Storing and re-using rendered duck fat I recently made duck confit in my slow cooker. I purchased a 2 lb container of rendered duck fat for that purpose, which I'd like to save. Is it possible to re-use the fat? If so, how should I store it?

It's absolutely possible to re-use it, although you will want to keep an eye on how salty it gets as you use it for successive batches. It will also, like any fat, degrade as you repeatedly heat it up, so you can't keep it forever. It should be good for at least three rounds of duck confit, though.

Just strain it through some cheesecloth into a clean and dry container and store it anywhere it will stay solid, i.e., preferably the fridge (if you need the space in there a nice cool (< 45˚F (7˚C)) and clean basement/larder will do).

Also, hang on to the jelly that ends up in the bottom -- it's like a salty aspic and makes a nice snack spread on toast, or diced up and tossed in a salad. You can also throw it into stews or make a sauce from it.


Is it necessary to cook porridge (oatmeal)? It is possible to just eat porridge (oats) after soaking in water for a couple minutes.

However, cooking it makes it creamier and softer.

I'm interested in knowing if cooking the oats actually changes them in some way (besides the heat), and if there is technically a difference between cooking vs. not cooking.  (e.g. is it the case that if I leave it to soak for a longer period without heating, it could achieve the same softness?)

Yes, there is a chemical difference.

When you cook the porridge, the starch from the oats thickens the milk like a pudding. You don't get the effect (propper name, anyone?) by just soaking them. Just as you will never get a firm pudding without cooking.

What you prefer taste-wise is a completely different question.


Dehydrating in a convection oven How do I use the oven to dehydrate foods. Do I close the door or leave it open?

I usually turn it on the lowest it can go, and leave the door closed. I also watch whatever I'm drying very, very closely, because in a convection oven things move quite quickly. I do notice more even drying with a convection oven.


How to choose the right kind of flour? I love to cook but I'm not too much into baking. My mom is currently visiting from overseas so there is more baking going on in the house.  Unfortunately, she doesn't really know English so it's hard for her to evaluate different types of flour that are available in the supermarket.  I got her the King Arthur All-Purpose the other day and she baked some rolls with it but said they didn't rise as much despite using baking powder.

I use flour mainly for making frying batter for fish as well as for roux when I cook stews.

I noticed that, in addition to the differentiation between bread and all-purpose, flours also differ in whether they are bleached vs non-bleached.

I would like to learn more about different kinds of flour and what makes them different and what the best kinds are for different uses.

Please see this  question  and the accepted answer. It has a great deal of information.

Without really knowing the reason why there were differences, I learned several years ago that there are most definitely major differences between brands. In my area, for most uses I buy Gold Medal. However, I will never use that for biscuits or rolls. They turn out way too heavy. For making biscuits and rolls I buy either White Lily or Snowflake.

Not sure where you are located, so I have no idea what brands may be available. This  page  gives some good information and has this chart that lists info for some brands/types of flour.


Storing lemon juice with crushed mint I really enjoy grinding mint with lemon, then adding that to various drinks. I buy fresh mint but mint leaves wither pretty fast. I thought about grinding the entire mint bundle in lemon juice at once and keeping it in fridge. For how long would it be safe to store it like that?

I'd make it into ice cubes.
They'd add decorative interest too.
Fridge, maybe a week, freezer, more like 6 months.
There's a full list of storage times in How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?


How long can I keep shrub syrup in the refrigerator I just made shrub syrup, by cooking fruit in sugar water (~0.5-1 cup of water and ~0.5-1 cup of sugar), sieving it, and mixing vinegar into it (~3 tablespoons of 10% vinegar on 1 cup) and I'd like to know how long I can roughly keep it when storing it in the refrigerator after I filled it into clean (but used) screw cap bottles.

What I maybe should add is, that I don't intend to store the syrup for a very long duration without using it. I will open the bottles now and then to take some of it out.

I am aware of this canonical question, but since it is a mixture of various things and since I'm not that well-versed in the intricacies of food storage (or cooking in general actually), I wasn't too sure what to take from it and maybe there might be a more detailed question possible applying to this type of food.

While, in general, vinegar retards the growth of certain bacteria (botulism), some allow the growth of others that are harmful. You should sterilize the glass containers by first washing them in hot water and soap, and then boiling for about 10 minutes and scalding the caps in boiling water. Filled and tightly sealed, your shrub should last about 6 months in the refrigerator. Opened and used occasionally, they should last 6-8 weeks, not unlike similar condiments that are kept refrigerated. Keep in mind that, should you include fruit in your original batch, it will age and, eventually, become a fruit vinegar.


How to prevent a baker's chocolate mixture from resolidifying so that it can be used in beverages? Is it possible to directly melt baker's chocolate (sliced from bar form), mix with sugar, then add an a sort of "inverting" chemical to prevent it for resolidifying?

I currently work with baker's unsweetened chocolate. I believe this is the product of cacao butter? Not sure.

What I do with the chocolate is emulsify it in water under slow heat whilst stirring rapidly. Typically a 1:2.5 ratio of baker's chocolate to water, then add 1:2.5 ratio of chocolate to brown sugar.

I add this to chocolate drinks, and I've always appreciated its ability to add thickness to the beverage. But if I can make it even thicker, that would be good right?

The bigger problem I suppose is that I've never trained with a chocolatier. I don't know what the pros do!

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but what came to my mind was making a ganache - pouring heated cream over chopped chocolate and then stirring until the chocolate is melted.  By adjusting the ratios of cream to chocolate, you can make a lovely thick chocolate syrup that works well for stirring into beverages.

There are 4 standard ratios of chocolate and cream, for different purposes:

2:1 (chocolate:cream) is very firm and holds its shape, good for uncoated truffles.

3:2 is firm but slightly softer; good for coated chocolates and cake icings.

1:1 is soft and smooth; good for tart and cake fillings, some cake icings, and spreads

1:2 is pourable and sauce-like - the obvious choice for sauces.

(from a Chowhound article on ganache)


Why would a recipe be sensitive to the brand of cream cheese I bought? I have a chocolate chip cheesecake recipe I have made several times before without problem. My mother's recipe says to use a particular brand of cream cheese. I thought this was nonsense. Anyways, when I went to the store, they didn't have Philadelphia brand, so I bought whatever they had, something organic such and such brand.

The results looked disastrous. Supposed to cook for an hour, but took 1hr 40 minutes. Didn't have the same look at all. And I was about ready to throw it out. But in the end tasted excellent! If this was food network, I would have gotten tons of points off for look and texture though, because it is supposed to have the chocolate chips evenly distributed brought it, and they seemed to have fall to the bottom while baking.

my question:

Why would brand of cream cheese affect the recipe so much? It seems unreasonable. I also don't think it's the oven because I baked a pie last week and it turned out great.

Philadelphia Brand ingredients: Pasteurized Milk and Cream, Whey Protein Concentrate, Salt, Carob Bean Gum, Xanthan Gum, Cheese Culture.

Organic Valley Cream Cheese (don't know which brand you used) ingredients:  Organic Pasteurized Milk and Organic Cream, Cheese Culture, Salt, Organic Locust Bean Gum.

Nancys Organic Cream Cheese ingredients: Organic cream, Organic nonfat dry milk, L. acidophilus, B. bifidum and 4 strains of Lactic cultures, salt.  <-- no gum in this one

The fat specs for all 3 brands are about the same.

I'd say it's any combination of:

the gums used
did the manufacturer use milk and cream processed through ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurization
what is the moisture content (hard to determine from a label)
maybe human error by the Baker??


Hamantaschen just wouldn't pinch and hold tight I made a pretty simple and easy hamantaschen recipe last night, and it came out really well. The only substitution I made was to flex 3 eggs for 3 tablespoons milled, gelled flax seed in 9 tablespoons water. I am essentially unfamiliar with the dough, and wasn't sure what to expect. It had a great crumb, shortbread texture, but I ran into the dough unfolding/unpinching while baking.

The dough was good to work with, streched well and didn't break apart. However, it was very dry. Two main problems that may have stemmed from this were that the pockets wouldn't pinch at the edges, and when I left them to cool they dried out very quickly. In the second batch I tried moistening the edges with water to see if it would help glue them together, but to no avail. In the third the dough was becoming very inflexible and I used some canola oil to loosen it back up, but this did little to help.

As it is spoken of as a stiff dough (the author recommends chilling dough overnight), the dryness of the dough itself may not have inherently been a problem. Also, whereas the author says to "mix" the five and a half cups of flour with the liquids, I found I needed to fold cup by cup then knead toward the four cup mark, ultimately shorting the recipe by a half cup of flour. Since the drying out while cooling had no actual affect on the dough (in terms of taste, texture), I am mostly concerned about why the pockets ended up flat upon baking in many cases, instead of little pockets of plum preserves.

With a dough and recipe like this, what could I have done to ensure better pinches?

Is the amount of baking powder appropriate? The recipe didn't call for any salt, but I added some for flavor; could this have been problematic in causing over-rising?
The flax egg substitution would have had an equal amount of moisture to the egg, but would it have caused such dryness while mixing? The dough results were good in taste, just not structure.
Could over-kneading have been the problem; does too much kneading inhibit flour's ability to adhere to itself?
I do not typically use oil only doughs due to their dryer results, would subbing/splicing some heavier fats or apple sauce have improved the sticking?
Doubtless from the image above, I have not formed these before. Could my pinching technique have been to blame? Is there a secret to it? I have also seen them folded; does folding the corners yield sharper edges than pinching?

It seems Hamantaschen cookies unfolding and leaking is not an uncommon problem. Of course the flax egg substitution can very likely also contribute to the unfolding but here are some tips from someone who has been baking Hamantaschen cookies for a while.

Tips for Creating Perfect Hamantaschen

  1) Find a great dough recipe. Often, the problems people have with
  baking hamantaschen can be traced to an inferior dough. Here are two
  foolproof, tasty dough recipes that I highly recommend. They are easy
  to handle and shape, and they provide great results when baked:

  Dairy Free Hamantaschen Dough

  Buttery Hamantaschen Dough

Of course you can use your flax egg substituted in for the eggs that the recipes ask for.

  2) Roll your dough out to 1/8 inch thick (or less). You want your
  dough to be as thin as possible, while still being thick enough to
  maintain the cookie’s structure. 1/8 inch seems to be the magic
  number; sometimes I roll mine out even thinner than that. For a more
  doughy texture you can roll it thicker, but remember– the thicker the
  dough is, the harder it will be to handle and shape. Thick dough is
  also more prone to opening/spreading in the oven.

  3) Use a thick filling that won’t run/weep from the cookies while
  baking. Knowing the proper consistency of a hamantaschen filling takes
  experience, because each type of filling is slightly different.
  Poppyseed filling has a very different texture than fruit filling, for
  example. A good filling should be somewhat thick so that it doesn’t
  run.

  4) Cut your hamantaschen dough in 3-inch circles (or larger) before
  filling and folding into triangles. Anything smaller than 3 inches
  will be difficult to fold around your chosen filling.

  5) Most fillings can be chilled before using to fill hamantaschen.
  I’ve found that fruit, poppy seed, and cream cheese-based fillings
  tend to be easier to work with when they’re chilled in the
  refrigerator. The chilling process thickens the fillings and makes
  them less sticky, which makes them easier to handle with when you’re
  assembling your hamantaschen. Not all fillings are helped by
  refrigeration, however– particularly chocolate-based fillings like
  Nutella, which will harden with prolonged refrigeration. Check your
  filling recipe to see if refrigeration is recommended.

  6) Do not overfill your hamantaschen. Use 1 teaspoon of filling per
  hamantaschen cookie. Do not use more than 1 teaspoon. However tempting
  it might be to put lots of delicious filling in the middle of your
  cookie, using more than 1 teaspoon can cause your hamantaschen to
  spread open and leak in the oven. 1 teaspoon is plenty, especially
  when you cut your dough circles to 3 inches… it’s the perfect amount
  of filling.

  7) Fold your triangles the right way! Using the proper folding method
  will help your hamantschen hold together and create a beautiful shape.

Please that the sides are folded down so that each "side" has an "end" that is above and an "end" that is below in the fashion of folding the top of a box. This will help in preventing the cookies from unfolding.

Also note in Step 5, to pinch each of the 3 corners gently but firmly.

Source: http://theshiksa.com/2012/03/01/how-to-make-perfect-hamantaschen/


Fennel mandarin salad I have a recipe for a fennel mandarin salad. it says to chop the fennel bulb. I haven't cooked or even ate fennel before. I have the fennel. Do i chop the green portion or the white bulb portion? for this salad?

As it says, you chop the bulb - the white part at the bottom. The core of the bulb can sometimes be a bit tough, especially at the bottom, and you may have to remove the drier outer layer, but otherwise, that's the part you really want to use.

The bulb is juicy and easy to eat, while the green stalks are usually much more fibrous - think celery, except tougher. If you do want to eat the stalks fresh, you can try slicing them relatively thinly, so you don't have long strands of fiber to try to chew. Alternatively, they're great for adding flavor to soups and stews; you can just fish them out after they've released their flavor.


How to warm up canned beans? A recipe is asking for "canned black beans, drained, rinsed and warmed".

I've never just heated up beans by themselves. How do I warm up these beans without using a microwave? Do I heat them up in a pan with some butter/oil or in simmering water?

I'd use a microwave but you've ruled that out. Taking "warmed" literally as meaning made warm but not hot, you could put them in a bowl, cover with boiling water and wait a few minutes. I suspect that you actually want them hot, in which case you could put them in a small pan, pour over boiling water, cover, and return to the boil for a few minutes. If you don't have an electric kettle, just boil a small pan of water and tip the beans in.


Will store bought chicken eggs hatch? I'm a bit scared to try it, because I'm not sure what would be worse--cracking open a rotten egg, or having to figure out what to do with a chick.

So how about it?  If I leave chicken eggs out, will they eventually hatch if kept at the right temperature?

EDIT - Sorry for the confusion.  I was referring to store bought eggs only.

If you're getting your eggs from a supermarket, they won't hatch. This is the case with eggs you get for eating from almost any source.

Hens lay eggs even if they haven't been, umm, mating with a male. Any egg laid in those circumstances will never hatch because it's unfertilized, and that's the standard practice for any commercial egg operation.

Now if you have a free ranging hen and a rooster too, and they're not kept apart, then yeah, you could get a fertilized egg. And that egg needs to be kept properly warm to hatch.


Does glucose used is added to sugar quantity in recipes like ice creams? I was successful making a new ice cream recipe from Pierre Herme:

100g Milk
135g Cream
1 egg yolk
45g sugar
15g glucose

I replaced the glucose by honey. After churning the ice cream, it was smooth and creamy, but it was too sweet. And who doesn't know Pierre Herme, he is one of the best pastry chef in the world. And his desserts are well balanced in terms of sugar quantities.

Is it because I replaced glucose by honey which added the extra sweetness?

I know glucose will help the ice cream to be smooth but does it add sweetness too?
I think honey contains fructose and glucose. Glucose is a glucose, so the extra fructose in honey was the reason I guess?

The overall result:

Smooth ice cream but it melt as fast as it get out of the fridge because of the extra sugar in it.

You can substitute sugar straight over for glucose but you need to increase the wet ingredients or decrease the dry ingredients as glucose absorbs more liquids than regular sugar. Take a look at this article and this one! But mixing sugar and glucose is done in baking for the texture!

  In pretty much every other regard when it comes to cooking/baking, glucose acts exactly like regular sugar BUT it is not a direct substitute for sugar and works best in baked goods when combined with other sugars. But it adds texture.

I remember I did mochi last week, filled with chocolate, green tea and anko paste. To do the anko paste (which i ended up throwing to the bin due to the honey) I needed glucose for the exact same thing: texture. I did not find glucose anywhere so I used regular honey, the same quantity as glucose, and it quite ruined the anko paste. That is because honey is not glucose. Honey also has fructose and depending on the honey, in different quantities. I would use 2/3 or even 1/3 honey if you substitute it.

In the end, I find baking and cooking quite like chemistry. If you do not measure this kind of things well, it is obvious the result is not gonna work!


Groceries left out on the counter I accidentally left my groceries out on the counter for an hour. Some frozen fish and frozen fruits and vegetables. Are they still good? Especially the fish?

It's all still safe, given that it was only an hour. Even very perishable food like fish and meat is safe for 2-4 hours in the danger zone (above 40F/5C), so even if it had fully thawed it'd be okay. If it was all still clearly frozen on the surface, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

If some of it was thawed on the surface, it's still okay, but note that the time limit in the danger zone is cumulative. So in that case, when you do use it, I'd be sure to avoid letting it sit out thawed before cooking, or after cooking. But it would all still be fine.

All you really have to worry about here is quality. If things thawed significantly, and then you refreeze them, the texture will suffer. Things are likely to get mushier, especially vegetables. They'll still be safe, just not as good. So if anything seems to have thawed, I'd try to use it immediately instead of refreezing.


How can I make Turkish dondurma? Turkish ice cream is called dondurma. Besides milk and sugar it also contains:
Salep- a flour made of ground orchids and
Mastic- a resin that produces a gum.

Because of these ingredients dondurma has a unique texture and flavor. The flavor is described as piney or floral while the texture is uniquely gummy. It melts very slowly because of the gum and sometimes it is thick enough to eat with a fork and knife.

Unfortunately, it seems like salep is rare and is no longer exported from Turkey.

My question is twofold:
Where can I find Salep and Mastic? My normal online sources have yielded nothing.
Are there more accessible ingredients that I can substitute to approximate dondurma?

Salep is essentially glucomannan; you can subsitutue Salep with Konjac GM (not konjac flour as it might impart a fishy flavor). And this is the key ingredient in Dondurma.

When it comes to mastic, you can try to omit it as it's mainly for flavor. Not all Turkish Dondurma is with mastic; you could simply use vanilla...

Note: I’ve made Dondurma simply like this, and it turned out almost as authentic as it was in Turkey.

Dry blend the sugar (10% of milk by weight) and KGM (0.6% of milk by weight) and whisk into cold milk.

Keep it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

In a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment beat the hot mixture for 20+ and until it cools down to room temperature.

Transfer to a bowl and put it into the freezer, every 30 minutes take out and whisky a bit, until it’s quite solid.

Keep it in the freezer for another 12 hours.
And serve.


How to preserve curry paste I want to preserve curry paste in bottles could you please help me to find out the right amount of additives use in it

Rather than changing your recipe by adding preservatives, there a number of approaches you could use, depending on the acidity of your curry paste. At or above 4.6 pH would have to be pressure canned to avoid botulism, as it takes the temperature to 240°F / 116 C (a water bath heats to 212°F / 100 C).

The simplest way is to freeze the paste. Secondly, for an amount you're likely to use over the course of several months, it could be stored in the refrigerator. Heat the paste with a bit of oil and of water. Completely fill sterilized jars with the hot paste, close, and turn them upside down to cool completely before refrigerating.

If it is high acid, it can be water-bath canned: fill sterilized jars with the paste, top with sterilized lids and bands, and process the jars in boiling water. After cooling, check to ensure the lid is sealed; if not, it can be re-processed.


Are there any general principles of ingredient substitutions? When trying to determine if an ingredient can be substituted in a recipe, are there any general principles or guidelines that apply?

Yes, there are a number of things to think about, although in the end experience, intuition, and a deep understanding of the science of ingredients will be your best guide.

What does the ingredient do in the dish?

The first question to ask yourself, is what role does the ingredient play in the dish?

There are three main roles, although some ingredients can play more than one of these roles in some dishes:

Structure or backbone.  The ingredients that form the main structure or contribute to the chemistry of the dish.

Examples would be flour in a cake, or chocolate in a ganache.

In savory cooking, the flour used to thicken a sauce would be contributing to the chemistry.
Signature. A signature ingredient is key to the identity of a dish—it is why the dish is what it is.

Examples would include basil in a pesto recipe.
Accents and garnish. These are ingredients that compliment the flavor or texture of the dish, but aren't the core identity, or essential to its chemistry or structure.

Examples include chili flakes sprinkled on pizza, or potatoes in a stew.

Signature ingredients

If a dish is defined by a certain ingredient (such as the rum in rum balls), then substituting for the signature ingredient really isn't practical.  You would be creating a new dish, or changing what its core is.

If for dietary, religious or other reasons, you simply cannot use the signature ingredient in a dish, you would often be better served by looking to make another dish whose main ingredients you can enjoy.

On the other hand, this can be a jumping off point to invent new dish.  For example, instead of making rum balls, you might make bourbon balls—but they wouldn't be rum balls.

Structure ingredients

Substituting structure ingredients can be very simple or very tricky, depending on the application or restrictions involved.

First, ask yourself what role the ingredient plays in the recipe, and what the ingredient is principally composed of.

Some common roles are:

Fats.  Most fats can be substituted for one another fairly freely, although the flavor or texture may change slightly.

In very sensitive recipes, the water content of butter or margarine (about 20%) may be a favor.

In other recipes, the saturation of the fat, which controls whether it is solid (saturated fats) or liquid (unsaturated fats) at room temperature is important.  If the fat is used mechanically, as in biscuits or laminated pastry, you need another solid fat.  This also applies to the creaming method—the fat must be solid in order for air to be incorporated.

When used as a frying medium, for very hot frying like searing or deep frying, the smoke point of the oil may matter.  For routine sauteing it is not terribly significant as the food itself will cool the pan.
Sugars  Most sweet ingredients can be substituted for one another fairly freely, with a couple of considerations.

Liquid sweeteners like honey or syrup add water, and tend to be even more hydrophyllic than plain sugar.  Additionally, in candies and other applications where controlling sugar crystallization is important, the fact that they may inhibit crystallization can be either an advantage or a disadvantage.

One case where liquid sweeteners cannot be used is cakes or baked goods made with the creaming method, which rely on the sharp edges of the sugar crystals to cut air into the fat medium.

Finally, some brown sugars or unrefined sugars bring a small amount of acid, which may change the acid balance of a recipe.  This is mostly important in baking, where the acid from the sweetener is used to activate chemical leavening.

Otherwise, the major issue is what flavors in addition to sweetness the ingredients carry.
Pure Starches.   Many starches have the same role in recipes, and perform similarly.

The issue to look at is if they are stable under heat or acid ingredients, and whether they gel transparently or cloudy.
Flours.   Flours are an exceptionally difficult category, especially when the flour to be substituted is wheat flour, which has special charactaristics due to gluten.   This is one area where looking at the entire recipe, and multiple ingredients is appropriate.
Acids   Many acids are used in cooking to brighten flavor.  In this case, many of them including citrus juice, various vinegars, and so on can be freely substituted to taste.

However, in baking, if the acid is meant to work with the chemical leavening, or in any curing type application, the absolute amount of acid or the pH of the recipe must be considered.
Bulk ingredients.  Bulk ingredients--often starchy vegetables or grains like potatoes, rice, barley, carrots, noodles, and so on form the body of some dishes.

The main issue here is usually flavor balance, or texture and consistency, and how it participates in the entire dish.  For example, a stew or sauce could be served over mashed potatoes, pureed turnips, noodles, rice, or barley without changing the stew, but the overall experience would be changed.

Accent ingredients

Finally, there are accent ingredients, which do not fall into the previous categories.

These are the easiest to substitute or play with, as they don't change how the recipe works.

For example, using parsnips instead of potatoes in a stew, or garnishing cookies with chocolate sprinkles instead of coconut.

In these cases, you are looking for comparability of flavor and texture, as well as avoiding changes that would affect chemistry or structure of the dish.

So you would not substitute potatoes with tomatoes in many applications, because the tomatoes can be much more watery and more acidic, which may have an effect.

Conclusion

When deciding how to substitute, the main issue is understanding the role of an ingredient in a a dish, and finding another ingredient that can help play the same role.


how do I remove partially-disintegrated sediment/tiny-bones from stock? I have just finished my first batch of bone broth, and have removed all of the bones I could find.  I noticed that there are some smaller pieces, as well as "grit" from disintegrated bones, which seems to be from the handiwork of my vinegar leaching minerals from the bones.

I am wondering what people normally do when dealing with these very tiny gritty pieces, as well as pieces that could have been hard to miss that are still bones/larger grit.  I went through with a strainer, but the issue is that the marrow is also strained so I have to pick through.  Currently it is very hot, so I am waiting for it to cool down before I pick through it more.

My questions are

How do people get rid of the very tiny pieces of bone/tiny-grit from the bones.
Is there an issue with eating the grit and such?  It seems that it would be disintegrated with more time, so there shouldn't be an issue.  What about small bone pieces?  It seems that with the long simmer the bones are a lot softer, so there wouldn't be splintering, but it's probably still a possibility.

Any help would be appreciated on how to deal with/ work with tiny-bones and grit, thank you!.

Straining might work, but you may need to use a process known as "decanting":

Let the stock sit until any sediment falls to the bottom.
Remove the good liquid, avoiding the sediment at the bottom.

You can do this a few ways :

Use something to scoop the good liquid off the top
Use a hose to siphon off the good liquid until just before you get to the sediment
Carefully pour off the good liquid, stopping when you notice the sediment rising to the top

This is more difficult with stock, as when it cools, the gelatin will start to thicken making pouring a bit tricker ... but it means one more potential method:

Let the stock set up, then remove it as a block from the container (you may need to set the whole thing in hot water to get it to release; sometimes a hot-water spray or wrapping it in damp hot towels is enough).  Slice off and remove the sediment layer.  Put what's left back in the container.


When sauteing should I put onion or garlic first? Most of the dishes here in the Philippines involved sauteing. But I am a little bit confused on what should I put first, are there any advantages on it?

Questions:

Should I put onion or garlic first whenever I am conducting a saute?
What are the advantages of putting onion first before garlic?
What are the advantages of putting garlic first before onion?

Onions always benefit from a few minutes on their own to soften and start sweetening. Garlic burns easily, especially when finely chopped or crushed, so in general should not be fried as long as onion. Having said that, when doing a quick stir fry or similar dish, you can throw in the garlic first for 10-20 seconds so that it flavours the oil.


Use foil as dutch oven lid for loaf pan Can I lay foil over the dough in a loaf pan, to contain moisture like a dutch oven?

I've practiced using cast iron dutch oven baking, but this time I would like to use a loaf pan, so I can cut the bread evenly.

The lid on a Dutch oven retains heat and traps moisture as it evaporates from the bread, giving the loaf that beautiful artisan crust. Foil will neithe trap the moisture adequately, nor will it retain heat, but it will slow your crust from browning too quickly. If crust is what you’re going for, try adding a pan to the lower rack in your oven, then when you put your loaf in, pour a cup or two of cold water into the pan. The steam will approximate (but not equal) the steam that a professional oven creates.

One of your commenters suggested a Pullman loaf pan. It’s a box with a slide-off lid. It makes a perfectly square loaf that is perfect for sandwiches, but the crust and crumb more resemble store-bought white bread than, say, sourdough.


What's this white strip on the top side of my boneless skinless chicken breast? I am aware that there is a tendon which connects a chicken breast to it's tenderloin...what I"m curious about is the other white strip on the top of my boneless skinless chicken breasts as shown in this picture:

I always cut my chicken up into small pieces so I always cut it out, but I realize that this can't really be done when baking or poaching the entire boneless skinless chicken breast.

Can anyone shed some light on to what it is and whether I am wasting my time removing it?  Does it dissolve when the chicken is baked?

Structurally it is similar to silver-skin on tenderloin and other red meat muscles, some connective tissue marking the muscle boundary.  I have seen it be a little tough on older, non-broiler birds but even then not normally worth messing with, IMO.  If you chunk the meat you might find spots that are thick enough to be worth removing especially near the shoulder joint, but otherwise probably not.


A firm mousse with juice with my cream whipper Can I create a firm mousse (dense self holding foam) with juice and no fat or dairy with my cream whipper?

It's very difficult to create a firm anything with a cream whipper, since by definition what it does is whip. It's meant for preparations that incorporate a lot of air - i.e. light and fluffy. Most mousse recipes don't only use cream, they also use eggs and/or gelatin and that is what gives it its body.

There are certainly ways to whip things without cream - for a gel preparation (as opposed to a foam) you're generally looking at egg whites (or equivalent), gelatin, or carrageenan. Gelatin is already a very common ingredient in mousses, but I think carrageenan might be a better choice for what you're trying to do, because of its shear-thinning property; whereas with gelatin you have to heat it in order to loosen it up, carrageenan you can just shake a bit.

I think you'd do well to start off with a meringue-based mousse and forget the whipper, just to see if it's a texture you like. You make the base and then fold in the other ingredients. It's not going to be the same as a traditional mousse at all, but nothing will be without fat. Italian meringue has more of a frosting/icing-like quality, so you could try that as well.

Then you could try incorporating iota carrageenan (kappa isn't shear-thinning) or gelatin. I don't think I'd recommend a whipper for this, though. Typically you'd make this by first preparing the meringue, then folding in egg yolks and other flavours. The gelling agent would probably go in with the latter half, since I'm not sure if it's possible to whip egg whites with gelatin or carrageenan already incorporated (I've never tried, but it sounds dubious). If you do it in a whipper, I'm not sure how you could separate these steps. You could try to do them together if you don't mind the possibility of throwing away ingredients; my guess is that it might fail to whip at all, or if it does whip, then might be too thick to dispense.

You might also consider more traditional dairy substitutes - for example, there's a recipe for coconut oil chocolate mousse that you should be able to adapt to fruit. Coconut oil is a fat, of course, but I'm assuming your real issue is dairy - you don't explain your reason why you can't have fat or dairy and without details, it sounds like an unnecessarily arbitrary restriction - if this has something to do with not wanting a "fattening" dessert then it's the sugar, not fat, that you should be concerned about.

Anyway, one last thing - you probably will not meet with much success trying to use actual juice for this. I suggest using an extract and some food colouring if you want it to look right - or maybe some frozen juice concentrate, so you don't need to use as much. If you're whipping egg whites, you can't water it down, and you don't want to lower the pH too much either.


Canned corned beef dinner, for hiking Am wondering how to make palatable dinner with canned (European) corned beef (aka bully beef, not the same as American corned beef).

This is for camping/hiking, so preferably not involving too many exotic ingredients and simultaneous operations. Assume a stove, a frying pan, a couple of pots.

Have seen suggestions for mixing it with left-over fried potatoes, but that assumes you have left-over fried potatoes.

Am looking for general suggestions, not detailed recipes.

You can make a dinner based on corned beef all from tins, but of course that's fairly heavy for hiking. Fresh veg cabln be lighter and keeps a few days.

Tinned potatoes are the key to a traditional one-pot camping meal, fried first if you have some oil or margarine with you. Then it depends what you feel like, but baked beans and peas can be used to make a corned beef hash.

Alternatively (using two pans of some sort)

tinned tomatoes and dried herbs, with pasta on the side
tinned/dried/fresh veg, whatever you can find or transport, and curry paste, with rice

You still only need one burner as one pan can be kept hot while serving as a lid for another, so long as you've got a level, stable base.


Is there a difference between boiling water and almost boiling water? When cooking noodles (ramen or pasta), recipes often call for it to be thrown in boiling water.
I’m often impatient and can’t wait for the water to go from almost boiling (95C)  to full boiling (100C) In some cases, it can be a couple of minutes to go to a full boil.
Aside from extra cooking time is there a difference between almost boiling and boiling viz a viz noodles?

There are two main differences, obviously: five degrees, and no boiling action.
As Cascabel mentioned in a comment, dried pasta will "cook" even in water that's well below boiling temperature. However, a rolling boil serves to constantly stir the contents of the pot, much more than convection in heating water would. Without that mechanical action, pasta is more prone to stick to itself and to the bottom of the pan. So stir a few times.
For fresh pasta, it's more important to use boiling water (and lots of it), because adding the pasta to the water will significantly cool the water below the point where the pasta can actually cook. The sticking concerns apply even more there: fresh pasta has more loose surface starch to cause sticking if you don't stir.
Incidentally, you mentioned in the comments that you assumed it was slow to bring water to a boil "because of the phase change involved". But there is no phase change involved below 100 degrees. In an uncovered pot, it takes a while to push water from a bare simmer to a rolling boil because the evaporation cools the water more quickly as the temperature increases. Covering the pot will significantly decrease the time to come to a full rolling boil (or to return to the boil once you've added the pasta).


If a utensil is safe for a 'normal' microwave, is it also safe for a flatbed microwave? I have some silicon based utensils (a steam case, a rice cooker and one for cooking pasta). These are developed for use in microwaves and I do not want to get rid of them. However, I'm planning in substituting my ancient turntable microwave with a new modern flatbed microwave.

Is it safe to assume that utensils apt for the turntable microwave are also safe in the flatbed one? That is, provided that you are using the same power setting.

Yes it is safe, all microwaves work on the same principle, and use the same range of radio frequencies to heat food. All microwaves used to be flatbeds, most commercial microwaves are still flatbeds, so you have nothing to worry about.


Too much port in sauce I overshot the port and the taste is overpowering. There is also cream and heavy cream in there, as well as black truffles.

Is there any way to fix it?

You can always create a larger batch. If you, for example, doubled the amount of port, you can add* all the other ingredients in the same amount you originally used and that would correct the proportions.

*Depending on the recipe and how things are put together, you may need to do more than simply add. You might need to create an new starter and then mix them together.


I added too much corn starch into my potato cutlets - what do I do now? I wanted to make a dough so I added cornstarch in my potato cutlets dough and now it tastes like flour.

My advice is to throw it away and start over. You could possibly salvage it by adding more potato and other ingredients, however this is not likely to work and you'll end up throwing more food and time away. If you are going to use more ingredients you're better off trying again.


Buttercream frosting with 2T buttermilk - refrigerate overnight or no? Typically I leave my buttercream-frosted cakes out of the refrigerator. However, tonight I tried a new recipe that called for adding 1 tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbsp buttermilk (in addition to 1 cup butter and ~4 cups powdered sugar). Does the inclusion of cultured buttermilk warrant a night in the fridge, or is it safe on the counter? I plan on serving these in about 10 hours.

FYI: the result is a frosting that tastes like cream cheese frosting, but with a far creamier texture!

Considering the extremely high concentration of sugar in this style of frosting, it should be fine stored at room temperature as you usually do.

The concentration of sugar will actually help dehydrate and kill those live cultures present in both the buttermilk and lemon juice through osmosis.


Bread from the machine always too soft, can't be buttered My bread machine (Panasonic SD-2501) makes good bread. The loaves rise every time and it has a great golden crust. However, the bread is always too soft.

The recipe:

1 tsp dry yeast
440gm baker's flour. I have also tried 00 pizza flour and 50/50 white/spelt blend
1 tsp bread improver (Wallaby brand)
tablespoon honey
tablespoon olive oil
teaspoon salt
330ml milk or water (doesn't seem to make much difference)

I am adding the ingredients in that order as Laucke suggests.

The bread machine cycle is 5 hours and includes about 30 minutes of "rest" once the ingredients are in and the cycle kicks off. I don't know why, since it seems like wasted time when nothing has been mixed; it all just sits there.

Anyway, the problem is not just that the bread is too soft right when it comes out of the machine, though of course it is even softer then. The trouble is that the bread stays too soft to butter even a day later, with room temperature butter, so it is very difficult to make sandwiches with. The bread feels very light, and I think it could do with a lot more body - I don't like fluffy white bread from supermarkets and I want to make something with a bit more chew and resistance to tearing. Being too soft also means it doesn't toast well; the toasting seems to take a lot of moisture out of the bread, and when you bite it there's not much there at all.

I would leave out the bread improver, the olive oil, and the milk (use water) and see what happens. Both the bread improver and the fat make softer bread.

If this is not sufficient and/or you really insist on resilient bread, the next steps are

look at the gluten content of your flour and use a higher gluten content if yours is low. American bread uses bread flour with 12-13% for example. If you can't buy such high gluten flour, you can buy gluten powder and mix it in.
start with ice cold water
add a gram of vitamin C (crystals, not a pill) at the beginning.

All three make stronger gluten, to the point that if you do it all at once, the dough might even be too hard to knead.

Another thing to try is to make darker bread, as whole wheat flours add more body and also have a bit more gluten.


How can I make cakes in 20Ltr ONIDA Black Diamond conventional microwave oven? I am using 20Ltr ONIDA Black Diamond conventional microwave oven. I couldn't bake cakes in this oven at 180 degree temperature. Please send me feedback -how to use this oven for baking cakes?

I don't have specific instructions for that oven - and it is likely you won't find any recipes specific for that oven unless it came with a cook-book when supplied. However, it is possible to cook cakes in a microwave oven, there are many recipes available on the internet (e.g. this one).

You will need a recipe for a cake that is designed to be cooked in the microwave; conventional recipes do not usually work without some adapting.

Microwaves generally don't come with a temperature setting because they don't work off transferred heat (infra-red radiation) like a convection or fan oven, instead they use microwave frequency radiation, which gets absorbed by the items in the microwave cooking them directly - water is a strong absorber of microwaves, meaning it gets heated rapidly compared to a transferred heat system. Microwaves do however come with a power setting - again, this is a little confusing, because what it actually is, is a timer that switches the microwave generator on and off for different periods of time - longer breaks between it being on at "lower power" settings. These power settings are often useful for baking, especially if you are trying to cook a large cake.

You will also not be able to use your metal or teflon-lined metal baking pans in a microwave. I recommend using a well-greased glass or ceramic bowl or a silicone baking mould.


De'Longhi 7 qt stand mixer I have a De'Longhi 7 qt. stand mixer that I believe is now manufactured by Kenwood in America. I would love to make pasta but the attachment is no longer available. Can I use those made by KitchenAid? Will they fit?

Unfortunately not. The Delonghi/Kenwood mixers have a different attachment interface than KitchenAid, with a hexagonal shank and a different mechanism for retaining the attachment.


Vegetable internal temperature (oven) This question is inspired by this week's cooking of a 3kg (estimate - it was plenty huge and took 6 people to eat) courgette / zucchini. The 'quote' is a digression about what happened - skip it if you will).

  I had created two 'boats' to stuff:
  the 'hull' was about 2 cm thick.

  My guesstimate at how long it should
  cook was 30 minutes at 160C, and then
  check.

  In the end I used about 20 minutes at
  160, 10 minutes at 180, and 10 minutes
  at oven full blast (~260). You can
  probably tell it wasn't cooking fast enough and I just wanted to pump in heat at some point.

  I started with visual inspection to
  see whether it was cooking well: at
  some point I decided to stick my
  digital probe in the 'hull'. The
  temperature was 82C when I pulled it
  out of the oven: this produced a good
  result.

My question: can you determine how well a vegetable is cooked (in the oven) through this type of probe use, and what temperature should a vegetable reach (a table would be ideal, but any answer's welcome).

The typical sous vide temperature for most vegetables is right around 82-83 C, so I think you nailed it. Of course it is much more difficult to reach a consistent temperature in the oven than sous vide, but the texture at a given temperature should be roughly equivalent.


I wish to do pickled onions but am unable to get Brown vinegar only Apple Cider Vinegar I am unable to get Brown vinegar, so is it ok to use Apple Cider Vinegar

Pretty much any type of vinegar works.

update:
Responding to comment below, I guess I would stay away from distilled white vinegar and and any "heavy" types such as balsamico, jejiang, shanxi and so on. Apple cider vinegar, white or red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar and so on would all work well.


cast iron pan rusting on bottom surface I have a great cast iron skillet that I use frequently and also take superb care of. Until I noticed the bottom is coated in rust. I believe the high heat that I use from the range top cooked off all the seasoning on the bottom + I never re-season this skillet ever since the business end of the skillet is in such fine shape.

What should I do to repair the bottom?

Get the rust off completely (wire wool or even the plastic equivalent will do), and lightly re-season (thin coat of oil, then cook it on the stovetop--you don't need a "real" seasoning, which will just endanger your interior if it's already good).

Then, don't depend on the seasoning to protect the pan. Always dry it thoroughly before storage (towel dry carefully then give it just a few seconds on the heat to be 100% sure) and make sure the place it's sitting is always dry as well. You might consider placing it on a paper towel or other absorbent surface if you feel that the place you store it can't be kept sufficiently dry, or if you're storing it on a metal surface (to eliminate the chance of galvanic action causing the rust).

If you never leave water in contact with your pan and keep it from being in contact with exposed metal, it won't rust in normal use. A little bit of seasoning on it is a little insurance policy, but as you've seen, it's not sufficient by itself.


Does bacon need to be fried until crisp? I'm not sure how much to fry the frozen bacon I get. Should it be crisp? When do I stop?

In my experience, you'll get the best bacon if you start with a cold pan.  Throwing it onto a hot pan sounds impressive (it sizzles right away), but it will also make the bacon shrink/curl up much more and faster.

I cook bacon half by look, and half by sound.  After you cook it a couple times you'll see (hear) what I mean - the sizzle changes significantly as the fat renders off.  I usually flip it as soon as the sound starts to change, and I flip more than once to reduce curling (unless you have a bacon press, see below).

If you don't have one, I recommend a bacon press, especially if you like crispy bacon.  It also helps it cook faster.  In a pinch, you can use the bottom of a smaller pan - I cook bacon in a 12" cast iron pan, and use an 8" pan as the bacon press.

If you don't have a splatter guard, you're going to want one...

...unless you wanted to cook your bacon in the oven.  This is great for large batches, reducing splatter, and unattended bacon cooking.  Steps to oven bacon:

preheat oven to 400
cover a
cookie sheet with aluminum foil
put bacon on foil, leaving a little
    space between
cook for 12-18
    minutes depending on desired
    crispiness.  I lean towards crispier
    bacon so I usually start watching at
    12, pull it out at 15.

One other note, no matter which method you use, you're going to want to take the bacon off the heat a minute or so before it's at the desired crispiness - it will continue to cook slightly after you take it off.  There have been a few times I've made it to my desired doneness, tasted it out of the pan, been very happy with it, moved it to paper towels to drain, tried it a minute later, and it was too crispy.  So be aware of that possibility.


Half Boiling and Freezing meat When I BBQ meat sometimes meat does not cook completely and evenly. So I came up with an idea why not half boil meat (Chicken, Beef etc), put on my marination and put in fridge to be used for BBQ later. In this way I won't have to burn my meat to be tender from inside. Is this practice safe? Can anyone here shed some light.

Thank you
Sally

It's not uncommon to par-cook meat for barbecue, as in these recipes:

http://www.food.com/recipe/best-baby-back-ribs-in-town-57185
http://www.jfolse.com/recipes/meats/beef19.htm

The meat is basically cooked before it goes on the grill. The grill is applied at the last minute to add extra flavor and to glaze the barbecue sauce.

There is considerable debate among barbecue aficionados about whether this is really appropriate. Some flavor is lost to the water (unless you use sous vide), and you lose the opportunity to spend hours in smoke. You certainly won't win any barbecue contests this way. But it's definitely one way to get falling-off-the-bone 'cue.

As for safety... the same 2/4 rule applies here as elsewhere. The food should spend no more than four hours in the 40-140F range before eating, and no more than two hours before storage.

The meat will be above that range while being simmered. As long as you cool it quickly (perhaps in a sous vide bag, in an icewater bath), you can put it in the refrigerator with minimal time in the danger zone. If you freeze it, defrost it in the refrigerator before cooking.

You can then let it spend perhaps three hours on the grill before it has spent too much time in the danger zone. Since it is fully cooked at this point, you won't need to spend more time than that.


Can I make cranberry sauce from frozen cranberries and re-freeze it? I have cranberries which were fresh, and then accidentally placed in the freezer.
They are now frozen. Can I make cranberry sauce with them and then freeze that until Christmas?

Yes you can.

I see no reason otherwise.


Does the order in which I turn off the gas stove matter? I have a gas stove. This is connected to a big gas canister (I don't know the volume, but I'd guesstimate 20-30 liters). Whenever I want to cook, I turn on the valve on the gas canister, as well as the knob for the corresponding stove plate.

When I'm finished, I ususally turn off the stove knob first, followed by the valve on the canister. Would it be safer, waste less gas, or have any other effect to turn off the gas canister first, followed by the stove?

Edit: the stove has no safety features - you're free to turn on both the gas valve and the stove knob and let the gas flow.

I had this type of stovetop for many years. The way I usually did was:

Turn off the stovetop
turn off the canister

The next time you turn the canister on, gas won't leak through the burner you left on (because you didn't!). And the amount of gas left in the connecting hose is negligible and should be safe to leave it there until the next use.


What kind of coffee grinder is best? I need to get a coffee grinder.  What kind is best?  I have heard that burr mills are better; are they worth the extra cost?  Which ones last longer?

Update: I ended up getting a Hario hand grinder.

The folks at America's Test Kitchen did a review of coffee grinders and found that the burr mills didn't result in superior consistency to blade grinders.

They found that if you stop grinding every now and then and shake the coffee grinder and grind for a total of 25-30 seconds, you get the best results.

From the video review:

  "Lots of people said that these blade
  grinders chop the beans unevenly. They
  also said they heat up the beans more
  because of the friction and that
  degraded the flavor of coffee. I had
  dozens of people tasting this coffee
  and no one picked up flavor
  differences between the blade-ground
  and the burr-ground. There were
  differences in the body but not the
  flavor... and we found a way to use
  the blade grinders to match that
  body.

From the text review:

  "We found we could improve the evenness of the blade grind either by grinding in short, quick bursts, with stops in between to shake the grinder to redistribute the grounds, or by shaking the grinder as it ground, much as you would a martini in a cocktail shaker."

Their favorite was the Capresso Cool Grind, Model 501.

They did note that you will need a burr grinder for espresso.


Sourdough starter gone wild Why is my starter bubbling out of the container within minutes of mixing.  I used  2 c. bread flour, 2 c. water and 2.25 tsp active dry yeast.

There are a couple of (potential) issues here.

First, sourdough starter doesn't involve store bought yeast, so I'm not sure I'd call what you have a sourdough starter-- I would call it more of a poolish or a biga.  What makes it a sourdough starter is the cultivation of wild yeasts (this takes time, usually on the order of one to two weeks), but if you were to take care of and feed what you currently have for long enough, I would imagine that it would become a proper starter, although I would expect that to take more like months for the store bought yeasts to die off and be replaced with wild ones.

Second, two teaspoons of yeast for two cups of flour and two cups of water sounds like an awful lot of yeast.  If I were baking something right away that called for that much flour I don't think I'd use that much. Related, thirdly, you don't mention anything about the size of your container, but I suspect its too small. Typically expect yeast related things to double in volume, so if your container couldn't hold at least that much it is too small.


Are these dregs or what? Made some tea using a drip style coffee maker by placing tea bag where coffee would normally go, namely on the standard fibrous (paper) coffee filter. After the tea has been on the warmer for a while, it develops dregs. Actually it's not so much dregs as particles that sometimes sink to the bottom and sometimes float and stick to the side of the carafe. The tea also develops an oil slick on top. It makes for some nasty looking stuff which sticks to the sides of my cup as well. I fail to understand how these dregs got through the coffee filter in the first place. I pour it back through the filter, but it then drips slowly, as if the filter were clogged. Any clues as to what is happening here? It has happened with 3 different kinds of tea (all in bags).

Regarding the oil film, this is called 'tea scum' and it's completely safe.

The filter gets clogged because the tea particles are small and fill up the spaces in the filter. Then it gets in touch with water and expand. At this point, the filer will get clogged.

There's generally no reason to use a coffee filter as the tea bag itself functions as a filter.


Settling Up the Dispute over Poached Egg's Definition Fact: You can poach an egg without acid, although adding a tiny bit helps a lot with the egg white to set easier.
Current situation: My friend (a culinary graduate) 'poached' an egg without vinegar and he called it between boiled and poached but it's neither of them because there's no acid component. I (not a culinary graduate) told him that it's still a poached egg because of the action rather than the additional ingredient, in this case. He insisted that without acid that creates the ideal texture, it can't be called poached. He also told me to read culinary book (which I tried to look up on google but apparently they gave me recipes instead).
Additional Knowledge: According to online dictionaries, 'poach' is defined as

to cook in simmering liquid. 1 2

Since my friend told me to read culinary book, I assume there is an origin or culinary-based theory/definition about poached egg, which I don't know anything about.
Question: If I boil an egg out of its shell without acid, is it still called 'poached' egg, or is it simply a shell-less boiled egg?

As far as I understand it, poaching is poaching (cooking in simmering liquid)...whether it is an egg or a portion of fish.  It is the cooking process. I don't think this is debatable.
While acid in the poaching liquid helps to denature the proteins and allow the white to more readily stay together, there are other ways to achieve this, by using the "vortex method", for example.  No one could logically argue that this egg is not poached...and no one uses the phrase "shell-less boiled egg"....right?


Chocolate chip cookies: too much butter I made a chocolate chip and snicker cookie batter. But I added double the butter not realizing what I had done I chilled the dough until the next day. The next day when I took the dough out of fridge it was hard like solid hard and I realized I had put to much butter in it.   So my question is can I double the rest of the ingredients and add to already mixed mixture after the mixture softens?   please help

The hoighty-toighty pastry chef answer would be of course not. Any practical cook's answer is of course.

It will be a bit different, which is why the pastry chef rejects it - everything must always be perfect and waste/cost are irrelevant.

It won't be a waste of ingredients, which is why practical cooks accept it.

You should probably add the sugars to the softened dough, then add egg, then the dry ingredients (previously sifted together) roughly matching the SOP of cream butter and sugar, add egg, add dry. But don't overdo the mixing, since the currently over-buttered dough already has the flour in it. That is the main reason why it's dead to the pastry chef.


Why would chicken have significant regional differences in flavor? Is it possible that (for example) chicken raised in the United States has a different flavor from chicken raised in Europe?  If so, why?

Are there genetic differences in the "breeds" of chicken used in various countries?

US poultry farms tend to use a TON of antibiotics... The antibiotics are supposed to stop diseases that would otherwise be rampant in chickens that are housed in close living quarters.  (I might add that the USDA swears that it won't approve chickens treated with hormones, but I've seen enough conflicting complaints that I think it's still worth mentioning)

To your question, it's not (IMO) that all US chickens are less full-flavored, it's that your typical normal chicken in the meat case is quite likely been raised on the aforementioned hormones and antibiotics... I've had plenty of free-range (raised in the US) and they are noticably more flavorful than the average...

If you are up for some fun watching, Food Inc repeats a lot of what I've commonly heard about several various US food industries (including chicken): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/

If you're looking for a true compare and contrast, I'd suggest you buy an "average" chicken and then buy a free-range chicken... You should recognize the free-range version as the same as his international bretheren.

EDIT

As a fair shot for the opposing side, here's a good article from NC State saying why hormones are illegal and pointless to use... That being said, Food Inc showed some pretty mutated birds that were bred for nothing but breast meat:  http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/newsletter/newsletter_nov04.pdf


How to make a vegetarian coffee jelly? I have tried to make coffee jelly with agar, but that was disappointing. Even high-quality beans did not get me any good result, compared with gelatin-based recipes: The texture is different, but it is mainly the taste that disturbed me. I expect, perhaps, to have a neutral base for the jelly, so that the coffee flavour remains plain and strong. I also like the smoothness of gelatin compared with, say, agar.

Is there a good combination of beans and ingredients to make a vegetarian coffee jelly?

Som extra details:

Tried with agar only.
Hot coffee added to the mix.
Temperature-room cooling, then fridge cooling.

I've used agar agar before with this recipe. Although I've never tried it myself with coffee beans, the trick might be to use instant coffee, which is what I find is almost the case with other desserts with coffee flavor. I also add 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence right at the end, which lifts the flavor and also sieve before letting it set. I generally put it in the fridge and speed up the setting process.


How to sweeten bread without sugar I know that sugar molecules are large and too many of them can prevent a proper gluten network from forming when making bread.  What other things can be used to sweeten bread instead of sugar?

I'm thinking about trying to make some sort of dessert bread.

Ok, sweetening bread without changing the texture overmuch.

Most natural sweeteners - including honey, maple or agave or corn syrup, or raw, palm, date, or coconut sugars, all of that - will tend to change the texture of bread in ways similar to (even if not identical to) white sugar.  Even if the texture changes aren't the same, they still exist.  You can use them as part of the sweetening in your bread, as well as or instead of white sugar, but they won't "not act" like sugar does in changing the texture.  You can look at the previous link to see some of the textural differences, and maybe some will be more appealing to you than others - but substituting natural sweeteners, are not recommended for trying to keep bread's texture unaltered.  I would suggest looking at date sugar especially, the test recipe (a cookie) stayed firm, and didn't smooth out or change texture in baking the same way as other sweeteners did, but I don't know how it might effect a bread recipe.

One possibility is using something like stevia for a sweetener - it doesn't chemically affect the recipe much, and it also has a low bulk for the amount of sweetening it adds.  For the same reason, baking blends with stevia use percentages of real sugar, because it won't give the same effects on its own.  I can't tell you how much to add - it will, among other things, depend on the brand you use - but you can try some stevia powder or granules to add sweetness to your bread.  You might also be able to find other herbal sweeteners like licorice root, Azetec sweet herb or Katemfe, miracle fruit or serendipity berries, and others.  I have also heard of monk fruit sweetener being available recently, you might have some luck with that.  Obviously, some of these sweeteners will be easier to source than others, depending on location and popularity - but you might be able to find online sources if one of them really catches your fancy and your local stores don't carry it.

Other artificial sweeteners might do as well, as long as you don't grab the brands specifically formulated to work like sugar in recipes (baking blends) - but I have less experience with these, and it will depend on your tolerances for the sweeteners in question - some can have different aftertastes or effects for some people, being bitter or saccharine, and others don't hold up very well to heating.

As a final note - if you are using herbal or artificial sweeteners, I would recommend actually sweetening your dessert bread with natural sweeteners to the extent your bread can bear (that is, until the texture change is too much), then adding artificial for the extra sweetness you want, the better to avoid off tastes or textures in your bread.  Having all the sweetness provided by the artificial or herbal sweetener runs a greater risk of not having the textural changes you do want (being a little softer or more tender), or having off tastes appear from the varying tolerances or experiences people have to the specific sweetener.

Alternatively, you might try something like fruit - adding raisins is a classic way to make a dessert bread, or variations on dried fruit, fresh fruit, or fruit sauce, puree, or paste.  The more available your fruit is, the more likely you will change the texture since the inherent sugars will be more mixed in, more available to your bread dough - so fruit juice rather than dried fruit will give very different results.  But, in general, the sweetness can be more locked up in your fruit than interfering with your gluten formation in the dough, and release the sweetness while being eaten.

Another possibility is to segregate your sweeteners somehow.  Swirl breads are one example, where the sugar (and spices) are trapped between layers of dough, not mixed in.  Another way is having pockets or clumps of flavor (using pearl sugar, or chocolate chips, or something mixed in like that).  The sugar interferes in gluten formation when it's running free in the dough when the gluten is developing - if it's locked in clumps somehow, or if it is added after the gluten is already formed, it can't interfere in the development.  You will want to think about texture at this stage, though, having something crunchy (like pearl sugar), will give a different overall effect from something like chocolate chips, which range from cool and firm to liquid when heated, and different again from a sweet swirl, which will pull apart more and tend to be softer to the tooth because the texture differences are spread out more, not clumped.

Another possibility is sweetening the bread after it has cooled.  I will assume you have thought about glazes or frosting, or brushing with syrup or dusting with powdered sugar or even serving with jam or something.  However, you might also think about piercing the loaf and letting a syrup soak into the bread after it has baked (a technique I saw used for cakes, but should moisten and sweeten a bread just as well).  Or injecting some kind of sweet filling in patterns - again, a cake technique, but I see no reason why it couldn't work for a sweet bread.


Substitute for Calvados, reduced cider? I am interested in making America's Test Kitchen's French Apple Cake. The recipe calls for a tablespoon of Calvados. Oh for heaven's sake, that's the worst case of 1/4 cup of squab stock syndrome I've seen lately. I've called around to see if I could find applejack or generic apple brandy for a reasonable price, but no, even those products are out of my price range for something I don't think I'd particularly enjoy finishing off. I can't find extract either. It does seem though that the recipe begs for a bit of extra flavor. How about reducing some hard or soft cider? Any other great ideas to boost the apple flavor?

Other ingredients of the cake are:

1 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup (5 ounces) plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup (7 ounces) plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg plus 2 large yolks
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners' sugar

One tablespoon of apple brandy in a recipe of that volume is an accent; it may be nice to have, but it is not going to dramatically transform the outcome.

The obvious choice is to simply omit it.

Otherwise, some reasonable substitutions include:

Vodka.  While it doesn't bring a specific flavor, it will provide alcohol to help dissolve those flavor components that otherwise would not be as apparent, perhaps intensifying the flavor of the cake.
Bourbon.  Compliments the vanilla, and provides a counterpoint to the apples.
Brandy, either grape or another fruit like pear.  Another, similar flavor accent.

There is little point in reducing soft cider because it will not contain alcohol, and the quantity is not enough to matter, unless (and then only maybe) you make a syrup--in that case, however, you would be more substantially transforming the recipe.

Hard cider has some alcohol, so might work (after all, Calvados or apple brandy is distilled hard cider), but you don't want to reduce it, which would drive a significant percentage of the alcohol and volatile flavor compounds.   Freeze-concentrating it (as applejack was once made) would work but is probably excessive in terms of effort and reward.


Partially defrosting, then refreezing? OK, so we shouldn't refreeze meat once it's been defrosted.

But if I've partially defrosted meat, then popped it back in the freezer, is that safe? Specifically I'm thinking of sausages or steaks or chops, which may be frozen in groups. You might want to pull them out of the freezer for 30 mins to 1 hr, so they thaw just enough to loosen up to separate them, then put half back. Is this safe?

My question is ... is there a clean cut off point with defrosting after which it becomes unsafe to refreeze, or does it just get progressively more dangerous?

If you're unthawing them in your refrigerator (below 40 F), then you should be just fine. Most beasties don't reproduce at any significant rate below 40 F.

There isn't a clean cut off point because it depends entirely on the existing level of contamination present in your meat.

You should be aware that repeated cycles of thaw/freeze will really damage the texture of your meat. The cells simply do not hold up to that.


How long to stir-fry vegetables to retain most nutrients? If I need to stir-fry vegetables, how long is the ideal time? I like stir-frying vegetables (almost my staple food) but I don't want to  lose much of the nutrients.

Where do you think these nutrients are going, they can't escape the wok?

Stir-frying by convention is quick, so the internal temperature of the food wont get hot enough to break down any delicate nutrients either


How Old Is My Meat Slicer? I just purchased this Berkel GC for $50, which to me is a steal, it was rusty and crusty as can be, running poorly and smoking. The blade moved but it has a ton of resistance, I've taken everything apart, cleaned up all the grease, rust, and dirt and will get replacement parts once I start working again.  I plan on rebuilding and restoring it sometime in Dec.

However my biggest gripe is I don't know the age of this thing. Anyone have a clue? I want to say it's 1940's tech, but i'm not sure. There isn't much if any documentation of these older Berkel slicers at all.

Here is a pic of it.

It came with everything, sharpening stones and catch platter. FYI, it's in my bedroom now, it was outside because I had to strip the paint and also use phosphoric acid to remove the rust.

Here is the serial and motor #.

original file for motor specs.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4579/38288529602_c0f7734dec_o.jpg

That is hospital white enamel paint. So WW2 to 1960 would be a good guess. Look at the tag. I can not read it. Run that on a search. Give you a better idea. Those names can still be found. Also the red tag. Does the motor have a name & number on it? With that you can do a number check often to get it down to year motor was made. With luck. Any serial number on it those can be ran on a search. Threw company records if it is found. Or post good photo's of the tags. & numbers.


How does a whipped cream charger work? I recently got an iSi whipped cream container that charges with nitrous cannisters. I don't really understand how the thing works, which I think would help my use of the system. How does this actually whip the cream upon dispensing? What does shaking do that will make a solid foam / mousse? Why does over shaking turn it in to a solid in the cannister?

The cream whipper relies on gas expansion to work.

When you make whipped cream by beating, you beat fine air bubbles into the cream. The cream traps air and becomes essentially a matrix that holds those bubbles--a foam.

Your gas-charged whipper does the same thing in a totally different way.

When you charge the whipper with gas, there's high gas pressure inside with the cream. The cream will actually absorb the nitrous oxide you put in. Because of the pressure, the gas absorbed can be thought of as really really really small bubbles within the cream. So you have a matrix of gas and cream, but because the bubbles are so small, it's essentially just cream.

Chilled liquids more easily absorb gases at high pressure, which is why it's good to use cold cream and keep the whole unit in the fridge. A limited amount of agitation (shaking) exposes more cream to the gas, improving absorption.

When you release the cream from the device, the absorbed gas expands rapidly. The bubbles get bigger, and your cream to bubble ratio becomes more like the foam that we know as whipped cream. It's really exactly the same thing, only with nitrous oxide instead of plain ol' boring air inside the bubbles.

Why nitrous oxide? As I understand it, it's because it's the cheapest non-toxic, odorless and tasteless gas you can get. Carbon dioxide would almost be a good choice, but unfortunately it's bitter. Not a good match for cream.

Finally, why is shaking too much a bad thing? That one I don't know for sure, but I know what happens when you over-whip cream with the mixer. You make butter. Perhaps the gas or high pressure encourages this conversion, or maybe you're just churning it that much when you over-shake. Either way, I'm sure you've essentially made butter when you shook it too much.


Pizza in Oven : Bottom/Mid/Top I make pizza in a baking tray in my oven. My question is where do I place my baking tray in the oven, the bottom top or middle?

The resources I have seen so far on the internet are far too ambiguous. For instance, Yahoo Answers have given many different answers to the same question.

Ideally, of course, you'd be baking your pizza on a baking stone, which you would heat to 500F for 1/2 hour before putting the pizza in the oven.  However, you asked about baking a pizza in a metal pan.

In general, you want to get as much radiant heat into the bottom crust as possible in order to make sure the crust is fully cooked and not soggy.  This means that in an oven with a bottom baking element (whether gas or electric) you want your oven rack in the bottom position.  Again, make sure the oven is thouroughly heated to 500F (250C) (or more, if it'll go higher) before you put the pizza in.

If you have a top-heating oven, things get a bit more complicated.  You'll need to somehow ensure that the bottom of the crust gets cooked, which won't happen if you just put the pizza in the oven, regardless of position.  There's a couple of different ways to take care of this:

Blind-bake the crust until halfway done, flip it, put the toppings on top and finish it,
Do the pizza in a cast-iron pan first on the stove top, finishing in the oven.

In either case, with a top-heating oven, you want to put the rack close to the element ... in the middle or top position, so that the pizza is only about 2-3 inches (5-8cm) away from the element.


Can I use the green part of leeks for stocks? Most recipes call for the white and the inner green parts of leeks. I feel like I'm wasting half leek.

After googling a little, I've found some people consider it edible if properly cooked. I guess a couple of hours of simmering should be enough, but my book says to use only white and inner green parts for stock. Is there a reason not to use it, if properly cleaned?

Absolutely, go ahead and use it.

I always ignore the "white and light green parts" instruction anyway, and use the leek up until the point where it feels dried out instead of firm and fleshy—well into the dark green parts—and it's always delicious, even when cooked for significantly less than several hours.


Will marinating chicken for 18 hours make the meat fall apart? I decided to marinade some chicken for tomorrow night's meal but the only time I have to do it is tonight. Obviously it's going in the fridge for that time period.

I've never marinated meat for that long before and I'm concerned the acids in the orange juice marinate I'm using will break down the meat too much and it'll be all mushy and gross.

Any experience or thoughts on this?

It'll be fine.  I've done this multiple times, even occasionally for more than 1 night and never had a problem, if anything it improves things as the marinade has time to work into the meat.

If you can, give it a stir a coupe of times (every 6 hours maybe?) to ensure even coating.

The acids in orange juice and most (?) marinades are generally too weak to break down chicken into component parts.


Can I marinate chicken that has already been cooked? I have some chicken that was grilled. I want to put it back on the grill and cook it some more. I marinated it in a bag. Is it OK to marinate cooked chicken?

I don't think you will get the same effect by marinating chicken after it's cooked. It will not absorb much of the marinade.


Amount of ingredients for 3 boxes of cake mix When using 3 boxes of cake mix, do I triple the amounts of water eggs and oil to make cake batter

Yes. For three boxes of mix you would triple the eggs, water and oil listed on one box.


microwave use after cell phone heating My daughter put a cell phone in the microwave and switched it on. The phone was heated for less than a minute at maximum temperature. There was a strong smell from the burnt phone and the microwave. Can we use the microwave again? Which steps are necessary to bring the microwave to a condition where food isn't contaminated (both from an aroma and a food safety standpoint)?

I would ventilate it well, wipe everything down and wash up the turntable. Then, when the smell has cleared (and doesn't come back when the door has been shut for a while) use it but only for covered (loosely) food at least at first.

I'd also test that it heats up a cup of water before cooking anything real in it.


Can spanikopita (or other phyllo foods) be prepped in advance? I offered to cook for an event for a friend. Later, the request came that the food should be "finger food". Grumbling aside (I hate tedium), most the finger food recipes I know have substantial prep and I don't have a lot of time beforehand to cook. I'd like to have as much "oven ready" things made the night before. One recipe I have and like is for spanakopita. In this one, the filling is wrapped in little parcels of phyllo and can be baked. Is there a risk in chilling the filling, doing the wraps, and putting them in the fridge? If not, how should they be stored and how far in advance can this be done?

Yes you can.

Anecdotal, Mom makes batches of small spanakopita in advance and freeze them up for later use.

The filling should be cold when you are assembling the spanakopita.

(edit)You need to bake them before freezing them.

I would store them in the fridge in a plastic container in a single layer.
If freezing, put them on a baking sheet and freeze them in single portions, put them in a freezer bag.


How does core temperature relate with slow cooking? What I have understood so far:

You can slow cook to produce pulled pork/beef/lamb/chicken by applying relatively low temperature for long time so that proteins can denaturate (sous vide can help here to prevent drying out)
Before achieving the core temperature, meat is rare which is not pulled.

So is slow cooking temperature (sure different for different proteins):

same or below core temperature, just for longer time,
or somewhat beyond and is that estimated?

For slow cooking you don't just want to achieve a specified core temperature. You want to hold the meat at that temperature (usually about 70 degrees Celsius / 160 Fahrenheit) for several hours until the connective tissue starts breaking down. The temperature of the oven / whatever is usually kept low (although it has to be at or above the desired core temperature, otherwise the meat will never come up in the correct temp) to prevent the meat from burning while it's cooked. Just bringing the internal temperature to 70 degrees will not produce pulled pork. Keeping it there for 2+ hours will.


How to make perfect crispy bacon strips? I recently tried to make some crispy bacon, and failed. I prepared half of it in a frying pan, half of it in the oven.

Half the strips were still chewy, some were partially burnt, some were still chewy but already partially burnt, some were dried, crunchy and crumbling, not a single of them had the typical reddish strips - all went shades of dull brown and shrunk way more than normal "good" bacon strips should (even the still chewy ones).

In conclusion, I realized I just lack too much knowledge which is common in the USA. In my country bacon is not nearly as popular, so I won't be easily able to obtain a bacon press or any such specialized equipment, so a pan or an oven will have to do.

So, let's first ask specific questions...

what kind of bacon to start with? Raw? Smoky? Boiled? Anything specific about the meat?
Should I remove the skin?
How thick should the slices be?
When to salt it? (one of the issues was it was entirely unsalty when done, and salt wouldn't even stick to the dried surface).
Pan frying:

how hot? Also, I read it should start on cold pan - what about consecutive batches, cooling the pan down?
What about grease? Pour off between batches? Remove during frying? Leave it in?
Flipping?
How to tell it's done?
How to make sure I won't burn it before it's crispy?

Oven

Temperature, time? Heating: top, bottom, both?
Should I lay it on a grill in the oven, letting the fat to drip below, or lay it on tinfoil to simmer in its own grease?
Again, how to tell it's crispy yet?

Finally, I don't want my strips to be very greasy. Should I put them on a paper towel to soak some fat or should I avoid that (and reduce the fat some other way (how?))?

And generally: is there anything else to it?

In order to get crispy bacon you need to start with the right type. In the USA what most people consider bacon is from the belly, whereas in other parts of the world bacon is from the loin. You can get this in the states as Canadian bacon. You can't make loin bacon crispy and believe me I've tried. However you can get belly bacon most places (presuming bacon is available), in the UK it's called streaky bacon. You want to get the meatiest back bacon you can with the highest meat content.

Bacon is almost always salt cured, and can be smoked or not, which to chose is entirely your preference on flavor and won't make a difference in crispiness. Thickness is again your personal preference, some people like thin, others thick. It will make a difference in cooking time, thicker takes longer to cook. You shouldn't have to do anything to your bacon like removing anything, or salting it - if your bacon isn't salty enough then maybe it's not been cured in which case look for a different source.

Once you have the right bacon you need the right technique. In order to get crispy bacon the fat has to render out, and that takes time. A common mistake people make is to cook it at too high a temperature and browning it before the fat can render. I start with a cold pan and lay the bacon out on it before applying heat. I apply low-medium heat and cook it for about 10-15 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the bacon. I turn it once towards the end to get color on the other side, then I remove and let the bacon drain on some paper towels. The paper towels wick the fat away better then simply letting them drip, giving a crispier result. I know the bacon is getting done when it starts to stiffen up when I lift one side, when it gets to that state I know it will only need another minute, that's when I flip.

If you are going to pan cook in batches then drain the fat out after each batch and let the pan cool some, alternatively have two pans, letting one cool. If you have that much to cook I'd use the oven technique below.

You can also make very good bacon in the oven, very similar in technique to making it in the pan. You lay bacon out on a cold tray and put it in a cold oven. You then turn the to oven on to 200C (400F) oven for about 20 minutes. If you are in less of a hurry you could do 110C for an hour, slower cooking makes for better bacon. I've seen one chef who cooks bacon for 2 hours on low heat while sandwiched between 2 baking trays - the top tray keeps the bacon perfectly flat. The oven method is great for baking large quantities.


Why asafoetida clumps in hot oil? Introduction

While making vegetable recipe we generally initiate with same procedure for every vegetable i.e. in 2 spoon of hot oil we put mustard, cumin, and asafoetida before adding pieces of any vegetable.

Question

Why does asafoetida clump after putting into hot oil? How to avoid this?

Reference -

Video -- Please refer initial process only in this video. Although she has not added asafoetida. I am just telling to refer initial common procedure for understanding.

Following is another image for reference

Naturally, asofoetida  is obtained as a hard gummy resin from trees. In order to make it easier to measure and add to your cooking, it is powdered and sold. But, asofoetida being a resin in nature gets clumped in the package if not coated with some agent. In India, it is usually coated with flour. Flour when put in oil gets fried. So what you see clumping isn't asofoetida, it's the flour in it.


At what stage shall I add whisky for Irish coffee? When preparing Irish coffee in a saucepan (caramelizing sugar&coffee, then adding water);

Should I add the whisky while coffee is still being heated in the saucepan or after putting the coffee in glasses?

At the end, after pouring the coffee into glasses. Alcohol evaporates entirely at 78'C but begins to evaporate before that, so any unnecessary heating should be avoiding. The coffee is cooled slightly by being poured into a glass, so that's the optimum time.

Source: being Irish.


Attempting Tartine's basic country bread I'm trying to bake the basic country bread from Chad Robertson's book "Tartine Bread".

I've followed the description for making a starter faithfully (p. 45/46). In Step 2, it says that "a dark crust may have formed", that we should "note the aroma and bubbles caused by fermentation" and that "the culture smells strong like stinky cheese".

After 2-3 days, I do notice a darkening of the top and there is a strong smell. However, the top is soft and there are a few spots of gold/brown liquid. There are no bubbles and the culture is very gooey and hard to get off the fingers. (Nothing like the photos on p. 44, assuming that these show the starter after 2-3 days.)

When this happened the first time, I thought that something was wrong. I speculated that the temperature may have been too low. I say this because, following the direction "place in a cool, shaded spot", I left the culture at 18 C (64 F). So the second time, I did exactly the same, but I placed the starter in a different spot that is continuously at 20 C (68 F). The outcome is the same, so I take it that the temperature is not the issue.

Is this what is supposed to happen or has something gone wrong? If so, do you have any suggestions for what I should try differently?

You're almost certainly fine. 2-3 days is too early to really tell; and often the most off-putting period, both visually and olfactorily. Unless there is visible mold (green, black, or pink), I'd keep going.

Your culture is fighting for it's life right now, waging a battle against all the other natural bacteria that you don't want in your starter. Give it a rousing speech after feeding and carry on. Good luck on your new hobby!


What would you call this spatula? It's my favorite but its getting a bit worn and I've been trying to order a replacement online. I've tried "spatula with scooped sides" and "spatula with angled sides" but nothing leads to what I want. Everything I look for just leads to a regular flat spatula, or sometimes a rubber spatula, an angled spatula or even a fish spatula.

It's a slotted spatula with slightly angled sides to help scoop up food.

It's an egg slice - like a fish slice but more curved & wider.
It's for flipping/serving fried eggs… though tbh I just use a fish slice for anything like that.

Your only problem with searching it is 'egg slice' brings up a million hits for slicing eggs, so 'egg slice spatula' or 'egg fish slice spatula' might hone it down a bit. Lots of manufacturers have many things that vary in shape between the two profiles, egg or fish.

I always think half the issue with this is that no-one else knows it's properly called an egg slice either - so searching gets pretty tough.
You might get a better set of hits with 'egg turner spatula' as it seems many people call them an egg turner.
It does also look a bit like a slotted chuan, but if you search chuan, you don't get holes.


How do I take the heat out of my chili? I made chili and it's too hot! If I cook it longer will the heat calm down?

Acids tend to reduce the heat of chilli, so you could try adding some vinegar or lime juice. If that makes the dish too acidic, add some sugar to balance it out. Dairy also reduces the heat so you could serve with sour cream and/or cheese, or even stir some butter into the chilli, which would also give it a slightly richer taste.


How can I remove a stuck liquor decanter stopper? I had a decanter half full of vodka that has sat in my basement for about a year unused. Now the stopper is stuck on the decanter. How can I get the stopper off to get the sweet sweet vodka out for consumption?

I would recommend not immersing the decanter entirely, but placing it up to the neck in hot water.  This will expand the glass of the decanter slightly, but not the stopper.  That might be enough to let you coax it out.

The shape of your stopper is also convenient for making a little noose for it out of cord/thin rope, to allow you to get some extra purchase on it, to help you prise it out.  So you could hang the decanter and stopper from a beam or similar, and use your weight to pull down on it.  On reflection, and in light of Doug's comment, I'm not convinced this is great advice and should be followed only with serious consideration of the effect on you and the decanter, should the stopper rapidly become unstuck!

As Wayfaring Stranger said, a gentle tap around the sides should help, but be VERY careful not to break the glass, or scratch it. Something not too heavy would be best, and plastic or wooden would avoid scratching - or cover a small hammer with a cloth.


Pumpkin pie lacks aroma? Every year around this time I try to make pumpkin pie. We don't have that many varieties around here so I use a fresh butternut squash that I bake and then puree. However, if the cooked squash is sweet and aromatic, when combined with the other ingredients for a pie, it loses that aroma and turns very bland. Or one of the spices overshadows the whole taste. I have tried a few different pumpkin pie recipes but they all turn out the same. A big disadvantage for me is that I haven't eaten a proper pumpkin pie (because where I live it's not very traditional), so I don't have anything to compare it with.

I would like to know if you had stumbled across similar issues when you made your pies and know how to correct them, or if that's just the way pumpkin pie should taste. I would expect it to taste at least as good as the cooked pumpkin, if not better.

Pumpkin pie where I come from (USA) is made with these big round orange squashes (we call them "pumpkins", but I believe that term is used for different things in some other countries). Unlike butternut squash, or other members of the squash family, our pumpkins aren't considered to be delicious cooked by themselves, and so people here pretty much only use them mixed with other tasty ingredients to make sweet dishes -- especially pies.

So the pies pretty much taste like the custard ingredients they are made with plus cinnamon, nutmeg, and the other "pumpkin pie spices" traditionally included. The moist texture is pretty much the only thing the pumpkin contributes to the finished product. In fact the pumpkin itself is such a minor contributor to the pie, that most people (I mean regular household cooks, not famous chefs or enthusiasts) will use canned pumpkin puree in a "homemade" pumpkin pie. However pumpkin pie is so traditional here, we tend to go on and on about how wonderful it is, and at winter holidays stores try to sell stuff scented with "pumpkin spice".... What that scent really is is just "spice"- mostly cinnamon.

I wonder if your expectations for pumpkin pie are a little too high, especially since all your recipes keep coming out similar, and "one of the spices overshadows the whole taste". I suspect that that's just the way pumpkin pie is supposed to taste. Even some Americans don't really like it.


Biscuit burning around sides My biscuits are burning around the outside edge of the oven trays.
How can I stop this happening?

These are not perfect solutions, but merely hacks that could work.

Make the outer biscuits slightly bigger to increase the cooking time needed.
Let the inner biscuits cook for a few minutes, and then add the rest of the biscuits.
Use aluminium foil to shield the outer biscuits from direct heat.