How can I prepare dried minced garlic? I have a container of minced garlic similar to this:

My question is can I mince fresh garlic, then allow it to dry on a plate and add it to the container?  Or is there a special way of preparing this for reasons of taste or safety (molds, bacteria, etc)?

You probably do not want to simply dry it on a plate, as it may mold or spoil prior to drying.

When I checked the National Center for Home Food Preservation, I was unable to find any information on drying garlic.  I was also unable to find a single University Extension that provided instructions on safe methods for drying garlic.

If you google homemade dried garlic, you will find multiple recipes and methods, although powdering is more common than mincing.  None of these recipes or methods come from the most reputable sources, so use them at your own risk.


Can I add fresh elderberries or rosehips to homemade kombucha? I have been making kombucha for several months now.  I use green or white tea, flavored with hisbiscus, peach tea or other fruity teas to the mix. Since the elderberries, and rosehips are coming in season, I wonder if adding  some to my tea brew prior to straining it into the kombucha making jar would be possible and beneficial.

See the below, but basically, no raw or unripe elderberries. Also, if there is any chance of the rosehips being chewed, or cut open, remove the seeds (rose seeds are a traditional source of itching powder).

From http://elderberries.ning.com/forum/topics/elderberry-faq-what-they-are:

  Can I eat the berries raw?
  Some say that as long as they’re ripe you can eat them uncooked in small quantities, but most sources maintain that berries need to be cooked to fully remove all the toxins. (In addition, elderberries are really quite bitter until they’ve been sweetened with sugar or honey.) Again, as the non-doctor giving advice, I’d err on the side of caution and make sure your elderberries are washed and cooked. On the plus side, I’m collecting quite a few elderberry recipes here, so there should be no shortage of ways to cook them.

From http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blrosehips.htm:

  Anyone using rose hips for cooking should remove all the seeds. They are covered with sliver-hairs that, when ingested, irritate the digestive system and cause what the aboriginal people call "itchy bottom disease."
  Blockquote


Are Damascus steel kitchen knives worth it? Many manufacturers currently offer kitchen knives with Damascus steel blades at a premium.

Besides looking cool do such knifes have any better characteristics compared to simply good forged stainless steel kitchen knives?

At the time of my engineering degree (mid-1990s), the knowledge for true Damascus steel was lost, much like the knowledge of the recipes for the concrete used in the Roman Colosseum.

It's possible that more materials analysis has been performed since that point, as there have been a number of groups who would like to reproduce the process to determine how it compares to modern steel.  (museums aren't willing to subject the known pieces to destructive testing).

With modern steel, they intentionally introduce small proportions of other metals to interrupt the crystals that form as the metal is cooled; this helps to improve the strength of the steel as there isn't a single sheer plane that could allow fractures through the whole item.  They're also better able to control the cooling process, so that they can control what crystal structure forms in the steel as it's annealed and quenched.

My understanding of true Damascus steel is that it's likely two different crystaline structures, one more ductile (so it can compress to absorb more energy without failing) and the other more brittle (which can hold a sharper edge).  The two work together similar to today's composite materials.

Most of the stuff sold on the market today is laminated from two or more metals.  In many ways, it's more similar to the folding process of high-quality Japanese blades, but with dissimilar metals.  As the sheets are mostly parallel to each other, I would suspect that the strength improvement isn't as high as the more erratic patterns in true Damascus, but this is likely countered by using metals that are independently stronger.

So, to answer the specific questions:

Do they have some better characteristics?  Probably.
Are they worth the additional cost?  Not likely for the type of forces they'd be subjected to in a kitchen.

Most people are better off getting some decent but cheap knives and replacing them more often.  Victorinox Fibrox regularly wins America's Test Kitchen's ratings of knives.


Glass Dish Baking Temparature Generally I have heard that most recipes are designed for baking in metal dishes. I have also heard that glass will get hotter than metal, and thus I should cook it at a lower temperature for longer.

Does anyone know whether these statements are true? Am I going to burn the edges if I leave it at the same temperature? What is the truth behind this?

First, the short answer:

There's a lot of erroneous information circulating concerning glass bakeware, and very few reliable sources or repeatable experiments seem to be cited.  In general, I'd say that the variance among different metal pans of different materials, colors, thicknesses, and coatings will have more significant effects than the difference between glass and metal.  So, if you're someone who worries a lot about pan color or thickness and adjusts your oven up or down by a few degrees for it already, then yes, this may be a concern.  If you're someone who just assumes all metal baking pans are equivalent anyway, glass is not going to behave much differently -- I'd just say monitor your food when trying a new pan/dish, and adjust your time and temperature accordingly.

Now, the long answer:

Part of the problem with comparing glass and metal is that there are so many differences:

Metal pans conduct heat faster than glass, which can change both how evenly the heat gets distributed throughout the pan and how fast things cook.  But this is mostly relevant when the pan is changing temperature (as when first put in the oven) or heated unevenly.
Metal pans can vary in color: darker pans will cook faster, while lighter or more reflective ones will cook more slowly.  Glass is generally transparent, which decreases some types of radiative heat from the pan color, but it also allows infrared light to pass through which increases radiative heat.
Metal pans are usually quite thin compared to glass.  Glass therefore heats up and cools down more slowly, so it will be less responsive to changes in baking temperatures.  (On the other hand, metal pans can also vary significantly in thickness, too.)

Each of these factors may be more or less relevant depending on your specific baking situation and recipe.  For example, if we take the last consideration from the list: if you're cooking something for a relatively short time, glass dishes may spend most of the baking time just warming up, which will affect browning and doneness on elements in contact with the pan.  But if you're baking a dish for a long time, this factor is less relevant, and the extra heat which is transmitted through the clear glass may actually cause food to cook faster.

There's a common rule-of-thumb passed along in many cooking sources that one should decrease the oven temperature by 25F when using a glass baking dish and perhaps decrease cooking time as well.  Other sources agree with the 25F decrease, but recommend that cooking time will be increased.  But I've seen no reliable source justifying when this is necessary or what exactly we are comparing the glass dish with!  If we're comparing glass to its closer cousin, a ceramic casserole dish, then yes, in many cases a glass dish may cook slightly faster due to the extra heat transmitted through the clear glass.  But it's much more complicated for comparisons to metal.  Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking seems at one point to lump glass together with light-colored dull metal pans in terms of overall baking properties, pointing out that both will transmit heat better than shiny metal pans and thus will cook (about 20%) faster.  But dark colored or black pans will increase browning and cooking even more.  I recall seeing a Cooks Illustrated test some time ago that basically claimed the oven temperature reduction for glass was generally unnecessary, but I don't recall the details (and can't find the reference now).

In terms of actual empirical data, well, there's this source on browning, which baked dough for 15 minutes in four dishes of the same size but different colors and materials.  Glass here performed slower than a black pan or thin (shiny) aluminum, but faster than white ceramic.  But we can draw few conclusions from such a limited test, since (as I pointed out above) glass dishes take longer to heat up and would likely have performed differently in a longer bake.

All of that said, I would offer a few general guidelines:

If baking for a short time (say, less than 20-30 minutes), the lag-time in glass warming up will be significant.  Cooking may be somewhat slower for food in contact with the glass surface compared to a metal pan.  In a hot oven, it may be useful to lower the oven temperature somewhat and cook longer to allow the food in contact with the glass to "catch up" with the top of the food (which might otherwise brown faster).
When baking for longer times, glass will cook and brown somewhat faster than shiny metal pans, about as fast as dull (light) metal, but not as fast as dark metal pans.  In that case, you may want to make small adjustments in the same way as you might for different colored metal baking pans.
If baking a casserole or similar wet dish and using glass instead of opaque ceramic, it may cook and brown somewhat faster due to heat transmitted through the clear dish.
Glass will generally retain more heat when removed from the oven than metal pans, so baked goods or other food left in the glass dish will continue to cook somewhat longer.  In some circumstances, this may justify removing the dish from the oven when slightly underdone or else removing the contents (particularly baked goods) from the pan earlier.
I don't think there's any truth to the general statement that glass always "cooks faster."  Lowering the oven temperature slightly may be a good idea if you are concerned about the top surface browning before the bottom in a particular recipe, but glass is not a unique material to do that for.

Overall, I'd recommend just using other doneness indicators (internal temperature, browning, texture, firmness, etc.) to determine when your food is done.  The one nice thing about glass baking dishes is that you can view the food from many more angles, which can often give you information about how fast the dish is cooking on the bottom as well as the top -- and you can adjust oven temperature as needed to try to even things out.


Oil constantly smoking. What is happening? Even on an medium low temperature! And it is refined sunflower oil. It also happens with butter and other types of oil. I've been using the exact same oils and cooking on the same heat in the past and this has never happened before, but now it happens every time regardless of the type of oil or heat. And it is always a different pan. The only thing I can think of is that the stove is adding more heat than it should. What do you guys think?

I would suggest first heating the pan for the requisite time and the required heat depending on what you want to cook, then add the oil for only a few moments to heat it up. Then add any ingredients to the oil after its been in the pan for no more than 10-15 seconds. If you heat up a cold pan with oil in it, its much more likely for your oil to smoke since it has so much time to absorb heat.

Sometimes of course, you might want it to smoke, in which case, leave the oil in for longer.


Why did my oatmeal and raisin cookies end up tasting soapy? I've made oatmeal cookies twice, and both times they have ended up tasting "soapy" and a touch bitter - the first time really strongly, the second less so, but still badly enough that I have to throw them away.
The details of the first attempt are lost to time, but the second time I used this recipe. I think I followed it pretty accurately.
The only theories I have right now are:

The bicarbonate of soda has a naturally soapy flavour (does it?), and I didn't fully finish cooking the cookies (I like them quite chewy - they definitely had a tan on top but probably could have had at least another 2-3 minutes in the oven before burning I suspect). But I baked them for around 15 minutes, more than the recipe anyway.

The oats were a little old (the packet was probably about two months old), and maybe they'd gone bad? But they looked fine, and when I cooked some not that long ago for breakfast, they seemed fine.

Do either of these seem plausible, or is there another possible explanation?

Soap is effectively a base (eg baking soda) reacted with a fat (eg oil). Also, heating baking soda can cause it to convert into sodium carbonate, which is a much stronger base.
I would suspect you're on the mark with suspecting the baking soda. The recipe calls for only a quarter of a teaspoon, so it would be very easy too add too much.


Can this Kitchen Art Non Fry Pan, made in South Korea, be seasoned? Today is my first time learning about seasoning pans. Doubtless, "season" here doesn't signify "Add salt, herbs, pepper, or other spices to (food)".

What kind of pan is Kitchen Art, Professional Nonstick Fry Pan/Dishwasher Safe Cookware, 30 cm? It's made in South Korea. Chowhound has a thread.

Or is it Carbon Steel, Cast Al, cast iron Mineral B, Teflon-coated stainless steel, etc...?

Can it be perfectly seasoned or restored? Ought a new better one be purchased?

They've been using this pan purchased merely 1 year ago for all their foods, partly to shun washing multiple pans. They thought that with 2020 technology, cast iron pans can support liquids and sauces of any pH level. They always turn heat to the maximum.
Six days ago, they noticed that their pan's bottom was uneven, blemished, and no longer non-stick. When they scratched its bottom gently with their fingernail, black smut/soot comes off and adheres to their fingernails.

Your link says “non-stick coating” and “aluminum”. When said coating is damaged or worn down, you have to discard the pan. This is just how these pans are, they aren’t made to last for generations like cast iron (which would be significantly heavier, btw).
You can’t create a polymerized oils seasoning on top of a non-stick layer and even if you sanded down the remaining coating, the bare aluminum wouldn’t be “seasonable”.


How can I reheat chicken without it getting rubbery or dry? Reheating chicken in the microwave is usually a disaster, rubbery and awful or underheated.  In the toaster oven, the meat will frequently dry out.  How can I reheat it and keep the texture reasonable?

Try wrapping it in foil and cooking on a very low temperature in the oven or toaster oven. (Our oven has a "warm" setting that's ~170 F.) You can also include some water or broth in your foil packet but it won't penetrate much beyond the surface if the meat has been cooked before. It'll make that 1st bite taste more moist but in the long run it won't do much.


Is it OK to just have two cutting boards: one for stuff to be heated, another for other stuff? Some say one should use more than one cutting boards because if you use just one board for raw meat and vegetables, bacteria from raw meat moves to the board and then to the vegetables, then you eat that vegetable raw, and you get sick.

Some uses more than two cutting boards: one for fish, another for raw poultry, yet another for dairy and so on.

What if I use just two rather than 3 or more? One for stuff to be heated, another for everything else. What do I gain by using 3 or more rather than 2?

The exact number of cutting boards isn't critical, the important piece is minimizing cross contamination. You can use one cutting board safely as long as you're using it in a food-safe order (cut vegetables, then proteins), and follow good sanitation practices (wash & sanitize the board between ingredients). A quick scrub with soap and water and a spritz with a bleach, alcohol, or quat solution between ingredients will minimize your need for different boards.


Can I always use butter instead of margarine when baking? Some recipes says use butter or margarine, some say use butter and some say use margarine. My question is, can I always use butter or does margarine have some property that butter doesn't when baking?

Margarine has less fat than butter, but it doesn't give quite the same flavor as butter does. You also have to be careful what KIND of margarine you are using.  Tub margarine has a higher water content and can ruin your baked goods and the stick margarine can have a lot of trans fats in it.  If you really want to get detailed into the differences, check out this site:

http://www.baking911.com/pantry/fats.htm

I agree with everything stated on that site in the fact that butter, in my opinion is far superior in flavor and texture than margarine.  I have yet to meet a dish that butter didn't improve the taste over margarine.  But there is the thing, it really is a lot about taste.  A good quote from the site about margarine:

"Not great for baking: does not allow foods to become flaky, rather more cakelike; does not spread as well as lard or shortening; adds a greasy taste. However, some bake with it all the time and have great success; it's a matter of taste."


Custard curdling/splitting I always try to make custard from scratch and have now used 9 recipes and it always ends up splitting or curdling and I can't get it right.

How can you overcome this simple issue with custard?

I've used Delia Smith's, Paul Hollywood's, Jamie's and 6 more from books and the net.

It sounds like your custard was overcooked, causing the proteins to break down. This can easily happen when you make custard in a pan. By the time you realize it's happening it's too late. Try using a double boiler instead, or improvise one using a pot with water and a bowl.

Also, don't cook it too long, it should still be somewhat runny when hot. If you cook until it gets really thick that's too long, cook it only long enough that you see a change in consistency.

If it does start to curdle pour it out into something else right away, and use a stick blender on it, that may save it.

Here's a good page that gives examples of typical custard problems and how to avoid them.


Is there really such a thing as a muffin scoop? I've been asked to get someone a muffin scoop as a gift.  It was described to me as a 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup sized cookie scoop.

I'm extremely confused by this request, as cookies and muffins are fairly different.  Cookie scoops expedite making drop cookies by making it easier to grab that rounded tablespoon or 1/8th cup or whatever and placing it smoothly on the sheet.  Since muffins are batter I'm not sure I can easily visualize the same thing happening.

I also had trouble finding a muffin scoop when I searched for it.  There are about 5 logical links on the front page of google, including this one from King Arthur.  Beyond that I could find a 4 tablespoon cookie scoop, but I'm not sure if this will work well for muffin batter (or at least any better than a nice 1/4 cup measure) because I don't see how the spring action of the handles for such scoops is helpful.

I also found things like a #20 scoop that lists itself as helpful for muffins, and the King Arthur scoop says it is a #16.  As far as I can tell that is how many scoops per quart and it is a professional tool.  Is that what I should be looking for?  I don't want to disappoint my giftee, and I also don't want to purchase the wrong thing or a worthless thing.

Cookie Scoop, Muffin Scoop, Disher.... They come in all sizes and are useful for a whole lot (except I don't like them for ice cream). See here:
http://www.kitchenconservatory.com/Dishers-and-Scoops-C461.aspx

Alton brown frequently uses these scoops for all sorts of things on "Good Eats", including his episode "The Muffin Method Man" where he uses a #20 scoop:
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season7/Muffin/MuffinTrans.htm

Another example of using scoops for muffins.
http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2010/10/kitchen-tip-trick-for-filling-muffin-tins.html


Problem Frozen flour Have kept flour in freezer all the time - last time we got out the 5 lb bag it had chunks of flour in it.  Can only assume it is caused by moisture in the flour since it was kept in original bag - have never placed the flour in air tight container and never had this problem.  Can running the flour thru a food processor to break it up "hurt" the flour?

Not that I can imagine. Many of the recipes I use call for making doughs in a food processor and the first step is often "sifting" the flour by pulsing it a couple of times either alone or with the leavening agents.

This shouldn't hurt your flour, particularly if your recipe calls for sifting your flour.

I do recommend that you consider measuring your flour by weight (if you are able), if the chunks are too big to give you a good volumetric measurement before processing, especially if you're making a recipe that's generally "picky" about flour amounts or specifically calls for "pre-sifted" volume measurements. Processing the flour will likely aerate it somewhat and may throw your volumetric measurements off slightly. Weight measurements shouldn't be effected by this.

If the chunks are small (1/2 inch/1 cm), you  may be able to get a good volume measurement before you process the flour.

Consider coming back and letting us know how it goes!


How to make fried beetroot chips How can we make crispy fried beetroot chips with a bright red color? I tried several times with or without maïzena in many different temperatures but the result was soft chips or chips with a dark brown color.

Not sure if this qualifies for an answer since I had never done beetroot chips. If not I would be happy to remove it.

I had success with parsnip and apple chips:

dip in 65°C dilute citric acid solution for 2-3 minutes (inhibits maillard), diluted vinegar or lemon juice works too
dry chips well on kitchen towel and place neatly on an oven tray without overlapping
put onto the lowest rack in a fan oven at the lowest temperature (<100°C)
bake overnight for 8-12 hours


Alternative for tartar sauce? Is there a substitute for tartar sauce? It is difficult to find in India. I need an alternative that can be obtained in Indian markets.

Tartare sauce is mayonnaise with capers, pickles and lemon juice. Recipe varies to consumer taste.

It's easy to make at home.


Quail dries out when cooked What can be done with quail to ensure that it doesn't dry out when cooked?

(note: the other question about tender quail, AFAICT, is specific to braising....my question is more about roasting, though advice about other cooking methods is also welcome!)

  Inspired by How to prevent the chicken breasts from drying out

Quail is small and lean, so fast and hot is the way to go. 200C/400F in the oven for about 20 minutes is about right, but trying to cook meat properly by time and temperature is a mug's game. Get an instant read digital thermometer from Amazon and get it right first time, every time.

You are probably looking at an internal temperature of 70-75C for quail, though if it's wild it should be slightly more forgiving than chicken in terms of food safety.


Which onions to use and how to cook them for an Indian curry recipe that specifies "fry until deep pink"? One of the curry recipes in the book "50 great curries of India" says "Heat the oil in a cooking pot and fry the onions until deep pink." I think I know what it means when a recipe says "until deep brown" (which is what many Indian curry recipes call for), but "deep pink" is a first. Is the recipe simply using red onions or some other variety of onion than the one I'm used to (the ingredient list just says "2 large onions, finely chopped")? Does that make an important difference? Or is the recipe referring to the same stage of cooking as "deep brown" (though that doesn't look very pinkish to me)? Or would "deep brown" onions turn somewhat pink if you cooked them even longer? ...

(For the curious, the recipe is for the "prawns in sweet and hot curry")

I own the same book and was similarly surprised when I read that instruction, but in the section on ingredients, the author does mention a particular variety of onions called pink onions.  The mention is on pg. 32, and there is a picture of a pink onion on the upper left of pg. 34.

Here's an excerpt from pg. 32:

  "The longer the onions are fried, the browner they will get and the deeper the color of the curry will be... When the onions are fried until only light pink in color, they will impart a sweetish taste to the curry. Certain varieties of onion, like Spanish onions, are too sweet to be appropriate for curry-making. The most appropriate from the taste point of view are the French and the small pink English."

From 50 great curries of india

I've never seen pink onions in any of the local markets (in northwestern US), I used white onions and sauteed them just to the point of browning. The recipe turned out fine, but it's a lot of onion. (The recipe calls for 2 large onions, finely chopped. It's a recipe that produces 2 servings.)  Personally, I'd go a little lighter on the amount of onion or use yellow onions (despite the author's recommendation against Spanish onions), but that is just personal preference from a Western palate.

Note: it looks like the current printing of the book is different from the one I own, so the page numbers I cite may be off, but if you search inside the book (on Amazon) for "pink onion" you can see the page I've cited and the picture of what the author calls a pink onion.


Is it redundant to add umami to tomato-based sauces? On the wiki page for umami, it says that tomatoes are "rich" in umami components.

Does that mean it is redundant to add umami (such as monosodium glutamate) or soy based flavorings to tomato-based sauces, or is there a benefit?

For example, a typical tomato-based sauce is cocktail sauce, which often has worcestershire sauce in it as an ingredient. However, the main active component of worcestershire sauce is fermented fish sauce or soy, which is primarily valued for its umami. So, if umami is already present in the tomatoes, why add the worcestershire at all?

The Wikipedia article you link actually hints at an answer. It points out that there's a synergistic effect when combining different classes of umami-rich foods, leading to a greater flavour enhancement than would be expected simply by adding the effects of the ingredients

  Japanese make dashi with kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes;... and Italians combine Parmesan cheese on tomato sauce with mushrooms.

So it's certainly traditional. But in your example the tomatoes bring some sweetness along with the umami, while the Worcester sauce (like soy sauce) is salty and so rich in umami it's used in small quantities. The effect of combining them is a more savoury sauce than one that tried to get all its umami from tomatoes. Red pesto uses parmesan to similar effect.


Homemade Pepper Sauce - Suggestion for a serving bottle I'm planning on making a homemade pepper sauce that I saw on Serious Eats.  The recipe is straight forward, but am concerned about the best way to 'serve' this sauce.  I think the traditional way would be to have a tabasco-type bottle since that controls the amount that will come out (a drop at a time).  Anyone have another suggestion?  I would prefer to stay away from plastic squeeze bottles since the vinegar in the sauce could interact with the plastic.

Thanks

I go through a lot of hot sauce, and tend to just re-use old Tabasco bottles. The main choice you need to make is what size of orifice reducer do you need. I think that the best for most thin sauces is a glass bottle with the right size reducer. You know you've got the right size when one shake of the bottle dispenses about 1/4 of the amount of sauce that you want. That way a few shakes gets you all you need, but you don't risk overdoing it (a real problem with hot sauces). There are four common size ranges that you see in thin condiments:

"Tiny", like in standard Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, Pepper-infused vinegar, etc. These are great for thin sauces, or sauces where you have used a strainer or a food mill to remove the solids. I like my sauces thin so they get into the cracks of the food, so I strain my sauces to remove the solids. The solids go into one jar to use as a chili paste, and the liquid goes into a bottle with a "tiny" orifice reducer.
"Medium", like in Chipotle Tabasco or other slightly thicker sauces. These sauces are still thin, but are chunkier or thicker than a truly liquid sauce. Medium reducers still require that the sauce be largely free of chunks, but if you are including tomato paste or thicker elements, you need a larger opening.
"No reducer", like in many Dave's Insanity sauces, or any sauce that has chunks or is truly goopy. By the time a sauce gets this thick, I actually prefer a squeeze bottle for precision.
Squeeze bottles, like Sriracha, are good for sauces that are less hot (dispensed in larger quantities), and thick enough to justify it. Most plastics are fine with an acidic sauce, but may not want to be stored quite as long.

You can order hot sauce bottles from a variety of sources, such as SKS Bottles, including with a variety of orifice reducers based on your desired sauce thickness. I prefer glass, and the small plastic reducers are meant for the acidic environment.

http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin18aa.html


Could you smoke a sauce? I want to add smoke flavour to a somewhat runny pepper sauce. I thought of letting it simmer on the barbeque and also have some wood chips in water to  provide lots of smoke. Keep the lid of the pot off and just put the lid of the weber on.

Can you actually impart smoke flavours to a liquid like this or would  it be better just to roast the peppers before you make the sauce?

What you're describing isn't all that different from how they make various products like Liquid Smoke (make smoke along with steam, then condense that steam).  You will need to make sure that some actual condensation occurs (for example, by having a lid for the smokey vapor to condense onto).

However, it may be simpler to add a liquid smoke-type product directly; at least the main brands are actually smoke distillates (and not artificial flavorings or similar) and thus should be effectively identical to this process, but quicker.


Sweetener for caramel I've seen a recipe using a sweetener instead of sugar for caramel. I'm wondering what kind of sweetener would actually work for this - the recipe didn't specify.

Various sweeteners I've seen in the shop are pretty different:

50% sugar "sweetener"
Saccharine based
Stevia extract
...

What process am I actually looking at when making a (...) + butter + sour cream caramel? What ingredient makes it possible?

I'm pretty sure that what the recipe means by "granulated sweetener of choice" is the choice between Sugar, raw cane sugar, or light or dark brown sugars.  All these can be used to create delicious caramels.


Vintage Pyrex Measuring Cup Borosilicate Vs. Soda Lime Color Difference? I bought 2 vintage PYREX measuring cups with green text from a thrift store, One large 1 liter and a smaller half liter measuring cup.

I read online that if it says PYREX in all caps then it's made from Borosilicate glass and that if it's lowercase pyrex then it's made from tempered soda lime glass.

What's unusual is that the measuring cups have different color tints to them. the larger one has a more bluish tint to the glass and the smaller one is clearer and more green.

On Wikipedia it's saying that the more bluish one is made of soda lime, but how can that be since it was made before 1998 and says PYREX?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex#/media/File:Pyrex_and_PYREX.jpg

Does anyone know what's going on or how I can tell which glass is used in these measuring cups?

The destructive test for borosilicate or not is as easy as fill with boiling water, wait a while for it to heat up, dump the boiling water, fill with ice. If it breaks, it's probably not borosilicate.

On the other hand, any tint is a probable indicator that it's NOT borosilicate, which has a very flat transmission characteristic in the visible range.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty you can mix up some refractive index matching fluid, submerse the measuring cups, and see if they "disappear" - which seems to be a common means of testing for borosilicate, as it has a different index of refraction from quartz or soda-lime glass.

You can use a known borosilicate to help get the solution correct.

http://gr5.org/index_of_refraction/


How to make cookies less crumbly? I baked cookies last night and they came out rather crumbly. It felt like I put in quite a lot of flour - would that affect the crumbliness?

Well, looking at the recipe...

The sugar (brown sugar + honey) level looks roughly appropriate compared to the flour so that's unlikely.

The fat level looks a tad low for the cookies I normally do, but I've never used oil in cookies before.   You might try increasing the oil just a bit to lend extra tenderness, but I don't think this is the real issue.  (Using oil in cookies also means you're not creaming, which is typically important in most cookies...so its a bit odd, but I don't know that it would cause them to be 'crumbly'.)

The lack of the egg definitely isn't helping it to keep structural support.  The recipe is basically banking on the fact that it needs to be moist to hold together.  There's not really enough liquid to form gluten to add structure (which you don't usually want for cookies anyway).  Since there's nothing in the cookie to give it 'structure', if you dry it out its just going to fall apart on you.

I suspect your problem is from the directions of 'Don’t overbake these, or they’ll dry out a little.'  They dried out a bit too much and lost all support.  It's easy to over bake cookies and this is a recipe with very little room for error in that area.


Why is the rice in my mushroom risotto always very hard? I'm a fan of Italian mushroom risotto and I love to cook it from time to time, but cooking the arborio rice well seems impossible to me if I follow  traditional recipes. Last time I pre-cooked the rice in water before boiling it in cooking wine but this didn't seem to help. No matter for how long I boil it, I end up with very hard rice at the end. Does anyone know the best way to cook risotto to avoid this?

I love risotto. A few things might help.

Use a saucepan, not a skillet. I had never really noticed a difference until ElendilTheTall (another user here) pointed it out. It makes a big difference. So you should have 2 sauce pans on the stove, one for your simmering broth, one for the rice.
Brown your aromatics and your mushrooms well in butter and oil and include your dry rice. The rice should get quite translucent before you add wine to the pan. The wine should sizzle and boil dramatically.
The old idea that you need to stir constantly is silly. Add your broth a big ladleful at a time (you can add larger amounts of broth for the first couple of additions), keep the heat high enough that it maintains a low boil and keep an eye on it, stirring occasionally. Add more broth well before the rice seems dry.
Each batch will vary regarding exactly how long it will take and how much broth it will need, so be prepared for today's batch to take longer and need more broth that last week's batch, even if everything seems the same. But shouldn't take more than about a half an hour as long as you've kept it at a low boil (high simmer?) and haven't let it dry out.

That's it. Add Parmesan when the rice is done, and true arborio is worth it.

EDIT: Oh and BTW, cooking wine is nasty. Use real wine, your rice may just be insulted by "cooking wine". For "cooking wine" they add huge amounts of salt to bad wine to make it undrinkable, so that they can legally put it on grocery store shelves and sell it to minors.


Aromatics from roasted chicken and sauce I have been making tandoori chicken, and made it with the following marinade.
I place the chicken on top of aromatics consisting of carrots, celery, onions and yams.
When the chicken has been roasted, I am left with the juices and the aromatics.
I am not really sure what to do with these aromatics and how to serve them. For example, the large pieces of celery are pretty awkward, they are hard to chew. I am thinking of removing the yams, mash them and mix with cinnamon, but the rest I am not sure about.

How do you usually serve the aromatics that have been cooked under the roasted chicken? Also, can you leave the aromatics in the roasting pan while you make the sauce (or au jus)? Eventually, you would remove them of course and serve the aromatics separately.

Remove all the vegetables and discard, they should have released all their "aromatics" to the gravy

You could press them in a chinois (fine meshed sieve) and extract more juices from them.

Pass all the juices through the chinois into a pot and reduce, and you could add a little bit of white wine to finish up the sauce to serve with the chicken.

When I roast chicken, I usually put potatoes, onions, garlic and carrots (and or other root vegetables) in the pan and they roast at the same time; most of the time, the onions are just too cooked to be served, so either I eat them myself, or just discard them.


How to remove bad smell from fridge and refrigerator? How to remove bad smell of food from fridge and refrigerator?

Can you access the evaporator coils of the fridge, and where the condensate goes?  A frequent problem is that these are covered up or difficult to access.  If stuff gets spilled or otherwise get into these inaccessible areas, it can take a very long time to dissipate.  Get out your screwdriver.


How to create thick, hearty garlic marinara sauce? I've been searching online for a recipe for a robust garlic marinara sauce to no avail. Does anyone have any tips on how to make this kind of thick, hearty sauce from scratch?

This is what I've tried so far:

Tomato Paste (I don't have a blender)
1/2 teaspoon butter
1 cup diced onions
1/4 cup diced red chilies
1/4 cup whole milk cream
3 cloves of garlic
Fresh Basil

I fry the garlic and onions in olive oil and then add the tomato paste, chilies, basil and cream. It has not turned into the hearty kind of sauce one imagins on an Italian dinner table. Does anyone have any tips?

Ditch the cream and onions, and don't use tomato paste. Take a whole bulb of garlic, peel the cloves and leave them whole.

Heat a cup of good olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic, stirring occasionally until very lightly brown and blistered: be careful not to burn it!

Then add 4 28oz cans of chopped/crushed Italian tomatoes and some chilli, being careful of bubbling oil, and simmer very gently for 4 hours. Season well.

This method produces a thick, intense sauce that you can use for pretty much anything. Keep in the fridge for a week or the freezer for months.


Browning Avocados - What Helps? Years ago Koobz asked "Oxidized Avocado: What's Going on & How to Prevent It?" That question has been merged with this one because it's dealing with the same issue.

Recently, we had this question: Are limes and lime juice more acidic than lemons and lemon juice?. Now I'm just curious, I want an answer.

After Logophobe's answer to the acidity question, and my own research backing up that answer, I feel like I know less than I did before!

Lemon contains more ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and citric acid than limes, yet limes are more acidic overall. Distilled vinegar is more acidic than lemons and almost as acidic as limes, Fruit Fresh is an extremely highly concentrated mixture of ascorbic acid and citric acid specifically developed to prevent browning in fruits.

So what works to keep avocados pretty and green?

Perhaps some experimentation is in order. I think I'll start with acids, since the common wisdom is that acid helps keep avocados green.

EDIT As of 1/8/15, I have added a new answer, as the highly upvoted one really only says what doesn't help. The accepted answer HERE shows the results of further experimentation, and what does help.

See the improved answer here: What DOES Help?

Which acid works best to keep avocados from browning?

Answer: None (of the acids tested)

It's not that acid doesn't do much to help.

ALL OF THE ACIDS TESTED CAUSED AVOCADOS TO BECOME MORE BROWN AND TO BECOME BROWN FASTER THAN NO TREATMENT AT ALL

I am not kidding.

Method

For acid, I used freshly squeezed lemon juice, freshly squeezed lime juice, distilled white vinegar (diluted to 5% acidity), and Ball brand Fruit Fresh mixed per package instructions, 2 tsp powder to 3 TBS water. Fruit Fresh contains dextrose, ascorbic acid, citric acid and silicon dioxide. According to the label, 1/4 tsp of the powder contains 230% of the US RDA of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid). That roughly translates to the solution I used having 100X the concentration of Vitamin C of lemon juice. I was not able find anything to give me a basis for comparison of citric acid concentration.

I diced 1 avocado and shuffled up the chunks so that no 1 pile had chunks from only 1 part of the fruit. I dropped the chunks into small bowls of the acids, removed the chunks, and allowed to air dry. They remained at room temperature for 24 hours.

I mashed 2 avocados together and put 50 grams of the mash into each of 5 small bowls. I added 1/4 tsp of each individual acid to each bowl, leaving 1 bowl plain. I mixed thoroughly and scooped the mash onto 2 plates, 1 to be refrigerated, and 1 to be left at room temperature. I washed and dried the scoop between changes in acid.

Results

The diced avocados just gradually became darker over 24 hours, with the vinegar treated fruit the first to show signs of browning, and ultimately the vinegar treated fruit became the darkest. The untreated fruit resisted browning the longest and ultimately browned the least. The lemon juice and lime juice were about tied, they both significantly sped darkening and ultimately became significantly darker than the untreated fruit. The Fruit Fresh barely made any difference, but the slight difference there was, was negative. Fruit Fresh also caused the avocado to become darker and to brown faster, but just barely.

At 24 hours all of the mashed, unrefrigerated avocado had become equally brown and unappetizing, it just happened faster to the treated avocado. The difference was most dramatic at 6 hours:

It's not clearly visible in the photo, but the Fruit Fresh treated avocado was ever-so-slightly more brown than the untreated avocado.

At 6 hours none of the refrigerated, mashed avocado was significantly browning.

At 24 hours all of the mashed avocado was the worse for wear. On the non-refrigerated side, it looks on this photo like the vinegar treated avocado ultimately fared the best. It actually didn't. I didn't think to snap a picture, but the vinegar treated avocado was the only one to discolor all the way through. The others were still green on the inside, the vinegar treated scoop was slightly browned even on the inside.

There came a point about 12 hours in that the refrigerated side just stopped browning. It had dried out, leaving it more green than the non-refrigerated side, but no more pleasant. All of the samples browned and dried out fairly equally.

At 48 hours I had one scoop of mashed avocado left that I cared to eat.

By adding nothing, keeping it refrigerated and covered in plastic wrap clinging to the surface, so that it had no air at all, this avocado is still fresh, green and ready to eat.

I'll add lime now for flavor, and some cilantro and cumin. Pass the chips.

Note:

I am honored that this answer has been so generously received, but the fact is, it really doesn't answer the question very well. This answer shows what doesn't help. As of 1/8/15 I have added and accepted a new answer based on new experiments that show what does help, it's HERE next to the checkmark.


Can I use lye as a leavener instead of baking soda? I'm interested to try to make waffles using a concentrated lye water instead of baking soda as a leavening agent. I have three questions related to this subject:

Would this potentially make my waffles fluffier (due to increased CO2 producing reactions or otherwise)?
Would it impact the flavor of the waffles?
Is it safe to ingest waffles that have had a lye water reaction occur in them? (Obviously I should let the lye reaction complete before ingesting).

How long should I let a lye reaction occur before cooking?

Notably, I often use sourdough starter in my waffles, which has an acid component - I've noticed that I get a strong reaction from the baking soda as a result, and it got me thinking that I would get an even stronger result from lye, but I'm worried about taste and ingestion safety.

I got a pretty thorough answer to my question on the Chemistry sister site to this one.

https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/43896/can-i-use-lye-as-a-cooking-leavener-instead-of-baking-soda

In short, lye, while caustic, will not create a chemical reaction producing CO2, which is what baking soda does during leavening. So lye is at-best an inferior leavening approach, and in most cases, won't work as a leavening ingredient at all.


Are there aged cheeses I can make which don't require a cheese fridge? I enjoy home cheesemaking, and often make fresh cheeses at home, including ricotta, paneer, queso fresco, and microwave mozzarella.  I've stayed away from hard, aged cheeses to date because they appear to all require aging in a special cheese fridge.  That is, every hard cheese recipe I've seen requires at least some aging at 55F / 13C.  A regular fridge is too cold, and room temperature in our apartment ( 65F / 17C ) is too warm.  But I live in a San Francisco apartment, so building a cheese-aging fridge is out of the question.  There's no room.

Does anyone know of cheese types or techniques for making semi-soft or hard cheeses which can be aged either at regular fridge temperature, or at 17C room temperature?

The cheeses that just plain won't work in the fridge are those that make use of bacteria or mold with "special needs". Swiss, camembert, and any blue cheese come to mind. The bacteria that produce the holes in Swiss need specific, relatively warm, temps for specific times. Likewise the molds on the rinds or through blue cheeses need warmer but still cooler than room temperature.

Most semi-firm to firm cheeses can be aged just fine in a fridge. Many generic cheese recipes such as:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese98.htm
or
http://www.cheesemakingrecipe.com/Dutch.html
either say to age in the fridge or don't give a temperature at all and just say "age in a cool place".

In particular cheddar or gouda like cheeses age just fine in the fridge. Parmesan should also work but I personally haven't had the patience to wait the year necessary to try it.

Of course if generic-cheddar-like cheese isn't good enough and you want to recreate some particular cheddar that will be harder. Those recipes usually call for something like "Age for 6 months in this particular cave in France".

As for room temperature. I don't know. Room temperature at my house is 80F and no cheese will work with that.


Browning bones in a skillet I want to try out some recipes that require a bone stock. Ideally a bone stock should be made with bones that have been roasted for 45 minutes, I  just moved and do not posses a oven. Is it possible to get the same roasted bone flavour with just a skillet or any other type of pan? If not, are there any alternatives for getting a proper bone stock?

Depending on what kind of stock pot or soup pot you intend to use, you can just brown the bones right in the bottom of the pot. I don't think my mom ever put bones in the oven to make soup.

Put a little oil in the bottom of the pot and brown the bones like you would sautee meat over medium high heat. When you've got the desired browning done, just pour in the water you will use to make the stock and boil the bones in the water like you would normally do.


How do I stop my fire alarm from going off when I cook? My fire alarm always goes off when I cook, even when the food is not burning. Because of this, I have never been able to keep batteries in my fire alarms.  How can I stop this from happening?

Many modern smoke/fire detectors have the ability to temporarily disable or decrease the sensitivity of the alarm for a short period of time, usually 15 or 20 minutes. At the end of the time period it returns to full sensitivity.

You may want to look into replacing your smoke detector with one of these.


How to make a meringue cake layer that is not cracked? I have been trying for some time to make a meringue cake layer (like for Pavlova, but flatter, thinner) and I have not had any luck.
The recipe I use is 50 grams of sugar per one medium egg white, and 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar if using 3 egg whites.
So I use 150 grams of sugar, 3 medium egg whites, and 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar. (I stopped adding flavourings because I think they might contribute to my failure.)
I use glass or metal bowl that has been washed, dried, and lightly wiped down with a lemon sliced in half. The mixer beaters are also washed and wiped with lemon juice. The egg whites are at room temperature when I start mixing.
How I make it - I use a hand-held electric mixer and beat the egg whites (oh high speed) until somewhat stiff peaks form, and then I start adding in the sugar, a spoonful at a time, beating well between each addition (15-20 seconds on high speed) until it becomes almost shiny.
I draw four circles on the baking paper (15 cm in diametre), divide and spread out the egg whites with a spoon, and put it immediately in the oven at 100C (212F), for 60 minutes, then I turn off the oven, leave them in for 15 minutes more, and take out.
I have tried baking (drying, essentially) them at 90C, at 120C, all with varying results, but they almost always come out cracked and not white.
I know I am doing something wrong, but I do not know what... If anyone can help, I will be greatly thankful.

I am not entirely sure that what you intend is doable. A pure French meringue, when baked enough to get hard, will generally go brown on the outside. Also, I don't think the idea is very functional - first, most fillings and icings will likely wet your layers through, and second, if you can keep them dry, eating the cake will not be especially pleasant, getting worse with every layer you add.
You may instead look into existing recipes for cake layers designed around a meringue. These are usually dacquoise cakes, but I recently also found out that there is a popular cake in Serbia made with what was called orehovka in eastern bloc countries, essentially a merengue-and-walnut cookie, which gets blown up to cake layer size for that recipe.
If you absolutely insist on using pure meringue, you will get better behavior from Italian meringue. Be very precise in measuring the temperature of the eggs and the syrup correctly, in getting it to the right stage without overwhipping, pop it in the oven (your 90 to 120 C range sounds right) and keep your fingers crossed.
In case you continue trying the pure-meringue-route, there are two more things to try. One, you can also add a vessel full of water on the bottom of the oven to reduce the probability of cracking. Two, if you use a silicone or fiber mat instead of the baking paper, you will have more insulation from below, and also less risk for cracking after the baking, during peeling off the mat.


How long will food last in a refrigerator that is turned off? We will be having a power outage in our building soon and our fridges are pretty full. The power will be off for about 10 hours. Will our food last safely during this time?

[Edited] I think 10 hours would be safe enough for most food: the first couple of hours the fridge will still be quite cold, and after that it takes more than a few ours for most food to spoil. When I leave milk out of the fridge for three hours at room temperature (say, 20 °C), nothing happens. I do this often. And the temperature inside the fridge will never reach room temperature in those 10 hours. When it is really hot in summer, it might spoil after 2 hours outside the fridge, but otherwise it takes much longer.

Cheese, food in jars, sauces, leftover cooked food: none of these are more sensitive to spoiling than milk. Fresh herbs are probably equally sensitive. Eggs are much less sensitive. The most sensitive kinds of food I can think of are probably raw meat and raw fish without preservatives. Smoked or salted meat and fish do not count: they can be kept much longer. I think even raw meat and fish will pull through, but you might want to apply the following tips to be sure.

Tip 1: put as much material in your fridge as possible, a day before the outage. That will "absorb the cold" that your fridge feeds it while power is still on. Then, once power goes out, the "cold reserve" in your fridge will be significantly increased, so that the average temperature of the interior will stay colder for a much longer time. The higher the volumetric heat capacity, the better. See this table ('volumetric heat capacity') for the best material; water probably wins. So stuffing bags of water in every nook and cranny would seem like a good idea. Or else bottles.

Tip 2: if you have a freezer, stuff it with bags and/or bottles of water, and put most of those in the fridge once power goes out (swap with some of the bags/bottles that were in the fridge). The freezer will probably do better, because it has much better insulation than the fridge. And put the most sensitive foods in the freezer maybe a few hours after power goes out (or maybe later—lest they freeze after all).

Actually, start putting as much water bags/bottles in the freezer as you can several hours before power goes out, and move them to the fridge once frozen. They will remain half-frozen for hours and hours in the fridge, so they will add extra coolness to the fridge. This way you're "saving up" cold from the freezer and increasing your cold reserve even more.

Tip 3: most refrigerators have a temperature slide/wheel/thing, which determines what temperature the thermostat aims at. You could set the slide to maximum power (so lowest temperature) a few hours before the power outage. Most people, including me, have the slide somewhere in the middle normally. The slide usually doesn't mark the exact temperature, but rather some symbols. It is usually found inside the refrigerator.

Tip 4: cook and/or eat any raw fish and meat before the outage. I think it would not be necessary at all if you follow the above tips, but cooking your meat now may just be simpler. Then either store the cooked meat or eat it. Incidentally, I wouldn't half-cook any meat: that may actually increase the rate of bacterial growth if it doesn't kill the bacteria completely. But something like salmon can be (fully) cooked first, reheated later.


How can I susbtitute unseasoned rice vinegar for seasoned? I have unseasoned rice vinegar but a recipe that calls for seasoned.  I assume I should add sugar and salt to substitute for seasoned vinegar, but in what proportions would mimic a typical seasoned rice vinegar?

For each cup of vinegar, add 3 tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of salt. You may also add a piece of kelp or a pinch of kelp powder. And of course, all of these proportions can be adjusted to taste.


How to cook better cookies despite a terrible oven? I am a college student living in a dorm for the first time. One of the luxuries I used to have at home was the ability to cook store-bought cookie dough cookies in my oven and have them come out tasty and goey.

While my dorm does have the luxury of an oven I do not think it is a very good one. Maybe it is just me but the cookies that come out of it arent goey or that enjoyable. They are pretty dry and sometimes need to be cooked for 0.5-1.5 minutes more than I would cook them at home.

How would you suggest I change my baking strategy so I can get better results from my oven? (Rack placement, dough shaping, temperature, time, etc)

I believe my oven is a very basic electric oven. I usually place the pan on the 3rd (out of 4) rack up.

As suggested by Catija, moscafj and Ecnerwal the first thing you want to do is get a oven thermometer to verify that the temperature you're setting is the one you're actually getting. If possible you might should to bring it back home to see how well your home oven is calibrated. It may be the case that your home oven is slightly off in one direction and your dorm in the other direction so you might need to make a bigger adjustment than just testing your dorm oven would indicate.

That said, it sounds like your problem is that you're leaving the cookies in the oven for too long. Chewy cookies are basically under cooked cookies, you want to take them out of the oven when they're golden brown on the outside while still soft in the middle. Differences in lighting and glass between your old stove and the new one might make it harder to judge when the cookies are done, causing them to appear less browned then they actually are. Also cookies will still cook a bit while cooling on the counter, hardening up, so you're aiming for cookies that are a bit less done than you want in the end.


Is it possible for a foreign object to be embedded in a piece of pork? A couple of days ago I made a sweet and sour pork dish, and had some leftovers for lunch today. While chewing I noticed something hard. When I took it out of my mouth, there was a diamond stud earring, about 3/8" (1 cm) long.

Now the ingredients were pork shoulder strips purchased at a local supermarket, under a well-known name brand. I cut them into 3/4" cubes. The vegetables were cut up from whole so clearly they weren't the source. All the other ingredients were liquids or powders like flour.

Nothing was otherwise noticed in the original batch or in the leftovers. I am scratching my head but my only conclusion is that it was embedded inside a piece of the pork.

But how could it get there? The clasp was still on the earring so it didn't fall off someone's ear. I know pigs eat anything, but...

Anyway, to make a long story short, I am asking if anyone had had such experience, and if so, what was the explanation for it.

Even if a pig ate something like that a piece of jewellery wouldn't end up in the muscle (meat). It would pass through and out the other end; if it didn't have time to do that it would still be in the digestive system, which is removed before the meat is cut into portions (if you'd said dog food it might be another matter).

I suspect that it entered the dish sandwiched between two strips,or pinned into a side of a piece that you didn't see. If you cut across the strips to dice it, it could still get in. I know from experience with diced game that you can deliberately feel for shot and miss bits. That of course would be embedded, but you weren't looking for metal in your meat.

On the other hand, what liquids did you add? Passata/creamed/chopped tomatoes from a can could introduce something without you noticing it.

In either of these cases it was probably removed at the start of a shift in a food factory and transferred via clothing, as it had the back on it. In some liquid foods it could have come from the farm like that but most pass through a sieve at some point.

I assume you've checked that no one who spends time in your kitchen has lost an earring? Is hard to see how it could get into the dish that way, but not completely impossible.


Is there any flavor difference in heated sugar (e.g. cotton candy)? A friend writes:

  Why do people continue to think that cotton candy is a flavor? It's spun sugar with food coloring. It tastes like... sugar.

Now I'm curious.

Ignoring for a moment any possible contribution of the food coloring, are there chemical changes to the sugar (sucrose, I presume) during the heating process that are distinguishable by the human olfactory or taste system?

The smell of a cotton candy machine and fresh cotton candy definitely seems distinctive; I'm sure the machine itself and the increased aerosolization of the sugar in the vicinity both have something to do with that.  Similarly, the increased surface area of the sugar probably changes the magnitude of our tastebuds' responses.  But I wonder about the specific chemical changes involved, and whether they're detectable by most humans.

(Psychologically and/or neurologically, I'm sure there's something to be said about the whole experience of cotton candy changing our perception of how it tastes.  In this case, I'm looking for the basic chemistry and biology.)

What Rincewind42 says about caramelization is true in itself, but it doesn't apply here. Cotton candy is made from sugar syrup at the hard ball stage (130°C), so too cold for caramelization. Caramelization only starts occuring at 160°C and above. In fact, caramel has a very different texture from sugar, so it is practically impossible to spin cotton out of it. It makes spidery, unendly elastic strands, unlike the brittle cotton candy strands. Plus, it is visibly brown, and tastes very different from sugar, so you'd notice it when eating the cotton candy.

The flavor of cotton candy is indeed sugar (unless it has had something else added). But taste is not the same thing as flavor. Things taste different to us based on texture, aroma, color and food name. (I once read about a study made with unusually colored puddings. People who had eaten cherry pudding with yellow coloring were sure they are eating banana or lemon, and they were convinced the pink vanilla pudding was strawberry). So it is entirely possible that a gelato customer who eats a gelato called "cotton candy", has lots of sugar and is painted a pastel color will perceive it as having a different taste from non-flavored ice cream which has lots of sugar, but not the color or the name, especially if the texture of the "cotton candy" flavor is tweaked a bit.


Freezing flavored/infused oils I'm looking to make a variety of infused oils (lemon zest infused, garlic confit oil, herb oil, etc--all strained with no solids left) to have on hand. Unfortunately, most recipes recommend to use infused oils within one week, which
in most cases would not be possible in my case. I'd like to make a batch of each and keep them for longer, if possible. Would it be feasible to freeze oils like this with minimal loss in quality? If it would ruin the flavor/aroma of volatile compounds found in lemon rind and herbs, I'm not sure it's worth it, but wanted to see if anyone else has had success here.

You should be fine. In fact, there is advice on preserving fresh herbs by freezing them in ice cube trays filled with oil - I tried it once, and enjoyed the results. So I'm pretty sure the flavored oil will also keep well. Maybe not as perfect as on the first day, but still plenty of aroma.


Matching herbs with meats I'm well aware of how well rosemary and lamb goes together, but apart from that I'm a bit clueless. Is there a web page or something out there which can tell me what meat goes well with what herb/spice?

If not, today I'm looking for what to use with my slow roasted pork (neck). Any ideas?

Not a website (and I am not affiliated with Amazon or the authors), but the Flavor Bible can help with herbs and much more.  I use if frequently in the kitchen. http://www.amazon.com/The-Flavor-Bible-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400


How to stop mint flavor dying when cooking? I notice albondigas recipes involve adding chopped mint leaves to the meatballs. Whenever I do this the minty smell is amazing coming from the freshly rolled uncooked balls however after cooking I cant taste the mint at all, I have used a LOT of mint but even so I still cant taste it. Having read that the mint flavor fades when exposed to heat, how would the meatballs be cooked whilst retaining the flavor?
At the moment I brown them in the pan with a bit of oil then add them to the sauce and cook them for about 20 minutes.
Thanks

While it is true that the mint flavor will fade with cooking, it is still there to some degree.  I bet you would be able to identify the difference if you left it out.  However, whenever you want to highlight a fresh herb, such a mint, it is good practice to chop some of that herb at the last possible moment before serving, and garnish your finished product.  That will greatly enhance the flavor and the aroma.


How can I reassure myself a given food is not a botulism risk? Ever since a man has died (in my country) because of eating home-made ham contaminated with botulism, I'm really concerned about it and I see risks everywhere.
I have 2 questions related to it, and I hope someone can enlighten me.

Assuming I'm making a soup and I have a canned jar of tomatoes, and somehow it's infested - if I boil them for 20 minutes with other ingredients, the toxin will die, right? But what about the spores? I know they won't die because the temperature is not high enough, but does this mean they are safe to eat?
I'm concerned when it comes to airtight sealed food, like mozzarella, feta, cheese and ham. How safe are these?

Virtually every case of botulism ever recorded in the past 50 years is due to improper home canning. The risk of botulism from a commercial product is so low that you literally have a better chance of being struck by lightning and almost as good a chance as being struck twice in the same year.

There are 145 cases reported in the U.S. each year and 65% of those are infant botulism, 20% from wounds. It's hard to get statistics on infant population, but there are 314 million people in the U.S., so I estimate the chance of getting botulism from food there to be 0.00000692675% in any given year.

You may not live in the U.S., but unless you live in a country with extremely poor or nonexistent safety standards (in which case you have more important things to worry about anyway), I'd advise you to stop worrying. You are about 20 times more likely to die in a fire and 200 times more likely to die in a car accident.

As far as the spores go, they generally aren't dangerous to healthy adults, they affect infants and those with depressed immune systems, hence the heavy proportion of infant botulism cases (often from honey). That's why the WHO warns people not to give honey to infants under 1 year old, but doesn't advise any similar precautions for adults (The reason for no advice for adults is that their stomach is acidic so the bacteria cannot grow and produce the toxin. But infants have lower acidity in their stomach and botulism bacteria from honey can grow there. Honey always has the bacteria. )

Botulism spores can only be killed at extreme temperature, i.e. above 120° C. Boiling water is 100° C, so don't even try to kill them this way. You would need a pressure cooker at very high pressure, and this is why low-acid foods must be pressure-canned; simply boiling is not enough. On the other hand, the botulism toxin is denatured at 80° C, so boiling anything for a reasonable time will make it safe from botulism, but not necessarily from the many other bacteria and/or toxins that can be in spoiled food, such as those produced by certain e.coli strains.

There are plenty of things to worry about with commercial food - salmonella in peanut butter, listeria in lettuce, listeria in spinach... the list goes on and on, but one thing that's generally not on it is botulism, and I think the constant attention here on it actually makes matters worse by taking attention away from other, more common and equally serious issues. Seriously, one person died from contaminated homemade ham and now you're afraid to eat commercial mozzarella cheese?

If you aren't an infant, don't do home canning or home food preservation, and refrigerate your food properly, you're not at risk for botulism. Period. You are, however, at risk of so many other things, and really should try to learn more about food safety in general - from which you'll definitely learn facts such as boiling for 20 minutes won't make spoiled food safe.


Is it better to fry or grill a steak? Whenever I cook steak at home I usually grill it, but is this as good as frying?

I have usually grilled so it is not cooking in the juices and I thought might be healthier, but have been told that frying would make it tastier.

Also would a grill pan be good to use on the hob instead of a standard frying pan?

Generally speaking, frying gives a better crust due to the higher direct heat producing more Maillard flavours. A good, heavy, screaming hot pan is required. Oil the steak, not the pan, with vegetable or groundnut oil (olive oil will burn), and baste with butter towards the end for extra flavour.

If your steak is thick, you might try a reverse sear - roast the steak at about 150°C until the centre is 10°C off your desired doneness level (if you don't have a digital probe thermometer, invest the small amount they cost, it is completely worth it), then sear the outside on your mega hot pan. This avoids you having to overdo the outside just to get the inside right.


Can one use chocolate fèves/callets/nibs for tempering? I usually buy Valrhona chocolate in blocks, but at this moment only the fèves/callets/nibs are available to me. Is it possible to temper these nibs or are they further processed beyond what is in the bars?

Thanks!

Yes, you can temper the callets.

Couverture is couverture, and the only thing that's really different about the callets is their shape - they're specifically intended to be melted easily, unlike the bars which they (sort of) expect people to eat directly.  The bars are less likely to melt during shipping which is why they also sell them in that form.


How do you make sure your salmon is cooked through? I have taken measurements and by the time the slim side of the salmon hits 60c, the middle is barely scratching 30c. With that gap how can you make sure the inside is cooked without overcooking the surface?

Laws of physics dictate that if you roast / bake a side of salmon (or other fish or meat) with different thicknesses using traditional methods, you will reach different levels of doneness.
This can actually be a good thing, e.g. I have a group of guests who prefer their beef anywhere from rare to well-done and I serve whatever each one prefers.

But of course there are methods to minimize or even completely avoid this, namely those where the fish / meat is exposed only to the target temperature or slightly above, thus eliminating the danger of overcooking.

Sous-vide
Using a carefully tempered water bath to bring your food to the desired temperature over a rather long time. As the water bath is exactly at the target temperature, you can't over cook.
This method alone won't give your any "roast" flavours (no maillard reaction), if those are desired, a quick sear or some torching must follow the sous-vide process prior to serving.
The disadvantages are a quite long "cooking" time (sometimes hours) and the need for special equipment like special bags, a vacuum sealer and the heating pump. Home equipment is available for around 200$, pro tools can quickly exceed 1k.
Low temperature cooking in an oven
Either first searing the piece of meat and then slowly bringing it to the desired core temperature in an oven slightly warmer that the desired core temperature or heating first and then searing to finish it off (reverse low-temp).
Needs no special equipment, is a bit faster than sous-vide but there is the risk of the fish / meat drying out a bit in the oven. Not all ovens run low enough, forcing you to use a slightly hotter than ideal process.
Forgoing the "one big showy piece"
You can of course cut the fillet into portions and adjust cooking time for each piece individually, either by putting the thick pieces into the oven or pan first and the thinner ones later or by removing the thin ones earlier.
This of course means that you need to judge the doneness for each piece individually.


What's the difference between tangzhong and levain? I am going to start making sourdough bread but there are recipes using both tangzhong and starter (levain). Not sure why both needed and how it will achieve given results.

Tangzhong (water roux) and levain are two fundamentally different things.

The roux does not contain any leavening element, it is simply a method to bind water, effectively increasing the amount of water that can be used in a dough and therefore making a light, soft, moist bread.

A levain (sourdough) is the part that is responsible to create the "lift" due to the CO2 of the yeasts' metabolism and, in case of rye breads, deactivate some enzymes that hinder the development of good bread.

You can leave out the roux, but should not leave out the leavener, you need sourdough and / or yeast.


Nuts in Italian cooking What sorts of nuts are common in (real) Italian cooking?

Looking online it seems that walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts figure heavily but do Italians use cashew nuts, peanuts, pistachio or other nuts?

I would say cashews and peanuts are not traditional Italian. Pistachios and hazelnuts are commonly used for desserts, think nutella for example. Pine nuts (pesto) and chestnuts are also traditional. It might not what you are looking for, but nutmeg is a common Italian spice.


What are these spaghetti-like strings in the rice I got from a Turkish shop? I bought some rice from Turkish shop and as you can see in the picture it came with this spaghetti like strings with it, I’m not referring to the green stuff.
Do you know what it is and would it have been typically boiled with the rice or added at the end?

It's toasted vermicelli.
This dish is called şehriyeli pilav in Turkey, riz bi sh’arieh in Lebanon and Syria, shehrehi yeghintz in Armenia, and reshteh polo in Iran.
The basic idea is that you brown the noodles in a little bit of oil or butter, then add rice and cook basically as you would cook steamed rice.
Below are four sample recipes.  Note that the Persian version (the last in this list) is more complicated, uses a different noodle (a kind that's more common in Iran) and has a crispy bottom.
şehriyeli pilav
riz bi sh'arieh
shehrehi yeghintz - and if you read that article (it's worth a read), you'll learn that this dish was also the inspiration for Rice-A-Roni.  More like the "Yerevani treat"!
reshteh polo


Baked eggplant is bitter - is there a way to fix it? Do I have to throw away bitter eggplant after I have baked it?  Can something be done or do I have to throw it away?

Some extra salt will help hide the bitterness, but obviously that only goes so far before it's too salty.


Cooking frozen Pizza in the microwave I am totally new to cooking, I just boil eggs :). I am staying alone for sometime, and I want to cook some stuff at home instead of eating outside every day.

I thought that Pizza might be a good start. So, I am trying with pre-made frozen pizza (well, that is not actual cooking!)

The problem is that all the frozen pizzas I found are created to be cooked in oven (put 15 minutes in the heated oven), and my oven is broken. I have the fan grill, the oven top and a microwave..

can I cook pizzas using any of these?

No, you can't bake pizza in the microwave. See Why do my pizzas get such hard crusts? for details. The short answer: it gets as hard as brick.

I won't say that baking a pizza with a stove and a grill is impossible, but it is definitely not something for beginners. So this, too, is out. Really, a pizza needs an oven.

If you insist on pizza, the cheapest way is to buy a toaster oven. They start at 50 €.

If you just want to ease into cooking by preparing pre-made food, look into frozen pre-seasoned vegetable mixes for the pan, or fresh dumplings from the refrigerated goods aisle, or noodles with easy sauces. All of these can be prepared without an oven, and don't need much time or cooking knowledge. They won't let you experience all the benefits of home cooking, but neither will frozen pizza, so this is probably not a problem in your case.


Is pressure canning, weeks after regular canning safe? Recently I have learned, that I need to use a pressure canner when canning paprika. So far I have only used my oven.

I have ordered a pressure canner, but it may arrive end of october. At this time, the season for paprika may already be over.

So my plan is to do my regular canning procedure now, that I can get good paprika at a good price, boil the jars in water (or water bath in oven), then let them sit on the shelf until my pressure canner arrives and cook them in the pressure canner again.

Would this work and is it safe? Would I lose a lot of quality this way? The paprikas are cooked in the oven or grilled on very high heat, after which they are canned. So there is plenty of heat involved already. But would an additional canning procedure do much damage?

I can't come up with a way to do this that is not problematic.

First, no canning authority I can find provides instructions on how to re-can under pressure food that is already canned.  The closest instructions I can find are from the national center for food preservation, which basically say "don't do it".

Second, you're talking about a month between initial canning and then re-canning under pressure.  A month is plenty of time for botulism spores and other toxic microorganisms to germinate, which really only need a couple of days, so you'd need to keep the jars in the fridge.  Given this, it would be tempting to roast the peppers and not process them at all and just keep them in the fridge, but again in that amount of time they would get moldy (and certainly lose flavor).  Freezing them would destroy their texture.

Third, this means you would be running the full jarring process twice, which would almost certainly result in soft, mushy peppers.  You can't cut the time on either proccessing cycle, because without the full cycle neither would be safe.  I suspect that you'd also have a high ratio of jar/lid failure.

Let me suggest an alternative: package your peppers in a hot water bath, now, with added citric acid.  Raising their acidity makes them safe to be jarred at air pressure, and they will still be pretty good.  Save the pressure canner for next year.


How does pineapple affect umami when used in vegan-fish-sauce recipes? I have seen mushroom and wakame as ingredients in fish sauce substitutes but does pineapple just take the cake?

A number of recipes are simmering fresh chopped pineapple along with salty ingredients before straining: does that add umami or in any way help extract umami?

Umami is the result of glutamic acid (ions) getting in touch with the tongue. Glutamic acid in fish sauce is the result of a fermentation process, which involves bacteria doing the work of breaking down fish components. Glutamic acid easily dissolves in water though. This is after all, how it was detected millennia ago and centuries ago verified by creating glutamic acid salts: Cooking seaweed in water and boiling the result down.

The wakame is added due to its natural content of glutamic acid. There isn't anything special the pineapple can/has do to it that regular water can't do.

Therefore the answer is: No, the purpose of the pineapple is not to increase the glutamic acid of the substitute.


Storing matcha tea in a thermos? lately i started to drink matcha tea, as an experiment instead of coffee, and i have read many descriptions about it.

I want to drink matcha tea to work, but i dont want to make it every time here,but instead to have it in a thermos.I have an 1L stainless still thermos and the quantity is quite enough for 3~4 cups of tea.

So, is it ok to make the tea in the morning and having it till the end of working day or this process is not good for the tea?
Will it change the color of it also?

Regards

It might be worth trying coldbrew matcha for what you're trying to do. If you have a thermos already, try it at home over a weekend and see if it keeps well enough for your tastes. Matcha may settle if you leave it long enough, and many people enjoy the froth the most, so it really benefits from being made and drunk fresh.


When should one ice christmas fruit cakes It's that time of year again, where Christmas fruit cake have been baked and are being topped up with your favourite dark spirit. My favourite (and most successful) recipe suggested topping up with brandy weekly (without getting the cake too moist).

However, no suggestions were provided as to when is the right time to stop adding your spirits, and therefore to ice the cake.

I usually marzipan and ice the cake a few days before I want to gift it (and/or eat it), but I was wondering if there is an optimal time in this process to do so, and if so, why?

It's not unknown for me to keep a slice until April (well wrapped so it doesn't dry out). All that happens is that the icing gets a bit hard. I use fondant icing, and it takes at least a couple of months to get as hard as royal icing does almost immediately. This is with bought marzipan; if you make your own I don't know how well it would keep.

From this I'd say there's no such thing as too late except setting time, and too early would have to be over a month in advance. I also allow a day between marzipan and icing.  This is mainly as a drier marzipan surface is easier to ice onto than when it's freshly applied.

Some of the early feeds (I use sherry) can be from the top if it's not iced. You take away this possibility by icing early. You probably shouldn't feed it from the top just before covering as it may still be damp.  You can still feed from underneath after icing.


Raspberry jam consistency I tried making raspberry jam and packed it in jars, hot and canned. when I opened it for use, the top layer has a good jam-like consistency and texture but when further layers are scooped out they have a more spreadable consistency. it's been long since I used other home made and store bought jams. Could anyone let me know whether this is normal or am I doing something wrong?

The same was the case when I packed the cooled down jam and used it at a later point of time (both refrigerated version and non-refrigerated version).

I've found when hot-packing jam into jars that have just come out of the oven at 160°C, the jam that is in contact with the glass keeps cooking and thickens. You can tell because it sizzles as it goes in, despite being over 100°C when poured (I use a jam thermometer so can be fairly sure). Letting it cool then packing for rapid consumption always leads to thick jam for me, as it carries on cooking while the rest is packed. But this tends to be the last bits that aren't worth packing properly, so gives me an early taste test portion, if a poor indication of texture.

Letting the jars cool a little would reduce this, in fact if I take several jars out of the oven in one go then fill them the sizzling is reduced by the last jar.

After hot packing into sterilised jars you don't (according to the UK food standards agency) need to carry out a further step, so I don't. Even pressure canning would have a limited effect on the water content of the jam overall, but bay cause some further cooking against the glass. Simply boiling the jars (as advised in old books for preserves with lower sugar content) should have no effect, as the jam was already hotter than that.


What size bowl for bread I have a bread recipe  for 1 loaf of bread I want to try. Does it matter what size of bowl I use to let it rise in?  I normally bake 2 loafs. Can I use the same bowl? I have a friend that told me it is to big and my bread wont rise correctly. I love her to death, but she really doesn't know everything like she thinks she does. I'm still new at bread making.

Margalo is missing a detail in their otherwise good answer:

Many bread recipes use two rises, one after mixing ("bulk rise"), one after shaping and before the bread goes into the oven.

For the first rise you just want to make sure the bowl is large enough, so at least double the volume of your unrisen dough. For very large and wide bowls, you just have to take extra care that the dough won't dry out.

But the final rise may need the right size of container:

A shaped loaf behaves differently depending on recipe and shaping. Soft doughs will be put to rise in the baking tin (matching the loaf size), very stable ones simply put on a floured board or on the counter.

But there is a middle-ground where the loaf has a tendency to "flow outwards" or to flatten, no matter how carefully you shape it or how much tension you create. For those loaves, a proofing basket ("banneton") is used to keep the dough contained - or a bowl, if the baker doesn't have any special equipment at hand. This bowl should be both large enough that the bread won't overflow, yet small enough that the dough is kept together and can't flatten. Using a too-large bowl here nixes the purpose.


Books for very high level vegan cooking? I'm looking for a book, or some books on cooking vegan on a very high level. There are several nonvegan michelin star level books, and many "quick and lazy" books, but I'm having a hard time to find one that covers vegan dishes on star niveau.
Can someone recommend a book like this?
If there are books that contain a lot of vegetarian receipts that can be "veganized" without destroying the whole meal, that would be fine aswell :)

I'd recommend Crossroads, by vegan chef Tal Ronnen.  While not quite The French Laundry Cookbook, Crossroads is nevertheless on the very gourmet side of vegan.  And I can attest that the recipes are pretty good.


Donvier Ice Cream Maker - why stirring only every 2 minutes? This weekend I picked up a hand-cranked ice cream maker for a very low price. However some of the instructions don't make much sense. For this maker, they say to crank the handcrank 2-3 times every 2-3 minutes, for a total of 20-30 minutes.

However, every ice cream maker I have ever used requires you to constantly crank the handle to help keep ice crystals from forming. Likewise, all of the electric makers will spin a beater arm nonstop through the process. Why is does this ice cream maker say to only stir sporadically? Does stirring more cause an issue with this ice cream maker?

The ice cream maker is the same design as this one, but about 20 years old:
http://www.amazon.com/Donvier-837409W-1-Quart-Cream-Maker/dp/B00006484E/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

This is what the beater arm/dasher looks like.

I have had that icecream maker for decades. I never had a problem with ice crystals following their directives. Since you don't need to churn it continuously, they tell you there's no need to. The mix needs some time in contact with the walls to get cold.

If you have kids, it will get stirred more often than the instructions say. But that tends to work out ok too. It's pretty forgiving all around.


Botulinum Toxin in Home-Canned Green Beans I was given a jar of home-canned green beans.  The method of canning is unknown.

Wikipedia says:

  Botulinum toxin is denatured at temperatures greater than 80 °C (176 °F).[27]

  Proper refrigeration at temperatures below 3°C (38°F) retards the growth of Clostridium botulinum. The organism is also susceptible to high salt, high oxygen, and low pH levels. The toxin itself is rapidly destroyed by heat, such as in thorough cooking.[30] The spores that produce the toxin are heat-tolerant and will survive boiling water for an extended period of time.[31]

As usual with wikipedia, I'm not able to view the references.

My questions are:

1) At what minimal temperature and for what minimal amount of time is that temperature to be maintained to destroy the toxin?  I'd like to see something definitive and believable.

2) Suppose the toxin is destroyed by cooking, but the spores remain.  What is to stop the spores from becoming newly toxin-forming bacteria in my gut?  Is there not enough time?  Is there suppression from beneficial bacteria which prevents it?  Is the ph wrong?  The temperature?  The oxygen level?

3) If you've answered the first two questions favorably and were presented with a can of beans having a somewhat more than remote chance of containing clostridium botulinum, would you follow the procedure in your answer and eat the beans?  Assume you like green beans.  I don't want to see "when in doubt, throw it out" because shouldn't there always be an element of doubt with anything home-canned?  Shouldn't we treat each jar as if it was known to be contaminated?  I understand that there is an extra element of doubt if the canning procedure is not known, but then again, if the sterilization procedure works, does it matter what process was used?

The only way to prevent botulism in canned foods is to either make it to acidic for the spores to survive, or to pressure can it using the right equipment at a temperature of 121C for at least 3 minutes. If this hasn't been done then it could be full of botulism, in which case simply cooking it above 80C for say 30 minutes just to be sure (that's double the 15 minutes I've seen recommended on some sites, I'd take no chances) - as you say will destroy the toxin. If you eat it right away afterwards then you'll in all likelihood be fine, it takes a couple of hours at least for enough toxin to build up to be harmful, even in ideal conditions for it to develop.

However, if there was a chance that there was botulism in home-canned food given to me I wouldn't take the risk. Even though I know scientifically that I would be safe by following the above advice I wouldn't be able to enjoy the food, every bite I'd have nagging worries that I'm poisoning myself. If I was starving I would in a second of course, but I can walk to the corner store and buy all the food I want so why take the risks?

I wouldn't hesitate to try home canned food made by someone who knows their stuff, but if there's any doubt of the provenance of home canned food then the best advice would be to throw it away.


What is a good substitute for Farro? I saw this ingredient (farro) listed in a recipe that I was interested in making; however, I've never seen nor heard of it before.  Could you explain what it is, please. What can I substitute for Farro?

Farro is a grain, a bit nutty, usually cooked to soft, but with toothsome body.

Here's a good article about it from NPR

Pearled barley would be a good substitute, but if your recipe includes cooking times and instructions, those will vary if you substitute out the grain. Follow the package instructions for whatever grain you do use.

I do prefer barley "pearled", but that means that most of the bran is polished away along with the inedible hull, so it's no longer a whole grain. You can also get it with just the outer hull removed, so that it is still a whole grain. I prefer the texture of the pearled, but either choice would be a perfectly acceptable substitution for farro.

EDIT: I concur with Matt Ball's comment though. If you're in a part of the world where it's easy to get (that includes all of the US), you should try it!


Does soaking dry beans before cooking prevent flatulence? There are all kinds of opinions on whether or not soaking beans helps decrease flatulence.
Some say adding things like baking soda, lemon juice, salt, or other things to the bath helps the effect. Some say soaking them in a warm-water bath is more effective than a cold-water bath. Others say there is no effect whatsoever. Opinions of food-column editors and bloggers (and even users of Seasoned Advice!) seem to diverge considerably.
This tells me there might be little consensus in the general public. But what do the scientists who study this say?
It makes sense that this could be difficult to study, since flatulence production depends on the type of bean/legume, other food ingredients (e.g. cinnamon, garlic, ginger, sulfur-rich foods, etc.), diet, the person's individual GI response to chemicals and fiber, and probably other factors.
I've collected a number of sources:
Sources claiming soaking has little/no effect on flatulence

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-dont-soak-dried-beans-20140911-story.html (cites several experts)

Sources claiming warm-water soaking helps prevent flatulence

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1992.tb08093.x/abstract
http://jacknorrisrd.com/part-2-soaking-beans/

Sources claiming that flatulence shouldn't be a big deal

http://nutritionfacts.org/2011/12/05/beans-and-gas-clearing-the-air/

Sources claiming soaking with additives helps prevent flatulence

An article from the Pakistan Journal of Nutrition (PDF) (cited from https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/32385/24698)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1980.tb07571.x/abstract

Other Soaking Sources

What can I do to help prevent flatulence from beans?
http://www.vegfamily.com/dietician/0806b.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16478251
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/why-you-must-soak-your-beans/

Is there a scientific consensus on how to reduce flatulence from beans and/or legumes in general (if possible), and if so, what is it?
Please include multiple sources to peer-reviewed articles in your answer!

Love this question. I was vegetarian for a few years, so I too thoroughly researched this question, and I guess you could say I spent many hours "running experiments" as well...

I see you posing two questions:

Does soaking beans (possibly with added bases, acids, salts, etc) reduce flatulence?
What are other ways to reduce flatulence?

Some background on my method:
When I cook beans, I always soak them for over 24 hours, and sometimes as long as 3 days. I always soak them in the fridge - just because they will start getting funky if left on the counter for over 24 hours - and I usually change the water once a day. I only ever salt them after they are finished cooking, because I am a believer in the old wives tale that salt breaks apart bean skins.

Does it work?
Because I always soak my beans, I don't have a control to compare my experience to. So I cannot confidently say whether soaking reduces flatulence. The scientific articles you cite would probably better answer this question.

That being said, a method of reducing flatulence which I am fairly confident works, is to just eat more beans! Back when I was a vegetarian, I could easily go through over 2lbs of (dry) beans a week. This did not prevent me from having a social life, and I didn't notice any difference in amount (or is it technically volume?) of gas compared to when I didn't eat beans. I remember reading somewhere this is a result of how our stomachs adapt to what we eat over the long term.

And in the end, maybe flatulence isn't something we should be trying to avoid. As the old ditty goes,

  Beans beans, the magical fruit
  The more you eat, the more you toot
  The more you toot, the better you feel
  So let's have beans with every meal!

Words to live by indeed!


Using light cream instead of milk in crepes? I have light cream with 15% fat. How can I use his cream instead of milk in crepes?

Do I need to use water and what percentage?

In that recipe, there are 2 cups of milk, and 2 tablespoons of butter.

The difference in fat from dairy in going from milk to light cream at 15% fat is about 3 tablespoons of fat (and therefore, about 3 tablespoons less water).

You are almost quite likely going to get a quite similar outcome if you eliminate the butter, and maybe add a tablespoon or two of water.


Is there any advantage of filleting a fish at home instead of buying a fillet? Is it 'fresher' and therefore maybe tastier to fillet a fish right before cooking, or is buying a fillet just as good?

In other words; is there any difference in quality between a fillet that has been a fillet for a while (at the fish market) vs. a freshly cut fillet, assuming both fish were caught and held under the same circumstances?

When you cut any food you expose the cut surface to oxygen, which causes chemical changes due to oxidation. You also expose the cut surface to microbes and organisms which break down food. Both of these will impact the quality of cut meat or fish, so yes a filet cut from a whole fish just before cooking would be fresher and better quality than one cut some time before.

The effect is not great, however. If you had a whole fish and cut one filet from it the day before, then cut the other filet just before cooking both identically I doubt you would be able to tell any difference between the two.

To me the reasons for buying a whole fish as opposed to filets is cost and choice. A whole fish is easier to judge for quality than a filet, you can see whether the eyes are cloudy or clear, for instance. Buying a whole fish is cheaper than buying the filets off of it because it's much less work for the seller, so you can save some cash doing it yourself.

However, fileting a fish is not that easy. It's perfectly do-able at home and there's loads of how-to videos but it's still pretty involved and hard to do that well without lots of practice. It's also messy time consuming, so when you buy filets it's for the convenience of not having to do it yourself. The important thing is to make sure it's fresh whether it's whole or already prepped.


Spicy foods and weight loss It is well known that consuming spicy foods increases your metabolism and contributes to fat burning, mainly due to the presence of capsaicin.

Since this effect is very small, how many spicy foods would one have to eat (in terms of capsaicin) in order for the weight loss to be noticeable, strictly theoretically speaking?

The increase in metabolic rate from ingesting capsaicin is nominal and would make very little difference to someone trying to lose weight.

Of more interest is the fact that capsaicin appears to increase satiety - it increases the feeling of "fullness". Studies have shown that adding capsaicin to food results in the overall consumption of fewer calories. This effect too is relatively small, and so would likely only have any practical effect if the eater were also carefully managing their calorie intake.

Eating more spicy food would not cause you to lose more weight - you would simply be consuming more calories. Attempting to add more capsaicin to food in order to increase the effect would simply result in unpalatably hot food.

So, all in all, whilst there does appear to be an effect, it's small. I don't think any amount of spicy foods will cause weight loss on their own - only a planned diet will do that. In other words, spicy food won't cause you to lose weight, but if you are trying to lose weight, spicy foods may well help you to feel better while doing so.