USDA or Food Labeling? I have some bacon I took out of the freezer and put directly into the fridge to use this past weekend. Unfortunately, the weekend came and went without me cooking said bacon. It has been sitting in my fridge about 6 days in its unopened vacuum pack. The package says it is best by July 30 of this year (so another ~8 days).

Normally this would be the end of the story, but I once read that freezing cured meats actually lowers their shelf life and can lead to them becoming rancid quicker. Further, this pamphlet from the USDA states that bacon is only good up to 7 days in the fridge anyway. My question: should I go with the package date and use it within the next week or should I toss it and buy more?

To quote from your own source:

  It’s best to plan ahead for slow, safe thawing in the refrigerator. After defrosting bacon by this method, it will be safe in the refrigerator for 7 days before cooking. If you decide not to use the bacon during this time, you can safely refreeze it without cooking it first.

And, further up:

  It’s not important if a date expires after freezing bacon because all foods stay safe while frozen.

Let's look at what happens when you freeze food:

Due to the low temperatures, the growth of all1 molds, bacteria and other "nasties" is stopped or at least slowed down to an extremely slow rate. So from the perspective of your food, time is suspended while frozen. (Quality issues left aside, we are talking food safety here.)

So the clock starts ticking again once you defrost your food and can be stopped when re-freezing. Taking into account that your bacon was supposed to be good until the end of the month and freezing doesn't shorten that time, you should be fine at least until the original best-by-date.

In theory you could calculate

new date = thawing date + days left when freezing

But that's based on estimated bacterial growth, not taking possible quality issues into account - and we shouldn't always go to the limit, should we?.

1 "all" as in "all typical pathogens". Of course there are bacteria that thrive on ice, but those are not relevant here.


What are the differences between Coconut Milk, Coconut Water, and Coconut Oil? I am wondering about the differences between these three products.  There must be oil and water in the coconut milk, but what makes the milk more than the water and oil?  Is it the fiber?

Is there oil in the water?

Is there milk in the oil?

Coconut milk:

  is an opaque, milky-white liquid extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts.

Coconut water:

  is the clear liquid inside coconuts.

Coconut water is typically extracted from younger coconuts. The milk contains both coconut water and ground-up coconut flesh.

Cocunut oil:

  is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of mature coconuts harvested from the coconut palm.

So, the milk also contains some coconut oil.

There will be little to no coconut oil in coconut water. The question "is there milk in the oil?" makes little sense given the above, as the oil is one of the components of the milk. This is like asking if there is milk in milk fats.


Discoloration in tea kettle I have a two piece tea kettle used for brewing black Turkish Tea. The bottom part is used strictly for water (specifically faucet water), whereas the top is for steeping the concentrate of the tea.

Today I noticed some really odd discoloration on the lower portion of the kettle:

Here is an image of the lower portion of the kettle, reminder; this is only used for water, and this is post-cleaning

After some web searching I thought it was limescale so I boiled vinegar + water and cleaned it off with a rag and some baking soda, here is what the rag looked like after some scrubbing.

So my question(s) is; is this limescale? And if not, what is it? Is it fine to boil water in it like this?

Yes that looks like limescale. Are your water mineral rich?
Limescale comes in different colors depending on minerals in water. Mostly common, white, greyish or reddish. Iron.

Vinegar may leave a taste, so you can considder to buy commercial descaler from the supermarket.

Should be totally safe to boil water in.


Gumbo base tastes burnt, but the final product does not I made a gumbo on Sunday. First I made the roux, using equal parts flour and oil, high heat, constant stirring. I ended up with a beautiful dark brown roux. At no point did it stick to the pan, at no point did I see black flakes rise to the top. I took it off the heat and added the trinity, returned to a lower heat for awhile, added garlic spices and stock, in this case it was a homemade beef stock that was still frozen when I added it. I brought it to a simmer and tasted. It was burned! It had a bitter after taste and it tasted distinctly burned. My wife, whose default reaction to such situations is, “It’s fine dear”, agreed. “Yep, it’s burned”.

Well, at this point I was so disgusted I wasn’t about to start over, I just dumped the rest of the ingredients into the pot, set it to a simmer and went off to pout for a couple of hours. Okay, but here’s the kicker, At dinner time I told my wife, “Okay, time to eat burnt gumbo”, we dished it up, and it was great! No burned taste. No bitter after taste. It was quite possibly the best gumbo I’ve ever made. Can anybody explain this to me?

I was born and raised in the heart of Cajun country.  My entire family loves gumbo, especially my moms.  This is what I learned:  get the roux as dark as possible without burning it (that makes the best gumbo).  I think that's what happened to yours; you probably got it just right. Then you add the other ingredients so that it mellows down the bitter taste.  I, unlike my mom, have actually slightly burned my roux many times. When I do this I add half a potato for about 10-15 min and it helps remove the burned flavor (don't forget to take out the potato). Maybe there is as yet no rhyme or reason to why the slightly burned/bitter turns into deliciousness after its cooked with other ingredients for a while, but I thank heaven for such a wonderful mystery ;)


Are Farro (Triticum dicoccum) and Spelta (Triticum spelta) interchangeable? I can't find Farro (Triticum dicoccum) where I live and Spelta (Triticum spelta) is relatively common.

How interchangeable are they?
What should I expect if I make a Farro dish using Spelta?

According to Heidi Julavits' in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the grains are very different in their cooking properties, even though they are both members of the wheat family, and despite claims that they can be used in the same recipes:

  Farro cooks in about 45 minutes; we cooked our spelt for four hours,
  and even then the result was extremely al dente. We threw in multiple
  sticks of butter, gallons of stock and $13 worth of grated Parmesan,
  but the spelt remained stoically flavor-impervious.

You should look for recipes specifically for Spelt, if this is what you have available.


What makes the difference between domed and flat cookies? I'm baking cookies using recipe from Ruhlman's Ratio, which goes something like this:

100g butter
90g sugar
160g flour
1 tsp baking soda (I use baking powder)
150g chocolate chips

I scoop the dough using my ice cream scoop and have nice good tasting round cookies come out. They are rather tall and domed.

What can I adjust to get flatter cookies like in the following picture? What difference would it make if I, say melted the butter first, then combined with sugar and egg (like brownie batter) and then mixed with my dry ingredients? Or does my use of baking powder cause the difference?

This is what I would like my result to look like:

This is what it looks like:

Baking powder instead of baking soda could certainly cause that dome. Baking soda requires an acid to leaven, baking powder has that acid included. Cookies don't have a lot of acid on their own so baking soda doesn't cause them to rise much.

The baking soda is in a recipe like that to help with browning by altering the PH, soda makes the dough more alkaline. Since baking powder includes an acid, it doesn't have the same effect on the PH of the dough. That's probably why your cookies aren't as nicely brown as the ones in the other picture.

Try using the baking soda next time, let us know how it it goes.

Concerning your butter, you might like what melting it does, see Why is there a difference between softened and melted butter when baking?, but I'd definitely recommend trying the baking soda first.


Does the fruit label get put on a bad spot, or does the bad spot develop as a result of the label? So often when I take the little barcode sticker off the piece of fruit when I'm washing it, I discover a blemish under the sticker.  Is that because the sticker was placed so as to cover up the blemish, or because the act of putting on the sticker tends to result in some local damage to the fruit?

A few years ago I had the rare chance to take a look behind the scenes of the largest manufacturer of fruit sorting, labeling and packaging equipment in the Pacific Northwest and it was impressive to see how much effort and planning goes into designing everything in a way that damage to fruit is avoided at all costs. We talked about how the business evolved and what the biggest challenges are.

And yes, the stickers are a crucial part. Developing a glue that is food-safe, will stick well and come off without damaging the fruit is a challenge and different manufacturers have solved it more or less well. If you observe carefully, you will notice that the stickers will behave differently.

There are two main ways how stickers can lead to damage:

Too much local pressure when applying the stickers and
A glue that is too sticky and tears the fruit when the sticker is pulled off.

The former will result in a soft spot or other blemish, the latter is visibly fresh. Soft-skinned fruit like peaches are much more prone to damage and a real challenge compared to e.g. apples. The damage is not unavoidable, a lot depends on the settings of the equipment and a good operating personnel.

But I can assure you that no fruit packaging plant will “cover up” blemishes with a sticker - simply because they label way too many pieces per hour. Blemished fruit will be sorted out before packaging, damaged fruit in packs will typically mean the whole package is rejected by wholesalers - because they won’t travel and store well.

Knowing all this, one of my pet peeves is supermarket workers that think refilling displays is best done by upending boxes of apples, but that’s not part of your question.


How can I let fruit ripen faster? In addition to specific fruits like avocados and bananas, and the specific trick of using a brown bag, I would like to know if there are ways to let fruit and vegetables in general ripen faster. Are all fruits the same, or is it different for every kind of fruit/vegetable? If there is some general way or mechanism, what methods generally work to expedite fruit ripening?

As I was explaining in my answer to this question about figs the "brown bag" trick, works for any climacteric fruit.

A list of some climacteric and non-climacteric fruits can be found here.

It is important to note that some non-climacteric fruits (such as bell peppers or strawberries) will not respond to an ethylene treatment at all, and will not ripen further after being picked from the plant. Other fruits (such as citrus and grapes) will show ripening responses to ethylene, although they do not have an auto-catalytic production of this molecule1.

1Ripening of citrus and other non-climacteric fruits: a role for ethylene


How to replicate this bakery's bread A local bakery is going out of business and they sell the most delicious bread. The pretzel bread is my favorite. All of their loaves tend to be heavy and dense, they stand up well to slicing, and the bread is soft and chewy when you bite into it. Any advice on how to try and duplicate it? The owner told me that the bread is made completely by hand, that was the only thing he would give away.
The loaf of pretzel bread that I bought today weighs 1 pound 12 ounces.

If it's pretzel bread, it may be dipped in a hot soda solution before baking, or lye for the brave and very, very careful. That would mostly be about the crust, rather than the density.

Several sources suggest baking baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to convert it to (food grade) sodium carbonate for a stronger (than bicarbonate) alkali without needing to find (or handle) food grade lye (sodium hydroxide.) What is easily available varies by region, what you are comfortable using varies by person and over time. Washing soda is sodium carbonate, but is not food grade.

There are many ways to get dense bread:

Adding low-gluten or non-gluten flours (rye, oats, rice, barley, masa
harina, bean flours, (or non-flour items, such as boiled or baked
potatoes rather than "potato flour" or instant mashed potatoes,
cooked & mashed beans rather than bean flour.)
Not letting it rise as long. Letting it rise too long. The former is preferable.
Putting in more flour, especially if you tend to the "super-soggy
dough" end of the spectrum. Of course, if you are starting your
baking efforts with trying to replicate this, you may not have a
place that you tend yet. Aim for a firm dough that does not stick to your
hands when working it, which is considerably drier than most baking
instruction [which is chasing the elusive baguette] tends to want you
to go.
Cook a bit cooler for a longer time.


Is there a plastic bowl/dish that can withstand high temperature in the oven? I am looking for a plastic bowl or dish that can withstand high temperature in the oven? A bowl or dish that won't melt nor emit odour. Is there such a thing?

Silicone bakeware is available which is oven safe up to 500°F/260°C. Just like other materials it has some advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

Easy to clean rubbery surface (will need a little cooking spray, but not much)
Flexible, so easier to remove baked goods
Often fridge/microwave safe

Disadvantages:

Not very durable, due to softer material
Can be cut by metal utensils
Floppy
May warp or melt in some cases.

Generally, I've heard very mixed reviews from bakers using silicone (except for Silpats). Although you can obtain it in the American market, most people prefer metal or Pyrex.


Black Beans - Toss the soak water? I'm making a two pounds of dry black beans by:

Sorting out the rocks, dirt, malformed beans
Washing any dirt or mud from the remaining beans
Soaking for only 1 hour in 2 gallons of water and 2 Tablespoons of salt
Add any non-acidic ingredients and spices
Heating stove top until 212 F
Maintaining temp in oven at 225 F for 3-4 hours
Adding any acid like Tomatoes after cooking is finished

My Logic is:

Soaking for 1 hour is reported to decrease cooking time
Soaking for 8 hours only decreases cooking time by 30 minutes and makes more beans fall apart
Soaking / cooking in salt reduces skin toughness
Using the soak water in the final product improves taste, nutrients, color, as reported by Alton Brown, many other pro chefs, and most traditional Cuban and Mexican cooks
Salt content of the soak water is about what I'd like in the final product
Using stove top is fastest method of reaching 212 F and avoiding 170-180 F, which increases phytohaemagglutinin (phytohemagglutinin) by 5 x at that temp
Using oven avoids stirring / sicking to the bottom of the pan
Adding any acids like tomatoes increases cooking time

Answers and feedback requested:

The CDC reports that pouring off the soak water decreases phytohaemagglutinin in the final product.  However, if 30 minutes or more removes most all of the phytohaemagglutinin, why would throwing out the soak water help, and if so, by how much?

Soak water also contains other non-digestible sugars and proteins that can cause problems.  However, extended cooking is also supposed to break these sugars and proteins down.  So, will this increase digestive problems, and if so, by how much?

Any other comments of answers to critique my methods are welcome.

For an extremely detailed discussion with many references:
By "Captious" - 2006/05/01 -
Common Bean Myths

Pressure cookers and tossing the soak water do decrease non-digestible sugars:
Thai Science -
Effects of Tossing the Soak Water and Pressure Cooking Beans -
Research Report on Detailed Scientific Experiments.PDF (Title is mine)

Summary: Don't toss the soak water.

First, to address the food safety issue, phytohaemagglutinin is gradually destroyed by temperatures above 175F or so.  The FDA has referenced studies (see pp. 254-256) which show that 10 minutes of boiling will completely destroy any of that toxin in beans, though they recommend 30 minutes at boiling temperatures to be on the safe side.  Yes, some studies have recommended discarding the soaking water to decrease amounts of toxins before cooking, but there's no need to as long as you are certain to have your beans at or near boiling for at least part of the cooking time.

Also, just to clarify your statement about temperatures near 170F increasing the toxin -- it's true that undercooked beans which never reach higher temperatures will release more of the toxin than raw beans.  However, I see nothing so far in the literature that suggests a problem if the beans spend some time at that temperature as long as they spend at least 10 minutes (and preferably 30 minutes) near boiling during the simmering.  (As long as your beans are actively simmering for a good portion of the cook time, the toxin should degrade: the real problem comes with slow cookers which never reach a boil or even a decent simmer and might maintain a constant temperature that never rises above 180F to destroy the toxin.)

Finally, I should also note that you've asked about black beans, and the concern with phytohaemagglutinin is greater for red kidney beans and a few other related beans where the concentration is particularly high. Thus there are sometimes recommendations for discarding soaking water for those specific bean types.  The concentration is significantly lower in black beans, and while there many be some other lectins in black beans to worry about, as long as they are cooked thoroughly, including boiling for at least 10 minutes, there is no reason to worry.

Regarding your other questions about nutrients, flatulence-causing agents, etc. and the soak water, I quote Harold McGee (who is also referenced in one of your helpful links) from On Food and Cooking (pp. 486-487):

  A commonly used method for reducing the gassiness of beans is to boil
  them briefly in excess water, let them stand for an hour, then discard
  the soaking water and start the cooking with fresh water.  This does
  leach out most of the water-soluble oligosaccharides--but it also
  leaches out significant quantities of water-soluble vitamins,
  minerals, simple sugars, and seed-coat pigments: that is, nutrients,
  flavor, color, and antioxidants.  That's a high price to pay.  An
  alternative is simple prolonged cooking, which helps by eventually
  breaking down much of the oligosaccharides and cell-wall cements into
  digestible single sugars.

In line with McGee's recommendations, I generally don't bother soaking at all anymore, since the longer I cook the beans, the more I break down the gas-causing elements.  (Also, except in unusual cases, I find soaking -- even long-term -- rarely saves me more than 30-45 minutes of cooking, and for beans I'm going to simmer for a few hours anyway, that doesn't seem to help much.)  Regardless, I never discard soak water, since I prefer to preserve the flavor and nutrients.

Some people still find that soaking for a short time will improve final texture or keep beans from bursting or breaking apart or whatever.  If you find that it makes a difference for you, soak.  But aside from an odd batch here or there, I found that the best textured beans I've made generally have not been soaked at all.

One other minor point is that, while I do sometimes use the oven to cook beans, there's no reason not to simmer them on the stovetop as long as you use a heavy pot.  If you're really concerned about toxins, bring them to a boil early (while there's still a lot of liquid), but after 10-30 minutes, you can turn them down to a simmer.  Unless you tend to cook beans to the point that they burst and cause the liquid to thicken significantly, you shouldn't need to stir them often (or at all) to avoid sticking.

You can add tomatoes or other mildly acidic ingredients once the beans are near-done, say for the last 30 minutes or so.  You're right that you shouldn't add them at the beginning, but adding them a little before the end can allow flavors to permeate the beans more (if you want that).  Also, adding small amounts of acid toward the end will actually strengthen the beans somewhat and preserve their structure even if you overcook them a bit.

Otherwise, I agree with basically all of your ideas, which seem well-researched.  You'll find similar advice given in many other questions here.


What is the secret to baking bread with a very fine crumb? I've noticed bread purchased from the local baker always has a very fine crumb. How is this achieved??

A couple of things will help give you smaller holes:

Keep the hydration reasonably low (say, 60% with American-style bread flour).
Use some oil or butter. Try 10% (baker's ratio).
Knead very well, something like 10–15 minutes in a stand mixer.
After the first rise, normally you try to be gentle, and not press out all the air. Don't. Instead, press it out.
Bake in a moderate (say, 350°F) oven. You don't particularly want much oven spring here.

For even finer texture, part way through the second rise, you can press it out again, and let it start a third rise (but not to double).

Also, adding some whole wheat or rye flour will give a denser crumb. With different flavor, too, of course.


Does a pan used for cooking scrambled eggs multiple times a day need to be washed with soap every time? I have some very tight diet restrictions right now due to a medical issue.  As a result I need to eat scrambled eggs three times a day.  Here's my question:  if I rinse the pan thoroughly each time do I really need to wash it with soap and water after every meal?  Can I just wash it every night?  (The problem is this hurts my neck, which is another medical issue I have.)

Bacteria have several requirements to grow — water, food/nutrients, oxygen/lack of oxygen (some bacteria), temperature, and pH. The acceptable range of conditions varies, but if you deprive them of one of their requirements, they don't grow. We use all of those in food — but for your question, three are involved:

Temperature. When the pan is hot, nothing can grow. Once it cools off below ≈130°F/55°C, that changes. Until you get down to 40°F/4°C, you're in the "danger zone" where bacterial growth is possible and relatively quick.
Food/nutrient availability. When you wash clean the pan, you're removing the nutrients, so the bacteria can't grow. You propose not to do this, so this control method isn't available.
Water. Without available water, nothing can grow. This is why you want your pans to dry out after washing (even things like aluminum or ceramic, which won't rust). If there are nutrients left (perfect washing is hard), without water, nothing can grow.

So... I think as long as you make sure the pan is dry then you're fine. Wipe it out with a paper towel, you don't want any egg-gunk left (that'd be hard to get all the water out of). If there is any doubt, turn back on the burner after wiping it — heat will drive off any moisture. Just make sure not to let it get hot enough to damage the pan. (Be especially careful if its Teflon or similar).

If paranoid (which, depending on your health condition, may be justified), once the pan cools to near room temperature, put it in the fridge. You'll then have two factors redundantly protecting you from bacterial growth.


Can I eat Chia leaves? Just out of curiousity I planted some Chia seeds in a pot. Turned out they grow like crazy and seem pretty undemanding.

Now I also noticed that they smell quite nicely, a bit like basil and wondered if the leaves can be eaten. Like for a salad or as a herb, because it seems super easy to grow them. I acutally wondered why we can’t eat the leaves of way more plants (I know you can eat nettles when boiled).

Wikipedia says chia is a plant that belongs to the mint family. According to the wiki article the FDA generally recognizes mint as safe

  §182.10 Spices and other natural seasonings and flavorings, including
  mint, are generally regarded as safe (GRAS) for food uses in the
  United States.

but

the wiki article also enumerates two mint species in particular and I don't know why (Peppermint Mentha piperita L. and Spearmint Mentha spicata L.).
I just can't access the original website to check the original terms due to a server error.

Edit: The server works now. Only Peppermint (Mentha piperita L.) and Spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) are generally recognized as safe by the FDA (§182.10). The word "mint" in the cited paragraph from the wiki article doesn't mean the Mentha family but only the plants that are commonly called "mint". I have the impression that in the chia article this mint (Lamiaceae, a family) was mixed up with this mint (Mentha, a genus). As @rackandboneman pointed out, chia (Salvia hispanica) belongs to the family Lamiaceae (common name: mint) and belongs to the genus Salvia (common name: sage).

Edit 2: Sprouts are probably edible. The link directs to an online shop which sells chia seeds with growing instructions.

I leave this answer for the sake of completeness even it doesn't really answers the question.


How to reduce the heat from peppers in my tomato soup? I just made tomato soup with two cans of tomatoes with jalapeno peppers in it.  The soup has turned out to be too spicy.  How can I reduce the spicy (heat) level of the soup?

Can make it a creamy tomato soup by adding heavy cream or half and half. While this will make the soup taste less spicy be careful if you get heartburn or other issues from eating spicy food, because it will not nullify those effects.


Why does canelé batter have to be made 24 hours in advance? I am experimenting with making canelé. All recipes I've found call for the batter to be made and left in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before baking, but none say why.

One guess is that maybe the batter needs to reach a certain temperature get the right consistency while baking (caramelized exterior and moist interior). But I don't think that it would need anywhere close to 24 hours to reach the fridge temperature.

Does anyone know the reasoning or the origin of the 24 hour time, or if it really makes a difference between leaving them in for, say, 6 hours?

I am pretty sure it is for cross-linking to form gluten and possibly rearrangements of other proteins also. As far as I can work out, there is no impact to either caramelisation or maillard. Resting time and temperature do need fine tuning for different sizes though which is quite logical and may explain different recipe timing. So, do look out for that. Temperature plays a part in the reaction kinetics. Again, not looked into it, but chilling suggests better to slow things down and possibly to prevent unintended fermentation. 5C from experience is perhaps the upper limit.


Does method of coagulation matter when extracting ricotta from whey? I'm wondering if it matters whether you start from acid alone (lemon, vinegar or citric) vs something like acid + rennet.

So the whey left over from making paneer, vs the whey left over from making mozzarella.  Can you use either to extract the ricotta?

Ricotta cheese is made from whey left over from making cheeses using rennet, such as mozzarella. The whey is heated and an acidic element (such as vinegar, lime juice) is added to it to incite coagulation.

Paneer is made by adding an acid to hot milk.

To answer your question, you can make ricotta using whey left over after making mozzarella, but you cannot make it from whey left over from paneer as acids are used in it's production.

Note: if ricotta is made from whole milk it will be practically identical to paneer.


What makes for good olive oil? It's been years I've been pondering this question. When I go to the store, the olive oil section has a vast array of offerings with a great range in prices.

With that in mind:

Does higher price necessarily mean better olive oil?
What distinguishes good olive oil from bad olive oil?

The problem is that there are different types of olive oil that are used for dramatically different purposes.

A high quality 'cold pressed extra virgin' oil often has fruity notes that are destroyed when you heat it, but is great for drizzling over things at the last minute, or cold applications such as salad dressings ... but note that the US labeling laws are lax, so something labeled as 'extra virgin' in the US may not qualify as such in Europe.
For most cooking, I use a good grade olive oil ('virgin', but not 'extra virgin') for cooking with, not the extremely expensive stuff.
For frying, there's 'extra light' olive oil which has a higher smoke point but little to no flavor on its own.  It's refined to such a point that you might be better off just going with any neutral flavored oil (canola/rape, soy, corn, etc.)

Price depends on a lot of things, and a lot of it's marketing and worthless -- if you can, I'd look for other signs of quality ... like if there's a packing date.  Older oil is more likely to have deteriorated, and in a worst case, have gone rancid.  (more likely if it's in a clear glass bottle ... if you're buying large amounts of oil, keep it out of sunlight, or even better, buy it in a can)  Note that packing dates can also be cheated -- they might press the oil, then hold it for months before it's actually bottled for sale.

Also beware of 'blended oils'.  This is when they cut olive oil with something less expensive, but still try to pass it off as 'olive oil'.

'Imported from Italy' is another suspect label, as it might be foreign olives that were sent to Italy before being imported.  (but there's nothing wrong with non-Italian olives ... the Greeks and Spanish make some great olive oils, and we're starting to see more American olive oils).

...

Also note that olive oil can be classified like wines -- some companies might press a single variety of olive (eg, Kalamata, Castelvetrano), which can have dramatically different flavors.  They might be fruity, grassy, buttery, or even peppery.  Regions can also have an impact, as some areas press olives while green, and others wait until they're black.

I won't get into these, as that's more a matter of personal taste.


What are bagel chips? This recipe for southern-fried chicken mentions something called "bagel chips."

What exactly are bagel chips, and how do you make them? All I can find are recipes for it or places that sell something in a bag that resembles potato chips.

Bagel chips are just bagels sliced into little rounds- think bagel pepperoni. I know of a few different ways to make them, but generally you just bake or toast the rounds (you can butter each slice a little bit or drizzle olive oil over them before baking) until crispy. Here's a good recipe. I'd personally recommend using egg bagels, they have an excellent flavor.


What's 香茜 or 芫荽 in English? Many Hong Kong Cuisine restaurants use 香茜 or 芫荽 in soup dishes. Please see the picture below.

Are  香茜 or 芫荽  the same species of plant?

What's the correct English translation? I'm hankering to buy it in the USA.  Different Hong Kong waiters translate it differently, and coriander, cilantro, and/or parsley have all been postulated. But aren't coriander, cilantro, parsley different species?

(Source: 鱼翅海鲜灌汤饺.)

Googling 香茜 ("Wu Chinese") and 芫荽 ("Chinese") yields the wikipedia page for coriander in both cases. Coriander is also known as cilantro in parts of the world, which causes some confusion with culantro. Parsley is a different plant.


How to make the bottom of breads bake a little slower so that the whole bread could stay longer in the oven? When I bake a bread in my oven, I sprinkle some flour on the pan. But when it's half the baking time, the bottom of burger buns or baguettes become far too brown when the bread itself is not done yet. I wonder what can  I do to keep their bottom less brown and be able to let the bread stay more in the oven for the surface to turn goldish brown. Is it because of flour sprinkling? Will greasing the sheet pan help? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

First, you can bake the bread on a higher rack.

Second, you can turn up the temperature of the top heating element.

Third, you can use a less heat conductive pan.

Fourth, you can use a wash on the bread which turns brown quicker than normal dough. Egg yolk browns very nicely. On lean breads, a milk wash also does well.

The way you describe it, you indeed have to address the issue. But be careful not to overdo it. To get well risen bread, you want to have higher temperature on the bottom than on the top, so the upper crust won't set too early. You will have to test your way changing the conditions towards the optimum.


Premixed ingredients for yogurt I failed to read the recipe before I started to make my first batch of yogurt.  I poured the whole milk and mixed in the premade yogurt.  Can I still boil till 200 degrees, then let cool and then add another 1/2 cup of premade?

Interesting question. I would certainly say that it's worth a try, because there is a high chance it will work. Of course, you do need to add more culture after cooling, but you already mentioned this in the question.

If this fails, the most likely failure mode will be that the acid in the culturing yogurt is sufficient, and your milk old enough, that it curdles when heated together. This means that you can either throw it away now, or give it a cook and see if it stays liquid, and if yes, continuing as usual. If it curdles, you can use it as quark. So continuing instead of dumping it is the winning strategy, your worst possible loss is a bit of electricity.


How do I minimize the risk of bacteria growth in bean sprouts? I have been experimenting with sprouts lately. Most recently I've been sprouting mung beans.

Last week I had a salad with a larger than usual portion of bean sprouts. I spent the next day with a delicious case of food poisoning. I don't have any proof that the sprouts were the cause but I have since read online that sprouts are prone to bacterial contamination and they were the only potentially risky thing I ate that day.

My process is simply:

Rinse the beans,
Place them in a mason jar with a mesh lid
Cover with water,
After one day drain the beans,
Twice a day, rinse them with fresh water and allow to drain,
Eat the sprouts after 3-7 days.

If bean sprouts do have an elevated risk of bacterial growth, how can I minimize that risk?

Some of my local supermarkets stopped selling sprouts because bacterial contamination was so widespread, but that's probably more of a problem for big batches. I'm thinking that the best things you can do at home to prevent unwanted bacterial growth might be:

Sanitize your jar before use. I think a hot water bath would work, or soak in a 10% bleach solution for 30 minutes (that's how I've sanitized in a lab).
Make sure to use beans that aren't old or of poor quality. This matters less when you're cooking them but is really important for sprouting.
Maybe try using a finer cover for the sprouts, like a layer or two of cheesecloth (I don't think this should matter too much though).
Use filtered water, not tap water to soak the beans.

I generally follow these rules when I'm sprouting and haven't had a problem.

As a relevant side note I believe the beans themselves contain their own endophytes, or native microbes that live inside, which is something to consider when sprouting. Not all bacteria/fungi are bad, and having more of the good ones there could prevent pesky pathogens (which reinforces my suggestion of using "good beans").


How do I make bread more firm? So I have now successfully repeated a bread recipe twice.  Both times it came out with a very tight grain and very spongy.  The bread itself squishes easily and bounces back.  I would like to make it more firm (so that it puts up with things like spreading cream cheese or butter more readily).

The recipe I am using is pretty much flour, water and yeast (and a little salt).  It calls for three rising periods with two punch downs in between -- after the initial ten minute knead.

Is there something I can change in the way I knead?  Something I can change in the recipe?  How do I get less of a spongy texture and more of a chewy or firm one?

The first thing I would change is the final rising period before putting it in the oven. Cut that in half, so it doesn't have as much time to expand, and that should give you a denser loaf. You could also try substituting 25-50% whole wheat flour, which will both make it denser and more nutritious.


No knead bread dough looking slimy after a week I have been baking no knead bread on a regular basis for a few months now and the fresh bread gets devoured still.  I usually mix a double batch and use it throughout the week.  Sometimes, at about a week in the fridge, there is liquid at the bottom of the bucket and the dough looks very wet on the bottom (where it has been sitting in the liquid). The top looks fine.  My question is whether this is normal and fine or if the dough is being overproofed or something else going on.  When I bake the dough at this stage, it does look more dense than the previous loaves but tastes fine.  Is there something I can do to prevent this or that I should do once this happens for optimal bread? Thanks.

Flour readily absorbs water. You might try adding more flour and mixing it bit longer (yes, I know you said no need to knead bread) when you make your next batch, or you can try reducing the water amount you are using.

If you press on the dough and it doesn't push back it and the indentation remains or if it looks like it wants to collapse it is over proofed. If it is too springy it needs more time to proof.

Other factors:
Temperature can also be a factor (outside, fridge, oven, etc).
Did you change your flour? Mills change their blends seasonally so you may need to adjust or try a different brand/formulation/protein level. I've had better luck with bread flour formulations over all purpose flour.


Good book on English/British cuisine I am looking for a good book on British cuisine, and I have a specific type of book in mind. I tried looking on Amazon, but I couldn't determine whether a given book offers what I want.

I am looking for a book which is more of a good read than a recipe collection. I actually intend to curl up in an armchair and read it through.
It should describe different traditional dishes, something about their background, maybe things like where it is from, is it prepared for certain occasions, maybe some historical anecdotes, or typical pairings.
If there are traditional genera of dishes which require their own technique, I'd like to see that technique explained somewhere. For example, I have a book on French cuisine, and it contains very detailed directions on making pastetes, independently of any recipes.
A general chapter on food history in Britain could also be nice, if not too long.
It should also provide the recipes for the dishes - maybe not a big collection, just for sampling whatever is described in the text. But please, it should be a book with good recipes, not one where the author described the cooking tradition and then just slapped the first recipe they came across without even testing if it can be made.
It should cover baking as well as cooking. I've always wondered what scones taste like.
It should contain a good share of food porn.

All in all, I guess it is maybe best described as a collection of Smitten Kitchen articles, only the text shouldn't be about the author's personal experience with the food, but about the tradtions surrounding it.

If you know of such a book, I am looking forward to your recommendations.

I have "The Cookery of England" by Elisabeth Ayrton, and it seems to meet most of your conditions. The introduction is a brief history of traditional English food, there are historical anecdotes interspersed in the text, and yes, it has a recipe for scones, and also for cheese scones, but there is little food porn - sadly, the only picture is on the cover.


Cooking temperature and time adjustments for cooking several whole fish in a conventional oven? I've successfully prepared one whole fish using a roasting pan and conventional oven, and now would like to make four to six of them at once for a gathering. Is there a rule of thumb to adjust my cooking time and temperature when cooking several fish? The first fish was a 1.5 lb sea bass, cooked at 450 degrees for 5-8 minutes per side.

My gut tells me to use two large roasting pans, raise the oven temperature to 500, and just dutifully watch over the fish and flip when they look ready. But I have no idea if this is appropriate, if I should expect to flip in 5-8 or 15-18 minutes, or if cooking up to six whole fish at once is simply unrealistic in a conventional oven.

Thanks in advance!

That depends on how large your oven is.  I certainly couldn't do 6 whole fish in mine, but then I have a 24" wide oven.  If you have a 36", it would be completely possible (these are standard US sizes; no idea what the equivalent would be in other countries).

Your main adjustment will be dealing with the extra mass to be heated by the additional fish, which will cause the oven to take some additional time to reheat.  Again, this depends on how hot (BTU) your oven is; a hot oven would overcome the extra mass in a few minutes, but an underpowered (for this purpose, anyway) oven might take an additional 15 or more minutes, which would not be good for the texture of the fish.

So, It Depends.  If you have a fairly powerful, large, high-end stove, I'd be ready to flip them at 10 minutes.  Less powerful ovens will take longer.

Also, if the fish are individually closer together than 1", you'll have the issue that the edges of each fish will be soggy from the moisture of the fish next to it, and they won't get good texture.  If they're touching even slightly, they will stick together.  You'll also want to try to ensure some drainage in the pan, lest all of the liquid runoff collect under one fish and make it slimy.


Infusing olive oil with herbs I have some basil from my garden that I would like to infuse with olive oil to flavor it. I was going to pack the jar with the herbs and then pour the oil over it, keep it in a jar for about a week and then strain and store the oil for cooking.  Are there any issues I should be aware of?

See this article from Colorado University Safe Food.  The goal is to prevent growth of the botulism pathogen.  Here are their key points:

Wash all soil-contaminated produce before adding it to an oil infusion,
Add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil,
Keep oil infusions refrigerated in order to retard the growth of any microbes,
Discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop and,
When in doubt, throw it out.

Sorry the source article is not formatted prettily, but I was looking for something more authoritative than about.com or ehow.com.


My sauerkraut brine seems slightly slimy but the batch otherwise seems normal--is it ok? Recently I started a batch of sauerkraut, the first after several years.  Unlike my previous batches this one is much smaller (half a head of cabbage, as opposed to several full heads), uses Morton's Kosher salt as opposed to sea salt, and fermentation was started in a large bowl as opposed to a crock.

Today I received a new crock, and transferred the batch from the bowl into the crock.  The sauerkraut is about 72 hours old, and seems to be progresssing and expected--however as I transferred the kraut I noticed that the brine appeared slimy as it dripped.  Aside from it's appearance when dripping it seems normal (I tasted a small amount, it smells like it should, and when the brine is standing still it appears normal.  I also ran some of the extra brine through my fingers and it didn't feel slimy).

I'm curious if this is normal--perhaps either because the the kraut is relatively young (at only 3 days), or perhaps because of using "plain" kosher salt which may have additives such as anti-caking agents.  Or perhaps it is perfectly normal and I've just never noticed it before, as I've never transferred a batch between vessels before.

In general, slimy brine is indicative of a fermentation problem. Your brine might be too weak (what concentration did you use?), it may be too warm, your brine might not cover the vegetables, there might be some air bubbles trapped in your ferment.

This article suggests that in the early days of sauerkraut fermentation, the concentration of slime forming bacteria - Leuconostoc - is relatively high and towards the end of fermentation it's too small to measure. It doesn't say anything about slimy brine, but it's possible that the brine is temporarily slimy in the early days of fermentation and as the acidity increases it dissipates. I've never checked a ferment this early, so I can't comment on it.

Personally, I would let it continue to ferment for a week or two and then see whether the perceived sliminess has dissipated or increased. It's possible that it's too early to tell. Slimy vegetables, without a doubt, should be discarded.

References

http://www.culturesforhealth.com/fermented-vegetables-troubleshooting-guide


If we cut ourselves when preparing food, unless that food is going to be cooked thoroughly, should it be tossed? Probably every person who cooks has cut themselves while preparing food. Blood can carry many pathogens, so continuing to prepare that food may incorporate those pathogens into the food. Unless it is going to be cooked thoroughly (by that I mean at least 160°F/71°C in the center) it seems prudent that the food should be thrown out, even though it seems a waste.

For food that is going to be served raw, while hydrogen peroxide will probably destroy the blood and any pathogens it may carry, it can also destroy the food or alter its taste, and it may not be 100% successful. And getting the correct H2O2 concentration may be guesswork, at best.

So should we toss the food? It certainly seems the prudent thing to do. Better to waste the food than get sick. Let's assume the blood either got incorporated into the food (not splattered on a nearby surface) and/or the blood was noticed so late that it seems likely that the blood got in to the food. If preparing raw food (salad e.g.), then the blood probably got well mixed with the food, thus making its removal nearly impossible.

There are a couple of things to consider here but it shouldn't be too difficult to cover them all.

If it is just you that is eating it. No problem. You are already exposed to your own pathogens. We've all tasted our own blood. There shouldn't be any real risk here.

If it isn't just you: Stop!

Under no circumstances should you feed me something I have no reasonable reason to suspect is in the food. I am not okay with this even if you do cook it. Are you willing to go into the other room and ask your guests how they feel about human blood in the chicken marinade? If it sounds like an awkward question that you don't want to ask, then throw it out.

That said, there are many foods out there with blood in them. Blood sausage, blood pudding, blood soup and more. I'm not certain of any risks that are peculiar to human blood specifically being consumed. There isn't a lot of research from credible sources out there. I personally would not rely on it being safe just because it can be done safely with pigs blood.

In short, if you cut yourself prepping a salad and don't notice til you've tossed it all together, throw it out. This unequivocally falls under the when in doubt, throw it out clause.


What are the mechanics of raw milk and products made from it? I'm stuck in a bit of a strange predicament... As many of you know, getting access to raw milk is a problem for many in the Western world, whereas information is abundant. Yet, here I finally am with an unlimited source of raw milk but unable to find any meaningful/decent information.
I was hoping one of you could guide me with either a link or just a quick summary.
Basically, I just want to know what the underlying processes are for working with raw milk and what it turns into under what conditions?
For example: the other day I wanted to make sour cream. I found an article online that said: raw milk doesn't rot, leave it out at room temp for not more than 2 days, gather the cream from the top, and put it into a mason jar for another day. I mean sure -- these are good pointers on how to get from point A ("I have raw milk") to point B ("I have sour cream"), but very little actual information on the underlying workings (what happens if I leave it out for 3 or 4 days? After I gather the cream, what is the remaining transparent liquid in the jar and what can I do with it? etc).
Basically, I'm not looking for specifics on how to get from a point A to a point B, but rather -- if I'm at point A, what points can I get to from there, and where can I get to afterwards?
How (in a short quick approximative summary) does one make yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, butter, cheese, etc?
I apologize for the dumb question and really appreciate any response(s) in advance.

Basically the processes are those that have been used for 1000's of years. Components of the milk along with some bacterial species that are commonly found in milk can, under the right conditions, produce some or all of your products.
First off, the online article is completely wrong, milk can and does "rot" - introduce some fecal coliforms (e.g. from off the often unwashed udders; see page 2 in pdf here, and table p 13 and references therein for prevalence of contamination, see also here for more detailed information) and you will certainly know about it within a few hours at room temperature.  You will know this also if you have ever come across an old container of milk full of lumps and a horrific smell. There is a reason why large scale dairy industry keeps the milk cold from milking the cows to delivery to the factory - it's to stop the milk going off. Always store your milk at fridge temperature to slow bacterial growth. Note that fermentation of the milk products into soured forms generally selects against pathogenic bacteria and often enables longer storage and greater food-safety because of this. However, never assume that it is safe for consumption just because you have fermented the milk to make a different product. Correct storage is incredibly important for food safety with milk products.
For any of the cultured products - yogurt, cheese, sour cream etc., it is best to add cultures of the specific type of bacterium associated with the product. This ensures that you have the right one in there and are less likely to waste your raw milk by having overgrowth of unwanted microorganisms, some of which may be pathogenic and can make you very sick. Do not rely on your sense of smell or taste to detect pathogens. Many do not produce smells or tastes and can have very high bacterial loads before you can detect them from taste/smell alone.
From milk, skim the fat that floats to the surface and you have cream. Take the cream and churn it and you will have butter - you need lots and lots of cream for this. Buttermilk is technically the water component left after you remove the butterfat from the cream, but you can also add cultures to this one to produce the soured version more commonly seen commercially today. Incidentally cultured butter is also a thing: see the Types section in the linked page for butter.
Sour cream is cream with some culture added, usually Lactobacillus species that produce acid to make the cream "sour" thereby precipitating a lot of the proteins in the cream and making it thick and creamy. The same process happens for milk to yogurt.
The rest of your list are generally made from milk, often whole milk, but not necessarily. The exact product depends on how long you ferment it and what you do with it once it is fermented (and usually what you inoculate it with, in the case of cheeses).  From whole milk the easiest cheese you can make is essentially mozzarella. Mozzarella doesn't require fermentation, but does require rennet, which most cheeses use somewhere in the manufacturing process anyway. You can also make quark by heating soured milk (add acid - lemon juice or (white) vinegar, or ferment) and straining off the whey.
For yogurt, which then can be made into soft cheese, you can inoculate with any plain, unpasteurized yogurt from the local store. Incubate this in a warm place for a few hours and the yogurt will be ready. Incubate for a couple more to make it thicker. With thick yogurt, place it into a cheesecloth and strain overnight in a cool place to produce a soft cream cheese like product called yogurt cheese. Yogurt and yogurt cheese products are probably the easiest milk based processed products to generate for a beginner.
Harder cheeses take a bit of work and know-how - you need to know how to culture, add rennet, slice the curd, pack, store to mature etc to produce each one. There are many many varieties of cheese out there, each one is slightly different in production and often take specific bacterial species, and sometimes a milk from a specific type of animal (e.g goat cf. cow) or variety/breed of animals (e.g jersey milk cf. holstein/friesian milk)  or pasture type to produce its distinctive flavour.


How do I make my curries saucier? So I've made curry a few times before but I've always had a problem with the sauce. So before I try and make one again I want to know, how do you make the sauce thick and flavourful rather than almost non-existent and overly tomatoey?

When I last made curry I remember adding almost a full ramekin of spices and quite a lot of onion and yet after boiling down the curry I was left with very little sauce. I had tried adding more tomato pulp to give it more body, but that to ends up mostly gone once boiled down; and even if much tomato remains, I find it overpowers some of the other flavours in the sauce.

Does anyone have any curry tips for this amateur?

Ground almonds are one thing I've used in the past (usually in a yoghurt-based sauce, but not always).  They give a richness without overpowering the flavour.  Roughly the approach was:

Fry onions, meat or equivalent (I usually did this with Quorn), and spices/garlic/ginger.
Turn off and allow to cool a few minutes.
Stir in lots of yoghurt (any natural yoghurt) and return to the gentlest heat you've got.
Stir in ground almonds; don't be mean with them. Cook gently for a few minutes, with plenty of stirring, adjusting the texture with a little water if you like.

In a tomato-based sauce you don't need the cooling step; that's to avoid splitting the yoghurt.

Coconut flour or alternatively dried coconut milk. It's a significantly different curry because the flavour comes through, but adding either of these gives a good  thickening effect (more so for the flour) that's very compatible with curries.

A sauce base using onions as I mentioned in the comments: a base sauce made from boiled, blended onions (plus garlic/ginger/tomato and a little spice) is also a good way of adding richness.  This is rather time-consuming to prepare, and pungent, but freezes well.

Mango chutney is a good last-minute cheat addition, especially if you find a very sticky one and blend it first.  It adds flavour and has some thickening power.

I am also an amateur, and care more about enjoying my cooking and food than about authenticity!


Why did my marinated chicken literally almost fall apart before cooking them? I put a wing sauce (spicy) and seasonings (salt, pepper, Italian, paprika) on chicken tenderloins, put them in a ziploc bag and sat in the counter why I did a couple of things, NO longer than 15 minutes. When I took them out the chicken tenders literally looked shredded...still together but like I had taken a razor to each one. I’ve never had this happen and I cook chicken this way (minus the seasonings, which I usually layer on top vs putting in the bag) every week.
Is something wrong with my chicken?

I don't think there is anything wrong in the chicken. It is more likely that your sauce had a high percentage of acid, which denatured the chicken proteins. You just happened to make a chicken ceviche, so to speak. (For food safety reasons, I wouldn't eat it as ceviche though, but cook as usual).


What is the correct timing when cooking spaghetti sauce from minced meat and prepared tomato sauce? First, after adding a little oil in the pot, when do I add the minced meat? Then how long do I leave it?

Also, when should I add the sauce? (I use a spaghetti sauce already prepared with all stuff in it.)

Finally: after I add the sauce, how long should I leave it before in the pot before I serve the minced meat sauce?

Add the meat when the oil is hot, then break it up with a spatula or wooden spoon. Cook it until it is completely browned. You may need to pour off quite a bit of liquid that comes out of the mince.

The jar of spaghetti sauce should tell you how long it needs to be cooked for.


How do I confit a Pork Neck I am wondering about how is the best way to confit a pork neck.

Is it best to confit a whole piece or should I chop it up before?
What kind of oil or fat should I use?
What is the correct temperature for the oil/fat?
What kind of spices and herbs should i use in the fat/oil?
How long should it be cooked?
Should it be seared in a pan before or after the confiting?

Your question is bordering on being too broad, there's no "best", or at least everyone's "best" will be different. Here's what I mean:

method 1: Says to bone the meat but keep it whole, brine it overnight, and then confit it in rapeseed oil (canola oil)
method 2: This one says to cut up the meat beforehand, dry rub it with spices and salt overnight, and then confit it in rendered lard

These two recipes differ in many points but both are valid. Cut it up or leave it whole - either. What fat to use - whatever you like. What temperature - varies. The only things where these two methods agree are:

Brine, marinade, or dry rub the pork overnight to improve flavor, tenderness, and juiciness
Confit for about 4 hours
No browning before starting the confit. I've never seen a confit method that says to brown before, some say brown after
Both call for removing the pork from the oil, cooling, wrapping it in plastic wrap, and then refrigerating it before re-heating it at a later point

So how to do the confit depends on the effect you want. If you want something to be easily and quickly served then cut it up before hand, you'll also use less fat overall. If you want something impressive to put on the table leave it whole with the bone in, then pull it apart with a fork. If you want a really rich confit then use lard, if you want it slightly less rich use a lighter oil. Usually you confit using the same fat as the meat or poultry, however in this case I'd personally go for a lighter oil rather than lard, but that's purely my opinion.


Is it normal for the colour of the cooked lentils to change overnight even when they were kept in fridge? Last night we cooked the lentils in a pressure cooker 20:00. They were on the kitchen shelf for about 3 hours before I put them in fridge.

I took them out in the morning at 9:30, and took them to office on scooter (It takes 30 minutes to reach office). Day time temperature here is 35 C.

Office has AC switched on. I opened the box of cooked lentils at 14:00 in the office and found colour of the lentils quite a pale green. That is not normal for properly freshly cooked lentils.

I stirred the lentil box with a spoon and found that the lentils below the surface were of normal green colour.

Is it normal for the colour of the cooked lentils to change overnight even when they were kept in fridge?

the color change you've observed is from oxidation. If you want to prevent this, lay some plastic wrap over the surface of your lentils to prevent air from getting to them, or add some acid, like lime juice, to the recipe.


Should I keep oil in the refrigerator after deep frying? We have a turkey fryer and want to know whether we should refrigerate the oil between uses. We have been refrigerating the oil but it takes up lots of room.

I've always stored my used peanut oil in my pantry. I'll strain the cooled oil back into the original container and put it on my shelf.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/ask-the-food-lab-how-many-times-can-i-reuse-fry-oil.html

Recommendation is a cool, dry place... Not a COLD dry place.


Fry onions and garlic before adding to the sauce? I am making a tomato sauce for pasta but I am not sure whether to put the garlic and onions into the sauce raw or to sauté them first?

What would be the difference in the taste, does one have more depth?

Sauteing onions:

Softens them, most people prefer not to run into raw onions in their sauce. Onions will cook in a sauce, but very slowly, so frying them before makes sure they will be soft even if your sauce has a fast cooking time
Releases sugars, making them taste sweeter
Reduces the onion's harshness
Browning the onions creates flavor

Sauteing garlic: garlic needs very little sauteing, far less than onion

Softens the garlic although it will cook in the sauce much faster than onion
Releases the flavors
Reduces harsh notes. The more you saute it the mellower the flavor but the less garlic-y it becomes. I often add garlic to my saute in 2 stages so I get both the mellowness and the edginess in my dish. It does mean adding more garlic overall, but it's worth it

So you get more depth of flavor, better flavor and texture sauteing them.


Picking through dried beans - many discoloured ones - moldy? I was picking through some dried white beans and found a lot of discoloured ones, way more than usual. They smell fine. Does this mean that they are old (best before date is a long way away) or just poor quality? They are organic beans.

I don't want to be eating beans with mold toxins.

The beans in your photo simply look old and/or low-quality (the farmer didn't pick out the bruised & marked ones).  They should cook fine, but they might not turn out as well as you'd like.  If you have another bag of beans you can use that's better quality, and time, I'd swap it in.  Or you could just pick out the discolored ones.

If you want to be really cautious, you could taste one of the discolored beans.  If it's actually moldy, you'll be able to taste it in the soaked, raw state; it will have a musty or cheesy flavor.


Can I safely eat uncooked raw chicken that has been in my freezer over a year? Can I safely eat raw uncooked chicken that has been in my freezer since April 2018 (over a year)?

Don't eat it raw.  However, while the quality has likely degraded, it can be cooked and eaten safely if it was handled properly before freezing, and has remained in the freezer since.


can I substitute greek yogurt for sour cream for a topping for baked cheesecake? can I substitute greek yogurt for sour cream for the topping on a baked cheesecake?

It's difficult to say without considering the details of a specific recipe.

Both items have a sour dairy flavor.  Obviously the two products often also taste different, because they may use different bacterial strains and temperatures in fermentation.  But if you are using them as an ingredient in a topping that has other strong flavors, the taste difference may not be that noticeable.

In general, the main difference is going to be the fat content.  Full-fat greek yogurt typically has about twice as much fat as regular milk, around 10%.  Sour cream generally has around 18-20% milkfat (though some varieties may be higher).

Aside from less richness in your topping, the lower fat content of the greek yogurt could impact the texture, perhaps making it more runny.  On the other hand, the thickness of greek yogurt is due to a higher protein content (rather than fat) which could also impact texture.  You might need to make adjustments in quantity and/or add thickeners or liquid to obtain a similar texture to what you normally expect.


Making black bread in a microwave oven I have received a few packs of dough mixture for German black bread from a friend (Vollkornbrot, black rye bread). All I have available to make it is a bread maker and a microwave oven (probably known as microwave "grill" function, works with actual heat, not microwaves, but is still no real oven). The bread maker is much too weak to move the heavy dough around, so I have to knead it by hand. That's not a problem though, but I have had very little success actually baking the bread using either the bread maker or the microwave oven.

Even after baking the final product remains very heavy and grows very little. There remain some very doughy pockets, which seem only half baked to me. I'm turning the oven almost as high as it goes (around 240℃, according to display) and tried baking the bread for a longer time. I also tried to make smaller rolls instead, with the same result.

Is it possible to make such heavy bread using such weak equipment? If so, what can I change to make it work? Or is the ready-made dough mixture simply no good?

As you probably know, volkornbrot and similar breads are designed to bake at a lower temperature for a longer time.  240 C sounds way too high to me.  150-180 C should be about right, and leave the bread in for a long time (up to 3 hours), until the loaf starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Even after this baking process, because the bread batter is much wetter than a standard bread, you should not slice or eat the bread until it has had time to cool and "rest," about 24 hours.  If you slice it right away, the heat and moisture escape and the inside is still doughy/raw. If you wait, the moisture will have time to distribute throughout the loaf and the inside will firm up.  Just be patient!  The benefit is that the loaf should last for a very long time wrapped in plastic, especially if you put the unused portion in the fridge.


Can somebody identify this tea? I was eating at my local Denny's and when you ask for tea, they give you some hot water and two of the below tea bags. On the menu it says "Hot Tea / Herbal Tea" but the tea bags only say Lipton and don't say what kind. I am hoping to identify what type of Lipton tea this is. I know the inside has a number on the bottom which didn't help me in Google.

The webadress "www.ufs.com" and the text "This unit not labeled for retail sale" tell you that this is the tea mix Unilever delivers to restaurants, senior homes etc. The rainforest alliance logo is used for coffee and black tea, so it's not herbal tea. (That the menu lists both, only means both are available, typically for the same price; without qualifier a server will always assume "tea" = "black tea".)

As this paper wrapper does not give details, you could ask your server (tip generously...!) for package details or check the ufs website. My gut feeling is that it's the standard Lipton black tea:

... or at least a very similar blend.


Good ideas for Tonka Beans My girlfriend loves the taste of Tonka beans, so I got her some for Christmas. We are however struggling to find that many recipes involving them, and the ones we have found seem to vary from saying use very little (i.e. 1 tsp of grated) to a whole bean.

Does anyone have any experience with Tonka beans and pointers for where some good recipes may be, or which foods they work best in?

Thanks

Here is some great background to the Tonka bean .  Try a few shavings in ice cream.


Why are sourdough crusts thicker? I'm used to the crust on sourdough bread being thick and chewy, but had always attributed that to the longer rise, and baking with steam, that one normally does with sourdough.  However, this week I made a hybrid sourdough* in my bread machine, and its crust was thicker, browner, and chewier than non-sourdough breads made in the same machine.  Since the baking cycle and atmosphere are the exact same as, say, last week's whole wheat loaf, it's not how it was baked.

So my question is: what is the physical or chemical property of sourdough starters that results in a heavier crust?

Note that while there are a number of questions on the board about sourdough crusts, all of them focus on manipulating the baking environment, and not on properties of the dough itself.

(* hybrid sourdough: some sourdough starter plus a little commercial yeast)

Here's a scientific breakdown:

Sourdough starter is the primary leavening agent in any sourdough, including your hybrid here. Technically, it's just water and flour. The flour already has all the yeasts and bacterial spores it needs to ferment, and the water activates the fermentation process via an enzyme called amylase.

The amylase breaks down the starch in the flour into sugars, which the yeast will metabolize, producing carbon dioxide gas. Anything in the sugars that the yeast can't eat will be fermented over time by the bacteria, producing more amylase and breaking down the sugars further so that the yeast can eat it. The bacteria creates lactic acid as a byproduct of this process, giving sourdough its unique "sour" flavor.

However, the same process that breaks down the sugars in sourdough starter can also break down the proteins in the dough. This gives you weaker gluten - or, a denser, chewier bread than what you'd obtain with only baker's yeast. On top of that, your bread is a hybrid, which means there's even more yeast in it than usual and even more leavening. More leavening, more enzyme production by the bacteria, more potential for protein breakdown.


When you wet or dry cure fish does all of the fat come out with the water? When you dry cure fish a lot of water comes out.  Does the water include all the fat from the fish or does that remain inside?

It should be mostly just water, very little fat. Water is released pretty easily, fat not so much, especially without grinding things up. Most fish isn't that fatty to begin with, anyway.

In any case, fat and water don't mix without help, so just look at the liquid. If there's fat there you'll see it floating on top. I'm guessing with fatty fish there might be enough for a thin shimmery layer on top, but I doubt you'll ever see very much.


Can you separate out the Gliadin from Gluten? When I looked this up, this is the information that is first presented to me-

Gliadin is a class of proteins present in wheat and several other cereals within the grass genus Triticum. Gliadins, which are a component of gluten, are essential for giving bread the ability to rise properly during baking.

Is there away to separate the two, so I can utilize the properties of gliadin without having to succumb to all of the components of gluten?

The difference between gluten and gliadin is the one already explained in your question: Gliadin is a precursor to gluten. You could say that gliadin is to gluten what grains are to porridge. Gluten is the result of glutenin reacting with gliadin in the presence of water, just like porridge is the result of grains "reacting" with milk in the presence of heat.

I don't understand why you are asking for separating them. It would be hard to do, and will achieve no good purpose.

First, I don't know if there is a way to extract the gliadin from wheat. There are industrial processes for extracting "gluten" out of wheat, but I don't know if they produce a mixture of glutenin and gliadin (which could be further purified) or if they already cause the glutenin and gliadin to bind a gluten. But note that the remaining flour will not be gluten-free, as these methods cannot extract every last molecule of glutenin and gliadin. So you cannot remove the glutenin from flour and stay with gliadin-containing flour.

Second, assuming that you can extract the gliadin, you can add it to some gluten free flour like cornflour. But there is absolutely no reason doing so. The definition you cited only says that gliadin is "essential" for rising, but not that it alone produces rising. It is the gluten itself that produces rising, and the gliadin is essential only because without it, there would be no gluten. Gliadin alone does not have any benefits.

Third, if you add gliadin to a gluten free flour, you will not have removed any of the problems inherent in using gluten. People who are allergic to gluten will still be allergic to the gliadin.

To sum it up, gliadin is a structural part of gluten, and if you can find a method to extract it without the glutenin, you will experience no benefits of baking with it, or prevent any undesired side effects like triggering allergies or celiac.


Why won't my cream biscuits rise? I am trying to make these "cream biscuits". However, they just will not rise (tried 4 times) and end up looking very flat.

I thought my problem was that I work the dough too much, but I tried it again and didn't touch the dough much but it still doesn't rise. I am using newly bought baking powder.

I am thinking the problem might be one of these reasons:

I used double cream instead of heavy cream because I am in
the UK and we have single/double but not "heavy cream". (I just
found out heavy cream is whipping cream in the UK)
The first batch was made with the full recipe and none of them
    rose, so I experimented by cutting everything by 1/4 and made 2
    biscuits at a time.

Why won't my biscuits rise? Are there any other possibilities?

The recipe is fine; if you follow it carefully it should work. Things you might mess up:

Baking powder isn't baking soda; make sure you have baking powder.
If you leave the dough alone for hours before baking, the baking powder will expend itself.
It's silly, but make sure you used a tablespoon of baking powder, not a teaspoon.

Working the dough longer won't help - if anything it'll make the biscuits tougher. And double cream is a bit more fat than heavy cream (see this question), but it shouldn't be a big deal.


Can tested yeast be used for anything? I tested my yeast using the method explained on this video: https://youtu.be/p8ydC1Of_Zw (go to 2:05 min)
Here is the method in case you can't access the video:
1) dissolve 1 tbsp of sugar in half a cup of warm water
2) add 2 and 1/4 tsp of dry yeast and stir
3) wait 10 min
4) if foam rises to 1 cup mark yeast is good. Otherwise it's not.

It turned out to be good.

I don't like to waste food or ingredients, so I was wondering: can I now use that mixture instead of yeast in any recipe that requires yeast? Can I use it in place of a sourdough starter maybe?

If yes, how can I best store it to save it for future recipes?

Thanks

You can certainly use it immediately in the place of yeast in a recipe - you basically have done a pre-activation of the yeast. This is a common part of many recipes.

You should also be able to store it in the fridge for at least a few days and then add it to a bread recipe without any problems. Yeast are quite hardy and will survive fairly well over that time.

You could also dry it down in parts onto sheets of foil, wrap them up and use them to inoculate a new mixture, you can then expand this mixture to propagate them indefinitely - free yeast!


Is it safe to boil frozen vacuum sealed chicken without thawing? Need to cook it fast and it's frozen. Can I place it in hot water with the pouch? Or is that dangerous because plastic particles get on it? What about if I use the microwave to thaw it with the pouch?

I mostly agree with moscafj's answer, but I do think that it needs to be qualified since we don't know what sort of plastic packaging the chicken is in.  A lot of vacuum packaging for food is perfectly safe to put in warm or even mildly hot water, but some types of plastics will begin to degrade if heated too much.  Most food-grade plastics aren't going to be a safety concern in terms of leaching chemicals, but I still wouldn't heat food in a plastic bag to boiling without knowing the type of plastic and whether it was designed for that type of heating.  More likely, it might begin to degrade and fall apart/rupture.

As moscafj said, sous vide is the best option, assuming your plastic is good for that type of long-term heating.

If you don't have a sous vide circulator, I'd too recommend thawing, but you could perhaps use a variant of what you intended to do to quick-thaw your chicken.  I know the link in the other answer is critical of the "hot water thaw" method, but it is perfectly safe for relatively thin foods if monitored and is probably the best quick-thaw method, achieving much better food quality than microwaving.  Food scientist Harold McGee has advocated it with the approval of studies done on safety by the USDA, and Cook's Illustrated has approved it as well.

Basically, put your sealed chicken in hot tap water, or water heated to around 125-140F.  It will probably thaw in 5-30 minutes, depending on thickness, and then you'll be able to remove it from the packaging and cook it as you usually would with little quality degradation.  (Again, note that this method is NOT for foods that are very thick, as they will take too long to thaw and could risk bad bacterial growth.  If your chicken is more than a couple inches thick, another method for thawing would be better.)  Note also that (1) you need to monitor the chicken, not just leave it in the hot water for long periods of time, and (2) you should cook the chicken immediately after it thaws.

I usually use this method only for foods I can easily thaw within 20-30 minutes, but I definitely wouldn't go for more than an hour in an uncontrolled water bath before cooking the meat.  In any case, a hot water bath is usually the fastest way to defrost frozen meat, then allowing you to cook it normally.


How can I cook the perfect potato for a potato salad? I have never managed to cook the perfect potato when making a potato salad.

The potato tends to either be too mushy or it is too crunchy depending on if I over cook or under cook. I never seem to be able to find the perfect balance.

How can I cook the perfect potato?

First, potato is not the same as potato. Conventionally, potato salad is always made with waxy potatoes, because mealy potatoes' outer layers disintegrate when tossed with the sauce, much like making risotto. They are also less creamy in texture. But there is also the school of using mealy potatoes, because they absorb more seasoning, and also because some people like the soft texture. If you decide to go with mealy, use an acid in the cooking water (depending on your seasoning, choose vinegar, citric acid, or the neutral tasting cream of tartar). This will firm the potatoes. It isn't necessary for waxy potatoes.

Second, the cooking time depends strongly on size. You must cut them very evenly. Else you will have both undercooked and overcooked potatoes in the pot at any given moment (up to the time when you only have overcooked ones). Smaller pieces are easier to work with.

Third, you want to heat them as gently as possible. Start them in cold water, and cook them at a simmer, not at a boil.

There is no way to predict when the potatoes will be ready. Even if you cut them to the same size every time, the sort and the age of the potatoes will result in varying cooking times. When the time is near, you must look after them and try them constantly. Take out a piece, cut it in half, cool it in cold water, and chomp on the exact center. If it isn't crunchy, stop the cooking immediately and remove the water. The time window in which they are just right is quite short. Season them while they are hot, they will then absorb the sauce instead of just swimming in it the way cold potatoes do.


Why is my masa mushy? When I steam my tamales, the masa becomes mushy. What am I doing wrong and how can I prevent this?

I know this thread is way old but I did just find it It took me years to figure out that it was my meat filling that was too wet, making my tamales take forever to steam.


Resting meat - room temperature and bacteria Many cooks/chefs recommend resting meat. There's a saying of "rest for the same length of time it was cooked".
For steaks this is fine, a 6 or so min cooking time means 6 mins at room temp is okay. But what about a full chicken or turkey? Depending on the size, they're cooked for 2-3 hours or more. Surely it's not safe to let those sit at room temperature for 2-3 hours?
It could rest at room temperature, for example, one hour, then the remaining time in the fridge, but this makes the meat cold, and in fact loses the "freshly cooked" essence to a degree.
So if you want to rest a chicken or turkey for the 3 hours of cooking time, must half of that be in the fridge to avoid bacteria growth? Or is there a better way than the fridge which seems to make chicken/turkey a little tougher after it's been cooled?

There is a rule of thumb

This is not the full story

A cooked turkey should be at 72C. When you take it out of the oven it will start cooling down. As it cools into the 40s bacteria will have good conditions to grow. The turkey is sterile because of cooking but bacteria can attach to exposed surfaces. Cutting the turkey will expose more, and probably your hands will spread bacteria.
It follows that a whole turkey is safer, especially if it is covered, since the inside of the bird will have no bacteria, only the outside.
So the 2 hour rule, which states a turkey rested for 3 hours must be eaten and not refrigerated is not really a one size fits all fact. But it's a rule of thumb when you don't have a lab and culture tests. Ignoring such rules is at your own risk but you can use common sense.
At home you might happily rest a turkey for 3 hours but in a commercial setting this could violate local laws if you kept the leftovers and someone got sick, you wouldn't have a defence and could be criminally liable for failing to follow defined rules. Most commercial health and safety rules err on the side of being more conservative than is necessary, because a dry turkey is better than people getting sick and suing you. Remember that bacteriology is about numbers and we might talk about 6.5D reductions (10^6.5) and McDonalds might use a higher level, and an expensive restaurant is almost certainly on a lower level as shown by many food poisoning cases in fancy restaurants. That's because McDonalds have a huge number of customers so even 1 in 10 million getting sick might be too much for their lawyers, whereas if you are cooking at home then you won't even eat that many meals in your whole life, so probably follow less stringent standards and get sick rarely.


How to keep thin sponge bases moist? I enjoy making multi layered sponge cakes (specifically chiffon sponge), but I find that when cooking a much thinner base than for a normal sponge (around 1cm height), I am faced with a decision of having an undercooked sponge or having one that is perfect in the middle but a bit crunchy around the edges.

Is there anything I can do to make sure that I get the same moistness in smaller bases as I do in larger ones?

Is there a reason you're not just baking a standard thickness and splitting it into layers?  This is going to give you more control.

If you have troubles moving the layers without breaking them, have a piece of cardboard handy (traditionally a cardboard cake round would be used by any would work) and after cutting the cake horizontally, lift up the edge of the top piece to slide the cardboard under and then proceed to push it all the way under the top layer before carefully removing the layer.  Proceed with the next layer.

If they cake is a bit dry but not crunchy, moisten the cut surface by brushing with simple syrup on its own if you don't want any added flavor, or add a bit of a complementary-flavored liqueur to the syrup before moistening.


Letting wine reduce before braising I've seen recipes for braising (sorry no sources available) that instruct you to deglaze with wine then let it reduce by about half. After the wine has reduced, the next steps are to add in stock, more wine and aromatics, let it come to a simmer on the stove then pop it in the oven to braise.

I'm curious why let the wine you deglaze with reduce if you are going to be adding more wine in before putting it in the oven? This makes no sense to me.

Just a question of flavor layers.

Reducing the wine after deglazing will create some deeper flavoring.

It will remove some of the wine's acidity and concentrate the flavor that will complement the stock and wine that will be added later on in the recipe.


What kind of bread lasts long? My aunt lives in Venezuela. They don't have basics like bread or meat. I have been mailing her food like crackers and canned meat. I want to mail her some type of bread. I don't know what kind would last the longest.

The classic "long-lasting bread" is rather like a very hard cracker - ship's bread or pilot bread. Otherwise flour and yeast (add water and bake after it arrives) would be more suitable.

At some point when I had been reading too much old sailing tales I made some ship's bread - it's about as awful as the tales tell, once aged a bit (it was fairly edible, though fairly dense, when fresh, actually.) The commercially produced "pilot bread" is a bit more friendly for eating.


Baking soda accident in pretzel dough - Can it be salvaged? I made a mistake and put the baking soda in the pretzel dough! Instead of using it for its intended purpose ( Boiling the pretzel dough in it before baking.) It was a box mix: Pretzel Creations Homemade baking mix.

Should I just toss it or is it going to be okay? Is there any way to counter act the baking soda. It is still in a dough ball. The packets were not marked and I thought the baking soda was the yeast package.

I made this same mistake because I didn't read the directions all the way through.  After realizing what I had done, I did a search and came across this post.  Since I didn't see a response about going ahead and baking anyways, I decided might as well.... I can report back:

WORST. PRETZELS. EVER.

They were extremely bitter and performed terribly in the oven. I cannot describe how bitter they turned out, but compare it to how bitter bitter melon is, douse it in kerosene, light on fire, then put that fire out with baking soda and there you have it.

=€


Does chopping steak negate the benefit of using better meat? A sub shop I liked to go to in college offered two kinds of cheesesteak: the "'regular' cheese steak sub" and the "Filet Mignon steak sub." The only difference between the two was the cut of meat used, with the filet being both better and more expensive.

I once went there for lunch with a friend and tried to order the filet sub. My friend stopped me, saying that there was no reason to spend the extra few bucks and that I should just get the regular. I don't remember his exact explanation why anymore, but it had to do with the cheesesteak preparation process, which involves chopping the meat up into very small pieces. I think he said that the breakup of connective tissue negated the advantage of using the filet.

Was my friend right? If so, why?

If it's a properly done cheese steak, and it's not sliced in the same direction as the grain of the meat, he's probably right.

It's quite possible that a cheaper cut of meat would have a "beefier" flavor, just because many of the tougher cuts of meat tend to be more flavorful, partially because of the fat content.

All of that being said, it's really a matter of personal preference.  Some of of the places near me use the equivalent of "steak-ums" and not everyone's a fan of the texture.   If you want to find out if it's worth it for you, get a few friends together, order two subs with the same toppings, one with the upgraded meat, one without, and do a taste test.  (and if you can, get one person to order it and label the packages, then hand off to someone else to portion it out, so it's at least closer to double blind, particularly if they use two different labeling schemes)

update : Unlike chicken, beef doesn't have the obvious distinctions between light & dark meat; the normal rule is that the further from the hoof and horn it is, the less that muscle group has worked, and thus the more tender it is ... but as with chicken meat, it's the working muscles that tend to be more flavorful (although tougher cuts).  And as with chicken, it's the fattier meat that has more flavor.

Some cuts of beef have the grain run in one direction -- because of this, we can cut the meat across the grain, which tenderizes it.  It can be done before cooking, as with philly cheesesteaks, or afterwards, as is done with fajitas.  Common cuts used for this sort of treatment are flank steak and skirt steak, which may be difficult to find in all grocery stores as so much seems to be diverted for restaurants.

Besides cutting, other aspects of processing (eg, aging) can affect how 'beefy' the meat is.


How to (cheaply) grind wheat berries for home bread making? I've never made wheat flour before, though I bake bread regularly. I'm considering using my KitchenAid blender to grind my hard white wheat berries, but am worried I would harm the blender. I use about 7 cups of flour per week, so hand-milling might be too labor-intensive. Is there a good way I could try out homemade flour without investing in an expensive grinding device? If not, what grinding device is recommended for home use?
As a bonus, I'd like to use the device for occasionally grinding chicken feed...

You can get a carona mill for under $50.  It looks like this:

But you are likely going to work pretty hard, and have to do plenty of sifting. I have one and it is fairly inconsistent, as the plates and mechanism are hard to dial in, and have a tendency to loosen. It is good enough to get you started with some experiments, though.


What vegetable might be called a Worchester? When I was young, my parents would put a vegetable in our stir fry that they called a Worchester. I recently found out that this doesn't actually exist so I've been trying to determine what they were feeding me. My girlfriend thinks they might have been a variety of radish.

I unfortunately don't remember the raw vegetable, by when stir fried it was a white disc about the size of a quarter. It had a very uniform size and color, there was no core like you would see in a parsnip. They were a little crunchy, like a raw apple. The taste was quite unique, I can't compare it to anything, but it was a very mild flavour.

Any ideas what they were?

Sounds like sliced water chestnuts to me, especially with the name similarity.


Does Kombucha Tea spoil if left outside of refrigeration? I accidentally left an unopened bottle of GT Kombucha tea outside the refrigerator. Discovered it the next day... It was in my basement, thus cool and out of sunlight. No where on the bottle, could I find where it says to "keep refrigerated" OR "refrigerate after opening"--although it is refrigerated in the store. and this is also how I keep it.   Does anyone know if this bottle would still be safe to drink?  Especially if it tastes and smells normal?

Seems as if it must be kept refrigerated. First I found that it ships refrigerated and has a somewhat short shelf life. Then, I found a picture of the label and it clearly states 'KEEP REFRIGERATED. - DO NOT SHAKE.'

Here's a link to the Amazon page where you can see a pic of the label.


What types of sauces would pair well with boiled pork knuckles? I'm going to be boiling some pork knuckles. What type of sauce would be a good pairing?

I am guessing that because pork knuckles are fatty, the sauce should tend to be sour or pepper-ish to balance out the fatty taste?

One traditional accompaniment for pork is apple sauce. This follows the convention that a fruity sauce cuts through the fattiness of meat - duck a l'orange is another example.

Apple sauce is easy to make - just taking a cooking apple, chop it up, stew it down with a little water, then stir in some sugar and butter to taste.


How close are store bought broths and stocks to the real thing? Many of the sauces I wish to make require broth or stock. I quite fear the preparation which requires lengthy cooking and dedicating more precious storage space for the finished ingredient. Is using store bought broth or stock a good alternative? How close does it come to the real thing?

There's a great deal of variation in the quality of the pre-made stocks you get from different sources, so there's no clear-cut answer. Here's the types you might find:

Stock cubes: these are dehydrated stock, or sometimes just chemicals meant to taste like it. It's the lowest quality option. There's a lot of variation here, I've found some brands (knorr for example) to be better than many others, but still not close to the real thing. I rarely use these
Stock powders: similar to cubes these are loose rather than cubed powder stocks. The advantage of them over cubes is they dissolve much faster
Gels: these are more recent, they are super-concentrated stocks in a gel format. They come in little mini tubs, you peel the lid off and squeeze/spoon the contents out. I'm not sure these have made it over the pond to the US yet. They are IMO much better than cubes or powders and closer to the real thing, and I use them more often than any other alternative
Canned/bagged stock: Most of the time these are concentrated, there's a lot of variation in quality between brands. They have a long shelf life, and don't require refrigeration
Fresh stock: you can sometimes find fresh stocks in the refrigerator section of the supermarket, or at a butcher/specialist food store. These are the best alternative but can be expensive

Personally I rarely make stock, and when I do I use it right away. When I need to strengthen the flavor of a broth, or I need stock I use knorr stockpots (one of the concentrated gel products), or if I only need a little flavor, I spoon of powder. There are a few cubes rattling around my cupboards for emergencies too.


Frying fish without it falling to shambles How on earth do I pan fry fish without it turning to hell?

For the fish:
Stainless steel pan
Oil heated until it sizzles when droplets of water are thrown in
Plain fish, skin side down first
Try and flip, it falls apart...

Any advice on this?

Fish is just so darned delicate and has so much protein. It sticks to everything and falls apart.

If I want my fish filet to stay whole I will do one of the following:

1- Use a higher fat fish that will hold together such as salmon or tuna
 2- Poach the fish instead of frying
 3- Use a teflon pan and don't try and get up to searing temps. I only use teflon pans for eggs and fish.

I suppose another alternative is to use enough oil that you are essentially deep frying the fish but I don't like it.


How do I know if a food or recipe can be made in a microwave oven? We've got a lot of questions about specific microwave cooking here - for example, "can I cook hamburgers in the microwave oven?" But rather than asking about specific foods, I would like to see some more general guidelines or widely applicable advice.

If I want to prepare a recipe or just cook a single item, how can I predict how it will turn out if I nuke it in the microwave instead of doing what the original recipe calls for (steaming, grilling, etc.)? Do some cooking methods work better than others in a microwave? And if some ingredients cook better than others in a microwave, why is that the case?

I'm looking for answers that don't rely on complicated techniques or specialized equipment. Making a cake using compressed gas, for instance, might be interesting or cool to watch, but is really not what I'm after in this question. I'm talking about being able to just pop something in, maybe adjust the power level, and go.

Assumptions:

A normal microwave - no convection or other exotic features.
Home use, not professional cooking - "good enough" rather than "the best possible tool for the job." For example, some food might be best if reheated in an oven, but still just fine in the microwave.
Basic tasks, not replacing a kitchen - generally, "I want to cook X, and I have a stove, an oven, and a microwave. Could I just as easily do it in the microwave as anything else?"

Microwaves in general provide all-around, not too powerful heat. Very roughly, this means it's kinda like cooking on a low-powered stove, except the heat comes from all directions, not just below. (And depending on the microwave, it might heat a good bit less from below.) The things that work are therefore the things that work with relatively gentle, constant, extended heating. This translates approximately into the following traditional cooking methods:

Steaming. If there's not a whole lot of liquid, and there's some empty space for steam to move around in, this is what you'll get. For example, a covered bowl of vegetables (maybe with a little extra water), or even fish on a plate covered with plastic wrap, will come out about like if you steamed it.
Heating, simmering, boiling. If you've got a more substantial mass of food, you'll get something on the continuum between these three, depending on how much of it there is, what power you set your microwave to, and how long you cook it. This means you can do anything from melting butter (carefully) to cooking oatmeal to boiling noodles. (And along with that, you get the canonical use: reheating food.)
Dehydrating. This is a bit of a corner case, but if there's relatively little water in something to begin with, and it can escape easily, the heating will dry the food out substantially - this allows things like dehydrating herbs or even microwave jerky.

And the things you can't do? Anything that requires high heat, especially dry heat, anything where you'd expect the food to brown or get crispy. Roasting, broiling, pan-frying, and so on - the heat from the microwave just isn't going to accomplish it. And on top of this, anything where the cooking time really matters is a bad idea. Even if the microwave might eventually get it hot enough, it's going to take a bit to get there, so if you're looking to quickly cook something in an already hot pan then take it out, it's not going to work. Yes, there are complex ways to work around some of this (for example the herb-frying Brendan mentioned) but as far as what's straightforward to do, you'll want to avoid all these things; they're easier to do the normal way.