Cooking messy foods in a bamboo steamer without a cleaning nightmare For example, chicken.

I have tried:

chicken directly in steamer: chicken gunk goes everywhere, including between the woven bamboo slats.
chicken in a colander in the basket: gunk still goes everywhere.
chicken on a dinner plate in the basket: gunk controlled but chicken gets cooked in a bath of accumulated chicken juices and condensed steam.
chicken on an upside down plate: gunk gets everywhere.
wrapped in banana leaves: good but don't have easy access to banana leaves and is this really steaming if they're wrapped up? Even on plates I feel I'm missing the rising steam and relying on the overall humidity in the basket.
sitting on banana leaves: again banana leaves are hard to come by, gunk problem still a bit of an issue.
using a new steamer basket each time: they're cheap but it's a bit wasteful...

Is there a solution here?

My mom uses pieces of lettuce, cabbage, spinach or some other large, leafy green as a bottom for her steaming uses.  I can't explain why this works, but for dumplings and Shanghai-style dumplings, this prevents the pool-of-water below as you describe.  Perhaps it has something to do with the varied height with the leaves...offering the water pools a place to collect without staying in contact with the food.

This may or may not catch the chicken gunk you're referring to, but I think it's worth a shot.


Why won't my boiled egg whites harden? I'm having problems with boiling eggs. The egg whites are not hardening and stay soft, but the yolks did set. The eggs I'm using are freshly laid.
What can cause this? How can I make sure my egg whites set too?

This is not a real answer, but rather some info to hopefully, help:

Egg whites are 90% water, when they harden, the protein unravels and creates a grid network that does not allow the molecules to slip past each other.  If the protein level drops, it might make it harder to set and stay runny.
Egg white proteins go through a phase change (become hard) at a lower temperature than the Yolk by a few degrees, that's how you can have soft-boiled eggs.
If you crack a fresh egg and it sprawls on the dish (as opposed to hold tall), you're looking at an egg from a chicken that didn't eat many insects/larvae. ;) This may be expected as at this time of the year (northern hemisphere) insects aren't very active.

There is a good section in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma that gets into more detail.  And perhaps better information regarding the off-season feed.


What is the name of this batter? I remember reading and watching videos about it, but haven't ever made it, and I also forgot the name. I want to learn some more of it, find the correct recipe, etc., but it is rather hard without the name as a starting point.

It is very simple, made with only egg whites and something else (flour, or cornstarch, or confectioner's sugar, I don't remember exactly which, or the correct ratio). It is baked in a very thin shape, often dripped in a pattern. When hot out of the oven, it has enough plasticity to be shaped per hand. It then cools in the shape it was given, making ornaments (out of the dripped patterns) or small basket-like shapes, for serving ice cream etc.

Does anybody have more info on it?

Update thank you for the great answers. I was able to find good ressources, mostly on searches for tuile, which seems to be the broader term (although hippenmasse alone would have helped too). The best information in English was available on http://www.pastrysampler.com/Questions_and_Answers/tuile.htm, if anybody is interested.

Update 2 I made the stuff according to a recipe from the link above, and they turned out just as I imagined them. Other SA members tried other recipes with less success, so I am posting the "known good" recipe here:

2 1/2 oz. powdered sugar // 70g
1 1/2 oz. flour // 45 g (slightly higher because with 40 g, it was too runny for piping)
2 egg whites
1 1/4 oz. clarified unsalted butter // 35 g

Sounds similar to a tuile. There's a little more to it that flour and egg white, but that's a good start; you'd also want some sugar, and probably some fat.

I have an example on http://blog.jagaimo.com/archive/2010/03/16/improvised-pumpkin-seed-tuiles.aspx with a few photos. I've also used the same basic batter to make little cups for ice cream, for which I generally crimp four ways over a small teacup. The batter generally loses plasticity very quickly out of the oven, so there's not much time to work.

A fortune cookie is made using a similar technique, though I think the dough has less fat.


What's the best method for preparing a smoked cod roe breakfast? I have some good smoked cod roe that I want to create a breakfast dish with.

I have no idea what to do with the cod roe though - I've never used it before. Do I slice it? Fry it? Spread it?

Ideally it would be toast, fried eggs and the cod roe plus whatever else would go well to make a breakfast treat for my girlfriend (who's a chef so it has to be good :))

Try using it as you would smoked Salmon and thinly slice or spread it over a bagel with cream cheese or slice it and stir it with scrambled eggs right before they are done or serving it with hollandaise egg


How can I make a silky smooth, rich mash? What are the key factors in making silky smooth (non gluey) mashed potatoes.

What technique has the best results?

Here is how we made pomme puree at the restaurant I used to work at, for a very well known (in Canada anyway) French chef:

Peel and boil as many potatoes as you need. Cook until slightly underdone.

Run the potatoes through a ricer/food mill. Then--this is key--scrape the result through a tami--a very fine mesh sieve. Most often used for sifting flour. Usually about 14-18" diameter, looks like a drum.

Return resulting potato to a pot, add melted butter, cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg to your desired consistency, stirring all the time.

If not serving immediately, chill as fast as possible, and reheat to order in a pan using a little more cream to loosen it up.

IMPORTANT: you must work as fast as possible; the potatoes need to stay hot the whole time or will become gluey.


Lard (or other fat) as a subsitute for butter in desserts for someone with a dairy allergy? My wife is currently unable to consume any dairy as our breast-fed baby has a milk protein allergy. When reading many dessert recipes, many of them call for butter. For example:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/04/shaker-lemon-pie/
or http://chefmichaelsmith.com/Recipe/cinnamon-rolls/

I know pie crusts for example can be made with either, but can they always be substituted?
When would I not want to use lard over butter?
What ratios should I use to convert the recipe?
Is there some other milk-protein free alternative that would work better?

Recipes for which you can substitute margarine for butter can have non-dairy margarines substituted instead - you have to check the ingredients list, most margarines contain milk solids. Here in Australia, my dairy free friends and I use Nuttelex, but that's not available in the USA.


What exactly is a "fast" oven? If an oven is described as "fast", what does that mean?

I have always assumed it simply means a hotter oven, where the temperature on the dial is lower than the temperature inside the oven.

But a fan-forced oven also cooks faster than a conventional oven, does that count?

What exactly is the definition of a fast oven?

The idea of a "fast" oven comes from the time when wood-burning stoves without temperature gauges were the most common ones in kitchens. A fast oven is anywhere from 400-425° F.

Conversion to Fahrenheit

Very slow (very low) oven: 300-325° F.
Slow (low) oven: 325-350° F.
Moderate (medium) oven: 350-375° F.
Fast/quick (high) oven: 375-400° F.
Very fast/very quick (very high) oven: 400-425° F.

Various "modern" cookbooks that attempt to explain these terms will often give different temperatures, but the degree of difference isn't usually that great (usually about 25 degrees in either direction); what was a fast oven to one cook may only have been a moderate oven to another.

A "pastry," "bread," or "bread-baking" oven generally refers to a temperature range of 360-380° F.

(Rounded) Conversion to Celsius

Very slow (very low) oven: 150-160/170° C.
Slow (low) oven: 160/170-180° C.
Moderate (medium) oven: 180-190° C.
Fast/quick (high) oven: 190-200° C.
Very fast/very quick (very high) oven: 200-220° C.

Conversion to Gas Marks

Very slow (very low) oven: 2-3
Slow (low) oven: 3-4
Moderate (medium) oven: 4-5
Fast/quick (high) oven: 5-6
Very fast/very quick (very high) oven: 6-7

Oven To Campfire Temperature Conversion Chart
(For Use with Dutch Ovens and Charcoal)

Slow (low) oven: 6-8 briquettes below/ 12-16 on lid
Moderate (medium) oven: 8-10 briquettes below/ 16-18 on lid
Fast/quick (high) oven: 10-12 briquettes below/ 18-24 on lid


Overheating a pizza stone? I bought a pizza stone without realizing that the max temperature it would withstand is 450 F (according to the instructions). My oven goes up to 550 F, which is the temperature I'd rather bake my pizzas at–is it OK to overheat the stone for the sake of the pizza?

As always, it comes to the meaning of "OK". The most likely scenario here is that the stone's life is shortened and it cracks. It's impossible to say when this will happen, it could be soon or it could stand up to hundreds of pizzas.

So if for you it is worth it risking the stone, you can do it. If you want to avoid with certainty the stone breaking after 4-5 uses, don't use it outside of the parameters determined by the manufacturer.


How are Boneless Wings Made How are the bones taken out of chicken wings to get boneless wings? Is the meat in boneless wings even from chicken wings or a different part of the  chicken?

Well; boneless wings cover a wide breadth of different styles; so no one size fits all answer.

Breaded breast meat or chicken tenderloin breaded; probably the higher end version.
The hotdog of chicken; chopped up leftovers formed into shape and breaded.  Basically a big chicken nugget with more texture to meat.
Plethora of a mixture of above

Ironically they usually don't contain any chicken wing meat.


Why does my asparagus turn out too chewy? When I make asparagus, I cut off the ends and boil them in water for about 5 minutes. I discard the ends, and add the other half of the (uncooked) asparagus into the pan with the same water for 8-10 minutes (medium high heat). Afterwards, I place the asparagus on a baking sheet, top with cheese, and put it in the oven at 350 degrees until the cheese melts. My question is.. Why do my asparagus come out too chewy/soggy? Am I cooking them for too long? What would you suggest I do differently to get the right texture? Thanks!

I think you are over cooking them. Asparagus is a very delicate shoot, and it goes from nice and crispy to flat and soggy pretty quickly. Some people like it that way, but not me. I like mine hot, but still crisp.

The way I prepare asparagus with water is in a frying pan. Lay the asparagus out in the pan and just cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and immediately pull the asparagus out. It's ready to serve right then.

Sometimes I like to grill it, but that takes a little practice to get the timing just right and also not dropping them through the grill. :-\


Kickstart Kimchi with sourdough starter I'm making my first batch of homemade Kimchi today using a recipe from Jamie Oliver. As I also have a mature sourdough starter in the fridge, I'm thinking about adding a bit of sourdough (a few grams) to the Kimchi in order to start fermentation.

Is this a good idea, or useless, or even dangerous?

It is not dangerous, but it is not necessary.

Sourdough starter is not going to ruin it, but it is not going to be REAL kimchi. Kimchi is really easy to make plus it tastes better when naturally fermented. Some people even prefer to ferment it in the fridge. It is going to take longer, but it's going to taste differently.

The is nothing unnatural about the SS, but SS is not natural for fermentation of kimchi. It is not used traditionally. It also might alter the kind of yeast and bacteria that are present in kimchi. The microorganisms present in naturally fermented kimchi are: Bacillus mycoides, B. pseudomycoides, B. subtilis, Lactobacillus brevis, Lb. curvatus, Lb. parabrevis, Lb. pentosus, Lb. plantarum, Lb. sakei, Lb. spicheri, Lactococcus carnosum, Lc. gelidum, Lc. lactis,  Leuconostoc carnosum, Ln. citreum, Ln. gasicomitatum, Ln. gelidum, Ln. holzapfelii, Ln. inhae, Ln. kimchii, Lactobacillus kimchii, Ln. lactis, Ln. mesenteroides, Serratia marcescens., Weissella cibaria, W. confusa, W. kandleri, W. koreensis, and W. soli. The bacteria and yeast present in SS are somewhat different.

If you are going to add some sourdough starter, it will still come out well, but it's not going to be authentic. My question is: do you want to make REAL kimchi (김치) or do you want to make your own version of kimchi?

As an avid supporter of Korean cuisine, I want to take it one step further: James Oliver's recipe doesn't sound very Korean (sorry). He omits Asian pears and adds daikon which is predominantly used in radish kimchi (깍두기).

From my personal experience, kimchi tastes best when it is naturally fermented, no starter needed.

I also recommend an authentic Korean recipe which is surprisingly easy to make, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fznTL6TzsqI

The only thing that I personally do differently, I don't add sugar at all, just more Asian pears. It still comes out nice.


Chocolate: condensation issues I made chocolates in a mold but when I take it out of the refrigerator it starts melting and water accumulates on surface.

My process:
I melted the chocolate and poured it into the mold and then kept it in the refrigerator.
But when taken out afterwards it melts at 25°C also and condensation forms on the surface.

Is there a way to keep the surface dry at 25°C?

There is very little information to go on, but the most likely answer from your description is condensation. Assuming that you kept it in the fridge overnight, then took it out and removed it from the mold, the chocolate will start "sweating" immediately.

If that's your problem: don't keep chocolate in the fridge. The proper temperature for chocolate hardening is 20 Celsius, try to keep at it as much as possible. If you are too much above, the chocolate can bloom, if you are below, it can condense. If you are not a perfectionist chocolatier, several degrees celsius difference in either direction will still produce a good enough result, but a fridge is always bad.


Solutions for a bland vegetable curry Over the years, I have developed a recipe that is effectively aloo gobi and saag aloo mixed together: Potato, cauliflower, broccoli and spinach curry. (I used to make it with sweet potato, but to "please" all my diners, I've switched to regular potatoes...which is also more authentic.)
Anyway, the curry gravy is fried black mustard seeds, browned-off onions, ground fenugreek, ground turmeric, hot chilli powder, ground coriander, diced ginger, red chillies, dried curry leaves and chopped tomatoes. The vegetables are roasted and added to the gravy after it's stewed for a while (20-40 minutes, say). Then I mix through the spinach at the end.
When I first started making this, I remember it tasting better than it does now. It always tastes bland, nowadays. If there's any spice, it's mostly from the ginger; even if I minimise its quantity (or remove it altogether) and focus instead on the fenugreek and chilli. I roast the vegetables specifically for the Malliard reaction and to sweeten them up, but it doesn't help much. Often, the overwhelming flavour is the tomato, but the gravy dries out and burns if you don't use enough.
It's quite frustrating and, because there are so many variables, I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. I have tried adding more spice; it doesn't really make a difference. I have tried leaving the gravy to "infuse" for longer; that helps to a point, but with diminishing returns. My spices are just supermarket spices -- nothing fancy -- but relatively new, so shouldn't have lost their potency. Should I toast them first? Salting the vegetables doesn't make any difference. Some recipes I've seen post-fry the vegetables to crisp them up, but I don't see how that can work with a gravy-based curry.
What's the secret to a good vegetable-based curry?

Here are some suggestions-

I usually use freshly prepared spices. By this what I mean is I buy from the market not the powder but the whole spice. For example I buy green chillies from market. I dry them under sun, and then grind them for a fresh chilly powder. Also I use two types of chilli powers Kashmiri, for giving red color but it is not spicy and the spicy chilli powder. I also buy coriander seeds from market and grind them fresh wherever I want to make indian curry. The aroma while grinding is so strong compared to the powder packet spices from market, and obviously this enhances the flavour.
Spices used initially, eg cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, I usually roast them and then grind them. This gives an amazing flavor to my curries. If you are not using these spices, I will recommend you to use them especially for Punjabi Graveys
As you mentioned, you use potatoes. And you fry them before adding to curries. That's good. You can also make holes in potato so that some flavors penetrate inside the potato and it doesn't taste bland.
Whenever I use onions, I chop them finely. This enhance the flavor to a great extent. As chopping them finely and then using them their surface area increases, increasing their flavor.
I hope you use fresh tomato puree.
Whenever you add spices like turmeric, chilli powder, then cook them little while and then you may add little water so that their flavours blend nicely.
You can try adding some curd or cream to your gravy.
However make sure to mix the curd well before adding.
You can try add some cashew pastes, or muskmelon seeds to especially punjabi gravy
Whenever buying vegetables from market, you should one with best flavors. Tomatoes should have sourness and curry leaves should have good flavor. You should smell them before buying.
After I have prepared my gravy I usually give it an oil/ghee tadka. This enhances flavor to a great great extent. By this what I mean is that I heat some oil/ghee in a small pan, add Asofoetida(optional), cumin seeds, curry leaves chilly powder mix well and as they start to sprinkle I quickly pour this is my gravy.
I hope these suggestions help.
Will add more if I remember one.


Am I making this noodle correctly? I decided to make pad thai noodles from scratch.  The recipe I found for rice noodles said to let the rice soak overnight then grind the resulting mixture in a blender.  After that it called for steaming the batter in small batches then slicing into noodles.  The problem that I had is that these noodles did not cook up in my wok correctly.  They got extremely gummy and were grainy.

I have experience with pasta, but I have no idea where I went wrong with such a simple recipe.  Anybody have any ideas on how I can fix this?

EDIT: the recipe was this
1 1/4 cup rice
1 1/4 cup water
oil to coat steamer tray

Place rice in water overnight, blend until smooth (smoother better than not), ladle into oiled steamer pan one ladle full every five minutes, remove noodle sheets and slice noodles.

A difference I see between your recipe and other alternatives is that you don't have any other starch besides your rice.  Other recipes include a good amount of tapioca or potato starch.  The other difference was that other recipes used rice flour instead of rice.

You might also want to consider a change in technique.  You can make rice noodles like a crepe rather than in an oiled steamer pan.  Simply use a non-stick or oiled crepe pan, put in batter to crepe thickness, and let it cook until it begins to pull away from the edge of the pan.  Invert and release in one motion onto a cutting board and slice.


Sauerkraut for hot dogs I'm a recent convert to the fermented cabbage dish Sauerkraut which I know is popular in Germany and Poland.  On TV I've seen this served on hot dogs in The States and was wondering whether it is traditionally washed to produce a milder flavour before being used?

Also, is anything else (usually) served on a hot dog when sauerkraut is included - mustard/ketchup for example?

Cheers!

It really comes down to taste. In this usage, you're treating sauerkraut like a condiment so there's not really a "correct" answer.. A lot of hot dog places have traditions - for instance, Nathan's Famous hot dogs (the original "Coney Island" hot dog) uses these combinations with kraut:

-Sauerkraut, spicey brown mustard (New York style)
-Thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, swiss cheese (Reuben style)

A famous hot dog maker in Pennsylvania, Yocco's Famous Dogs, uses sauerkraut and a thin bean chili combination to make their hot dogs.

The sauerkraut will often be very strong tasting, but not as "funky" as kimchi. It pairs well with a lot of different foods, usually other strong flavors (either strong tart like the spicey mustard, or strong sweet like the thousand island dressing or sweet relish).

Personally, I just eat sauerkraut with a fork. But if I have it on a dog, I pile it on with dill relish, country style dijon mustard, a dash of sriracha, and some diced onion. I recommend not kissing anyone for awhile after eating.


Is there any harm to eat cooked renal pelvis in lamb kidney? I googled many forums listed in google and found people just say that cooked renal pelvis in lamb kidneys are stringy and chewy. That sounds to me like people already consider its edible, but it's somewhere where urine goes through, at least before it's getting into the urinal for the lamb. I am a bit concerned if this is cook-able and edible directly without any cleaning procedure.

I wonder if eating renal pelvis has any harm at all? If it's edible, is there any cleaning we should always do before cook it?

Nothing unhealthy if you eat it.  Just a aesthetic preference since it is a different texture than the body of the kidney.  If you don't get it all cut out when dressing the kidneys, it's kind of like eating rubber bands.  I prefer to cut it out with all of the bits of kidney fat.


Chocolate used for decoration I melted once a chocolate bar and decorated with it my eclairs, while it was hot and melting, after putting them in the refregirator, they cooled fine, but they were a little bit sugary although the eclair's dough didn't contain any sugar.

If I melted a Dark chocolate, will adding some sugar work? Or is it preferred to melt the kind I want?

Melt the kind you want. Sugar doesn't melt at the temperature chocolate melts, and wouldn't dissolve in chocolate anyway. Commercial chocolate bars are smooth because they are conched. If you mix chocolate with sugar, it will be sandy.

Alternatively, you can glaze with a ganache, and dissolve the sugar in the cream first. But it is still better to make the ganache with the type of chocolate you want, instead of adjusting sugar or fat.


Why was my Danish pastry dough so wet? I followed this recipe for a quick "Danish" dough, at http://www.ezrapoundcake.com/archives/11051; scroll down to food processor dough.

The ingredients were:

  1/4 CUP WARM WATER

  1/2 CUP MILK, AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

  1 LARGE EGG, AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

  2 1/4 CUPS WHITE BREAD FLOUR

  1 PACKAGE (1/4 OUNCE) RAPID-RISE YEAST OR 1 TABLESPOON FRESH YEAST

  1 TEASPOON SALT

  1 TABLESPOON SUGAR

  1 CUP (2 STICKS) UNSALTED BUTTER, COLD, CUT INTO THIN SLICES

After following the recipe, when I went to roll out my dough it was quite wet and sticky. Even with moderate flouring on my counter and rolling pin, the dough was very spongy. It was not even close to something I could fold, as the recipe called for. I added at least an extra cup of flour in the end.

I am a beginner baker, so please bear that in mind.

What might I have done wrong? One thing about the recipe that troubled me is that the recipe said to let the dough get to room temperature after refrigerating overnight, before rolling out -- this made the butter softer so that when rolled it melted into the dough, but the even before the melting the dough looked way too wet.

(For what it's worth, I measured my flour packed so if anything I would have expected the dough to be a little too dry.)

Different flours (both in terms of brand and even batches of the same brand) have different levels of absorbency, so you often have to experiment a little with new baking recipes. I always need much more water than the recipes in my favourite bread book call for, for example.

The best thing to do is add more flour gradually until you are happy with the texture, then you will have a better idea next time of how much you will need.


Why not use a polypropylene dish with carbonated drinks? I found a polypropylene (♷) measuring cup in my home today, of the sort that comes with an immersion blender for preparing drinks. Printed on it is the warning "not to be used with hot or carbonated products". Hot I understand: the heat can warp the plastic, or cause chemicals to leach therefrom into the food. But why not use it with carbonated liquids?

As identified in my original comment, the most likely risk is not from the container itself, but from the fact that it's meant to be used with an immersion blender.

Heat actually isn't a major problem with polypropylene (PP).  It's generally regarded as food-safe and is BPA-free (see here and here for references), and its melting point is somewhere between 130°C (266°F) and 171°C (340°F) depending on its specific crystalline configuration (or isotacticity).  So you could even pour boiling water into a PP container without major risk of deformation - just don't try to bake a casserole in it or anything.

PP is often injection-molded, which can leave molding seams; these could be weak points in a closed vessel containing a carbonated beverage.  But that's not really a concern with an open container.

Once you introduce an immersion blender with fast-moving blades, though, you've got the potential for hot liquids to be flung outwards if not fully submerged, causing possible risk for burns.  Those blades will also intensely agitate carbonated beverages, causing a release of CO2 and extensive fizzing.  The biggest reason not to use an immersion blender with these is probably that you'll lose half of the volume to spillage, and agitate the rest to the point of losing its carbonation.


Minimum liquid to make solid dough About how little oil can I add to an amount of flour to make a dough that is one lump of one consistency, not crumbly and in pieces? I'm looking for a ratio of solid to liquid. If it matters what kinds of flour and oil, let's say olive oil and white wheat all-purpose flour.

This is actually not answerable as an absolute.  One of the Great Unknowns when baking with flour is how humid it has been in your flour storage recently, and thus how much water is already in the flour.  I've had a few cups of flour require as much as half a cup extra water to get the right consistency depending on the season.

My usual approach for making the driest dough I can is to instead of pre-measuring, add the liquid gradually to a spinning food processor that contains the dry ingredients.  It will lump up quite quickly when the liquid is right.


Sea Urchin Roe (uni) -- is a mixed yellow and brownish color okay? It is often very hard to even get uni in many places (which is blamed on sometimes weather and/or sea otters) and even when I can order it, it is not of uniform golden color but sort of mixed. I suspect this might be (my research yields) "vani" which is a mixture of chunks that have broken off and are collected together and sold.
I am not only somewhat picky about looks but even more concerned about safety and of course taste. Years ago, I don't recall getting anything other than just pure chunks of golden, no brown, uni.
Is the brown just normal color range or is it somewhat spoiled or is it even, shudder, part of the sea urchin that is not actually uni?
I did find this by searching for sea urchin roe, not "uni" and it sounds like brown is not a good thing: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223038425_Factors_causing_Brown-colored_gonads_of_the_sea_urchin_Strongylocentrotus_nudus_in_northen_Honoshu_Japan

It should always be bright yellow to orange. The brownish hue you are talking of makes me worry about age and age equals increased bacterial content.
https://harborfish.com/what-is-uni-a-complete-guide-to-sea-urchin/


How to tell if sausage package swollen or just taut I bought raw sausages packaged in a meat tray with plastic wrap. The wrapping was taut so that it almost looked like there was extra air in the package. How does one know if this means a swollen package or just wrapped too tightly? It's a grey area but a swollen package worries me. They smell fine and are cooking and within three days of the expiry date and weren't left out of the fridge other than shopping.

If you can tell us, "They smell fine" then you have since opened the package. It is not uncommon for air to be trapped in those plastic wrap trays. Since we can't see or smell it the only way to answer your question is: "Is $4.00 worth of sausage worth a few extra trips to the bathroom?" If it smells 'ok' then it is unlikely to be 'dangerous' ... but only you can make that call.


How long should I knead bread dough by hand? Is there a general rule to the amount of time I knead dough? Some recipes will say "until it is considered soft and smooth". Regardless of what the recipe claims, I am kneading the dough for a minimum of ten minutes when it asks for it.

Time isn't the main factor, gluten development is. You should knead the dough until the gluten is sufficiently developed to give the dough elasticity, and the final bread good structure.

There are two simple tests you can perform to check whether your dough is kneaded sufficiently. First, the Poke Test. Form the dough into a ball, and with a floured finger, give it a light poke. If it springs back to its original shape, you're on the right track.

Secondly, you can do the Windowpane Test. Grab off a chunk of dough, then try and stretch it apart. If the gluten is sufficiently developed, the dough shouldn't tear - it should stretch to a point where you can see light through it, hence the name.


What can be used to thicken chili other than masa harina? We like to make our own chili and it seems like masa harina is pretty traditionally used as a thickening agent. However, I don't particularly like the flavor it adds and I always have to add more spices after using it.

Does anyone know of other ingredients that can be used in place of the masa harina?

There are several ways you can thicken Chili than adding Masa Harina:

Add another thickening agent: flour and cornstarch are both widely used, you can also try other flours like graham flour, chickpea flour, or arrowroot. Note that if you use flour you'll want to fry it in oil or butter or risk a raw flour taste in the dish
Add refried beans: this adds thickening and a richness. It does dilute the spices some so you'll want to make the chili more powerful to compensate
Cook it down: Why add a thickener when simply simmering with the lid off will do it for you? It takes some time (an hour or so depending on the water content of the ingredients you add), but it will concentrate the flavors and give you a nice, thick chili without any additional ingredients at all


Expired panko bread crumbs A couple of days ago, I used some expired panko bread crumbs (expired by at least 5 months) for chicken tenders. They had this bad stale oil smell to them and I decided to take a risk. They had previously been opened but I'm very careful in closing them back up and storing them in a cool dry place.

As the first step of the recipe, I lightly fry the panko bread crumbs in a little oil and that removed that bad oil smell instantly. The chicken tenders smelt and tasted fine as well.

I read this and it says that bread crumbs don't spoil, the thing is
though that it definitely smelt pretty bad. So, is the stale oil smell or the expiry something to worry about?

That "stale oil" smell was probably the small amount of fats in the crumbs going rancid and forming butyric acid. I usually do not cook with anything that smells bad, my thought is that it just isn't worth the risk, but risk tolerance varies.


Quiche does not set up - too much, or too little, cream? My quiche did not set up well; the final custard remained a touch watery/soft.

Would that mean my ratio of cream : egg was too much or too little cream?

What's the logic of quiche custard?

Should I now try a bit more or a bit less cream?

You can often find mentioned the finding from French cuisine that "3:2" is thought to be the best ratio ... but no-one really mentions which "way" that goes!

FTR thanks to the below,

3 eggs to exactly 1 cup full cream works perfectly for quiche. (A 9" pie.)

You need less cream for a firmer consistency. The eggs are the part that set during the cooking process. The cream adds moisture and fat, both of which make it softer and runnier.


Is there such a thing as pork stock? The other day I made this delicious recipe of Bacon Tea. I thought I could make some more with some Pork Stock.

When I went to the store to buy stock I found:

Beef Stock
Veal Stock
Chicken Stock
Vegetable Stock

(Interestingly enough - no lamb stock either.)

I asked my wife about it, and she said:

  No - supermarkets never have Pork Stock.

My question is: Is there such a thing as pork stock?

There certainly is such a thing as pork stock, it's made the same way as beef and chicken stock - by cooking down bones to extract the flavors. With beef you use beef bones, with pork you use pork bones.

Supermarkets stock the products that make economic sense, they don't carry items which won't move - especially if they have a very limited shelf life. Beef, chicken and vegetable stocks are the most widely used ones in many parts of the world, so they will carry those as they have a good chance to be sold. Pork, lamb, and fish stocks can be found in supermarkets in areas where enough of the customer base will buy it.

If you can't find it in your local supermarket then there may be specialty stores (online or bricks and mortar) which you could get it from. Butchers may carry it as well. If not then making stock is very simple, all you need is some bones, vegetables, a heat source and some time.


Why is cheese never used in Americanized Chinese food? While working weekends in an Americanized Chinese food restaurant I realized while many ingredients are used, no dishes contain cheese.

This seems to be the case for every chinese dish I have ever seen in America, where as almost any other type of restaurants at least features some items with cheese on their menus.

Why is this?

It's simple; Americanized Chinese food rarely contains cheese because Chinese food rarely contains cheese.

As many as 90% of Chinese people are, to some degree, lactose intolerant. Dairy is simply not a large part of Chinese food culture. Dairy is growing as a business in China. However, since dairy makes most Chinese sick, I imagine the dairy industry will be primarily an industry of exportation.

EDIT As I promised in comments, I did look for citations for that 90% figure. The figure is ubiquitous. It may in fact have more to do with societal evolution than anything innate in the genetics of the Chinese people, but the fact remains. Most Chinese people react poorly to dairy.

Neato Chart


What's the difference in baking bread in a loaf pan vs. in a Dutch oven? When I bake bread, I always use my loaf pan. Recently, I've seen some people who bake bread in a Dutch oven (or something similar). Why is this? What are the differences between the two?

There's two important distinctions:

The dutch oven is preheated, so the oven conveys a lot of heat, rather quickly.  This causes some steam to be pretty much immediately made.
The dutch oven is covered.  This traps the steam previously made.  This is trying to replicate steam injection and the goal of most methods that cover the loaf.

Steam keeps the crust from hardening and promotes better oven spring and crisper crust.  The steam basically allows the bread to 'swell' more in the oven.  Steam also gelatinizes the starches in the crust and formes a better 'shine' and 'crisp' on the finished product.  The dutch oven is then uncovered after awhile and the crust hardens.


Can I save a Creme Brûlée with a soggy crust? I wasn't thinking, and put the top layer of hardened sugar on my creme brûlée last night. Now it's a little bit soggy, and I'm trying to figure out how to save my dessert for a party today.

By the way, I originally used powdered sugar. Not sure if regular or powdered is best

I can think of three approaches:

Leave as-is
Re-apply another thin layer above the existing soggy layer
Re-melt the existing soggy layer, hoping that it sets in crunchy.

Any alternative ideas or suggestions?

Just before the party, sprinkle some granulated sugar on top. Use a blowtorch (preferred) or a very hot broiler to "brulee" the new sugar. That will cause both the old and new sugar to get browned and crunchy.

I just saw this on a related question. Alton Brown on Creme Brulee. He shows great blowtorch technique, do it just like that and you'll be fine, no need to remove the soggy layer.


How long does it take to steam brown rice? I would like to know how long it takes to steam brown rice.

This is an impossible question because it depends on the rice you are using: Some rice cooks in 10' other rice in 20'. That's a huge difference.

Also, some people like the rice to be slightly undercooked and others like it very overcooked.

At any rate, if you are used to boiling one type of rice for some amount of time, try steaming for about 20%-25% longer and see what you get.

You can try the rice by taking a grain and looking at it. If it has a white dot in the middle it's not done. When the white dot disappears, take a bite and see for yourself whether you like it.


Microwave cooking ready frozen meals If a frozen ready meal states 9 minutes microwave cooking, how do I work out cooking time for two identical meals?

Do both fit in the microwave at the same time ?

Start at the recommended 9 minutes, test the temperature, nuke it for a few more minutes (2, 3 ) and test again.

If you have a rotary table inside, it will make thing easier, if not, move the 2 meals every couple of minutes.


Proper kitchen temperature for doing "fermentation" I am looking at the Saveur magazine annual 100 issue.

There are a couple of items related to fermentation; and I am intrigued.

The recipes instruct to let the mixtures to stand at room temperature for around 5 days.

Is there a proper "room temperature" for that to work ? or is it a trial by error kind of thing ?

Thanks,

Max.

The proper temperature is the average temperature range of the type of room in which the fermentation was historically done by the culture which invented the specific fermentation dish.

I know this is not what a modern cook wants to hear, but there is no easier way to put it. Recipes were invented to work at a certain temperature, and because this was such a ubiquitous part of the whole thing, and historically so hard to change, that it does not appear in the recipe itself.

For example, if you are creating a sourdough starter, you can easily stay around 20 Celsius. The range is rather wide, but the exact smell of the starter will depend on the temperature you had, as you're likely to get slightly different bacteria at 25 Celsius than at 18 Celsius.

Other recipes will need another temperature. You seem to need well above 30 Celsius for dosa batter to ferment properly. Other cases, such as sauerkraut or wine, need a temperature more common in old European cellars, between 10 and 15 Celsius. Salami might fare best if you have a bit less than that. Yogurt needs to be quite warm, but depending on the temperature you choose within the "warm" range, you will get sharp vinegary bacteria or milder lactic bacteria. And so on.

If you have a modernized recipe which directs you to use room temperature, stay in the 20-25 Celsius range. But if you are not sure the recipe has been made with climatized rooms in mind, you might need to do some research.


Help making Montgomery Pie layer properly When it comes to "putting the pie together" before baking, the recipe handed down by my great aunt states to pour liquid in bottom of uncooked pie shell, THEN "spread" topping on top of pie.

How in the world is this possible? You cannot physically "spread" batter on top of a liquid. I've tried everything. The end result is still a "swirled" effect, when it's supposed to have a "cakey" top and "moist" bottom. I've followed the recipe to a "T", and 5 times now, same result.

I'm lost. Any takers? Yes, I would like to ask my great aunt but she passed away years ago.

It may be that there is an unwritten/lost step of putting the pie in the oven for long enough to just set the liquid, before the topping is spread. That's certainly how I do lemon or lime custard pies with a topping.


How to thicken garlic dressing Nineteen times out of twenty when I make a salad dressing from olive oil, salt, dill, garlic and apple cider vinegar, blended in a pint measuring cup with an electric powered hand mixer, it comes out a nice, creamy liquid. The twentieth time it turns into something much thicker, a kind of dip that is really delicious. I gather this is called, "emulsification." However, it only happens infrequently by accident, no matter how I vary the amounts of ingredients. Can you tell me hos to make this happen reliably? Thanks!

Actually, you can make an emulsion using just garlic and olive oil! It's a very old spanish recipe traditionally done by hand taking mind numbing time.

Seeing that you want to achieve thickness using your existing ingredients (no cheating with emulsifiers) here is a suggestion that should work (i haven't done it, just seen it done).

Pay attention to the freshness of the garlics.  I believe the garlic oil may be a key here. So choose freshest garlic and don't go short.
Hold all of the oil for now and most of the vinegar, but enough vinegar so your mixer grabs and starts (you should have all garlic, and a bit of vinegar)
Run your mixer and add oil one drop at a time.
As the mixture thickens you can add more vinegar and more oil.  Lead with the vinegar as you're emulsion phase is oil in garlic/vinegar not the other way around.

It's possible that 1/20 time you immerse the blender into the vinegar first and pull in the oil slowly as opposed to whipping the oil and trying to bring garlic vinegar in.  If you're going for the fast method as you've been, pay attention to your initial blender depth and how much oil is trapped under the cap.

Let us know how you make out!


Why are my sous vide salmon fillets coming out raw in the center? My wife and I have tried a couple times to sous vide salmon fillets and they seem to keep coming out undercooked or raw in the center and I'm really not sure why.  I took pretty good notes on what we did tonight and I'm hoping someone can find the flaw in my strategy.

We purchased 1 lbs. of salmon fillet from Trader Joe's.  At home, we pulled it out of the refrigerator and cut the skin off of the salmon and cut it into two separate fillets.  I have a FoodSaver vacuum-sealer that I used to vacuum seal the two salmon fillets into a single bag.  The salmon fillets were vacuum-sealed in the same bag, but were not touching on another (they were about 3 inches apart).

I have an Anova Culinary sous vide that I used to get a water bath up to 126 degrees farenheit in a large All-Clad stainless steel pot.  Image of the sous vide setup below:

Once the sous vide was up to temperature at 126 degrees Farenheit, I dropped the vacuum-sealed-bag with the two salmon fillets into the pot and started a timer.  To be on the safe side, I left the salmon in the pot with the temperature at 126 Farenheit for one hour.

When I took the salmon out of the pot and opened the vacuum-sealed bag, it seemed like it was colder than I would expect.  Upon cutting into the salmon, I noticed that it was still raw in the center.

After I noticed the salmon was raw, I put a thermometer in the pot and verified that the temperature was 126 degrees Farenheit, so I think the sous vide is working properly.  From what I've read online, cooking for 1 hour at 126F should be more than enough.  Likewise I read that vacuum-sealing fish tends to end up with overcooked fish rather than undercooked so I didn't think that was the issue.

Where did I go wrong here?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

Your set-up is fine. You'll probably eventually want to trade in the stock-pot for something like this:

But there is no reason that the set-up you have shouldn't make great salmon. I have exactly that set-up (including the stock-pot for now, but the square polypolycarbonate container is on order).

125F for one hour is pretty close to bare minimum time and temperature for salmon fillet. I like it that way, but it appears that you have a different expectation than I do. I base that guideline on the recipe from Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide: The Authoritative Guide to Low Temperature Precision Cooking and having just enjoyed salmon done at 122F for 1 hour.

First, double check your water temperature just to be sure. If you have a sous-vide circulator and a vacuum sealer, I don't want to hear that you don't have a digital, instant read thermometer. Double check that your Anova circulator is producing the temperature for which it is set. If the temperature is how you've set it, that means that you don't like your salmon that rare. Simple as that.

140F for 1.5 hours is pretty much the upper limit for a typical salmon filet to not be overcooked. That would be overcooked for me, but I have a preference for rare.

Assuming that your circulator isn't defective, you will almost certainly like salmon somewhere on that spectrum. Exactly where you like it best, only you can say.


What type of Rice is best for Indian Style Rice Pudding? What type of Rice is best for Indian Style Rice Pudding?

In Kerala style cuisine (which is what I'm most familiar with as an eater, not a cook) the rice is a short, white variety that is fried in ghee first. It's very similar to the short grain rice used in Japanese cooking.

I have no idea how this would be packaged in the United States, it's just Rice (for the short grain), or long grain/Basmati rice here. I depend on Indian friends to help me identify the good stuff.

As a cook, I find both the short, white style and plain white basmati work very well. The texture with the short grain rice is smoother, and you can taste more of the milk (or coconut milk) and cardamom. It's also very good served cold. The basmati produces a heartier rice pudding that is enhanced by adding extra raisins and cinnamon. I like this best hot.


beet stock shelf life How long will beet stock be good in the fridge and is it obvious (odor or otherwise) if it's bad.  I've had this beet stock for a while and I want to drink it but I'm a little nervous.
It smells fine and looks fine.

Beet stock (the cooking liquor left over after boiling beetroot) contains plenty of nutrients, and hence it's a good breeding ground for mould and bacteria.

I would treat it like cooked vegetables, and throw it on the compost heap (or down the drain) if not consumed after a week in the fridge.

Of course it could be preserved for longer if steps were taken to combat mould/bacteria:

reduced to a syrup, perhaps with added sugar
with lots of added salt, as in a pickling brine
sterilised in an airtight container


What is the substitute for pastry blender in cookie making? I'm going to do this recipe and it says in the recipe that I need to use pastry blender. I have a question that can I use this one instead of pastry blender?
Or this one

No, the device called for, a pastry blender, is not what you have linked in either picture.

The first is a simple hand mixer with standard beaters.  The second is the paddle attachment for a stand mixer.

A pastry blender is used to cut butter into flour and looks something like this:

(Image from crate and barrel)

It is used to cut butter into flour, while leaving it in relatively large solid chunks.

If you don't have a pastry blender, alternatives include:

Using two knives, criss-crossed, to slowly cut the butter up with the flour mixture in a scissors-like motion
Pressing with the back of a fork
With skill and cold hands, you can even press the butter and flour together with your fingers, which is very old fashioned, but hard to describe in text

(All of these methods require butter cool enough to not blend into the flour, but warm enough to cut easily, about 65 F, 18.3 C.)
If you have one, cutting in butter is also very easily done in a food processor with the knife blade; in this case, you want cold butter.  It usually takes not very many pulses, so monitor the texture after each pulse or two once you have done four or five.
If you have a large holed grater, you can even grate frozen butter, and then simply toss it with the flour

This video from Dear Martini Kitchen has an excellent demonstration of the pastry blender method that clearly shows the desired texture, an inset which shows the two-knife technique, and at the end a brief food processor demo.


Why is there a difference between softened and melted butter when baking? I once tried to make some cookies and assumed that melted butter would be the same as softened butter.  It didn't work out...

Why does it make a difference if you use softened or melted butter?  Seems like it all ends up the same if you beat it into a recipe...

Basically, when recipies call for softened butter, they use the creaming method; the sugar and butter are mixed together in such a way that the sugar cuts little air bubbles into the butter.  These little bubbles can add some extra puff to the cookies.

If you melt the butter first, not only do you not have those air bubbles, but there's water in butter, so you'll end up getting some gluten development when you mix in the flour and make a chewy cookie ... but more importatly, without the fat being (near) solid, the cookie will slump a lot more, and spread out before it cooks (assuming you haven't otherwise adjusted the recipe to compensate).

There are cookie recipes that call for melted butter; compare the three recipies from the "Three Chips for Sister Martha" episode of Good Eats; the "chewy" cookie uses melted butter.


Ideal temperature and method to bake a deep dish pizza What is the ideal temperature to bake deep dish pizza, and for how long?

I want to bake a deep pan pizza with toppings of mushrooms, olives and mozzarella and cheddar cheese. I have an electric oven.

For genuine Neapolitan pizza (very thin dough, tomatoes, Buffalo mozzarella, olive oil) you would use a wood (oak) fired brick oven at 485°C (900°F)

It should be fully cooked in in less than 90 seconds

If you add other toppings, and use a thicker dough it will take a little longer

Cooking at lower temperatures gives you a nice "pie" or savoury flan, but not a pizza

To make a pizza pie (not a pizza), with a deep pan, with a thick dough layer, you should still use a very hot oven, use the maximum temperature your oven will go to. Some people even override the self clean system to go even hotter. Expect times around 5 to 8 minutes

If your crust starts burning on the edges, either accept it as part of the pizza style, or spread sauce right to the edges. Pre-baking the dough for a minute may reduce soggyness of finished product

Go for traditional pizza's for a generally much nicier experience. And if you have the room build your own wood fired pizza oven (plenty of kits on plans on the net)


Is it ok to use a metal turner in a wok? Is it ok to use a metal utensil when turning or serving food in a (seasoned, steel) wok? I suspect that the wok surface may get scratched, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems so far; is it always better to use wood or do the scratches not matter?

Most good woks I see today are carbon steel.  Those things can take a ton of punishment and are very difficult to damage.  In fact, a wok chuan, which is a "scoop" that's a bit like a metal spatula, is not only OK to use, it's an essential part of Asian cooking.  Wooden utensils just don't have the right shape or, well, weight, for proper stir-frying.

If you happen to watch a stir-fry in progress in an Asian kitchen, you'll probably hear a lot of noise and see the cooks seriously abusing the cookware.  Stir-frying is generally done on very high heat and therefore needs to be done quickly; it's not like flipping an egg or a piece of meat, it's not precise, you've got potentially hundreds of tiny chunks in there and you need a tool with some mass and curvature to it so that you can really shovel out the food at the bottom of the pan and deposit it back on top.

Now, as Owen said, if you have one of those cheapo Teflon woks, then yes, you should probably avoid metal implements.  Actually, if you have a Teflon wok, my recommendation would be to throw it out immediately and get a carbon steel or cast iron wok.  Teflon was never designed for that kind of heat or to take that kind of punishment.  But as long as your wok is good material, definitely get yourself a proper metal scoop and use it!


How can I stop my soups sticking to the bottom of the pot? I like cooking soups, however often as not the lentils or oats stick to the bottom of the pot and start to burn. I like cooking my soups over several hours in a large pot.

How can I avoid this?

Cook on a lower heat, in a pan with a thicker base, to distribute the heat. Check every now and again, and add water if the soup has become too thick. Also, the occasional stir can only help.

Consider buying a slow cooker -- there are very cheap models that do the job well.


What is the difference among these 3 food items: Flattened Rice, Chiwda and Poha? In India, Poha is a famous dish especially served as breakfast.
I would like to know if Poha is the name of the dish or Flattened rice or Chiwda.

In India, flattened rice are Poha. Now poha/flattened rice come in packets with the picture you have put. There are a lot of recipes which we make from flattened rice.
Interestingly the most common recipe is known as 'poha'. Here the flattened rice are soaked in water and then they are heated in oil with spices, onion and/or potatoes.
Here is the recipe
This is a very popular recipe in Maharshtra and basically almost all Indians prefer this recipe for breakfast.
Now flattened rice are also used to make chiwda.
This is rather crunchy, unlike poha.
It is used as an in between meals' snack.
Here generally, the flattened rice are roasted or fried.
Now interestingly the varieties of flattened rice for making poha and chiwda are different.
For making poha and fried chiwda  the flattened rice are long narrow type.
And for making roasted chiwda flattened rice is wider.
Hence, to summarise, the term 'poha' is both flattened rice, as well as a recipe made from flattened rice. Chiwda on the other hand is different.
If you go to an Indian restaurant and ask for poha, they will give you a dish made from flattened rice/poha.
On the other hand if you go to a grocery shop and ask for poha they will give you flattened rice.
I hope your doubt is solved.


How do I make my sorbet thicker? I made lemon sorbet and have already churned it but the consistency is too runny. I churned it a minimal amount using a food processor (I've done it this way before).  How do I make it thicker?

The problem could be the recipe. If you're using a lot of lemon juice, then a lot of sugar to cover up all that acidity, you're guaranteed to end up with something pretty soft. Have a look around at other lemon sorbet recipes, and see if you're using relatively more.

But if your recipe is sane, then it could be your process. Here's how it could mess things up.

Sorbet is basically sugar water with a bit of flavor. When it freezes all the way, unless it was churned as it froze, there's going to be a tendency for it to separate into ice crystals and even stronger sugar water. Some of this may happen in your first freezing step. Then you're pulverizing it in a food processor, probably giving it a chance to melt a bit. This is much worse than just leaving it out, since once it's in tiny bits, there's a lot more surface area exposed to air, and you're continuously mixing it, bringing in warm air, and so on. Then finally, it refreezes. The part that managed to melt in the meantime is going to repeat the earlier process, except now there's lots of space, so it's even easier for ice crystals to form and force out the sugar. So I'd definitely expect a tendency to end up with a runny sugar syrup component to your "sorbet". (If it's at all grainy, this is probably what's happening.)

If you're determined to do this without any kind of ice cream maker, it's going to be hard to avoid problems. You can certainly try to correct for it by using less sugar, though. You could also just make a granita - freeze it on a sheet, and scrape it off to serve.


Where can I find this exact spatula, with a short handle and asymmetric head? What kind of spatula is this? My boyfriend's father has this and I want to get him a new one for Christmas but cannot find it. It does not have a brand on it and he does not know where the spatula came from.

I couldn't find an exact match but the short, squat shape with a straight top edge suggests that it's for stirring and/or scraping. The flat shape (ie. that although the head is angled at the top, the whole head isn't angled) and thick, inflexible design suggest that it isn't supposed to be used for flipping; this would be very difficult as rim of the pan would get in the way -  even if it weren't a problem, you would still have the problem of your knuckles being too close to the pan to avoid burning.

The nearest equivalents I could find are:

A Saute paddle:

This is probably the best match. The tool that OP pictures seems good for scraping a pan and will take some force being applied. The angle at the top will also make this easier on the wrist. Slots are also common.

Or, failing that

A Rice spoon/spatula:

The overall size and shape are close to a traditional rice spatula/spoon. The angled head is a common design, though less common than round heads. Slots however, are unusual.


Hot pink spots on surface of ham steak I bought a frozen ham steak (natural pork from local farm/meat processor), and noticed when I went to cook it that there is a bit of very bright, hot pink on the surface. Is this safe?

Perfectly safe.

From the Henning's Market FAQ:

  The shiny, greenish, rainbow like color on sliced ham is a sign of oxidation that occurs when the meat is exposed to the metal on a knife or slicer. The nitrate-modified iron content of the meat undergoes a chemical change that alters the hams pigmentation. This effect can also be seen in sliced beef, such as roast beef. It is not an indication of spoilage.

And also see this Daily Mail article "Revealed: Why you sometimes see the most spectacular rainbows in a slice of beef":

  On the USDA website under the heading ‘Iridescent Color of Roast Beef’, this strange phenomenon is explained to be in fact perfectly natural and caused by iron and fat that exists in meats such as roast beef and processed ham.
  According to the USDA, when light hits a slice of meat it splits into colors like a rainbow due to the elements present in the meat and this is called a ‘diffraction grating’.
  There are also various pigments in meat compounds which give it an iridescent or greenish cast when exposed to heat and processing.


Can alcohol extraction be used to draw more of the spice flavors out in chai tea concentrate? I make chai concentrate by:

Quickly boiling ginger puree twice (each time for about 20-30 minutes).
Boiling the spices (bruised/coarse-ground) for about an hour, removing the liquid, then repeating with fresh water several times.
Concentrating the result of the spice steeping by simmering it uncovered for several hours.
Brewing the tea seperately (two steepings of no more than 5 minutes, allowing the leaves to rest in between infusions).

To clarify exactly what I'm asking:

Could I add grain alcohol (Everclear, etc) to the spices during the last steeping to pull more flavor out of the spices after they have already been infused with water several times; or would it make more sense to just do a separate alcohol extraction, then add it back to the finished product?

I've read that much of the flavor in spices cannot be extracted with water, and must be extracted using a stronger solvent. I don't want to just drop alcohol extractions into my water and call it chai though, so I thought it might work as a final step to squeeze the last of the flavor from the spices.
It seems that I never get as much flavor as traditional brewers who use milk at the beginning (likely due to enzymes in the milk was my assumption) so I thought I could science a way to do the same without adding the milk to the equation since milk is obviously not stable enough to store for long periods of time

Your flavors can be grouped in water soluble and oil soluble. Alcohol now is a mixture - some oil soluble flavors are also soluble in alcohol. These are phenylpropanoids, like Coumarin or all flavors that are themselves based on alcohol, like Hexanol. Alcohol is not a better extractor for flavors, just one with shared properties of water and oil, without covering the whole range!

Now we get to the core of your question:

Those flavors, that are dissolved in alcohol/oil, are much more stable in alcohol/oil than in water. What you smell during brewing are actually oil soluble flavors that went: "I'd rather dissolve in air than water." When you use boiling water, you are losing flavor that could have been extracted with alcohol.

In order to pull most flavors out of the ingredients, you should therefore first extract most flavors with alcohol and then use boiling water. Also, there is no reason to not use fat/oil, too. While milk is unstable, fat itself is very, very stable. If you ever get one of those Asian cup noodles, you will notice that there is a small packet with fat inside together with dried spices. The fat is not there to increase the nutritional value, but contains the oil soluble flavors.


Lamb Rotisserie - whole thing in flames Today I cooked lamb on a BBQ with hood and rotisserie. I adjusted the burners to keep it at about 130C.  The lamb was boneless leg roll, prepared by my butcher.

After about an hour, the fat caught fire and the temperature shot up to 300C+. Flames of about 30cm. This charcoaled the outside. I turned the gas off entirely for a while and then put it back on when the temperature dropped.

The BBQ has volcanic rocks. Under that are three gas burners. Only the outside two were turned on.

My question is what should I have done to avoid the fire? Was there too much fat left on the lamb? Should I change the BBQ somehow?

Put a large pan under it catch the drippings and you will not have a fire.


What is the difference between risotto rice and paella rice? My local supermarket stocks arborio and carnaroli rices for making risotto, and also stocks "paella rice".  I have, in the past, used them interchangeably in both risottos and paellas.  Wikipedia handily summarises the difference between carnaroli and arborio here, but I can't find a description of the differences between these and a paella rice (aside from country of origin).

Note: I'm aware that the rice is cooked differently in a paella compared to a risotto -- I'm asking about the differences in the rice itself, not the cooking method.

'Paella rice' is not actually a variety of rice, but a category suitable, as the its name suggests, for making paella. Some common varieties are: Bahia, Balilla, Bomba, Senia, and Calasparra; the particular variety should be indicated on the packet that you choose.

These varieties differ from risotto rices, such as arborio and carnaroli, in not creating a creamy 'sauce' around the rice. Paella rice should stick together, but be distinct and not in a creamy 'sauce'.

Arborio rice has a creamy, chewy texture due to its higher amylopectin (one of two components in its starch) content. Paella rice absorbs more liquid than risotto rices, however it too would become 'creamy' if you stirred it like a risotto, since it also has a high starch content.


Is there any substitute for butter (or oil) on puff pastry? I tried to create puff pastry.
For medical reasons I should minimize the fat on my recipe. Puff pastry is mainly made by 3 important ingredients, flour, water, and fat (butter or oil).
Unfortunately, I learned that butter and oil, consist of 100% fat. I've successfully created puff pastry using oil in a pan before. It works! I create 2 doughs, one dough is formed using flour and water, the other one is using flour and oil. Then, I do the pastry folding.
So as no-fat alternative I tried using a flour-water dough and a flour-applesauce dough, laminated as for regular puff pastry. The result was crisp at the outside, but uncooked on the inside.
I baked twice as long, and the result were very thick hard crackers. I can see the layers with different color, but there is no air in between the layers.
I've also tried only using flour-water dough pastry, folded. Again I can see different colors of the layera, but no air in between.
I haven't tried making the second dough with egg yolks though. It may interesting to see the result, since egg yolks supposedly have around 63% of fat.
Research
After that failed experiment, I read some articles about the science behind the pastry. It says that the pocket of air is formed because of the boiled water that becomes gas, trapped between the fat layers.
I assume, it happens because the oil and water are not soluble. On the other hand, the boiling point of water is 100 C (212 F), yet the boiling point of oil is around 300 C (572 F). I see here that vodka has a boiling point around 78.3 C, which is lower than water. I  haven't tried vodka for the mixture with flour because vodka actually is also soluble in water.
My question is:
Is there any food grade liquid that has boiling point over 100 C and is not soluble in water?

No. An edible organic liquid that does not dissolve in water, almost by definition, is an oil.
That's not the important thing, though. Substances like mineral oil are edible yet non-nutritive; they pass through the body unchanged and would be compatible with any dietary condition. The problem is that, because they are not digestible and not water-soluble, they, ah... lubricate things. Down there. The amount you'd have to use for puff pastry would cause some real digestive issues.
Bottom line: there are no straightforward non-nutritive substitutes for fats and oils which do not cause diarrhea or loose stools.


When making lemon/poppy seed icecream, how should I include the poppy seeds? I want to make lemon+poppy ice cream, and I have a bag of preground blue poppy. I’m not following s specific recipe, I just like the flavour combo and had it in icecream from a shop before. Can I add them to the base when it’s hot; when it’s chilled before churning; steep them then strain them out; or do I add them to the finished icecream?

Poppy seeds have a very pleasant aroma and a bit of heat is going to do wonders to extract their flavour and aroma. I would dump them right into the end of the cooking process after you remove your custard from the heat. You don't want to cook them because you'll boil off volatiles and lose some flavour much like vanilla.
I think if you can get some lemon zest to appear in your finished product, or even as a garnish, along with the flecks of poppy it's going to look beautiful if you leave them in. Sort of a more sophisticated vanilla bean ice cream vibe.


Using fridge for slow rise dough with eggs I have a recipe for low carb bread using  yeast, vital wheat gluten, oat fiber, flax meal and 2 eggs.  It tasted ok but would it be safe to do a slow 24-48 hour rise in the fridge to develop more flavour?

From a food safety perspective, 48h in the fridge will be perfectly safe. (You may want to check out our generic post on storage times.)

Whether it’ll work with regards to intensifying or improving the flavor, I can’t say. Remember that the “more flavor” in regular slow-raise bread is based on enzymatic activity in the flour - which you don’t use. It may or may not be happening in the oat fiber and flax seeds. An experiment should answer that.


Does cutting meat into pieces make it go bad faster? Assuming I buy some chicken thighs, and it would be fine in the fridge for a few days until I'm ready to cook it, if I cut the thighs into pieces and mix with some veggies put into a separate container from the cut-up veggies (thanks @Joe), would the raw stir-fry mix (in a tupperware in the fridge) keep the same amount of time? Or would the increased surface area make it go bad faster? Does the answer change if it's beef or pork?

Yes, as you said, the increased surface area makes it go bad faster.
Not only that, but bacteria on top of the meat can now go to the middle with little resistance.

Consider the expiration date of ground beef and whole beef slabs.

Pork tends to go bad faster than beef, and freshly butchered pig smells of feces (especially right beneath the skin), but they still go bad faster.


How does altering the fat-to-flour ratio affect the pastry? Typical pastry recipes(pate sucre and pate brisee) follow the 2:1 ratio for flour and butter, other recipes (American pie crust, German shortcrust) can have a lower ratio (1.5, 1.29). How does the higher fat content affect the finished product?

Flour (+ water, either directly or from other ingredients such as egg white) gives the pastry structure. As you knead the flour, the gluten network develops and results in elasticity. When cooked, water evaporates from the dough leaving a rigid gluten skeleton.

Fat does not mix with water and thus stay in blobs in between the gluten network. This weakens the gluten structure, making the pastry crumble.

For this reason, you often see in recipes for shortcrust to avoid overmixing the fat. Buttery biscuits such as shortbread crumble more than crackers, which have more water. The same rationale applies to puff pastry. The thin fat layers are impermeable, so water steam gets trapped and exercise pressure upwards, lifting the pastry up.

Quoting @GdD in the comments, the punchline is:

more fat = crumblier, less fat has more structure.


can anyone explain why oil separation in a curry is indicator that the food is cooked? I'm addicted to curries and recently I participated on an internet discussion about oil separation in a curry. It is conventional wisdom that oil separation in a curry indicates the food finished cooking and that everything is ready. I take this for granted, but what I am really looking forward to is a technical explanation in english for this event. How exactly does the oil separation culminate with the finishing of cooking of the curry sauce and its ingredients?

The oil separating out of the milk both gives the final dish a glossier and more colorful appearance, and intensifies fat soluble flavor and pigment compounds (such as capsaicin). The separation primarily indicates that the flavor development of the sauce is done. Many recipes may simply be timed so that this will coincide with when the other ingredients finish cooking. It may be traditional wisdom that this indicates that all of the ingredients have finished cooking, but there isn't really anything special about the milk separating that indicates that, as the coconut milk is also sometimes cooked to separation prior to adding other ingredients.


What are some seasonings that can spice up a bland frozen chicken alfredo? Tonight, the main course is: Red Baron's Chicken Alfredo.

The problem is that it's a little bland so I'm trying to figure out what the best seasonings will give it more spice, or at least a more intricate taste.  I'm already throwing a lot of salt and pepper in there, what else could one use?

Well, an Alfredo sauce is supposed to taste mostly buttery, with the addition of the umami taste that comes from Parmesan. You could always add spicy stuff to it, but that will change the taste into something completely different. If you want to stay true to the basics of an alfredo dish, try adding a handful of freshly grated Parmesan and (to add to the rich umami taste) some chopped sundried tomatoes. Herbs that go well with this dish are oregano and sage.


Freezing sandwiches for toasting at work There's a sandwich press at my work and I'm trying to think of a way I can meal prep sandwiches for the whole week in one go. I'm thinking freezing them is the best bet, but I want them to be healthy as well and I'm not sure how vegetables will go in the freezer (probably badly).
Ideally I'll make all the sandwiches on Sunday, then put them in the freezer (wrapped in baking paper). Then, I'll take them to work in the morning (straight from the freezer), put them in the fridge when I get to work, and then put them straight in the sandwich press (inside the baking paper). That way I don't have to clean the press.
What would be the best way to incorporate vegetables into the sandwiches (maybe after toasting them)?

Freezing them will cause the cells to break down slightly, leading to a mushier vegetable. However, since you're planning on heating them anyway, I wouldn't worry about that. Heating will also make the vegetables softer and mushier, so I doubt that the initial freezing will significantly change the quality of the final hot sandwich. I would personally attempt to cook them straight from frozen if you have a freezer at work. The vegetables can release liquid over a slow defrost in the fridge which may affect the structural integrity of the bread.


Crowding loaves in deck oven When baking loaves in a commercial deck oven, are there any rules of thumb for how much space is needed around each loaf to bake well? I have noticed that when a few loaves are thrown in by themselves at the end of a bake they seem to cook much quicker and to develop excellent crust color and shine compared to the other loaves. Could it be that the bread doesn't get enough steam on its surface when many loaves are in the oven? I have also noticed that baguettes come out soft on the sides if they are not given sufficient room.

For context, these are mostly lean doughs, some naturally leavened and some yeasted, shaped as rounds and batards and baked at 400-500 F in a deck oven with steam. Some crowding is necessary because of time constraints.

I don't know of any "rules of thumb" other than experimenting to find optimal results.  Some loaves will expand a lot more horizontally than others while baking, so it will likely depend on the specific context.

From your description, it sounds like the problem isn't a lack of steam/moisture, but too much.  Crusty breads need steam early on to prohibit crust formation and thus allow maximum open spring.  But then they need space to allow their surfaces to dry out.  If they are almost against each other, moisture that's evaporating from the loaves will linger a bit more and remain somewhat concentrated in the areas between loaves -- thus keeping the crust a bit softer.

As for why loaves added later bake better, it might be a temperature effect.  If you overload an oven (even a commercial one) or have "cool" objects concentrated too close to each other, they'll bring down the effective heat during the early stages of the bake.  In contrast, with breads you often want the strongest possible heat at the beginning of the bake to achieve maximum oven spring before the crust sets.  My guess is that loaves added late take advantage of the fact that the oven has "recovered" in temperature after the massive influx of crowded (cooler) loaves.

But again, this is just a best guess based on your description.


What does it mean for a flour to be "strong" or "reinforced"? When describing flour, I sometimes see people comparing flours and saying that one is strong or stronger than another.

I also see flours that claim to be reinforced such as the Antimo Caputo 00 Rinforzato, where Rinforzato = Reinforced.

I had my own idea of what it meant, thinking it had something to do with higher gluten content, but right now, I'm not sure if that is correct.

Strong flour does mean higher gluten flour. I can't really find much info out about the Rinforzato flour. My guess would be that that could mean "enriched" but since another question (Red and blue Antimo Caputo 00 flour) seems to indicate that it has higher protein, it may just have some added vital wheat gluten to make it stronger.


Is it really necessary to wash a skillet that will be heated up again soon? I made some eggs in a cast iron skillet yesterday and didn't wash the skillet.  Today I want to make eggs again.

Is it really necessary for me to wash the skillet before making more eggs?  It would seem to me that heating it up would kill germs that had accumulated in the day since I used it.

Is it just breaking the social norm that is the problem or is there really danger here?

Seems almost every question about bacteria seems to bring about both the bacteriophobes and the cavalier.  In this case, the cavalier are probably closer to being right, but I'll try to present the facts so that you can decide for yourself.

The most common microbe groups responsible for household food poisoning are:

Salmonella, found in poultry, produces the CdtB toxin. CDT can be denatured (technically, "heat-labile") but is one of the most resistant toxins, taking 30 minutes at 70° C to destroy. This type of bacteria isn't normally associated with eggs, but since chicken eggs and other poultry products may be handled in the same area, it's not unthinkable that the shells could become contaminated - and depending on how you handle the eggs, so could the frying pan.
E.Coli is normally associated with beef but is also known to be found on egg shells.  It's improbable, but not impossible for it to be found in yolks as well.  This is a bit of a weird one because egg yolks also have immunization properties against e.coli, but not in the yolk itself or the frying pan. The strains of e.coli associated with food poisoning encode Shiga-Like Toxin (SLT) and also Enterotoxins, the latter of which are often heat stable. I'm not sure about SLT, but the STs can withstand boiling for 30 minutes.
Campylobacter (causing Campylobacteriosis) produces certain enterotoxins and also CDT.  As above, these tend to be heat-resistant.
C.botulinum is responsible for for botulism and is ubiquitous.  The spores are incredibly difficult to kill but they are also only harmful to infants and the immunodepressed.  More importantly, the bacteria are killed by heating to 85° C for 5 minutes and are also anaerobic - meaning they can only grow when they are not exposed to air.  In other words, these may be present, but won't grow and produce toxins on a reasonably clean pan.
C.perfringens is one of the most common sources of food poisoning, and I believe is actually what drives a lot of the specific food safety/food inspection rules.  The spores are very heat resistant (can survive boiling for a full hour), and even though it is anaerobic, it is also aerotolerant.  It can grow on a pan - just more slowly than it would grow in an enclosed container or in raw/fresh food.
S.Aureus causes staph infections but also produces heat-resistant enterotoxins. It doesn't generally come from food, but more than 20% of humans are carriers, and also many pets (cats and dogs), so it is very likely in your household somewhere and can easily get on your frying pan and multiply on leftover food bits.
B.cereus is less common but very resilient (they're known for "fried rice syndrome" because they can survive steaming) and afterward produce spores and heat-resistant enterotoxins. Important to note that many strains of this are harmless - but not all.
V.cholerae causes (as you may have guessed) cholera symptoms which come from CTX and TCP toxins.  Both of these are heat-labile although I wasn't able to find a time/temperature data point.

Chances are, you have at least one these friends in your kitchen.  Chances are, you have several.  The question is, did enough of them manage to get onto your frying pan after your last meal to produce dangerous levels of toxins?

Probably not. It's really very unlikely.  But it is possible, and you're taking a chance if you don't wash your dishes.

In fact, it's probably more dangerous with eggs, because typically you'd cook eggs only up to a temperature of around 70° C, at most (63° is the temperature at which they set).  So day after day you're bringing all those lovely bacteria right into the danger zone for several minutes and not staying above it for very long at all!

Doing this one time... really not a big deal.  Bacteria don't get to multiply much in the 5 minutes (or less) it takes to fry an egg, and most eggs aren't even contaminated to begin with, although there have been small outbreaks.

But doing this several times, day after day - you're increasing your risk each day because the pan may never get hot enough, long enough, to kill all of the new bacteria from the day before.

I would strongly recommend that you wash your pans after use.  You don't need to use soap if they're cast-iron; a good scrub with salt and hot water is fine.  But please - especially if you're going to be cooking for guests - don't just leave the dirty pans sitting there and use them again the next day without washing them first.  It's not safe.

P.S. I'd like to draw attention to the fact that of all of the items in the list above, botulism, despite having some of the worst symptoms, is generally the least of your worries. Both the bacteria and the toxin are easy to kill, and the spores are harmless to healthy adults. So if you hear people on this site or any site talk about food safety entirely in terms of botulism and the temperatures required to kill/inactivate the bacteria/toxin, ignore them, because they haven't done their homework.


How to make scalded (clotted) cream? I can't buy clotted cream in New Zealand, so I'd love to learn how to make it. I have a friend who can provide raw milk.

What's the technique?

You need fresh, creamy raw milk to start with. Pour it into a wide, shallow pan and leave overnight for the cream to separate out.

When ready, heat the milk, very, very gently for about an hour. It should never come anywhere near boiling. Leave overnight again, then you can just scoop the cream off the top.


Experimenting with garlic, does cooking kill the flavour? I have been experimenting by adding extra cloves of garlic into my pasta sauce every time I cook it. I make a quick pasta sauce by caramelizing onions in a pan, adding very finely chopped fresh garlic (its practically a paste), and whatever other vegetables is my pick for the night. Then I add chopped tomatoes/passata and reduce.
It seems to me no matter how much garlic I add, I do not get a harsh flavour. I just get a nice, deep, complex yet subtle flavour that I wouldn't instantly attribute to garlic.
I am currently at the stage where I am adding more than half a bulb of garlic to a one person sauce.
Is there any point in adding this much garlic? Is the garlic responsible for this "nice, deep, complex flavour"? Would the same effect be achieved with less garlic which is more coarsely chopped?
I understand that the longer garlic cooks, the weaker the "garlic" flavour gets, but is this flavour disappearing or is it developing into a new flavour?

Garlic mellows pretty rapidly with heat. Dropping it 2 minutes before you've completed sautéeing your onions is enough to knock the raw edge off it - in fact that's the common deciding factor as to when to add your liquids, "Fry until the raw smell is gone".
After that, the longer it simmers the more 'relaxed' it gets.
If you want more punch, try adding some more fresh right at the end.
You'd be surprised, too, how much punch you can get adding dried garlic powder right at the end too. I use it in tarka dal to really give some 'front' to the flavour & aroma as it is served.


Help with thinly slicing garlic I buy bulk peeled garlic. When I bring it home I always throw some in the food processor and freeze it in single use aliquots. That's fine for daily kind of use, but for fancier stuff I really like garlic thinly sliced. Unfortunately, what used to be easy is becoming more difficult. My hands often shake and cramp up when I try to do fine, detailed tasks. To make matters worse, I have cut myself several times in recent weeks.

I'm considering getting a mini-mandoline like this: Garlic Slicer Is there anything in particular I should look for in a mandoline for very thin slices? I don't own a mandoline of any type, so it would be sweet if I could find one that handles garlic well and can do bigger slices too, like potatoes for a gratin.

In the meantime, does anybody have any good tricks for slicing garlic old school (with a knife and cutting board)? I find that if I try to do more than one clove at a time, they slide around on the board making even slices difficult. Even one at a time, I find it hard to hold the last half of the clove without risking a trip to the emergency room.

For the general case of cutting vegetables, I will always recommend a mandoline. Cutting with a mandoline vs. knife is like drawing a straight line with ruler vs. without - even though very experienced people can get good results both ways, using the mandoline is always quicker and more precise. And for anybody whose fine motoric skills are compromised, the mandoline adds even more value than for the average person.

But the main disadvantage of the mandoline is that it doesn't work so well with the "butt" of the vegetable. With a normal-sized mandoline, I usually start using the cap when the food is worn down enough to pass about 4-5 cm above the blade, and because the cap is fiddly when the food is too thin, I leave the last 1 cm unsliced. There is no problem with making paper-thin slices of something large like an apple; but I would be wary of slicing something smaller than a garden radish on the normal mandoline, and wouldn't attempt a single garlic clove.

The small garlic mandoline looks like it is designed to solve this problem, as a video of it shows that you can push it down inside a holding "cell" instead of having to rely on a nail to hold it in place as with traditional mandoline caps. But it might still lead to large butts (which you can of course process as per Kate Gregory's answer).

Another thing important about a mandoline is that it should stand on a surface by its own. Mine has a rotating frame in the back which lets it stand stable on the counter, like a tablet holder. I only have to move the vegetable while the mandoline remains stable. Some have holes in the bottom edge so they can be put on a bowl rim. I can't see such a mechanism in the one you linked. If it requires the use of both hands (hold it stable with one hand while slicing with the other), its usability will be diminished a lot, especially when you have trouble with muscle coordination. You should try to find a model which can stand stable on its own. The person in the video does not use such a mechanism, maybe you should write to the manufacturer and ask if it exists.


How do I prevent my sugar coating from melting on my gummy bears I am making homemade gummy bears and I cannot prevent the sugar coating from melting way into a puddle of watered sugar? I tried drying the gummy bears for a day but it still melts away.

It is probably worth providing a recipe for what you're doing, but what about rolling them in a mix if iceing sugar and cornflour


Does ketchup belong in the fridge, or the cupboard? I'm hoping this will solve a biiig long-running debate I have with my friends.  Heinz Tomato Ketchup (The UK version contains sugar from beets, rather than HFCS like the US version)

I tend to think that ketchup should live in the fridge, once opened, because I'm a real stickler for the use-by instructions.

However, my friends, and their friends think I'm nuts, and are convinced that ketchup should live in the cupboard.  Having eaten ketchup stored in both fridge, and cupboard, the only difference being that refrigerated ketchup also cools the food it's just been applied to.

Consensus of the cooking gurus then?

Anything can spoil eventually, refrigerated or not. Keeping something under a lid and refrigerated restricts the number of airborne colonizers that might get access to it, and the cold temperature means that even if they get there, they will grow much slower than at room temperature.

For something to spoil, it needs to be colonized by bacteria or fungus spores, and it needs to contain some nourishment to support their growth, not too much chemicals that prevent their growth, and not too much competing life forms already present. So, things with a high concentration of salt or sugar tend to be unhospitable to bacteria and fungi growth, because they are hygroscopic (they draw the water out of cells). Extreme high or low pH (eg acidic) also retards growth. Think of things like ketchup, mustard, jelly with labels that say "refrigerate after opening" but most people ignore them. Alcohol is unfriendly if the concentration is too high, and of course natural fermented foods are already occupied by human-friendly bacteria.

Ketchup is sealed in a bottle, usually with no fingers or utensils inserted into it, so it stays pretty sterile. It is also protected by being hygroscopic (due to high concentration of sugar and salt) and its acidity. Ketchup as a word and concept is descended from an Indonesian fish sauce, and has been around much longer than refrigeration. I think you can leave it out with no worries unless you see obvious mold growth.


How are you supposed to eat ribbon candy? This seems a bit of a silly question to ask, but I'm a bit confused, so I'll ask for help.  I was gifted a box of Hammond's assorted classic ribbon candy for the holidays.  I've never been much of a fan of hard candy of any sort, but I was curious to at least try some of this gift.  (I also don't think I've seen it in decades; my only vague recollection is of an elderly relative having some when I was a small child.)

I understand that ribbon candy is partly made the way it is for its appearance.  But how is one supposed to eat it?  The candy I have comes it rather large pieces: about 3.5 inches long and about an inch wide in the other dimensions.  It's rather thick too.  (A quick search online mentions that some of this type of candy can be thinner and more fragile.)

As the pieces were so huge, my first thought was to break off a curve or two of the ribbon, but it tends to shatter into lots of shards and makes a mess.  Which led me to wonder whether one is just supposed to stick the end of a piece into your mouth and suck on it like a candy cane or something as it dissolves.  Except, again, it's rather large and awkward to eat, and from its composition, it tends to get really sticky when held in the hand.

In the end, I took some of the shards I broke off and ate them, but some edges were sharp, so it wasn't really pleasant to leave it in my mouth as it dissolved.

I know this sounds silly, but is there a method people usually use to eat ribbon candy?  If I were offered a piece at someone's house as a guest, what would I be expected to do with it when I consumed it?

As I said, I'm not a hard candy lover anyway, but at least most such candies I have consumed are small enough to place in your mouth as a single piece or are at least smooth and pleasant to eat more slowly (like a candy cane).  This candy seems huge, but breaking it up seems to make a mess and sharp shards.  (While keeping it whole both requires one to eat a huge piece and makes it very sticky to hold.)

Am I doing something wrong?  Or is this candy really just made this way for appearance, not for a practical pleasant eating experience?

The ribbon candy that I've had (and made) is an inch wide but only maybe 1/4 inch thick. It is very easy to break off just half a bend that fits in the mouth. There might be some errant shards but not full-scale shattering.

The appeal of ribbon candy over other hard candy is the appearance. Even when it is meant to be eaten it is made to be looked at first. I find it conceivable, if a bit unfortunate, that your ribbon candy was not intended to be consumed.

Another possibility is that it might be old. Hard candy can be still somewhat pliable when it is fresh. Depending on the climate, candy can dry and become more brittle over time.


Is it ok to keep reusing a water bottle indefinitely? I have a 1.5 liter plastic water bottle (the disposable kind) that I keep on a shelf by my bed. I fill it every night before bed, and generally nearly finish it by the morning and refill it when I wake up. I recently noticed that I've been using the same bottle for months... is there any issue with this? Any mold concerns, etc? Or can I keep using it indefinitely?

The general prescription for water bottles is to recycle them, not reuse them. According to a University of Virginia paper:

  Reuse of polycarbonate plastic bottles is generally not recommended by
  commercial bottled water manufacturers, as it may pose a health risk
  from two perspectives. First, everyday wear and tear from repeated
  washings and reuse can lead to physical breakdown of the plastic, such
  as visible thinning or cracks. Bacteria can harbor in the cracks,
  posing a health risk. Secondly, reuse of plastic water bottles can
  lead to bacterial contamination unless washed regularly. If a consumer
  wishes to reuse a plastic water bottle, it should be washed after each
  use in mild detergent only and rinsed well (9). The plastic should not
  be subjected to extreme, hot temperatures or harsh detergents, and
  should be carefully inspected for physical breakdown prior to reuse.

Additionally, the narrow opening can make it difficult to clean and dry properly.


Lost in translation: Pluma ibérico In Spain,there are three popular iberian pork cuts: Secreto (or Cruceta), Bola (or Presa or Abanico) and Pluma. I have a question about the 'pluma' that I can probably ask without referring to the specific cut, but I'd like to know if there is an accepted translation.

These cuts are extra tender and delicious because of the grease content. Butchers used to get rid of these cuts because of that. Some used to eat the meat themselves, it was the butcher's 'secret'. The 'pluma' is also called the butcher's steak(?).

There's a story in Spanish here.

As far as I can tell the "pluma" consists of the cervical and thoracic rhomboid muscles.  Those muscles are not standard cuts in the US.  It would likely remain attached to the whole loin or as part of blade end loin chops.

The article you linked to states that "the pluma should not be confused with the blade end of the loin or the 'butcher's filet' which is the caudal (tail-ward) cut of the loin."

There is a video on how the pluma is butchered available on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H_HNjStwsk


At what step is the difference made between a quesadilla and burrito? My quesadillas keep turning into burritos. This happens because I fold the tortilla in half but it doesn't stay so I tuck it in and roll it up by then it becomes a burrito (full and round). What's the difference? How do I make my quesadillas come out flat?

Quesadilla comes from queso, cheese, and that is mostly what goes in there. Maybe some jalapeños or onions, but that's really it.

In a burrito you'd add much more, both volume and variety, for example meat, rice, avocado, cream, cheese, chiles, and beans.

As far as I know the quesadilla goes in the pan on heat, whereas a burrito does not get heated after being wrapped up.


What kind of dough staple is easiest to make, for soaking in mussel juices? No oven, eggs, milk With just a gas stove and rice cooker, what kind of food staple based on dough or batter can she make most simply? I don't know what you call the category of "bread, cake, pancake".
My mom lives Hong Kong when Toronto's cold. Here are strictures:

Her flat doesn't have a convection oven. She never bought microwave oven - the FDA

However, FDA regulations require that microwave ovens are designed to prevent these high level radiation leaks.

She could buy a counter-top convection toaster oven, but let's rule this out.
If nobody comes up with anything, she will reconsider. Her kitchen looks like

No milk of any kind, like coconut or soy as they taste icky to her.

No eggs. She has medical issues and her doctor forbid them.

Bon Appetit says

8. Mussels Without Bread Are No Mussels at All
A mussels-must: Serve plenty of fresh, crusty bread with a pillowy interior alongside. The bread will serve as a vehicle for that aromatic, boozy, briny sauce you worked so hard to create. And if you want to flex even harder, throw a little mayo on that bread. Maybe a ginger-y, garlicky aioli? Just a thought. And here's one more. Don't forget to place a large bowl on the table for the empty shells. That's just common courtesy.

In the southern US, people make what is known as flour bread. (Also known as biscuit bread or skillet bread.) It's made with biscuit dough that is flattened into a circle about 1/2" thick. It is cooked on top of the stove, in a lightly greased skillet over medium-high heat on one side until that side is golden brown and then flipped and cooked until golden on the other side.

I typically use leftover biscuit dough that has been shaped into a ball, wrapped and refrigerated overnight. (It doesn't have to be leftover but I do find that the time in the fridge makes a difference.)

Typical southern-style biscuits are made with flour, salt, hard fat (vegetable shortening or lard), baking powder, and water or milk (cook's choice). So, no need for milk, eggs, or an oven.

It's great for sopping up gravy or juices.