Method to make corn pasta? I've been unwell for quite awhile now and corn pasta has been a lifer saver because it's fairly easy to digest (for me.)

Anyway, i'm curious as to how exactly they are made. For instance look at this product:

http://www.leveneziane.it/en/gluten-free-pasta/tubetti-corn-pasta

The ingredients are simply corn flour and an emulsifier, but if you take a look online for any homemade corn pasta recipes you will surely find mostly complex recipes with many ingredients. An ingredient list of size two that creates pasta with such a good texture is hard to believe! I'd LOVE to know their full process ^_^.

Does anyone have any experience in this field? I'd love to make my own and learn the process - but I don't want a complex homemade recipe with 10+ ingredients as those are sometimes harder to digest for me :(

Thanks for your time!

In korean cuisine, corn noodles are made with powdered elm root as the binding agent as it has the starchy glutinous qualities missing from corn. Maybe you could see about that or try getting some corn noodles from a korean grocer?


How should Viennese coffee be taken? Is there a proper way Viennese coffee should be taken? What is the little spoon for?  When/how should the sparkling lime water be taken? etc.

A video would be helpful.

Was just introduced to the a Viennese coffee shop, and there was some confusion between the people explaining this.

Thanks!

Based on your picture, you're asking about Weiner Melange coffee in Vienna, a serving of half espresso coffee and half milk foam.  That's instead of American "Viennese Coffee", made with whip cream and cinnamon.  Assuming that's correct:

The spoon is intended for mixing the milk foam and coffee.  You may wish to add sugar as well.
The sparkling water is a chaser to clear your palate.

The above is based on personal tourist experience and some internet research.  Some links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Melange
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-wiener-melange.htm
http://www.tasteofaustria.org/coffee/


Refrigerating Clam Juice Most store-bought stock/broth packaging contains some claim like "refrigerate after opening, and use within 7-10 days". My bottle of clam juice makes no claims whatsoever about refrigeration or shelf life. I know it contains some salt, but I doubt it's enough to preserve it indefinitely.

Since it's basically a stock/broth, I assume it would last about as long as an opened container of chicken stock - just long enough for bacteria to establish their own civilization, complete with a "Salmonella Starbucks" on every suspended particle.

Does anyone know for sure? Can I put an opened bottle back in the cabinet? Will it last a week in the fridge? Should I just pour out any unused juice, because it will spoil so quickly?

It should keep in the fridge for a week or two- and you should be able to smell it if it goes bad.  However, you can just freeze any unused juice in 1 or 2 Tablespoon portions (in an ice cube tray) and keep it around for the next time you need it.  Just transfer the frozen cubes into a labelled freezer bag so they don't get lost or thrown out.  Waste not, want not, right?


How do I make noodles greasy? The Internets are great for healthy and fresh and refined. Today I need help being none of those things. I am trying to satisfy my partner's craving for cheap, greasy chicken lo mein. I know how to make chicken lo mein. The Internet is full of recipes that "aren't greasy like takeout" or "healthier and fresher!"
But what if I don't want healthy and fresh?
Does anyone have any suggestions for preparing egg noodles (or lo mein in particular) so the results are cheap-Chinese-restaurant-style greasy?
It's not just more oil, though it might be the type of oil. I suspect it also has something to do with the order and length of cooking the noodles vs the vegetables and meat. I think the vegetables also have to be slightly overcooked. In case it matters, I don't have a wok.

Are you starting with fresh noodles or dried?
Fresh are already 'greasier' than dried, so it may be a case of letting dried ones cool in the colander after their soak, in a good coating of oil, then adding towards the end of cooking as normal, just to re-heat.
One would imagine a take-away are not starting each portion of noodles from dried for every single order. They're already prepped & oiled so they don't stick.


Sodium in canned beans and legumes I was looking at some cans of black beans and chickpeas I had.

They both had higher sodium than I would have expected. Much higher than non-canned varieties.

I am wondering where does that sodium lie? Is the sodium in the liquid that the beans are packaged into? Does the nutritional info take into account the liquid proportionately? Can I rinse them thoroughly to reduce the sodium?

Sodium chloride along with sugar is something that most manufacturers add to their products.

Yes, rinsing will reduce the sodium content.


what weight to use when weighing pasta for dieting purposes? I presume that, ceteris paribus, the same amount of pasta cooked is significantly heavier than the same amount uncooked.

So what is the standard?

There is no standard. (Btw. this also applies to rice)

Any source (calorie table, diet plan, recipe..) should specify what they are talking about when giving values.

That said, for recipes, the context should clarify. If it includes a full cooking step, assume dried. If it calls for precooked, is usually mentioned.


Can non expired yeast go bad? so I was trying to make cinnamon rolls about a month ago and used the active dry yeast exp 9/21 that was in my fridge. And it was proofing. Then I bought another one which exp date was 10/21. I'm trying to do the same thing and it's not proofing. I'm not sure what's wrong. Please help. Thank you

Yeast is a living thing. If your yeast was exposed to conditions that killed or damaged it, most likely extreme temperatures, you will not get the results you expect regardless of the date stamped on the container. On the other hand, just because it's past the date on the jar, the yeast hasn't necessarily kicked the bucket yet.

Related: Does active dry yeast really expire?


Is there a difference in the end result between using mechanical leaveners vs chemical leaveners in a cake? Are they interchangeable? E.g. could you replace whipped egg whites in an angel food cake with enough baking powder/soda and end up with similar results? Or in a butter cake, replace the creamed butter and sugar with a greater quantity of other leaveners? If not, how would they differ and why?  Thanks!

"Leavener" as you're defining the term, is vague. A meringue of whipped egg whites are "leaveners" in the sense that they provide a stable structure for tiny air molecules; but of course an egg white by itself won't leaven anything, because there's no gas for the foam. Baking powder is a "leavener" in the sense of generating gas for a foam, but a mixture of baking powder and water won't be leavened, because the water won't support the foam. In a vague sense, meringue is a very potent leavener because it can hold so much gas, but its structure is easily broken up by fats (this is why it loses so much volume when folded into a batter, yet not when folded into itself). A batter based on flour and whole eggs is more durable but will never hold as much gas as a meringue while maintaining a "cakey" texture.

If you replaced egg whites with baking powder in an angel food cake, I suspect you'd get a much denser result, because the (low-gluten) flour and egg yolks would not hold the gas in well. Likewise, a meringue would not work very well in a high-fat cake because its stability would be compromised. The latter might produce an acceptable result, but I can't think why you'd want to do it.


What kind of flour is needed for strudel/fillo dough? In Hungary, they sell "rétesliszt", strudel-flour. What makes it better for strudel? Is it higher gluten? Lower? Softer? Harder? Which flour in a typical (USA) supermarket comes closest to rétesliszt?

I know from experience that all-purpose flour sucks for making strudel dough, and for that reason I usually just buy the frozen fillo (phyllo) stuff, but it's really not the same thing at all - it's too paper-thin and the sheets are too small. In a pinch, puff pastry rolled out real thin can also work, but the result will be a very German-style strudel.

Your best bet is a stone ground bread flour or hard flour in the US that means finding a local mill. At your standard supermarket a high protein bread flour is your only option if you can find it there. I generally have to venture out to a Whole Foods market to find that as my "local" grocery store doesn't carry it. You could also try Tipo 00, I have run across it in some specialty stores. You are looking for the highest gluten content you can find so that you can get the elasticity you need to make proper strudel.


Pumpkin puree refreeze Can I freeze a cheescake made with pumpkin puree that was previously frozen? I used it in the cheesecake but the event was cancelled to another day. How long will the cheesecake stay fresh without freezing?

The inner part of the cake will be fine in the fridge for about 3 days if covered and uncut. Unfortunately, the crust will start to get soggy after about 24 hours. The cheesecake can be frozen now and will be fine for at least a few weeks, but the crust will be soggy as soon as it's defrosted. I don't know of any way to keep the crust's just baked texture.


Why to store olive oil in opaque bottles? Nowadays it is common to store olive oil in opaque (dark green/brown) bottles to preserve its condition.

Does the olive oil get bad if I would use clear glass bottles instead?
Does the light "damage" the oil in general, or would this only appear in case of strong sunlight exposure directly towards the bottles (but not in case of placing within shaded areas)?

With a lot of commercial oils, the industry distinguishes auto-oxidation from photo-oxidation (also called photosensitised oxidation), where the former is in the absence of the light, and the latter with light:

  [W]hen olive oils are exposed to light, photo-oxidation occurs through the action of natural photosensitizers (i.e. chlorophyll), which react with triplet oxygen to form the excited state singlet oxygen. Thus, protection from direct light is required for commercial edible oils.

Note how the mechanisms are slightly different, even though both involve the C=C bond of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The issue with photo-oxidation is that it is through the action of chlorophyll and other chemical pigments that absorb wavelengths of light.

Hence the reason that extra virgin olive oil requires darkened glass is more to do with the cause of its colour, i.e. the fact that it has a relatively large amount of chlorophyll. As the 2006 study states:

  Light is much more important than temperature in 1O2 oxidation. Light of shorter wavelengths had more detrimental effects on the oils than longer wavelengths.

...and interestingly about the role of chlorophyll:

  Although chlorophylls are strong prooxidants under light via acting as a sensitizer to produce 1O2, they act as antioxidants in
  the dark possibly by donating hydrogen to free radicals.

The concentration of the antioxidant tocopherol on the other hand (well known in its role as Vitamin E), known for slowing oxidation, varies greatly across different olive oils:

  Tocopherol content of virgin olive oils (VOOs) varies from 97 to 785 mg/kg. Despite differences in the concentration of total tocopherols that can be attributed to agronomical, geographical, and technological factors, α-tocopherol is the dominant homologue in virgin olive oils making more than 90% of total tocopherols.

Also note that these oxidised products, the hydroxyperoxides, generally aren't detectable on their own - it is their breakdown products that are directly detected by our nose as "rancid".


cooling pasturized milk I live in the Romanian countryside. Everyone here pasteurizes milk in a pan on the stove. No one goes through a quick cooling process: people just don't have conditions to do it, I guess. Instead, the milk is cooled in the pan and then poured into bottles and stored in the fridge. What is the point of the quick cooling that I read about on the internet?

It is safer and helps increase the shelf life of the milk.

Otherwise the milk will pass through dangerous temperatures and  and may be recolonized with air born pathogens.  These will grow rapidly during the period the milk is warm, and more slowly once it is refrigerated.  While the milk may not become immediately unsafe or unpalatable, its storage lifetime will certainly be reduced.


Is this chicken safe? silkie chicken edition First off, I am a pastry chef, and my first thought is, when in doubt, toss it out.

I have very little experience with chicken. I am also obsessed with trying new things, in this case silkie chicken. It is a breed of chicken with black skin, meat, and bones, although the color can very from grey to black.

I bought it from a new Asian market that just opened up, it was pre-packed and frozen in a tight wrap like you would see at the store. I bought it Wednesday I think and left it to thaw in the fridge until today.

I opened the bag, removed the head and feet, and the wind pipe. The smell was very strong, and not pleasant, I would have to say musky with a touch of egg. The skin was a bit slimy, but the slime seemed to be gone by the time I was done cutting heads and feet off.

Since the color is dark, I cant tell from that, and the strong smell has persisted on my hands after scrubbing 3 times and doing the dishes.

Another note, the bird was an import from china, it wasn't USDA inspected, instead it had a Buddhist exemption tag on it and something saying it was inspected back where it came from.

Firstly let me note that I have never prepared this breed so I can't speak from personal experience, just what I've come to hear and see.

From what I've learned about silkies they're tremendously different to the regular breed of chicken we're used to. They're not well suited for roasting or frying and should rather be braised or prepared sous-vide (I imagine a silkie avgolemono would be quite exciting).

Getting back on-topic now, this blue/blackish breed being mostly raised free range does have a bit of a gamey note to it once rendered, but definitely not unpleasant or reminiscent of egg, and the skin should certainly not be slimy.

That being said I personally wouldn't take the risk on this one.


Should I cook frozen salmon differently from fresh salmon? I bought some frozen wild-caught salmon fillets for the first time so see how we like it.  Can I broil it the way I usually cook salmon, or does the freezing process lend itself better to other methods, like sauteeing or poaching, or does it even matter?

Once you thaw the salmon, you can treat it like you would fresh salmon.  Freezing may degrade the texture of the fish a small amount (it may not even be noticeable if they were commercially frozen in a blast chiller), or allow a little moisture loss, but otherwise the fish is essentially unchanged.

If there is any weeping or moisture coming out, pat the filets dry with a lint free towel or paper towel before high heat cooking methods like broiling or pan frying.

If the filets are thin, you can even cook them from frozen without pre-thawing them; they will thaw as part of the cooking process.

The best way to thaw them is to put them in refrigerator until they are thawed.   You can then proceed with your recipe like you normally would.


Seasoned Cast Iron NOT being Non-stick I've seasoned my cast iron for about 6 times after I got it. It is a 10" Lodge skillet. I used flaxseed oil for seasoning the cast iron pan. Followed every step found on the web, thin layer, baked at 400 degrees F for about an hour. There was no problem seasoning the pan. It had a shiny finish with NO sticky surface.

However, when I fried an egg in the hot pan with a lot of oil, it got stuck badly. I had to scrub the residue with salt. When the pan dried, the seasoning seem to have come off with patchy spots on the pan. How do I fix it? I thought minimal seasoning is going to come off and a seasoned pan is going to be non-stick? Please help.

Don't use flaxseed oil, it's one of the worst.

Something I only discovered recently is it's not just the smoke point you should be concerned about, it's the iodine number. This is important when it comes to the oil's polymerisation to make your coating. The lower the iodine number, the harder the resulting polymer finish. The smoke point should be used as a reference only for what temperature you should season at. If your oven can't reach the smoke point, pick an oil that it can.

To get the hardest, most durable surface you want an oil with the lowest value you can get. As this is actually coconut oil [about 8], you may not want to work with that aroma, so the lowest value odourless/flavourless oil is palm kernel oil [about 17]. You're probably good to a value of maybe 50 before things start to go downhill. The higher the iodine number the softer & more sticky the resulting polymer is.

Flaxseed is about 200, literally at the other end of the scale. [It's not actually on that wikipedia list but you can search it independently].

As you currently have a soft layer, which may or may not be completely polymerised, I would suggest stripping it & starting over. Once you have the correct oil, make sure you get your oven hot enough to polymerise the oil. You need to be above the smoke point - which means you need ventilation. Each layer takes an hour to 'bake' then at least an hour if not two to cool. You then repeat the process up to 6 or 8 times.  Your oil application each time should essentially be 'hardly enough to even tell it's there. Light, light coats & repetition are the way. If it pools or drips, you will get an uneven result with soft areas that didn't fully polymerise.

After comments, refs:
This first is the one most people go to for 'proof' flaxseed is the best - but if you read the comments underneath you'll find many people get a sticky or flaking surface with this method. - Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning: A Science-Based How-To

Flaxseed is specifically mentioned as not recommended in this one - SeriousEats; How to Season a Cast Iron Pan (It's Easier Than You Think!)

Rumtscho's answer on What oil is best for seasoning a cast-iron skillet

For my final test - which I'll have to get back to you on - I'll be using either coconut oil [which I already have] or palm kernel [which I've yet to source] for a new pan I know I'll be opening on the * 25th *.
I'll let you know how it goes, compared to be previous attempts.


How to use gelatin on fruit pie? I feel very stupid for asking this, but I've never worked with gelatin.
I know how to work with powder or sheets, if you put it in something like panna cotta.
I also know there's an issue with gelatin and temperature.

But I want to put gelatin on top of my banana pie, like the professional ones. So I have the bottom, which is the dough, then the cream and then some slices bananas. I would like some gelatin on those bananas.
Should I bake the pie first and afterwards, put some gelatin on it?
Or put gelatin on it and bake then?

And does it make a difference here if I use powdered or sheet gelatin?

It makes no difference whether you use sheet or powdered. Just make sure to use the right amount. It should be given on the package, like "this sachet is enough for 500 ml liquid". You can try to use less than indicated for a softer texture, but if you don't use enough, it will stay liquid, so you may need to experiment until you get it right.

You can't bake gelatin. It is a protein and denaturates at 50°C. The proper way is to bake your pie or fruit cake as always, and after it is ready, pour the gelatin containing liquid over the fruits and wait for it to congeal. (I am assuming here that you just want a gelatin glaze over a complete pie. If you want a complete gelatinized filling, everything below applies. Bake a shell, put the fruit in it, then fill it with the liquid).

The liquid itself can be pure water, or water syrup, or, if you used canned fruit, you can catch the liquid from the can and strain it. Then use it, pure or diluted with water. Sugar of food coloring don't interfere with gelatin, use them as you see fit (I think it's popular to color the gelatin on strawberry cakes a light red).

The mixing is very similar to panna cotta. First, bloom your gelatin by putting it into a cup with some water (1-2 tbsp) and leaving it for awhile. It should soak up the water, use it while it still looks moist, before the granules stick to each other. It usually takes around 5 minutes. Meanwhile, warm your liquid on a very low setting. It is best to use a thermometer. Dump the gelatine into the liquid while still on the heat. Stir until dissolved completely, never let it get too warm. When dissolved, remove from the heat and pour immediately.

There aren't many things which interfere with gelatin, but some fruits (or the enzymes in them) do. These tend to be tropical fruits with at least moderate acidity, like papaya, mango, kiwi and pineapple. If you pour gelatine on them when they are raw, it will have trouble setting. Cooking them should help, but I don't know how long or what temperature. If they are canned, it should be OK. Bananas are not a problem, even when raw.

And because you said you want to make it "professional": If you are talking about a thin glaze, gelatin is not your only choice. You can use starch as a thickener, many professional bakeries do so. It eliminates the possibility of getting the right texture of the glaze (which will be rubbery with too much gelatine and half liquid if you don't use enough), and maybe you'll feel more comfortable with it.


What adhesive should I use to repair a glass and silicone cake mould I have a silicon and glass cake mould with the round base made of glass with some silicone feet and a detachable rim made of silicone. One of the feet came lose and dropped off.

What glue I can use to re-attach it?

A high heat silicone adhesive will do the trick. Something like this (obviously only need to buy one, not a whole case).

Also, I've had some luck with oven door adhesive (though never tried on cookware) and auto adhesive.

All are oven safe up to 400-500F continuous, so you should be good for baking.


Kneading difficulties with rye flour My everyday bread recipe contains:

550 g flour
370 g water
12 g salt
4 g yeast

I knead it in a Kitchenaid mixer with a C-shaped dough hook (which, I know, is loathed by some folks). Dough tends to ball up around the hook, but if I raise the speed to 4 or so it works well enough.

Which leads me to my question: today I made this recipe with half white flour and half rye flour, and the mixer just couldn't get a grip on the dough at all. I eventually gave up and kneaded by hand. Is this a problem with the flour combo or the hook? Is there a way to make that dough kneadable in the mixer, or should I just plan to knead by hand if I make it again?

Rye and whole wheat flours contain bran and the germ of the wheat, which absorb more water than white flour, so your dough became too dry to stick to the dough hook. I would bet that the bread turned out a bit close textured as well. You need to add more water, how much depends on your flour, it may be up to an extra
30%. The way I'd attack this is to withhold the yeast and the salt, add some extra water (say 15% or 50g), mix it up a bit, then let it sit in the bowl for at least 30 minutes. This will give the bran a chance to absorb the water and you'll see whether it's still dry. If it's a bit sticky then that's good news, it should stick to your dough hook, you can then add the yeast in with a bit of water as it kneads, then the salt mixed with a bit of water once the yeast has gotten mixed in (salt retards yeast growth, you want to keep the two apart).

You could also bake a few batches adding more water each time until it works for you.

This isn't the first bread related question asked, I've addressed some common bread problems in this answer which you may find relevant.


Can I bake 1 round of puff pastry on top of another Can I put 2 layers of puff pastry ( 1 on top of the other ) on top of a dish to make it very high ?

Yes, but you might want to use an eggwash or water to make sure the two layers stick together.

You'll want to be careful about not brushing near the edge -- if it drips down, it'll glue the side together preventing it from puffing properly


Cooking polenta: is stirring for 30 minutes really necessary? In every polenta recipe I have ever seen, the authors insist that the polenta has to be stirred over low heat for half an hour or so before it is thoroughly cooked. When I worked in an Italian restaurant, I would follow this process (commonly making many portions at a time).

However, when making it at home in small portions, I find it tastes just the same if it is whisked over low heat for just enough time for the grain to absorb the liquid.

Why the insistence on cooking small portions (4?) for half an hour?

Please note that I am talking about normal fine grain polenta here, not some sort of 'quick' polenta.

It definitely does not need to be stirred continuously. Fairly frequently, yes, to avoid burning on the bottom, but not constantly. Cooking for more or less time has more impact on texture than flavor. Cooked briefly, you get more of a grain-like cream of wheat texture. Cooked long, you get a creamier, smoother result. Both can be good, but the creamy style is more traditional.


Why does tea become bitter if brewed too hot or too long? To try to narrow the scope and help deduce an answer to this question, I'm wondering:

Why does tea become bitter if brewed too hot or too long?

Tea contains a lot of flavinoid compounds notably tannins. Tannins are astringent and have a very strong bitter flavor.

The tannins are released much more slowly compared to the other flavor compounds. So when brewed for too long or too hot, much more tannins are released into the brew along and hence the resulting tea is much more bitter.


Can you concoct Kombu with Dulse (Palmaria palmata)? I followed Nami's YouTube video starting at 1:37 for Kombu Dashi, but I substituted Nova Scotian Dulse. The resulting mixture tasted like water and had no flavor. What did I miff? If Palmaria palmata can't be used to concoct Dashi, why not?

The best konbu comes from mature plants but early in the growing season, is sun-dried over two days (or slowly and gently), retains a little moisture (still below mold-range if you have an aW meter) and then cured in a cellar for 6-24 months to develop flavour and loose it's briny taste and aroma. I learned about this in The Japanese Culinary Academy book 2, Flavor And Seasonings which I highly recommend.
You can definitely use other kelps. Here in Australia we have the very tasty golden kelp and bull kelp. I have tried this, even a few weeks of ageing helps. That white powder on the outside is manitol, a faintly sweet sugar. As the video suggests, you should keep it.
If the dashi from those packets you have is weak, I would think a longer steep in warmer water might help.
Good luck!


Cooking pots overheated I was boiling water in two pots, presumably stainless steel. I got distracted and the pots completed overheated and dried. After cooling down the pots, I find them both have brownish grey residual inside (I don't care about the outside), and one of the smells strange. Are they still safe to use? Thank you!

Yes, they are still safe to use. You aren't going to be able to heat them to the point where the metal starts breaking down — at least, not without starting a fire.

Your only concern might be if your pots have a nonstick coating, which can be damaged above temperatures of 500 F and begin emitting noxious fumes. According to DuPont:

  The fumes that are released by overheated [Teflon coatings] can produce symptoms referred to as "polymer fume fever" — flu-like symptoms that are relatively quickly reversed in humans.

The residue you're seeing is likely just some mineral deposits that, as mentioned, can be removed with vinegar or other food-safe solvent.


How can I clean dark non-stick pots (e.g. Calphalon)? We have Calphalon non-stick cookware and it seems, after 5 years, not to want to get clean.  Even the best scrubbing leaves kind of a hazy look on them.  Additionally, the exterior of our most used pan is darkly stained, kind of like a well-seasoned cast iron pan.  Is that okay, or do I need to clean it better too?

I'm gonna assume you're talking about pans with a hard anodized exterior and non-stick interior...

The anodized exterior will pick up stains over time, and you probably shouldn't worry too much about trying to get them back to factory condition. That said, you can find some tips on How should I clean anodised cookware? - I use baking soda and elbow grease for routine jobs, and occasionally resort to Ajax (scouring powder) for touch-up around the handle.

The non-stick interior is probably just wearing out. AFAIK, some Calphalon non-stick pans have a texture to them that is supposed to improve browning, but over time even smooth non-stick surfaces develop pits and scratches that create opportunity for residue to hold on to. I use a bit of baking soda and a bit of salt to scrub these clean, but once something gets stuck on to the point where serious scouring is necessary to remove it you'll just have to give up (since that would take the non-stick coating with it). Non-stick pans - even well-made ones - do tend wear out faster than ordinary pans, and there's no getting around that.


Can I still use meat left out in the trunk I accidentally left meat in the trunk of my car, it's so cold outside it froze, can I still use it?

If the ambient temperature outside (and thus in the car) was below 40 F / 4 C the entire time the meat was left out, then yes, it is still safe just as if it had been in the refrigerator (or freezer as the case may be).  If that is not true, discard.


Making pickles or preserves from hedgehog cucumbers (cucumis africanus) Tiny hedgehog cucumbers, cucumis africanus, are usually grown as ornamental.  The blurb in the seed catalogue mentions they were historically pickled and preserved, although they are rarely used for such purposes anymore.

I have been looking for any recipes using this cucumber (yes, I picked up the seeds), and have not had any success at all - I would appreciate any help in finding recipes.  I wrote to the seed supplier, and have not heard back from them yet (and I am not hopeful, since they are seed suppliers not african-recipe specialists).  I found no references at all to "hedgehog cucumbers" pickled, preserved, or in recipes in online searches, and exactly one reference to recipes (not actually included, just suggesting similarity to cucumis anguria) under the scientific name, cucumis africanus - which refers to different varieties in the article, and has pictures that look very different so the mention of recipes may be referring to a different variant.  I also looked up "magaka" and "monyaku" (which showed up as possibly local names in the scientific name search), and was unable to find any associated recipes.

I realize recipe requests are off topic, and while I will be overjoyed if someone has one to offer, my question is if someone can point me in the right direction to find them myself, if there are resources to find recipes for this cucumber that someone can recommend, preferably webpages or other resources I can access myself without undue trouble, or if anyone has any tips for how this kind of cucumber (similar to the true-gherkin or cucumis anguria) might have been pickled or preserved, to create my own recipe from.  This should be suitably on topic, if I understand the tags correctly.

I am not expecting culinary greatness out of these recipes, I am guessing that the pickles/preserves fell out of favor because they are sour or bitter, since poor flavor (or possibly poor texture) makes the most sense as to why an edible plant was abandoned - given some of the very strange things people eat.  Mostly I'm interested a) because I'm curious and want to know what they are and how they're used, and b) as a kind of joke for someone I know who is said to be willing to try anything new and different just-because, and will eat even "poisonous" things (safely prepared).

This isn’t really an answer about the cucumber you mention, but actually the idea to pickle anything from crabapples to watermelon rinds...

My great grandmother (raised in the Great Depression) made pickled watermelon rinds. I’ll never forget their unexpected crunch and sweetness. Here is a description, but basically sugar and salt them, add vinegar and spices (my grandmother used sumac among other spices) - but I am sure you know how to pickle.


Egg and flour proportion for pasta extruder Just bought a manual pasta extrusion device from China. It came with no instructions and the box is written in Chinese. By looking at it, it seems that the "1 egg x 100g of flour" dough recipe will not make its way through the tiny holes (or i will have to exercise a lot to make it). Is this the right proportion for the dough for the extrusion tool?

What type of flour are you using? If you are using semolina, as expected, you should try to sift it and remove the coarse parts. Also, you can mix 75% semolina and 25% of a softer wheat flour. The egg makes the dough much (much) harder to extrude, you can try substituting water for egg:

for 453 grams of semolina, 162 grams of water

I make my fresh pasta with the wonderful mx700 Simac (which you can find online for about 40/60$) and I can assure you that the pressure applied by the machine is tremendous and when I don't get the mix carefully balanced the motor clearly screams and the machine cracks like it's going to open in half.

In Venice, Italy we have a traditional manual pasta machine called Bigolaro that resembles a bit the one you posted, but the handle is much larger, hence easier to turn: you should use a metal pipe (on each side) to make your work easier!


Is there a basic, universal recipe for cupcakes? Does anyone know of a "basic, universal recipe" for cupcakes?

I would like to find a cupcake recipe that will use the same basic ingredients with variations to change the flavor or add ingredients to my liking and tastes.

From personal experiences, reading cookbooks, and making far too many baked goods I've learned that it can be tricky to just adding extra ingredients while maintaining a universal base cake or cupcake recipe. However, with good judgment and some basic ingredients ratios you could come close to an archetype.

Some ratios (by weight) of basic ingredients include:

Pound Cake - 1 part each flour, eggs, fat, and sugar
Butter Cake - 2 parts each flour, and sugar. 1 part each eggs and fat

Beyond that here are some basic rules

The ratio of sugar to flour should be 1 to 1 in most recipes, maybe slightly higher in the sugar side of things.
Same with eggs, they should weigh about the same as your fats, possibly slightly more.
In general liquids measurements (including eggs) should weigh the same as or more than the sugar.
Eggs are in interesting ingredient. Whites tend to dry things out while yolks tend to make a richer more velvety texture. More yolks to whites (like in a yellow cake) make for creamer textures, the inverse make for drier more crumbly textures.
Then comes leavening. A teaspoon of baking powder per cup of flour often does the trick.

Adding extra ingredients however can throw off your recipe. Bananas for example can replace some of the sugars and some of the fats. Peanut-butter some of the flours and some of the fat. Adding enough chocolate chips, though they stay pretty much contained, may not interfere with the other ingredients but will increase the density of your recipe and may require additional cooking time. Adding coco powder instead of flour usually deems the need for more egg yolks and sugars.

Really you just have to play around until you get a good feel for things.


How to clean utensils used to cook raw ground beef that have been left in the sink overnight? I cooked some ground beef yesterday and by the time evening came was too zonked to do the dishes. Now it's the following evening and they are still in the sink. How do I clean the stainless steel pan, plastic spatula and dishes they are touching to prevent bacteria (and the sink!). The pan is handwash only. Is very hot water and a good scrub with soap...perhaps even twice sufficient?
As an aside, I noticed that some advice to use a 10% bleach solution to clean utensils after they touch raw meat...is it safe to spray bleach on cooking utensils?
Thank you!

Wash everything in very hot water, with dish soap, and rinse thoroughly.  Unless there are at risk people in your home, this should be sufficient.

If you are very concerned, you can make a sanitizing agent by diluting bleach.  The ratio would be about 1 tablespoon of bleach to one gallon of water, per this Oklahoma State University shared from UC Davis:

  [...] about one tablespoon (1/2 fluid ounce, 15  ml) of
  typical chlorine bleach per gallon of water is the maximum  that
  should be used for sanitizing food contact surfaces, according  to
  federal regulation. If higher concentrations are used, the surface
  must be rinsed with potable water after sanitizing. Contact times of
  one to five minutes are usually sufficient to achieve a thorough kill,
  depending on chlorine concentration and organic load.


How to prevent fresh peaches from sinking to the bottom of a buttermilk pound cak? I baked a buttermilk pound cake which was a very thick batter.  The recipe said to dice 3-4 fresh peaches and put them on top of the batter just before it went into the oven.  I did as directed and all the peaches sunk to the bottom and stuck to the bundt pan.  It was delicious but very ungl.  Help!

Dust them in flour or powdered sugar.

This trick is most commonly used with blueberry muffins.


Can using a poolish or biga preferment help me make a less dense wholemeal bread? I've taken up bread baking again recently, and I'm trying to improve my skills. One thing that still eludes me is how to get a less dense wholemeal loaf.  I know that wholemeal breads are nearly always denser than white breads.

A recipe I used recently was:

150g wholemeal bread flour
200g strong white bread flour
245g water - 70% hydration
4g active dry yeast (dissolved in some of the water)
5g salt

First prove was 1.5 hours - at room temperature. After shaping 2nd prove was around 40mins while my oven came up to temperature.  It seemed to be proved enough when I poked it. I slashed the top, it didn't collapse or anything. Baked at 250C for 12 mins, then 200C for the rest (total 35minutes) baking, with a tray of water in the bottom of the oven for steaming the crust.

Here's the pic of my bread

Now don't get me wrong, the bread is nice enough, it has a lovely flavour. However it's denser than I'd like.  I need to know if the problem here is the relatively fast leavening process, versus a longer process such as using a preferment like a poolish or biga.

Can anyone tell me, before I try the experiment, if using a preferment with such a loaf would help make it a bit lighter, with a looser crumb? Or am I headed for yet another disaster?

My reasoning behind this is that I've made higher hydration breads before - like ciabatta made with white flour, quite successfully, with lots of air and bubbles, but these usually start with a biga, which sits fermenting 12 to 24 hours in the fridge.  I also know that higher hydration has a role in the size of the air pockets.  I'm not looking for massive air pockets/holes in my wholemeal bread, just something that's a bit less dense.

Update: Forgot to say, the kneading was 10 minutes at a medium speed in a stand mixer. I mention this just in case it's relevant, although I tested the dough afterwards, and I thought the gluten development was OK.

I think I solved this myself in the end.

Basically I used the same recipe as before, however instead of a biga as I had planned, I decided to try my hand at sourdough. I had started making a starter a while go and thought it was time to give it a go.

This is the second time I tried sourdough, but the first time my starter smelt disgusting so I threw it out.

To activate my starter, I fed it the total amount of wholemeal that I was going to add. Let it sit for 2 hours, and it doubled in size.

I also added a touch more water at 75% hydration. I used the stretch and folding method instead of machine kneading - 4 folds every 30 minutes, 5 times in total. It had a long proof in the fridge for 16 hours, then an hour to come to room temp, shaped and stuck it in a proofing basket, and about 2 hours after shaping it rose again. Also took care when shaping not to knock back too much, keeping as much gas in it as possible.

The result seems almost perfect, even though I say so myself. It's light and airy and bubbly, and delicious, very mild, hardly any sourness at all.  I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised.  It took a while though, almost 24 hours really.

I think the same would have happened with a biga/preferment, I think the key must be long proofing, giving it time to ferment, and stretching and folding to develop the gluten.  I will try it with a biga another time I think.


What's the 'opposite' of mise en place? Mise en place definition for those unaware.

Mise en place (French pronunciation: [mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "everything in its place". It refers to the setup required before cooking, and is often used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients…
The practice can be applied in home kitchens.

My google-fu fails me on this. Dictionaries tell me what it is, but it has no antonym.
The idea cropped up as I was …ermm 'mentioning' that my partner's anticipated meal-time would be easier to hit precisely if everything was ready-prepped leaving only the actual cooking (I'd secretly estimated her dinner time would be half an hour later than she thought… shhh, she's now prepping it all in advance after some small discussion;) I then wondered what you would call my more common method of 'just in time' prep.
Depending on the dish I'm making I will either do a full mise en place, everything prepped & ready to go, or I will run a 'just in time' process where each ingredient is prepped just in time for it to be needed, eg prepping onions after rice goes on, then chopping the tomatoes whilst the onions are sautéing. Salad prep after everything hot is on the boil etc. Everything comes together only at the very end, at plating.
Is there a specific term for this 'just in time' prep?

I think the nearest opposite would be a la minute (at the minute). This is usually used in restaurant kitchens to refer to items that are cooked/prepared "at the minute" they are ordered. However, it's not fully the opposite.
For example, at a brunch buffet the omelettes would be cooked a la minute when they are ordered, rather than being pre-cooked with the rest of the buffet. However, even though the omelette is cooked a la minute, the ingredients will be prepped with proper mise en place to ensure that efficiency in cooking to order.
Therefore, the way I would describe "the opposite of mise en place" using fancy chef lingo is perhaps "doing all prep a la minute."


Will meat taste okay if I cook it in a pan where the leftover fond seems burned? I have found that after 2 batches of chicken breasts, the fond is in the pan for enough time to start burning, so the third batch gets a little black and starts to taste burned.

Does it mean that I should deglaze or wash my pan every 2 batches to make sure I won't get a burned taste?

I'd deglaze the pan after each pan and transfer the juices to a small bowl to make a sauce

I would wipe/clean (no soap) the pan after each batch.

After the last batch, transfer the bowl content and make a sauce with the last pan drippings and what you already have.


What research is there on tea preparation? I'm a fan of modernist cooking, and its emphasis on precise measurements and consistency. I'm curious how to apply this to tea preparation - in particular, several things:

It seems to be well established that different types of tea should be prepared at different temperatures - black tea and fruit infusions with boiling water, green tea at 80 degrees centigrade, and so forth. Where/when was this established? How do we know it's optimal for each tea?
Likewise, durations to steep tea seem fairly well established. Is there any research on this? People seem a bit fuzzier on this than on temperatures, with some variation.
There's a lot of variance on the amount of tea leaves per litre of tea, varying between 2 grams per cup (8 grams per litre) and 15 grams per litre! Obviously, this depends on how finely cut the tea is, too. Is there any way I can determine this more objectively than just trying different amounts and tasting?
There seem to be several theories on how best to prepare iced tea. Some suggest using more tea and steeping for longer, some suggest preparing it cold, and so forth. Has anyone determined objectively which are better?

I realize this my come across as rather pedantic, but given the huge variation in preparation suggestions, I'm interested in trying to figure out which work best. Most of the questions above could be answered to some degree, too, with an explanation of what it is - chemically - that makes one batch of tea better or worse, providing a foundation for making these sort of decisions.

The making of tea is a balance between three factors that affect how the flavours of the leaves are infused into the water: time, temperature, and the ratio of leaf surface area to water.

Generally, more of any one of those parameters is balanced by less of the others.
The temperature,however, has a specific minimum requirement, below which certain things simply won't occur. This is why black tea must be made with the water starting at the boiling point, and not at 70 degrees.

As for precision, the problem is mostly defining the result, not the conditions. How do you define a good cup of tea in a way that is measurable and repeatable?

Practically speaking, I find that the different traditions in each tea-drinking culture are a very good starting point to work from. After that, you can adjust and experiment all you want. Remember that traditions can vary from "one for each cup and one for the pot" to the intricacies of a full Japanese tea ceremony.


Is Anise a substitute of cumin I need cumin for everything I make, but its not available where i recently moved. However anise is available, and someone told me that cumin can be substituted by anise. Is this true?

I'd say no. These are two very different tastes: anise is freshy with a distinctive aroma than resembles licorice whereas cumin is on the earthy side of the palette.

For substituting cumin I'd go with ground coriander seeds. You'll of course need to adjust quantities


Does milk make eggs more fluffy? I just heard that putting milk in eggs make it more fluffy, but is it really a good idea? Some people say putting milk/cream in eggs makes it more fluffy, but some people say that it makes the eggs loses flavor. So, is is it true that putting milk in eggs make it more fluffy?

While adding milk may change the flavor slightly, such a small amount is used that it is not likely to be an extreme loss of flavor.
Some people add a small amount of water. With a small amount, flavor loss should not be noticeable. And since most people scramble their eggs with butter or some other type of oil, there is a measure of fat included. (Ref. to below quote.)
 Yahoo Food  explains the effect and differences:

Some recipes for scrambled eggs call for water or milk. Does this do anything for the eggs?
When eggs are scrambled, the mechanism that transforms the liquidy beaten eggs into a fluffy mound on the plate is protein coagulation—the process by which, when exposed to heat, proteins unfold and then tangle up with one another and set, forming a latticed gel. The more tender the scrambled eggs, the more loosely the proteins have coagulated. Adding water to scrambled eggs dilutes the proteins a little, thereby raising the temperature at which they coagulate and making it harder to overcook the scramble. Water also increases the amount of steam, which puffs up the eggs, producing fluffy scrambled eggs. As for milk, it contains water but also fat, which coats the protein molecules so that they can’t bind with one another as tightly. The key to scrambled eggs that are both fluffy and tender is a balance of water and fat.

Also you can choose not to add anything and just whisk the eggs very well before cooking. This will incorporate air and result in fluffier eggs.
In the end, it will be your choice. I would suggest trying all three ways and deciding which you like best.


too much parsnip and/or parsley flavor I made a potato, parsnip (and 1 apple) soup.  I put in a "bunch of parsley tied in a packet."  The soup is too powerful.  I am not sure if it is the parsnip (since I do not typically eat these,) or the parsley.  Any suggestions to "soften" that strong flavor?

More potatoes and another apple - dilute (assuming "too strong" is really too strong, and not a just an unfamiliar flavor you would not like even if it was reduced. Parsnips can be polarizing.)

Or add garlic and/or ginger until they overpower the parsnip and parsley (assumes you like garlic and/or ginger...) I guess chili might be another similar approach, but I wouldn't do that as I don't like it. I might add black pepper, though.


What's the best way to store (freeze) purchased ground beef? When I buy my ground beef at the store it comes in a styrofoam tray with some sort of pad underneath to catch any excess blood (at least, I believe that to be the reason for the pad) and it is wrapped in cellophane of some sort, and appears to hold the meat rather well.

Is it safe and sane to freeze it like this or should I be transferring it from that packaging to an alternate ... container? ... before storing?

It is not only sane, it is safer than any other packaging you can make.

At least here in Germany, meat from the supermarket is not just wrapped in celophane, the celophane is glued to the tray. The packaging is air-proof. And the air inside the packaging is not normal air, it is a mostly sterile atmosphere with a composition different from normal air, which hampers bacterial growth (I think it has lowered oxygen content, but I'm not absolutely sure on that detail). This means that 1. no bacterial contamination is possible after the meat has left the packaging plant, and 2. the bacteria already present in the meat when it was packed grow slower than normal. So if this is your type of package, do yourself a favor and leave the meat in it.

I haven't frozen such packages, so I don't know how big a problem they have with freezer burn. But it may become a problem in the long term, as the moisture from the meat will sublimate on the inside of the celophane.

If this is not the type of package you get, and you have just plain clingy film wrapped around meat and a styrofoam tray (I've seen other products wrapped this way, but not meat), there is still no problem to freeze in it. The pad full of meat juices (this is not blood btw) is a good feeding place for bacteria, but the meat itself is as least as good as the pad, so you won't be reducing the risk if you remove it. By leaving the meat in the original package, you reduce the risk of additional bacterial contamination during transfer. And no other container will offer better food safety.

You can still consider a transfer for reasons other than food safety. First, you can portion and/or preshape the ground meat before freezing, and then you'll have to repackage it. Second, if the package is not tight enough, you risk freezer burn. But if these don't apply, it is probably best to leave it in the original container - this is convenient, and not dangerous at all .


Adjusting whipped cream to hold its shape longer? How can I adjust a whipped cream recipe so that it holds together longer? I envision a cross between whipped cream and a light airy frosting. The whipped cream will also have different flavorings added.

These need to hold together at room temp for several hours.

I'm thinking by going heavy on the powdered sugar I can get a thicker consistency.

I would like to pipe this onto the top of miniature gingerbreads with a large pastry bag.

Your best bet is probably gelatin stabilized whipped cream.  This recipe from Wilton gives you an example of how to proceed.  You can google many other results.

Depending on your tastes, to compliment gingerbread, you may also consider some alternate frostings which will hold up better at room temperature and taste great:

White chocolate ganache (sample recipe from the Food.com)
Cream cheese icing  (sample recipe from Martha Steward)

And I have to mention, in a completely different direction, a lemon glaze could be spectacular on gingerbread, although very different (sample recipe from Martha Stewart).


can I make tarte tatin without an oven? This is killing me! Buying an oven and getting it installed isn't really an option at this time.

What I'm thinking is cooking the apples in the caramel on the stovetop for longer, making a smaller version, in a mini cast iron pan. Cover the top and place something hot on top to even out the temperature.

Would I have issues with the puff pastry cooking through and going golden? Has anyone tried anything similar and would have suggestions? Any advice appreciated.

Thank you!

I'm sure you can obtain something interesting, but nothing can replace an oven for the puff pastry to cook correctly and uniformly. So even if you manage to get it cooked, the consistency won't be the same.


Cake without baking soda I have this delicious recipe for flourless almond cake:

  1 1/2 cups whole almonds, toasted
  4 large eggs, at room temperature, separated
  1/2 cup honey
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  1/2 teaspoon salt

  Process whole almonds in a food processor or blender until finely ground (you will have about 13/4 cups ground). Beat 4 egg yolks, 1/2
  cup honey, vanilla, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl with
  an electric mixer (or use a paddle attachment on a stand mixer) on
  medium speed until well combined. Add the ground almonds and beat on
  low until combined.
  Beat 4 egg whites in another large bowl with the electric mixer (use clean beaters on a hand-held mixer or the whisk attachment on a
  stand mixer) on medium speed until very foamy, white and doubled in
  volume, but not stiff enough to hold peaks, 1 to 2 minutes (depending
  on the type of mixer). Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg
  whites into the nut mixture until just combined. Scrape the batter
  into the prepared pan.
  Bake the cake until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 28 minutes.

I know a friend who is allergic to baking soda and baking powder. What will happen if this recipe is made without baking soda?  Will it collapse although I had beaten the egg whites? Aren't they responsible for making the cake rise?

Honey is acidic with a pH of 3.9- that's more acidic than some oranges. There is also quite a lot of honey in this recipe that will give the acid the baking soda needs to react.

In this recipe, both the egg whites and the baking soda are going to provide some leavening.
Without the soda the cake will undoubtedly be a little more dense.

Additionally, even when not contributing to leavening, raising the pH will promote browning of baked goods. I think the ground almonds will give nice color but the recipe may be a little paler without the soda.

There is no soda in angel food cake and I expect this cake will also be just fine without it.


Why does batter often taste sweeter than the baked product? If taste cake or quick bread (zuchini, banana, etc...) batter I find that it very often tastes quite a bit sweeter than the finished and baked product.

What happend during baking that reduces the sweetness?

I think that SAJ14SAJ listed some good examples, and that these certainly contribute to the overall taste. But I think there is yet another one, whose effect is strong enough to matter: rising.

Let's say that you coat 1 cm² of your tongue with a foodstuff. The more tastebuds are activated by a sweet molecule, the more is it evaluated as "sweet". First imagine your batter. It is dense, and coats all of the tastebuds on your tongue. Each of them is likely to register a few sugar molecules.

Now imagine the baked cake. It has air bubbles in it. If the plane of a cake cut has X% air bubbles by surface, then only 1-X% of your taste buds come in contact with the sweet cake. And the concentration of sugar molecules in the solid part of the cake surface is the same as the concentration in the batter, so you have the same number of sugar molecules per activated taste buds, but less taste buds activated. As cake volume contains lots of air, you also get lots of air bubble area in a cut. The effect is reduced by chewing, but by the time you have chewed the cake very well, it has also been diluted by lots of saliva, so now you have a much better coating, but less sugar molecules per taste bud.

By the way, this effect also occurs with salt in bread dough vs. baked bread, so I don't think there can be factors uniquely bound to the details of sweetness perception, as salt uses very different chemical pathways of being tasted.


Why do some recipes require or insist on the use of a wok over the use of a skillet / pan? I have an electric stove. Many of the recipes from my Asian cuisine book call for a Wok to be used rather than a typical flat based pan. Why is there so much stress on the type of pan when the purpose is to heat the ingredients? What different effect to the food is brought by the fact that the Wok has less surface area contact with the stove surface and that it has a cone like shape? I could understand the reason if it is because someone works with a fire / gas stove.

I can imagine a type of layering of ingredients where the amount of ingredients differs in quantity eg. meat and carrots at the bottom and cabbage on top and that these must cook at different temperatures. Are there recipes such as this? or are there different reasons for this?

Since I am a bit confused I offer anyone to edit this question to be more concise to inspire answers describing why a wok may be better for certain recipes

There are a couple of reasons, traditional and some functional:

The home cultures where these recipes are indigenous use a wok, so many recipe authors go the same way
Woks are usually made out of carbon steel, and are poor conductors of heat.  This means that the strongest heat from the concentrated heat source is in the center/bottom of the wok.  As you go up the sides, the level of heat decreases.

This permits staging ingredients up the sides of the wok to stay warm or cook slowly, while the ingredients at the center of the wok are being cooked intensely.

In practice, the real issue with woks is that they are properly used over a very intense heat source.  This permits the stir fry technique, and its unique wok hei flavor to develop in the food.   Note that it is this intense heat (and the carbonization of the seasoning layer on the wok) that actually create wok hei, not the shape of the wok itself.

Western home cooking equipment usually cannot get hot enough to do this, whether you use a wok or a flat bottomed skillet.  Still, over a standard electric burner or even a home style gas burner, using a flat bottom skillet may in fact let you get better heat transfer into the food, and come closer to genuine stir frying than you could with a round-bottomed wok.

Even for dishes that suggest you push food up the sides of the walk, you can use a skillet if you choose:  you cook the food in stages, removing it from the pan instead of pushing it up the sides. Combine the ingredients the end to marry and finish cooking, much as when they are tossed together in wok-based cooking.


How can I make the most of this stewing hen? For the longest time, I've been keeping my eyes open for a stewing hen. I make very good Chicken and Dumplings, and I've always heard that I could make it really great if I could just get my hands on a stewing hen.

See: Where do all the tough old birds go?

When I finally saw stewing hens in our local "if you can't find it elsewhere, look here" store, they were not at all what I had imagined.

Scrawny, frozen for God knows how long, no dates on the package, poorly wrapped, iceberg things.

I bought two.

Now what??

Surely the meat from this thing can't be worth anything...or can it?

My standard way to make special chicken broth is here: Why does the fat on my chicken broth sometimes solidify, sometimes not?  Should I do anything differently with this thing? Can I expect the meat to be worth anything, or should I just simmer it to death to flavor the broth? Any other advice?

I'm from the company you got your hens from.

Water cooking is the traditional method, the size of this bird is representative of the breed, which is leghorn fowl.  This is the breed used both in commercial and backyard egg layers.

The stock made from the stewing hen is far more flavorful then any other chicken you will find anywhere.  The meat is also rich in flavor, however as the age of these hens is significantly older than that of a broiler, (8-10 weeks vs 90-130 weeks for a stewer), the meat is tougher.

Our inventory is very current, in fact none of our inventory is beyond 15-30 days at this time, and our distributors are also working with very current inventory.

The color of the skin returns immediately, even running a little tap water over it will bring the white/yellow color back.  The skin tends to be fairly lean, leaner than a meat chicken, so once frozen it becomes almost translucent.

Thank you for trying our product, and I hope your chicken soup was as delicious as we have come to know in our own kitchens over the past 70 years.


Can I make a béchamel sauce with coconut cream? I want to make a béchamel sauce with coconut cream instead of milk. Does anybody have a guess whether this will work?

First, you don't specify if you mean cream of coconut, or coconut milk. I think coconut milk would be the thing to try here, as it has less fat.

Second, if it works, it won't be bechamel any more. But this is a technical detail: if it is tasty to you, you should be able to use it as a substitution practically everywhere.

Third, does it work? I haven't tried it, but I would strongly assume that it will. Coconut milk has more fat than normal milk, but this isn't a terrible problem for roux-based sauces. Indeed, I have read recipes (in reliable cookbooks) which direct the cook to add melted butter to the roux before or after adding the liquid. Which means that the fat ratio in the sauce isn't too exact; it is the ratio of flour to water which you have to keep straight.

The one thing to pay attention to is that coconut fat melts around 34-35°C. So your coconut roux sauce will exhibit noticeable difference in thickness depending on the temperature. As long as you serve it warm, it will be a similar thickness to bechamel. If you let it go cold, it will probably thicken quite a bit. If you plan to serve it cold, adjust the flour amount accordingly.


yeast substitutes and proper measurements I was wondering if I could get some advice as I have intolerances to yeast and have heard of a few substitutions from: baking soda, baking powder, lemon juice, milk and yogurt.
The question comes to how do I measure these into bread or baking to make whatever I am making rise? I have heard that in the middle east they rarely use yeast for bread baking and their bread still rises. I just don't know the proper measurements I would use, if a bread recipe calls for 1 or 2 packets of yeast and mixing them in water do you mix one tsp of baking soda and 1 tsp of lemon juice in together?

If you can give me any advice on this that would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

There are no substitutes for yeast. What you list are not substitutes, but alternative leaveners: either actual baking powder, or a combination of baking soda and lemon juice or yogurt. The milk does not contribute to leavening at all.

There is nothing you can do to mimic ordinary yeast or sourdough (which consists mostly of wild yeasts). If you were to use a chemical leavener in a bread recipe, everything would be wrong - the ingredients, the proportions, but most of all, the process. It will fail miserably.

There are two classes of baked goods which are used as bread and don't contain yeast, quickbreads and unleavened breads. Quickbreads are made with chemical leaveners. Nowadays, practically nobody bakes them for use as a bread, but rather as a kind of less elegant cake. So the recipes common today are for the sweet and fruity varieties like banana bread. But if you can find a source of WWII era recipes, you'll probably find plain quickbreads without sugar, intended to be used instead of yeast breads.

Unleavened breads don't rise, they are a class which contains things like flour tortillas and naan. They are indeed popular in the Middle East, but it is not true that "their bread still rises" - it doesn't, and it isn't intended to. You can get some amount of puffiness if you have a very hot oven, but this is impossible with electric appliances on 360 volts or below, it is done in wood ovens. And the pita still stays mostly flat, it is just somewhat airier, but it cannot be shaped as a loaf and still bake.

I am sorry to hear about your condition, but all you can do is to search for recipes for quickbreads and flatbreads. Yeast cannot be substituted.

There is a bit of explanation on leavening mechanisms in this question: Why are there no recipes combining both yeast and baking powder?.


How are Thin Slice Beef rolls for hot-pot prepared in restaurants? I was wondering how Thin Slice Beef rolls for hot-pot prepared for in hot-pot restaurants. Are they sliced and manually rolled, or is there a machine that is used to do the lot? Cheers.
Picture for reference: https://chowtimes.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/hot-pot-at-chez-suanne-7.jpg

When I worked at a Japanese restaurant in Seattle years ago they would freeze the beef and then use a meat slicer to cut it really thin, then roll it up. It's possible there is a newer device i'm unaware of that does it automatically but it is a fairly simple process.


Is it possible to make vegan Yorkshire Puddings? What could be used as a replacer for the egg in Yorkshire puddings, having tried before nothing quite seems to work properly :(

In a pop over-type batter, the eggs provide a few functions:

Egg whites: protein for structure.  Since the popover/yorkshire pudding is leavened by the protein matrix generated by the ingredients setting and capturing the steam that the wet batter is pushing out, you're going to need something to replace the protein here.  The gluten from the wheat flour isn't going to fully provide the structural integrity you need.
Egg whites: Water.  Egg whites are about 92% water by weight.  This helps make your dough liquid enough to produce the steam needed for the leavening.
Egg yolks: fats for weakening the dough.  The fats in the yolks help keep the dough springy and soft as well as provides a nice richness to the flavor.
Egg yolks: emulsifiers.  The lecithin in the yolk helps to bind the water phase of the batter with the fat phase of the batter so that they don't separate.

So, my suggestion would be to up the liquid in the recipe by a few tablespoons, add a little bit more fat, some powdered lecithin (or other emulsifying agents -- you can get vegan lecithin made from mustard), and some soy protein powder.

You might have to play with the combination of these ingredients, but by replicating and replacing the items the egg provides, you'll be much better suited to creating the popover.

Although, you're not making yorkshire pudding FYI -- you're making a popover.  Yorkshire pudding is a popover created by using the rendered fat from a roast.  A popover is the same type of bread, but made without using animal fat.


Using an electric deep fryer does the food need to be totally immersed? ***Edit**** So there seems to be much confusion about the way I worded the question and how I described the situation. So I will try to clarify. The max fill line is about halfway down the fryer. The minimum fill line is very near the bottom. I am unclear whether this fill line is for ONLY oil or for oil and food both. Originally I assumed it was just for oil. There is no marking higher up as some have asked/mentioned.

I put a whole chicken that was wrapped inside the vessel. I then covered with water until the chicken was covered by an inch or two. as I put the water in I was calculating how much water it was I added. I added 8 qts of water on top of the chicken to cover it. I then removed the chicken and noticed that by chance the 8 qts of water reached the max fill line.

A commenter mentioned that the more food you have (a turkey compared to chicken for example) the less oil it will take to cook as the item will displace the oil. This should have been fairly obvious but I wasn't thinking correctly.

The box of the fryer says 22 qt capacity. I have no idea what this references. The box mentions cooking turkeys up to 14 lbs.

At this point in time I assume the max fill line is for oil only as it is halfway down the vessel and it takes 8 qts to reach that point which isn't much.

When I buy a turkey I will do the water test again (unwrapped) and see how much oil it takes. I am going under the assumption the max fill line is for oil only. I am assuming it is possible to cook a turkey since it is marketed as such.

I am hoping for the best and if you see a plume of smoke coming from Columbus, oh then pray for me lol.  Thanks to all

Hello I have an electric deep fryer that will hold a maximum of 8 qts of oil.

I put in a whole chicken (young chicken) and added water to measure how much oil would be needed to cover the chicken and it takes the whole 8 qts to cover it by an inch or two.

The problem is for thanksgiving we want to deep fry a whole turkey which is significantly bigger than the chicken. The 8 qts to cover the chicken is by chance the maximum the fryer can hold.  The box of the fryer says it can fry a turkey up to 12 pounds.

I understand the oil may bubble up as it's cooking. But the 8 qts barely covers the chicken. How can we cook a turkey with the same amount of oil that barely covers the chicken?

Would it be okay to do this?

Based on the comments, it sounds like your fryer has a fill line for just the oil, calibrated so that if you use that much oil then add a reasonably-sized turkey, you'll end up with the oil still safely below the top of the fryer. You'd never actually use 22 quarts of oil; then it'd be completely full of oil, on the verge of overflowing, with no room for food.

In that case, your chicken test doesn't really tell you very much. A turkey will fill the vessel more completely, so it may well take less oil to cover it. If you end up able to put your whole turkey in, and cover it with liquid, without getting dangerously close to the top of the pot, then you're okay. I would hope your fryer has another line closer to the top to tell you what a safe margin is there.

Do note that testing with wrapped birds also is misleading. That keeps the liquid from getting into the cavity, so it'll take less liquid to fill and cover that way.

And if the turkey is too big, then filling it to that 8 quart fill line then adding the turkey could cause it to overflow. So it really seems like you need to test with the turkey first (not wrapped!), to be sure it'll fit safely.

With all that said, supposing you do actually end up in the situation you mention in the question - not enough oil to cover the food - that's not good.

If your food is sticking out of the oil, it's not really cooking. It'll be in contact with hot air over the oil, but that's nowhere near actual hot oil.

Along with that, it'd indicate you've overfilled it, which is asking for trouble. The manual for your fryer almost certainly has some really strong warnings against that sort of thing. And even if the oil stops at the fill line, you have a huge turkey in there just waiting to shift or settle a bit, displace more oil, and push the oil above the max - it's still overfilled.

Doing something like that would make it really easy to splash hot oil out of the fryer, especially while you're putting the food in and getting that burst of boiling water and steam, which is incredibly dangerous. It's probably a fire hazard even with an electric fryer. And even without a fire, it's nothing you want splashing on you.

And in general, I'd strongly suggest you look at general safety guides before you attempt to deep fry a turkey, especially if you're not sure about part of the process.


How to barbecue marinated chicken drumsticks I'm looking for some general advice on how to do this.  I've attempted this twice and they turned out OK, but the outside layer looked a little black.  Everyone really liked how it turned out but I'm wondering how I can improve.  This is my process:

Skin the drumsticks.
Marinate them for 20-30 minutes (we bought a bag with the flavor in it that was for this purpose).
Put the chicken on the barbecue on medium to low heat.
Flip/rotate the chicken every 5 minutes or so for a total of 25 minutes.

Alton Brown has an interesting technique in an episode of Good Eats in quite a bit of detail.

But, what I just do is to put it on direct heat (right over a medium-high flame) to sear the skin side and then move to indirect heat (burner right below turned off, other burner still on) and cover to complete. I will admit I've burned it a couple times, but every time I do, it's cause I've forgotten to check it, and left it without checking it.


How to achieve more solid consistency when preparing seitan from wheat flour? I'm making my own seitan from wheat flour, rather than using vital wheat gluten.  I usually do about 4-5 washing steps when preparing my seitan. It is good, but I would like it to be more stiff/solid (not sure if this is the right word). I think this would make it a better meat-substitute.

I normally put the flour into a bowl and fill it with water so that it results in pastry. Then I knead the pastry under water. You can see the starch coming out and making the water more murky. I do this for about 3-5 minutes. Then I get rid of the water and fill the bowl again. As mentioned above I repeat these steps about 4-5 times. At the end I simply cut the seitan into pieces and cook it in broth. Usually I freeze the cooked seitan afterwards.

So if I want to produce a firmer consistency, is it about how often I wash the seitan or are there any other rules or tricks on how to achieve this?

The texture and yield is governed two factors: developing the gluten completely and washing out the bran and starch effectively.

To develop the gluten, combine the flour and water into a workable dough and give it 50 light strokes. Cover the bowl and let it rest 10-15 minutes. It is during this time that water chemically combines with the flour and the strands of gluten form. After resting, return to the dough and you will notice it has a different feel. It is because the gluten has formed. Knead the dough 100 times. Immerse the finished dough in ice water or at least very cold water for at least 30 minutes. An hour is better.

To effectively wash out the bran and starch it is essential to work the dough under alternating hot (as hot as your hands can take) and cold water baths with 30 minute rest intervals each time you change the water. Start with hot, work the dough with a spreading motion for a few minutes. Pour the water into a bucket (not down the sink!), cover with very cold water and let it rest 30 minutes. Repeat and cover with hot water. Let it rest 30 minutes each time. Usually during the third round the dough will very soft and your hand technique should become one of gathering instead of spreading. If it feels like you are on your way to pancake batter, pour it through a fine colander to gather the gluten and give it a cold water bath. In the last couple rounds it will become increasingly firm and the strands of gluten are evident.

Finally you have a ball about 1/3 the size of the original dough. I divide this into baseball sized pieces and drop them into a boiling pot. Return to boil and cook until the pieces float to the surface. Remove and put in cold water. The shape of the pieces is now set but they aren't yet fully cooked. From here cook in a broth seasoned to your liking. I simmer them for 2 hours in a simple kombu, tamari and water broth.

I use fine ground whole wheat flour. Stone ground will work but yields are lower and texture is inferior. My dough formula is 2600 gr fine whole wheat flour and 1900 gr cold water which produces 2000 gr finished seitan. Hope this is helpful!


How much should I beat choux pastry for optimal rising? I attempted choux pastry eclairs for the first time. The pastry came together after only a few seconds in the saucepan, I allowed it to cool before adding eggs one at a time, and mixture looked at the right consistency and was able to pipe. Yet the dough didn't rise at all in oven. I wondered whether I didn't beat enough air into mixture, and is there a general length of time and speed of mixer for beating; as this has occasionally happened in my sponge baking?

You have gotten a fundamental principle of the choux pastry wrong.

The rising and airiness is not caused by beating air bubbles into the batter, unlike with sponge cake and similar, but by trapping steam in the well formed network of gluten and egg in the batter.

The cooking step is not meant to just have the flour-water-fat mix come together, but to have the starch in the flour starting to gelatinize, i.e. develop the properties that bind pudding or roux. So you have to keep cooking and stirring the lump of batter until a white film forms on the bottom of your pot (assuming you are using stainless steel or similar, not a non-stick coated one). Without that, your batter won't be able to trap the steam created during baking, which forms those large holes characteristic of choux pastry.

There is no need to stir vigorously when adding the eggs, add them one at a time and stir only to incorporate them. Do not beat your batter, you would be doing more harm than good.

Apart from that, follow the usual advice and don't open the oven door during baking and you should be fine. You can add some extra steam by splashing some water into the oven, but that's optional.


Why do so many things cook at 180C/350F It seems that many, if not most recipes, that involve cooking something in an Oven specify a temperature of 180 Celsius or 350 Fahrenheit (if using a Fan oven, 20/70 more if not). This also seems to be true for the instructions on prepared foods. My question is why is this the case? Does it reflect something fundamental about the cooking process, historical accident, etc.?

I'm also keen to know whether this advice should be adjusted given the capabilities of modern ovens/thermometers.

This is as hot as you can get without quickly burning any sugars or cooking fats on the surface of the food, so it is typical for enriched breads, cookies or cakes (which have plenty of sugar and fats); note that doughs containing not much sugar (bread, pizza, savoury pie crust) are sometimes baked at substantially higher temperatures.

Non-pastry/bread dishes are often kept at 180°C or below because the above is also true for vegetables and fruit naturally containing sugars, resulting in much accelerated charring if going above that temperature range.

The difference in browning in a rich dough (eg streusel) between 160°C and 180°C and 200°C is drastic.

A still oven that is truly at 180°C (by oven thermometer) can already be literal few degrees too hot for recipes calling for 180°C; an oven that is out of calibration even 10°C hotter can cause a lot of recipe failures.

There seems to be a general consensus that non-still (fan assisted/convection/..) ovens should be set 20°C lower (if the fan/convection is used) than you would set a still oven. This is commonly found in recipes and manuals.


How can I best select a knife to purchase for learning how to sharpen? I want to buy a good all-purpose Chef's knife and also sharpen it myself. But I have no experience sharpening with a waterstone so I'm a little afraid of spending much money and then ruining the knife. What is the most basic type of knife in terms of materials and style which would allow me to effectively practice sharpening?

While you can learn how to sharpen on almost any straight blade knife, my recommendation is to start on one that:

Isn't expensive, (try yard sales, thrift stores, and pawn shops - the goal is to learn technique, not have a fancy knife)
Isn't very long, (6 inches max)
Is wide enough that wearing the blade away won't be a big issue, (chef's knife would be fine)
Is not too thin or too thick, (not a boning knife or a meat cleaver)
Is a softer typer of steel, (so that you will sharpen more frequently, and so it will be easier to grind back the edge if needed)
Doesn't have a great finish (the finish is the part that you're most likely to mess up beyond easy repair).

As far as sharpening tools go, I think you need several grades of whetstones to really get a great edge. You can buy them separately or as part of a kit. I would skip any other type of sharpener, even a honer for now (again, so that you'll be forced to practice resharpening more often).

Then it's a matter of practicing sharpening and testing the edge. Make really sure you get your technique down before trying to add ANY speed. Make sure your fingers are NEVER in the path of the blade. Work from roughest to finest whetstone.

If you mess up on the whetstone angle, go back to the roughest stone and regrind to a fresh edge.

Your practice knife will get scratched up and worn down faster than normal. When you're comfortable with your skill, get a slightly nicer knife and a honing steel.


cooking oven temperature I have a murphy electric cake oven. it is a classic electric cake oven(not a modern one) In the recipe book it is mentioned to preheat it to 200 degree C for 10 mins. But it is not specified anywhere what should the temperature of the oven be while baking. My cake often gets overcooked/burnt if i keep a high temperature. or remains uncooked if i keep it low. Can anyone specify a temp. for baking a cake or a brownie please.

The baking recipe idiom "preheat oven to X" implies to bake the item at that same temperature, unless the recipe specifies changing it.

200 C (390 F) is a little higher than most baked goods, but not out of the range of possibility.  more typical would be 180 C / 350 F.


Curing bacon with a wet brine, without nitrates When making bacon, many of the recipes call for a dry brine using curing salt with nitrates. I've read that it is possible to use a wet brine without the curing salt with the nitrates and just use Kosher salt (or some other salt). Is this possible and safe to use just kosher salt and water? From my understanding curing salt with nitrates can be toxic, but also protects against botulism but I'm still looking for a safer alternative.

Nitrate, through the action of lactobacillus in meat, breaks down into nitrite.  Nitrite then rapidly breaks down releasing nitric oxide, which combines with myoglobin present in muscle tissue, 'curing' the meat.  When this process is complete, and if the correct amount of nitrates/nitrates were used in the cure, almost* all of the nitrate/nitrites will be broken down, and very little residual nitrates or nitrites will remain in the bacon.

Nitrosamine formation in bacon is the result of cooking it with high heat, but this is not limited to bacon - grilled hamburgers or steaks contain equally high levels of nitrosamines.
To greatly reduce or eliminate nitrosamine formation in bacon, simply fry it at a low temperature.  It will take longer to cook this way, but will cook more evenly and spatter less.

But if you're really worried about nitrosamine consumption, give up grilled meat.  And just to be safe, better give up green leafy vegetables too.  Spinach, for example, and celery (which contains 800 times more nitrate than cured bacon) produce nitrosamines in the stomach and digestive tract.
Ascorbic acid is added to accelerate the curing process and has no effect on botulism prevention.

to prevent the production of botulism toxins, it is generally considered safer to err on the side of a little too much nitrate/nitrite than to little.


What should I look for in a crepe pan? Amazon link

Remarkable to find them all together like this, but these are the options I am considering.

Hard-Anodized Aluminum
Non-Stick (Teflon)
Blue Steel (I've never even heard of it)
Cast-Iron
Carbon Steel

Until yesterday, I hadn't made a crepe in twenty years. A friend mentioned an interest in a Mille Crepe Cake

Recipe

and, I have to admit, I'm a bit intrigued too. So I played a little and quickly had lovely crepes, but they weren't uniform enough to stack twenty of them to make such a fussy cake. So then I looked at crepe pans.

The pan will only be used for crepes and pancakes, and I can't imagine that it would ever be used more than 6 or 7 times a year. That being the case, I'm leaning towards the Teflon. It's the least expensive option and doesn't require seasoning. But, if I'm going to go to the trouble of making 20+ crepes for a cake, I want to make the best possible crepes! Is there anything else I should consider? I have an electric coil stove.

As long as you don't use metal tools with the teflon, I don't see why you shouldn't just go with that. Iron or steel would have to be very well seasoned (think cooking scrambled eggs). Besides, for $15 you aren't out a lot of money if it doesn't work out.

Edited to add: Teflon is when Alton Brown went with in the crepes episode of Good Eats.


How long are egg-free dressings like Just Mayo okay to eat after sell by date? I recently ordered a jar of Just Mayo from an online store and was sent a bottle that has a sell by date for about a month ago. The obvious complaint aside, it got me wondering how likely it is that such a product would actually be unsuitable for consumption. I mean, products like Just Mayo or Vegenaise don't have any eggs or dairy in them (its kind of their selling point). So they wouldn't 'turn' nearly as quickly as traditional mayonnaise, right?

My question is, how long would it take for an egg-free mayo to actually go bad? I've seen similar questions here about condiments and sell by dates, but whenever it comes to mayo, the eggs always come up as a key factor and that's not an issue with the products I'm talking about.

Here are the ingredients of Just Mayo:

I couldn't find a previous answer specific to sell by dates and condiments.  Most condiments, mayo with egg included, are made safe by creating an inhospitable environment for bacterial growth.  The addition of acids (i.e, vinegar, lemon) or other "preservatives" accomplishes this.  Sell by dates are usually an indicator of quality, not safety.  Items such as this are safe for a very long time after the expatriation, especially if unopened, though the quality (taste and consistency) degrades. Once opened, you have the opportunity to introduce bacteria and spores to the contents.  Again, bacterial growth will be inhibited by the product itself.  The most likely problem would be mold growth.  If this occurs, discard.


Making soda with yeast It is easy to make soda by adding sugar and yeast to a bottle of water and closing it tightly. However, checking different recipes, I did not get what is the best condition for this. I have a couple of tiny questions to find the optimum treatment.

I added 1/2 tsp instant yeast (baking yeast) and 1 tsp sugar to 2 l of water.

Should the bottle left untouched, or it is useful to shake it
occasionally?
To keep it warm, is it good to put it in sunshine, or
    a dark place is better for it?
Leaving air in the bottle or filling it completely?

I agree with @SAJ14SAJ. What I would add is that

yeast does not require sunlight in any way ... but as UV light can be harmful to microorganisms and might inhibit yeast growth I wouldn't brew it in direct sun.
for bottling beer it is normally suggested to leave the correct amount (1 - 1 ½ inch) of headspace (air) at the top of the bottle for carbonation and proper pressure. But I am not sure if the same conditions apply for soda - I would think it is not too different.
shaking gently occasionally might help to evenly distribute the yeast in the sugar solution, and expose it to more food resources (sugar).


Cooking Belgian Waffles in waffle iron My waffle iron does not cook Belgian waffle enough (they are not brown on the outside but are cooked on the inside) at the recommended temperature and time. what should I do, raise the temperature or cook them long?

I would first try cooking them longer. Raising the temp can also work, but you run the risk of burning whatever oil you are spraying onto the waffle iron, which can taste off (not a big risk) and will smoke up your home.

Without knowing about your batter, I'd suggest adding more sugar in some form. That's often the culprit in homemade pancake/waffle batters, we neglect to use enough sugar. More sugar will allow the outside to caramelize more, which is the browning you see. (Ok, it's a malliard reaction)

Browning occurs when sugars and proteins (in the flour, eggs, milk, etc) interact under high temps. So not enough of either, and you will end up with a paler product no matter what.


What is the right kind of syphon to use for fish batter? [See below re possible dup]

I've seen recipes for fish and chips call for the use of a CO2 syphon for the batter (looking at you, Heston!). So I'm looking to buy a syphon (I don't have one yet).

I haven't seen explicit comments in any of the recipes as to whether it should be a "soda syphon" or a "cream whipper" but they are explicit about use of CO2.

Most of the product web pages suggest CO2 & N2O aren't interchangeable.  I'm not sure if thats due to physical limitations of the devices, or just in the interest of avoiding funny tasting whipped cream or weird looking "soda"!

Soda syphons seem to be a lot cheaper, but I'm doubtful if they would handle fish batter well - presumably they are designed for less viscous liquids like water.

Can one use CO2 cartridges in 'cream whipper' syphons?  They latter would seem better suited to the texture of the batter.

I understand (slightly, anyway) the various issues around taste / texture etc between CO2 and N2O; but have no idea if the cartridges are physically compatible, or if there are critical pressure differences.

This was flagged as possible dup of question about interchangeability of CO2 and N2O cartridges.  I don't think it is.  As one of the comments here says, I have specifc use in mind.

I had looked at that question and, unless I misread it, the answers are mainly about the chemistry, as it were, and not the mechanics of the syphons.  They seem to imply that the cartridges are (often) interchangeable; but many of the product web sites say specifically to use one type or the other, but they don't make it clear if that to do with the device or the recipe, as it were.
(Sorry for long explanation here; If I were able to comment on others' questions Id put the comment on the other post).

Get an ISI whipper (no affiliation), the model that can take both hot and cold.  It accepts CO2 or N2O.  They have multiple safety controls built in, are versatile  (especially given your interest in Heston), come in multiple sizes, and are relatively easy to clean.


Should I taste-test food before serving it? Do all chefs sample food before serving it?

I ask because I feel like there is a huge sanitary problem here. If the chef gets a taste of the food, doesn't he risk his saliva getting into the food itself?

When I cook at home, should I sample all food before serving it? Is it sanitary?

Some background: I watch a lot of cooking shows, and go to some food festivals, and more often than not, I see chefs taste whatever they're cooking with a small spoon, and later reuse that same spoon to taste again. I could understand that using one spoon for each taste is wasteful, but at the same time I feel like it could cause serious sanitary issues.

Any halfway competent chef should indeed be tasting.  The only way to know whether you're putting up good food is to check it yourself - and you'd better be consistent if you want to continue getting paid for it.

That's not to say that all chefs do, nor that there's any one standard for how frequently to taste or what method should be used.  It's pretty obvious that using your hands to taste or double-dipping is frowned on... but shortcuts do happen when it's the middle of the rush and you have 30 things to be doing at once.

The best practice I've personally seen in a commercial kitchen was to have a large set of spoons at each station, kept with the "business end" submerged in hot water with a mild sanitizer solution.  Each chef also carried a few clean towels which they changed out copiously throughout the evening (these have a million uses, from wiping hands dry to cleaning plate rims to handling hot pan handles).  When tasting, we'd grab a spoon, tap off excess water, wipe with a clean towel if necessary, take a small taste, and discard.  This got to be as much of a habit as washing your hands after handling raw meat or wiping down your cutting board.  The used spoons would be collected and washed regularly along with used pans and so on, then returned to the line.  With a system like this there's minimal risk for contamination and relatively little waste, except for frequent washing.

At home, you can play things a bit looser, unless you like washing all of your spoons every night.  Double-dipping isn't a big concern unless you're ill, in which case you shouldn't really be cooking for people.  You're probably introducing your friends and family to just as much contamination in the form of dust and such simply by having them in your home.

EDIT: I agree with Jefromi's point in comments, so I want to emphasize this further.

Safety aside, I strongly believe that tasting is necessary to make you a better cook.  It teaches you how to make corrections on the fly and balance flavors, rather than simply following a recipe.  As a matter of fact, even if you're following a recipe, you will need to account for variation in things like produce.  Fruits vary in their flavor depending on how ripe they are, where they were grown, whether it was a good season... The vegetables that I get at my local market may be a slightly different variety from yours... Meats vary widely depending on how the animal is fed and raised, even if you're using the same cuts.  Even when using packaged ingredients, you can't guarantee complete consistency unless you use the exact brand as written in a recipe.  (And I dare say that if your recipes uses only packaged ingredients, you can do much better.)  Recipes cannot account for this sort of variation in anything but the broadest strokes.  It's up to you to balance all of this, plus the preferences of yourself and your guests.  If you're only tasting when you've finished cooking, it's probably too late to correct any problems.

Like any skill, cooking ability is improved by practice and feedback.  Tasting as you go provides you with immediate feedback on how the dish tastes and what it needs, rather than just at the very end when you sit down to eat.  Learning how flavors interact, how much seasoning is enough, and so on are fundamentals.   They're what help you get creative, go beyond cooking someone else's dishes, and start coming up with your own.

So: yes, you should taste, and you should taste often.  There are many ways to deal with safety concerns, but there is no other way to get better at fixing your mistakes before they hit the table.


Should octopus be cooked twice? When I see any recipe for octopus, it's almost always boiled first. Harold McGee says to chuck it in the oven (dry)

The point is, when ever any one fries/BBQ's octopus, they always fry/BBQ cooked octopus.

My question is about why does it have to be this way? My research potentially suggests one of 2 things, but I'm unsure.

By boiling/oven first, you get a more even cook
Frying only would make it chewy

In my case, I don't (think) I want to cook the entire octopus, but instead, semi defrost it (until I can chop the arms off (so it would remain mostly frozen)), remove the arms, refreeze and cook the arms as and when needed

If I were to cook an arm only by frying, is there any danger here or do people cook it twice (when frying) for taste/texture?

Actually, Harold McGee supports brine-and-simmer as an alternative to baking, and explains the texture-related goal behind both: octopus contains a lot of connective tissue, and both that and the muscle need to be softened.

I've read elsewhere (can't remember the source right now) that octopus muscle fibres contract and drive out their water at unusually low temperatures, such that the ideal cooking temperature is 55C. You're going to want long cooking times at those temperatures, so we're talking either sous vide or deep-fat frying in a temperature-regulated fryer.


What is the most effective method to mince candied ginger? I like to use candied ginger in place of fresh ginger in some dishes that will be sweet, but I want to use it in much smaller chunks than what it comes in.   My problem is that even using a well-sharpened knife, it gums up both the blade and the cutting board quite a bit.    Is there some method of treating the blade or the candied ginger that would ease cutting it some?

Tried a lot of ways, grating, cutting with knife and food processor.  Huge fails.  This worked, use thinner pieces of ginger.  Cut with clean scissors half way up in small rows.  Do not cut all the way to the end.  Turn the ginger and cut on the side (criss crossing).  Clean your scissors with warm soapy water and a brush often (tried oil, didn't work as well).  Also add some sugar to cut ginger to keep it from re-sticking.  Works like a charm.