Can I substitute Fenugreek seeds for leaves? I have accidentally brought a load of fenugreek seeds, as apposed to leaves, and wonder if I can use them as a substitute.

if not, what any ideas for what I can do with them before they go in the bin?

Fenugreek seeds are intensely aromatic and go quite nicely in curries, and any dish where such a flavour is required.  In the middle-east they use it quite a lot, often as a condiment.  Highly used in spice rubs, pickles, marinades, anything where a strong spice flavour is required and often in puddings as an aromatic like nutmeg is used in English cooking.

The leaves have a similar flavour, but not quite the same, you could use the seeds in their place adding them in to the spice mix if there is one, but the leaves I prefer personally.  The flavour of methi leaves in thepla or in curry is wonderful in my opinion.


Why pour water over the covering plate while cooking okra? When my mom makes okra, she adds okra in the pan with all the masala. When she covers the pan with a plate for the okra to cook, she pours some water over the plate. She says it helps it to cook faster or something, but she doesn't know any scientific reason. It's more like advice passed down from others. Is there any reason we should?

The reason she puts water on the plate is to weigh it down so it seals better. Weight will press the plate down, less steam will escape so the okra will cook at a slightly higher temperature. It works, but it's not as good as a tight fitting lid on a good pot.


Good thread for tying meat I want to prepare kotlet de volaille. It'a a bit like Cordon Bleu, but using the natural pocket in chicken breast, and inside is just butter and fresh herbs.

I thought about tying the meat with a thread, like a roulade, but I've never done this before, so I don't know what kind of thread to use. Is there a special kind of thread of will my polyester sewing thread be enough?

It took me some time, but I found the name of the dish in English - Chicken Kiev.

For something more delicate than kitchen twine, any thread from a 100% natural fibre (cotton, hemp) should work.  Synthetics (polyester, rayon, nylon) could melt or offgas into your food when subject to high temperature.


How to make double cream 48% for tart filling (not for whipping)? In my country it is impossible to get double cream (48% fat). The highest fat content I can get is 35% whipping cream. I have some recipes which require double cream and I don't want to substitute it with 35%.

I want to know if there is a way I can make 48% cream myself.

Could I add butter to the 35% cream to make a liquid double cream? - which wouldn't whip but that is ok
I heard that you can make butter from cream if you whip it long enough. Could I whip the cream a little bit and then let it set back in the fridge. Would that change the fat content?

Could also somebody please explain to me how double cream is made on industrial level.

Thanks

If something like Agar Agar, or a small amount of Carageen is melted into the warmed butter (powdered form, while whisking/lightly whipping after coming off the heat, or bloomed into the warmed heavy cream, it would add the extra thickening that you are talking about without actually changing the flavor, altering the "double cream" (if being used as a filling for say, a tart), set up lovely and invalidates your argument.

I got my Masters in Pastry with a specialty in Alternative Baked goods.  Molecular Gastronomy is a significant part of that.  I would absolutely use powdered product to start, such as the two I mentioned...commonly available in Whole Foods (in the United States), some shops that specialize in Vegan products (as both are Vegan), though the amounts required aren't an exact science (as it depends on moisture in the air where you are, the fact of are you using European Butter (higher fat content and less water) than American Butter, if the butter is salted or not, how hot the melted butter is when you add the gelatin of choice, altitude and the speed at which you do the process.

For the amount of double cream mentioned above, I would approximate roughly 1/4 teaspoon of Agar Agar, OR 1/3 teaspoon of Carageen.  It will make the process a little more labor intense, however, the results may very well surprise you.

Just my two cents...Do with it as you will.  I hope you enjoy, and if it works, please, do a follow up post.


Crock-pot/slow-cooker basmati sushi/ketupat I have successfully made sushi rice or ketupat cakes with long grain basmati using the slow cooker. I see the advantage that I could use fragrant or any usual household rice rather than sticky rice.
It takes about 3 hours to get sticky basmati sushi rice, and about 4 hours to get ketupat rice. I have even made biryani ketupat embedded with shiitake slices.
The ketupat rice would need to stand for a couple of hours to fuse into a rice cake. Right now, I need to use a knife to cut up the single big block of ketupat rice cake. I am racking my brains what type of dividers, and how, I could put in to produce small blocks of ketupat. Because cutting and digging out the rice cake causes it to break apart.
I have been scouring the WWW to find if there are people of similar adventure to mine in using the slow cooker and non-sticky rice to make sushi rice or ketupat rice. They must be so extremely rare that I am unable to find them to learn from their experiences.
The incidence of burning the rice is very low since the slow cooker cooks very slowly. It did get burnt once when I had forgotten all about the pot for 24 hours.
As far as I could judge, the basmatic rice is just as sticky. In fact more sticky, while still retaining its individual rice granule shape.
Question:
I am asking these questions because I am concerned that the rarity of the practice might be due to the resultant quality.
Are there disadvantages in quality of resulting rice when using the slow cooker versus using a rice cooker, that I need to know? Otherwise, why aren't people using the slow cooker for this wonderful purpose?
Besides training myself for the right amount of water and avoiding burning of rice, what are the pitfalls I would need to avoid in my continuing this route.
Would slow-cooking destroy taste or scent quality of the rice.

Traditional sushi rice ("meshi") is defined by both the stickiness of its rice but also its lack of gumminess.  Each grain of rice is supposed to remain distinct.  The final component of sushi-meshi is of course the application of vinegar, which is supposed to evenly coat the outside of every grain.  Proper application of vinegar is not possible unless the grains remain distinct.  Therefore, if the rice is overcooked or cooked too slowly, water will have more time to penetrate and the starches will have too much time to swell, causing it will turn into a sticky mess with indistinct rice grains.  Furthermore, basmati rice can't be used for traditional sushi-meshi because it doesn't have enough amylopectin (the starch in rice that makes it sticky/"glutinous").  Glutinous rice (which has 100% amylopectin and virtually no amylose) is used for ketupat but isn't used for sushi-meshi, since it is too sticky.

There is nothing culinarily wrong with using a slow cooker to make rice; if it tastes good, eat it!  In fact, a quick web search reveals many recipes.  Here is also an answer to a relevant question.  But I don't see a way of making sushi (for which there are relatively strict traditions and definitions) using a slow cooker.

Edit: To answer your specific question…

  Would slow-cooking destroy taste or scent quality of the rice?

The distinct aromatic scent of basmati rice comes from 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline, which is also formed from the Maillard reactions.  Since the Maillard reactions happen at a much higher temperature than that at which your rice cooks, I would guess that those flavor compounds would not be harmed by using a slow cooker.

Edit #2: According to this study, 2-Acetyl-1-pyrroline is highly volatile and absorption in rice can be hindered by excess water and/or long cooking times.  This suggests that using a slow cooker to prepare basmati may produce less aromatic rice than using a quicker, dryer method like steaming.  As an interesting side note, the study also suggests that this aroma can be intensified by adding pandan leaves while cooking the rice.


Are these grates okay to cook on? I'm having trouble with some enamel-coated cast iron grill grates. I've only had this grill for a few years, I don't live on the beach (salt), we don't get much rain, and I store it outside but keep it covered when not in use. However, at this point I strongly suspect that the discoloration is rust, not old grease. It never goes away no matter how much I scrub (before and after every use), and over the last couple weeks I've tried:

bathing them in Simple Green BBQ cleaner,
hosing them off while scrubbing,
running them through the dishwasher, and
putting them in the oven on self-cleaning mode.

Nothing seems to help, and it looks like they're actually crumbling. I've read all sorts of conflicting information about what's considered normal, how to handle cast iron, and so on, and I'm just not sure whether these are in the "a few specks of oxidized iron won't affect you in the slightest" territory, or "you need to throw those away today and stick with stainless steel from now on" territory.

Stainless steel grates are not available for this model of grill (Coleman Roadtrip LXE), and the cast-iron replacements are about half the cost of the entire thing, so if these are no good I'll probably get a new, stainless steel grill.

What do I do about these things?

Update: After getting the answers below, I've been doing regular, minor grilling. After each session, I lightly scrub the grates, put a bit of oil on them, and lightly wipe down the oil with a paper towel. Over time, the rust spots darkened and started to look more like proper cast iron, which I suppose just means properly-seasoned cast iron. I grilled for a get-together a couple days ago, and it all seemed to work out fine. No flakes or other debris from the grates, no problems with sticking or anything, no apparent issues at all. From now on, I'll try to use it more regularly and wipe it down with a thin coating of oil after use.

What you have is rust.  You'll want to strip the grates down and re-season them

I've had mixed-luck over the years with cast iron grates on gas grills -- yes, they cook things really well, but if you leave the burners on high to burn off any food bits left on the grates after cooking, you'll risk burning off the seasoning ... which then leads to rusting.


Melted butter or not for pancake batter? I was making pancakes that called for melted butter in the recipe and when I added cold milk the butter re-solidified. How did that mess up the pancakes? Was the texture more dense and less fluffy? So I presume this batter could not be made ahead of time and refrigerated?

The butter needs to be melted so it will emulsify with the eggs and milk. This makes a better pancake texture but your pancakes will still be recognizable and tasty if the butter did not fully emulsify.

As Max suggested in a comment, you can make your milk warmer. You can also make your butter warmer- short of burning it- to give yourself more time. You can replace some of the melted butter with oil.

Once the batter is assembled at room temperature there is less risk of the butter separating. Therefore, mixing the wet and dry ingredients before the butter can solidify is useful. In this case the flour would slightly warm the milk.

However you do it, making pancake batter ahead of time is generally a bad idea because the chemical leavening in the batter will activate and be expended. You might get a second lift from double acting baking powder but it still won't be as fluffy.


red velvet cake - cake flour? I am looking to bake a red velvet cake, but I’ve seen different recipes, some use all purpose flour and some use cake flour. There are some diy cake flour recipes too since I don’t have cake flour. I’m wondering what’s the difference if I use all purpose flour instead of cake flour? Will it make a difference? I’m undecided on which recipe to use too so if you also have a suggestion that would be great, thanks

Cake flour is milled more finely than all purpose flour.  It also has a lower protein content, so less gluten is produced in the final product.  It is ideal for achieving the soft crumb of a cake.  That said, plenty of cakes are made with all purpose flour.  You would be able to perceive a difference in a side-by-side comparison.  In your own kitchen, with one cake, it is not going to matter too much.  I would suggest you sift your dry ingredients and move ahead with AP flour.  It will not be a problem.


How can I make my Chocolate Mousse fluffier? I regularly make Chocolate Mousse with an egg yolk, sugar and dark chocolate base folded into whipped egg white or whipped cream (or both). It's tastes pretty good and has a nice mouth-feel. Now I want it to look good. What I have looks something like this:

Instead I want it to hold a form and have a delicate velvety texture like in the image below.

The recipe associated with this picture uses a lot of butter. I've seen other recipes include gelatin.

What are my best bets?

The dessert pictured above definitely, definitely has gelatin in it.  That will change the mouth feel on the mousse slightly, but it might be what you are going for and will provide some of the stability that you are looking for.  To have it hold a form like this you will need a recipe that requires gelatin; I would recommend gelatin sheets if you can find them at a local baking/cooking supply store or order them online.

The fluffiness will also be determined by several things.  How were the whites whipped (too much, too little) or how was the cream whipped (again too much, too little)?  There are recipes that call for both.  How you incorporate all of the ingredients into one another really matters and in what order, this is called tempering.  You want to fold until the mixtures are just combined; no more.

Temperature is of key importance for all of the ingredients - some you want very cold while others (ie chocolate) you want to be room temperature but not too cool or it will seize up the mixture and the mousse will taste grainy.

Also chocolate mousse texture can definitely be affected by the percentage and quality of chocolate you are using.  If is is of a higher percentage it can create a denser mousse and deflate the whites and cream more easily.


Can I let my bread dough rise in the mixer bowl? When I bake bread, I often let the dough rise in the metal mixer bowl. I was wondering if this is a good idea, as the metal is probably colder than a regular bowl and may inhibit rising. Would it be better to transfer the dough to a glass or plastic bowl to rise instead?

(Note: I've done this often and my dough does rise, I just wondered if it might rise more if it wasn't in a metal bowl.)

Your metal bowl sitting in your 70°F room is 70°F (at least, if its been sitting there for a bit). Your plastic bowl, or glass bowl, or ceramic bowl, or any other bowl sitting in the same room is also 70°F. They're all actually the same temperature.

Now, given, when you touch the metal bowl, it feels cooler than the plastic one. This is because your finger isn't 70°F, and your body heat is transferred away quicker by metal than (say) plastic.

If the dough is room temperature, it won't matter—heat isn't flowing out of it. The dough itself doesn't generate much heat. If your dough started above room temperature, it will cool a little quicker in a metal bowl. But, if you wanted to keep it from cooling, putting it in a warm place is much more effective.

A stainless steel bowl is fine. I'd avoid aluminum (and copper, if anyone makes a mixer with such a thing) due to them being reactive, especially if you're making sourdough.


Cream or butter in a pudding I wish to know what would be the difference between using cream or butter in a pudding.

I have never used cream instead of butter and do not even know if maybe both can be used at the same time?

Butter helps to set whatever you're incorporating it into more firmly. It's also delicious.

Cream is liquid and will remain liquid, unless whipped and incorporated.

Honestly, it all depends on what you're making. Sometimes they can be interchangeable and sometimes they definitely cannot.


Why does handling peeled chayote make your hands feel numb/rigid? When I peel chayotes and handle the raw flesh of the fruit, my fingers get sticky and a white solid "film" forms on my fingers. The film makes my skin feel restricted/tight. I washed my hands with soap but it doesn't go away. Is this normal? Is there a name for this chemical reaction?

This problem can occur with several foods including squashes, pumpkins, zucchini, and even cucumber. From what I’ve read, it is caused by a sort of sap that the fruit emits when it is cut, and it’s worse in fruits that aren’t fully ripe. (Fruit is used in the botanical sense.)
Remove by  simply soak your hands in warm soapy water for about 5 minutes. Then scrub them with the scrubby side of a sponge. Be sure to scrub any surface area that had the film on it. You can soak your hands longer and less scrubbing will be required.


Can I successfully freeze raw cabbage? How long will an half of raw cabbage last in the freezer? Had leftover after making stuffed cabbage rolls, will be making corned beef & cabbage for St. Paddy's Day. Will it make it?

You can freeze raw cabbage and keep it for months, however it's not good for the texture as freezing damages the structure. You're better off keeping it in the fridge or just using it. It may make it to St. Patrick's day in the fridge but it will lose some flavor, I'd suggest using it and buying more then.


Cooking cakes with Pop Rocks / Space Dust I want to build a cake with Pop Rocks / space dust. Has anyone got any ideas on how I would do this? If I add the Pop Rocks straight to my cake mixture, then I believe it'll just react. Any suggestions?

Never tried anything like this, but you asked for ideas...

Can you even frost the cake with them w/o them reacting? If they only react w/ water, you may be able to get them in a fat-based frosting. Especially if you use this for the middle frosting of a two-layer cake, this may work.

If you really want them in the cake itself, and they don't react with the baked cake (it has water still, I bet they do) you could make a double-layer cake, and insert them into the hidden surfaces (e.g., the bottom of the top layer and the top of the bottom layer). Just make some slits and put them in.


Suitable oil for woking? I know some oil is not suitable for woking. Like sunflower oil and olive oil?

What oil is best suitable for woking and which oil is not suitable?

You want to use an oil that will handle the hotter temperatures of a wok. This list of oil smoke points suggests that most refined oils will work fine. Don't use unrefined oils or butter because they'll burn.

Once you've got an oil that will handle the heat, you want something that will taste good. I think that's the main issue with olive oil. There aren't olives in asian cuisine and I think that would taste a bit funny. I tend to use vegetable or canola oil for the majority of my stir-frying and then add a little sesame oil towards the end (generally when sauteing garlic and ginger). The sesame oil adds a strong asian flavor to the food. I've tried just using sesame oil, as a recipe sometimes recomends, but I find the flavor overpowering. Unrefined sesame oil is fairly common at the grocery store, and you don't want to use that as it will burn in the wok (but it could be drizzled on the food after cooking).


Must I store uncooked pasta in an airtight container? With things like uncooked chapatis, if you don't put them in airtight packaging, they become tough and dry. I imagine that this is because they've already been mixed with water and chemically changed.

Must you do the same with uncooked pasta?  In the packaging, the noodles are hard pieces which must be boiled. It seems to me that, if they are uncooked and in a non-airtight container, they don't change but still remain hard and when cooked become soft like normal.

Therefore, I'm wondering, is it really a problem if I leave pasta out with the packaging open for weeks?

It's usually fine to keep the pasta in an open container. But there are two potential issues:

First, if you live somewhere with a very humid climate, the pasta could get unpleasant after many months of storage.
Second, you'll be surprised what weevils like to eat! Keeping anything with even a small amount of starch sealed away makes sure that, if you happen to get an infestation, they won't make a hidden nest in the pasta box.

If neither of these issues bother you, you can use any convenient container without caring whether or not it's airtight.


Poppy seeds tough after a long simmer I was trying to boil some poppy seeds in some milk, along with some sugar and some lemon juice. After more than 1.5 hours of simmering this mixture, the seeds were still tough and crunchy, when some recipes I found online suggested simmering for ~20 minutes.

What do you suppose I did wrong? Are there several kinds of cooking poppy? Did I need to soak them beforehand? I have bought the seeds at a market about one month ago and kept them in a jar in a dark, room-temperature place.

There are actually three types of poppyseeds, the “blue”, the “grey” and the “white” kind.

The “blue” is the more common one in Europe, it’s dark blueish-grey as grains and produces an almost black mass if prepared as described below. It has a robust, assertive, earthy flavor that is used both in sweet and savory dishes.
The “grey” is a local specialty of the Austrian Waldviertel, and is milder than the blue type, often used in desserts.
The nutty and mild “white” is a staple in Indian cuisine where it’s used ground and used as binder like flour or nuts.

From your comments I can conclude that you were aiming for a poppyseed pastry filling which is common on the Balkans and other European regions. For this, ground or rather crushed seeds are cooked with a little liquid, often milk, and sugar to create a more or less thick paste. With ground seeds, a short boil and steeping is sufficient. Some preparations skip boiling the poppyseeds entirely and just pour hot milk over them and let them soak up the liquid.

In any case, you need to remember that poppy seeds contain a lot of oil, so many regular mills can’t handle them properly without creating an oily mess. You can also buy the seeds pre-ground, but you shouldn’t store them too long because of the aforementioned oils, which can get rancid quickly.


How fast does pork fat spoil? I have a mini-oven with a tray I use to fry my bacon for breakfast.

Quite a bit of fat leaks out from the bacon onto the tray. It sits there, in room temperature for a day or two, then I put more bacon in and fry it again. Eventually I'll collect the fat for other use or even just wash it out, but that's definitely not something I do every day.

How long can I go safely without washing the tray, just letting more fat collect, before I risk it goes bad, and need to get rid of it?

Would switching the oven on every day, whether I use it or not, just to heat the fat, to kill developing germs make this time longer?

This is an unwise practice.  While pure fat is actually fairly stable, you don't know how much residual water and other components remain in your rendered fat.  You should collect it and refrigerate it (it should last at least a week, probably much longer in practice) in an sealed and air tight container (to minimize rancidity) if you intend to reuse it.

Otherwise, you should discard it immediately.

For the cannonical answer and reasoning, see:  How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?


Cooking smoked cured ham on a rotisserie I have two smoked and cured hams averaging about four to five pounds a piece that I purchased from a local farmer. I also have a rotisserie attachment for my gas grill, which also has a back burner, that I have yet to use. I'm having family over for a holiday dinner on Friday evening and I'm seeking out the best method for preparing these hams. I only have two forks for my spit rod, will it be OK to jam the two hams together or should I just roast them in the oven? From the looks of things, it appears my two hams were at one time one ham.

This article suggests a "reverse brine", where I should place the hams in water and change it out every 12 hours for the next three days. Is this worth doing? This also suggest basting with Dr. Pepper, I'd prefer to do something that's not soda based.

Also, I've seen some articles where they are scoring the ham and applying a variety of different rubs.

If it is a country ham, meaning salt-cured then you need to boil the salt out of it. I may get flamed for this, but that article is not how I process my ham. So here is what I do.

I get a lard tin, I usually have to cut off the hock to make the ham fit but since yours is split you may not have to. If it is not a salt cured ham, and is a city ham it may not be fit to eat if you do this, you could make ham soup maybe.

Anyway put the ham in the tin fill it full of water bring it up to a boil let it boil for about fifteen minutes then bring the heat down to medium-low for about 1/2 an hour then let it cool down enough so you can take it off the stove, but just barely cool enough. While it is cooling down get blankets and spread them out on the floor, one or two thin ones should do, then get some newspaper and spread that in the middle of the blankets put the tin in the middle of the newspaper and wrap the tin with the newspaper then wrap the blankets around it and then push it over into a corner overnight.

The next morning pull the ham out of the water give it a rinse and pat it dry, it will still be warm-to-hot. (I rotisserie ham hocks and small hams I get from my butcher but I have never done a full size ham I would imagine the amount of drippings would make a mess though.) Next I get my big roasting pan put the ham in it and pat it down with brown sugar, medium or dark is up to you. Then I cover it with aluminum foil, making sure I tent the foil so it doesn't touch the ham, and let it cook usually between four and five hours for a good size ham at about 325. The last half hour I take off the aluminum foil and if I feel it is necessary I add more brown sugar and let it caramelize.

I have been cooking ham this way for as long as I have been cooking and the process is passed down from my mother and her father before her. Farther back than that I cannot confirm or deny. :)

Here is a great article on country hams and other hams, just to make sure you do have a country ham, and gives other great suggestions on how to cook a ham, although they do it differently than I do.

http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/porknography/zen_of_ham.html


Milk expiration date The date on my milk says 11/12/19, and its passed. I was going to dump it so I smell it and it smelled normal?? Is it still ok to use? Because I have another gallon in the fridge (they come in pair)

The great things about milk

If you can smell things, and the milk smells good, it is good.
Even if the milk smells sour, it is still probably safe.
Milk that might make you sick smells terrible.  No-one who could smell would drink it.

I would absolutely drink (store bought) milk that smelled good.   This rule does not apply to unpasteurized milk; as I understand it milk with bovine tuberculosis still is tasty, but infectious.


Why do grape-flavored foods taste different than actual grapes? Grapes are one of my favorite fruits, but I typically don't like grape-flavored foods. For example, grape jelly or grape candies (like Jolly Ranchers) have a distinctly different taste. I imagine some of the taste perception has to do with water content. Why is it so different?

Concord grapes, which most grape jellies/jams/preserves in the US are made from, are derived from the (US-native) "fox grape" (Vitis labrusca) rather than (Europe-native) wine grape (Vitis vinifera). Common table grapes (the ones eaten as fresh fruit) such as Thompson seedless are also derived from Vitis vinifera wine grapes.

Fox grapes have a "foxy" taste character, which is a result of the presence of the naturally occurring compound methyl anthranilate. Methyl anthranilate is a rather simple compound, and is used in many situations as an "artificial grape flavor". In many cases "grape flavored" candies, drinks and medicines are flavored not with grape extracts, but with synthetically produced methyl anthranilate. As such, these artificially flavored foods taste like Concord grapes (fox grapes), rather than table or wine grapes.

While it would be possible to come up with "artificial wine grape" flavor, the flavor profile of wine and table grapes is not dominated by a single compound, as fox grapes are. Therefore, any such "artificial wine grape" flavor would be much more expensive than artificial Concord grape flavor (i.e. just methyl anthranilate). As such, when companies reach for "grape flavor", they tend to go for the more inexpensive Concord grape flavor.

This also adds to the persistent expectation (at least in the US) as to what "grape flavored" means. Even if you came out with a wine-grape-flavored Jolly Rancher, many in the US would think it wouldn't taste right, as they expect grape flavored things to taste like Concord grapes.


Chinese dumplings vegetarian style - mushrooms raw or cooked? I recently started making Chinese steamed dumplings (Jiaozi) with cabbage and beef mince. In this version I simply mix together all the ingredients for the filling (cabbage, onion, beef) when they're raw, fold the dumplings and steam them for a few minutes.
I've now seen recipes for vegetarian variants, e.g. with mushrooms, tofu and some other vegetables, plus the cabbage. For the mushrooms in particular some recipes suggest frying them in the pan before mixing them together with the rest of the filling. Is this always necessary and if not what are the pros and cons of cooked vs raw mushroom? Is it to drain some liquid first?

Is this always necessary and if not what are the pros and cons of cooked vs raw mushroom?

If you don't fry the mushrooms first, they will turn out rather watery and bland. So yes, you could say it's to drain some water first, though I don't really drain the water; I let the water evaporate.


How do I cook toast on an Aga? I've an "Aga toaster", which is like a couple of disks of 2cm wire mesh joined together with a handle:

But no matter what I try, most of the time the toast sticks. Any ideas?

You can try to tossing some Flour on your Aga toaster first, but it will give you extra grill marks on your toast.


Gas or electric for rack oven in a bakery? I plan to purchase a rotating rack oven for my bakery. What type (gas or electric) would achieve the best result for pastries and small breads?

Electric is generally better for baking.  Gas ovens introduce a bit of water vapor due to the combustion of the gas.  In general, electric ovens also have smaller variations in temperature during the oven cycle than gas, and so maintain a more even heat.


Where does the chlorine taste in yogurt come from? My parents used to make yogurt some years ago. When they tried to make some last month, it turned out very firm and smooth in appearence, but tasted like chlorine.

The taste is so strong that even strawberries couldn't get rid of it. Since then we have not tried making yogurt anymore.

Is the chlorine taste related to some fermentation level/age? Quality of milk?

Obs.: Though the chlorine taste was very strong, it wasn't sour.

Strangely enough, I do live near Campinas (where UNICAMP belongs), where water once was contaminated by human hormones! (Note the source is not in English.) I'm noticing the local water smells very strongly of chlorine; I wonder they're adding water to milk before selling it, or if the cows are drinking the water...
I will try buying milk from different towns to test my theory.


Fix fudge that is too rich I've made some fudge from a paleo recipe using almond butter, coconut oil, honey and cocoa powder.

Following this recipe, I find the fudge far too rich to eat -- the cocoa requirement was for 6 tablespoons in the recipe, but I feel this is too much. Is there any way I can now correct this after I've formed the fudge and refrigerated it?

I'm loathe to bin it all, but figure I can let it soften again and tweak it somehow.

The easiest remedy is just to cut it into smaller pieces, so you don't feel overwhelmed when eating a single piece.

Cocoa powder is slightly bitter, so cutting it back might actually make the fudge taste sweeter.  Instead, you could take small portions of the the fudge, roll them into balls, then roll them in cocoa powder to make chocolate truffles.


Why do we eat unripened chili peppers? Many types of peppers, such as Anaheim peppers, poblano peppers, serrano peppers, and jalapeño peppers - are red when fully ripe and green while immature. However, most of the time I've seen these peppers for sale, they're sold when they're green (unripened).

Is there a particular reason why these peppers are sold before they're fully ripened?

Thanks!

You can get red jalapeños at some markets, but you're right, most places sell them when they're still green.

They sell them for the same reasons they sell green bell peppers, which includes:

some people prefer the milder, grassier notes (or just don't know better)
they're cheaper to produce (don't have to wait for them to ripen, reducing water use)
they store and ship better (as they're not ripe yet).
it lowers the risk of losing the harvest (due to weather, blight, etc. from waiting 'til they're fully ripe)
it reduces the number of field hands needed (as they're not trying to pick all peppers at the peak of ripeness)
if frees up the field for another planting.

In the case of hot peppers, it's more complex than the simple colored bell peppers -- the ripe peppers are often further processed (smoked or dried) and then sold under a different name:

chipotle == smoked & dried jalapeño
ancho == dried poblano
colorado == ripe anaheim


What's the best way to make Béchamel sauce? When I make Béchamel sauce I keep getting different results.

Sometimes the sauce becomes too liquidy and never seems to firm up. Other times it might get quite lumpy, despite my use of a recipe that has worked fine in the past.

Are there any general preparation rules or tips to ensure consistent results when making a Béchamel sauce?

Consistent results stem from consistent actions. Bechamel is one of the most basic sauces, so you should take the time to master it. The general proportions for this sauce are:

1 Tbsp butter (clarified optional)
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg

The things to make sure you do right:

Cook the roux - It should be a nice golden hue (not brown).
Scald the milk prior to adding - The milk should be heated to a near boil in a separate pot while you prepare the roux. Cold milk is one of the primary causes of bechamel fail.
Add the milk in 1 cup increments.
Whisk thoroughly until you see no lumps with each addition of milk.
Stir constantly until done.


Does fat as opposed to oil distribute flavour better? I was eating a chicken stew and a beef stew both with the same ingredients.  What I noticed was the beef stew had better and more distributed flavour whereas the chicken stew didn't taste as well distributed.  The beef stew liquid definately tasted superior to the chicken stew liquid.

I wondered why this may have been the case and what I noticed was the beef stew had a lot more fat(saturated) then the chicken.  Suspecting this may have been the cause I googled this and found the following in an article:

"We all know that fat affects flavor thanks to the mouth-coating richness that butter or olive oil can impart to a dish. But fats do more than add textural nuance. Many of the flavor compounds that make herbs and aromatics such compelling seasonings are what we call fat-soluble, meaning they'll actually spread and coat your tongue better when they're immersed in lipids. Using fat in anything from marinades to braises helps coax out, layer, and evenly distribute flavors."

So it seems the fat may be giving the differences I am noticing.  However the article also mentions olive oil.  Issue is when cooking the chicken we used oil(I think sunflower or vegetable) yet it didn't distribute flavors like the meat stew which had a lot of saturated fat.  That being the case I would not expect olive oil to distribute flavors like the saturated fat from meat so why is it mentioned in the article alongside fat. I think it olive oil has no solid fat.  Or is the article saying anything with some fat e.g. olive oil or sunflower oil will distribute flavor but more solid fat will distribute even better(hence the fatty meat stew tasting more distributed)?

Saturation doesn't effect the extraction or distribution of flavors, your beef stew was just more flavorful than your chicken stew. Any fat (and that includes oil) will do the job, the difference is in the flavor of the fat and texture differences you would get from the different oils. Beef fat will be richer than olive oil, giving the impression of flavor distribution when it's actually the amount of flavor that is different.


Make Pepperoni out of Regular Salami So, i really love pepperoni pizza, and want to make it at home. However, in my city, i can't find pepperoni for sale in the market (i don't live in the US). So, i was wondering, can i make something similar to pepperoni by seasoning regular salami? If the answer is yes, what seasonings should i use? I thought of paprika and oregano, but i think that there's must be more into it. Any advices? Thanks!

Pepperoni is basically just a spiced pork and beef salami with some smokiness in it, you could achieve a similar flavor by using some smoked chili powder like paprika or chipotle. You also aren't going to get very far trying to make a salami spicy by adding pepper to it beforehand, like injecting it with some sort of spice mix as there's not enough moisture to allow the spice to mix in. You'll have to add spice to the sliced salami, the question is how to apply that seasoning so the flavor seems to come from the salami when eating the pizza. Chili powders will burn in the high temperatures of a pizza oven, producing off flavors and an unappealing look, so sprinkling them on top of the salami slices is not the best idea.

You have 2 good options:

Add the spice to the pizza sauce: this will make the whole pie taste of the spice and may not be what you want. It's the quickest and easiest solution though
Rub one side of each sliced salami piece with the spices, and then put them on the pizza spice side down. This will localize the spice around the salami slices, and put the salami between the spice powder and the heat source so it doesn't burn. This is a bit of extra work but I can't imagine it being that big a pain

Personally I'd go with option 2 as you'll get a nice hum of spice around the salami and some on it when you bite. It won't be quite a pepperoni but I bet it will be very close.


Can milk chocolate candy be used as a chocolate substitute in fudge? Can I melt Brach's Milk Chocolate Stars or Hearts to make fudge?

Fudge is candy. Like all candy making it is built on a concentrated sugar syrup. Fudge is differentiated from other candy in that it is encouraged to form tiny crystals and is high in fat.

The chocolate in fudge provides two things: flavor and fat.
Although less traditional, plenty of recipes for fudge variants leave out the chocolate altogether.

As @ElmerCat said above, chocolate candy already has a ton of sugar in it. This wouldn't be a problem but it might change the timing of your candy cooking. More sugar to liquid means the candy will not need to cook as long. You'd have to watch your temperature.

The real problem is that chocolate candy like that doesn't taste much like chocolate at all. You would be able to make fudge with the right texture and color but it would taste bland.


How do you create and store bacteria cultures for fermenting? I'm very new to fermenting and am typically doing it with vegetables pressed under either salt or salt and water.

I've come across several sites teaching about how bacteria cultures can be used in this process, but am unsure how to create them and store them instead of buying them.

Unless you've got the time and resources to set up your own biology lab, you're not likely to have much luck raising your own bacterial cultures from scratch.  You'd probably need growth mediums suited to particular strains of bacteria and strict isolation between them to prevent other opportunistic bugs from taking over.  If you really, really want to try, you might have better luck asking on another SE site.

Fortunately, a lot of pickled-vegetable recipes (such as this recipe for dill pickles, or this kimchi recipe) don't bother with an initial culture.  This is what's called a "wild fermentation", meaning that you're culturing with whatever bacteria happen to float their way into your fermentation vessel.  If the initial culture is present, it's there to kick-start the process, or to obtain a very specific flavor profile by using a precise blend of bacterial strains.  In those cases, you'll want to buy, because it's practically impossible to invite only a single strain of bacteria to the party.  Even if your kitchen is scrupulously clean, exposing your food to open air also quickly exposes it to bacterial colonists that you can't control.

Other fermented foods can be started from a purchased culture, or they can be inoculated from a sample of active culture in a purchased food.  For example, you can use store-bought yogurt with live cultures as a starter for fermenting your own, and you can cultivate the scoby from a store-bought bottle of kombucha to make your own at home.  With some care and maintenance, you can make some of these cultures last for years.  The cultures that give sourdough bread its distinctive flavor are sometimes kept this way.

If you need a specific starter for your recipe, you'll just have to pony up and purchase it.  Depending on the final product, you might be able to use a different starter and wind up with a similar end product (see here) but it would be inadvisable and possibly unsafe to deviate from your directions.


When making Eetch, is it necessary to sauté the onions and simmer the tomato products? Are there differences if using quinoa rather than bulghur? When I make Eetch, the recipe I use calls for sautéing the onions and then adding the tomato products and simmering for a short time before adding to the bulghur.

A woman my husband works with told him that she also makes it but that she does not heat any of the ingredients. She just prepares and mixes everything together.

All of the recipes I've seen call for pretty much the same method I use which does include the sautéing and simmering steps. (Note that I am not saying that there aren't any that are different, just that I have not seen them.)

It seems like it would be a time saver to skip the sautéing and simmering steps. That is unless it would take additional time for the bulghur to absorb the liquid.

Are there really any time or other benefits to either method?

I'm also wondering if anyone has tried using quinoa instead of the bulghur and, if so, what were the results? We're any adjustments needed to the recipe, e.g. more or less liquid or seasonings, etc.?

Okay. I tried this two different ways. First I tried just combining the ingredients without the simmering and sautéing step. The flavors didn't seem to come together as well and it did take longer for the liquid to absorb into the bulghur.

So then I tried just adding the chopped onion without sautéing first but I did simmer the tomato products. This worked equally as well as when I sautéed the onion, added the tomato products and simmered. The onion is finely diced so the residual heat from the simmered tomato products was enough to very slightly soften it.

I haven't had a chance to try it using quinoa rather than bulghur but when I do I will update the answer.


Baking Jiggly Cheese cake in microwave oven convection mode I am planning to try out this recipe..

http://renilskitchen.blogspot.com/2018/11/jiggly-fluffy-japanese-cheesecake.html?m=1

But the trouble is, it mentions changing the temperature midway through the process. I have a microwave oven(Samsung) with convection mode and I am not sure if it is possible to get this recipe right.. what  do you guys think ? Anyone with experience baking Jiggly cheese cakes? Specifically in a convection microwave ??

This looks like quite a fussy recipe - the author says Keys  for perfect Japanese souffle cheesecake is "meringue" and "oven temperature". After so many trials and errors, I present this cheesecake before you...  That's not to say you can't do it, but getting the results you want may take a couple of goes.

A good microwave oven convection mode is a reasonable imitation of a real oven (mine is Panasonic which should be comparable to Samsung) but the top heat can be a little fierce especially for tall things, which may be a further issue as you don't want to open the door.  This may actually be the hardest part to deal with.

Heating is quick enough to be comparable to a normal oven when you turn the temperature up.  Cooling may be a little quicker - you have less thermal mass and the insulation tends not to be as good as modern ovens.  Quoting from the recipe:

  bake on the lower rack of the preheated oven at 120 degree Celsius for
  20 minutes

  then increase the temperature to 150 degree Celsius and
  bake for 40 minutes

  now reduce heat to 120 degree Celsius and bake for
  30 minutes

  now turn off the oven and keep this in the oven for 10
  minutes

  the temperature and timing may vary depending on oven

(emphasis mine)

I'd expect the second 120°C period to be a little short - so maybe increase to 35 minutes (or perhaps even increase the length of the 150°C bit by 5 minutes).  If the cooling when you turn it off is a little quicker than expected it may not finish cooking in the middle.  One thing you can do to increase the thermal mass (i.e. make it change temperature more slowly) is to preheat and cook with a large lump of ceramic in there, for example a pizza stone or a couple of stoneware dinner plates.  This should reduce the cooling when you open the door to put the cheesecake in, reducing the amount the (top) element has to run, as well as slowing the change when you change the setpoint.


Is it possible to prevent a japanese cheesecake from deflating or sinking? A japanese cheesecake is basically like a cheesecake fused with a spongecake.

When i beat the egg whites they peak perfectly then i am required to get 1/3 of the egg white mixture and fold it into the cake mixture then fold in the rest of the egg whites. Then i pour it into a pan and place it into a baine-marie and bake it for about 1 hour and 10mins at 180 degrees celcius.

In the oven it raises perfectly and looks beautiful, then when i take it out of the oven to rest it slowly starts to shrink and is no longer tall but rather about 1-2cm shorter (20cm cake pan).

Can anyone please help me? Anyone have any suggestions or any techniques on how to prevent this from happening?

Try letting it cool in the oven.

The tip is from the blog "The Little Teochew", which writes:

  Leave to cool in oven with door ajar, about 30mins to 1 hour. Sudden changes in temperature may cause the cake to cool too quickly and collapse.

Further tips can by found in the blog post: Japanese Cheesecake


What happens when cheese is melted in a frying pan? A guilty pleasure of mine is to put a small block of cheddar into a dry frying pan and cook it. The cheese melts and an oil comes out of the cheese. In this state, the oil drains off very easily and is disposed of. The remaining cheese is very crispy when it cools down. Yum!

What's left behind when cheese is melted and the oil drained off?

Milk proteins, mostly. And some sugars that have been caramelized.

This is an example of what one chef I know describes as "brown food tastes better," and is much like what happens when you sear a steak on the grill.


What is this fruit, anyone knows? What fruit is this?

Please see photos, thanks. This is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. It is about 3 inches in diameter.

That is a "Common Guava" (Wikipedia). When deployed to Saudi Arabia (years ago) we would get pallet loads of Guava Juice. My Puerto Rican friends were familiar with it already, it is supposed to be quite popular there (and throughout the Caribbean)
EDIT:
after looking at @arieljannai answer I felt a little more research was in order, I was unfamiliar with the pond apple and they do look a LOT alike on the outside. The leaf structure is even similar.
Britannica Has the following picture of a 'ripe' guava:

While this is the best picture of pond apple cut open:

Compared to the recently added photo of the original fruit provided by OP I am again confident that it is a guava (although, perhaps not a ripe one)


How does the varying amounts of ingredients in an English pancake affect its outcome? Background Information

It is Shrove Tuesday, also known as pancake day! And I am planning on making pancakes. However, my little brother made pancakes at school and he used a different recipe to what I normally use; it was still composed of the three basic ingredients: flour, egg and milk, but he used different quantities. Also, the website that I had previously gotten my pancake recipe from also changed its recipe and I have seen other websites use different quantities as well, which has caused me to wonder what the best quantities actually are.

Recipes I have encountered

Recipe               | Flour (g) | Egg | Milk (ml)
---------------------|-----------|-----|----------
Website's old recipe | 200       | 2   | 350
---------------------|-----------|-----|----------
My brother's recipe  | 115       | 1   | 300
---------------------|-----------|-----|----------
Website's new recipe | 100       | 2   | 300

Question

How does the quantity of different ingredients affect the properties (such as thickness, frailness and taste) of an English pancake?

More flour: Thicker, cakier

Less flour: Flatter, more custardy

More egg: Chewier

Less egg: Breadier

More milk: Flatter

Less milk: Thicker


Are sweet potatoes and yams treated different in terms of cooking? I saw this this question, and a few others, but there aren't any explanations I can find that say whether the two are treated differently or not. In other words, can they be used as a direct substitute?

It depends on what you mean by "yam".

Once upon a time, in the deep south of the US, there was a tuber known as the sweet potato, and it was good.   And then one particular grower decided to sell theirs under the trade name "yam" to get better marketing recognition.  This lead to some folks in the US calling sweet potatoes by the name yam, especially in the context of candied yams (a sweet casserole of spiced sweet potato).

So if the word "yam" is being used to mean a variety of sweet potato, then they are culinary identical.  Sweet potatoes of all variety are, well, potato sized (or a bit bigger than the average potato), and their color can range from whitish through yellow, orangish or reddish.  Most grocery store varieties are fairly orange in color.

True yams originate from Africa, and are far more starchy and fibrous than sweet potatoes, no matter what they are called, and are used in entirely different ways.  They can be very large, football to basketball sized or larger.  There are also a tremendous variety of true yams.


How can I make use of an underripe mango I bought a mango this morning that seemed to be ripe; at least it was the ripest of the bunch. I'm somewhat acquainted with picking out red/green mangoes, but this was my first exposure to yellow mangoes, and I apparently chose poorly.

After slicing up the whole thing, I realized my mistake, and as it is, the fruit is so sour it is inedible.

If it were a lesser fruit (say, a nectarine), I might just toss it, but I'm trying to be resourceful, and mangoes are not inexpensive around here, so I'd like to make use of it. What uses are there for an underripe mango? I thought of simmering it with milk and a little sugar, but I can only guess as to how how things would turn out.

If you have a WHOLE, UNCUT green mango, you can ripen it on the counter.  To speed this process, the mango may be place in a paper or partially-sealed plastic bag; this will help retain the ethylene gas fruits emit, which speeds ripening.

Once cut, you'll have to put your mango to use. Fortunately, green mangoes are a prized part of Southeast-Asian cooking, where their tartness is used to add tang to savory dishes!  In this use, green mangoes are often combined with salt, chili peppers, sometimes lime juice, and sometimes soy or fish sauces.  Coconut milk is another common flavor combination, for example coconut rice topped with green mango preserves.

In particular, Thai cuisine makes an extensive use of green mangoes.  For an example, look at this green mango salad recipe.  In India, they may be sliced and topped with salt and lime juice, or pickled, or incorporated into a delicious green mango chutney.  Indians also grind dried green mango into amchur, a sour powder used in curries and other dishes.

Central American cuisine also includes green mangoes, and they serve it sliced with salt, vinegar, pepper, and hot sauce.  Topping with toasted pumpkin seeds is also common.

:Edit:
The one common thread here is that green mangoes are generally used in savory, not sweet dishes.  This is because the flavor of under-ripe mango is quite different from that of ripe ones. This different flavor works best with salty and spicy combinations, with (brown) sugar as a secondary, background note, not as a dominant flavor.  I would particularly discourage combining green mango with milk, unless you want the acid to curdle it into curds and whey.


Is a partially frozen chicken safe if not immediately cooked at the proper temperature? I put a partially frozen (inside) chicken in my convection oven, set it to what I thought was 400ºF (200ºC) and left the room with a timer on. An hour later it was discovered the temperature was only 150-200ºF (65-93ºC). It was in the convection oven an hour! I quickly set the correct temperature and finished cooking it. I just don't know if the hour it spent in the convection oven on the lower temperature did something with bacteria. I cooked it to an internal temperature of 180ºF (80ºC) degrees. Is it safe to eat this chicken?

Assuming you thawed the chicken (to the extent that you did) in the refrigerator, and further assuming that it took less than an hour to reach a safe internal temperature, I would say you are fine. An internal temperature of 180ºF (80ºC) is safe by quite a margin.

The USDA recommends that home cooks do not keep food within the "Danger Zone" of 40-140ºF (4-60ºC) for more than 2 hours. This includes preparation and cooking time. If you thawed the bird on the kitchen counter, or if your chicken accompanied you on a long journey from the supermarket in an unfrozen state, you'll have to factor that time in.

As @Jefromi's comment on another answer notes, simply reaching a high enough internal temperature is not a guarantee of safety since some microbes produce toxins that are heat-stable.


How to tell if eggs are rotten Over the past couple of weeks our local supermarket has been selling eggs very cheaply.  (large eggs for half the price of medium eggs).  So we've been eating a lot of eggs, not a problem, but I still have a few dozen left and need the counter space.  I am well aware of the drop them in water and see if they float technique - here and here.  But I have been finding that a few have slipped through the net. My question is: Are there any other fool proof methods to telling if an egg has gone off or not?

Please note that the first link is a site that I own, it's just that I wrote an egg page a long time ago.

There are only two methods I found fool proof:

If in doubt, assume it gone bad.
Break the shell, open it, and see & smell. Pour content into a glass, not directly on the pan or whatever. That way, if it's good you can still add it, and if it's bad, your dish is not ruined.

I prefer method 1. if I can afford it. On the trail, or in a camp in woods, or when I was short on money, I used 2.


If tomatoes are fruit isn't ketchup (catsup) technically a smoothie?

Definition 1:

  A smoothie (also known as a "smoothy") is a blended, chilled, sometimes sweetened beverage made from fresh fruit (fruit smoothie) or vegetables and in special cases can contain chocolate.

Definition 2:

  [...] a thick beverage of fruit pureed in a blender with ice and milk, yogurt, or juice.

Ketchup is not considered a beverage by anybody I know.
Ketchup is not made only from fresh fruit and ice/milk/yogurt/juice.  It has many other ingredients.
Ketchup is probably not made in a blender.
There are plenty of food items made from fruit that aren't smoothies (is applesauce a "smoothie?").

So, no, it's not a smoothie simply because it contains a fruit.


Reheating Frozen Brocolli Fritters Bought some frozen brocolli fritters from a restaurant. But as it was closing time and the cooks had left, I couldn't get any proper instructions on how to reheat them.

I have a very basic baking oven with a dial for temperature and timer. Have the following doubts:

Should I thaw the fritters first before putting them in the oven? (If yes, for how long?) Or can I straight away put them into the oven and start reheating them?
Should the oven be pre-heated?
At what temperature should I reheat them?
For how long should I bake them?

In a comment, you say that you were told to bake the fritters rather than frying them. That implies that they're already cooked, and just need to be reheated.

A fan-assisted oven would be ideal for this, but a regular oven will work too. Put the fritters, still frozen, on a baking sheet or metal baking pan in the middle of the oven. Assuming the fritters are around 1/2 inch thick, 15 minutes at 200C (400F) in a regular oven or at 180C (350F) in a fan-assisted oven should suffice. (As with any cooking instructions, preheat the oven to the specified temperature unless you're told otherwise.) Flip them halfway through cooking. By the time they're done, you'll likely see a small amount of bubbling at the surface, even in the center.

An easy way to check whether a food has come up to temperature is to stab it straight through the middle with a metal fork. Let the fork sit in there for a few seconds, then put the part of the fork tines which were in the middle of the food just in front of your closed lips. If you can't feel heat radiating off them, then gently touch them to your lips. That should give you an idea of how much the food has warmed.


Commerial-grade packaging (long shelf-life) for my cookie-like pastry I have a cookie-like pastry that I would like to put in a commercial-grade packaging so that it can sold in stores.
How are products such as dates, nuts and cookies packaged so that they have a shelf-life of months or even years? How are small businesses able to package their products? Do they do it themselves or do they send their product to a "packaging company"? What equipment do I need?
My pastry is basically a no-bake almost-cookie-like pasty. It mostly consist of dry ingredients such as almonds, dried pineapples, and nuts but also has a wet ingredient which is either butter or vegan butter. The closest commercial product that I can think of is Larabar but the consistency and taste are different.

Firat, first, first : look at your local rules and regulation regarding selling food product in your area.
First first : Decide how long you want to have your product to last, this will put restriction on packaging.
First, you need to do a lot of testing with different kind of packaging and see how your product behave over days, weeks and months (whatever long you want to keep the product)
Find a local food laboratory to test your product for safety (bacteria, mold.... ) at different days, weeks...
If/When the product is safe to eat, you also need to test the product to see if it is still good (not stale, loss of flavour...)
After that, look for different packaging solution for your product, most packaging can be done in-house (heat sealed) so you can buy custom printed bags or pouches (for example for granola melange) or paper packaging (for example for chocolat bars)
I've googled for "commercial food packaging" and there are many solutions for this, just look it up.


My pizza dough has risen for a second time I had already made the dough into a pizza and while waiting to put it together it has risen. What should I do?

It does that if it gets the chance. You can either roll it thinner again or (my preference) have a slightly thicker, fluffier pizza,which may take a minute or two longer to cook. If you knock it down with your knuckles after rolling it tends to spring most of the way back.

This, by the way, is almost inevitable if you cook pizza with children as they slow down all the prep. If you really want a very thin crispy pizza you have to work rather fast once it's rolled out (and use a very hot oven so the yeast is killed as soon as it goes in).


Will freezing a bottle of vermouth change it's quality, life length or properties? I accidentally froze an unopened bottle of white Vermouth. I've read that opening the bottle will cause the vermouth to slowly oxidase and you should finish the bottle within a month or so. How is it with a frozen bottle - does that matter?

What about regular wine? Will the freezing/thawing of a bottle reduce how long it will stay OK for drinking or can I simply thaw it up slowly and treat it as if it was never frozen?

Thank you!

I've frozen bottles of vermouth many times. There is no issue with just letting it thaw out in the normal way. In fact you can wait until it's partly thawed, give it a good shake, and hey presto, vermouth slushy, which goes in some cocktails rather well. Fortified wines do slowly oxidise on exposure to the atmosphere, but this is greatly slowed by the alcohol content. Historically this was one the principle reasons for fortifying wines - so that they store better and last longer.


What makes a really good marrow bone? Every now and again I really crave some crustinis with marrow.  I've had mixed success trying to find the ones where the marrow can easily come out.  There's usually sinewy ossificans and it makes it hard to get all the marrow out easily.

What are some reasons that some bones don't have ossified material inside and some that do?  Does it happen as the animals get older?

Some butchers will custom cut beef leg bones. You can specify a short cut for the marrow bone so that your retrieval device can fully reach all of your marrow. I work at a charcuterie and we frequently cut marrow bones to order.


How to stop icing from running off iced buns? Recently I've attempted to make iced buns and as a first attempt, they went well. However, after one night my icing began to slide off the top of the buns, leaving me with either bare or patch-worked buns and a pool of dried icing. Can anyone tell me why it happens and/or how to stop it?

I think you can find your answer here. Basically, when the ambient temperature of the surroundings is on the higher side, the icing melts since the butter cannot remain in a solid state. However, what can be done according to the link that I posted, you can add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch per 3 cups of icing to make the icing sturdier. Or you can use other ingredients like gelatin, or meringue powder which does the same as well.


Vegetarian replacement for pork mince in Chinese style stir fry In Chinese cuisine it's very common to start a vegetable stir fry with a bit of minced meat, typically pork, to give the dish a deeper flavor. To make a vegetarian version I usually just leave this out, but I've been wondering if something else would give a similar effect taste-wise.

Typical meat replacements like tofu or seitan don't work here because they focus on providing the texture and protein of meat, but not so much the flavor.

It seems like you are primarily interested in reproducing the umami of the meat.  Tofu does in fact have glutamic acids that will add to the umami; just make sure to thoroughly dry the tofu (extracting as much liquid as possible) before use.  In addition, you can use minced mushrooms, as Stephie mentioned in the comments.  You can also experiment with adding Bragg's Liquid Aminos, since it has a lot of umami but has less than half the sodium of soy sauce.

Keep in mind, though, that the meat in the original recipe is also relied upon for its fat; tofu does have some fat, but not as much as meat, and it's unlikely to render out during the initial fry.  Therefore, I would suggest adding 7 grams of fat (e.g., vegetable oil) for every 100g of meat you are replacing.


How can I prepare Jack fruit to simulate the texture of pork? The best fake meat I've ever had was in Srilanka. 10 years ago I traveled to the Kandy mountains in Srilanka, where I had the most extraordinary non-meat stew. Jack fruit, potatoes, long onions, a strange circular bitter eggplant veggie thing, and other stuff I can't remember. This was stewed with cow bones on a open fire for several hours in a cauldron sealed with banana leaves and topped with a rock. Ok, the flavor did come from cow, but the texture of the meat was truly meat! If I didn't know that it was jack fruit I was eating, I woulda sworn it was pork!

Does anyone know how to make this?

I believe you, as I've had "pulled pork" jackfruit before at a restaurant.  I haven't made it myself, but here's a recipe.

The essentials seem to be to use canned, brined jackfruit, rinsed clean and squeezed free of water, then slow cooked for about an hour.  This recipe calls for "pulling" the jackfruit apart with a couple of forks, but this may be different from the texture you experienced in that stew--perhaps you'll get this texture that way, or perhaps you'll need to slow cook it for longer without pulling?


About chicken and osmosis Why Heston Blumenthal says it needs to soak chicken before low-temperature baking in salty solution of water? I always thought that osmosis goes better if water would be unsalted, and meat would be more tender soaked in pure water?

Thanks.

What you are referring to is called a brine. It's pretty common to brine meats, especially poultry (think Turkey, etc). Brining meat before cooking helps break down protein bonds, and create a more tender, moist finished product.
thekitchn.com has a very succinct explanation:

What Is Brine?
Brine is a salt solution made by mixing salt and water, usually about 5 to 8 percent salt by weight. Some recipes include sugar and other ingredients to add flavor to the meat being brined, but a basic brine is a salt-water solution.
How Does Brining Work?
Here are three major functions accomplished by brining — and reasons to try it. It's so easy, too.

Meat absorbs some of the liquid: When a piece of meat is soaked in a brine solution, that solution is slowly drawn into the meat, and even though some of it is inevitably lost during cooking, it still makes a big difference. Since the meat starts out with more liquid within, it ends up juicier and more moist when cooked.

Muscle fibers are dissolved: Highly concentrated salt solutions will cause proteins to precipitate (essentially forcing them to aggregate with each other and clump together). On the other hand, a low-concentration salt solution has the opposite effect and actually can increase protein solubility and allow more proteins to dissolve. So brine actually helps dissolve some of the muscle fibers, which helps to reduce the toughness of meat.

Muscle fibers and meat proteins denature: A salt solution can denature proteins, essentially unfolding and unravelling them. As they unfold, water works its way in between these proteins so there is more water in between the meat proteins as the meat cooks. This results in a more tender cooked meat.

Source: thekitchn.com


Chicken and Dumplings soaked up all the broth My dumplings soaked up all of the broth. What can I add to my chicken and dumplings without ruining the flavor?

Add more broth.  Use either water, balanced with spices, or add from a good brand.

Edit:  You could always make more broth than you need and freeze the rest.


What is the hole in this turkey? Above the wing there is a hole. What kind of deformity is on this bird??

I'm intrigued by this question, so I'm posting an attempt at answering it, hoping it would attract a better answer by an expert.

I am not a vet, but to me it looks like an injury that didn't have time to fully heal. Since the mass production of poultry emphasizes fast growth of the birds, it's not that surprising to me.

These birds are often kept in a sub-optimal environment, so the injury could have been infected too, but it did not become bad enough for the turkey to die from or for the producer to deem the bird worthy of discarding or butchering into smaller pieces.

Was it safe to eat? Probably yes. The quality of the meat may have suffered to some degree though.


Shelf-stable "frosting" for a savory "gingerbread" house? My mom read a Rachel Ray magazine, and is planning a craft project with my nephews where they make a log cabin out of pretzel rods.  The problem is that it likely won't be eaten on the same day.

The magazine called for using spray cheese, which I would assume would have lots of preservatives, and she was thinking of using whipped cream cheese (until I raise the issue of storage).

Everything that I can think of to use (icing, caramel, melted chocolate) is relatively sweet.  Is there something that we could use that would be sticky, non-sweet and be safe after being stored at room temperature for a couple of days?  Given how it's being used, it won't be tightly wrapped.

Peanut butter might work. It is safe at room temperature and not really sweet. It is somewhat soft, but so is the canned cheese. Natural peanut butter with the oil poured off might be thicker for use as mortar. The flavor would be good with pretzels.


Cooking pasta in a Pressure Cooker In recent times I'm experimenting with different techniques to cook pasta, the pressure cooker is an inspiration I had from Davide Scabin (link in Italian), even though he's surely not the first one who did it. There is indeed even some, not much, "literature" about it on the web.

After a few tries I still have the following problems:

1) The pasta pieces stick gently one to another, but they cement themselves on the bottom of the pot.

2) The consistency of the pasta is tenacious, very different from the usual one but not necessarily unpleasant.

I was wondering if anybody else had the same results, and is eager to share her solutions to the problems listed above.

Thank you for your attention!

I've seen Lagostina pressure cooker recipe booklets from the 1930's that contain pressure cooker pasta recipes.  So it's been done for a while.

I make pressure cooker pasta in sauce at least twice a week - we cook all of our short pasta this way so I came up with a technique to address some of these problems.

1) the pasta pieces are sticking together and to the bottom of the pot because there is not enough water (or cooking liquid like stock).  The pasta is absorbing all of the cooking liquid before the cooking time is finished.

2) since you're using less water in pressure cooking pasta, the starch will not leach out into the big pot of boiling water and then be thrown down the drain through the strainer.  So this extra starch remains and creates a more chewy "al dente" texture.

My technique uses low pressure, water to cover the pasta and half the recommended cooking time on the package.  If your pressure cooker only has one pressure (and its the oldy-kind like the one pictured with Davide Scabin) then you only have to pay attention to the cooking time - those pressure cookers already operate at "low pressure."

Here are all the details of my pressure cooker pasta technique.

All of my online pressure cooker pasta recipes.


Necessary to empty my pellet grill auger when I'm done grilling? So, I have a wood pellet grill. Is it a good idea to make sure there aren't any remaining pellets in my hopper or auger when I'm done cooking?

Mike, I also have a pellet grill and we keep pellets in ours after we are done cooking but we also keep it covered and out of the weather.  I think the wood pellets could absorb moisture and expand if they get wet and possibly plug your auger.  :)


Sous vide effectiveness without using a vacuum sealer? I frequently use the water displacement method to seal ziploc freezer bags when I sous vide. I can get maybe 99% of the air out, but technically the bag is not under vacuum. If I clip the top of the bag to the side of my container, any air pockets that emerge collects at the top, and the meat is entirely in contact with the bag and immersion bath. Alternatively, if I seal the bag with a marinade, there are no pockets of air between the meat and the immersion bath.

I can't imagine that the temperature transfer can be any more effective when vacuum sealed. So why does a site like SeriousEats still suggest that a vacuum sealer is needed for best results with longer cooking times?

update from http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/08/how-to-seal-food-airtight-without-vacuum-sealer-water-displacement-method.html#comments-299859

In the context of food storage in plastic bags, SeriousEats claims, "excess air causes oxidation that can develop into off flavors or promote spoilage." But I never sous vide for the freezer, it gets served when done.

There was a comment that asked if food contamination might occur for cooking times longer than 48 hours, but it was never answered.

What is the science behind this statement? How much residual air is "too much"?

If the bag remains submerged, does not leak, and the food in full contact with the water bath, is that enough to duplicate the benefits of a true vacuum seal?

update 2

Also, what is the scientific impact of trapping small amounts of residual air in a pocket above the water bath?  This assumes that there is still a very strong thermal coupling between the water bath and sous vide item.

In the photo below, you can see at least a 2inch gap between the air pockets above water level and the actual short ribs. From a heat transfer perspective, I can't imagine that a vacuum sealed bag can perform significantly better—certainly not relative to a 48hr cook time. Is there a possibility of bacterial contamination?

The main problem I've found is that air pockets can cause the bag to float, causing uneven heating. If your bag sinks, or if you have something to make it sink, it should be fine.

(Note: I find the water displacement method to be kind of a pain and not really effective. I use a cheapo manual vacuum pump, which I got for about ten bucks. It's very slightly more effective, and cheap.)


converting a muffin recipe to a cake recipe I have a muffin recipe for chocolate zucchini muffins.  The recipe calls for a 325 degree oven and a baking time of 20-25 minutes.  I want to bake these in a 9 x 13 pan as a cake.  How long should I bake my cake and at what temperature.

Most of the bake times that recipes give you are very general ideas of how long you should bake something. This is why most of them are given in ranges rather than in specific values. (20-25 minutes instead of specifically saying 21 minutes)

The reason for this is because there are a lot of variables when it comes to baking including the thickness and material of your pan and the type of oven you have.

The best thing to do when you are trying to bake batter for muffin/cupcake in a cake pan is to start out with the initial time the recipe gives you and then there after, check it periodically with a toothpick in the center. If the batter sticks to the toothpick then it is not done. You can check it every 5 minutes to start off but as the "cake" start to stick less to the toothpick, check more often.


can someone tell me what exactly is msg used for? What exactly is msg? What is it used for and why do some restaurants have signs saying "contains no MSG"?

Mono sodium glutamate. Think of it as somewhere between salt and sugar. It's flavour is called Umami. Msg is present in many natural products mostly from fish like anchovies.

The reason many restaurants have "no msg" sign is because of the bad press and stigma it has received for health reason such as hyper activity and weight gain. Chinese restaurants have especially received a lot of flack for over using it in their take away food.

For a more informative read I highly suggest checking this out It’s the Umami, Stupid. Why the Truth About MSG is So Easy to Swallow


What device to use to chop/dice tomatoes? I make chunky salsa in 2 quart batches. I have terrible knife skills, it takes me way too long to dice the amount of tomatoes needed for a batch. I am looking for a piece of equipment that will chop or dice the tomatoes into appox. 1/4 inch pieces in a quick and efficient manner.

Working as a cook myself... unless you really like chunky I would go with a blender. Issue with a blender about half the tomatoes will be a purree before you get rid of all the big chunks and if you start cutting up the tomatoes it wont take all that much longer just to dice em..

Blender quick but half will be a purree ?
Dicing  all of it will be nice even dice but takes longer.
Which is more important nice and chunky or speed?


Choux pastry, general questions with gluten free flour I have a few questions regarding choux (cream puff pastry) and gluten free flour. After trying a few different recipes with a huge range of butter/ flour ratios, I settled with this one

https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/choux-pastry-recipe-easy/

So far they always rose nicely and I never had a problem. But when I switched to gluten free flour, each time I got a different result with the same flour. Sometimes they rose, sometimes I had only really small air bubbles inside. Once the dough got so sticky I had problems getting it off the spoon (I just made/ dropped them as small sticky hills ~3cm wide and they turned out great). Since I'm almost sure to always use the same amount and brand of ingredients, there has to be a step in between that affects the result.

Duration with heat while stirring the flour into the mix. The dough forms within 20 sec after dumping it in and mixing (as well with covering the bottom of the pot), is longer stirring affecting the result? (Less water in dough, less steam in oven?)
I dump the steaming mix into stand mixer on a low setting and don't add eggs one by one before the mix stops steaming. Can gluten free dough be over beaten?
Usually I'm too lazy to pipe them and just form a ball by hand or use an ice cream scooper to form them. All forms had high and low rising results, but can one type give a better result or is it more an optical result? (Piped looked always nicest to the eye but made the most mess for cleaning)
The oven is usually around 200-210 with 20-25 min baking and another 5 min of resting time inside with turned off heat. Does upper/ lower heat vs fan makes a difference?

I would suggest piping your dough.

Also, be sure your oven is thoroughly preheated, and you'll have much better results using a pizza stone or oven steel. I would suggest baking in the middle of the oven on only one layer (don't use two racks at once). Preheat the oven to about 15°C hotter than you are going to bake and then turn it down to baking temp as soon as you put in your puffs. Use the fan (convection) setting if your oven has one. You probably want to use about 15°C lower temperature with a fan than the recipe states unless it specifies with fan.

My recommendation is put your dough on a piece of parchment paper on a flat metal tray, then slide the whole piece of parchment paper onto the stone/steel (like you were using a pizza peel).

Just for fun: it's called choux because the puffs look like little cabbages (choux in French).


Why should I rest gingerbread dough? My gingerbread recipe says I should rest the dough for 20 minutes in the refrigerator before rolling out and cutting. What difference does it make?

In most wheat-based recipes, gluten strands are formed while you work the dough. If you don't rest the dough, rolling can be more difficult and you may get a tougher texture in the final product.

Additionally, refrigerating the dough up to a certain point will firm up the fats in the recipe (butter, etc), which will make the dough less mushy and will making rolling out the dough evenly a bit easier. Unless the dough is so firm it becomes brittle, refrigeration will make the dough less fragile in most cases.

Perhaps less important, the moisture levels may become a bit more consistent throughout the dough as well.


Reducing sweetness of packaged cookie mix I have a Betty Crocker cookie mix and I find it too sweet. Is there a way to adapt it and make it less sweet?

I'm not an experienced baker so I don't know if simply adding more flour will work.

Probably there is no such way, at least not one that's worthwhile.

First, there is the problem that designing a recipe well is a skill which very few people have. Experienced bakers can progress to it, but inexperienced ones can make 100 trials but won't understand what went wrong with any of them. Unless you're in it for the fun of it, it's easier to find another recipe which works for you (you might have to bake through 4-5 failures to find a good one) than to redesign an existing one (might have to bake through 25-30 failures to make a good one).

Second, you're not starting from a recipe, but from a mix. With standard ingredients, you know what went in, and can change the ratio easily. With a mix, you have no idea how it works and how changing something will tip the balance. A simple addition of one more ingredient (e.g. flour) will certainly not cut it. If you add enough to make a change in sweetness, you won't like the change in texture, which, for flour, will be rock-hard cookies.

And this brings us to the third problem. Sugar is not a sweetener in cookies. It is a bulk ingredient which gives them a cookielike texture, and the sweetness is a side effect. If you combine the same ingredients but with less sugar, you'll end up with tiny cakes instead of cookies.

Proposed course of action: forget these cookies. You don't like the taste, and you can't keep the texture while changing the taste. Baking cookies from scratch is not much harder than baking from mix. Go to a good recipe site, find a well-reviewed recipe for the type of cookies you prefer, and bake away!


How should swordfish be prepared? I just purchased one pound of swordfish filet and never cooked swordfish before and have minimal experience cooking fish. Any suggestions on preparation? Also what should I look for while cooking it?

I love swordfish grilled with a little olive oil and Montreal steak spice.  All the firm fish are great on the grill.

Firm fish like ahi tuna and swordfish can pretty much be treated like really good steak, just cook them carefully because you want them left on the very-rare side of things.

If you do it in a pan make sure there's hot oil or butter (or both) before you add the fish and don't move it around too much.  If you fuss too much with the fish it will fall apart.

As delicious as swordfish is a lot of the fish on the market isn't being sustainably caught.  Make sure to ask where its coming from.  Most of the US and Canada fisheries are pretty good.


Tripling a baking recipe I have a cupcake recipe that I've doubled successfully in the past.  I'd like to triple it for an upcoming party but I seem to recall reading that some ingredients don't work as well if tripled.  Is that true?  If so, what are they? Is there any time when tripling a cake or cupcake recipe would work?

The short answer is no; there are no specific ingredients that don't scale (double or triple or quintuple, makes no real difference).

There are, however, two pitfalls you need to be aware of when scaling any recipe:

If your recipe uses volumetric measurements, especially very small ones for important ingredients (such as half a teaspoon of baking soda) then there is a greater risk of ending up with the wrong amount when you scale up.  That is why most "professional" baking recipes use weight measurements.

Honestly, I doubt you'll run into problems with just tripling, but if you want to make 10 times the amount, you'd be wise to convert those measurements to weight, or just find a recipe that uses weight measures in the first place.
Your cooking method may not scale linearly.  In particular, problems tend to come up related to cooking times - which you may need to increase a certain amount (the exact amount depends upon the exact recipe), and the size/shape of the vessel (especially with respect to its surface area vs. volume).

You can control the latter variable in baking relatively easily by simply using multiple vessels of the original size, or by baking in batches (be mindful of when you add the leavening agents if doing batches).  Cooking times, however, you can really only guess at, and I can only recommend that you watch your dish carefully as it nears the final stages - hopefully you know what it looks like when it's almost done.

As long as you don't change anything else - such as making individual cupcakes 3 times as large - then you should not run into any problems.


How to convert a chocolate fudge frosting recipe to white chocolate? I love the Betty Crocker recipe for fudge frosting! My problem? I really need a white chocolate instead of a cocoa frosting and have no idea how to substitute white chocolate for the 2tbsp cocoa the recipe calls for.

I'm afraid this is not possible at all. Dark chocolate flavor comes from aromatics in the cocoa bean, which give flavor already in low amounts. The flavor of white chocolate is very subtle, it's a combination of the aroma of the cocoa fat and the concentrated dairy solids. You cannot add it to anything as a flavoring, because practically anything else will have a stronger flavor of its own and mask the white chocolate taste.

The only way to have a cake which is covered in something which tastes like white chocolate is to make a white chocolate ganache. But then the texture will be a ganache and not a frosting. You will not be able to use your original recipe.

See this question for the correct ratio on white ganache, many people just try it like dark (that's what I did the first time too) and it ends up liquid.


Can I dilute double cream with milk to get lower fat content? I need close to 900 ml of cream 30–35 % for a mousse recipe (which requires part of the cream to be whipped). Is it possible to dilute double cream (48 % fat) with whole milk (3.6 %) to get an average in the range I want?

Using the numbers above, I calculated that mixing 600 ml of double cream with 300 ml of milk should give me 900 ml (if they add up like that) of something with 299 g of fat, which is about 33 %.

Does this make sense or are there any complications I need to be aware of?

Note: The cream/milk packages actually give grams of fat per volume (e.g., 100 ml of double cream has 48 g of fat), but I've taken it to be about the same as percentage by mass since the target fat content is a range rather than an exact figure.

APPENDIX: Since this was mentioned in the answers/comments and it might be useful to other people, here's the formula I used to calculate the necessary quantities to achieve the target fat percentage.

Given two milk or cream liquids with different fat percentage (I will refer to the one with lower fat content as "thin" and the one with higher fat content as "thick"), a liquid quantity Q_target and fat concentration TargetFatConcentration can be achieved by mixing

and

The fraction is a ratio (pure number), but I'm using the word "concentration" instead of "percentage" (which is normally used for fat content) because the products you have (as in my case) might be giving you grams of fat per volume, which is, technically, not a percentage. The point is that units need to be consistent, whatever they are.

Either volume or mass can be used for the "quantities".

It should go without saying that the target concentration can only be between the "thin" and "thick" one; i.e., you cannot dilute a cream by adding a thicker cream to it and vice versa.

This will work just fine. Many people will get the math wrong, but your calculations appear correct. Give it a good stir and everything should come out as expected. Most recipes are sufficiently tolerant that substituting the double cream would likely be fine compared to just using the heavy (if not an improvement).


What is the problem with overmixing? Certain recipes (for example, corn bread, buttermilk biscuits) caution against overmixing: you're supposed to add the wet ingredients to the dry with a minimum of agitation.

Why?

And, is this related to why my friend's recipe for cornbread states that "some lumpiness is preferred"?

In the type of recipe you reference, all of which are quick breads, the result is supposed to be tender, not chewy.

Wheat flour has proteins in it, which if agitated in the presence of water, will combine to form a new protein, gluten, which is very chewy.  Sometimes, this is desirable as in yeast raised bread, where the gluten forms the structure of the bread, and gives it its bite and chewiness.  In fact, this is why (most) yeast raised breads are kneaded.

Gluten development is not desirable in tender quick breads, like cornbread or banana bread.  Biscuits are a type of quick bread where the lumps of butter will promote flakiness, but you still want a tender crumb.

The flour and the liquids are combined as quickly as possible, with the least reasonably possible agitation, to minimize the development of gluten, and thus maximize tenderness.

The idea of leaving some lumps is to help prevent over mixing, and thus toughening the product.  Even if there are some small lumps of unmixed flour, the liquid from the batter will penetrate them in a few minutes during baking, and they will not be a factor in the final product.


Why is there liquid in my macaroni salad, potato salad and tuna salad the day after making them? When I make potato salad, macaroni salad, tuna salad, and sometimes ham salad, it seems like there's always a puddle of excess liquid at the bottom of the storage container the next day.

Does anyone know what is causing this or how to prevent it from happening?

I always cook the pasta in water with oil to limit absorption, and I always try to drain it thoroughly. I also always use regular mayonnaise or salad dressing instead of the light ones which have more water in them. A day later, I am always draining off the excess liquid and remixing with mayonnaise all over again.

The supermarket salads never seem to have this problem: what are they doing differently? Can anyone help???

Have you tried baking pasta, after boiling it in the water?

I highly recommend you bake the pasta in the oven on very low heat, for 20 minutes, then you will see that there is no more liquid.

Also it gives the macaroni a spongy condition which makes it able to keep the liquid in it.

I believe if you bake the pasta before mixing with mayonnaise, you will get a good result.


How does lentils' nutritional profile change in germinating lentils in water? By the term "terminating lentils in water" I mean a similar thing to sprouting thing such as alfalfa in water. The crux difference is that lentils do not really sprout, they germinate because their core is removed.

Wikipedia here states that:

  Dried lentils can also be sprouted by
  leaving in water for several days.
  This changes their nutrition profile.

so what does it mean? I am always looking for getting most out of bucks but sprouted beans taste good so trying with lentils. I like lentils due to their high protein content. I am unsure what happens to lentils in sprouting. Does sprouting just break some starch to smaller carbon chains if so what does it mean in terms of protein content? Some energy is surely lost in sprouting as the bad water is thrown away. But how do the nutritional values change?

[Update]

The word sprouting is misleading in discussing lentils. The core of lentils is removed so the process is substantially different to sprouting things such as alfalfa where they totally transform the form. The transformation of lentils is because the seeds react to water like after winter, bacteria breaks the long compressed chains of protein to more accessible forms such as amino acids which people would anyway break, saving energy for people in the breakdown process (similar thing in meat heating where long protein chains get shorter). The generated smelling stuff is bacterial junk due to the process. According to my friends, experts in the field, many questions considering taste, fermentation, sprouting and the protein breakdown are unsolved.

I cannot unfortunately access some current research papers on the issue, here, but there is a promising paper "Nutritional assessment of raw, heated, and germinated lentils" by G Urbano (1995). The technical jargon for this problem is apparently germinated lentils. I don't use the term sprouting to stress the uniqueness of the process, not having the core. So how is the nutritional profile different between raw lentils and germinated lentils in water?

I do not have any information on the change itself, but neither does that claim in Wikipedia.

However, I would refer you to the discussion page of lentil's and read over the community's discussion regarding the article's nutrition claims generally. They are not pleased with many of the claims, and have been active in moderating it. Also of note, the claim has no citation.

Upon my reading, I would not take for granted that the minor act of sprouting in water changes nutritional value substantially, especially as compared to deep-frying them or other processes.

That said, you might refer to the general sprouting article:

  These nutrients are essential for human health. To clarify, the nutritional changes upon germination & sprouting have been summarized below. Chavan and Kadam (1989) concluded that - “The desirable nutritional changes that occur during sprouting are mainly due to the breakdown of complex compounds into a more simple form, transformation into essential constituents and breakdown of nutritionally undesirable constituents.”

It goes on to explain that, according to studies done by Chavan & Kadam (1989), Cuddeford (1989) and Shippard (2005), changes during the sprouting process result in:

Increases in protein quality
Increases in crude fiber content
Increases in essential fatty acids
Increases in vitamin content

The article cites a claim from the Shipard (2005) study: "“When seeds are sprouted, minerals chelate or merge with protein, in a way that increases their function.”


Pineapple store bought can pops when opening, is it safe? When opening a store bought can of pineapple, it popped loudly.  Is it safe to eat?

Define "popped"...

In short, the "pop" has to do with different pressure inside and outside the can. Once the can is unsealed or pierced, the pressure evens out, resulting in a sound.

The question that remains is why there was a difference and to guestimate, how much.

A slight difference is fine - probably because the conditions (temperature, pressure) were slightly different at the factory than in in your kitchen.

But there is the - admittedly rare - case where the contents of a can weren't properly pasteurized / conserved. In these cases, bacterial growth might happen, resulting in excess pressure that makes a distinct sound. The food inside may or may not smell "off". There are bacteria like Clostridium botulinum that thrive in anaerobic conditions and produce a tasteless but dangerous poison. So if a can appears bulged or shows signs of excess pressure when opening (or glass jars loose the vacuum seal and don't "pop") it's absolutely advisable to discard the contents.

That said, your pineapple is probably at a very low risk as botulism is way more likely in protein-rich foods like meat, fish and legumes but only you were there when you opened your can and can make an informed decision.

And always remember rule no.1 of food safety:
When in doubt, throw it out.


Is rare pheasant safe? I'm planning to cook pheasant breast this evening and want to know if I can have it rare, as I would with duck breast.

I know most government food agencies err on the side of caution (cook until all moisture has gone), but are there risks in eating this meat rare, as there are with chicken or pork for example?

Thanks for your insight!

Generally speaking you can serve pheasant a little pink, but not as rare as you can duck. This is more a textural thing than a safety thing though, I believe. Pheasant is quite lean so cooking it completely makes it very dry.  Cooking any meat anything less than well done is technically 'risky'; you have to weigh the risk with having an enjoyable meal.

Incidentally, pork is generally considered safe to serve a little 'blushed' these days, provided it's from a reputable source.