Why didn't microwaving a stainless steel spoon set my kitchen on fire? I am a new, and newly sleep-deprived, dad. As such, I didn't think twice about taking a big, shiny, stainless steel spoon and sticking it right in a baby bottle sterilizer. ("I want this supplement to be scooped with a sterile instrument!")

Now, a bottle sterilizer consists of a large, sealed, plastic box into which you put a bunch of water. Put it in the microwave, and it's basically an autoclave. I sealed that sucker up and let 'er rip at 1300 watts. I then walked away and down a flight of stairs.

When I came back to my kitchen, everything was fine. The 3-minute microwave cycle was done, and my stainless steel spoon was apparently sterilized. Nothing was on fire, and the microwave seemed as happy as it had been. I, however, was mortified--and puzzled. I've read that only pointy surfaces cause problems in microwaves. But my spoons are fairly pointy, especially at the handle end:

Right now, I am provisionally chalking this up to God. But I must admit that I don't find my explanation quite thorough enough. Does anyone have a more specific accounting?

Metal has a lot of potential issues in the microwave (electric charge buildup + arcing, and microwave reflection). There are too many variables to make general statements like "such-and-such metal is safe" or "smooth objects are safe" with confidence, hence the sweeping guaranteed-safe blanket advice to not put metal in the microwave.

The reason it didn't cause issues for you is likely the fact that it was insulated in a plastic container (thus preventing arcing to the microwave walls / magnetron) and that you also had some water in there to absorb any excess reflected energy (and maybe electrical energy through physics that I don't understand, but don't quote me on that one).

In fact a cursory search just happened to turn up this paper regarding sterilization of metal objects in a microwave, which mentions:

  Arcing back to the magnetron and damage to the microwave oven are prevented by placing a radar absorbent material within the oven and with proper insulation of the item to be sterilized

And you've got both of those things: A radar absorbent material (the water) and the insulation (a perfectly sealed plastic container).

The type and shape of your metal object is probably unrelated to the success of your accidental "experiment".

As an aside: It's worth mentioning that in the case where a microwave oven does catch fire, the NFPA mentions that 17% of those fires involved the housing/casing of the appliance itself as the first item ignited, where the danger is presumably excess energy reflected back to the appliance, rather than arcing (magnified by poor design or older microwaves that didn't have as good of an ability to absorb reflected energy). That's why, for example, the authors of the sterilization paper linked above included a radar-absorbent material, strange and unpredictable reflections off of metal can easily put the microwave under uneven energy loads it wasn't designed to handle (see also thermal runaway).

And of course, there's also issues with defective appliances or design flaws as well, e.g. that old GE spontaneous microwave fire lawsuit. While the causes of those fires aren't really related to the OP's situation, the point is making blanket statements about metals and such is further complicated by the potential for poorly designed or defective appliances.

Also, this answer isn't intended to say "insulation + water = always safe", it's just intended as an explanation for your specific experience. Even "safe" is flexible: A microwave fire doesn't necessarily lead to a kitchen fire or a burned down house or an injury, e.g. I suppose you could call a microwave fire hazard "safe" if you were standing there on the ready with a fire extinguisher and protective clothing.


Is a seed different from a nut? I bought a bag of cocoa beans and it is written "Nut Free" on it. I always thought seeds/beans where the same a nuts except we called them this way because there is more than one in one fruit.

So is it right or wrong to say a bag of cocoa bean is nut free ?

(Extra question) Is there any potential nut allergy with theses beans ?

There are two ways to define nuts, one botanical and the other culinary.

Botanical: It is a dry fruit containing one or two seeds, where the fruit does not open to release the seed. So, only indehiscent fruit are considered true nuts. eg. Walnut (image), pecans, chestnuts.

Culinary: A lot of seeds are called nuts even when they do not conform to the botanical definition. eg. Almonds, cashews(image).

Cocoa beans fall in neither category, so it is correct to say that the bag is nut free. Cocoa beans are harvested from a cocoa pod which is fruit like (image of cocoa pod with the seeds), so they definitely fall into the category of seeds and not nuts.

So the labelling on the bag is correct. As for the allergies, there may be people allergic to cocoa beans, but they wouldn't necessarily overlap with people who are allergic to nuts.


Why didn't my jello set? I found a box of lime jello that I have had for a while (at least 6 months). I made it last night, following the directions (boiling water, etc), and left it in the fridge til today. I went to eat it just now, 24 hours later, and it is only set in parts - there is still lots of liquid, and it isn't as jelled as I would expect - it's chunky, not a solid wiggling mass of jello goodness.

Steps I took:

Boiled water (a bit more than a cup) in a pot on my stove. Measured one cup of the boiling water, poured it into a pyrex bowl, added the packet of lime jello powder. Mixed it until it was dissolved, then added one measured cup of cold water.  Stirred it a bit, then put the lid on the bowl and put the bowl in my fridge. Didn't add any fruit or anything.

What could have gone wrong?

Covering jello while it sets is not usually a problem. At my last job the pantry person covered the jello every time it was made while setting. This was due to health code regulations. Having the jello for that long usually isn't an issue either unless there was some way moisture got to the box and may have compromised the gelatin or even caused mold growth. Was the box expired?


Getting a cast iron skillet surface smooth I've had a Lodge cast iron skillet for about a year. A few months after I bought it I seasoned it with too much oil (I learnt later) and the surface developed some 'bubbles' that later started flaking. I've used it almost every day and while it is fairly non stick (I can fry eggs in it) I never managed to get a smooth surface on it. Here's a photo of how the surface looks

. While the surface might look like it's flaking, I do not see flakes in the food or when I'm cleaning it. Do you suggest I sand it and reseason it, or will the surface eventually smoothen out if I just keep using it?

You cannot expect to ever have cast iron perfectly smooth. Its surface is uneven due to the manufacturing process, what producers like to call "pebbly" in marketing materials.

The pan in your picture has not taken the seasoning in the best possible way, it could have been smoother without the thicker parts. But these are not the dreaded "flakes" of failing seasoning, just buildups which are strongly bound to the pan.

If you insist on perfection, you could strip the pan and reseason it from the beginning, but it's lots of work, and there is no guarantee that your second try will work better than the first, you typically need to go through more seasonings before you get a feel for the craft. I'd say use it as it is, there are no noticeable downsides in the prepared food.


Why do brownies made from commercial mixes form a flaky top? When I use brownie mix products such as the standard Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines - the ones where you just mix up the ingredients, and then put it in the tray and bake it - I notice that the top just magically becomes flaky and delicious.

What causes that? The top is composed of the same mix as the bottom and sides; I realize it's exposed to the air, but how does that make the difference?

If I could offer a possibility..... When you bake a loaf of bread, the surface, exposed part of the loaf has a different crust than the interior (even when baked in a pan). This is due to the carmelization of the sugars on the surface. I suspect that this is the case here as well.

I get the same effect baking a mix or a scratch recipe. I've always assumed it is due to the carmelization of the surface sugars coupled with a bit of dehydration due to direct heat exposure....


Baking personal sized chiffon cake I want to make individual sized chiffon cakes however most recipes call for a tube pan. Can I expect the same results (light and fluffy) if I divide the batter into mini cake pans?  I could turn the mini cake pan upside down As with instructions for a tube pan if that helps.

Yes, you can use all sorts of pans for chiffon cake and it works just fine. I've made many chiffon cakes and I've never actually used a tube pan as I don't own one!
Turning the cake over is absolutely essential, and you can turn just about any pan over as long as it has a fixed bottom or one that locks into place like a springform pan. Don't use a pan with a loose slide-in bottom because it won't hold the back of the cake up when you turn it over, and it will collapse.  Fixed bottom pans can work, getting the cake unstuck from the bottom is tricky though, I use a skewer bent 90° to get underneath stuck cakes, but a springform pan is ideal as you can just use a knife.
You need to make sure that the pan is going to be taller than the cake, or that whatever you sit the rim on will not touch the cake, only the pan's rim. Chiffon cakes rise a whole lot, figure on it rising at least 3 times the batter height. Plan ahead and have it all set up for when you take it out of the oven before you start baking, you don't want to be improvising when you take it out of the oven, seconds matter with chiffon cake.
You need the cake so stick to the pan, so don't butter or flour the pan sides or bottom, or use baking paper. If it doesn't stick it will fall out when you turn the pan over, and that means it will be dense. Chiffon batter will stick to anything, so don't worry if you have non-stick pans.
Enjoy your cake, chiffons are tricky at first but they are great when they come out well!


Why do steamed avocados taste like eggs? Today, I was steaming some kale, and decided to try steaming some avocados as well, so I added them for the last 2 minutes of steaming (out of approximately 6 minutes).

To my surprise, the avocados came out tasting exactly like the yolks of hard boiled eggs. The texture was mushier, but the taste was the same.

Does anyone have a good explanation for why this happened?

P.S. I poured a good amount (enough to give a light coat) of extra virgin olive oil onto the kale before steaming.

It boils down to chemical make up.  Avocados, like egg yolks, contain a decent amount of fats, carotenoids, and sulfurous compounds.  Avocados are one of the most concentrated fruit sources of fats and fatty acids.  Both egg yolks and avocados contain carotenoid phytochemicals like lutein, zeaxathanin, and a-carotene. In avocados the sulphur is mostly in the form of glutathione, would likely break down into its cysteine during steaming.  Cysteine is one of the primary sulphur sources in eggs as well.

http://www.avocado.org/new-research-from-ucla-shows-california-avocados-contribute-additional-beneficial-carotenoids-2


Does the biological classification of food have a relation to taste? As a concrete example, both tomato and potato are in the nightshade family as defined by their biological classification.

However, I don't think a tomato tastes like a potato at all.

Obviously the biological classification is based upon physical characteristics as well as the genetic make up of the food.

In particular, I'm thinking about the various families in the plant family.  Is there a relation to taste and biological classification?

Yes, they are certainly connected. But as with many connections in the real world, it is not a perfect +1 correlation. So, just because tomatoes and potatoes are related and they don't taste similar, it doesn't mean that no two related plants taste similar, or that similar taste in related plants is due to random chance.

First, many people talk about "taste" as if it were one thing. In fact, there are lots of things which contribute to taste. It can be roughly divided into a combination of four factors: the combination of the basic five tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami), the texture, the aroma of the food, and the taster's internal psychological factors(1). Each food has the first three of them, as well as cues which trigger the fourth.

I won't discuss the psychological factor here, as I don't have enough data on it, and also because it is not intrinsic to the food itself, but to the combination of food and taster. So let's look at the other three.

Basic taste. This can be a hit and miss in related foods.

There are practically no plants which are consistently salty.
Umami is found in some (including the tomato you mentioned), but doesn't run in families.
Fungi will generally have an umami taste, but don't forget that we are talking about a whole kingdom here, not just a few related plants.
Sweet is also unlikely to depend on the plant family, it is more about the part of the plant. The most abundant source of sweetness in plants is fructose. From the point of view of the plant, it is a great way to store energy either for feeding a hungry seed or to seduce animals into eating its fruits(2) and spread the seeds. Besides, it is relatively easy to create if you are a plant. So plants from many families use it. But it tends to be produced in the fruits only, and only after they have received lots of sunlight. I suspect that there may be a chemical reason beside the evolutionary explanation (it is best for the plant when its seeds are only spread after they have matured). So, you can find sweetness in many plants with little relation.
Sourness is due to the presence of acids, and also the absence of sugars (sugar masks our perception of acids as sour). The amount of acids is more plant-family-dependent than the amount of fructose. Some plants, for example the melons/cucumbers/pumpkins family, have very little acid in general, while others are very high in it, like citrus. Beside the amount, the type and distribution of acid is also different. LeBeau mentions rhubarb and sorrel: these are of the same family, and there are only a few edible plants which contain the same acid (oxalic acid). Citruses are high in citric acid, apples in malic acid, and grapes in tartaric acid. Also note that while most plants will concentrate the acid in the fruit, in other plants such as the rhubarb it will be everywhere. We humans can taste the difference between these acids when we are paying attention. So, while you are likely to find a strong relation between the plant part (fruit/not fruit) and sourness level, you will also find a variation of level within different fruits differing within the family. And across all plants, you will find differences in the taste profile of this sourness.
Bitterness. This is the most family-dependent part of the five basic tastes. Alkaloids, a very common class of chemicals produced by plants, taste bitter. But each plant family tends to produce its own alkaloid (or other bitter substance), which have a slightly different type of bitterness. So, if one edible plant is bitter, then other plants of the same family have a high likelihood of being bitter too, and in a similar way (remember, this is different than the sweet situation - fructose equals fructose in all plants).

Texture. This is not related to family very much. The texture varies tremendously within a plant, depending on which part you take from the plant. Cherry tree wood has a texture more similar to pear tree wood than to a cherry fruit or a cherry leaf. Texture is caused by the macro-mechanical properties of the most abundant stuff in plants, such as the starch in grains, the fructose-in-water sticky fruit juice, or the sturdy hemicellulose in stems and leaves. These are roughly similar between plants - two starches may be slightly different, but when packed in a kernel, they feel similar to the tooth. And frequently, the same family can produce different types of starches (you can have mealy or non-mealy potatoes, mealy or non-mealy rice, etc.). So, expect to find similar texture in plant foods not between related families, but within related parts of the plant. And besides, expect the texture to change drastically in response to cooking.
Flavor. This is the area where relations are most apparent. Small differences in a molecule mean huge differences to the way it is perceived (I think that there were examples where it was not really the substance, but its racemic structure which mattered for how its flavor will be perceived). The aromatic substances in plants are family-specific and so flavor is highly related to the family tree of the plant. It is for example very obvious in taste that oregano and thyme are related more closely than, say, oregano and ginger. Similarly, the taste of pumpkins and melons can be surprisingly similar if you get a melon grown without sufficient sun (sun will produce lots of sweetness and aromatics in the melon, which will change its taste profile). Of course, there will be cases when just one plant from a given family evolved to contain a given chemical, which we consider signature for its flavor, and then people may start arguing that there is no relation. But if you take this one chemical from the mix, it will probably taste a lot like its cousins. There are also examples for plants without much relation containing the same substance and therefore exhibiting a similar flavor, but they are rarer. The chemical responsible for the flavor of anise is such an example, it is found in several plants without close relation.

Note that your example is perfectly accounted for by this explanation. Tomatoes and potatoes are indeed part of the same family. But the potato is an underground tuber, while the tomato is a fruit, so totally different parts of the plant. None of them has a strong signature flavor - you can't smell a potato from far away. Tomato is better, but it still has other elements dominating its taste profile, including the interesting combination of sour and umami seldom found in other plants, and its juicy texture combining mealy-moist tissue with jellylike seed-studded substance which is also more acidic than the rest. We don't even eat the parts of the tomato which have most aroma (the stem and leaves). So, on the level where we'd expect most similarity - flavor - we have little contribution to the taste of either of them. On the other two levels, the fact that they are different plant parts dominates their level of difference.

Footnotes

(1) these work in unexpected ways: for example, I once read a study where people had to guess the taste of gummy bears. The bears were rigged, so that the flavor did not match the color. People basically guessed based on color, flavor - they declared that the yellow ones were lemon, even though they had been flavored with cherry, etc.

(2) In this post, I will be only speaking of botanical fruit and disregard the homonymous "fruit" as used in the kitchen. So, tomatoes are a fruit here.


How to tell if it is real sourdough? I have a very simple question, but difficult for me..

How to tell if a sourdough is a real / traditional Sourdough? A lot of times I wonder if the sourdough I have in cafes or those ones I buy from shops are real sourdough. I know sourdough takes a long time to make and have heard that some bakeries take shortcuts to make sourdough.

There isn't really a "test", per se, to tell if a bread is a "real sourdough" or not. Without getting overly technical, the tangy "sour" is created by a lactobacillus (bacteria) culture feeding on the byproducts of the yeast used to make the dough rise. The byproducts of the bacteria produce the lactic acids which give the resulting bread its sour taste.

The taste of sourdough can be simulated by adding other acidic components to the bread dough. Practically speaking, the only way to tell the difference is if you have the experience of a refined palate that you recognize the taste difference.

Ah, but here's the tricky part. Once a baker has a stable culture of yeast and bacteria (starter), they'll save a bit of the fermented dough to add to the next batch, and so on for batch after batch. It is not unusual for bakers to continue their culture for years or even decades. So the problem of recognizing the authenticity of sourdough is that each bakers' sourdough will have it's own distinctive taste. Yikes. So much for the standard taste test.

There is one test I can think of; although, I don't know how practical this is: A very "healthy" sour dough culture is the result of having reached a really stable and balanced, symbiotic relationship between the yeast and bacteria. This is desirable because it prevents other undesirable bacteria from setting up shop. Because of this inherent stability, real sourdough breads are very resistant to mold and other reactions that cause them to go bad. So, if your sourdough bread seems to last longer then you would expect from fresh bread, that might be a good indication of real sourdough. Of course, this can also be the result of preservatives added to the bread; so… no help there.


Mushrooms taste FUNKY I made this today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9gncvPpQKA

The first time I made it, the mushrooms and steak came out great. First cooking the steak, then cooking the mushroom in remaining (steak juices + oil) + butter + thyme on high heat. The mushrooms were a bit shriveled and not plump. They had a nice crunchy texture.

The second time, I decided to cook mushrooms without the steak juices. Also instead of putting the butter and thyme in immediately after the mushrooms, I fried the mushrooms in olive oil on high heat first, then put in the butter and thyme.

This time the mushrooms were disgusting... there was a very strong earthy taste , like the juices inside the mushroom weren't cooked out... Except the problem is, the mushrooms were also starting to get dry, so I couldn't cook them any longer.

What made the difference the 2nd time around that the mushrooms tasted so bad, and how can I avoid dry / earthy-juice mushrooms in the future?

There are three possibilities:

Your mushrooms were bad, if they are a bit off the result isn't likely to be good
Your choice of mushroom was different, with a different flavor
Olive oil burns on high heat, creating off flavors. My money would be on this being your problem. Next time reduce the heat a bit if you want to use olive oil, or use a higher temperature oil like canola (rapeseed). You could also try a bit of water or stock, steak juices are mostly water, not fat, and that would reproduce the conditions of the pan more closely


Making Carbonara in Canada; what kind of cream should I use? I was making Carbonara today: bacon was getting crisp, tossed a bit of chopped shallot, some butter, till it was time to add the cream.
The closest I found at the store was half-and-half.
In front of my eyes, the cream broke - I'm still grieving for that bacon.

What went wrong? Is that the wrong kind of cream? was my temperature too high? how is the cream I should use called in Canada ?

thanks!

"Authentic" carbonara does not have cream.  It's made with just guanciale, egg (yolks and whites), pecorino romano, and black pepper.  Thanks to @GiuppeP for the clarification.

However, at least in the US (and, it appears, Canada) there is tremendous variation to what folks call "carbonara". What is more relevant to the question is technique.  Whether you choose to use cream or not, in either case, add egg white and cheese (or cream, or half and half...) gradually, and more importantly, off the heat and with some added pasta cooking water.  There is a bit of a knack to achieving the proper consistency.  If it breaks, no sweat.  It might not look pretty, but it is still fine to eat.


Substitute for bell peppers in meat dishes I recently became addicted to the taste of fried bell peppers (green specifically because that's what's cheapest) as an ingredient in meat dishes. However, in my area the price has doubled so I can't buy as many.

What are some things (if any) that can replicate the flavor (and the lack of spiciness) of bell peppers? Specifically I like to add them in beef and make sandwiches with cheese and onions.

Others are saying that bell peppers have no taste -- but I'd disagree.  The green ones have a kind of grassy quality to them.

Obviously, there's wheat grass, but I never have that around.  There might be some herbs that could pull it off (eg, flat leaf parsley; maybe taragon, but also gives a licorice note)

You might try some dark greens ... spinich, kale, swiss chard.  They've got a touch of other stronger flavors to 'em, but if you cook them down first, you might be able to tone them down some.  (I guess you might describe it as a 'spiciness' ... it can be a sharp flavor.

... for the texture, though, my first thought was bok-choy.  It's actually a cabage, and it has some dark green leaves, but the thicker white parts have that watery/crunchy quality that other people have mentioned about bell peppers, but there's that sharp cabbage note that might keep it from fitting your requirements.

update : okay, as the issue is specifically fried peppers, you're going to be bringing out the sweeter notes of the peppers, which you're not going to get from a cabbage.  Sweet onions might give some similar qualities (once fried well), as the cooking will mellow the oniony qualities, but the sugars will caramelize.

You can also try looking for jarred peppers -- they're usually packed in oil or a vinegar solution after being roasted.  There are 'hot' and 'sweet' varieties, where the hot ones also have some hot peppers in there.  The non-vinegared ones sweet ones might work for you.

Also, remember that bell peppers, like most vegetables are a seasonal item -- if you're in the north, it's the end of winter, so any peppers are being being grown in hot houses, or brought in from the southern hemisphere, which jacks the prices up.


How can I make failed fudge (hard and crumbly)? Growing up my mother would make my brother and I fudge that was hard and crumbly and we loved it. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized that was failed fudge. I was always disappointed when I got fudge elsewhere that was soft. I'd like to make fudge the way my mother did, but can't figure out how to ensure the fudge comes out hard and crumbly.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I confess to having never actually successfully made fudge (lazy, and until recently the local Wegmans sold it), but it sounds like you want your sugar to recrystallize. Normally that's strenuously avoided, but:

Required: Start with a traditional recipe, not one of the "easy fudge" recipes. The traditional ones start with heating a mainly-sugar mixture to soft ball stage (≈238°F). I found one site with a bunch (that I can't personally vouch for, but am tempted to try): Old Tyme Fudge Recipes.
Try taking the sugar past the soft ball stage. Maybe to firm ball, around 245°F. (This is a mistake I can easily see your mom having done, maybe because she didn't have a good candy thermometer).
Corn syrup is used in fudge (and caramel) recipes to help prevent crystallization. Use plain sugar instead. Same with acids like lemon juice in caramel (and presumably fudge); those should be omitted or substituted with water.
All those admonishments about not stirring once the sugar has dissolved? Probably best ignored. Any tricks about applying the lid to help dissolve any sugar on the side of the pan? Wouldn't bother.
Butter isn't known as a health food. More importantly, fat in the recipe helps prevent crystallization, so why not remove some? I can't bring myself to recommend margarine (or, worse, "spread"), but if you were to substitute, I expect spectacular failure. And of course you are using skim milk, right?
You could try lazyness, I mean all that stirring is tiring! (See "never successfully made fudge", above).
Worst case, brute force it: as the mixture cools, during that time when you're not supposed to stir, grab a teaspoon of sugar and stir it in.

I'm sure with a little experimenting, a touch of laziness, and some optimally bad recipes, you too can fail at fudge making. The hard part is going to be finding the exact texture you're going for—failure can range from a slight failure of "somewhat gritty" to a spectacular failure of "I think that's a jawbreaker."


How do I adjust the cooking time on a baked rice dish if I reduce the recipe by half? I want to make a rice dish that gets baked - a maqluba, but I want to make half the quantity of the recipe. Do I adjust the baking time? The recipe calls for simmering 30 mins, baking 30 mins, resting 10 mins. It uses raw (soaked) basmati rice. Calls for 1 and 2/3 cups of rice but I’ll cut that in half. I know I’ll need a smaller pot, too.

The recipe calls for simmering 30 mins, baking 30 mins, resting 10 mins.

This isn't quite an accurate representation of the recipe. The recipe calls for baking cauliflower and eggplant for 20 minutes each prior to assembly. Once assembled, the rice gets simmered for 30 minutes. Then the completed dish rests for 10 minutes.

The cook times will likely not be significantly affected by cutting the recipe in half.

The vegetables are oven roasted in a single layer on baking sheets. Because they are in a single layer, the roasting time will be consistent because the thickness will be consistent.
Rice generally takes 20-30 minutes to cook through, regardless of the volume. This is due to the time needed for the liquid to fully penetrate and hydrate the rice grains.

You may want to check both the phases of cooking about 5 minutes prior to the recipe cook times--but I'd likely recommend doing that even if cooking a full recipe.


Why don't other grain proteins behave like gluten? There are many excellent explanations here (and elsewhere) of what gluten "does."

What I haven't seen anywhere is an explanation of what makes gluten so special. Where do its marvelous elastic properties come from and why don't any other grain proteins (or any other proteins anywhere, for that matter) seem to have them?

Your question has two main parts, what's elastic about gluten, and why don't other plants have this unicorn we call a gluten protein. I'll provide some background info first, but feel free to skip ahead to the spoilers if you like.

Quick and dirty background on proteins...

All proteins (like gluten) are made of differing sequences, and number of about 20 or so basic amino acids(glutamine, lysine, cysteine, arginine, isoleucine, just to name a few). So when we talk about large proteins like gluten, it's sometimes hard to remember that chemically, we are talking about many-many amino acid (AA) molecules which link together. The way the AA's link together matters because, the chemical interactions create the overall larger shape, and helps determine the physical properties of the final protein.

If I didn't put you to sleep, or you want to geek-out on this stuff: resources regarding the secondary(bonding between AA's which creates alpha-helices and beta-pleated sheets), tertiary (AA side chain interactions and AA's backbone), and quaternary (3D) structures of proteins, pubmed is where you need to go.

Glutens and what they are:

Gluten is the main storage form of proteins in wheat.  Gluten itself is a fusion of glutenin and gliadin protein units which belong to the prolamin superfamily(prolamines are cool, look them up).

Gluten subunits fall into three broad categories:

High molecular weight (HMW) prolamines, (glutenin subunits) approximately 6-10% of protein
Sulfur-rich prolamins (approximately 70-80% of protein) which include: gamma-gliadins, alpha-gliadins, and the B- and C-type low molecular weight (LMW) subunits of glutenin
Sulfur-poor prolamins (approximately 10-20% of protein) include:
v-gliadins, and D-type LMW subunits of glutenin

Variances in the spread of these proteins contribute to the way wheat varietals are utilized commercially(like winter or summer wheats...you have seen the variations available to buy on store shelves).  The composition of gluten protein in  whatever wheat strain that's being used translates into differing physical properties(elasticity, density, etc) in the dough it makes.

Where do the elastic properties come from?

Elastic properties in gluten come from the way the components of the protein matrix interact with water.  The gluten proteins react with water in ways that other storage forms of protein cannot, namely in the swelling/hydration bit.  There are two things going on at the same time.  The gliadin sections of the gluten protein contribute to the friction with which the hydrating liquid is able to move around in and near the protein matrices(viscocity).  The glutenin portion of the molecule is responsible for the elasticity or strength of the protein matrix. Glutenin seems to undergo reversible (not as common as you'd hope) stretching because of the way it is folded.

Why don't any other grain proteins seem to have gluten?

I would like to point out this is more of a plant physiology/phylogeny question rather than one related to cooking.

They just don't have what it takes.

The way different plants create the storage form of their proteins is determined by their specific DNA sequences within the genome. AA Structure, order(N-C terminus) and final shape of the proteins created by the plant are a result of the transcription, translation and post-translational modifications of DNA sequences in the plant.

References for those that want them:(I did try to find free online ones)

Cereal seed storage proteins: structures, properties and role in grain utilization
http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/370/947.full.pdf+html

Wheat Gluten Functionality as a Quality Determinant in Cereal-Based Food Products
Annual Review of Food Science and Technology
Vol. 3: 469-492 (Volume publication date April 2012)
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-food-022811-101303

Distribution of gluten proteins in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) grain
http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/108/1/23.abstract

The formation and properties of wheat flour doughs
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10408399009527517

Wheat Protein Composition and Properties of Wheat Glutenin in Relation to Breadmaking Functionality
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10408690290825510


Why is my sugar in my recipe becoming gritty and dry after baking in the oven. This is something new for me I've been making these  dessert snacks for years. The last 2 times I've baked them, the sugar has come out gritty and the butter seems all absorbed. Very dry. My recipe calls for brown sugar, butter, and (added pecans after the boiling).
After boiling on the stove for 2 minutes this is poured onto graham crackers in a greased pan. Then it's baked at 350 degrees for 10 min. When I take them out it seems all moisture has been sucked out and everything falls apart and sugar is gritty.
I'm using a Convection oven, but I have done all of this the same way for almost 40 years and don't know what's going on.

I'm guessing this is for some type of fudge or praline?
There are a lot of variables that can change the crystallization of sugar when making a sugar syrup. Things like temperature, how clean your pot is, whether a wooden spoon is wet, how fast and when you stir, etc.
Using an interfering agent like butter or cream helps prevent the solution from creating large crystals. But even with those agents undissolved sugar or impurities can grow into large crystals.
Without seeing what you're cooking and how you're cooking it I can't give you a direct answer. But the best course of action you can take is to pay particular attention to cleaning and drying your pot, the implement you use to stir, and the complete dissolving of the sugar during the initial creation of the syrup.
This article has a lot of good information on sugar syrup and may point out something you're doing that could be done better.
https://www.finecooking.com/article/learn-how-to-control-crystallization-for-successful-sweets


Why did my soft tofu deflate? I froze some soft tofu cause it was halfway to expiration and I didn’t need it for a bit. I took it out to make mapo tofu and you usually simmer the tofu in warm water for a bit before you cook with it. So I did that then strained it and left it in the strainer while I assembled all the other ingredients. When I came back the tofu cubes I had cut were all completely flat. What happened?

I don't know for sure, but I have a theory.  Tofu contains a lot of water or soy whey.  Soft tofu contains even more than firm varieties.  This water is trapped in the cell structure of the soy proteins when they coagulated and were pressed together
Freezing causes water, which has now, of course become a solid, to expand. When you simmered you tofu in warm water, you very quickly thawed the tofu, rupturing the cell structure.
We know from examining the thawing of other frozen products, like chicken breast for example, that quick thawing leads to higher moisture loss than slow thawing in the refrigerator.
So, I think, in your case, you rapidly destroyed the structure that typically keeps the water in place.  The water left the tofu, and tofu flattened.


How do you get the smell of fish off your hands? (Especially the smell of smoked eel.)
I tried washing with soap, lemon juice, a metal spoon, but nothing really seems to work.
Washing with soap multiple times throughout the day will get it off eventually, but surely a better solution exists.

The fishy smell comes from amines - you want a low pH substance to take the smell away, like lemon juice or vinegar. Some brands of "shower cleaner" will do the trick.

Bicarbonate of soda absorbs "general" odors, but it is alkaline and not the best choice in this case.


Why is my Buckwheat soba noodle dough crumbling? I am trying to make Buckwheat noodles (Soba). The recipe involves nothing but buckwheat flour and water. I am failing to make the dough solid. It crumbles apart. I was trying to adjust it by adding more water or more flour, but it always crumbles. Could you give any advice on how to make it? I suspect it might be easier with different ingredients but it should be possible to make it with just buckwheat flour.

The crumbly texture is, apparently, quite common when working with an all buckwheat dough since it doesn't develop gluten - one of the reasons why many home-made soba noodle recipes use a percentage of wheat flour to make the dough easier to work with.

If you have your heart set on a buckwheat-only soba noodle, be aware this is a common problem.  You might try boiling water and rolling and cutting a little thicker so they don't end up so fragile, mentioned below.  I also saw that the brand of buckwheat flour may be important (using a Japanese style, rather than American style buckwheat flour, apparently makes a big difference).  Check that the flour type is correct, that may help.

Another recipe I saw "pre-soaked" the flour (making a dough with water and a bit of lemon juice, and letting sit under a wet cloth overnight) to give the dough time to hydrate the flour.  I'm not sure whether the lemon juice or the extra long resting time was the relevant factor, but she doesn't seem to have problems with the dough.

And the last suggestion I found involved "beating the buckwheat", that is, mechanically working the dough long enough for the water-soluble parts of the flour to dissolve into the dough and let it become elastic that way (this extra working may be related to the extra-hydrating time of the last hint, or perhaps actual, mechanical thumping might be helpful in working the dough - it is used in some kinds of recipes to make dough behave).

From an article I found, here:

  Not only does a dough of 100% buckwheat flour tend to crumble and break while you work it, but it also dries out incredibly quickly and the resulting noodles are very fragile. Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills recommends using boiling water when making soba with 100% buckwheat to gelatinize the buckwheat starches and help the dough hold together. Roll the dough a bit thicker than recommended in the recipe below, and once made, cook and eat the noodles immediately before they dry out.


Are there different flavours of cumin? I’ve recently cooked the same recipe with different batches of cumin.

The first time when I added the cumin it gave off a Middle Eastern / Indian scent, the second time it was more Mexican smelling.

Are there different varieties of cumin grown in Europe / Asia and America?

Cumin is related to the Parsley Family (surprise!) and is grown in many parts of the world. Therefore, depending on soil, rainfall, climate, fertilizers and other factors are likely to create subtle differences in the final seed flavors based upon where and how it is grown.  That all being said, it's the same plant wherever it is grown.

India has traditionally been the world’s leading commercial producer of cumin with 70% of the market, followed by Syria with 15% and Turkey with 5%. With the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East Syria and Turkey combined are now only producing about 10% of the world's total. India is now producing close to 80% of the cumin output.


I need to know how long to cook potatoes at 350*F So the directions say to cook at 400* F. I need to cook them at 350*F, how long should they be cooked for?

Whatever your book told you about cooking time, forget it. It will only work if you use the exact same size and shape potatoes as the book author, in an oven which has the exactly same deviation from the temp on the dial as the author's (I have to yet see an oven which doesn't deviate).

If you have a baking thermometer, set the alarm to 96 celsius, stick it into a potato and bake until it peeps. If you don't, you will have to check for doneness as James McLeod suggested. Luckily, you won't have much trouble if you overbake them, they will still be good. They will start breaking down if you hold them way too long, maybe half an hour after they got ready. But this means that you have a half an hour window of error.


Custard surface has tiny pockmarks when I use fruit pulp I have a custard recipe that I use for creme caramel (milk, eggs, sugar, salt). I have made thousands of creme caramels using this recipe. I use vanilla a lot but also use chocolate, coffee etc. When I try to use fruit pulp in the custard, the texture looks like it has small pockmarks across it - see pic). Even if I only use pulp weighing 10% of the whole recipe. I know I could get around this with extracts but I would rather use fruit puree if I can.

I have tried using a water bath and a steamer with the same result. I have tried blending the fruit into a puree prior to cooking, dissolving whole segments of fruit in cream as it warms, pushing pulp through a sieve prior to cooking, straining through cloth after cooking. The pock marks persist. Is there anything that can be done to smooth the surface out? The custards taste great, but I'm used to them looking flawless too. It has only ever happened when I use fruit puree. Love to hear suggestions.

The acid in the fruit is denaturing the egg proteins, creating this texture.

You cannot reuse the same ratios and temperatures for simple custard and for fruit custard. Find a different recipe which is explicitly made to work with fruit.


What is a good way to steam tamales without a "tamale steamer?" I am looking for ways to to cook large quantities of Tamales but I don't have a Tamale Steamer.  Anyone do this before with other standard kitchen gear?  I would rather not cook them in batches as the recipes call for 2-3 hours worth of steaming...

Alton Brown recommends steaming them right in a normal tall pot with a steamer insert (your typical expanding/contracting one many people have on hand), directly in their husks.  Basically, you put a couple inches of water in, and then a steamer insert, and the tamales (in the husks) go on top of the steamer.

You can find his recipe/method here.

You can also watch the episode on YouTube, go to about 4:45 in to see the tamales in the pot.

If you don't have a steamer insert of any kind, I would imagine you could fashion something out of aluminum foil without much problem.  The most important thing is that you keep the tamales out of the water.  In a pinch, an upside-down colander would work if you have a pot that's large enough to hold it.

Another (very low-tech) option is this hack, that basically uses a disposable aluminum pan to create the steamer/upside-down colander part of the rig.  This seems like a pretty easy, straightforward solution.

Edit: as Michael points out in the comments, this seems like it could be a huge mess.  I would recommend getting a disposable pie pan that's just smaller than your pot, poking holes in that, and putting it upside down in the pot like a steamer insert - seems a lot safer and more efficient than a large rectangle on top of the pot!


Can active dry yeast be substituted for a compressed yeast cake in baking? A "compressed yeast cake" is called for in each of my great-grandmother's bread recipes. Can I use active dry yeast as a substitution for one? If so, how much active dry yeast should I substitute per compressed yeast cake?

Yes, those cakes are typically 0.6 ounces, and when substituting you should use one packet of active dry yeast.


Freeze cookies before or after baking them? I need to make many batches of cookies for a party next Saturday, and I would like to start baking them now. To make sure they're still tasting fresh six days later, I want to take advantage of my freezer.

I can find advice all over the internet on how to freeze dough for baking later, and how to freeze cookies after baking, but not much on which is better! Should I bake first then freeze, or freeze now and bake the day before?

(The specific recipes are snickerdoodles, peanut butter, and chocolate chip; if you need more details to judge freezer-appropriateness, please let me know.)

If the oven time is not a limiting resource, I would freeze and then bake.

There are a number of sources that strongly advocate for aging cookie dough before baking, which affects the absorption of moisture in the dough and changes flavor:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/09chip.html

Personally, I normally do not have the patience for aging dough. If I am making cookie dough, I want to bake it and eat it immediately. You, however, have the time built in to age your dough before baking. You may even want to leave the dough in the refrigerator for awhile first before freezing.

Also, I think cookie freshness suffers more after baking than before, but I don't have references for that.


How to maintain a smooth seasoning on carbon steel skillets? I have two carbon steel skillets from De Buyer. They are no stainless steel skillets so I have to season them. I did this with the flaxseed oil method (apply a thin coat of oil, then eat on the stove burner (not oven for me) until it smokes a lot. Wait and redo it 5-6 times.)

Just after seasoning my skillets are perfect (black and with a smooth surface). But when I start cooking a steak, the seasoning is deteriorating. Indeed, I use to add some olive oil before my meat. In the part of the pan where there is no meat, the olive oil polymerizes and create some ugly and sticky bubbles. I cannot remove these hard oil bubbles when cleaning with salt and hot water.

So, every time I cook something with requires high heat (like steak), the oil I added just before the food is polymerizing and ruins my smooth seasoning. On my older skillet, the surface is no smooth at all anymore.

How can I avoid this and maintain a smooth seasoning?
How can I remove the oil bubbles?

Here is the kind of skillet I have (I took the picture from Internet):

Here is one of mine skillet. It is the new one and I use it only a couple of times. The surface is still smooth but you can see on the top the formation of oil bubbles:

Here is my older skillet. As you can see the surface is not smooth at all:

It looks like your pan needs a hard cleaning and a re-seasoning. I run into this about once every 2-3 months (depending on how much I use it).

My tried and true method is to break some rules at this quarterly cleaning. I'll scrub with an abrasive scotch-brite, SOS Pads or similar scrubbing pad. During this time I often use about a quarter cub of baking soda, and towards the end I'll even use a little bit of dawn dish soap to make sure I've removed all of the particles, which amount to fine iron filings.

I've even resorted to very high grit sand paper to even out some areas in very serious issues on my handle. Now it's important to rinse and dry the pan COMPLETELY.

I then carefully rub crisco (less smokey than lard) all over EVERY surface of the now shiny and smooth pan.

Then, invert pan in oven over a baking sheet or foil to catch any mess, and bake the pan at 500F for  roughly an hour or two, or until it is uniformly black.

If you have access to a clean, wood burning put, that's what my grandmother swore by, but I find the 500F oven more consistent.

I am not certain if this would work for your high carbon steel pan pictured in the first photo though. I would read up on that.


How does gelatin interact with grease (fat)? I made an escalivada (eggplant, red pepper and onion in the oven, peel, cool) yesterday, and today I've added gelatin to make a nice presentation.

I used about 5gr of gelatin for 150ml heated 'escalivada juice (lots of olive oil)'.

The result was all right, but the top layer stayed liquid. The rest stayed together.

Any idea as to why the top layer stayed liquid? Does the olive oil affect the gelatin?

Gelatin works by creating a very fine mesh of proteins, between which the (hidrophilic) liquid gets trapped.

A mixture of fat and water isn't a liquid. It can be either a rough two-phase mixture, with visible fat droplets swimming around in the water, or it can be an emulsion, with invisibly small fat droplets dispersed through the water. Emulsions appear smooth, e.g. milk.

When you try to use gelatine on the mixture, two things can happen. In an emulsion, the fat droplets can be smaller than the protein mesh. Then they get trapped as well as the water, and the result is gelled emulsion, just like you'd expect.

But if you have big globules of fat, they can't be trapped between the proteins. So it looks like they got squeezed out of the mesh and bubbled up to the surface, if it hadn't been there all along. On the surface, gelatine molecules couldn't find each other between globules of fat to crosslink, or maybe the motion of the globules broke any nascent links in the small amount of water between them, so it couldn't gel. So the conclusion is: you can't set soup/stew with gelatine. (I know that concentrated stock hardens from its own gelatine, but it has the fat filtered out first).

On the practical side, if you want to have thick stew juice, you have to use something else than gelatine. It is probably simplest to create an olive oil based roux with the stew juice. Or you can gel with xanthan. Both will result in a "juice" which is creamy, instead of solid wobbly blocks of juice, with xanthan retaining the authentic taste and a roux-based sauce being a novel variation.

If it is real jelly you are after, you'll have to emulsify first and use gelatine after that. Xanthan itself should emulsify well, or you can probably use lecithine. AFAIK, there is no problem to use lecithine and gelatine together, but somebody with more experience in gelling agents should confirm that. In any case, emulsifying will lead to your liquid getting quite opaque. This is inavoidable, as it has to do with the way the collection of individual micro fat droplets break and reflect light rays.


If pickling destroys Vitamin C, how is Sauerkraut rich in Vitamin C? My understanding is that pickling destroys Vitamin C. However, apparently Sauerkraut is very rich in Vitamin C and is used by the German Navy to offset scurvy. What am I missing here?
Because early sailors suffered from scurvy and I must assume they brought preserved fruits and vegetables with them but that wasn't enough (or maybe they didn't? But if they did not I do not know why unless Europeans did not know about pickling but that seems unlikely). What is it about Sauerkraut that is different?

Vitamin C is destroyed by heat and light. If you use a preservation method that relies on heating the sauerkraut at any stage (hot pickling liquid, water bath or pressure canning the jars) then some vitamin C is destroyed. Exactly how much depends on the process: not all vitamin C is lost immediately so different processes will have different amounts of vitamin C left. And if you use a preservation method that doesn't rely on heat like lacto-fermentation, no vitamin C is lost to heat (some may be lost to light, depending on how you store it).


What shape is a French omelette and how is it achieved? I've seen them shaped like a rugby ball (but longer) but geometrically can't see how a circle can be folded into such a shape.

I've also ordered French omelettes from menus before and they weren't pinched in at the ends.

Is there a classic shape, or is a French omelette just one that is not set as much with no browning?

There isn't a standardised shape as such, but the rugby ball shape is common. To achieve this shape, all you have to do is cook your omelette (French style uses a super-hot pan and lots of butter), then roll three quarters of it up in the pan.

Then nudge the omelette up the side of the pan a little, so that it partly protrudes over the edge, which will then allow you to flip the remaining quarter back over onto the rest of the omelette. You should now have a rugby ball shape with a 'seam', i.e. the edge of the omelette - simply turn this out so the 'seam' is on the plate and you have a nice smooth omelette showing on top.


Why prevent apples from turning brown? It's somewhat well-known that applying an acidic solution to sliced apples prevents them from turning brown as quickly.  I believe that the primary motivation to prevent the "browning" is aesthetic: slightly brown apples don't appear as appetizing as bright white ones.

Is there any other reason to do this?

This page on the subject of apple-browning states:

  When an apple is cut, it releases an enzyme called polyphenol oxydase. This copper-based compound breaks down in the presence of oxygen, acting both as an antibacterial agent and as a deterrent to animals. This is what forms the brown coating on the apple.

The Wikipedia entry for food browning refers to the browning of apples as "undesirable" but is without qualification, and the entry for polyphenol oxidase says nothing about its properties other than colour, and I couldn't find any additional explanation of the "antibacterial" properties of browned apples, and what that actually means.

My question is two-fold:

Is apple-browning undesirable for any non-aesthetic reason, such as affecting taste, or any property other than colour?
When people apply a solution to apples to make them "last longer", how should I read this?  Does this simply mean "will brown slower", or is there something else to it?

I found that when I dry apple slices (usually early dessert apples) that there is no noticeable difference in the finished product - except of course the colour. I went so far as to have people blind-test them, nobody could tell between acid-treated and "natural" dried apples with statistical significance.


How do I cook with bay leaves? I am an amateur hobbyist cook. So a lot of the time I will toss in a dash of something, taste the dish, and add a bit more. Experimenting sometimes with disastrous results... but I learn :)

One spice that I am having a hard time figuring out is the bay leaf. I use it when called for, and have sometimes experimented with it, but I can't seem to place the "effect" it has on the dish.

So my questions:

What is the general flavor of a bay leaf, is there a dish that exemplifies this?
How long do I need to cook with a bay leaf before it has an effect?

I think part of my quandary is that I can't simply add some to a sauce, stir it in, and taste it to see the difference. Am I wrong to believe that it takes awhile to permeate the dish?

I don't know how you would describe the flavor of bay--I would call it a subtle savoriness, with a complex aroma.

Bay is very tough--almost sharp.   It is generally not eaten directly.  Instead, the whole leaf (or several whole leaves) are put into a dish or sauce to cook with it, then removed prior to service.

The shortest recipe I have for using bay is in a rice pilaf while it cooks, which is 15-30 minutes depending.   I am not aware of an upper time limit.

Here is a Miami Herald article offering some other perspectives on using bay leaves:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/30/2823923/cooking-with-bay-leaves.html

As they Herald points out, many folks prefer Turkish bay rather than California bay, because it has a more complex, subtle flavor.

. . .

I believe custard in Britain had bay as a traditional ingredient--you might make a custard with a single bay leaf to get some sense of what it tastes like without lots of competing strong flavors.

. . .

Update:  Serious Eats Food Lab has just published an article, What is the point of bay leaves? with lots of good information that may be of interest.


small, medium or large eggs When I buy eggs, I have trouble deciding which size is the best value.

Does any one have any tips?

It depends on the time of year (and, of course, sales).

One book I read said that since many chicken farmers raise extra birds to be slaughtered around holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are the big ones), often they'll have shortages of smaller eggs (which often come from smaller chickens) around those times. Since USDA regulations give a minimum weight for egg types, but not a maximum, the chicken farmers tend to fill out orders with larger eggs. You can always weigh the eggs in a pack of small or medium eggs to see if they are actually that size or larger.

According to the USDA standards (see page 29 of the document), the minimum weights for a dozen eggs are:

Jumbo: 30 oz.
Extra Large:  27 oz.
Large: 24 oz.
Medium: 21 oz.
Small: 18 oz.
Peewee: 15 oz.

(It's a bit more complicated than that, since they actually weigh them by a lot case, which is 30 dozen eggs. But that's close enough for most purposes.)

You can actually figure out per egg cost at home based on circulars, and then weigh at the supermarket to see if the eggs are truly what they're labeled or if they're running big in that lot.


Baking pizza without an oven How can I bake a pizza without an oven (or any other fancy stuff, so no suggesting of charcoal, sun oven, and so on).

Just using a plain heating element on the bottom, like a burner, what are the alternatives? What is better than a pizza on the frying pan?

Can I put a pizza stone on a burner, or would the direct heat crack it?

Placing a pizza stone directly on a burner will likely lead to cracking. If you are limited to stove-top cooking, there are two routes that you might use to make pizza.

First option, steal some of the techniques used for making grilled pizza:

Preheat a large skillet medium-high with its lid in place.
Cook the crust on one side, flip it over, then place the toppings while the second side cooks.
Cover the pizza after it has been topped.

Second option, use (or improvise) a dutch oven:

Preheat a large cast iron skillet or dutch oven over medium-high either with its lid
in place, or heat the lid on a separate burner.
Stretch the dough inside a pie tin and up it's sides.
Top with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, etc.
Place 4 wads of aluminum foil in dutch oven to raise pie
tin off bottom.
Set pizza in dutch oven and cook.

In either case you will be limited to making fairly small pizzas.
Keep your crust relatively thin.  A thick crust is going to burn before it is fully cooked inside.  It may also be beneficial to pre-cook as many of your toppings as possible prior to placing them on the pizza.


What can I substitute for radish when making kimchi? I want to try the recipe but could not get radish.

Jicama. It has the same kind of crunch and taste is also subtle.


Breadmaker bread not remaining fresh long enough I have an issue with the bread we make in our bread maker. My wife claims it is not fresh enough to eat if it is more than 1 day old; however, she will eat shop brought bread that is 2 days old. This leads to the birds in our garden getting fat!

Is there a way to make (or keep) the bread so it is perceived by my wife to be fresh so we can use it on a 2nd day?

I assume you're trying to extend shelf life for a couple of days, not weeks. One possibility is dough enhancers, many of which improve shelf life. Most can be very easily incorporated into an existing bread machine recipe.

There are a variety of possibilities, and you can also buy commercially available dough enhancers that combine various helpful additives for you. I'd personally buy a dough enhancer formulation first, see if it made a difference in how my spouse liked the results, and then start experimenting with other (less expensive!) additives such as lecithin, gluten, powdered ginger, potato flakes, buttermilk, or more.

Searching for "dough enhancer recipe" brings up lot of suggestions which I can't personally vouch for, so I won't include one here :)

Changing the storage method can also help improve the longevity of a loaf. This is covered in another question; suggestions include covering the cut end (moisture escapes more easily there than from the crust), and pre-slicing and freezing the portion you know you won't get to.


What milk and yoghurt is the best for mango lassi? What amount (percentage) of fat does the typical plain yoghurt and a typical milk has? Or what is the best milk and yoghurt to prepare a mango lassi?

I'd like to prepare a typical mango lassi, based on a recipe given on of the mango pulp's cans:

But, I don't know, what exactly plain yoghurt and milk (percentage of fat) means here?

Here, where I live (Poland), we have at least four types of yoghurt, based on fat amount:

0.0%,
1.8% or 2.0%,
3.0% and
10.0% Greek style.

But, we call them all plain yoghurt, because "plain" means no sugar and no fruit-like additions.

We also have at least four types of milk, also based on fat amount:

0.0%,
0.5%,
1.5% or 2.0%,
3.2% and
3.8%.

What would be the best yoghurt and milk for the mango lassi preparation?

So far (until I found the above recipe) I've been using a much simpler recipe of mango pulp + plain yoghurt, without milk and water. And I have used following combinations:

pulp + 1.8% yoghurt in 1:1.5 proportions,
pulp + 10.0 Greek style yoghurt in 1:1 proportions.

In both cases the results were not the best (meaning: the final product was tasty, but far from what is served in Indian restaurant).

It all depends on taste [of course].

Lower fat milk & yoghurt are sharper, more tangy, almost 'lemony'.
High fat are rich, smooth & creamy.

So, start with 'How tart do you like your lassi?' & work from there.

Personally, I like lassi to have some 'bite' to it, so I'd go for zero-fat yoghurt & probably what in the UK would be called semi-skimmed milk, around 2% fat - but that may have more to do with it being the one we always have in the fridge than any other consideration.

I'd say if you want a 'smoother' feel to it, increase fat content on both, but be prepared to have to thin it down further to achieve a drinkable consistency.

BTW, don't use set yoghurt ;)

Yoghurt itself varies in acidity between varieties even at the same fat content, so you have the additional task of figuring out which brand gives the best start-point.
I can't really recommend any particular brand as I doubt they sell my usual Lancashire Farm in Poland ;) but I'd always pick a large independent who look like they might actually care over one of the major multinationals.
An additional factor is that you can now get zero fat Greek yoghurt… which completely breaks the standard pattern of lower-fat == more acidic.


How to make entrecôte steaks on a grill? How should a piece of quite fatty entrecôte beef be prepared on a grill?

How thick should the steaks be?
Which spices should I use?
For how long and how hot? (Well the temperature is hard to control after burning a pile of wood)
Is there / what is the point in putting the steaks in tinfoil after grilling?

Thickness of the steak is really personal preference. There is no "right" answer. The thicker it is, the easier it is to get a nice rare to medium rare in the middle with a good crust on the outside. The thinner it is, the easier it is to get the center well done without turning the outside to charcoal. I personally like my steak between 1.5 and 2 inches.

Spices are in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I'd just put salt and pepper on it. Depending on the quality of the meat, I may put some Worcestershire Sauce on it. Or maybe Soy, if it's an asian dish. Stay simple though. The flavor of the meat should shine through, so don't overly spice it.

Ideally you want a two level fire to cook steak on a charcoal grill. One side should be as hot as you can get it. Sear for 2-3 minutes per side over the hottest portion of the fire. The second level of the fire should be medium hot. Move the steak over once it's seared to finish cooking. Keep the grill lid down for the second portion. If you have a gas grill, just set one burner as hot as it will go and one on medium. Cooking over a medium heat will allow you to finish the steak without over doing the outside. Time depends entirely on how thick the steak is, temp of your grill, and how you want it done. Learn to tell "done" by feel rather than time or get a thermometer.

When the steak is done, you need to let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Otherwise, when you cut in to them, you lose a lot of flavorful juice. Resting allows the meat to retain the juice. Wrapping in tinfoil while it's resting will help it retain some of it's heat and be a bit warmer when you serve it.


Is plastic saying "dishwasher safe" safe on both shelfs or only on the top shelf? I have some new plastic "Thermos" brand drink ware that says "Dishwasher Safe". If it doesn't Say "Top Rack Only", can I put on the bottom if the top rack is full? I generally wash all plastic up top, but when space is gone, I would like to utilize the bottom.

Any thoughts?

The reason some products are marked "Top Rack Only", is because many dishwashers have the heating element situated at the bottom of the interior, in close proximity to the bottom rack. It looks and acts much like the heating element in an electric oven.

Typically, this heater comes on during the final rinse cycle, to boost the water temperature. It also comes on during the dry cycle, to "bake" the dishes dry. Items placed on the bottom rack will therefore be exposed to a more intense heat than on the top rack, so things made of plastic can melt or deform.

Your dishwasher likely has options for "temperature boost" and "heated dry". If you turn both off, the heating element will probably not come on. Alternatively, try to place your container in the center of the bottom rack, in such a way that it's as far as possible from the heating element. If you use heated dry, take it out before that cycle begins, and/or check on it during the dry cycle


the oil I put in cake mix is old The oil I used in a cake mix was old & made the batter taste like old oil. Is there a salvage or is it ruined?

It's ruined - what goes in is what comes out


How can I deduce at what angle my knife should be sharpened against glass stone? First is to pay attention to the angle. Unless the knife is badly worn and needs some serious grinding, you should use a slightly steeper angle than the original edge.

Can you please indicate on my picture where "the original edge" is? What does "original edge" mean?

How do I calculate the "original edge"  of WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife?  Do I need a protractor?

At what angle ought the knife meet my Glass Stone? Please specify a number.

The "sharpening angle" of a knife is the angle between the sharpening surface and the blade. The 'original edge' is the angle at which the knife has been sharpened previously. Sharpening at close to/slightly below this angle will make sharpening the blade easiest, as you don't have to work hard to change the angle (which requires moving more material from the knife).
I could not find any info on the factury angle for the knife you mention, but most Western-style chef's knives are sharpened at an angle of about 20 degrees. Note that this is a "double-bevel" knife, so the angle will be about 20 degrees on both sides of the blade. See for example this page for some graphics and more info.
The original angle is not something you calculate. Either you find reliable information from the manufacturer, or you have to somehow approach this angle by trial and error. A 'trick' that I've seen some knife sharpeners do is to 'drag' the blade over the sharpening stone, slowly decreasing the angle until there is a change in how much friction you feel.


How do I roll or wrap up pasta into a log-like shape for presentation? How do I roll or wrap up pasta into a log-like shape for presentation?

Example 1, Example 2, Example 3

Do they use some kind of tool to wrap the pasta around?

The answer is in your third picture -- chopsticks.

Grab the bunch with the chopsticks, twirl it around, then slide the chopsticks out.


Is Russian Kale suitable for freezing? I have a lot of Russian kale and would like to know if there is a way to keep around for a couple of months?

As described at Pick Your Own, you can freeze kale like any green.  The technique is fairly similar to many vegetables:

Clean the greens, and remove the toughest parts of the stemps.
Blanche briefly in boiling water, then shock in an ice water bath to halt the cooking
Drain and dry.
Freeze, perhaps in a zip-type freezer bag.


Why does broiled and roasted salmon give these different results? I ordered roasted and broiled(grilled) salmon form the restuarant and noticed both products tasted quite different. I don't have a great digestive system but noticed that the roasted salmon agreed with me more than the broiled salmon.  I want to understand what was it about the specific cooking methods that gave the different end products.

Broiled slamon
The sides were crispy and quite browned.  The fish didn't have the natural flavour of salmon/seemed to have lost it.  The oil tasted greasy and mechanical if that makes any sense.

Roasted Salmon
It was not browned or crispy like the broiled.  It tasted like normal salmon i.e. similar to poached salmon.  Oily was present but not greasy/mechanical tasting like the broiled salmon.

Basically the roasted tasted closer to poached salmon.  However I read that roasted salmon is to be done at 450f and this would brown it just like grilled.

My guess is that they roasted the salmon was done at a low tempertare and for a short time hence the slamon retained its juices, didn't get too processed.  The broiled salmon was probably done very high and also the smoke may have gone in the meat or something to that effect.  I want to understand what happened.

I have no idea what happened but based on the cooking methods can you explain why the broild and roasted salmon gave the different results?
If it was due to low temperature and short time as I am guessing, wouldn't I then be able to grill at a low temperature and for a short time and create the same result as with the roasted salmon? Or would the fact that I am broiling still cause other chemical differences in the meat even at low temp and low duration broiling?

Roasting doesn't really imply a specific temperature. The roasted salmon you've had might've been done at 450F, or perhaps a lower temperature. Either way, it doesn't require tons of browning. You don't want to overcook salmon, so you'll cook it until it's cooked through, and even at 450F, that doesn't necessarily mean a ton of browning. If it's on a bare metal pan with plenty of room for juices to get out and evaporate, it'll brown more; if it's in a crowded pan that has water in it most of the roasting time, it might brown a bit on top and none on the bottom.

Broiling, however, basically always means high temperatures. The air temperature might be 500-550F, but there's radiant heat too, and the food is close to the heat source, so it can brown easily and rapidly. On top of that, the main heat is coming from the top, so by the time it cooks through, it can easily brown on the top. Getting things crispy and browned is one of the main points of broiling.

So no, I would not expect roasting to have as much browning as broiling would. If your goal is not to brown too much, then just don't use a broiler - bake/roast at some "normal" oven temperature.

(As for "greasy and mechanical", I don't know - you could've been tasting burned oil, or maybe there was some other variable besides the broiling.)


Are there any substitutes for honey when trying to activate yeast? Are there any substitutes for honey when trying to activate yeast?  I have a bottle of corn syrup and was wondering if I could just use that.

Yes you can use 3/4 cup (180 ml) of light/dark corn syrup:

You can use any of the following substitutions:

1 cup of honey
3/4 cup (180 ml) maple syrup plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) light or dark corn syrup plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) light molasses plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1 1/4 cups (250 grams - 265 grams) granulated white or brown sugar plus 1/4 cup (60 ml) additional liquid in recipe plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Courtesy of Joy Of Baking


Making Chinese chicken-and-broccoli sauce I love the sauce you get on that take-out dish, and I want to make it myself. From all the places I've ordered it, it tastes relatively the same, yet several recipes online show big differences. So I compiled a list of the most common ingredients to these recipes. My question is, which of these are nonessential to the standard recipe: Soy sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame oil, hoison sauce, dry sherry (Chinese cooking wine), and chicken stock.

Think of Soy sauce, sugar, garlic, rice wine (or sherry) as the basic formula for that kind of sauce. Stock will help round things out, you can experiment with other stocks (vegetable, shiitake...). Mind that green onions (Not mixed into the sauce but used in the preparation; and often ginger and some hot pepper and/or white pepper) also are common in stir fry sauces like that.

(Toasted) sesame oil and hoisin sauce are more of add-on aromatic flavors. Both are potent and can be overdone easily.

Keep in mind that light and toasted sesame oil is not at all the same - usually toasted is intended. Also, add toasted sesame oil late, do not burn it by cooking it down with the sauce or even using it to saute in.


Burned Cookies - Now what? I made Cookies and they are burned at the bottom.

What can I do to remove the burned layer without destroying the cookies and keeping as much as possible from the good parts?

I was thinking of sand paper but I fear this leaves a taste from the "sand" and may be even not healthy.

First off, do not use sand paper. The sandpaper grit will wear off over use (which is it's function) and possibly remain in the dough. You don't want anyone eating sand paper grit, and I'm not even sure what it would do. It might even be a hospital-level problem if the grit gets embedded in any digestive tract tissues and causes inflammation. Ugg. Please don't.

If you have a mandolin slicer and the cookies are soft enough, you could set it up on a very thin setting and slide the cookies across the bottom, shaving off a tiny bit.

I like the sandwich idea above.


What's (really) the difference between fruit and vegetables? I was wondering what's (really) the difference between fruit and vegetables. Obviously I can name different fruits and vegetables, but if you ask me what's really the distinguishing factor, I wouldn't know.

Things that I think may be the difference are:

Taste: sweet or not
Historical reasons
Whether it is mostly eaten raw or cooked/baked

But for all of the above there seem to be some fruits/vegetables, for which it isn't clear under which category they fall. So, what's the difference between them?

Thanks in advance.

There is no real black and white definition of that difference, because where the line is drawn varies from crowd to crowd.

  Botanically speaking, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant, whereas vegetables are all other plant parts, such as roots, leaves and stems. By those standards, seedy outgrowths such as apples, squash and, yes, tomatoes are all fruits, while roots such as beets, potatoes and turnips, leaves such as spinach, kale and lettuce, and stems such as celery and broccoli are all vegetables.

  The outlook is quite different in culinary terms, however. A lot of foods that are (botanically speaking) fruits, but which are savory rather than sweet, are typically considered vegetables by chefs. This includes such botanical fruits as eggplants, bell peppers and tomatoes.

You can find the whole article HERE, including this nice graph that I think nicely illustrates things.


Smoking a pig at 225 F vs barbecuing one at 250F? I have seen many posts that say smoking a pork shoulder at 225F to an internal temperature of 195F  will take 15 hours. I have also seen many posts that say you can barbecue a 90 pound whole hog at 250F in an above ground pit in 6-7 hours. How can this be possible? Both shoulders are whole, not cut up. Can 25F really make that much of a difference in cooking times?

You may want to check out the following pages:

What Influences Cooking Time

Thermodynamics of Cooking

Using their methods, I have not had a shoulder take 15 hours to come to temperature at a smoker temperature of 225 (computer-controlled). I have never done whole hog, but as Jefromi stated the actual method of cooking makes a significant difference. The Hawaiian imu (the bury-it-in-the-ground style of cooking using the retained heat from sand and rocks that were under the coals) is a much more efficient way to rapidly transfer the heat to the meat than using air to conduct the heat, and forced convection from the blower in my smoker is more efficient than natural convective currents. If my smoker did not have the blower it would take longer to get the meat to temperature, but I still don't think it would take 15 hours for a shoulder.

Whole hog weight versus time at 250 degrees:

40 pounds: 3.5 hours
75 pounds: 9 hours
100 pounds: 12 hours
125 pounds: 15 hours
150 pounds: 18 hours
175 pounds: 21 hours
200 pounds: 24 hours

From Goin' Whole Hog

AmazingRibs.com is essentially a peer-reviewed barbecue site. They don't publish a recipe until it has been tested multiple times and is nearly foolproof. They also bust some of the barbecue myths that have been spread for generations. I am not affiliated with it other than donating some money to them due to their high-quality articles.


Why does my "dulce de leche" look like this? So I tried making dulce de leche, I've poured
1.5 litres of milk, 500g sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

I've waited for it to create foam that'll touch the rims and made sure the sugar is dissolved.

I lowered the heat and kept on stirring.

it's important to mention that I did not see at any given time that it went to the brownish color with the actual dulce de leche texture.

It felt like it went from beige to burnt brown without anything in between.

does anyone know why it happend?

I tried it again with fewer amounts and it came out perfectly (also added baking soda) as I also waited the right amount of time after it turned brown(i think it was about 5-10 mins).
and constantly took a sample to see how thick it is.
thanks for your help!


How to correct bitterness in blended homemade salsa? Anybody know what might work to correct the bitterness I got from Blendtec blending fresh tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and garlic salsa?

If the problem is just a little bitterness on the tongue, salt is usually the best foil. If you can find out where the bitterness came from by sampling other pieces of your raw ingredients, you can try upping the ratio of other ingredients to temper it.

Advice more specific than that would require a crystal ball, I'm afraid. If it's really quite noticeable, then you're probably better off making a new batch with new ingredients.

Good luck!


Preserving colour of vegetables in Chinese hakka noodles I typically need to cook dinner a couple of hours before dinner time. When I make Chinese hakka noodles, the vegetables (beans, carrot, capsicum etc.) lose their bright colours by the time noodles go on the plates. All the vegetables look very dull. Is theer any way to stop this discolouration?

It's quite a simple technique actually, called blanching. You just need to:

Dip the vegetables in boiling water for a short time (10-20 seconds)
Immediately transfer them to ice-water (or cold/running water, if you don't have ice), to stop them from cooking with the carry-over heat. (This is also called shocking), and seperate.
Later, just before serving, combine and heat the vegetables back to the serving temperature.


Is it normal for my pan to start smoking? There was only oil in it and there is no smoke when I cook in other pans. Also the heat was medium and I'm afraid if I turn the heat any lower that my meal will be under-cooked

Different oils have different smoke points. If your oil is smoking it's simply too hot.

I'm assuming you're using fresh oil. Oil that has broken down because it's been reused (after frying, e.g.) or because it's older and has not been stored properly may have a lower smoke point and will most likely be rancid. Always store your oil away from heat, light, and air.

The smoke point of an oil won't change based on the pan, but some pans conduct differently from others, so it's possible that a cast iron pan, for example, may cause oil to smoke faster than a carbon steel pan does, simply because the cast iron pan is getting hotter where your flame or burner is (cast iron does not conduct heat evenly).

Depending on what you're cooking you generally want to heat your pan first then put in the oil when the pan is at the right temperature and then put the food in. If you're cooking with cast iron it's best to heat up your pan on low or medium for a while (several minutes) to let it heat evenly and then put in the oil then the food. If you're searing steak you want the pan ripping hot. One good trick with cast iron is to heat it in the oven then transfer it to the stove top for your searing.

If you provide more information about what oil you're using, what kind of pan, what kind of heat source, and what you're cooking, people here I'm sure will provide additional helpful answers for you.


Butter clarifying mixing mistake During the making of clarified butter, I mistakenly mixed the oil and protiens in the pot with a wooden spoon. So I have an emulsion now. I was thinking, that the oil and the rest will separate anyway, but it is not the case, it is just an emulsion.

Is there a way, how to still separate the oil and the rest, so I can grab the oil and have clarified butter?

Try straining it out through a fine mesh strainer.


Can one tell the different sources of dashi by taste? Dashi can be made from several sources, including bonito, kombu and shiitake mushroom being the most common ones. (I've been to one Japanese resturant where their udon broth is made of white button mushroom.)

I understand that the main taste of dashi is umami (glutamic acid and inosinic acid). Aside from umami, is it possible to taste the difference? Would it be possible to teach someone to tell the source by tasting? Also, will the different sources cause different types of allergies?

For this question, let's suppose the dashi had been used as the broth for a plain Udon - no other ingredients, just the Udon and the dashi.

(I'm asking this question from the perspective of a diner, so maybe my question is not suitable for this site. If this is the case, I apologize and close this question.)

Thanks.

Sure, it's really not that difficult if you've actually tasted several kinds of dashi-jiru. It's more a matter of experience. There is decidedly a flavor to each category of dashi; it's not just "umami" or you would be able to get away with just throwing in a bunch of MSG into a bowl of water. But the flavor is mostly from aroma, like with other types of soup stock, since you haven't added any of the basic "tastes" other than the kombu and occasionally residual salt from the dried fish at the point the dashi is made.

At home, I often make a vegetarian one with kelp and porcini, sometimes with added cabbage; this the closest I've been able to come to the katsuo-dashi taste without actually using fish ingredients. It's a variation of a more standard Japanese kombu-dashi that's made with kombu and sometimes dried shiitake, but works for a broader range of dishes than the shiitake or minimalist kombu-dashi.

In practice, the main categories of dashi are these:

Katsuo-dashi: Made with dried, cured skipjack tuna (aka bonito), and shaved. It has a slightly bitter taste. It is best made with the addition dried kombu. Tastes richer with either thicker shavings of katsuo-bushi or just-before-cooking shaving, when possible.
Niboshi-dashi: Made with small dried whole fish (sometimes with heads removed, sometimes not, depending on the type of fish). Generally has a more pungent, richer flavor. There are several potential kinds of fish used and there was once substantial regional variation in this category, so the taste can vary quite a bit depending on the exact fish variety and how the fish was cured.
Kombu-dashi: Made just with kombu, usually for adding a little bit of aroma and complexity to simple dishes, but rarely for soups, except for nabemono, where you'd typically have additional seafood or meats in the hot-pot. (I usually lump kombu-shiitake or kombu-porcini dashi in this category, but for no particular reason).
Tori-dashi or gara-dashi: Made with chicken or other fowl bones. Except for fact that mirepoix isn't usually in the Japanese equivalent of this, so you won't have the celery base, it's similar to a typical Western-style chicken broth.
Ton-kotsu-dashi, made with pork bones. Generally pretty hearty and full of fat.

Dashi is the analog to a soup stock, so it generally does not have added salt. Accordingly, you won't serve a straight dashi with an udon; you'd turn it into a broth, generally called "kakejiru". This will contain added salt, shoyu, and usually some combination of sugar, sake and/or mirin.

Before you put salt in it, you'll mostly "smell" a difference. After that, you can certainly at least distinguish between katsuo and kombu dashi, and with a little practice, you can distinguish between niboshi-dashi and katsuo-dashi. For me, the difference between katsuo-dashi and the instant "hon-dashi" is usually not subtle; the hon-dashi is a bit aggressive and harsh to my taste, but not everyone feels that way. (For what it's worth, I'm as close as practical to being a vegetarian for someone who regularly dines out in Japan). Tonkotsu-dashi and tori-dashi are somewhat rarely used in home cooking (though there are some exceptions in west Japan and Okinawa), but the taste difference is pretty obvious.

I actually tend to prefer niboshi-dashi over katsuo-dashi, but it depends on the type of fish. There's a dried sardine from Korea that I find a little harder to stomach when used in dashi.

I can't speak to allergies, but I suppose it's possible that different types of fish may cause some people to react differently. I suppose you'd have to ask an allergist.


Masking the grass flavor of green tea I would like to start drinking green tea regularly.

Unfortunately I am much more of a coffee drinker than a tea drinker.  On top of my general apathy towards tea I happen to think that green tea in particular tastes rather like grass.  This seems worse when I oversteep it, but I pretty much always taste an unpalatable flavor.  I have even experienced this flavor with green tea that contains other herbs for other flavor notes.  Since I have good reasons for drinking green tea at the moment, I'm trying to get around them.

At the moment I'm masking the flavor with sugar, sometimes lemon juice, and non-dairy creamer.  Is there something else that will counter the grassy flavor or at least mute it?  If there is, why does it work?

What brand of "green tea" are you drinking? What grade of "green tea" are you drinking? Do they come in a paper tea bag? Loose leaf? Green tea has such a large range. At the bottom end, you have generic tea bags that are simply labeled "green tea", these I find to be extremely harsh and taste like well, tea bags and maybe even "grass". Not to mention, if you're drinking green tea for health reasons, these green teas probably aren't really given you as much as you could be getting...

I drink a fair amount of tea (as well as coffee), and currently in my cupboard I have teas where they are naturally overwhelmingly sweet (nothing added), to a stronger "tea" flavour, to many others. The place I would start isn't with additives, or brewing methods, but I'd go to a proper "tea" shop, and get a good loose leaf tea. I don't know if your area has a good chinatown, but there's bound to be a good tea shop there somewhere. Otherwise, even a more European influenced tea shop, should have a wide variety of green teas. Regardless of the tea shop, make sure they let you smell (waft with your hands or the lid of the canister, some shops get grumpy if you stick your nose in) the tea. Does it smell grassy? Does it smell pleasant?

If your tea tastes grassy, the solution isn't to mask it. It's to find tea that doesn't taste like grass.

Edit: I should also add that to be careful of how you steep green tea. It's much more prone to oversteeping than a dark tea. It should be steep for less time and at a lower temperature. No hotter than around 90C for 2-4 minutes I'd say.


How much of the clove should I use when using big garlic heads? I recently bought some of those big garlic heads (unlike the small, pretty ones you have in the supermarket). It looks like this:

My problem is that when I take out the cloves and try to cut them, they break apart like a small onion. Here is a pic

As you can tell, there is a "whole" clove buried under the smaller outer layers. My question is - do you just take out the whole, smaller clove and use it, or do you use the outer layers as well? Do the outer layers have a different flavor? Are they bitter?

I think that might be elephant garlic, which isn't really garlic at all. It's in the same family, but is actually a kind of leek so it has a flavor that's a cross between garlic and onion, but milder than garlic. Because it's not very strong you'll probably want to add the whole thing. Just chop it and use it as normal.


Soda water first stored in refrigerator and then at room temperature If I put an unopened bottle of soda water in the refrigerator and decide two weeks later that there is not enough room so I store it in a cabinet outside the refrigerator, will it lose its bubbly taste and carbon dioxide?

If it's unopened it will stay perfectly fine, cold or warm, until the Best Before date printed on it.
It doesn't need refrigerating until opened - unless, of course, you want to drink it cold ;)


Microwave Oven Rust -Does it affect FOOD cooked in it (hurt us?) Can anyone tell me if there is a toxicity effect on food cooked in a microwave oven with rust along the edges inside the microwave itself??

Rust wouldn't contaminate the food.

The concern would be that a rusted edge could keep the oven from sealing properly and thus leaking microwave radiation into the room. There isn't any way to detect leakage without special equipment.


Is cooking dark chocolate and simple dark chocolate same? In the supermarket I saw a packet of cooking dark chocolate and a packet of dark chocolate slab. I want to ask are they same ? Is there any difference between ccoking dark chocolate and simple dark chocolate.

In many cases, yes. The specific case would depend on what, exactly, the "simple dark chocolate" had for ingredients, and also what the baking chocolate had for ingredients.

Most (but definitely not all) chocolate sold as baking chocolate has no sugar at all in it. This is what most recipes expect, unless they specify one that does.

Most (but perhaps not all) "simple dark chocolate" sold for eating has sugar in it, even if it's a "high-percentage" dark chocolate bar.

They can be substituted, but you should adust for the amount of sugar (more chocolate, since the sugar in it means there's less chocolate in it than chocolate with no sugar, and reduce the sugar in the recipe.)


How to prevent the chicken breasts from drying out One of the methods I use to cook chicken in general and especially chicken breast is as follows:

put the chicken into a frying pan. Pour 1/2 a cup of water and let it cook on medium heat for as long as two or three tablespoons of water remains. I use small portions of onion to get rid of its bad smell.

The problem with this method is always get a dry meat. What method gives me a moist and juicy meat so that it melts in the mouth?

The reason why your meat is dry has less to do with whether you cook in liquid and more to do with the temperature you cook the meat to. The proteins in meat will squeeze out the water in them as you increase the temperature you cook them at. If you are cooking your breasts in boiling water then that can result in meat that is cooked far above well done. Here is a link that relates moisture loss in meat vs cooking temp:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/03/how-to-sous-vide-steak.html

This link is for beef but the basic principle applies to chicken as well.

Water is able to transfer heat much more efficiently then air given a similar temperature. This means that your chicken is ironically getting overcooked because of the water you added. A standard technique people use to cook small cuts of meat is to brown both sides at a high temperature and then lower the temp to cook the inside without over cooking the outside. Next time just try to cook without water and just lower the temp instead. Flip the meat often to ensure even cooking.

If you want truly "melt in your mouth" chicken you will need something with a bit more fat. Chicken breast is very lean protein and at best can be "juicy" but that is it. Chicken legs and thighs however are higher in fat content and have collagen which can result in very tender chicken. The legs and thighs can also be cooked to a much higher temperature without drying out as much as chicken breast. Consider cooking dark meat for tender chicken.


Leaving hard boiled eggs in water for several hours After the eggs boiled I left them in the hot water for 2 hours, drained them then put them in fridge overnight. Are they still ok to eat?

The strictest rule of food safety says ' In temperature danger zone (40-140 °F or 4-60 °C) for a total of six hours, with only two hours allotted to get through the 135-71 °F range (57-22 °C).

So, let's suppose the eggs went from boiling to room temperature in two hours. We cannot say that the cooling time was even throughout the temperature range, as cooling is proportional to temperature difference, so it cooled faster when it was hotter than the surroundings. Therefore, the eggs likely cooled half the way in the first half hour, then the other half in the next 1 ½ hours (rough approximation.)

Your eggs were brought off the boil, presumably at about 200°F / 93°C and sat for two hours. We do not have cooling data, but it cooled some amount , then draining and in the fridge means cooled to 40°F well within 6 hours. The guideline would state that it was above 71°F for more than two hours, but we can interpret this:

At boiling temperature, there was little or no chance for any bacteria. You then started to cool them, but any previous bacteria are dead. A small amount of airborne could be introduced, but again, a small amount. The eggs were then brought to the safe storage temperature.

Throughout all of this and the guidelines, the eggs spent a little too much time above 71°F, but not much.

Eat them. Enjoy.


Help! Too much salt in my sourdough dough! Help! I added three times the amount of salt needed for my sourdough bread recipe (1/4 c. versus 1 T.)
Can I save it?

This depends on when you recognize the problem.  If your recognition is immediate then:

4 TBS in 1/4 cup.  You basically have enough salt for a 4X recipe.  So, you have to increase everything else by 3 to have the correct proportion of salt in your recipe.  Good point @The Photon (below)...or reduce by 3/4 and replace with salt-free ingredients.

If you are well-into the fermentation stage, the excess salt could certainly be problematic for yeast and bacterial growth.


Can I make my chips crunchy again after they have gone soggy? Sometimes I forget that bag of salsa chips open and with the summer weather they go soggy.  How do I get them crunchy again before the guacamole is all gone?

Try spreading them out on a cookie sheet and baking them at low heat for 15 minutes or so.