Do you fold or blend the olives in a fougasse? As a variation from making focaccia with fried onions (impatience to spend 30 minutes frying onions, really), I experimented instead with sundried tomatoes.

It's a success, although I needed to keep a very close eye after switching low-broil on (to get a more interesting crust and golden hue on top). The oil in the tomatoes makes them burn very quickly.
My next experiment is a sibling dish: olive fougasse, still in a 12" cast iron pan to get a nice crust.
Here the recipes call for burying the olives inside the fougasse, not keeping them on top.
But it's unclear whether the olives should be blended in before the first/second rise, or folded into the dough after the first (second?) rise. Can you comment?
As you see from the picture above, the oily tomatoes weigh down the dough considerably, stopping it from rising quite as much as it would otherwise. Presumably the (equally oily) olives will
also inhibit excessive rising, although it may be that that's a characteristic of focaccia/fougasse.
Clarification (update)
A (good) pizza dough is not that different from the dough for focaccia or fougasse. Focaccia may have a bit more oil within the dough, but otherwise they're all similar.
Within that line of thinking, fougasse is an inherently easier dish to eat away from home (even in the car of someone who insists on absolute cleanliness inside, with no pieces of rosemary scattering around). Whatever would have made it as topping is simply burried inside the dough. The extreme is to fold the ingredients inside the dough. If the ingredients include tomato sauce, then the folding makes the dish become calzone—another dish that's particularly easy to take on trips.
Returning to the focus of the question: Is there any reason why you would want to fold the dough, possibly multiple times, to keep the olives out of the fabric/mesh of the dough? Or would you simply mix the olives in the dough (what I called earlier "blend in")? The nicest doughs result from two rises, not one. If you'd mix the olives, is there any reason why you'd mix them after, rather than before, the first rise?

Fougasse is a French bread, akin to Italian foccacia.  It is most frequently "filled" with herbs, but there are versions with olive and shallot or onion.  I am sure you can add other items as well.  It is frequently cut and/or slit into a leaf shape just before baking.  The processes of both are similar.  Make the dough, proof, punch down, rest, shape (perhaps another rise), and bake.
In terms of your mix-ins, I would knead them in after the first proof and punch down.  Then, rest before shaping. You might also add another rise at this stage.  The mix-in step might be messy at first, especially if using oily ingredients.  Keep at it, the dough will eventually smooth out.  Remember, each time you manipulate the dough you are impacting the gluten network.  It will tighten up and become difficult to shape.  So the resting step is important for final shaping.


Cake dry to wet cooking time ratio Is there a ratio of how much water, fats, dry ingredients and flour to temperature and cooking time for cakes?

For ingredient ratios, the keyword is baker‘s percentage or baker‘s math.
Typically the flour is taken as the base value and all other ingredients are described as a percentage of the flour weight. Most home bakers come across the term when starting to venture into the theories of bread baking (King Arthur has a nice introduction here), but the same principles apply for other baked goods. A very famous example is the pound cake: originally using 1 pound each of flour, fat, sugar and egg. If you want to make a smaller or larger amount, you still use the same ratio.

Note that while in home settings we today typically count eggs and (at least in some countries) use volumetric measures instead of weight, in professional or larger-scale context ingredients- even eggs - are weighed. The importance of weight becomes obvious in recipes that are famously finicky like macarons, where some recipes recommend weight the egg whites and then calculating the remaining ingredients.

Older recipes for cakes, especially cake types which need rather precise ratios, are often based on the weight of the eggs. (Eggs come in “portions” and using “half of an egg” is impractical.) While today eggs are sold in weight ranges and a “size L egg” is pretty consistent, the eggs produced by a flock of chicken can vary a lot depending on the individual bird and the breed. So a cook or baker had to measure the amount of egg used for each batch of cake and adjust the other ingredients accordingly.

For references, you can either compare multiple recipes for a type of cake and calculate the ratios (or ranges thereof) or you check references for professional bakers or apprentices.

Temperature and time are a different matter. There are typical ranges for various baked goods and times will depend on the amount and thickness of batter, shape of the mold etc. A linear conversion like for the ingredients can’t be given. Just check  existing recipes and work from there.


Does it take longer to cook more pork ribs? I have to cook 6 racks (about 16lbs) of baby back ribs (packs of 3 from Costco). I can't find anything on the internet about how to adjust for time when cooking. I plan on a cooking temperature of 225f in the oven and finishing on the grill.

It's not entirely clear what you mean, but if you mean the difference between cooking 1 rack or 6, the answer is that there isn't one. The oven will heat up six racks just as quickly as one, unless you stack all of them directly on top of each other or something like that. The only thing you have to adjust is the seasoning. Otherwise, just make sure they have space and cook like it was one rack.


How do I extract the membrane from an egg? I have heard eggshell membranes are good for your joints.

But every time when I peel a boiled egg, the membrane is stuck to the shell.

How do I get the membrane out and eat it?

Probably find it easier to crack a raw egg and then peel the membrane from inside. Maybe use some tweezers to get started.


Trying to re-create Chinese deep-fryed brown sugar-flour flowers My wife is making these, and they break after frying.  She looked around online but nobody makes something like this using oil in the batter; only her (late) father.
Here’s what she did:
First, make syrup:
400 g dark brown sugar
200 ml water
50 g lemon juice

This was cooked for about an hour, low enough so just one little bubble came up at a time.  Cool overnight to room temperature.
main dough:
1000 g all-purpose flour
400 g cooking oil. (She used common canola oil today)

Heat oil to 250°F. Combine with flour and syrup.  Let rest for a few hours on the counter, so it’s room temperature.  (About 78–80° in the kitchen area)
At this stage she noticed it was too flakey.
This is rolled out and folded and cut to make a flower shape of dough ribbons that I measure to be just over ¼ inch in cross section.
This flower shape is cooked in hot cooking oil (seems about 375°F, same as we used for other things).
Here’s the problem: they crack when touched while still in the oil, trying to lift out. If they survive that, they crack later or in the following steps when handled.  They are too fragile.
final step
After cooling a few minutes on a paper towel, transfer to warm honey syrup (90 to 110°F) and let soak for 3 minutes. Remove to wax paper or metal mesh.
The honey syrup is
400 g Brown sugar
200 ml boiling water
50 ml lemon juice

3 TBL honey

Make syrup as above; add honey after it cools to target temperature.
question
What factors influence the dough’s final properties? How can it be not too brittle to cook and handle?
p.s.
Using a lower frying temperature seems to help.  (But too low and I know it leaves a greasy unfried cookie, so that’s a work-around not the right solution.)

One possibility is that the too brittle end result might be related to the fact that the dough was too flaky when originally mixed.  Making the dough bind together better seems like it would help with the problem of brittleness.  I think the problem might be when you're mixing the oil - it may be that other recipes don't use oil for this very reason... which doesn't mean it isn't possible to make the recipe with oil, just that it might be trickier.

In your recipe, it looks like you're adding the sugar syrup, flour, and oil at the same time, and mixing.  The oil will coat the flour, and prevent gluten from forming (giving a consistency that is tender, not chewy).  Given that this seems to be working too well in your dough, you might double check your proportions - a little less oil and a little more water might fix the problem.

If you are very sure of the ratios of ingredients, perhaps you might mix the sugar syrup in first, work the dough a bit, and slowly add the oil in second.  This might give your dough a chance to develop some binding, and give the dough a little binding, before the oil coats the dough and prevents more.  Or, depending on how wet the dough is, mix part of the flour with the syrup, and part with the oil, then mix the two parts of the dough very well.  Again, this should let some gluten form to bond your dough together, but avoid any trouble working with a dough that has only half the liquid it needs.

The only other idea I had that might help would be that your flowers are loosing a little too much moisture during frying.  Frying longer at a lower temperature might work (a bit) to not evaporate quite as much out of the dough, but obviously you've hit a limit.  You might instead fry at a higher temperature, but for less time (so there's less time for moisture to escape), or possibly cut your flowers a little thicker so they will not dry out too much and become brittle while frying.


Which breeds of pigs are suitable for bacons? I have always wondered what breeds of pig are used in the preparation of bacon (esp in USA).

There is no hog that is a required breed for bacon, and you can make bacon out of just about any hog. Bacon is just a cured, smoked pork belly. They used to use Heritage breed hogs, like the Tamworth hog, to make bacon, but today they use a mixed breed hog to cover a more broad demand of different pig products. It's likely that you'll still find bacon made out of this breed of hog, but a larger brand is likely to use mixed breed which create a good balance of meat qualities in the loin, belly, ribs, and hind quarter.

Many claim that Tamworth and similar breeds produce better bacon, but I personally cannot vouch. I have never compared the 2, and I'm generally uncertain what breed of hog I'm eating most of the time.

For more reading you can see here.


Making dough fluffier When I didn't have any bread in house I baked some dough of just flour and water.
I was quite pleased with the result but it was still a bit "compact".

If possible I'd like to make it more fluffy and absorbant.

Are there any easy things I can add to it to achieve this?
I know for actual bread I'll have to have to follow a bread recipe but I'm wondering how close I can get.

Just flour and water? Unless your goal is flatbread, like a tortilla, you are going to want to add some type of leavening. This can be fresh or freeze-dried yeast, or a starter culture.  There are also "soda" breads that make use of baking soda and powder.  Egg whites are also a leavener, though in a bread situation, probably not as effective.


Educated ways to simplify/substitute recipes Sometimes I do not have enough time and miss out parts either substitute ingridients.

My observation is that sometimes it's quite okay and sometimes awful because of unexpected pairings in the food design.

Is there any general rule beyond personal taste to recognize where reduction/substitution is really no way?

There’s no such rule, but you can approach in a strategic way.
You need to know, however why that ingredient is in the recipe.

When it’s only about flavor (say spices), i think it’s fairly easy to substitue with what you see fit.

But this is not always the case:

Say your ice-cream recipe calls for a banana, it’s not only there for flavor, but also texture. You can not just replace with any fruit, banana is used there for its starchy texture as well. You’ll need to replace the banana with similar amounts of starch (or eggs that would give a similar texture) and a flavor you see fit.


What to do when too much liquid added to flour mixture? I seem to have a bad habit of mis-calculating ingredients, particularly the liquid ones. Can I just boil off excess water that I've added to a flour mixture (in this case a pizza dough)? Any other tricks, other than adding more flour (= huge amount of dough)?

If everything is already combined, you can't really boil off the liquid without also cooking the flour, killing the yeast, and ruining your dough. If you don't want the large amount of dough you would have from just adding flour to what you have, your best bet is to just throw away a portion of what you've made, add flour to the remainder, and proceed. In the future, try adding 75% of the water, then adding the rest as needed. Sometimes this is the only way to account for additional moisture your flour may have absorbed in humid environments.

In the case of pizza dough though, if you have too much, if you portion it, lightly oil the portions, and freeze them individually, they should keep fairly well.


Store bought frozen coconut milk For how long can you keep store bought packaged frozen coconut milk in the refrigerator after it's been thawed?

you can keep the coconut milk for 3 more days and that's the maximum after this time you find that it begins to coagulate and that smells fowl. i bought coconut milk for a prawn recipe for valentines day http://www.mariellasmenu.com.ng/2016/02/tiger-prawns-in-coconut-milk-valentines.html and i had some left over, , even though it was in the freezer, it had gone bad


How long does fresh salmon last in the freezer? I bought salmon 2 weeks ago, and left it in my freezer. Is it still safe to consume it? what about consuming it raw?

Yes, as long as food goes, 2 weeks in the freezer is not that long (assuming it was always in the freezer). So feel free to defrost it and enjoy your salmon.


Are areas filled with an oily texture common in jamon serrano I bought a whole jamon serrano right before christmas and have kept in at approx. 20°C and between 55-65% humidity. I have enjoyed every slice of delicious meat and have now started to cut the last part of it; the punta (end piece). However I suddenly uncovered a canal running under the skin which secretes a substance very similar to cooking oil. The smell is heavily bitter, like nuts gone bad.

Since I don't know the details on how a jamon is prepared, I wonder if this is expected, or is it a sign that the area is somehow contaminated?

As I don't have the necessary points to comment I will make one or two assumptions.

Spanish Jamon is a salt cured ham. I suspect, if you got your ham bone-out, then the residue oil is where the meat closest to where the bone was did not cure as well.

Make sure you buy your Jamon ham from a reliable and recognized source (Denominación de Origen). Even if you saved a little on price, with food, it is not the greatest plan.

As I live in the US I only enjoy that delicacy when I travel to Spain. I do not trust any of the US imports.

You just haven't lived until you have tried Jamón de Guijuelo!!!


How do I reduce the lemon acidity in apple soup? I have just made an apple soup that has lemon juice in. The problem being the lemon tartness totally overpowers the soup. How do I neutralise this???

It may be worth trying to balance the sour flavor out using some sugar or other sweetener, it will be powerfully flavored but it's better than adding baking soda, as it has been pointed out that may change the texture and flavor in ways you do not want. At the very least it may reduce the amount of acidity you would want to neutralize, so less baking soda would be needed.

As for what I'd do: chuck it and start over if adding sugar doesn't work. I wouldn't make another batch and combine the two because if you combine them and it still doesn't taste good you have wasted 2 batches! I'd start over and try to get the second batch right, then you have a better chance of getting something out of your efforts.

How much lemon juice and/or rind you need to add is dependent on personal taste, the type of apples used and their acidity (there are apples that are too sour to begin with!), and other factors like how much water is added. A recipe in this case is a guideline, you should start with far less lemon and sugar than the recipe suggests and add more of both gradually, tasting as you go. If you use granny smith (very, very tart) apples you'll need much less lemon and much more sugar for example.


tamagoyaki eggs sticking to the pan I've gone through many boxes of eggs trying to cook tamagoyaki, that's Japanese rolled omelet. It uses a rectangle frying pan which is the same as an ordinary frying pan, but rectangle shaped.

In short, you put a little oil in, put a layer of egg in and roll it up. Then repeat.

I've tried low heat, high heat, medium heat, taking it off the heat, small hob, large hob, pre-heating without oil, pre-heating with oil, a small coating of oil, soaked in oil, waited for it to set solid, rolled as soon as it started setting and every recipe and every youtube video guide on tamagoyaki - everything.

The results are always the same: It sticks to the "non-stick" pan and it falls apart.

What's the secret?

Here's a basic successful tamagoyaki instructional video

Here's my result

Are you sure that the "non-stick" properties of your square pan are still OK. The pan in the picture looks pretty tired.

I also note that the pan in the "successful video" has a ridged bottom. This gives more surface area to the bottom of the pan and gets more heat up into the egg mixture to cook it.


How does one invent a cookie recipe? My cookbook has dozens of cookie recipes and I can find hundreds more online.

But...

If I want to invent my own cookie recipes how can I go about doing it, without wasting tons of ingredients on trial and error?

How must I balance the ratios of the basic ingredients, such as flour, eggs, water, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda?

Has anyone created any formulas or rules for creating cookie recipes?

Yes, the original recipes involved an enormous amount of trial and error. People baked, swapped recipes, and the good ones were desirable and became widespread, while the bad ones died out. The advanced knowledge of food chemistry wasn't even available at the time - Hannah Glasse published her cookbook more then 100 years before Mendeleev published the periodic table.

Luckily, you don't have to go through the same process if you want to invent a good recipe now. There are only a few basic ingredients in baking - eggs, sugar, flour, water - and you can be sure that all possible ways to combine them, as well as most secondary additions and substitutions, have been thoroughly explored. People have distilled the knowledge of this exploration in books, and you can use this basic knowledge to build new recipes which will function with a high probability.

Before you develop a baking recipe, there are four things you have to know.

Technique. If you want to create a cookie recipe, you will have to use creaming. If you want to make a new kind of eclair, you have to know how to prepare a basic pate a choux. There are cookbooks teaching these techniques, some of them are explained in questions here on SA.
Base ratio. For most baked goods, there are ratios which give you the best results. For example, for a crepe you want 1 part flour, two parts egg and two parts liquid. As long as you keep that, you can let your imagination run free by using different liquids, or adding spices, or even plopping pieces of fruit in the pan and pouring the batter over them. You can learn about this from Ruhlman's book Ratio, or use a known-good recipe for a plain variant of the good you are trying to make as your starting point.
Flavor combinations. You can add any ingredients you want, but there is no guarantee they will work well together. Choosing the right ones is a combination of talent (being able to imagine what a combination will taste like before you have had it) and experience. You should try to be more analytical about the flavors of things you eat - which tastes can you distinguish? Which aromas? What makes them go well together? Is it their similarity, or the contrast? - and when you have done that long enough, you will be able to predict the goodness of a combination. A book to help you along is The Flavor Bible, which describes good combinations. You can also take popular combinations and transfer them across types of food. For example, if you like apple-cinnamon pie, you can try to make cinnamon cookies glued in pairs with apple butter.
Ingredients' structure and their role in the baked good. This knowledge is maybe the least usual among home cooks. When you create new recipes, you will always dilute the base formula, or use substitutions. If you don't have this knowledge, it will be hit-or-miss whether your new recipe will work or not. It is a bit like rebuilding a house's interior without knowing which walls are load-bearing and which aren't. If you know what each ingredient does in a recipe, you will know when a substitution is possible and when it isn't. For example, many people will tell you that applesauce is a substitute for eggs. And you can indeed bake a cake with applesauce instead of eggs, but don't try to whip a mayonnaise with it. This is because eggs have a different role in cake and mayonnaise. Learning about these roles requires a lot of effort, and a curiosity
about these things. Most people will find it easier to just try
whatever they feel like, and live with the occasional failed
new-recipe attempt. If you would rather learn about them, I can
recommend two sources. One is Cooking for geeks by Jeff Potter, which is short
and doesn't go into the depth of things, but offers lots of useful
information and is easy to read, or the really exhaustive book
called On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, which runs to about 800
pages and goes into detail most people don't want to know about, but
is a must-read if you are fascinated by food science.

And, of course you can always just run into the kitchen and experiment. Don't forget to document along the way so you can reproduce your results! Basically, you can always have luck and hit a good new recipe, the knowledge I listed above (combined with some baking experience) helps you increase your first-try success rate from about 2-3% as a full amateur to somewhere about 80% or more. It is your decision how to divide your time between reading and baking, any combination can function, depending on your learning style.


What does acidity mean in terms of coffee? How does it affect taste? From here: http://www.devans.in/mediumcoffee.html

  Medium roast of Plantation "AA" brings out the full compliment of aromas and results in a coffee that has moderate acidity, tangy flavor and good strength.

What does acidity mean in terms of coffee? How does it affect taste?

Acidity in coffee results in a brightness of flavor.  Higher Grounds describes it as "dry, bright & sparkling sensation". Sweet Maria, a purveyor of unroasted beans, describes it as "bright, clear, snappy, dry, clean, winey, etc."

In truth, you would need to sample a variety of coffees with different characteristics and develop your own sense memory, because it is extremely difficult to describe flavors.

A nice Ethiopian full city roast will have good acidity when compared to say a French roasted anything.  In general, coffee grown at higher altitude will have more acidity than lower grown coffee; and lighter roasted coffee will retain more of its acidity than darker roasted coffee.

See also:

Kaladi Coffee article on coffee acidity
Higher Grown: Coffee Acidity: the Science & the Experience


Is it necessary to keep vinaigrette in refrigerator? I made vinaigrette which is composed of red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, and sugar. Does this need to be refrigerated, or is it safe to leave it out of the fridge?

None of the listed ingredients require refrigeration so you are safe to leave the vinaigrette at room temperature as long as it's not fluctuating much. Leave it in a cool, somewhat shaded area (out of direct sunlight if possible). If you wanted, you could absolutely leave your vinaigrette in the fridge.


Re-seasoning of cast iron skillet gone wrong? So, we had some stir-fry burn up pretty badly in our trusted cast-iron skillet. Upon cleaning the skillet some of the coating came off with the burned food. I made a first attempt of re-seasoning it with avocado oil and putting it upside down in the oven for an hour at 375°F. The result was mediocre, there was some coating in the stripped areas but it didn't look like the rest of the surface, and you could see some bare metal shining through. Sure enough, food was sticking again to the stripped area.
My wife re-seasoned it again, this time following slightly different instructions that were on the internet: using olive oil and baking it for two hours right-side-up at 450°F. At the end of the process the skillet definitely had a new hard coating that was smooth and not sticky to the touch. However, there was an anomaly in the middle (probably around the same spot that got stripped originally, but we can't be sure). There was a raised ridge around the area, but the area inside the ridge still did appear to have a proper coating:

So, my question is: what went wrong here and how does it affect the usability of the skillet? Do we need to strip it and re-season it yet again? Can we ignore this anomaly? Is there anything we can do to prevent this sort of thing from happening?

It looks like the second attempt used far too much oil, which can lead to all sorts of uneven spots in the pan. Seasoning that thick tends to flake off when you cook with the pan. I would strip it and reseason immediately. In general you want to use a very very thin layer of oil, wiping out the excess from the pan with an absorbent cloth (I don't like using paper towels since they can leave residue in the pan) before heating. There should not be enough oil in the pan to drip down the sides or form a noticeable layer in the bottom like it has done in your picture. Placing it upside down in the oven is a way of ensuring that any excess oil drips out of the pan instead of forming drips in the pan or a too thick layer at the bottom. Then you repeat the process at least three times if you start from a completely stripped pan. It's normal to require several layers before the finish is restored.


Steaming vegetables in microwave I made a short research on steaming vegetables in microwave to compare it to steaming on stove top. An interesting discovery I made is that steaming in microwave is more energy efficient when cooking in small portions. Large portions, on the other hand, are best made in stove top.

Can anybody help me to know what would account as large portions?

I steam vegetables in large batches (up to 3 lbs) in covered Pyrex bowls in our large microwave. The microwave is 1800W, and steams the vegetables well in 4-6 minutes (depending on the vegetable...about 5 minutes for broccoli, which is fibrous). Bringing approximately 2" of water in an 8qt stockpot (the amount you'll likely need to heat in order to have the entire batch remain over steam before evaporating all the water)to a boil, plus steaming 3 lbs of broccoli in a steamer insert will take about 6 minutes on my stove on the 12,000BTU/hr gas burner.

So, that's 1800W x 5 min vs 12,000BTU/hr x  6 min

1W = 3.41BTU/hr

Converting the BTU/hr to watts that becomes

1800W x 5 min vs 3517W x 6 min

Since 1 W = 1Joule/second, the two energy expenditures are:

-Microwave: 1800J/s x 300s = 540,000 joules

-Stove: 3517 x 1,266,120 joules, more than twice the cost.

Stoves send a great deal of energy up the sides of the pans and into the air, where it is lost. Microwaves send nearly all their energy into the food. This means that in nearly every case, steaming in the microwave is more energy efficient.


Blow torching meat after sous vide - add fat or not? After I pull the meat out of the sous vide and then use a blow torch to sear it, should I use a fat on it or not?  Will that get a better crust on it?

I have not noticed any real difference from using a fat, so I skip it. What does make a difference is thorough drying the meat.

I haven't ever had great results from a torch though. I prefer a screaming hot pan or grill, although both are way more effort.


What does to deglaze a pan mean? A friend of mine described a recipe to me, and she said she deglazed the pan (I think I understood correctly). What does that mean?

Deglazing removes caramelized bits (the "browned" bits) from the bottom of your pan or skillet after cooking meats or vegetables.

It is usually accomplished by putting stock, sauce, wine, or even water (or really any liquid) in the pan over heat after the pan has been emptied of whatever was cooked into it and any rendered fat and scraping the browned bits into that sauce with a spatula.  The browned bits dissolve into your liquid to create an excellent sauce for whatever you just cooked in the pan.


Is carnival glass safe for serving food? My grandmother-in-law left us a very large collection of carnival glass. This has led to a mild debate over whether it is safe to use.

Are there foods that shouldn't be served on carnival glass? What are possible risks of occasionally using the dishes for (e.g.) ice cream, pie, or a salad?

(The "unsafe" vote also points out that "it's an expensive antique and needs handwashing, why not just leave it in the cupboard?" which may make the safety issue moot, anyway.)

Don't use any food containing:

alcohol
acids (lemon juice, vinegar, ...)
oils (butter, mayonnaise, cream, ...)

So a salad without oil&vinegar should be safe for daily use, but ice cream, punch, pie (contains butter) etc are to be avoided.  The health effects should be minimal, but you'll definitely ruin granny's beautiful set in the long run...  ;-)


Sous vide octopus for maximum tenderness A few years ago I had a delicious 15-hour slow-cooked (then charred) octopus at a japanese restaurant in New York.  The flesh was moist and tender without being gelatinous, and I could sense the layers in the tissue as I bit through it.
I've been trying to replicate the process using a sous-vide cooker, with very limited success as my results have invariably produced rubbery octopus.
As even food mega-nerd Harold McGee noted in a New York Times column, the recipes for tender octopus vary tremendously, and even his quest continues.
My instinct is that sous-vide is a good approach here.  The sous vide recipes vary, but generally recommend ranges of 170-185F for 3 to 7 hours.
I've tried variants of these (with medium, fresh octopus, bought whole, cleaned and done one leg per bag), but with invariably rubbery results.

Question:
Is it possible to get reasonably consistent, moist/tender, medium sized octopus legs using sous-vide cooking?

If so, what preparation/setting is recommended?
If not, what are the factors which make this so damn hard?

Keller does octopus sous vide.  I believe there is a recipe in his Under Pressure cookbook, but I don't have it at this location.  I did a search on the web and came up with 77C (170.6 F) for 5 hours.

Personally, I have had the best results with the oven method in your McGee Link.


How to boil sushi rice for yakimeshi? I want to use some chicken bouillon cubes I have to flavor the sushi rice I have, which I'm going to use to make yakimeshi (Japanese fried rice) in accordance with this video.
I'm not sure if I'm going about this the right way, but this is what I've gathered after googling/reading some answers:

I should keep rinsing the rice until the water is clear
The ratio for
short-grain Japanese rice is supposed to be 1 cup of rice:1 cup of
water (or liquid?)
I should use 50% broth and 50% water for boiling the rice

The cubes say that 2 cubes make 1 quart (4 cups) of broth, so if I wanted to make 2 cups of broth, I would use 1 cube. Thus, I would use 1 cube to boil 4 cups of rice (in 2 cups water and 2 cups broth).

Am I doing everything right?

Also, do I need to add salt if I'm using broth?

Typically bouillon cubes include a pretty hefty dose of salt, so you're probably fine without adding more. You can always salt the finished fried rice if it needs more seasoning.

All your calculations look fine to me, but one thing you might need to consider is that the salt would raise the boiling point of the broth and potentially affect how the rice cooks.  Probably not a big deal, but if the recipes you've found are particularly insistent that the rice be cooked only with water, that might be why.  Just hedge any cooking times a little and check the rice as it cooks, and you'll be fine.


What is pizza sauce? I am making a dip that requires 'pizza sauce'. The store doesn't sell anything called 'pizza sauce' that I could find. Instead, I got plain tomato sauce. What do I need to add to it to make it 'pizza sauce'?

Pizza sauce is, presumably, whatever tomato-based sauce you'd put on a pizza. Those tend to be essentially like smooth (not chunky), lightly seasoned spaghetti sauce. If by "plain tomato sauce" you mean a jar of tomato sauce for spaghetti, you're probably in good shape. If you mean a can of pure tomato sauce, with no other ingredients, you'll probably want to add some seasoning. Basil and oregano are good bets for herbs; garlic and onion are also common, and perhaps crushed red pepper if you want a little kick.

If you're looking for a real recipe, this isn't a recipe request site, but search engines will serve you well.


What is the correct reference for amount of salt in lacto-fermenting? When lacto-fermenting pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, etc. do you do your salt calculations per amount of brine, or salt per volume of the pickling container?

I mean, if I use 1-3 tablespoons of pickling salt per quart, as I've seen recommended, a number of times, is that supposed to be per quart of pure brine or per quart jar of pickles? The answer could make a big difference in the result.

I've heard you should mix the brine separately and then pour it in. So, perhaps that means to make an entire quart of brine with 1-3 tablespoons of salt in that quart (even if you don't use all the brine when you pour it on your vegetables), rather than ensuring that 1-3 full tablespoons of salt are in the jar of pickles.

It seems like my pickles could use less salt, on average, despite warm temperatures, and I see other questions on here that might benefit from the answer here. So, I'm curious.

Again, is the salt relative to how much brine you have, or to the size of your container?

Simple answer

In general, when a recipe calls for "x tablespoons of salt per quart", you should add that amount of salt to a quart of water to make your brine.

The "correct" amount of salt

Salt in fermentation can vary wildly. As Sandor Katz notes in The Art of Fermentation (p. 99), "[s]ome traditions of fermenting vegetables, such as those of the Himalayas, mostly ferment vegetables without salt..."

As (very) general guidelines:

less salt = faster fermentation and greater risk of unwelcome microbial activity
more salt = slower fermentation and lower risk

Factors like the size and cut of your vegetables, or the coarseness of your salt, could make an even bigger difference to overall saltiness than measuring your salt by brine vs. measuring by pickling container size.

So it really depends on the recipe, and on your own taste for salt (and risk).


Pavlova Roll failure Why did the meringue in my pavlova roll turn out rubbery in consistency.
Was it baked for too long. It was baked  at 170 deg for 10 min then at 150 deg for an hour. then switched off the oven and let cool in the oven

Update
The temp was Celsius I had the fan on also. it was baked as a flat rectangle on a tray and then rolled. Today I made another one and it was a lot better,not rubbery and I only baked it for 30 mins.

170°C, 150°C?  That is just too hot.

Snow-white crisp merignue process is more of drying, not actually baking.  Which is why the temperature must be in 100-120°C.  Also, forced air circulation must be turned off.


How long / to what temperature should I let meat rest? It has been made abundantly clear to me that I should let meat rest after it has been cooked.

Once the meat is resting should I time the duration of the rest or measure the temperature of the cooling meat? And why?

The resting period is not generally done by an absolute temperature—you would have measured for (near) your target temperature before before taking the piece out of the oven or off the griddle or whatever.

Traditionally, it should be proportional to the size of the cut or roast.

5-10 minutes is good for a steak or individual chicken pieces, depending on their thickness
Medium size roasts and smaller poultry, say 10-15 minutes
Large roasts and large poultry (like a turkey), up to 30 minutes.

If you do want to measure by temperature for more precise results, Kenji Alt of Serious Eats recommends based on practical experimentation, for steaks:

  Ideally, no matter how well-done you've cooked your meat, you want to
  allow it to cool down until the very center has reached 120°F (49°C).
  At this stage, the muscle fibers have relaxed enough that you should
  have no problem with losing juices.

He also reviews some of the science, and various explanations for why the resting works.

Cook's Illustrated's Americas Test Kitchen performed an experiment with several roasted pork loins, cutting them with no resting, or resting of 10, 20, 30, and 40 minutes.  They found that even a 10 minute rest cut down on juices expressed by 60% compared to the unrested roast.  They found far less difference in the roasts that were rested for longer periods, although there was continued improvement in the juice retention.  They summarize (original emphasis):

  So what to do? Curb your enthusiasm and let your meat rest. But not
  for too long. The most dramatic decrease in moisture loss for these
  pork loins took place during the first 10 minutes of rest. Additional
  time helps—but not if that means your dinner will be cold. If you’re
  cooking a big roast, you can wait longer—about 30 minutes. Thin steaks
  should only wait 5 to 10 minutes before you dig in.

This shows that the traditional advise on resting times is actually fairly effective.

Note:  Thanks to Jefromi for sharing this reference.


How to prevent tofu from falling apart on the grill? Whenever I've tried to grill tofu (on a propane home grill), it falls apart and into the grill.  Is there anything I can do beforehand to prevent the tofu from disintegrating, and get it to behave more like a hunk of meat?

Standard tips for browning/frying/grilling tofu;

Ensure that you press the tofu sufficiently to remove its own moisture, marinate if desired
Lightly dust with flour
Brush oil on the grilling surface

The same advice applies for pan frying. I prefer to work at a high temperature, others have had very good results using only medium. Use a very thin, flat metal spatula to turn. Specific to the case of grilling, be mindful of the gap the tofu will stretch across on the grate; it may be crumbling because it isn't strong enough or thick enough to sustain wide gaps.

Additionally you can pre-bake the tofu to dry it out further. I have heard tell that salting lightly with finely ground sea salt helps prevent sticking but have no experience with this, and have had good results without the added sodium.

Typically the moisture in the surface of the bean curd is causing the sticking. Prevent or inhibit this and you should be good.


Crisping Butternut Squash Chips My goal is to make a crispy butternut squash chip without deep frying, but from all my various trials, the chips keep coming out chewy, with a texture similar to fruit leather.

My main method has been to slice butternut squash on a mandoline to approx 3-4 millimeters, toss in oil and salt, bake in oven at 400F for approx 35 min on a wire rack on top of a sheet pan, then place the chips in my dehydrator at 125F for 5 hours.

I've also tried boiling them instead of baking for 5 min before the dehydrator and baking at 400F for 20 min then 500F for 10 min before the dehydrator. Both methods still produced the same leathery / chewy texture. I've also tried putting the cut butternut squash straight in the dehydrator, but I don't like the raw taste that the squash retains. Finally, I've tried putting the squash slices in the oven at 300F for 30 min as well to no avail.

It seems to me that there might not be enough starch content in a butternut squash to get a true crispy chip like you'd find in a potato. Does this make sense?

I'd love any advice anyone can offer on how to get these things crispy and crunchy. Thanks!

You can try slicing it thinner (about 1mm or less, like a normal potato crisp), to further increase surface ratio in your crisps and make them dehydrate quicker and fully in the oven, so there is no moisture to migrate.

The difference between frying and baking is how your food is exposed to heat - frying is sudden exposure to high heat that leads to dehydration of the surface of your food and makes it crispy. This doesn't last long because then the moisture at the core of the food migrates to the surface and makes it soggy (like french fries and chicken nuggets). Unless your food lost completely all the remaining moisture and it doesn't migrate to the surface (like happens with potato crisps).

Cutting your squash as thinly as possible might be the solution to have crisps, so your oven can fully dehydrate them and you don't have the leathery texture.


What kind of meat to use for Wiener Schnitzel? I understand that the meat is thinned with a mallet before coating with breadcrumbs and frying.

What parts of veal or pork are suitable?

(Googling the subject seems to produce mostly sausage related hits for some reason)

The real, original Wiener Schnitzel is veal. Definitely. I can't link to a web source now, but I have some German cook books at home, including one solely about different kinds of schnitzel.

From the veal, you use parts 6, 7 and 11 for any kind of schnitzel, 7 being the best and highest-prized choice. I don't know the English names, maybe somebody can supply them. Also, try using leaner meat. I think that in the US, the fat marbled beef is considered higher quality. But in Europe, lean beef is preferred. A good beef schnitzel has maybe 3% fat.

This said, there are lots of places which cook pork schnitzels in the Wiener style and call them Wiener Schnitzel. It isn't traditional, but if you like the taste, there is nothing against doing it that way at home. They come from the same parts of the pig as the veal schnitzel: the ham and the lower back. Again, they should be very lean. And in both cases, unlike a steak, a schnitzel is always boneless.


Can dough be knead with a rolling pin? Can dough be kneaded with a rolling pin instead of by hand?

If not, what are the mechanic differences that make it so? How is the process of repeatedly flattening and stretching the dough different when done by hand or with a rolling pin?

I have found recommendations that kneading should not be done with a rolling pin, there is never a justification of why. Upon simple inspection, what is done to the dough seems similar enough in both cases.

You didn't say what kind of dough you are thinking about, so I'll try to give a bit of an overview first:
With most doughs, the way you handle it will influence the development of gluten. Roughly stated: more handling/stretching equals more/longer strands and more density.

Type 1: Pie crust, shortbread, bisquits etc.
You want to avoid excessive development of gluten as it would make the result tough instead of light and flaky. So we aim for as little handling as possible, "cut" or "rub" the fat into the flour and add liquids at the end with only a quick stir. Use of a rolling pin would counteract this approach, so no use here. Some people will even avoid re-rolling this type of dough whenever possible.
Type 2: Bread etc.
Here, the gluten strands will trap the co2 developed by the yeast, thus enabling the bread to rise. The type of strands can be influenced by the method of kneading. If you go "round and round", either in a mixer or by hand, you'll get lots of small bubbles, giving your bread a uniform texture inside. If you do a "stretch and fold" (usually repeated a few times during the first rise) you get longer, aligned strands and large bubbles. With each method, the dough will be way to sticky to use a rolling pin, at least at the beginning. Most doughs will become less sticky when the gluten strands have started to form. (My great-aunt always said "it's ready when it cleans the bowl and your hands".) That's the point where the rolling pin could be used theoretically. Usually that's after the first rise, when you knead gently again, then shape. I'd strongly advise against the use of a rolling pin here because a few things are likely to happen: a) you might "burst" too many co2 bubbles, b) you are likely to work too much extra flour into the dough, because your hands "feel" when it starts to stick, the pin doesn't, c) you actually aren't supposed "flatten" the dough, rather gently stretch it somewhat, then fold over to the middle and just press to make it stick onto itself again (to quote my great-aunt again: "Handle it roughly first, gently later."). And you will use your hands anyway to move the dough, so why clean the pin, too?
Type 3: Pasta dough
This is actually one type of dough where the use of a rolling pin might be an option. Based on flour and very little liquid, pasta dough needs to be kneaded rather firmly and longer, because the development of gluten strands is somewhat inhibited due to the "dryness" of the dough. The pin could give you the leverage your hands don't. Some people roll the dough a few times through the pasta machine on the wide setting before shaping it, too.


Baking Turkey Meatloaf with/out glass cover I am baking 2.5lbs of turkey meatloaf with a mixture of sauteed onions and red bell-peppers. There are no set recipes for cooking a meatloaf of this size so I basically doubled some of the ingredients.

The regular recipe says to Bake at 350 for 50 mins for 1.5lbs. I'm using a ceramic casserole dish and was wondering if the glass cover would help cook the inside of this dense loaf more than with it uncovered? Another thing I heard is to place a cookie sheet under the casserole dish for radiant heat.

Putting the lid on will tend to steam your meatloaf on top, rather than baking it, as the moisture that evaporates from it will have no where to go.   This will inhibit getting those nice crispy brown bits.

If I were to double a meatloaf, I would not simply put it in a larger casserole.   Instead, I would make two... erm... loaves.  This would:

Ensure that they cook at approximately the same and expected rate, as predicted by the recipe
Provide more surface area for the delicious brown bits.


Proper use of induction vessels I accidentally bought a set of induction vessels. Currently I have a gas cooking range. Can induction vessels be used on a regular gas stove or electric stove?

Induction cookware is only that which has enough steel or iron in it to have a magnet stick to it.  As was mentioned in the comment, it is usually the other way around.  Stainless steel and cast iron are great for cooking on most any type stove top... Or a grill or a campfire!  They are the epitome of versatility.


How do you remove the pit from a mango? I've only attempted this once, and it was a complete disaster. Can anyone provide some tips for a beginner?

Hold the mango upright - so the place where the stem was is at the top.
Turn the mango so the widest side is facing you.
The pit mimics this same shape - it's tall, wide, and not very deep.
Cut all the way around as though you are creating two halves, one whole piece facing you, and one facing opposite. Go ahead and peel this side (using a vegetable peeler).
Slide your sharp paring knife between the peeled flesh and the pit. As you separate a section off the pit, slice it away from the rest of the flesh. If you don't use a sufficiently sharp knife, you just end up with a mess.
Peel the other side and slice it the same way.

The reason I peel only half at a time is so I have something (the remaining peel) to grip as I slice the mango.


Is there any advantage to combining spices before applying them to meat? Up to this point when preparing steaks, ribs, or any sort of "meat" I would apply my spices in sequence: first adding salts, followed by a pepper-based powders, and lastly some sugars (if applicable). I often see cooks combine these spices into a bowl to make a rub. Is there any advantage to doing the latter?

If you premix to make a rub, it's easier to apply spices evenly. Otherwise, you must individually apply a small amount (for example, 1/4 tsp) of several spices evenly. With a rub, you make the spice mixture with the desired proportions, and there is a larger aggregate amount to spread.


How to make wet fries? There's a place that does 'wet fries.' They look more like English chips though, and they're basically floppy and wet from the sauce it's placed into.

The ingredients, as told by the manager, are:

Sweet chilli sauce
Hot chilli sauce
Tomato sauce
Garlic
Sesame Oil

As far as ratios go, do you believe there should be more of one particular sauce than the other? I wouldn't want to put in way more of one thing than I need.

See how it tastes without the garlic first.  The chili sauces often have garlic in themselves.

All of the other ingredients will obviously add more wetness, in their own separate ways.

To make the fries themselves wetter, use more oil while frying them, and/or leave them in the oil longer at a lower temperature. In this case absorbing more oil makes them "wetter", but I'm not sure if that is quite what you are going for?


Why add Vodka to Stock? The recipe for brown veal stock in Modernist Cuisine (Volume 2, page 300) lists Vodka as an ingredient. Why?

I have never seen Vodka as an ingredient before for stock, in no professional cooking literature. No alcohol other than wine. Do you think it makes a positive difference, taste-wise?

Would an author of a cookbook add ingredients to a recipe not for taste but to appear clever? (I could imagine it with this book)

Addition 1:
Very good answers so far, thank you! So far I learned that theoretically it could make a difference. But in practice? Can anyone testify to having personally, clearly tasted a positive difference in taste due to the addition of Vodka?

Pure alcohol is a solvent: that is: it will dissolve other chemicals more easily than water.  If you put vodka in oak barrels for long enough, it'll turn into bourbon as it will dissolve and concentrate the taste of the oak.

The same thing is happening while you're making stock:

The oils in whatever the recipe of your stock calls for will dissolve more easily in alcohol than water.
It speeds up the creation of the stock
You could use any alcohol, but if you would use Bourbon the stock would get a smoky oak taste, so by using vodka (which is 40 Vol% of alcohol in water) no extra taste gets added except what's in your stock recipe.
As alcohol has a much lower boiling point than water, the vodka will extract the oils and mostly evaporate so depending on the amount used it might be safe for children too if you follow the Halal rules but you should know a water-ethanol mixture forms an azeotrope.


How can I make low sodium (140mg or less per serving) pancakes / waffles? I work with heart failure patients who have to limit their sodium intake, but still would like to enjoy some of their favorite foods. How can I reduce the sodium (to 140mg or less) in pancakes and waffles?

Reduce or leave out the salt.  It is not essential to the chemistry of the recipe.  I will not speculate on salt substitutes, as that is a health and medical issue, off topic for this site.

The pancakes will then not taste as good, but that is unavoidable.  Perhaps you can serve them with a highly flavorful accompaniment, like a reduced peach chutney or similar, to make the entire dish more interesting.

Not sure what kind of advice you expected.

Edit:  Based on the discussion of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) usually used in pancakes:   as Kate Gregory points out, there may be alternate chemical leaveners.

Another possibility is to use mechanical leavening, by beating the eggs, fat, and any sugar well until they reach the ribbon stage (probably more than necessary, per Harold McGee, but still a clear indication); at this point they will have the maximum amount of air incorporated.   This batter cannot be held, but it should rise reasonably well, even without baking powder.

There are also recipes that use whipped egg whites to leaven pancakes, but they produce a different, fluffier product that may be called Fluffy Pancakes or Swedish Pancakes depending on the recipe.


Overly buttery hollandaise? This is my second attempt at making hollandaise. I did it with a double boiler, and the recipe was 1 egg yolk, 4 tbsp of butter, a little water, lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. When I tried it, it was rich--almost repulsively buttery. As far as I can tell, the sauce looks right, and it definitely didn't break. My only thoughts are it needed more lemon juice to cut the butter or more air in the emulsion. I might have also cooked it a bit too cool as it started to solidify within 5 minutes of plating.

Many recipes call for different ratios of egg yolk to butter. Egg yolk size can vary substantially. Your recipe is definitely at the low egg/high butter end of the spectrum.

Considering it came out looking great, add another egg yolk next time, and another the time after that.

I like 3 yolks with half a stick of butter, made with USDA AA large eggs, cooked sous vide (no double boiler).


Does frying in canola instead of shortening change the fry time? I had a bunch of canola oil and didn't want to go out and buy some shortening for a new recipe I found for beignets. The recipe called for heating 3-inches of shortening up to 370F to fry them in so I did the same with canola.

The fry time was to be 3 minutes but the first few I tried were too doughy. The next few I did for 4 minutes and, again, too doughy. Even at 5 minutes the inside was too wet. They are to be served hot so letting them sit for long isn't really an option.

I kept a thermometer in the pot and maintained that 370F temp pretty well. Other than the doughy to wet inside, they puffed up nicely and had good flavor.

So is there something I'm not aware of?

The type of fat you use makes no difference in cooking time, as long as you use a fat with a smoke point above that you want to cook at. There's a related question on the site about fats for deep frying which talks about the properties of different fats. Canola is absolutely fine to use instead of crisco or some other shortening.

It sounds to me like you had the fat just where you needed to be, I think what went wrong is your dough. From what you describe it sounds like you may have had it too moist. Moisture is important in the dough as it's the conversion of water to steam that gives you the puff, but too much moisture means you will saturate it. Try a thicker dough.


Deep frying with tallow in a stainless steel pot I do not have access to a cast iron pot, only a thin, lightweight stainless steel pot.

Will I be able to deep fry potato slices in beef tallow in it?

I am afraid the heat distribution will be uneven and that the tallow will catch fire even if I monitor the temperature (due to uneven temperature distribution)

Is there anything else I should think about or is it the same as fring in vegetable oil in a cast iron pot?

I don't think you will have the risk of fire, as long as you keep the oil in the pot. Temperature will modulate more quickly than in cast iron, but it is not going to vary much within the pot itself.  I use a wok because the slanted sides make for safer deep-frying. So, you don't need cast iron.   In a pot, you need to be careful that when you add your ingredients, the oil does not boil over.  So, I would recommend filling less than 1/2 way, and using a thermometer to monitor the temperature.


How to lower the melting point of a specific chocolate? I want to use a specific brand of chocolate to make chocolatines/pain au chocolat. This chocolate is a stone ground dark chocolate that has been tempered. I attempted to use them to make chocolatines once but after baking I realized that the chocolate hadn't melted.
So I want to know what I can do to lower the melting point of the chocolate, just enough so it melts in the oven but not too much that it's liquid at room temperature. I read that you can ruin a chocolates temper by melting it again and waiting for it to solidify but I couldn't find much more information on "untempering" chocolate or reducing the melting point. I was also thinking I could try to melt the chocolate, mix in a small amount of butter, then wait for it to solidify again. Not sure this would work though or if it would ruin the chocolates flavor.
I don't want to use a different type of chocolate so I'm hoping people can provide suggestions.
EDIT 1:
The recipe I used the first time I tried this called for the oven to be heated at 400°F. Since they're basically croissants they only need to go in for 15 minutes, that could be the issue. The chocolate wasn't cold before use it was just room temperature. I'm now using a different recipe but it calls for the same amount of time and temperature.
EDIT 2:
I'm still wondering if there's any way to lower the melting point of the chocolate a little. I don't want to sacrifice the taste of the chocolate too much but I still want it to be a little softer at room temperature and melt more readily during the quick bake.

I don't think you can lower the melting point without melting the chocolate first.
Butter is very soft at room temperature and adds it's own typical butter flavor. A better alternative is hard coconut fat.
I always use this trick when I cover a cake with a simple chocolate glaze. If you simply melt the chocolate and slather it on top of the cake, it becomes so hard that it's hard to cut cleanly and (depending on the thickness) hard to bite. Of course that has to do with the ruined tempering.
Adding coconut fat to the molten chocolate makes it softer without turning it into a ganache or mouse. For a cake glaze I usually add half the weight of chocolate in coconut fat. The result is very shiny, still has a bite and unchanged chocolate flavor, but melts within seconds in your hand and wouldn't be able to hold its shape without the support of the cake. You'll probably want to add significantly less fat.
To the question of tempering: If you manage to melt the chocolate while baking, the end result won't be tempered anyways. Indeed, untempering can lower the melting point of chocolate without adding any oil or fat. Here's a very detailed blog post about tempering chocolate that explains the different crystal types cocoa butter can form and what their properties are. Tempered chocolate has only one type of crystal that is very stable. If you don't temper chocolate at all you'll end up with a mix of different crystals that might make the texture more gritty, but also lower the melting point.
Unfortunately I cannot offer any more detailled instructions, you'll have to experiment to find the best solution for you.


How much black garlic to substitute for regular garlic in a slow-cooker? My wife and I are currently making a slow-cooker brisket taco recipe and decided to substitute black garlic for the garlic it called for. The recipe called for two medium cloves and I used the same amount of black garlic.

However, after crushing the black garlic and adding it I was concerned that because of how soft and mellow it is that it may not have the same effect in the slow-cooker. Should I add more black garlic to make up for how long it will be in the slow-cooker (maybe add it toward the end?) or should it be fine with a one-to-one substitution?

Black garlic is not a substitute for regular garlic, you add black garlic to get a different result. I would never say use 2 cloves of black garlic for every 1 regular or any other ratio because the changes are so fundamental that they really are totally different ingredients.

The question is how much black garlic flavor you want, and only you can answer that. I'd suggest that you taste it when it's close to being done and if you want more add more then.


What quick Thanksgiving treats can I make? I don't have much cooking experience, and I want to contribute to our Thanksgiving dinner. I've just popped some popcorn but don't know what to do now.

Anyways, I need some simple 5-30 minute snacks I can make to add something to our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm open to suggestions! We have an oven, microwave, griddle, popcorn popper, lots of pots and pans, big sink, so I'm probably good in that regard.

How about applesauce muffins? They require minimal effort, taste amazing, and take about half an hour to make (which includes waiting time where you can make other things).


How fast can one whip cream? Let's say I whip a bowl of cream manually at a slow paced ~3-4 beats per second. The cream would be ready whipped after say 10-15 minutes.

Then I whip an identical bowl of cream at a faster pace of around 6-8 beats per second. The cream would be ready quicker, maybe in 3-5 minutes.

Does this mean if I whip the same bowl of cream with 100 beats per second, it would almost instantly turn into whipped cream? (maybe butter, but let's leave that out of the equation).

I guess it boils down to a somewhat obscured question about the chemistry and mechanics behind the cream whipping, which governs how fast cream turns into whipped cream.

Cheers

http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/season1/Chocolate/ChocolateTranscript.htm

As Alton describes. As you beat the cream bubbles of air get worked into the mixture. The beating makes the bubbles smaller and smaller until the fat globules touch and the mixture becomes stable.

As you mentioned- if you whip it a little more then the fat will coalesce and squeeze out all the water and air and you have butter.

Time is a factor in this process (when done mechanically) in that it is required for homogeneously sized and distributed bubbles. The fats have to stay plastic.

The fact that it can be done very quickly is easily seen with whipped cream chargers. The gas is pressurized into the cream- upon release expands into the tiny bubbles we need.
How does a whipped cream charger work?


How can I make crispy potato wedges without frying and oven? My mom lives Hong Kong when Toronto's cold. Here are strictures:

Healthy frying is OK. Let's rule out deep-frying - it's unhealthy and can cause cancer.
Her HK flat doesn't have a convection oven. She never bought microwave oven.
She could buy a counter-top convection toaster oven, but she feels it's too eco-unfriendly and waste of money. Let's rule it out for now.
If nobody comes up  anything, she will reconsider.  She has a rice cooker. Her kitchen looks like

Sources - First pic beneath. Bottom pic.

You will never achieve the same results without an oven or deep-frying.

Just pan-fry the potatoes in a little bit of oil; I'd par-boil the potatoes and finish them up in the pan.


Coriander in a blueberry ice-cream? I'm a beginner, and trying to follow this recipe.

Along the lines, it's said that we should add coriander. I'm still a beginner, but I find it weird to add coriander into an ice-cream recipe. Please explain to me why should I add coriander? Thanks in advance

If you add coriander, it should be because you agree with Mr. Weeks's assertion that it has a particular affinity with blueberry. Freshly ground coriander has a vibrant citrusy aroma, and (though I haven't tried it), I can see how it would go well in blueberry ice cream. I've found that sometimes a single flavor can be a little monotonous, and the coriander can bring some fun to the party. Give it a shot and see what you think.


how to brine olives - how cool is cool area to brine them? My olives have been brining for 2 months, and are still quite bitter. I read to keep them in a cool place, here in Arizona when I started this process it was still in the 90's so I put them in the fridge. Is this too cold for the brining to work? How cool should it be? There is no basement here and the floor temp is about 68º. Will this be cool enough?

There are five treatments to process olives:  Water cured, brine cured, dry salt cured, lye cured, and lye cured fermented.  The main objective when curing olives is to leach out the oleuropein, which is the bitter compound found in fresh olives, and to ferment them, which improves the flavor and, of course, improves the shelf life.

It sounds like you are using the brine cure method.  Oleuropein is water soluble.  Chemically, the salt brine breaks the bonds between the oleuropein and sugars, allowing it to leach out.

So, first, you should replace the brine after the first week of curing, so that the leached our oleuropein is removed. Then, from what I gather by reading this, 2 months is the minimum curing time.

Curing time is impacted by temperature, salt concentration, and acidity.  These factors can slow or speed the time.  It looks like their recipes for brine cured olives proceed in a temperature range of 60 - 90 F (15.5 - 32.2C).  Further, they recommend a 2 to 3 month cure (2 if you like more bitter olives).

So, I would suggest that your cure is happening very slowly because of the refrigerator temperature.  It seems to me that your room temperature is ideal.  I would just remove them from the fridge and check in a couple of weeks.


How does the way that I cut my garlic affect the taste of my food? I've seen recipes that called for coarsely chopped garlic and recipes that called for finely chopped or minced garlic. What affect does that cut have on the final taste of my dish? What about crushed garlic?

@Adam A is close -- it's not an issue of surface area on potency, it's an issue of damage to the garlic.  The 'strong' taste of garlic comes from a reaction as chemicals are released so they can mix (alliin and alliinase)

When you cook the garlic whole (as you would for roasted garlic), you will never get this reaction, as you'll break down the chemicals.  Also, the chemicals break down over long cooking, so even if you add a head of crushed garlic at the beginning of a batch of slow-cooked tomato sauce (4+ hrs), it's not going to have as strong a garlic flavor as adding a clove or two at the end.

One other way that the garlic prep can affect the taste is when you're sauteing, stir frying or other cooking over high heat -- larger bits can be cooked longer before they burn ... and burned garlic is bitter, acrid and will ruin any dish.  (if you burn garlic, stop immediately, trash everything, clean the pan, and start again -- there is no way to save it that I know)


Ginger precipitation I make a ginger in alcohol product and am having a problem that I though you could help with. I juice fresh ginger root through a standard juicer, discarding the solids, then let it settle in the fridge for 24 hours to let the remaining fibrous component settle out. After mixing with alcohol, either there is additional precipitate in the solution (not really solid and can't be strained; it's more of a floating conglomerate) or the ginger layers out.

Do you have any tricks to make the ginger more soluble in alcohol? Is this a pH thing or is the alcohol precipitating additional solids on its own irrespective of pH?

Thanks!

Can you not simply infuse your alcohol with ginger? Its slower, but effective. It doubles as a way to store fresh ginger.

If I'm peeling some ginger, I'm peeling an entire "thumb" of ginger and storing the peeled slices in vodka in a mason jar. The ginger keeps for at least 2 months, though it's never been around for that long. I read about the technique from Fine Cooking.

After a few weeks to a month, I have ginger-infused vodka.


Why commercial gummies do not melt? I've noticed that commercial gummies do not melt, even when they are left in the sun, while home made gummies melt even at room temperatures sometimes.

What is the secret ingredient? Sugar?

I've been making a lot of room temp gelatins lately; not gummybears, something else with a bit lower gelatin concentration. The secret ingredient seems to be time. The first day, things are pretty jiggly, but even when hermetically sealed, things get tougher and tougher over a course of about three to four days. I expect it's some colloid maturation process involving random chains finding their best fit over time. Don't quote me on that, but the same sort of thing commonly happens on a faster timescale with gluten  maturation in bread dough.
A few hours in the fridge can speed up firming, but I'm not sure you end up with the same final gel structure that way.


damaged microwave door My young daughter put a small pan with a metal handle in the microwave. It began to spin around on the turntable and whacked the inside of the door. There was a spark and the inside of the door is marked. The first layer of the door has damage to it, almost like a hole, however the hole is not the whole way through the door. Is this safe to use or should I seek help?

To answer this question a bit of physics comes in handy:

Microwaves emit, well, microwaves, this is a form of electromagnetic radiation, like light or heat, with wavelengths (basically the distance between two peaks of the waves) between 1 meter (39.37") and 1 millimeter (0.039") and frequencies (number of times a wave goes up and down per second) between 300 MHz (300 million/second) and 300 GHz (300 billion). Interestingly, these wavelengths are pretty similar to those used in the radio frequencies - like WiFi. These wavelengths are very strongly absorbed by water, which is why it you can easily boil water in a microwave and why they are touted as "cooking from the inside out".

To stop the microwaves coming out of your microwave oven, it contains something called a Faraday cage. Faraday cages are basically a way of blocking the microwaves from coming out of your oven and cooking you or anything else nearby. In your microwave the cage will look like a wire mesh covering the door - the rest of the microwave is covered in sheet metal, which works the same way, but you can't see through it, and people like to be able to see into their microwaves.

At a minimum for a Faraday cage to work it needs to have have holes smaller than the shortest waves it is trying to block - in the case of microwaves this will be 1 mm. If the hole that the pan generated is bigger than this, then it can emit some microwaves.

Now the part we can't answer is how much radiation is getting out and how will this affect you - these can only be determined by measurement of the microwave emissions from the microwave. I recommend that you get it checked by a competent electrical service.


Black bit in olive oil Should I be concerned about a tiny black bit in my olive oil? I thought maybe something fell into it or perhaps it's a bit of olive sediment. It looks like a very tiny flake of something the size of a tiny bit of dried herb. Is that a problem? I keep thinking that anything left in oil is a bad thing food safety-wise.

As per your additional comment it's very probably a slice of olive skin and as high-quality olives are preserved in virgin olive oil, this will most likely not make any difference to the food safety nor taste of your product.

Having said that, without a biochemical analysis of the speck we cannot be 100% sure and it could be a speck of Black Nightshade, but the odds against that are enormous.

Though not zero...


Is One Of These An Appropriate Substitute For A Stewing Hen For Making Chicken Stock? A.) Cornish Hen

B.) Baking Hen

C.) Capon

Both Michel Roux and James Peterson advise using a stewing hen for making a chicken stock, but unfortunately no grocery stores in my area carry any. They do carry the three listed above tho.

From Poultry Meat Processing by Casey M. Owens and Christine Alvarado:

A stewing hen is the 52 week old breeder bird.

I can only guess to Roux and Peterson's suggestion, but it is probably based on size, and/or maybe that the maturity brings flavors to the stock that a young hen does not.

I would avoid the Cornish hen. They are very young and small.

Out of the options you list, you'll be OK with a large Baking hen.

Suggestion, if you have any Asian supermarkets nearby:

check out their poultry, sometimes they have better than the factory fed chain stores
pick up some chicken feet and add them to your stock, they add a great color and flavor


query on how to prevent burning of dum My dum biryani burns at the bottom each time even after using tawa. How about pouring a little water first just enough to cover the base of the vessel and arranging raw chicken/mutton at the bottom and then the half cooked rice on top for dum biryani ?? will it prevent burning and sticking of the chicken/mutton to the bottom of the vessel???

Keep the heat low. "Dum"ming the biryani is steaming it rather than cooking it with high heat. You'll also need to seal the container.
Burning happens because of the lack of liquid and the high heat. Mainly because the water evaporates while cooking. So yes, a little water will indeed help, but make sure you keep the heat low. Don't worry if the rice at the bottom becomes sticky. It's called "kurchan" and some people find it very tasty. Another alternative is to prepare the biryani in an oven (when you start with uncooked meat) in a very thick, covered oven pan with no foiling at 200 degree Celsius for approximately thirty minutes.


How can I rescue an undercooked pastry cream? Yesterday I attempted to make pastry cream (my goal was to use it as a filling for creme puffs). After taking it off of the heat and letting it cool to room temperature I put in the refrigerator. That evening I checked on it to find that it is still very thin and liquid, I imagine that I had not cooked the egg yolks long/hot enough. For reference the recipe I used is this one, I followed the steps supplied to the letter with the one exception that I must have not cooked for long enough after returning the pan to the heat once all the ingredients had been combined.

Is there some way to salvage my pastry cream?

perhaps it may be a viable option to simply return it to a sauce pan and cook (with whisking) until thickened
perhaps there is some other dish I could make with the yet-unthickened custard (one where it is cooked in the oven maybe?)

Any advice on the above bullets, or novel ideas, are greatly appreciated.

When this happens to me, I am distrustful of a simple reheat. It is possible that it was undercooked, but also possible that it was maybe overcooked/understirred and that most of the binding proteins solidified on the bottom and too little of them remained in the milk, or maybe that the ratios were simply wrong.

Your specific recipe also contains starch, so if you truly undercooked, then it's very probable that the yolks dissolved your starch, so you are left without any starch binding power.

The most secure way is to throw it out and make another batch, this time boiling so that it blubbs for at least a minute. If you really want to save it, just use another thickener. In pure custards, I tend to add starch if they don't turn out. If there is already starch in there, I prefer another thickener such as xanthan. First, I don't know why the starch didn't work the first time, but repeating it somehow feels wrong. Second, it can get too much of a starchy/floury taste.

The "other dish" is not something that can be answered on a Stack Exchange site. You have limitless possibilities to do with it whatever you want, starting with drinking it as it is. Anything which you can make with a custard which was made thin on purpose can be made with your failed custard too.


Recovering from Over Salted Sauerkraut I recently finished my first batch of sauerkraut and tasted it only to find that it's way too salty. In referencing the original recipe, I realized that I used the amount of salt recommended for 5lbs of cabbage but I only had 2.5lbs.

What, if anything, can I do to salvage the sauerkraut? Because of the way it's made, I wasn't sure that just adding the missing cabbage is a viable solution and part of me wonders if the salt is just part of the food now.

Rinsing the sauerkraut absolutely does work - we do it all the time, both with store-bought and homemade sauerkraut. Every batch of sauerkraut is different, so rinsing & tasting is the only way to ensure that your dishes turn out appropriately salted. Yes, some of the salt has entered the cabbage itself, but most of it will be in the brine/on the surface.

If rinsing in a colander isn't enough (and if you used twice the recommended amount of salt it's likely not to be), then you can drain the liquid as best you can, then add clean water to cover, and let it soak. Rinse and repeat until the salt level tastes more acceptable.

Adding more cabbage and letting it ferment some more is also an option, although the twice-fermented parts can end up rather mushy.


What happens to raw honey after the expiry date? Will it be edible? I have got a 3 kg pack of raw wild unheated honey. Expiry date is 18 months from packaging.

What is expected to happen to it after the expiry date? Will it be edible?

It is probably a best-before date (possibly regarding crystallization of the honey or other cosmetic changes), and should still be edible afterwards.

Most honey has historically been stored raw, it is still sold in the comb in places, and has still been known for having a long shelf life if left in a closed container.  Honey has mild antiseptic qualities, and too little water, for most anything nasty to grow in - usually the heating and other processing has more to do with appearance and texture (crystallization and cloudiness, and also batch consistency and efficiency), rather than specific safety concerns.  And if it does go bad, from exceedingly poor storage, too much moisture, or something of the sort - it should be very apparent, and on the surface only.

That being said, if you have concerns about your honey specifically or believe that its raw nature poses more risk - you should act as it seems safe for you.  Putting the honey in the fridge should double the shelf life, at least, though it will also encourage crystallization.


What is the procedure for Pillsbury cookies? I read the answer about spritzing the dough with a little water but my question is....do you
take the dough (I buy Pillsbury in a roll) out of the refrigerator and immediately start your cookies?  Or do you let the dough get room temperature?  When working with the dough should you
continually use flour to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin?

You should let the dough get to room temperature (IMO, no more than  20c)

And the dough contains enough fat that you should not need extra flour for the rolling pins.

This video shows how to make pillsbury cookies : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzyD_0ySatE


Guacamole Sitting out? So I find it odd, that every site says "Don't leave guac sitting out more than 2 hours or you'll get sick!"

But a lot of recipes (like alton browns for instance) actually say to let it sit out for a couple of hours at room temp?

Proof:
http://altonbrown.com/guacamole-recipe/

I ask because my buddy brought over some Guac for a cook out, and it was sitting in the house (at about 70 degrees so it wasn't super hot). And I think I ate some before we put it back in the fridge (and it had been out for about 3 hours).

(we got it from kroger, it was one of the ones they make fresh or whatever). It's still green and smells fine.)

So whats the deal?...2 hours too much yet a lot call for that. So if you let it sit out for 2 then serve it (and it sits out for 2 hours) thats four hours?

Thoughts?..am I probably ok?

Nobody is telling you "or you'll get sick"

What they are telling you that it's unsafe. This is a completely different thing. You can eat unsafe food if you like. The people who publish unsafe recipes do it too. They just count on not getting sick.

2 hours vs 4 hours

The actual "danger zone" time is 4 hours. For foods you buy in their final, perishable state, it's down to 2 hours, because it's assumed that the first two hours got "used up" between producer, transport and seller. So it just so happens that 4 hours for a homemade guacamole (whose clock started ticking when you cut the avocado) is still safe. But this is a coincidence, you probably can find recipes somewhere which say to keep it out longer than 4 hours before serving.

let it sit out for 2 then serve it (and it sits out for 2 hours)

That's not what a recipe assumes. It assumes that you let it sit for 2 hours and then serve it and it gets eaten. The recipe creator assumes that you know enough about food safety to make your own decisions if your process is different.


How to determine the alcohol content of a mixed-drink? Title says it all: How do I determine the alcohol content of a mixed-drink (Cocktail, Longdrink)?

Note - I know the alcohol content of all ingredients.

To a first approximation, you can just calculate the volume of pure ethanol in each of the alcoholic ingredients (total volume * %ABV = volume of pure ethanol), add those up, and divide by the total volume of all ingredients.

For example, a margarita with 35mL 40% ABV tequila, 20mL 40% ABV Cointreau, and 15mL lime juice would have alcohol content of (35mL*40% + 20mL*40% + 15mL*0%)/(35mL+20mL+15mL) = 31% ABV.

That's an approximation because the volumes are not strictly additive: mixing 50 ml pure ethanol with 50 ml water will actually give you something like 95 ml of the mixture. To get a truly accurate answer, you'll need to measure the volume of the final drink, and divide your total alcohol content by that.


Can one preserve food by periodically heating it? I get that keeping food temperature low will slow down chemical reactions and preserve food, but sometimes my sister preserves food by heating it every 6 hours or so (up to 1-2 days). Does this help preserving the food? If yes, how does it work?

If it matters, the food currently in question is this one, but I would appreciate a general explanation. In case anyone is wondering, she doesn't store it in the fridge because it is full.

YES!  If food is quickly heated and kept above 140F/60C, microorganisms can't grow in the food.  Professional kitchens use steam tables to keep food warm at this temperature throughout a day's service.  If the product is cooled quickly (generally using an ice bath), then it can be used for more than one day.

Another approach is often used for stocks and soups: heat them to 165F/75C daily or every two days, to kill microorganisms, then cool them quickly with an ice bath to under 40F/5C.  This can be done 2-3 times to extend the fridge life of the product.

The most important part of both approaches is to use a food thermometer to verify that food is fully heated/cooled, and to make sure that heating and cooling is done QUICKLY.  For food safety, you do not want food to be in the 40F/5C to 140F/60C range for more than an hour if possible, or two hours tops.

Another trick to extend the fridge life of food is to immediately transfer it from a still-hot pot to a cool container, and then leave the top of the container open to allow steam to escape.  This greatly reduces cooling time; even in a refrigerator, a sealed container may take over an hour to cool down to a safe temperature.


Why use yeast instead of baking powder? Both yeast and baking powder are used to gas-fill the pastry, make it expand and thus make it soft and fluffy.

Using yeast is rather inconvenient - it can be dead already or if the yeast is submerged in too hot water it can die and also waiting for yeast to work to let it gas-fill the pastry before baking is also not that convenient. Looks like the baking powder is more convenient - it can be stored for ages, can be mixed with hot water, baking can be started immediately after mixing the pastry.

Why is yeast used then? What are those advantages of yeast tham make people use yeast and not the baking powder?

Baking powder, especially if too great a quantity is used, adds an unpleasant flavor to a baked good.  Even in an appropriate quantity it can be noticeable and it certainly doesn't do anything to enhance the flavor.  Many baked goods traditionally don't use a chemical leavener at all, but instead rely on technique.  Creaming butter and sugar together or whipping egg whites was historically used to make cakes which rose solely based on the bubble network that was created.

Yeast, on the other hand, creates a delightful flavor that you associate with your favorite crusty loaf of bread.  Yeast can be used not only in making bread but also in some excellent cakes (St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake, for example, although many "knock off" recipes cheat here and miss out on the true goodness).  Yeast also provides a significantly different texture during the rising due to the intentional creation of a gluten network (usually something you absolutely don't want in a quick bread or quick cake) — you don't get a crumb with big, airy holes from baking powder or baking soda with an acid.

Also, in my experience baking powder lasts six months in the pantry and yeast lasts at least six months in the fridge.  The shelf life is not so different.

If yeast scares you, you may want to check out some of the proponents of the no-knead bread technique.

For a lot more information on this subject, there is a recent publication that covers all sorts of leavening agents.


Effect of adding wet ingredients to dry when making bread? I inadvertently omitted the eggs from my challah recipe, but realized this only after the final step of mixing in and after fully incorporating the flour.  Rather than throwing everything away, I attempted to resuscitate the dough by adding the eggs.

The dough took on a very odd texture initially, then I kept mixing and added a few tablespoons of extra flour very gradually.  Eventually it resembled the normal dough.

Should my bread turn out alright?  What happens when you add extra liquid to a flour rather than adding the flour last?

The main issue you will face is the extra mixing allows for additional gluten development.   In some breads, this could create a risk of over-kneading, which could make the dough less workable, more prone to tearing, and more difficult to get the proper rise.

Challah is a basic egg enriched bread, so other than the eggs themselves (which are fairly effective at helping prevent over-kneading) you don't have a great deal of protection.  The worst case scenario is that your bread will be a little flat and crumbly; the best case is that you are still well within the tolerance window and it will be just fine.

Edit:  I will leave this for reference, but I was thinking of brioche:  in a very sweet, fatty bread like brioche, this risk is minimized.  The fat and sugars in the dough act as barriers preventing the glutin-precursors from interacting as frequently or as easily, making it much, much more difficult to over knead.

The main reasons for the traditional order of dough assembly are:

As you no doubt realize, it is much easier to incorporate the liquids evenly into loose flour, rather than a partially formed dough
The yeast acts on the ingredients present, so sometimes ingredients which inhibit yeast growth are held back until after a fermentation phase
You want time for all of the flour to be fully hydrated--normally, in yeast raised doughs, this is hardly an issue.


My sourdough starter is bubbling but not rising, suggestions? I've been trying to grow my own sourdough starter; I went with a 'pure' method, with 50g each of hard-wheat flour from a local mill and water.  I've fed it once and it seems to be bubbling nicely after a couple of days, and the taste is nice and tangy, but I'm not noticing the increase in volume that I would expect.  The area I'm in (the Pacific NW) is still fairly cold (the interior temp in my house is probably mid- to upper-60s) so I suspect that could be a factor, but at what point (I'm about 4 days in now, including a second divide-and-feed pass a day or two ago) should I start to expect any real vigorous expansion out of the starter?

If the starter is "bubbling nicely" then you may be already there.

Bread rises because the CO2 produced by the yeast is trapped by the protein in the dough. If you see bubbles then your starter is already producing the necessary CO2.

A starter has so much water in it that the protein doesn't trap the gas- thus you see bubbles rise to the surface. If you expect your starter to trap the gas and expand then it would have to have more protein. This isn't required for a starter to work.

You should be able to use the starter in a bread dough and that bubbling will turn into rising.


Why does food cooked with peanut oil stick less than food cooked with sunflower oil? I tried both  peanut oil and sunflower oil on the same food cooked in the same pan and noticed that when cooked with sunflower oil, the food tends to stick to the pan. If I use peanut oil, I have less of a problem.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why both oils react differently even though they are used for cooking food? Both of them have the same smoke point.

I feel the same as you Anderson. I found that too and you just made me to do some research, which I found they have different smoke points.

Unrefined sunflower oil 225°F   107°C
Unrefined peanut oil    320°F   160°C

see the link: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats

Also, one of the reasons food stick to the pan is the evenness of the temperature of the pan. If you use a thicker pan or copper pan, the heat will be distributed on the pan more evenly and food will stick less. The higher smoke point of oil makes me to believe the oil helps to distribute heat more evenly.


What is the best technique to put icing on plastic? I'm going to attempt to do is bake a cake for my daughter's first birthday. The cake is going to be based on this recipe, but I want it to look more like this one.

Now if you look at the 2nd link, it seems as though the icing has been put directly onto the doll. I can see a problem here, how will it stick to the smooth plastic of the doll.

What would be the best way do you think? Create some sort of base layer which is more tacky and then ice over that?

Edit

The recipe which I have linked to is incomplete when it talks about the Icing. So I would probably use this Butter Cream recipe.

Update

I took all your comments and suggestions on board. Spent a few weeks trying out different sponges, and then did a rough prototype.

Then the day before her birthday, I made this

I am happy with it! Hope you approve :P

Are you sure you want to use icing? The barbie cakes I have seen all have the skirt made from rolled marzipan, not from icing. The bodice can be a normal fabric top or dress (inedible, can be washed after the cake is eaten) or also molded from marzipan. I agree that it isn't as tasty as buttercream icing, but it surely makes a more beautiful skirt.

This recipe has 196 pictures, you can see different variations of the bodice.

If you insist on using icing, I would try to smear something sticky onto the doll first, for example honey or syrup in the softball stage, then apply the icing on the sticky layer. I haven't tried this myself (nor have I tried applying icing directly to plastic, so I don't know if it will hold).

On another note, don't forget to put the barbie's legs in a cut-off paper towel cylinder, so she doesn't get damaged when the cake is cut, and doesn't fall when pieces of the skirt are missing. Also, if you bake the layers in a guggelhupf pan, you don't have to cut a piece out of the middle, which is hard to get right.


Techniques for mixing bread dough with stand mixer Can anyone tell me what the best technique is for using a stand mixer to make bread dough?

I just got a stand mixer with a dough hook and have started using it for mixing and kneading bread dough. It seems that I have to add more flour than I would expect to get it to "pull away from the sides of the bowl".

What should I expect at the different stages?  What determines how long should I mix/knead, is there a simple set time?

Mixing bread with a stand mixer will normally take 10-12 minutes, depending on speed.  A lot of this smaller mixers will tend to 'walk' if they are not anchored.  Look for the dough to be smooth and supple, but not shiny.  If it is shiny, and appears wet, it is over mixed.
To start, it will look choppy and rough, sometimes you will have to pull all of the dough off of the hook and start up again, because it seems the dough will gravitate to the top of the hook and that part of the dough will not mix properly.  This of course depends on the dough consistency to start with.  Remember that a crusty bread dough will be stiffer, and a sweet dough will be soft, and should have a spot on the bottom that doesn't clear the bowl.


How to "Sponge" in "Sponge and Dough"? I'm trying to improve my bread making and have read about the sponge and dough method.

From my understanding, I should use 20% to 30% of my flour for the sponge. To the sponge's flour, I should add 60% (of the sponge flour's weight) water. Then I add 1% (again, of the sponge flour's weight) of yeast.

So, assume a formulation that uses 1 kilogram of flour. Also assume that I will use 30% of my flour for the sponge. I would calculate the following:

300 grams flour
180 grams water (60% of 300)
3 grams yeast (1% of 300)

Was my understanding correct? A dough with 60% hydration feels a bit solid to me (not what I thought a sponge might feel like). Here's a photo of my "sponge":

Is this correct? I'm worried I'm doing this wrong.

Also, since my entire formula is 65% water -- couldn't I just combine all my flour, all my water, and all my yeast to make one big sponge?

There are many ways to make a sponge.  Probably no way is totally wrong (OK, maybe adding 10mL of water to 1000g of flour is totally wrong).

There are wet sponges and dry sponges. Supposedly the ratio of flour to water in your sponge can have different effects on the final product. I haven't paid enough attention or done scientific enough studies to decide whether this is actually true. These two general classes of sponge (wetter and drier) are often called poolish and biga respectively. There's a ton to learn about pre-ferments.  Here's a discussion on the difference between poolish and biga: Funtional effect of biga vs poolish

So, is your ratio of flour to water wrong? Not necessarily. I'd imagine you can find a recipe for a biga with that exact ratio. I just pulled a cookbook off my shelf (Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast) and found that the ratios in the biga recipes are similar to your recipe: 340g water to 540g flour and 544g water to 800g flour (that's 68% in both cases).  In both cases the biga is a larger percentage of the total dough than in your case (50% and 80% respectively), but that probably doesn't matter too much.


How can I make the tops of my macarons smooth? After a recent trip to France, I have become mildly obsessed with making macarons (using this recipe). I have made a couple of batches so far - the first didn't turn out well, more like cookies than macarons, due to under-whipped egg whites and too-coarse almonds.

The second batch has turned out better, much more like macarons. I whipped the egg whites to stiff, glossy peaks and blitzed the almonds, powdered sugar and cocoa in a food processor to remove lumps and make the almonds finer. Some of the macarons even have the characteristic little 'feet'.

However, while the flavour and texture seem generally good, they don't have the smooth, perfect surface of a proper macaron. Looking at videos online, it would seem my mixture is too stiff, because any little tip of mixture left by the piping bag fails to 'melt' into the main part of the macaron - it simply sits there. Also, any little craters left by air holes in the mixture fail to smooth themselves out, so the result is a bumpy macaron.

Given that the egg whites need to be stiff and glossy, what else could be a factor in achieving a smooth macaron? I assume the amount of powdered sugar is a factor, but how much can I safely reduce the amount by?

The meringue should be glossy and form soft peaks. When you take your whisk out of the meringue it should look like this:

The French say that when you take the whisk out of the meringue, it has to look a bit like a bird's beak, hence the way the meringue forms a soft peak slightly pointing downwards.

But to be honest, I don't believe that is you problem. I guess you just undermix your batter. People often say it has to fall like a ribbon or like magma, but I always thought that is hard to imagine. You can take a knife and cut through the batter. If it flows back immediately, it's ready. But let me tell you: One or two strokes too much with the spatula and the batter becomes unusable.

And one tip I can give you: The process of transferring the batter into the piping bag also 'mixes' the batter, so maybe don't go too far if you are unsure.

And as already said, it is important to tap the the tray from the bottom after piping as it helps to remove any air bubbles in there. Also, always pipe straight from the top (90° angle). This also helps the batter to smooth out.

I wouldn't recommend you to chance the amount of powdered sugar, as the French use Tant pour Tant (TPT) for their macarons, which means fine almond meal and powdered sugar are mixed proportional to each other.

When mixed perfect, it looks like this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WhPHUKwckUw/S4WP1eBE7pI/AAAAAAAAB00/gYqFjGOvEiU/s1600-h/5.jpg

When gone too far, it looks like this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WhPHUKwckUw/S4WP-q8RrdI/AAAAAAAAB08/7R6uO1uGfBQ/s1600-h/6.jpg

Maybe try counting your strokes while mixing, some people say that it helped them.