How do you minimize the heat loss from adding meat to a hot pan? Yesterday as soon as I added 2 chicken breast fillets to a 350°F (175°C) pan (the oil) it dropped all the way to 250°F (120°C). And it took forever for the heat to climb back up.

Is there a way to minimize the heat you lose when you add ingredients?

Yes, you need to place the meat in a system which can keep more heat. This means 1) more mass, and 2) less conduction.

This is generally done with cast iron pans, because they are great for that purpose. You have to wait until they are properly heated, but once they are there, adding food does not faze them and they keep the original temperature pretty steadily.

Also, if you use too little oil, the oil itself will cool down quickly. Fill the pan generously, to come a bit above half of the chicken breasts, and then you will see much less heat loss. You can also deep fry them, which keeps the temperature really stable, but then you need something much deeper than a pan for safety reasons.


How much salt does fish in brine absorb? Suppose you brine fish e.g. tuna and then eat the tuna raw i.e. uncooked.  Would salt have penetrated completely into the tissues or would only the surface be salty because it is coated with salt water?

If I am looking for complete penetration of a fish which can be eaten raw, which fish should i use and how should I process it?

Thanks

There are a number of factors that will contribute to how well the salt penetrates the interior of the piece of fish including thickness of the fish, types of tissue that have to be penetrated, and length of brine.  The skin creates a significant barrier to salt penetration and the solution will penetrate the meat from its face and from its leaner side. After brining there will be more salt near the lean face than near the skin area. In order to get the most even salt penetration remove the skin, cut the pieces thin like sushi or ceviche, and brine in a 15% salt solution for 2-3 hours.  For even penetration you need even contact on both sides of the meat so you either need to suspend the pieces in the solution, or flip them at regular intervals.

The surface will always be saltier than the core, but with thinner pieces and sufficient time the difference will be negligible.

If you want to use larger pieces you will need to extend the time.  Consider combining a soaking brine with injections of the brine solution into the meat itself.

You could brine any kind of fish that you would find in a sushi restaurant, just make sure it is as fresh as possible.

EDIT:

After reading citizens comment I was able to find this site which states that salted herring typically has a salt concentration of 7-13%, however this article's abstract leads me to believe that a dry cure then brine combination may be responsible for the higher salt concentration.  According an article about hams and sausages, wet curing methods can reach salt concentrations up to 26%, but maximum weight gain is reached with a salt concentration around 5%.  The first site also notes that salt concentrations above 7% are considered unpalatable by most people.


how do you get sushi rice to not stick to your hands? I am laying out my sushi rice by forming it into a ball with my hands and spreading it on the nori. I watched some video tutorials on this, and it seems like the rice is not sticking to the chef's hands. How do you not get the rice to stick to your hands?

Keep your hands wet. I usually use a small bowl of water next to my prep area, and dip my fingers in whenever things get sticky.


Uncooked Pickled Fish: Can I recook it? I made pickled salmon a few days ago.  I clearly did not cook it enough before pickling it for four days in vinegar. It is basically raw and completely falling apart.

Can I recook it now by boiling it in its own pickling juice, or is that not a smart thing to do?

I wouldn't eat it as leaving it raw with such a weak pickling solutiong for multiple days is somewhat risky. A general rule for pickling solution should be 1:1 water to vinegar, and if your fish still seems completely raw the acid was not strong enough to denature any proteins on its own so I wouldn't trust its germ killing potential.


Cake sinks in the middle when baking. Only happens when I make a Coca-Cola Cake When making a coca-cola cake I follow the directions exactly.  But when it comes out of the oven it appears all the miniature marshmellows went to the center and sank.  Hard to frost when the middle is sunken in.  What am I doing wrong?

Without looking at the recipe, I can't know for sure, but I have a couple of ideas. First idea is to check your oven temperature. Oftentimes ovens will run hot or cold, and you might not know it for years. Get an oven thermometer and match the pre-heat temperature to the temperature on the thermometer. That will help your cakes bake more exactly.

Next idea. You may be putting too much leavening in the cake. Too much baking soda or baking powder could cause your cake to fall, and it also can impact the flavor.


How to make a cake less dense So I've just recently started baking and I've tried a bunch of cakes using the basic combination of the following ingredients:

225g unsalted butter , softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour

They're coming out ok but are not really "light and airy", a bit too "dense" compared to a cake made by a pro.  I've done some reading and I think I'm maybe not working the butter and sugar (eggs too?) for long enough and/or working the flour in too much.

Can anyone tell me how to make the perfect light and airy cake?

What you are making is a pound cake. Or maybe a sponge cake, depends on the order of mixing the ingredients. Of the two, the sponge cake is somewhat lighter, so if you have been making pound cake (cream butter and sugar, add eggs, then flour), you can switch to sponge (foam eggs and sugar, add flour and fat). But both are hearty homemade cakes, they are supposed to be dense.

The iced cakes you get in a bakery are much lighter, because they use a different type of layer. Most types of cake are lighter than pound and sponge cakes. Try making genoise, chiffon, or angel food cake layers, they are all light. And yes, using cake flour will help too, or replacing part of the flour in the recipe with pure starch (usually cornstarch or potato starch, you can also use wheat starch if you can get it. Tapioca or arrowroot aren't that well suited). For a real "pro" taste, also throw in some lecithine, it makes the mouthfeel softer and smoother - but if you don't feel like hunting around for lecithine, don't bother, a good homemade cake doesn't really need it, I only mentioned it because you asked about "cake made by a pro".


What is the highest melting temperature of chocolate? A pure chocolate bar will always melt at 33 Celsius, as several of my books assure me.

But an answer to another question claims that there are chocolates with a higher melting point.

What kind of chocolate can do this? What does it contain? How much actual chocolate would be inside it, and what is the rest made of? What is the highest melting temperature which can be achieved by such a product? What would be some generic terms for it - if I wanted some and went to a chocolate shop, what would I have to ask for?

The typical tricks used by chocolate manufacturers is to change the viscosity of chocolate by adding a gel like xanthan gum or glycerine. The other trick is to incorporate more water into the chocolate with the aid of an emulsifier such as lecithin. All these techniques are hard to do at home as they require many hours of stirring the chocolate to avoid grittiness. Patents often give recipes.

One can buy chocolate with higher melting points. Callebaut Volcano melts at 55°C, the highest melting point for a commercial chocolate that I know of, but is not yet on sale. Many of the commercial chocolate bars, such as the wartime Hershey's Tropical Bar use chocolate that incorporate these techniques as do the Nestle Toll House morsels.


Tapioca flour pizza crust is gummy? I'm not sure if it's either too thick, not baked alone long enough, or a reactuon to adding a hand made sauce....

Well, first things first... as I mentioned in my comment, tapioca flour gets gummy when heated. That's expected.
In Brazil we do have something called just tapioca, and otherwise known as tapioca crepe that's made with hydrated tapioca flour spread on a pan and heated until all it sticks together and forms a "crepe" of sorts Picture here, so you can see the gummy inside

One more thing about expectations: your recipe is for a crispy crust, it will not get to the same texture as "regular" pizza crust (elastic and fluffy).

A few ways for you to lessen the gummy texture

Add a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. This will aerate the mixture and prevent the tapioca flour from gelatinizing;
Flip the dough and add the toppings on the side that was in contact with the pan. You know how the cake usually crusts on the bottom and the sides? That will protect your dough from moisture a little bit more.


How can I fix a bitter raw leek soup? My son just got his braces adjusted and in a panic to make him a lunch for school, I made the following soup in my vitamix with what I had on hand. The problem is that the soup is very bitter (raw leek I suspect). I usually sauté the leeks first but didn't have time this morning. If I cook it on the stove, will the bitter taste go away? What if I blended in a head of raw broccoli?

Here are my ingredients:
1 raw leek...stalk and all,
1 small avocado,
2 stalks of celery,
About 8 cherry tomatoes,
½ cup of potato and garlic mash from a previous dinner,
about 1 cup of ready made chicken broth.

The consistency is awesome. I just need to fix the bitter taste and nastiness of eating raw onions! Thanks for your suggestions.

Raw leeks are quite strong and will mellow if cooked, so get it up to temperature for awhile and see where you get. I suspect that will get you much of the way there. If not, some mild acidity will help, adding a squeeze of lemon juice may do it for you.


Solid honey in dragon's beard candy? I saw a video of a street vendor making dragon's beard candy in Korea and at the beginning he started with what he described as a block of "fermented honey two weeks" and a bowl of corn starch:

The honey is quite solid, like a lump of plastic (he knocked it against the walls of the display stand).

How is it that he obtained solid honey?

I have read that honey will rapidly crystallize if it is unpasteurized. Is that what this is? Raw, unpasteurized honey, that has been allowed to sit for two weeks?

I've imported a dragon beard candy product from Hong Kong in the increasingly-distant past. The company I worked with used a maltose-based solution that had been boiled (wheat germ sugar). They'd typically heat the puck in a microwave or hot water bath before shaping the dragon beard candy so that it would be soft enough to work, but still have the tensile strength to hold together while stretching and pulling.

I would seriously doubt that uncooked honey, even fermented, would be sufficient to obtain the structure required for dragon beard candy. What honey does provide, though, assuming this is 100% honey, is a good mix of fructose, maltose and glucose to help control crystallization as it cools. It's not clear to me whether that vendor (I presume you're referring to the one in Insadong) "ferments" the honey before or after boiling, but I expect they would have fermented it beforehand. This is likely to affect the ratio of sugars present and maybe result in a bit of alcohol, but there are several mechanisms possible to ferment honey, including raw honey.

I'm not sure how critical the fermentation step is for a honey-based dragon beard candy; for a wheat germ based or barley-based sugar, the amylase reaction is essentially what yields the maltose (since otherwise you're just eating the grain germ).

In any event, ultimately the boiling step is what controls the crystallization needed to produce dragon beard candy. Thanks to some combination of trade secrets and language issues, I never learned with absolute certainty whether traditional dragon beard candy is boiled to soft crack to hard crack stage, though I'm inclined to believe the versions for which storage is possible reach something very close to hard crack stage and therefore need the softening step.

For what it's worth, I've done the hand-stretching process with the guidance of the master confectioner of the dragon beard candy company and it's quite stiff. Attempts at duplicating it at home with my own sugar solution had mixed results; it does take some experimentation (or training) to get it right.


Lemon juice sprayer/container I often zest up my food with lemon juice and I usually have squeezed juice in the fridge in a jar because I like it pre squeezed, with pulp and seeds removed.  However, a jar is not an ideal container for distributing lemon juice over food because it's hard to get an even coverage, rather a few spots of intense concentration.

Are there better containers or perhaps even some form of sprayer for spraying lemon juice over food evenly?  I was hesitant to use a regular water spray bottle because I thought the juice, despite being strained for pulp, still might have small pieces that could clog the tube.

I personally use squeeze bottles to store my citrus juices, including pre-strained lemon juice.  They're nearly identical to these versions from Amazon (though more colorful) which I like because they have a built-in cap to keep the container sealed.  There are a number of other styles sold, but know that most don't include caps.  The small tips make them easy to dispense precisely; give them a quick squeeze over your food (or even wave them around and let the drops fall where they may) and you'd get controlled, relatively even distribution.

I wouldn't recommend them for long-term storage, as plastic can mess with flavors over an extended time, but lemon juice gets acrid after a week or so anyway.  You could try out a spray bottle, but these have minimal moving parts and they're dishwasher-safe.


How do I prevent mold growth in homemade chili-infused olive oil? Twice I have tried do this but both times I ended up with mold in the bottle. What am I doing wrong?

I use dark glass bottles (originally for wine) that I sterilize by putting them in the oven at 250 °C for an hour or so. I then put in some regular red chilies (I have washed them with water and then let them dry while the bottle is in the oven) and added extra virgin olive oil.

I finally left the mixture in a cupboard for a couple of weeks.

One thing I have noticed is that the chilies are supposed to sink after a while, but most (all?) of my chilies have stayed afloat. Furthermore, in several photos in the linked search, the seeds of the chilies are "out of" their fruits. How do you accomplish that?

You should make small slits in the chilies so they fill will oil, or just cut them in half.. This will enable them to sink. If the Chilies (or anything you are preserving in oil) stays above the surface you will get mold or worse. It's also a better idea to store in the refrigerator.


Is there a difference between 'Saucisson Sec' and 'Salami'? Is there difference between Saucisson Sec and Salami?

There's a difference between the title (is a sausiccon a type of salami), and the body (is there a difference).

The first is a question of classification, and no, a saucisson is type of cured sausage, but you'd want "saucisson sec" (dry sausage) for a dried, cured sausage with good storage characteristics like salami.  So the relation is the other way around -- a salami is a type of saucisson.

"Differences" when you're dealing with general classifications such as this tend to be a question of if there are items that might fit into one category, but not the other.  It's pretty obvious that salami is a narrower term than sausiccon, but I'm not sure if salami and sausiccon sec are just different names for the same concept, or if there might be items in one class that wouldn't fall into the other.

update : would sweet bologna be considered a saucisson sec ?  It's only semi-dried, so I wouldn't classify it as a salami due to storage characteristics.


How to interpret this recipe for walnuts harvested at a given time? I have the recipe for a liqueur which requires using

  walnuts harvested around the 21st of June.

(Yes, the walnuts have to be far from ripe. The recipe call for green walnuts having no hardened shell yet)

The recipe came from the South of Europe (40°N), but now I want to use it with walnuts grown in northern Europe (51°N).

How can I adapt the harvesting time to keep a fairly similar development stage of the walnut?

I wouldn't get too hung up on such a specific date. The date given is likely because of it's proximity to Midsummer's Day celebrations. In Italy and France the harvesting of green walnuts was traditionally tied with St. John's Day.

The keys for harvesting green walnuts are:

Bright green exterior as walnuts will turn yellow-ish as they ripen.
Before the hard wooden shell develops, the nut should cut in half easily. I've seen some recipes suggest putting a pin thru the nut to test if it's still soft enough.
When the size is between a large olive and small egg

The only issue I could see with harvesting too early was that the size of the nut may be too small. Harvest too late and the wooden shell will start to form.

You'll probably have a window of about 6 weeks to find green walnuts that fit the conditions above. If you have your own tree you have the benefit of being able to see the nuts as they grow and mature. Otherwise you could try asking your produce provider when they usually have green walnuts to get a good idea of what dates are common in your area. I'm guessing to closely match the recipe you'll want to be on the early side of that 6 week period.


Why does raw celery from a restaurant taste different than raw celery at home? Say you go to a restaurant and order buffalo wings. The wings come with celery and bleu cheese. The celery tastes amazing.

At home, you cut celery and store it in water in the refrigerator, and eat it. It does not taste amazing.

What are the possible reasons why there is a difference in taste between the two?

There could be two factors involved. First, the freshness of the celery. Restaurants, especially those that serve large amounts, are going through a lot of product. This means that you are more likely to get really fresh celery.

Next, storing in water is very likely an issue. I would suggest buying celery within a day or so of when you plan to use it. Wash and dry it thoroughly. Then trim and cut to your desired size. Then immediately place the celery in a plastic container or zipper bag and place in the refigerator until serving.

Each time you take it out for serving, remove the amount you plan to use and return the rest to the refrigerator. The 'leftover' celery should remain fresh and crisp for several days.


Silicone utensils are changing the taste of my egg whites I eat scrambled egg whites every morning, cooked over low or medium heat (they have better taste and texture over low, but sometimes I'm in a hurry) in a non-stick pan with cooking spray.  I have to do it this way because I'm on a doctor-supervised protein-sparing modified fast and can't add fats.

I use a good quality silicone spatula to stir/scramble the egg whites, and it often seems like the spatula imparts a taste to them.  It's the same taste I've noticed if I use that utensil to stir a a stew or sauce and then lick what I stirred off of the spatula.  I've tried multiple silicone spatulas and have always had this problem.

Is there something I'm doing wrong, or a better utensil to use?  It seems like I need something fairly flexible since it's scrambled eggs, and it needs to be somewhat soft since the pan is non-stick.

Assuming that your spatula and cookware is completely clean of any residual food, I strongly suspect that cooking spray is your issue. If I'm cooking something very bland (like egg white) I won't use cooking sprays for exactly that reason - I taste it too. Do you have a microwave? You may not need any oil at all, although scrambled egg (or egg white) in a microwave without oil can actually be a tricky technique (which I'm pretty sure is covered here). With a high quality, new, non-stick pan you might also be able to get away with a truly negligible amount of oil by dampening a paper towel with vegetable oil and wiping that on the surface. Mimicking the so-called-fat-free-sprays by using a paper towel dampened with vegetable oil might be a much better choice for you.


How can I make a panna cotta based on Jelly bellys? I want to make popcorn panna cotta.  I had a couple of ideas for this, either steeping milk in popped corn or (my preferred option) melting butter popcorn Jelly Belly beans into the milk and then making a panna cotta from that.

These were to be served as petit four with a caramelised popcorn piece on top, and so I was going to make them in ice cube trays so each one was bite size.

However I wasn't able to get the texture right.  I tried melting different amounts of jelly belly beans in my milk, but they never seemed to solidify just going a sort of thick creamy consistency with the tops sometimes getting a skin on in the more concentrated versions.  Then if I added gelatine as I would for making a panna cotta then they came out firm and rubbery.

So apart from continuing to try different amounts of gelatine in my dissolved Jelly Belly mixture, does anyone have any ideas what I might be able to do to get this to work?

(I'm going to try using the steeped milk/real popcorn version again, but this wasn't that popcorny and tasted slightly of the oil that the corn was popped in.  It should at least be easier to get the consistency right on that one)

Grant Achatz does quite a lot with popcorn at Alinea. One of his recipes is available as part of the preview of his book on Google Books and is just about readable. Looks like he goes with the steeping method (although he's using water). I ate at Alinea recently and there was a popcorn soup on the menu that tasted exactly like popcorn, so it's probably a good place to start (continue?).

A friend once made a "Movie Theatre" Panna Cotta. It was a normal panna cotta, but he served it with a Coca Cola syrup (just heavily reduced Coke) and some home made Cracker Jacks. It was delicious. So good luck with yours.

Edit:
The basics of the recipe:

Cook 100g uncooked popcorn kernels (he does it stove top with 25g canola oil)
Add to 750g water, 7g kosher salt, 90g butter, 75g sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes
Strain through china cap, blend, strain through chinoise.


What will happen if I leave out hardboiled eggs in water for four weeks? Stupid me forgot to take out two, unpeeled hard boiled eggs still in the water before leaving on a 4-week long vacation.

If I just leave them be, will they stink up my apartment with that terrible rotten egg smell they use in fart packs?

Condo management is going to be entering my (rented) unit to test the fire alarm in about a week - would it have stunk up my apartment then?

The only person with the keys is the landlord (who lives far away) and the management. It'd be embarrassing to ask either to dispose of my eggs.

If you boiled the eggs but left them in the pot of water, you may be in luck. The shell should keep the rotten egg safe from cracking and exposing the apartment to the truly rancid smell of spoilt eggs, assuming they haven't cracked during boiling.

  You will know a spoiled egg when you crack open the shell. Whether raw or cooked, a spoiled egg will have an unpleasant odor. No question about it: throw it out.
  - Net Wellness

What you will probably find when you get home are unmolested eggs in a stagnant pot of water.  Throw the eggs out if they haven't cracked.  They WILL be spoilt. This answer describes why.

  According to the USDA (similar information can be found from other food agencies):

    Why do hard-cooked eggs spoil faster than fresh eggs?

    When shell eggs are hard cooked, the protective coating is washed away, leaving bare the pores in the shell for bacteria to enter and contaminate it. Hard-cooked eggs should be refrigerated within 2 hours of cooking and used within a week.

  Simply put, you're damaging the shell, and that expedites spoilage.

If you're unlucky and the eggs did crack...well, the water might absorb some of the scent, but after four weeks, you're still likely going to have some odor.  Throw the eggs out, pour the water out, throughly clean the pot, and try to air your apartment out as best you can.


(Survival Salt) Extract Salt from natural sorces (In the wild) without the Ocean I'm inquiring to learn a survival technique in the wilderness.  How can I extract and crystallize salt (sodium chloride) from wild plants, animals, or rocks, with access to a freshwater source only. I imagine soaking smoked meat to make a broth and letting it evaporate and crystallize, or steaming vegetables and again dehydrating a broth. Any insight will assist.

One option I know of is hickory salt, also found as hickory tree salt or hickory root salt.  (not to be confused with hickory smoked salts, which does require salt to make)

Hickory salt is made by digging up the roots of hickory trees, shredding them, and boiling them to a dry, black, salty and mineralish powder.  You may be able to get salt from hickory limbs, I saw a reference but only one, so no guarantees.

One recipe is here, another is there

Hickory seems the best bet (for me, anyway, for volume acquirable per plant, identifiability, local to my area etc)

However, it seems there are some other plants that can yield salt - including a source citing coltsfoot, and (having heard of) wild parsnip or wild carrot roots, or stinging nettles, but that source has no experience with either.

Lambs's quarters is another potential source - it's in the comments of the coltsfoot source, and mentioned here (as having mineral salts, not really "extracting them as salt source")

Another possibility is called saltbush, which is apparently used as a salty seasoning in australia.

Many of these sources are assuming a survival knowledge context, so these sources may be what you're looking for.

And of course it may be possible to find mineral salt deposits, from salty or brackish water or animal salt licks... this would involve observing larger animals (like deer, for example) to see where they're getting their salt from... it is essential for life for them as well.

It may, potentially, be possible to source salts from animal sources, since they must be sourcing salt somewhere, but I don't know anything about that or how to tell if any such preparation has it in sufficient quantities or whatever (vs perhaps other undesirable salts or mineral concentrations).  Sorry.


How do I avoid gummy, unworkable pasta dough? I've tried several times to make egg pasta from scratch. No matter how much flour I add or how much I knead, the result is the same: the dough is too sticky to pass through a pasta roller or even to roll out by hand. Last night I tried a friend's extruder machine, and the extruded noodles just gummed together before I could even cut them off. What should I be doing differently?

Michael Rhulman writes: "The pasta dough ratio is 3 parts flour, 2 parts egg.  So I crack 1 egg per serving into a bowl, then multiply that weight by 1.5 and add that much flour."

Try that.

Also, the recipe for extruded pasta is different, most often made with semolina and water...almost always a crumbly texture when entering the extruder.


Alternative milk Bean curd Can milk from beans other than soy be curdled to make a tofu-like product? I know that black beans work, but I am wondering about kidney or pinto for example (or any other). Has anyone experimented on this, before I try to reinvent the wheel? Thanks! - Judi

A curd made from chickpea flour is known as Burmese tofu or shan tofu. Most recipes call for making a slurry with chickpea flour or besan flour and seasonings, simmering it until it thickens, and then chilling it in a mold of some sort. Once it has cooled, it sets and can be cut into pieces and used much like regular tofu. Many descriptions seem to place it somewhere between tofu and polenta on taste and consistency.


How to clean a cork bottle stopper? I was given a cork bottle stopper as a gift. Should I clean it after each usage? What is the appropriate way to clean cork? Since cork is porous, I would be concerned washing it could encourage bacterial growth.

From  hunker , here is info and instructions for sterilizing corks:

Corks are used to cap wine and other types of bottles. Before corks are used to seal bottles, they are cleaned and sterilized to prevent any contamination. It is relatively easy to sterilize corks for reuse by steaming or boiling them for an extended period of time. Once the corks have cooled and dried, they can be safely used to store homemade wine, handmade vinegar or flavored olive oil.
Step 1
Add sufficient water to the saucepan so that it won't boil dry during the sterilizing period. Add the corks to the pan. If you are using a steamer or steamer basket, fill the pan with water to the bottom of the basket.
Step 2
Add the corks, cover the pan and boil or steam for 90 minutes. While the corks are boiling, sterilize the tongs, jar and lid or container by immersing in boiling water while the corks are being heated. Once the implements have been in the boiling water for five minutes, drain and place them on a clean dish cloth. Check the corks to make sure they have enough water.
Step 3
Drain the water off the corks once the 90 minutes are up. After the corks have cooled and dried completely, use the tongs to place the corks in the container or jar and cover and use as needed.

Also, for just cleaning and not sterilizing, this  article from hunker  will take you through the steps of cleaning cork stoppers.


Reason of putting clarified ghee on Modak "Modak" is the sweet dish generally prepared for Lord Ganesha in India. "Ukadiche Modak" is the sub-type of Modak. It is usually cooked in steamer. It does not get fried (or deep fried). I would like to know what is the reason of putting clarified ghee on Modak while eating?

Image courtesy- Google.com

Golden goodness of ghee has a special value in the culture and cuisine of Indian sub-continent since ancient times. Ayurveda suggests it promotes digestion and increase the absorption of nutrients.

Adding warm ghee to any meal enhances the taste significantly. An example is the 'tadka/tarka' added to lentils('daal') or pouring ghee over boiled rice to enhance the taste. Probably the main reason of putting ghee on steamed Modak is to enhance the taste.

From the story behind the traditional association of Modak with this festival my guess is that ghee was added to Modak to make it soft, tasty, easy to eat and filling.


Exploding or alcoholic soda Well, I tried to follow a very simple recipe from "Cooking for Geeks" for Ginger Lemon Soda.

I made a simple ginger syrup by cooking ~200g of chopped ginger together with 2 cups of sugar, then I used half of that syrup together with 1/2 a teaspoon of yeast (from the local home-brew store), and topped off with 900 ml of water.

The recipe says: Let rest at room temperature for two days, then refrigerate and drink.

Well, for the first batch, I had so much pressure that when I opened it, it came out like champagne and I lost half of the soda.

For the second batch, I put it in the fridge after one day. Now the level of carbonation is just right, but it's still a bit alcoholic. I had half a glass and I can definitely tell that there was some alcohol involved.

I wonder: What is the way to go to get nice sparkling soda that isn't also high in alcohol?

This recipe is listed under the section for fermentation, together with beer, wine and mead. The section starts with the sentence "Wine, beer and traditional sodas all depend on yeast to ferment sugar into alcohol and generate carbonation".

I don't know enough about the history of soda to know if early sodas were alcoholic. Or rather, I am quite sure that there were alcoholic, fermented, carbonated drinks long before what we call "soda" today existed, but I don't know if they were called soda.

Whatever the language problem is, this recipe is definitely intended to produce a low-alcohol beverage, comparable to beer. If you want carbonated syrup, you should buy a carbonating machine. These take a bullet full of CO2 and press it into the drink base you have selected.

As for the too-strong carbonation, this is probably due to the vague term "room temperature". Yeast growth speed depends on temperature. Because it is an exponential growth, even small changes in temperature can lead to vastly different results. If you want to repeat the experiment despite the alcohol production, try better controlling for the temperature. As I don't brew, I can't tell you the temperature for optimal carbonation after two days, you will have to find it out by yourself.


How do the nutritional values of bananas change as they ripen? Unripe bananas are hard with thick skins and an unmistakeable raw flavour. As they ripen they shrink slightly, the skins become thinner, and the fruit becomes softer and sweeter; the raw flavour goes away.

How does the nutritional composition of the fruit change during the transformation?

Starch content and sweetness:
Bananas become sweeter as they ripen because the starch is broken down. An unripe banana is full of complex carbohydrates, but as it ripens, these are broken down into simple sugars which is why riper bananas are sweeter. The lower starch content and higher sugar content also means that the banana is digested more quickly, so it becomes a slightly higher GI food as it ripens.

Antioxidant levels: Riper bananas also have higher levels of antioxidants. The brown spots on the skin are formed when the chlorophyll breaks down into antioxidants. These are very good for your body as they help prevent cell damage.

Calorie count: As the banana ripens, the calorie count stays the same. Even though the nutrients change, all carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram so the total remains the same

Vitamins and minerals: As the fruit ripens, the micronutrients tend to decrease. Water soluble vitamins like vitamin C, folic acid and thiamin decrease. But the banana will still have a lot of potassium. You can store a ripe banana in the fridge to prevent some of these nutrients from being lost.


An alternative to Baileys? In this video of triple chocolate pudding recipe, a shot of Baileys is added to whipped cream. Other than Baileys, what can I add to the cream?

If you're looking for alcoholic alternatives then you could use O'Mara's or some other brand (see Wikipedia for a good list).  A light coffee liquer could also serve as a workable alternative.

On the non-alcoholic side, Irish Cream flavored coffee creamers would work well.

Coffee syrups like Monin's or Torani's also have Irish Cream flavors.  I personally like Monin syrups because they're all natural.


Brown sugar instead of white sugar I want to replace a white (granulated) sugar in a recipe with brown sugar.  Is this a one to one substitution?

The original recipe calls for 2 cups white sugar.  Can I replace with 2 cups brown sugar?  Packed or unpacked?

Yes you can...by volume. You'll definitely need to pack the brown sugar. The taste will be different (obviously) and the weight will be slightly different as well, but it'll work. Mind you, brown sugar does not dissolve the way white sugar does, so you may get some crunching if you don't combine it with your wet ingredients first.

Don't substitute by weight. Brown sugar weighs more.


Does wrapping turkey while resting make the skin soggy I normally rest turkey (in 16 - 24 lb range) for 45 - 60 minutes, loosely tented in foil only.   I'm looking at a number of suggestions for longer resting time*, but they usually refer to tenting the turkey in foil and then wrapping in towels.  This would seem to keep in a lot of steam, not just heat.  Does the skin stay crisp?

I'm not thinking of a "full Gordon" at 3 hours but perhaps going to 90 - 120 minutes; I see a lot of comments that 2 hours works very well.

Most likely the skin would get less crisp, as towels would trap steam inside.

Also, skin (as with bacon) crisps as it cools, so if you keep the turkey warmer then the skin will crisp up less than if you let it rest to a lower temperature


Why use 2 types of flour in this Hooters Hot Wings copycat recipe? SEE: http://www.copykat.com/2009/02/02/hooters-hot-wings/

I'm wondering what the purpose is of using whole wheat flour and all purpose flour in the breading recipe. Is there a benefit to this? Does it have something to do with the different protein content and gluten formation? Any insights would be highly appreciated.

This recipe is dusting the wings, so the structure of the coating is formed from starch in the flour.  There is little gluten formation.

In this case, one of the two flours is whole wheat flour, which would be very non-traditional in a deep-fry coating.  I can only conclude that the recipe author desires the whole wheat flavor, or that they feel there is some nutritional or other benefit to using whole wheat flour.

It would be far more normal to use 100% all purpose flour, and that is likely to work in the recipe just as well, if not better.  For example, Food.com has a similar imitation recipe which uses only regular flour.

The reverse, 100% whole wheat flour might work, but would have even more whole wheat flavor.     There is some risk that the bran in the whole wheat flour will also add a strange texture to the coating, but I suspect this is less likely to be a contributing factor.  I infer that the recipe author balanced the ratio to his or her taste.

In the end, I would go with a traditional recipe that uses only regular flour if I wanted a coated wing, but that is just me.


Why not corned pork instead of beef? I have made a few corned beef with chuck and pot roast cuts. Using salt,sugar nitrite salt , etc: the results have been excellent. I have not used brisket because they are so big.  Pork loins and shoulders are so cheap I would like to try corned pork . What could go wrong ?

What could go wrong? Probably not much. The same process that turns beef into corned beef turns pork into corned pork - and if you use another piece and compare recipes, you might recognize the process from curing ham. You might have to compare recipes a bit - curing times ranging from two to ten days depending on the author - and the actual cooking process could require a slightly different timing, but overall, nothing specific to the animal.

And like corned beef, corned pork is sold canned as luncheon meat. The iconic Spam being an (slightly infamous) example.

I even found one writer that claims pork was actually the more „Irish” version for Irish families (beef being more expensive and mostly exported), while using beef became the American-Irish tradition, resorting to the (Jewish) brisket when beef was actually cheaper and easier to get than pork.


How does the industry conserve their smoothies I was wondering how companies like Innocent (smoothies) or basically any juice manufacturer keep their liquids fresh so long while my smoothies are bad after a couple of days in the fridge (the water and the fruit seems to separate). I've heard about oxidation and preventing it by adding lemon juice or rosemary to the mix or by sealing the bottle with no air left in it.

So, how is juice/smoothies being conserved by the manufacturers and is there any way that I can do that at home?

You are mixing up terms here. "Preservation" is a food safety term. It is a measure against bacteria colonizing your smoothie. For that, industry can use pasteurization, or PEF (electric destruction of cell membranes), or just quick turnaround of refrigerated smoothies.

As for the oxidation, they use just what you said, lots of antioxidants and little access to air. They may even package them in a low-oxygen environment, although I don't know if they actually do so. Since most customers will balk at added antioxidants in the ingredients list of a smoothie, they either use a significant proportion of fruit with antioxidant properties in the recipe, or sometimes use added vitamins. Many vitamins, for example C and E, are antioxidants.

The last thing you are asking about is texture, or the separation of pulp and water. This is the most difficult thing to achieve at home. It takes industry lots of engineers finetuning their recipe, process and machines to produce a homogenous smoothie or fruit juice which does not separate. At home, you have neither the knowledge nor the resources to work that way. Actually, the cards are somewhat stacked against you, as most smoothie enthusiasts use high speed blenders, which cause quite a bit of separation and oxidation by themselves through their centrifugal action. So, you have to just learn to live with it, or maybe start making your smoothies fresh so they don't have the time to separate.


Turning focaccia upside down before topping In this video (you don't need to understand Italian ;) this lady lets a focaccia leaven in its own baking tin on a layer of olive oil and then, before topping, turns it upside down.
The tins were covered only with a towel, so the dough did form a bit of crust.

I can imagine that the point of turning can be in order to have the wetter side on top and the drier on the bottom, but what's the advantage in comparison to brushing the dough with olive oil before the rising? I think the point of rising in the dish is lost if you manipulate the dough again, no?

I understand it the same way: the wetter side on top. The Bottom side sucked up the oil while leavening. And by turning the dough she gets also the other side greasy.

I think the lady just likes to use her hands. As she turns the dough she pushes her finger inside it to spread it.

I actually don't see a different way to do the focaccia as you are supposed to push in with your fingers. She opens the cherry tomatos also by hand because she wants some juice to come out and fall in the small hollows of the dough.


Why is butter usually labeled "Sweet Cream"? Most (or even all?) butter found at the grocery store is labeled "sweet cream".  Is there a distinction between this and another type of cream, and if so, what is it?

It means the butter is made from cream that hasn't been fermented. Butter made from fermented cream is known as "cultured cream butter", and it has distinct sour, lactic acid notes. Sweet cream butter tastes, well, sweet, and if it is from really good fresh milk you may be able to taste grassy notes. Both are good in their own way.


help understanding this recipe gluten free and vegan The recipe is:
75g nut flour
55g rice flour
1g xantham gum
100g water
120g coconut sugar
30g coconut oil
20g cacao
1g salt
6g cake yeast
10g vinegar
125g sweet potato

I don't understand how this recipe works (and it works because I baked it) without potato starch or other ingredient that provides moisture to the cake. Can someone please explain to me the thinking behind it?

You have several oily ingredients like coconut oil and nut flour. Oil is one of the 2 ingredients that make a cake moist and it helps retain the moisture. The other is simply water.
In addition to plain water there is xantham gum in the recipe. Xantham gum binds a lot of water and retains it, keeping the cake from drying out. That's why only 1g of it is needed to incorporate 100g of water into the cake. If you leave the xantham gum out of the dough, the cake would probably be very soggy if it wasn't baked long enough or too dry if it was baked for too long. Hitting the perfect spot between soggy and dry would be much harder and the cake would dry out within a day or two after baking.
And lastly there is rice flour and sweet potato. Both of them contain starch (and the sweet potato also adds a little more water to the cake). When starch gets cooked (or baked in this case), the molecules swell and can retain moisture much better than uncooked starch. You can see the effect when cooking a pudding / flan / blancmange.


What is fresh preserving? What kind of canning does fresh preserving refer to, or is it an all-encompassing sort of thing (e.g. water bath canning, pressure canning, freeze-canning, lacto-fermenting, etc.)?

I see the term used when you go to buy canning jars on Amazon and such (as well as at freshpreserving.com, obviously).

Shule, I read over a lot on that site plus checked a number of other sites. It seems that the company that makes Ball® lids and glass jars for canning has coined the term 'fresh preserving' to refer to canning done either by boiling water bath immersion and by pressure canning. Included in these two methods are jams, chutneys and relishes, and pickles along with canned fruits and vegetables (and even meat and fish using pressure canning). Freezer jams are also included since Ball's jars and lids are used. They don't include lacto-fermenting but seem to refer only to fruits and vegetables, other than dehydrating.

I find it amusing that so many methods relating to foods - such as growing your own produce (plant or animal based), baking and cooking, as well as various methods of preserving food - has become 'fashionable. People who can see profit in this are jumping on the bandwagon. I used all these methods, except for cheese-making, so I could provide good tasting nutritious food for my family at far less cost than buying from a store. It's spoiled me as I now find commercially prepared foods (even the costly 'good tasting' stuff) bland and boring. So all the more power to younger ones setting out to learn how!


Should I bother trying to use a traditional wok on an electric stove? I received a round-bottom wok with a cooking ring as a gift. I have an electric smoothtop stove. Upon opening the packaging, an included sheet of paper listed some additional information, including a note about not using round-bottom woks with electric burners, as "the heat reflected back can damage the element."

Should I return the wok? What are my options?

There are two problems here:

Not enough heat reaching the wok/food due to limited contact surface.
Part of the heating element not being in contact with a cooling metal (pan/wok) and the heat reflected back at it (not escaping).

This can result in a large temperature difference between the parts of the element that are in contact with the wok and parts that are not as well as over heating the element.

You may still be able to use your wok on portable single burner gas stoves.  Otherwise I'd recommend heeding their advice and not using it on an electric stove.  It won't make good food with little contact point anyway.


Boiled Ribs left in water overnight, parents say its fine to eat So my dad boiled ribs this morning, and it was left on the counter for like 14 hours and I said its probably not safe to eat cause they say after 2 hours you shouldn't eat it, but they said cause it was in water and  not exposed outside of the water its still good and I find that to be hard to believe.

Well, your parents are largely right and also quite wrong on two different things.

Boiling is fairly effective at killing most of the bacteria and all the viruses that can cause "food poisoning", but will not denature some of the toxins produced by some bacteria that can cause illness after consuming. Clostridium species spores are not inactivated by boiling, but are not waterborne and only found in anaerobic conditions such as in the gut of animals. If your dad had spilled gut contents over the the meat before cooking, I would be a little worried, otherwise, not so much.

Assuming that the meat and other ingredients were not contaminated with these bacteria to a significant level before cooking, boiled stocks should be fine on the counter for a overnight after cooking if they are left undisturbed and covered. Depending on the volume in which they were boiled and the ambient temperature, I would be surprised if the boiled meats were below 60 C (generally considered the temperature at which waterborne enteric pathogens are killed) after 2 hours, and as such would be too hot to place in the fridge.

However, they are wrong about the air exposure bit - if the meat/water was exposed (i.e. not in a covered container) to the air overnight, there is a good chance that there will now be some bacteria and yeasts happily growing in the stock produced by boiling meat. Most of these bacteria will not cause illness, but many can cause "food poisoning" and should be treated with caution.


Is there a difference between brown and white champignons? My supermarket sells two varieties of champignons: Brown and white, with the brown ones being slightly more expensive.

Is there any notable difference between brown and white champignons in how they taste or the way you prepare or store them? Or is it rather like with brown and white chicken eggs where the differences are literally superficial?

Check this site: What’s the difference between cremini and white mushrooms?

Brown(Baby Bella or Cremini) mushrooms have earthier flavor than the whites, you could use them based on your dishes' style or presentation.

And the storing should be the same. Put them in some brown bag with normal temperature and do not freeze them. Slightly wipe the dust or dirt just before cooking, no need to wash by water.


Why does prepackaged deli meat taste better when you take each slice and "fluff" it? If you take a package of deli meat and remove the slab, place it on bread and add your condiments in never tastes as good as when you take the slab and "fluff" up each piece as you lay it on your sandwich.

This deli meat you speak of is generally made of small scraps of mechanically-separated meat that are essentially "glued" together into a solid mass by enzymes that partially break down the tissue. This processed "meat brick" doesn't really have the same texture as an intact muscle tissue, which has individual muscle fibers aligned along a "grain" that makes it pleasantly chewy. Folding/layering/rolling slices of processed meat gives it more of a texture and chew, and tricks you into thinking you're eating an actual piece of animal muscle instead of meat-flavored jelly.


Reducing acidity without creating "soapy" taste It is well known that sugar is used to reduce the acidity in tomato sauce.
Yet there is no chemical reaction going, just a shift in taste. The PH remains the same. (Does adding sugar to tomato type sauces affect acidity?)

To be clear: I'm not looking for ideas on how to make the food appear less acidic. My intention is to change the pH-Value.

In nature it's quite easy to find acids, but I'm struggling to find a base suitable for cooking which won't give the food the distinctive soapy taste (for instance for a lemon-compote or... tomato sauce).

There are actually not many bases which would dissolve in water and might be safe for cooking. I conducted some research and came up with Lime (calcium oxide), Alcaloides (wich are mostly not safe), ashes or Calcium hydroxide (like to be used in Nixtomalisation - which I have successfully tried, but in the end the Ca(OH)2 is to be washed out after the process), Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda, but sure this is a base?)

Here's a list of bases and their pH-Values which are supposed to be used in cooking. I'm lacking of experience in their usage and would be grateful if someone could share how it was deployed:
https://bakerpedia.com/ingredients/bases/

I use Calcium hydroxide, (pickling lime, Cal, slaked lime), to raise the pH of my tomato sauces. It does not take much, and you don't get that nasty flavor that comes with using sodium bicarbonate. You can find the stuff in the canning aisle in a U.S. grocery store. Mexican and Asian stores  also usually carry it. The Latinos use Cal to nixtamalize corn prior to making tortillas. An eighth teaspoon, or 0.2g, is usually enough for 250ml  (a medium can) of tomato sauce. You'll have to play with that number a little. I've tried several different bases to neutralize the acid they add to tomato sauce. Only Calcium hydroxide seems to have no down side.
If you are adding the right amount of finely powdered CaOH, you shouldn't have to wash it out, as it will turn into Ca citrate, or some other soluble salt. You may well be using too much. The reaction does take time, so 10 min or more waiting is not unreasonable.


What to do with seized / split chocolate? My kids love making brownies, but every now and then the water gets into the bowl while they are melting the chocolate. The chocolate then seizes or splits, and you have a sodden mess.

Can this chocolate be used for anything?

At the moment, it just goes in the bin.

If you're not talking about very much water getting into the bowl, then these techniques should help.

Remove the bowl of chocolate from the heat source.
For every ounce of chocolate, add one tablespoon of one of these:   warm water, melted butter, vegetable oil, hot milk/cream.
Stir or whisk until smooth. Add a bit more liquid if needed.
Use the repaired chocolate for sauce, frosting, or a batter (like for your brownies!). It won't work well for coating candy.

You may also want to check out this discussion on how to melt chocolate without getting it wet.


What is the adequate power for a non-commercial Planetary Mixer? I have a standard mixer that can be put on a stand and its motor has 400W of power. Since it struggles with some doughs and I don't really like its mixing I decided to buy a stand "Planetary Mixer"* (i.e. a non-commercial Stand Mixer with "Planetary Mixing Action"), however I am not sure what wattage I should look for. I certainly won't use it for commercial uses and can't figure out if, say, 800W would be too much.

I also don't know if I can ask here about advice on the model of mixer? Since I am looking for one that has metal gearing and dishwasher safe beaters/parts but am finding it hard to find any information about different models.

* Planetary action means that the beaters rotate on their axis similarly to the way the Earth rotates. Like a planetary system, the whole mixer head then rotates the opposite way, similar to the way the Earth rotates around the sun. This ensures that the sides of the bowl are scraped by the beater rather than having to do it by hand, and that the ingredients become fully mixed.

I have a Kitchen Aid 5 quart Pro lift model stand mixer. It is rated at 450 watts.
It can handle a recipe using 1,000 grams (about 8 cups) of King Arthur Whole Wheat flour and yields two 5" X 9" loaves. A-P flour requires less power to knead than whole wheat.

More power usually comes with a bigger bowl and small recipes are going to get lost in such a large mixer


Do you need to rinse liver? I got into an argument about liver when I saw someone boil a tub of chicken livers by pouring the entire contents of the tub (blood) into a pot without rinsing the liver.  I always though that the rinse was required for health reasons (and to also improve the flavor.)  The other person insisted that she preferred the flavor of liver when it is prepared in this manner.  I think she may be getting defensive about her cooking methods, but is this a safe practice?  Is rinsing required or just preferred?

I like my liver rinsed, but is there anything unhealthy that could make me sick if I just dump the tub (straight from the store) into the pan an cook it all (this is how my girl friend insists on cooking liver.)

I can't speak to health reasons (and we don't answer health related questions on SA) but, as for taste, rinsing chicken livers can be quite important.

I always rinse and check the chicken livers well to be sure that there are no gallbladders (or pieces) left attached to the liver. The gallbladder contains bile and even a small piece can ruin the taste of the whole pot. Please see  this .


How much is a sleeve of celery? I was reading a recipe for Slow Cooker Rosemary Garlic Beef Stew and noticed that one of the ingredients called for a "sleeve" of celery. I've heard of a stalk of celery, but I've never heard of a sleeve. Here is the list of ingredients:

Ingredients

½ lb. (4 medium) carrots $0.55
½ sleeve celery $0.65
1 medium onion $0.36
2 lbs. red potatoes $1.00
2 Tbsp olive oil $0.32
4 cloves garlic, minced $0.32
1½ lbs. beef stew meat $9.06
Salt and pepper $0.05
¼ cup all-purpose flour $0.04
2 cups beef broth $0.30
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard $0.24
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce $0.06
1 Tbsp soy sauce $0.10
½ Tbsp brown sugar $0.02
½ Tbsp dried rosemary $0.15
½ tsp thyme $0.05

How much celery do I need to add to the recipe?

This question is actually answered in a comment to the recipe you linked:

  kimberly says:

  Sorry for silly question, but the ingredient list says ” ½ sleeve
  celery $0.65 “. do you mean 1/2 of a stalk or 1/2 of a bunch of
  celery? [...]

  Beth M says:

  Yes, I meant a half bunch. Sorry about the confusion! :) I used about 4 stalks or so.
  They cook down quite a bit.

Also there's a picture of the ingredients used:

So 4-5 stalks appears to be intended amount of celery. A recipe like this though is going to pretty flexible so if that seems like too much or too little it shouldn't be a problem if you go outside that range.


Why do my macarons come out looking weird? Recipe I use:

100g grade AA brown large egg white

50g sugar

200g confectioners sugar

110g almond flour (I grind my almond flour using nutribullet)

5g egg white powder

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

I use a kitchen aid to beat the egg white gradually, starting at speed 4, after about 3 mins I added the sugar and egg white powder mixture slowly. I increase the speed to six, beat for another 3 mins, then increase to 8 for another 2 mins, and speed 10 for 1mins. So the total beating time is about 9 mins.

Then I fold in the almond flour and confectioners sugar mixture(sifted) gradually. When it's ready, I pipe them in a size about 1.25 inch space in-between 3 quarters to 1 inch. Then I let them rest for about 30 mins until the surface is not sticky. I baked them in a whirlpool conventional oven for about 11 mins at temperature 285 Fahrenheit. They came out looking like the picture below. Please help! What did I do wrong?

Ah, macarons. If it's not one thing, it's another. Uneven pied usually indicate that the oven was too hot. You should use an oven thermometer to determine the exact temperature of your oven, because oven dials themselves straight up lie. I once had an oven that was always 20C over the temperature on the dial.

If you get a thermometer (or have one) and this still happens, try positioning the tray at different heights in the oven.

Unfortunately, making macarons is a process of trial, error and experience, getting to know your oven and the texture of the batter. Good luck.


Sauce thickener for large batch I'm making a large batch of sauce. After trying tapioca flour, it's quite difficult to handle for such a large batch.
Is there anything that can substitute? Is there such a thing as a fluid thickener?

The method I was taught doesn't care about the absolute amounts: First add small amount of the sauce/soup/whatever you want to thicken to the 'powder type' thickener and stir, adding more sauce until it's a very thick liquid without clumps. Only then pour the liquefied thickener with sauce into the 'bulk' of sauce. A very modest amount of stirring will distribute and dissolve smoothly and once it heats up and starts absorbing more water the thickening process will begin for good.
If a lot of the thickener stuck to the bowl in which you were mixing it with sauce, transfer more sauce from the pot to the bowl and dissolve whatever stuck to the walls, then pour back into the pot.


Why doesn't chainmail ruin a cast iron's seasoning but metal scouring pad will? I've often seen small swatches of stainless steel chainmail sold for the purpose of cleaning a cast iron pan. How is that this does not scratch/ruin my cast iron's seasoning, when a metal scouring pad (also metal against metal) will ruin it?

Steel wool, or other scouring pads, are made of quite small, rougher metal fibers or ribbons that will get into much smaller spaces, and clean away much smaller bits of matter, which includes the "seasoning" that coats your pan and/or the metal surface itself.

In contrast, the chainmail links are much larger, and each link's surface is relatively smooth overall.  This is great for removing bits of food and other foreign matter, but does not abrade on the much smaller level would be required to do permanent damage to the seasoning and/or the metal of the pan.

See these close up views of magnified steel wool and magnified titanium chainmail.  While the chainmail pictured is not steel, the smoothness would be rather similar between the two.  As you can see, the surface of the two materials is much different.  The smoother surface of the chainmail would therefore do far less to erode the surface of the pan, while still being quite effective at cleaning away food particulates.


Do I really need pastry flour in my molasses cookie recipe? I have a recipe for molasses cookies that calls for 3 parts regular flour to 1 part pastry flour for the flour component. It mentions that you can use whole wheat flour instead of pastry flour if necessary.

Would pastry flour be better? What purpose does it serve?

Pastry flour is a lower protein flour than the regular flour. From here

  the protein content of any given type
  of flour determines how tender,
  strong, elastic, stretchy, pliable,
  etc., the dough is that you make with
  it, and also the texture of the
  finished bread, waffle, cookie,
  croissant, etc.

So basically using regular flour rather than using the pastry flour might mean that your cookies will be denser.

If you don't have pastry flour you can always google substitutes. That what I do if I don't have something. I saved money by not buying another flour by just adding cornstarch to the regular flour I already had.


preserving dehydrated foods prepared with citric acid, honey or syrup Can anyone please confirm for me whether food that has been dehydrated with honey, syrup or citric acid (which I understand has a shorter life span than those made with preservatives which cause allergic reactions) can be kept fresh longer by vacuum sealing and then freezing.  Also if this is true can you please guide me to a website where I can get info on the "shelf-life" of the various items such as fruit, vegetables. I am very allergic so fresh fruits and vegetables are my main source of food.  I have a vacuum sealer and a food dehydrator and would like to make the most of bulk buying.  :)  Thank you

Using a vacuum sealer before freezing should generally improve lifetime in the freezer. Note that this lifetime is all about quality; safety-wise, everything lasts forever in the freezer.

When food is frozen, the main thing that keeps it from lasting forever is interaction with the air, and it only reduces quality. As time goes on, water and flavors escape from the food, flavors from the freezer enter the food, and frost accumulates on the surface. (In the case of dehydrated food, water entering the food might actually be a problem.) If the food has been vacuum-sealed first, then there's no way for any of this to happen. This is why you can find things like individually vacuum-sealed frozen fish fillets - the quality is much better. So if your vacuum-sealing is good, your food should hopefully last as long as you want it to in the freezer.


How to make cake mix less sweet I recently made a simple box cake, the one where you just add water and oil to the mix, but once I ate it I thought that it was way too sweet. I looked up how to temper this sweetness, but the best I could find was a suggestion to add lemon rind or - I assume - lemon essence (to a vanilla mix cake), to try and balance the sweetness. Is there a better way to do this? The best I could think of is to add flour, but the website also said not to do that as it would make the cake ingredients disproportionate. What could I do instead?

There's not really anything easy you can do. Even adding lemon zest or essence isn't really going to help; it'll just give you a lemony but still sweet cake. I suppose theoretically you could add sour things, since that does tend to balance out sweetness, but it's tricky since acid will interact with the leavening. A sour icing, or a sour sauce to serve it with, might be a better bet in that vein.

So unfortunately, you'd be best off shopping around for cake mixes that are more the level of sweetness you want. You might be able to use the nutrition facts to help get a sense of how sweet they are before you buy them.


Why can I have an indoor pizza/wood oven, but not a BBQ or smoker? (or can I...?) I know people have indoor wood-fired pizza ovens. I also know that in general people cannot have barbecues or smokers indoors, presumably because of the potential for leakage of dangerous or deadly gasses. I am confused because both of these methods involve burning wood indoors, but only the pizza oven is considered appropriate or safe.

My guess at this time is that pizza ovens have sufficient ventilation to let out bad gasses and such, while barbecues and smokers traditionally do not have good ventilation.

Why can I have an indoor pizza/wood oven, but not a BBQ or smoker?
Would having a valve that partly closes the ventilation of a pizza oven "turn" the pizza oven into a smoker? And if so, would this also be considered dangerous?

I want to make it clear that I don’t plan on poisoning my family and won’t be building something unless if is deemed safe by professionals.

Why pizza/wood ovens, but not BBQ/smoker?

Fire is not fundamentally a problem indoors; there are certainly safe ways to do it, like fireplaces.

The things that make fire dangerous are lack of containment and lack of ventilation coupled with significant size. If it's at all uncontained, it's a fire hazard, and if there's not enough ventilation then you can get a smoke-filled home, carbon monoxide poisoning, and all manner of unpleasant/deadly things.

Wood-fired pizza ovens are much more like fireplaces than anything else. The fire is well-contained. They have chimneys, so that all of the byproducts of the fire are safely sent outside, and new fresh air is pulled in.

Standard barbecues/grills/smokers usually fail on the ventilation aspect. They don't have a way to attach a chimney so that you can reliably send all the nasty stuff outside. They may also be insufficiently well-contained. For example, a lot of charcoal grills make it relatively easy to throw sparks outside the grill, which is pretty bad indoors.

Indoor smokers do exist, though. Generally they're either large, with serious ventilation, or they're small stovetop things that just burn a tiny amount of wood chips in a tiny volume, so it's safe without ventilation but not exactly comparable to a full smoker.

The reason the big ones need serious ventilation is that you're deliberately holding smoke (and associated gases) inside, and you can't let that slowly build up in your home. On top of that, it's at a much lower temperature, probably 225-250F compared to a wood-fired oven at probably 600-900F, so a chimney won't even be as effective because you don't have as strong convection from all that hot air trying to rise.

Can I just seal off an oven and turn it into a smoker?

No. If you don't send the smoke out through the ventilation system, it'll be going into your home. (You might have experienced this yourself, if you've ever started a fire in a fireplace and accidentally left the flue closed. It can fill the room with smoke impressively quickly.)

I know you said partially close, but if the oven hasn't been designed for it, you're just asking for trouble. You don't really have a good way to make sure that smoke (and probably carbon monoxide) is held within the oven enough to make it a good smoker, but is not pushed out into your home. This is fire/home safety. You really don't want to be asking for trouble here, and depending on where you live, it may well be illegal.

So it's really unlikely that you can even make this conversion, and if you're doing it yourself you can't trust it anyway, and the absolute best case is that you manage to somehow build yourself an indoor smoker and you've probably had to make compromises that make it not work as well as a pizza oven. So you might as well just buy an indoor smoker. (But you still might not be as happy with it as with a regular outdoor smoker - see dlb's answer.)


3+ egg omelette in a pan I want to make thick omelettes and everywhere online I saw that you start with decent heat and then turn it down all the way after a while, until its thoroughly cooked.

While making 2 eggs, it just reaches the edges of my frying pan. So I put 3-4 eggs to make it thicker as it kinda fills up the pan. However after I turn down the heat from 500-600 to 200-300, I notice that after very long time too, it still stays mostly wet on the top. In this time the bottom is overcooked brown. I cannot flip it as it just breaks and leaks from the top.

My Induction temperature ranges from 200-1200, I think it must be Fahrenheit. I don't really have other options since I rent new rooms, and move - a little more than comfortable.

Is it possible to create that golden colored omelette but with a thicker body?

Am I failing because I'm using an Induction stove? Is such a feat possible? If so what must I do to get it done?

Thanks!

I'm quite new to making omelettes, but when I make a thick/Spanish omelette on the stove (gas) I do a few things that help.  I don't want to turn the grill on just to finish an omelette off, and the handle of my frying pan couldn't really take the grill anyway.

Push the edges in at first as if cooking a French omelette (to make a thicker, stronger layer quicker).
Turn the heat down and put a lid on, but not for long.
Slide it out onto a plate bigger than your frying pan.
Invert the frying pan over the top of the plate. Wearing oven gloves hold them tightly together and flip.
Continue cooking.

I usually make these because I want them chock-full of onion, potato etc. -- otherwise I make French omelettes, which can be thicker than they traditionally should be (and in that case may be called English).

Alternatively I often precook a filling (onion/peppers/garlic/herb/chillies) and reserve, adding it hot along with some cheese just before folding, while the top is still runny.  It finishes cooking through quite quickly at that point.  Turning is tricky as I tend to overstuff them (it's a favourite quick dinner at the moment,  with freshly-harvested new potatoes so I don't want to be mean with the filling).


How to prevent cucumbers from tasting bitter? I am a cooking dummy and I hate bitter cucumbers. :) Help!

The biggest thing you can do is peel it. If a cucumber's bitter, it's much more in the peel than in the flesh. It's also usually more bitter at the stem end, so you might want to start from the other end, and possibly ultimately discard an inch from the stem end if it really is too bitter for you. Unless you're unusually sensitive to the bitterness, that ought to cover it.

Bitterness is also fairly variable from cucumber to cucumber, so it's possible that you could shop for less bitter ones - maybe a different variety - or buy them only during more favorable seasons.


Espresso tamping technique There is a lot of information on how to tamp espresso before pulling a shot, so it's a little hard to make sense of it all.  What I currently do certainly works, but perhaps there's something better out there.

What is the best technique for getting a good, consistent tamp?  Also, it'd be great to know how to diagnose common tamping issue.

The most important part of technique for a good, consistent tamp is to uses a good tamp. Many espresso machines, especially cheap counter-top ones for home use, come with a plastic or lightweight metal tamp. You really want one that's nice and heavy, as it helps you get good, even pressure.

Beyond that, the best recommendation I have is simply to practice. Tamp down onto a flat surface where you have room to lift your elbow and forearm so that you're pressing directly down onto the tamp and espresso grounds.

The biggest problem I see in terms of tamping issues is pressure that isn't evenly applied. The top of the tamped espresso grounds should be a smooth, level surface. If it isn't, keep practicing until you can press down evenly.

The other main problem is not enough pressure. If you don't tamp the grounds hard enough, the water will find the path of least resistance and won't penetrate the grounds evenly. Most people say to aim for 20-30 lbs. of pressure when tamping; pick a number somewhere in that range and practice on a kitchen scale or bathroom scale until you know what that kind of pressure feels like. Consistency is more important than the actual number here - as long as you're somewhere in that 20-30 lb. range, you should be good.


Cracking almonds without a nutcracker? I got a bunch of (dried) almonds in their shell today. I wasn't aware of how hard their shells were and I have no nutcracker. Is there any way to open them without one?

To summarize the comments:

Use common household tools (such as pliers) as improvised nutcrackers
Try using the bottle gripper/opener on kitchen shears as an improvised nutcracker
Use impact tools, such as a hammer, a heavy pan, or even cleaned rocks as nut smashers, but you may not get whole nutmeats with this method
Bite the bullet and buy or borrow a nutcracker

(This is part of my little quest to get answers to some of the non-answered questions....)


Sousvide seafood for sushi I'm curious whether the store-labeled "sushi grade" fish, like some salmon and scallops, can be made by cooking the fish sousvide and chilling it in the refrigerator afterwards.

Sous vide is a method to bring the interior of a meat to a safe temperature before applying a quick sear to the outside.  The sear is purely for flavor and texture, not food safety.

Sushi grade fish is certified to have been processed (i.e. frozen, cut) in such a way that it's edible raw.  The interior of a sushi grade salmon steak should have minimal bacteria if properly handled after purchase and isn't left to sit unrefrigerated.

So, to answer your question, yes, you can sous vide the fish, but I see no benefit, not even destroy meaningful amounts of bacteria (because there shouldn't be much there to begin with).


Do you achieve better results from marinating if you poke holes in the meat beforehand? Usually when I marinate any kind of meat (usually chicken or steak), I always just stick the whole piece of meat in marinade and let it sit for X hours. My question is, is it possible to achieve better (more flavorful, or juicy) results from marinading if you poke holes in the meat before marinating to allow the juices to flow INTO the meat? What are the benefits and drawbacks of said approach?

For the purpose of simplicity, lets keep the discussion to cuts of chicken and steak, cooked on a gas grill.

ChefSteps inject their cuts of meat with their 'brine', a marinade of salty water, liquid smoke, etc., before putting the entire thing in that brine to speed up the process (6-7 days down to 1-2 days)

https://youtu.be/_yTLjYRDDwI?t=51s (at 51s Ben talks about the brine for a pork shoulder, and speeding it up by injecting it. They have other videos for beef, and chicken, and frequently advocate injecting brine/marinade into their meats.)

This is effectively the same as poking holes in the meat and letting the marinade seep in more effectively.

It would depend on the size of the holes you're creating, if you're jacquarding the meat the holes will be larger than a needle.

Benefits: speed up marinating, more effective marinating.

Drawbacks: Depending on hole size, you could ruin presentation and texture. Depending on the marinade, you could be affecting the colour of the meat, too.


Is getting rid of the dough the only solution when it smells of yeast? I made pizza dough (it was ready to use, you just add the liquid ingredients -oil and milk in my case- and the rest is similar to the usual process of letting it rest and so on) the other day and left it in the fridge for about 48 hours, when I was making pizza I figured it smells of yeast which is unpleasant and quite strong. Anything can be done about it or tossing in the trash is the only solution to the issue?

Hmm. A yeast dough smelling of yeast. There's only one solution - bake it.


Meaning of the term 'tack' in bread making? I have a recipe for oat and honey bread and it mentions the word 'tack'. Please can you tell me
what this means? It says the following; "It should start coming together and getting more tack and less sticky after about 5 minutes"

I am not sure there is common meaning of "tack" that makes sense in this context.  I suspect it is a typo for "tacky", but even so, tacky implies a certain amount of stickiness.

On the other hand, the outcome that is indicated is clear.  When your dough first forms, it sticks to almost anything:  the sides of the bowl, the counter, your hands, leaving a residue.  As you knead and develop the gluten in the dough, it will prefer to stick to itself, rather than these surfaces.


Will lobsters caught in June be shedders? I am planning to visit Maine at the end of June. Can I expect the lobsters I buy there will be shedders or will they be hard shell?

Probably not, the shedding season starts mid-late July according to this site:

  By mid-to late July the Gulf of Maine begins to warm up significantly
  which triggers the seasonal molt.

The end of June is generally not going to be warm enough, however you might get lucky as sometimes its early, and it's worth asking because they are the most amazing tasting lobsters you will ever try. I'd suggest if you're going to be near the coast that you go directly to the source and call your local lobster pounds.

A lobster pound is the place where independent boats bring their lobsters to and sell, from there they go out to restaurants across the world (although some local restaurants will have their own docks and boats). Many pounds are set up as restaurants or cook lobsters and steamers (local clams) to order as take-out. It's the freshest lobster you'll get and the best prices too. Just call them up and ask if they have any shedders and they'll tell you, most will take orders over the phone although you can go to them as well. I hope you find some, there's nothing like them anywhere.


How to collect slime pass through rice cooker cover when cover on? I have often the following situation when boiling rice and meat in rice cooker.
However, I do not like it because the meat cannot then reach the high temperature.
I know that I could boil rice and meat (chicken) separately to minimise the problem.

Fig. 1 Wood stick between cover and the rice cooker

I know that you can prevent the slime formation by washing the rice first but I cannot do it easily because I have only this machine to warm food up; also, I need to filter my water to purify it.

Is there any measure to collect the slime passing through the cover of rice cooker?

I will bump this up to an answer as the only time this should not work for you is if you have a rice cooker that requires a minimum weight to activate the heating element.

You usually should be able to use your rice cooker itself to sear/brown your protein.  Cut into small pieces and toss into the cooker.  Also, garlic, onions, maybe fresh herbs which would benefit from heat to bloom their flavor.  Caramelize any onion or garlic you use and sear/brown meat or poultry just as you would in a pan.  It may take a little longer, and you may not get quite a deep of a browning as you would in a pan, but the same general effect.  It will also help meld the spicing with the protein.

When satisfied, use a little of your liquid to deglaze the bottom of the cooker, you want all that flavor that stuck on.  Then add your rice and the rest of the liquid and cook as normal.  I agree that the bulk of you slime, at least the more unappealing part is probable the protein scum from boiling it, and this should greatly reduce that effect and may give you a more satisfying blend of flavor as well.

My rice cooker is one which with multiple settings which allows it to somewhat double as a slow cooker and I have used this technique many times to make soups with very good results.  If you do have multiple settings, use the highest heat option for the searing of the protein.


Should flax seeds be crushed to be a good egg substitute? When I'm looking up egg substitutes, one of the easiest (for me) is making a slurry of flax seeds and water. However, I noticed there is a difference between using the flax seeds whole and breaking them up. The slurry is thicker if the seeds aren't whole. Or at least, that's what I think I observe.

So, should you only used broken or whole flax seeds, when using them as an egg substitute? Are there (dis)advantages of using flax seeds whole vs. broken up?

I've seen this question, that mentions to break them up, but it isn't specifically about substituting eggs.

Note: I can imagine it also depends if I mind pieces in whatever I'm making, and I don't mind about those.

Yes, for all practical intents and purposes, for flax eggs to congeal they need to be milled or ground to a powder and slurried with water, then introduced to the dish. After stirring and then letting set you should have a nice gloopy mess if you let it stand for a few minutes.

I typically use a 1 part milled seed to 2.5 parts water, but typically ranges go from 2-3 parts water. You can use a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder for fast, thorough results.

The exception to this is that you can boil them(this link will teach you how to use them to make hair gel, if you're so inclined). This will cause the soluble fiber (the congealing agent) to dissolve, leaving behind the seed husks. Milled flax seeds don't seem to be any less effective and no more distracting in terms of taste so, unless you're doing up your hair, I just don't see the payoff on boiling them.
Another exceptional means to an exception to this is letting the seeds soak for approximately 6-8 hours. As I recall the person who tried this said it didn't congeal much, and was less sticky than a milled flax egg.


Is using vinegar a viable way to reduce burning? How would it affect taste? In House, MD, in season six episode three the main character tags along to a cooking class with his best friend, Wilson. During the subsequent scene, they engage in a conversation which ends up distracting Wilson, causing him to begin burning his meatballs.  As he notes, they're still raw inside, and he needs to continue cooking them without burning.

To combat this, House adds vinegar with a brush, stating that it would slow the maillard reaction because of the acidity.

Is this possible, and if so, how would it affect the flavor of the meatballs?

The OP's answer is correct that this theoretically should have an effect, but I have my doubts about its practicality for a few reasons:

The goal is supposedly to "reduce burning," which implies carbonization.  Carbonization happens most rapidly at higher temperatures (over 400F or so) compared to the ideal temperatures for Maillard reactions.  Thus, you can very easily go quickly from underdone to burnt at very high temperatures.  Decreasing Maillard reactions is not the problem; it's too high of a temperature leading to carbonization.  Wilson should just turn down the heat.  Increasing Maillard will just make more of a thicker "brown crust" giving the meatballs more of a "fried" texture.  Most people wouldn't find that too objectionable.
Vinegar is a rather dilute acid and is mostly water.  Water will also inhibit the Maillard reactions by lowering the surface temperature of the meatballs.  Effectively, before the meatballs can begin browning again, the water will mostly need to be evaporated, so the surface will "steam" for a bit at lower temperatures, again inhibiting browning.  Anyhow, the larger problem with this from a practical standpoint is splatter.  Introducing a bunch of mostly water onto a food right before frying will cause that water to vaporize when coming in contact with the oil and splattering.  Also, the question is how much this acid will penetrate the meat surface and prevent browning vs. being effectively washed off during this vaporization and splattering.  Unless you let the meatballs sit and absorb the acid for a few minutes before returning to the pan, I imagine most of the vinegar would just come off and be ineffective.
Even presuming that the acid stays on the meatballs and that we actually want to inhibit Maillard reactions (which I'm not sure we do), I don't know how effective a little bit of surface acidity is really going to be in this case.  Keep in mind that many, many people prepare meat in marinades before cooking, which often contain acidity.  While most people dry the meat before cooking, this surface acidity obviously doesn't seem to get too much in the way of browning and flavor reactions, or else people wouldn't put so much acid in marinades.  The uneven surface of meatballs may lead to a little more absorption of acid than a solid cut of meat, but again I have some doubts about the magnitude of the effect.

Bottom line: I suppose this might delay browning for a couple minutes, at the risk of (maybe significant) splattering.  It will NOT be very effective at stopping burning if the oil is too hot.  The flavor of the meatballs shouldn't be affected (except from the direct flavor of the vinegar), other than the outside tasting like it was browned slightly less.

As OP's link in the answer notes, there are other ways to reduce the speed of Maillard reactions, notably reducing temperature of the pan and/or removing the meatballs and letting them rest (to cool the surface down a bit while some heat migrates inward) before finishing cooking.  Reducing temperature seems a much easier and more effective solution in this case.  Another alternative would just be to remove them from the pan and finish cooking in a low oven: the frying is to obtain the browned outer crust, and if that's done, there's no need to keep frying.

House's solution -- while technically intriguing -- seems overly complex and unlikely to be practical, but then again, that's why people tend to watch House....


How to help my vegetable beef soup that I added too much tomato to? I was making my homemade vegetable beef soup and put too many cans of tomato sauce and paste in it. My husband says it is a tomato soup instead of a vegetable beef soup. What can I do to improve it?

Like all essentially liquid recipes, once you put two much of something in, its in.  You cannot get it out.

So you have only two choices:

Find a way to mitigate the excess ingredient, or in this case, repurpose it so it seems intentional
Create an additional batch of the soup with reduced or eliminated tomato, and combine them so the proportion is essentially the intended one.

For the first approach, you might embrace the tomato-y-ness of the batch, and add spices or flavors like chilis that compliment that.   Enjoy it for what it is.

The second approach can also be effective, but you will end up with much more soup.  That is great if you are happy soup lovers, or if you can freeze it for later, but may not be practical for everyone.


Should I peel my tomatoes before making a sauce? What are the pros and cons of peeling my tomatoes before making a sauce?

I basically make two different sauces a classical red sauce and a "pink" sauce that is a light alfredo infused with white wine and then chopped tomatoes are added and reduced.

When making my pink sauce you can see some skin afterwards but not much and most people like the texture.  However I am talking to a local chef and we are picking tomatoes in his back yard and he tells me he skins them all... I have never had issues but ???

Note:  I am getting a lot of feedback and I think there may be confusion.  I chop my tomatoes into relative small cubes (let's say 1/3" cubed).  There isn't much trace of skins and those left are very small slivers.  Also is skin on vs skin off affecting taste?  People love my pink sauce so I don't want to change the taste.

It is unnecessary, however some people don't like the skins. They tend to curl up into tube sticks that don't chew very well and can hurt if you chew one accidentally and you have a sensitive tooth or gum disease.

Peeling it very easy. Score an x at the bottom of each tomatoe and blanch. The skin will curl back and leave you with a whole but peeled tomato.

Edit based on change to question:
The skins will have almost no affect to the taste either way.


Solution for uneven heating on an electric coil stovetop I'm struggling to find a solution for my apartments coil stovetop and its uneven heating. I've never run into the problem until I started working on my holiday hard candy recently. I can't keep the coils heating consistently at high temperatures. I need to measure the temperature but I can't do that when it varies drastically across the pot.

Is there anything I can do to buffer the heat from the coil before it gets to the pan?

I don't have any options for using a different stove so I need to make this work. I've considered some sort of heating stone that would help even the heat out but I figured that would take DAYS to heat up properly.

A copper diffuser plate will help spread the heat more evenly.

Is it possible the coils are not all touching the bottom of your pot?


Are my pickled peppers safe to eat? A few years ago, I got a wild hair and pickled some sweet and hot peppers out of my garden.

It's been a while, but I remember buying the correct implements and ingredients and following a procedure I got from (I think) a Ball pickling instruction book.

The pickled peppers have been in the cabinet this whole time, mostly forgotten.

I'm going to move this week, and we found the peppers when cleaning out our kitchen cabinets. I was going to throw them out, then I got curious. I looked at the peppers, and through the glass, all appears to be fine. There's no mold that I can see. No foaming. The brine (?) is clear. The peppers are still pretty brightly colored.

I opened one jar (glass Ball-brand mason jar with 2-piece lid), and there was still suction keeping the lid down. The peppers smell good and pickled, just as I would expect a store-bought jar to smell.

Now, I'm kinda terrified of botulism. That's one reason the pickled peppers stayed in the cabinet all this time. I know I had good instructions at the time, and I followed them, but the "what if" idea just has me a bit scared.

On the other hand, it would be a shame to miss out on some good pickled peppers if there's nothing wrong with them.

So, given that a good deal of time has elapsed, are there any methods to tell whether botulism is present in them? Anything else that I should worry about?

Gas production is one of the biggest signs of botulism. Botulism also doesn't like strongly acidic solutions. Your pickled peppers sound safe.


I don't care about the non stick property of a non stick pot. Is there any harm in washing it in a dishwasher? I have this T-Fal non stick pot, and really I don't have any use for the non stick coating. I'm wondering if there's any harm in washing it in the dishwasher aside from the non-stick coating wearing off. In particular I am wondering about food safety.

It already looks like the coating has worn off significantly.  Without making any health claims (as I don't know what the impact of ingesting particles of T-fal coating), I don't think the dishwasher is going to do more damage, or release any more coating, than your use of inappropriate non-stick utensils already has.  ...maybe, just time for a new pot.


Cezve doesn't leak with cold water in it, leaks after heating I have a cezve I bought some time ago. I've tried making some coffee with it, and after about 30 seconds of heating on the stove, it starts to leak (dripping one by one). Is there any way to fix this, or does it have to be thrown away ?

You would have to find the crack (presumably there is a crack which is tight when cold, but opens with heating due to thermal expansion) and then you would need to fix it, or have someone else fix it, with a food safe (lead and cadmium free) solder or brazing material. Whether this is economical or not depends on many factors:

Can you do it yourself, do you know somone who can, or will you need to hire a professional
Are professionals who do "pot and pan repair" easily found in your area or not?
How much does a new coffeepot (cezve) cost relative to the cost of getting it fixed?


How to keep a chocolate cream from getting hard? I've been making a chocolate cream/spread lately. Some butter, chocolate, salt, allspice, cocoa and water. I'm not really using any recipe, but it's about twice the chocolate over butter.

These ingredients are mixed at a low temp, the water gets added after the rest is melted and stirred together. After cooling, this mixture stays usable at room temperature for some days. That is, it can be spread on bread. But after some days, the mixture becomes brittle and hard.

I suppose this is because water evaporates out. Does anybody know how this can be prevented or reverted? Should I melt it and mix more water in? Is that possible?

I had to do some reading on this one. There are a lot of answers.

1- You should find a better recipe. Chocolate spread recipes I have used come in one of two styles.

The water in your recipe seems to be a problem. The nutella style that uses fat, sugar, and chocolate. These will not really dry out. Sometimes the oil will separate a little and will need to be mixed back in. I would group frostings in this group although, of course, they contain far more sugar.
See this recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/chocolate-hazelnut-spread-with-crepes-recipe/index.html

Thick chocolate candy. AKA fudge. These contain water but the sugar and water are cooked together into a syrup so the water is not able to immediately dry out. They will crystallize if they are badly handled- many recipes contain a little corn syrup to prevent this. This does not seem to be what you are trying to make.

2- Store your concoction in a lidded container that isn't too much larger than your sauce. I use mason jars to store mine. Alternatively you can push plastic wrap down onto the surface of the spread.

3- Refrigeration. Recipes that don't contain dairy don't need to be refrigerated and in fact shouldn't be because it causes them to harden.

4- Adding water to melted chocolate is only a problem when dealing with chocolate that is dry and meant to solidify such as a molded chocolate. In such a case even a drop of water will cause seizing. In this case where there is already quite a bit of water in the recipe seizing is not a risk and you shouldn't have any problem mixing a tiny bit back in. Do not add water to the nutella-like spread recipes. They do not contain water and it will not mix in.

I can't tell from your description what is causing your sauce to harden- it could be drying out, separating, or crystallizing. Any of these will be solved by reheating and thoroughly stirring. Although water could be added to restore dried syrup I think you will get better results by switching to a recipe that uses fat in place of the water.


Why are my Baozi shrinking? I've tried to make Chinese Baozi a couple of times now together with my girlfriend, who is half-chinese and knows the dish from her mother. We tried them according to various recipes, and in our latest attempt I even tried to pour all my knowledge about bread and pizza crust in -- without any success.

I have tried plain white-flour-yeast doughs with a quick proofing, as well as an elaborate dough made from 3 different flours (German type 405, 650 and 1050) with additional flour-gluten, barley malt syrup for additional amylase, as well as making a "Poolish"-style starter overnight and properly kneading, stretch-folding and resting the dough.

After filling the dough, we rest them for a small while (~10-15min), and then place them into the [hot,cold] pots with water onto the steaming trays (laid out with fine cheesecloth, to let through steam but prevent sticking), and steam them for 15min. We tried preheated (already steaming) pot, cool pot, then heat up when the buns are in. We tried shorter steaming (raw filling) or longer (after too long steaming they start to shrink) -- no success either. Following we tried lifting the lid instantly, or letting them cool over the course of ~10min, at the end of which I would open the lid very, very slowly.

The End-Result is always that the Baozi shrink heavily and quickly develop a hardish skin. Upon biting them the dough doesn't feel light and airy anymore, but only slightly airy with a "short crumb", much like German pretzel dough would inside...

What could be the cause of our problems? Thank you for any suggestions!

Nebuk, I, too, had labored over baozi many a time, only to have them fall flat. After much searching, I came to Andrew Nguyen (who has since answered many more of my questions regarding Asian cuisines) for the answer. Check out this article by her from the LA Times.

She addresses your problem specifically:

  The problem arises when the dough is stuffed to make filled buns. Whether the filling is raw or cooked, it introduces moisture into the bun during steaming and can cause the dough to cave in or wrinkle after cooking. Imagine my devastation on the occasions when that happened after hours of working and waiting.

She offers advice on how to prevent this:

  At the end of the day, the best and easiest bao dough is simply made by stirring together these readily available ingredients: moderate gluten all-purpose flour from the supermarket, instant (fast-acting) yeast, baking powder, canola oil, sugar and water. I often knead by hand, but when I feel lazy, I let the food processor do the work. Regardless of method, the result is fabulous...The key is having a little fat and combining yeast with baking powder in a balanced proportion. As biochemist and acclaimed author Shirley Corriher explains in "Cookwise," working in a small amount of fat tenderizes and enables bread dough to hold gas bubbles well. That lightens the dough, she says, as does employing a two-pronged approach to leavening.

The two-pronged approach to leavening here being the use of both yeast and baking powder.