Cookies called monte cows? A family member recently inherited a recipe for some simple but delicious crumbly cookies from her grandmother. They consist of flour, sugar, and canola oil with cinnamon on top.

The grandmother in question calls them "monte cows". No one knows the correct pronunciation, meaning or origin of the name. Does something by a similar name exist? What is it really called and why?

The way my French boyfriend and French roommate (both with Spanish grandmothers) pronounce the name, it does sound like "Monte Cows," or "monte cailloux." As far as I have been explained this cookie have resulted from a mix ofMuslim/Ottoman cuisine and Spanish cuisine; it's definitely not French. It is also affectionately referred to as a "poor person's cookie" because of its super-simple ingredients.

The recipe is a simple ratio of 3:2:1 -- 3 parts flour, two parts sugar, one part oil (we've used canola or peanut, both work well). We've used measuring cups or just regular mugs or even small bowls and it has worked every time. If they're a tiny bit dry and crumble too easily when you're shaping them, adding a tiny bit more oil helps keep everything together. Cinnamon sprinkled on top is great, and I tried adding a tiny half-teaspoon of almond extract once.


Non-beet alternatives to standard red food dye I'd like to make a red colored cake for my red-head daughter's first birthday, and I would like a non-beet alternative way to dye it red. I've made red velvet cake before and the bug-based food coloring I used tasted and smelled awful. Plus I hear it can cause allergic reactions in young children.

I like beets, but I don't want a beet flavored cake so that alternative is out. Are there any other alternatives for a UK based amateur baker?

Red Velvet cake originally was a reddish brown from the natural processed cocoa (not Dutched) reacting with the baking soda.  You can still make red velvet cake this way, but it will not have the glowing hue that dyes create.

You have to be sure not to use Dutch-processed cocoa powder as this has been pH neutralized and it is the acidity of natural cocoa powder that helps it retain its red color (which is caused by anthocyanins in the cocoa).  Using buttermilk as the liquid in the recipe will help keep the environment acidic enough to be hospitable for the red coloring.

Hershey's and Nestle both sell natural cocoa powder.


Quinoa Flour Substitute I don't have quinoa flour for a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup regular flour and 1/2 cup quinoa flour.  Gluten free is not necessary.

I have regular flour and whole wheat flour, which should I use for the 1/2 cup quinoa flour?

I'd recommend just using regular flour. Since this is not a GF recipe, the quinoa flour is likely added for nutritional reasons, including increasing the protein content. If that is not a concern of yours, just use regular flour. Using whole wheat flour would give you a different flavor profile.


Can you make french toast without eggs and gluten? I have an allergy to eggs and gluten. But before getting the allergy my favorite breakfast food was french toast. I've tried gluten free bread dipped in soy milk but it's not the same and doesn't taste very good either. Is there a better way of doing it?

Egg replacements are an option depending on where you live and what products are available, but from what I hear they don't produce a similar result to eggs. Most egg-free french toast recipes use applesauce mixed with milk or yogurt and a bit of sugar for dipping, and from what I've heard they work well.


How hot is the bottom of a pot of boiling water? I need to put a plastic bag in a pot of boiling water.
The bag is rated to handle up to 200C (400F).
I will be using a stainless steel (or aluminum) pot on a gas stove.

I am worried that the temperature of the metal touching the plastic bag will go higher or near the limit of what the plastic can handle, and it may affect the plastic bag integrity or the safety of the food.

I suppose, water inside the pot should be bringing down the temperature to near boiling temperature.

I do not have any temperature measuring equipment.

Anyone before has measured the temperature of the metal inside the pot, preferably near the middle (at the hottest possible point) ?

At a full boil, the water and steam will all be 100C, even close to the bottom, so you'll be totally fine if the bag's just in the water. (With a big bag obstructing the flow, it may be a bit less than 100C at the surface, but I don't think that's a concern for you.)

If a significant area of the bag touches the bottom, all bets are pretty much off. At that point, there's no water there to hold the temperature down. Food burns when it sticks to the bottom of pots, even with boiling liquid around elsewhere, so I wouldn't be surprised if it can reach 400F.

So I'd do like Wayfaring Stranger suggested in comments: just keep the bag off the bottom. You basically want a canning rack, but all that really matters is that it's something that's mostly open space, so water can flow around (i.e. not a plate) but solid enough to hold things up.

Some makeshift canning rack substitutes would work too:

a bunch of jar rings (for canning racks, people usually tie them together, but for a one-off you might be able to do without)
something made out of crumpled/rolled up aluminum foil
any kind of oven rack that fits in your pot
a bunch of rocks or anything else heat-safe that sinks in water


New to canning, first attempt Peach Jam First time canning my ball wide mouth jar may have gone into the water bath with the lid depressed. Must it go in with the lid in a popped up position? Now cooled, it makes a thud sound when tapped with the side of a spoon, but the lid is stuck to the jar. Any opinions on if this is properly sealed?

It should come out of the bath with the button up and as it cools, the button will pull in with a satisfying pop.
If that doesn't happen the jar might be sealed, but there just isn't a good way to know short of forcing the lid.
If the lid is stuck firmly, without jam having leaked out onto the seal, I would be confident in the seal.
If you really want peace of mind, you can clean the rim, replace the lid with a new one, and process the jar again.


Ceramic made from alumina poisonous? I was searching for ceramic knife and learned they can be made from Zirconia or Alumina.  Some cheap ones could be from the latter because material is cheaper.

Isn't Aluminum Oxide poisonous to human body?  I don't care much about the knife, but I do have a cheap manual cranking ceramic burr grinder for coffee.  Those single use pepper grinder also has ceramic.  Can't imagine they are made with quality in mind.

Should I worry?

Aluminium oxide is used in toothpaste (as an abrasive) and tablets (as an inactive filler). You'll get much more from these sources than from food preparation.

It's essentially insoluble in water as well, making it hard to absorb from food. Some other aluminium compounds are much more soluble especially given that the stomach is acidic, and are a cause for more concern.

For a (very) full review of the health science of aluminium compounds in general (including the oxide), see Human Health Risk Assessment for Aluminium, Aluminium Oxide, and Aluminium Hydroxide,
Krewski et al. J Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev. 2007; 10(Suppl 1): 1–269.


Is butter ever the same after having been melted? I was recently doing some experiments with butter which involved melting it gently in the microwave and pouring it into dishes. It seemed to me that after the butter had cooled and re-solidified, it wasn't really the same. The color was yellower, and the texture somewhat grainy.

Obviously if I microwave the butter a lot, the water will boil off. But I microwaved on low power, stirring frequently, hoping to minimize water loss.

Is there some change that happens to butter when it's melted and then cooled? Or am I imagining things?

Butter may look totally amorphous, but there's actually a fair amount of structure in the fat, in particular fat crystals that make it firmer. Melting it disrupts all that structure, and it can't regain it just by resolidifying, so the structure of previously melted butter really is different.

You might notice that this is similar to chocolate: if you take smooth, snappy tempered chocolate, melt it, and let it resolidify, the texture will often be grainy, soft, or even crumbly. That's also thanks to fat crystals, in that case in the cocoa butter.

To back up a bit, let's look at how butter is made. Churning is the most well-known step, but there's more:

Aging (heating, cooling, and storing the cream). The cream is heated and cooled, with resting periods at various temperatures, which encourages formation of certain kinds of fat crystals. (The details of this process vary; for example different temperatures can be used depending on the hardness of the milkfat.)
Churning. This damages the fat globules, causing them to release fat, which forms much of the mass of the butter and lets it collect into grains.
Working/kneading. After draining off the buttermilk, the grains are kneaded together. This evens out small amounts of buttermilk trapped in the grains, and fat crystals can also come together into larger networks.

So the final butter actually has three forms of fat in it: fat crystals, free fat, and fat globules. The fat crystals make it firmer, and the free fat and globules make it softer. This also explains why butter isn't all the same texture. For example, from On Food and Cooking:

  Feeds rich in polyunsaturated fats, especially fresh pasturage, produce softer butters; hay and grain harder ones. The butter maker also influences consistency by the rate and degree of cooling to which he subjects the cream during the aging period, and by how extensively he works the new butter. These conditions control the relative proportions of firming crystalline fat and softening globular and free fat.

So when you melt and resolidify butter, it's not just a simple solid to liquid to solid thing. You're disrupting the crystals, and potentially even rupturing a few more fat globules. That means a couple things:

There's likely more free fat and less crystals, which explains why previously melted butter can be much softer than the original butter.
The crystals that do remain or reform won't have the same structure as the original ones, since you didn't follow the same heating/cooling/storing regimen. That explains the graininess you noticed. It's possible that working/kneading the butter might even that back out to some extent.

The exact texture of your previously melted butter will probably vary, depending on how hot you melted it and how fast you cooled it afterwards.


How long would you keep this Caesar dressing? My Caesar dressing contains the following: mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, fresh ground pepper.
How long do you think I should I keep it before I pitch it?
And why is it that bottled commercial dressings last months and homemade do not?
What do they have in theirs that we don't have in ours, and can't we put it in ours?

I make a nearly identical recipe for caesar dressing, and have safely used leftover dressing up to a week later. I can't vouch for any "technical" food spoilage rates, only that my friends, family, and I have never gotten sick from eating salad with dressing in this age range.

I can't speak to anything longer than that, as the dressing never seems to last that long!

As a closing note: if you are in doubt, don't eat it!


How to Make the perfect French Custard? I've tried numerous recipes, watched different videos, and adopted different techniques, but to this day I can't make good plain custard.

Some of the issues with previous custards:

Egg taste ( I realize this is probably due to me pouring hot over eggs, but I assure you it's not, I do it very very slowly)
Deflation (the custard deflates in the middle) I'm assuming this is due to me over mixing, or not adding flour / baking powder.
Texture ( sometimes the taste is frigging amazing, but it's either too runny or too hard.

I've given up on making custard and by mine "fresh" from a local baker.

Recipe I use:

3 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Combine until not foamy
bake in a water bath until stiff

Custard should taste eggy. This is a feature, not a bug. However, from your mention of flour, I think what you're talking about is a souffle, not something like a creme brulee or along those lines. Would that be correct?

Edited based on subsequent clarifications:

Ah. Your method is sorely lacking, and your ingredients are off. You need to temper the yolks first, you need to use yolks only, and use cream instead of milk. Here is a smaller version of what I use at work for creme brulee:
- 1L 35% cream
- 11 egg yolks
- 1C sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped

Bring cream to a simmer with the vanilla seeds and pod (you can use approx 1.5tsp vanilla extract, pure not artificial, instead). While it is heating, beat the yolks and sugar together until just incorporated. Pour the cream into the eggs whisking briskly to prevent curdling. Pour mixture through a fine chinois. Skim off foam, pour into ramekins. Place ramekins in a pan, add water to 1/2way up the sides. Cover pan with foil. Bake at 275 (convection) or 325 (non convection) for approx 40 minutes, until wobbly in the centre but set. Chill until set, eat.

The deflation is caused by a souffle effect coming from including the egg whites, which are never used in a custard--custards, creme anglaise, etc, are always yolks only. When you include the whites, air will be trapped inside temporarily, and will escape/collapse when the mixture cools. If you bake until fully stiff with my method, you will get hard and rubbery custard by the time it is set in the fridge.

Also, save the whites--they freeze well--for meringues or souffles.


For blenders, is Stainless Steel sturdier than Glass? My grandparents intend to blend warm (≤ 70°C = 158°F) soups in addition to fruits and vegetables. To them, glass feels more fragile and untrustworthy compared to stainless steel. So is stainless steel stouter?

They know that opacity is one disadvantage of Stainless Steel; they haven't lighted on a transparent stainless steel container/jar.

If they are going to blend hot soups, go with stainless. Glass can (and does!) crack due to the thermal issues. If they are religious about cooling their soups down to room temperature glass can be ok. But I've definitely had glass jars crack when blending hot soups. Tempered glass does not solve all problems.


How many teaspoon of milk is needed to melt 50g of chocolate? I am melting some chocolate on pan so I read that melting with water cause some lumps, and told that to use milk. So I want to know how much milk I need to use. I am using normal Cadbury Diary Milk chocolate bar approx of 50g.

You do not need any milk to melt chocolate. The goal with melting chocolate is to keep it within a range of heat so that it doesn't burn or separate.

A bain-marie is a technique where you place a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water to heat the contents of the bowl slowly.  If you're melting chocolate for dipping bananas, I would recommend using the microwave technique (mentioned in the comments).  It's a lot easier. Just do short bursts (10-15 seconds) and stir in between each round.

Aside: If you want to go all out, you can read about tempering chocolate. Tempering chocolate will help the chocolate set with a nice shine.  It will also set at room temperature.  I avoid all this and throw the bananas in the freezer for a few minutes after dipping them in chocolate. I hope this helps!


Recognize grass-fed beef? I am in the process of losing weight and I am using a meal prep service to help me with portion control. I choose the ingredients, order online and they deliver via fedex. One of the options is to order grass-fed beef and, naturally, there is a premium on this meat (and the meal prep service is not cheap to begin with!).

So, when the meal is in a cooked state, how can I verify that they are sending me grass-fed beef? Are there any markers/taste I should be looking for? The service has a good reputation, but I just want to be able to verify that I'm getting what I paid for.

Grass-fed beef will have yellow fat rather than the white fat of grain-fed beef. This is because of the beta-carotene in the grass, apparently.


What are the advantages of using agave sweetener instead of sugar? From what I can tell, it seems that the only advantage is that it has a lower glycemic index.

Here's my logic...

On my organic blue agave sweetener bottle, it says that it's 25% sweeter than sugar, so you can use less than sugar (use 3 parts of agave sweetener for every 4 parts of sugar).

Cane sugar has 4g of sugar in 1 teaspoon (4g). (4 teaspoons (or 16g) of cane sugar = 16g of sugar).

Agave sweetener has 16g of sugar in 1 tablespoon (21g). (3 teaspoons (or 21g) of agave sweetener = 16g of sugar).

So from a nutritional point of view, if you substitute 4 teaspoons of sugar for 3 teaspoons of agave sweetener, you are getting the same grams of sugar (16 in this case), which has the same amount of calories (64). So there seems to be no benefit here.

Are they just trying to say that you're using less of the product so you can save money? If so, that is very misleading, since agave sweetener costs significantly more ($0.16/oz, $0.04/tsp) than sugar ($0.05/oz, $0.007/tsp) by 82.5%. That's nowhere near the 25% it can cost more than sugar and still be a cheaper alternative.

The only other benefit I see is that it says that its glycemic index (39) is lower than sugar's (68) [source].

Am I overlooking anything? Are there any other benefits?

Agave sweetener has a higher level of fructose (as high as 92% versus table sugar's 50%). You can use less than 16 grams of agave sugars and have it be as sweet as 16 grams of cane sugars. Lower calories for the same sweet taste.


Does the chinese method of throwing minced meat really make a difference? I've seen a method that is supposedly used in China (and possibly elsewhere?) for giving minced meat a certain texture, often for dumpling filling.

The idea seems to be either or a combination of:

Mixing the lean part of the mince without any fat until it gets sticky
Bashing/throwing the meat

This video does it both:
https://youtu.be/NrGGVB2qVHQ?t=234 and
https://youtu.be/NrGGVB2qVHQ?t=300

Here the throwing part is described
http://food-locker.blogspot.com/2012/10/steamed-pork-patty.html

  The final step is to lift the vegetable-filled minced pork up high and thrust it back into the bowl. This procedure makes the texture denser (起膠) and therefore yields a chewier texture (彈牙) in the final dish. Repeat this thrusting motion for about 20 times.

Is there any truth to this?

Yes, there is a definite difference in the texture when the meat is prepared in this way.  I have heard that the proteins in the meat are separated by the beating process, which gives the resulting meat a very bouncy, chewy or even rubbery texture when eaten.  Most other meatballs do not have this type of texture, and are more apt to fall apart, say Spanish/Mexican Albondigas, Swedish or Italian meatballs have quite a different texture.

If you have Netflix there is a series of short documentaries called Flavorful Origins, on Chaoshan food, in two of the films they made mention to these techniques.  Season 1, episode 13 is titled, Beef Meatballs.  The other is episode 17, Fish Ball and wrapped fish.  The beef meatballs, are beaten with an iron bar for 30 minutes.  While the fishballs are slammed down into a bowl. Hope this helps.


Can someone identify this food? I saw my friend eating this Asian snack, either Japanese or Chinese, which I've seen before in those Asian markets. It is hard to describe, but it looks like a ball of dough, with a clearish color. It is not cooked, and it is not a dumpling. Inside the ball, there is some jelly substance with nuts. It's quite a strange food.

Can someone identify it?

Based on your photo, this is most likely a wagashi (Japanese sweet) called daifuku in Japanese. It's got an outer layer made from cooked glutinous rice that has been pounded and kneaded aggressively until smooth, which is called mochi. The inside is often a red bean paste made from a bean called azuki in Japanese (or adzuki in an odd English-language spelling from circa the 1970s) and sugar. The bean paste is called anko (or sometimes just an), pronounced ahn-ko.

Variations in the exterior include flavoring with yomogi (mugwort), which turns the color greenish, or the addition of other colorants. The filling may be made from other beans such as white beans (shiro-an), green peas (uguisu-an), edamame (zunda), and so on.

There are variations made in Korea and China as well.


What is the best place to store garlic in the kitchen? I've been at a friend's house. When I looked for the garlic I the fridge my friend said garlic doesn't go in the fridge. But another friend said garlic lasts longer if placed in the fridge, even when it hasn't been peeled and placed in plastic foil / film.

What's the best place to put garlic in the kitchen and why?

Keep your garlic away from the refrigerator, or any cold storage. Garlic germinates after exposure to cold, which is why it's planted in autumn. This means that putting your garlic in the refrigerator is a bad idea as it will cause it to sprout, which creates undesirable changes in flavor and texture.

The garlic you buy at the store has been cured (dried) and will last for months at room temperature, and that's the best place for it to be. Garlic pots are better than sealed containers because they have holes that allow airflow, keeping the garlic from getting soggy while protecting it from sunlight or other strong light. I grow garlic and make my own garlic strings and braids, which I hang in my kitchen, I always make sure they are hung somewhere out of direct sunlight, but if I wasn't putting them out for show I would keep them in a cool, dark cupboard.

Here's a picture of my garlic pot, although there are many designs out there.


Why is a 4 lb bag of sugar at the grocery store hard as a rock? When I purchase sugar the bags are often brick hard.

How does this happen?
Is the sugar 'damaged' some how?
Is it safe to    use?

This happens when sugar is exposed to moisture. I've noticed this frequently happening when sugar is shipped on a refrigerated truck, then stored at room temperature, allowing some condensation to form. Whether the sugar is "damaged" or not depends on what you want to use it for. If you're going to put it in coffee, or otherwise dissolve it, it should be fine. If you want to sprinkle it over a donut, it probably won't work.

Whether it's safe or not is a much harder question to answer, as it would depend entirely on how it was exposed to moisture. If it's from humidity or condensation, it should be fine. If it's from something being spilled or splashed on the bag, who knows?


Is it ok to let vegetables cool before roasting? Could I boil vegetables now (potato, beetroot etc.) And then roast them a few hours later?
This would be convenient, but would it effect their taste, texture etc?

Yes, this works, as long as you don't boil them too long. The idea is that by the time they get roasted properly (e.g. your potatoes are browned on the outside) the inside is only just cooked, not overcooked. I'd aim for very roughly half cooked, starting to be pokeable with a fork but not actually tender.

For flavorful things like beets, you may lose some flavor into the water, but they should still be quite good. If you want to avoid this, though, you can just steam them instead, or even microwave. It's not really much more trouble than boiling! If you do this, and get the timing right, it won't really affect the taste or texture much at all compared to just roasting.


What is the effect of a semolina/plain flour mix in pasta making? I have made fresh egg pasta a couple times now using various combinations of semolina and plain flour (4:1 semolina to plain flour, 4:1 plain flour to semolina, all plain flour).

Seeing as semolina flour is more expensive than plain flour, what's the effect of the semolina/plain flour mix on the texture and flavour meant to be? Perhaps the distinction is lost on me, but for me all the variations taste roughly the same.

Firstly, all-purpose, high protein ("OO"), semolina, whole wheat and other flours make excellent pastas on their own or in combination.  So, at the end of the day, you should use what you like, have on hand or is economically feasible.  Semolina flour, either by itself, of in combination with other flours, should not impact the flavor much...but it should create a slightly "rougher" texture.  Some claim that this helps sauce cling better, but I have never done a side-by-side comparison.


Is it possible to oversoak wood chips for smoking? I wanted to prepare for a long day of cooking and get the wood chip soak out of the way.  My barbequed brisket recipe calls for soaking the (hickory) wood chips for 30 minutes.

If I soak the wood chips longer, is it possible that they would become so saturated that they wouldn't smoke or would take so long to dry out as to become impractical?  Or should they already be fully saturated after 30 minutes?

My gut says that it shouldn't matter--given that one of the batches of chips actually sits in water on the grill.

Soaking wood chips accomplishes almost nothing, as proven here.

Summary from amazing ribs link: Soaking wood does not work, as it takes more than days to saturate wood. And temperature measurements from wood soaked for a day show little change

Their recommendation: have two containers of wood, one dry, and one covered with water (steam is required as well). The water filled container of wood will boil dry by the time the first lot of dry wood has smoked out, and it will then smoke away too


Temperature to disable enzymes in soy beans When making soy milk, I've understood that you should disable some enzymes and that you do that with boiling heat for minimum of 15 minutes. Since boiling soy milk usually result in a messy boil-over, I'd like to use a lower temperature instead but haven't found any information about what temperature/time to use?

According to this  Lipoxygenase is a crucial enzyme to deactivate.

And in this paper they use 60°C for 30 minutes after soaking the beans. But the pH may also be important. For normal water pH is around 7.


Fajitas: Marinade Vegetables With Chicken My local grocery store prepares a chicken fajita blend that has the chicken, marinade, onions, and peppers all mixed together.  It's simply for convenience.  Buy x amount of the mixture, go home, throw it into a skillet, and voila: dinner.  My question is whether or not this is safe?  and if so, does marinating the vegetables detract from the blend of flavors they normally provide?  I like biting into a fajita and tasting the individual flavors.

Thank you in advance for any advice

Your grocery store has it down to a science.

To get all parts "done" at the same time, they have to be cut to the right size. Your grocery store does that very well. The marinade flavors all parts, but the marinade doesn't carry flavors much (see here, different but similar: How deeply will the flavors in a brine penetrate chicken?) So it works.

Is it safe? Certainly, as long as you cook it within a couple of days and don't let it linger in the "danger zone" (40F to 140F) for too long. (Too long per government standards is 2 hours cumulative. Since you can't know how long the grocery had it there, don't mess with it, just put it in the fridge as soon as you get it home, and cook it straight from the fridge.)


Making baking powder substitute with baking soda and powdered citric acid I have no baking powder, but I do have baking soda and powdered citric acid. Can these be combined to substitute for 1 teaspoon of baking powder?  If so, how much of each would I use?

Yes, I have found several sources that say that citric acid is about 4 times the strength of cream of tartar. So, mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid and use a 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture.

That should work. Let us know!

EDIT: Oops, I should have mentioned this before the OP accepted. Hopefully, he'll realize, or see this. That substitution will approximate single action baking powder, so don't dilly-dally before cooking! (Difference Between Double and Single Action Baking Powder)

2nd EDIT: Just to be extra confident, I compared the reaction (according to the method of David Lebovitz) of 1/4 tsp of my recommended mixture with boiling water and 1/2 tsp of new Rumford Baking Powder with boiling water. The results seemed identical.

3rd EDIT: I actually found this question pretty intriguing. While I could find plenty of evidence that it should work (including my own little water experiment), I couldn't find anything definitive that said it does work.

Well, it just so happens that I had some cream in the fridge, and I have been meaning to try America's Test Kitchen's cream biscuits. With nothing in them but flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cream; they should be perfect for comparing real baking powder with the substitution.

SO:

I made biscuits.

They taste as identical as they look. (pretty yummy too)

I can now say with authority, the substitution works. 1 tsp fresh Rumford Brand Baking Powder = 1/2 tsp of a mixture of 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp citric acid.


What is good water-pan placement for offset smoker I want to smoke a pork shoulder low and slow: 240 degrees at around 15-20 hours.  I'm using an offset smoker, Oklahoma Joe Highland.

What is a good placement of water pan(s) and why?

According to Meathead Goldwyn, water pans can go over the heat source or under the meat, depending on the style of cooker you are using, and the desired effect.  They can aid in maintaining temperature or adding moisture to the environment.  I would say, in your case, to avoid placing it under the meat, as there will be quite a bit of air circulation in your offset smoker.


What is this colored fiber in my chicken? I smoked a whole chicken. When I cut into the breast I found this:

What is it and is my chicken ruined?

It's called deep pectoral myopathy or "green muscle disease", and it's a problem with heavy breasted poultry. The vessels are unable to supply enough blood to the muscle, with the result of death of the muscles affected. It's not detectable until the chicken is cut open. By the time you see the green colour, muscle death occurred a couple of weeks prior and fibrous woody tissue has developed. Since breeding practices for roaster chickens and turkeys often favor heavy-breasted poultry, this is likely to be found more often until that changes.

There is no odour or bacterial growth with this, and the meat itself is safe to eat, though no one would eat the green part. The Occurrence of Deep Pectoral Myopathy in Roaster Chickens, from The Journal of Applied Poultry Research, has extensive info available about it.


Baked beans still firm after soaking and hours of cooking I decided I would make baked beans for a BBQ at my MIL's this past weekend. I've never made baked beans but decided that it was time since I love them so much! I found a recipe for Southern Baked Beans (using Navy beans). It was from a food blog.

During the description/commentary of the dish the blogger said they could be made with dried beans but she uses canned to save time. The recipe only mentioned canned beans. I couldn't find anything to tell me the ratio canned:dried beans so I decide a 1:1 ratio would be good. After putting a 24oz bag of beans in a cake pan (the recipe called for 32oz canned beans), I decided that was A LOT of beans so didn't add the remaining 8oz. I rinsed them first then soaked them for 15-18 hours. I rinsed them again and put them in a pot with the rest of the ingredients.

The recipe said to bake them at 350 for about 40 minutes and they should be done. After an hour and a temperature increase to 400, the beans weren't anywhere close to being done. At this point I decided they were probably very old beans. :( I moved them to the stove after another 30 minutes. They boiled on the stove for another 1 1/2 hours and were still rock hard (I kept adding water so they wouldn't boil dry - and this was on medium to medium-low heat).

We left the beans at my MIL's and she cooked them "off and on" (her words) the next day and declared they were done. They are not done. :(

Now that they've been cooked then refrigerated then cooked then refrigerated again, can I attempt to salvage them? I've read that adding 1/8 tsp baking soda per cup of beans will soften them. Is it too late to try this - add the beans, more water, and a small amount of baking soda and cook them a little more? I've put so much effort into these stupid beans I can't just give up! LOL

Since it's hard to know the age of your beans, it's best to cook them before you start adding sauce ingredients. My approach is:

soak them about 20 hours. Depending on how much water they soak up you may add more halfway through - if you set them soaking in the early evening, check them in the morning
drain, rinse, and then boil for about two hours, checking to see if they are soft. If they're not soft, don't move on, keep them boiling (a low boil, but more than a simmer)
once they're soft, drain them, add the sauce and whatever else (onions, bits of ham) and put them in the oven. I typically give them an hour in there but at this point it's about reducing the sauce, getting the flavours to mingle and soak in, that sort of thing.

My beans come from the local farmer who supplies all my fresh vegetables, but I don't always use them all right away. This week I cooked some cranberry beans from the late summer of 2013. They were creamy and soft using this technique.


Bacon in sealed package, 4 days at room temp I bought 4 packages of vacuum packed bacon 4 days ago, left them on the counter at room temperature by mistake. I opened them tonight, they smelled fine, color was good, bacon was not slimy. I cooked a piece and ate it, tasted fine. Is this bacon OK to eat? (too late for me...)

Modern bacon is insufficiently cured to preserve it--or perhaps it is more accurate to say that you are not guaranteed that it is sufficiently cured.

You should discard this product.


Can I increase the cocoa content in fudge? I've been using a standard fudge recipe that works great, and yet I only wish was that it was even more chocolatey, with more cocoa taste. If it was less sweet that would be fine, too. Can I substitute some sugar for cocoa to accomplish this? Or just add extra cocoa?

  Recipe so far:

  2 cups white sugar
  1/2 cup cocoa
  1 cup whole milk
  4 tbsp butter

  Bring milk, sugar, cocoa to boil.
  Simmer until it reaches 234°F, do not stir.
  Remove from heat, cool to ~125°F.
  Add butter and stir until it starts to dull.
  (Sometimes I add the butter as soon as I take it off the heat at soft ball.)

Looking at your recipe, the most obvious thing to me is that there is no salt.  Adding a small quantity of salt (say, 1/2 tsp) will enhance the flavors of the ingredients already present.

The second thing you might try is switching to dutch processed cocoa; many people find this has a more intense chocolaty taste.

You could try enhancing the overall flavor by adding a small amount of cinnamon (say 1/4 tsp) or instant espresso powder (perhaps 1 tbl).  While these ingredients do not, in small amounts, overwhelm the flavor, they do increase its complexity and the impression of how chocolaty the fudge is.

Of course, you can increase the amount of cocoa powder (at least by ratio): simply increase the absolute amount of cocoa, starting with small increments of perhaps 1 tablespoon per test run.   The problem with this method is not only that it throws off the sweetness balance, but also that it will eventually change the chemistry, possibly influencing the crystallization of the sugar phase which is what provides the smoothness of the fudge.

Finally, and more radically, consider reducing the amount of dairy, changing the milk for water, or reducing the amount of butter.  The milk fats and milk solids tend to mask the flavor of chocolate.  While I consider these part of the overall desirable balance of the fudge, since you after an intense chocolate experience, it may be worth experimenting with.


Are electric knives used in foodservice? After learning several months ago that immersion blenders and many other kitchen gadgets/appliances have foodservice equivalents that are usually much more powerful and durable than the consumer equivalents, I've been on the lookout for a "foodservice-grade" electric knife.

However, after scouring several of my usual physical and online restaurant supply sources, it would appear that I'm chasing a ghost. "Electric [carving] knife" is a foreign concept. It's possible that they just go by another name (e.g. foodservice immersion blenders are often called "power mixers" or just "mixers") but I don't think so.

So for those who've worked at one: Are electric knives ever seen in professional kitchens? If so, do they just use the cheap consumer products or is there a commercial equivalent? And if not, then why not - is it deemed impractical over a good-quality "manual" carving knife or is there some other reason why they seem to be shunned?

I would consider the professional equivalent of the electric carving knife to be the meat slicer, i.e. the rotating blade device most often seen behind the deli counter.

At home, to break down a roast bird, take the meat off of a lamb-leg, etc., a good manual knife is most likely the proper tool.

If, on the other hand, I have a large ham (cooked or cold), or some other chunk of boneless meat that I want to slice more-or-less uniformly, then I will break out my electric knife.  For the home user, it is a fairly practical device, not taking up too much space, etc.

But its uniformity and speed cannot compare to the slicer.  As to a professional kitchen, you may or may not find one there.  Certainly in deli-type restaurants you would have them.  In a more traditional restaurant they are not as concerned with quick production of sliced meat, so any slicing is probably done by hand.


Success tempering chocolate with Kitchen-Aid heated mixing bowl? So, I was given a Kitchen-Aid heated mixing bowl for Christmas, and following the instructions I have attempted to temper chocolate a few times without any success whatsoever. It takes a very long time to temper, so it's a time consuming and fruitless task but if it would work it would certainly be worth the extra time allocation.
Any one have any experience using this device successfully for tempering chocolate, or really any other task?

I haven't used the Kitchen-Aid, but I have the Kenwood Cooking Chef which is similar, and I frequently use it to temper chocolate. I have tried a couple of different ways:

Heat the chocolate to 32°C degrees while stirring - This takes a long (looong) time and the results are not great (too viscous)
Heat the chocolate to ~40°C while stirring, then lower the temperature to 32°C and add about 10% finely chopped chocolate, stirring until it's all melted. - This is faster and fairly foolproof, but the chopped chocolate takes a while to melt.
Heat the chocolate to ~40°C while stirring, then lower the temperature to 32°C and add about 1% mycryo (fine cocoa butter crystals) - This is faster and the best I've come up with yet. Note - You must let the temperature of the chocolate come down to about 36°C before adding the mycryo - or it will melt them completely, ruining their special crystalline structure.

Another thing I have discovered is that adding ~5-10% cocoa butter makes for a less viscous chocolate that's easier to work with, especially if it's to be poured into moulds. (It's easiest to add it at the beginning.)
I use a rubberized spatula that scrapes the bowl. I assume Kitchen-Aid has something similar.
Adding cocoa butter is controversial. Some people claim that it's cheating, but I find that it gives a better shine and snap to the finished product, without affecting flavour noticeably.


stand mixer - reasons to go with a higher wattage vs lower wattage mixer Not sure if it's ok to mention specific brands or not, so I won't. But I'd like to pick up a stand mixer and the two models i'm considering have either a 325 or 575 watt motor and 5 or 6qts respectively.

I've never been a big baker but I want to start baking, as well as making pasta. I'm assuming the only reason to get the more powerful motor is it would have an easier time mixing up a bigger/heavier/denser batch of dough vs the smaller motor? On the flip side, i'm guessing the bigger capacity model would be less efficient at mixing up a smaller batch?

How big of a batch of pasta dough (in terms of number of portions) would each one be likely to handle? Or what about baking bread? How many average sized loafs would each one be likely to handle at one time?

I'm leaning towards the smaller one because I don't think i'll be making huge batches of anything, and i like the way the bowl loads in the smaller vs the larger (tilt vs lift). The price difference between the two isn't huge, so I'm mainly just interested in picking the one that I'll get the best use of.

thanks

I was on a similar quest before Christmas. Here is what I learned:

A  6qt will hold about 12 cups of flour, enough for 13 dozen cookies or 8 loaves of bread. A 5qt will hold about 9 cups of flour which would be about 9 dozen cookies or 4.5 loaves of bread according to Kitchenaid.That's good information for when you are working on large batches of something.

My own train of thought on power is: The more powerful machine would last longer than the smaller because it wouldn't be pushed as hard. This may or may not be true, I could not find any information on the average lifespan of these machines. My previous mixer was a 325 watt model (not KA) and was plenty strong enough for making big batches of cookies and kneading bread and is still in great working order. I wanted to upgrade to a fixed bowl type mixer.

It seems like most home bakers prefer the the 5qt. mixers. Based on reading numerous reviews at Amazon it appears as though professional/semi-professional cooks choose the the larger mixer for it's capacity and mixing strength, but that is overkill for everyday home use. The bigger mixers are heavier and taller (If you plan to put the mixer on your counter and there is an upper cabinet make sure to measure to determine that you have enough room).
And there were a few reviewers that had both, liking the bigger model for big jobs & the smaller model for small jobs.

There is an excellent review of mixers at Cooks Illustrated.
Their first choice was a Kitchenaid Proline 7qt. Second place and best buy went to Kitchenaid Classic Plus 4.5qt. (275 watts which held is own in testing against the bigger/more powerful models) Third place went to the Kitchenaid Professional 600 series 6qt. All other models that they tested were rated below that.


What to be mindful of with cake flour I substituted cake flour for AP FLOUR in my pancake recipe. Do I need to reduce the liquid ingredients as compared to AP flour? My batter seemed runnier and therefore pancakes were flatter—but also seemed more tender. Anything else to be aware of when working with cake flour? Should I cook at a lower heat? Since cake four produces less stiffness (gluten) do I need an additional levener like baking soda and an acid?

1 cup AP flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 beaten egg
3 tbsp melted butter
.75 cup milk

Cake flour is mainly used in situations where less gluten is desired, that's why the pancake was more tender.  Cake flour is also lighter in color and texture, since it is usually bleached.  It is also milled finer.  If you are substituting cake for AP flour, you will probably need a couple of additional tablespoons of cake flour per cup of AP flour.  Leave your leavening as is.


When making a sponge cake how does the method of combining ingredients effect the final product? I recently completed a project where I would bake several sponge cakes using various recipes so I could test how the different ingredients such as milk, self-rising flour, plain flour and baking powder would affect the final product.

I was surprised to find that the method and order of mixing the ingredients vary such as “creaming the butter and sugar first” compared to “whisk eggs and sugar together first” and also “whipping the egg whites separately then folding into batter”. I had assumed that the methods would be the same. Although in making the cake I found that the batter was very different for each, some would be grainier then others and some would be more viscous.

I apologise for asking such a broad question, but what different orders and methods are there for mixing the batter of a sponge cake and how will they affect the final cake?

Also, as an extra, how does adding milk affect the batter?

Generally speaking, a sponge cake recipe needs to create and trap a bubble structure in a mixture of protein, sugar, and starch. Since there are a number of ways to do this, there are a number of common techniques used for accomplishing that goal. The techniques are different and interactions between ingredients can be more complicated than they seem, so the effect of each ingredient might be different with each technique. Describing the ways that each ingredient interacts with each other ingredient in a cake is far beyond the scope of an answer on this site.

Almost every cake recipe that you commonly see on the internet is based on an older, tried-and-true technique from the canon of an older culinary tradition. On a blog or in a cook book, you might see a recipe for Aunt Edna's Famous Chocolate-Fanatic Fudge Filled Cake, but in the more technical terms that a pastry chef would use, it could be a layered chocolate genoise with a Godiva liqueur soaking liquid and ganache filling. Rather than checking out individual recipes, I'd recommend researching the broader techniques they're based on to get a better understanding of the mechanics.

In my French/American oriented in culinary school, I remember learning about Genoise, Separated Sponge, Chiffon, and Angel Food techniques, which are all common in the modern western canon. There may have been more— it's been a decade since I graduated and I was never a pastry chef— but if you study those, you should get a pretty good idea of how cakes work in general.

As an aside, when you're testing/workshopping a recipe, like with any other kind of experiment, you should reduce the number of confounding variables. Use one recipe (or ideally, basic unadorned technique) and change the ratio of ingredients by increasing/reducing the amount of one ingredient at a time. This will give you MUCH better data.

A general question gets a general answer, but I think it will give you a good start. ;-)


Onion smell getting on fruits I use a recently-purchased bamboo large-and-heavy cutting board to cut/chop/dice/slice veggies and fruit.  However, my routine is such that I typically dice a red onion at night, and a green apple for breakfast.

I've noticed that the red onion smell and, to some extent, taste gets on my green apple in the morning.

I read online about people treating their cutting board with coconut oil or something before using it. I failed to do that.  Is it too late to do it now?  Will it solve my problem?  Are there other ways to prevent the onion smell-and-taste to get on fruit?

My experience is that washing doesn't effectively get rid of onion or garlic odors from cutting boards.

Either get another - maybe lighter weight and cheaper - cutting board for fruits, or flip your current board over, and use the "bottom" side for delicately scented items, etc. Mark the "top" side with an "o" for "onion" (or some such discreet indicator) in permanent marker, so you will remember in future which is which.

Getting housemates to comply is a separate problem.


Possible Wine Substitutions for Sherry When Making French Onion Soup I am making French onion soup, and it calls for sherry. What would be a good substitute for the sherry?

Yes, you can.  (I usually use wine, in fact).  Note that sherries are a fortified wine, so you may want to add a small amount of brandy as well; say 1 Tbl to 1/4 cup per cup of wine.

If you are using a chicken stock, restrict yourself to a white wine; perhaps a rose if you have a particularly dark chicken stock.

For a beef stock, red or white will work well.  In addition, if the recipe calls for a sweet sherry, you can also use a port or a Madeira.

In all cases, add in parts and taste between until you're happy with the result.


How do I make my chocolate brownies 'fudgy'? What are the key requirements, in terms of both ingredients and techniques, for baking chocolate brownies with a fudgy centre?

Every time I make brownies, I always get compliments on how fudgy they are. There may be some variations based on the recipe you use, but the three things I've found to be most important in my experience are:

Don't even think about using a boxed/pre-made mix! Bake from scratch - it adds a whole 3-5 minutes of extra prep time for brownies, but the taste and texture would be worth it even if it added an hour.
Use fewer eggs. I use the King Arthur Flour "Grandmother's brownies" recipe; I can only find an online copy for the 200th Anniversary edition, but those instructions aren't the same as the older version my mom's cookbook has. The recipe calls for 2-4 eggs per batch (a batch is a 9x9" square pan), and instructs you to use more eggs for a cakier brownie, fewer for a fudgier one. I've found that 3 eggs works best for me.
Use brown sugar for at least some of the total sugar in the recipe. The King Arthur Flour recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar, either white or brown. I typically split 50/50; the brown sugar adds a nice flavor, and I think the moisture in it helps achieve that fudgy consistency, too.

There's another element to changing the consistency, too: cooking time. Most brownie recipes I've seen say to bake for 35-45 minutes; I almost never bake them for more than 30 because I find that the edges start to get really dried out. Undercooking slightly will keep the brownies moist and fudgy.

 The ingredients from the old "Grandmother's Brownies" King Arthur Flour recipe: 4 ounces (squares) unsweetened chocolate [can substitute 1-ounce square = 3 tbs cocoa powder + 1 tbs butter); ½ cup (1 stick) butter; 2 cups sugar and/or brown sugar; 2 to 4 eggs; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons vanilla; 1 cup flour


Is this splotchy purple pattern on short ribs ok? We’re making some short ribs, and noticed this weird pattern on the bone side of some of the ribs. What is this, and is it safe to eat?

As a side note, there is some silver skin on the other side of some of these ribs, but this pattern is distinct.

Its ink from a USDA meat inspection mark. The ink is non-toxic so it's safe to eat, just ugly.


Pork didn't get done in time I recently made this recipe:

https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2016/08/paper-pork-shoulder-its-wrap.html

7 lb pork shoulder, apply rub, wrap tightly in parchment and foil, roast at 225 F for 12 hours.

I cooked it in a freestanding turkey roaster and after 12 hours, plus an hour of rest, it wasn't really done -- the meat wasn't fork-tender, and the bone was still firmly attached.

I then put it in a 350 F oven for about two more hours, with another hour of rest, and was much happier.  The meat was fall-apart tender, and the bone slid right out.

But why did I have to do that?  How did I screw up?

It shouldn't matter that I used a freestanding roaster instead of a standard oven, should it?  225 degrees is 225 degrees, right?

I only had a few other thoughts:

I didn't let the meat come up to room temperature before roasting, but I don't think the recipe said to do that.  (Is that just assumed?)

The meat was sitting on a rack in the roaster, with a little bit of air space underneath, instead of sitting directly in a baking dish as in the recipe video.  Can that matter?

Based on your original question and the comments, it sounds like you simply did not make an accurate assessment of the temperature of your product and your cooker.  Low and slow is an excellent technique to make pork shoulder tender.  Your goal should be an internal temperature of about 195 F ((90C).  Estimates are that you should allow 1 to 1.5 hours per pound, but this can vary depending on the heat source and the fat and bone content of your pork.  It is best to measure the internal temperature.  As pointed out above, two things potentially "went wrong".  Either your cooker did not maintain the temperature you thought it did, and/or you pulled the pork out before it reached the desired temperature.  For best results in the future, use accurate thermometers and measure both.


What is the shelf life of opened cheeses? I am a cheese lover. I always enjoy finding unique cheeses and trying them. However I always end up with a plethora of opened cheeses which opens up the question of; What is the shelf-life of opened cheeses? Do they differ per cheese. I don't want to waste the cheese!

Yes, it differs by cheese.

As a very general and vague rule, the softer the cheese, the less time it will last.  Large chunks may last longer than small or grated pieces.

A ripe Camembert is at its peak for hours.  A nice chunk of Parmesan may last for weeks.

Dairy Googness summarizes as follows:

  Fresh cheese: a few days to 2 weeks
  Soft cheese: 1 week
  Semi-soft cheese: 2 to 3 weeks
  Firm cheese: 5 weeks
  Hard cheese: 10 months

Note:  my opinion on the above is that the firm and hard times are a little long for opened cheese.

Eat By Date is more conservative, suggesting only up to a couple of months for opened hard cheeses.

You can also freeze cheese with minimal loss of quality, which will substantially increase its shelf life.


meal planning software with collaboration and sharing Me and my wife are technophiles. We've had a fair amount of success organizing aspects of our life using RememberTheMilk for lists and google calendar for a shared calendar.

Recently we've wanted to up our cooking game (cooking more at home and trying out Primal Blueprint).

What I'm looking for is software that allows us to build a database of recopies (that we share) and meal plans we can collaborate on.

So far I've tried Pepper Plate and I've glanced at all the option in this question. It looks like there are lots of nice options for collecting recipes, a couple that let you share your library with others (not just individual recipes), some (like PepperPlate) have tools to build a meal plan, but what I really want to be able to do is collaborate on meal plans with other people.

Does anyone know of any software that makes this easy? I'd accept "non-meal plan" specific software as long as it works well.

As a bonus the software would be able to put grocery list items in an RTM list and display the meal plan in other calendar software, abut that might be hoping for too much.

I use Paprika for recipe database, meal planning, and creating shopping lists. You could both log in as the same user and so your recipes, plans and lists would sync between any instances of the application you use. The software also categorizes your grocery items into 'isles' so hopefully it'll be in a logical order when you get to the supermarket.

I have found the software to be very reliable and the developer is very approachable if you do have any issues or feature requests.


Is there a way to harden soft braised carrots? After placing meat on a bed of veg and braising in a wine/stock mixture for a few hours, the carrots taste great, but they don't have a nice texture.

How do I harden the soft mushy carrots after a slow braise?

I don't think frying them would help, maybe broiling them?

I am not looking to "un-cook" the carrots, just change the texture. Like grilling pineapple would cause it to dry and become more rigid.

Your only option is to cook them separately from the braise, then add them when plating. That way, you can maintain the consistency that you like.  There is no way to firm them up after they've been cooked through.  If you like the flavor that braised carrot adds, do both...some carrot in the braise, some carrot cooked as you like for serving.


Is it possible to freeze wine for future use? I wanted to freeze some leftover wine (about half a bottle) to use for cooking at a later date.

Will it keep at all?
Are there any special ways to freeze it?
Would freezing it in the bottle be safe?
Should it be defrosted first before using, or can I use it straight out of the freezer?

I tried freezing leftover wine many years ago, and it does work. You can just freeze it in the original bottle.

The flavors are somewhat muted compared to the same wine unfrozen. Not recommended for drinking the wine, but it is acceptable for cooking purposes.


How to best store cocoa powder? Say I buy a bag of Callebaut Cocoa Powder (like this one). What's the best way to store the powder once I begin using it? Figure that I'll use no more than 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of cocoa powder a week.

Thanks!

Store cocoa powder in a dark, cool, dry place, sealed against vermin.  Dark and cool both slow the process by which volatiles (i.e., flavor) degrade.  That said, don't keep it in the fridge or freezer unless sealed airtight, because both types of chill-chests are relatively humid environments.  Humidity promotes mold, even on cocoa.

By the way, for future reference:  When buying cocoa powder, note the manufacturer's suggested use-by date.  Cocoa powder should last about three years, properly stored.  If the use-by date is much less than that, look for another container.


How to Make Canned Coconut Milk Separate My friend wants to make coconut milk separate so that she can use the cream for whipping. Can anyone suggest a way of accomplishing this?

Edited to add: I asked her to confirm that it was full-fat and she said 'yes, I'm not that dumb'. She's storing it at room temperature (rather hot lately in NYC lately) but is going to try chilling it to see what happens.

Put the can in the fridge overnight or for a few hours. After it's sufficiently cold the cream will be on top and the water on the bottom. Just make sure not to shake the can when you remove it from the fridge!

(In a pinch pop it in the freezer but not for too long or else the can will warp due to the water expansion.)


Yorkshire Pudding Batter -- Letting it "Rest" I've heard it's a good idea to let your batter rest overnight.  Since there are eggs in it, I would think that it would have to rest in the refrigerator.  I've also heard that the batter should be at room temperature when you pour it into the pan.  So, should you refrigerate the batter overnight, and then let it sit outside the fridge for a three or four hours to warm it back up to room temperature?

I previously addressed this on a related question here. I cited Kenji Lopez-Alt's great article about Yorkshire puddings based on his testing a variety of recipes. For the full thing, you can find it on Serious Eats. As to resting and batter temperature, this is what he says:

Resting Batter:

This was what the tester determined made the largest difference in the quality of the finished product:

  I'm going to say this: Resting your batter is the single most important step you can take to improving Yorkshire pudding and popovers. Not only do they come out taller, they also come out much tastier, with a more complex, toasty flavor. Non-rested-batter puddings taste positively flat (literally and figuratively) next to rested-batter puddings.

  I'd go so far as to say that resting at least overnight is essential if you are really after the best.

Batter temperature:

  Warmer batter will create taller, crisper puddings with a more hollow core
  Colder batter will create denser puddings with a more distinct cup.

So, definitely rest your batter (in the fridge!) and pick the batter temperature that matches the outcome you'd prefer.


How sharp should a filleting knife be? I'm trying to learn to fillet and skin fish, and getting conflicting advice.

Most sources say that the boning/filleting knife should be quite sharp. But when an instructor showed me how to skin a trout fillet, the knife wasn't particularly sharp, and the technique seemed akin to scraping the flesh off the skin in one pass. I've even seen some information on-line by a surgeon who got good results with the "blunt dissection" approach, skinning a fillet with the handle of a table spoon. I haven't bought a boning/filleting knife yet, but in experiments my chef's knife (I know, too thick and stiff) tends to cut right through the skin.

I'm coming to the conclusion that a knife for this purpose should be only moderately sharp. (Part of the problem may be standards-- I hone my own knives, and I don't call a knife sharp unless I can shave the hairs off my wrist with it.) Am I on the right track?

It should be slightly duller than a fresh razor blade.  Skill can make up for lack of sharpness, but if you don't have the skills you'll mash the fish more than slice.  This is why instructors and surgeons can get away with dull knives; they've got years of experience cutting flesh.

Traditionally, fillet and boning knives are sharpened to a shallower angle than general-use chef knives, to allow a keener edge. The only knife in a cook's arsenal that should be sharper is the slicer, which sees rarer use, and needs to be super-sharp for thin slices.


How can I use molasses without making a mess? I love using molasses in many different recipes, but I have found it difficult to avoid making a mess when using it. Both spooning molasses from the jar and trying to pour it out wind up leaving molasses trails on the jar and my working surface, which if not wiped off immediately dry into a mass that is almost impossible to clean.

Try slowly twisting the jar as you slow down your pour. This is what I do and it works pretty well.

This is actually something you'll see waiters and bartenders do when pouring wine, too. This video shows the action at around 3:20 in.

Twisting the bottle causes the drip to collect on the inside of the rim and keeps it from dripping down the side. Because the molasses is more viscous than wine, it may take a bit more turning but it does work well.


Is refreezing a meal safe? I know there have been questions on refreezing meat, which apparently is not safe to do. My understanding from those posts was that it was referring to raw meat. My question is slightly different.

I made a casserole with pasta, cheese, cooked ground turkey, and some veggies a few weeks ago. I had the leftovers in the fridge for about a day or 2 and then froze the leftovers. First, was it okay to freeze it at that point?

Second, I put the casserole in the fridge to thaw yesterday, but ended up having something else to eat for dinner. Based on other plans, I won't be able to eat it for another 2 days. I am not sure if t will be safe in the fridge for that long. If won't be safe for that long, would it be safe to refreeze?

Freezing ... well, basically freezes the growth of bacteria inside your food. Thus, if you heat it up quick enough later, it will not have significantly more bacteria or mold (spores) and related poisons than in the moment it got to the save temperature (remember that this moment is not exacly at the point you put it in the freezer but later.)
If you would eat it tomorrow though than you can as well freeze it today, as long as you make sure you don't keep it for days after defrosting again.


What "Is" Barbeque or "BBQ"? Possible Duplicate:
  What styles of barbeque exist in American cuisine?

There are many different techniques, practices and (of course) sauces that are given the label "Barbeque" (or BBQ, or Bar-B-Q, or....).

What are the various styles of BBQ, and what distinguishes them?

What (if anything) is/are the common threads that tie them all together?

You question has a short answer to it.

Barbeque - What you do on a gas or charcoal grill

BBQ - shredded, pulled or sliced pork, lamb or beef seasoned with a hot pepper and vinegar , mustard based, tomato based or mayo based sauce.

For more on BBQ the BBQ song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ubTQfr_tyY


What's a fast way to make Furikake from Katsobushi used in making dashi Making dashi uses about 10g of dried Katsobushi that ends up soaked.
Then soaked Katsobushi is then removed and tastes well. How can the soaked Katsobushi be reused?
The tricky part is that Katsobushi is preserved dried, after the dashi process it is rehydrated and hot. So Katsobushi cannot be stored for long and it is a waste to throw it away.
What are some key ingredients to make furikake and what is the basic process?

There's no set recipe for furikake, but you will commonly find sesame seeds (both black or white), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and seaweed.
For dashi leftovers, just cut the kombu/katsuobushi into small pieces and toast in a dry pan with some soy sauce/sugar/salt/MSG to taste until the mixture is dry. You can toast the sesame seeds separately or together with the dashi leftovers, then add nori (cut or crumbled into small pieces). Let cool, preferably on a tray to help it dry out more.
For quantities, here is a recipe for reference.


Should I use whole eggs or only yolks in Spaghetti alla Carbonara? I tried to cook spaghetti alla carbonara and searching out I found out that some recipes use whole eggs and some only the egg yolks. Which way gives the better result?

I've asked this question to many friends of mine from Rome, and they all agree that only yolks should be used. Then I managed to find out the scientific reason behind this.

The real challenge with this recipe, which makes the difference between a perfectly made creamy carbonara and just pasta with omelette, lies in temperature control.

As a matter of fact, the problem of keeping the sauce from getting curdled arises when you mix pasta just taken out from water boiling at 100 °C with egg components that coagulate at a much lower temperature. In particular, as anyone having fried an egg knows, egg white coagulates earlier than yolk (protein coagulation temperatures are approx. 60-62 °C for the former, 68-70 °C for the latter).

This means that egg whites are more susceptible to ruin your carbonara, if you can't manage to rapidly decrease the overall temperature below 60 °C. Since egg whites function is just to provide a more fluid substratum (creaminess and flavour come mostly from yolks), they are usually left out and replaced with starchy pasta water.

So, put yolks only (one per person) in a large bowl and whip them, add pasta al dente without straining it first, using a large fork or kitchen pliers to take it straight from the pot, and then quickly mix them together while adding the remaining ingredients.

In this way, cooking water adhering on pasta surface will provide both the liquid base for the sauce and enough heat to thicken it, while the mixing will disperse the heat in excess.


Where to place the oven thermometer in an oven? Where to place an oven thermometer in a gas oven? Should it be left hanging from the rack or should it be placed on the rack?

I tend to just stick it close to where the food cooks. From the two options you name that would mean  putting it on the rack, not hanging under it.

I checked a couple of sources and found this one quite a nice read.


What type of sherry is typically used when cooking? Not having used sherry before, what is the type used when a recipe just calls for "sherry"? I see cream sherry, dry sherry, and very dry sherry at my local grocery store. Does brand matter much?

Cream sherry is very sweet - likely too sweet for most recipes that don't explicitly mention it.

If a recipe simply calls for "sherry", it usually means dry sherry, as that's the most common kind of available.  In fact, I don't think I've ever even seen "very dry" around here.  So I would definitely stick with the dry.

As for brand, if you see several different bottles all labeled sherry, I don't think it matters too much which one you pick - at least if you're using it for cooking and not drinking.

P.S. If you're using this as a substitute for rice wine, the commonly-accepted substitute is indeed dry sherry.


The glass door on my convection oven broke. Can I still use it? I have a KitchenAid microwave + convection oven combination. I was cooking a pie (350F), and this happened:

The inner glass shattered; the outer glass and all other parts seem fine. I'm getting a warranty replacement, but in the meantime...

Hypothetically, is there any reason I couldn't continue using the microwave, convection oven, or both?

I wouldn't use the microwave - since you can't be sure which pane of glass is microwave-reflective.

And I'd be concerned about that glass shards working their way loose with thermal stress and falling into the food.


What happens when you mix whiskey and water? It is sometimes said that to best experience the flavor and aroma of a good whiskey (or whisky), one ought to add a bit of water. This practice is said to release flavors somehow.

Is there any truth to this?
Assuming that there is, what is going on?

Whisk(e)y has some crazy chemistry going on inside of it, due to the complex interactions between water, alcohols, oils, esters and other compounds of various complexity. The profile of these chemicals will vary between different whiskey/whisky styles, but the overall chemistry is similar.

Simple effects of dilution

Adding water, or serving on the rocks, has a number of simple effects, such as diluting the ethanol a bit (ethanol anesthetizes your taste buds a bit), and cooling it (making your taste buds slightly less sensitive to certain flavors), but the fascinating part is what happens to the oily flavor compounds during dilution.

Dilution masks some flavor compounds

Oily hydrocarbons are somewhat soluble in high-proof whiskey. There are long-chain esters and short-chain esters of many varieties. As you add water, the whiskey becomes more polar, and the long-chain esters become supersaturated and start to precipitate in the form of micelles, microscopic "droplets" of esters that have clumped together. In some liquors like absinthe or ouzo, these droplets can get so large that they become visible, and visibly cloud the drink (an intended feature of absinthe preparation). In whiskey, these droplets are usually microscopic and don't visibly cloud the drink, because most of the oils have been removed during chill-filtration.

However, these droplets do something important, in that short-chain esters, being more soluble in the droplet than they are in the diluted whiskey, enter the droplet and become trapped inside. These compounds are now less available for tasting or smelling. Fortunately, these compounds are the oily, grassy compounds that many people do not like in their whiskey, and masking them is considered an improvement.

Dilution releases other flavor compounds

There is another type of micelle "droplet" that forms in whiskey. Ethanol, in high concentrations in water, forms it's own clusters, as ethanol molecules gather up with one another. Interestingly, warmer solutions cause more clustering of ethanol molecules, as do higher concentrations. Like before, these micelles trap compounds that are more soluble in ethanol than they are in water, volatile flavor compounds. However, unlike the oil droplets, these flavor compounds are desirable. Cooling the solution and diluting the solution both serve to "pop" these ethanol micelles, allowing them to release their trapped compounds for aroma and flavor.

So cooling and adding water can have the effect of both masking certain flavors by forcing them out of solution, and enhancing others by promoting their release back into solution. In the end, the result of the changed flavors is a matter of taste, which is why some people prefer neat, with water, or on the rocks, but one cannot deny that real chemical changes are in play.

References

Scientific Paper: Release of distillate flavour compounds in Scotch malt whisky
Blog posts: New perspectives on whisky and water
Article: Tasting Whisky
Wikipedia: Scotch Whisky


half-life of caffeine molecules I am interested in the caffeine content in various coffees.

Will day-old coffee have much less caffeine?  I am refering to espresso drinks such as the Starbucks Americano or the drip coffees also available there.  Does refrigeration make much difference to the half-life?  What about re-heating?

How about instant?  I have seen charts comparing caffeine content in various fresh coffees but not instant.  What is the typical caffeine content of instant coffee?  What is the half-life of caffeine in instant coffee on the shelf as a room temperature solid?

According to Sigma-Aldrich, pure caffeine has a shelf-life of four years at room temperature, or many years at 2-8°C.

A caffeine solution can be stable for months even at moderately high temperatures.

So, essentially, your day old coffee has still all its caffeine in it, although probably it does not taste that well, but that's caffeine unrelated.

As a side note, after drinking coffee/tea/Coke/etc. it will take ~1-2 hours for blood caffeine levels to peak. Caffeine half-life in the body is ~3-6 hours.


I used evaporated milk instead of sweetened condensed milk in a fudge recipe. How do I fix this? I was given a fudge recipe citing evaporated milk instead of sweetened condensed milk.  Is it possible to fix this by adding sugar and re-cooking the fudge or is it just a recipe gone bad?

Add 1 to 1/4 cups of sugar for each cup of evaporated milk. Put it on top of a stove and stir until the sugar is dissolved. If the state of your recipe is such that you cannot put it on top of a stove then use icing sugar instead and mix until the sugar is completely incorporated.


What is the ingredient that makes a Spanish paella so particular? I have eaten paella in Spain; I then ate it in Italy, but it didn't taste like the one in Spain.

What is the ingredient that makes the Spanish paella so particular?
I remember they used a particular sauce for the meat (I have eaten both the Valencian paella and the seafood paella); if that is what makes the difference, what are the ingredients for that sauce?

The most prominent flavors in authentic paella are pimenton (smoked paprika), saffron, a sofrito of onion and tomato, garlic, and the broth.


Do gel spheres hold up to heat? I want to plate a carrot sphere, made using reverse spherification, for a hot entrée. How do carrot spheres hold up to heat?

Alginate gels are heat-stable up-to 150C. So you can easily serve them on a hot plate at the serving temperature.


What's the difference between a Stromboli and a Calzone? On the east coast Italian restaurants (or pizza shops) sometimes offer both Strombolis and Calzones. Sometimes it seems that Calzones are a 'type' of Stromboli, because the menu has a single Calzone but a list of different Strombolis. But I doubt that's an accurate assessment.

So, what's the difference between the two? I'd be interested in the technical reasons as well as whey they're listed separately on menus (if the reasoning is different).

Also, I give the east coast location because I've heard out west a Stromboli may be thought of as a kind of hot sandwich (basically an Italian roll hollowed out a bit and filled). That's not the Stromboli or Calzone I'm familiar with - but if the definitions change drastically based on geographic area I'm interested in that as well.

My understanding based on local experience (five Italian restaurants on every block) is that Stromboli and Calzone differ principally in (a) their filling, (b) the dough, and (c) the final shape.

Calzones are basically folded pizzas, made from pizza dough and stuffed with the same ingredients as pizza - almost always tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, usually ricotta, often pepperoni and maybe some other cheese and cured meats - and then folded over like an omelette.

Stromboli are more like pizza rolls.  They're made from a thicker dough (still pizza dough), the tomato sauce and ricotta are optional and usually left out, and they are literally rolled up into a tube shape (sometimes more of a blocky sandwich shape though).

Other than that, they are quite similar, and the differences seem to get murkier over time... I often see Stromboli with the sauce and cheese and Calzone without the sauce.  But fundamentally, Stromboli is more like a sandwich and Calzone is more like a pie; if a particular restaurant doesn't do it that way, then that would have to be their own twist on the traditional recipe.


Are the particulates that settle in a veal stock impurities? I've been making veal stock for about a year, and really enjoy the process. It generally takes me two days: the first to generate a base stock, the second to reduce it. I've noticed that when I refrigerate the product of either day overnight, a layer of particulate settles on the bottom of pot. Poured carefully through a cheesecloth, I can generally decant the dark, almost transparent liquid off the particulate.

What have I wrought? Have I just lurched my way to a low-grade consomme, or am I doing something to degrade the flavor of the stock? I assume the particles are denatured proteins, but honestly I haven't the slightest idea.

Yes, they are most likely to be denatured protein. It is feasible that they also contain some other matter like stray pieces of vegetable, but the bulk should be the protein.

When the  particles are small enough, they are agitated in the boiling water and become a suspension. When you let them rest, they slowly find their way to the bottom, due to gravity.

So, the answer to your other questions is yes and yes. Are you approaching consomme when you filter them out? Yes, you do. Are you removing flavor? Also yes. After all, it's not the water that flavors the stock, it's what remains in it from the veal. While the pure protein doesn't have much flavor by itself, enough stuff tends to stick to it to make it flavorful.

Consomme is made clear for presentation purposes and for texture, not for flavor. The loss is slight, but it is a loss, not a gain. It is up to you to decide which stock you prefer, the filtered or unfiltered version, there is no single "best" answer.


How can I reduce the sodium/salt in Halloumi? I bought some Halloumi cheese the other day, and noticed that its sodium content is a whopping 1.3 grams per 100 grams! I'm really scared to serve this now. Surely your blood pressure would skyrocket through the roof after consuming it?

I've read somewhere that soaking Halloumi overnight in water and lemon juice can draw out the salt in it, but is this true? And more importantly, to what degree? Does it only make it slightly less salty? Have you experimented with it? Would chopping up the Halloumi and then soaking it overnight help draw out even more salt?

Soaking Halloumi might get rid of a bit of the salt in the cheese that's close to the outer surface, but it isn't going to do much for you. Chopping it up will increase the surface area and allow more salt to be drawn out, it's still not going to make it that much less salty. If you have concerns about salt intake then there is lower salt halloumi sold in places, however that doesn't taste like much.

A little halloumi goes a long way, you could just eat small amounts of it or pair it up with something else. I barbecued pineapple and halloumi skewers this past weekend with a 2:1 ratio of pineapple to halloumi and it was a very good balance. Everyone ended up eating one or two chunks of halloumi in the end, so really overall a moderate amount of salt.


Can I reuse chopped onions? I have a Hot Dog Stand. I use chopped onions every day, can I re use the left over chopped onions the next day? The onions are in a container that keep them cold all day long. Some days the onions have a lot of liquid in the bottom, is that a problem? I do not want to get anyone sick.

If you're operating a hot dog stand, I'm going to guess that you'll want to follow your local health codes.  There's a very good chance that it'd be a violation.

In most areas, it wouldn't be anything to stop you from using it for your own meals, so long as you didn't serve it to the public.  (and you might have to transfer it to a different container, so you keep the public & personal stuff seperate).  So long as they've been kept chilled through the day, I'd be inclined to use them in some sort of cooked dish for dinner.  At worst, you get sick, but you don't get the public sick.


What chemical processes occur in tea that spoil it after some time? What happens to the brewed hot tea when it is left in a cup for some time (up to several hours), that spoils the taste of the drink and change its color? What chemical processes lead to such unwanted results and what are the general methods to prevent tea from going bad too quickly?

If there is a significant difference in different tea types' brewing processes, I'd like to know that too.

Assume we make a cup of Earl Grey tea with a spoon of sugar and leave it for a day at room temperature.

I've seen a thin rainbowy layer appear after leaving tea for a few hours (up to a day). I often saw that in teas made from cheap bagged tea. Also the color of the drink becomes distinctively "stale".

A rainbowy layer is almost certainly oil. (This is called thin-film diffraction.) Earl Grey uses oil of bergamot for flavoring, and likely cheap teas you've used have oil-based flavorings as well. It's not surprising that the oil eventually separates, and there's not really any way to avoid that without significantly modifying the tea, or using tea that doesn't have quite so much oil.

I would definitely expect the flavor to be stale after it's left for a while - aromatic compounds are by nature volatile, and they'll slowly escape. You might be able to prevent some loss of flavor by putting the tea in something airtight (preferably a completely full container, so there's not even air on the surface) and chilling it, but it's going to be a losing battle. You said the color was stale as well; I don't know exactly what processes would cause that, but in general, the only way you're going to be able to slow down any chemical processes is by chilling the tea.

In the end, the real answer is simply that it's best to drink fresh tea. Your time would probably be better spent getting to where you can make it quickly - for example, get an electric kettle that can rapidly boil a single cup worth of water.


Is there a good technique for cooking chestnuts? I would like to make my own puree and would like to know of any ways that might be recommended for cooking them first.  I tried the oven once and they started exploding: Ideas?

If you are going to cook chestnuts, you need to score them first. Most commonly, they're scored in an X pattern -- try to do it on the side away from the flattest side. Make sure you cut all the way through the shell. Then as they cook, the shell will actually peel back slightly as they cook. Here's a link with pictures about baking them. (425 degrees until they're done, 20 to 30 minutes.)

For certain recipes, you can also boil them. According to this website, you can boil them for about 3 minutes and then peel them. You then will need to finish cooking them in your recipe. Or you can boil them in the shell for 15-20 minutes. This will lead to them falling apart -- which may be appropriate for a chestnut puree.

Still another method I found is to cook them in oil, as described here. Cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly.


Why the overlap in peanut and tree nut allergies? My wife is severely allergic to both tree nuts and peanuts (as in full on anaphylaxis, hello epipen and ER). We both find this curious, since peanuts are legumes and not nuts at all. Informally we've heard there is about a 10% overlap in these allergies. Does anyone know why that might be? I know this seems more like a medical than cooking question, but I think it has a relevance to cooking as it helps us understand both the composition of these foods and how we may best as cooks help to avoid poisoning people we cook for.

So from this - http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=pdf&file=IAA2003131004234 - it sounds like they both share IgE-reactive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunoglobulin_E) epitopes.

  Both native and recombinant nut allergens have been identified and characterized and, for some, the IgE-reactive epitopes described. Some allergens, such as lipid transfer proteins, profilins, and members of the Bet v 1-related family, represent minor constituents in tree nuts. These allergens are frequently cross-reactive with other food and pollen homologues, and are considered panallergens. Others, such as legumins, vicilins, and 2S albumins, represent major seed storage protein constituents of the nuts.


Cooked or caramalized onions in the refrigerator How long can I store caramalized onions in the refrigerator?

For cooked onions, you can find one answer here: http://www.stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/17825

3-5 days in the refrigerator.
refrigerate withing 2 hours of cooking.
refrigerate in covered container or wrap tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil or plastic wrap.


Enzymatic reactions that happen when water and wheat flour is mixed? What happens when you mix water and wheat flour? A seed would start to sprout eventually. Does water start reaction inside of the flour?

Yes, flour contains enzymes, and they get activated when you mix the flour and water.
The enzymes in flour are diastase, amylase, and protease. The diastase breaks down starch into maltose, amylase produces other types of sugars from starch, and the protease breaks down the proteins in the flour.
Commercial flours are typically balanced for optimal fermentation with yeast, because these reactions are less important in other types of baking. But note that yeast brings in its own enzymes, which complicate the picture, and then, for some breads, enzymes are added from outside to get specific effects, such as using malted barley for dark breads.
This has nothing to do with sprouting, the parts of the seed which would sprout are removed when making flour. Unless you have real whole grain flour, but there the embryo is also already killed, and the producer has made sure that the enzymes are at the right level.


Would the same mixing principles that apply to paint work for Food Coloring variations? If I wanted to create different shades using Food Coloring, is there a different method of mixing them or would the same principles apply as with paint.  Is there a standard mixing chart that details the different variations that would break down the process?

Yes, the principles are the same as for paint. It is subtractive color, meaning each new color you use subtracts out all of the colors except the ones it reflects. The other kind is additive color, when you are mixing lights like on a stage or out of a television set, and doesn't have much application to food that I can think of.


What's best: boil eggs in advance or just before use? If I want to eat a hard-boiled egg every day of the week, should I boil them and store them (refrigerated) all at once or should I keep raw eggs in the fridge and hard-boil them just before use?

Edit: by best I mean the acceptable trade-off between saving time and energy vs. shelf-life and taste. I mentioned a working week to limit the scope to 5 days, i.e. how much would a hard-boiled egg's taste and texture degrade after 5 days on the fridge?

By your definition, I would cook them all at one time.  From there you have a couple options.

Leave them in the shell and peel when needed.  This keeps out a lot of the air which extends the shelf life to 2 weeks, but can dry them out a little making the texture a little harder.
Immediately peel and dry them as best as possible.  Put them in a Zip Lock along with a dry paper towel on the bottom to catch any extra water and condensation.  Remove as much air as possible.   The texture is much better, but your shelf life if approx. 1 week and is a little smellier. (also can put zip lock into a covered container) Lol.  Food stores now sell eggs this way.

Either way you may want to let them sit on the counter long enough to take the chill off, so it's not as hard. For me it doesn't matter, I can eat them any old way.  LOVE EM!


Does tempered chocolate remain tempered and only needs liquefying? I tempered a few bars of chocolate yesterday and it was a successful experience. Then I stored the remaining in the fridge. If I liquefy it, is it tempered chocolate and can be used as desired or should I do it all again?

If you melt tempered chocolate it loses it's tempering completely and you'll need to do it all again. There's no point in pre-tempering chocolate for storage as there's no benefit if you're going to melt and re-use it.


How to prepare chanterelles? I always find myself buying chanterelles because I really like them when I eat them somewhere where the chef knew what he/she was doing. I always end up with an inedible mess -- or at least something that is significantly less tasty than what I expected.

Clarification: I'm not looking for a recipe that uses chanterelles, but the basic technique to prepare the mushrooms themselves.

The basic technique that I've found effective is to "dry fry" them in a pan to allow water to cook off before adding any other wet or fat ingredients, including oil or butter. If you skip this step, you'll often end up with a bit of a rubbery texture. I recommend cooking them in a small cast-iron pan, but a nonstick pan will do.

I usually season with little more than shallots and/or garlic, plus butter, salt and pepper. But I always add the butter after a fair amount of water has been extracted from the mushrooms and cooked off.

Chanterelles seem to have a lot more water than most other mushrooms. I haven't verified that scientifically, but I tried following the same technique with button or small crimini mushrooms, and little to no water comes out in dry frying. (Large crimini mushrooms, also called portabella mushrooms, will give off a fair amount of water when roasted, but nothing quite like fresh chanterelles). Shiitake and even oyster mushrooms don't give off much, either.


Binder, thickener, emulsifier for parmesan? I want to make a paste for coating out of parmesan. With softer cheeses that's not so hard, but how do I blend a hard cheese like parmesan into a paste or colloid-like form? Any suggestions most appreciated!

Melt hard cheese with a little sodium citrate to make "processed cheese", which is pourable and moldable while hot

You can make sodium citrate by heating the juice of a small lemon (2 to 3 tsp) in the microwave, and then adding one tsp of baking soda, and heating until it stops reacting (bubbling). Then add 1 cup (~100 g) of grated/shaved/powdered cheese and gently heat until is forms smooth paste. Use a little milk if the cheese is too dry


What is the ideal temperature to cool the melted chocolate in a freezer? I have temperated chocolate that is now in a liquid state. I have chocolate molds that I use and I fill up these molds with the chocolate. Now I need to set these chocolate-filled molds in a freezer so that the chocolate can solidify and after solidification, I should be able to remove chocolate without much effort by the process of de-molding so that they become consumable solid chocolate bars. So my questions are:

What should be the temperature of the freezer so that the chocolate hardens in the molds?
How long should I leave the molds in the freezer, before I remove them?
After removing the molds from the freezer (with the solid chocolate in them), do I need to set it in another freezer at another temperature so that the chocolate can solidify even more i.e. at a temperature higher than the freezing temperature but lesser than room temperature?
After de-molding the chocolates, when should I wrap them and for how long, before I can consume them?

I am hoping that the temperature and time suggested will help avoid problems such as fat bloom, sugar bloom and melting.

Thank you.

Do not use a freezer, that's way too harsh on the chocolate and will almost certainly introduce terrible condensation, and possibly off tastes, if there is other food stored in the freezer.

If you have a way to create a temperature-controlled "box", you should cool it at 20 degrees Celsius. If not, keep it in a room which is as close to 20 C as you can get, and on the dry side - most normal rooms will do, unless you live in a tropical or equatorian climate without air conditioning, you just won't get the most perfect shine if you keep your room much colder or warmer than that.

"How long" cannot be answered, you just have to wait until it is solid through and through, which will depend on the thickness of your shapes. Just way overnight before trying the first one.

Also see a diagram with best temperatures, which is slightly more complicated because it considers chocolate poured over a solid core, in this old answer of mine.


Chicken stock in slow cooker - danger zone? How does one know if slow cookers are holding foods in the danger zone too long? I cooked chicken stock on high (a bit too full, water one inch from the top) but it wouldn't simmer, it seemed like 2-3 hours before it got to 140 F and then it eventually went to closer to 180 degrees F at about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. I realize that bacteria will be killed but will toxins build up in that time? I'm thinking that I should throw it out. My cooker is relatively new. Thanks!

It sounds like something is wrong with your slow cooker. On low, it should hit somewhere in the 190s, on high in the low 200s. On high, I'd expect it to get there fairly quickly—within two hours. Both should get you to 140 within an hour.

That said, the actual safety temperature (with a good thermometer) is 130 or 131F. 135 or 140F leave some safety margin for not completely accurate thermometers, maybe missing the coldest part of the food by a little bit, etc. And the standard is you have 2 hours to get there (used to be 4).

So, unfortunately, "it seemed like 2–3 hours" makes it really hard to answer if you exceeded that. I'm not qualified to tell you exactly how much risk (if any) you'd be taking if it took 3h.

But I can make some suggestions for keeping the time to 140F down:

Start with warmer water. There is a trade-off; hot water is supposed to make a more cloudy stock. If you simmered the water on the stove first (or in a tea kettle, etc.), then your time to 140 will be very short. Even starting with room temperature water instead of cold water is ten or twenty degrees closer. You could also, as Joe suggests, start with less water and add hot water later on to bring it up to the desired quantity (but don't underfill the slow cooker).
Make sure your ingredients are defrosted (in the fridge). Melting something takes extra energy; this is known as the enthalpy or heat of fusion. For ice, it's a lot of energy—going from ≈32°F ice to ≈32°F water is about as much energy as it'll take to get it from there to 175°F.
If nothing else works, bring it to a simmer in a stock pot then transfer it over. Unfortunately you'll have to wash a second pot.

Or, finally, you can make very good chicken stock in a pressure cooker, in under an hour total cook time. But of course you need to keep an eye on that.


I have a questions about Pasta sauce spoilage After pouring a new  jar of sauce, I noticed dried sauce around the rim of the cover. Is it still safe to use?

Here are some points to look at:

Was the air seal broken prior to use?
What is the printed shelf-life (or best-by date) in comparison to the date of use?
Are there any detectable (organoleptic) signs of spoilage?
Has the product been stored accordingly as instructed on the label?

Pasta sauce is typically high-acidity, which makes it less prone to spoilage, especially when still within shelf-life / BBD.  This doesn't rule spoilage out completely, and as others have pointed out, more details would definitely help make a more accurate determination.  Strictly speaking, most food packaging do not have zero air permeability, so it wouldn't be unusual to see change in water activity.  If this were for a commercial/industrial application, you could always send it out for lab sampling (or do so in-house), but i'm presuming that isn't likely the case here?


Can apple cider vinegar be substitute when coloring eggs? I have egg coloring kit that suggested using vinegar for darker colors. Only have apple cider vinegar in cupboard. Can I use this instead or am I better off just using water?

Apple cider vinegar still contains the acidity that the dye needs to activate, so it should work just fine. You may encounter a slight discoloration due to the naturally brown tint of apple cider vinegar.


How do I tone down the intensity of raw onion? How can I tone down the intensity of raw onion?
Some onions have a more acute taste and smell than others of the same type, and I would like to avoid them in salad dish, or making dips with raw onion. If effectively none, an alternative solution that can also be helpful is to find out what condiments can I add/mix with raw onion to cancel out the intensity of the the acute taste.

[EDIT]
There is a uniquely (IMHO) sweet taste to onion that I like. But accompany with that is the acute scene and flavor to it that I wanted to get ride of. I do not want to waste away the taste of onion, but remove the acuteness and remain the sweetness.

Two things control the "sharpness" of onions: variety and age.  While certain varieties of onions are sharper than others (i.e. Reds, walla-walls and vidalias are sweeter), any onion which has been in storage too long is going to be sulphurous and sharp-tasting.  Since it's January now, that's going to be pretty much all onions.

Since onion sharpness comes from sulphur compounds (as I understand it), the best way to sweeten onions is to release some of them ahead of using the onion.  The best way to do that is:

Slice the onion thinly, crossways (parallel to its equator rather than pole-to-pole).
Place the sliced onion in a wide bowl, uncovered or very loosely covered, in the fridge or other cold place for at least an hour and up to a day.

Additionally, either vinegar or salt -- or both -- will help accelerate removing sharpness from onion.  For example, for a New Year's Eve appetizer this year I sliced a red onion in to rings, tossed it with 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp red wine vinegar, and left it in an open bowl on the 45F porch for 5 hours.  The result was intensely sweet red onion which could then be used as a canape topping.

If you're in a hurry, though, the only way to make the onion less sharp is to cook it.