?

That is an enameled cast iron pot. I often have the same issue and find that it fairly easily comes off using a green 3M nylon scrub, a little dish soap and some elbow grease. If necessary you can also apply some baking powder or Bar Keeper's Friend.

It shouldn't take too much effort to get it off.


Why should food be frozen quickly? I was reading one of the articles in Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader about the history of harvested ice and ice houses. The article mentioned that electrical freezers and refrigeration only entered widespread use because someone realized that food needs to be frozen quickly for it to be most effective.

Why does the speed of freezing affect the quality of the frozen food?

Two Reasons:

1.) The faster the food drops below the 'Danger Zone' the less spoilage it will have

If it takes that freshly-cut steak 2 hours to cool down from cow-body-temperature to a safe 40F, that's more spoilage and less shelf-life for the product. A rapid chill-down means a more valuable product.

2.) Ice-crystals damage food, and the faster water freezes, the smaller the ice-crystals

If the temperature of the water drops slowly, the water-molecules will have time to organize themselves into nice, neat rows (imagine a big snowflake). At a microscopic level, these ice-crystals will puncture cell-membranes and cell-walls, damaging the food and affecting texture.

If, on the other hand, the temperature drops rapidly, the ice-crystals will form more haphazardly, with less well-organized crystals. This means fewer ice-javelins stabbing into your food.

Try an experiment sometime: take a serving of ice-cream out of your freezer, let it melt completely,  put it in an airtight container, then toss it back in the freezer. Let it freeze completely and taste it. The flavor will be roughly the same, but the texture will be much worse. There will be big, crunchy ice-crystals throughout.

The big-time ice-cream makers invest in heavy-duty freezing tech that allows them to freeze the ice-cream faster, and with smaller crystals, the less-granular, and more creamy this tastes.


Soppressata, prosciutto, and other meats; how is it safe? Call me naive, but isn't this essentially uncooked meat? Reading how prosciutto is prepared now, and I don't see any cooking involved, just salting, pressing, and letting sit, sometimes for years. Leaving food out for years at a time should make it accrue mold or etc.

Why doesn't it go bad, and why is it safe to eat? This isn't just for prosciutto, but soppressata, capicola, and more.

FWIW, these are some of my favorite things to eat in or accompanying a sandwich. I just don't grasp how they don't make you sick as raw meat would.

Salting, fermenting and drying render these products safe.  Always salting (including sodium nitrite, also known as pink salt) and always drying.  This creates an inhospitable atmosphere for unsafe organisms.  That would cover dried/cured meat products like prosciutto, pancetta or bacon.  Most salumi are also fermented, which produces that pleasant, slightly sour taste...and further increases safety by creating an acidic environment.


Storing fresh peaches for a long time We just picked a bunch of peaches off our peach tree this morning. There is additional fruit left on the tree and we already have more than we can eat in the next few days. Is there a process I can use to store these peaches for a long time (freezing or otherwise)?

Freezing

1) Wash and peel the ripened peaches. Peel them the same way you do tomatoes - boil water, drop the peaches in for 1 minute, then drop them into ice water. The skin should just slide right off.  Slice in half and remove pits. You can leave them in halves, quarter them, or slice them. I prefer slices.
2) Mix w/ sugar & ascorbic acid. Dissolve 1/4 tsp ascorbic acid (available in canning section at grocery store) in 3 TB cold water; mix this along with 2/3 cup sugar into each quart of peaches.
3) Pack into freezer containers or baggies, leaving headspace (room for expansion during freezing).

Canning

1) Same as step one above.
2) Fill hot, sterilized canning jars with fruit and hot water (or juice or syrup - syrup), leaving 1/2 inch headspace. You can make canning syrup for peaches by combining 6 1/2 cups water with 3/4 cup sugar.
3) Put on lids and process. You must use a pressure canner for peaches.
4) You'll want to check out this link for processing times, as the time and pressure depends on your altitude and the type of canning pot you use.


Chinese chicken balls - should the chicken be precooked? There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to cooking Chinese chicken balls. Some chefs pre-cook the raw chicken in simmering water (in a similar way to BIR take-away chefs) before coating and frying, others just coat the raw chicken batter and deep fry.
Which is the most authentic method used in Chinese restaurants? The only reason I can think of pre-cooking is to eliminate any risk of the chicken being undercooked, while the latter would allow for a more flavoursome chicken by using a marinade etc.

I think this is a heavily westernized version of, em, Chinese "chicken balls" (鸡球 ji qiu). The more authentic version comes without the thick batter; instead it's just slightly coated with potato starch. Also, they're not served directly as a dish, but instead used as an intermediate ingredient; you can make, for example, kung pao chicken balls, sweet and sour chicken balls, or spicy chicken balls. (That should explain the lack of batter.)
But in any case, no, you should definitely not precook the chicken. With or without the batter, the deep frying is enough to cook the chicken. If your chicken is precooked, then it is going to become overcooked.


Too big tin for meringue cake recipe. How to solve? So I have this recipe for a hazelnut meringue cake. It asks for an 18cm tin. However, I only have a 24cm tin. I went to the shop today but they do not have a 18cm tin. So i guess there are several other possible options.

I could make more of the recipe using the 24cm tin. However the surface of the meringue will be about 2.25x the meringue then when using the 18 cm tin. So does that mean I have to use over 2 times the amount of ingredients? Or won't that work?

An other option is not using a tin at all. I actually thought that you do not need a tin for making meringue. So I can just draw an 18cm circle and put the mixture on the baking tray. Will this work or not? I have very little experience with meringue so far.

Two meringues will be made with (original recipe for 18 cm tin):
-3 egg whits
-175 golden caster sugar
-85 grams chopped roasted hazelnuts.

Which idea will work? Or is there a better idea?

-edit-

So I draw a circle and put the maringue mixture on. It worked out very well!
The cake turned out delicious.
Thanks for the feed back.

Both solutions will work.

If you are making more mering, then make sure the thickness of the meringue layer in stays the same as for the small tin. If you scale the recipe correctly this happens automatically.

I think your math is off though. The area of your 24 inch tin is only 1.77 times larger than the 18 inch pan.

Assuming your pan is round: The area of the large pan is pi*24^2 and the area of the small is pi*18^2 the ratio is therefore pi*24^2 / pi*18^2 = 24^2 / 18^2 = (24/18)^2 = 1.77 .

If your pan is square the (almost) same computation will give the same result.


Plant-based sources of Vitamin B-12? Vitamin B-12 deficiency (used to be called "pernicious anemia") is a risk of being a vegan. Are there any plant-based sources of Vitamin B-12? If not, why? Can one "grow" Vitamin B-12?

Vitamin B12 is stored in the liver and muscle of animals, and is also passed on to eggs and milk, so these are good sources for non-vegans. Humans produce B12 in the gut, but cannot absorb it. Many other animals produce it in the gut too, so unwashed plants that have been fertilized with animal feces may be a source of B12. However, there are many other reasons to wash your plants before eating them.

Some plants (spirulina, for example) has been touted as a plant-based B12 alternative but is inadequate for most people. As vegans, our best bet is synthesized B12. You can't synthesize it yourself, so no, you can't "grow" it at home, if that's what you mean. Where I live, vegan B12 is available both through the internet and in pharmacies, but I don't know the situation in your country.

The Vegan Society has useful information about B12, as does VeganHealth.org. The Vegan RD has a section about cyanocobalamin versus methylcobalamin if you want to dive into the details.


Should parboiled rice be washed/rinsed before cooking? Should parboiled rice be washed or rinsed before cooking? If yes, on average how many times it should be washed. Should it be rinsed in water for more than 10 minutes?

Par boiled should not be rinsed, it is ready to be cooked as-is.

It was already rinsed and cleaned and, erm, par boiled.

If unsure, check the instruction on the package.


What type of cheese is used on Patsy's Old Fashioned Margherita Pizza I am trying to figure out the specific type of cheese used on the Patsy's Old Fashioned Margherita pizza.  I don't think it's buffalo or another fresh mozzarella because they appear to be thin slices.
The description of the pizza on their website's menu just says "mozzarella."
Any guesses?

You can buy firm, sliced [or grated, of course] mozzarella in supermarkets for sandwiches or pizza topping.
[I've never tried it, I can't imagine it would be to my taste] but I see no reason it couldn't be some commercial application of 'firm' mozzarella, as opposed to trying to slice the good stuff, supplied in its own whey, which I use for everything from tricolore/caprese to pizza topping.
Wikipedia describes this as "Low-moisture part-skim mozzarella" which sounds… ermm… delicious ;)

Low-moisture part-skim mozzarella, widely used in the food-service industry, has a low galactose content, per some consumers' preference for cheese on pizza to have low or moderate browning. Some pizza cheeses derived from skim mozzarella variants were designed not to require aging or the use of starter. Others can be made through the direct acidification of milk.


What happens to cheese below 0°C and above +8°C? What happens to cheese if I transport it in cold temperature (below 0°C, up to -20°C) for 5-7 hours?

What if it's at +10°C for 5-7 hours?

Can it go bad? If it does, do cool bags solve the issue of cheese going bad?

Though my answer won't go into the "technical" side of things as Lorel C.'s answer, I can answer from experience.

I regularly travel to The Netherlands and when coming back I'll always bring cheese back with me on the flight. (Flight duration ~4,5-5 hours)
I've brought back all kinds of cheeses, last time I brought a block of yellow Gouda cheese, block of Danablu cheese and 2 kinds of parmesan cheeses.
I've never noticed any tangible difference in quality of the cheeses after travelling and they stay good for at least the stated shelf life of the cheese.

What I tend to do is:

Make sure the cheeses are vacuum packed.

Helps store the cheese and ensure if any fats dissolve from the cheese they don't ruin anything in my suitcase.

Wrap them in bubble wrap.

I find this to be more flexible a packaging compared to a coolbag and as a bonus it doesn't add much extra weight.

Keep the cheese for as long as possible in the fridge before the flight.

I.e. put them in your suitcase just before you leave to the airport, but do make sure you left enough space for them :)

I personally haven't tried freezing the cheese as I'm worried that would ruin the cheese so I can't quote experience on that.


Instant espresso powder substitutions? Many recipes for chocolate baked goods call for instant espresso powder. I rarely bake, but I always have coffee in the house. What might I use as a rule of thumb for substituting for instant espresso powder?

I know I could substitute regular coffee for any liquids, but that could add too much liquid to some recipes. Would double or triple strength brewed (or French Press) coffee work? Is the flavor significantly different in the instant powder than in brewed coffee? Or is it simply the quick dissolve and the lack of liquid that makes the powder appealing in baking?

I've struggled with this issue as well because I live in a moist climate and instant espresso powder cakes up on me between uses.

Generally recipes which use instant espresso power are trying to add a kick of bitter and roasted flavors to deepen chocolate flavors and make them richer.  You can try substituting instant coffee 1:1, but the flavor of the baked good will certainly suffer a loss of richness. Increasing the amount of instant coffee, however, would likely add more bitter or acidic flavors -- and caffeine -- to the cookie or cake than you want.  Also, instant coffee takes longer to dissolve, so it needs to be added straight to a liquid.

There's no real way to substitute liquid coffee in most recipes, such as chocolate cookie or brownie recipes, because the recipe has no water in it in the first place.  In the rare recipes where there is water, you could substitute strong-brewed coffee for an equal quantity of water+espresso powder, and this would likely work fairly well.

So, summing up: there's no really good substitute for instant espresso powder in recipes which call for it that I've found with some significant experimentation.  Hopefully someone else has had better ideas than me.


How to cook waffles intended for freezer-then-toaster? I intend to cook a bunch of waffles to be stored in the freezer and later retrieved for warming in a toaster or on the racks of a hot oven. I want a homemade version of an Eggo.

Should I initially cook the waffles thoroughly, all the way to crispy as evidenced by steam ceasing to escape? Or should they be less cooked, intentionally undercooked?

And how long to let them cool before bagging into the freezer?

I want to to end up with a crisp/crunch to the waffles but without them getting dried out like cardboard.

We always make extra waffles for later use. For short term storage (1 - 2 days) I put them in the fridge. For anything longer I freeze them.

You definitely do not want to fully cook the waffles as they will become hard when you reheat them. (Especially if you like them crispy.) So to your point, intentionally undercook them. I usually cook them to about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way done.

Re cooling them, you want them completely cooled before bagging them. Otherwise you risk condensation inside your bag. You can use a cooling rack or, as I do sometimes, put them on the oven racks in a cold oven. (You would only put them on a hot oven rack if you wanted to keep them warm.)

When your waffles are completely cooled either bag them individually or, if you want to put more than one in a bag, make sure you have a sheet of parchment, wax paper, or foil between them.


Smoking a blade steak I live in Australia where smoked BBQ isn't really common. I asked the butcher what he'd recommend for smoking and he suggested a blade steak (I believe it was). It weighs about 1.5kg / 3.3 pounds.

I'd like to smoke it tomorrow at my parents. My brother has a cheap smoker, http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/products/master-forge-charcoal-smoker, that he bought from a hardware store. There are also hickory wood chips.

I've only smoked once before (some lamb shoulder, I think it was) and, given that I'm quite new to this, feel a bit overwhelmed from the info online.

How would you recommend that I proceed? Do I marinate the meat overnight? Use a dry rub? Should sauce and baste as I go? Do I need to create a foil tent? How long can I expect it to take? What temperature am I looking at?

Any advice will be appreciated. :)

A blade steak is cut from the Chuck. It will have a great deal of connective tissue, so it is an appropriate cut of meat for slow-ish smoking. I would recommend about 250-275F (121-135C) as a cooking temperature. It should take about 2 hours, give or take, depending on the thickness of your steaks. Hit them up with some dry rub or salt and pepper prior to cooking. Put the steaks on the smoker, and start checking on them at about the 1.5 hour mark. You don't want to make pulled beef, so when you put a probe or skewer through the steak, it should go through with a little resistance (unlike when you are making pulled pork, for example, where you want to feel absolutely no resistance when you slide the probe through the meat). When you think the steaks are about done, paint them with your favorite sauce, if you like, and leave them on the smoker for another 15 minutes or so.

It's a little more nuanced than smoking a whole shoulder, but not enough to be intimidating. You want the finished product to be nearly fork tender, but not falling apart. However, err on the side of cooking too long, versus not enough, and you'll be happy.


Leaving the ladle in the soup considered harmful? There's this belief in my family that leaving the ladle in the soup is bad, but nobody actually seem to know why it would be bad; it's really just a persistent piece of family lore. I never really cared one way or another, but it really started bugging me now that I've started cooking.

Is it just a myth? Or is it indeed harmful in any way to leave the ladle in the soup for any extended period of time? And if so, why? Food safety issues? Maybe outdated food safety issues from the times ladles weren't made of stainless steel? Or it's just seen as impolite?

Maybe because the ladle gets hot and could burn someone?


What to serve at a cheese tasting? I'm arranging a cheese tasting for 10 adults in a few weeks, mostly hard Italian cheeses, and I'm wondering what to serve with it?  I want the taste of the cheese to come through, but I also want people to taste the cheese as they would eat it normally, too.

Some thoughts I've had (mostly traditional cheese accompaniments): tart apples, dried fruit (apricots), prosciutto

Most of us are not big wine drinkers, so I'm not too concerned about that.  If there is something non-alcoholic drink-wise to recommend, though, that would be good.

In case it is relevant, the cheeses I'm thinking of bringing are: Provolone (domestic & imported), Parmigiano-Reggiano plus a domestic Paremsan, Pecorino Romano plus Locatelli (not sure if there's a difference), Asiago, Piave and maybe a 1-year-old and 3-year-old Cabot.

Usually a cheese tasting would have more variety in terms of texture and flavour and you'd progress from the mild to the stronger.  However, if your goal is to compare a lot of similar cheeses to contrast with each other, you'll need to have more palate cleansing and balancing in between each cheese.

A lot of the cheeses that you're considering are aged ones, which tend to be quite sharp and salty. For the harder/saltier cheeses, acidic accompaniments will be important.  Things like granny smith apples and tomatoes would be ideal.  Something juicy and thirst quenching like melon (or the tomato) would also be important to include.  Proscuitto, while yummy, would probably just add more sharp saltiness to an already overwhelmed palate.

As for dried fruits, another classic for cheese courses is dates since the sweetness makes a nice contrast.  You might want to consider including something like a raisin bread as well as crackers for serving the cheeses.  Chutney is delicious on crackers with cheese and could help balance the fact that most hard cheeses are eaten as a garnish more than on their own (e.g. on a salad, on pasta, etc).  However, this might interfere with the "tasting" atmosphere you're aiming for.

If you want to pair with something non-alcoholic, a sparkling water is probably a good place to start since the fizz will be refreshing and the water won't introduce any other flavours to the palate.


What is this? Fresh Kale looks to have small sprouting seeds, although looks similar to insect eggs Picked up from farmer's market yesterday. Not sure if organic.

No smell. Slimey texture. Strong grip. A few have started to sprout.

About 4 on this one leaf. Other leafs have none.

Any idea what they could be?

Thanks for the nice picture! They don't look like insect eggs to me. The one at the bottom of the photo, with the little groove/stripe down the middle & the sprout, looks like a seed, not of kale, but maybe some kind of grain. The one nearer the top, by your thumb, not sure. Maybe just strays from the field or the back of the truck. Wash your kale; I'm sure it's fine.


Should I salt water for cooking pastas based on the volume of water or amount of food? I was wondering if I should estimate the amount of salt I need proportionally to the volume of water or to the amount of pasta?

The water....but no need to be super precise. You should be able to taste the salt. Under or unsalted pasta water results in a flat tasting pasta.  However, it is possible to over salt the water, resulting in over-salted pasta.


Does the vendors’ storage method affect shellfish quality? For the same shellfish (like Little Neck clams),

Some supermarkets keep them  in tanks with running water:

While other supermarkets fridge them dry, without water:

Does the storage method affect the quality of the product, and if yes, how? As a consumer, which is preferable?

Temperature is the most important factor in shellfish storage.

Also, keeping shellfish in fresh water (compared to sea water) is not a good thing.

From the British Columbia Center for Disease Control  (pdf)

"Do not put live shellfish in a closed container or into fresh water (the shellfish will suffocate and die)".

Anecdotal, most of the shellfish I've seen in either supermarkets or in specialty stores are either directly on ice or in pans over ice; but never under running water or in water.


How should fully cooked refrigerator stored chicken be reheated to retain moisture? Why do instructions to reheat already properly cooked and stored chicken say to check internal temperature to 165 if you want to warm it up? The logic escapes me here, does anyone have a clue they can share with me?
The chicken has been already cooked. And is loveingly know as "leftovers". Good in the fridge for 4-5 days and in the freezer much longer. I was looking for a way to keep it moist while wanting to heat it and did not expect this other issue to develop in the process. All the directions on the internet say to check internal temperature for 165 degrees for an already cooked chicken. My logic tells me I don't have to heat it at all, it's already cooked I can just as easily make a cold chicken sandwhich with it. According to google if I choose to have it warm instead of cold then all of a sudden it decides to grow bacteria. Maybe take google with a grain of salt?

Fist, what do you mean by "proper?"  If your chicken was correctly cooked, then chilled to refrigeration temperatures within the window for food safety, and stored within the window of safety, you can obviously eat it directly from the refrigerator...or warm it and eat it.  No significant bacteria are going to grow, for example, if you remove it from the fridge, stick it in the microwave (or in pan on a stove) and warm it for a few minutes, and eat it. There is just not enough time for anything to incubate.  Again, the preceding assumes that you've followed general food safety protocols for your raw product, preparation, cooking, and storage...and you are consuming within the storage life of your food.
Now, if you've got some time, and your goal is to reheat to have an experience as close to the original cooking as possible, the then best tool is to use a sous vide device.  It is the most gentle and thorough tool for this job.  This is a good explanation.  All you have to do is set the device to a degree or two under the original doneness temperature, bag it, and put it in the bath.  It's the path toward moist leftover chicken...among other things.


Can Thermomix(-style) appliances knead dough well? I make italian-style pizza, by kneading the dough in a bread machine. The machine does a very good job (it works it for around 45 minutes), much better than I could do with my hands, and using a pizza stone oven, I can make a pizza that is very close to a traditional one.

Now, I was evaluating the purchase of a Thermomix-style appliance, so I was wondering - can such machines knead dough well?

(Note that I searched on the internet, but the most common type of home-made pizza is the thick one; I'm interested instead in the results for the traditional italian one - a few mm thick)

German article about different kneading appliances: https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/05/13/von-klebern-krume-und-knetern-sechs-knetmaschinen-im-praxistest/

In short: Thermomix is okay but leads to a warmer dough than others because of the motor being placed right below the bowl.

Others knead from above, so the dough stays cooler. Cooler dough means more time to proof, means more taste in your bread.

If you want your appliance mainly for kneading, there are better alternatives. He recommends the Kenwood Major or Kenwood Cooking Chef. The Cooking Chef has the advantage of a heating element (like the Thermomix), which is useful for special baking stuff like a "Malzstück" (malt-piece?, introduces a malty taste and needs cooking for longer time on a precise temperature).


Cast iron pan rusts during seasoning I had a cast iron pan that I wanted to strip and reseason. I stripped it using the oven cleaner method and then I dried it in the oven at 200C. It got super rusty but I was able to get that all off with oil and a paper towel. The oil I am using is a mix of Canola and Soybean.

This is where the problems start. So I oiled it (just a thin layer and wiped up the excess) and put it in the oven at 400C for two hours. It came out with this dark orange rusty color. Its certainly got a layer of seasoning on it. Wiping it with a paper towel doesnt surface any rust.

So I stripped it with vinegar. While it was still wet I coated it in a bunch of oil. Then I stuck it in the oven at 200 for 15-20 minutes. When it came out there was just a touch of rust. That came off with more oil and elbow grease. Then I added a thick layer of oil, I didnt wipe it off. This time I cooked it at 400C for an hour and a half AND THERE IS STILL THE RUSTY SHEEN.

What am I doing wrong?

You never removed the initial rust layer from stripping the seasoning. Wiping it down with oil and a paper towel will just mask the appearance of the rust, not remove it. To remove the rust, you will need to scrub the entire pan with something abrasive, such as steel wool.

Edit: You may find the answers to this related question useful.


How to season / care for a Bundt pan? I just got a new cast-aluminum Bundt pan and I want to take care of it so my bundts don't stick. Does anyone have any helpful advise about how to season and clean the bundt pan?

Bundt pans (and cake pans in general) are not normally seasoned in any way.

Instead, they are greased and floured each time you make a cake.  The traditional method is to apply butter or oil to the interior (the easiest way is melted butter and a pastry brush, but you can also use wax paper or even clean fingers to apply solid butter).

Then you flour it by putting several tablespoons of flour inside the bundt pan, turning and shaking until it is well floured, then shaking out the excess.

Oil or solid vegetable shortening may be substituted for the butter.

In my experience, 99% of the time, using a simple spray oil will do the job just as well, with much less fuss and mess.