How do I make my bread/buns super soft? I have recently started making bread (up to my sixth batch). All I am trying to do is make super soft, plain, white bread/buns.

I have tried a different recipe each time, but none of them have even come close to the softness that I want.

Am I missing something, or have I just not found the right recipe?

I hand kneed every batch (as I do not have a mixer).

This recipe is my current attempt:

http://dinner-inspiration.blogspot.co.nz/2008/11/super-soft-white-bread.html

Soft bread is soft because CO2 produced by yeast and water that gets turned to steam by the baking process gets trapped into pockets by a mesh of gluten, causing the dough to expand. The dough then solidifies, keeping its shape. If your bread is not soft then it hasn't expanded enough for one or more reasons:

Dough too dry: as much as the yeast, water is responsible for getting a good rise in your bread. Gluten requires moisture to relax and stretch, forming the structure that traps the air that causes a rise, dough that is too dry won't form good gluten. Also, dough that is too dry won't have the elasticity to rise. Yeast needs water to do its work, dough that is too dry will inhibit the yeast. Also, the expansion of water into steam is as important for a good rise as yeast. If there's one mistake many bakers make (including myself for years) it is making dough too dry.
Yeast inactive or inhibited: if your yeast is old, came into contact with salt, or doesn't have enough water to work then your yeast won't work well for you. Yeast does several things for you: it converts sugar into CO2 causing a rise, it improves the structure of your dough, and it adds flavor. Put the salt on the opposite side of the bowl from the yeast to avoid inhibiting it. Also, adding the yeast to sugary water doesn't work well, especially with more modern yeasts. Just get quick acting yeast and add it to the flour bowl, then add water to that.
The dough is not worked (kneaded) enough: Kneading improves the structure of your dough by stretching gluten molecules and getting them to link together, making your dough stretchy and pliable, and forming a structure that will trap air for a rise. Under-worked dough won't have enough structure
the dough has been worked too much: as a home baker using hands this is unlikely, but still possible. Once you have the structure of the dough you need, stop and let it rise as any further working will form too much of a structure, making it too strong to expand
Dough under-risen: the times in baking recipes are just guidelines, you need to go for a result rather than a time. I've had books say 45 minutes but it takes 3 hours, especially if my yeast was old
Dough over-risen: if your dough rises too long the yeast will exhaust the sugars in the dough and die out, leading to the loss of all the air. This will make the dough dense.

For a nice soft sandwich bread I start with a really sticky dough. I then use it's stickiness to stretch the dough, smearing it all over the countertop and using a pastry scraper to bring it back together. This is a really quick way to build some gluten. Then I knead in flour bit by bit, kneading for at least 1 minute between adding flour until I have a soft dough that still sticks a bit to the counter. That stickiness means that there's enough moisture in the dough. I'll add a bit more flour to that and then stop adding flour to avoid drying the dough. If I want to knead it more I'll knead with a bit of vegetable oil instead to keep it from sticking.

It's consistency you're looking for, not time. Time is relative depending on your strength and kneading technique, 5 minutes for a skilled and strong baker may translate to 15 minutes for normal humans, so knead until you have the consistency you want. When you start kneading the dough it will pull into pieces easily, and have a rough texture. As you knead that roughness disappears and it will stretch longer without breaking. For a sandwich loaf I'll knead until I can stretch the dough from the middle of my torso to my knee without it breaking.

Next, rising your dough may take much longer than recipes say as it all depends on the ambient temperature of the room, humidity, the activity of the yeast, and other factors. Again, make this results driven, not time driven. A good sandwich bread dough should rise a lot, not the "doubled" many recipes say. For me tripled is more like it. Make sure you put it in a big enough bowl! This advice goes for the initial as well as the secondary rise in the pans. Let it rise enough in the pans until it looks like the recipe picture, that's about right. Ideally your oven will have been pre-heating for 30 minutes by now.

Now, slash your loaves the long way with a razor blade like a carpet knife, about 1/2 an inch down. Do it quick and avoid punching down the dough. Slashing will split the top skin and allow the dough to rise efficiently after you put it into the oven. Once you put it in the oven it's going to rise a lot as the yeast goes crazy before the heat kills it, and the moisture in the dough is going to vaporize into steam. If you don't slash you won't get as good a rise.


Layer of yeast on top of sourdough discard? Most of the time when I feed my sourdough starter I find uses for the discard, but on occasion I don't have time or good ideas, so I put it in a separate jar and store it, with a tight lid, in the fridge.
Yesterday I took the discard jar out and found something I've never seen before: a layer of dry, off-white, stringy material (see photo), with the distinct smell of baker's yeast:
Hooch often appears in the discard jar after a few days, but this is definitely not that. It also doesn't look like any type of mold I've ever seen - and definitely doesn't smell like it either.
Luckily this is just the discard jar and not my active starter, but I'm really curious. Could this be yeast? If so - where could they have come from? And how have they grown on top of a lively sourdough culture?
N.B.: I had made this starter from scratch (i.e. flours and water) without using yeast or any other additives, and have never seen this in the 6 months I've been using this culture

Sourdough culture is partly yeast.  Since this container was made up of sourdough taken out of your primary culturing vessel, and not fed, that is probably dead yeast that floated to the top. After all, it hasn't had any source of sugar since you put it in the fridge.


Is Light Egg Nog supposed to drink directly without cooking? Is Light Egg Nog supposed to drink directly without cooking? Thanks.


Cold water and flour Does flour and water of 45 degrees Fahrenheit rise? I thought that it has to be warmer, or they wont react at all.
Will it rise just at a slower paace?

Short answer: it will still rise just slower. Every week when I make bread I make the dough the night before, put it in the fridge (which is about 40 degrees) and use it the next day. The dough usually doubles in size by the morning.

There is a nice breakdown of the temperate range of yeast at https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/baking-101/what-temperature-kills-yeast/


Proper freezing for King Crab Legs A local grocer is selling cooked, frozen King Crab Legs.  I'd like to buy them a week in advance of Christmas and keep them frozen until it's time to eat them.

If they sit in my freezer for 7 days, will that be too much time?  (will they go bad in any way?)  And assuming they aren't fully frozen, do I have to thaw them first before putting them in the freezer?  (like you would for raw meat)

Keep them frozen. Freezing and thawing will impact the texture adversely. Wrap them well.  For 7 days you will not have a problem.  For longer storage, vacuum sealing is better so that you avoid freezer burn.


How much water is needed for flour dough when making chapati This is for Indian/Pakistani chapati recipe.

How do I know if I have used the appropriate amount of water when making the dough? There is no yeast involved here. What do I do if I have added too much water?

When I made the dough for first time in life a few days ago, I tried to use 2:1 ratio of flour to water. However, all water was not used making flour have higher ratio. Quite a bit of water was left when I finished. It is hard to accurately say what % was left.

Even after leaving it for more than an hour, when I started making the chapatis, the dough was too much sticky and I think this is because of adding more water than needed.

When making chapattis, the recipe might give a quantity of water, but it will probably also say you might not need it all. So you should add it gradually.

For example, the recipe I use says for 225g (8Oz) of flour you use 110ml of water "very approximately"  and add it gradually "until all the flour is incorporated and you have a soft, pliable dough". Then the dough rests for 15 minutes. I actually have my doubts about the conversions in this recipe, but the method is more important so it always works.

Quotes are from The curry secret -- Kris Dhillon


Finding cheap but quality steak for grill We recently moved to a nice apartment building with great rooftop grills. I have started to learn about grilling, and it was a mistake, as now I really like prime ribeye steak off the grill (I think, we buy Whole Foods, grade 3 meat)

The problem is that such steaks are relatively expensive, at $13-19/pound.

Is there any trick to finding good quality meat at lower prices apart from waiting for discounts? Can cheaper steak be prepared to similar quality/taste as better cuts on the grill, if I like form-factor of rib eye?

There are a few things that you can do:

Buy in bulk.  There's typically a major discount for buying a 'family pack' (usually 5+ lbs) at once.  I like shopping at Wegman's, because they sell steaks that are on sheets where each one's individually wrapped, so I can leave some sealed for later in the week or even freeze them.
Shop at more than one store.   They all have their sales each week, and you have potentially more deals if you hit one on the weekend but a different one (not in the same chain) on your way home from work mid-week.
Look for 'must sell' packages.  When the package gets within a day or two of the 'sell by' date, most stores will mark them.  It's often half price, but I've seen it anywhere from 30-70% off.  Some stores will slap them with bright yellow or orange price tags and put them back in the section they came from, while others will have a place in the meat department that's only the must-sell packages.
Cut your own steaks.  For some cuts of meat, you can get roasts, and they're often at a cheaper cost than steaks.  You'll just have to cut them to an appropriate size yourself.  (don't do this if you don't have any large knives).  For ribeye, look for a 'boneless rib roast' or 'standing rib roast' if you want it on the bone.  For some cuts, you can get a half primal in a cryovac bag, but it's a more limited selection unless you go to a warehouse style store (Costco, BJs, etc.)
Buy different cuts of meat.  Rib eye tends to be one of the more expensive steak cuts.  There are a few websites out there that have recommendations for more economical steaks:

http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/meats/beef/best-value-steak-cuts.asp  (their top three are boneless blade, thin flank, and tri-tip)
https://www.mashed.com/24540/best-cuts-steak-budget/ (chuck eye, flat iron, tri-tip)
https://www.myrecipes.com/ingredients/beef-recipes/affordable-beef-cuts-you-need-to-try (tri-tip, hanger, chuck eye)
https://www.thekitchn.com/5-budget-cuts-of-beef-you-should-be-buying-according-to-a-butcher-240281 (chuck eye, flat iron, hanger)

One thing to remember is that the less intramuscular fat, the more rare that you should cook it.  For lean cuts that come from working muscles, you'll need to slice it thinly across the grain so it's not too tough.


How do you make unsalted olives? How do I cure olives without using salt? Is oil the only option? Or salt free fermentation of some sort?

I found this one claiming to be unsalted but couldn't find any recipe/resource describing the process?

Short answer: Oven-dried olives are your only non-salted option.

Long answer:

Almost all olive cures involve some quantity of salt. Some olives are just brined; olives cured with lye are also brined; so-called "oil-cured olives" are actually heavily salted.

Your only non-salted option are "oven-dried olives", a Tuscan specialty ... but they won't taste like the olives you're used to.  You might try them anyway.  I'll warn you though -- they're better if you add a little salt.


How to treat a cast iron pan that only gets occasional use I have a small cast-iron pan that I use a few times a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. Most advice about how to season a cast-iron pan involves lightly oiling and wiping it down, after it's been cleaned, before putting it away. This seems to assume that the pan gets used every few days. Since I don't use it very often, my concern is that any oil that remains on the pan might go rancid before I use it the next time, and that it will affect the flavour of whatever I cook. Is this something I should actually worry about? How do other people treat a cast-iron pan that only gets occasional use?

My (carbon steel) wok is used with that sort of frequency and doesn't go rancid.    What I do is (you may want to modify a little for the fact you're on cast iron):

Rinse and dry it.
Get it fairly warm.
Pour in a little oil (sunflower as that's what I mainly use).
Swirl/wipe the oil over the surface.
Heat until I think it starts to smoke; turn off the gas.
After a few seconds wipe of the excess with a paper towel.
After a few minutes wipe it off again as some oil will have magically appeared
Heat until it just starts to smoke again (fairly slowly to allow the heat to even out).
Allow to cool before putting away.

Now this isn't a very hard seasoning, but it does a good job of stopping the pan from rusting and stopping food from sticking next time it's used. The final amount of oil is very small, which helps.


Appliance to wash or scrub fruit and vegetables? Washer or scrubber I need to wash or scrub 20 lb of oranges a day. Some have a layer of white stuff on them and I never tried juicing those without scrubbing. Does anyone know of a household sized  automated machine for this? The best I have found Cuisine cleaner at AMZ seems intended for more delicate things. Will the ozone help in any way? Would ultrasonic? I hope I will not have to DIY something out of a paint buffer or back and forth towel mover machine.

I'm not sure how sticky this coating is ...

Can you construct a huge wire tub (basket) and then hose them down with the garden hose outside?

My husband suggested created opposite rotating brushes where they enter at a slope and roll out after being brushed and washed at the same time.  It depends upon how much work space you have.


"Dry" foods from slow cooker I know the basic usage of slow cooker is for stews, soups, pot roasts and various other foods that have high water content - essentially, simmered in some kind of sauce, which then is part of the food. In essence, something that needs to be packed in a leak-proof box if I want to take it as my lunch to work and not have it leak all over my bag.

I'm curious if slow cooker can be employed for more "dry" food, something without sauces - possibly something like caressoles, meat pies` or such? If so, what kind of recipes could I look for, for that kind of foods?

Slow cookers have a heating element generally on the bottom of the unit which heats the ceramic insert, which in turn heats whatever is inside it. They are designed to heat liquids, and the foods cook because the heat is convected around by the liquid.

Slow cookers are not designed to cook without liquid, and I personally would not try cooking dry things in them for the following reasons:

Uneven heating: the heat in a slow cooker typically is from the bottom, if you put a casserole in you'll get a very cooked bottom and a very underdone top. Not good in a pie, where the top needs heat to form a crust
Damage of the heating element/safety concerns: liquid has a high capacity for heat and cushions the heating of the element in the slow cooker, without liquid in it the element may overheat and cause damage, or maybe even (in some older units) start a fire
Damage to the ceramic insert: the ceramic insert in slow cookers is designed to carry liquid, if you try to cook dry foods it is liable to crack

If you want to cook a casserole or a pie use an oven as it will deliver even heat all around. Use a slow cooker as it is intended.

That doesn't mean you cannot use a slow cooker to make bag-friendly meals. Simply make dishes where you can discard the juice without losing the majority of the flavor, reduce the liquid on the stove afterwards until it is more of a gravy so it won't leak out, or add a thickener to the sauce to stabilize it at lower temperatures.

Some ideas for you:

beef brisket with vegetables - doesn't need the liquid, the flavor is in the food. Bring some nice crusty bread with it
stew: you can remove the solids and then gently cook down some of the liquid until it is a gravy, or add a thickening agent like corn starch (corn flour to some). Add enough so it will gel up when cold, but turn back to a liquid (albeit thick) when heated
lamb or chicken tagine: remove the liquid and use it to make some couscous. The couscous will absorb the flavors of the sauce and make a fabulous side. Reduce the rest to make it thicker and use it to add flavor to the solid ingredients and keep them moist


How to cook very large Brussels sprouts? My normal cooking method for Brussels sprouts is to steam them in a microwave steamer like this:

I usually get a bag of the pre-cut sprouts, but this year I bought a stalk and I have some very large sprouts in the mix, so I'm concerned that they won't cook evenly throughout: either they'll be raw in the center, or they—and the smaller ones—will be overcooked on the outside.

Is there a better method I can use?  Or could it be as simple as halving or quartering the large ones and cooking them as normal?

Steaming is my favorite way to cook them, keeps the flavor in. I'd halve the really big ones and leave it at that, there's no need to get over-complicated with it. Some will be a bit more done but that's ok.

If you really want to jazz them up do a quick fry with them with a bit of butter, oil and slivered almonds and pine nuts. Yummy!


Good Frozen Fish /seafood Fish seems to be one of the food items that is much better with fresh ingredients than frozen.

Why is this?

If I want to shop frozen food for my freezer, what should I buy?

Looking for

Very delicious end result
and/or Good result for the price
and/or types of fish where the frozen version is OK compared to the fresh one.

I was thinking mostly in terms of species of fish, but I see other threads mentions the quality of the freezing process.  Should I perhaps just try some species with a quality producer?

This is in Europe.

I am of course referring to frozen fish and fresh fish as you would buy it in shops.

I'd like to start with an analogy. Look at what you said in comments that some vegetables are actually better purchased frozen than purchased fresh. Let's take frozen peas vs fresh.
Peas notoriously begin to lose flavor and their great texture as soon as they are picked. Quality manufacturers of frozen peas get those peas frozen at extremely low temperatures almost immediately after they are picked. From the time they are frozen until the time you use them, typically they have stayed frozen.

"Peas go into the freezer at one end at about 15C, and they come out six minutes later at the other end at around -18C."
The peas make it into the freezer to be flash-frozen in the two-and-a-half hour time limit.

-BBC
So, if you can buy fresh peas that were picked no more than 2 1/2 hours ago, they might be a tiny bit superior than peas you can buy frozen. Otherwise, you should buy your peas frozen. Frozen peas are "fresher" plus they haven't been banged around and damaged in transit.
Look at seafood that way
Can you get your hands on it within a few hours of it being caught? If not, purchase it frozen. Leave the freezing to the people who have the equipment to do it well, and will do it fast, sometimes while still on the boat.
In the US, most seafood arrives at the grocery store frozen. Then they thaw it out, put it on ice, and display it more attractively than it looks bagged in the freezer. It makes no sense to buy that. Buy exactly the same fish while it is still frozen, because it starts to lose freshness again as soon as you start to thaw it.
This basic rule is true of every variety of fish I know of plus shrimp, squid, scallops, lobster and octopus:
Buy it nearly off the boat, buy it live, or buy it frozen

"There really is no difference," said Gibbons. "The clock never moves backward when it comes to freshness. If a fish is caught, handled well and frozen immediately, you literally stop the clock. You freeze in the freshness." He adds that nutritionally, nothing is lost when fish is frozen.
These days, technology is such that fish are either frozen right at sea (most common with farmed fish, as freezers are incorporated into the farm sites) or immediately upon landing at port, said David Pilat, global seafood buyer for Whole Foods Market.
And the assumption that fattier varieties such as salmon and tuna fare better, texturally speaking, than leaner fish when frozen doesn't hold true, either. Our experts say it comes down to proper freezing and handling on the front end, and proper thawing—in the fridge, out of the package—on the back end.
"There is no downside to buying frozen fish," Gibbons said.

-Epicurious
If your store displays thawed fish on ice, look at it first and then the frozen package of the same item:

Commercially frozen fish is quickly frozen at its peak freshness. Consumers can now find a wide choice of top-quality and wholesome seafood in the freezer case. When properly thawed, frozen fish is comparable to fish that was never frozen. Both exhibit the qualities of freshness described previously. Frozen fish and shellfish should be packaged in a close-fitting, moisture-proof package. Select packages from below the load line of the freezer case. Look for packages that still have their original shape and the wrapping intact with little or no visible ice. Seafood should be frozen solid with no signs of freezer burn, such as discoloration or drying on the surface, and have no objectionable odor. The same guidelines apply for frozen prepared seafood, such as crab cakes, breaded shrimp, or fish sticks. Do not allow the package to defrost during transportation. When properly thawed, frozen fish can be comparable to fish that was never frozen.

-Seafoodhealthfacts.org


Why did my roasted pumpkin soup smell foul and seem sour after only 1/2 day? I made 2 batches of roasted pumpkin soup and both went sour and smelt horrible within 1/2 day.  I am unsure why and am baffled as I have made soups heaps of times, but not this roasted pumpkin soup.

Were there a lot of onions in the soup? My uncle was a chef and he said that you should never put onions in soup as it would add a sour flavour.


Canned smoked salmon I canned my smoked salmon last night in my pressure cooker at 11lb pressure for 110 min on my stove. Then I turned the stove off waiting for it to cool off and fell asleep. I woke up this morning with the canner lid still shut I opened it and everything looked good. It's been about 5 hours with lid still on and jars still in canner. Is that ok to do?

That's fine.

During canning, the increased pressure raised the boiling point of the water inside and sterilized the interior of the canner. As the canner cools and the pressure falls the bottles seal themselves. Once they are sterilized and sealed they are shelf stable if nothing breaks the seal.

Leaving the sealing bottles in the canner to cool overnight is not unsafe- it might make them a little harder to clean though.


My flatbreads are still doughy inside after cooking? So I am making basic flat breads using flour, water, oil, salt and spices. I kneaded the dough for 5 mins and rested it for 15.

I then rolled them out really thin and cooked on a super hot griddle, two minutes per side. Once they are charred, though, they are still doughy inside. Are they meant to be doughy? I was expecting something pitta-esqe.

Your list of ingredients doesn't contain any kind of leavening agent. A leavening agent is an ingredient that helps to incorporate air and gas bubbles into the dough of the product. Without that inclusion of air bubbles, the dough doesn't have anything to lift it and make it lighter, so it will fall and become heavy, doughy and sad.

In many traditional flatbread recipes, such as Pita or Naan, the leavening agent is yeast. However, yeast-raised breads can be incredibly time consuming. That's why In some simple recipes it is possible to use baking powder or self-raising flour (which is basically flour mixed with baking powder) in the place of yeast, but know that this will cause a large difference in flavor and texture from the more traditional yeast-raised breads

In short, you'll need to amend your recipe to include one of the basic leavening agents. Here's a couple basic recipes for you, in case you need some inspiration. c:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/easy-flatbreads/#s5UQEEaz0CUakBp9.97
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/homemade-flat-bread-recipe2.html
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peppys-Pita-Bread/Detail.aspx?evt19=1


Chicken stock and inosinate Currently, I pressure cook a whole chicken for 45 minutes to make stock. However, the meat falls apart very easily. My aim is to extract the inosinate from the chicken meat into the stock, but also minimise damage to the meat so that I can cube it for other purposes.
Would pressure cooking for a lesser amount of time help. If yes, could I have a rough estimate.
Also, would like to know your opinion on simply boiling the chicken for X amount of time to extract the inosinates. Would appreciate a rough time frame here as well.

Most raw meats contain high levels of glutamic acid bound in the proteins. Glutimates (the salts of the glutamic acid) are what impart the flavor of umami. Inosinate is one such salt. Proteins need to be broken down (cooked) to release the glutimates.  I have not been able to find a minimum temperature or time, but it is clear that cooking is necessary. However, you should also keep in mind that the umami flavor in a chicken stock comes from multiple sources, as vegetables also contain glutimates.

Cooking a chicken for 45 minutes in a pressure cooker will clearly result in over-cooked chicken. In terms of the release of glutimates, a pressure cooker does not appear to be more advantageous than a traditional pot. It certainly makes the production of stock quicker.

I would suggest three options: (a) save chicken scraps (bones, necks, wing tips, etc) for the specific purpose of making stock, and don't worry about over cooking the chicken, just make a good stock, (b) same as suggestion (a) except purchase less expensive legs (for example) to make stock, or (c) poach a chicken to your desired doneness and use the poaching liquid as a stock...or as the liquid portion of a more rich stock as a second step.


Why is my stock flavorless? I made stock last Sunday, which I intended to use as the base for homemade tonkotsu (pork broth) ramen.  Accordingly, I used both chicken and pork (roughly equal amounts of chicken backs and pork hocks).  I also added several cloves of garlic, a large leek, celery, carrots, and small knob of ginger.

I boiled the meat/bones briefly before straining and starting over with cold water (for clarity of finished stock), added the other ingredients, and brought to a boil.  I then reduced to a simmer and skimmed the very small amount of scum from the surface.  The stock simmered for about 8 hours before I strained it through a cloth.

The resulting stock is perfectly clear, with an excellent, thick mouthfeel and gelled nicely in the refrigerator.  However, the stock also has very little flavor-- even copious amounts of salt don't help much.  Since my stock is by all other measures a success, I'm puzzled as to why it's so flavorless.

Where did I go wrong?

Couple notes or suggestions;

Added in fat?  Typically for ramen adding in a copious amount of finely chopped pork fat is a must.  Usually boil a slab on top of bones for 4 hours and then chop and add.  Serve with a side of lipitor.
Where is the savory flavour or unami?  You need to either cook some veggies/aromatics to get the Maillard reaction or cheat and add some MSG and/or a unami super boost (mushroom, marmite, anchoivies or other).  Lots of techniques to get savory flavour; which I think is what you may be missing.  soy sauce, or miso are also classic; pending what your end ramen is going to be.

Overall the technique is good; just missing the flavoring step; the base broth itself is not going to have a lot of flavour since you are not roasting; along with blanching step.

Blanching for a clear broth does remove a significant amount of flavour; but is
more classical ramen approach.

Another trick you can use to extract more flavour is add a acid early to process; 1TBsp to 1/3cup or so of apple cider vinegar.  My goto when making a thai sour chicken soup or some other white broth soup that will be loaded with lime and cilantro later.  Drastic flavour change; so be-careful and test first.


Alternative for Swenson condensed milk. I'm diabetic I'm diabetic. I've been given a receipt for ice box pie that uses this milk.  What can I use to replace it with less sugar than receipts shown? It's made with Kool-Aid and cool whip.

There are actually many recipes for making your own sugar-free or low-sugar sweetened condensed milk. They generally involve combining non-fat milk or powdered milk and water with a sugar substitute like Splenda. Alternately, if it's sufficiently low in sugar, you can add Splenda or another no-calorie sweetener to evaporated milk.

We don't share recipes here but I encourage you to find one that works for you with your preference of milk product and sugar substitute.


Thawed frozen blueberries inside cake roll? I would like to put frozen, thawed blueberries inside a red velvet cake roll filled with cream cheese icing.  I am concerned that the blueberries may "bleed" or just look a mess instead of having the red white and blue look I am hoping for.  Has anyone ever tried anything like this?

Yes, the blueberries will bleed, and, what's even more non-4th-ish, they will make purple or lavender stains instead of blue.

If you are serving the roll rather quickly after assembly, consider thickening the pureed blueberries seperately with some corn starch or pudding mix. Then you can make a blue-and-white filling inside the red roll. The blueberries must be boiled and cooled again, obviously, because they would otherways melt your cream cheese icing. Aim for a "spreadable pudding when cool" consistency of the berries, ideally the same consistency as the cream cheese filling.

You can layer both fillings atop each other, but the risk of  them mixing when rolling the log is high. I suggest piping alternating blue and white stripes parallel to the edge where you hold it / future long axis of the log and rolling very, very carefully. This should result in a blue/white pattern when you slice the log (wipe the blade often!).

The longer you store your log, the more colour will leach into the white, but a few hours should be ok. Chill thoroughly.


Good breads for evening cooking? Are there good bread styles or techniques for baking bread in the evening after a day at work?

Specifically, there's a couple of us who have taken to bringing food for a meeting every couple of weeks, and I tend to do the breads while someone else makes soup or a casserole.

I know I can whip up a quick bread, like Irish Soda, cornbread or most muffins fairly quickly, but they're not as conducive to eating at a meeting (they crumble, and then I have to spend more time cleaning up after the meeting), or I could make something like naan or tortillas, but it's quite time consuming towards the end if you have roll out and grill up enough for 18+ people.

I guess I'm hoping for something where it's either slow-rising enough where I can prep it the night before or morning of, then return to it 8 to 20hrs later, punch down and shape, then have a short rise before baking.  (right now, I do a refrigerated rise of the dough, which requires giving it more time to come back up to room temp so I can shape it and let it proof in the pan before baking).

Another option would be to know the techniques to make something like the par-cooked breads that you used to be able to find in the stores.  (if it can be done at home, and doesn't require blast chillers or other specialized equipment)

One thing you can make which is very fast is unleavened flatbread. For example, chapati and roti are two Indian flatbreads made without yeast. If you try one of these though, I'd recommend getting a special flour to get the authentic flavor. They come out kind of bitter with regular whole wheat flour. Chapati or Atta flour can be found at Indian grocers, or order online. King Arthur Flour makes a version which I haven't tried, but generally their products are very good - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/chakki-atta-indian-flour-3-lb

Chapati and roti are pretty similar to wheat tortillas, although tortillas are usually a bit thinner. These can also be considered a flatbread and can be made quickly.

If you want to try no-knead bread you don't need a book. Mark Bittman of the NY Times has posted some no-knead recipes online (from Jim Lahey of Sullivan St Bakery in NY, who now has his own book of no-knead recipes).

Overnight rise recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html
Newer "quick" version, 4-5 hour rise: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08mini.html

You can also make pita bread with an hour and a half rise.


What makes breads different from one another? I have two bread recipes I use frequently. recipe one is a type of flat bread called taftan, and the second recipe is called barbari. Taftan is griddled while barbari is baked in the oven. As for the amount of water, what I usually do is adding water until it forms a dough that is only slightly sticky.

Recipe one:
3 cups flour
0.5 tsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast
1 ts sugar
Lukewarm water

Recipe two:
3 cups flour
0.5 tsp salt
2 tsp instant yeast
1 ts sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
Lukewarm water

The only difference is baking powder that one of those recipes calls for. But they result in totally different breads, with respect to both taste and appearance. I wonder what makes a bread different. Is it the shaping method you use, rising, proofing? Even when the ingredients are identical, why do the tastes differ so much?

I think it is "all of the above"

including oven type, flour type, yeast type, water ...

In the case of Barbari bread, it seems, in most recipes that I have seen, to have extra flavoring like sesame seed.


Why are many chinese sauces so dark? I've noticed that many sauces used in chinese cooking (hoisin, oyster, bean etc.) are relatively dark, and often black in color. What's the reason these sauces are so dark? Does it have something to do with the fermentation?

You're close.  In actual fact, however, most of the commercial soy sauces and other Chinese sauces you buy are not fermented at all; they're acid-hydrolyzed.

Fermented soy sauce (or other soy-based sauces) are actually translucent and fairly light in colour.  But fermentation takes months, so manufacturers hydrolyze instead.  The process is completely chemical, and involves boiling the beans in a strong acid and then neutralizing with a strong base (normally, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide).

This process makes a much stronger, glutamate-heavy sauce than natural fermentation.  It also produces a much darker colour.  That's why so many of the sauces you see are dark.

Some of the sauces aren't actually hydrolyzed or fermented but will contain artificial colour, if you look at the ingredients.  I guess the manufacturers figure that consumers are so used to the dark colour that they would be suspicious if it wasn't there.

Here is a picture of naturally brewed soy sauce:

Compare to the commercial hydrolyzed kind:

Some brands, like Kikkoman, claim to be naturally-brewed, but the colour suggests otherwise; either they do something to speed up the fermentation process or they're adding colouring.

Note: As requested, I've updated the original image to one I found of a bowl of what certainly appears to be the hydrolyzed kind, in order to give an "apples to apples" comparison.  However, it's hard to find a picture of a bowl of soy sauce that tells you which brand it is, other than the Kikkoman, whose origin is questionable.

For the sake of completeness, there is also one other reason why soy sauce might be very dark (other than actual "dark soy sauce" which contains molasses), which is that the sauce might actually be from black soybeans.  Those are not common, however, and unless a sauce specifically says that it is from black soybeans, it probably is not.


My meringue forms syrup beads on top Every time I make a pie , topped with meringue , little beads of sugary syrup form on the top of the meringue a few hours later. Why?

That's often referred to as weeping. A few things might help. Is your pie filling hot when you spread the meringue? If the filling is cool, the meringue will cook unevenly (the top before the bottom), causing weeping. If your filling is cool, put the pie in the oven for a few minutes before applying the meringue. Another thing that might help is equal amounts of cornstarch and sugar mixed with water (about twice as much water as solids) brought to a rolling boil and allowed to cool to just warm. Drop a couple of teaspoons of the resulting paste into the meringue when you're almost done whipping it. That will help to stabilize the meringue. Also, try not to cook meringue pies on humid days.

Weeping can also be caused by over (or under) cooking. Confused yet?

Oh, and one more thing. Try warming the whites before whipping. That's counter-intuitive for fluffy whites, but it does help it to cook evenly and keep it stable, especially if humidity is part of the problem. Heat gently and go for about the temp of hot tap water.

EDIT: Looking for more precise instructions for the warm meringue I found another similar option that might work better. Here are better instructions for cooked, or "Italian" meringue. http://www.ochef.com/727.htm

From that site:

  Italian Meringue
  From The Way to Cook, by Julia Child

  Ingredients:

  For the Egg Whites:

  2/3 cup egg whites (4 to 5 whites)
  A pinch of salt
  1/4 tsp cream of tartar

  For the Sugar Syrup:

  1-1/3 cups sugar
  1/2 cup water

  Instructions:

  Beat the egg whites at slow speed until the foam throughout, add the salt and cream of tartar, gradually increase the speed to fast, and beat to soft peaks. Turn the machine to slow as you complete the sugar syrup.

  Bring the sugar and water to the simmer, swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar completely, cover tightly and boil to the soft-ball stage (234°F to 240°F; 112°C to 116°C on a candy thermometer).

  Beating the egg whites at moderately slow speed, dribble into them the boiling syrup — trying to avoid the wires of the whip. Increase speed to moderately fast and beat until cool and the egg whites form stiff, shining, upstanding peaks. The meringue is now ready to use as your recipe directs.

OR

One-Step Italian Meringue
From Brilliant Food Tips & Cooking Tricks, by David Joachim

  Also known as boiled icing, this type of meringue is traditionally made by beating hot sugar syrup into beaten egg whites. This version combines all of the ingredients in one bowl to save time. It should be made over a saucepan of simmering water so that the egg whites reach a temperature of at least 160°F (70°C) to kill any harmful bacteria.

  Ingredients:

  3 egg whites, at room temperature
  1 cup, plus 2 Tbsp sugar
  3 Tbsp cold water
  1/4 tsp cream of tartar

  Instructions:

  Combine the ingredients in a metal bowl. Place over a saucepan of gently simmering water and beat with an electric mixer on low speed, 4 to 5 minutes. Increase speed to high and beat until very thick, about 4 minutes more. Remove bowl from saucepan and beat off the heat until light and fluffy, another 4 minutes.

  Yield: Makes about 4 cups


How to keep pasta hot, yet not sticky in crock pot? We are having a pasta "bar" for a party that will last several hours.  How do you keep pasta HOT and NOT sticky.  (I have seen several answers for COLD and not sticky, but not for hot.)

I've not personally tried this with larger quantities, but I have the best success keeping hot pasta non-sticky in smaller quantities (assuming you want to keep pasta and sauce wholly separate) when I do the following three things:

Cook in a large amount of water; this will keep the amount of starch in the water down to a bare minimum.
After draining, rinse off as much of the surface starch as you can; you might need to keep a separate pot of near-boiling water ready for this.
Add a small amount of whatever oil or fat the sauce is based on (olive oil, butter) to the pasta and mix it in.

This is all assuming it is completely unacceptable to sauce the pasta ahead of time.

Good luck!


Can demi glace be done with fewer steps I've been wanting to try to make demi-glace, but it seems so complicated that I don't think it's worth it.

Further - it seems unneccesarily complicated. Accoding to wikipedia, we should

  combin[e] equal parts of veal stock and espagnole sauce [...] simmered
  and reduced by half.

Now, let's check what "espagnole sauce" is:

  very dark brown roux, to which veal stock or water is added, along
  with browned bones, pieces of beef, vegetables, and various seasonings

So... a roux, with veal stock, where you add pieces of bones, beef and vegetables.

Assuming we begin with bones, meat and vegetables:

We first make a stock from two thirds of that.
We then take the last third, add half of the stock to THAT (+roux).
And finally we take the rest of the stock, and add the finished espagnole sauce to THAT.

What't the point of all these steps?
I've checked videos, wikipedia and cookbooks - no one explains why one would need it - couldn't one just make a stock, reduce it, and thicken it with roux?

It depends entirely on how traditional you want to be.

In England many, many restaurants put demi-glace on their menus which in reality has no resemblance to the traditional method. I've worked in these places, with 2-3 rosettes and one with a star. Yet even at that level we still use a "cow boy" method.

If you take the words literally.

Demi = half/inferior
Glace = shine

Though my taking on this may be a little skewed I regard it as half a real jus. So instead of reducing your meat stock all the way down from 100 litres to 1 litre (little exaggerated I'll admit). So it's nice and thick and sticky. Take it half way so you end up with 50 litres. Then thicken it in order not to have brown water.

Traditionally roux is used, but in reality most kitchens these days will use gravy powder. Why? It's easier & tastier.

I watched a program by Heston a year or so ago where he was talking about roux when used in chicken pie or cheese sauce. He raised the fact that you make this wonderful tasty sauce then mask it with flour. As soon as you put flour in a sauce in binds to all the flavours and mutes them. Adding gravy powder (good stuff not bisto) with all its meaty flavours in just enriches your sauce rather than toning it down. So he used corn flour instead for his cheese sauce and ... I can't remember the chicken pie (cream I think)

So in answer to your question. Yes there is a way. Just make veal stock reduce it till it tastes good add tomato paste and thicken it  with a meat based powder. It'll taste as good as a traditional demi-glace if not better.

BUT

It's a cowboy way and it is far from the traditional method.

You'll just have to weigh your time and resources against your need to do it right. Which is why professional kitchens often cheat.

Disclaimer: not all kitchens cheat but all but 1 of the 11 kitchens I've worked in, have.


How to choose a Bundt cake pan? I think one would just go to the supermarket and buy whatever, but since I don't want my cakes to be ruined, I would like to ask for some advice.

I have never bought a Bundt cake pan myself, and don't know what kind of materials should I look for, what's the optimal diameter, and eventually if there are some "non-sticking" ones (or even dishwasher-resistant) that do their job. Please notice that I have an electrical oven.

The bundt pans come in 6 cups, 10 cups, 12 cups. I'd go with the middle size as most recipes call for a 10 cup pan. Non-stick is best, though I always give it a spray anyway. They are usually made of cast aluminum. I've had no problem with those. As a beginner, stick to a simpler pattern than one with a lot of nooks and crannies.


Right commercial oven for Frozen Foods? I'd like to provide an array of meals that are frozen and can be quickly heated and served. I have reviewed different models and there are 3 kinds I think:

1) Steam Combi - e.g. Rational selfcookingcentre

2) Convection+Impingement- e.g. MerryChef E2S

3) Convection + Microvave e.g. Menumaster

The menu would consist of the following types of food:
Lasagna
Pasta
Rice
Noodles
Curries

Objective is To be able to put frozen food directly into the oven (without thawing) and using a particular setting for each item type, the oven should be able to bring it 'closest' to freshly cooked food w.r.t. texture especially.. in under 10min.

Thanks,
Nipun

The Rational oven is definitely more flexible - it usually offers a dry and a wet oven capacity. If you're reheating any wet ingredients like pasta, rice, sauces, you'll find the merry chef very unsuitable.

Options 2 and 3 that you've listed are good for far reheating of relatively small numbers of portions that need heat + crisp eg pies, roast potatoes. But they're not so good for wet foods or large batches


Making brownies but don't have a hand whisk? Can i substitute with electric mixer? Hey guys im making brownies but i don't have a whisk. Can i substitute with a electric mixer on low switching on and off occasionally? Would that lead to overbeating the mixture

Brownies don't need whisking. Whisks are handy tools that make it easier to blend the ingredients in together but a fork to beat the eggs and a spoon to mix everything will do just fine. You won't get any real benefit from using a mixer, you'll just make more dishes dirty.


Should I let stock cool with the bones/veg still in it? I've just made some stock and its bed time now.  Do I need to strain my stock before I go to bed, or can I leave it overnight with all the stuff in it and strain it in the morning?  Is one preferable to the other?  Why?

You need to strain the stock and cool it until it's 40 degrees F. or below before you refrigerate it.

Leaving it to cool overnight on the stove is going to create a bacteria cesspool.  The temperature danger zone is between 40 and 140 degrees.  This is the range that is prime for the growth of bacteria.  Food safety guidelines require that it cool to 70 degrees or below within 2 hours and then below 40 degrees within another 4 hours time.  Total maximimum time that it should take to get to 40 degrees is 6 hours.

Even if you get it cooled down now with all of the vegetbles and bones in it, the problem will be that you have to heat it back up in the morning to strain it as it's going to gelatinze overnight (provided it's been cooked long enough to extract a good amount of gelatin - usually about 4-6 hours for a good chicken stock and 12-16 hours for veal/beef stock).  When it's reheated you're running the risk that the carrots and other vegetables will break up into smaller bits and end up clouding the stock.

Strain it and cool it down tonight before putting in the refrigerator.  To cool quickly, either divide amongst several pans (greater surface area is better than depth as it will dispel heat quicker) or if you don't have a BIG pot of stock, strain it and put it in an ice bath (water and ice cubes) in your plugged kitchen sink.

If you make stock a lot, you can save plastic milk jugs and fill them 3/4 with water and keep in the freezer.  After straining the stock you can place one of those inside the pot of stock to also help cool it from the inside out.

In the morning you can then skim the layer of congealed fat from the top.  If it's chicken stock, save the fat for frying potatoes with extra flavor!


What food from Niue can I cook in the UK? I want to cook a Niuean dish but live in the UK (not a city, best resource - Tesco etc). What recipes or dishes can I cook?

You've asked an extremely broad question, and no indication of what kind(s) of fish you have available, or want to use.  Fish is a staple in the Niue Islands, and the seas offer up an abundance of such choices such as mahi mahi (dolphinfish or dorado), ahi (tuna), and ono (barracuda), coconut crab, red bass, sailfish. You can substitute any firm-fleshed white fish: cod, bream, hake, monkfish, sea bass, sole, swordfish, turbot. In truth, I would go to the fishmonger and get the freshest, firm-fleshed variety available (and the most sustainable). If what's available is frozen, go with that. Then make Fai Kai, massively simple, fish baked in an umu, an earthen oven, and requiring only two ingredients, fish and coconut cream. I checked and Tesco stocks the latter. Place the fish in a baking dish, pour over the coconut cream, cover the dish with foil, and let it marinate for about 30 minutes. As I'm pretty certain that you don't have an umu, or any plans to dig one, bake in a pre-heated 180 C (gas mark 4/350 F) oven until done, about 30 minutes.


How can I remove blood from snow goose breasts within a few hours? I am not a hunter. My friend has given me several pounds of snow goose breast meat, hunted and cleaned today. He wants me to slow cook them tonight so we can eat them tomorrow.

Since I cannot contact him right now, do you have any suggestions on how to rapidly remove all the blood from the meat before I toss it in the slow cooker? I have already soaked the pieces in cold water for an hour, as he suggested. However, I can still squeeze some blood out of the meat.

If you wanted to make certain of getting all of the blood out of the the meat, then I would suggest going with the process used by Jewish people to make meat kosher as they are forbidden from eating meat with blood in it for religious reasons.

That process is basically to soak, dry, salt and then rinsed three times to remove the salt. For a longer description see the sources below.

  Jewish law prohibits the consumption of the lifeblood of the animal. All kosher meat and poultry must undergo a special process to remove it. The meat or poultry is soaked in clean water for thirty minutes, then removed to drip dry. After a few minutes of dripping, the meat is salted and left to hang for sixty minutes to further draw out any remaining blood. After sixty minutes of salting, the meat is washed three times in cold, clean water to remove any remaining salt.

Source

  A bird should be placed with its open cavity downward so that the liquid drains off as it is koshering, and similarly, a piece of meat with a cavity, such as an unboned brisket, should be placed with its cavity draining downward. One may stack meat that one is koshering as high as one wants, as long as the liquid can drain off the meat properly. After the salting is complete, the meat is rinsed thoroughly in order to wash away all the blood and salt. The poskim instruct that one should rinse the meat three times

Source

On the other I have eaten lots of elk meat where we soaked the meat and washed it to get almost all of the blood out and remove more during the cutting and packaging process, and having some blood still in it really isn't a problem.


Chicken stock quantity to substitute for 1 stock cube (knorr)? How much homemade chicken stock should I substitute when recipe calls for a stock cube?  I added 5 litres of water to cover carcass.

Anything else I can do with simmered chicken & veg. It seems a shame to throw them away?

Per Knorr, you would dissolve one cube in 2 cups of water (500 ml), so you would use 2 cups of homemade stock and deduct 2 cups of liquid from the recipe.

Note that making stock from a single chicken carcass and 5 liters of water seems like a lot of water; you may wish to reduce the resulting stock until you only have a liter or two.

The stock ingredients have pretty much given their all into the stock.  All of the flavors and gelatin should be dissolved in the liquid, and the remaining solid mass is going to be pretty underwhelming.  It is probably best to discard.


When to use a roux or a beurre manié What difference does it make to use a roux or a beurre manié ?

Are there any rules about their usage, or are they both interchangeable?

There's a great overview of the differences here, including a taste-test experiment at the end.

Broadly: beurre manié started off as a "lazy" roux; some people claim that the cooking of the roux reduces any "floury" taste; the experiment did not find any discernible difference between the two options for either a bechamel sauce or a velouté.


If I have much lower than normal humidity, how should I change the amount of flour that dough needs? I made some rolls that came out dense, rather than light and fluffy, and with much thicker crusts than I would have preferred.  After the second of 3 rises, the dough was much less sticky that I expected it to be.  I didn't need to add the reserved 1 cup of flour; that extra flour that you might or might not need.

It was a very dry day for my area of the country; it didn't get above frozen outside, and we had lots of static electricity in the house.  Was the humidity a likely cause for the dry rolls and poor result?  If this happens again, how should I adjust my baking procedures?

Do you weigh your flour?  If not, that is the one change that you can make that will make this problem go away.  Most of baking, particularly at the commercial level, is based on ratios by weight.

While there will be some minor differences in the amount of moisture in 10 ounces of flour based on the humidity, how much flour packs into a cup can vary a lot on humidity, how much you've fluffed or sifted the flour first, whether you scoop or sprinkle...you get the idea.

If you don't weigh your flour when you bake, then there are lots of possible problems that could have occurred that may or may not have had anything to do with the humidity.

The only other "seat of the pants" solution is to know your recipe so well that if you notice that there is a problem, you'll catch it early.  Third rise is a little late to be adding moisture, so you would have had to have noticed the problem at the beginning.

Weighing your flour and water solves many baking problems and makes you look like a pro.

Since you are weighing, then "knowing your recipe and adjusting on the fly" seems to be the only real answer.  I checked around and even Rose Levy Beranbaum says if you weigh, only minor adjustments are needed. In the situation you described I might have added a bit of water at the third rise, then let it have another rise.

Another thought is that, possibly, the air being so dry caused the tops of your rolls to dry out some, so they weren't flexible and you didn't get any oven spring.  A spritz of warm water across the top of the rolls during final rise and, indeed, in the oven (I do it with my sourdough loaves, for instance) helps the bread skin to be loose enough to not inhibit the initial oven spring.


I left porkchops out to thaw over night can i cook them still I i left porkchops out to thaw i forgotten about them and left them out all night is it ok to cook still

The USDA suggests not leaving any meat out in the open for more than two hours. Any meat left too long in temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit may rapidly develop bacteria.


Is a corroded copper teapot safe? I bought what I thought was a rusted teapot recently, treated it with an environmentally friendly rust remover, cleaned it thoroughly, and only then realized the bottom says "chrome on copper". The inside surface is pretty rough copper (not patina), so I'm just wondering whether that's a reason not to use it for tea.

It is currently a matter of opinion, not science, whether or not cooking hot foods in an unlined copper vessel leads to unheathy amounts of copper in the diet.  Many health authorities caution against the use of pure copper even for cold drinks.  However, it is demonstrably true that many, many people use pure copper vessels for cooking various foods and have done so for centuries, and Ayurvedic practitioners even consider water from copper pots to be healthier.  And most of us have copper pipes, at least for hot water, and don't worry about it even though copper leaching from acidic water in pipes is a widespread health problem.
I was able to find lots of opinions on whether or not to use unlined copper vessels and kettles.  This Fine Cooking article is typical of all of them.  What a literature search does not turn up is any kind of actual science.  National and regional health authorities seem to take it for granted that copper kettles leach toxic amounts of copper, and don't bother to test it, and everyone else seems to ignore them.
As such, as long as there's no history of Wilson's Disease in your family, I'd leave it up you.  If you really like the kettle, use it.  If you don't, then use something with no doubts attached -- and much easier to clean -- like stainless steel or ceramic.
Since this is a teapot and not a kettle (per comment), you do need to be careful of the acidity level of the teas you brew in it.  Strongly acid teas will cause the kettle to corrode, and whether or not that results in unhealthy copper leaching (again, no science on this yet) it will discolor the pot and make it impossible to clean.
(And yes, copper is a nutrient in very small amounts.  However, like many minerals, what's beneficial in tiny amounts is poisonous in larger ones.  For example, as a ceramic artist I have to be careful with copper glazes in their raw form.)


The bottom of my black cheap pan has worn off and I can now see the metal below where food would go. Is that pan safe to use anymore? As part of my "kitchen inventory package" my short stay agency gave me for my cooking, there's a pan. After a couple of mistakes (cough using it to heat sauce without adding oil (as instructed!) then not cleaning the pan up immediately) and much cleaning, I can now see I ended up scratching the 'black' off my pan.

Is the pan still safe to use, or do I need to buy a new one? What could go possibly wrong if I did use it and why?

I'm going to assume that this is a non-stick coated aluminum (maybe s/s) pan and specifically Teflon or one of the common knock-offs; those are the only types of pans I've seen that are white under the black coating. If you had well-seasoned cast iron, it would be grayish colour (well, iron).

It's not unsafe in the same sense as eating raw meat is unsafe, but there are some things you should know:

The base metal (under the coating), if it is in fact aluminum, now has a reactive surface. That means you won't be able to cook anything with vinegar, wine, tomatoes, or anything acidic, without further damaging the pan and leaching metal into your food.
Once a non-stick coating gets scratched, if there's any left, it also starts to peel, and once it starts peeling then it's very easy for it to get into your food. According to DuPont, the chemical PTFE is inert as long as it is not heated to extreme temperatures, so you shouldn't get seriously ill if you happen to eat a few flakes of it by accident. Make your own decision.
Your non-stick pan almost certainly isn't going to be non-stick anymore, which means that even though it probably won't harm you, it will be a truly awful cooking surface.

On the basis of #3 alone, I'd suggest that you replace it with a new one, especially since it was cheap to begin with.


Keeping bananas fresh for longer Is there any way to keep bananas fresh for longer? We tried putting them in the fridge but their skins turn black very fast.

Store them in a well ventilated place. Cool (15 degrees Celsius) and dark will probably do them good too. And buy green bananas.

Your bananas are alive. Seriously, they continue to live after they have been picked. Breathing, cell metabolism, hormone production, etc. goes on. You cannot stop this process, you can slow it a bit.

In many plants, fridge temperatures trigger their own growth slowing processes, because they are evolved to stop growing in winter months. But in tropical fruit, this doesn't work, because there are no cold months where they grow. Instead, it exposes their sensitive cells to an environment they are not meant for, and they change a lot. Bananas go black, tomatoes change their taste radically, and so on.

Still, keeping them coolish and dark may do them good, because it still gives them less energy to spend on ripening.

One of the mechanisms which controls ripening in fruit, including bananas, is ethylene gas. It is a positive feedback mechanism. Ripe fruit produces ethylene, and unripe fruit ripens faster when exposed to ethylene. People tend to stick green bananas in bags to make them ripe faster. If you can keep them well ventilated, the ripening will slow down.

Still, don't expect any wonders. Bananas will ripe after being plucked, no matter if on the tree or not. And they will overripen in few days, even when held far from ethylene. Starting with green bananas gives you more headroom, but you still have a few days only.


About potassium bromate in bread Why is potassium bromate in bread banned in almost all countries of the world except for countries in Africa?

Potassium bromate is used as a flour improver in the US as it strengthens the dough and allows higher rising. It is an oxidizing agent, and under the right conditions, will be completely used up while baking bread.

It has been banned in the rest of the world because of its potential for being a carcinogenic if used improperly.


How do you dry homemade pasta so that it stays straight? I did a big batch of homemade pasta (linguini) with stand mixer + pasta cutter attachment. But they all warped during the 24h drying process. I then need a huge bag to store them as they take up a lot of space.

Is there a trick to make them dry straight?

Hang-dry pasta on a pole will result in the most straight pastas.

the finer (smaller) diameter pole you can find will result in smaller curvature in the pasta where they bend on the pole.

I've seen people use a metallic cloth dryer or metallic coat hangers (hanging on a pole of some sort)


Help with sourdough bread I've been experimenting with whole wheat sourdough bread for a few weeks now.
My starter uses T110 wheat flour at 100% hydration, and bubbles nicely.
I make the bread using:

1.5c T150 wheat flour, 1.5c T150 spelt flour
1/4c starter (also tried with 1/2c)
70% hydration (by mass) with bottled water
about a Tbsp of honey
about a Tbsp of olive oil
about a tsp of salt

(I don't really want to use whiter flour for health reasons.)
My goal is to have something as soft as a loaf of sliced bread from the store (it's just a goal, even if not really possible with what I'm using).

So far, all the loaves I've made have basically entailed mixing everything together at once, kneading, rising, then baking. The result is soft, but kind of dense, and a bit crumbly (in spite of my efforts to knead it more and more...). I suppose I'm overproofing it, too (I leave it sit out for about 10 hours, as it takes that long to finish rising, and when I put it in the oven I have to be gentle or it will deflate). I've read stuff saying that they let it rise 4 hours, but at that point I've only gained about 50% volume.

So, does anybody have any suggestions for how I can get my loaf to be softer, lighter, and less crumbly?

In my experience, the two things you can do to most improve the crumb of your bread are:

Autolyse - Basically this means that once you combine your
flour    and water, let the dough sit for awhile (I usually autolyse
for 20-30    minutes).  This allows the flour to more completely
absorb the water,    and results in a more extensible dough.  Some
say that you should    wait to add salt until after you autolyse,
but I have seen no    difference after trying it both ways.
Take your time - An extended period of raising and proofing your dough almost always results in a better and more flavorful loaf.  Don't hesitate to use your refrigerator during your first or second rise to delay the activity of the yeast.  For sourdough, I prefer to use the fridge for my final, shaped proof.  This has the additional benefit of some nice effects with the crust.

There are quite a few other factors that may be contributing to your difficulties.  It sounds like your starter may not be active enough when you mix everything together. I would recommend more time feeding and preparing your starter before using it.

You might also benefit from some additional tricks and techniques.  Using your list of ingredients, the method I would use to bake bread is as follows:

Combine your flours and water (Yes, you may be autolysing for several hours, this is a good thing).
Activate your sourdough starter.
Combine your starter, the autolysed dough, salt, oil, and honey.
Knead. (I use a stand mixer on medium and go until the dough pulls away from the sides. Be patient here and try to resist the temptation to add more flour at this step, unless you've kneaded for 10 minutes and seen no change, but then only add a tablespoon of so.)
Place your dough in an oiled container (these are awesome). Put the container in a warm place until the dough has doubled.
Once your dough has doubled, gently remove it from the container onto a lightly floured surface. Stretch and fold your dough (in thirds, like a letter). Then rotate and do it again. Gently return the dough to your container for a second rise.
Let your dough rise until doubled again (I use a crayon to mark the side of my container so I know exactly where double should be). If your dough has been pretty active so far (if your first rise took less than an hour to double), I would do the second rise in the refrigerator.
Gently remove the dough from your container, onto a lightly floured surface and gently shape your loaf.  (One option is the batard.)
Place the shaped loaf on a lightly greased cookie sheet, on a SilPain (I love mine thoroughly), or on a nice layer of cornmeal on your peel, ready to slide directly onto the stone.  Cover the dough. (I use either loosely tented plastic wrap, or a clean dishtowel.)
Turn on your oven. Set the temperature 10% higher than the recipe calls for.(I preheat my oven during all of final proofing, with my bread stone on the lowest rack so it will be nice and hot. If you haven't tried baking with a stone, I cannot recommend it too highly.  The higher temperature is so your bread will have a nice initial spring in the oven.)
When your loaf has nearly doubled in size, mist it with water and slash it several times. (If you did your final shaped rise in the refrigerator, you don't need to let it sit at room temperature before putting it the oven.)
Get a cup full of ice cubes ready.
Open your oven, place the loaf on the stone, and drop the ice cubes on the floor of your oven (If you care about water stains in the bottom of your oven, you can place a cookie sheet or cast-iron skillet in the bottom to catch the ice cubes. If you do, put it in the oven before preheating.) Quickly, but gently close the door.
After 5 minutes, reduce your oven temperature to the normal baking temperature.
After another 10 minutes, crack the oven door briefly to release the steam.
A loaf like this will be done when the internal temperature reaches about 200˚F.
Remove the loaf to a cooling rack.  Resist the temptation to immediately devour it, as the texture of the crumb and the tenderness of the crust will be adversely effected if you cut it before the loaf has cooled somewhat.

Some resources that have helped me in my bread baking:

The Bread Bible
King Arthur Flour
Using a kitchen scale to measure by weight, rather than volume. (I understand the desire to throw a loaf together, eyeballing the ingredients, kneading with your hands.  It seems as though something as organic as creating bread should be like that. Every time I have tried, my loaf has been inferior. I have been baking bread for 20 years and am sad to admit that if I want my bread to be amazing, I have to measure everything precisely and use a mixer.)


How to prepare rice in rice cooker so it won't become sticky or clumpy, like Indian takeout in the US? When I get Indian takeout (US), the white rice is not at all sticky or clumpy. Even over the next few days it can be essentially poured out of the container as individual grains. This is unlike the rice in say, Chinese takeout, which is much stickier and in a single mass.
I have a very simple rice cooker. (It has the settings "white rice" and "brown rice".) How can I use this rice cooker, and any necessary preparation/finalization steps or types of rice, to produce rice like I get from Indian takeout? Ideally that can be eaten straight out of the rice cooker, but I'm willing to be flexible if necessary.

First, use basmati rice.  Then, rinse your rice very well.  Place rice in bowl, fill with cold water, drain, repeat until the water runs clear. I find that using the correct variety of rice, combined with good rinsing, helps keep the long grains separate.


What's the best way to remove a light coating of rust from a carbon steel paella pan? I was recently given a carbon steel paella pan with a very light coating of rust (its prior owner hadn't known how to care for carbon steel, and gave it to me and bought a stainless one).  There are quite a number of ways to remove rust, and I'm wondering which one will work the best?

I have a jar of Naval Jelly, which I use to remove rust from garden tools.  However, carbon steel knife forums warn that Naval Jelly can be too strong and etch the carbon steel.
A vinegar bath is another method (as well as other acid baths such as citric acid).  However, the paella pan is 15" in diameter, and I don't have a large enough basin to soak it in, nor am I eager to buy 3 gallons of vinegar.
Some people simply scrub off the rust with steel wool.  I'm concerned that this will scratch up the paella pan, which is otherwise fairly pristine.
Brasso is milder than Naval Jelly, so I was thinking of just using a tube of that.  It's not, however, primarily a rust remover.
It's possible that scrubbing with Barkeeper's Friend would take the rust off as well.  But it's also possible it won't.

Recommendations?

I would start with Barkeeper's Friend. That has worked for me in the past.  Use it with a synthetic scrub pad.  As you know, once you get it in shape to use it, after cleaning, a light coating of oil wiped on with a paper towel will keep the rust from reappearing during storage.


Add gelatin to soup as a replacement for stock? My wife made some chicken soup last night, but we didn't have any stock to start it with, so we used water.
Flavor-wise, the soup was fine - it was just lacking the mouth-feel associated with good soup.  There was plenty of oil floating on top of the soup, so it wasn't lacking in fat.
I was thinking it was probably because we'd started with water instead of stock.

We're planning on making our own stock soon (so many good tips here!) but we didn't have any on hand last night, nor were we prepared to run to the grocery store.
However, we realized after we'd eaten the soup that we had a couple of packets of powdered gelatin in the cupboard.

Would powdered gelatin have given the same mouth feel as stock?

I'm looking for the online reference, but I remember reading in Cook's Illustrated that they were able to substitute a bit of gelatin to mimic the mouth-feel of homemade stock. I did find a beef stew recipe that used gelatin.

Based on how you described your recipe, I would say that the long cooking of chicken bones is indeed what's missing. You might get a better result if you roast your chicken breasts and vegetables before cooking them in the broth.


Can I make puff pastry with half the butter? I made puff pastry with Gouda cheese inside and it turned out really good. The only problem I had was the amount of butter and it was too buttery. I'd like to know if it is possible to reduce the amount of butter? Another question is, I have some leftover dough without butter (a combination of flour, salt and ice water) and I was wondering for 420 gr dough how much butter should I use?

The secret lies in the folding of the dough...You may uses half the butter but you would ultimately have to fold it more before cooking it. The more you fold the dough the more puffy it gets, of course your results will get better with more butter, but in that particular situation, go with the extra folding, you'll get a decent pastry this way.


What is the difference between "mince" and "dice"? Some recipes use the term to dice, and other recipes use the term to mince.
What is the difference between to dice, and to mince used in culinary?

Mincing produces smaller, more irregularly-shaped items than dicing.

Dicing is generally uniform, usually 1/8 to 1/4 inch on all sides, kind of like a tiny cube.

The best way to explain the size difference is visually, check out this link for a great picture near the top.


How do I get my home-popped popcorn to be as dry as bagged popcorn? When using an air popper to pop popcorn, it never seems fully dry as the healthier bagged popcorn from Smartfood, Skinny Pop, etc.

Before putting any toppings on the air-popped corn, I taste some of the plain popped corn and it seems to still have some moisture content.

I've tried to place the popped popcorn on a sheet pan in the oven at 200°F for a while in an attempt to dry it out further, but it never seems fully dry.

My wife makes kettle corn using oil, sugar, salt, and popcorn and it turns out much drier… but then it also has a salty-sweet coating. Perhaps I have to kettle pop plain popcorn to get a drier result?

How do I make really dried out popcorn?

The problem is not water content but mouth feel, smartfood and skinny pop are coated with a fine powder which has a dry mouth feel. You can dry your popcorn as long as you like but you'll never get to the same place with it.

You can replicate smartfood cheddar popcorn by tossing your corn with mac and cheese powder, I'd give it a try and see if you get where you want to go, if it still seems wet in comparison then some extra drying may be good.


What causes the green ring between yolk and white when hardboiling an egg? The yolk of a hardboiled egg often has a green tinge right at the interface to the white. Besides not looking very good, I think it also maybe contributes a sulfurous odor. What causes this green coloration and how can I prevent it?

This is caused by overcooking the egg. The green color is a result of overheating causing the iron and sulfur compounds in the egg to express. You can prevent it by gently boiling the egg, and plunging it into an ice bath when it is done. This stops the carry-over heat from continuing to cook the egg.


Could you show how nonstick Hard Anodized Aluminum is with an example? Say you leave pasta cooking for 1 hour goal -- im having a very very hard time finding out if 'Hard anodized aluminum' is nonstick, or if i should go with 'nonstick coating' on a jumbo cooker/pot

heard that nonstick coating wears off over time

ppl say that 'Hard anodized aluminum' has 'nonstick' property -- https://www.quora.com/What-should-one-consider-when-shopping-for-cookware

but i can't tell if this is nonstick compared to 't-fal nonstick coating'

for example if you just forget and leave pasta in the jumbo cooker or pot at the regular temp most ppl use, would it stick?

some say that 'anodized aluminum' is hard to clean -- http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-cookware-set/

i cant tell if this is this is talking about 'Hard anodized aluminum' and if 'anodized aluminum' is a seperate concept

this post -- cookydaddy.com/best-stainless-steel-cookware-vs-hard-anodized-cookware.html

seems like a promotional type of site but says that 'Hard anodized aluminum' is nonstick and thus easy to clean

If you leave pots of pasta to boil dry and burn, please avoid non-stick cookware. Most non-stick coatings turn to nasty toxic fumes if overheated.

I doubt there is any difference, besides marketing, between "hard anodized aluminum" and "anodized aluminum". The anodizing makes the surface much harder than natural aluminum.

I do not find much anodized aluminum (AA) cookware with an AA surface available new. Much with non-stick cooking surface available. And some lined with stainless steel. Calphalon used to be the big player, until they stopped making straight AA cookware. Then started and stopped again.

Speaking from experience of having a set of Calphalon AA cookware for twenty plus years, I would not consider AA non-stick. When frying, sauteing, etc, most things will stick, unless adequete oil, butter, or grease is used. With adequete fats I have not had a problem with sticking, except for eggs. Those are tricky buggers.

AA cookware generally can't go in the dishwasher. I have not find them especially hard to clean by hand. The green Scotch-Brite scubber pad does wonders. An occasional scrubbing with Comet keeps them pristine.


New to cooking - how long to cook chicken breast pieces in a wok? just wondering, how long should I cook chicken breast pieces in a wok over medium heat for? They're around 1cm thick chicken breast pieces.

I tried cooking them today and although they looked white, one piece had a tiny streak of blood (blood vessels?). I was kinda scared so I didn't eat it although most of the chicken looked fine apart from that one piece with blood. And I mean it was surrounded by white

So does that mean I undercooked them? How long should I cook them for? Medium heat is around mark 4/6 on the hob. All the pieces looked white and not pink but I was just concerned

Thanks

Unfortunately, temperature is the only thing you can go by: the phrases 'medium heat' and '4/6 on the hob' don't really give us any information, and there could be significant variations in cooking time due to the shape of the wok, the starting internal temperature of the chicken, the shape of the breasts, and so on.

With chicken, the entirety of the meat (down to the center) has to be exposed to a high enough temperature for long enough that any bacteria that may be present will be killed. This happens essentially instantly at 165 F, though one can cook it at lower temperatures for longer periods of time for the same effect (this is much harder, because you need to sustain a relatively high temperature, in the range of 145-150, throughout the entirety of the chicken for something on the order of half an hour). Whether or not the meat appears bloody is irrelevant, so long as the meat has been cooked to the right temperature.

There are plenty of general guides on determining when chicken is done: for instance, Pan frying chicken breasts? and How to know when chicken breast has cooked through?. You will likely need to experiment or get a meat thermometer.


Good programmable coffee urn solution Here's the situation: We're looking for a good coffee solution at our church. Churches (especially in the midwest) tend to have terrible coffee and we don't want to add to the problem. I'm looking for a machine that has the following characteristics.

Good taste
25+ cups
Keeps coffee hot for 2-3 hours without burning it
At least the ability to auto shut off after an adjustable amount of time, programmable is a plus
Affordable (< $200)
Preferably urn vs. drip

This machine, the Nostalgia Electrics DSU-600 (http://www.livingdirect.com/Nostalgia-Electrics-60-Cup-Digital-Coffee-Urn-DCU-600/DCU-600,default,pd.html) looked promising but I don't know if it supports auto shutoff or only auto start AND I'm worried that it may no longer be produced by the manufacturer. If someone can suggest a machine that meets these qualifications or set my mind at ease about the DCU-600, it'd be greatly appreciated. (To be fair, I will accept the first qualifying post to remove any subjectivity)

Thanks for your advice!

Do you already have a decent urn that makes decent coffee? Is the problem just that it doesn't shutoff and burns the coffee?

Short of recommending a $450-800 airpot brew-station solution, and without suggesting you buy/blow $200 on a middling solution, I would recommend you go for the $20 solution; a wall timer.

Personal Opinion: I think any unit you buy for around $1-200 will be sacrificing somewhere; be it in capacity, potency, or whatever there will be money ineffectively spent. A thermal solution is better than a heated one. You would be better off either waiting to spend the money on a lasting, quality solution or hacking a cheap solution and spending the $80 left over on fresh donuts for a few weeks.

That said I have no experience with the manufacturer unit you listed. According to Google, that unit;

  is a digital coffee urn, including a temperature readout, automatic timer, and adjustable keep warm and delay timer settings to give you precise control of brewing an - large coffee urn, coffee urn, commercial coffee urn, stainless coffee urn, 60 cup coffee urn, stainless steel, entertaining, catering, nostalgia electrics, 60 cup

...So it should match your criteria. I didn't see any direct reviews of that unit.


Recipe calls for garlic powder and all I have is garlic salt If so what is the proper amount to put in? It calls for 2 tablespoons of garlic powder but I got garlic salt. Anyone?

Garlic salt is typically 3 parts salt to 1 part garlic powder. It's mostly salt.

That means if you use 3x the amount, you'll end up with roughly the same amount of garlic powder, but also a lot of salt.

Are you able to reduce salt elsewhere in the recipe? If not, I would just leave it out. Generally you can substitute garlic powder for garlic salt (just add salt) but not the other way around.


How to line this cake pan with parchment paper? This weird-shaped cake pan is difficult to use when it comes to the step that I must line it with parchment paper. How should I do it properly so that the cake will easily be removed from the pan?

You can't effectively line a Bundt pan with paper. My favorite method is to mix cake release and keep it in the cabinet. It lasts for months and months. Just mix 1 part vegetable oil, 1 part shortening and 1 part flour (roughly, by volume). Brush that mixture in the pan, getting all the nooks and crannies. It doesn't make the mess that traditional flouring does, I always end up getting flour everywhere doing it that way. I think the mixed ahead release works better too. It also doesn't show up on the cake as unmoistened flour. With your non-stick pan plus the cake release, you'll have no trouble.

OXO makes a silicone pastry brush that's great for this and all kinds of tasks, I use mine all the time. It goes in the dishwasher, it's heat resistant, it doesn't shed. It's a very handy little item. Look for the strips of silicone in between the bristles with holes that hold on to sauce.  You can see that in this picture using the magnification tool. OXO Pastry Brush


Ham and Pea Soup with whole dried peas instead of split peas? I am making Ham and Split Pea Soup, however I only have whole dried peas. Will the shell on the whole pea make the soup more difficult to digest? Will the shell spoil the flavor? Or is it just adding more fiber and holding the legume together giving the soup a different texture?

Why do Chefs seem to prefer the split pea over the whole pea?

Whole peas will take longer to cook than split peas, but they won't ruin the soup. Split peas will also break apart more to thicken the soup, while whole peas will remain mostly intact. If you want a similar effect, you could use a stick blender to partially liquefy the soup after it's cooked.


Improve efficiency cooking for one As someone who cooks for themselves alone a lot, how can I improve my efficiency/speed of prep, cooking, clean up etc.

Cook in large batches. The difference in time between preparing a single serving and, say, six servings is far, far less than 6x.

Pick the kind of meals that are okay to be refrigerated/frozen, or otherwise preserved, obtain a bunch of single meal sized tupperware boxes, make sure to have room in your refrigerator/freezer/pantry, and prepare quite a few meals of the same dish at a time. Eat one serving, leave the rest "for later".

Don't go about it the way you cook the next batch only when current one runs out, but stagger that - a week of cooking six servings of a new dish every day, leaves you with five more weeks worth of varied meals. Label your food, with type and date so that you don't leave anything too long and you know what you have (it's quite hard to tell some foods apart when they are frozen).

You also don't need to make complete meals - you can prepare some more time-consuming ingredients in large batches, then make the readily made parts of the meal as needed, fresh - e.g. prepare several spaghetti sauces with meat, leaving cooking pasta and adding fresh seasoning as you prepare individual meals.


Is it safe to eat an apple cooked inside poultry? My guess is that yes, you can; however, my mother always set them aside, not to be eaten. Any ideas?

They are not safe. An apple used in this manner is an aromatic, not to be eaten. I often use a combination of apple, cinnamon, rosemary and onion inside my bird. This stuff does not reach the necessary temperature to kill the little beasties that will hurt you. If it does, then you'll have one dry bird.


Baking zucchini bread without egg yolks I'm trying to reduce cholesterol in my diet and have switched to using egg whites (from a carton) instead of whole eggs.  This substitution usually works out OK, but when I make zucchini bread -- and other quick breads -- the loaves don't rise as well as they used to, and they tend to be drier.

I'm doing a 1:1 substitution using the guide on the carton (1egg is approx. 2oz), so I assume that a lot of the problem is that I'm missing the fat from the egg yolks.  Is this correct, and if so, what can I use instead that will be low in cholesterol?

Genetics is actually the greatest affect on cholesterol.  Consumption of dietary cholesterol has very little correlation to serum cholesterol in your body and the amount of cholesterol you're going to save by leaving out the egg yolks vs. the impact it has on the resulting bread will hardly be worth it.

However, if you wish to proceed then I'd recommedn simply adding about a tablespoon of vegetable oil in replacement of the egg yolks that are being omitted.

The fat in the egg yolks is going to assist in minimizing gluten development.  Since you've omitted the fat there is probably a bit more gluten formation taking place and thus the fact that it doesn't rise as well.  Egg whites have a drying effect on baked goods so that is why the bread is drier than before.


What does bad Brie smell/taste like? I've been buying the same kind of Brie every week for the past six months, but this time was different. I got it from a grocery store I've never been to before, and I live in Kenya, where it's common for power outages to knock out refrigeration for from time to time.

The cheese hasn't hit its expiration date yet, but it's more gooey than every, with stained packaging from leaks, brown spots areas, and the smell of peanut butter. Usually, it's pretty tame and cream-colored. It's funkiness is more like bleu cheese than nuts.

I've read that Brie is rather robust when it comes to resisting harmful bacteria, and, of course, cheese is supposed to be funky! But contamination can happen. What methods can I use or sure signs can I observe to figure out whether this Brie has gone bad?

Use your nose. Bad cheese will smell of ammonia.

Use your finger: Brie should be firm to the touch; if it is too soft, it is too mature and will spoil soon.

If the cheese was improperly stored, then it will age and mature sooner; bad bacteria will start to grow on the cheese.

Throw it away.


Calibrating a home gas oven We have a new gas oven which is consistently 30-40F low compared to the dial setting (we've checked with two oven thermometers).  While we can get it calibrated as a service call by the manufacturer, I'd love to know how to do it myself.  However, sources I've been able to search out via Google so far have been uninstructive and somewhat untrustworthy (e.g. eHow.com).

The range is a Summit TNM63027BFKWY 24" gas range.

Questions:

Has anyone on SA calibrated their own gas oven?
Is gas oven calibration generally the same for most gas ovens in the USA, or does the method vary widely by manufacturer?
If (1) is yes, and (2) is "mostly consistent", then can someone point me to a good resource on calibrating your own oven, or failing that, describe the steps?

First, you need an accurate thermometer that measures average temperature to adjust an oven. For example, a Proaccurate Oven Thermometer, which works by having an oil-filled chamber to average the temperature.

Normally, you can just pull the temperature dial off—the (usually) plastic piece you turn generally pulls right off the actual thermostat, its held on by friction. A gentle prying may be necessary.

After removing the knob, you'll have one of two types of adjustments:

They'll be two screws on the knob itself (in which case, loosen them both to adjust the temperature, it should be marked as to how much to turn it and in which direction—though, if you stare at it long enough, you can figure it out even if its not marked)
There will be one screw inside the shaft on the thermostat. It may be hard to see the screw (it can be at the very end of the hollow shaft). Turn it using a very small screwdriver.

After adjusting the dial, you should re-measure using the thermometer (and possibly adjust again...)

Appliance411 has pictures.


How to make Latte art on a Cappuccino? It's Sunday morning and I just missed my latte art, as usual.

I have no difficulty to make an espresso with enough crema and to get a big layer of foam from my steamed milk, but I cannot achieve to draw any pattern with it. The milk just push the crema on the side.

Is there a particular technique? or maybe I'm doing something wrong?

A cappuccino is probably not what you want to try latte art on. The amount of froth in a cap will probably cause the milk to be too thick to pour with.

You want to start with your milk texture. You want stretch the milk and texture it so that it is suitable for a latte or maybe even a flat white. Correct micro foam will be integrated with the milk. It won't float on top. The surface will appear shiny and it will have the consistency of cream. For a free pour this is really important.

Crema can also be your enemy. If your beans are too fresh, it can be a bit difficult to cut through. You can swirl your cup. You can also break it up a bit with your milk since you won't start pouring immediately.

Once you can get your milk texture right, a good way to start is with some basic shapes. It can be useful to have a jug with a pronounced spout.

1) A basic dot in the middle of your cup. As you get to the top of your cup, tilt your jug a bit more to let the foam push the crema out of the way.

2) Basic heart. Same as the dot. But instead of just stopping the pour, push through the dot and slow the pour down quickly at the same time.

3) Layered dot. Starts like your basic dot. But as you increase the pour rate, wiggle your jug left and right smoothly. This will pull coffee in between the layers of the milk. Then just stop pouring.

4) Layered heart. Same as the layered dot, but pull through the dot like the basic heart.

5) The Rosetta. This is probably the iconic latte art pattern. This uses the skills of your layered heart. But you start your pour from the back of the cup with relatively large wiggles, then start to pull back and make your wiggles smaller. This gives you the curls at one end of the cup and the tapering "leaves" at the other. To finish, pull through like a heart.

Other patterns are then variations on these themes. Like the tulip, swan, multiple hearts, multiple rosettas. And some combine free pouring with a bit of etching eg. smoking dog, pac man.

Edit:
This is how I learned to froth milk for a standard jug. The jug should be at an angle so that you can form a whirlpool. The tip of your steam wand should be just under the surface of the milk. Then turn on the steam. So I stretch very quickly and then spend the rest of the time texturing. You shouldn't be moving your jug up or down very much if at all.


How can I wrap fish for freezing if you don't have a vacuum seal? I know the ideal way to store fish in the freezer is to use a vacuum seal, but does anyone have any tips on what to do if you don't have one handy?

If you wrap the fish (or any meat you're freezing) with a layer of plastic wrap and a layer of aluminum foil, it will keep out air out and moisture in as much as possible without vacuum sealing.

Make sure you wrap with plastic wrap first, then aluminum foil.  The taste of aluminum can leech into the food and supposedly there are health risks associated with aluminum/meat contact as well, though I haven't heavily researched them.  Better safe than sorry, though.

Then I also recommend using a straw to suck out as much air as possible, as chris suggests.

This article has some great guidelines on freezing meat and minimizing freezer burn.  While it only calls out meat and poultry, I use the same methods for fish with great success.


First time cooking Ribs. St. Louis Style, membrane questions + more This is my first time cooking ribs so I feel I am making some rookie mistakes.

I forgot to peel the membrane off of the rack of ribs I plan on cooking later today and they have already been soaking in the marinade overnight.

My questions are: Will the marinade penetrate the membrane and still flavor the meat? If I peel the membrane off after I pull the ribs out of the marinade, would it be worse than if I left the membrane on?

Cursory question, How often should I baste my sauce on the ribs? I have seen reports that it should be anywhere from once or twice towards the end of cooking, to every 10-20 minutes through the whole 2-6 hour process depending on temperature.

The membrane will inhibit flavor penetration but not stop it completely. If you have the chance you could pull the ribs out of the marinade, peel them, then put them back and they'll get a bit more flavor. Otherwise peel before you cook them, you won't make anything worse by doing so.

As for the basting, there's a lot of opinion on this topic. Personally I've tried more basting and less basting and I've never found benefit in basting more than an hour from the end of cooking. The ribs have a lot of juice in them, basting them isn't going to keep them any more moist, what you are trying to do is impart flavor by building up a coat of the marinade/sauce on the outside. I've found that basting every 10-15 minutes in the last hour seems to give as good result as basting longer, and it's less work.


Can I leave the okara in when making tofu? I've started making tofu recently, and the one thing that bothers me is how much okara I end up throwing away. Since I'm not drinking the soy milk, and just turning it into tofu immediately, what's the problem with just leave the okara? I assume the tofu will be less flavorful, but it's not exactly strongly flavored to begin with. Will it mess up the coagulation process?

The okara has some unextracted protein and sugar but it also has a large quantity of fiber. That fiber will prevent the protein from properly coagulating. If you leave in all the okara you get soybean porridge.

I imagine you could leave in a portion of the okara and you would get a fragile but hearty tofu. The problem with this is that, with most tofu recipes, the beans are not cooked long enough for the okara to be palatable. With all that sugar it would also give rise to much more flatulence.

You don't have to throw the okara out. There are many recipes that make use of the okara for its fiber. It is pretty straight forward to use it in baked goods. Toasting it gives it more interesting flavor.

If you want to look into tofu-like products that use the entire bean you could research tempeh. The whole beans are fermented so you get a meaty product with all the nutrition of the whole soy bean.


Tricks of griling kabab I like to make kabobs, but when i try to turn over the kabob so it cooks evenly, the meat and vegetables sometimes spin around on the skewers.Is there a trick to grilling kabobs so i don't have to turn each piece of meat  with tongs??

I've got a few suggestions on things to try:

If you're using metal skewers you might like to consider switching to wood / bamboo instead. I've never been that keen on metal skewers for that very reason.
I've noticed that sometimes I have a tendency to lift and rotate at the same time so I'm starting to turn while some of the food is still in contact with the grill and doesn't turn. Make sure you lift them well up and then turn gently in a separate motion.
Although just about everyone says to soak wood / bamboo before using so it doesn't burn for things that are fairly quick to cook I often don't and that seems to help as well. You'll need to be careful it doesn't catch direct flames doing it that way though.
For things like chicken that you want to cook thoroughly I normally leave the hood down for most of the cooking and getting some extra heat from all directions reduces the number of times you'll need to turn them.


How do I make a cheese, sausage, cracker spread? I'm not sure what types of cheeses, crackers, sausages are needed for a holiday spread. What types of cheeses and sausages are acceptable use for this type of thing? What will give me a decent variety? Would it be better to have a cheese spread instead of the traditional sliced cheese?

Ironically, the kind of sausage you want is called a summer sausage. There are many varieties as the term really just refers to a sausage that doesn't need to be refrigerated. You might be able to find a few different kinds to give you some variety.

As for cheeses, you can sort of go with whatever you'd like. Generally with sausage you'll see stuff like jack, cheddar, havarti or swiss. With crackers you might see a cheeseball which is usually a blend of cream cheese and a cheese like cheddar.