Heating meat in a microwave Everytime I heat up chicken in the microwave it tastes pretty strange and has a not-so-appealing odour too.. What is the best way to heat up those leftovers?

To get the best results reheating food in the microwave, use 50% or 75% power, and turn the plate every 20 seconds or so (if you don't have a turntable). Stir or flip a few times if you can. Only get it just hot enough, no more. Food overcooked in the microwave is just nasty.


Using steam to make a dry version of turkey juicier How effective is steaming a turkey tenderloin the size of a brisket to make it tender and juicy?

I'm considering this because turkey has a tendency to dry out as it's cooked.

Brining is a better solution as it gives you juicy meat and extra flavour. Steaming would result in rather a bland taste.

Brining is essentially marinading the meat in a saltwater solution (usually with some extra flavourings like peppercorns etc) overnight. You then roast the meat as normal. Super juicy, super tasty results. There are lots of guides online.


What can be substituted for cocoa nibs? I have read here that cocoa nibs can be used in place of chocolate chips, but what about the other way around? A recipe I want to try calls for cocoa nibs, but I am having a hard time finding them. What can be substituted for cocoa nibs (if anything)?

In this recipe, the nibs are being used as an accent ingredient, adding some crunchiness and a burst of chocolate flavor, as well as some bitterness.

They are not essential to chemistry or overall outcome of the recipe.

You may:

Simply omit them
Chopped or coarsely ground roasted coffee would have a similar profile, although not as fatty, and of course, coffee flavored
Try another crunchy, possibly somewhat bitter ingredient like chopped nuts; almonds, hazelnuts, and (in some people's opinions, although I dislike them) walnuts have a particular affinity for chocolate.


Would a cream based sauce go well with steaks? I've reached a point where I am very comfortable with a nice red wine/shallot reduction as a pan sauce for my strip roasts/steaks.  I think I remember have a meal once where they served sliced tenderloin with a white sauce.  I imagine it was cream based but I don't often see this combination.

I was wondering if there was hope for throwing together a cream based sauce and if so if anyone had an idea of what base (mother or otherwise) sauce would be a good jumping off point for experimentation?

You may have been served Bearnaise, which is a common red meat sauce. Bearnaise is based on Hollandaise (a mother sauce), a butter based sauce. Hollandaise is somewhat advanced to make because it is important to keep the temperature right and the ratios correct while making it, but the result is worth the effort.


How Did I Explode A Saucepan? I am a complete amateur when it comes to the world of cooking.

My recent attempts to teach myself have unfortunately lead to me needing to ask:

How did I explode my saucepan?

I'd put some garlic/onion/olive oil in the saucepan and left it on low heat to soften on my electric hob. After about five there was a loud bang and I turned to find the saucepan falling through the air (which I just caught by the handle). The base of the saucepan had come away from the body. Cue jokes about taste explosions from my flat mate

I am fairly sure this wasn't supposed to happen.

The same thing happened when I was cooking meatballs with some onion on the side - though to a much lesser degree.

Did I just have a duff saucepan, or is there some explosive quality to onions I missed!?

On the plus side, the meal came out okay in the end.

I work in a commercial kitchen and I've seen this happen before, which is why we do not use copper-plated cookware. This can happen whenever you have two different alloys welded together and apply heat to one side or non-uniformly; An effect known as 'thermal shock'. What happens is one metal expands faster than the other, causing a deformation or fracture. Think of it as one side trying to 'pull' the other at the edges. The pop you heard was undoubtedly this delineation occurring, followed by the kinetic reaction of the pot jumping.

I find your claim that the pot leaped through the air difficult to believe, but I have observed audible pops and visible movement when they fail. If you have a flat top (like an electric stove), it could skid for up to a foot from this due to the lack of friction and possible presence of condensate (water) on the surface which can at certain temperatures act like a nearly friction-less cushion. Oil doesn't do this, only water.

If you've ever been in a commercial kitchen you'll notice every cookware item is made of a single cast of metal (most usually stainless steel) because of this. Welded alloy pots and pans just don't last very long -- the effect observed so violently happens at a smaller scale with every heating cycle, eventually resulting in ruined cookware. Also, being a line cook means being exposed to things exploding, dying, catching fire, etc., on a near-daily basis, not to mention an assortment of knives that would make most Hollywood bad-asses blush, so obviously we try to limit the number of things that can go wrong.

Do yourself a favor -- if you stick with the copper-bottomed pots and pans, make sure to put plenty of water or oil in them. Heat with nowhere to go will cause failure quickly.


Potato and onion used in cheese & onion pasties In online recipes of cheese & onion pasties, they call for raw potato and onion mixed with grated cheddar cheese. I am wondering if the chopped potatoes and onions cook properly in the oven, don't we need to use sauteed onions and boiled potatoes?

Link to a sample recipe

The raw potato will definitely cook through.  If you cooked the potatoes first, they would be almost devoid of texture by the time they cooked a second time in the oven - you'd have something more akin to mashed-potato pastries on your hands.

You might want to think about sweating the onions first, though.  Sweating them would drive-off some of their moisture and would mellow the taste of your pastry filling.  Definitely not a requirement, but I think you'd prevent soggy pastry bottoms and serve-up a better tasting treat.

Also, your recipe throws-out the notion of brushing the pastry tops with milk or egg like they are interchangeable.  Milk is traditionally used to soften the the crusts of breads - an egg wash will give your pastries a rich brown top.  I have never seen a puff pastry recipe that called for a milk wash.  Stick with the egg wash - beat a large egg with 1 Tbsp. water and brush the tops of your pastries lightly before parking them in the oven.


Should I boil the alcohol out of marinade? A recipe for cooking pork calls for sake in the marinade. Should I boil the alcohol out or should I marinate with the alcohol intact? I read somewhere that alcohol can cook the meat just like acid, but what I can't figure out is whether that could be beneficial and actually improve the end result.

Unless the recipe specifically directs you to cook the marinade, you should just use it as is.

The only time you would normally cook a marinade is after it is used, in reducing it for use as a sauce—and of course, not all marinades are suitable for such use.


What is the importance of letting pizza dough sit? I am relatively new to pizza making... I've made 10 pizzas or so. I am having trouble understanding the process the yeast makes it my dough...

I see recipes ranging from 1/2 TS to 2 TS of yeast, the time the dough must sit before going in the oven varies, and all that seems to be insignificant to me compared to the heat and time it will spend in the oven...

Can anyone explain the science of it to me?

Kenji over at Serious Eats gives some of the best "pizza science" lessons on the Internet.  Here's a good article on the role of yeast and fermentation in pizza dough:
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/09/the-pizza-lab-how-long-should-i-let-my-dough-cold-ferment.html

In short, time and kneading cause proteins in dough to form an elastic network of fibers called gluten.  Yeast consumes starch and emits carbon dioxide.  Gluten traps the carbon dioxide which causes the dough to expand or "rise".

The amount of yeast and time may vary based on the intent of the cook.  More time allows the cook to use less yeast (the yeast organisms will multiply) and allows for a greater development of the proteins in the wheat flour.

A longer, slower rise will allow for the greatest flavor to be developed.  In his tests, Kenji found the optimum rise time to be 2-3 days in a refrigerator.  However, this must be balanced against the cook's desire for an expedient dinner :-)

In my personal pizza cooking, I usually use 1 packet of yeast (2.25 tsp) for approximately 13 cups of flour.  I will typically allow this to rise for around 24 hours on my kitchen counter-top (my house says cold at around 55-60degF).  If the dough will not be used right away, I will put it in the fridge but will allow it to warm to room temperature for several hours before cooking it.

Good luck with your pies!


Fresh vs Frozen Broccoli for soup? Is there a substantial difference in using fresh vs frozen broccoli when making Broccoli Cheese Soup? And if I do make the substitution, should I thaw it first or put it in frozen?

I can't imagine there would be a great difference as it's a soup and if you're worried about them becoming mushy then in broccoli cheese soup it should not make much of a difference as they're going to be blitzed anyway. If you were using them though you can keep them from going mushy and keep them green by adding them frozen to a hot pan with just a little water in, stirring often, more here.

Hope this helps!


What happens if I use fresh mushrooms to make vegetarian Chinese mushroom soup (冬菇湯)? What changes if I use fresh mushrooms, rather than dried, to make Chinese mushroom soup (冬菇湯)? I'll be shunning meat. Note that unlike Western mushroom soups, mushrooms aren't blended in Chinese soups.
Top. Middle. Bottom.

Fresh/raw mushrooms are quite bland by themselves (yes I know there are exceptions).
I suggest pan fry in oil them before using them in the soup, or chop them up and bake them in the oven on a sheet pan.
When you are using dried mushroom, you will re-hydrate them in water and you will usually use the resulting liquid which contains a lot of flavor in the recipe.


Does this picture accurately describe different kind of coffee? In many place like blogs, facebook I have seen the following picture describing different types of coffee. Is it accurate?

Also one thing I do don't understand is how espresso is coming on top of steamed milk (Latte Macchiato) and in another place it is coming below steamed milk (Caffe Breve)

It's the order of pouring, not how the drink looks. The espresso is a shot, like a measure for fully automatic machines like the ones they have in Starbucks. In fact, I think I have seen the very poster in some coffee chain shop.


Is Indian sandwich bread meant to always be grilled or toasted? In India, there are brands of commercially available white bread, specifically labelled and sold as "Sandwich bread". They are available as square and triangular shaped slices.

These breads differ from the 'regular' breads in that they are rougher and harder to chew. So you can't simply start eating them even if you put some vegetables or mayo between the slices. It tastes and feels raw and awful.
The 'regular' white breads (sometimes called 'milk bread') are soft, sometimes sweet and can be eaten as-is; without even any butter or jam. Even commercially available brown bread is soft.

I've also noticed that when "sandwich bread" is grilled, it becomes more 'chewable' and palatable. Sad part is, that many people I know, simply take "sandwich bread", put some raw cucumber, onion, tomato and capsicum slices between it and serve it to us.

So my question is...are you aware of any requirement of rougher breads to necessarily be grilled before being made into a sandwich? Are they deliberately made rough so that they'd be able to absorb the wetness of jam or chutney?

As Jefromi already mentioned in a comment, the sandwich bread common in the Western part of the world is soft and often sweet, ready to eat.

When you search online for 'indian sandwich bread' you will only get images of roasted bread with various fillings.

I think the bread you refer to is in a half baked form, which you can find in supermarkets here sometimes too: it is used here mostly for baked sandwiches with cheese. The bread is only ready when going through another baking cycle.


Reason(s) for not making stock with oily fish (salmon)? Making stock from oily fish is often advised against, but what is the big deal? Does it just taste really bad?

Salmon or Tuna will make a very strong flavoured stock and will have lots of oil that coat your tongue.  Not what you're looking for if you want a light brightly flavoured fish sauce.

In a traditional French kitchen you want generic stocks (fish/brown/chicken/veal) that are able to be used for a wide range of sauces/dishes so having a salmon stock around doesn't meet that criteria.

That said, I worked at a restaurant that made fish stock from salmon bones all the time as it was mainly used in a house specialty, a very robust West Coast spin on Bouillabaisse.  Any true Frechman would have turned his back on us in disgust for doing what we did but damn it, it tasted great and the customers loved it!  For any other fish sauces we used the traditional white fish bones.

FYI...Japanese dishes use Bonito flakes (tuna) liberally to make dashi(sp?) which is a fish flavoured broth for miso soup as well as other items.

So basically what I'm saying is if a fatty fish stock gets the job done for you and you're happy with it then go for it.  Just remember that if you're trying to make a classic recipe then using a non-traditional ingredient will mess it up.


How to compensate for diminished taste when cooking? I have a condition known as hyposmia, or a diminished sense of smell. For instance, I cannot smell flowers unless I am within 1" or so of the centers, but I can smell bacon a mile away (Who can't?), and the perfume counter is a reek of alcohol that is overwhelming.

I also really enjoy cooking, but I am no better than a recipe follower as the sense of smell also affects and diminishes my sense of taste. As a result, any time I deviate or create on my own, the result is usually reported to be heavily under or over seasoned, even though it tastes good to me.

Are there known techniques to compensate for hyposmia and altered taste when cooking? (I read about a known chef who has no sense of taste, but the name escapes me).

I'd say experience will be your best help in the long run.

Use known recipes, quantities and ingredients.
Err on the side of blandness; better have people add salt/pepper/hotsauce  than spit it out because you over did it.

Try to have someone with you when you try out new recipes or ingredients so they can help you gage the taste and smell so you can adjust the ingredients.

Good luck.


How much protein from the stock of one large chicken (2kg) carcass once legs, breasts and wings removed? I can find details of how much protein per body of fluid (e.g. 1 US cup) but to be honest we probably all make stock to a different concentration, so that makes that metric useless.

When I prepare a large chicken (2kg), I remove the breasts , wings and legs (and the oysters on the back) so I'm left with just the main carcass which I then simmer for ages.  How much protein is extracted please?

Search on chicken back bone nutrition. Many hits.

From this link about 20 grams per 102g of total mass.


reusing utensil during cooking When I'm cooking something, say boiling chicken in a pot or less commonly baking it, I may poke, shift, or stir it with a utensil while its cooking. Since it isn't completely cooked, my germaphobia dictates that I put it in the dishwasher and grab a fresh utensil each time, often using 3 or 4 forks during the process (I like to shift and break the meat apart as it cooks). Is this standard practice or is there there a way to use less utensils?

As the meat should eventually reach a temperature that will kill any germs that may be reintroduced by the utensil, using a new one each time is overkill. Using clean utensils to remove the chicken from the pot and portion it out is a good idea however. You may also wish to place the utensil on a plate in between uses rather than on the counter just to reduce the risk of contaminating anything else you might put there.


Storage after slow cooking I love my slow cooker but cooling food seems to take forever. Usually, I just pop the crock into the oven (no heat) and store until the next morning. So we're talking from 9PM (I eat dinner late) until 8 or 9 AM next day; some goes into the fridge; some into the freezer.

Is this safe or is there a better way without putting it in the fridge right away and subjecting my already cold foods to heat/steam?

Well, a food safety expert would tell you that your current plan is a terrible idea. You want to minimize the amount of time food is between 40 F and 140 F, and restaurants have very strict regulations about that. The right way to do it is to put your food in relatively small containers, no more than a quart in size, and put them into the fridge right away. That prevents any possible bacteria growth.

On the other hand, with a slow cooker, your food has been sitting at like 170 or so for many hours, and is likely entirely sterile. The bacteria that live in air are not likely to be harmful to you in any way if you eat them, and they wouldn't grow all that fast on most things that you would have cooked. (This, according to a toxicologist I once knew who would leave baked chicken out on top of the stove overnight!)

The short answer is that if you haven't died yet, you probably won't, but don't tell anyone I told you so! And never do this on anything that hasn't been cooked hot enough to be sterilized!

Personally, I'd just put the food in plastic containers and throw it in the fridge. It's not going to heat up the inside of your fridge enough to hurt anything.


Pasta cooking time vs. box instructions I understand that it is hard to define when pasta is properly 'cooked'. It's a subjective topic.

But I think that 'really not cooked enough' is a state that most of use would agree on.

I noticed that regardless of the continent, city, stove type (electric or gas) and pasta type, pasta will never be 'cooked enough to eat' if I follow the time on the box.

I always lived by the sea, at sea level, so I'm assuming all these years, water boiled at the same temperature (100c)

I'd had cooking ranges from high end Viking models to some no name crap ones.

When the box says cook 11min (as in tonight's Barilla Penne Rigate), they start to bee cooked enough to eat at 17min. I never cover the cooking pot, could it be it?

Unless I have a life long curse regarding cooking pasta, why is it that following the box instructions has never resulted in pasta cooked enough in my 30 odd years of cooking them? :)

One very likely explanation: did you start your pasta in cold water? These times are given for pasta that gets immersed in a very large amount of already-boiling water. If you either started from cold, or had a rather crowded pot of pasta (such that the water cooled down when the pasta was added), then the time needed will increase.

For me personally, using the boiling water method, the times on the pasta box have always been correct.


Does cooking break down both fibers in food vegetables and if so is are some cooking methods better for this purpose? Does cooking break down/soften the fibers in vegetables such as greens(kale, spinach, lettuce) , potatoes and carrots?

Does both the macro-nutrient fiber as well as the visible fibrous parts of vegetables get softened/broken down or is it just one type of fiber?

Are particular cooking methods e.g frying, boiling, grilling better suited to softening/breaking down fiber/s over other cooking methods, if so which ones?

Visible "fibers" in food are structures composed of many, many cells. These structures can sometimes be softened, usually most effectively by low, slow cooking (e.g. braising), and sometimes not. For example, collard greens can be tough and a bit stringy, but will soften quite a bit when braised. On the other hand, long pieces of celery can stay stringy even after long cooking, so the main way to avoid unpleasant long strings is just to cut it into shorter pieces. This variability is because there are actually many different plant structures which you might consider to be a "fiber", with different compositions, i.e. different things that might need to be affected in order to disrupt the structure and soften it.

Those visible "fibers" are a completely different thing from dietary fiber (the macronutrient), which is a large family of molecules that's contained in the cells that make up the plant. There is sometimes a fair bit of dietary fiber in the visible "fibers", for example cellulose is a form of insoluble dietary fiber, and it's a structural component of plant cell walls (so plant that need to be stronger likely have more). Broadly, cooking isn't going to do a whole lot to dietary fiber molecules. It may loosen connections between cells, or even break down the cells a bit, but the dietary fiber molecules aren't going to be substantially affected.


Looks curdled, but it wasn't - my bad alfredo I made some alfredo sauce (evoo, heavy cream, homemade pesto, Parmesan cheese) and decided to throw in some chopped tomato. Instantly, it separated. Was it the acidity of the tomato or the extra water coming in from the tomato? How can I get tomato in my alfredo, is it at all possible?

Emulsions aren't necessarily all about oil vs. water. Alfredo sauce is actually an emulsion of cream and butter, both of which contain varying amounts of both water and fat, and in many cases, if you bought them from a supermarket rather than a farm, also a fair amount of emulsifiers.

Any emulsion is going to be temperamental and not respond well to sudden changes in dispersion. The most important thing to do with one is incorporate new ingredients slowly! If you just dump in a bunch of watery tomatoes, or anything else with enough liquid (water or fat), it's almost certainly going to separate.

Even if you incorporate very slowly and thoroughly, if you upset the balance too much, it might still break. There's no way to know the exact amount you can add without experimenting, unless somebody else has already documented it (not likely).

Sometimes, if your emulsion just creams (see my related answer about mayonnaise), you can restore it to its former glory with sufficient agitation. If it's actually broken then you're in trouble.

Anyway, my advice to you would be - if you want a rosé sauce, then make a rosé sauce, don't waste a lot of time and perfectly good Reggiano cheese trying to start from an Alfredo recipe. I've made a great many tomato and/or pesto cream sauces and the general rule with these (including Alfredo) is that you always start with any oil and vegetables (garlic, tomatoes/paste, etc.), then add your seasonings, then add the cream and slowly reduce it. You don't need or want butter at this point, its flavour will be completely overwhelmed by the other ingredients and it therefore just adds instability.

You might also want to consider using sun-dried tomatoes for a stabler and probably tastier result; they essentially classify as a solid as far as emulsions are concerned, so it's not much different from incorporating pepper or dried herbs. You could just make a regular pesto cream sauce and whisk in some sun-dried tomatoes near the end.


How do I speed up the preparation time for chocolate chip cookies? I've been charged with the task of making 100+ chocolate chip cookies every other day. As it stands, it takes me over 10 hours to do this. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to cut down the time for this?

My recipe is here and workflow (with time) is like this:

(make) 6x the dough (this takes about 25-30 minutes)
let the dough chill in freezer for about 30 minutes
preheat oven to 325F (this takes ~ 20 minutes, but I let the oven sit at 325 for another 20 minutes)
bring out dough (in parts), measure and compress dough into 56g
(~2 oz.) balls (this is the time sink)
Once I have 18 balls, I rip them according to the recipe's
instructions, place 9 on one cookie sheet, and 9 on another.
Bake the cookies for 24 minutes (swap racks and rotate sheets at
12 minute mark), simultaneously "process" more dough.
Take cookies out, let sheets cool for another 10 minutes, and put
another batch of 18 in the oven.

Since it's clear that I can't make my cookies bake any faster, I think my bottle neck is the "processing" of the dough. I'm okay with getting cookies that are 56g +/- 3g, anyone have any time-tested suggestions?

Preheat while doing other things. That's not a step that should take any effective time.

Don't measure so obsessively. Unless these need to be immaculate cookies, just accept a little variety. Scoop roughly with a spoon, or just your hands, and form into balls with your hands if necessary. If you desperately want precision, you could use a cookie dough scoop. But 56±3g sounds kind of over the top to me. Given that you said this is the main time sink, I'd suggest loosening up a bit.

Are you filling your cookie sheets fully? Do they fill your oven? Following a recipe's instructions to the letter, baking only 9 per sheet, is obviously the wrong thing to do if your cookies or baking sheets aren't the same sizes as those in the recipe. Note also that if you have many cookies per sheet, you can often fit more by tiling in triangles instead of squares.

And finally, reconsider your recipe. I'm sure this one is great, but keep in mind that most standard chocolate chip cookie recipes bake at 350F or 375F, and times more in the 8-12 minute range. If your recipe gives you exactly the cookies you want, and others don't, then stick with it, but if you're unnecessarily sticking to a recipe, try something else.

Edit: one more thought! Chilling the dough is probably important to your recipe, but you could measure/scoop while it's warmer and easier to work with, then chill in balls, and do the final forming once chilled.

And another, having seen your comment: given that you increased the baking time upon filling up the oven more, and are using insulated pans, you might actually want to increase the temperature to 350-375F and see if you can get back down to the 15-18 minute baking time. They may end up closer to the originally-intended consistency!


How do I know by taste, if ham is bad. I have had pre cooked ham cooking in a slow cooker on warm for 3 days My boyfriend has been using this idea, for a long time. He makes bean soup, with just ham and beans.. maybe a onion, then it sits in the crockpot on warm until digested, by us. LOL. well today. I grabbed a bowl.. and noticed a faint sweet taste to the ham.. I have been digging for suggestions since, to know if I should throw it away or, continue eating it.. It still taste amazing. Just nervous is all. I am going to stick a thermometer in the soup to see what temperature, my crock pot is on, while on warm. Then, I will know if its cooking at at least above 140, safe area. We do this to chili too, and deer meat.. It actually, taste better the second day.
Sign.. a bit unsure.. lol
Rose Dubois

I fully endorse the "when in doubt, throw it out" doctrine, although I personally wouldn't consider a sweet taste to be doubt. As rfusca wisely points out, you can't taste or smell several kinds of contamination, and the ones that you can taste or smell, are usually sour, bitter, or generally pungent.

I suggest you have a look at the following question:

Is it bad to leave the crock pot on “warm” (not low) all day?

If your crock pot has really been on the whole time, then it might be perfectly safe. You need to ascertain what the "warm" temperature is. Assuming you still have it running, just stick a thermometer in and see for yourself.

Anecdotally, I've heard reports of crock pot "warm" temperatures ranging from 150° F all the way to 220° F. Very unlikely that newer crock pots are anywhere near that high end, but anything above 140° F is cooking temperature and will kill bacteria rather than allowing them to breed. So if your thermometer test reads higher than that, it's probably still safe even after all this time. I can't speak for the quality of something that's been cooking for 3 straight days, but there's no accounting for taste...

On the other hand, if your thermometer reads anything lower than 140° F, then you should throw out what you have and stop doing this from now on. A truly "warm" but not "hot" temperature like 100° F is practically a giant incubator, even worse than just leaving it at room temperature.

P.S. You should read the manual for your particular crock pot, because even though it might be safe for the food, I'm not sure if it's safe for your pot. Many of them come with recommendations not to use the warm setting for more than 4 hours, and don't really explain why. Possibly, they think the temperature might not be enough to guarantee food safety, although another (to me more likely) possibility is that it can stain, corrode, or weaken the pot.


What is unique about veal and how can I take advantage of this in my preparation? First off, I'm talking about what they call Rose Veal here, not the crate Veal which has given the meat such a bad name.

So, I've tried a few recipes: a roast, a stew and some breadcrumbed escalopes. The escalopes were fantastic, but I can't honestly say any of it was better than the equivalent dish made with beef, or pork where a milder flavour was desired.

But, the veal wasn't exactly cheap, so am I missing something?  I'd sort of expected something a bit more special if I'm paying a premium for it.

Are there some specific preparation methods and/or pairings which show the meat off better? What is it people enjoy so much about veal and how can I accentuate that quality?

Veal is naturally tender, with a mild flavor.

I'm currently living in an area where I don't know where to even get veal easily, but we'd have it for special occassions at my great-grandmother's house growing up.

Think if it like the cow equivalent of lamb.  Anything that comes out well in lamb (shank, rib chops, shish-kabab, etc) works well.  My mom would also get a 'meatloaf mix' of beef, veal and pork growing up to use in meatballs and meatloaf, which I've since learned that the fats melt at different temperatures, which makes for a more juicy meatloaf.

I don't know that I've had enough veal to comment on what people enjoy so much about it.  (Although, I love osso bucco, and I don't know how a grown-cow equivalent would come out).

I also don't know that veal was always considered the "delicacy" that it is today -- male cows (bulls) can get agressive when get older, so they were culled at a younger age.  As I don't see veal for sale, and I don't see fields full of bulls, I can only assume it's either exported to other countries, or that it's used in products like dog food or processed products where people won't get obsessed with ethical issues so much.  (and if that's the case, it's not being sold for high value).


What is the shelf life of vermouth? I like the occasional Negroni or Manhattan, but I'm not a heavy drinker. As far as I'm concerned liquor is pretty much immortal, but what's the rule on vermouth?

Opened, at room temp: A week or two without serious flavor changes.
Opened, but kept in the fridge: a month, at least.  (I'm still working my way through a bottle of dry vermouth with no noticeable degradation in flavor in ~3 months, ymmv of course).
Unopened: A year+ at room temp.

Source: Serious Eats experiment


What is the use of this device? Perhaps a potato masher? It has holes on the bottom as well.
Please inform me of all the uses (and the name of) this tool.

It is a potato ricer. You place boiled potatoes in the basket and push the lever down to squeeze the potato through the holes. They are handy for making very smooth mashed potatoes, though they can be tricky to clean - washing them immediately or at least putting them in water so the potato doesn't harden is advised.


What am I doing wrong with my pressure cooker? Every time I try to cook beef in my pressure cooker it gets dry and inedible.

Today I tried with 2 x 450 g (2 x 1 lb) beef, with .5 l (2 cups) water and 25 minutes.

The result was very dry and there were .7 l (3 cups) liquid.

What I was hoping for was the meat would be so tender that it would pretty much fall apart when trying to cut it.

I have seen charts like this one, but that would cover the meat in water. Can that be right?

I suppose that .5 l water is way too much, as I ended up with .7 l afterwards.

Question

Have anyone experience with beef in pressure cookers, and can guide me on what the problem could be?

Should I have fried the beef on a pan before putting it in the pressure cooker?

I use a pressure cooker quite often and its all about the cut of the meat.  Much like slow cooking, using a often cheaper, fatty cut with lots of connective tissue - a chuck roast for example, yields much, much better results.  Lean cuts of meat are make for fast searing and that's about it.  If you try to coax them to be fall apart fork tender, you'll fail - those are the cheap, fatty cuts that go that way.


What causes dutch oven flavor? I love the added flavor that comes from cooking in a cast iron dutch oven like the one shown below:

What is it that causes this? Is it from the charcoal or from the seasoning?

If I season a legless dutch oven (the cast iron kind, not enamel) and use it in my electric oven will it still add that same flavor?

It is not good to use a dutch oven in a... conventional oven. It hurts the pot way too much.

I think what the OP may be mentioning is a 'potjie' Which has legs and is usually used in South African cuisine outside on a charcoal fire.

The common notion is that the smoke from the fire does not penetrate the pot to flavour the food but rather it is the cast iron pot and the very slow cooking that give this type of cooking its distinct flavour.


How many black tea leaves are required per 125 ml of milk + 25 ml of water? I use one table spoon of Tata Tea Gold leaves per 125 ml of milk + 25 ml of water.

I boil the mixture of milk and water first. Turn the gas off, put the tea in and stir it, and then I place a lid on the vessel for 6 minutes.

After 6 minutes I stir again, and drink.

Now if I turn to all full leaves black tea, how many leaves will I require with the method above to achieve the same effect?

Loose leaves will be "coarser" than "broken" teas and usually look "rolled up" or "curled".

I'd start with a bit more (e.g. a heaping teaspoon loose leaf vs. a scant level teaspoon of broken) and see how it turns out. Many sources sugest meassuring tea by weight, thus eliminating the variance due to different "packing" of coarser or finer tea.

The reason why I suggest experimenting is that broken tea vs. whole leaves will have a different flavour profile (even for "the same" tea) due to the loss of aromatic oils and higher extraction of tannins in broken tea.

Wikipedia has an extensive list of tea grades and leaf sizes.

And this website gives volumetric equivalents for the same weight - One heaping tablespoon loose leaf tea as roughly one teaspoon broken tea and a scant teaspoon gunpowder (tightly rolled balls).


Why are the stems left on when cooking an artichoke? In several YouTube videos on preparing artichokes the cooks recommend leaving the stem on the artichoke while it is boiling.

Why is this?

The stem is an extension of the heart, and is good to eat. The stem may be peeled prior to cooking to remove tough exterior, this applies more to older artichokes that are more open. Young artichokes that are still tightly closed don’t generally have tough stems.


What is ground red pepper? I have the 75th anniversary edition of Joy of Cooking. I've now come across two recipes that call for "ground red pepper" (enchiladas and a dry rub). I've never heard of ground red pepper before and cannot find it at the store.

Is it ground red bell pepper or something hot like cayenne? What should I use as a substitute?

In most instances I've seen, in American cookbooks, "red pepper" refers to cayenne pepper or chili powder (not the spice mix designed for making chili con carne, but dried, ground chilis). It is usually spicy rather than being red bell pepper.

Edit to add: I'm talking about this type of product:

McCormic Ground red pepper

Source


Coating to make waffle cones withstand hot liquid? I'd like to use a waffle cone, like used for ice cream, to hold hot liquids. I assume without modification, the liquid would soften the cone and break through.

Is there an edible coating I could put on the inside of the cone to keep the liquid from soaking through?

Many hydrocolloids are very heat tolerant.

Hydrocolloids Primer

Some of the options that might work for you are:

Agar agar
A polysaccharide made from boiling seaweed, agar agar is heat stable up to about 90C. It gels when cooled to 40C. It is inexpensive and easy to find, especially in Asian markets. It would be relatively easy to coat the inside of a cone by heating the agar agar to 90C, cooling it almost to 40C and pouring into very cold cones and pouring out the excess ungelled liquid.

Obviously it won't work if your liquid is hotter than 90C.
LM Pectin
Like agar agar, pectin is a polysaccharide but it is extracted from fruit. Regular, off the shelf, pectin that requires a lot of sugar is HM Pectin. It will melt easily. LM Pectin on the other hand, requires calcium to gel. Once gelled it is heat stable and will not melt again.

Unless you have a well stocked specialty pastry supply store handy you may have to buy this online and it will definitely cost more than the agar agar.
Sodium Alginate
Like LM Pectin, sodium alginate gels in the presence of calcium. Often used to make "caviar" preparations of random liquids. It is easier to find for sale as part of molecular gastronomy kits.

It forms a heat stable gel but you'd have to be creative about how to coat a waffle cone with it. Perhaps you could form a sheet of it and "glue" it into the waffle cone.

All in all, if your liquid is cooler than 90C, for cost and ease of use I would recommend going with the agar agar.


How to remove the rind from Citrus Sugar? I made citrus sugar a while ago (basically chopped up lemon rinds in a canning jar with sugar) and have now decided to remove the lemon before giving the sugar away.

So far I have tried wrapping the mixture in 2 layers of cheese cloth and scraping/sifting the sugar out from the bundle but this takes a long time and the cheese cloth develops holes that the rind also goes through.

Is there an easier way to accomplish this?

Assuming the rind chunks are fairly large, you could use a colander with fairly large holes or a metal sieve.


Why isn't "pasta" water salted in Chinese cuisine? I'm American-born Chinese and my parents never salt the water in which they boil noodles and there's never been an issue - at least with my palate - with seasoning or the texture of the noodles w.r.t. clumping or sticking together. I don't think I've seen the water for ramen seasoned either.

Another related question is that another "rule" for finishing pasta in the sauce doesn't seem to carry over to Chinese cooking either, e.g. neither dan dan mian(担担面) nor zhajiangmian(炸醬麵) is cooked in the sauce but rather you have to mix it up when served.

Thanks and happy thanksgiving :) !

All the Chinese noodles that I have ever cooked were made from salted dough, while Italian dried pasta was made from unsalted dough. Hence the difference in cooking methods.

As per Wikipedia:

  Unlike many Western noodles and pastas, Chinese noodles made from wheat flour are usually made from salted dough and therefore do not require the addition of salt to the liquid in which they are boiled.


Where do I get weights for a Dutch-style cheese press? Many cheesemaking suppliers sell Dutch-style cheese presses, which are also among the easiest type to make yourself.  These apply pressure using weights hung at the end of the arm, or further up. However, no retailer who sells the press that I've tried (out of 6 different ones) also sells weights for it.

I suspect that is because the weights are expected to be easily obtainable locally wherever you are, but for the life of me I can't figure out how.  Where/how would you get appropriate weights for this kind of cheese press?

I'm not sure about weights specifically for this cheese press. However, as an avid fisherman I use weights designed to be hung off of various types of lines and/or clasps. While most are made of lead, you can get tungsten, stainless steel, and even rubber coated ones now. I have seen them up to 3lbs, mind you if you live near the ocean I am sure (almost certain) you could get larger.


How long can I hold brown rice between boiling and steaming? I use a technique from Cooks Illustrated for cooking my brown rice. I simmer for 25 minutes and then steam for 10. It gets a nice consistent result. But how long can I hold the rice between simmering and steaming? Does it matter if it sits out for 30 - 45 minutes before finishing? Would I need to increase the steam time? How much? Are there any safety concerns?

You can wait as long as you need to between pre-cook (that's the simmering) and finish (the steaming), it's how things work in restaurants.

The steaming time will only go up if you let the temperature drop appreciably.  Even so, you shouldn't need more than an extra minute or so.  Steaming is pretty benign to rice.

As far as the safety concerns...if you keep the temperature above 135 F, you are out of the danger zone, and you can hold there forever.  The danger zone is 41 to 135 F, but the goal in cooling foods is to get it from hot to cool in 6 hours...below 70 in two, and then 4 hours to make it below 41 (yes, I'm ServSafe certified).  So your hypothetical 30-45 minutes shouldn't cause you a problem.  But watch it if you start going long.


Can I use unsweetened baking cocoa raw, or do products with it in it need to be cooked? I'm asking because I found a recipe online for an ice cream that calls for baking coco, but doesn't call for cooking. I've used baking coco before to make hot chocolate, but it seems that it wouldn't dissolve fully if not first put in some sort of hot liquid, even though it's finely ground. If not, do I need to treat it differently before putting it in a recipe?

If we are talking about something like Hershey's (the brand I know) unsweetened cocoa powder (the dark reddish-brown very fine powder), it can be mixed with cold milk if you make a paste of it first, and then dilute it to the consistency you want. I.e. start with the powder, pour in the milk bit by bit stirring and "mashing" as you go so as not to let any of the powder float on the milk. This cocoa powder also mixes easily with oil & fat, so that property should help with your ice cream ingredients which probably have some butterfat included.

If your recipe includes only ingredients and no instructions, perhaps that paste technique can help.


Can I use store-bought custard for Portuguese Tarts? I always make my own custard when I bake Portuguese Tarts but want to take a shortcut. Can I use store-bought custard to make Portuguese Tarts? What kind of custard do I need to buy? Should it be at room temperature before I bake?

Short Answer: Probably, but it won't taste as good.

Longer Answer:
Given that most packaged custards (if you mean the powdered sort such as Bird's or Jello) do not contain eggs, you might find that the custard does not behave quite the same and certainly will not taste as rich.  They tend to use yellow food colouring to give the bright yellow colour that you would get from the egg yolks. It's a bit like asking if you can substitute Cool Whip for Whipped Cream.  Yes, but....


Gingersnap Pie Crust - how to sub butter as binder I made a delicious pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving using Trader Joe's triple-ginger gingersnaps. The ginger flavor really complements the pumpkin. Following a basic recipe, I added a fair amount of butter to the ground gingersnaps. Although it was delicious, I'd like to find a way to do this without it being so rich and calorie-laden. So my question is:

Does anyone have experience making a gingersnap pie crust using something other than butter or other fat to bind the crumbs, given that there is already fat in the gingersnaps --  perhaps egg? egg white? water? (Perhaps similar experience with a graham cracker crust could apply.)

I have seen some recipes that use milk instead of butter. They would be slightly healthier, but I find that the crust burns easier and feels drier and more brittle. Keep in mind that a lot of the calories come from the ginger snaps that themselves contain sugar and butter. I haven't done the math, but I think the calories from the butter are negligible compared to the calories in the pie filling and the gingersnaps.

For a healthier crust, I would use a base of some unsweetened cracker and mix in the same spices that are in gingersnap cookies when I mix the crumbs with butter. That would cut some calories, while retaining the feel of a butter crust.


Is there a more exact temperature for cold smoking? In researching cold smoking a product there is quite a large gap between 80-100* . Does anyone use a more exact temperature? Does it vary because of the product? Any little hints to give the smoking a bit of a spicy kick into the final flavour?

The person who wrote this, agrees with you on the 80-100° part.
However, in his salmon recipe, he advices to smoke below 85°.

So my guess is that it depends on the food you're smoking.


What kind of dough do you use to make typical american donuts? What kind of dough do you use to make typical american donuts (the ones that Homer Simpson loves). I'm from Italy and I've tried using flour and baking following some tutorials but no way: is not the same.

There are two major families of North American style donuts:

Yeast raised donuts are a very sweet yeast raised dough.  (Sample recipe from Pioneer Woman blog).
So-called "cake donuts" which are made from a quickbread like batter very similar to muffin batter, only fried instead of baked.  (Sample recipe for chocolate cake donuts from Serious Eats.)

If you google, you will find a multitude of donut recipes, in a wide variety of styles and levels of complexity, but almost all of them fall into one of the two groups above.

Note:  I am not sure that The Simpsons has ever revealed Homer's preference in donuts.


Cheese Cutting Tools I have a large gouda cheese wheel that I need to cut first in half, then quarters etc.  I have seen cheese wheels broken down using a scoring tool and what appears to be a handled wedge tool.  That wedge tool is used instead of cutting.  Does anyone know where I can get these tools or an easier method of breaking down my wheel?

Soft cheeses are best sliced using wire, which is easy to work with and avoids squishing the cheese. Hard cheeses, like Parmesan, are difficult to cut with a wire. These cheeses are often (as you say) scored and then split with a prying action. If the cheese is sufficiently dry, it will easily break apart in sections. You can do this with an ordinary knife, or use a specialized cheese knife such as these.

Gouda is kind of in a middle ground, being a semi-hard cheese. Some specimens may be too soft to pry apart, and others may be too hard to easily cut with a wire. That said, I would probably try the wire first (the prying apart method usually only works with very hard cheeses). The age of your cheese will give you a rough indication of how hard it is-- Gouda is usually aged anywhere from 1 month to 3 years.


Modifications to a sourdough recipe I'm using this recipe, with the following ingredients:

450 grams Strong White Bread Flour
300 grams Warm Water
150 grams* Active Sourdough Starter
12 grams   Sea Salt

*This amount is can be adjusted to 50 grams for a longer 12 hour bulk ferment.

I want to take the option to reduce the starter from 150g to 50g in exchange for a longer bulk proof period. Should I replace the lost 100g of starter with an extra 50g flour and 50g water during the initial steps?

Good question! Yes, if you use a 50/50 mix to feed your starter then your approach will give you the same balance and you will get the same hydration, providing you use the same flour blend as when you feed your starter. If you use a different ratio to feed your starter then stick to whatever ratio that is.
This approach will slow down your proofing for sure, maybe more than you intend. It's not linear, as in you want to slow down your proofing by 2/3 so you remove 2/3 of your starter,  so do this when you have lots of time to study it. Take detailed notes and see how you get.
Another approach to slowing fermentation is to control for temperature, i.e. to put it in the refrigerator. I'd prefer this approach to reducing the starter as I'll be starting with a good batch of yeasts and giving them more time to work. Reducing the yeast at the start will mean it takes longer to get going, but also a lot longer to see the benefits of that culture.


Reliable Cookie-to-Butter Ratio for Crumb Crusts I'm trying to find a general and reliable Cookie-to-Butter ratio (or weights) that I can use when I make crumb crusts for no-bake pies.

My old baking textbook, On Baking: A Textbook of Baking & Pastry Fundamentals (Third Edition) by Labensky, Martel & van Damme gives the ratios for a basic crumb crust as follows:  4 parts cookie crumbs to 2 parts sugar to 1 part melted butter.  So, for a single 9" deep dish graham cracker pie crust, they recommend going with 8 oz. graham cracker crumbs + 4 ounces sugar + 2 oz. butter (blah, blah...food processor...pressed into the pie plate and baked at 350° F for 10-12 minutes).

OK, I have a few problems with those amounts:  (1) 8 oz. of crumbs is WAY too much for a single pie crust (5-6 oz. is plenty), (2) using half as much sugar as crumbs is WAY too much sugar for my taste (I go with more like a quarter), & (3) I can never seem to get a crust to hold together with that amount of butter.  Lately I've been going with 6 oz. cookie crumbs + 2 oz. sugar + 2.5 oz. melted butter - I'm pretty sure I can do better than that.

Ignoring my first two complaints - I can get the cookie and sugar amounts right w/o a problem - does anyone have a reliable Cookie-to-Butter ratio that works well for cookie crumb crusts in general?  I don't want links to recipes (there are recipes out there with butter ranging from around 15% to nearly 60% of the cookie crumb weight), I want to hear from people who have had repeated success with specific crumb crust formularies (in weights, not volumes).

In a perfect world, I would love to hear of a trustworthy Cookie-to-Butter ratio that applies equally well to most cookie types (I almost never use graham crackers - I'm more of a Nilla Wafer and Animal Cracker kinda guy who dreams of one day branching out into ginger snap territory).

I don't know that this is a perfect ratio, but I will say it's my favorite crumb crust. It's from America's Test Kitchen's Lemon Cheesecake.

5 ounces Nabisco Barnum's Animal Crackers or Social Tea Biscuits
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and kept warm

So, 5 oz crumbs, 1.5 oz sugar, 2 oz butter.


Is it okay to eat fish with an isopod parasite on it? I bought some frozen Hairtail fish (Chinese: 帶魚) and one of them had some kind of isopod on it. I already removed the bug and threw it out, but after some research it looks a lot like the image here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoidae
Is it still okay to cook and eat the fish?

I'd say no.
Conventional wisdom suggest that when in doubt, throw it.
Throw it away, go back to your fishmonger/store and tell them about that.
If that fails, do not buy from that brand (if there's any brands attached to your frozen fish)


How can I make perfect sticky rice? I have a couple of weeks off of school, and thought I would try my hand at some dim sum, specifically lotus leaf wraps, but first I need to figure out how to make the sticky rice.  So:

What type of rice would be best for this purpose?
What is the optimal way to prepare it (i.e. to be as sticky as possible while still being firm)?
Anything else I should know before trying it out?

I am happy to give you a brief idea, but you may have to tell me how much info you need

Get the lotus leaves from chinese shop and they are usually dried leaves, so you need to soak them in water for a night.  After that give it a wash and cut it to the right side
sticky rice is a type of rice, so that's what you need. Don't use any other rice as they won't stick. You will need to soak the rice in water for couple of hours and add couple drops of oil.
Prepare whatever you want to put in your rice like mushroom and meat
When u make the wrap, put a layer of rice on the leaf and then place the meat and mushroom on the rice.  After that put another layer of rice on top and wrap it up
Put the wrapped rice to steam and I cannot help you with the time, but it's between 10-20 mins

Good luck


Can I roast peanuts in convection microwave? I found a small bag of raw un-roasted peanuts, around 200 grams, in my cupboard. Any idea how can I roast these peanuts in my convection microwave oven? Would appreciate if some one can add suggestions :-)

In the book "Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian", Madhur says one of the few uses she's found for a plain microwave oven is to roast cashews. She dresses them in a little bit of oil, then spreads them out on a plate in a single layer and cooks them in the microwave oven until they turn brown. I assume dressing them in a little bit of oil helps browning. I found a web page which has similar instructions for cashews and other nuts, but which implies the oil contained in the nuts themselves is enough to get them to brown. And finally, about.com has a page which is specifically about microwave roasting peanuts.


How can I make omelettes look better? I'm working on a sort of high protein+carbohydrate omelette that I can prepare in batch, dump into containers, and take with me when I'm on the go.

I've devised a sweet potato + egg recipe that goes something like this:

Boil sweet potatoes
Peel sweet potatoes
Put sweet potatoes in blender with eggs
Blend
Dump into pan, cook while stirring

So far so good.  Here's the problem:  The sweet potatoes and eggs both turn brown, giving the end result an unappealing look.

Is there a way to alter the recipe so that it is aesthetically more pleasing?

It sounds like this is more like scrambled eggs instead of an omelet. It does sound tasty, but I can understand your issue with the coloration.

If you're using orange sweet potatoes, that is likely the biggest cause of the coloration issues. Eggs themselves usually stay yellow when cooked, though they may turn brown if cooked and then left to cool and wait around for a while. (I don't normally do that, so I can't really say.) I have a couple possible solutions:

1) As Catija suggests, you can try using white sweet potatoes. They have a similar flavor, though a somewhat different nutritional profile. Still very good for you.

2) Try shredding the potatoes instead of blending them with the eggs. This is probably the solution I would try first. Shredding will avoid mixing the colors to the extent that blending does, and still allows the potato to spread throughout the omelet/scramble. If you do this, I would shred the potato first (peel if you want, though the peel has a lot of nutrients in it), cook the shreds (options: baking, sauteing in a little oil or butter, or microwaving - you can try boiling, but it would be more like parboiling as the shreds would only need a minute or two in the water to cook). Then you can just stir the shreds in with the eggs (no blending) and cook.

3) Slice the potatoes, cook (can cook in the same manner as the shreds, though times will obviously differ), cook the eggs like you would a traditional omelet and layer the egg with the potatoes in your dish.

Here are a couple resources discussing the different type of sweet potatoes available so you can figure out what would work best for your purpose:

http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-yams-and-sweet-potatoes-word-of-mouth-211176

Paleo/Primal site (I'm not Paleo, but the site has good images of the different types of sweet potatoes): http://www.marksdailyapple.com/difference-yams-sweet-potatoes/


What is this gourd-like vegetable? I don't know the name of the fruit in English and hence I'm attaching the figure if it.

I don't know the exact name of the vegetable. But I'm guessing the following names: sponge gourd, luffa cylindrica, luffa.

What is the exact name of the fruit?

Going by your guesses, I found the following names on Wikipedia (all for the same plant): sponge gourd, Egyptian cucumber, Vietnamese luffa, dishrag gourd, rag gourd, vegetable-sponge or smooth luffa. Its Latin names are Cucurbita luffa, Luffa cylindrica, Luffa aegyptica, Luffa aegyptiaca, Luffa pentandra, Momordica cylindrica. or Momordica luffa.

I am not completely sure if the plant in the photo is the plant on the Wikipedia page. However, the Wiki has a translations in many different languages, so perhaps you can look for one in a language in which you know the plant's name?

Edit: Given your updated tag of Indian, I should point out there are Wikipedia pages for the vegetable I linked to in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil as well as 28 more languages.


How to cook rice & chicken simultaneously? I've been eating a lot of brown rice + chicken breast lately, and they both seem to have the same process for cooking (heat for 25-30 minutes).

Therefore it seems I might be able to get away with putting them both in the same pot.  I remember my mother used to do something like this, where we'd get a pot of rice+chicken.

So how does it work?  Do I add everything together, or does the rice/chicken need to go in first?

There are many dishes where chicken and rice are cooked mixed together in the same pot. Look at Arroz con Pollo for example, it's an easy classic and there are loads of recipes. There's also some types of Biryani, Jambalaya, and other traditional recipes from across the world that would work.

Chicken pieces and rice cook in about the same time as you say, if you want to get vegetables in there it's a bit more complicated as you want the vegetables to be cooked, but not overcooked. I've generally made them separately to put put as a side as it's more attractive, however large carrot chunks cook about the same time, and you can put in pureed vegetables or even vegetable juice. One my mother makes uses crushed tomatoes instead of water to cook the rice in.

As for having the chicken mixed in or on top there's no right answer, I like to brown the chicken and lay it skin side up on top of the rice as the rice will cook up around the chicken and the visual effect is good when the pot is put on the table. Visuals aside there's little difference in the method.


Does the freshness of the ingredient impact the longevity of the cooked dish? Using ingredients that aren't fresh will generally negatively impact the flavor of the dish, but does it impact how long the cooked dish will last before it goes bad? For example, if I make two pots of tomato sauce, one with freshly-picked tomatoes and one with tomatoes on their last legs, will the two resulting pots go bad at the same time (assuming everything else about the preparation is the same)?

That is, does the act of cooking result in a chemically different result for each kind (ripeness) of ingredient?

If it does, how much does it depend on the type of ingredient (e.g. meat vs. vegetables) used? How much does it depend on the style of cooking (i.e. it seems that "light" preparations (those that tend towards "more raw") might be more effected than those the have longer preparations.)

It Depends.

First off, by 'goes bad' I'm assuming you mean both 'stale and unpalatable' and 'moldy and not food-safe'. And for both of those, it's going to greatly depend on what ingredient, what you're making, and how you're making it.

In the case of tomatoes, if you take your batch of 'last-legs' tomatoes (and I'm assuming you mean there's almost an unsafe level of bacterial/mold growth on them), and thoroughly cook them into a sauce, i.e. bring to a boil for an extended amount of time, you'll (hopefully) kill of the microbes, and inactivate the toxins created by those bacteria, you will have a generally safe-to-eat sauce. Compared with a similarly cooked sauce from fresher tomatoes, it will probably get moldy at roughly the same average rate.

However, it will probably taste worse. The 'last-legs' sauce will get to unpalatable faster than the fresh one.

Generally, if you're able to cook something thoroughly, you'll generally 'reset' the microbe growth timeline back to the starting-point.

With meat, however, you usually don't want to cook it to the point of sterility. (If you don't believe me, boil a steak for an hour. Then try to eat it.) So if you have a last-legs steak, I wouldn't cook it, then store it for a week in the fridge. Making a stew might be a good move, however.


Why do you need to cool the filling of a meat pie before adding to the pastry? Sometimes I don't have time to cool the mixture before adding to my pastry but I can't see a major difference in outcome - the pastry does seem to be a bit more soggy when the mixture is not cooled first.

I'd love to know the specific reasoning behind it.

You may already know that pastry making requires everything to be cold - the fat, the water, your hands, the board, everything. This is to prevent the fat from melting into the flour prematurely, which results in cardboard-like pastry. When the fat remains cool until cooking, it melts into layers in the pastry as it cooks, making it nice and flaky.

If you put hot filling into your pastry case, you will melt some of the fat prematurely and so the pastry won't be as good as would be if you let it cool.


Could I boil rose milk? I forgot to boil the milk before I added rose milk essence in it. Could I boil now? I have been keeping the mix in the refrigerator for 5 hours now. I am not sure could I boil the milk now or not.

I assume you are talking about using raw (unpasteurized) milk; and want to make it safe for drinking.

I think you can boil it with the rose essence in it. It should not make a difference either way.

At worse it will taste cooked.

This link will show two ways to pasteurize the milk, either at low or high temperature.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/528722-should-i-boil-raw-milk/


Is this 'browned butter'? I just tried browning butter. I placed the butter in a saucepan and heated it. It melted, then started to bubble and sizzle. Once the sizzling subsided, brown particles started forming in the butter. The liquid itself didn't seem to change colour that much.

When the "particles" had a nice brown colour I tried the butter and it had that "nutty" flavour people often talk about. The colour of the liquid itself however was a very light brown at most.

Is this what people talk about when they say "browned butter", the "particles" inside the liquid being brown instead of the liquid itself? I also tried leaving it in the pan longer but the little particles turned black before the liquid became a deep brown (it still tasted ok though but not as good as the butter I took out before).

Cheers!

Yes, that is how browned butter or beurre de noisette (as it is called in French) is made.

Of course, normally, you would not let it scorch to black.  You want a rich hazelnut color as indicated by the French term.


Who originated the dangerous avocado-pitting technique? There are several reasonable and safe ways to pit an avocado.

There is, however, one very popular (at least in the USA) and unsafe way: digging the pit out with the point of a knife. I see people injuring themselves this way so frequently on social media and in the news that it seems that some popular show business personality or well-known chef must have shared this as a technique, to get so many people to send themselves to the emergency room.

So, my question is: who's responsible for this?  Who first told so many people to stab a vegetable, held in the hand, with the point of a knife? (references please)

Or am I wrong and folks are just being reckless on their own initiative?

(I realize this may be off-topic for SA, but figured I'd just ask instead of asking to ask)

I sincerely doubt any particular chef or "popular show business personality" is responsible for this, though perhaps one or more such people have done this at one time or another.

Many people are used to taking other fruits in one hand and a knife in the other and preparing the fruit for eating.  I distinctly remember my father showing me how to core an apple with a pocket knife when I was about five years old.  Yes, I believe there was a warning about not stabbing yourself with the point, but people commonly use paring knives all the time with fruit held in your hand to peel things, take unedible bits off (as in hulling strawberries), and sometimes to remove pits and seeds.

I think many people who are unfamiliar with avocados attempt similar maneuvers. However, the avocado pit is much larger and more difficult to dislodge with a knife than with many small fruits.  There is also a smaller proportional distance between the pit and the surface of the fruit than many other fruits (again due to its size).  Simultaneously, the avocado flesh is much softer than many fruits people are used to dealing with, thereby making it much easier for a knife to accidentally slip completely through it than with, say, an apple when coring.  Finally, the skin of an avocado is what I'd call "deceptively hard": when you try to slice into an avocado, it may seem quite firm compared to the interior, but it's quite easy for a knife point to slip through the skin from the interior to the outside (particularly when one is applying leverage to try to dislodge a large pit).

So, you have people doing similar things with a knife to what they might do with an apple or a peach, except they end up exerting more force for the large pit while the knife slips through the flesh like butter, and the knife goes awry.

I don't think it's a great mystery why this happens.  One might equivalently ask why bagel slicing sends people to emergency rooms.  (It's one of the most common pathways from the kitchen to the ER.)

EDIT: Well, I've been downvoted -- not sure why, but I'm going to assume because I didn't cite sources.  So, I'll try to bolster my point.  (Pun intended.)  Here you go:

A recent study estimated approximately 8900 avocado-related hospital visits in 2018.  The study notes: "The oldest person to visit the ER for an avocado-related laceration was 75, and the youngest was 8. Most of those hurt by avocados were, in fact, millennials."  So, there's a wide range of ages reported, making it seem less likely that all such injuries occurred because of bad instruction from a single source.  I've skimmed at least a dozen articles on avocado-related injuries and have not seen a single mention of any celebrity chef or other "popular show business personality" as the source of the bad knife technique.  (To the contrary, many articles cite authorities who give better techniques.)  And then you have an explanation offered by a doctor in this article regarding bagel injuries:

  Maybe it's just their shape. "Any spherical food, like tomatoes and onions, and particularly bagels, people tend to hold and cut in their hand," Dr. Smith-Coggins says.

Indeed, a decade ago, in another study the top five foods related to knife/finger injuries were (in order): chicken, potato, apple, onion, and bagel, each of which also results in thousands of serious injuries.  As avocado consumption has increased about five-fold in the U.S. in the past couple decades, it seems they're the new spherical food causing injuries.

As a final note, it is commonly recommended by many chefs to use the blade of a knife to remove an avocado pit (as here, for example, which also shows the somewhat dangerous practice of scoring the avocado in your hand after depitting).  This pit technique apparently does cause some injuries, particularly as people struggle to get the pit off of the blade of their knife.  (The more I read about the stuff, the more weird ways it seems people could get injured dealing with avocados, so I'm not sure "avocado hand" is caused by only one type of mishandling.)

In any case, I have yet to find a similar example of someone famous telling people to stab the pit with the point of a knife while holding it in one's hand.


chocolate substitutions in baking brownies from scratch can I use semi-sweet or unsweetened chocolate squares for dark chocolate in a brownie recipe

Chocolate - one of my favorite subjects.

The rules for naming chocolate (milk, semi-sweet, bittersweet, dark, extra dark, etc.) vary a bit depending on where you live.

However, as a general rule you may substitute semi-sweet chocolate for dark chocolate in a brownie recipe. Semi-sweet chocolate doesn't necessarily have a strict cocoa level requirement, though some companies will list the cocoa rating (in terms of percent cocoa) on it. If your recipe calls for "extra dark" chocolate, bittersweet chocolate may usually be used as a substitute.

In the US, there is no legal distinction between semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate, so you should check the package and see if it lists a cocoa percentage. The higher the cocoa percentage, the less sweet the chocolate and the "darker" (i.e. more chocolate and bitter flavor) the chocolate. For most recipes that call for dark chocolate, I'd recommend looking for a chocolate in the 50-60% cocoa range. Ghirardelli's dark chocolate is 60% cocoa in the US, I believe.

Unsweetened chocolate cannot be used as a substitute for another other type of chocolate without the addition of sugar, and the ratios can be difficult to get right, so I do not recommend it.

The wikipedia page for "Types of Chocolate" actually has one of the best summaries that I've seen, including charts based on your region (US, Canada or EU - apparently no-one eats chocolate elsewhere). Link is below. I would provide other, more official sources, but very few of them summarize it as well. I will add some links if I can find good ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_chocolate


Which vinegars are essential to keep on hand? There seems to be a large variety of different vinegars called for in the various recipes I've been trying out lately. I've ended up with a cabinet full of half used bottles. That being said, which vinegars can I substitute for another in recipes? I'm hoping that there are two or three "good enough" vinegars I can keep on hand and buy in larger quantities.

The ones I always have:

White vinegar (as a condiment, and also for cleaning);
Balsamic vinegar (mainly for salads - let it age!)
Rice vinegar (essential to almost all Asian cooking);
Red wine vinegar (essential in French and a lot of Italian cooking);
Cider vinegar (the best deglazer, and great in chilis)


Lobster, steamed Saturday afternoon, eaten Monday night? Pretty much what it sounds like.  1.25 pound whole Maine lobster cooked mid-day on Saturday and refrigerated until Monday evening.  Still in the shell, claws, tail, and all.  Still good?

I normally assume proteins will hold for 3-4 days, but I'm not as trusting with fish as meats, and I'm even more suspicious of shellfish.  Is that hunch justified?

According to stilltasty.com two days is the max, so you'll be fine as long as you refrigerated it within two hours of cooking.

Other sources claim durations of 4-5 days. As sarge suggests, use your nose.

Other sources:

http://www.lobsterhelp.com/lobster-facts.html
http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5887e/x5887e01.htm


Cleaning brown/gray spots on overheated stainless steel stock pot So my roommate forgot about his boiling water and burned one of the pots pretty bad. The bottom is a dark brown/gray with colored spots underneath (electric range).

What are some household remedies to restore the pot? I'm worried that the heat might have changed the properties of the metal (such as annealing).

Barkeepers Friend is a product that works wonders on steel and aluminum cookware. With a little elbow grease, this stuff removes discoloration very well. If you can't find BKF, Zud is another product that uses Oxalic Acid for it's cleaning power, although it seems to be less potent.


What is the most effective method to prevent a soggy shortcrust quiche base? I have seen two methods to counter this. One is the traditional way of pricking the base with a fork, then blind baking at 200C with weights etc. for 10 minutes, then giving an additional 5 minutes without the weights, then add the filling.

The other is to prick the base as before, seal with beaten egg white, place in the freezer for 30-60 minutes, then add the filling.

The latter to me, seems to be a good way of using up the leftover egg white when making the classic custard filling in a quiche, but does it deliver better results than the traditional blind baking method?

In my personal experience, the freezing method has never worked well. I have a traditional quiche pan - white porcelain with vertical fluted walls - and it gets very cold in the freezer. No matter how I have played with temperature and top/bottom heater setting afterwards, I have never been able to compensate for the effect of the cold porcelain (a bit like the opposite of a preheated pizza stone) - I always got an underbaked soggy crust bottom with crispy to overbaked crust walls, and a gradient in the filling's baking.

I can imagine that the freezing method might work for people using American pie tins or similar, but it has a serious disadvantage with a porcelain pan.


How to make beans more neutral tasting? I am looking for a way to process beans, or a variety of bean that is as flavourless as possible, to get a "clean slate" for making vegetarian cutlets

In most beans, heat around ~104°C to ~110°C will destroy many of the flavour compounds (a slightly different but precise heat is used for different bean varieties)

Commercially beans are steamed in that temperature range to neutralise them before being processed (e.g. making bean derivatives, or milks)

For domestic processing you could try steaming them in a home pressure cooker to achieve the same effect

Also, many beans are soaked at ~60°C for some hours prior to processing to reduce the "fart" sugars


New York style pizza dough We have been open for two months. In this two months, I feel like the pizza dough is coming out different every time, even though we use the same ingredients and the same amounts. I have been worried lately because I see a gum line in my pizza dough and I don't know what to do to get rid of it.  Usually, I use 25 grams pressed yeast, 330 grams sugar, 200 grams salt, 2QT corn oil, 4 QT water, and ten scoops of flour.  I don't know if my dough mixer is not doing the job, if the oven is not hot enough, or if I am making a mistake somewhere in the process.  Any suggestions?

First point I would not is that the mixer you mention (Avantco MX20 20 Qt.)is not recommended for pizza dough as stated here

Secondly this not withstanding the capacity of this mixer for bread dough is 16-18 lbs (7-8 KG approx). By my calculation you are trying to mix around 30 lbs (14 KG). Avantco MX20 20 Qt. specification

My recommendation as a short term measure is halve your batch size.
In addition as recommended by others, weigh ingredients. Measuring dry ingredients by volume will always be variable.

As a long term solution research in to getting a specialist mixer for pizza dough.


Worried about raw eggs, Salmonella, and pasta maker. I recently got a pasta maker as a gift. The instructions clearly say to NEVER use water on it.

My main concern is the raw egg in the pasta dough. How do I make sure the pasta maker is safe for future use, if I can't wipe it down with soap and water? Obviously, I don't want to give myself or my family Salmonella.

Am I just worrying too much about the raw egg? Is the pasta maker safe to use, even if I only wipe off the dried pasta with a dry cloth; if I never wash it with soap and water?

I'm worrying so much about it, that I'm afraid to use my pasta maker.

Thank you for any help.

You are worrying too much.  Pasta has been made with egg for hundreds of years.  While the tools may have changed a bit, the process remains the same.  There has been some actual scientific research on the amount of time salmonella can survive on stainless steel and other dry surfaces.  You can google specifics.  It is generally assumed that moist environments are more favorable to growth and sustainability.  So, if you use a wet sponge from your sink, you are more likely to contaminate a surface from that, for example.  In any event, the general consensus is that salmonella survives 1-4 hours on dry surfaces.  One study in the International Journal of Food Microbiol. 2003 Aug 25;85(3):227-36.Survival of foodborne pathogens on stainless steel surfaces and cross-contamination to foods. Kusumaningrum, Riboldi, Hazeleger, and Beumer, transferred salmonella to stainless steel using a kitchen sponge. Salmonella enteritidis was recovered from surfaces for at least 4 days at high contamination levels, but at moderate level, the numbers decreased to the detection limit within 24 h and at low level within 1 h.

Practically speaking, you are going to make pasta then freeze or cook, rendering it safe.  You'll dust off your pasta roller and put it in the closet for a while. It will be safe.  Don't let this keep you from making your own pasta.


Other than US FDA definition, are there other standards for vanilla extracts? Is there a European standard for example for what could be sold as vanilla extracts? The only definition of concentration and ingredients appears to be in US Code 21 CFR 169.175.

There's not really a European equivalent for the FDA's definition of extract (by ethanol percentage). Instead, the EU specifies what constitutes natural vs 'vanilla flavouring' (euphemism for 'artificial').

See the EU's white paper on it here (notably page 15):
AUTHENTICITY OF VANILLA AND VANILLA EXTRACTS

Also, in plainer speak, info on vanilla industry standards between the US and EU here.

Additional reading: the EU directive ISO 9235 specifies what can be listed as artificial/natural and covers vanilla/vanillin.


Is barley the same as bulgur? Some sources seem to suggest that they are not, some suggest that they are but they are treated/processed differently.

I want to know if they are fundamentally the same grain, because they are very similar when prepared.

For reference:

Whole bulgur:

Whole (pearled) barley:

No. Bulgur is (almost always) made from wheat while barley is a different species.

Bulgur is cracked and parboiled before sale, while pearl barley has had the outer layers of the barley grain removed but is otherwise intact.


Cooking an eggless cake I am about to cook a cake.

I have bought the cake mix. Now, in the instructions, it says that I have to mix it with the vegetable oil and add egg. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I do not eat egg.

So, what else can I add instead of egg which will ensure the consistency?

Eggs are added to a cake primarily to help it rise, and to a limited extent to improve the moistness.  The lecithin in the yolk also has emulsifying properties.  For cakes, commercial egg replacers such as Ener-G will usually do the job nicely.

There's also a dairy product called QimiQ that's used in all manner of recipes to substitute for eggs, especially when a recipe needs raw eggs.  It will also work well for cakes, although the substitution tends to be a little more involved.  Also, it's probably harder to obtain.

I wouldn't substitute anything else in a cake.  I've heard of people substituting all manner of things in other baked goods like cookies, but with a cake, you really need it to rise and you need the wet ingredients to bind together with the fats, and the only single "common" ingredient that will do that is either egg or a commercial egg substitute.

If you're literally about to bake this, as in you've got all your other ingredients already sitting in mixing bowls, and need to substitute the eggs with common ingredients you already have in your fridge or pantry, then I'm afraid you may have wasted your time (and your other ingredients).  But maybe somebody else will have some suggestions - guess it can't hurt to wait, given the alternative.


Using Unused Pickling Juice 2 weeks ago I made 10 gallons of pickling juice for vegetables and only used 7 gallons.  Today I decided to use the 3 remaining gallons of juice.  I boiled the juice I made which was water, white vinegar, salt and sugar, and left it in the porcellan(spelling) pot that I originally boiled it in.  The juice will cool down, and I will pour it into the glass containers with the vegetables.  Is this juice still safe since it has sat out for 2 weeks (covered), even though I have boiled it for 5 minutes or should I just throw it out and start all over again.  As a footnote, the pot is in great condition, no rust marks, it is all white, and the taste of the juice was fine before boiling.

This may guide you a bit.

Tl;dr - It recommends reusing brines only for fridge pickles.  Since you have already heated up yours to make your original batch, heating it again (and processing it) may change the acidity and make it not shelf-stable.  Since there were no vegetables placed in it, it may not have changed the acidity that much, but better safe than sorry.  FWIW, I made a batch of fridge pickles with leftover/misshapen scraps, and I liked them better than the pantry pickles.

I can't imagine it has enough sugar in it to counter the acidity/salinity, but if you aren't sure, toss it.


Using yeast that's been proofed I've just proofed a sachet of dried yeast and it seems to be fine (it's still foaming up the glass as I type).  Can I go ahead and use that very same batch of yeast to make bread (by including its liquid volume in the total ingredients) or it is now spent?  It seems like a waste not to use it.

Yes, normally you proof yeast in part of the liquid from the recipe you are about to make.  If it is active, you continue to use the proofed mixture directly in the recipe.


What can I substitute for ragu in kosher lasgne? Most lasagne recpies ask for ragu and bechamel. Since I am cooking kosher, what can I substitute for ragu?

You can either substitute the bechamel or the ragu:

Bechamel

Use soy or almond milk and vegan butter
Ideas:

  http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/how-to-make-classic-sauces-vegan/
  https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/dairy-free-bechamel-sauce.html

Ragu

Simple.. just use vegetarian mince:

  https://www.quorn.co.uk/products/meat-free-mince
  https://www.morningstarfarms.com/products/morningstar-farms-meal-starters-grillers-recipe-crumbles-product.html

Both are listed as kosher.

Additional ideas/answers already posted here: What can I substitute for dairy products in kosher meat dishes?


Whole fish oven temperature and inside temperature A 6 to 7 lbs Whole Snapper with head.
Broil or Bake is the first is part of the question?
With a convection oven what temperature should it be cooked at?
What the inside temperature should be?

[In preview: ...whether baking or broiling the doneness of the fish is not determined by knowing or measuring inside temperatures. And since the broiling method just means as high as your broiler will go, the only setting one needs knowledge of, (and that for baking), is 450°F or 230°C. The other takeaway is that it is arguable whether one should even attempt broiling whole fish, at least of any real size, in a kitchen oven.]

as for baking

In his book The Science of Cooking, Peter Barham reiterates a distinction made by Rick Stein in his book Fruits of the Sea. When it comes to how one should think of "baking", at least as it applies to fish fillets and whole fish, he divides baking into a pair of subcategories denoted baking and roasting.

Of baking he says, (my brackets),

  Baking involves cooking the fish in a deep pan at a moderate oven temperature (15O°C), [that's around 300°F.], often along with some vegetables, so that some of the steam that rises from the fish and vegetables remains above and around the fish as it cooks. Keeping the fish in an atmosphere of steam helps to reduce the overall loss of water from the fish and retaining a moist product.

Of roasting he says, (my brackets, my bolds),

  Roasting is the process of putting a large piece of fish, or a whole fish on a trivet over a shallow pan and exposing it to the fierce heat of a hot (230°C) oven. [That's around 450°F.] When cooked properly, the fish skin will crisp up well providing a good combination of textures from the crisp outer layer to the moist and tender flesh inside the fish. However, the risk of overcooking is very great so this is a method that needs plenty of practice to get the timing just right.

and to which he adds, (my bolds),

  The variability of domestic ovens is so large that it is not possible to provide any accurate guide to cooking times for roast fish. You simply have to test to see when the skin becomes crisp and to try to tell, by gently pressing on the fish when it starts to become dry. The idea is to let the skin crisp up, but to prevent the flesh becoming at all dry.

So as touches the reliability of method, the form of baking which calls for the lower temperatures plainly offers up up greater reliability for cooks with less experience baking fish, (And by less experience, I really do only mean as compared to persons with more experience), while the form of baking which calls for the higher temperatures is the only baking option or large, whole fish.

Therefore, if to choose the baking method, (or in Barham's language roasting), "internal temperature does not need to  be measured per se but is more than adequately accounted for (gauranteed correct) by the exterior condition of the fish (crispiness) and moistness of the fish (when pressed down on) at the end of its cooking cycle. Thus it can be said for purposes of baking a whole fish, irrespective of size (within reason), the oven temperature should be set at 450°F (230°C).

There are however other important qualifiers which will be spoken to shortly. But first let us turn our attention to what Barham has to say about broiling fish.

as for broiling

On broiling, which he refers to as grilling, Barham has several things to say. Most generally he calls it,

  the method most fraught with risk of ruining a perfectly good piece of fish.

He goes on to explain, (my parenthetical),

  Many domestic grills are not very powerful, so by the time that the outside has browned and the flavour developed, (by which he means the Maillard reactions), the inside of the fish may well be thoroughly overcooked.

From here, he goes on to make a case for using a blowtorch on whole fish rather than a conventional grill (broiler), moving the torch constantly over the fish in sweeping motions, the essence of which can be summarized by this extraction,

  As soon as the fish is lightly browned on one side, put the blowtorch down, turn the fish over and repeat on the other side. The whole process should take no more than a minute or two.

So unless one has access to a professional-grade, super high heat producing commercial oven, Barham plainly would have us to abandon even considering putting a fish under our broiler at home, especially a large fish.

Certainly however there is at least the appearance of disagreement as to the merits of so severe a stance. I say appearance, because professional advice given to professionals implies use of professional-grade equipment, and so should probably not be applied too broadly. Wayne Gisslen in his Essentials of Professional Cooking has the following (among many) points of advisement for broiling fish which, it must be reiterated, may or may not work with a standard kitchen stove,

preheat the broiler.
coat all fish (fat or lean) with a fat before broiling to reduce drying.
make a series of parallel cuts across the fish, or in a diamond pattern for larger fish.
turn thick cuts once during broiling in order to ensure they cook evenly.

Gauging by the language he employs, it is interesting to note that Gisslen is not thinking of fish here in terms of overall weight so much as he's thinking of it in terms of thickness.

broader considerations

For a moment of synopsis: If to rely on the above considerations, whether baking or broiling the doneness of the fish is not determined by knowing or measuring inside temperatures. And since the broiling method just means as high as your broiler will go, the only setting one needs knowledge of, (and that for baking), is 450°F or 230°C. The other takeaway is that it is arguable whether one should even attempt broiling whole fish, at least of any real size, in a kitchen oven.

Beyond these limitations, in her book The Fishmonger's Apprentice, columnist and author Aliza Green echoes some standardized considerations, or matters of practice, when dealing with fish one intends to prepare, a couple of which are as follows, selected specifically because they involve the use of snapper.

COOKING FISH -- Fish that have delicate, soft flesh, such as sea
bass, flounder, and red snapper, are especially vulnerable to
overcooking. They take well to moderate-temperature cooking such as
baking in juicy sauce, and pan-frying (with a coating to help
protect the flesh).
SLASHING FISH -- Cooked whole, any fish will be juicier, more
flavorful, and will lose less of its weight. Cutting diagonal
slashes (photo below) partway through the flesh of the fish ensures
that it will cook evenly when roasted or grilled.


Rice cooker not stopping? I bought a first rice/multicooker Tefal RK8121. I cooked the rice according to the manual.

I put the rice inside and added the steaming tray on top of the rice to steam at the same time (it doesn't say anything about that in the manual though). Added the water and started the program (with pre-washed rice). The program is one that automatically stops using some sensors inside the machine.

The rice is supposed to be cooking for 10 minutes, as written on the package. It didn't stop cooking, so after 40 minutes I had to stop it. The bottom of the rice was already a bit overcooked and the rice was mushy due to it being so long in there.

Why did it not stop? I tried it another time with wild rice, and it stopped itself after 30 minutes and the rice was perfect. But with white rice like Thai Jasmin, it didn't stop even after 40 minutes, this happened twice. I know somebody else who bought the same cooker and has the same problem, I guess there's something we must be doing wrong, but I'm not sure what.

The program used for cooking is rice/cereal.

What am I doing wrong? I tried both following the rice cooker's water advice, and the rice package's water advice and both without luck, the rice cooker keeps cooking the white rice for way too long.

Most ricer cookers use temperature of the pan - which is regulated by water content! - to decide when to stop. Only when enough water has evaporated to leave you with reasonably dry, palatable grains can the pan temperature exceed 100°C/212°F. If what you are cooking cannot absorb all the water, the device will cook until all the water has evaporated (which the lid makes very slow).

If actually boiling it dry doesn't stop it, and no "keep warm" or "saute" or similar special mode has been selected, return it, it is broken.


What is the best way to cook chicken for enchiladas? I'm new to cooking and I'm cooking chicken enchiladas and obviously I want to shred the chicken. Most recipes say to use a slow cooker, but some say boil. Why would one be better than the other? I realize boiling is faster, but given that more recipes say to slow cook, I'm guessing slow cooking is better for some reason. I plan on using boneless skinless chicken breast. How long would it take to boil before ready to shred? How long would it take in a crock pot on low before ready to shred? I recognize there is no exact time for it to be done, so what are the signs of being done and ready to shred? Last question, how much water would I use in a slow cooker with the chicken? Thank you.

Most recipes say to use a slow cooker, but some say boil. Why would one be better than the other?

It is better to slow simmer. As a very general rule, it is better to moist cook meat or poultry slowly. It makes for a more tender, more luscious bit of meat. Sometimes I'd rather not reinvent the wheel, so I'll just show you this from Bon Appetit to address the question of why.

  I plan on using boneless skinless chicken breast.

Certainly that is your prerogative! :) I would advise against it. In my opinion, boneless skinless thighs are best for this application, even though breasts shred more evenly and are just prettier than thighs. Again, I'm going to provide a link, this time for a recipe Add a Pinch . Easy!!

  I recognize there is no exact time for it to be done, so what are the signs of being done and ready to shred?

One of the reasons I love chicken thighs is that they are almost infinitely forgiving. You (for a few reasons, safety being perhaps the most important) should always cook chicken to an internal temperature of at least 165F (74C). In my opinion thighs are better much longer cooked than that, but that's the minimum for safety. When in any doubt, use a digital, instant read thermometer. That one and this one tied America's Test Kitchen ratings for best inexpensive models.

  Last question, how much water would I use in a slow cooker with the chicken?

None :) Use a very small amount (2 TBS even) of something wet and flavorful! The recipe in the above section should be able to help with that. I use the "refrigerator velcro" (thanks Alton Brown for the great line) method. Open the refrigerator and look for something wet, Mexican-y and isn't spoiled. That'll work!

Good Luck.

I've left a lot of room for improvement in this answer and for more answers. I'm pretty sure the community has quite a bit to add.


Would freezing ruin an emulsified broth like tonkotsu? I've developed something of an obsession with ramen lately. Tonkotsu ramen has a pork broth base, which is made with blanched pork bones left at a rolling boil for around 12 hours. Its creamy texture and lustrous, opaque appearance are explained by the fats and oils in the broth being emulsified by the long rolling boil.
I strongly desire making my own tonkotsu broth, but given the necessary materials and time I'd prefer making a large batch and freezing portions of it for later use.

Would the freezing of such an emulsified broth ruin it? My fear is that as it cools down the fats will begin separating from the water and float on top. If this is indeed a risk, can it either be mitigated (by often stirring the broth as it is cooling down to freezing point) or rectified (boiling again for a while after thawing)?

Freezing broth has no ill effects. I would think that you could just emulsify the fat by boiling the broth when you take it out of the freezer. Boiling it again will lose some liquid, though. Or an immersion blender could be useful for resetting the emulsion, if needed.

Your biggest worry is making sure the broth doesn't dry out in the freezer.
Make sure that the liquid temperature is around 35-40 degrees (room temp will do). To make it air-tight I'd recommend going with some sort vacuum sealer. This will keep it from getting freezer burned and losing its shelf-life/flavor profile. Also a good thing to remember is that glass doesn't do well in the freezer as it cannot expand.

I would recommend keeping your broth as simple as possible to allow for the greatest flexibility; Unless you're going to strain it, leave the aromatics out of the euqation until it's time to make your ramen because the more aromatics are exposed to heat the less you can taste them.

You can also cook it down and add water later to take up less fridge space.


Does Worcestershire Sauce go Bad? I really like Worcestershire sauce on a few things, but I never use it that often.

My question is simply, does it ever go bad, and should I try to use it up quickly?

Real Worcestershire sauce has a very long shelf life, many many years

Some people even age it, in a dark cellar!

Be warned though, many brands of Worcestershire style sauce are not actually Worcestershire sauce, they are just sugar with flavourings, no sign of rotten fish etc :-(

See What are the key ingredients in Worcester Sauce?


Are chestnut mushrooms and baby portabella mushrooms the same thing? Based on the information in Wikipedia - Chestnut Mushrooms and the answer located here at What are the mushrooms used in this (video) recipe? I would take an educated guess that since the chestnut mushroom is brown and not as fully matured (or big) as the portabella mushroom that it must be a baby portabella mushrooom, or the mushroom between a white mushroom and a portabella mushroom.

I am not entirely sure myself since there seems to be numerous aliases to these mushrooms and I can't seem to find a website that lists all the aliases to these mushrooms.

Agaricus bisporus is commonly found in two varieties a brown and a white variety both of them have a variety of aliases as you have already found out ... and the name portobella is used for mature fruiting bodies of both varieties. So you can find the brown variety in all sizes from tiny "button" mushrooms over closed and open small and big non-mature fruiting bodies to the big open mature portobellos.

The brown-capped variety will be (at least somewhat) brown through all stages and the white-capped one will have a white cap through all stages. While maturing the gills will turn from white to brown in all varieties, as brown is the color of mature spores in this mushroom species.

Anyway, your assumption is correct - that the chestnut mushroom is in fact a baby (=immature fruiting body) brown-capped portobello mushroom.