Why are my metal tools scraping off the patina of my wok? Here's a picture of my wok and the scratches on the patina I seem to be making when I clean it with my metal spatula and my bamboo brush.  I've only used it about 4 times, but the food seems to stick to it a little more each time and this time, it was pretty tough to get the sauce off of the wok.

Why is this this happening?

Is there something wrong with the way I seasoned my work?  I've been using vegetable oil over medium heat for 10 minutes and then repeating that 2-4 times after cleaning.  Tonight I tried crisco for the first time.
Am I only supposed to use metal and bamboo brushes on it after I've used it for a few months?
Are these scrapes normal and unrelated to why my sauces are sticking to the bottom?

For reference, here's the only 2 recipes I've used on my wok.  Perhaps they're too vinegary to be used this soon?

Beef and Broccoli
Kung Pao Chicken

It can take years to build up a strong patina, and to smooth off your tools so they don't dig in

Relax, just wash it with a plastic scourer (3M green type), oil it and heat it up on your burner (tilt the wok to reach the high sides)

The damage seems mainly in the 'off' zone, so it shouldn't effect your cooking process too much

The main issue is that most woks are cheaply made, and not hand beaten, but 'metal spun', and have concentric groves which catch the tools. Not much you can do about it, and not worth worrying about


Is it possible to have a good crust without prebaking a quiche? I'm planning on making a quiche (Lorraine with leek to be exact) and I was looking up recipes for quiches. Most recipes call for blind-baking the crust in advance (or at least partly), but some skip this step and pour the filling in the raw dough and bake it like that.

I think blind-baking would prevent the dough from getting soggy since the filling is quite liquid. The other recipes look nice (judging on the picture), but won't the dough be soggy?
Or should you put the temperature lower and the time higher so the liquid can evaporate?

Does it matter whether you blind-bake your crust for a quiche? Or does it mainly depend on the type of dough (puff, shortcrust...)? Or on the amount of liquid or type of veggie/meat (precooked)? Any other factors that I don't think of?

In the normal cooking time of a quiche (20 to 30 minutes), the crust doesn't really get soggy from the filling, even if it is quite liquid, as is expected for quiche Lorraine. So, you can without problem cook your quiche without first blind-baking the crust. The difference will be in the crispness of the crust: if you try to get it crispy, you should prebake, if you don't mind it being rather, well, “plain”, you don't.

The only real reason for me to blind-bake a crust is when you put something on it that won't be cooked (tartelettes), that will only get grilled or that will be baked less that it would require to bake the crust (meringue tart). Most of these examples are fruit tarts, however.


Energy usage of an oven Does it take more energy to heat an oven to 350 degrees from cold or to leave it at 350 degrees for one hour?

I will assume that your question is really "My oven is at 350 degrees, but I won't need it for another hour. Should I leave it on for the hour, or turn it off and then back on when I actually need it?". (This is more physics than cooking, but since you asked the question here, and I like physics...)

The answer is that you will use the least total energy if you turn your oven off, and then reheat it back to 350° at the last minute. Here's why.

If the oven temperature is 350° at the beginning and end of the hour, then the only thing the heating element needs to do during the hour is to replace the heat lost through the walls and insulation of the oven. The higher the oven temperature, the faster heat leaks, so having a lower average temperature (as it cools off during the hour) will reduce the heat leakage, and thus reduce the energy.

Calculating exactly how much energy you'd save by doing this would be pretty complex, although my guess is the answer would be "not all that much, electricity-cost-wise".

Edit (to add way too much information on this not-all-that-important topic, but as I said I like physics):

Think of your oven as a bucket with a small hole at the bottom. Fill the bucket with water (heat the oven) and the water (heat) will leak out the hole (insulation, door, etc). The deeper the water (higher the temperature), the faster the leak (rate of heat loss).

Say the bucket is full, and you need to have the bucket full at the end of one hour. Since you want to save water (heat/electricity), do you want to keep adding water to keep the bucket full (leave the oven on), or stop (turn the oven off) and refill it at the end of the hour (turn the oven back on)?

The key is the leaking water: whatever amount leaks is exactly what you'll have to put back into the bucket. So, the less that leaks, the less you have to put in. Since the lower the water level, the less that leaks per time; keeping the bucket full (leaving the oven on) will always leak more total water (heat/electricity) than if you let the bucket drain and then refill it (turn the oven off, and then on at the end of the hour).

The size of the leak (how good the insulation is), and the size of the bucket (how much heat mass the oven has) will affect how much water (electricity) you save, but in the end you will always save at least some water (electricity) by stopping and then refilling at the end of the hour (turning the oven off, and then on).

(OK, I'm done.)


What can a half-ripe jackfruit be used for? We got a (fresh) jackfruit that was not so ripe... somewhat bland, not very tender and not enjoyable.

My question is: What should I cook with it?

I cooked it like I would a green jackfruit, but since it is somewhat ripe I figure I should treat it differently? I've cooked with canned green jackfruit before, but never as in this situation. I was planning a curry for the boiled seeds. I have no idea what to do with this boiled, half-ripe fruit!

You can make chips and halwa from half-ripe/ripe jack fruit,its famous snack in Indian states
 Even though the process of making chips is time consuming,the taste is explainable First step is to open the raw fruit then chop off the middle stem and pull out the the jack fruit ,then deseed it and slice into thin slices

Ingredients for chips.

Jack fruit- 1 medium size

Oil- 1kg

Salt-to taste

Method of preparation

· Remove fleshy part of Jack fruit from the seeds and slice them into long strips.
· Deep fry in oil.
· Sprinkle some salt water in the oil
· Deep fry till it turns yellow and crisp
· When the chips are done keep the fried chips In an air tight container

For jackfruit halwa :

Ingredients for Halwa

Half Ripe jack fruit- 1 medium size

Jaggery-1 kg

Ghee-1 cup

Cardamom powder-1 tbs

Dried ginger powder-1 tsp

Sugar-2 tbs(for sprinkling on the top when Halwa is done.)

Method of preparation.

· Clean and deseed the jack fruit.
· Grind them coarsely using a mixer grinder
· Heat jaggery along with 1/2 cup water to form a syrup.Strain the syrup for impurities and keep aside
· Heat a thick bottomed vessel(usually uruli, but anything would do) add ¼ cup ghee, and the jack fruit paste along with the jaggery syrup and cook on medium heat , stirring continuously. Do not increase the heat,to prevent it from sticking to the vessel. Add 1 tsp of ghee,whenever it starts to stick probably in every 15 minutes. …(Use a long handled ladle with a flat end so that our hands will be safe from the hot splutters, when the pulp boils and bubbles over ). Continue the process,until it turns dark brown colored and starts to come from the edges ,Add cardamom powder and dry ginger powder and stir for some more time to get thick and tight Halwa.
Transfer the Halwa into a plate and mark with a knife to our desired shape. Sprinkle sugar over it and Allow it to cool naturally
After cooling take out the Halwa and keep it in an airtight container.

Cook Time

Prep time: 30 min

Cook time: 1 hour 30 min

Ready in: 2 hours

Yields: 2kg

Hope it helps.


Is a boxed-mix cake sturdy enough to construct a sphere? I am going to attempt to make a (roughly) spherical cake. The plan is bake two hemispheres, then put them together into a sphere. However, I'm rather concerned about the stability of the cake.

I would prefer to use a boxed mix (to keep the overall preparation simpler) -- but I don't think that "moist" and "fluffy" cake is going to be able to hold itself up in a bowl shape \_/ let alone support another cake set on top of it.

Is there a way to stablize or "firm up" a boxed mix to make a denser cake, or should I look for a from-scratch recipe that's intended for sculpture or building?

There are a number of ways to increase the density of a box-cake mix.  Add the number of eggs in the direction, but add two extra egg yolks. Instead of the water, use the same amount of whole milk.

Another method is to add a package of instant pudding, and many mixes have a recipe for this right on the box. To each box mix, use a 3.4 ounce package of instant pudding, 4 eggs, 1 cup water (or milk) and reduce the amount of vegetable oil to 1/3 cup.

And one I found years ago, who posts on Cake Central as doreen1092, offered this: to each box cake mix, add 1/2 cup sour cream, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, and 8 ounces cream cheese. I beat the cream cheese, then add the eggs and sugar, the sour cream and, lastly, the mix.


How can I get sweet potato skin to caramelize without baking? I love sweet potatoes, and cooking them in the microwave for 8 minutes is much faster than waiting an hour or more for them to bake. But when I microwave them, the skin doesn't caramelize like it does in the oven.

I tried using a kitchen torch on the skin after microwaving, but it started to look more burnt than caramelized.

How can I get the skin to caramelize when cooking a sweet potato in the microwave?

A microwave with a grill (broiler) element does this. You need to turn the sweet potatoes over a couple of times to get reasonably even coverage. Better still is a microwave with a combination microwave and convection mode (but these aren't cheap).

If you don't have such a microwave, you can try preheating your grill while the potatoes are cooking and finishing them off there.


Will potatoes turn brown / gray in oil? When I was a fry cook we made fresh fries and kept them in a bucket of water to keep them from turning brown (not sure if that's oxidation or what), will oil inhibit the same chemical reaction?

I plan on coating the potato wedges in (canola) oil and seasonings, then broiling them, that's why I was thinking pre-marinating might be advantageous.

Yes, it's oxidation, so yes, oil will stop it happening. However, broiling the potatoes straight from the oil will not yield very good results. You are much better off par-boiling them for 3 or 4 minutes, draining them, leaving them to steam and dry out for a few minutes, then coating them in oil and seasoning, and baking them for 30-45 mins. This will yield a nice, crispy-on-the-outside-fluffy-on-the-inside result.

So, if you're boiling them you might as well put them straight in the water you're going to use to do that.


Slime in Fermented Pickle brine I have pickles that have been fermenting for 3 weeks now, which in my experience is the ideal length of time.  When I checked on them,  there is mucousy slime in the brine.  There's no unpleasant smell, and the pickles are crunchy and taste like pickles. There is some yeast on the top of the brine,  but this is something I've seen fairly frequently.
Can anyone identify this slime,  and confirm if these pickles are safe to eat?

On its page, White Film On Cultured Vegetables, Cultures for Health identifies kahm yeast as the probable culprit. Many reference sites indicate that the food is safe to eat as long as mold is not present. The yeast film should be removed as it may affect the flavor of the food and it may adversely affect digestion.
Kahm yeast formation can occur because:

The batch is insufficiently acidic
There is not enough salt in the brine
The culturing temperature is too warm
The batch is over-exposed to oxygen
Good hygiene was not observed during preparation

You should be able to avoid kahm yeast formation in the future by following good lacto-fermentation procedures.


How to organize a walk-in fridge for a mid-size kitchen? I have worked in two kitchens which served about 50-75 clients a day. Each had a walk-in fridge that was about 8 feet square with metal racks, and neither had thought much about the organization of the space. For instance, they both tried FIFO, but always had difficulties keeping it straight between the cooks. Are there any ingenious organizational strategies you've encountered for fridges of this size?

It really depends on what you're keeping in the fridge.
In my Navy days, we basically had areas for different type of products, which were organized differently.

What we used to do was more or less this:

Vegetables: This is more or less per vegetable, but worked for us. For instance the carton of tomatoes or cucumbers next in line was on a middle shelf, next to all the other vegetables next in line for their type. The other cartons were stored right at the bottom of the rack, basically on the floor. Once a carton was finished a new one was moved up in its place.
Peeled vegetables: We occasionally peeled enough potatoes (or carrots, or onions) for 2-3 days. In this case, the potatoes were stored in a kind of bin with water. Unpeeled potatoes were in sacks in the back of the fridge. Once the peeled bin was empty, we'd change the water and peel more potatoes.
Meat: Most meat was in the freezer for reasons which are obvious once you're carrying supplies for more than a few days. However, every afternoon the next day's meat was moved into the fridge for defrosting. It had it's own cabinet in the fridge on one side.
Dairy: Dairy products usually came in trays for us, and there were never too many of them as we were a 100 person galley. These are generally light enough so that when a new shipment arrives, you can just lift the old things and place the new ones under them. At worst, you take the old stuff out, put the new in, and then put the old back in on top.
Prepared dishes: Sometimes we'd make a coleslaw or something in the morning to serve for lunch. Obviously, it needs to be refrigerated during the wait. These things had their own shelf, and were put there until needed. We'd only ever have those for the next meal, though, so not much of a queueing issue.
Special items: Anything that was particularly special (rare or expensive) was kept in a 3foot cubed locked cabinet in the fridge, where prying hands couldn't reach. Hopefully, that's not a concern for you.

That's it. The only other adivce I have is to use big (gallon, half-gallon) modular boxes that stack well, if you need to keep a lot of prepared things.


Is ground beef that was in the refrigerator for two weeks and has turned brown still usable? I bought some ground beef around 2 weeks ago and used half of it, putting the rest in a freezer bag in my fridge (not the freezer).  It has since turned brown (not red, as when I bought it).

Is it safe to use to make hamburgers?

First, do not eat that. Regardless what color the beef is, two weeks is entirely too long to refrigerate ground beef. It is unsafe and should be thrown out. Raw ground beef only keeps in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.

Ignoring storage time, regarding color, brown meat is as safe to eat as red meat. As others have indicated it is simply oxidation occurring. Many grocery stores, at least in the USA, [used to?] blast and wrap their meats with carbon monoxide which imparts a bright pink color that lasts well beyond the shelf life of the meat. If you freeze hamburger or steak for a few months there's a good chance it will come out much browner than when you put it in. This is because some oxidation still occurs in the freezer, unless you hermetically sealed it somehow. Similarly, as long as you're within the 3-4 month freezer period for ground beef, you're OK.


What kind of frosting has similar texture to the major grocery brands? I have a frosting conundrum. I like the texture of the major brands of frosting one might buy in a grocery store, like Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker or similar.

Specifically, I like that the frosting is dense and becomes a bit stiff as it sets, while retaining moistness underneath the outer layer that is exposed to the air.

Although I haven't often made frosting myself, I have tried several different types made by others, including buttercream frosting, cream cheese frosting, whipped cream frosting, and meringue, but they never seem to come close to the texture I like (as described above). So what kind of frosting should I be looking for to get that texture?

It would be a nice bonus to know what ingredients or preparation methods account for that texture, so I can look at a frosting recipe and make a good guess about whether it'll give me the kind of thing I want.

It sounds like you might be happy with Wilton Buttercream ... which is mostly whipped shortening and powdered sugar.  I don't have the recipe on me right now, but I did post a variation of the recipe to a related question a few years ago:  https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/4869/67

Depending on how soft you make it (how much water you add) and how humid it is, after a bit of drying, it'll form a crust that you can use to your advantage (lay on some waxed paper, then press out any ridges).  You can then cover it so it won't dry out too much.

The important part of the process is a stand mixer, so you can leave it mixing for a really long time.


Temperature of Electric Fan Ovens In an electric fan oven when cooking a specific recipe at a given temperature should that oven reach that temperature given the 20deg. difference between that and a conventional oven? I bought an oven thermometer placed it in the Fan oven and
set the oven at 170deg C. the thermometer only reached 140deg. C. is my oven faulty?

So now you have the oven thermostat saying one thing and a thermometer saying something else. As other answers have said, that could be because you didn't wait long enough for the oven to heat evenly, or that the thermometer is not in a good location. If neither of those applies, the only conclusion you can draw is that one of them is wrong. In order to conclude that the oven is off, you need at least two thermometers. Of course, if you do that, you may find that all three disagree.


How do I reheat a casserole in the microwave? Would someone please tell me how long and at what power I should reheat a casserole or other pasta dish that has already been cooked?  Thank you.

There is no single way to answer this because:

Microwaves vary widely in power
The starting temperature of the casserole may vary
Casseroles vary in shape, size, thickness, and composition

and all of these factors will affect the time.

It is far from ideal to heat a full sized casserole in the microwave in any case; you would be better off using a conventional oven, as it will not have problems with hotspots.  Microwaves do much better with good that can be stirred to even out the heating, and this would be at the very least, aesthetically displeasing with most casseroles.

I would recommend starting with about 50% power (for a 1000+ watt microwave, higher for models with less power) to allow some time for the heat to conduct through the casserole.  Check regularly with an instant read thermometer until reads about 150 F at several spots.

It is likely to be unevenly reheated, since you are not stirring.  This is the downside of using a microwave.  Allowing it to stand for 10 minutes or so before service will help even it out.

The other downside is that microwaving to reheat will do nothing good for crispiness, browning, or texture, but that is not unique to casseroles.


Avoiding clumps in cacio e pepe? I've been trying to make a very basic three-ingredient cacio e pepe over the last few days and have found it difficult to create a smooth, creamy sauce.

I'm using only two cups of microplane-grated pecorino romano cheese, a handful of spaghetti, and crushed black pepper. Salt in the pasta water, too, of course.

I've tried it two ways and gotten varying results:

Cooking the pasta shallow water in a wide pan to concentrate the starch. Then, drain, lower the heat and add the pasta back in with a few ladles of water and adding the cheese gradually, tossing stirring violently with a wooden spoon.
Add some of the pasta water to the cheese in a separate bowl a few minutes before the pasta finishes cooking. Whisk the pasta water and cheese into a paste, then add the finished pasta to it with some extra water and, again, stir like crazy.

Neither seems to work very well, though my best results so far came from (1), but I'm quite convinced it was luck. What might I be doing wrong or overcomplicating? Everything I see on the Internet says it should be "very easy", but the lack of videos showing this recipe has made it difficult to learn. The videos I have seen use a lot of olive oil and butter, which I'm told is absolutely not traditional or okay.

Achieving a creamy sauce for cacio e pepe, and dishes like it (carbonara comes to mind) is not as straight forward as some would have you think. Fortunately, while we strive for the perfect emulsification, those attempts that don't exactly work are still delicious.

Here are some tips:
(1) Make sure your cheese is grated as finely as possible, and that it is at room temperature or warmer.  A microplane is perfect.

(2) The water you add can't be too hot.  Scoop some pasta water out halfway through the cooking process, allow it to cool, and use that to add later.

(3) Drain pasta and allow to cool a minute before dressing.

(4) Some find that combining pasta and cheese in a cool pan is better (so that you can control heating).

(5) Some combine the water and the cheese, then add that mixture to the pasta.

(6) The addition of fat (butter, cream, oil) helps the cheese to emulsify, but this addition varies and is sometimes not included.

It's all about practice and adjustment.  Much of this information came from here, and I can vouch for more success (sadly,not perfection) using these techniques.


What happens to boiled pasta if you use too little water? There are almost always guidelines on pasta packages for the amount of water you should use when boiling.  Sometimes I'd like to use a pot that's on the smaller side, and that got me wondering; what actually happens to pasta if you use too little water (assuming it's at least fully submerged)?

See:

What is the correct water to pasta ratio?
How much water to put in my pasta pot?

Short answer:  if you stir once or twice at the beginning to prevent sticking, and all of the pasta is submerged, you can very successfully make pasta in a reasonably small quantity of water.

Here is a direct link to the Serious Eats article both of the answers above cite.


if you fry nuts in vegetable shortening is there still nut allergy risk? Nut allergies present in vegetable shortening from Frying pecans or does it dissipate?

Depends on exactly how sensitive the allergic person is, but there is some protein/allergen transfer. So there is an allergy risk. (Depends on the particular person whether it'll cause harm or not—but there are reported cases where it has). To avoid transfer, you need to thoroughly clean out the fryer/pan/etc. and use fresh shortening.

See, for example, http://www.foodallergy.org/file/cross-contact-poster-set2016.pdf


Crispy Lembas Bread Recipe I've been taking a crack at a few variations of the Elven Lembas bread recipe from Lord of the Rings, because I'm a nerd and like to make random things. A common recipe I see linked in various blogs is this: http://www.geekychef.com/2008/12/elven-lembas-bread.html

I've modified the recipe a little bit (ie: swapped out macadamia nuts for almonds, and I ground up about 50 raisins and added them in too. Also, I used coconut oil in place of melted butter, and added a banana instead of the kumquats). So, the final recipe would be:

3 eggs
1 c. honey
1 banana
3 oz. chopped almonds
¼ c. melted coconut oil
2 ¼ c. whole wheat flour
½ tsp. salt
½ c. chopped raisins

I don't have access to a pizelle iron or a krumcake iron, so I tried baking these in the over. I ended up having to use more like 3½ cups of flour instead of the 2¼ the recipe calls for, just so it didn't have the consistency of runny semi-cooked eggs. The taste is good, but even after baking at 350 degrees (F) for 20 minutes, it comes out as a semi-soft, heavy lump and tasty doughy/undercooked inside. It also gives me some cramps, so I'm attributing that (hopefully correctly) to it being undercooked.

In the movie, these treats looked very solid in shape, kind of like a lemon bar (very flat top and bottom and clear-cut edges), and they looked flaky and crispy when eaten, kind of like a really thick cracker.

Are there any suggestions on preparation or the recipe in general that would allow me to have these more thoroughly cooked AND have a crispy texture rather than a heavy doughy one? I'm currently making them 4"x4"½x" in size each.

EDIT

I've since revisited the recipe, and now have something closer to what I wanted. It's not dry like a cracker or thick cookie, but it tastes good, texture is palatable, and after calculating the nutrition profile by hand (fat, vitamin, fibre, protein, etc), I'm quite please with the result. The modified ingredient list is now:

3 eggs
1 cup honey
1 banana
1 puréed mandarin orange (thoroughly washed, seedless, entire orange plus skin and pith included)
1 cup chopped almonds (ground to small pieces, almost a flour)
¼ c. melted coconut oil
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
2 cups corn meal
½ tsp. salt
½ c. chopped raisins
2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast in ½ cup of warm water, let to dissolve for five minutes

The whole thing basically gets a trip in the food processor, except the flour, which is added after in a separate bowl. I bought some small 3" x 6" individual cake pans. I scoop a ½" thick layer into a pre-buttered/greased pan, and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes at 350 deg. F. The texture is roughly like that of a very heavy banana bread, and tastes good, just off sweet. The only thing I might modify is the amount of coconut oil.

I don't remember what the Lembas are supposed to be like in the original text, but whatever Tolkien intended them to be, the recipe is not for a bread-like item in the sense modern US Americans understand it. It is more comparable to waffles.

This is why it got wrong when you tried to treat it like bread. It is a batter, not a dough. The slow indirect heat of an oven is wrong for it, and it is not supposed to be able to hold its shape as a loaf. If you don't have a pizzelle iron, use a waffle iron for making them. If you don't have a waffle iron either, use a griddle or a hot pan and form and bake the lembas like pancakes, turning them during the process to get both sides baked.

Although I am saying "pancake" here, it refers to the cooking process, not to the final texture. If the chef who made the recipe knew what he was doing, the result can be crispy and flaky, similar to a dried tortilla. It will indeed be calorie-dense and durable, just like the fictional lemba.

As I don't think Tolkien gives anything closely usable as a culinary recipe, I guess that the chef just baked anything with these two qualities and called it "lemba". You can probably take any other kind of durable bread and use it as your recipe if you don't like this one. Knaeckebrod is probably a good starting point, considering that it has similar properties, and it is probably appropriate, seeing how much Tolkien was influenced by Nordic mythology.


What is the origin of fried potato? What is the origin of fried potato? Is it France that introduced it through French fries to the world?

EDIT: By origin I mean the first most popular amongst the world.

Opinion is divided (usually along the border) as to whether the French or the Belgians invented French fries. The name favours the former, but this is possibly due to the fact that the French are seen as having invented gastronomy in general.

It is probably impossible to answer - who knows when the first adventurous cook decided to try frying potato alongside his piece of fish?


Is my bacon still safe after being left at room temp. for 32 hours? I bought a package of Appleton Farms, hardwood smoked, sugar cured, sliced bacon about 32 hours ago & forgot to put it in the refrigerator. The ingredients state "cured with": water, salt, sugar,sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrate. The package is still sealed. Do you think it is safe to eat?

Does the package say it needs to be kept refrigerated?  Did it come from refrigerated storage at the store?  If either of these is true, then you should toss it.

Bacon CAN be heavily smoked and cured for room-temperature storage, but most grocery-store bacon is not this kind.  Due to the nitrates/nitrates and smoking process, normal bacon should be safe at room temperature for longer than the 2 hours we give uncured meats, but 32 hours is simply WAY TOO LONG.


Why is my pizza doughy inside? If my pizza comes out perfectly baked on the upper and lower sides but still doughy in the inside, what mistake am I making? I use a gas oven set at 240 degrees celsius. I also knead it for 10 minutes and do not overload it with toppings.

There are lots of things you can try, but the first thing I would start with is weighing your ingredients. Use a recipe that provides ingredients by weight and buy a decent kitchen scale.

Next I would look at your temperature and set that to be as high as your oven will go(mine goes to 550°F).

I would ensure that you aren't over topping. I know you mentioned that you aren't over topping, but I still would "top even less" until you can figure your crust out.

Other general tips that might help depending on your situation:

Use a steel/stone
Bring the dough to room temperature
Thin your dough further
Par bake the dough before topping
Proof the dough for longer
Use room temperature ingredients


How to properly mix cooked noodles and vegetables? Whenever I make basic noodles & vegetable dishes I would cook the noodles in a pot of water, while at the same time stir frying vegetables in a wok.

Then when the cooking is done, I would drain the water out of the noodles and add them to the vegetables.

The problem is that they don't mix properly; the cooked noodles stick together too much for me to be able to blend them with the vegetables.

This usually means I end up with a thick layer of noodles with some minor vegetables on top, and a thick layer of vegetables at the bottom of the wok.

It's still tasty, but I'd like to know if there's a way to make the mixing process easier so that the dish becomes more uniform in taste.

I'm assuming you mean cooked asian noodles and not Italian pasta as the two problems are different. One thing is to make sure you are boiling the noodles in plenty of water as this will reduce the starch on the noodles which cause sticking, or rinse the noodles after cooking to wash the starch off. Next, make sure the stir fry mix isn't too dry, moisture will help the flavors distribute and lubricate the noodles, helping keep them apart. You can always add a small amount of water, it won't ruin anything. Last, use two spoons to mix the noodles up, grap bunches of noodles to pull them apart. Alternatively you can use tongs, the result is the same but I find 2 spoons quicker.


Place oil on cold or hot skillet? Possible Duplicate:
  Do you heat the pan first, then add oil? Or put the oil in and heat up with the pan?

When sauteing food with oil, how do the following two sequences differ in the final taste of the food?

A

Place oil in skillet.
Turn on stove and wait for oil to heat up.
Place food in skillet.

B

Turn on stove and wait until it's hot.
Place oil in skillet. Oil should heat up in a few seconds.
Place food in skillet.

Version B runs the risk of overheating the pan and damaging the coatings on it. I've always been told to put oil in the pan before heating for that reason - nothing to do with taste. I'd seriously doubt you could detect any difference in taste.


Substitute for coconut milk in curry I would like to make Thai yellow curry or Panang curry but there is a severe coconut allergy in my family so I cannot put even a trace of coconut into it. I have the Mae Ploy curry pastes for both but they both call for coconut milk to be mixed in.
Oh, and I am allergic to nuts so almonds (almond milk) and cashews (cashew milk) are out too :/ I have seen cream suggested but am concerned about depth of flavor

A reasonably light cream (about 15% fat) should be fine as a substitute.

It will lack the specific coconut flavour, obviously, but that's fine in this case. What's more important is the fat as a flavour carrier, and the creaminess in the texture.

A soy based cream, or even oat milk should work equally well here, too.

On the other hand, rice milk would probably not work so well, as it tends to separate quite quickly, and is generally more watery.


Does food get spoilt if it catches moisture? Sometimes, if you leave something like chips out in the open, it catches moisture from the air and is not as crisp after that.

Is the food good to consume even after that?

There's different things here -- loss of texture/freshness (ie, stale), and unsafe to eat (spoiled)

There's lots of things out there that aren't unsafe to eat, but you might not want to -- eg, the brownies that have become so hard that you might be worried about chipping a tooth.

Some things can be saved after they've had issues -- it's possible to reheat corn chips or deep fryer to crisp them back up.  Limp carrots will come back if wrapped in a damp towel and left in your crisper for a day or two.  Limp lettuce might revive in an icewater bath.  Day-old bread (slightly stale, not rock hard) can be put in a dampened paper bag and put in the oven on low heat to revive.

... but all of these assume loss of freshness, not rotted / covered in mold / etc.  If it smells funny, there are bugs crawling all over it, it's now fuzzy, or it's taken on new interesting colors ... it's time for the compost or trash.

Sometimes, slightly less than fresh item are great in other things -- vegetables past their prime can go into making stocks; stale bread for croutons, french toast or bread puddings.


Can you eat the head and guts of anchovies? I read that you shouldn't eat fish guts and other parts because
(a) fish guts have the fish stool, maybe poisonous, and (b) fish guts can affect the flavour.

I bought some dried small anchovies and some slightly bigger ones (though still small compared to most fish). The small ones are in the top right of the pic, and the larger ones on the bottom shelf:

I notice that if I break the small ones there are some black things inside (I'm guessing it's the stomach). It's all very small and I'm not sure how I'd go about removing the stomach.

Should the small ones be eaten with the stomach or is there some way to remove it? Does the same apply to the slightly bigger ones?

Just eat them
No need to do anything special with them, they're a tasty snack.  Heads, bones, fins, all is good.  They wouldn't be sold as snack foods if they weren't fully fit for consumption.
How do you use Asian dried anchovies?


Sauce in a sealed jar smells off, has it gone bad? I just finished eating a lasagne that I cooked for my family with a glass jar of tomato with ricotta, I have to say my family was not impressed. I went back to check the jar and it did not smell good, at first I thought this was just a natural ricotta smell but now I think it was off!

The jar was sealed and with another year to go before expiry so I am wondering if I have cooked with off ricotta or not?

It is far more likely that the ricotta has gone bad. If your nose picks up off smells, you should generally trust it.  The best time to take a sniff is right when you pop the jar open. We change ricotta's water everyday and try to finish it within a couple of days. I've also seen many freshly openned ricotta (well inside the expiry date) that had gone bad, and didn't look bad.

Another thing you can do when you cook for others is to taste your food in small samples along the way. That way you get feedback and don't surprise yourself (or others).  Use two spoons (one to pull food sample and dollop on the second spoon that you taste). That way you don't contaminate the food.


Blue floaters in canned hot peppers I've canned hot peppers for years. This year I've developed little blue floaters in the jars. I've never seen this. Does anyone know what this might be???

This is a few months late, but just in case you haven't resolved this some other way, I'd say that:

First, don't eat them. I think it would be best to contact your local University Extension Service (if you are in the states) which will often have access to USDA proper canning methods. It's likely that they would know what this is or could recommend how to find out. They are exactly where I go when I find a weird spider in the garden and that type of thing. Good luck!


What vegetables oils are safe to use at high temperatures (350, maybe 400 F) , say, stir fry or pan-frying chicken/fish? I've read in a number books that at high temperatures vegetable oils oxidize.

Also, some vegetable oils (I have heard) are processed at high temperatures so they may already be in the same state as the above.

What vegetable oils are suitable for high temperature cooking?

Actual oxidation of the oils is a major contributor to rancidity, which would render the oil extremely unpalatable and therefore unsuitable for cooking.

The efficacy of oil at higher temperatures is related to its smoke point, which Wikipedia defines as:

  the temperature at which, under defined conditions, enough volatile compounds emerge from the oil that a bluish smoke becomes clearly visible

In general you want to use oils below their smoke point, or just barely at it.

The smoke point for different culinary fats depends on their composition, and the amount of refining and removing of impurities within.

Some oils which offer superior performance at high smoke points include:

Peanut - 450 F / 232 C
Grapeseed - 420 F / 216 C
Avocado - 375 F / 190 C

You also generally want to choose a refined, neutrally flavored oil for most such applications.

For more data, please see the linked Wikipedia article, or the compilation at the Good Eats fan pages.

Update:  for a good treatise on cooking with fat or oil, see the series in progress at Serious Eats:

Cooking Fats 101: What Makes Fats and Oils Essential to Cooking
Cooking Fats 101: What's a Smoke Point and Why Does it Matter?


Furman's Italian Style Tomatoes My question is of a scientific nature in regards to the above product. My boyfriend has been given cans of this and every time he has used it, he has said that it tastes literally like nothing. Despite the addition of spices and herbs in copious amounts, it still tastes like nothing. I looked up this product online and found similar comments about it. My question is, by what process or addition does a manufacturer cause products to taste like nothing? I find this very curious indeed and was wondering if someone could help me out.

Italian style likely just means Roma (plum) tomatoes.  It's a marketing ploy since there are lots of different types of tomatoes in Italy and no one 'style'.

Roma tomatoes (along with most other types) grown without proper plant nutrition, and limited sun can be especially bland if picked early as well.  They don't have to add anything to make them bland.  Keep in mind that tomatoes have a lot of water (like watermelons) and can easily end up bland if they're just given chemical fertilizer and water.

Try different brands.  Even San Marzanos can be fake (about 2/3 of the export is fake) but they'll still taste better.


How to fix food that got extra salty? How to fix food that got extra salty? I imagine this depends on what the food is. With spaghetti, you can add water or change water if you detect it on time. But what about grilled meat? Or a tomato sauce?

Determine correct ratio of food to salt.
Add more food until proper ratio is achieved.

Or just serve extra beer with it.


How to get good barley texture I have had barley a few times where each pearl is light, slightly dry and separate. When I've cooked it at home I get a very gummy, clumpy texture.

I have been cooking it by rinsing the barley, adding to cold water, bringing to a boil and then simmering for about 50 minutes. I use 1:3 barley to water.

Any tips for a better end product?

After cooking, I drain the barley in a colander then boil the kettle and "rinse" the cooked barley with boiling water as if I was rinsing the starch off cooked pasta. This makes sure that my cooked barley is less clumpy.


How does (Goya) Sofrito sauce compare to salsa? I was reading some rice recipes online. Some used sofrito sauce.

I read the ingredients on the Goya label. It is similar to salsa.
I think salsa is chunkier and uses fresh veggies whereas sofrito seems to have everything cooked in.

Can someone comment on the differences between these two?
Would sofrito have a richer taste?

Sofrito can be thought of as similar to a mirepoix: a base mixture (sort of a sauce, but not exactly) that you use to then cook other things.  It has some spice, some acid, but overall it's something to be added onto, not something to be eaten by itself, just like you wouldn't eat a dice of carrots, celery, parseley, and onions by themselves either.

Salsa, on the other hand, is a finishing sauce in most cases.  It's often chunkier (Sofrito is not a liquid, but it's a smooth texture), and should have more pow to it - it's something that is complete by itself (to be eaten with chips for example) or is a finishing note on a taco or similar food which perhaps has several bland ingredients combined with one other powerful flavor.  Salsa would be inappropriate in dishes where it might compete with the major flavor of that dish, while sofrito would not.

That said, it's possible a less strongly flavored salsa could be substituted for sofrito, if it's what you have available.  Really depends on the dish, though.  If I were making a paella for example I probably wouldn't want to do that unless it was something that I'd be happy to add the salsa to afterwards.  But enchiladas work pretty well with salsas in my experience (and often recipes just call for salsa instead of starting with a sofrito -> enchilada sauce).


Will microwaving lemons make them easier or more efficient to juice? I've heard many people say that microwaving lemons before juicing them causes them to release more juice. I'm skeptical, although not enough so to ask this on Skeptics.

I cannot think of any physical reason why this should be so, and I don't believe it, but I would love to have some kind of response when people say this, or even to be proven wrong!

It makes the lemon easier to squeeze. I think it has the most effect on the peel; it's softer and more flexible when warm, so you're able to get more juice out of it than you could otherwise if you're juicing by hand. That's especially true if you're trying to juice several lemons - you'll just get tired and stop being as thorough if it's harder.

It definitely still makes it easiser if you have the squeezer-style juicer, since those do basically turn the fruit inside out in the process. It probably doesn't help as much with the kind that you push the fruit down onto.


Bagels - Use of Barley Malt Syrup or Non-Diastatic Malt Powder When using a water bath for bagels what is preferred to attain the nice brown exterior, Barley Malt Syrup or Non-Diastatic Malt Powder? I see recipes that use either one. What would be the difference in the finished bagel? Will either one effect the texture?

First, it depends on whether your malt syrup is diastatic or non-diastatic.  (Diastatic contains active enzymes; most syrups are non-diastatic because the process to create syrups usually involves heat that destroys the active enzymes.  However, this is not universally true.)

Diastatic malt's active enzymes help convert starch into sugar.  Some bread or bagel recipes use diastatic malt to speed rising (by converting some starch to sugar quickly to give food to the yeast), as well as to condition the dough and soften the crumb somewhat.  The extra rise can also sometimes lead to a lighter result, and the extra sugar can lead to more flavor and good color.  One has to be careful about adding too much diastatic malt to a dough, because it can weaken it too much and produce a "gummy" texture.  Bagels would likely end up flat and/or with an "undercooked" texture.

Non-diastatic malt is just used for flavor and color.  It has no active enzymes, just a malty flavor which is generally more pronounced than diastatic malt products, due to additional roasting and concentration of flavors not possible at lower temperatures when trying to keep enzymes around in diastatic malt.

A little bit of diastatic malt can be useful in bagel dough.  It will affect texture as well as giving sweetness and color.  Non-diastatic malt (in powder or syrup form) is just about giving sweetness and promoting color.  If you're adding malt to the water to boil bagels, there's no point in using diastatic malt, since the boiling will destroy the enzymes.  If it's all you have on-hand, however, it can still give a malty flavor and promote color when used in larger quantities.

If both of your options are non-diastatic, there's not a huge difference between powder and syrup.  Powder's a bit easier to handle for dough; the syrup is notoriously sticky.  But syrup is sometimes easier to dissolve if you're using it in boiling water.  The more important difference may be in flavor: you specifically mention "barley malt syrup" vs. generic "malt powder."  Some malt powders are made from other grains and may not have the sweetness or complex character of barley malt.  The composition of the malt and its specific flavor (which might be developed in different roasting techniques, even if the same grain is used) can have a greater impact than whether one chooses malt powder vs. syrup.  I do believe, however, that malt syrups often have a darker roast than non-diastatic powders, so that may be useful for more color (especially in the boiling step).  Unless you're buying specialty "dark" malt powder, that is.

Also, the quantity used is most important: in bagels, the contribution of malt to the flavor is usually relatively small (though some would say essential).  Unless you're using a lot of malt, you probably won't notice a significant difference between the types of non-diastatic malt in terms of flavor, texture, etc.


Differences between types of Italian coffee What is the difference between the following types of Italian coffee?

Caffè lungo (long coffee)
Caffè corto (short coffee)
Caffè macchiato (coffee with milk)
Espresso
Cappuccino

This image (from visual.ly) shows the difference between the mixture of ingredients and (possible) cup sizes of various sorts of coffee, including the ones you asked for:

A (caffè) lungo is 'just' an espresso prepared with more (twice as much) water than usual, making it less intense.

A caffè corto, more commonly called ristretto, is the opposite: less water (half as much) is used in preparation than with a normal espresso, making it even more intense.

For the macchiato, milk foam is added to an espresso; a cappucino has milk foam and steamed milk added to it.

Another important difference, when you're in Italy, is that you don't order a cappuccino after 10am.


Where do I find the fruit tamarind? I live in Minnesota and have never seen tamarind being sold online or in any grocery stores here.

Where can I find it?

You should try Mexican and Indian stores to start with, if you have any. After that try any sort of Asian store, since it's used in other southeast Asian food too. Might even be worth a trip to a nearby larger city; there'll probably be a lot of things you can stock up on. (I see several of each in Minneapolis/St. Paul.)

Note that generally, if you're trying to cook with it, all you really need is tamarind paste, pulp, or concentrate. You can find fresh whole tamarind too, but the processed forms are often even easier to find.

And yes, you can also buy the processed forms online if you're having trouble in stores. Amazon has it, as do I'm sure a lot of more specifically food sites.


How do you cook corn kernels on BBQ? I recently had some BBQ corn where the corn was in individual kernels. I'm wondering how this would be done on a BBQ... would you grill the corn on the cob, then cut the kernels off? Or would you do it the other way around? If so, in what would you cook the kernels?

Must I use raw corn or can I use corn kernels from a can?

You would use raw corn. You can either grill it on the cob, or use a mesh grill roasting pan.


Is it okay for preserved lemons to float? I just a couple days ago started a batch of Moroccan preserved lemons, using a combination of recipes from 2 books I own and a few online.

Basically, near-quarter some Meyer lemons and stuff with salt, then squish them in a jar, releasing some juice and covering it with a little extra juice, close and store in a cool place for a month. Every day for the first little bit, shake them to mix the salt in more.

I've read that you really don't want your lemons sticking out of the liquid, because they'll go bad that way, but I'm a couple days in and mine seem to be floating...

Does anyone have experience with this process that would understand where I need to go from here? Did I use too much salt in the liquid? That could cause things to float more easily, but I haven't read anything about it anywhere, and I figure someone else has done this process enough to understand what's up.

While traditional recipes do not (apparently) use weights, other fermentation texts highly recommend submerging the material being fermented ("Fermented Vegetables", Christopher Shockey and Kirsten K. Shockey) and I had also observed possible mold problems when fermenting lemons myself. Therefore, standard advice would be to weigh the lemons down with something acid resistant (glass would be typical) as the high salt content and shape of the lemons makes them prone to rise above the brine.


Why would dipping a cold item in chocolate "help" with tempering? I took a chocolate dipping class last week.  The instructors gave us globs of chocolate to temper on a marble surface, and lots of ingredients to coat in the chocolate.  Some ingredients (hard pretzels, graham crackers, marshmallows) were room temperature, and some were refrigerator-cold (strawberries, raspberries).  The instructions said that the chocolate would temper better on the strawberries and raspberries, even if it wasn't well-tempered.

Why would the temperature of the item to dip improve the chocolate's tempering?  Could I exploit this to make the tempering on other ingredients (pretzels, for example) work better?

To answer your last question: yes.

Regarding the previous question, it's because the temperature at which the cocoa butter in the chocolate crystallizes affects the overall consistency of the chocolate. If you've ever eaten a chocolate bar that was left in a car on a hot day after it has cooled down again, and who hasn't, you'll know about this. Sometimes chocolate tastes fine but has a definite 'grittiness' to it: other things being equal, that's usually because the cocoa butter crystals are too large.

Cocoa butter has a number of different crystal forms, each of which will have a slightly different effect on texture and melting point. When melted chocolate sets, the cocoa butter crystallizes, and it will generally all crystallize with the structure that it starts to crystallize with. (This process where crystals start to grow is called nucleation.)

So you want to have control over the temperature at which crystallization starts. The optimum crystal form for nice chocolate will tend to predominate when crystallization starts somewhere between 18-25 degrees C (around 64-77F).

So if you think about it: when you add room temperature stuff (like a pretzel) to chocolate that is considerably hotter than room temperature, the resultant temperature on the surface of that pretzel will likely be way higher than 18-25 degrees. On the other hand, if you are dipping an item that is significantly below room temp, then your chances of hitting that window are much higher.

The surface structure of the thing being dipped can of course make a difference to crystallization as well, but for normal purposes that is marginal. To put it another way, it doesn't matter what ingredients you're dipping - temperature is key!


How long to cook pork chops sous vide? I'm asking because there seems to be huge variations in cooking times depending on the source.  The recipe book that came with the sous vide machine I bought says 134 degrees for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 8 hours, but I've seen reputable sources on the internet give times from 45 minutes at 144 degrees to an hour at 130 degrees.  Compared to those times, 4 hours seems extreme.  Does anyone have experience cooking pork chops sous vide and if so, what do you recommend for times?

A minimum of 4 hours isn't necessary. Pork chops don't have that much fat on them, don't have much tough tissue, and since their tenderness is on the same sort of level as decent steaks, I would cook them for a short time sous vide, not a long time.

As you hopefully already know about sous vide:

The duration of cooking isn't just "until it's safe to eat," but also about "how long it takes to convert collagen to gelatine" aka. "how to make tough cuts soft." A tough cut could already be "safe to eat" but still require many hours before it is "tasty."
Also, the duration of cooking will change depending on the
thickness of the cut. Keep that in mind: a 2cm thick pork chop will
cook faster than a 4cm thick pork chop. Also, a cylindrical item will
cook faster than a cuboid of the same width and height. Science!
The higher the temperature, the less time you need to cook it.
The tougher a cut of meat is, the longer the cooking duration is, to turn
that piece of meat into something tender.

If you don't already know those things, well, you do now! Also, go do lots of reading! Douglas Baldwin's Sous vide guide is a fantastic beginner's resource, also highlighting the (bacterial and parasitic) dangers and how to avoid them.

So what happens to a lean, decently tender piece of meat that you cook for a long time? Well, I've made mush before. You can strangely make cuts of meat both drier and mushier. Granted, it took 36 hours, but it can be done ...

I would cook the chop for 1 hour at 130 degrees F (54.4 degrees Celsius) for something that's quite pink, because I would be sacrificing some pink when I sear it on a pan afterwards.

I would cook it for 45 minutes at 144 degrees F (62.2 degrees Celsius) for something that has just a small amount of pink, because I wouldn't be searing after (for instance, I would be crumbing and deep frying after.)

I would cook it for 4-8 hours at 134 degrees F (56.6 degrees Celsius) for something that doesn't matter what the colour is, I am probably mixing it cubed in a curry or something, or I just really wanted to see what the texture was like.

I would also refer to Douglas Baldwin's guide on pork and table of meat thickness and cooking times, because that's a good idea. You can see he mentions both a quick and a slow method (13 min+ depending on thickness and temperature, or 12 hours slow.)

TL;DR: All the times and temperatures you mentioned will be adequate to safely cook the meat, it just depends on the final texture and style you want.


Defrosting approx 3.5kg of pork, and then cooking more than once? I've got about 3.5kg (7.5lbs) of rolled pork (with lots of skin crackling) vacuum-packed in my freezer which has been there for just under a month. I've got around 20 coming to eat on Saturday for a buffet and I'd like to serve it as pulled pork, with separate crackling.

So, first question: when is it likely to need to come out of the freezer? 24 hours before cooking? Or 48, to be safe? It's pretty big.

And, second question: I'd normally do pulled pork for about 5 hours, but this is a larger joint than I've cooked before, and I'm wondering if I can cook it for perhaps 5 hours on the Friday, remove the crackling, then leave it in the fridge overnight, and put it BACK in the oven for another couple of hours on the Saturday. Is that hygeinic / healthy / possible? It'll do the crackling wonders but I'm thinking more about the meat.

Any other tips / advice appreciated, though bear in mind that unfortunately I can't leave it in the oven overnight since it's a temperamental old oven and I need to keep an eye on it :(

Your proposed method is possibly dangerous, you'd be warming it enough for botulism to thrive, but not enough to kill it. When you cook it, cook it properly and all at once. What I'd suggest is simply cooking it on Friday, then re-heating it saturday, or getting up early enough to cook it through on Saturday. As for when to thaw it if it's a truly heroic size I'd thaw it in the fridge starting 48 hours before you want to cook it.

As for how long I'd usually do 20 minutes per pound plus 20 minutes as long as the meat is room temperature to start with, so for 7.5 lbs, so that's near enough 3 hours as makes little difference. Not that long really, if you wanted to serve at 1pm you'd want to get it out of the fridge as early in the day as you can, get the oven on at 8:40 on 350F (375 F on a conventional oven), get the meat in at 9, roast till 12, then rest it for an hour. Crank the oven up to max for the last 20 minutes to get the crackling extra crispy.


Forgot to add spices to curry I made a jalfrezi today for tomorrow and I forgot to add spices, (cumin, tumeric, paprika).
Is there a way I can add them now getting the most from them?

You will need to cook the spices before adding them, but you can add them in now and it will be fine. You can either dry-roast the spices in the pan or cook them in a little oil like making a tadka.

Probably if the cumin is whole, dry roast it until it starts to turn golden then add the turmeric and paprika and cook it for just a few seconds more. If everything is powder, I'd heat a bit of oil and add all the spices at once and cook for a few seconds.

If there is coriander, too, though, I feel that needs a bit more cooking.

The flavors will blend overnight in the fridge, and further when you heat it before serving, so as long as the spices are cooked, it is fine to just mix them in.


Slow-fermented bread doesn't rise I've tried the slow (or cold) fermentation method of baking bread at home and for the first time it turned out to be very nice. But ever since I use this method the dough just doesn't rise that much and each loaf ends up flat and not very fluffy. The method requires the dough to be leavened in the fridge for 12-24 hours. I've used hand-bake yeast that I activate before making the dough. What I have done so far:

add more sugar
make a small batch of dough with half the flour and no salt, then the next day mix it with more flour and salt
add less salt
leaven the dough for half an hour BEFORE it goes to the fridge
put the dough in the fridge straight away
leaven the dough for a few hours after it was taken out form the fridge
put the dough in the oven for half an hour on the lowest temp setting

None of these helped. Any ideas what have I done wrong?

UPDATE: recently I started using drier starter with bread-dough like consistency and add it when it's about room temperature. Measuring the ingredients precisely also helps, provided you figured out the proper ratio of flour and water.

My solution: simply use more starter. Generally the starter is kept in the fridge in a jar. I take out the jar from the fridge, add around 150g of flour and 150ml water. After an hour or two, once there are bubbles on the surface, I just add around 300g of this mixture to the bread. The jar (with little starter left) goes back to the fridge. The


Can someone explain this nutrition label to me? The math on the carbohydrates section doesn’t seem to add up... how to decipher this section of the label?

Carbohydrates and added sugars have different Daily Values (DVs). The DV for added sugars is 50 grams, 69g is 138% of 50g, so 138% of the recommended DV. The recommended DV for carbohydrates is 275g per day, and 69g is 25% of the carbohydrate DV.


Proper preparation of veggies for an egg scramble I really enjoy cooking eggs for breakfast, and sometimes I'm feeling fancy enough to add veggies into my scramble. However, I'm never sure how to prepare the veggies to put into the scramble. If I don't cook them, usually they are too crunchy or tough (and sometimes make the scramble watery), and don't taste good with the eggs. If I try to cook them before adding them, they usually come out too dry/overdone. I figure this might depend on which veggies I'm cooking so here are my common favorites: tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions (suggestions welcome!)

To make my question more specific (and hopefully more answerable): how can I prepare the veggies so that they are not crunchy, but not over-cooked?

Those 4 vegetables (and fungi) all require different cooking times. Chop the onion and pepper into dices of roughly the same size, to ensure even cooking. Get them frying, with a little salt which will help to soften them, over a medium heat while you slice the mushrooms, then add those: it is more or less impossible to overcook a mushroom incidentally.

Once the onion has softened but still has some bite, chop the tomato and add that, then add your eggs more or less straight away - the tomato doesn't need much cooking.


How to prevent the silver utensils from tarnishing? What causes silver utensils to tarnish and how to prevent that?

Silver tarnish occurs because of exposure of the silver to trace amounts of sulfur in the environment, mainly in the form of hydrogen sulfide gas, but also from rubber.

The best way to prevent silverware tarnish is to store the silverware in a container which (a) limits their exposure to air, and (b) retards tarnish.  The simplest of these is sliver cloth, a heavy cloth which has been treated with chemicals which absorb sulfur.  We have an entire drawer of sliver under silvercloth, and I don't think I've polished it since we bought it.


What physically/chemically happens to a vegetable when it is cooked? I've discovered that if I eat raw vegetables, I can't digest them well if at all. If I steam, boil, nuke, bake, grill, or otherwise cook the vegetables, I feel fine.

What are the physical/chemical differences after cooking, especially those that assist in digestion?

The main difference is the degradation of cell walls. The human digestive system does indeed struggle to break down the cellulose in cell walls, meaning that we are far more efficient in getting nutrients from vegetables when they are cooked.

That doesn't mean however that cooked veggies are always more nutritious than raw ones. There is actually quite a bit of debate on that and some people even eat raw foods exclusively.

Your question is actually very similar to this earlier question on this site. You might find some useful insights there.


Can I use Bisquick instead of All Purpose Flour? Can I use Bisquick instead of All Purpose Flour?

You cannot directly use Bisquick in place of AP flour.

According to the company web site and Wikipedia, Bisquick consists of bleached all-purpose flour with several other ingredients, including fat (shortening), leavening (baking powder), sugar, and salt. It is essentially a self-rising flour with added fat. Because of all of the extra ingredients, it will not behave the same as regular all-purpose flour.

Depending on the recipe or application, you may be able to substitute or remove some of the other ingredients to make use of a pre-mixed flour like Bisquick.


How do I make my bread heavy when baked? What ingredient do I add to my bread dough to make it heavy when it's out from the oven?

This is personal experience, and I am not a professional cook. However are you sure you are using the right kind of flour?

I personally find making bread using anything except strong flour makes bread that is light and almost cake like, not very pleasant in my opinion.

Strong flour has more protein and gluten and gives an overall heavier feel to the bread, both in weight and texture/taste.

If you are already using strong flour consider using less yeast, this will cause the bread to rise less and be heavier, but this may make the taste and texture less pleasant.

(A Friend informed me strong flour may have different names depending on your region and part of the world, so if you are not sure exactly how to get it I would suggest researching online to find a good supplier in your area.)


Why rinse basmati rice? Every Indian recipe I see seems to insist on rinsing basmati rice before cooking it. Why, I have no idea, because I never rinse it, yet I can discern no difference between my rice and rice cooked by other people that have, presumably, spent the extra 15 minutes rinsing.

If the stickiness is the difference, as suggested in this thread, then I would suggest that not rinsing the rice would make eating rice-based thali a lot less traumatic because the grains would clump together more easily.

I am wondering if the origin of this step in the recipe comes from recipes written in India, and have been copied over into western book without asking this questions.

I do know that many times in India, rice is stored in sacks with some kind of insecticide (usually boric acid) applied to it. So there's always a need to wash the rice before it's cooked.. So maybe this step comes from that..


How to clean/wash (Sichuan) peppercorns? Tragically, I spilled over a bottle of Sichuan peppercorns on the kitchen floor, which is fairly dirty (we walk on it with outdoor shoes, and if you wipe at the floor with a cloth it will pick up a thin layer of dirt/grime).
To avoid eating dirt/germs, do I have to throw out the split peppercorns? Or can I "sanitize" them someway, either by washing with water, baking to a certain temperature, etc.?

It probably isn't worth washing them. You could try washing them with water alone but this certainly won't remove many types of dirt such as oils. The main flavour compounds  in most spices are not highly soluble in water, so most of the flavour (Hydroxy-alpha sanshool in this case) will remain. However, if you used a detergent to remove any oils, it is likely that this will also wash off some of the flavour compounds, and likely be difficult to remove from the seeds. You would also need to dry them thoroughly after washing, especially if you wanted to store them.
You may be able to bake them - it seems that the Hydroxy-alpha sanshool has a boiling point of 574 C (1065 F), which is much hotter than most ovens will reach. However, this risks burning them and thereby destroying the flavours before you can sterilize. Dry heat at 176-232 C (349-450 F) is sufficient to sterilize food with dry heat (see section on sterilization by heat in chapter here (paywall?)), however these are baking temperatures and will cook the seeds quite rapidly, so you will most likely burn them before you could cook off any dirt and before most bacteria get killed. With this method you would still be eating dirt, it just wouldn't be able to make you sick.
A third option is to just pick them up individually - so as to not scrape them across the floor any more than they already have, then place in a sieve, shake up and down a few times to winnow (in the intransitive verb form) out any particulate dirt. Then store, and consider that cooking them will very likely kill >99.99% of any contaminating bacteria/fungal spores.


Do you need to cook a casserole with raw eggs before you freeze it? I made a casserole yesterday that contains cooked pasta, cooked quinoa, dairy products, spinach and raw eggs. It is assembled and the baked at 350 for 30 minutes.

I am planning on making it again this weekend to freeze. Since the only raw ingredient is the eggs would it be okay to assemble it then freeze and cook the eggs when I am thawing it or should I cook it both now and after I bring it out of the freezer?

This is absolutely fine, especially if the eggs are pasteurised. I've seen plenty of recipes that have raw egg in them that say it;s fine to freeze them. You can even freeze eggs (that have been mixed up a little) for up to three months. So yes, I'd say freeze it as soon as possible. Also, if you were concerned about freezing the quinoa that will fine as well (a lot of people don't know you can store grains in the freezer).

Enjoy!


How to cut a cake that was baked in a pie pan? I'm trying to make layers with my ice-cream cake but I need it to be even and straight on the top and the sides, since there will be a significant cake dome. However, I do not have a proper cake pan. Do you have any tips on how to do this?

Invert the bottom layer, top down, on a plate. Add the ice cream, but do not spread it to the outside edge of the cake. Top with the second cake layer, pressing gently. Then, using a sharp knife, slice vertically completely around the edge, removing the sloped edges of the cake. Surround the outside edge with a wrap of parchment paper or foil. Chill. After the cake is firm, you can slice horizontally to level the mound at the top of the cake, if you wish, before removing the paper/foil cuff.


Do centrifugal juicers destroy vitamins through friction? I've read that in a couple of places.

Short answer is no. Vitamins are organic compounds (that is, compounds based on a carbon skeleton) which are pretty small: most of them are formed by 20-30 atoms, not more than that.

Mechanical stress, as well as thermic stress, can indeed interfere with the structure of big organic compounds such as proteins or DNA, which are called macromolecules and are formed by thousands or even millions of atoms connected in complex 3D structures. However, this is not the case for vitamins.

So, in substance, continue to drink your orange juice and you'll be fine!

EDIT: standing what I wrote, it is also interesting to consider that certain vitamins can be enzymatically degraded. This is for instance the case of vitamin C: this article demonstrates how vitamin C degradation could happen when processing broccoli at <60°C, due to the action of an enzyme called vitamin C oxydase. Of course this does not necessarily apply to other vegetables/fruit or to other vitamins.

Personally, I think that the passage of a fruit in a juicer is sufficiently fast that I really doubt there would be enough time for the vitamins to degrade. Would be an interesting experiment to do though.


Which kind of basil should I use? I'm new to cooking and I was planning to make a recipe I saw on TV with pasta. One ingredient is basil. The chef on the show advised always to use fresh herbs; he used a kind of vasiliko with large leaves I think it's called holy basil.

I tried to find one those species but they only grow in spring time. During winter we have a different kind with smaller leaves, it's the second from left to right in the picture.

Does it make any difference? Should I use this one or skip it and use dry basil?

Penne with prosciutto and mozzarella:

 300 gr. pence
 10 cherry tomatoes
 100 gr. fresh mozzarella
 1 onion
 basil leaves
 10 slices prosciutto
 olive oil
 Salt and pepper

For this type of Italian recipe, you want a Mediteranian style basil, often called simply "basil" or "sweet basil".

Ones called holy basil or thai basil have a much more aggressive and extremely perfumed flavor which would be jarring in this dish.


blanch after vacuum seal? Since there's problems vacuum sealing after blanching due to excess water is there a problem sealing the fresh vegetables first and then boiling the package to get the same effect as blanching?

I don't think this will be such a good solution. You can try it, but it probably won't do what you want.

First, there is the problem of temperature control. In blanching, it is critically important that your vegetables heat up quickly, and then cool down just as quickly. If you insulate them with a plastic bag, you are building a thermal delay into the system, and this will reduce the quality of the blanched vegetables. They will be mushier and have worse color than when directly blanched.

The second problem is that you'll still get liquid inside the pouch. Blanching destroys the cell walls of the vegetables. The juices from inside the cells start leaking. And this will happen inside the vacuum bag too. So, you won't have dry vegetables in the bag, you'll have vegetables swimming in their own juice. Unlike the normal blanching scenario, it won't be diluted in water, but it's still probably not what you wanted.

This doesn't mean it's impossible to do it. You can try and see if you like your vegetables better that way. Just make sure that you choose bags which stand up to rapidly boiling water - it may be quite hard finding such bags.


Stainless steel cookware scratches Is it true that one should not use stainless steel utensils on a stainless steel pot or pan? I had to get rid of some old pots because my food started  have a metallic taste to it. I always see on cooking shows, however, that chefs will often use stainless steel utensils (like a whisk) on a stainless steel pot.

What should I do to prevent this metallic leaching? And should I be cooking with, say, wooden utensils to prevent scratching my cookware?

Update: The metallic leaching was very distinct. It's sort of like the taste one gets from aluminum soda cans or stainless steel water bottles that were made back in the day.  When I switched out the pots and pans to newer ones, the taste was no longer there. Switching back to the old ones again, the taste returned. I tried cooking different foods to make sure it wasn't something related to acidity or some sort of ingredient.

Of course stainless utensils can be used on stainless pots and pans; otherwise, the restaurant industry would come to halt.

The only time you need to use utensils of specific materials is pans with a non-stick coating that can be scratched, such as using plastic for PTFE.

As to your alleged "metallic leaching," that is not typical at all to stainless steel cookware.  You would have to provide more information to get a good answer.


Was my coffee actually supposed to be gritty? I was at a Middle Eastern restaurant and ordered a cup of their "Middle Eastern coffee" (perhaps something akin to Turkish coffee?), which seemed to have some sort of spice and sugar added to it. (The latter was significant only because I generally take hot coffee without sugar.) Now, after a few sips, I found that the coffee was becoming a bit gritty, presumably from some coffee grounds.

Given the general quality of the restaurant, I wouldn't be surprised if this was just bad quality. Thus: is this grittiness something to be expected from such a style of coffee, or was this probably just bad processing?

Utterly to be expected - the coffee is made with coffee grounds, sugar and water in a small tapered pot. There is no filter. If you want filtered coffee, order something else. There should be grounds on the bottom of the cup. Unless you like grounds, minimal stirring and swirling will help to keep them down there.

This is the coffee that is sometimes described as Strong as [x], Black as [y], Sweet as [z] where x, y, and z are place holders for one of love, hell and death, permuted as suits the mood.


Is it safe for me to eat a salmon/tuna packet that's been in the car all summer? Apparently I've had various salmon/tuna packets in the my car for months, likely being heated near 100° F, off and on.

Other info:

Still before the confusing 'BEST IF USED BY' date of August 2018.
Sealed in an aluminum lined packet.

I'm torn between it being sealed and the obvious summer month temperature changes.

Are these things safe to eat in this context?

The standard processing for this type of "flexible can" or "retort pouch" packaging is a certain amount of time at 250F or so to completely sterilize the contents. There's nothing alive in there to cause spoilage, or the process would not work at all.

As such, I find the comment stream remarkably uninformed - will 130F damage the package? If so, it would never have made it out of the factory...and the widespread precursor to the civilian application of this package (as mentioned in a more informed comment) is the MRE, and you can bet those go through some roasty-toasty temperatures in desert war zones.

If the packages are sealed, they are still sterile. Nothing that happened in your car is anywhere near the temperatures that were used to sterilize the contents in the first place.


How to wash soft fruit? I bought a pack of blackberries from the supermraket and the label said to wash before use. I tried that and it completely ruined them.

I tried running them under a tap (faucet). Ruined. I tried dropping the fruit into a bowl of water. Ruined. I tried running them under a slow trickle of water. Not ruined but also not washed.

How, please, am I supposed to wash soft fruit like blackberries?

Probably the easiest way to do it is to just gently pour the blackberries into a basket strainer, then lower the strainer into a bowl of water. Then you can just lift the strainer out and the berries will come with it, no fishing required.


How to cook using a wok I've heard that using a wok helps ensure not only perfectly cooked meats and vegetables, it also just makes food taste better. I've purchased a new wok and am looking forward to putting it to use. As a beginner, what are the key steps I need to follow to cook properly using a new wok?

Um ... just off the top of my head, important things when cooking with a wok:

Make sure all of your items to cook are ready before the first thing goes to the heat; it's quick cooking, and you don't want to be trying to chop something while you're trying to stir things at the same time.
You want to cook over high heat.  The oil should be just about to smoking before cook with it, and you want to use an oil with a high smoke point (eg, peanut, canola, soy, corn)
Don't cool off the pan.  Add ingredients in stages (harder, longer cooking things first), so you don't drop the temperature too quickly.
It's called a stir fry for a reason -- you need oil to help transfer the heat.  You can saute, if you really want to, but it's not quite the same.

... and unfortunately, most residential stoves can't put out enough heat for the wok to work perfectly -- it might be good, but you'll never quite get the same as what you get from a restaurant.  If you're cooking for a large number of people, it's sometimes easier to cook the ingredients individually or it batches, then combine it all back together at the end.


What makes oil stick to the pan so bad that it is so difficult to wash out? My parents went out of town for a bit and so I had to fend for myself with cooking!  I made some chicken and some quesadillas on a particular pan.  However, my parents got back and my mom is astounded to find the pan all dirty with oil still sticking to the pan.  I washed it with soap, so why is it still sticking???  It is like it is embedded into the pan.  Not sure what happened!  Anybody knows?  I am also unsure about the type of pan it is.  At this rate, I'll be buying new pans every so and so months if I lived alone.  :(  I wonder if it has anything to do with cooking food in a not so high temperature?

As I understand it, when you combine high heat and vegetable oil you get a fairly stable polymer (much like a plastic or resin).  The polymer bonds with the surface (which is porous), and results in robust surface. This is what we use to season cast iron cookware, but it's less desirable on stainless and other lighter coloured hardware.

You can prevent the coating from forming by never allowing he oil to maintain a high temperature for long periods by itself.  Keeping food in contact with the pan will both help keep the temperature down, and reduce the chance of the oil bonding with the steel.

Cleaning the oil off once it's formed is usually pretty simple: add water (or soda water) and heat for 10-15 minutes. Often the oil will wipe out (or need mild scrubbing with an appropriate scrubbing pad).  You should not have to use steel wool (or a caustic cleaner), both of which can damage the smooth surface of many pans.


Is it ok to skip onions in a recipe? so this yet another attempt of mine to start cooking and yet again I'm frustrated by the perverse need of every single recipe to include onions. I hate onions, their flavour, their texture etc. and I can even taste it in soups. So my question is, if I leave onions out of the picture entirely, will the recipe still come together or do I absolutely need to come up with a substitute for them?

Thank you!

While you can do whatever you want to recipes you're following, you should be aware that onions are the backbone of the flavor of many dishes. If the recipe calls for more than a quarter onion or so per serving, and particularly if they are to be browned rather than cooked until translucent, the dish will probably be blander than intended if you leave the onions out.

The good news is, there's a lot of things that are similar to onions, notably scallions, leeks and shallots (thanks Benjamin Hodgson). If you are more okay with any of these things, go ahead and substitute (in the case of scallions and shallots, the amount should be roughly halved).


Can almond milk be used as a sauce base? Last night I tried to make a dipping sauce for boiled artichoke for my wife and I using almond milk as a base.

3/4 cups almond milk
garlic clove
the lemon juice from half a lemon
salt and pepper

While the concoction was downright terrible, it got me thinking two things:

1) Does anyone have a sauce recipe, to be used to dip artichoke leaves in, that utilizes almond milk as a base?

Objectives:
 > Light almond flavor
 > Mild enough in general to still taste the natural flavors of the artichoke 'meat'
   - In other words, I'm not looking for a ranch replacement here
 > More of a 'melted butter' replacement

2) Is my recipe remotely salvageable (was I close)? Based on the comments, I can see how this is pretty vague: Essentially, I'm asking if almond milk is a good start at all. What I made tasted awful, but the ingredients made sense in my head (and even more so when I subbed the almond milk out with olive oil and added some cracked pepper).

EDIT: No one actually ate the mixture, we ended up doing olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic which turned out okay :)

It's very difficult to give you any specific advice on this without really understanding what it is you're trying to achieve. To get to destination B you have to have a starting point A!

What are you trying to achieve here?

Have you said, hey I've got this bottle of Almond Milk I have to use up, perhaps I'll try and make a dipping sauce with it? That's a fun way to do things (I do it a lot) or are you saying, hey I really like the subtle flavour of Almonds, I'd really like to try and make a dipping sauce with that flavour in it?

Almond milk in itself suggests more of a coating sauce than a dipping sauce, along the lines of the foundation sauces I would perhaps experiment with starting with a roux (fat and flour) and creating a sauce with your almond milk ala Bechamel.

Now you've clarified what you're trying to achieve, I think I would definitely try the roux method first. As I said, I think there are two ways to go here, using a roux as a base and creating an almond butter.

You'll have to do a fair bit of experimentation here, but isn't that half the fun of cooking in the first place? I find that with even established printed recipes, I have to cook it a few times before I fully understand what's going on, so expect to make a few runs though tweaking ingredient amounts etc before you're fully satisfied.

Start by making a basic roux based sauce using the almond milk. The basic ratio for this is 1 cup milk to 1 tablespoon butter (or oil or even almond butter) to 1 tablespoon of flour. Again you could experiment with these ingredients - try almond butter or part almond butter with butter. Try normal flour, or part almond flour etc. You may need to tweak the quantities for your own tastes, less roux and more milk for a thinner sauce, more roux, less milk for a thicker sauce.

The beauty of this is you can tweak the ingredients to acheive the desired thickness of the sauce almost from a runny coating sauce to a thicker dipping sauce.

You could try simmering the sauce with other ingredients to tweak the colour/flavour - saffron, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, for a sweeter sauce or peppercorns, bay leaf, pinch of salt and white pepper for a more savoury one.

Don't be afraid to experiment and try out different things till you achieve your objective, cooking is meant to be fun!


Impact of different sugar types (and substitutes) on ice cream I am really interested in theoretical fundamentals of ice cream making. Everyone who is a little sophisticated whith homemade ice cream knows, that the are certain ingredients and ratios that have to be satisfied to make good ice cream.

In fact understanding the theoretics of ice cream making and knowing how to calculate the ratios of ingredients helped me getting my ice cream perfect every time.

A big influence on texture and storability (in terms of hardness when storing the ice cream in the freezer) has sugar.

Sucrose is the most common used sugar, but other types used are lactose (from milk products), dried glucose syrup, dextrose and inverted sugar syrup

They all have influence on the freezing point of the mixture. The lower the freezing point of the ice cream mass, the softer it is when it comes out of the freezer. The sugars also differ in sweetness, which is measured relative to sucrose (1.0). Lactose (0.3), Dried Glucose Syrup (0.5), Dextrose (0,75), Inverted sugar syrup (1.25)

For this reasons a part of the sucrose is often substituted by dextrose, since you can use more of it (to have the same sweetness) and increase dry mass and lower the freezing point.

My chemistry skills are nearly non existent, so my question is how can I quantify the influence of different sugar types on the freezing point of my mixture? I want to determine how much Xylitol I must use to get the same results (in terms of freezing point) as when I used sucrose. To get to the meta level: How can those figures be calculated (I guess it involves molar masses, oh boy!)

Some figures for the sugars above and also Xylitol and Erythritol would be appreciated.

Criteria for an accepted answer:

Must name a measure for influence of sugar on freenzing point on a mixture
Must give figures for all mentioned sugar (alcohol) types.
Nice to have: A way to calculate the figures
Can use basic math and chemisty

OR: Explain why this isn't achievable (for a non chemistry expert)

As already mentioned in comments above, this is quite a complex mixture with equally complex set of properties to balance. However, if you are just looking at it as a simple binary system with water as the solvent and various sugars as solutes, one at a time, then there is a very simple answer (not necessarily useful alone).

For dilute solutions, freezing point depression is primarily driven by the solvent and not so much the solute, and the relationship is linear. For sugars,

Freezing Point Depression (°C) = 1.86 * M

M is mass/molecular-mass of whichever sugar you use in 1000ml of water. For your example of 10g of sucrose in 100ml water, M is 0.29 and your freezing point is minus 0.5C.

For disaccharides like sucrose and lactose, they have identical molecular mass of 342. For simple sugars like glucose and fructose (dextrose is just d-glucose), it is 180. For inverted syrup, you have a mixture. For polyalcohols, you can look up their masses easily.

I would still advise against using this sort of tool alone for icecream making.

Separately, sweetness is less about just dry mass but molar concentration, which is why inverted syrup is sweeter than sucrose, 1 unit of sucrose in the same amount of water is less sweet than if it was broken into their constituent mono-saccharide glucose and fructose; instead of 1 unit of sucrose, you have 1 unit of glucose and 1 unit of fructose, double the concentration.


Who would I take my knives to, to be conditioned? I would like my knives all to be sharpened by a professional.  Some knives I cannot sharpen because they have an intricate serrated edge that I would ruin if I used my own stone.

Several of my knives also have stains, whether they be rust stains or some other kind of mottling.

I figure maybe I would go to a key maker.  Not sure if there is someone else who specializes in this.

In the US, there are business called "sharpening services" that are dedicated to sharpening knives, saws, lawnmower blades, and other tools. You can probably find one in your area by searching google or yelp.


Beef parts interchangeability I see in many recipes with beef meat concrete part of the cow in the ingredients. I'm always wondering, what would happen if I put the meat I actually have and not the exact one. Is it that different?

These are the parts of beef: neck, brisket, chuck, rib, sirloin, tenderloin, flank, shankle, round. Are any of them interchangeable, so it is safe to replace one type of meat with another? Are there any general on-this-site-explainable modifications, that need to be applied when using different kind of meat?

There is one major aspect that controls what type of cooking properties an individual cut of beef has:  the amount of connective tissue.   This is what groups the various cuts into two basic categories:

Slow cooking cuts

Slow cooking cuts have a lot of connective tissue, which means they are tough but flavorful.

As a general rule (there are exceptions), they benefit from slow cooking techniques which provide the time (usually several hours or more) for the connective proteins in the meat (collagen) to break down and be hydrated into gelatin, rendering them sumptuous and delicious.

Historically, these were often the cheaper cuts including shank, ribs, chuck, brisket and tail.

Typical preparation methods include braising, barbecuing, slow roasting, smoking, and grinding (into sausage or hamburger).

Fast cooking cuts

Fast cooking cuts have little connective tissue, so if not overcooked, they can be tender and delicious (although more delicate of flavor than a high connective tissue cut).

As a general rule, they benefit from fast, high heat cooking methods which develop flavor on the surface through browning, but leave the interior rare to medium rare, thus retaining tenderness.

These were the more expensive cuts including the surloin, tenderloin, and center cut steaks.

Typical cooking methods include sauteeing, griddling, pan frying, sauteeing and so on.

The outliers

There is one small group of outiers, the fast cooking tougher cuts, including flank, skirt, and "london broil."  Today, these are extremely popular for fajitas, at least in the US.

These cuts have high flavor, and very distinct banding or grain, but little fat.

If they are cooked rapidly, and cut against the grain, they can be served medium-rare to medium and have a lot of flavor without being overly tough although they will never be as delicate as some of the true fast cooking cuts.

Hoof and Horn

You will see that the general characterization butchers often use is that the steak is more tender the farther you get from the hoof or the horn.

This is because muscles the animal used heavily (like its neck and shoulder muscles to hold its own weight up and walk around, or its tail constantly flicking) have a great deal of connective tissue and become tougher.

Less used muscles such the tenderloins along the spine stay tender.

In this diagram (from Wikipedia):

almost all of the tender cuts come from the loin and surloin.  Some of the best slow cooking cuts come from the chuck, shank and round.

Interchangability

In general, you can exchange cuts from the same group with a relatively good degree of success.

So using a rib eye steak instead of a tenderloin for fast grilling will be quite successful; using a chuck instead of a shank for stew will have a good outcome.   But trying to change a filet for a shank will not.

Cooking and Presentation

Cooking method and presentation do have a important role to play.

Fast cooking cuts cooked well done will become tough, dry, and almost stringy.

Some tougher cuts can be tenderized mechanically (by beating them with a meat mallet, or using a tenederizer that creates many small cuts).  This is typical of the so-called cube steak or swiss steak.  At the extreme end, these cuts can be ground for very flavorful sausage or hamburger.

Another example is the round, which is often good for roasting, if sliced thinly across the grain which helps maximize the tenderness.

Substitution

So to substitute one cut for another, you want to select one from the same basic category, and cut to approximately the same thickness (for your application).

See also:

What makes a moist steak (or roast)?


Re-heating beurre blanc without splitting Warm emulsions are tricky to reheat without splitting... Beurre blanc being inherently unstable is the worst. I have tried several things from microwave on defrost, to bain-marie, to very low heat. I know that it should remain tepid (butter melts at about 35C), but I never seem to get it right. So:

How do you do it?
If it splits and you have (almost) no additional ingredients, how do you re-emulsify it?

Thanks

I'm quite sure being able to reheat beurre blanc is a superpower without a superhero. Your efforts are commendable but I think inevitably futile, I'm sorry to say.
The problem is not that it splits while heating up. The problem is that the sauce splits while cooling down. This is caused by the butter solidifying. When heating it back up again, it will simply become visible that the sauce has split.
It's unfortunate, but you're probably best off not making too much beurre blanc. If you still have some left over, it's a great component to use in a cream-based sauce. Also, if you really want to make a beurre blanc that you can cool down, you could experiment with adding cream. But even though it might turn out to be a nice sauce, it's not the real thing.


How do I tone down the flavor of garlic in spaghetti sauce I am taking a meal to a family tonight, my sauce is cooking, it will cook for several more hours.  Right now, it is much too strong, ( I know, I did not think it possible).  How do I cut that flavor?

The punchy, raw flavor of garlic is very volatile, and it'll change as the sauce cooks. Garlic (like all alliums) gets a lot more mellow as it cooks, and the extremely intense flavor you're tasting now will fade into the background.

So you simply may not need to do much now - taste the sauce again in a couple hours and re-evaluate. There's not a lot that you can do to target the garlic flavor specifically, other than adding more of the other ingredients to restore the overall balance of the sauce. If your overall cooking time is, say, 6 hours, and you check in another 2, that still leaves you a decent amount of time to add more of everything else for the last few hours of cooking.

But don't panic immediately; give it a little time and see how well it mellows out. It's likely fine and you have ample time to make more corrections.


Left crockpot unplugged for about an hour I'm making chicken chili. Or trying to... This morning I turned on my crockpot to high for about 40 minutes. I then drove to work and replugged it, about an hour after unplugging it. After cooking it for 5 more hours, should it be safe?

It likely depends on if the food came up to 140°F (60°F) while you were still at home, and how much it cooled off during the trip.

Basically, your time in the 'danger zone' is cumulative, so it's the sum of:

Time to heat up to above 140°F (60°C)
Time from when it cooled down to below 140°F 'til it go back up to 140°F

So, if it never got up to 140°F, then it likely spent 2 hours in the 'danger zone'.  (40min + 1 hour + time to get up to 140°F), which some people consider to be right at the edge of acceptable.

... but if it got up to 140°F in the first 20 minutes, and it was well-insulated so didn't drop below 140°F until 30 min into the trip, and it came back up to temp 10 min after plugging it back in, you'd have had (20min + (1hr - 30min) + (10min) = 1hr ... which is well within recommended times.

These also assume that you didn't take a long time to get the chicken home from the store and/or leave it on the counter for 30 min while you were putting away other groceries.


Coconut milk ice cream — getting volume? I've made ice cream with full-fat coconut milk twice in my KitchenAid ice cream maker with OK results.

I've followed the instructions and have run the machine for the time suggested (about 20 minutes) and the ice cream mixture is ice cream like, but the volume has not increased by much.

My question is are my low-volume results because I'm using coconut milk, or can I run the machine longer and get more volume?

Thanks

Recipe:
1 can of full fat coconut milk (Aroy-D Coconut Milk)
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cocoa power

Steps:

Mix ingredients together
Chill for 1 hour
Start ice cream machine (get it turning...)
Add mix to machine
Churn for 20 minutes
Serve

Try to decrease the fat percentage in the custard. Full fat coconut milk has a fat percentage of ~20%, hence the custard has about the same. Fat tends to make the ice-cream more heavy and "creamy". Ordinary ice-cream usually have a fat percentage around 10-16%, and even lower for gelato type ice-cream.

To decrease the fat percentage, add some liquid with low-fat.


Can I freeze caramelised onions? Caramelised onions seem easier to make in large batches, so could I make a big batch then freeze them in say, ice cube trays, for later use?  Or would this have a detrimental effect on them?

I would say it depends. I find once you freeze an item the flavor/texture/propeties of the item is changed (for better or for worse) the next time you goto use it.

If your using caramelized onions in a soup, or stew, something where flavors blend together for a longer period of time, then yes go ahead.

however if your using the caramelized onions on top of a steak or something similar. Then my answer would be no.