What ingredients should be avoided in stock? The common wisdom is to store all of your vegetable trimmings (cleaned) in the freezer, and then chuck everything into the stock pot when it's time to make stock.  For a meat stock, it's common to throw the bones, giblets, neck and any other left-over bits into the stock pot as well.

There must be some things which are undesirable or ill-advised for stock.  What should one avoid as an ingredient for making stock, and why?

There isn't anything that is necessarily "bad" or should always be avoided in stock, but some ingredients have qualities you won't always want.

Dark greens (spinach, kale, etc) can make a stock bitter and of course greenish in color. Cabbage also can impart a overwhelming bitterness.
Potatoes can cloud a stock from their starchiness, so they are not good when you want clear stock for something like a soup or consomme.
Tomatoes may overpower flavors in a light stock, but are a critical component in most dark stocks (browning tomato paste improves the color)
Onion skins add a deeper flavor, but yellow or red skins can change the color of a light colored stock dramatically.
Skin and extra fat from the meat used is sometimes avoided to reduce the amount of skimming required later on (I personally don't skim, the extra fat doesn't bother me)
The bones of very oily fish (mackerel, salmon, and trout for example) are usually avoided because they can make a stock too strong in specific flavors to work in any other dish. Oily fish stocks also tend to have an unpleasant odor.


Is buttermilk another term for sour milk or some part of sour milk? Is buttermilk another term for sour milk or some part of sour milk?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttermilk says:

Originally, buttermilk referred to the liquid left over from churning butter from cultured or fermented cream. Traditionally, before the advent of homogenization, the milk was left to sit for a period of time to allow the cream and milk to separate. During this time, naturally occurring lactic acid-producing bacteria in the milk fermented it. This facilitates the butter churning process, since fat from cream with a lower pH coalesces more readily than that of fresh cream. The acidic environment also helps prevent potentially harmful microorganisms from growing, increasing shelf-life.[3]

Buttermilk is the byproduct of butter making.
Butter is made by agitating cream (-> the fatty part of milk) resulting in clumps of fat and a milky white liquid that contains nearly no fat and some protein. If the cream was soured before (either by aging or by inoculating the cream with lactobacillae), the buttermilk will also be sour. If the butter was made from unfermented cream, the buttermilk will be mild.
Uncultured buttermilk is rarely sold, even if butter is made commercially with regular cream, the resulting buttermilk is soured afterwards.
As buttermilk is made from a fraction of whole milk (the cream), you could say it’s a part of soured milk. I outlined the process of butter making in this answer, that should also help understanding buttermilk.


How do I render large quantities of fat? Suppose I have many pounds of fat to render. (Sometimes people have 100 pounds!) How can I do this efficiently?

Should I use a pot on the stove, a slow cooker, or the oven? How many pounds should I render in each batch? Do I need to add water?

Unless you've got industrial type equipment, I wouldn't do more than about 1-1.5 lbs at a time. Here's a hint, cube the fat (1 inch cubes) and then partially freeze it. 45 - 75 minutes or so in the freezer will give you fat you can handle without it melting and that can be coarsly ground in a food processor or meat grinder without making a gross mess. Some people add water, I wouldn't. Just keep the flame (or burner) very low. Use a heavy pot, preferably cast iron. If you do it nice and slow you should get cracklin and tallow that barely needs to be clarified, or not at all. Figure about an hour on the low end up to two hours for the fat to completely render.


Problem with gummy-bears being too much like jelly I've been trying a simple recipe I found on the internet, which is a simple recipe consisting mostly of gelatin.

The problem is that the end result is basically just a fruit-flavoured jelly (Jell-O?), rather than the more chewy gummy-bears (Haribo) style of jelly confectionery.

Can anyone suggest what I need to do to make them less springy and more chewy.  It's all difficult to articulate!

Here's what I used for the first test-batch:

12 tbsp sugar
12/3 cup fruit juice
8 tbsp Golden Syrup
8 tbsp gelatin

soften the gelatin in 1/2 cup of cold water.
place sugar, syrup and the juice in a pan and gently heat until sugar dissolves.
Stir in the gelatin and stir until dissolved.
Pour into moulds and wait until set.

Thanks

Be careful of substituting agar or any other "firm" gelling agent; you're likely to end up something closer to Turkish Delight and agar in particular has the property of syneresis (meaning that your gummy candies will dry up fast).

I can think of a few things that would alter the consistency of a gelatin candy/dessert:

First, it is very important to let the gelatin bloom.  When it says to "soften" it in cold water, you need to let it sit there for a good 5 minutes or so until it has absorbed plenty of water and you can actually see a gel forming.  Don't stir it at this point!
All gelatins are not created equal; you need to look at the bloom strength.  I think the most common kind in supermarkets is Knox, which has a bloom strength of 225 and is usually what most gelatin recipes calls for.  "Platinum" gelatin (normally sold in sheets) goes up to 260, "Gold" is generally around 200, "Silver" is 160, and "Bronze" can be as low as 125 - practically useless for this.  If you managed to find powdered gelatin with a bloom strength of under 200, you would need to increase the quantity or else end up with jelly.
Although gelatin does not require particularly high temperatures to hydrate, you do need to heat the solution to at least 50° C before you set it.  If you don't do this, it won't dissolve properly.
When using powdered gelatin, you're normally supposed to bloom and dissolve it in the same liquid.  The recipe you have seems to call for chucking the bloomed gelatin directly into your syrup; this may be deliberate in order to produce some effect I'm not familiar with, but it sounds like an oversight to me.  Instead I would heat the gelatin/water solution up to 50° C after blooming (as described above) and then add that to the syrup.
Finally, as Computerish says, make sure you're heating the syrup solution enough to get all the sugar dissolved, and you might even need to reduce it a little (let it simmer).  The more you reduce it, the more viscous the syrup itself will become (at the extreme end turning into pure caramelized sugar, which is rock-hard).  So if you're absolutely sure that you are using the gelatin correctly, this would be the next line to pursue.  If the syrup is actually syrupy at room temperature then it should form great chewy gummies, but if it's watery then you're more likely to end up with Jell-O.


Does fish blood have a smell, how to remove it? truly fresh fish should not smell of anything except sea water.  I've been buying fresh sardines however when I take it out of the bag there seems to be a smell, it seems to be originating from liquid, blood, and the fish.  even after cooking i can sometimes taste this smell.

Note this smell could be from blood, paper wrapping or something else but i think its the fish and blood.

with fresh fish which shouldnt smell of anything except sea water, is it normal for its blood to smell?
does one remove the smell by thorough washing or does it need to be heated to a particular temp to remove, if so what is the temp?

also I notice larger fish like mackerel on the fish counter look clean to begin with, why don't they have blood over them or emit this same smell?

thanks

truly fresh fish should not smell of anything except sea water

While that might be true of most fresh fish fillets, fish guts most certainly smell, and unless all of those little guys have been opened and cleaned, you're almost certainly tasting/smelling the guts. The big fish in the case are nice and clean because they're gutted and washed. Often, smaller fish like Sardines are sold whole without gutting and washing. This can be kind of a dicey proposition if your store doesn't do a ton of volume, or you're not super close to the port at which they were caught.

Are you removing the guts and washing them before you cook them? That would be the first step to reduce the flavors you don't like.

Is the thin flesh of the belly deteriorated, perhaps even with the guts falling out? This is called belly burn, which occurs when the guts were left in too long and start to digest the fish from the inside out. These fish should be discarded (or used as bait if you decide to go DIY)


Should I store my cheese in brine/whey? Fresh mozzarella is usually sold floating in whey, and feta cheese is often sold soaking in brine.  Once I've opened the container and used part of the cheese, how should I store it in the fridge to make it keep the best for the greatest time?  Specifically:

Should I store the cheeses in liquid, or dry in a covered container?
For mozzarella, should I put it away in its original whey, or put it in a clean container with fresh water?
For feta, should I store it in the brine it came in, or change the brine before putting it away?

In either case store the cheese in the liquid it came in, transferring it to a clean container and covering well. Feta lasts reasonably well, but mozzarella only keeps well for a couple of days.


Lemon dill sauce broke When making a lemon dill sauce will limited ingredients due to Lenten restrictions, we found the sauce broke after simmering.  The sauce was vegetable stock with lemon juice then thickened with a roux of margarine and flour.  All was well for 10 minutes at a low simmer when suddenly it broke.  Did the lemon break the gluten?  Did the simmering cause the breakage? Was the margarine the cause?

There is no way to be certain, but I would blame the margarine.

Margarine is not pure fat like an oil, nor a simple fat-water emulsion like butter. It is a rather unstable emulsion, and it uses all kinds of industrial tricks to achieve a smooth, soft, spreadable consistency. It is not just emulsified, it generally contains all kinds of gums too. This is especially pronounced in reduced-fat margarine products.

You shouldn't heat margarine, as you never know how it will behave under heat. It is a bit less of a problem in baking, if you are willing to accept large differences in texture; but as you noticed, it can be very problematic in foods where the correct texture has low tolerance.

If you want to reduce your butter consumption but still make roux-based sauces, use any liquid oil. You can use a cheap vegetable oil for strongly flavored sauces, or an oil with its own taste for milder sauces which can profit from more flavor.

The ratio of fat to starch in a roux is not very tolerant to fat reduction. You should always use at least 1:1 fat to flour. A little deviation (such as using 1:1 butter to flour, which makes it 0.83 fat to 1 part flour) will still work, although it is recommended to up the fat a bit when using butter. But you cannot reduce the fat in a roux-based sauce by choosing a fat-reduced product (assuming you could find a gum-free one) instead of fat and keeping the overall ratio the same. So, if you are looking to reduce your total fat consumption during Lenten and the use of 1:1 oil to flour ratio is not acceptable to you, you will have to do it by some other means.


Forgotten Fried Eggs Recipe I have long been trying to increase the quality of my fried eggs. A few weeks ago I ran across a recipe that instructed me to crack the eggs into a cold pan, season them right there and THEN turn on the heat and cover them.

This turned out to be a great success and the eggs had amazing texture.

I thought I had kept that recipe however today I am unable to find it and I dont remember for how long and at what temperature it advised to cook them at.

I realize there are a lot of "amazing fried eggs" links out there but I am specifically looking for the one that involves covering the pan and seasoning the eggs while they are cold.

Does anyone fry their eggs like this?

So I found the recipe that I'm assuming you were looking for? It seems to fit the description you've given.

From framedcooks.com:

  Pour the oil into a cold frying pan and swirl it around until the bottom is coated.
  Crack the eggs carefully into the pan, keeping the yolks intact.
  Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the eggs, along with the herbs and cheese if you are using those.
  Cover the pan and turn the heat on to medium low. Cook for 6 minutes with no peeking! This will produce eggs with creamy runny yolks – leave them on for another minute or two if you like them more well done.
  Run a knife between the eggs to separate them, slide them out of the pan onto plates and serve at once.

Enjoy your eggs.


Made oven ghee - what is the liquid at the top of my cold ghee? Yesterday I made ghee in the oven by cooking sweet butter for 2hrs in the oven at low temp.  I filtered the resulting liquid through cheese cloth and let the resulting clear liquid sit overnight.

Today, the ghee has congealed into a solid, as it should.  However, on top of it is an oily liquid.  I poured some into a glass and added water, and the two liquids don't mix, so it's not water left over from the butter (good news).  Still, I'm confused why I don't end up with a uniform material.

Some butter is mixed with sunflower oil in order to make it more spreadable. Have you checked the ingredients list (if there is one) on the butter?


Flour alternatives for roux I have recently been diagnosed with celiac, so no wheat flour whatsoever.  Also, I am allergic to corn....  I have read that arrowroot would not work in a roux; it is not just the thickening I want, but that flavor that a well browned roux has.  Any alternatives?

A roux is a stable mixture (an emulsion) of fat and water held together by an emulsifier such as starch.

So you could try any number of flours from grains that contain starch such as potato, rice, barley, buckwheat, etc.

As far as the Maillard Reaction taste and color that you'd like to substitude, potato and barley (IMO) are the better bets.  The note on arrowroot may be that it doesn't brown through the Maillard reaction.

An approach I would suggest is to use more than one flour/emulsifier and try to achieve consistency and taste by varying two or more ingredients as opposed to a direct single substitute.  This may also mean that you'd likely have to the color/taste/browning first and then bind it to achieve the final result.

Have a look at Bob's Red Mill's list of flours and experiment.  A little bit of Hazelnut flour and you might never look back at an ordinary wheat flour roux again.


Safety of candies with cat in house? I had several candies in individual plastic bags. I assembled paper bags to group together various candies to give to my classmates. I did this on a carpeted floor, with the plastic bags of candy over copy paper (occasionally touching carpet) and the paper bags that they would go into sitting directly on the carpet. I have a cat; cats step in their own litterboxes. The cat has not been in the house for a week. The candy itself, of course, has never touched anything but the hands of the woman who put them in the plastic bags.

Is there a risk if I give my classmates the candies?

I don't see any risk with the candy itself, as you state that it is individually wrapped.  The only issue I see, and it is probably a fairly low risk issue, is if you have classmates who are severely allergic to cats.  I suppose there is potential for the bags to pick up some cat hair...but, now I am getting dangerously close to dealing with a health concern, which is off topic on our site.  So, my short answer is, for the individually wrapped candy...no significant risk.


Julia Child - Mastering the Art of French Cooking - OK for Kosher? My fiancee and I love to cook. We love cookbooks, but often find that they are useless in today's internet world where all the recipe sites exist. Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a classic, which is not just a list of recipes (as I have found many other "cookbooks") but something more. I want to buy it for her--but the problem is that we keep a kosher kitchen, i.e. we don't mix meat and milk. Child is notorious for her ubiquitous use of butter and cream. Is this book useful in a kosher kitchen, or is it pointless since all of the recipes will call for mixing milk & meat? I have a sense that for many of the recipes, you can simply cut out the butter, but isn't the point of having a recipe to follow it?

I think you should take it out from your public library and take a good in depth look at it. This way you don't have to buy it and you can look at all the recipes. If you see enough recipes in there that you don't have to change, or just have to change minimally, then you can justify buying it. If your library doesn't carry it you could either get an interlibrary loan from another library somewhere else or you can always request if from them. Most libraries are really good about buying books (cds, dvds, etc).


"Place pan in a large pan; add 1 inch of hot water to larger pan." -- Why? I have found a cheesecake recipe which says, for the cooking phase:

  Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan.
  Bake at 325 °F (160 °C) for 60--65 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull.

I have done it so (I mean, it's in the recipe which I followed), but I wonder what is this for? I suppose that the water layer prevents things from going much over 212 °F (100 °C) since the water stays at this temperature. But I don't understand the motivation for this set-up. Couldn't I just use a lower temperature setting?

Couldn't I just use a lower temperature setting?

No, you can't. Ovens are very bad at keeping a constant temperature. Not only is the oven thermostat usually off, it also cycles around its mean temperature a lot. So your food is subjected to constantly changing temperature.

If you were to set your oven to 100C, you 1) won't get really 100C, and 2) won't get the crust to brown, as the temperature is too low. Instead, you can use the water bath described. In combination with a temperature setting higher than 100C, it will keep the bottom portion of the cheesecake at a constant temperature, and will allow the surface to bake well.

You will see water bath (i.e. bain marie) recommendations for many types of baked goods, including custards. But when it comes to a cheesecake, it has a second function. At each temperature, there is an equilibrium moisture in the oven air. As long as the equilibrium has not been reached, moisture evaporates at a high rate from every moist surface (your baking good). When this happens to a cheesecake, its top cracks. But when you have an open water surface, it is sufficient to saturate the air, and no (or very little) evaporation happens on the cake surface. You end up with a smooth cheesecake.


What is the easiest way to remove chicken leg/drumstick tendons? I would like to make chicken drumsticks / legs (with skin on) easier to eat by removing the tendons and the fibula bone. Cook's Illustrated mentions this technique:

  Holding a paring knife just above the ankle and perpendicular to the bone, slice around the circumference all the way to the bone. This will expose the ends of about six thin white tendons.
  Using a clean pair of pliers, grip the end of each tendon and pull firmly to remove it. Repeat until there are no more visible tendons.

However when I use pliers and try to grip the tendon, they just slip. Is there something I am doing wrong?

I tried cutting the bottom tendon attachment and pushing the meat up and down and it is still very difficult/messy.

Based on your comments, the likely issue is with the pliers you're using.  I doubt that the relatively small set included in a multi-function knife is going to have enough grip to hang on to a slippery tendon.

I'd try a pair of (very, very clean) needle-nose pliers, like so:

They're readily available and inexpensive, so it's probably worth getting a dedicated set for the kitchen; these are also good for other fine, messy tasks like removing fish bones.  You should be able to get a much more secure grip on the tendons this way.  If they still won't pull out easily, try wriggling them back and forth a little perpendicular to the long axis of the bone.


Adding more bones to a finished stock? I'm making a tonkotsu ramen dish, but I feel it could use a porky boost. The broth is done now but there's about six hours until serving time.

Would it be okay if I added more pork hocks now to add more flavour to the stock, despite it being completed now?

You probably have already eaten it by now, but the general answer is probably:

(1) Yes, you can generally add fresh bones or other things to a pre-existing stock/broth and cook it some more.  This is traditionally called a "double stock," and is sometimes deliberately used by chefs to get a more concentrated flavor.

(2) "Would it be okay?"  Mostly, yes.  It shouldn't ruin anything.  However, there are some flavors that will begin to break down with prolonged cooking.  So if your broth included some more subtle vegetable or herbal notes, for example, they might be lessened if you continued to cook it for a long time.  If I planned to do this, I would taste the stock again about an hour or so before I planned for it to be done and add back additional fresh flavor components if necessary to rebalance it.


Is striped bass suited for sous vide? I have to cook some striped bass tomorrow. It is from frozen, and in fillets  with no skin (if it had skin I would pan sear it, but alas it doesn't). I was thinking, season with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Then sous vide @ 135, then serve it on a romesco sauce. I am fairly unfamiliar with striped bass and was wondering how well it is sous vide. Sous vide would be very advantageous, since I need to make a lot (serve 10), and don't want to stink up the house.

I use sous vide as a tool in the kitchen on a regular basis. Over the years I've developed some preferences and recognize that as a tool, there are some jobs it does well, and other jobs where traditional cooking methods simply produce a better result.  For me, I prefer fish cooked using traditional methods, and I would use the stove, oven, or grill before I chose sous vide.  Having said that, striped bass works better sous vide that many other varieties.  It is firm and fairly forgiving.  So, your plan is reasonable.  A brief brine could help maintain the texture, if that is something you are interested in. There are numerous recipes on the internets.


Can I make popcorn with any corn? Up until today I only knew about one type of corn for popcorn. Searching for Peruvian food I found out that in Peru there are different "popcorn" varieties.

So that made me think: is it possible to make popcorn with just any variety of corn? If not, what properties do these corn varieties have that allow then to be popped and not any others?

The answer it seems is - no, you can't just use any variety of corn. It seems that you need in particular a hard shell around the kernel that is not present in sweetcorn varieties.

I also suspect that it is harder to make than one might imagine, you need a specific percentage of water in the kernel to get it to pop - this is why you can't store unpopped popcorn in the open and once opened needs to be used within a few months, as the water will evaporate and eventually the percentage will become too low to effectively pop.


Why is my pecan pie always runny? My pecan pie used to be firm years ago.  Now going by the same recipe it's always runny.  This time I added an extra egg, stirred it less and with a wood spoon so as not to get air and foam in the mix.

The full recipe: stir 4 beaten eggs into 1 cup karo, add 2T flour, 1/2c white sugar, 1/2c dark brown sugar, stir, add a pinch of salt, 1t vanilla, 1 1/2c pecans, 2T butter, mix gently. Pour in a 9" unbaked pie shell and baked at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes.

The only think I have changed from the way I used to make it getting a firm filling is using dark brown sugar instead of all white sugar. I have never cooked the filling before pouring into the pie shell.  I have tried adding more flour and it didn't help. How do I fix this?

I'm looking at the recipe from Karo. The only thing that stands out as potentially being your problem is that the Karo recipe calls for a longer bake time. That recipe gives a final temperature too, 200F (93C). Could it be that your pie is undercooked?


Do ground seeds contain oil? I am referring to things like cumin seeds or others which are meant to contain oil.  When they are ground does it loose the oil?  Or does the oil exist but it deteriorates due to oxidation?

I also understand raw tumeric contains oil.  Does that also go once it's ground or does that oxidise too?

I am asking about if you ground at home and store bought powders.

So, let's first get clear about what "oil" means. In common language there are two "oils" contained in food: "oil" and "essential oils".

"Oil" means the common, cooking liquid fat, that has a more neutral taste and is used for various applications (deep-frying, stir frying...). Main composition of this is unsaturated fats, and the oil comes from the so-called oleiferous plants, which are plants that use oil as nutrition storage for their sprouts - e.g. peanuts, sunflower, canola, olive, flax seed, soy...

"Essential oils" have a very different composition and application - they contain a very diverse mix of components that give spices, herbs, flowers and other seasonings their caracteristic aroma (or "essence"). These components are usually volatile and present in very small quantities in the natural product, and of course, since they're present in very small quantities in the seed / herb, you need a lot of it to make a portion of essential oil, therefore, those are really expensive.
One of the methods for extracting this oil is to steep the aromatic (spice / herb / flower) in common oil or fat - then you get aromatized oil in a quantity you can handle with more ease.

When you hear that cumin seeds and turmeric (which is a root, not a seed) contain oil, we're talking about the essential oil. The oil is there, in a very small quantity, that's the reason why you cannot see it with the naked eye, unless you grind large quantities of the seed very finely to directly obtain the oil. You're also right on oxidation and evaporation - this is why pre-ground spice loses its punch very quicker than the whole thing.


How do I cut out the vein/tendon from a chicken breast tendorloin? I like to cook grilled chicken sometimes to go in salads. The problem I always have is that in the chicken breast tendorloins I buy, there is always a tendon or vein or something. It's white when uncooked and is extremely tough.

At first I tried not messing with it, but many bites of the chicken I had was basically not capable of being chewed up.

Now, I try to cut it out, but it's extremely difficult to cut out because it appears to run through the entire tenderloin. Last night I tried cutting it out and what I ended up with was basically tearing the chicken apart into lots of small chunks. In the end it still tasted good, but I'd really prefer an easier method.

What's the easiest method of cutting out that vein/tendon thing from the tenderloins?

Cooking For Engineers has a pretty good description. He writes it better than I can, so I'll just quote him. I've used the second method he describes, but after watching the video below, the other looks much easier...

  The breast halves should each have a flap of meat called the chicken tenderloin (or chicken tenders or strips). Lifting the tenderloin should reveal a white tendon. I recommend two ways to trim off this tough tendon. The most popular method is to grab the tendon with your fingers and pull on it while scraping with your knife to release the tendon from the breast. Continue to lift and scrape until the tendon is completely removed. Alternatively, you can use a sharp boning knife and slice along both sides of the tendon (without slicing through the tendon). Then lift any part of the tendon that has been separated from the breast and use your boning knife the cut any parts where the tendon has not cleanly separated from the meat.

There's also a yotube video here.


Is there any reason not to keep fruits inside nalewka for too long? In much of Eastern Europe, it is common to prepare so called nalewka. The basic idea is to take some fruit (e.g. cherries, blackcurrants) and macerate it in strong alcohol, then remove the fruit and age the liquid for several months. It is a lot like liqueur, but not quite the same. Right now, I am preparing a traditional nalewka with fruit of Cornus mas.

Is any reason not to macerate the fruit for longer than suggested in the recipe? In particular, is there any chance that the seeds would release any unwanted (poisonous?) substances if left for too long? I am mostly interested in Cornus mas because that is what I am using at the moment, but I would welcome advice about other fruit as well.

(Apologies if the question is too region-specific or otherwise inappropriate. This is my first post of this SE).

Aging time is one factor that you might consider, but the amount of fruit you're using, how it's prepared, and other factors can have an impact too.

You're correct that the seeds and kernels of stone fruits can produce harmful substances, namely cyanide.  More properly, they contain amygdalin, which is readily extracted from the kernels by ethanol.  This substance can be broken down by enzymes (either those in the fruit, or in your intestinal tract) to produce glucose and hydrogen cyanide.  To be fair, there are plenty of other common foodstuffs that contain minute amounts of cyanide precursors, but cooking generally renders them safe.

Cyanide is obviously very lethal, and there is real risk to consuming raw stone fruit pits.  In general, the amounts required are fairly high, depending somewhat on the specific fruit.  Somewhere between 13-15 peach pits, 17-20 apricot pits, or a full cup of apple seeds is enough to cause cyanide poisoning, assuming that you really wanted to choke down raw peach pits.  Because of their smaller body mass, these amounts can be lower for children.  Distilled alcoholic beverages are also a particular concern because harmful substances can be concentrated in the distillate.  Peach brandy made by crushing and fermenting whole peaches (including the pits) was a popular liquor in the colonial-era United States (fun fact: even its first president tried his hand at some) but fell out of favor after it was implicated in multiple deaths.  Modern producers of the plum brandy slivovitz also run the risk of creating cyanide in their finished product, but fortunately there are means of neutralizing and removing the toxin during distillation by adding copper sulphate.

Now that you're sufficiently terrified, here are some mitigating factors.

I can't find reliable information on the amygdalin content of cornus mas.  They may contain a fair amount, or very little.  They seem to be used in a wide variety of different preparations, so it seems unlikely that they're particularly toxic; otherwise a cultural aversion to them would probably have developed.
The enzymes that break down amygdalin into cyanide work most actively when the pit is crushed, so how you're preparing the fruit is a big factor.  If they're left whole or only lightly crushed, the alcohol has relatively little surface area to contact and won't be able to extract as much amygdalin.  If the pit remains undamaged, then the enzymes that would convert amygdalin to cyanide would remain mostly unactivated.
This isn't a distilled preparation, it's an infusion.  At most, you'd be able to extract as much amygdalin as is present in the fruit - which could still be hazardous, but isn't being concentrated further.

If there is extended contact between crushed pits and the alcohol, then macerating for longer than instructed could be problematic.  But in that case, the hazardous substance is already being extracted, and the original recipe could already make you sick if consumed in sufficient quantity.  A potential fix for this would be to remove the seeds, but from your question I'm assuming that they're already included in the recipe.

In general, I'd say there's more to worry about here than over-infusing the fruit.  if you've made this before and consumed it without adverse effects, then letting the fruit extract for longer in your next batch will probably not kill you.  But be aware (and if you're giving this away, be sure the recipients are aware!) that there may be a small amount of hazardous substance in the end product.  Overconsumption could indeed make you very sick (over and above the potential problems with too much alcohol) and the only way to be completely safe is to not drink it at all.

That said, there are measured risks involved in consuming many types of food and drink, from undercooked meat to homemade preserves.  If you're preparing this for your own use, and you're aware of the risks, then it's your body and your health, and you can make your own decisions regarding risk.


Is it really necessary to wipe the powder off of dried kombu? I looking not to waste time and product experimenting. What are the consequences of leaving the salt / glutimate / etc mixture on kombu when, say, making dashi?

The consequences are a relatively trivial loss in flavor-enhancing compounds (the glutamates). There's no reason to waste water removing it.

I vaguely recall some books like Gaku Homma's Japanese Country Cooking suggested you could wipe off the kombu with a wet paper towel if you like, but that's not really necessary, or in my experience, even remotely common.


What is the name of this style of knife? Several years ago I found this knife at a thrift store:

I like this knife a lot because it is very effective at transmitting force to the food I am cutting. But I am anxious because I do not know how to find a replacement if this one breaks or is lost. Does this style of knife (where the handle is directly above the blade so you can transmit force vertically) have a name I can type into a search engine?

I believe it is a frozen food saw. The serration is very small like you would need to saw through frozen fish for example. Given that it was made in Japan, I believe it is a YAX brand knife/saw. While I couldn't find that exact style from them, they did make some that were very similar.

Google Image Search "yax frozen food saw" and you'll see several.


Temperature-stable spices I would find it very useful to have a list of empirical data on temperature-stability of spices.

Are there any systematical studies available?
Which spices can easily bear long durations of broiling, hot oven or barbecue?
Which lose flavor or deteriorate quickly?
Which develop displeasing flavors?
Which become unhealthy or even poisonous?
What can be done to preserve sensitive spices during hot cooking?

This topic comes close to my question. Can someone elaborate somewhat deeper on the matter?

UPDATE: I understand that my question may be too open-ended. I don't expect an exhaustive answer here, just hints and starting points for further study.

Are there any systematical studies available?

I am not aware of any such study or resource, but ignorance of or lack of evidence of a thing doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist.

Which spices can easily bear long durations of broiling, hot oven or barbecue?

Broiling is an especially intense cooking method, directly transferring energy to the surface of the target food by radiation.  It also is not a method used for long cooking duration, because it is so rapid, and easily would burn or char the outside of the food.

As a general principle, hard, woody spices and hard seeds tend to be the most heat insensitive:  black pepper, cinnamon, anise, nutmeg, cumin and so on.

In the herb family, the hardier herbs (bay leaf, oregano, and sage for example) can stand up to some prolonged cooking without adversely affecting their flavor.

Delicate herbs (cilantro, parsley, tarragon, basil for example) do not fare well as their flavors are very volatile.

Which lose flavor or deteriorate quickly?

See above; this is just a rephrasing of the same question.

Which develop displeasing flavors?

This is an open ended list question.

For a significant portion of the population, cilantro starts with a displeasing flavor.

Badly overcooked garlic can become bitter, if you consider it a spice.  Similarly, paprika and many of the capsicum peppers become very unpleasantly bitter when burned.

Most flavors simply lose their intensity and become muted or difficult to perceive.

Which become unhealthy or even poisonous?

I am not aware of any.

What can be done to preserve sensitive spices during hot cooking?

Don't add them during prolonged cooking; add them at near the end of the cooking period or even after cooking is completed.


Why does canned food expire soon once the can is opened? Canned food can maintain 1+ year in good state. However, when you open the can, the countdown starts.

I read it happens because microorganism from the outside reach the inside of the can.

My question is: Is it possible to keep food inside the just opened can free of microorganisms? Maybe moving immediately to an airtight container and take out the needed amount with a cleaned spoon? (If a cleaned spoon still contains microorganism --- why clean it in the first place?)

No.

When you can something, the temperature and pressure kill bacteria and micro-organisms.

Once its exposed to air, you're exposing it to bacteria and micro-organisms. Despite you thinking the spoon is clean, it still has some bacteria and micro-organisms on it which will get into the food. And your "airtight" container is likely not nearly as airtight as a can.


Why did my eggless cup cake prepared with condensed milk get charred in a convection microwave? We have prepared the eggless cupcake with condensed milk. We have used convection mode in microwave.
Preheated to 200C and then baked the cake for 10 mins. It started off nicely, but at 10th min, we got the charred cake.
What could be the problem with this?

It's probably best to make this cake in an actual oven (even if the recipe specified a microwave oven) as the heat will be more even. Anyway, ovens can be remarkably inaccurate in temperature so perhaps although you set your oven at 200 C it may have been actually at 225 C say. The batter may have also been quite thick and so have a higher tendency to burn unlike a thinner, wetter batter, if you pair this with the inaccuracy of the oven temperature then it's not surprising that it burnt.

Hope this helps for next time!


Corned Beef vs Pastrami My impression has been that pastrami and corned beef have a cure in common, but corned beef is simmered whereas pastrami is spice-crusted and smoked.

This seems reasonable, but recently I've been hearing of both foodstuffs cooked entirely sous vide.

Without the cooking method distinction, the only remaining difference is that pastrami now has the crust and liquid smoke. Is liquid smoke sufficient to move into the realm of pastrami? Or is this just pastrami-flavored corned beef?

It is just pastrami-flavoured corned beef.

A restaurant I used to work at, we made our own pastrami, corned beef, and Montreal-style smoked meat. Pastrami is smoked corned beef, essentially, but the smoking process induces textural changes as well, and results in a drier meat than plain corned beef.


Baking cake in one pan instead of splitting into two Lots of red velvet cake recipes (this one I'm looking at https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/red-velvet-layer-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/) are asking to split the batter into two cake pans. I've only got one, springform, which I use to bake all cakes.

Would it still work out if I used one cake pan? How should I go about the baking time? I've never really done this before and don't want to mess up so just  wondering. thanks!

That is highly unlikely to work in your case. Summing up all ingredients, I came to 1600 ml. I don't know what exact density cake has, but it is a foam full of air, so being twice as light as water seems plausible, which would make your single layer 3 inches high. And the pictures in the article pretty much agree with my guess, the cake pieces are 1.5 times as long as they are high.

If you try to bake a 3 inch high cake layer, there is basically no time and temperature at which you can get it baked, you will always end up with a raw middle or with dust-dry, if not burnt, outer portions.

If you insist making it a single piece, you may try a bundt pan instead of a cake pan. Alternatively, make half the recipe (assuming that your pan is indeed 9 inch - if it is 28 cm, you can make 2/3 of the recipe to get the same height) or really go with the two layers.


Liquefying through long boiling It seems my questions at ELL hit a dead end, that's not learner's level English...\

Is there a name in English for the process of turning ingredients of a dish into liquid through boiling them long enough?

Usually this happens as a cook's error, but at times it's the desired effect, e.g. you may create an excellent, smooth, creamy sauce by simmering the ingredients for a very long time.

Judging by what Google Images show, it seems that "overcooking" usually means burnt or nearing burnt fried/grilled food, which is definitely not the same thing. Someone suggested "overboiling" but my grasp of English doesn't allow me to decide whether that's correct or not.

I don't think that the word exists at all. "Overboiling" and "overcooking" always implies an undesirable result. Else, you have to exactly describe what you are doing, which depends on the dish. Update: native speakers tell me that overboiling is not a real word in English. But I would have liked it to be :)

"Simmer for hours on low flame" is the term I would use for making things like katak, which are essentially an evaporation process, or just a generic term when you don't have a better description. Your goulash example will be probably called "cook until the onion disintegrates". The word "reduction" which somebody used in a comment at ELL is also restricted to evaporation-only techniques, where you start with liquids and let them sit until they lose some predetermined amount of their water (but normally does not also include curdling and/or fermenting the way katak making would). But reduction is a special case, because if it is not clear from the context that it means just evaporation, it is mostly used for the combination of deglazing and subsequent reduction, which involves pouring an acidic liquid (wine, vinegar or fruit juice) into the hot fat left after preparing meat in the pan, and then letting most of it evaporate (which happens in under a minute).

So, unless you have a very specific word for the technique you are using, you have to stay descriptive. There is no single word which encompasses all kinds of long boiling.


Making a literal thousand-layer cake? The other night some friends and I ordered a thousand layer cake for dessert in a restaurant. Sadly, the cake had only ten layers, just 1% of what we ordered.

We started talking about whether, with only commonly-available ingredients and kitchen appliances, there was a feasible way to actually construct a thousand layer cake. We figured out that if you could make a very thin crepe, you could make one thousand layers by folding it in half ten times. That, unfortunately, doesn't seem like it would work - it's virtually impossible to fold paper or aluminum foil this many times, so I doubt a crepe would survive. Plus, it would end up being very narrow and very tall.

We also thought about making something out of phyllo dough, but we weren't sure whether we would have any way to guarantee that the end result actually had one thousand layers or whether those layers would be distinct.

Assuming you have a typically-equipped, normally-stocked kitchen and a six-hour time limit, is there a feasible technique for producing a cake that is guaranteed to have at least one thousand distinct layers?

I don't know what kind of thousand layer cake you had in the restaurant but only ten layers don't sound like it was a Mille-feuille ("a thousand leaves"). A Mille-feuille is a french pastry that consists of three layers of puff pastry, alternating with two layers of pastry cream. That's basically the same thing as your suggestion with phyllo dough.

Assuming that one layer of puff pastry has about 80 layers, you "only" need to stack about 12 or 13 layers puff pastry (puff pastry is something ordinary in the groceries store, so you don't even have to make your own puff pastry). If you put some (butter) cream / custard / jam / whatever between each layer 12 layers should be sufficent. Voilà! A real Mille-feuille :) It's ~4 times taller than a regular Mille-feuille but certainly lower than 1000 or 500 stacked crêpes.


Is it safe to eat pumpkin seeds with peel? I dried pumpkin seeds but now don't have the patience to peel them one by one. Could I just eat them with the skin? I suppose I could but they won't taste very good. Therefore, bonus question: in which form could pumpkin seeds with peel be used? So far I would try to blend them and put some in dough for bread.

We never peeled them growing up.

We'd coat them in some oil, roast them in the oven (stirring occasionally), then season them when they came out.


What is the purpose of pie weights? Some pie recipes call for placing weights on the pastry when it is cooked prior to the addition of fillings.

Why is this necessary? What effect does it have?

The purpose of pie weights (or improvised equivalents) is to keep the shell from bubbling up and warping when blind baking (baking without filling).

If you dock the shell well, and are lucky, it may not buckle, but the weights give additional assurance of a good outcome.

See also:  How to use pie weights?


What is club soda and how do I make it? After many searches on the Google, I still can't find out how to make club soda.  So, I have to ask the question - what is club soda exactly?

I bought a iSi Soda Siphon and have figured out how to make carbonated water (finally).

Now what do I have to do to make club soda?  How about seltzer?

Seltzer and carbonated water are the same thing. Club soda is slightly different. "Seltzer" comes from German:

  The term seltzer water is a genericized trademark that derives from
  the German town Selters, which is renowned for its mineral springs.
  Naturally carbonated water has been commercially bottled and shipped
  from this town since the 18th century or earlier. Generally, seltzer
  water has no added sodium salts, while club soda still retains the
  sodium salts.

So, the primary difference is that seltzer has no added ingredients, but club soda does:

  Sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate and sodium
  citrate are added to club soda…

Here's a decent review of the ingredients list and taste of various types of fizzy water.

So to answer your question directly, you can make seltzer just by carbonating regular tap water, and you can make club soda by adding potassium bicarbonate, potassium sulfate, or baking soda to water and carbonating it.


Will my lasagne be ruined because I forgot to put the white sauce on the lasagne sheets I was making lasagne and put in the meat and the lasagne sheets but then I realized (after I had finish the layers and the cheese top), I forgot to put the white sauce on top of each layer of lasagne sheets, will this ruin the lasagne?

No.
Anecdotal, I rarely use white sauce in lasagna and it always rocks.


Ways to separate kefir grains from thickened kefir, how big are the kefir grains? I'm super-new to the kefir business ^_^ been making it at home for a week from a batch of grains my neighbor left me when his batch overgrew.

So, I'm fond of the idea to make kefir more thick, more alcoholic, more sparkly (cheese beer yay!), and better to make cheese & whey out of it, and I don't like the milky taste kefir often has, at least that's my ambition.

Also, I believe my jar is a bit too small for the amount of Kefir I have, the apartment is around 20-23 degrees celzius and it ripens after 24h really well, the neighbor suggested keeping it 24h outside, 24h in the fridge.

My dilemma is in the filtration process of the kefir grains from the rest of the mix:

if I use a fine strainer I basically separate cheese & kefir grains from whey and getting the kefir grains out of the cheese is then a delicate matter that I'm not sure I can do with reliable consistency (knowing myself),
if I use a broad grained strainer then I believe some of the (young?) kefir grains go out because the resulting kefir is a bit grainy, and I don't know if it's due to tiny new kefir grains, or due to the nature of the cheese

I guess my question is, "how big are the kefir grains" and filtration would I guess be an obvious thing after that.

Thank you all :)

EDIT 1: How can I make my kefir milk smooth and creamy instead of watery and grainy? this gives some clues on what I may do better and suggests that the grains I'm seeing are from the milk, not from the kefir grains, still the general question of separation remains...

First off, not all kefir grains are alike.  Maybe they're all descended from the same family tree long ago, but kefir grain activity will change significantly even in the same house from season to season (due to temperature and other environmental fluctuations), and depending on what you feed them (type of milk), and on the feeding schedule.  So, in order to maximize your particular desires ("thick," "sparkly," more alcohol, etc.), you'll likely have to do trial and error a bit with your batch.

Anyhow, your main question is about straining.  And there it really depends again on what you're looking for.  You are correct that kefir does spawn tiny grains that break off and gradually become stable encapsulated "baby grains" over time.  If you use a strainer with big enough holes, it will let a lot of those go through.  Whether or not this is a problem depends on what your intention is with those grains.

When I first experimented with kefir, I strained through a relatively fine mesh strainer too, because I didn't want to lose all of those grains.  I eventually found that all too much work, because rinsing the fine strainer and being sure to get it clean can sometimes be annoying.  Also the rough handling during straining can break up your larger grains a bit more (particularly if you have to stir it a lot to strain, as is true with very thick kefir).

Later on, I decided to simply use a tablespoon to pull out the big grains (and just plop them into the new milk), and I don't worry about the "baby grains" any more.  Usually in healthy kefir the big grains will often float near the surface, so they're often easy to locate.  But if you know how many you have, you can also just dig around for them, assuming you're not making large quantities at a time.  The benefit from my perspective is that the remaining kefir stays relatively "intact," so it actually has a consistency close to thick yogurt until you start stirring it.  But it's not the ideal method for maximizing alcohol and "fizziness," which often requires intermediate stirring.  On the other hand, the few actual grains can grow much larger over time due to the more delicate handling.  So you might just have 2 or 3 large grains you use to ferment actively, rather than a bunch of smaller ones.

Anyhow, in terms of straining, it really just depends on your goals.  Personally, I don't worry too much about losing the "baby" grains, because I'm not trying to maximize grain production.  But if you're trying to grow the amount of kefir grains you have, probably using a fine strainer for a while is the best course, since large individual grains only tend to grow larger over longer time spans.

EDIT: One last thing I thought of -- if you use my method of just pulling out the largest grains with a spoon or something, realize that sometimes you'll have tiny grains or even occasional larger bits that broke off of the big grain left in the kefir.  Some people find it unpleasant when eating or drinking kefir to encounter a grain, which is generally rubbery and somewhat slimy, sometimes extra sour, and sometimes has an odd flavor.  If you want to avoid that experience completely, you'll have to use a relatively fine strainer.


Removing spiciness from a dish Is there a rule of thumb for removing spiciness from a dish, caused by things like jalepenos, cayenne pepper, black pepper, red pepper, szechuan peppercorn, etc?

I have read that honey and sugar may combat the spiciness in asian sauces, but have not heard of other ways to remove the kick found in many other dishes.

For capsicum type peppers (any of the chili peppers including red pepper, jalapenos, serranos, habeneros and so on), you can reduce the heat by cutting out membranes and ribs (which hold the seeds), where most of the capscaicin oil is found.  Of course, you would have to do this before cooking.

Again for, capsaicin, which is fat soluble, having a lot of fat, especially from dairy like cream or sour cream, can help reduced the perceived heat.

Of course, the very best method to control heat from any of the sources is to not put it into the dish in the first place, by reducing the amount of the hot ingredients.


making instant yeast rise higher/more I make a relatively quick oatmeal bread (with bread, whole wheat flours and old-fashioned oatmeal); it calls for instant/fast rise yeast.  I am wondering how to make it rise a bit more than it does....

That depends whether it still needs to be 'quick'. You can autolyse your flour, which will help the bread to rise. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2017/09/29/using-the-autolyse-method This is just adding water to the flour - no yeast - then adding the yeast later in the process.
However this will add time.
You can possibly increase temperature, i.e. use a warm place. Essentially your yeast converts sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol (which burns off). The carbon dioxide gas makes the loaf rise.  Your yeast species probably works fastest around 32-35C.

(SC in that graph)
A lower temperature will mean slower activity, so everything else being equal 1 hour at 32C will give much more gas than 1 hour at 25C. Fast rises can lead to voids in the loaf, so that's something to bear in mind.
If your bread has no added sugar (you don't mention this), then the yeast will not have much to work on. Your options here are to add (more) sugar or to add a flour improver containing amylase, which breaks down the complex carbohydrates in flour into sugar. Other flour improvers contain ascorbic acid (vitamin C), which helps strengthen the gluten network.


What is the way to make a powder of red chilies? I purchase green chilies and in some days many of them turn red.

Can I use my mixer-grinder to grind them into a powder, or is there some other way?  Do I have to roast the peppers before grinding?  Do the seeds have to be removed?

Chilies are dried before grinding.  There are several ways to dry them:

Leave them in an exposed part of the fridge for several weeks. There should be a lot of open air around it, to allow moisture to escape.
String them up outside.  To do this, poke holes and run strings through them and tie the strings up so they're spread out.  For best results, you should do this during hot, dry weather, and ensure they get plenty of sunlight.  Expect it to take several weeks.
Oven-dry them at low temperatures.  You want temperatures to be under 150°F/65°C so as not to cook them, and it will take several hours to a day or two.  Reduce the temperature if you see the peppers darkening or turning black.  Rotate the peppers regularly to allow even drying, and leave the oven door slightly open to allow moisture to escape.  If you wish to have a little more roasted flavor, increase the temperature.
Use a freeze-drying machine or dehydrator.

Discard any peppers with rotten spots, both before and after drying.  Before grinding, remove stems and seeds.

Grinding:
I've successfully used a blade-type coffee grinder to grind dried peppers into flakes. A blender or food processor should also work, assuming you are handling larger quantities.
I must confess puzzlement about what exactly a "mixer-grinder" is, even after consulting the link.  I believe the appliance may not have an exact equivalent in Europe or the United States.  However, if it is suitable for blending or grinding it should work fine for dried peppers.

I should add that you ought to wear gloves when handling the peppers, and beware of the fumes from the dehydrator or oven, as they may be very pungent. In extreme causes, protective goggles may be a good idea.


Is it possible to create salty ice cream? I have heard that in Japan people eat some kind of salty ice cream. Is it true? If it is true, does anyone know the name of the dish or how to prepare it?

"Sea Salt ice cream" is the one I've heard about. It's literally flavored by sea salt. Online recipes are often themed around the game series Kingdom Hearts, in which a main character enjoys this treat. That ought to be enough to help your search :)


Where to get fresh rose petals( rosa demascena) that are organic and/or pesticide free I need to make rose water and therefore need fresh rose petals (rosa demascena) that are organic and/or pesticide free. Is there any place to get these in the uk?

I bet a whole foods or organic market would be a good first place to look.

Alternatively, Ask anyone who grows them. From what I understand roses are very popular in the UK. I bet there is someone who doesn't spray and feed their roses with chemicals.


Benefits of boiling meatballs before frying them I was watching a cooking show yesterday where the chef used a process I have never seen before, without explaining why. I've been wondering about it and can't come up with a satisfactory answer, which is where you guys come in.

The recipe revolved around meatballs (in this case made from minced chicken, egg, breadcrumb and green herbs) which the chef boiled until cooked in a pan of water and then afterwards browned in butter.

Can anyone tell me what the benefits would be of this reversal of the normal process where you sear/fry the meatballs first and then cook them in a jus, sauce, or oven?

There's a few reasons for utilizing this method:

You'll end up with a juicier meatball, as it is cooked in liquid.
It'll be rounder and more plump because it was cooked in a liquid.
You'll be 100% sure that it was cooked thoroughly without being burned.

The reason for the pan browning is just a reverse sear - purely for color/crunchiness and perhaps some flavor from a browned meat and the butter.


How long will vacuum-packed truffle last in the fridge? I have a vacuum-packed truffle in the fridge since a few weeks now. The mushroom was fresh when it has been vacuum-packed.

Does anyone know how long will it last? Is it still ok to eat it?

It looks ok from what I can see....

Truffles are a low acid food, and they grow underground, so they are at risk to have botulism spores present.

Vacuum packing creates a low oxygen environment, which is what the botulism bacteria requires to grow and produce its toxin.

Unless the truffles have been salted (to 5% by weight), acidified (to a pH of 4.6 or lower), or frozen (at all times after being vacuum packed), they are at risk for the growth of botulism.  Some strains can grow and produce their toxins at refrigerator temperatures (and most refrigerators have a temperature cycle that peaks in the more general growth range).  While the growth is slow, it can occur. The risk is increased if the truffles have not been continuously refrigerated since they were vacuum packed.

For this reason, mushrooms and truffles should never be vacuum packed and stored. You should discard these truffles.

In the future, obtain your truffles from a reputable source (which does not vacuum pack) and use them fresh, or freeze them as botulism is not active at freezer temperatures.

See also:  University of Colorado Extension fact sheet on Botulism


Plain Greek yogurt with finely chopped green onions dip I am doing a 21 day challenge and I am making a Greek yogurt and finely chopped green onion dip and I need something to subsitute green onions with. What can I use that is very similar to it?

Chives or scallions would substitute nicely.

Garlic, shallots for a bit more flavor.

The trinity always works good; - onion, celery and green pepper.  And of course fennel for a twang.

onion celery and carrot is another classic.

asofetida maybe?  for something weird.


Can I sterilize homemade mustard jars in the oven? I make home made mustard and sell at market stalls.  It's been interesting - and growing.  I am trying to fine tune my process.  The mustard is a fermented product (can be sitting doing its thing for anything up to 6 weeks) so when I get to bottling, it's cold.  I oven sterilise my jars and boil my lids.  Then I spoon the mustard into the warmish jars and put on the lid.  I've then been water bathing the jars, but that's getting a bit cumbersome.  Small jars, lots of jiggling around in the water and too many breakages and bad seals.

I want to know: can I put the filled jars back into the oven and do the final sterilization that way?

Mustard is a very long lived product, but I need to be certain.  Oven sterilization would be so much better - sitting on trays, no movement, etc.  This looks like a neat go-to site and I'd appreciate your input.

What you are doing is not sterilizing the mustard. You just pasteurize it.

If you just want to pasteurize the mustard: Yes, you can put the jars into the oven instead of water-bathing them. Jars, lids and the content are heated up to 100°C, so it's quite equivalent to water-bathing the jars - if not even better.

Friends of mine put the jars with the lid loose on onto the baking tray with some water (for the moisture in the oven to not to damage the gasket) and then "bake" this for 30-120 minutes (I can't remember how long exactly) at 150-200°C. Then the jars must cool down slowly, therefore the jar must stay for another 30 minutes in the oven which is turned off. I think the lids are closed when the jars are taken out of the oven (but I'm not sure).
After reading this text 1 I don't know whether to preheat the oven or not.

Note: In Germany people often can raw food! Since your mustard is not raw, you just need to sterilize the content of the jar and don't need to cook what's inside. Therefore the cooking/baking  time should be decreased.

If you want to sterilize your mustard, you need weck jars with rubber seals and steel tension clips. When baking the jars with the contents and the lid on, secured with a rubber seal and the tension clips at more than 120°C, the contents are sterilized like in a pressure cooker. The rubber seal and the tension clip act as a valve. After baking, the contents are vacuum-sealed. See wikipedia article about home canning.

image by Alupus.

1

  Das Wasser darf nur langsam erhitzt werden. [...] Je nachdem, wie weich das Einweckgut ist, dauert das Einkochen zwischen 10 und 120 Minuten. Danach dürfen die Gläser wiederum nur sehr langsam abkühlen. [...]
  Statt auf dem Herd kann man auch im Backofen einkochen. Zum Einkochen im Backofen die Fettpfanne mit Wasser füllen, auf die unterste Schiene schieben und die Einweckgläser, wie oben beschrieben vorbereitet, hineinstellen. Obst bei 150 bis 160 Grad einkochen, Gemüse bei 190 bis 200 Grad. Die Gläser danach noch 30 Minuten im Ofen stehen lassen und anschließend zugedeckt abkühlen lassen.

translated freely:

[The first paragraph deals with canning with a water bath] The water must be heated slowly. [...] Depending on how soft the food the be canned is, the canning takes 10 to 120 minutes. After that the jars must cool down very slowly.[...]
Instead of canning on the stove you can also do this in the oven. Put the jars onto the baking tray and pour some water into the tray. Fruits are canned at 150°C to 160°C, vegetables at 190°C to 200°C. After that, the jars stay another 30 minutes in the oven [note: which is tuned off] and afterwards let these cool down covered up.


Jam stored in hot temperatures I have store bought jam (still sealed) that has been sitting in my car for over a month, but it has been super hot and humid, would it still be good under the hot temperatures?

If the jam was properly canned (likely, if it is store-bought) and was still sealed during that time, it shouldn't be spoiled.  The temperatures in canning are supposed to kill and seal out the dangerous bacteria, exposing the sterilized jam to more temperature shouldn't make the jam unsafe to eat.

What might have happened, depending on the jam involved, is a change in texture.  Pectin, which is found in fruit and acts as a thickener in many jams and jellies, can denature at high temperatures - which would make your jam thinner.  If you had started with something more like jelly, it can liquidfy into goop, or even syrup (depending on added pectin vs mechanical thickening) - still tasty, but harder to spread.  With a more solidly textured jam, which is also thickened with fruit pulp - it might be a little thinner, but perhaps not as badly so.

If it has turned thinner, you can still use it as a compote, a syrup, or a sweetner in any situation (like baking, for example) where the precise thickness and/or texture doesn't matter.  It isn't bad, still has fruit and sweetness to it, and can still be used.  I had a jar of jelly that melted this way that still made good syrup.


How to cook chicken franks? I have some chicken franks (sausages). How do I properly/completely cook them to include them in spaghetti and omelettes?

Thanks.

I can imagine a few ways of doing it based on the texture you're looking for, and what you have to work with.

Remove the meat from the casing and fry the meat in a pan.  You'll basically be cooking ground meat which will allow you to easily seasons it and also integrate it into other foods.  This method also allows you to season the actual meat if you want to.
Cut the sausages into disks and fry them in a pan.  This will leave you with more body than the first method, and also allow you to really get some good color on the flat parts of the cut sausage.
Leave them whole, poke holes in them, and cook them on anything.  I wouldn't do this for the application you're looking for.  You will eventually be cutting them up, and if you cut them after cooking, you won't have the browning that you could have had.


What kind of dishes use fresh coriander fruits I grew some cilantro in my garden and allowed some of it to go to seed. Most commonly, I've seen the seed pods dried and ground. Where I live at least, the fresh leaves are referred to as cilantro and the dried seeds are sold as coriander. What I tried, was using the fresh green seed pods in a soup and I loved it. The seed pods have a more balanced flavour in comparison to the leaves with additional fragrant citrus notes.

What I'm wondering is if this is common practice or if anyone has any other ideas for using these pods.

Here's an article that suggests using on seafood/white fleshed fish. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/dining/19cori.html


Would it be a good idea to mix brown sugar with white sugar in bread? I was curious, but would the brown sugar feed the yeast and if I mix both of them would it be a good idea? So I can get the benefits of both sugars. If I were to mix what effect would I get?

Brown sugar is equivalent to sugar plus molasses. If you mix brown sugar and (white) sugar, you'll get slightly brown sugar. Any benefits you were expecting from the (white) sugar, you'll still get. Any benefits you were expecting from the molasses, you'll get less of.


What type of vegetable oil should I use for tempura? If I want to make a really superior vegetable or seafood tempura, what kind of oil should I use, and what temperature should I heat it to?

I've been using refined peanut oil (Lion & Globe brand) and heating it to around 375F.  However, the results haven't been as good as I'd like them to be.  Would using a different type of oil help?

In my experience at expensive tempura restaurants, sesame oil is almost always used at least as part of the blend, but my understanding is that it is not the roasted kind, which has far too low a smoke point. I've been to a restaurant in Izu, now closed, where it was obvious because we were seated right in front of the fryer and the smell was quite noticeable, and the fancy place I went to in Tokyo was apparently using sesame oil as well, but they had more effective ventilation, so it was mostly obvious from the flavorfulness of the results. I've seen unroasted sesame oil in middle-eastern markets and I know some companies sell it in the US, so it is obtainable, and I've seen it at about $40/gallon on Amazon. I also know from experience that a blend of the roasted sesame oil and neutral, high-smoke-point oil will have a higher smoke point than just straight roasted sesame oil, and will add flavor, so it's at least possible that some people do that.

At home and at inexpensive restaurants, other vegetable oils are frequently used, and there's a simple tempura set that you can buy as a gift pack that I've seen used as a winter gift. This is usually cottonseed oil or a blend. In some regions, an ambiguous blend called "salad oil" is commonly used. It is not unheard of to use tea seed oil (camellia), which is increasingly available in the US at Asian markets (when I ran a specialty import business, I used to sell sell some that a Chinese tea importer was purchasing until he shifted his focus to larger packages suitable for restaurant use).

The Japanese entry for tenpura on Wikipedia confirms that a custom blend of sesame, cottonseed and other oils is often used at tempura shops. The Tokyo style and Kansai style is a bit different, with many Tokyo shops serving a darker version thanks in part to sesame oil and egg, and Kansai region versions leaning a bit whiter thanks either to using neutral vegetable oils or lack of egg.

I've used canola oil but it tends to leave an unpleasant aroma in the air, especially after the second use. If I were in the US and on a budget, I'd probably choose peanut oil, but it will taste different than most of what I've seen in Japan. I doubt that I've ever encountered peanut oil-fried tempura in Japan, though there's a chance I just didn't notice.

In practice, I've found that the most important thing to get good results from homemade tempura is to prevent overloading the fryer, because the temperature will drop too quickly. This is true for other kinds of fried goods as well, but is far more important for tempura because the coating should be fairly thin. As an unpracticed amateur, I've found that using a modest amount of katakuriko or cornstarch in the flour blend helps produce crisper results.

It's fairly difficult to get an assortment of different items to be ready at the same time, so consider making it in "courses" if you want flawless results, or make only one or two items at a time. Tempura restaurants tend to have wide, slightly shallow fryers, whereas most fryers meant for western deep-frying tend to have several stations of deep pots, since it's ok in many cases for things to be submerged, like when making french fries. It's quite unusual for tempura to be completely submerged.

Edited to add:
Assuming you're coating with a batter (there are some types that are dusted with flour or katakuriko rather than a full batter), I get far better results by keeping the batter (or the flour) very cold.

Many years later edit, since I live in Japan now and occasionally buy prepared "tempura flour":
I just wanted to note that, looking at the ingredients in tempura flour sold in Japanese supermarkets for home cooks wanting to make tempura here, baking powder is typically in the mix. I have added it occasionally with plain flour in the US depending on how important crisp results were to me, but if your primary issue is textural it may be worth a try. I don't think it's as much baking powder as "self-rising flour" would contain, but I'm not sure. I will say that in a pinch, when I was low on regular flour, I used tempura flour in scones and got acceptable results, so it may be "just enough" to cause some carbon dioxide explosions that produce a leavening effect.


How much could I safely heat a content-less cast-iron pan? To which temperature could I safely heat my cast-iron pan on the stove, without any contents? I don't want to re-season it afterwards. Afterwards, I'd just let the pan cool off in room temperature. The base is ~0.5 cm thick.

If it is completely empty, you probably can't reach dangerous temperatures with your stove. The iron itself melts at 1500°C. The seasoning can be burnt off at much lower temperatures, a self-cleaning cycle in the oven is enough for it (500°C). I have taken an iron pan to above 400°C without damaging the seasoning. (I don't know exactly how high it was, my thermometer doesn't go above 400°C). This was on an induction stove set at maximum, I doubt that any other kind of stove can produce such temperatures.

Edit I just heard an example showing that you can take a pan on a resistive stove to above 500°C with prolonged heating, so you should be measuring it if you plan to go that high. (and if you have a thermometer in this range, you can post your findings to further limit the range of 400° to 500°C, because I'm curious).

But if you say "no contents", be careful that it is actually just the pan. You cannot oil it, because the self-ignition temperature (of flash point) of vegetable oil is low, Wikipedia gives it at 327°C. It could just smoke terribly and throw a spark or two when you reach it, but it can also flame up and then you are holding a small brand in your hand.


What is the best temperature to store honey at? I was wondering what temperature is suitable to store honey bought from stores?

Now in the summer, it can be around 30+ Celsius, and even nearly 40 on some day. Do you suggest keeping honey while being consumed in the refrigerator? If not, what harm can that cause?

Honey should be stored at 50-70 Degrees Fahrenheit

Honey is similar in to olive oil and should be storaged between 50-70 Degrees Fahrenheit according to Max Shrem from Slashfood:

  Similar to olive oil, honey should be stored at a cool temperature
  between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. So, it's best to store it away
  from your oven or stove. Also, it should not be refrigerated. Extreme
  changes in temperature will spoil the flavor of honey.

Looks like this confirms that you may want to keep it in a cool place and away from hot temperature where it would cause honey to degrade in quality.

Shrem from Slashfood continues:

  Remember
  Do not store honey in a refrigerator or near a stove or oven.
  Store it in an air-tight container.

Thus, choosing an appropriate container is an important part of the equation.

Penn State has a great article germane to this topic.

Refrigerating Honey

In the article, it talks mentions the crystallizing state of honey if it is refrigerated in no way it harms the honey at all.

Restoring honey from a crystalized form

I know this is not related to your question. But something you asked in the comments. Apparently, honey can be restored from it's crystalized form: placing it in the microwave for 20 seconds can restore it from a crystallized form.

Therefore, you can store it in the refrigerator and heat it afterwards. The downside is that if stored in the fridge too long it'll turn hard and sugary.

Proper Storage Container

Since honey has very little moisture in it it is difficult for microorganisms to grow. Thus, an airtight container is of utmost importance.

If moisture gets in the container it can be an ideal environment for mold and yeast to grow. Honey should be thrown out if it foams and smells like alcohol

Long Term Storage of Honey

Honey can be stored for long periods of time without any issue. Over time, honey will darken and intensify with flavor.


Scaled down batch of soda syphon batter I want to make a smaller batch of a soda syphon batter recipe as a trial.  The batter involves flour, vodka, honey and lager, and is put into a CO2 soda syphon.
The full batch is too much for a trial run (300g of Vodka)
Can I scale it down or does that mess up the working of the syphon?  The full recipe calls for three charges, can I do 1/3 of the batter with one charge?  Or do I still use the three charges.  I’m not sure of the science here

Generally with a 1L siphon it’s advised to use 2 or 3 charges. If you scale down your ingredients, you’ll create a much larger gap in the canister, this would mean you’d have to use even more charges which is not really safe at all!

If you’d like to scale down your recipe, you should also scale down your canister size too. Try using 0.25 or 0.5 liter canisters I’d say.


How to prevent my roux from sticking to the bottom of the pan? I make this soup based on a roux. I make roux the following way:

I melt butter
I add the same amount of flour
After cooking it a little I start adding a stock, just a little at the time.

This is where it goes wrong. Always when i add the first but of water or stock, my roux sticks a bit to the bottem om the pan. I try stirring the hell out of it, but I never prevent a little to stick to the pan.
So this is what happens: I have a roux base that does not stick to the pan, but when I add the first liquid, it immediately start sticking.

I can imagine a couple of thinks to influence this proces:

The heat of the water/stock you add
I normally have already warm/hot stock. Is it better to add cold liquid?
The heat of the pan
Maybe I should cook less hot?
Does spices influence the stickyness?
I make roux with yellow curry mixed with the flour mostly.
Does baking onions/garlic with the butter matter while making the roux?
From the question How to mix a roux with stock I find out I should add more water at the same time. Would this also help my current problem? Because I can not really imagine that. (Also I do not see how you would get a good roux without lumps while doing that, but that's an other questions and probably just needs some more practice)

I looked in these questions:
How to make a roux? and How to mix a roux with stock but they could not really help me.

Thanks in advanced for the answer!

There's already a question about roux/stock temperature (as well as a recent question that's probably a duplicate). Summary: yes, adding cold liquid to hot roux is good. Additionally, most of what I'm saying is already in the answers to "How to mix a roux with stock". I've gone ahead and tried to address your specific concerns, but I really think thoroughly reading rumstcho's answer there would help you.

Yes, it's also bad if the pan is too hot, and you rapidly cook the roux and boil off excess liquid, leaving something that was briefly wet enough to spread along the bottom of the pan, then a second later dry enough to cook onto the bottom of the pan. This is also one of the reasons it's bad to add too little liquid at once. If it ever dries out, you've messed up.

And yes, you should probably be adding more liquid initially, at the very least enough to wet all of the roux. It's fine if the first batch of liquid gets you something substantially thicker than your end goal, but you shouldn't be just trying to get a slightly wet ball of roux, then a slightly wetter one, and ten steps later have a thick slurry. You want to give yourself enough liquid to work with right away.

Once you've got all that, you need to whisk well. If anything is remaining sitting on the bottom of the pan the entire time, of course it's going to stick.

With respect to your other questions: Spices shouldn't hurt you, and a roux containing significant onions and garlic isn't a normal roux, but I've certainly made tons of thick sauces with all kinds of things mixed into the roux, and had no trouble. Bits of things are just, well, extra bits of things. They don't really interact with the liquid when you add it.


How can you pipe hot melted candy into free-form shapes? I recently made free-form candy swirls out of chocolate-like coloured candy. When I got to the point of putting it into my disposable plastic piping bag, I had to wrap it in a tea-towel in order to work with it because it was so hot.

The candy didn't melt through the plastic, and I could do some basic swirls with my jerry-rigged bag. However, it was too hot to handle (literally) and the slippery tea-towel-on-plastic made doing anything intricate prohibitively difficult.

I know most people use candy molds, however I don't care to spend the money on something I use once or twice a year.

Are there any tools I could get that could also be used in other applications? (for example, my piping bags and tips can be used to decorate cakes, cupcakes, etc. which I do frequently enough to justify buying a small assortment of metal tips)

Are there any techniques for working with melted candy, other than "try not to get burned"?

You might try welding gloves or fireplace gloves.  (fireplace gloves tend to be longer, and might go up to your elbow).

They're typically made of suede, with an insulated lining.  I use them instead of pot holders, but they also come in handy when I'm doing large amounts of grilling (once a year, for our departmental picnic, cooking for a couple hundred people).

The fireplace gloves also come in handy when camping, as you can reach in to move logs if you're quick about it.  The only issue is that too long of exposure to hot, dry heat will cause them to harden up and lose their insulating properties.  I have to get a new pair every few years or so because of the way I use them.

I also have some really heavy duty rubber gloves that I got more as a joke -- I'm not sure if they're for haz-mat purposes, or what, but they come in handy for when I have to deal with hot but wet things.  I've also used them when dealing with cleaning out the fridge at work that had gotten pretty scary (it was near a conference room, and people using the conference room would leave stuff in there and forget about it).  I've seen similar gloves, maybe not quite as thick, though, at a restaurant supply store near heavy rubber aprons for the people doing the washing up.

And, if those still don't fit your preferences, you can find silicone potholders ... they've got good grip, and you should be able to roll it into a cone around your piping bag.


How can I spice up ground beef without using pepper? I cooked up some good-quality minced beef yesterday with salt, onion, and breadcrumbs. (I wrapped it around hardboiled eggs and baked it.)  I didn't use any pepper because I have allergies, and I didn't like the way it came out - it was bland and had a faint meaty "off" taste even though I knew it was fresh enough.

I don't insist on it being hot and spicy, but what could I use to give it flavour? What is a good replacement that will flavor meat the way pepper would? Or at the very least, what spice or combination of spices would cover up the faint off taste? I know that medieval cooks used to use spices to cover "off" flavours in meat, but I think they were ones we use in sweet dishes now.

Tomato is not an option for me sadly but onion and garlic are fine.

I hope you can help, I'm finding this really intriguing.  I'm learning a lot about what pepper does just by going without.

Ground allspice berries and rosemary can add that piquant taste that you may otherwise be missing from the pepper.


How to color Jiaozi (chinese dumplings)? I am planning to make Jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) for a friend's party. Because she is vegatarian I'd like to make one set of vegetable dumplings and one set of conventional dumplings. To make it easy to tell these apart I'd like to color the dough for one of them.

Can you suggest me a simple way to color the dough of the dumplings? The dough for Jiaozi is simply made from water and flour. I am mostly interested in ways to color the dough that use "natural" integredients as she does not really like artificial stuff. Also, what is the traditional Chinese way to color dough?

You could add chopped fresh herbs to the dough. I'm not familiar with Jiaozi to know how much it would affect the texture, but its common in pasta dough. If you chop it fine enough, it should bleed quite a bit of green color into the dough.

I don't know any particularly traditional food coloring methods, but I do know that tea is often used in place of water to change the color and taste of certain dishes (e.g. tea eggs). However, I doubt that is a flavor you really want to introduce into the dumpling dough.


How long can you keep pancake batter in the refrigerator? How long can you keep pancake batter in the refrigerator ?

I don't know the answer, but this is for home, pancakes freeze very well. I will always make a double batch on weekends and cook them all. Those that are not eaten will be bagged in a zip-top bag and stored in the freezer. When you want to reheat them, place up to three frozen pancakes on a plate and microwave for one minute each. Flip them and microwave in 1 minute increments until no longer cold in the middle.

I worry that the leavening agents in uncooked batter will not maintain activity for very long in a refrigerator


Why do you put celery in a bloody mary? Why do you put celery in a bloody mary? Is there a chemical reason for this or is it done just for garnish?

There is no chemical reaction that happens. It is mainly a garnish. You might get a tiny bit of celery flavor in the drink from the celery, but I think this is negligible given the other strong flavors in a bloody mary. If you want a celery flavor, add celery salt.


Question regarding percent hydration for 100% whole wheat bread dough Can someone suggest a typical hydration for strictly 100% whole wheat bread,
(no refined flour added).
Since whole wheat absorbs more water,  I assume that for the
same weight dough as all-purpose flour,  it will require
a higher hydration,  but how much more?

It depends a bit on how coarse or fine your wheat is ground.

With 75-85% you are in a pretty mainstream range - the equivalent of 65-75% hydration in white flour recipes.

If you work with longer or multi-step preparations (cold rise, bigga/levain/poolish methods, sourdough...), you can push it towards 100%, like for the no-knead-bread here.

As a rule of thumb, go up by 10-15% when switching to whole wheat (less if mixing).

King Arthur flour supports this when writing

  The hydration (weight of water compared to flour) is 75% in this1 recipe for No-Knead Crusty White Bread. But since whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid than all-purpose flour, we’re going to increase the hydration in this recipe to 85% to 90% or so.

in their recipe for whole wheat no-knead bread.

(1 the original recipe with refined flour)


Pan For Induction Heating Is this pan compatible for Induction Cooktop?

I understand it's asking about a particular product, but I figured, you guys would be really experienced to answer this based on your experience.

The production description doesn't mention it for some reason (maybe they think it is obvious), but this is a cast iron pan. Every cast iron pan, including this one, will work on an induction cooktop.

Many iron pans are not machined finely, so if you use cast iron on induction with glass surface (as are practically all modern induction heaters), you risk tiny scratches. I don't mind them and use a very similar pan, but if you want to keep your cooktop magazine-shiny, you should buy enameled or forged iron, or leave iron completely out and buy steel.


How to make your own Tempeh? I'm looking for information on Tempeh, especially how one make it themselves. Any info would be appreciated.

Do you mean tempeh?

Tempeh is a fermented soybean product, grainier and denser than tofu. Making it requires a starter to help it ferment.

Recipes can be found here.

Otherwise, you'll have to move to Arizona.


Spices become wet and clumpy once I start cooking Lately, whenever I've been cooking food like chicken breasts or hamburgers, after I'm done seasoning them and set them on the pan, once I flip the food over I notice the seasoning gets really wet and starts clumping together or it sticks to the pan and dries up. It didn't happen a few months ago but for the past 5 weeks it has. I've tried cooking at different temperatures and difderent pans but nothing works. I've looked it this problem everywhere yet I never find an answer.

If searing the meat in the pan, then once you put the seasoned meat in the pan, do not move it. Leave it in position until you flip it to avoid the seasoning rubbing off onto the pan or clumping.


How long can powdered coffee remain fresh? So, I hadn't had coffee for a long time. Plus, I was feeling a little sleepy in the morning so I decided to have a glass of coffee. It tasted a little different than the last time I had it, but I thought maybe I just forgot the taste or the amount of sugar was not same.

Right now, I was just taking a look at the small coffee jar and found out that the best before date had gone by in December 2017 xD. Worried, I opened it, and it didn't smell bad. It was a somewhat pleasant smell. Plus, it was mostly powder - not many lumps. Also, it was stored in a corner of the kitchen (not too hot temp, not too cold) in its airtight jar (so there was no moisture in it).

My question is: How long can the coffee remain fresh in such conditions? I would happily throw it away and buy a new pack, but I wanted to know just out of curiosity.

Side question: The jar also said that the coffee (plus some sugar) could be had with water. Does coffee taste good with water?

Thanks. :)

PS: I was confused whether to ask this on health stack exchange or here - please don't roast me if it's the wrong website. ;P

If, as you say, the coffee smelled ok, was stored dry, and showed no signs of deterioration (lumping, strange colours, etc.), it is perfectly safe to use.

The "Best before" date gives you the producer's idea of how long the coffee will last in its original packaging without losing too much of its taste, aroma, and visual appeal. There are also legal limits involved. So, using a product after its "Best before" date doesn't create a health hazard (provided the packaging isn't damaged, and the product is stored correctly)sup>*.

In the context of your question, 4 months after the date isn't any problem at all, the different taste could just be due to loss of volatile aroma compounds, especially if the packaging was already opened.

Concerning your second question about using it with water. That's actually the standard way to drink it in Europe: just dissolve the amount you want in a cup of hot (not boiling) water, and add sugar and milk/cream to taste. Same as freshly brewed coffee (from ground beans) is prepared with hot water.

*: Note that a "Use by" date is different. That is used for fresh or pasteurised products that mostly need to be kept cool. Passed that "Use by" date, such products can be a health hazard, depending on how the product was stored and transported (usually there is a safety margin)


How should I choose corn? What should I look for when I'm buying corn on the cob? We have a lot of roadside corn stands where we live, and I'm never sure how to pick the best ears.

A very fresh, ripe ear of corn will have a moist, green, unblemished husk; when peeled back, its silk will also moist and clinging to the kernels. In the store, you may find that an ear of corn will have a slightly dried out husk, but if it's still green and the kernels look plump when the husk is pulled back, that ear's fine. Ignore any husks that are very dry with rotten-looking, off-smelling silk tops.


Is it safe to wash a little Sterno down a sink drain? I've recently been cooking and using Sterno to keep things warm - or cook. However, from time to time I need to stir, scoop, or manipulate the Sterno in some way. Is it safe to rinse off my utensils, which have come in contact with Jelled Cooking fuel, in a kitchen sink?

Sterno is gelled denatured alcohol.  It is denatured alcohol (a combination of methanol and ethanol) so that you can't, safely, drink it, but it is still mostly alcohol, which will dissolve in water and clean up just fine.

While I wouldn't dump a lot of it down the sink, you should have no problem with cleanup.  And while Sterno isn't safe to drink, it won't be a problem if you touch it in cleaning up.

I just double checked the Sterno site and they confirm water cleanup and say, additionally, that it is biodegradable.


How to remove bits of egg shell from a cracked egg? Sometimes when I crack eggs, I end up with a bit of shell in the egg.  How can I easily get the shell out, as it always seems to evade my fingers?

Use part of the shell you just cracked to scoop it up; it will attract the broken bit.

Also, if you frequently end up with bits of shell in your eggs, you should revise your cracking technique. Eggs should be cracked on a flat surface (countertop or plate) not a sharper surface like the edge of a bowl.


What is English Afternoon tea? I googled this, and I couldn't find an answer on the first page of results.

What is English Afternoon tea, and how is it different to English Breakfast?

Please see below from an article on  teaandcoffee.net .

  Breakfast tea blends tend to contain teas that produce a cup strong and robust enough to “get the body moving” in the morning, allowing you to start your day with a kick. Conversely, afternoon tea blends are designed to be lighter in character and tend to be smoother on the palate, creating the perfect feel for a day winding down.

There is more to read and some very interesting information on the subject. You may want to take a look at the page.


What kind of knife should I use to slice tomatoes? Is it better to use a serrated knife, or a regular chef's knife that is really sharp?

A really well-sharpened santoku-style chef's knife is usually my choice. But, it does depend on the type of slicing... such as thick/thin discs, wedges, or dicing.

While I understand that a serrated blade can help with slicing a super-ripe tomato, when I want really thin disc-shaped slices, something very sharp and preferably a thinner spine. The favorite in my kitchen is definitely a Henckel santoku chef blade. Some versions can have a very thick spine, and wouldn't work as well, though. This type of choice is also more utilitarian if you're cutting any other veggies at the same time, or making additional cuts in the tomatoes, such as when you're also going to be halving the discs or full-on dicing.

Things I like the thinnest slices on are a ham and cheese melt, roast beef sammy, a sub for the road, and sometimes for a garnish. (hors d'œuvre, anyone?)

Also, when I'm cutting tomatoes into wedges, I also like to use this same type of sharp, non-serrated blade. Otherwise, I find it harder than necessary to do the smaller divisions after the 1/4-of-a-tomato size. I nearly always do 1/8 or 1/12 sized wedges for salad, so it isn't terribly often I use a "real" tomato knife. When I do, is when it's for a lunch and I don't want to sully a larger blade, or when doing large batches. Getting the core out is certainly easiest with a smaller, serrated blade.


What can I substitute for onions? I love onions; however, someone that I cook for does not.  Absolutely hates them and can tell whenever they are in the dish.

That said, so many recipes call for onion to be added. What can I use instead that would have a similar but less intense/noticeable effect?

Leeks can provide some of the same flavors as onions, but the flavors are lower intensity than onions.


How long does a fruit and sugar mixture last? I made a sauce with frozen rhubarb and raspberry mixed with sugar and reduced it until there is hardly any juice left. I put the leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge. Would this still be good? Is there anyway to tell when this is going bad?

It depends on a lot of factors: what you're describing isn't much different from making jam, and homemade jam is good for about a month, once you open it. Assuming you got the temp high enough to kill all the bacteria, the time will depend entirely on PH and water content. The more acidic, and the less watery the better.

Generally things like this freeze well though, so, when in doubt, throw it in the freezer.


How many jumbo double yolk eggs should I substitute for large eggs? If I only have jumbo double yolk eggs, should I reduce the amount of eggs called for in cake recipe (which calls for large eggs), and if so, by how much?

The formulation I use;
1 jumbo double yolk egg = 2 yolks + 1 white