Usage of a slow thermometer for roasts I find this dial, and the device generally, perplexing.

First about the device: it's made of metal and glass. I know it can survive being inserted and left inside a roast (beef, lamb) in the oven.

But I am less sure whether the reading is accurate in this case. Do I have to take the dish out, insert the thermometer, wait a few seconds, and repeat? Or can I simply peak and close the oven again?

Now about the dial. I think that it's saying one should cook beef until 140 for rare, and until 160 for medium. It also says to cook poultry to at least 180 for safety, and not much more to avoid poultry drying.

That much seems clear.

What kind of summary is the "170" ----- "Lamb; Beef: well; Veal, Pork" inscription trying to say?

This kind of thermometer is intended to remain in the piece of meat (or whatever) and delivers an accurate 1 reading during roasting without further procedure. Just stick it in the part of your roast that will heat up slowest, typically the middle of the thickest part. Avoid the bones, this may give false readings. If you have an oven with a glass door, you can even check the temperature without opening the door. Opening the door can lower the oven temperature, especially if you want to take multiple readings when getting close to the desired temperature. They are usually a bit slower than those instant-read ones you use for a quick reading, so if you want to use them for a “poke-and-read” measure, give it a moment to adjust.

The values on the scale are what the manufacturer deemed appropriate for a certain type of meat, in your example 170 F for lamb, pork and well-done beef. If you disagree with them, simply ignore the labels and go by the numbers. (Which I personally would do in this case, they seem a bit on the “safe” - or dry - side.) And remember to factor in carry-over cooking during resting.

————

1 It’s always a good idea to test a new thermometer, but here the boiling water method won’t work. If you have it, do a cross-check with another calibrated thermometer.

Not part of your original question, but addressing the comments:

There’s a third type of thermometer combining the ease of use (“stick it in and watch the temperature rising during roasting”) with a few extras modern electronics can bring: The electronic temperature probe that is connected to some other device, sometimes the oven itself, sometimes some external alarm/timer thingy (I have one and like it), or even connected to a smartphone app (random example), so that you can even leave the kitchen and still can check the temperature. The simpler ones are in the same price range as your fully mechanical specimen.


What are alternative gelling agents to gelatine? And what are their properties? I recently was making some orange jelly which was going to be dipped in chocolate.  I couldn't use gelatine to set the jelly as it returned to a liquid below the temperature of the melted chocolate.  What other gelling agents could I have used, and what are their properties?

I'd like to expand my knowledge of what does what so I can choose the best agent for setting a jelly in a particular situation.

For your application you may want to use agar.  It is easy to find, gels at room temperature, and will remain so to about 90C.  The acidity of the orange juice will slowly (a few days) break down the agar, but it should give you enough time for a dish.  Other agents include:

sodium alginate
carrageenan
xantham gum

A good description of the gelling agents from a cooking perspective can be found in the sites on molecular gastronomy such as tech blog of the French Culinary Institute or Martin Lersch's hydrocolloid recipe collection.


How to remove husk from grain? I need help to remove husk from grain - specifically spent grain from the beer production. Does anyone have any kind of experience with that?

Brewer's spent grain should have already been coarsely ground and mostly separated from the husks, so a basic winnowing method could be used: Fully dry the spent grain, then use a blower from below, or sprinkling the grain through an air current, to blow the husks away from the rest of the grain. Yield levels will likely be quite low because chunks of the seed will remain attached to the hull, but if you're working with brewer's spent grain, you likely have quite a bit to work with.

Note that the most common uses for spent grain are composting and as livestock feed. While people have tried using it in baking, the low starch level means that it can only be used to replace a small portion of the flour.


Whipped cream from milk powder Recently I saw a video that shows powdered milk can be whipped with cold water to make topping for cakes.

I did a research on Google and yes, some articles/blogs said that it can be whipped. I actually tried myself using half and half powdered milk and whipped it with a hand mixer but it didn’t work, running like normal milk.
So I suppose not any type of milk works. Anyone has idea about that? I’d appreciate very much.

P.S.: Sorry for my English.

There are methods that whip very cold (up to semi-frozen) low-to-no-fat UHT milk to a whipped cream consistency using an immersion blender with the whipping disk. The key factors are temperature and fat content, for both, the lower the better.

I would not recommend using this product for a cake, because the stability is quite limited1. Topping a dessert and serving it immediately is fine, any kind storage is not.

I would expect that a non-fat milk powder in cold water works just as well and I vaguely remember my mom doing something along that line a few decades ago.

1 Some sources suggest adding instant gelatine powder for stabilization, but as I have never tried it, I can’t confirm how well it works.


Sous vide top side beef joint - set temperature lower than it should be I am new to sous vide and am currently cooking a relatively cheap cut of beef (~1kg of top side beef joint). The beef is in a vacuum sealed bag and has been cooking for about 5 hours at a temperature of 54.5°C with an aim 18-24 hours total. I have not pre-seared the beef.

I've just looked at the cooking times again and I've noticed I should have set my machine to 56°C instead of 54.5°C. I've read that prolonged cooking below 55°C is not good for health reasons and now I'm worried I've ruined tomorrow's dinner. Is it too late to raise the temperature a couple more degrees or does it not matter?

Edit

I've raised the temperature to 59°C as I'm now paranoid but need to go to bed. If this is unsafe, please let me know.

You should be ok.  You could err on the side of a longer cook.  Your main concern between 50C and 52.3C is Clostridium perfringens, which, according to Douglas Baldwin can grow at up to 52.3C (other pathogens of concern stop growing at 50C). He further points out that listeria is the most difficult pathogen to kill, but it takes less salmonella and E. coli to make you sick.  So....

  most experts recommend that you cook your food to reduce: Listeria by at least a million to one; Salmonella by ten million to one; and E. coli by a hundred thousand to one. You can easily do this when you cook sous vide: you just keep your food in a 130°F (54.4°C) or hotter water bath until enough bacteria have been killed.

When have enough been killed?  It depends on the temperature and the thickness of your product.  Baldwin provides the information.   Raise your temp and cook on, but read Baldwin.


What happens when you knead bread dough? Why do you (most of the time) knead the dough when baking bread? And what does it do with the bread?

(I was going to mark this question as Community Wiki, but I didn't have enough rep.)

Kneading dough has a few functions. First, it distributes the ingredients together evenly and allows the flour to become hydrated. As the flour starts to absorb water, enzymatic reactions occur and some proteins begin to mesh together. The two most important in this process are glutenin and gliadin. When these proteins start to get tangled up together, they form gluten, which is the protein that allows bread dough to stretch and trap gas bubbles produced by yeast. These reactions will occur on their own to an extent, as in no-knead recipes, but kneading accelerates the process.

Kneading also allows you to control the texture of the bread. A vigorous knead can help to produce a bread with a fine crumb as the kneading an tighten the gluten, keeping the air bubbles more uniform. Doing short kneading periods (or folds) spaced by time for the dough to relax and rise can give you more extensible dough which can help give you a more open crumb structure.

Finally, kneading is sometimes used to add inclusions to the dough that would disrupt it's activity if added to early. This can be things like seeds, which would cut gluten strands if included too early in the process, or things like butter in a brioche, which would shorten the dough if included before the gluten had already developed.


Ideas for a pescetarian Turducken (aka a fish in a fish in a fish) I've made a Turducken every year for the past several years as part of an end-of-year gathering with friends. This year, we have a pescetarian (no meat but fish is fine) coming as well, and I'd like to do something analogous for him. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with the challenges of putting a fish in a fish in a fish.

Some of the limited suggestions I've found online propose an innermost layer of some kind of "fish mousse" or crab meat or equivalent. Not bad suggestions, but there's a certain aesthetic appeal to the profile cut and appreciating the layers of meat fish that I'd like to maintain if possible.

Does anyone have any experience with this or ideas?

===============================================================

UPDATE: I stopped by the local fish market today to talk things through with the folks there. They are willing to debone the fish for me*. I am enamored with the idea of a strictly fish-in-fish-in-fish setup (e.g. no cheating with crustacean meat), but not tied too firmly to it. Their initial suggestion was an outer layer of salmon, a middle fish of something light and white (e.g. whitefish, haddock, maybe cod), and for the innermost: butterfish. The market owner wasn't there today (Sunday), but I'm going to talk this through with him tomorrow as well.

Re cooking: I unfortunately have neither experience nor the requisite equipment for sous-vide. I concur that layering largely independently-cooked fillets may be the best means of preparing this dish. If outermost fish still has head, skin, and scales I imagine the whole dish can be assembled in a manner that hides the actual preparation (and probably spends a little time under heat as a whole assembly, to allow flavors to blend). The market owner is a chef as well, so I'm hoping that talking this through with him tomorrow will be helpful.

*General Advice for others interested: After 6 years of making turduckens, I am quite capable of deboning the birds myself but have found that having a professional do it for me is $20 very well spent.

Unquestionably, I'd consider the colors of the fish. It seems a natural that your outer fish should be salmon (head, tail and skin intact, scaled, gutted, with spine and rib bones removed). I'd try to present the whole thing as if it were a whole salmon. Cut through the center of the salmon for presentation, that could be a tremendous presentation. (You've got me interested, I want to try this myself! :) For the inner fish varieties, consider very clean fillets of fish of different levels of oiliness and color of cooked flesh. Maybe halibut for the middle of the 3 layers and tuna for the center? It would be a neat trick if you could somehow fully cook the outer layers but keep the inner tuna layer rare. I'd stuff the very center of the whole thing with some kind of shrimp or crab mousse. I'd spread a deeply flavored and colored compound butter on the outer surfaces of the other fish. What fun! Good luck.

EDIT: SAJ14SAJ mentions sous-vide as a good cooking method. I concur. If you do that or very carefully poach the outer two fishes in advance, then sear the tuna and assemble everything, it could be epic. The tricky thing is deboning the outer fish. Here's a video showing the technique Deboning a Whole Trout. You might even consider presenting the whole thing chilled. Chilled, I'd forgo the butter and use brightly colored mousses between the layers of fish instead.


Can expired orange juice be used in baking Wanted to use up expired orange juice in muffins or cake.

"Best by" or "Use by" dates on the vast majority of food products are indicators of quality, not safety.  As long as you don't detect any off flavors that will adversely impact your muffins or cake....bake away.


What salt should I use in a bread machine recipe? I've got a big book of bread machine recipes that does a really good job breaking down what ingredients perform what actions in the whole baking process and how modifying the recipe will change the final product.

One thing that the book doesn't really cover is salt. All the recipes call for salt, but they simply say "salt" which leaves me wondering if there is a specific salt I should use in my recipes.

I've been using Kosher salt because that's what I use for everything in the kitchen. I wonder if I should use table salt, instead though, because it would probably dissolve better due to the smaller granules. I also know that 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt is a different amount of salt by weight than 1/2 tsp of table salt is. I also read in another question that iodized (table) salt can possibly affect the color of the finished bread.

Should I use Kosher salt, table salt, or some other type of salt in my bread machine recipes, and why?

In general, unless the book or recipe specifically states something different, "salt" is assumed to mean "table salt".

If a recipe were to call for kosher salt or pretzel salt (like as a topping for the loaves) it would specifically call that out especially.


Beer Battered Onion Rings -- what makes them look shiny? I'm working on a  beer battered onion ring recipe and I think I have the recipe part but the onion rings look dull as they cool. I notice at restaurants etc...that they are usually shiny.

Is it an ingredient I'm missing (I keep thinking egg whites -- which I am not using)? or could it be the oil? I did not use peanut oil and I don't think my home fryer hold heat really well.

Right now the recipe is just flour, beer and seasonings (with the onions coated in flour before they are dipped). It's for a fund raiser so I really want to wow the patrons if possible.

The shininess is from oil that has seeped into your food. According to About.com, the temperature at which oil starts to seep into food is around 163˚C (325˚F). You need to keep the temperature above that to prevent it getting shiny. Remember to use an oil with a high smoking point so you don't replace the shine with a carcinogen.


Is my honey fermenting? I bought a jar of honey a few months ago, and left it at the back of the cupboard. When it resurfaced a few days ago, I saw that the jar contained a lot of bubbles, to the point where the lid was bulging. I assumed that it had somehow fermented, particularly since it came from a local grower, where taste can be expected to take precedence over sterilization; this answer seems to support my theory.

On the other hand: the jar was still (to inspection) airtight, and when I opened the jar there was no gas release; the honey gently oozed over the top, and remained inert. The bubbles have remained in the same place over the last week, and the honey tastes exactly as normal.

Clearly some sort of chemical reaction has taken place; is it classed as fermentation, and is it harmful?

(It is almost impossible to take a picture of this; the bubbles are equally distributed throughout, giving the honey much the apparance of the interior of an Aero bar. If you were eating it with your eyes closed,  I don't believe anybody would notice any difference).

Yes, your honey started to ferment.
I assume the fermenting process is still fresh as you mention the honey taste didn't changed (later it change taste to beer-like). With time yeast can produce alcohol or vinegar from carbs in honey.

You can still use this honey for baking or making mead. Unfortunately the only way to stop the process it to heat honey to 80C to kill yeast.

The fermentation in honey can be due to gathering honey too soon so there's to high amount of water in it or not properly creaming it.


How to clean stains from rice cooker element? I have a nicer Zojirushi rice cooker that has a removable pan which reveals a small heating element with a button in the middle. Through my use the element has gotten some light brown and black stains on it, which I'm guessing is from things left on the removable pan and water drying up leaving the minerals on the element. I'm able to remove the things stuck to the element such as something burnt but the stains I can't.

Is there any way to clean this without causing any issues with the inner components of the rice cooker? The middle button I was talking about would allow small particles or liquids to reach the inside of the rice cooker.

Many rice cookers use an aluminum disk as the heat transfer element. Aluminum discolors easily, but it's also soft and subject to scratching. Scratches will reduce contact between the heating element and your cookpot.
Unless the stains form actual bumps on the surface of the element, you're better off leaving them alone.


Should I always run the exhaust / hood fan when cooking? A question over on DIY.SE about sizing a range hood exhaust got me thinking about whether I should be running the exhaust fan every time I cook. Is it supposed to be more of a proactive or reactive piece of equipment - i.e., should I only turn it on in response to a problem, or always turn it on before cooking anything (or any specific types of cooking)?

I only run it now when it gets noticeably smoky around the stove, which is usually when I'm cooking in my cast iron skillet. I mainly turn it on in an effort to avoid setting off the smoke detector (which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't).

As you call it an "exhaust" I assume it's an extracting type rather than a filtered recirculating type.

It's a good idea to run it:

Whenever you're frying (it handles grease droplets in the air as well as smoke)
When you have the potential to produce smoke (so not generally when cooking in the oven, but sometimes, if things might drip or spatter).
When you're cooking something that might make the house smell for longer than you'd like.

Generally speaking you should use it in anticipation of smoke/grease/odours, though using it reactively for toaster smoke is also a good idea.

Boiling is  another matter.  If the house gets damp, running the fan when boiling will reduce that (as of course will boiling with a lid on).  Some houses end up rather dry (e.g. with forced air heating), in which case it's probably not worth turning the fan on.  In summer I'd rather open the window.

It's worth thinking of where the air comes in to replace that sucked out by the fan.  I have a rather open plan living area, and open a little ventilation at the far end from the kitchen, so the fresh air comes through the sitting and dining areas to the kitchen.  But here in the UK we have "trickle vents" over many windows that are designed to deliver fresh air without you feeling a draught unless you're very close.


Is there any reason not to decrystallize honey? The other night some friends of mine tried to convince me that decrystallizing honey is bad for the honey.  I don't buy it.

Is there any truth to their claims?  I couldn't find anything to support them--or even anything considering the question at all.

I'm just a humble beekeeper.  I went about my business doing what I do, ignorant of other ways or ideas.  I sell my honey at a local food co-op, being the only local beekeeper who can meet their demand.  I did a taste-tasting event one day where I got to interact with those who buy honey.  WOW! What an eye opening experience.  There were folks who would not ever consider buying my honey because it was liquid (I just harvested it three days ago!) and instead opted for the "raw" honey that had traveled thousands of miles and through various customs agents to get to their shopping cart.

Bees make liquid honey.  Honey naturally crystallizes. Not all honey crystallizes at the same time. As a relatively small time beekeeper, I extract all my own honey.  I get it from the bees, and spin it out a few hours later.  I keep the room I extract in a balmy 80 degrees and have no problem extracting it or bottling it at this temp.  I have never even heard of "heating" my honey to extract it... I guess the HUGE producers have to do that, they don't tend their own bees, but contract with commerical beekeepers.  They are harvesting days to weeks after the honey has been taken from the bees.

In summertime a beehive can easily be over 100 degrees inside.  Yes, it can be over 100 degrees where the honey is when the bees have it.  I call this the biological norm temp.

The previous responders were right in that compounds in the honey do denature when it's heated.  I couldn't find the link, but there is a good article on the half-life of enzymes in honey at various temperature... at high heat, they can disappear quickly.  But at temperatures below 110, they are relatively stable... at 90 even more so.  If I need to decrystallize honey, I stay around 90-100 degrees and decrystallize slowly.  Again, 90-100 degrees is within the biological norm for honey; I don't feel I compromise the integrity of my honey with heat.

P.S. There is no USDA definition for "raw honey".  As a beekeeper, I find it a meaningless term.  One person could live in a climate where he harvests and bottles at 100 degrees, and another could harvest on day that is 60 degrees, but heat her harvesting and bottling area up to 90 degrees.  Is his "raw" but hers not raw because she heated her working space?

P.S.S.  Buy from small time beekeepers... they don't have the fancy equipment to heat or "cook" honey.


Why was the cooking liquor for my mussels too dilute? I made moule marinier, which were ok,  but the 'sauce' that was left when they were cooked was more dilute than I would have liked.  I cooked them in:

200ml white wine
sauteed onions and garlic
thyme

and added parsley at the end.  There seemed to be significantly more liquid at the end of cooking than I started with.  Is this normal?  Why was this?  Is it residual water in the mussels?  How can I avoid this in the future?

Yes, the additional liquid came from the mussels and is going to enhance the flavor of your finished dish.  All you need to do is remove the mussels to a bowl, cover lightly to keep them warm, and then turn the heat up to high on your pan and reduce the liquid until it's concentrated before whisking in your butter. (I presume you added butter even though you didn't list it above?)

If not...finish it by whisking in softened (not too soft, but slightly) butter (known as "mounting with butter"  monte au beurre) which will emulsify with the concentrated cooking liquid and add a luxurious texture and richness to your sauce.  Finish by adding your chopped parsley and adjust seasoning according to taste.


How to know what light soy sauce had higher quality? My local asian market features two brands of soy sauce.

Lee Kum Kee (LKK) Premium Light Soy Sauce (李錦記鮮味生抽):
Water, Salt, Soy Bean (11%), Sugar, Wheat Flour, Flavour Enhancers (E631, E627).

Pearl River Bridge (PRB) Superior Light Soy Sauce (珠江生抽):
Water, Soy Bean (29%), Salt, Wheat Flour, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate (E202)).

Is it possible to know what soy sauce has a higher quality by looking at
ingredients list?
Can be a higher percentage of soybean a indicator of high quality?

Offhand, I would guess the Pearl River Bridge is a higher quality - it has more soybean, does not have sugar, does not have flavor enhancers.  The fact it doesn't have distracting flavors makes it harder to cover up lower quality - so they must be pretty sure of their product.

I would think higher soy percent is better simply because it's more concentrated, you get more flavor per use and more flavor and less water per bottle - you can easily dilute a more concentrated sauce, much harder to concentrate a dilute one.

The Lee Kum Kee looks like it's more dilute, and uses extra salt, sugar and flavor enhancers to bolster the taste - instead of tasting like, well, soy sauce.  These sorts of things make the product taste good, but that means they can make a "good enough" product with lower quality ingredients, usually that means they do not have to depend on the quality of their soy sauce to stand alone.

You may actually prefer either, depending on your palate.  Some people like the plainer taste by itself and would prefer the less doctored (and higher quality) product, some would like the flavor profile of the more tweaked version and are more indifferent to quality variations.  But, that is what I would see when looking at those labels.


Save meat from chicken broth? I made a chicken stock/broth with chicken parts including two chicken legs.  After cooking the broth for three hours, is the meat in the pot considered edible?

Should you save it and use it for something like chicken salad?  Or is it considered lacking in all flavor and nutrients after being cooked for three hours?

Edible? Absolutely yes.

Flavorful?  ....you should taste it and tell us.  Seriously, don't serve a meal to anyone, yourself included, until you've tasted it and it tastes at least decent.  (Not trying to be snarky here, that's literally the best cooking tip I was ever given)

Nutritious?  Probably somewhat--that chicken muscle is primarily protein after all.

Generally, soups are made with bones because bones can't be used for anything else, so it's more economical to get soup-flavor from bones (making the stock), then use meat for texture and to add variety to the liquid.  I was taught to put meat into soups in the last hour of cooking.  Many recipes I've seen call for taking out the whole pieces of meat and shredding it or pulling it before serving it in the soup.


Can you mix Red Onion chutney into bread? I was thinking about making some bread today, and I have some leftover red onion chutney.

I was wondering if it would be nice to mix the chutney into the bread dough, and then bake it. If so, would I add the chutney before letting the dough rise or after?

Thanks

Yes, you can add the chutney to the bread dough to produce a more flavorful bread.

When you add the chutney depends on exactly how you want it distributed in the bread.

If you'd like the chutney flavor to permeate the bread throughout, mix directly in with the wet ingredients during the initial mix.
If you prefer to have "streaks" of chutney or layers, you can proof the dough first, and just fold it in a few times before the final rise and bake.

Depending on the texture of the chutney and how much you add, these different approaches can have different effects on the finished product.  For example, if you're adding just a small amount of chutney and it is already pureed or mashed, mixing it early could dilute it in the dough so much that it won't give much flavor to the bread.  In that case, waiting to add it later and folding it in could produce "streaks" of flavor that might be a nice effect in the final bread.

If, on the other hand, your chutney is rather "chunky" or you're adding a large quantity, it might be better to mix it in earlier.  Adding a lot of big chunks after proofing can produce layers in the final bread that can separate, make baking more difficult (with pockets of "filling" that don't rise in temperature as fast), and/or make the bread difficult to slice.


A general rule which applies to different types of bread As someone who is not new to baking different types of breads, I would like to conclude from different recipes that regardless of what the directions is about you can add dry ingredients together and whisk, do the same thing about wet ingredients and then mix them all together. Is it right or it depends on the bread you are baking?

Not at all. It is possible to make bread that way, but it's rather rare.

If you are using any kind of preferment, even a 10 minute sponge, you are likely to add dry ingredients to it. Then you add this mixture of dry+wet to the rest, and the order for "the rest" can vary.

Also, if you have any enrichments, they are usually added after the flour has been kneaded with the main liquid, especially if you are using fats.

Whisking can also be skipped in many cases, sometimes to spare time, sometimes because you don't start with a ratio of water to flour and prewhisking the correct amount of yeast to 10 times the flour you need (well method) will lead to 1/10 of the needed yeast in the end product.

Then there are complicated recipes where you e.g. start out with half your water frozen to slush, or are using very large amounts of preferment so that 1/2 of your ingredients is sourdough which is neither liquid nor dry, etc.

There is indeed a basic process common to all bread baking, but it is not on the level of mixing order, it is about the rhythm of kneading and proofing. All mixing, no matter how many stages it has, is a single step in it, typically the second one.


Mixing cheesecake batter with an immersion blender I have read various recipes suggesting that when adding eggs to cheesecake batter, it is better to incorporate them with as little mixing as possible, to avoid aerating the mixture.
The idea is that cheesecakes are meant to be dense, and if too much air goes in this would compromise the texture (and also possibly cause cracks during/after baking).

This had me wondering if using the immersion blender would be a good way to knock air out of the batter when mixing.
Since I've never seen it mentioned in any recipe, I wonder if there's something I'm missing and this is just not a good idea.

What do you think?

The place I learned how to make cheesecake used an immersion blender. because that is what the person teaching me preferred to use. Technically it works, however it was a real pain. I couldn't get the cheese to seperate from the bottom of the bowl. The instructor finally took over and reccommended I use the mixer.
Also you cannot feel the consistency as well, when using a machine to mix the batter, that is why I prefer to use a fork or a hand mixer.

Further info to avoid cracks: Cooking the cheesecake in a waterbath is always the most effective way to avoid cracks.
Put a cake or jelly roll pan beneath your springform pan and cover the bigger pan with water before putting your springform pan in, when you are actually cooking your cheesecake. And slowly. Cranking up the temperature to cook it fast will still kill it even with a water bath. I think that is true for anything you put in the oven though.


Choreography of making many yorkshire puddings Say you want to make a lot (>4) yorkshire puddings, but your form only has 4 molds. What is your choreography?

Do you ...

stack several forms in the oven
use one form, take out the pouddings when done and refill the hot form immediatly with fat and batter
something else entirely

Background: I'm about to buy a form as a present for my mother, who often cooks for more people. The question is: Is it worth it to buy two forms?

I would buy two tins, for the reason that one of the most important factors for successful Yorkshires is a good hot oven. This is required to convert the water in the batter into steam quickly, causing the puddings to rise. Your oven loses a lot of heat when you open the door, so you will more than likely get a poor rise on your second batch if you reuse the tin.

So, I would use two tins, then you can keep that door closed until the last possible minute.


Different ways of making the gravy in butter chicken.. which is better? Can someone tell me the science behind the following scenarios:
a. Boil tomatoes, onions along with other dry masalas and then make a puree
b. Stir fry tomatoes, onions along with dry masalas and then puree
c. Make the onion, tomato puree and add then put it in the curry pot with masalas.
How will taste be different in each case?

Your question is not totally clearly phrased, but basically you seem to be talking about three things:

frying onions
frying tomatoes
toasting spices

Separately spices can either be dry roasted or oil roasted.
The interesting thing about oil is that a lot of compounds from spices are considered fat soluble. There is a longer discussion here: https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/07/indian-spices-101-benefits-frying-spices.html
but essentially frying spices in oil dissolves those compounds in the oil, and this oil will then form part of the dish. If you dry roasted then obviously this would not happen
There is a 455 page treatise on the Chemistry of spices here https://catbull.com/alamut/Bibliothek/Chemistry_of_Spices.pdf from the Indian Institute of Spices Research in Kerala.
For example nearly all of the volatiles in coriander are monoterpenes which are very poorly soluble in water. This is why perfume is generally made from an alcohol base. Here fat (oil) is the base.
If you dry toasted it's likely that the release of moisture from the spices would affect the flavour profile differently.
For ginger, specifically:
"Ginger owes its characteristic organoleptic properties to two classes of constituents: the odour and the flavour of ginger are determined by the constituents of its steam- volatile oil, while the pungency is determined by non-steam-volatile components, known as the gingerols. The steam-volatile oil comprises mainly of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, monoterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated monoterpenes"
Gingerols are flavour compounds themselves, and are converted into zingerone, shogaols and some remain as gingerols. Gingerols are the spiciest, then shogaols, and zingerone is considered sweet.
This study found:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316827626_Changes_in_6-Gingerol_Concentration_in_Ginger_under_Various_Types_of_Cooking_Conditions
"The ratio of 6-gingerol to 6-shogaol concentration in raw ginger was 98:2. After boiling and steaming for 60 minutes, the concentration of 6-shogaol increased by more than 3 times; this difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). However, it was also confirmed that a sufficiently high amount of the 6-gingerol in ginger was retained after boiling (93:7), steaming (92:8) and stir-frying (97:3)"
It would seem that frying ginger first would result in a different flavour profile to if it was cooked in a curry base which would not exceed 100C (boiling temperature of water).
As far as tomatoes go, they contain a lot of water. This means that if you add them first, then you are no longer getting the high heat oil based reactions with the spices. So probably if you want to fry spices it's best to do them separately.
Frying tomatoes and onions is mostly about the Maillard reaction:

Frying tomatoes releases more of these flavours than boiling would.
For onions, there is a study here:
https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13411-015-0034-0
comparing three techniques - sué ('sweating'), sautéeing, and pan frying.
*Sué onion preparation: 30 g of sunflower oil were added to a saucepan heated to 100 °C and 1 kg of onions was then added. The onions were regularly stirred for 25 min. Cooking was stopped when the onions were translucent.
Sautéed onion preparation: 30 g of sunflower oil was heated to 155 °C in a pan. Then, 1 kg of onions was added and was evenly sautéed for 10 min. Cooking was stopped when onions had a homogeneous caramelized appearance.
Pan-fried onion preparation: 30 g of sunflower oil was heated to 130 °C in a pan. Then, 500 g of onions were added and were evenly sautéed for 18 min. Cooking was stopped when onions had a shiny appearance and some of them were burnt.*
There were very significant differences with the pan-fried onions:
https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13411-015-0034-0/tables/3
Much higher levels of:

2-Methylpropanal (spicy) was found compared to the saute (present), and the sweated (absent)
Various sulphurous compounds - much higher in the saute
3-Methylbutanal (malty/animal feet) - absent from the sweated, present in the other
2,3-Pentanedione (buttery) - only in the saute
Caramel flavours - higher in the saute and the pan fried

This is only for different methods of frying. It seems likely that the further process of cooking the curry would tend to break down the spicy and sulphur flavours that are left behind after a saute, so the difference would be less than this presents, but it should still be present - a long slow cook of the onions will make them taste seeetest. On the other hand flavours introduced by first browning the onion would be more durable
So I would fry spices first in oil, keep the oil as a minimum. Whether you want toasted onion flavours in your butter chicken seems like it would be a matter of taste, but cooking them long and slow will give them sweetest taste. For tomatoes frying will add flavour compared to boiling, though baking adds even more flavour.


How does replacing some butter with shortening affect rising / leavening in cookies (biscuits)? I have been replacing half (half a cup) of the butter called for by some cookie recipes with half a cup of shortening and have noticed that some of these cookies rise less than I expect.

Is there any difference in rising power of butter compared to shortening?  If so, how do I counteract that difference?

To answer this question we should turn to the oracle:
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/season3/Cookie/CookieTranscript.htm

The relevant quote is:

"Nothing affects a cookie's texture more than the melting characteristics of its fat. Butter has a sharp melting point meaning that, uh, just a few degrees difference between a solid and liquid states. So since conversion occurs at a relatively low temperature, the resulting batter spreads prior to setting."

The problem is that shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter and so cookies made with shortening typically rise more than butter made cookies. Thus your rising problems are probably not caused by the type of fat.

I suspect that the temperature of your fat might be causing the problem. If your butter came from the fridge and the shortening was room temperature then the shortening cookies would melt faster and rise less.


How can I make my Hot chocolate thicker? I've been trying to make a thicker hot chocolate and I'm not sure what to add without taking away from the flavor of the chocolate. Usually what I do is boil the milk, and then I add chocolate baking powder and shaved chocolate.

Spanish hot chocolate and Italian cioccolata fiorentina both use cornstarch as a thickening agent. Both are used more for dipping or sipping (churros in the former case), however you could easily just use less cornstarch to make it more 'drinkable'.

Try a teaspoon of cornstarch, mixed with a little cold water, added to the milk when you boil it.

As Kate Gregory suggests, you could also use full-fat milk, or loads of shaved chocolate.


Why are all sour cream cultures I've found for sale online labeled as direct set? Why can't I reuse like I do yogurt? I've realized we go through a lot of sour cream in my household, and I want to start making probably about a pint or two a week during the summer months.

I've been researching for a few hours, and while I haven't found any reusable sour cream culture, I haven't found any reason I can't reuse sour cream culture. On the same websites selling culture, there's reusable yogurt and cheese culture, so I'm pretty sure it's not just a sales tactic.

I've come across a few articles that state you have to be careful with reusing culture for other fermented milk recipes. It looks like contamination with other bacteria is a concern even with yogurt. Learning that, I may just go ahead and start setting aside my culture for the next batch right off the bat, before any spoon or air contamination can hit the yogurt. I learned from my parents, who reuse from the bottom of the pot when we're getting low.

The only reason I can think of for sour cream being an issue is temperature. I assume that at 75 degrees, a lot of different bacterias can thrive. With yogurt at 110 degrees, maybe it's more of a hostile environment to unwanted bacteria, making it more easily reusable?

If that's the case, I think I can make a jar of sour cream and pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze it to provide myself with culture for a few more batches out of that one.

If there's something special about sour cream culture that it's not reusable at all, why is it special, and can I make my own through some process?

If you can't find a reusable sour cream starter, you can use buttermilk starter.  Some bloggers and biology/chemistry professors just use fresh active buttermilk as a starter rather than ordering some online.  If you look at the various labels and product pages, you will find that both the buttermilk and sour cream starters contain the same four cultures: Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris, Lactococcus lactis biovar diacetylactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris.
In the Q & A for their buttermilk starter, culturesforhealth.com also provides this tip for using it for sour cream:

It is best to maintain it in regular whole milk, rather than reculturing cream long term.

On another page, Dr. Frankhauser goes on to say:

SOUR CREAM is produced by the same bacteria as buttermilk, but the starting milk product is pasteurized light cream. Bacteria are less numerous than in buttermilk.

This may be related to the lower concentrations of lactose found in unfermented milk products that contain higher percentages of fat. My best guess is that companies don't market the sour cream starters as heirloom or reusable because starting the new batch from the last batch may not reliably provide results that are as robust over time as their other products. If you just use milk for your starter, you can reuse it over time.


Is slightly sugary mango fine for hot sauce? I'm taking a crack at a mango habanero hot sauce recipe I found, which calls for dried mango slices.
However, all of my friendly neighborhood grocery stores have the dried slices that have that crystallized sugar on them. I picked up a variety that claims to be "low sugar", but still taste fairly sugary.

Will mango that is sugared impact a hot sauce recipe (negatively) too much? If so, is there a "safe" way to remove the sugar?

Now, I'm definitely far from being even an amateur chef, so I could just have the perfect thing and not know it. Rather double check now then risk it and end up with a bad batch.

Ingredient list:

Habanero - 3
Ancho Pasilla - 1
Dried mango slices - 6
Water - 1 cup
Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
Brown sugar - 1 tsp
A "spice blend" - 1 Tbsp
Pinch o' salt

All ingredients soak for ~2 minutes, simmer for ~3, then are liquefied in a blender.

If you don't have any other options, I'd go ahead and try it with a few minor adjustments. Keep in mind that recipes like this are really loose and based a lot on personal preference. If you don't think the mangoes are really sweet now, the spices may mask some of that, or the sweetness may dull some of the spice.

The ingredients you use will also greatly affect things, as peppers change spiciness by water content, for example, so at different times of year, this same recipe may turn out barely-noticeable spice or barely-bearable spice! Adjusting to the level of spice or sweetness is one of the complications and will require some testing to get it where you like it.

Try soaking the mango, alone, for two minutes in one cup of water - in your (two cup - assuming you have a standard sized one) measuring cup. Some of the surface sugar may soak off in that time, reducing the total impact. Put the mango in the pot you're going to use for the simmering phase. Now, see how much water is left in the measuring cup.

How much water the mango absorbs (which probably won't be a lot, but may be... I'm not sure) will affect how much water you use for soaking the rest of the ingredients.

If there's less than a cup of water remaining in the measuring cup, add that same amount of fresh water to the rest of your ingredients and let them soak for two minutes and finish the recipe.
If it's only absorbed a tiny amount, add the full cup of fresh water to the rest of the ingredients and let them also soak for two minutes and continue the recipe.

You may also consider omitting the brown sugar. There are many other flavors in the recipe, so the loss of it may not hurt.

When it's done, if you do think that it's too sweet, use an acid to tame the sweetness a bit. In this recipe, something like lime juice (try half a lime) may help without being too different. Mango and lime are pretty nicely complimentary flavors and both common to the region. There are even similar recipes out there that include lime. I haven't tried either of these, just showing that they exist.


Slicing bratwurst for quicker, more even grilling I am always surprised and little impatient with the time required to cook my brats all the way through on the grill. More heat typically means the outside finishes before the inside, and less heat means I'm waiting 30 minutes or more for fully cooked brats.

A few years ago at a grill-out,  I saw that some friends that had scored their sausages before grilling them, I presume for quicker and more even grilling. I can't remember if these were hot dogs, brats, or some other kind of sausage, but they certainly weren't the cheap-o mystery meat dogs from the supermarket.

I recently tried this approach with brats, but it hasn't really been working.

My first time, I sliced the brats before grilling, but then when they're exposed to heat the meat starts oozing out of the slices in the casing. This makes for a pretty un-appetizing looking brat.
The next time, I tried slicing them after they had grilled for a bit, but they were difficult to handle and I don't know how much this helped in terms of time or even cooking.

Are there any slicing/scoring techniques that will help brats grill more quickly/evenly, or do I just need to be more patient?

Boil or steam them using beer (for a traditional flavor combination) or water before grilling. Grill for flavor, not as the sole means of heating them.

This is more about cooking faster (or more evenly, anyway) than slicing, though that step will also make them hold together better if sliced after boil/steam and before grilling. But if they are basically cooked via boil/steam, you don't need to do any further processing before grilling, since you can just grill until the outside suits your sense of grilled.

I think scoring is more about releasing some of the fat than actually grilling faster. Slicing (like in half lengthwise, or in chunks) will grill faster, and/or give you more grilled surface area/flavor (if you're pre-boiled and just grilling for flavor.) It may fall apart completely if not cooked somewhat before that.

This site looks reasonable: https://www.bratsandbeer.com/how-long-to-boil-brats/


Why season the meat "liberally"? Whenever I watch cooking shows on TV, they always advise to season the meat "liberally", even "aggressively". Is there a particular reason for this, or do regular people just tend to under season their meat?

When it comes to steaks, there is specific reason to use a lot of salt.  The Serious Eats food lab goes into pretty good detail about salting a steak.  It has to do with drawing out the moisture on the surface of the steak.  This helps create a nice sear and affects the way the steak cooks.

For other types of meat, I assume they are just telling everyone to season more.  The amount of salt used in a commercial kitchen is unreal.


Should pasta be started in cold or boiling water? There are two main methods, either putting the strands into water already at boiling point, or putting them in cold water and then putting on the heat.

Which method is the best to cook pasta?

Does it make a difference if you add pasta to cold or boiling water?

As stated in another answer, Italian tradition is that all pasta is cooked in boiling water. A reasonable explanation for this usage is that it's easier to get the time right this way.

Pasta is very sensitive to cooking time, and will easily turn from 'al dente' to an overcooked mush if left on the fire a couple of minutes too much. By cooking it in boiling water, you ensure that it cooks in uniform conditions, always at the same temperature, regardless of the starting temperature of the water, the temperature of your kitchen, and the power of your burner. So it is a safer bet that cooking it for the same amount of time will work.

In my experience, the time marked on the package is almost always accurate for pasta cooked in boiling water. So it gives you a useful reference point, which you don't have if you cook it starting from cold water.


Safe to eat this ham? Took a boneless ham (shrink wrapped) out of freezer at 5 pm, and left it in sink all night, til 8 am. Room temp 65 degrees.  Is it safe to eat?

I doubt anyone is going to touch this, because of safety issues. My mom used to do this before all of those salmonella cartoons in the 1970s. We didn't know we got sick from the food back then. We thought we got a cold or flu.

My brother once got really sick from this.


How should I read a thermometer when it's got an extra indicator line? The last time I got my candy thermometer out of the drawer, I noticed that there was an extra line of red above the normal column.

It looks like there's a "bubble" at the top of color that's raised a bit of it higher than the rest. Can I still use it like this, and if so, which line do I use to tell the temperature?

The problem is that such gas bubbles tend to affect the shape of the liquid around them in unpredictable ways, so it's not sufficient to just try to "add" the small bit of liquid to the large one if accuracy is desired -- the surfaces on these bits of liquid may be bent in various ways, making it hard to get a reading.  Also the expansion of the liquid and the gas bubble may be affected, creating a little more inaccuracy.

If you only need rough accuracy (say within 5-6 degrees F or about 3 degrees C), you can probably continue to read the thermometer at the top of the solid red column, then correcting a couple degrees upward.  It's really not ideal.  (And I'm simply guessing based on a cursory look from the photo.)

If you want to fix it, though...

I can't tell what the rest of this thermometer looks like.  Sometimes the problem can be corrected through simple shaking (swinging in a slow arc is often better than frantic jerking) or tapping.  If not, the way to solve this problem in a chemistry lab is one of two ways:

Cool the thermometer to the point that the liquid all contracts into the lower bulb (sometimes called the "contraction chamber").  Once the main body of the liquid gets down there, you can often shake the thermometer a bit to encourage the gas bubble out.  Depending on your thermometer and where the liquid gets down to the chamber, you may be able to do this with only an ice water bath, or a salt/ice bath.  Use caution if the liquid begins to freeze: if not careful when it thaws, it can make the problem worse.
Most decent lab thermometers have an "expansion chamber" at the top in case of overheating.  I have no idea whether this one does or not, though it's a common safety feature.  One can also heat a thermometer (gradually) to the point that the separated portion of the liquid gets to the expansion chamber, at which point the gas bubble can be simply "tapped" gently out.  (Note: if you try this, be very careful to heat gradually and slowly, never placing the thermometer in direct flame.  If you force too much of the liquid into the expansion chamber, you will break the thermometer.  Also, many organic liquids in thermometers these days are flammable.)

In either case, after correcting the problem, place the thermometer in an upright position and allow it to come to room temperature gradually.

Chemists tend to have little problem dealing with stuff like this, but if any of this sounds too complex or dangerous, I'd just buy another thermometer, given how cheap they tend to be.


Boiling Beef Chorizo as part of a soup base? I'm wondering about the results if I were to try boiling beef chorizo instead of frying it for use as part of a soup. (My girlfriend insists this is a recipe for disaster, so I'm asking for more information here rather than try it on my own.) Chorizo is oily and is generally cooked by frying, so I'm wondering how the spices and flavors would mix and separate if boiled in water instead of being fried. I'm not particularly skilled at cooking meat, so any information about how I could expect this to turn out would be appreciated. If I boil water, and add chorizo, what could I expect from this? What about if I add it straight to soup to simmer/boil there?

Ive tried this a few times.  I think boiling the chorizo can be beneficial for some soups because it allows the flavor to penetrate the other components.  However, boiling it also makes the meat pretty indistiguishable and mostly just imparts flavors to the soup (in my case ive used mexican chorizo).  Maybe another thing to think about would be the oil content which could allow you to craft a flavorful rue.  rue is made from simering equal amounts of oil and flour on low heat (timing wise less is more) and will thicken your soup.


What makes white chili white? What makes white chili white; is it just the lack of tomatoes, substitution of broth for tomato base? I am working on a vegan mushroom based chili and am wondering if it would technically be a (chili) or more accurately a soup/stew.

My understanding is that what many people call white chili would be considered a green chile stew in a place like New Mexico. It's not red in color because it doesn't have any significant amount of dried red chile in it--it gets whatever heat and chile flavor it has from green chile, which doesn't color the stew significantly.

As to defining chili, I think you could work on a definition forever. Apart from the notion that a chile is the pepper, which is the main ingredient, and chili is the dish, I don't like to define it too carefully (of course, New Mexicans think the dish is chile too, but what they have is different from Texas chili, even when they use red chiles).

I think chili is a stew, though. Most stew isn't chili, but all chili is stew. And I believe that for most people to accept what you're making as chili, it would have to include a significant dose of dried red chile powder.

So if you can accept the validity of white chili at all, and what you're making has almost all green chiles and very little red chile, then I'd say you're making a white chili. Or a green chile stew--which would be my preferential term in this case.


Can I fix my unset Crème Brûlée bars I followed this recipe:

and messed up the temp to bake at because I confused myself when I was doing it. I wanted to make this for my class and so I doubled the recipe as well. I have to bring it in tomorrow morning and was wondering if there’s anything I can do to fix the custard.

It is completely soupy, I would say it maybe thickened a little bit like if you added heavy cream to coffee since I let it sit for the past 3 hours. I have made this recipe before successfully in my cooking class but I actually wasn’t there for when it was taken out of the oven and the setting process after so I wasn’t completely sure what it was supposed to look like.

It's a bit late for "tomorrow morning" but I would've baked them again at 190°F to evaporate most of the extra moisture.
Why 190°F? Well, that is below the boiling point of water but will still get rid of the soupy texture by removing the excess of water without over-baking the entire thing.
Alternatively, you can also just rename the end product to "Crème Anglaise Brûlée" as that is what you ended up with: still tastes good, but just has a different texture and who knows that some people will like your version better as it's "lighter" then the original!!!
:-)


Doogh/Ayran from scratch I have found several recipes online for making doogh or ayran (I love this stuff sooo much), and they all seem to involve diluting greek yogurt with either water or soda. I want to make my yogurt drink from scratch, so that means making greek yogurt is my first step. However, greek yogurt is yogurt that has been strained to remove whey, so I thought, if all I care about is the drink, should I skip straining, or will the flavor be better (maybe fresher-tasting) if I strain out the whey then add water?

I have no idea why it starts with Greek yogurt. Wherever I've had it - at home, restaurant-made, or ready-bought, it contained just plain yogurt, water and salt. (The ratio varies to taste). This includes ayran made in traditional Turkish restaurants run by Turkish owners. Also, I can't think of a practical reason why true (strained) Greek yogurt could make a difference. The whey doesn't have a strong taste on its own, and what little it has, it is similar to the yogurt itself, so you probably won't notice a difference. You are just losing the nutrients from the whey.

In some countries, true Greek yogurt isn't available, and what you get sold as "Greek yogurt" is actually sour cream with double the fat content, but with the same protein and lactose content as plain yogurt. This could have some taste difference in comparison to ayran made with plain yogurt, but in my eyes, it will be a negative change. If you use the same yogurt:water ratio as with plain yogurt, you will get too much fat, which isn't pleasant in ayran (which is mostly a refreshing drink). If you use a doubled water ratio so the fat amount stays the same, you get much less taste.

Conclusion, go with the normal yogurt. It is not only cheaper, it is also the traditional, time-proven way of getting tasty ayran.


What are the advantages of a lid on a barbeque? I have just bought a new half drum barbeque which can with a fold down lid.

I have heard that these lids are good for creating a smokey flavour, or for keeping food moist whilst it cooks. A lot of this seems to be based on peoples personal opinion with evidence based answers about what the benefits of cooking with the lid down are.

Does anyone have any evidence of exactly what cooking with a lid down on a barbeque actually does?

The lid can do one of three things:

Keeping the lid down increases the temperature of the air in the grill. This means that in addition to cooking with the direct heat of the coals, you are also cooking with convection of the air. This won't happen with the lid up.
In a charcoal grill, the temperature the coals burn is based on the airflow through the grill. Open is as hot as it will go (assuming the bottom vent is also open). By closing the lid and altering the airflow, you can control the temperature of the grill. My grill can keep fine temperature control between 200F-700F depending on how you set the airflow.
Which leads us to smoke. It seems obvious that if you are smoking, you will impart more flavor by trapping the smoke with your food rather than letting it float in to the sky. Additionally, you want wood to smolder not burn for your best smoke production. This works better at a lower temperature (see #2).


Chocolate Shot Glasses I know, right? Sounds awesome. Here's what's up:

For Christmas I got one of those do-it-yourself molds for making ice shot glasses.
My idea is pretty simple: Melt chocolate and pour it into the molds and make chocolate shot glasses. I'm thinking maybe try doing some sort of fruit-flavored liquor (as the shot) with it as well.

Any suggestions on how to get started? My instincts tell me that straight melted chocolate that is then frozen / chilled wouldn't set well and the fats would their separate ways and not be good. Should I cut it with cream or milk? I'm most certain a double-boiler for melting is the best way to go and I was considering using semi-sweet baker's chocolate.

In order to get the chocolate to harden correctly, still look shiny, and have that nice snap when it is broken, you need to temper your chocolate. There are many methods for doing this, but the seeding method on this site is most people's preference:

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/155/Tempering-Chocolate

After that you tempered chocolate, follow this process:

Ensure molds are 100% dry
Fill molds completely with melted chocolate.
Tap the molds on the table or tap them with a spoon for a few seconds to get rid of the air bubbles.
Invert the molds over your bowl of chocolate and let them drain out, leaving a chocolate coating in the mold.
Place the molds face down over a sheet of parchment paper (or something like that) to let them drain out a little more.
Put them right side up again and let them dry for 20-30 minutes.
(optional) place the molds in the fridge for 10 minutes (will make demolding eaiser)
Invert the molds over a sheet of parchment paper. If necessary, tap gently or carefully twist the mold to get the pieces to release.

EDIT: First, if you are going with this technique, use real chocolate (the only fat should be cocoa butter). Second, if you can, use a high cocoa butter chocolate.


Baking Powder in scones For scones can I mix cold butter with self raising flour and then add the wet ingredients the next day. This is to save time in the morning?

I do the same as you, Vivien. I find that mixing in the liquids in advance leads to too much gluten development and some outgassing from the baking powder, but that if the butter/flour mixture is kept cold enough it doesn't hurt to mix it the night before.
(Anyway, it takes longer for the oven to heat up than it takes to mix together the remaining ingredients and shape the scones.)


Do you have to refrigerate Pickles? So last weekend the wife and I got a huge jar of pickles at Costco.  The thing is bigger than a gallon of milk (the wife really loves her pickles).  There really isn't any room for it in the fridge, but no where on the jar does it say 'refrigerate after opening', but I've always kept them in the fridge (and so does everyone else I know).

I know that pickles use to be kept out of refrigeration in barrels and I realize that the salt in the brine should keep anything bad from happening, but does anyone actually keep their pickles at room temp? Are there downsides to this?

Thanks

Traditional fermented pickles were kept in barrels, but they're not the kind that you buy in a big jar at Costco. Those pickles have been briefly cooked in a brine, and should be refrigerated after you open the jar. The salt and vinegar should keep them safe for a while, but they will likely go bad at room temperature before you finish eating the whole jar.

As an anecdotal note, an office I used to work in kept one of these large jars of pickles around. After being open for a few years, they were clearly spoiled, and nobody would touch them.


Egg substitue in enriched breads I'm making Kolaches (a Czech semi-sweetened dough with a sweet filling), but I'm challenging myself to cook vegan, and therefore can't use an egg.  I've got a bunch of recipes, but all of them are semi-enriched, i.e. have egg, milk, and added fat.  I've got replacements for everything else, except the egg.
What are things people have used for eggs in yeast breads.  It shouldn't need to be a binder or leaven, just enrich.  I've seen suggestions for sweet potato, just add oil, tofu.  Anyone have any experience with enriching yeast doughs without eggs?

I use ground flaxseed and water, which is a common egg substitute - I prefer the flavor of the "golden" or yellow seeds .vs. the brown ones (and unlike the brown seed grower's propaganda, I do taste a difference) but either will work for the egg substitution - chia seed is evidently another common substitute.

I consider it unsafe (or unwise) to assume that the only function of the eggs is to "enrich" - I find that the "same" bread made with or without eggs behaves quite differently in terms of how it rises, so I would suggest sticking to a substitute that gives you more complete functional replacement, rather than, say, "add some oil."

I'm not myself a vegan but I have baked things with keeping vegans happy in mind. As such I have worked with eggs and with ground flaxseed and water, and so far I consider the flaxseed mixture as good of an egg substitute as I have used, though still not the same as (nor indistinguishable from) actual eggs.


What is the proper way to maintain a can opener? I bought a hand crank can opener (Oxo) because of the good online feedback and only use the "shake" dry approach. It quickly developed rust in between the metal. If I invest the time and scrub, I can remove most of the rust.

When I initially posed the maintenance question in IRC concerning rust and utensils and kitchenware in general, I got suggestions from "spend a little on a decent one" to "you want stainless steel". I stored both answers as helpful for future purchases.

Just recently I noticed two can openers in the office pantry that both show rust. Obviously these were neglected and showed more corrosion. After seeing this, I am curious if rust is actually normal and harmless. Are there more expensive stainless steel can openers that are rust resistant? Should I be drying more rigorously? I just thought of another possibility: should I keep the can opener in a jar of cooking oil?

I have a lot of canned food and have gone through my share of can openers. I'm generally OK with a rusty can opener, but I don't like the rust flakes getting into my food. I can't bear that metallic taste.

While I don't mind buying a new can opener (they sell them at the dollar general for two dollars), but I find it a bit wasteful.

This may sound a bit un-orthodox, but I use rubbing alcohol (90% or higher). I have a jar filled with it next to the sink, so I will rinse the can opener off, dip it in the jar of alcohol, and put it back in the drawer. It dries fine in there.

This also works for other rust-prone utensils like whisks.


How do I get better at tasting? I think this question might be borderline off-topic. I am open to suggestions for making it fit the SA format better
Many drinks (coffee, whisk(e)y, wine) are more enjoyable once one can discern the different flavours in those drinks. I.e., once one moves beyond 'tastes like wine' to 'tastes like blueberries and honey'. The same is true for some foods (chocolate comes to mind, with descriptions similar to those used for wines. Also olive oil.). On top of that, it is a fun (and, for cooks, useful) skill to be able to taste a dish and mentally separate out the different ingredients that went into it.
Some people (so-called supertasters) are predisposed to have a sharp sense of taste. Assuming I am not a supertaster, how can I improve my tasting skills?

You get better through concentration and lack of distractions. Just as you shouldn't eat while watching TV. You'll miss all the flavors.
Sit back. Take small samples. Let it lay or slosh around in your mouth for a while--several seconds at least. Think about what you taste and feel.
Soon you will find those one-tone flavors have a background to them or a subtle second or third flavor coming out of nowhere.
After a while, you'll start noticing those underlying flavors every time you use that ingredient and notice it missing when you have a not-so-good variety.


What does it mean when adding a little water causes oil to loose its falvour? I have some oil which tastes one way(due to herbs, spices etc) however when I add even a little water to it the flavor goes. Besides that the water can dilute the flavor it seems more like the chemicals are going from the oil to the water.

I imagine this means the spice in question is both fat and water soluble however it is more water soluble causing it to loose its flavor?

I imagine this means the spice in question is both fat and water soluble however it is more water soluble causing it to loose its flavor?

Without knowing the exact spice / herb / compound in question, I can't give you a definitive answer, but your hypothesis is right on the money.

I'll try not to go completely "chemistry teacher" on you, but water is often referred to as "the universal solvent" for good reason.  Given enough water, it can dissolve just about anything. (There's gold dissolved in seawater.  Not enough to be profitable to harvest, but enough to be measured.)  Just as an example: rosmarinic acid (one of the compounds - perhaps not surprisingly - found in rosemary) is classified as "slightly soluble" in water.

If you look at the diagram of the chemical structure (that I've brought in from wiki), all those lines are shorthand for carbon-carbon bonds - which typically mean a chemical dissolves easily in oils.

The OH groups are alcohols (but not the getting drunk kinds), which typically make it easier for a chemical to dissolve in water.  The alcohol group, the carbon between, and the double bonded oxygen combined make something called a "carboxylic acid" (hence the acid in the name).*  Carboxylic acids are also water soluble.  So we have a chemical that can dissolve in both oils and water.

When we talk about infusing oils, the amount of the essential oils, etc that go in is usually pretty small, compared to the overall volume of the oil.  So, if you add just a little water, a chemical that is even "slightly soluble" can make the jump into the water and leave your oil sadly lacking.

* Vinegar is acetic acid dissolved into water; acetic acid is another carboxylic acid.


How can I make a foam without an immersion blender? I want to try some experiments with molecular gastronomy foams, but all the recipes I've seen involve using an immersion blender to create the foam. Can I use a whisk to make the foam? What about my Vita-mix? Are there any changes I would need to make to the process based on the change in methodology?

A vita mix should work pretty well; maybe you could carefully drag a spatula in the top of the vortex (nowhere near the blade!) to introduce more air. A whisk will be pretty slow going. And then there is a whole other category of foams made in a whipped cream canister. Here is a link to get you started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9lJMGImGKE


Replicating McDonald's Mocha recently I've been trying to recreate the mocha they make at Mcdonalds. After many failed attempts. Here is how I currently prepare it:

Put chocolate powder and sugar into a cup, pour a little boiling water, beat
Heat milk in another pot, mix in coffee powder while boiling
After the milk is sufficiently boiled, pour it into the cup

The problem I'm having is that my mocha doesn't have the 'creaminess' that the fast-food chain has... it's a bit too 'smooth'. Yet when I drink the one from Mcdonalds, the drink feels dilute yet more creamy... which is weird because how can you have less milk in the drink yet have it creamy?

The creaminess in many coffee drinks comes from steamed milk. The milk is heated by forcing steam through it. This leads to a very creamy result. It is hard to replicate at home without an espresso machine with a steam wand. You can foam the hot milk with a cappuccino wand (or something similar) for a slightly more authentic result but the result will not be as creamy as properly steamed milk.


What are the correct simmering times for chicken/vegetable stock? I recently read that cooking stock for more than about 2 hours negatively affects the flavor, and eventually vitiates the vitamins due to heat degradation.

This seems to conflict with advice I've read previously, which states that you need to do a "shimmering only" simmer (no bubbles) for 24-36 hours in order to extract/denature all of the collagen.

My questions are:

Is it true that extended simmering destroys flavor and nutrients, and if so, is it due to the time, temperature, or some combination of the two?
Which advice is better to follow? What are the optimal simmering times for the meat and vegetables?
If the simmering time for vegetables is shorter - at what stages should I add (and remove) them?

It is true that flavour is affected by cooking time. Most likely nutrients as well, but its about the vegetables. If you cook beef stock you should indeed cook it for several hours to release the collagen and proteins. My experience with chicken takes less time so 30 minutes in the pressure cooker or 1,5 hours in a normal pot. Then you can eat the meat as well.
Vegetables should only cook for 30 minuts so add the vegetables 30 minutes before the end of cooking regardless of the kind of soup. The fresh flavor of the vegetables will disapear if you cook it for longer then that.
Someone doing research on the flavour development and time for making stock


Is plastic wrap safe to use when tempering chocolate? Tempering chocolate can be a messy process at times. So I had an idea to cover the plastic bowl that I use for tempering with plastic wrap so that once I'm finished, I can remove the plastic wrap, the bowl will end up clean and I can easily collect the leftover chocolate.

Would the plastic wrap be safe to use? Would it contaminate the chocolate or affect the tempering process in any way?

The tempering method I usually use just involves a heating up the plastic bowl in the microwave and seeding with tempered callets to reach the desired temperatures. The chocolate will only reach a maximum of 45 degrees.

Most microwave suitable plastic wrap (cling film) still says you should avoid contact with the food and just use it as a cover. But of course in that case the food is intended to get properly hot, and of course you don't want much heat. If you do get local hot spots the film may well soften. At that point it might impart flavours to the food. It's probably only slightly more likely than getting a flavour of the plastic bowl you otherwise use.

I write this from the point of view that you're more likely to spoil the flavour than harm yourself by slightly misusing a product that's generally accepted as food safe.


Do cooks in the US measure volume using 'traditional' or 'legal' units? The wikipedia article for the cup unit identifies two different measures used in the US: a legal cup of 240ml and a customary cup of ~236.588ml.

Similarly, the tablespoon and teaspoon articles describe traditional measures (~14.8ml and ~4.93ml respectively) and measures used in "nutritional labeling" (15ml and 5ml).

Are measuring spoons in the US calibrated to the traditional, or to the legal definitions of these units?

Great question Chris!  I'm a US baker who has been baking for a LONG time and never gave it any thought whether my measuring utensils are "legal" or "traditional" - they say "1 cup", "1 Tsp", "1 TBSP", etc.

In practice, all this has meant to me is that when my US recipes call for 1 cup of flour, I measure 1 level measuring cup of flour.  Same for teaspoons and tablespoons.  My European cookbooks refer to ingredients in weight (250 grams, for example).  In those cases, I would either convert those measurements into my more familiar cups, tsp's, TBSP's, etc., or use another set of utensils with measurements marked on the side.

While I've used the written measurements for a guideline, I've always also depended on the preparation instructions to determine the correct consistency of the dough or batter.  This is particularly true for flour and liquids.

Regarding uniformity in the measurement tools, unfortunately for the home cook, there is no one monopoly.  Every grocery store, dollar store and cooking store has an assortment of measuring cups and spoons.  Some of the better measuring cups, like those from Pyrex, have volumes written on the side of the cup to use as guides.


producing kefir grains from commercial kefir? I had previously been buying commercial kefir, and then started adding milk (actually half and half) when it ran low and leaving it out to produce more kefir with good results (at least compared to the commercial stuff)   I have some kefir grains coming in the mail so this is really just out of curiosity.  Can you leave kefir out longer than usual to produce kefir grains?  In other words using the technique described above but instead of refrigerating after 36 hours or so, continue to leave it out at room temperature,  will this produce kefir grains?  Or using home made kefir and doing the above, can you produce grains that way?

The dynamics of the Grain growth are not currently well understood, much less its formation. Some researchers attempted to create grains in laboratory, but failed.

There are over thirty or fourty strains of microbes in the kefir, and their ecological relationships are very complex. One could call the whole kefir culture an ecosystem of its own.

The grains grow either because the matrixes of existing grains entice the microbes to create more grain matrix, or because there are specialized microorganisms inside the grain that are responsible for creating more grain.

What is known is that the grains need Kefiran to grow, and Kefiran needs Alcohol in its synthesis. Commercial cultures of kefir often omit the alcohol-creating yeast for obvious reasons, so it too adds to the impossibility of getting Kefir grains from commercial kefir.

Either way, the fact is there grains do not come into being on their own. New grains are split from existing grains.

There is a small possibility that a kefir culture from grains that was strained could form new grains, but its not confirmed.

The commercial cultures are sold with around five to ten strains, much less than full blown kefir grains. They won't form grains, since the strains were hand-picked in lab by their function, and probably the grain-forming ones were left out.


Frozen banana, banana cake If I use frozen and then defrosted bananas for banana cake do I use less water being that the bananas expel a lot of water as they defrost or do I use the same amount of water being that the bananas would expel the water anyways as they cook? (I would have the same question regarding using any frozen and defrosting fruit in cake I suppose)

If you defrost your bananas in a bowl and use all the liquid expelled, then you would follow the recipe as if they were fresh bananas. When the banana cells freeze, the cell walls rupture thus the reason defrosted bananas are mushy and watery. When freezing bananas, freeze them in their peel. It will protect the fruit better than if you peel it first.

(While the banana liquid is clear, it is not just water, it is the juice from the bananas, so you want to use)


Is it normal for ginger paste to spit violently in oil? One of my favourite recipes calls for a 3cm piece of ginger peeled and grated. The recipe asks that I heat some vegetable oil in a hot wok, then fry the ginger for 30 seconds before adding the meat and, later, the rest of the ingredients.

I am, I'm sure, a fairly lazy chef. I don't tend to buy fresh ginger root and instead I buy this: Bart's Ginger in Sunflower Oil.

When I add the ginger to the oil it has will always, without fail, transform into a roiling, spitting, volcano of fury. Small pieces of extremely hot ginger/oil will fly all over my hob and land, more often than not, somewhere on my skin.

Is this normal, and how can I avoid it? I presume it is affected by the following factors:

The heat of the wok is too low/high
There is too much vegetable oil in the wok
The wok is not the right size (maybe uneven heat distribution?). Not confident about this.

However, it actually only occurred to me recently that the fact that the ginger I buy is in sunflower oil could be a contributing factor.

This is more likely due to the other ingredients in the paste (sugar, citric acid, vinegar and salt; mainly the vinegar) hitting the hot oil. It's the same reason you never throw water on a frier fire. Oil and water/vinegar don't mix!

You can avoid it by not being lazy and using fresh ginger, which is much nicer anyway, or adding the ginger to the oil before it gets too hot.


Cookie dough is too dry to shape, can I salvage the existing batch? I make this same Christmas cookie every year and this has never happened before. I made the dough on Wednesday, put in fridge, and today was baking them. I let them sit for maybe 20 min at room temperature and the ones I was able to twist, and keep dough together were dry after being baked.  The dough was falling apart when I was trying to make long ropes and then twist.

I put the rest of the dough back in the fridge since this morning. There is milk in the recipe. Should I add some milk to the hard dough or add the milk to dough  after sitting out at room temp when ready to twist?  I'm trying to salvage the rest of my dough.

I'm assuming it needs more liquid but I've never had to do this. Please help and let me know why this happened; why it seems dry and unable to stay together. I wrapped the dough in wax paper and put in a bag, maybe it wasn't sealed the best? Not sure.

This can happen, and it's not a big deal. I think adding a small amount of milk or water is the way to go. Let it come up to room temperature and then mix in milk a teaspoon at a time until you get the right consistency. It will probably take very little milk to make it right, so add it in small amounts!


Making cookies on a pizza stone Years and years ago, I had a pizza stone, and discovered that it was great for making thin and crispy cookies. That pizza stone cracked in half, and it was only this year that I bought another one. Can I make cookies on a pizza stone? Will all my cookies taste like pizza? Will my pizza taste like cookies?

Edit: My previous stone broke before I had made more than a few pizzas on it. I'm concerned that tastes might be retained by the stone over time; is this possible?

Can I make cookies on a pizza stone?

Unless I'm misreading, you answered this yourself with your first sentence.

  Will all my cookies taste like pizza? Will my pizza taste like cookies?

Unless you're spilling pizza toppings onto the stone, no. Brushing it clean in between each usage will take care of any flavor transfer.


How can I make pastry cream for a cake filling more a bit more firm/sturdy? How can I make a pastry cream for a cake filling a bit more sturdy/firm.  My recipe called for 5 egg yolks and 3 T. cornstarch, 1 1/2c. whole milk, 1/2c. whipping cream.

The egg yolks and cornstarch both serve as thickeners. Increasing the cornstarch is probably the most practical way to make that recipe firmer; try 5 tbsp as a start. (You could instead increase the amount of egg yolk; this will give you a more solid texture, rather than just a thicker one.)


First time canning....forgot to sterilize my jar. Advice please! I made a jalepeno/banana pepper relish from my garden two days ago and have since realized that I was supposed to sterilize the jar before doing this.

My fault for not researching enough at the beginning. Though I did submerge the jar full of relish in boiling water for 10 minutes. Would that not have killed all bacteria?

I am not planning on storing this for an extended period of time. I'm hoping to begin using it within the next few weeks.

Is the batch safe to eat, or can I eat it without worry?

If you are going to eat over the next few weeks, just store the jars in the fridge. They will be safe either way


Sous vide - add liquid or no in the bag? I'm the proud owner of a new-fangled sous vide instrument. So far, I've seen mixed statements about adding extra liquid (brine or some other concoction of my choosing) to the bag. When grilling, I'm a dry rub man. But I wanted to try a marinade and thought my sous vide adventures would be a good place to start.

Is this a bad idea? Are there any recommendations, like avoiding overly acidic due to bag leeching?

Generally speaking meat that is cooked sous vide does not have marinating liquid in the bag, though a small amount of fat (oil or butter, for example), might be added to help with air displacement.  A lot depends on what you want to achieve and the specific cut or protein you are cooking. There are several ways you can go, but dry-rub or marinate...pat dry or wipe off...quick sear...bag...cook...final grill or final sear...is often a good practice.   A vacuum sealer is nice to have for extra long cooks, when you get into the multiple day range, but is not really necessary for most applications.  There are many online resources you can check for guidance.


Slimy whey in store-bought yoghurt The yoghurt I bought from the store in a 1 l glass jar has in the 4 or 5 days since opening separated a little from the whey.
The whey is has gone slimy putting me off breakfast.

On this site it has been stated several times that yoghurt cannot really go off.
However, this has happened a few times with this brand and I'd like to know what is causing it (and if its really safe to eat)

It smells like yoghurt and the packaging says it is made with pasteurized milk.

It's probably thickeners, such as carrageenan or xanthan gum, which are thickening/sliming up the whey. Draining off the whey or stirring it back in should be fine. A brand which doesn't have added thickeners (look for "strained" or "Greek-style" yogurt, then read the ingredients) won't do this.

I've had yogurt go off many times, and slimy whey isn't how yogurt goes off. The whey is nowhere near as tempting to microorganisms as the yogurt solids, so you'll see mold (or whatever) on the solids first, not the whey.


Is acid-marinated raw chicken still safe after several days? I marinated chicken five days ago in lemon juice, seasoned salt, and garlic powder, is it still safe to cook in the oven?

This would be a bad idea.

Chicken should be cooked 1-2 days after refrigeration according to the USDA and other food safety agencies, and will tend to get noticeably slimy and pungent after 3-4 days in my experience.  5 days is really pushing it.

I understand the rationale for the question - lemon juice can kill the surface bacteria - but that's just the problem, salmonella bacteria don't only exist on the surface of chicken, they're crawling around the interior as well.

In order for this to be considered safe, you would need to be absolutely sure of all the following:

The entire marinade had a pH of significantly less than 4.  Lemon juice is considered to have a base pH of 2-3, but that is fresh lemon juice and undiluted.  Unless you actually used a pH tester, you cannot be 100% positive of this.
The marinade completely penetrated every part of the chicken that may have been contaminated.  This is literally impossible for you to measure.
The chicken itself was relatively fresh before it went into the marinade - unless you got it farm-fresh, you don't know this for a fact, so even if the marinade completely penetrated the chicken, the interior bacteria may have already left behind some nasty protein toxins (which the marinade can't kill because they aren't alive).

If you had said 3 days, maybe 4, I would say, practically, that you'd probably be OK.  But any more than that and you're playing with fire.

As the old chef's saying goes: When in doubt, throw it out.

If you are intent on eating it anyway then please, at least be responsible and don't serve it to any guests.


What effect on flavor and/or cooking does rinsing grits have? The first time I bought stone ground grits, the package said I needed to rinse the grits three times before cooking. So I've done that ever since. However, I recently stumbled across this article which includes the warning:

  Do not rinse grits, ever!

While most sources I've seen (including the grits packaging!) do recommend rinsing or washing, this one doesn't, which led me to wonder what exactly rinsing does. Is it intended to remove remnants of chaff from grinding? Does it remove some of the cornstarch? Is it a good idea or a bad idea?

The warning you quoted is of course not a real warning. In the article's context it's read as a cooking advice:

  Finally, a tip from one of those gracious Southern cooks: "Do not rinse grits, ever!"

What's indeed missing is the reason. The "Because:". Had a southern cook forbidden me to rinse the grits, I would have guessed it's because of the starch. Just as you thought.

Rinsing cleans, moistens the food a bit and removes surface starch when such exists. And many times I've read suggestions against rinsing starchy pieces of food, because that surface starch is "invaluable" (that's the word I've read most).

When heated and then chilled, starch thickens. It thickens soups and sauces, and probably helps with the texture of the recipe that follows the warning: "Creamy-style stone-ground grits".

When I make a gratin or potatoes with cream, I too guard the surface starch. I've never done a blind taste test to see if non-rinsed potato slices indeed make a creamyer dish. But it sure doesn't hurt.

So I think this is the logic behind the "warning". It just turns out nicely when you don't rinse the grits. And that could be because of the starch. Hard to tell. Hard to tell if those "gracious Southern cooks" know the reason themselves, or if they just inherrited a law whose reason was known only to the guy who didn't make it to the Mayflower.

So rinse the grits or not. In the south they don't.


Why do so many dessert/biscuit recipes have salt in them? Whilst I can understand salt in the majority of recipes, I never really understood why it is in so many desserts or biscuits.

When I have asked a few friends or family who do a lot of cookery, the vast majority say pretty much the same thing "the salt cuts across the other flavours", or "you always just add it!".

But... So many times, when I eat biscuits, if I chew a lot and then just as I swallow, I can always taste salt... The ones I probably taste salt the most on are (Worst first) : Custard Creams, Digestives, Rich Tea.

In my honest opinion, the salt just isn't needed - I don't think it adds anything, and, it just seems to leave a horrible after taste (I can usually always taste it, but a lot more when I chew a lot).

In particular, now that so many people are on low salt diets and so many people say it is bad for you, I don't understand why it is there!

So, is there a good reason why it is added?

Salt has unique properties in how it interacts with the taste buds. While it has its own "flavor" it also has the ability to enhance some flavors while blocking your ability to experience others.

While I could go on, all I would be doing is repeating much of what I learned watching
The Food Network's Alton Brown. He goes in depth for the episode "The Ballad of Salty and Sweet" which is available on from the Food Network.

There are (of course) other resources, but AB does a really great job of teaching in this episode.


How long to cook green onions relative to other vegetables I'm planning to put some green onions into my fried rice.

Normally when I make fried rice I'll brown some yellow onions in a big covered pan, add some slow cooking vegetables(Eg: carrots), leave that for a bit, add some quicker cooking vegetables(Eg: broccoli crowns), leave that for a bit, and then add the stuff that takes very little time to cook or is already cooked(Eg: Meat, rice, peas).

At what stage of this process should the green onions be added for best results?

I typically chop up the white and green parts of the green onion, and add them at different times during cooking:

I'll add the white part fairly early in the cooking.  (not as early as I would with bulb onions, as I cut the green onions more finely).  I want them to cook for a minute or two to take out the harshest flavors, but not cook too much.  I generally add them a minute or so before I add the rice to cook.

After I've cooked the rice for a bit, I'll add the green part.  This lets it soften up just a bit, but not really cook down.


How does the metal of a baking sheet get burned? My kid wanted to boil a kettle of water on the back burner.
An empty baking sheet was sitting on the front (we had baked some cookies earlier).
They accidentally turned on the front burner instead of the back, and walked away for a minute.
How does a baking sheet itself get burnt? Are stove tops a lot hotter than 500 degrees?

A natural gas flame is about 1950 C or 3540 F, so yes, a lot hotter than 500 degrees. (source)
Electric stoves will get red hot, indicating a temperature in the range of about 500-900 C or 770-1220 F. (source)


Storing Self-Made Cookies/Brittles/etc longer: ingredients and techniques I like to make a large amount of pan sheet cookies or brownie brittles as something to crumble over my breakfast yogurt. Something in the style of variations on the following recipe: https://www.instagram.com/p/CENLDHlJTp-/?epik=dj0yJnU9aWNEWTNma0ZEdVZsUjN2X2tVd2hSa1BvUVNtZXlBVUkmcD0wJm49V0ZxTlJMakQycmcwWUFWTzBtclZRdyZ0PUFBQUFBR0NYMGZB
I let the brittle bake for fairly long, and let it cool and harden over the entire day so that it has no moisture left. Then I store it in a closed glass container in a shelf at room temperature.
They keep fairly well but after 2-3 weeks, a tiny bit of mold starts to form, faster than I can eat them.
Any ideas on how I could keep it longer? Ideally, they would store for up to 4 weeks.
Any other techniques or additional preservatives I could add?

I would freeze it. Crumble will defrost pretty much instantly when you take it out of the freezer, so you can just pour it straight from the freezer container onto your yogurt. If you freeze it on a tray and then dump it into a container, it should stay crumbly rather than freeze into a block so it's easy to handle.


Shiraz / Persian / Wild Figs - How to eat them right? How to extract as much flavor as possible? Today I was able to buy some dried Shiraz Figs (other names for them are simply Wild Figs or Persian Figs), looking like this:

Having heard great things about them I was very happy to try them, but to me they taste like a 'genereic' dried fruit, but maybe that's just because I don't know how to treat them right.

Is the whole fruit eaten, or only the dried pulp?
Is it common to soak them in water over night before eating?
Are there any good ways to extract their flavor, especially for use in pastry?

Regarding the last question: Will it work to cook them with cream and let that infuse for a few hours like it is e.g. done with vanilla pods? I am asking because there are some similarities, although vanilla pods aren't exactly dried fruits.

Shiraz figs are figs grown in Shiraz, much like Florida oranges are oranges grown in Florida.  You use the Shiraz figs, in this case dried ones, as you would any other fig.

You can either eat the whole fruit, or peel them should you choose (that may be difficult with dried figs, but easier after reconstituting them.)

According to Health Food Made Easy:

  Since it’s sometimes difficult to find fresh figs, dried figs are a
  good option. They can be eaten as is for a sweet treat.

  Dried figs can also be soaked to soften them, or cooked by themselves
  or with any other dried fruits. They are good stewed, and are usually
  sweet enough to require little or no sugar.

Soaking overnight will give them plenty of time to re-hydrate and plump up, should you choose to do so.

I have not heard of making homemade fig extract, or fig extract at all—but if you wish to try it, you would use essentially the same method used to make any homemade extract or liquer.

Cover the figs in vodka (or rum, but that brings the rum flavor), and allow to infuse in cool dark place for several weeks, shaking occassionally.  This will be facilitated if you chop the figs prior to beginning the infusion.

You might also try making fig liquor, adding some sugar syrup to the infusion.  You will find multiple recipes of you google; the linked one is only an example.


How is sockeye salmon available year round? I notice that smoked sockeye salmon is available year round in supermarkets, but the commercial fishing season in Bristol Bay, at least, is only during the summer. If they are only fishing during the summer, how is it that the smoked salmon is available consistently through the year?

The smoked salmon is stored frozen and released periodically for retail sale or
The fish is stored frozen and then thawed before smoking.

I frequently buy thinly sliced smoked salmon frozen in vacuum packaging.


What's some safe advice for a beginner for making sushi? I suddenly felt like making sushi. I thought about going to the fish market and buying so tuna and salmon.

Then I figured out that I have to kill the bacteria first. So far, I know that you have to freeze the fish under 20 Celsius.

Is there anything else I have to put into account?

Buy sushi grade fish and it will (well should) have been frozen.  This is in the US.


What's the best way to cut strawberries to consistent thinness, for dehydrator? I like making dried strawberries as candy snacks for my kids, but my knife skills aren't fantastic so the thickness when I hand slice is not consistent, also as I'm doing it it feels like something there should be a better solution for.

I tried a mandolin, which does produce a couple of even slices out of each strawberry, but the strawberry tends to fall apart before I'm finished with it. I tried freezing the strawberries for a short period of time before using the mandolin, but it didn't make an appreciable difference, and after leaving the strawberries in the freezer for more than an hour, they were too hard to slice.

Any advice on how to efficiently the process a large batch of strawberries into consistent even then slices?

Thanks in advance!!!

Use an egg slicer to cut your strawberries. Google "buy egg slicer" for a vast selection to choose from