How can I reconstruct my Grandmother's recipe from just ingredients? My grandmother would always create her famous Sticky Buns every year around christmas time. Since she has passed, I would like to carry on the tradition. However, all she left behind was a list of ingredients. She had the process tucked away in her head. The ingredients are:
Dough:

2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 1/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons butter/margarine, softened
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons instant non-fat dry milk
1 teaspoon salt
3 - 3 1/4 cups bread flour (or all-purpose flour)

Filling:

1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sauce:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margerine
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup chopped pecans

I have a bit of baking experience, and have found some similar recipes online, but not the exact same ingredients.
My grandfather knows a bit of the process, but not completely. He said:
"I'm assuming you make it just like any other rolls (1). Because it has yeast in it, you have to let it rise. Flatten it out with a rolling pin and then put it on a cookie sheet, cover with a towel. Then let it rise for maybe 30 minutes, it should double in size. Roll it out with a rolling pin and spread the filling on it; roll it up into a pipe like tube; slice it into the thickness you want (2); place the rolls in 9-inch pans all together (no space between)(3). Spread sauce on top (4). Bake at 350 F for 20-25 min - good luck!"
Before I go and waste a ton of ingredients trying to figure it out, is there a way I can find out what best process might fit for this?

What process should I use for the dough?
What thickness would be preferable for the rolls to bake properly without being raw in the middle in that time?
Do I really need to leave the rolls stuck together while baking, or should I keep them apart and let them expand into each other?
It seems like the sauce shouldn't go on top before baking, that would make them soggy, no?

I think that actually you already have all the information you need. Let's go through the questions you mention:

You can use whichever process you prefer. Any of the usual methods for making yeast dough will give you the same result here.

This is the wrong question to ask. Deciding on the baking time first and choosing the thickness second is very difficult and serves no purpose. Just use the thickness you prefer and then bake until done, no matter how long it takes. Obviously, don't go with anything crazy the first time, use a thickness that is somewhere within the typical roll range, accounting for rising.

Yes, this kind of buns is generally arranged with sides touching before rising.

I think that it is intentional to use the sauce before baking, but you can try both ways and see which you like more. Both will produce edible rolls, and if you distrust your grandfather's memory, there is only one way to discover which one was your grandmother's preferred method - a side-by-side test.

So good luck, and go enjoy some nice rolls.


Can I swap out butter and milk for heavy cream in a ganache recipe? I want to make a ganache today, but the heavy cream I expected to use has gone bad and the local stores are all closed right now. My normal recipe is 1:1 ratio of cream to chocolate.
I know that I can't substitute butter and milk for whipped cream (e.g.) because it's not emulsified or anything and won't whip. However, will the melting and stirring involved let me get away with it for a ganache? Since cream is ~35% fat, am I right that 35% butter plus 65% milk would end up with a reasonable consistency?

Yes you can, some Portuguese/Brazilian ganache recipes actually don't use cream at all.
Cream (creme de leite) can be prepared this home-made way:

500 ml of fresh milk
1 egg yolk passed through the sieve
200 g butter
200 g hydrogenated vegetable fat (margarine)

In a pan, mix the sieved yolk and the milk, heat it slow so that the yolk does not cook and the mixture does not boil.
Turn off the heat and add the other two ingredients. As soon as the fat and butter have completely melted, beat it still hot for three minutes in the blender.
now you have your cream, continue finishing your ganache as usual...


Internal temperature of cuts containing abundance of connective tissue I currently have a 2 lbs beef chuck in the oven. I am monitoring the internal temperature of my meat, which is currently at 140 F.

It is my understanding that cuts located close to hoof/horn and contain a lot of connective tissue should be cooked to an internal temperature of 190-195 for tenderness and juiciness.

I am looking for a guide for cuts with a lot of connective tissue, i.e. how different internal temperatures result in different meat textures.

For fast cooking meats, like steaks and tender roasts, the final temperature is the determiner of how well done the cut is because the doneness is directly related to which proteins have denatured.  As the temperature increases, more of the several types of proteins have been effected.   This process concludes around 165 F / 74 C when the meat is well done.

All low and slow dishes, whether braised, barbecued, or slow roasted are cooked well past the point of being well done.

Therefore, the internal temperature is less a guide to how well done they are and  what the final texture is like.

These types of slow cooked high connective tissue cuts like beef chuck or pork butt require time at temperature because the conversion of the collagen to gelatin takes place over time, with the process proceeding more quickly the higher the temperature.

For large cuts done very with dry barbecue methods, this could take 12 to 18 hours; for smaller cuts done in the oven or braising which achieves a higher temperature, it could take only 3 or 4.  The size of the pieces also matters, as it takes time to heat the pieces through to the center, which is why stews where the meat is cut into chunks can be done in only a couple of hours.

The very best test for doneness when doing low and slow cooking is therefore to check the texture directly.  Try cutting the meat, or pulling it apart.  If it is not yet as tender as you desire, continue the cooking.

That said, you may find that the final internal temperature when done to your liking has risen as high as 200 F / 93 C or so but this is not necessarily so.

See also:

What makes a moist steak (or roast)?
Why would a pressure cooker shorten a braise time?


Can the broth from a low country boil be used for anything else? For those who might not know what a low country boil is; it's basically potatoes, corn, sausage, shrimp (and crab or lobster) boiled all together with seasonings (usually seafood boil packets, lemons, and old bay).

Most recipes I've seen have you just dump the "broth" into the sink.  Is it possible to save the broth and use it for anything else later?

Your instincts are good; throwing tasty broth away is a criminal waste!  I have a couple ideas that are worth a shot.

Risotto: use it for the broth or stock. You may wish to add some more sausage and seasfood bits in for extra tastiness.
Rice/pilaf: use the broth in place of water for cooking the rice.  It'll give a richer flavor to the result.
Bisque:  Reduce broth, salt it, season, and mix with cream and maybe a little roux to thicken it.
Pan sauce: Throw broth in a saucepan, reduce it by up to half, and stir in cold roux to thicken, then season with salt, paprika, pepper, herbs (thyme, parsley, rosemary), and maybe a splash of white wine.  It should produce an excellent savory sauce, akin to a veloute.
Bread: Replace some or all of the water in bread you bake with the broth, to give the bread part of the flavor.  Since I don't know how much of each ingredient the boil has, I can't say if this will come out tasty or not, but it's worth a shot.

The other 4 items are pretty safe bets, as long as the broth is fairly tasty. If you reduce and thicken the broth with roux, cornstarch, cream, or cheese, you'll probably be able to turn it into something tasty to dip bread into. In a pinch, it could also become a soup.

One note: you may wish to simmer the broth down until reduced by half to get a stronger flavor for use in other dishes; however, taste it periodically to make sure it's not becoming too overpowering in flavor. If the boil is already fully salted, you will need to adjust salt accordingly when using the broth in cooking. Reduce salt in dishes prepared from it, avoid reducing down the broth to prevent it becoming too salty, and maybe even dilute it down with water.


Effect of carbonated water on the rising of the dough? Some recipes suggest to add carbonated water instead of milk or water. Does this practice accelerate the rising of the dough and why?

This is rather simple. The carbon dioxide created by yeast does not generate new air bubbles in the dough - the yeast fills and enlarges existing air bubbles, that are in the dough due to the kneading, whipping of eggs etc.. If you add carbonated water to the dough, you create more air bubbles that the yeast can enlarge.

This should have no dramatic effect on the rising time; temperature and yeast amount will matter much more. But it strongly influences the final texture of the baked good, as more initial air bubbles before the rising will result in a finer and tenderer product.


Calculating Nutrition Information for Commercial Food Labeling I'm working on starting a small home-based bakery that will ship food products sold on a website directly to consumers. (Specifically, cookies.) As part of this work, I am designing packaging and am looking into FDA-compliant nutrition labels. Even though this two-person part-time business easily qualifies for an exemption, my preference is to nonetheless provide nutrition information as I believe it would be helpful to customers. At the same time, I believe providing inaccurate information is worse than no information at all. There is an extreme amount of conversation on calorie calculation for personal diets (including here and here), but little I can find on calculation for commercial purposes.

Obviously, nutritional information can be derived through laboratory tests and I have found many such services online.

Another possible solution (that I use for my own diet) is to simply "add-up" ingredient values from their respective labels. This method seems like a great solution but I'm concerned about its accuracy on an FDA-compliant label, especially after baking. I am skeptical of this process because:

I recall from high school chemistry that frying an egg changes its chemical composition and I'm assuming also its nutritional value, and
It is commonly stated online that processed foods have altered nutrition values.

My question is in three parts:

Are these concerns about the "add-up" process accurate enough to disqualify it from a commercial level of nutrition labeling?
Are there other methods I can use to calculate nutrition information accurately enough to meet FDA requirements without needing laboratory analysis?
Do you have any other advice on this process or topic for a small business trying to balance providing this information voluntarily and the costs of hiring outside help?

Thank you.

Use Wolfram Alpha, it is just adding them up. But any lab result has to use average ingredient figures too. You need to allow for variance in supply i.e protein level of flour changes with variety and season.

It produces pretty labels, all ready to go!

e.g. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100g+flour+and+100g+butter+and+50g+sugar


Pre-made seasoning to add to rice in rice cooker to make rice more flavorful? I've looked all over for this and not found much.

Chipotle resturant adds lime and cilantro to their rice, some folks put Saffron. I thought "gee there must be others".

Any other pre-made seasonings you could buy and add to rice while cooking it (ideally something you could put in a rice cooker or in rice that you'll cook in a pot).  I'm happy to order it by mail (especially if it's in the USA)

This is a more specific version of: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/10677/making-white-rice-more-tasteful.

You can combine it with practically everything, so the question is somewhat broad. So my answer is equally broad: rice pairs well with fresh tastes and acidity, or with moderately sweet components. Or you can just underline its own slightly nutty notes. Below is a list of specific examples, but it is impossible to make it exhaustive.

For fresh tastes, use herbs. Summer savoury and spearmint are the classics, I never make stuffed peppers without them. But other light tasting herbs are also a good choice - lemon balm, oregano. Rosmarin is sometimes good, but somewhat overpowering, it is better for a dish where the rice is cooked together with veggies (eggplant, zucchini).

Beside herbs, you can try more exotic seasonings. Lemon zests are good, finelly chopped grape leaves and shoots are great.

Coriander powder should give you a similar taste profile to cilantro, but it is easier to keep at hand for when a quick dinner without much planning is needed.

The sweet option is also interesting; if you don't overdo it, it is OK to serve it as a side dish for a savoury meal. The easiest way to achieve it is to cook the rice together chopped dry fruit. Sulfured raisins are popular, the dish will be somewhat si milar to pilaf. But others work too, I especially like dried apricots because they are slightly tart.

Other methods for sweetening don't really fall into the "dry seasoing" category, but are  worth mentioning. You can add fruit juice to the cooking water (apple or other slightly sour juices are best; this will affect the starch in the rice, causing it to cook firmer than usual) or you can add a small amount of sweetener to the cooked rice (prefer aromatic sweeteners lik honey or C grade maple syrup). Or if you prefer it spicier, mix it with a sweet chutney, like mango.

If you want a subtler taste, combine the rice with nuts (cook them together). Always use nuts with the brown skin removed. I have found unroasted, finely chopped nuts to work better this way. Hazelnuts and almonds are a very good choice. Para nuts also pair well with rice, but are seldom availablr blanched+chopped. This works especially well if you use the parfrying method for the rice, frying in the oil of the nut used. However, I don't know if you can parfry rice in a rice cooker, I always make mine on the stove.


When making soda bread, 45 min on baking sheet or 15 min on cast iron skillet? I am looking at these two recipes for making Irish soda bread:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/213830/brennans-irish-soda-bread
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/51447/irish-soda-bread-in-a-skillet/

They look almost identical to each other, same ingredients (minus sugar) and same oven temperature.  But one says to bake for 45 minutes and the other one says to bake for 15 min.  That seems like a huge difference, doesn't it?

45 min recipe says to use the baking sheet and 15 min recipe says to use cast iron skillet.  Does the skillet really affect baking time that much?

If you read some of the reviews on the one that says to bake for 45 minutes (Brennan's), many of them say it was done in less time:

sunnieday:

  Really great and simple recipe. Recommended cook time is too long. I cooked mine for about 25 minutes and it was perfect. Will use this again.

Nutmeg~n~Pepper

  After making as written and baking for the stated time, I find it hard to review how the bread tastes as it comes out way overcooked and rubbery.

lambertfan

  I did follow the advice of another review post with only baking for 30 min.

So it looks like the bake time on Brennan's recipe is too long.

As to the pan vs sheet, with the sides of the pan so close to the loaf, it can certainly absorb and radiate some extra heat to the bread, so that might explain a little of the time difference... but not 30 minutes worth... but since the actual bake time for the sheet loaf is really 25-30 minutes, that might account for it... but the skillet would also take longer to heat up initially (assuming it's not preheated), so it would probably make the bottom of the bread cook more slowly.

So, as always with baking, don't bake by time. Keep an eye on your baking and pull it when it's done, not when the time is up.


What do you call the flavor imparted from cooking at high heat? I'm wondering about that high-heat flavor you get just before outright burning food. Charred, grilled, blackened, smoky, or seared flavor? Wok hei? I'm not exactly sure what to call it. Or would the term depend on the method used for cooking?

I have frequently heard it said (or read) that "the flavor comes from..." rather than naming the flavor in particular. Each of the adjectives you listed (and more) can be used situationally to describe the flavor, but there is no established name for those flavors.

With sugars (fruits and other sweets) the flavor is caused by "caramelization" whereas with proteins the source is referred to as "the Maillard effect/reaction". I have also heard caramelization used to describe the browning of meat, while technically inaccurate the term still conveys the meaning. Some articles will confuse the terms (see Why Does Food Brown) but it is more accurate to treat them as separate reactions (see Caramelization: Why Food Turns Brown When You Cook It)


Making a sauce with mascarpone cheese I have some mascarpone cheese left. May I use it to make a sauce?

You can add Mascapone Cheese to a plain italian tomato sauce. The sauce can take on quite a different feel to it from the normal pasta sauce which can make a nice change.


How can I easily get water to a desired temperature? I have a number of teas, some of which require a lower temperature for steeping than others (for instance, I have a particular Green Tea which asks for steeping at 70°C, 158°F).

I was wondering how to get the water to this temperature, and I can think of 4 different methods:

Heat the water gently until it reaches that temperature
Boil the water, then add cooler water until it reaches that temperature
Boil the water, leave it standing for a couple of minutes until it reaches the temperature
Boil the water, transfer it from vessel to vessel until the temperature drops sufficiently.

Is there any difference in the result of those methods, as to the quality of the tea it'll end up producing? Will it make a difference if the water (or some of it) never reached the boiling point?

The method we use (for coffee) is pretty simple (though it requires some compatible equipment):

Fill kettle.
Shove probe thermometer through "whistle" hole in kettle spout.
Heat until desired temperature is reached.
Pour water into vessel.

If you don't have a kettle or your thermometer won't work, you can do the same thing with any pot and a thermometer that has a clip (so you don't have to hold it for 10 minutes while the water heats)... but be sure the thermometer is heat safe (candy thermometers are good for this if they have a high enough temp range).

You'll want to keep a couple of things in mind...

The temperature of your mug will cool the water when it makes contact. This is unlikely to make a huge difference but it's something to think about. If you really want to brew your tea at exactly 70 C, consider heating sufficient water to "warm" your cup (or teapot) by filling it part way and swishing the water around to heat up the cup first and then pour the water down the drain. Alternately, you can heat your water to a slightly higher temperature (72 C).

As to your other methods... I'm sure any of them would work just fine... they'd take longer, though, because you're waiting for something to boil and then you're waiting for it to cool off or you're futzing around with getting it back down to the "right" temperature by adding cool water or tossing it back and forth between cups.

Provided you have standard, municipal water that you're comfortable drinking from the tap (or filtered), I don't know why boiling it first would matter.

I'm also skeptical about the pickiness of tea being steeped at exactly 70 C. I have a feeling that there'd be little discernible difference (to the average consumer) were the water at 80 C or even 90 C... It'd be an interesting thing to test, I suppose.

As this relates to oxygen loss due to boiling, which has been mentioned in some of the answers. This related question actually discusses that already and the general consensus is that lower oxygen levels in the water is actually bad for the taste of the tea:

  Dissolved oxygen is reactive, and will most likely extract more substances from the tea leaf, than without it. If these are the good flavour parts of tea, I do not know?

And:

  This person found that increased oxygen in the water resulted in milder, less tannic tea.

So, it sounds as if not bringing your water to a full boil is actually preferable to the flavor of the tea (assuming you don't like the tannic flavors) because the oxygen is beneficial to the brewing process.


Healthy recipe for Quaker oatmeal packets? I have a bunch of these maple & brown sugar Quaker oatmeal packets and I'm looking for a healthy (and simple) chewy cookie recipe that I can use them with.

I've searched, but I only see recipes that use unhealthy ingredients (butter, chocolate chips, etc). I've also found recipes that are very complicated.

So I guess my question is: how can I make chewy cookies with just these oatmeal packets? Since I'm not much of a cook, I prefer something that isn't overly complicated and doesn't require many additional ingredients (ie. I can use what I have in my kitchen).

Not sure if this question is off-topic (https://cooking.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic), but I'll respond on the basis that anyone looking for a non-fattening cookie recipe has probably suffered sufficiently already.

Looking on the Quaker site, they have a decent recipe albeit with butter (https://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/vanishing-oatmeal-raisin-cookies). Taking into account the dryness of the oats, you could try amending this and reducing the butter content and replacing that with some egg white until the consistency is close to a traditional recipe.

Another alternative is banana, see https://cafedelites.com/healthy-2-ingredient-breakfast-cookies which is just oats and banana.

Either way, you will probably be able to put something together that resembles a cookie, but for that really luxurious cookie experience, butter, sugar and chocolate are hard to beat.


Can I cook pasta without heating it up... ever? More of a survival question than anything.

I have a bag of dried pasta, a plastic container, a can of tomato sauce, and some salt, and I find myself out in the wilderness with no heat to speak of.

Is there some way I can get that pasta decently edible by just leaving it in the plastic container with either salt water, or the tomato sauce, or a combination of both for an extended period of time?

Thanks.

Pasta (by which I infer you mean dried, Italian-style semolina pasta) is edible raw, right out of the package.  It is not, however, palatable.

If you soak it in water, it will hydrate and soften over time, but that is not the same as cooking it.

True cooking also cooks the proteins and takes away that raw starchy taste.  There is no way to achieve that without the application of some heat above about 180 F for at least a few minutes.

See also:

Preparing spaghetti without boiling water

Note that in one of the answers to that question, Rumtscho points out that supermarket ramen noodles are precooked (they are generally par-fried, sometimes par-baked) and are much more palatable eaten straight from the package, or simply soaked.


replace kosher pickle brine after leak I made kosher dills for a Christmas gift and they turned out great. The jar tipped in transit and leaked all the brine. Can I refill it? With what?

For fermented pickles, I suggest using a salty brine similar to the one you started with.

If you are really lucky, enough lactobacillae are present to recreate a pickling brine, otherwise a 5% salt solution should help keeping the cucumbers for a bit longer.

Instruct the recipients to use the pickles rather quickly, I'd guestimate a week in the refrigerator should be ok.


I forgot the chicken out on the counter-top all night. How do I dispose of it? I left the chicken out on the counter top all night. Reading these comments, it looks like we should not consume it. So now how do I dispose of it?

You dispose of it like you would with any other meat-based remains that are unfit for human consumption.

Depending on your local trash system that may mean anything from throwing it out of the window to wrapping it up and putting it in a specific trash or recycling container. Your local waste management company or municipal office can give you better advice than we can.

What I wouldn't recommend though is throwing it on your compost heap - it might invite various animal life forms that you do not want near your house and the smell is quite pungent after a while.


What is a good technique for making a very small amount of caramel? By caramel I mean caramelised sugar made into a sauce with butter.

What is the best way to make a caramel sauce if only a tiny quantity is required? What is the smallest amount of sugar that is practical to start with?

For making a very small amount, the 'dry' method where one just heats the sugar alone seems tricky: I find the sugar burns and hardens into burnt sugar/toffee very easily. The 'wet' method where one adds water to moisten (maybe 1/3 sugar to water by weight) has also given me poor results: some sugar gets burned while the rest is still dissolved. Adding the butter right at the start seems to work better, but I find it's hard to get a really rich caramel taste this way: it's more a sweetened butter sauce.

You make small amounts the same way you make large amounts: dry or wet, doesn't matter, take your preference.
The problems you have are related not to the method, but to the wrong vessel. For example, for the dry method, you have to have the sugar neither too thick, nor too thin. For small amounts of caramel, you have to go with a small pot, possibly go down to 12 or even 8 cm (at least that's what works for me; if by "tiny" you really mean something like a tablespoon of caramel sauce, you might have to use a tiny vessel, like a muffin tin or a single portion cezve). The other desired quality is to have a vessel which provides even, measured heating, so a thick heavy bottom is always preferable.
Also make sure to use the right temperature, "sugar gets burned while the rest is still dissolved" sounds like you might be using too high heat.


Haloumi cheese is very hard I made halloumi from raw cow's milk.  I followed Ricki Carroll's recipe and it tastes right but is very hard.  I am wondering when cooking in the whey, it never did rise to the top, could this be why?  Why wouldn't it have risen and should I have waited longer than the 60 minutes stated in the recipe?

The cheese failing to rise and being hard are definitely related, but it's more likely that there was a problem in the cheese chemistry (particularly, in the culture), than cooking it longer in the whey would have helped.  In other words, the most likely problem culprit is your starter/culture being poor quality or somehow added improperly.  You are using non-chlorinated water, correct?

This is, of course, assuming that you followed Carroll's recipe exactly.  If you cooked the curds at too high of a temperature, or for too long, or if you re-cooked the cheese in the whey at too low of a temperature, those would also cause similar problems.

While it's not uncommon to need to cook halloumi in the whey for longer than expected (for example, see Gavin Webber's cow-milk Halloumi video; he has to cook it for twice as long as the recipe specifies), Carroll's cooking time of an hour is already very long for finishing the cheese.  Other recipes specify more like 15 minutes to 1/2 hour.


How much pepper sauce could you get out of a Carolina Reaper? If you can get one pepper and let's say for arguments sake assume that this pepper is 1 500 000 SHU. How much sauce could you actually make from one such pepper?

I would personally remove the seeds to improve my seed bank. How would this influence the amount of sauce you could make?It would have to be a reasonably strong sauce, but not overbearing.

Is there a general rule of thumb for how pepper sauces are made in regards to the SHU levels they achieve?

Pepper sauces usually deliver an aroma (from the peppers), some sweet/sour/salty element (from the pickling ingredients mostly), and heat (from the peppers). A hotter pepper will not necessarily be stronger in aroma, so using this kind of super hot pepper alone can end you up with a sauce that is hot but poor in flavor. Also, given that capsaicin is very soluble in fat but not very soluble in water/vinegar, such a sauce will have a very uneven distribution of heat and will likely end up with a very harsh, unpleasant heat no matter how diluted - similar to throwing chile powder into a lean soup.


Will swapping the red wine in my spaghetti bolognese with port wreck the dish? We were out of red wine when cooking spaghetti bolognese today, but eyed off the port as a possible substitute. We decided against it but were left wondering. I imagine you'd have to halve the quantity because it would be too strong. I thought it might make it too sweet.

My question is: Will swapping the red wine in my spaghetti bolognese with port wreck the dish?

In short, using port as a substitute for red wine will not wreck the dish.

Though the flavour is different (and richer) and will make your bolognese taste different as a result, the taste should not be bad. I frequently do this as I am not a red wine drinker, and port keeps far better in an open bottle. I would recommend using slightly less than when using red wine, but this is highly subjective.


How to dry out mash - added too much milk I was just making some mashed potatoes and slipped when adding milk, adding probably 50% too much.

The mash is now very liquid.  Whats the best way of saving it?

I am thinking of either heating gently to dry out a bit or adding some sort of flour to it, or both.

The mash will be used to make fishcakes if that makes a difference and has been seasoned with salt and pepper and butter.

I keep a box of instant mashed potato flakes in the house. I use it only for two things: one is a super-quick pantry chowder and the other is to thicken over milked mashed potatoes. While I wouldn't want to eat a bowl of instant mash, a quick shake in this circumstance takes care of the problem and no-one's the wiser.


What does leftover rendered chicken skin consist of? After rendering chicken skin, a lot of the fat is released and you're left over with crispy pieces of chicken skin.

What is the remaining crispy skin composed of? Protein, fat, or both?

Fried chicken skin (gribenes), what's left of the skin after you render off the fat (schmaltz), gets its crispiness from the skin's protein. However, there is still a lot of fat coating and within the skin. When you crunch into it, there is still a "juicy" mouthfeel of telltale greasiness. The protein provides structure, but carries plenty of fat with it.

Similar phenomenon can be observed with chicharróns and pork rinds (fried pig skin).


Buying first cast iron pan size/depth/shape I am planing to buy my first cast Iron pan and I would like to get advice on which size/shape/depth should I should choose.
For example I am looking at this:

size: 25.4cm depth: 4.45cm

size: 25cm depth: 5.08cm

Also what shape/width/depth would be best in your opinion, not necessary from these two pans, but in general?
Mainly I want to get new pan for cooking steaks, hamburger meat. Or maybe I should consider gettig one like this:

Do those lines add addiotional taste or just marks?
edit:
Thank you all for answers, I decided to go with Lodge cast iron L10SK3 size: 30 cm looks like #2 but bigger :)  Next step cooking...

I'd offer the following recommendations if someone hasn't worked with cast iron before:

Cast iron is heavy.  If you're not used to them, and used to flipping things in your pan by just lifting and shaking ... it will not go well until you've gotten used to it.  You'd likely be better off with a smaller pan, provided that it's of sufficient size for the amount you're cooking.  If you're only cooking for 1 or 2 people, a 10" (25cm) pan is likely better than a 12" (30cm) one.
If you're going to be grilling things, but not making sauces or sautéing, go with a griddle.  Round griddles heat up much more evenly (less issues w/ cold spots near the walls), are easier to clean, and are significantly lighter than cast iron pans.  Grill pans are really only needed for things that are going to drip significant amounts of fat, or if you really like grill lines.
If you buy a larger pan (14"/ 36cm) or larger, make sure it has a second handle.  I've seen some that just have a little nub and not much else, which makes it very difficult to lift when it's loaded down with food, as you don't always have good grip with the potholders.
Pour spouts are nice to have, as you don't want to hold the pan for a long time trying to be careful when pouring.  (heavy pan + liquid weight is not a good combination).  The only disadvantage to the spouts are that you can't lid it as tightly, which may be an issue for pots, but is generally not a problem for pans.
Learn how to hold the pan when transfering food out of it.  You'll notice in some cooking shows that the chefs use a strange grip : with your non-dominant hand, reach across the pan and grab the handle so that your palm is under the handle.  Grip tightly and lift over your serving dish, and then scrape things out with your dominant hand.  You will tire out much more quickly if you try to hold it with the handle to the side.
You only need a high-sided pan if you're going to be really loading up the pan (eg, trying to wilt down a bunch of greens), braising, or shallow frying.  (it's most important when frying).  Higher sides add extra weight, and less even heating.
Figure out where you're going to store it.  As they're heavy, you likely don't want to be storing them up high (hazardous) or down low (back problems) if you can avoid it.  You also can't stack them all on top of each other on a flimsy shelf.  I wouldn't hang them from a pot-rack if it was overhead.  (maybe on a wall-mounted one, where I knew it had good lags into studs)  If you just have one, you can clean it and leave it on your stovetop ... once you start getting a few different sizes, you have to figure out where to put them.
Invest in a handle cover.  You can get ones that are padded cloth, leather, or silicone that slip over the handle, and just stay on while you're cooking.  You don't want pans where the handle is a separate part from the cast iron.
Enameled cast iron is easier to clean, but it will start to stain and craze after years of use.  I like enamed for pots, but generally prefer seasoned for pans.
Make sure to read the manufacturer's directions for cleaning and seasoning your pan before the first use.  Seasoned pans may come 'pre-seasoned', and just need a touch up before you start using it, but bare metal pans generally need to be stripped down of whatever protective coating they shipped with, and then seasoned, which can take a couple of hours to build up some layers.  (it's easier to do in the oven, but slower ... I still recommend the oven so you can make sure to season the underside and handles of the pan, which frequently get forgotten)

... and whatever you do, do not start collecting cast iron because it's decorative.  I have less than a dozen, and 3 of them get heavy use (14" skillet, 12" round griddle, 7qt enameled pot).  I had to work up to the 14" skillet ... starting out, it was a 10" until I got used to working with it, which is still a great size for cornbread and such.  ... but my mom has well over 100 pieces, because she's collecting Griswold and Wagner.  (and she's got at lot of it on an antique wooden baking rack that I'm amazed hasn't broken / collapsed considering that it's significantly sagging)


Where in Pakistan can I buy a kettle BBQ? I soon will be traveling to Pakistan and I want to do lots of BBQs there.

First I thought about taking a BBQ with me as you can see in the picture:

But seems like it will be difficult to take it with me, and it might damage in transition.

Question

Is there any online/offline place I could buy such a kettle BBQ in Pakistan (Islamabad/Rawalpindi around to be exact).

It would be a bonus to know the price as well.

You can buy it online. Here's a decent one. Here are cheaper ones from the same site. Here's another site with some smaller options.

When we discussed this in chat you told me that you'll be staying with your uncle. The advantage of buying it online is that you can have it shipped to your uncle's address so that it's there even before you arrive. You'll be all ready to fire up the corncobs on the very first day.

Amazon India has the hands down best selection, and if they don't ship to Pakistan you can use this service to get it delivered. But do be wary of potential customs fees and extended delivery time if you go this route.

You might have to ask your uncle to use one of his payment cards (in case some of these vendors don't accept foreign cards.)


Storing beef for 3 days I've just bought some fresh rump steak to make beauf bourguignon in 3 days. Can I keep it in a fridge or do I need to put it in a freezer?

A roast should be fine for 3-4 days, refrigerated see:

Beef board reference

If any of several modern packaging systems are used--most of which are designed to exclude air and pathogens, you can get significantly longer storage, although freezing is probably still not a bad idea:

Beefresearch.org


Does a colder refrigerator keep things fresh longer? Are they simply "cold" or "not cold", or does the degree of coldness make a difference? Does it depend on what is being refrigerated?

Your refrigerator should be set so that it maintains a temperature no higher than forty degrees F.  This means that you shouldn't be opening the door frequently or leaving it open longer than necessary.  If you are aging beef in that refrigerator, you want the temperature to be no more than thirty-five degrees F according to some sources, but these sources conflict.

Below 32 degrees F you are obviously duplicating the functionality of your freezer, but not as well.


All Clad Copper Core - everything sticks, why? I decided to splurge on a set of All Clad Copper Core. I have no problem with browning meats with this cookware, but I am having huge problems with many other kinds of cooking. For instance, this morning I made chilaquiles for breakfast, and although I heated the pan, heated the oil, added the tortillas and salsa, the delicious crust (my absolute fave part) was stuck like concrete to the pan and had to be boiled, scrubbed, and sent down the drain. Bacon? all the crusty brown parts adhere to the pan like glue and the bacon remains a flabby slab. Spending 4 figures just to saute a piece of meat is not what I expected, and I'm having serious buyers remorse. Is there something I should know? I am by no means a novice cook.

Pans made from different materials will heat your food at different speeds and to different temperatures.

Getting a perfect crust without sticking is a matter of very fine tuning. You have to set your stove just right, preheat the pan just right, and keep your food inside for just the right time.

If you spent 35 years cooking in a certain set of pans, you have unnoticeably fit your skills to them. You have a stove setting which you know works for you. You intuitively know just how long to preheat, when to start stirring, how much to stir... and this is all based on a certain heat transfer rate from the pan to the food, which has been constant for you over the years. Now, with a new pan, you are dealing with a completely different heat transfer rate. Also, you have chosen stainless steel, which is not a good surface for eggs (but should work well for bacon).

There is nothing wrong with the pan, but you'll have to go through a learning phase, experimenting a lot with temperature and timing, until you know the way to cook in your new pan until everything is just right. Observe your food carefully in the old and new pan and try to catch the moment at which the same change happens in both, this should help.


Difference between French bread and Japanese bread I have lived in Japan for 1 year now, but I cannot find French bread - baguette - in Tokyo like the one we have in France.

Their bread is not crunchy nor crispy at all, and it's chewy, I kind of feel like I am eating a sponge... like old bread.

What is the difference between the bread made in Japan and the one we have in France? Do they use different flour, different way of baking? Do they wait for the bread to become chewy before selling it?

One of the best known (if not the best known) breads in Japan is, in fact, very much like a brioche. Japanese Milk Bread contains butter and egg, it also contains a fair amount of sugar. The Japanese think of bread more like a sweet than a staple. Another sweet bread known in Japan is Maple Bread, it's even sweeter and really does taste like maple syrup.

If you are looking for something more like a French Baguette, Catija's advice in comments is excellent. The Japanese aren't big into sandwiches. The Vietnamese, however, have a huge French influence (whether they want it or not). The bread traditionally used for Banh Mi is a short baguette. If you ask for Banh Mi in Tokyo, someone will know just what you mean.


How to replicate Cerelac at home? https://www.nestlebaby.com.au/products/dry-infant-cereal/cerelac-rice/
The contents says: "Rice":
I can understand that they have ground the raw rice.
Then is it supposed to be roasted?

https://www.nestlebaby.com.au/products/dry-infant-cereal/cerelac-wheat/
The contents says: "Wheat" and "Semolina":
Am I supposed to roast the wheat flour which we use in breads etc., and semolina too?

How to make a Cerelac replica at home?

You probably can't.

Cereals are highly processed food, and they use methods not available at home. Producers also don't release information on the exact methods used in a certain product.

If you just want to feed your baby a grain-based pap, look for recipes. Parents have fed grain products to babies long before Nestle existed. Old books for housewives and parents will have recipes, but there are probably recipes on the Internet too.

Such recipes may produce something very different in taste, texture and digestive quality from the industrially-produced pap, although they will be suitable for babies. If you want exactly Cerelac, you will have to buy it. Even if there was a way to know exactly what they do to the grains, you'd probably need industrial equipment to replicate it.


How do I know if my salmon fish is cooked properly? I intend to cook some salmon fish over this weekend so that I can treat my friends and relatives. However, I saw this article - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/22/the-hidden-dangers-of-unc_n_120584.html, it mention about the hidden danger of uncooked salmon.

So, my question is how should I cook my salmon such that it is cooked properly? (in other words, how can I identify that my salmon fish is not cooked well. Of course, I don't want my salmon fish to become so cooked that it turn into a black ash.)

Would appreciate if there are pictures showing a well-cooked salmon fish and pictures showing salmon fish that is not cooked properly and showing sign of rawness inside the cooked fish when cut into half.

Just some illustrations as follows:

I don't want my salmon fish to be somewhere like this cause it look un-cook inside:

Also, I don't want my salmon fish to be somewhere like this cause it look over-cooked outside:

Also, I ask a article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_rare (honestly, I do not know if it can apply to fishes)

==========================================================================================
Term (French)               | Description                        | Temperature range[1]
==========================================================================================
Extra-rare or Blue (bleu)   | very red and cold                  | 46–49 °C (115–120 °F)
==========================================================================================
Rare (saignant)             | cold red center; soft              | 52–55 °C (125–130 °F)
==========================================================================================
Medium rare (à point)       | warm red center; firmer            | 55–60 °C (130–140 °F)
==========================================================================================
Medium (demi-anglais)       | pink and firm                      | 60–65 °C (140–150 °F)
==========================================================================================
Medium well (cuit)          | small amount of pink in the center | 65–69 °C (150–155 °F)
==========================================================================================
Well done (bien cuit)       | gray-brown throughout; firm        | 71–100 °C (160–212 °F)
==========================================================================================

So, I was wondering if I really need to cut those salmon fish into tiny slices so that when I cooked them, the fish will be between "Medium well" to "Well done" throughout. (Notice that I did not want a "Well Done" because I don't want to have "black ash" on the outside of the salmon fish)

The most reliable way to test any meat is with a thermometer. Be careful to insert it all the way into the center (since the outside will be hotter). As has been mentioned in the comments, the 130-135F range is cooked, but very soft. It's more likely that you want something in the 140F-150F range.

This is where the second method comes in - just test it. When fish is cooked, it should easily flake apart, and you can see the inside and verify that it's cooked how you want it. Remember, you can always cook it a bit longer, but you can't go backwards, so don't be too shy about checking it. There's no shame in having to check it a couple times before you decide it's done; within a try or two you'll know exactly what you're looking for. And you can do this along with a thermometer, since it's hard to tell exactly what temperature would be best for you.

Whatever you do, be careful not to overcook it - remove it from the heat as soon as you think it's done. It'll still cook a little bit more, as heat transfers from the outside to the inside.

You still haven't mentioned how you plan to cook it. The picture you think looks bad might actually be really good - if it was cooked on high heat, it may be done perfectly on the inside, with a bit of browning and charring on the outside. If you're cooking it more slowly, that's obviously not what you want it to look like on the outside - then inside would be totally overcooked.

All that said, the easiest way to cook fish (especially if you don't have a lot of experience) is baking it, wrapped in foil (or in a foil-covered dish). It's a slow heat, so it's a lot harder to accidentally overcook it, and it cooks more evenly than a hot pan or a grill. There are a lot of other great ways, but this might be good to start with. You could look for recipes for baked salmon to get some ideas here, if you don't just want a plain piece of fish.


How to take care of glazed earthenware? I got a traditional gyveche (гювече) as a gift, and since it would be hard to replace here, I intend to take good care of it.

For those who don't know it, a gyuveche is an earthenware pot intended for baking a single portion of casserole-like mediterannean dishes. There are unglazed and glazed ones; mine is glazed both on the outside and the inside. That's a picture of one similar to mine.

I have some trouble cleaning it. I'm not yet used to it, and sometimes bake the dish too long, which means that I get overbaked egg caked on the inside.

My usual strategies against overbaked egg are a stainless steel wire pad and soaking. But I'm afraid that the wire pad will hurt the glaze and that soaking will seep into the clay. Is this really a concern? If I can't use wire pad or soaking, what is my best option? The rough side of the sponge isn't enough by itself.

Also, if anybody has general tips about the care, I'll be glad to hear them.

I anticipate someone being able to answer this better than me, but my guess is that the glaze totally protects the ceramic of the pot, as long as there are no cracks or chips in it. You should be able to soak and scrub (but I would avoid scouring) the pot with impunity. A rough edged sponge is almost always a better choice than a metal scouring pad when cleaning ceramic / most dishes.


How to make fluffy rice and which type of type of rice to use? In some restaurants like Greek ones I get some nice pretty fluffy rice. The rice is short and little fat in the middle. It doesn't like look Jasmine or basmati rice which are longer.

When I prepare rice at home I follow the instructions in terms of amount of water, rice and simmering at lowest heat. Still the rice comes out pretty sticky. (Another question here talks about adding water in batches.. will try).

Question: How can I make the fluffiest rice and what type of rice to use? Do rice cookers make fluffier rice than using a pot?

As is mentioned in this question (and this one), one of the keys to keeping your rice from clumping is to rinse the uncooked rice with cold water until the water runs clear. This rinses off the starch on the surface of the rice. The starch can cause your rice to stick together.

Some types of rice are fluffier than others. The longer grain rices tend to have lower starch (and, of course, Arborio rice has so much starch that it makes for the characteristic texture of risotto). So even if it's not Jasmine or Basmati, they're probably using at least a medium grain, rather than short.

A quick Google search for Greek rice yields a lot of recipes that suggest sauteing the rice in oil before boiling it. This is a common technique for pilaf, and adds a nutty sort of taste. I'm not sure it'd have any effect on stickiness, but it might help with flavor. And you can also saute onions and other vegetables to add flavor.


How to brew tasty tea with hard water At our new home, we have hard water.  I had thought that the teabags I was buying were just weak, but the internet seems to indicate that the hard water will actually change the taste of the tea to a more chalky taste with some residue.

Two suggestions I have come across are either brewing with bottled water (I try to reduce the amount of packaging I buy so don't want to do this), or brewing the tea double strength (this makes it a little bitter).

What is the best way to get a tasty brew using hard water?

You can also get a water filter that is meant to help with this sort of thing.

Here in the UK one of the most common brands is Brita, you simply put a couple of litres in a jug which has a filter in it, after filtration use it to make your tea.

I've not used it myself however so can't comment on its effectiveness.

You can also get these filters built into your taps.


The bread is brighter than usual I have a Morphy-Richards bread-baker which is about 30 years old. It still works fine, but the latest bread I baked is brighter than usual. I use whole wheat flour, so the bread is usually browny, but now its color is more near white.

Is the bread edible in this situation, or is it still unbaked?
Does it mean that my bread-baker is no longer strong enough for baking, and I should replace it?

From the comments - you used a different brand of whole wheat flour this time around. My best guess (and really that's all anyone can do with something like this as there are way too many factors) is that this new brand is the reason for the difference in the bread.

Just because they are the same type of flour, it doesn't mean they are all milled, sieved etc. the same way.

It may be this new flour is:

More coarse or finely ground
Different additives
More of the wheat husks are sieved out

All these factors can effect how the bread cooks as well as how much liquid the flour absorbs.

I would say it is very unlikely that your bread machine has broken since it sounds like the bread still cooked!

It's also unlikely that the bread will cause you any harm. An enriched plain loaf bread mix can be eaten raw (not that you'd want to).

 Please feel free to edit my list with any other changes flour can have between brands.


What type of Paprika is the generic stuff one buys at a grocery store chain? I have read this very good link on the differences in paprika, but I did not learn all that I need to learn as far as buying these different varieties.  When I go to my grocery chain to do my weekly shopping and I see the spice container which says Paprika, is that just going to be "Plain" paprika.  I ask because I need to go out and find both sweet paprika and hot paprika which probably will require a little more effort on my part to find.  Maybe a Whole Foods or something?

This information should be indicated on the label: sweet, sweet&sour, spicy, smoked...

Generic paprika is sweet and will probably not have much flavor (that is why paprika can be used in paella together with saffron - see this question)


My Bunn coffeemaker has started overflowing at the funnel We recently moved to Indiana from Colorado.  Our new house in Indiana has a water softener and I have read that soft water can cause Bunns to overflow.  I have not read anything about how this is solved.  I have pulled the nozzle and it was not clogged.  Is it just a matter of getting a different nozzle?  If so, what nozzle do I go with?  Thanks.

It's possible that the soft water is helping the coffee "bloom" (and eventually overflow past the top of the basket) more than when you were using harder/more mineralized water. All else held equal, there's a few things to try to solve the concern, as one or a combination of the following may work.
Try:

...reducing the amount of water you place in the tank, and expect smaller/less servings.
...putting in less coffee in the basket, balancing the risk of getting "watered-down" coffee (see #1 above).
...using/buying coarse ground coffee instead of the fine powder (for the reasons below)

Now if you grind the beans yourself, also try:

...using a burr grinder (instead of a blade-type) for more consistent coffee size, as the fines from using a blade grinder may be clogging your mesh/paper filter (not the nozzle!)
...grinding the coffee a little bit coarser to give more space for the water to run through.

Hope this helps.


Dried apricots smell of alcohol? I recently opened a container of store-bought dried apricots and they smell vaguely of fermentation/alcohol.  I've never noticed this before.

They taste fine, but should I be concerned?  Do they need to be used soon?

Worst-case, would I end up sick, or just tipsy?

Many fruits start to ferment a bit, some even while still on the trees.  For example orange juice normally contains a small amount (normally < 0.1 % vol.) of alcohol too.  And some berries that grow in the dunes here in Belgium can make the birds who eat them tipsy when they are ripe (the birds fly a bit erratic during that season...).

The "smell" might also be something you associate with alcohol because you often smell it while sensing/using alcohol (technically you can't "smell" alcohol, as it's odorless, but you can "sense" it in other ways).


Smoker Ideas, something between Ribs and a Brisket Got my smoker going and the food is turning out descent.. smoked ribs and a beer can chicken quite well so far. I'm thinking of trying a brisket, but that seems intimidating with my limited smoker skillset/experience.

What's a good intermediate meat to experiment with between ribs and a brisket?

If you want beef, try smoking chuck roasts ("chuckies"). If you want pork, try making pulled pork from pork shoulder. Both will produce nice results, but take less time than brisket.


Boiled sugar disaster? I attempted to make some hard sugar to use as windows for gingerbread houses. I thought I could do it without a candy thermometer as I have before, but obviously not. I tested it in ice water and it went straight from soft ball stage to a dry crumbly mess in a matter of 20 seconds. What did I do wrong?

It sounds like a stray sugar crystal fell into the mix--that's all it takes to kick off the crystallization you noticed. Ensure there is no undissolved sugar on the sides of the pan by wiping with a wet paper towel. Do so early though so you don't risk knocking them in at a susceptible point.


How can I create steam in a normal oven to promote bread oven spring? Oven spring and a crisp crust on bread are largely due to high heat and high humidity.  Commercial bakery ovens have steam injectors.  How can I replicate this high humidity environment in my home oven?  I've tried spritzing and ice cubes and neither really work.  Pouring hot water in a hot pan is better but is still severely lacking.

Is there a way the home baker can replicate with without laying out a lot of money for a commercial oven?

Ok, I'll play along. ;) The moist, hot environment improves oven spring by transferring heat more rapidly to the dough (moist air is more thermally conductive than dry air), keeping the dough surface from drying out and getting stiff. It improves crust quality by gelatinizing the starches on the surface of the dough, causing them to brown better, and form a more distinct "crust", rather than just a skin of browner bread.

To get more steam in your oven, in addition to the simple methods you noted, spritzing and pans of hot water, you can:

Bake inside a vessel like a dutch oven preheated in the oven. Gives both thermal mass for browning, and traps naturally produced steam around the bread. Remove the lid for the last 10 minutes of baking.
Cover the baking bread with a large bowl or pan for the first 10-15 minutes of the bake to trap naturally released steam.
Use one of several commercial steam injection kits (most look like a steam cleaner that allows you to blast some steam manually into the oven when loading).
Build your own steam injector, like this handy baker. The gist is that they use a pressure cooker with a flexible metal hose attached to an output port and directed into the oven. Boiling water in the pressure cooker produces steam. Pre-steaming the oven for 10 minutes before baking and for the first portion of the bake produces impressive results.

In addition to getting more steam in, you can improve the crust and oven spring by using delayed or cold fermentation, which creates more sugars (better browning), and more extensible dough (better oven spring).


How to preserve a spread in a jar I am starting a business making a vegan chocolate spread. It is beginning as a small, family run operation, in a hired industrial kitchen.
We are stuck on how to 'treat' the spread when getting to the canning process (in glass jars) so that it will be as shelf stable as possible.
So far, our research has pointed us toward simmering the sealed jars in boiling water for 10-15 mins. (the jars are also sterilized beforehand).
Would this be sufficient? Does this suck the oxygen out? How do large manufacturers approach this process for similar products?

If you're working with something acidic like a jam, you can indeed process the jars in hot water. This is sufficient to kill any pathogens that got sealed in with the product and can thrive in an acidic, high-sugar environment like jam. Since the water bath also seals the jar, nothing can enter the sealed jars, the jam is now shelf-stable. In your case, the spread is unlikely to be acidic enough that water bath canning is sufficient to preserve it.
You should look into pressure canning instead. You would need a pressure cooker for this, which will let you process the jars at a higher temperature than a water bath allows. There's also some concern around the fat in your spread (I assume it's based on something like coconut oil?). Fat can interfere with the seal and prevent the jars from sealing properly, and it can also go rancid even if the jars sealed correctly.
You would need to reach out to the food safety agency in your country to see what requirements they have on similar products, and likely have a food safety lab test your sealed product to determine that it's safe for as long as whatever your best-before date says.


When preparing confit, do you start ingredients in cold fat, or do you add it when it reaches cooking temperature? I have watched many videos on the subject and I see it going both ways. Also, do you have to wring out all the water from the duck/chicken before adding it to the fat? Is there a splattering risk?

Traditional duck confit is made with duck fat, which would be a solid when cold.  That will not work so well.  So, the cured duck is placed in a crock, and warm duck fat is added to cover.  This is then placed in the oven at a low temperature. After the cooking, the duck is left submerged to cool, and be stored in the fat.  There is no splatter risk, because the temperature is not hot enough, but the duck is generally blotted, before submerging in fat, to remove excess moisture and herbs or spices that were used in the cure step.


How do I get the right amount of heat from Carolina Reapers in cookies/brownies? I want to bake some really spicy cookies/brownies. I've got some Carolina Reaper and I want to use them somehow to achieve a really hot flavor in cookies/brownies. I need to calibrate the heat level, so that it's the right level of really spicy. How do I do it?

Easy! You'll need to first make "Carolina Reaper powder"

Dry them by running a fishing line or thread near the stem and hang
them in a dry place for 3 days.
Once they are dry, remove the stems and place in a spice grinder or food processor.
Place the powder in a spice container.

One you have made your Carolina Reaper powder, you can proceed to make your brownies as normal, and add a pinch to the batter. The Scolville Units of your peppers will vary based on your plants vs someone else's, so it's difficult to recommend a precise amount of powder to use. That will also depend on how spicy you want these devil brownies to be!

To calibrate the right level of spiciness, this jalapeno brownie recipe offers a good baseline. Based on some rough math, the recipe calls for 1 Million Scolville units. A single Carolina Reaper contains roughly 1.6 Million Scolville units. So you could use about 2/3 of one whole pepper, or you could use the amount of powder you get from 2/3 of a pepper.

EDIT: Based on some rough math below, approximately .04 dried peppers would be needed to accomplish the level of heat in the recipe above.


Getting biscuit mix to rise...again Was looking through my pantry and I found some instant biscuit mix that is still good by date. When I tried making a batch of the mix, the dough did not rise at all. I made something that resemble a brick.

I was curious if I could add some double action baking powder to the mix would bring the mix back to life?

If so how much would I add? 1/4 TSP?, 1/2 TSP?

All I have on hand is double action baking powder.

I'm in the middle of class (school), and I don't have a ton of time to type anything out, so I'll point you in this direction:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/food-science/leaveners-fats-the-science-of-great-biscuits-109416

Should help, covers the science. The answer will be found, plus more!


How do you properly sear a sausage? I'm a huge fan of sausages, bratwurst especially. It always says to brown all of the sides, but I always find that they roll around quite a bit while I'm searing them. This makes for an odd assortment of cooking, and I sometimes lose the juices into the brine.

How can I properly sear my sausages on all sides?

If you are frying sausages on a hot pan then it's very hard to brown them on all sides for a couple of reasons:

the curved shape will cause it to flop along the curve, they are hard to stand up
if you do get them stood up only the small area touching the pan will get color

So you are frying on a flat pan you can spend a lot of time messing around trying to get color on the sausages, I personally don't think it's worth the effort and just fry them on the sides they rest on. However, I rarely cook sausages this way, I usually use my broiler/grill. The advantages to this are that the sausages get more evenly browned and that the wire rack I makes it easier to stand the sausages up or down as opposed to side to side.

If you do plan to use a frying pan you could get one with ribs in it which will help position the sausages.


Seasoning Chili for Young Children We have a 3 year old toddler who is not a fan of spicy foods. She doesn't like heat of any type, and doesn't like strong flavors. How can we season a turkey chili to keep her happy, and still make it tasty for adults?

You have four immediate options as I see it:

Lightly season the chili, remove a portion for your child, then season the rest to your liking
Lightly season the chili, then serve it with additional accompaniments to adjust it to your liking (eg, hot sauces)
Season the chili to your liking, but serve it with something to help cut the flavor for the child (cheese, sour cream, mix in crumbled cornbread, rice, extra beans, honey or sugar)
A blend of 2 & 3.

I generally go with either #2 or #4 if I'm cooking for a large crowd.

... the long term solution is to try to slowly adjust the flavoring of the chili until the child's more accepting of the flavor.  But remember, everyone has different tastes, and our taste buds change over time ... the child might be more sensitive to bitter or spicy foods right now, but could learn to enjoy them in the future.  (I personally now love spicy foods, when I didn't as a kid ... but I still hate bitter)

You might try making a few varients, and see if there might be a specific taste that your child objects to, so that you can adjust.  I assume you have the 'you must try at least one bite' rule, and don't accept the 'I don't like (whatever)' temper-trantrums.


Sponge Cake vs (UK) Angel Cake: what's the difference Having made various random cakes over the years, I'm trying to get my head around what I'm actually doing, so I can experiment a little I suppose.

Now, a pound cake is butter+sugar, then eggs, then flour (in 1:1:1:1-ish usually), and so's a (UK) angel cake (but in a different ratio). In saying that, there's lots of important details I've missed out that very with each individual recipe. But what are the important differences, the ones which differentiate angel from pound, in terms of taste and category?

I notice that angel cake recipes have much more "flour" in proportion to the other ingredients? Is that the thing that can be best said to separate them?

Also they tend to have baking powder (in addition to s.r. flour)? Is that important, or just a co-incidence?

Every recipe differs in tiny little ways from all the others that it's hard to see the pattern.

I'm happy to make a bad cake or two while mucking around, but some sage advice would be welcome as to the general lie of the land as to the essential differences between the cake types.

I'm an analytical type so any framework will help me mess around in the kitchen even though I realise that such things are very much in the eye of the beholder, and other people may not use the same names.

Simply the diference between is that the angel food cake has a lot of egg white, along with flour,sugar,salt, and vainilla, and optional also lemon peel and other ingredient. and its characterized because of the white color, non fat, and non chemical leaveners, which makes it a very "light" cake. By the other hand the sponge cake contains chemical leaveners that might not ve needed to use chemical leaveners, because you can use beaten eggs whites along with beaten yolks instead or use both as well, i recomend you use both for a really nice spongy results. And contains fat such like butter, margarine, or oil. And there the whole eggs are mixed together with sugar, or separated eggs to form a meringue and then beat the yolks with the other half of sugar and combine these with the dry ingredients with the folding method to avoid loss of air as posible to get as result a very spongy cake. or just beat the whole eggs with sugar, then the fat, liquid ingredients and then dry ingredients, for a more dense and less delicate to do and less fluffy cake. imo it doesnt take so palatable or tasty to me the light cake rather than the greasy,and flavory spongy cake.


Is boiling water poured over frozen berries enough vs. bacteria? I often like to make smoothies where I among other things add frozen berries. I boil some water in my tea-boiler and pour it over the berries before I add them to the smoothie mix. Is this enough to get rid of the dangerous bacteria, especially found in raspberries?

Ps. Recipe is:
Vanilla soy-milk . Banana . Berries . Orange (to keep the banana from turning brown)

Blend until smooth.

From the comments, Henrik noted that there is a parasite in Sweden (called "Dvärgbandmask" in Swedish) that contaminates wild fruit.  This is a type of tapeworm called "Echinococcus" in English.  Its eggs can cause a parasitic disease called Echinococcosis or hydatid disease.  According to this article, freezing the eggs to very low temperatures and/or freezing the eggs very rapidly is fatal to them.  Given that modern "IQF" freezing methods for berries bring the fruit very quickly to below -20°C, I'd say that the danger from echinococcosis is very low (much lower than eating unwashed fresh fruit).

As for risks from bacteria, these are also very low because the process of preparing the fruit for freezing and then subsequently freezing them kills the majority of any present bacteria.


why use a pressure cooker for collagen to gelatin conversion? I was watching S13E16 of Good Eats and to cook his chicken for "chicken and dumplings", he places an old hen (instead of a rooster) in the pressure cooker at the maximum temperature & pressure. I've done a bit of searching and it seems pressure cookers are recommended for stocks since it can denature collagen in the connective tissues in tough meats and other pieces to gelatin faster.

This makes sense, except I thought the whole point of slow roasting (and indeed sous-vide) is to use low temperatures over a long period of time for collagen to gelatin conversion.

Why is the low temperature needed in this, and the high temperature needed for the pressure cooker? It seems a bit contradictory. If the higher temp and pressure is better, we should be able to sous-vide in a pressure cooker too.

What you need for the conversion of collagen is a certain amount of energy. It is a complicated process - the melting point is around 70°C for the type of collagen contained in beef, but the melting does not happen instantly once the meat reaches 70°C. In a pressure cooking, you can apply the same amount of energy in a shorter amount of time. This is not bad, as opposed to slow roasting of collagen-poor meat.

In collagen-poor meat, you have two types of protein, which are soft and wet. Under heat, they curdle, becoming tough and dry. The perfect meat is when the first type has curdled (so the meat is not raw) but the second hasn't, so it still holds juices inside. If you curdle both, your meat gets tough and you can't take it apart with your teeth.

In collagen-rich meat, you curdle both proteins - the collagen itself is tough and you want to melt it, but this happens long after the meat has curdled. But because the muscle fibers are not clinging to each other, but separated by collagen, you still get tasty meat. For that, you melt the collagen into gelatin, and serve the meat warm, so that the dry fibers are separated by the smooth, juicy melted gelatin. Unlike slow-roasted meat, you don't have to tear the juiceless fibers apart, and the gelatin makes up for the missing meat juices which were expelled from the cells during curdling.

So, in slow-roasted meat you don't want to cross the temperature limit for curdling a certain protein, this is why you have to apply heat slowly until the center of the meat has cooked, without the outside getting overcooked. In collagen-rich meat, there is no upper limit at which the meat gets non-tasty, so you can push the energy needed for the collagen-to-gelatin conversion quickly into your meat. The pressure cooker can do this better than the normal boiling process.


How to replace marshmallows in rice krispies cakes? I'm making rice krispies cakes, but I just realized I'm out of gelatin and marshmallows. My mate suggested mixing normal granulated sugar with some water and it will give me the stickiness I need. Is he right? If not sugared water, what else could I use here?

There are plenty of recipes for rice krispie cakes without marshmallows in them. Rather than trying to substitute in your recipe, you'd be better off making something slightly different but that's been tested.

Here's an example from tesco. The recipe we use is based on golden syrup, but isn't online. A search for "rice Krispie cake -marshmallow", possibly with the addition of "-chocolate" will find you a decent selection.


Is anything made less safe by cooking? Reading this question: Emulsifier: is it safe to cook mayonnaise?

Is anything made less safe by cooking? (I'm not asking if cooking makes something worse-tasting, have bad texture, is culturally or religiously taboo, etc. just from a food safety perspective).

Please interpret cooking as loosely as you'd like. I would probably define cooking as "applying heat to raw food", but considering techniques like curing/pickling or freeze-drying, I'd be curious about those as well. What I'm not too curious about is failing to "cook" something adequately (not enough heat, time, salt, etc.), since the consequences of that are more straightforward.

There are a few cases were a closer look is warranted and which may be seen as "less safe after cooking":

Yes, if reduced shelf life counts as less safe.
If you take dried food - anything that has a nearly unlimited shelf life - and (re-)hydrate it, the shelf life goes down to mere days. The same goes for fruit and vegetables (from often weeks or even months, e. g. pumpkins, down to days).
If your definition of "cooking" doesn't require a heating step, food preparation can cause cross-contamination when germs from the outside/surface are transferred to the formerly safe inside. Example: cutting fruit that wasn't washed well enough.
A third case of "less safe" would be "cooking" with insufficient heat: there is a fine line between "kills pathogens over time" and "creates a cozy environment where pathogens thrive and multiply happily". Note that this is discussed in detail in our generic posts on the topic.
A border case in a "food safety" discussion would be creating byproducts that might have negative long-term effects like acrylamide or residue from char grilling. But that's pretty much a grey area with a lot of uncertainties in the equation. (And we don't discuss health here on the site partly because of that.)

In short, if cooking for you includes "bacteria-killing heat" and eating reasonably quickly after cooking and ignoring byproducts then no, cooking does not make food less safe. Within these parameters we typically use the cooking process to make food safer.


How can I clean my stainless steel teapot? I have a rather nice stainless steel teapot that I use every day.  I've started to get some black buildup due to using it on a gas range.  What method would work well for restoring my teapot back to its original condition?

There's a cleanser product called Barkeeper's Friend that is great for stuff like this. http://www.barkeepersfriend.com/


What kind of cheese "skin" is this? I regularly buy Frico's Beech Wood Smoked Processed Cheese but there's this outer layer, kind of like a skin that I don't understand what it is really.
Label, just in case:

The cheese is, firstly, covered in some sort of protective, dark, plastic (?) layer that needs to be cut before it could be eaten:

(not shown is a clear plastic cover beneath this layer that also needs to be removed)
Then we get to the cheese, itself, however it has this dark... skin(?) which I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with:

It cannot be peeled, it seems to really be just the surface layer of the cheese and I have eaten it without problems, it isn't plastic or something like that, however when I melt the cheese the yellowy innards melt fine, but that skin(?) never melts and rests in the bowl looking like a waste product.
Does anyone know what it actually is and if it should be eaten?

That's called the "rind".  It's the outer layer of cheese, hardened by the drying process, and colored brown with food coloring in order to imitate more artisinal smoked cheeses (where it would be actually brown due to smoke).  It's perfectly edible, and doesn't generally taste any different from the rest of the cheese food.


Searing Sous-vide with electric heat gun After looking at various searing approaches incorporating the use of gas torches I wondered if heat guns might be a useful tool for searing. Heat guns are relatively inexpensive and have various tips to adjust the heat pattern. Having used both tools I believe the heat gun might be easier to use in this application. An inexpensive variable output gun can attain either 750  or 1000 degrees F. Has anyone tried this approach?

I doubt that it will work. A butane torch can provide a temperature of up to 1700K (1,430 °C; 2,600 °F) (according to Wikipedia), whereas I haven't seen any electric ones claiming to go above 600°C (1100°F).

While 600°C seems plenty warm to get a decent Maillard reaction going, it will take much longer than with a higher temperature, and you will probably dry out the underlying layers.

(The 'Searzall' looks like a modified butane torch, rather than an electric heat gun.)


Cooking jelly avoiding overboiling In the last months I cooked a lot of jelly and found an interesting pattern from my ceran stove top: When the heating unit barely fits under the pot the juice will boil over. However if I use the smaller circle (same place at the stove, same pot), it boils but does not overboil. Why does the diameter of my cooking field have an effect on the boil-over-behavior of my juice?

One is heating the to edge of the base and consequently also the pan side-wall, the other is not.
The cooler pan side-wall will just make the difference between it boiling over and not.
This is assuming the centre of the pan is being heated to exactly the same degree on each, which is a larger variable.


Could someone please clarify whether the following things make sense while cooking chicken biryani? I've trying multiple iterations to cook chicken biryani like how the restaurants do it. However, after going over various recipes online and trying them out, I'm starting to wonder whether the following cooking steps are inefficient or do they really make a difference, when it comes to cooking chicken biryani.

Here's a sample recipe: https://www.yummytummyaarthi.com/2015/03/white-chicken-biryani-recipe-yummy.html

(Note: The site from the URL linked above has a tendency to get stuck. You need to refresh the page to make it work).

Can anyone throw light on the following points?

Add spices to water and boil. Add rice and boil till it's 70% cooked. Then drain all the water. Seems like a lot of flavor being wasted there. If all that we want is for the rice to absorb the flavor, then would it make sense to add it while cooking the rice from 70%-100%? O
Marinade the chicken with spices. Then while making the biryani, we start with the base onion layer in which we add the same spices, again! Duplicate work? Does it make sense from a culinary point of view to add the same spices again? Or, would it come to the same flavor if we skip it?
Mixture of spices: Adding saffron-boiled milk (thick milk) + rose water + screw pine extract ("kewra") + fried onions + clarified butter (ghee) + coriander + mint leaves. Keep in mind that we're throwing in these spices with marinated chicken and equally spiced-up sauteed onions that form the base layer. I feel that that's too many spices. What if we choose only one item from saffron-milk, rose water, fried onions and pine extract. Thoughts?
Deep fry the onions. Then pour the remaining saturated oil onto the top of biryani just before sealing it. Does used oil actually add to the flavor noticeably?
Excessive oil? We're adding oil in the following steps: We've added oil while par-boiling the rice. In the chicken marinade. In the oil layer at the bottom. While making fried onions for the top layer. While sauteing onions for the bottom layer. Most biryani recipes call for adding oil at the top. Does it make a difference if we skip that last step?
Air-tight seal: Lastly, there's this step about sealing the utensil with a wheat dough. I feel that that's a waste of good wheat. The idea is that you seal the vessel with dough, then add weight on top of the lid so that it remains "air-tight". How about using a pressure-cooker instead which would guarantee an airtight compartment and then heat it very slow (I'm talking about placing it over a pan that is placed over the stove)? Does this make sense?

As someone pointed out in your last question about biryani, there is a great deal of variation in how the dish is prepared.  However, I will attempt to address your points based on my experience.

Par-cooking the rice is not for the purpose of flavor absorption, but rather so that the rice is fully cooked after the dish is constructed and (in my case) baked in the oven.  I use water only, and add the rice to boiling water, cooking for about 5 minutes, then draining.
In the procedure I use, the chicken pieces are marinated with the spices and yogurt.  Spices are not introduced anywhere else.  When the dish is constructed, the chicken, marinade and all, is added to the layering in the cooking pot.
The spices, herbs, and alliums in my recipe include, garlic, ginger, ground coriander, cayanne, tumeric, a small amount of garam masala, and salt.   These ingredients are added to the chicken, with about 1/2 cup of yogurt.  There is no saffron, rose water, or milk in my recipe.  The chicken marinates for at least an hour, but can sit longer. In constructing the dish before baking I layer, chicken, rice, cilantro, and onions...ending with rice on top and a drizzle of oil.
Correct, as I stated in your previous question.  The oil carries flavor.  It also produces a crust of cooked rice and chicken at the bottom of the pot, which is delicious.
Oil is used once, to cook the onions (in my recipe).  There is no oil in the chicken marinade.  After the onions are lifted out of the oil, I make sure that about 1/4 cup remains in the pot.  After layering I drizzle on an additional 1/4 cup, which was drained from the onions.
My enameled cast iron pot has a heavy cover.  I place a sheet of foil over the pot, then the cover.  It works just fine without having to make a dough to seal the pot. This is then placed in the oven to cook for about an hour. A pressure cooker is unnecessary.


Why are my stir fried pea sprouts too stiff, and turn into lumps? I'm trying to make stir-fried pea sprouts as seen this photo), but without the mushrooms.

I used this kind of pea sprouts:

First I wash and soak them in salt water for 15 mins. I know that I mustn't overcook these pea shoots. 2nd I turn my stainless steel pan to high heat. 3rd I add oil and Shaoxing wine. 4th I add the pea shoots to the pan, and stir fry for under 30 seconds.
But they're too stiff/starchy to even chew. When I chew them, they turn into lumps that I can't swallow.
Is the kind of sprouts the problem? Are another kind of sprouts sold in Hong Kong?

I don't make the Hong Kong recipe, but I often cook Thai-style pea shoots in the spring.  And for that matter I often made them when I lived in California, so origin is not your problem.
One thing I did find is that there's a huge difference in pea shoots based on age. Tiny, 3-day old pea shoots, also called "pea sprouts", are the kind you want to flash-fry:

Pea shoots that are a bit older, like a week or two old are also eaten:

However, these are a lot more fibrous, and need to be blanched before frying.  I don't know what you bought, but it really sounds like you got older pea shoots.  Species might also make a difference; the ones that Asian markets sell are usually snow pea shoots.  If you got some other kind of pea shoot, like English peas, it's possible that those are also more fibrous.


Why would heating salt in a pan prevent food from sticking? Quote from www.saltworks.us:

  Preventing food from sticking - Rub a pancake griddle with a small bag of salt to prevent sticking and smoking. Sprinkle a little salt in the skillet before frying fish to prevent the fish from sticking. Sprinkle salt on washed skillets, waffle iron plates or griddles, heat in a warm oven, dust off salt; when they are next used, foods will not stick.

I've heard this more than once but never tried this, because I simply can't imagine why or how this works, and mostly the descriptions are a bit vague (for example, what temperature should a "warm oven" be?).

If it does work, how long does the effect last, just the next time it's used? And would there be remains of salt left in the pan when it's used next, so that one should use salt with caution after applying this procedure?

Most of the described method will help you to clean and dry your pan. A clean pan, especially when it is cast iron, is a happy pan and will work better. A clean and smooth surface, and rubbing salt on it will clean and smooth a metal surface, will also help to prevent food from sticking.

Sprinkling your pan with salt immediately before frying fish or meat is pointless. What salt does to food is to bind water and less moist things stick less. But your pan should be so hot that the little salt can't make a difference. If the salt has time to dry your food, your pan just isn't hot enough.


The rim is off, the lid is secure, but the button can move up and down, is it safe? I have a jar that the lid is secured to the glass BUT the button still moves up and down.  Is it safe or not?

The button on a metal lid- whether purchased or home canned- is an indicator of a vacuum in the bottle.

During canning, a vacuum is formed that sucks the lid on tight and pulls in the button so it can't be depressed.

If the button can be "popped" then there is no vacuum and the bottle is not sealed. If the lid doesn't move that just means it's stuck not that it is sealed.

This means that the safety of the food is compromised. If you just canned the bottle then you can either try to can it again with a new lid or put it in the fridge to consume immediately. If it has been in your pantry then consider it spoiled and throw it out.

Incidentally- having a button not pop does not guarantee that the bottle is sealed. Rarely, the button will be sucked in and the seal will fail but the button does not pop back out. If the lid is stuck in place you would discover this when opening the bottle as there would be no resistance from a vacuum. After bottling, I gently check the seals on my lids even if the button is in.


Where can I bulk-buy cheap parmesan? My friend planted three rows of basil in his garden to make pesto, and now we need to source roughly 25-50lbs of parmesan. With that kind of quantity, cheaper is better.

The price of genuine-sealed-and-certified parmagiano reggiano is quite high and fairly consistent, especially for more aged varieties.  I think your best bet to save money will be to use a similar parmagiano reggiano cousin, such as grana padano, romano, or a quality Argentinian reggianito.  As a second-tier approach, you might look at domestic Parmesan, but use caution as it may not have the same quality as a one of the Italian imports.

As for genuine Parmesan: you're buying at least a couple hundred dollars of cheese, and this gives you some bargaining power.  Buy or ask to taste a small sample of whatever you're considering, and try to negotiate; managers may be willing to offer you a bulk discount.  I'd gather a couple quotes from cheese shops, try prices at your local Costco/Sam's Club, and talk to the upscale grocery stores in your area.

As far as pricing goes, I've seen genuine-seal-and-everything Parmagiano Reggiano on sale at about $12-13/lbs at my local Southern Season.  I generally expect to pay $18-22/lbs at upscale grocery stores for Parmesan, with remarkably little variation between stores.  Your standard grocery stores tend to sell small blocks of inferior-quality and freshness Parmesan for similar prices.

In contrast, grana padano runs around $12-13/lbs on average at my local Trader Joe's, and might be available for under $10/lbs with a good sale.  I usually buy blocks of that for general cooking use, as it is close enough in taste and much cheaper.


what muscles should be present in a ny strip steak? I was delivered some NY steaks, but they don't look like what I'm used to. Usually the NY seems to have one muscle, but these seem to have another muscle (highlighted in yellow). Would these still be considered NY? Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Yes, it is a NY strip. The "strip loin" is like two feet+ long and at least 3/4 of it is what you're used to seeing. The last four or so steaks include an additional muscle or two at the "top." You got those last few steaks. (SOURCE: I'm a butcher ;)


Need help cleaning an old aluminum coffee pot I use an old Wear Ever heavy aluminum coffee pot for boiling water. I don't allow unused water to sit in it. It has stains inside and needs a good cleaning. It has white residue at the water line that I cannot remove. For now I have been washing it out with soapy water but not using anything abrasive. Any ideas on how to clean it? I just want to be sure it is safe to use, if the stains cannot be removed so then they are meant to be.

You can buy kitchen-safe aluminium cleaner & descaler - the white could easily be limescale.
If you look at 'home-style' cleaning guides, then everybody seems to have a different opinion - some choose baking soda, some choose vinegar.
Now, I'm no chemist, but I fail to see how both of those would work, one acid, the other alkaline. I also don't know which would clean the aluminium or which may damage it. I did once manage to completely ruin 2 stove-top espresso makers by getting this wrong.
On the other hand, you can get a litre of commercial cleaner/descaler for a couple of quid/bucks/euros, so why not let the experts take over?
They're going to have figured out what removes scale & tarnish, yet doesn't harm the aluminium. A look at a data sheet says it's Orthophosphoric acid.
I checked data sheets for 'regular' cleaner/descaler & aluminium-specific cleaner/descaler. Both contain the same acid, though other ingredients may differ.
Google found this one in the UK, but I'm sure you can find something similar close to where you live.


Is it a bad idea to boil black jelly beans? When I last bought jelly beans, I ended up with one black jelly bean that I don't want to eat. I could just throw it out, but that seems like a waste. Also:

My dad's recipe for chicken wings/drumsticks/thighs includes star anise

Recipe: the chicken is braised till mostly cooked in water containing ginger, garlic, and star anise, then most of the water is poured out and soy sauce, oyster sauce, and brown sugar are added and it's simmered a bit longer till the liquid forms a thick sauce

I have chicken wings (and the other ingredients above) but no star anise
Google informs me that the black licorice in black jelly beans tastes like star anise

You can probably see where I'm going here. If I add the jelly bean to the braising liquid, a) will it contain any chemicals or something that shouldn't be boiled and b) will the result be similar to adding star anise?

(P.S. I can just cook the chicken without the star anise, it still tastes good. I just kind of want to see if this weird use for jelly beans is reasonable.)

a) Jelly beans are made of sugar, starch, flavorings, and pectin.  As such, it's fine to boil, mash, roast, fry, steam, or really do anything you want with them. The worst possible consequence is them sticking to be bottom of the pot and being hard to remove.

b) First, black jelly beans are generally flavored with licorice and not anise, and star anise tastes different from anise seed.  So this would definitely be a case of substituting a distinctly different, though similar-tasting, spice.  Second, a single jelly bean is unlikely to have enough flavor to affect the flavor of the broth; you would probably need to add several.

So, my recommendation if you really want to try this is to use 6-10 black jelly beans, wrapped in cheesecloth or in an empty tea bag so that they don't stick to the bottom of the pot.  And tell us how it works out!


Pizza dough dipping in middle during proofing Yesterday afternoon I made some pizza dough for use on Friday (tomorrow).

I mixed in all of the ingredients after blooming the yeast then split the dough into 4 equal parts and placed them in oiled Tupperware. I covered the containers with cling film and placed them in the fridge.

I checked on them today and saw one of the four has got a steep dip in the middle of the dough. The others are fine.

Have I done something wrong? Is this normal? Will it ruin the pizza? If so, can I salvage it?

Note: I'm currently out of the house so can't take a photo. I'll add one ASAP.

In general you should be fine, I would give this dough more time to warm/"re-proof" on the counter before shaping/ baking.

I've seen something similar in other doughs, but I don't know what caused it. I don't expect much proofing in the fridge, and I've seen some weird stages when I try to slow a proof in the fridge (start a dough then finish it the next morning.)

If I was forced to guess..

This dough may have been handled more roughly
Colder spot in the fridge
Condensation on the plastic wrap dripping an slowing raise in one spot
Moved at some point, popping the center of the dough


Are frozen onions any good? (And general advice with frozen veg) Whilst I am not that good, I love to cook and I absolutely love onions!

When I cook, the longest part always seems to be peeling and cutting onions.. and hate the crying! (mainly because I buy the small ones and use about 7 or 8!)... Although, from reading the knife skills question, I think I just need a sharper knife and more practice!

Anyway, having previously only bought fresh vegetables, I have recently "discovered" frozen, and I have to say, I think the majority are nicer than fresh!

I am hesitant to try others without recommendations first, but, I have seen large packs of frozen, chopped onions and I was just wondering if these are as good as fresh?

So far I have had sweetcorn, brussel sprouts and peas which were all good, but I have also had mixed stir fry vegetables which were horrible! are there any general rule as to what vegetables are good frozen?

My general rules are twofold --

Is the item something that can be frozen whole? (yes for corn kernels, peas, lima beans, etc.)
Is it something that I'm going to reheat, but not cook over high heat?

So, part of it's the items themselves, but the other part is how I'm preparing them ... and stir-fry just isn't something that I think lends itself to frozen vegetables in my opinion, as you want to cook them quickly, and they're not going to cook quickly from frozen.  Sweating, on the other hand, you might be okay with, I've never tried using frozen onions.

I typically use frozen vegetables for things like pot pies, soups, and such, where the vegetables don't need to be at their absolute prime.  Frozen peas hold up amazingly well; I'll even sprinkle them into paella or other dishes to add texture and color.

My suggestion for your onion problem would be to get larger onions.  You'll spend less crying over 1-2 large onions than 7 or 8 small ones.  At the very least, peel 'em all, then start cutting, so you're not exposed to the fumes slowly over a longer time.