How to pasteurize lacto-fermented hot sauce? So, I've got a 2-3dl batch of lacto-fermented hot sauce in the works. Approximately half the vegetables in the ferment are large brown habaneros and the other half is sweet pepper, ginger and some slices of carrot to get the ferment going. So, I expect the sauce to last me quite some time.

Therefore, I'm planning on pasteurizing the sauce to extend its shelf-life. My main goal in the pasteurization is to stop the fermentation already going on. For equipment, I have a thermometer from the brewing supplies aisle, various different sizes of pots and pans, some of which can be nested for a double boiler, and an electric stove. Is there a reasonable process to pasteurize a batch of fermented hot sauce with these?

According to the US FDA, normal pastuerization for fruit juice would be 160F for 6 seconds.  This should be easily accomplished in a hot water bath; just heat up the water to 160f, and dip the bottles.

However, a fermented sauce made with chopped peppers has poor circulation compared to fruit juice, and you are heating bottles rather than passing the liquid through a narrow, heated pipe. So more time would be required for the heat to penetrate, possibly as much as 5 minutes.  I can't find specific guidance for something like a chopped pepper sauce.

This would pastuerize the hot sauce, but not make it shelf-stable.

The criteria to bottle it, as mentioned in the comments, is how acidic the sauce is after fermentation, so you should add some form of Ph tester to your list of equipment.  If the acidity is 4.6 or below, then a slightly hotter hot water bath (say, 180F) for a few minutes you could not only pastuerize it, but make it shelf-stable.


Clumpy yogurt conundrum I made a delicious yogurt/cream/mint/garlic sauce the other day but the presentation was less than becoming.  I simply roasted some garlic and mixed the rest of the ingredients together.  I used very little cream because I didn't want the yogurt to get runny (or be too fattening).  what's a good trick to make a velvety smooth yogurt based dip?

You want the garlic flavor but not the chunks of garlic?

You can crush your garlic and let it sit in a couple tablespoons of warm olive oil for a while. Remove the garlic and whisk the now-flavored oil into your sauce. Besides adding the garlic flavor, the oil will also make your sauce develop a beautiful, glossy sheen.

Personally, when I make similar sauces, I just crush my garlic and mince it fine. There are very small chunks in the sauce but they are impossible to see and only rarely felt on the tongue. I don't find it objectionable.


Aftertaste when making gummies We currently make medical marijuana gummies and are experiencing an aftertaste on some batches. People describe it as chemical/metallic/dry. We have been using the same ingredients (modified potato starch, sugar,corn syrup, citric acid, sodium citrate, flavoring and cannabis extract).

Has anyone had any experience with this?

If you use a different strain when you make your gummies, that can affect taste and dryness for sure.


Is it safe to eat yougurt after the expiration date that smells alright? Possible Duplicate:
  How do you know when a cultured item is no longer safe to consume?

I have some yogurt that expired. Is is safe to eat it? Since yogurt has microorganisms in it would it ok to eat it?

Of course!

The expiration date is merely a suggestion. It might well be good for months to come-- as long as green moss doesn't start growing on it, it will be fine.


How acidic does a mixture have to be for milk to curdle? I am planning on making sausages with both cream and vinegar as ingredients. I suspect the mixture of all the ingredients with the vinegar won't be acidic enough to cause the cream to curdle, but this has raised a question: how acidic does a mixture have to be for milk to curdle?

Certainly if I drop milk into 100% vinegar the milk will curdle. But what if only 20% of a mixture is vinegar? 10%? 2%?

Milk's natural pH is about 6.5, just slightly acidic. If it approaches a pH of 5.5, the casein proteins lose their negative charge and the micelles no longer repel each other, meaning they start to gather in small clusters. At around pH 4.6, the scattered proteins bond to each other again and begin to curdle.

Though this kind of curdling is not the same as when making cheese with rennet.

I don't know what proportions of milk and vinegar you need to keep the milk from curdling but using pH levels you should get a pretty good idea.


My soft chocolate cookies are soft but still too crumbly. How should I fix it? The taste is great and it is soft, a bit chewy and not dry, but it is still too crumbly. When I push it, it is too easy to break apart. Could you please explain how I should fix this.

Recipe

All purpose flour - 138g.
Melted butter / unsalted - 100g.
Baking powder - 5g.
Milk powder - 20g.
Cacao powder - 40g.
Melted dark chocolate (62%) - 30g (mix it together with the melted butter).
Brown sugar - 125g.
1 Egg.

Method

I use a flour mixer machine to mix the melted chocolate with the melted butter and brown sugar for 3 minutes (I mix them when the melted butter and melted chocolate are still warm).
Add the egg and beat for 2 minutes.
Add the cacao powder and milk powder and beat for 1 minute.
Add the flour.
Beat together for 2-3 minutes.
Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes - 1 hour.
Bake:

When I bake at 200C for 10 minutes, it is soft and a bit chewy, but easy to break.
When I bake at 200C for 10 minutes and 180C for a further 5 minutes, it becomes less breakable, but not soft.

One think I would try is changing up the egg white to egg yolk recipe by multiplying the other ingredients by 1.5x and adding an extra yolk. Egg yolks are a source of emulsified fat and they keep cookies fudgier (and chewier). For other variables you can tweak, you might look at J. Kenji Lopez Alt's guide to chocolate chip cookies. He takes each ingredient 1 by 1 and changes it up to see how it effects his cookie texture. Your cookies are going to be a little different thanks to the extra fats from the chocolate (hence why I think an emulsifier would help), but it should still be a helpful resource.


Yogurt not turning out since relocation When I started making Greek yogurt, I lived in western Washington state and never, ever had an issue. Now that I've relocated to SoCal for work, every batch of my yogurt turns out awful (barely any effect from the starter, just runny) and I am making it the exact same way with the same materials. It's not been hot here so I can't figure out what the difference is. The climate here is definitely different than in Washington state.
Has anyone else had or heard of such a thing?
Method:
My yogurt making process is to heat the milk to 180, heat water for the cooler, bring temps of milk and water in cooler back down to about 115, then let the jars sit for 6 hours in cooler, then 6 hours in fridge and drain.
I am using the same brand of store bought starter (Fage Greek yogurt). Everything is the same except the pot I'm heating the milk in. I used to have a non-stick Calphalon pot I'd use, but now I use a stainless steel Calphalon pot. I have always done 6 hours at least in the cooler and never had an issue. This past time I let it go longer as I like to let it sit in the cooler overnight, but it still failed. I have not tried checking the temp of the water at the end of the procedure.
The tap water is incredibly harsh here (smells like chlorine even after being filtered so I buy water to drink) and leaves white residue behind on dishes after going through the dish washer. I boil my jars in this water but have never noticed the residue. Could the water be part of the problem?

Harsh tap water could definitely cause problems. It doesn't take much chlorine to kill bacteria- that's why we use it, of course. An easy experiment is would be to rinse your jars in filtered water after washing them in your chlorinated water.

Another likely culprit is the new source of your starter. From what I was able to find, Fage yogurt is imported from Greece. There is going to be a lot of variability in its freshness shipping to different states and stores in the US. The cultures in Yogurt, even refrigerated, will eventually consume the available lactose and die.

You should try using some other brand as a starter- preferably something produced closer to you so you can have more confidence that it is still viable.

You should also double check your thermometer. If your thermometer was made somehow inaccurate after the move- if your milk doesn't cool below 130F your starter will die. If your milk cools to below 100F or so you starter will be too slow.

Additional Notes

The change in pan is certainly not the problem. Stainless steel will work just fine for yogurt making.

The climate shouldn't make that big of a difference. The relative humidity won't matter as the whole thing is liquid. The local bacteria shouldn't play a major role if your equipment is clean (and you'd notice spoiled milk if competition was a problem.) Altitude wouldn't even matter very much as it would affect boiling temps but not incubation rates AFAIK.

In your process, you mention that you bring your milk to 180 and then immediately cool it. This won't affect your incubation and so I don't think it's your problem but the description, as written, is inadequate. It takes time at a certain temperature for the change in the proteins to happen. See my other answer. The short story is, at only 180F you have to hold the milk at that temperature for 30 minutes to see the intended benefit.

** EDIT **
You added the comment above that the milk didn't change and was like you had just warmed it.
This means that your bacteria were entirely inactive.
Chlorine residue on the bottles might inhibit some bacteria growth but I wouldn't expect it to be able to completely stop it. Likewise, if your thermometer was off and your mix was too cool the bacteria would still do something, just slower.

Your bacteria was dead. It's possible the milk was too hot when you mixed in the starter and killed it but in my experience it's more likely that you had a bad starter.


Ribs in Slow Cooker, then finished on BBQ? I don't have a smoker, but I love slow-cooked BBQ ribs.

Would it be possible to cook ribs for 8-10 hours or however long I like in my kitchen slow cooker, then pop them onto a charcoal barbecue to brown / char when they're soft enough / cooked?

While you could do this. A better method(Provided you have an enclosed grill) would be to set your grill up for indirect heat and slow cook them on your grill. This is how I do ribs and it works amazingly.

You'll have to do things slightly differently if you have a square or round grill. For a round grill try the following:

Place unlit briquettes around the outside of the grill about 3/4 of the way around.
Start about 12 briquettes until they have ashed over, place them at one end of the circle, put a few (2-3) pieces of smoking wood chunks on top of your coals.
Get your grill temp to about 225-275 degrees F and adjust your vents to keep it there (Start adjusting before you get to your desired temp, it's easy to shoot past it).
Put your dry rubbed meat on the grill opposite your set of lit coals (do not sauce, if you want sauce put some on at the end).
Cook 4-6 hours until the meat bends easily at about the third bone when picked up from the end.
If your coals burn too far under your meat, rotate your rack to keep the meat opposite the lit coals.

If you've got a square grill than you probably cannot do the ring method I've described above, instead you will have to figure out how to do indirect heat a different way. A set of banked coals on each side with the meat in the middle or some lit coals placed in the center of some unlit ones on just one side. You need something that can keep a constant low temperature and burn for 4-6 hours. Experiment and see what works for you.


Overmixed pate sucree I overmixed my pate sucree and it is now very soft (see picture). Is there any way I could fix it?

Recipe:
1/2 cup/120g cold butter
1/2cuo + 1 tbsp/ 70g icing sugar
1/4cup/25g ground almonds
1 pinch of coarse sea salt
A few drops of vanilla extract
1 egg
1 2/3 cup / 200 g cake flour.

I realised afterwards that i had added 120g instead of 200g of flour. It looks more dough like now. However, when i tried to roll it out, the pie dough feels very soft after i roll it out and was pretty impossible to remove from the floured surface. I think it might really be overworked..

Solution 1:
Use it as poundcake batter.
Judging by the photo, it looks a lot like perfect cake batter.

Solution 2:
Chill it well, work in the missing 80g flour, chill again.
Use as planned, accept that the pie crust might be a bit tougher than expected. Adding a pinch or two of baking powder to the flour can counteract it a bit.


Chicken sticks to bottom of pan when I boil bones for soup I like to make what I call boiled bone soup. The leftover stripped chicken carcus is broken up and boiled with leftover veg and stuffing with some seasoning to produce a stock. I seive this, add the stock to the pan with fresh veg and the meat juices from the original roast chicken, then bring to a boil adding the left over chicken. After boiling I reduce the heat to a simmer. My problem is here, the chicken always seems to stick to the bottom of the pan and burns unless I stand there for 2 hours. Why? How can I prevent this?

Don't boil it.

You want a bare simmer when trying to extract the flavor from the bones.  If you're boiling, you'll both run into the problems that you mention (sticking & burning), and you end up with a worse broth -- much of the flavor is in the smell of the soup, and boiling too hard will both destroy compounds you want and kick them into the air (and thus not in the broth/stock).

My normal procedure is:

With either a good cleaver, or poultry shears,can crack the longer leg and thigh bones.
Cover with cold water by an inch or so.
Add whatever scrap vegetables you have.  (whatever you have that's getting a bit sad looking in the fridge, but isn't to the point of being spoiled.  I also have a bag in my freezer of vegetables that were past their prime).
Heat the water 'til you see bubbling, then back off the heat to maintain a bare simmer.
Cook for 2 to 4 hours, checking on it every 30 min or so.  (Once you're more experienced, you may not need to check on it as often ... but you need to watch for the water evaporating too quickly or things starting to stick)
Strain out the bones & vegetables.
Cool down the broth if not serving that day, put into smaller containers, and put in the refrigerator.
On the day you're serving it, add in whatever diced vegetables and/or meat and heat through.  Adjust the salt & acidity if needed, and maybe add some herbs.
For something starchy like stuffing, heat it through separately and put a scoop in the bottom of the bowl, then pour the hot soup over it.  (to avoid it turning into complete mush)


Can you use brandy instead of rum in cake recipe Can you use brandy instead of rum in a cake recipe

Almost certainly yes, but the flavors will be slightly different.

Brandy is likely to be slightly more acidic than rum, but otherwise quite similar in composition, and should perform in the same way.

If you want a more tailored answer, you should provide more information, such as the full recipe.

See also:  Are there any general principles of ingredient substitutions?


Can I make vegetarian soup dumplings? Soup dumplings, or xiao long bao, are made by combining ground pork with chilled gelatinized pork stock inside a dough wrapper.  When steamed, the gelatin stock melts, so that the diner bites into a dumpling filled with hot soup.

I can substitute a number of fillings for the ground pork and seasonings fairly easily.  However, I'm wondering if any of the various vegetarian gelatin substitutes will behave properly to make the gelatinized stock component; that is, will they set to jello hardness when chilled, yet re-liquify when steamed?  If so, which one?

More links on veggie "gelatin":

https://www.wikihow.com/Find-Gelatin-Substitutes-for-Vegetarians
https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/vegetarian-substitutes-gelatin-4169.html
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/6674-vegetarian-gelatin-substitutes?ref=HowTo_browse_2

I have successfully made it with agar agar and I serve it at my restaurant in Lucknow, India. I call it Soup Burst Momo (TM) It stays liquefied if consumed within 5 mins of steaming. After that it slowly starts to thicken. Carageenan will give you better results.

The only problem I've faced is that you have to steam it instantly after folding it, otherwise te pastry gets wet due to osmotic movement of water from gel to dough.

Although, it could possibly be addressed by using frozen gel and then against flash freezing the folded dumpling instantly.


Yellow Hot Dog Relish I can not find my favourite hot dog relish sauce recipe but it included cucumbers, cabbage, peppers, and onions. I know it had tumeric as it was yellow but I am not sure of the ratio of vinegar to sugar. I think it used brown sugar. I also remember putting in a bag of spices that I removed after I had cooked the relish. So I would like to know what the best ratio of sugar to vinegar is as I don't want it too sweet and what spices and ratios should I use .
Thank you.

I believe what you are looking for is Chow-chow.  There are many variations but the basic seasoning are generally the same. There are recipes all over the web.


Which of these ingredients are the acid component of a marinade? Here are some ingredients for a a sheek kebab recipe.  Which of these acts as the acid component of the marinade?

onion, lentil flour, green chilli, salt, garlic, ginger, herbs: fenugreek, fresh coriander, spices: cumin seed,coriander podwer, crushed chilli, chilli powder, garam masala(cinnamom, cloves, ginger, star anise, cumin, chilli, fennel, black pepper, bay leaves, sun. oil, nutmeg, cardamom).

I see no acidic elements to your "marinade."  Chili pepper (mentioned in the comments) is probably basic, rather than acidic.  As written (and as commented on) it sounds more like a rub than a marinade.  Both rubs and marinades impart flavor to the surface of proteins. Being acidic is not a requirement of a marinade.


Can I roast poached peanuts? Accidentally bought a bag is poached peanuts instead of roasted.  Can I roast them despite the fact that they are already cooked (and not raw)?  If so, are there any extra steps I should take in doing so?

You can, just like you would for raw peanuts. However the boiled/poached peanuts have a bitter taste that is not removed by roasting and is generally unpleasant to eat as a snack. I would use these peanuts to make peanut sauces such as satay sauce, and possibly in other dishes where the peanuts are not the dominant flavor.


Idiomatic combinations of peanut butter, jelly, and bread Is there a reason why, at least in the US, that:

1) on dry bread, we typically eat peanut butter AND jelly, not one or the other;

2) but on toast, we typically eat either peanut butter OR jelly, not both?

The answer is mostly just "it's tradition", as with most questions like this.

I do think the pattern you've described isn't quite the actual one. What really happens is that we tend to eat peanut butter and jelly on sandwiches, and put one or the other on single slices of bread, because with a sandwich you can spread one thing on each half and put them together, but with a single slice of bread it's messy. Sandwiches might be on toasted bread, though - untoasted is common and easier but plenty of people like toasted bread for sandwiches. Similarly, there are certainly lazy people out there who'll just spread something on a slice of untoasted bread.

Beyond that, it's just what we do.


Can I make pasta with quinoa flour? I'm going to be buying quinoa flour and wanted to use it to make up pasta. Is this a direct flour replacement in a typical pasta recipe or are there other changes you need to make?

In the pastas that I have made the structure of the noodle is built out of protein- usually entirely from gluten from wheat flour. In fact the base of my pasta is just flour and water (or juice or pureed vegetables, etc.) Egg noodles, obviously get structure from the egg.

Quinoa has no gluten and will impart no structure to a typical pasta.

You could easily add it to a normal pasta recipe as long as it was not in so high a concentration as to compromise the gluten structure. Without experimenting I don't know what ratio this would be.

A cursory google search found several quinoa pasta recipes. The ones I looked at were similar in that they relied on a variety of starches and egg for structure. I imagine these would taste fine but they would be more like dumplings or egg noodles than al dente Italian pasta.

The results of the quick search:

http://gfgourmet.wordpress.com/2007/01/09/quinoa-pasta/

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-Quinoa-Pasta&id=3181479


Kroger Sell-By Dates I have a box (actually, 6 boxes) of Kroger brand lime gelatin dessert with sell-by date stamped:

  SELL BY JUN 05 09B KA

Is this June 5, 2009,
June 9, 2005 or
June 2005 (with "09B" of no consequence)?

This is standard dating and would be June 5, 2009. In the US it's pretty standard for open dating to be formatted as month-day-year.
Also from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service:

Does Federal Law Require Dating?
Except for infant formula, product dating is not required by Federal regulations.
For meat, poultry, and egg products under the jurisdiction of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), dates may be voluntarily applied provided they are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading and in compliance with FSIS regulations1. To comply, a calendar date must express both the month and day of the month. In the case of shelf-stable and frozen products, the year must also be displayed. Additionally, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as "Best if Used By."

(Emphasis mine.)


What caused my blueberry muffins to come out flat? I made blueberry muffins two times.

The first time I used unbleached flour. I don't remember if I used salted or unsalted butter then. They came out looking like from a bakery.

The second time, I used bleached flour and salted butter. They came out flat and didn't look nice. Was it the flour or the butter which made the difference?

The difference was definitely not caused by the salted or unsalted butter. It is also very unlikely that the problem was the flour.

Some of the usual reasons for muffins to come out flat are:

you forgot the baking powder (but then they are a complete failure, I guess you would have noticed if that had happened)
you measured by volume instead of by weight. This is very imprecise and can easily result in too little baking powder for the amount of other ingredients. You should use a recipe given in grams and a kitchen scale, if you want consistent results.
you let the prepared batter sit for too long before putting it into the oven, and the baking powder spent itself before the baking began
you baked at a wrong temperature, so the batter hardened either too early or too late.
you used ingredients at the wrong temperature (your eggs came from the fridge, your butter wasn't softened or you tried to soften it in a warm place and it melted, etc.) Always start with room temperature ingredients for baking.

You don't give us enough information to know which happened, but if you want to have good muffins every time, avoid these common mistakes and your muffins have a good chance of looking good in every batch.


Is it possible to substitute Wax Paper for Parchment Paper during baking? If I don't have parchment paper, can I substitute wax paper for baking recipes.  What is the difference between the two?

As @MeltedPez mentioned -- melting.  (coincindence in the name?  I'm not sure)

Specifically:

Waxed paper is wax-coated paper.
Parchment paper is silicone-coated paper.

Waxed paper is basically a candle in sheet form -- it'll melt, it'll burn, and it'll make your food taste like you're eating crayons.  It'll start to melt near 350F / 175C.  Parchment should go up to 500F / 260C ... it might get a little crispy or char at the edges, but won't spontaneously combust.

If you had to use something other than parchment, I'd go with 'release foil'.


Pickled eggs in a jar. What counts? Do the nutritional facts on the outside of a package reflect the ENTIRE contents of the package or just what it is assumed a consumer would eat?  For example:  a jar of pickles (or pickled eggs) -- do the nutritional facts include the vinegar and brine the pickles (eggs) swim in?

They reflect what is listed as a serving size.  If a serving lists one pickle - then that's what the nutritional info reflects.  If it lists pickle + 1 oz juice (there's no way it does), then it would reflect that.


Does soy sauce expire? Being mostly made of salt, I often used soy sauce well beyond (as in "two years and more") its expiration date without ever having a problem.
Is that a bad idea, and did I actually take some health risks doing so?

Still tasty implicitly says that the sauce stays indefinitely technically edible. The expiration date is only for quality purposes. I think the sauce probably doesn't have an expiration date but rather a "Best By" or "Best if Used By" date.

  Storage time shown is for best quality only — after that, the sauce's texture, color or flavor may change, but in most cases, it
  will still be safe to consume if it has been stored properly.
  If sauce develops an off odor, flavor or appearance, it should be discarded for quality purposes.


What is the purpose of making Iskiate from Chia seeds? I'm reading "Born to Run" and learned that the Tarahumara peoples of Mexico eat Chia seeds to give them energy.  In the book they mix the seeds with water, some lime juice and a bit of sugar... to make Iskiate.

What would be the purpose of this particular preparation?  Is it simply for taste, or does the addition of these ingredients (water, lime juice, and sugar) have some impact on either the short-term physical or long-term health effects?

I personally have not read the book, though I know someone who did and remember hearing of the drink.  Strike 2, I am also not a nutritionist.  Here's my best guess by looking at each piece:

Certainly the ingredients do bring taste to the combination, but I don't think it is just that.

Mixing the chia seeds into a drink may make it more agreeable for people.  Easier to stomach, so to say.  The chia seeds will absorb the liquid.  With this, you will feel fuller.  It will also make the drink thicker.

Lime juice is high in vitamin C.  This can help with muscle soreness.  Lemon can be used instead of lime - also high in vitamin C.

I've heard the sugar is optional, though it will sweeten the drink and add calories.


Not enough sugar in strawberry jelly I just made 38 jars of strawberry jelly and realized I did not put all the sugar in recipe. I thought I could scale back until I read the small print on Certgel.

Can I dump it all back in a pot and recook it adding the rest of the sugar, or do I have to throw it all out and restart?

Your packages of pectin, regardless of brand, has instructions on how to rescue failed jellies and jams. It's been satisfactory for me when I've had to rescue jars I've had fail.


Tried making gel-type candy, it recrystalized as it cooled? I wasn't sure if it would work anyway, but I always used to love the tubes of squeeze candy you could get when I was a kid. I tried to make it by modifying a hard candy recipe. I boiled it for about ten minutes at about 220 degeees F.

I removed it from the heat, mixed in my flavoring, and it was pretty much the desired texture when it started cooling. I put it in a container on the counter overnight and it seems to have just returned to the state of its base ingredients? I'm not sure why this happened, or how to prevent it in the future. Any advice?

Try using sugars that even in concentrated and cold form do not crystallize much - like honey, industrially or home made invert syrup, thick jam...


Old bread becomes sticky Sometimes white bread, while initially fine,  after a few days becomes sticky inside  as if its going back to a dough-state, though not quite.  The taste also becomes odd.  Does anyone understand what is happening ...?  Heating/drying it in various ways does not help (e.g. steaming, microwave, toasting etc)

i think i have seen this happen only with the small bakery breads, not the mass market variety...

thanks..

This almost sounds like rope spoilage. From what I've read on various bread blogs, rope spores will cause a typical loaf of bread to deteriorate very quickly in exactly the manner you describe: the center becomes doughy and stretchy. My understanding is that the rope spores can contaminate kitchens and become a real problem for baked goods.

I had a hard time coming up with details on it, but you might want to check the following link for a picture and description:

http://www.intechopen.com/books/advances-in-applied-biotechnology/fermentation-processes-using-lactic-acid-bacteria-producing-bacteriocins-for-preservation-and-improv

I first read about rope spoilage years ago on a bread forum called The Fresh Loaf.

You may also want to check with your local agricultural extension service. There might be testing available.


Can a clear glaze be made without gelatin or starch? I'd like to press some edible flowers onto a cheesecake I will be making. I'll need some sort of a glaze, and my first instinct was egg whites, but then I learned that those tend to brown, which is why they're mostly used for bread and pastries. I then looked into clear cake glazes, and all of them used a thickening agent such as gelatin or corn starch, but I don't want a very noticeable glaze, I just want something that'll keep the flowers pressed to the surface of the cake without being too sticky.

Would just sugar and water (and possibly a bit of rosewater) work as a glaze?

Bakery glazes are frequently made with pectin, so that is an option. It would still be a noticeable glaze, though it would be clear and could be flavorless. If you just want the flowers to stick to the top of the cheesecake, it's possible that it would be tacky enough without any glaze. They might just stick to the surface. Alternately, you could use one of the other glazes, but just put a dot under each flower rather than glazing the whole surface.


Color changes in ground beef? So this sounds lame, but I have never cooked burgers before. Well my dad came over and since it's my first house I purchased we did the traditional grill out. I bought a charcoal grill and he showed me the ropes etc.

Now I don't have a Meat therm (I did but mine broke), but we cooked it with the grill at about 300 degrees for around 15-20 minutes. Burgers were good and no pink (well maybe very very slightly) in the middle, but thats generally how I like them (Btw is "Medium" aka little pink "technically" safe?)

Anyways i've heard that color is not a good indicator of doneness, but the meat was bought that day and used immediatly (so it was red) and apparently the color not being a good indicator is only valid the the meat has been stored for awhile?

Is this true/untrue? I guess im just a bit paranoid.

Thanks

You are correct in saying using color to determine doneness is less reliable in older meat. As the meat is exposed to air, it oxidizes giving it a brownish color. When checking for doneness, people sometimes see this oxidized brown color and mistaken it for being fully cooked through. However, this can occur for fresher meats also.

According to the USDA using color is not recommended to determine the doneness of hamburgers.

  Some ground beef may appear to have lost all pink color before it is fully cooked. If raw ground beef is somewhat brown already, it may look fully cooked before it reaches a safe temperature.

In some cases, meat that is already fully cooked can have a persistent pink coloring. This is usually more common in leaner meat.

  Some lean ground beef may remain pink at temperatures well above the 160 °F final cooking temperature recommended for consumers.

So it is really recommended that you get a meat thermometer to test the doneness of your burgers in the future.

With all that said, unless you have really thick giant burger patties(10oz +), cooking the burger at 300F for 15-20 minutes should definitely be enough time to insure that the burgers are fully cooked through.

Reference: USDA on Color of Cooked Ground Beef as It Relates to Doneness


why won't my lentils cook uniformly? Whenever I cook black lentils there is always a hard crunchy piece in every bite while other pieces become soft as they should, I start cooking by boiling for about 30 minutes in unsalted water until almost all the lentils are soft.
I tried changing my soaking time and boiling time before I add salt but it didn't help.
Could it be that the manufacturer is mixing old lentils with newer ones or is there something else.

When cooking any sort of legumes
1) Sort them (if you don't trust it to be pre-sorted)
2) Soak them (make cooking easier, and also more uniform, since they already absorbed moisture)
3) Now you cook them. I don't simmer in the slow cooker, I usually pressure cook them


When can you NOT replace milk with almond milk? I saw a video on making pizza and it seemed easy enough, but the recipe required milk to make the dough.
I try to avoid dairy and realized that once when making scrambled eggs that required milk in the recipe and switching it for almond milk there was a puddle of water under the scrambled eggs and I assumed it was because there's not as much fat and more water content in almond milk than milk.
YouTube link to pizza recipe with milk

In baking, you can almost always replace cow's milk with a non-dairy product.  It's usually a matter of taste.  In stove-top cooking, you may have to experiment more, especially if making creamy sauces.  In that case, thicker, non-dairy milks should be tried.  Here, again taste will probably be important, but it is probably important to pay attention to viscosity as well.  Even foods based on dairy, like yogurt and ice cream, can be made with substitutes.  Consider that many non-dairy milks are sweetened, so you will want to factor that in as well.
If you are avoiding dairy, you can always find a work-around.  In some cases it will not be noticed, in others, the result might be a little different, but that doesn't mean it can't be delicious.
Having said this, scrambled eggs can easily be made with no addition of dairy, and most pizza doughs that I am familiar with do not use dairy either.  So, those preparations are easy enough to deal with in this regard.


Problems drying out chili sauce and in to a powder I make a chili sauce that I want to turn in to a seasoning.

I’ve made a few batches by spreading the sauce out on silicon sheets in a thin layer and baking it at a low temperature until it dries.  Then I peel the dried sauce and blend/crush it until it reaches a powder like consistency.

This works well for small batches (though still not ideal), but it doesn’t scale well.  If I’m trying to make a big batch, is there a way that would allow me to make more than 2 sheets at a time? Perhaps a technique where the layer of sauce doesn’t have to be so thin? I’m open to ideas and experiments.

I tried using a Nesco dehydrator - the top layers would dry, but be very difficult/impossible to peel off.  The lower levels in the dehydrator don’t get hot enough to fully dry the sauce out.

Thanks in advance!

Ask around for someone who has an Excalibur or similar style tray dehydrator. One of these coupled with a silicone (or siliconized) sheet on each tray should get you where you want to be. You might want to add a thickening agent of some sort if your recipe does not have one already.

Why this style? The fan is across the back of the machine and blows evenly across all of the trays instead of the fan on top down through the middle type like the Nesco.

Good luck.


Making Subway-like salads at home w/ zero work I often buy salads at Subway because I'm lazy. However, I'm also
cheap, and Subway's markup on salads is quite high.

I want to buy items at a supermarket and simply mix them together to
make a salad without having to do anything else. Which of these can
I get:

Pre-chopped cold cuts (has to go beyond sliced, since full slices
in a salad don't work well), including pepperoni and salami.
Pre-chopped onions and pre-sliced tomatoes (and other similar
chopped veggies).

I know I can get bags of lettuce, pickled jalapenos, shredded cheese,
black olives, and dressing, so if I can get the above, I'm good to go.

Fast home made salads are possible with a few different but just as tasty ingredients. Some things to try that you can buy pre-prepared

You can buy catering bags of ham and salami pre-chopped for pizza making purposes. Freeze in small portion bags suitable for a few days, and take one out of the freezer and put in fridge every few days as required
Roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds (substitute for cold cuts)
Anchovies or sardines
Sprouts
Sun dried tomatoes, some suppliers have pre-chopped (they keep fine in fridge)
You can buy pre-sliced onions, but usually only in 5Kg+ catering sized bags, They do freeze OK
Many other veges are available pre-chopped and frozen for cooking purposes, many of these will be great in a salad

If you make the salad in the morning to take to work the frozen parts would keep it fresh for a while, so no need to defrost them. Sort of like an internal, edible ice pack :-)


Seasoning won't stick to baked potato chips I've been trying to make homemade baked potato chips, I have figured out everything, except how to get the seasoning to stick to the chips.  The recipe I'm using, calls for you to toss the chips in a bowl of seasoning right out of the oven. The seasoning is not sticking.

Since the potato slices are moist after cutting and before baking, season them at this point rather than afterwards. This will cause the seasoning to cling to the potato better, even after they have been dried in the oven.

Also, I have had good results using an "Air Fryer" (Which is technically not 'frying' but convection baking.)


Capturing wild yeast for sourdough: Is this healthy yeast or contamination? I'm trying to capture wild yeast to make my own sourdough bread. I put prunes, water and some sugar in a sterilized glass jar and aired it daily. After a few days I get a white, fuzzy layer. The smell is sweet and alcoholic. However I don't get any bubbles, only this layer. Do I mix it? Should I wait more?

That appears to be mold and you should get rid of it. I've seen similar methods online, but fruit, water, and sugar appears to be a method of making a starter for home-brewed alcohol rather than sourdough bread.
To make a sourdough starter using fruit, you should use flour and water and remove the fruit. The yeast are only present on the surface of the fruit, and so you only need to "rinse" the yeast off of the fruit. I've seen people shake their chosen fruit with the flour and then remove before adding water. Alternatively, I've seen the fruit soaked or stirred in the water before being removed, at which point flour is added.
Honestly though, you don't need to use fruit. Flour and water will with time and attention create a starter on their own.
Here's an article that shows the progress of an all-purpose flour based starter, a whole-wheat based starter, and a wild grape starter also based on all-purpose flour. They actually found that the whole-grain flour had an easier time attracting wild yeast than the grape starter.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2016/09/24/wild-grape-sourdough-starter


What are the types and pros/cons of electric and manual spice and nut grinders available? What qualities should be looked for while purchasing them? Example spices/nuts that I'll be grinding:
* Cumin seeds
* Mustard seeds
* Peanuts
* Black pepper corns
* Garlic buds and ginger
* Cloves

Questions:

Which kind of grinders allow water in them for making a paste of the spices?
Is there some maximum and minimum capacity for each of the type of grinders?
What are the types of manual grinders which do not require too much amount of manual power/effort? Example: I think using mortar and pestle consumes huge effort.
Which kind of grinders allow us to have a fine powder of spices rather than bits?
This is meant for home use so what qualities should be looked for while purchasing them?

No one device, manual or electric, is ideal for all of the tasks that you have enumerated.   Many cooks will have more than one tool, depending on the job at hand.

Some spices, particularly cinnamon, are very difficult to grind effectively at home without leaving fibrous bits that may give an unpleasant mouth feel.  Of course, when infusing flavor from a whole stick of cinnamon, this is not an issue.

Bottom Line

I would recommend having at least a Microplane type grater for ginger, garlic, and so on, and a rotary type electric grinder for most hard spices.

For the specialty task of making peanut butter, a blender is probably your best tool.

Morter and Pestle

Also known as a molcajete, is probably the most versatile, but most labor intensive spice grinding tool.

Can grind, mash, or mix both dry or wet items, so it is suitable for garlic and ginger; still it is most effective on very hard, frangible spices which can be crushed, or soft items like garlic which can be mashed.  Fibrous spices like cumin can be very difficult to do.
Lots of work
Only suitable for small quantities

Microplane style grater

A grater with very fine, usually etched, openings is suitable for some tasks including:

Garlic, gingner, galangal and the like
Nutmeg

Nutmeg Grinder

A specialty item, just for nutmeg.  Most nutmeg grinders actually make very fine shavings, but it is essentially the same thing.  They also have storage for nutmegs.

Blender

Electric blenders are suitable for some grinding tasks:

Making peanut butter
Grinding soft spices or making wet spice mixtures, as with garlic, ginger, capiscum type peppers

Some high quality blenders may also do a decent job with softer seeds like cumin seeds.

Electric rotary grinder

These are often marketed as coffee grinders, but they are extremely effective as spice grinders—however, due to lingering flavors, you want to devote one to either coffee or to spices.

Suitable for dry spices, such as cumin, black pepper, allspice, mustard seeds, and so on.

Not very effective for the hardest spices, such as cinnamon.

Note that clove oil (also found to some extent in nutmeg) can cloud plastic parts over time.

Pepper Grinder

As the name implies, ideal for black pepper, but also effective on other small spices that can fit through the mill such as mustard seeds.  Also provides a small quanitity of storage.  Most permit the grind size to be adjusted.

Specific Questions

Which kind of grinders allow water in them for making a paste of the spices?

Mortar and pestle, and blenders are suitable for pastes.  However, you can also grind your dry spices, and then add them to a wet mixture to create a paste.

Is there some maximum and minimum capacity for each of the type of grinders?

Most home style devices are suitable only for very small quantities.  The nutmeg and pepper grinders are good for teaspoon type quantities, and rotary grinders up to a few tablespoons.

Blnders have much higher capacities, but may not be effective except with very soft or frangible items.  Peanut butter is one application that they do well with in larger quantities.

What are the types of manual grinders which do not require too much amount of manual power/effort?

They all require significant effort.  For spices used in very small quantities, such as black pepper, that may not be noticeable.

Which kind of grinders allow us to have a fine powder of spices rather than bits?

None of the home methods will produce the very fine, even powder that you might expect from a commercial spice house.  They have extremely high quality, sometimes specialized equipment, and they also sieve or screen the resulting product to ensure it is uniform, and to exclude larger bits.

Some spices are more suitable for home grinding than others.  Ones that you should have little trouble with include black pepper, nutmeg, allspice, mustard seed.

Spices that are very difficult to grind at home include cinnamon.

Cumin, one of the most popular spices, is easy to grind, but difficult to get a perfectly smooth and uniform powder.  It tends to have little threads and fibrous bits.  In many applications this is not noticeable.


Is industrially produced cream made with a gelatine sieve? I've bought an ice cream bucket with, who would've guessed, cream - as one of its' ingredients. Now of course I've done some research and found out, that cream is usually produced with a centrifuge called "separator". However this website:

https://halalcertification.ie/why-butter-needs-to-be-halal-certified/

states:

Gelatine Sieve :

When cream is first made from milk, the cream needs to be strained from the milk. To do this, a very high-quality strainer with fine pores are needed to separate the two liquids of different densities. The better the sieve used, the better the quality of the skimmed (low/non-fat) milk produced.

[...]. The high-quality strainer in this case, could be the gelatine sieve, made of pig gelatine because it has really fine pores.

Is that true? Thanks in advance!

You read the site correctly, it's just that the information on the page is incorrect.

Commercial cream production consists of 5 main steps (from here, lots of info about different types of cream there too):

Skimming, centrifugation: separation of fat globules in milk. Milk skimming is done in a centrifugal cream separator.
Fat standardisation: in order to obtain the expected fat content.
Homogenisation: to prevent the creaming phenomenon during storage and to allow an increase in cream viscosity (for low-fat fluid creams)
Heat treatment: the objective is to inactivate microbial lipases and as a result destroy pathogenic germs without damaging the cream organoleptic qualities. Most creams are pasteurised.
Seeding and maturation: pasteurised creams may be matured with acidifying, aromatic or even thickening mesophilic lactic bacteria. Maturation gives more taste to the creams and protects it against lactic acid and bacteriocin production.

Gelatin would make a poor filter for this sort of thing - it is weak structurally and diffusion of the water molecules through the pores is slow - it would take days to dialyze/strain the volumes produced in a commercial system, which increases the risk of bacterial and fungal contaminants growing, and makes the system slow.

Gelatin is added to some creams (thickened cream (UK/AUS/NZ), whipping cream (USA)), to act as a thickener and produce a smooth stabilized foam when whipped. Gelatin can come from a variety of animal sources, but generally pigs and cattle which is why creams need to be certified as halal. Many commercial products contain vegetable derived thickeners (e.g. carrageenan) instead of gelatin


What can I do with extra sourdough starter? I recently made a sourdough starter from wild yeast, but the process I followed for making it resulted in a lot of starter.

Instead of throwing it away I'd like to use it, and then once it gets down small enough I won't have to worry about having so much to use.

What can I do with my excess whole wheat sourdough starter?
(I've already made 4 loaves of bread, and they were yummy)

make waffles! that's what we do with ours, besides bread. sourdough waffles with syrup have this great sweet/sour balance going on that is really wonderful.


Active dry yeast vs. instant yeast Are there differences in the different types of yeasts? Does one yield slightly differently?

I know many people say that they can be used interchangeably but why are there two types if there isn't a difference?

Are there any differences in reactions that you can see when cooking different foods? E.g. rising rates, rising ratios, taste, freezing reactions, lifetime, etc...

I've already seen the following:
active dry yeast vs instant yeast
How to convert a recipe calling for active dry yeast into rapid rise yeast?

and was hoping for more insight.

There are indeed many 'kinds' of yeast (same species, separate strains). If you check out your local brewing supply house you can find yeasts that have many different properties, mostly centering around flavor (or lack of flavor) and heartiness (level of alcohol attained before the yeast dies off).

When it comes to bread making, while you could use any of the specialty brewing yeasts (different from brewer's yeast aka 'nutritional yeast' which would NOT be suitable for bread making as it is 'dead') there are a few varieties, the two most common of which you have already struck on, active & instant. In addition there is a third, less common, 'live' yeast. The primary difference being the size of the 'granules'. Active yeast is larger and you need to 'proof' it before use (mix with water and sugar) where Instant yeast is finer and can be added directly to your dry ingredients when making bread. Live yeast comes in a large piece, which you break off a portion, crumble and then proof, much like active yeast). Similarly, rising rates for 'instant' are faster (as the name implies) and a second rise is not necessary with the instant yeast.

As for the other factors you ask about (lifetime, freezing, etc.) while there may well be difference between the various yeasts in these categories I've never found them significant or documented and are probably more related to taking care of your yeast (storing in a cool place with little or no air/circulation) than the strain of yeast.


Why is it safe to bake a fish when unsaturated fats degrade in low temperatures? Unsaturated fats are less stable than saturated fats, and they degrade at much lower temperatures. For this reason we don't use most unrefined cold-pressed oils for cooking. But what about processing food that's naturally rich in unsaturated fats, such as fish?

Or a similar case - butter smoke point is 150C, yet it is commonly used to bake cakes at temperatures such as 180C.

Is there something going on that prevents fats from degrading in these situations? Or is it no different from picking wrong type of fat for cooking?

Foods that contain quite a lot of water don't exceed the boiling point of water until that water has boiled off.  So in bread or cakes that's part of the reason why we get a crust -- the inside is still moist so is limited to 100°C (there's a fair bit of water in butter and eggs; even flour contains some) while the crust dries and the Maillard reaction takes place.  The temperature of the surface is limited by two things: thermal mass (i.e. it takes time for the thin surface layer to heat up after it's dried) and thermal conductivity (heat is transferred from the surface to the inside, which is how the inside cooks).  The oven temperature is high enough for the fats to smoke, and for other forms of "burntness" to become apparent, so time is also a factor.

Meat and fish have similar water contents (70--80% is typical in the case of fish), so again the bulk is prevented from exceeding 100°C until it's very dry.  But the goal is often to get the middle up to a safe temperature that gives a pleasant texture, while allowing some browning of the surface for flavour.  Fish baked uncovered may be baked with the skin on, and the skin then discarded anyway, which gives a little buffer against over-doing it at least from the point of view of the surface.  Fish that's baked in foil parcels or enclosed containers is in a micro-environment that heats up more slowly due to the water contained within it, and only thin bits touching the bottom would expect to brown.

So essentially very little if any of the fish (or cake) gets even close to the oven temperature by the time you take it out.  This is all slightly simplified ignoring various effects on the availabaility and boiling point of water.


Which type of charger for soda syphon batter I'm looking at a recipe for batter using a soda syphon.  Since the term soda syphon, as opposed to cream whipper, is used I'd assumed the cartridges should be CO2 (recipe doesn't say).  But I've found a few online posts saying that it's better to use NO2 cartridges. Any advice here?

Most batters made in a soda syphon/whipper that I have seen, and used myself, use N20. Though, often, when the goal is aeration, CO2 is used.

A description of what you are making, and which brand of whipper, might allow a better response.


Making sauerkraut with fish sauce instead of salt? Experimenting on an idea. So I can make the best Reuben.

Making sauerkraut for the first time.
Using a basic recipe, 1 head of cabbage(3lbs.) To 1 1/2 Tbl. Salt. + Aromatics

Rid of surface bacteria, wash hands, julienne cabbage, massage salt in. Make sure submerged, cover with cheese cloth, room temp, 3-10 days, etc.

My question is a) does above sound correct and b) could I substitute nam pla (fish sauce) for the salt? And if so, what ratio would make sense?

Salt is needed to give the good bacteria an edge over bad bacteria that do not handle salt so well. The amount of salt necessary differs from maker to maker. While the salt does draw the moisture out of the cabbage, you can also make tasty sauerkraut in a typical fermented pickle manner - shred your cabbage, pack it in a jar, pour salty water over it and let it ferment. Initially the texture will be more "pickled cabbage" than traditional "sauerkraut", but if you leave it long enough it yields the softer texture. Now if you don't want to use the salt plus water try fish sauce plus water.
  A frequent concentration for pickling vegetables is one tablespoon of (kosher) salt in two cups of water. Make some up and taste it. Then see what mixture of the fish sauce and water has a similar salty taste level. Pour that mixture over the shredded cabbage. Let us know in a few weeks if you survive!


My curry is going funny I don't know why First one how it's supposed to look
Second one is how its looked the last few times I tried to cook it

Without the recipe to refer to, I would say that this is due to whatever dairy product you are adding (Butter, cream, yoghurt, coconut milk etc.) splitting due to excessive heat.

If you are using home-made ghee or butter, it could also be due to the milk solids having not been properly separated/removed from the mixture.

The temperature you add dairy, the type of dairy, and the length of time it is exposed to heat are critical factors in not allowing a sauce to split. I would:

Reduce the amount of oil/ghee you use in your recipe, and also look into using a high smoke point oil (e.g. rapeseed) instead of ghee or butter. This will eliminate any solid fat coming out of solution when the liquid is added. This type of splitting can also occur when using hybrid spreads (part fat, part oil) for cooking, which is why pure oils (or high quality ghee) is preferred.
Add the water/stock etc. and gently simmer rather than boil until the ingredients are cooked to the desired amount.
Add the coconut cream etc. towards the end of cooking and do not allow the sauce to come to a boil.


How far in advance of serving can you fry fried eggs? A recent question asks how to fry eggs on a large scale. That prompts me to ask, can fried eggs be fried in advance and either cooled for later reheating, or alternatively kept warm for a prolonged period? If the latter case is an option, what is the ideal temperature to  keep them at?

Surprisingly, an egg is the most difficult thing to cook. McDonalds serves a lot of eggs in their breakfast menus and they haven't found a way yet to mass prefry / prcook these suckers. So I doubt this could be done.

I tried half cooking scrambled eggs before and then finishing them off later, and the result was crap at best.

I doubt you can do that with non-scrambled eggs, as the yolks and whites will change physical properties when heated / cooled / reheated


Cleaning a Teflon pan with burnt rice residual Here is the rice cooker I own:

There is a removable pan which is Teflon coated.

A few days ago, cooking 2 cups of rice I thought it was too slow so I put it on direct heat (oven) to make it faster. After 5 or so minutes, the rice was slightly burnt. I tried (hot water + dish washing liquid) and (lukewarm water + washing powder), let it rest for 24 hours but to no avail. I don't know how to properly clean the burnt residual from the Teflon pan.

You can try pouring some grain alcohol in it and leaving it to soak for a couple of hours. After that, a normal scrubbing with dish soap should be enough. Use the cheapest vodka/ouzo/gin you can find.

The second option is vinegar, with the same usage.


What happens when I store coffee in the refrigerator? Since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, I started making coffee a quart at a time and saving it in a mason jar in the fridge. I discovered this interesting thing. Starting with about the 3rd opening of the jar, when I warm up the coffee in the microwave and then add a spoon of sugar, a fine lace of foam rises to the surface, giving the coffee the texture of crema coffee. I assume something in the air (nitrogen?) is being dissolved into the chilled coffee and then brought out of solution.

Further, I think the coffee tastes smoother after it has aged a couple days. I don't have a great palate, but I suspect something is going on that is analogous to the binding of tannins in wine, but I have no idea.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Your post combined with Graham T's answer leads me to believe that brewed coffee has some organic molecules that, over time, break down to react with something in white table sugar that produces a gas.  The thing is there exists over 1000 different kinds of volatile organic compounds in roasted coffee that it would be hard to pin down precisely.

You mention in one of the comments that you're a beer brewer--I assume you're a drinker too.  Are you familiar with Guinness? They normally can their beers with nitrogen for smaller bubbles.  If you can distinguish between co2 foam and no2 foam, that may help you narrow down what's going on here.

As an aside: This is a really cool question and I hope you find a more acceptable answer.  This one sounds like it's pushing the knowledge of molecular gastronamy.


How to scale a recipe for Neapolitan Pizza? I wanted to hopefully make the best Neapolitan pizza in my modest home. I attached the link which contains the recipe for preparing the pizza.
However, the used amounts are too much for me. I wanted to prepare 2 pizzas, so I wanted to scale down the used amounts by Chef Johnny.
Chef Johnny used 30 g of salt + 1 Kg of flour + 600 ml of water + 1 g of fresh yeast. With these amounts he said in the video he could make up to 8 pizzas.
So should I use a quarter of the amounts?

In general bread formulas are proportional, and can be scaled as necessary.


What's the best way to stick sprinkles to cookies without icing? I am making sugar cookies that I want to decorate with sprinkles, but I don't really want to mess about with making royal icing, which is what the recipe calls for.  In the past, I've used clear corn syrup as a flavourless sprinkle "glue" and it's what I'd use now, except that I haven't seen it in the grocery store here in the Netherlands.

Are there any other easy to make options for "sprinkle glue"?  I've seen references on the web to using some sort of glaze, but in my experience, this wouldn't set up hard enough to hold sprinkles to a cookie.  Maybe it needs special proportions for this application?

If corn syrup works, it seems to me that simple syrup (i.e. a saturated solution of sugar and water) ought to work, too.


Why is salt sprinkled on top of soft pretzels? For the sake of this question, I am referring to all lye bread. I want to make this clarification since outside of the US the term "pretzel" is usually referring to the shape one would typically attribute to the American concept of pretzels rather than the style.

As far as I know, pretzels are the only "bread" that I personally am aware of that gets sprinkled with coarse bits of salt on top. When tasting the pretzel, it has a unique "pretzel" flavour yet it is generally very bland. Is the salt sprinkled on top to make up for the "bland" bread?

Is there anything about the pretzel dough that would prevent more salt from being added into the recipe?

IMO the distinctive flavor of a soft pretzel isn't a bland lack of flavor, but rather a slightly bitter, slightly chemical flavor that comes from the lye (or sometimes baking soda) solution in which pretzels are briefly cooked before baking. The lye solution does at least two things for pretzels:

It raises the pH of the pretzel's skin, which in turn makes the pretzel brown nicely as it bakes.
Imparts that slightly bitter flavor.

I don't think the salt used on pretzels is there to make up for a lack of salt in the dough. You can make pretzels that have plenty of flavor even without salt. I think the salt is there mainly because people like salt, because it adds a pleasing crunch, and because it's traditional -- it's part of what people (or at least Americans) expect from the pretzel experience.

It's worth mentioning that the proper salt for topping a soft pretzel is not kosher salt or rock salt, but a white, soft salt like Cargill Pretzel M Salt. Kosher salt will work if it's all you've got, but it's not what you'll find on a soft pretzel bought at a ball park or from a street vendor.


Reasons for Discarding the Core of the Onion When Chopping? A cook I know always discards the core of the onion when chopping it.  Is there any reason for this?  In professional demonstrations and cooking classes, I've never seen it done.  From observation, it does seem to make chopping or mincing the way I've always been taught a bit easier, as the core can be awkwardly shaped, but other than that is there anything besides personal preference to it?

There is one reason I might do this. If the core is green, that is starting to form a sprout. I cut that out as it can be bitter. Otherwise I don't know why one would do that.


What are the basic ratios for making a chutney I'm looking to make a apple chutney from 6.5 kg of apples. I can't really find a recipe that I'm happy with, so I'm going to just wing it.

What are the basic ratios for a generic chutney? For example, the ratio of fruit to vinegar to sugar?

The average of four different recipes that use apples or pears to make a chutney suggest the ratios

  1.3lb of fruit : 1 cups of sugar : 0.9 cup of vinegar

or in units related to the metric system

  300g of fruit : 100g of sugar : 100ml of vinegar

The fruit weight is for peeled and cored apples or pears, the 0.9 cups is the same as filling a cup and then taking out 2 tablespoons.

If you add cayenne to the recipe you may want to increase the sugar a bit. If you add raisins, decrease the sugar.

If you end up with 6kg of diced apples, then use 2kg of sugar and 2l of vinegar.


Cleaning plastic bags used for sous vide I am using this kind of vacuum bag for sous vide. They work perfectly but recently I have been having a problem cleaning them.

I let them sit for a few days after using them without cleaning them, because I was too lazy - no excuses here.
Then I got to scrubbing. I scrubbed them thoroughly with dishwashing liquid and even though they were completely clean they still smelled foul. So I scrubbed them again with antibacterial soap, thinking bacteria began to thrive from the decomposing meat and somehow clung to the bag, but they still smell bad.

Before I used to use the same kind of bag but bought from a different seller. The "model" was exactly the same, save that both sides of the bag were smooth. The ones I am currently using have one of the inside sides sort of "ribbed" with tiny horizontal and vertical grooves. I had no problem cleaning my old bags but now I can't seem to be able to get rid of the smell of these ones.

The smell wouldn't be bothering me so much if I knew it was safe to reuse them but I'm thinking it might harm the food if I cook it in them.

Am I correct in assuming so and, in either event, how should I get rid of the smell?

Just to be clear my main point is I am asking how to best clean my bags not if it's safe to reuse them.

I agree with @moscafj's answer to the linked question. As long as they are thoroughly washed and dried, the bags should be safe. However, you are still left with the smell.

Some plastics will absorb odors and it can be quite unpleasant. My go to for any issue with odors in plastic is baking soda. It works well in absorbing these odors and getting them out of the plastic material.

I would suggest placing some baking soda inside the bags and closing them up. Let them sit for a few hours or overnight. Discard the baking soda, then rinse well and dry thoroughly.  If there is a small amount of residual odor, you can repeat the process. At the most, twice should definitely take care of it.


When should cutting boards be replaced? From a food safety perspective, under what conditions should a plastic or wood cutting board be replaced?

I have a plastic one that developed a crack that goes through both sides of the board.  I presume a crack like this would indicate it needs to be replaced since it could harbor bacteria.

Please provide a reputable reference with your answer.

The USDA suggests that "all plastic and wooden cutting boards wear out over time. Once cutting boards become excessively worn or develop hard-to-clean grooves, they should be discarded."

Other advice they offer for avoiding food contamination from cutting boards:

  Avoid Cross-Contamination The Meat and Poultry Hotline says that consumers may use wood or a nonporous surface for cutting raw meat and
  poultry. However, consider using one cutting board for fresh produce
  and bread and a separate one for raw meat, poultry, and seafood. This
  will prevent bacteria on a cutting board that is used for raw meat,
  poultry, or seafood from contaminating a food that requires no further
  cooking.

  Cleaning Cutting Boards To keep all cutting boards clean, the Hotline recommends washing them with hot, soapy water after each use;
  then rinse with clear water and air dry or pat dry with clean paper
  towels. Nonporous acrylic, plastic, or glass boards and solid wood
  boards can be washed in a dishwasher (laminated boards may crack and
  split).

  Both wooden and plastic cutting boards can be sanitized with a
  solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per
  gallon of water. Flood the surface with the bleach solution and allow
  it to stand for several minutes. Rinse with clear water and air dry or
  pat dry with clean paper towels.


Baking more than 1 cut of meat at same time? I am cooking 4 stuffed pork loins on the same rack in a 350 degree oven. Cooking time in recipe is 90 min. (Based on 1 meat portion) Does cooking time change for 4 ?

Probably not, unless they are lying so close to each other that they are touching. That would lead to a longer cooking time.


Resources that explain the science of cooking? I have been cooking for a while now, but its mostly what I picked up watching others cook. Now, I am an engineer by profession, and it seems there ought to be a reason for cooking food the way it is done.

I'm curious to understand the science of what's actually happening in cooking. Why it is that everything actually works the way it does?

What resources are there (books, websites, tv/video series) that explain the science behind cooking, as opposed to the art and trial-and-error process that it actually is in practice?

Note: new answers should be added to the existing community wiki answer. They should keep to the existing format: explain what the book is about, your general impressions, pros and cons, scientific depth, etc. No need for a full-page review but please explain your suggestion.

IMO, this really would have greater lasting value with a single detailed answer instead of a poll.  Here's an annotated list of all the recommendations so far:

On Food And Cooking (Harold McGee) is all science at a very detailed level, combining food chemistry and biology and explaining the interactions between ingredients and the mechanisms behind various cooking methods.  If you're looking for a pure science book, this is it.
Good Eats: The Early Years and Good Eats 2: The Middle Years by Alton Brown.  His books are less technical/scientific than other authors and tend to focus more on application, making them more accessible to less hardcore cooks.
CookWise (Shirley O. Corriher).  Written by a biochemist who has done a lot of consulting in the food industry.  This is more practical than McGee and more technical than Alton's books.  It also includes a ton of recipes, which can be a good thing or bad thing depending on your personal preferences. She has also written a baking version, BakeWise.
Molecular Gastronomy (Hervé This, translated by Malcolm DeBevoise).  This is more of a niche book (about - surprise - Molecular Gastronomy) and as you might expect is a little French-centric.  What's really great about this book is how it debunks a lot of popular cooking myths with actual controlled experiments and hard data.  It wouldn't be my first choice to recommend to a Food Science newbie, but nevertheless a good one to add to your collection.
The Fat Duck Cookbook (Heston Blumenthal).  Written by the founder of the Fat Duck Restaurant in the UK.  It's about the history of the Fat Duck and has a big recipe collection (from the restaurant, obviously) and a section at the end dedicated to food science.  This one's really for the advanced crowd as it involves a lot of molecular gastronomy, sous-vide and other esoterica - complex preparations, hard-to-find ingredients and unusual/expensive equipment.
Cooking for Geeks (Jeff Potter) is, as the title implies, written to appeal to geeks, and as such has a certain amount of science but tends to be quite a bit more basic as far as actual cooking technique goes.  It's more "applied science."  Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this for very experienced cooks, but it's great for getting into cooking and gaining an enthusiasm for it (if you're kind of a geek).
Cooking for Engineers is a web site, not a book, which has the obvious advantage of being free and searchable.  It's hard to really define this as its scope is so wide, but I will say that I've found it to be a surprisingly useful and detailed resource whenever I need to find out something quickly.
What Einstein Told His Cook (Robert L. Wolke) is also mostly on the science itself but is written to be more accessible to the layperson.  As one reviewer on Amazon put it, Wolke is like the Bill Nye of Food Science.  One part science, two parts entertainment.  Another member has criticized it for making unproven claims (particularly on nutrition).
The Cooks Illustrated annuals (from America's Test Kitchen) are less about the actual chemistry of food but do highlight a very scientific approach to cooking based on up-front research, experimentation and testing.  See David LeBauer's Answer for a more detailed explanation.
The Science of Cooking (Peter Barham) focuses on the chemistry and physics of why some recipes work and some fail.
khymos.org - on the surface it's about molecular gastronomy, but you'll find much of the science of cooking (e.g. the chemistry behind "working" flavour pairings etc) on there too.
The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (J. Kenji López-Alt) is a collection of detailed recipes, tips and explanations.  It's written to be easily accessible to a chef without much experience.
Serious Eats is a website with both recipes and stories about how the recipes were developed (often with pictures of various attempts to compare how changing processes or ingredients affected things).  Especially see the 'techniques' section of The Food Lab


What's the difference between brioche feuilletee and croissant dough? There are two similar laminated doughs, but recipes make them slightly different, but overall what are the main differences between brioche feuilletee and croissant dough?

They are very similar, here is the difference according to The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum:

Croissant and brioche have the same ingredients: flour, yeast, salt,
sugar, milk, and butter. There are only two significant differences:
croissant dough contains almost double the amount of butter and has
only milk as the liquid component, whereas the liquid for brioche
dough comes mostly from eggs, with only a little milk. The eggs in the
brioche dough give it an airy cake-like crumb, while the large amount
of butter in the croissant dough, and the way in which it is rolled
and layered into the dough, gives it its flaky crumb.


Best chopping board material for meat I've heard that using a wooden chopping board for cutting meat is not very hygienic as it is a porous material. If that is the case, then what would a chopping board ideally be made out of when chopping meat?

In fact it's the porous nature of wood that makes it ideal for preparing meat. There was a test done a while ago, which showed the bacteria are drawn into the wood and no longer replicate; in fact they die relatively quickly.

Personally, I can't stand plastic boards, they're hell on good knives and although they're non-porous, they do stain. It always makes me feel like reaching for the bleach to remove what might be left...

Besides, have you ever seen butcher's block made out of plastic? Get a good quality hickory or maple board and you're set.


Cooking two pieces of meat in pressure cooker I know that I need to cook beef for 15 minutes per pound (500 g) in the pressure cooker for well done.

So one 4 pound (2 Kg) roast would cook for one hour. But what if I cook two 2 pound (1 Kg) pieces in the pressure cooker at the same time?

Would it still be one hour because it's a total of 4 pounds or would it be 30 minutes because each piece is only 2 pounds each?

There is a complicated formula for calculating cooking time based on energy input, surface area, thermal conductivity of food etc. Smaller pieces with a larger surface area will cook slightly quicker than large single pieces

In general for roasts (large slabs) just add the weight of the pieces and cook for the minimum time recommend by your pressure cooker for that (or from your experience). Then test using an accurate thermometer and cook some more as required. In my experience most people overcook meat anyway, so try it a little more undercooked for a change. Remember to let it stand at least 5 minutes per 500 g too

There are too many variables to give a blanket answer (stove energy, pressure in pressure cooker, meat type, fat content etc.)


Does adding sugar to tomato type sauces affect acidity? Many(most?) tomato based pasta sauces have added sugar, it is generally a very small amount. I have always heard this was done to reduce the acidity.

My main question: Does this little bit of sugar increase the pH enough to be noticeable?

Or, is this just to cut the sourness and balance the flavor
(have we come to expect a slight sweetness in our pasta sauces)?

Weak organic acids such as those found in fruits and vegetables (citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid) don't react with sugars. 1 There is no change in acidity, which you correctly defined as measured by the pH.

At the same time, sweet and sour are two tastes which are real antagonists - adding something sweet actually reducess the sourness we perceive, as opposed to just distracting us from it. So the sugar changes the sourness (the taste), but not the acidity (the chemical property). Hearing it otherwise comes from the fact that most people don't even realize that there is a difference between the two terms, and use them interchangeably.

1 They can partake in reactions as catalysts, for example to create invert sugar when cooking up sugar syrup, but the acid itself does not react away.


Please help me to fix my bread to be more soft and smaller hole This is what happen last time how to make dense texture bread?

I follow what rumtscho said and went a bit out of the track. and this is my result:

the hole is quite big which is not what I want. The process and recipe that I used for this you can read it below the rumtscho answer (the comment part of the answer). I knead it for 60 mins. anyone please help me achieve what I want.

I also tried the second recipe which is this one: http://wlteef.blogspot.com/2007/06/hokkaido-milk-loaf.html

and this is the result:

it is still very far away from what I want which is this(the below one I bought it from bakery shop and this is what I want):

anyone please help me I feel something went really wrong.

The bakery is probably selling bread produced using the Chorleywood process, which is a high-volume, high-speed process that uses low-protein flours and additional ingredients (emulsifiers, gums, enrichment) to produce bread that is very light and easy to slice compared to home-baked bread. It's challenging to replicate in a home kitchen, and there's good reasons not to try as home baked bread tends to taste better and may be better for you.

If you are getting really dense bread:

you may be over-kneading. You said you kneaded for 60 minutes, which is far too long. I rarely ever knead more than 10 minutes. Over-kneaded bread has too much gluten developed, and will be tough
it may be too dry. Much of the air in bread comes from water turning to steam, dry dough will end up with a close texture. Try adding more water and kneading with oil instead of flour
It may be under-proofed. The yeast may be retarded by too much salt, not enough heat, or being too old. It may also be you just didn't leave it long enough. If you want a light and fluffy loaf let the first rise go until  trippled
You may have knocked the dough back too much after the first rise. Many people beat the heck out of their bread after first rise, but this will undo much of the work the first rise did in creating air. Handle the dough gently when shaping and moving it into the baking pan, or you may end up losing your air


With vs without egg fresh pasta cooking time If you have identically sized/shaped/thickness of fresh pasta noodles, with egg and without, is there any difference in cooking time?
My son and his girlfriend are vegetarian and vegan, so I'm looking to make an Italian pasta dish next time we get together for a meal. Most of the recipes I see for fresh pasta are for recipes with eggs.
Any difference in cooking time?

Egg v. no egg does not influence cooking time for fresh pasta. There are plenty of egg free versions.  This is a go-to for me, and produces a great pasta.
Thickness...whether or not it is filled...cooking from frozen all influence cooking time a bit.  In an interview with a well-known pasta chef, I heard him state that most people (in US) over cook dried pasta and under cook fresh pasta.


Why do creamed sauces often contain nutmeg? Many recipes for creamed spinach to cream of broccoli soup contain nutmeg. Why does this spice compliment such sauces so well?

Nutmeg provides an exotic/interesting note to cream and milk based sauces. These sauces are often based on flour, butter and dairy, so besides the potential caramelization flavors from cooking the butter and flour (which can be delicious on their own) there are few other flavor components, say, as compared to a pan sauce. A grating of nutmeg can create interest.  Not all dairy based sauces use nutmeg.  It is traditional in some cuisines, and not in others.  Why particular flavors compliment one another is an interesting and complex question. It might have to do with the molecular structure of ingredients.


Pork Sirloin vs Chump I'm trying to become more proficient in my understanding of pork cuts.  I've heard of the "chump" (mostly from Brits) and pork sirloin.  They both seem to come from roughly the same place on the pig and I've heard their qualities described similarly.  Are these two different names for the same piece of meat?

Chump and loin are close together but they are very different cuts of meat. Chump is a working cut, so has much more connective tissue than loin, so a slower cooking process is recommended for it. It's not a bad cut at all, in fact it's delicious when prepared properly, you just need to adjust your method when using it.

One thing to keep in mind is that pork loin has a chump end and a rib end, some people confuse chump end chops with chump, and it's not the same. Chump end chops are still loin, they just come from the back end of the loin and are therefore bigger.

A sirloin chop is an American term, I don't hear it used in the UK generally. US and UK use different primal cuts. A sirloin pork chop (or steak, same thing) in the US contains several muscle groups. It's got hip, backbone area, a bit of loin, etc. It's a cheaper cut because it's got working meat in it and is tougher. It's a great choice for braising.


Color change in duck meat! I roasted a duck some days ago, and while eating, the meat on the carcass slowly turned a sharp red, much like an apple turns brown.
I can't find any information on this anywhere, as all questions equal "is duck meat red meat?", so my question is: what happened? I've never seen this before.

I have seen the same phenomena with cooked hamburgers and steaks.  My research led me back to part of your question having to do with duck meat being characterized as red meat.

What differentiates red meat from white meat is the amount of myoglobin in the meat which absorbs oxygen from the air.  All red meat, when exposed to air, will turn bright red.  I have only observed this with raw or relatively rare cooked red meat so if your duck was not cooked beyond medium, that could be the answer.  Like you, however, I did not find any material that cited the exact scenario you described.

Here are my links to the articles on myoglobin in red meat:

http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=1859

http://m.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-white-meat-and-dark-meat.htm


How can I get homemade yoghurt to thicken properly? Pretty much always when I make yoghurt myself, the homemade version comes out much thinner, much more liquid, than the store-bought yoghurt that is used to produce my yoghurt. How can I make it thicker? Should I increase/decrease the temperature? Add other ingredients (I just heat milk, add yoghurt, stir it, and then put it away in a closed container for 10 hours or so)?

Any general ideas on how to make yoghurt thicker?

Edit

Current Procedure:

I take the milk from the fridge and I start heating this directly.
Right from the start, I also add the yoghurt, straight from the fridge as well.
I'll continuously (slowly) stir the milk
Once it reaches about 40 degrees Centigrade I'll take it off (but perhaps my rustic measure with the temperature is off)
I then put the lid on the pan I used to heat the milk, wrap this in blankets, and put it away overnight.
Next morning, yoghurt is ready - but quite liquid.

There are many myths surrounding yogurt making:

UHT milk is bad. This is simply not true. I have made yogurt with whole fat UHT milk for years and it comes out nice and thick. In fact for the past several months I have been using a high quality whole milk powder that makes a lovely, thick yogurt.
Store bought yogurt will always be thicker because of additives. Also not true. My yogurt is as thick as a high fat sour cream and contains no added milk powder, gelatine, etc.
You need many hours of 'fermentation' to make yogurt. Again I don't agree. My yogurt sets in 3-4 hours, after which it goes in the fridge to cool and finish the culturing process.
The milk must be exactly x temperature when you add the starter. This is only somewhat true. As long as the milk is at or below 45°C it is fine. If you can stand the temperature, so can the bacteria—ie, if you can hold a finger in it for ~10 sec, it's ok. That said, too low and you're losing some effects of the protein denature explained below.
Everything must be sterilized. This is only somewhat true. Clean everything carefully, of course, but you are adding a starter with billions of cultivated bacteria into an ideal environment for it to grow. It will easily dominate other bacteria that happen to get in—and they will, since there are bacteria in the air all around us, so even post-sterilization there will be plenty of foreign stuff entering the yogurt. That said, an over-long incubation will give other bacteria a chance to express themselves, so best to avoid that.
Don't move, touch, or cause the yogurt to shake in any way during incubation or it will fail. I used to believe this myself but it's really not that sensitive. Obviously less agitation is better, but it will not fail even with fairly substantial movement during the incubation. Drinking yogurt is shaken quite violently during incubation in order to keep it liquid and even then it's still quite viscous.

The keys to making good thick yogurt are:

Protein. The milk becomes solid because of a protein in the milk, and for that to happen, the protein must first be heated to above 70°C. I heat it to 75-80°C for just a few minutes and it still turns out very thick. A milk with high quality protein will make a great yogurt.
Incubation temperature. If you want to make good yogurt in 3-4 hours (beyond which it will not get thicker, only more sour), it must be incubated at a steady 40-45°C. A lower temperature will also produce yogurt, but you are in a race with other bacteria, so the quicker it's done the better. Buy a 75-cent indoor thermometer and start looking for ways to create the right temperature environment.
Time between generations. Try to bake a new batch every 4-5 days. After a week in the fridge the bacteria are starting to suffer and will not be as strong and active when introduced into the next batch. A short generation cycle will let you go on making yogurt with the same culture for dozens of generations.
Sugar quantity. This is my own personal guess based on bread making, etc. A little sugar will boost the bacteria, but too much will slow it down. I use 2 tbsp per litre of milk and it works very well. Tart with a hint of sweet. Up to double this amount should be fine but more could affect it. Like I say I'm guessing here but it seems to make sense.

Two final notes.

The "water" that separates out of the yogurt is whey protein—generally seen as a very healthy thing to eat. A firm yogurt will let you pour it or spoon it off if you don't like it, but there's no reason not to just scoop it out with the rest or stir it back in.
Fat content is important, but the milk protein is what will make or break the yogurt. I have made a very thick yogurt with skim milk powder or skim milk with added skim milk powder. Soy milk, which has quite a bit less fat than whole milk, makes a very solid yogurt. It's all about solids. Of course a >3.x% whole fat milk will produce a tastier yogurt, because milk fat is oh so tasty!

Further reading from an industry source:
http://www.dairyconsultant.co.uk/si-yoghurt.php
Additional tips:
http://www.facebook.com/diyhelpers


Getting the lighter fluid taste out of burgers, after the fact My burgers came off the grill tasting and smelling like lighter fluid. Are there any ways to reduce or remove the taste and smell from the leftovers? In the future I'm using one of those charcoal chimney starters, so I won't need any lighter fluid at all.

Make sure you don't squirt the fluid all over the grill.  Keep it on the charcoal.
If you have to apply more fluid after you've lit it, you're doing it wrong.  Douse the charcoal then wait a few minutes for it to soak in.  This is a common mistake.  People often pour on the fluid and immediately light it.  It then burns away before the charcoal can ignite and they have to try again.  You end up putting more fluid into the grill than is necessary.
Let it burn long enough to burn away all the lighter fluid.  It sounds like you aren't letting the charcoal burn long enough before putting the burgers on the grill.


Are spuntini a form of appetizers? I am going to an Italian restaurant and trying to educate myself a bit about the food before going. I own the oxford companion to Italian food, but it says nothing about the term "spuntini" which is a category of food listed on the menu. Given that spuntini means snack (of some sort) and given that I don't see appetizers listed anywhere on the menu, I wondered if spuntini meant appetizer.

Does spuntini mean appetizer? If not, what does it mean? If so, why doesn't this show up when I google spuntini and appetizer at the same time?

It's not a standard.  'Antipasti' (before the meal) would be the typical replacement for 'appetizers'.  Quite a few of the categories on the menu could be classified as antipasti:

Olives
Salumi
Formagi

As Catija points out, the items all seem to be vegetable dishes intended as a starter.

In my opinion (having taken courses on classification & thesaurus design), the menu's a bit of a mess.  I suspect that it's in part from mixing lunch, dinner & bar menus, they have starters, salad & soup courses, small plates (which includes stuff from the starters), main dishes ... and even one category (vegetariano) which mixes both main & side dishes.

They're also inconsistent on the text after the title ... sometimes it's a translation (Coppa Classic / Fragrant Spiced Pork) or description of the item (Taleggio / Cow's Milk, Nutty, Aromatic, Semi-Soft), some list sides it comes with without translating the main ingredient (Stracci di Grano Arso / Broccoli Rabe, Tomato, Onion, Garlic, Red Chili, & E.V.O.O) or (Veal Osso Buco / Gremolata).

(Note that this says nothing about the food itself -- it might be excellent ... it's just a confusing menu)


Thickening almond milk in hot liquids I use natural almond milk without additives. This is fantastic in cold drinks.
However, in hot drinks, such as hot cocoa, it feels flat.
I have investigated corn starch, and have heard of xanthum gum and guar gum. What could be used for hot liquids and almond milk. Corn starch does not seem to affect mouth feel much. I believe the fat content of my natural almond milk s/b pretty good (perhaps 6g per 8oz)

Toasted almond flour.
I hear what you are saying about the almond milk.  It lacks depth in a way that is hard to describe or maybe has a flat taste that like many off tastes are easier to perceive when hot.
I propose with no evidence at all that you could add a little toasted fine ground almond or almond flour.  This is not some exotic stranger like xanthan gum, just more almondy goodness.  Thickening stuff with flour of any sort is totally legit.  Toasted almond flour is very nice for breading or things of that sort.
You would need to keep stirring it up I think.


How can I keep brownies from sticking to the pan? Whenever I bake brownies they stick to the pan. Is it because I don't use a  non-stick pan, or is this related to the thickness of batter? Maybe there is some other reason.

A non-stick pan will help.  You could also use butter or oil to grease the pan, but most convenient would be a cooking spray.


How long should Lamb leg steaks be cooked for? Is there a rule of thumb for the weight or cut?

I'd prefer to err on the side of well-done, as I want to serve it to my toddler.

Treat it like beef steak. Super-hot pan, slap it on, keep pressing it with your finger, when it feels very firm, it's well done; about 5-6 minutes a side in general but it will depend on thickness; the finger test never lies. Let it rest for a few minutes after cooking.


Properties of a good paella pan I was bought a paella pan for my birthday. It had a small label on it with only the brand name on, which I've since washed off. It is steel (I think), with rubberised handles and dozens of concentric dimples on the surface. I was wondering what these impressions were for and by extension, what makes a really good pan for making paella in?

I believe the dimples are for two reasons. One, they possibly help to make the pan, which should be fairly thin, more rigid. Secondly, they are a reminder of the time when these pans were hammered by hand - so, in a way, they make a factory-made pan seem more authentic.

The pan should be fairly thin, yet rigid, and conduct heat well. You don't want localised hot spots, but a strong, even heat.

The pan should probably not be too non-stick - you want to encourage the formation of socarrat - the slightly crusty layer at the base of a good paella.

The "how to cook" series in the Guardian are excellent for researching various recipes and deciding on an evidence-based amalgam - have a look at http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/aug/18/how-to-cook-perfect-paella.


How do you remove strong garlic odor from enclosed space (garage)? I dehydrated garlic in my garage a couple of days ago and now I need to remove the strong garlic odor in the garage -- any ideas?

I have left the garage door open for hours and have run the dehydrator with a bowl of white vinegar.

When you see advice to eat lemon, apples, or milk to eliminate garlic breath, it's the polyphenols in those things that break down the compounds in garlic that cause the smell. Tea, both green and black, is high in polyphenols. Try putting some strong green tea in a misting-type spray bottle and treating the air and the surfaces.


How to remedy an over-brined turkey? Left turkey in brine too long.  The meat is very salty and I want to remove the salt.  I do not know what to do to reduce the taste of salt.  What is the process to reduce the overly salted taste?

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to get salt out of meat (or other types of food) once it's there.  If the turkey weren't cooked yet, it's possible to try to put it in pure water (rather than brine), and gradually some the salt will come back out into the water.  After sitting for a while, replacing the water with more fresh water can speed up the process.  (This is the process sometimes used for desalting pickles that are fermented in very salty brine, but it only can do so much.)

In reality, though, that's not going to help much with moving salt out and could take days, during which your turkey will go bad.  I'm assuming since you tasted it that you've also already cooked your turkey.  So what now?

Unfortunately, I think the only realistic thing to do with leftovers here is to use them to flavor other dishes that are not naturally salty.  For example, you could make a gravy without salt and add the turkey meat to it to simmer, then the salted meat can provide some salt to the gravy for open-faced sandwiches or something.  Or make turkey soup using unsalted broth/stock, but add the turkey meat, which will release some of its salt into the liquid while the soup simmers.

As it's difficult to remove salt, really what you're trying to do is dilute its flavor by adding the turkey meat to other unsalted (or low-salt) things.


Why sugar butter cocopowder mixture got hard in double boiler i was making a fudge brownie without chocolate. The recipe asked to put 1 1/2 cup sugar,3/4+2 tbsp cocopowder and 10tbsps of butter into double boiler and get everthing to be shiny. But when i did the same my mixture ended up as hard sugar rocks and separated butter. Still i managed to stop the disaster by adding little by little water on my own and succeeded. But my fudge brownie ended up to smell like coconut oil. It's not the first time. Once i was making a chocolate frosting and had to do the same,adding sugar butter and coco powder in double boiler until all sugar is melted. But the sugar was not melting as shown in the recipe and it was hard like rock. Please help me a way out.

When I hear the method, I don't see a way it could work as described.

Suger will neither dissolve in the melted butter, nor will it melt at low temperatures - and the water bath keeps them from getting high enough. I don't see what the double boiler is supposed to do, maybe prevent the butter from browning. But when using this procedure, there is no reason for the sugar to do anything but stay hard. Even if you were to use powdered sugar, it will give a grainy texture to the mixture.

I was going to tell you to just ditch the recipe for being impossible to work, but on a second thought, I started wondering why you want the sugar to melt in the first place. Upon looking around for brownie recipes with cocoa powder, they do start with melted butter, sometimes even mentioning a double boiler, but none of them had directions to wait until the sugar is melted. Others just skipped the double boiler step and directed to mix the sugar and cocoa powder with the already-melted butter. So your recipe is only bad in the sense of telling you for waiting for the sugar to melt. If you prefer to keep using it, simply wait until the butter in the mixture is melted (with a double boiler or without, as you wish - just don't brown the butter) and keep going with the sugar as hard as-is.


What is the charcoal snake method and how does it work? I've read in places about using something called the charcoal snake method for slow smoking in a kettle bbq. What is it and how does it even work?

Here's an example picture.

This is the method I use to smoke meat in my Weber! The basics are exactly what you see in the photo, with one more step. Start about a dozen (or in a 22.5" grill like that one, maybe 18-24) briquettes in your charcoal starter (you have one of those right? if not, go get one, they're awesome). When the coals in your starter are glowing, carefully place them with tongs at one end of the snake.

This is a super low maintenance way to smoke meat. It keeps a small number of coals lit far enough away from your meat that you have indirect heat similar to an oven, and the smoke is metered because only a limited amount of wood catches. The coals at one end slowly light the remaining coals and you can cook this way for hours. The circle in your photo will probably burn for 4-6 hours. If you add more coals as you cook, you can keep this method going for very long cooks (I've done a brisket doing this cooking for something like 14-18 hours). You'll want to rotate your meat as you cook to keep it directly opposite (or maybe a bit closer to the lit end so you don't have to rotate as often).

This blog post for SA's blog has a bunch more information and some pictures of one of my cooks using this method.