How can I reduce the heat output of this heating element? I'd like to add a Brinkmann 1500 watt element to my Bradley smoker to bring my temps up in cold weather.

I'd like to limit the amount of heat it puts out, is there a voltage regulator or resistor I can use to drop the heat? Something variable maybe?

First, you will want to check the wiring and fuses in your current smoker to make sure it can safely handle the 1500w upgrade.

Assuming that your wiring and fuses can handle the 1500w element, keep in mind how the system works in the first place.  The heating element is controlled by the thermal measurement unit.  A more powerful element would still turn off once the set temperature at the measurement unit is reached.  The difference would be how fast it reaches the temperature and more hot spots closer to the element.

For the "variable" options you can alter the voltage or the current running to the heater. One issue to be aware of is that you would need to keep the power supply to the smoker's control board separated and unaltered.

Altering the voltage:

There is a power supply called a variac or variable transformer.

Pros:

Since this plugs into the a home receptacle and has a standard receptacle coming out of it, it would be safer from a wire splicing perspective.  Keep in mind, you'd need to acquire a variac that can the wattage.
You will look and feel like a cold war submarine commander when adjusting the voltage on this kind of equipment so this is a high testosterone solution.
There's conversational value here for parties.

Cons:

A potentially fiery death.  Playing with high wattage hacks requires strict attention to detail and close supervision of the device.
Cost.  The price ranges for these seem to be $180-$400ish in the 2000W range.  This could significantly increase the overall cost of your smoker setup.
The control board of the smoker can certainly cope with some range of voltage under the usual 120V, but it may not operate at the lower voltage
Even after everything is working you probably don't want to invite your fire insurance provider over for dinner if you like your current insurance rates.

Altering the current (by adding resistance):

You can add a variable resistor.  Just like the above solution you'd need a higher wattage rated device.

Pros:

It would indeed adjustably control the amount of current flowing through your element.

Cons:

A potentially fiery death.
This resistor would be handling some serious current and it doesn't have any housing as-is.  You wouldn't want your cat to brush against this.
This solution require wire splicing and would be inherently less safe for anyone not very familiar with electric systems.
Cost.  This is in the $350ish range
This could heat up depending on the setting you choose.

Summary:

Both of these solutions are costly compared to most smoker's retail value.  These higher power devices require alloys that are expensive to produce.

The variac would be my preferred cooler and safer solution out of the two, but keep in mind that the smoker control board wants plain old 120 line voltage.  It will not operate very far out of the 120 volt range and, even worse, could malfunction and not turn off the element.

Regardless of any solution,If you do proceed you will be hacking a 1000+ Watt device please be very careful.


Store homemade kefir with paper towel on top or close the lid normally? I made my first batch of kefir with a paper "breathable" towel over the top of a glass container. If I want to store the output in refrigerator, do I have to make it "breathable", or normally close it with solid lid?

Thanks

If you'll drink it quickly, you can store it with an airtight lid, but this will make it "fizzy". Personally, I'd store it with a breathable lid to avoid carbonating it, and possibly causing it to explode. There's still live/active cultures, even when you remove the kefir grains.

Edit: quickly, as in a day or so


Is putting meat in the fridge to marinate necessary? I watched some cooking videos and sometimes I see that in order for the pepper, salt, sake, or whatever go into the meat, the meat needs to be put in the fridge, even for 30 minutes. Why is that? Is there any reason it needs to be put in the fridge?

For a 30 min marinade, no, you don't have to put it in the fridge.  In fact, many recipes will call for removing thick beef cuts from the fridge 20-60 min before cooking, to let the meat come up to room temperature.

That being said, there has been some testing of what sort of difference bringing a steak to room temperature makes, and the general concensus is that cooking a cold steak gives better results.  America's Test Kitchen's tests found that people preferred frozen steaks, although it required freezing to ensure you didn't develop surface ice crystals, and cooking in more oil than typical.


Broad bean water went brown overnight We had broad beans last night (in a risotto - yum!)

I emptied the beans from their pod, blanched them, then removed the skins from the individual beans before putting them into the risotto.

I never got round to cleaning up the pan in which I had blanched the beans, and when I came into the kitchen this morning I discovered that the water in it was a brown-ish/orange-ish/bronze-ish colour (still entirely transparent, though). There was no colouring at all after I'd blanched the beans, and I didn't do anything to the pan in between - just left it on the hob.

Does anyone know what the colour is, and by what mechanism it appeared overnight?

Speculating - (colloidal) rust - from iron in the beans - via oxidation.


Are you supposed to eat the rind of Brie cheese? I've heard that it's OK to eat this, but I think it tastes gross. Are you really supposed to?

It's a personal preference. It's certainly edible, and it won't hurt you. I find the texture a little weird. Generally you can eat the rind of almost any cheese. However, make sure you're not mistaking a wax coating for rind.


Silty bottom (precipitate) in ginger ale For the first time, I'm fermenting ginger ale using my 7-day enriched ginger culture and a large batch of sweetened ginger tea using 50/50 brown sugar and muscovado sugar. Before combining the tea and culture, I first filtered the warm tea throug a very fine strainer (i.e., it can also be used to strain whey from curdled cheese).

After a day a layer of brown silt, about 2cm, has formed at the bottom. Any idea what causes this?

That silty precipitate is just a thing that happens when fermenting - it's the yeasts dying off and settling out of the solution.  I've seen it with mead, yeast-based soda recipes, and other fermented drinks (like fermented lemonade etc) - your ginger ale would be yeast based soda, by the way, if you drink while fairly young and carbonated, like with a day or two of fermentation (you can have longer storage if not actively fermenting, ie in the fridge where yeasts are nearly dormant or having killed the yeasties off somehow)  while it will likely grow increasingly alcoholic if you leave it an extended amount of time.

This precipitate isn't a problem, it might be off-putting to see or taste (if you get a whole mouthful) but it isn't harmful and I at least will often drink it because I don't care enough to avoid it, but if you don't like it you can rack the beverage - that is, let it sit still to settle, and gently pour or siphon from the (clearer) top, and stop pouring when just the settled, cloudy yeasty dregs are left.  If you're fermenting for an extended period of time (ie, alcohol) these may be racked several times while aging to keep the yeast from building up and possibly introducing off flavors - though its usually a few months between racking, so I wouldn't expect off flavors to develop quickly.


How long can chili be cooked in a crockpot Chili cooked on stove top, had an emergency and moved it to a crockpot, on warm setting. Is it still ok to eat? It's been in the crockpot 7 days.

It was covered and hard to get the lid off.  Once the lid came off I stirred it and it was not burned to the bottom.

No power outage in the 7 days.

The keep warm setting on a crockpot is not hot enough to prevent foodborne illnesses, and after 7 days your chili is probably not safe to eat. I would throw it away. Next time put it in your refrigerator if you want to preserve it.


What are some interesting herbs/spices to sprinkle over fish? I typically just pan fry my fish (typically cod, rockfish or salmon).  For cod I dip it in batter (egg+flour) and for salmon, I marinate it in a Tandoori-ish type of yogurt-based marinade.  In all cases I use an impromptu made mix of spices consisting typically of ginger powder, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne pepper.

I often feel that some specific fish spice/herb would fit in better. Anybody have any suggestion?  I don't like processed spices (like Old Bay), I prefer base ingredients (don't even use premixed curry).

One of the best seasonings that works as a base for fish is "zesty lemon and pepper seasoning salt" by McCormik which is currently available in Costco stores. You can make that from scratch, however it is difficult to find the dehydrated lemon.

To take your seasoning to the next gourmet level, mix in powdered saffron and dried parsley. Also, if you can find "Aleppo peppers" the spice  in your area, use that too.

I mix the following ingredients to make my fish seasoning:

1 tbsp lemon and pepper seasoning salt (recommended, McCormik)

1 tbsp Aleppo peppers

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp powdered saffron

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp freshly ground black peppers

1 tsp or so kosher salt

Place all the ingredients in a stone mortar or spice grinder and coarsely powder them ,not very fine though, just enough to soften the parsley and blend every thing together.


Burnt corneal in my wood pellet (Uuni) pizza oven I use plenty of corn meal when transferring my pizza dough into my Uuni pizza oven. But I find when I making multiple pizzas in a row that the later ones start to have a chemical taste on the bottom and I think it is from burnt cornmeal.  Any suggestions?  TIA!

Use far less cornmeal...or, better yet, use semolina.  Dust your peel lightly, so that there is not a large residue on the bottom. It doesn't take much to avoid sticking.  I also prefer semolina because it is not noticeable in the final product.  Cornmeal sticks to the crust, and add (in an undesirable way) to the texture (in my opinion). Be sure to clean your stone between uses.  If you see a build up during a baking session, since you are out doors anyway, maybe a puff of air from a bellows or compressed air canister to blow the extra cornmeal away (obviously, do this safely) could work...but I would switch to semolina and reduce the amount.


Is there a difference between preheating temperature and baking temperature? Many cake recipes say something like:

  Heat oven to 350F, then bake the cake around 25 to 30 minutes.

What does this mean? After preheating the oven, what temperature do I bake the cake at for those 25-30 minutes? Is it same as the 350F preheating temperature?

I am new to baking. Please help!

There is no default temperature. The recipe is telling you the temperature: 350F. You preheat the oven to 350F so that it's already fully hot when you put the cake in, and then you leave it at 350F to bake the cake.

The whole point of preheating is to have the oven already at the temperature you want to bake at. If you preheated then changed the temperature, then you wouldn't have preheated properly: the oven would be at the wrong temperature.

If a recipe actually wanted you to change the temperature, it would explicitly say so, something along the lines of "preheat the oven to 550F, put the bread in, then reduce the temperature to 500F". That'd cause it to be baked at closer to 550F at first, then closer to 500F later once the oven cools down. But that's not something that comes up much; most things just get baked at a constant temperature.

Bottom line, just do what the recipe actually says to! If it doesn't say to change the temperature, don't.


Fermented rice horchata I have been making some horchata (using white rice, cinnamon and water). I left it for a day and when I returned, it looked slightly fermented (a stream of bubbles were coming out of it and it was frothy ever so slightly). I blended and sweetened it and it tasted delicious, with a slightly tangy taste.

My question is will it be safe to eat? I see no reason why it shouldn't be, after all it is no different to fermented ginger beer, but I would like to have some advice.

There is a pathogen, Bacillus cereus, which can grow on rice left out at room temperature and cause food born illness.

I was unable to find any references to proper fermentation of horchata which is normally not fermented as far as I can tell.

You may wish to be cautious in the future.


Can you fold dough during autolyse? Would it be helpful, harmful or neutral to fold dough during the autolyse?

Let's say we're doing a long cold autolyse. At first I assumed it would be helpful to start the dough development early on, but then I had to wonder if starting the gluten development prematurely during autolyse would hasten the degradation of gluten later on, especially with a retard?

What does baking theory say about this question?

It doesn't much matter in that respect. The degradation of the gluten structure during a long proofing acts on the constituent parts of the gluten as well, so you can't really 'save' the gluten by delaying its formation.


Pan-frying marinated meat without making a huge mess? I love marinated meat, I love the extra flavor that the marinade adds to it. However, I don't always have the option to BBQ it, so sometimes I have to use a frying pan.

However, this always creates a huge, huge mess. The oil in the pan seems to not like the marinade, it immediately starts to crackle and boil, spilling hot oil everywhere.

I thought that I didn't use enough oil, so today I used a bit more, but that made it even worse. Using less oil seems to make it hard to actually get good meat, that is meat that is NOT a lump of coal on the outside and raw inside.

So I thought I'd ask for advice here :)

As others have said, the issue is the hot oil and water interacting. You need to reduce or eliminate one in order to prevent the splatter or find a way to mitigate the damage.

Remember the basics - allow the meat to warm up to room temperature before cooking and pat it dry before you begin. That should allow you to use less oil without it turning into a charred lump with a raw center. You can use a lid or a screen to prevent splatter (you might need to adjust cooking time with a lid that will trap more heat).


What is the danger of salmonella in 'home laid eggs' and how should I clean them? I have a question additional to this question How does salmonella get into eggs. This tells me that salmonella is mostly found on the shell of an egg. However, eggs are treated (typically washed) such that most egg shells do not contain any salmonella anymore.

I eat eggs which I get from my mother-in-law who has her own chickens, so these eggs are not 'treated'. I was wondering a few things:

What is the risk that these eggs contain salmonella? Is this risk negligible?
Should I use supermarket eggs to make food with raw eggs in it, for example chocolate mouse, and only use these eggs for food which is heated?
If there is a risk, how should I clean the shells? (using hot water is not an option for eggs, of course).

A related question might be Is it safe to eat raw eggs?. The answer seem to be yes, but here it also seems that it is about 'supermarket eggs'.

The danger of bacterial contamination is much lower in home laid eggs than in commercially produced eggs exactly because of the washing process that eggs go though in the US.

See the accepted answer to this question:
How long can I keep eggs in the refrigerator?

Eggs are naturally laid with a protective coating on them that will keep out bacteria. An egg keeps for a long time in a nest after all.

Commercially produced eggs are washed- I assume for cosmetic reasons- which destroys this coating and makes the porous egg shells very susceptible to bacteria.

You should discard eggs that have damaged shells but other than that you can consider your mother-in-laws eggs much safer than any you could get at the supermarket.


How would I go about home smoking a ham joint? I love the flavour of smoked meats, such as ham, and have wondered if it would be achievable to to do some smoking in a domestic environment? Would I need to hot-smoke, or cold-smoke? what would the smallest practical amount to attempt?

Always hot smoke pork. Unless you know what you're doing. In which case you'd know that.

Look at this for ideas on how to make a cheap home smoker that will work for you.

In general, you need:

a heat source (hot plate works well)
container for wood chips/sawdust (skillet works and helps modulate and spread heat)
housing (any kind of box thing: cardboard, wood, ceramic, an existing grill... it just needs to seal and maintain a bit of heat)
a rack for the food to be smoked (or you could use rope and hang food as in smoke houses)
thermometer (poke it into the top or the side to keep an eye on things)

Put it all together, put the sawdust into the skillet, turn it on, and adjust for desired temperature. I'd recommend 200-250 for pork.

You may also want to put a second hotplate in with boiling water, or splash a bit of water in the smoke pan on occasion to keep the inside moist when smoking for long periods.

Before smoking anything, brine it and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for a day. This allows the surface protein to dry, and this helps to develop the smoke flavor.


How can I improve my fried rice? I'm an amateur cook with almost no experience (never taught by my parents, first time cooking on my own was first few days living on my own), so I'm studying very hard because I want to be a great cook for the people living with me.

I'm trying to nail down the teppanyaki fried rice made at some very popular restaurants that I've visited several years back.

It seems that I'm definitely missing something with the technique. The meat and veggies I have no problem with. I cut up the chicken or beef into strips and cook it in the pan with a moderate amount of teppanyaki sauce, and it turns out great.

For the rice, what I do is cook jasmine rice (in a stock made with chicken bouillon) a day or two ahead and keep it in the fridge. I cook on a large round stainless steel pan (I'm not experienced enough in cooking to be properly taking care of cast iron cookware) at medium-to-high heat (7-8 on my stove), and begin by adding the rice, vegetable oil, and some peas and onion. I mix these up and then add a decent amount of soy sauce until it's a decent color. I scramble the egg separately then add it in when it is mostly done, mixing it in with the rice and veggies. I then add the cooked meat and veggies last.

Two main problems:

The rice seems to stick together too much. It appears to be rather sticky in the fridge, but separates rather easily. After frying though, I have this big hunk of rice that sticks together with some other ingredients dotted within.
The egg flavor seems to get all over the rice. Even when I scramble the egg, the "chunk" tend to become smaller than I anticipate once I add this to the rice, and the flavor is much too strong compared to the rice or veggies.

What do I need to change to get this closer to restaraunt quality? I'm quite new to cooking, so I really don't know what to look out for or what to change.

Please note that I'm trying to cut down on sugar and sodium, so I don't want to add excess salt or soy sauce.

This is based on what I was taught by a Chinese cook when I worked in his restaurant at age seventeen. Any compliments should be directed at old Tommy Wu.  Any complaints may be due to my imperfect memory. His process was both similar and different in some respects from yours.

Use day-old cooked cold white rice.  Spending the night refrigerated will make it drier and easier to break up sticky clumps.
Fry your scrambled eggs first and set them aside.
Use a well-seasoned wok or pan with very little oil.  Do not add broccoli, onions, or other vegetables at this point. They will be added after the plain brown fried rice is done to turn it into a specific dish.
Dump the cold rice into a cold wok or pan and add your basic flavors on top of it.  I remember the proportions and ingredients as being roughly 3-4 gallons of rice, 2 cups of regular soy sauce, one cup of thick black soy sauce, 1/8 cup of salt. These are rough guesses on my part since we did not measure anything precisely.  The "cups" were actually big metal ladles and the salt was some amount at the bottom of the ladle. You would have to experiment to proportion it down for home quantities and to match your taste since you want to limit your sodium.
Crank up the heat and get ready for a workout.  A commercial wok makes an extraordinary amount of heat. I might use a cast iron skillet with high sides or a dutch oven at home. Either way the stove should be cranked up as high as it will go. The main thing that people do wrong when frying rice is that they are afraid of getting it too hot and burning it. You want to have your pan super hot but to keep the rice moving around to prevent it from burning.  That is one reason why you should use very little or even no oil since it would smoke in this circumstance.
Assuming you are right handed, take a metal spatula in your right hand and a metal ladle in your left. Use the spatula to scrape every inch of the pan repeatedly into the ladle which is a backstop. This is done with both arms moving in an upward "tossing" motion. If you have the heat high enough, you will have to work quickly and constantly for several minutes scraping and tossing. Don't neglect to scrape the far side of the pan or it will burn.
Every thirty seconds or so, hold the spatula vertically into the center of the upward-facing ladle and hammer them down together over a variety of spots in the pan. This gets the rice hotter and really gets the browning effect you want. Only do this stamping for ten seconds or so and immediately get back to scraping or it will start to burn.
After about five minutes, it should be steaming nicely, the browning will look cooked rather than merely dyed by soy, and your arms will feel like they want to fall off.  Get the fried rice out of the pan quickly into a large bowl and then stir in your scrambled eggs. Since you are adding them at the end, they should not break up nearly as much as they were for you.
Now you can eat it as plain fried rice or use it as a base for a fancier dish with meat or vegetables.  This can be kept and reheated for a day or two if you want, as long as it is will covered.  It is best kept warm (140 degrees?) in a steamer to keep it from drying out.  If I remember right, we would cook the meats, vegetables, and mushrooms in a brown soy-based sauce first, then add the warm brown rice to that pan when the meat and veggies were done.  That keeps you from cooking the rice twice and lets you cook those components in a way that is more suitable for them.


How can I make a vegan turkey-skin substitute? I recently tried to practice making a Seitan based vegan turkey tube using this recipe. To test results for different cooking methods, I split the final dough in half before baking, made one that was just turkey-dough and one that was a turkey-dough and stuffing roulade.

Both turkey loaves came out well. However, the recipe gives instructions on fabricating a kind of "turkey skin." Basically, once the turkey is done baking, remove from oven, place on a pan, wrap with yuba (bean-curd skin from making soy milk, similar to spring roll pastry), brush with sesame oil, and bake until browned (about 45-60 minutes, brushing on more oil occasionally). The results were basically a distracting pastry shell wrapped around a seitan loaf; it did not appear to adhere to the surface of the loaf at any point. It was difficult to cut and had a difficult texture compared to the ease of the seitan.

To give an idea of the results, here is a picture of some scraps from the plate:

The instructions did not give a specific detail as to what to expect, or really how to qualify the results of the "turkey skin." As such, I am at a loss as to how to improve the results.

So:

Have you made or had a yuba wrapped item, where the method above was somehow applied but with a more successful result (as in, the yuba adhered to the surface of the loaf, the yuba cut easily, or had a more delicate texture that didn't contrast as much)?
Of the three fails (adherence, cutting, texture), what methods would work to improve them? (E.G. Would brushing oil on the loaf before help or hinder yuba sticking to the loaf, would it help soften the yuba?)
Is there any method of softening the yuba and making it more delicate before applying it? Would this be beneficial to the desired result? Why?
Could tweaking the temp:time of baking with the yuba wrap help? (i.e. Lower-slower breaks down fats, connective tissues in animals... is there a similar compound I am shooting for in yuba?)
Can yuba be prepared to mimic the soft-toughness of turkey skin? How?

You can either get fresh or dried yuba, the dried one has to be soaked.

When I made a tofu turkey I soaked the yuba sheat for about 10 minutes in warm water before wrapping it around the "meat". The tofu turkey had already been baking in the oven for around 1 hour when I added the skin. After applying the yuba I rosted the whole thing in the oven until the skin was brown (maybe 30 minutes), brushing occationally with marinade. Skin came out perfect and had a nice crispyness without coming apart from the tofu or being too brittle.

Oh, yeah, I brushed the tofu alternatively with marinade and with melted vegan butter every 15 minutes or so before adding the yuba. It might have made a difference but I really think soaking the sheats is key.
Good luck!

I made a video guide to making a vegan "tofurkey" from tofu.
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKIrgls-WCw


What is a mixed spice with respect to a cake? 1 tsp mixed spice

http://www.maryberry.co.uk/recipes/baking/whole-orange-spice-cake

What does mixed spice constitute of in terms of cake?

Mixed spice is a blend you find in the UK. It's a mix of cinnamon, ground coriander, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Some recipes call for mace, caraway, and/or allspice as well. It's a bit like garam masala, there's no set blend. It's as simple as mixing together equal quantities of each, although you may want to add double the mace if you opt for it.


"Universal" aka "Bristle" Knife Blocks: Blade Damage and Hygiene Does anyone have any experiences of /advice about "universal" knife blocks, i.e. blocks that hold the knives in place with a dense bunch of plastic bristles instead of the usual slots in the wood.

I've recently got some decent knives, some that I've bought, some received as presents and I'm about to add a ceramic honing steel too. The problem is that they are all different makes and (I presume?) a ceramic steel isn't magnetic so a strip is out.(Besides, I hear ceramic steels are easy to damage so a block would provide more protection).

The solution would appear to be a "universal" knife block that could accommodate all brands, but I'd like to know:

1) Do the bristles damage or wear the knives as you draw/replace them?

2) Are there hygiene issues storing the knives like this?

3) Are these blocks ok for storing honing rods or just knives?

Any info would be much appreciated, thank you.

Yes, very sharp/thin edged blades (think of something like a yanagiba or laser gyuto) will take damage because they will bite lengthwise into the plastic straws and get dulled and/or deformed/chipped. Also, an overfull plastic straw block can bend the edge out of hone because of uneven pressure applied to its sides.

ADDITION: Example experiment I did: Take Takamura HSPS (not the pro version), sharpened to the same angle these come with from the maker (around 18 degrees inclusive(!!). Very delicate knife but usable on a cutting board with care.), arm hair sharp. Stuff it in a bristle knife block a few times. No longer arm hair sharp.


Chinese crispy beef with minced beef instead of slice steak? I've read up on a fair few recipes for Chinese crispy beef, but they all call for a beef steak to be sliced up, such as topside, rump, sirloin. But I cannot find any info or recipes on substituting slicing a steak with using minced beef instead.

I presume this is because minced beef is much smaller and won't be "bite-sized", but I've had similar very small sized crispy beef in a Chinese restaurant before and it was fine.

So would it work out ok using packet bought minced beef covered in cornflour and fried?
Or would something not work, such as the beef wouldn't go crispy etc?

Try browning the ground beef first in a pan (no oil). Dump out on paper towels to absorb the grease.  Use onions and other aromatic vegetables at this step if you like, too.

Then stir fry the other ingredients,  and add the beef to the stir-fry towards the very end of cooking.

Have you ever browned hamburger meat (or whatever texture is the minced meat you speak of)? Ask yourself how stir frying is any different than that.  At worst, incompatible ingredients (whether temperature,  duration, vigor) are fried in different batches and then combined at the end.  You can often optimize by adding ingredients at different stages, such as putting the garlic in last so it doesn't burn and browning meat first so it doesn't burn everything else.

For an Asian stir-fry dish, you don't want to fry in the oil made by the beef, but change it out for cooking oil anyway, or if high temperatures are involved, peanut oil that won't smoke.


Can I freeze mashed potatoes I bought at the grocery store? I have 2/ 2 pound pkgs of mashed potatoes I bought from the grocery store.  I find I won't be using both and wonder if I can safely freeze one of the packages?

Yes, of course you can. You can already buy frozen mashed potatoes at places like Trader Joe's. I would either freeze them in a gladware type of plastic container or put in a freezer ziploc and squeeze out as much air as possible.


Danger From French Press Wire Mesh? What is the danger of small strands of stainless steel coming off the wire filter and being ingested?

Short answer: your probability of injury is less than 0.0002%

Long answer: per the estimates in this answer, approximately 360,000 Americans use a French Press.  In the last few years, zero consumers have reported injuries due to drinking metal fragments from their press.  There have been several reports of messes and even injuries due to broken glass carafes, but zero for anything to do with the wire mesh.

So whatever the incidence is of punctured internals due to French press use, it's clearly less than 1 in 360,000.  We'll only be able to assign it a specific number when it actually happens. You are more likely -- at least 30 times more likely -- to be struck by lightning.

Of course, if you are using an old, second-hand knockoff carafe with a visibly damaged mesh, your personal danger is higher than that.  It's also easily solved, buy a new mesh.

In the meantime, be careful with that carafe!


Getting rice noodles evenly distributed in wok I use rice noodles for woks. I simmer them in hot water, then drain them in cold water and leave them in a bowl. Then I start frying the meat and vegetables in the wok.

Now the problem is:

The noodles easily clump, making it difficult to distribute them evenly into the other foods.
The noodles are quite long to begin with.

To cope with this, I've tried the following workarounds:

Perfect the cooking time so the noodles don't get soggy.
Add a little oil to the noodles after draining them.
Give the noodles an occasional quick stir while they're still in the bowl.
Cut the noodles in half with a pair of scissors before adding them to the wok.
Try to lift the noodles to their full length using pasta fork, thereby separating them.

Can someone share good advice how to get the rice noodles evenly distributed?

Is the brand relevant? Are there types of rice noodles that are better in this respect?

I suggest avoid simmering or blanching before frying. Soaking till soft should be enough as the subsequent frying will soften the noodle further, assuming you will be adding a little more liquid as you fry.


How can I improve my bread-scoring technique? When I try to score bread with a lame, the blade tends to catch on the dough instead of slicing cleanly through. This means that I have to run over the same cut several times, and also produces ugly jagged edges on the scores (see photo). The bread does expand correctly, so it's purely an aesthetic issue, but I'd still like the bread to look a little less clumsy. I've read instructions and watched videos on YouTube, but clearly I'm missing something. How can I optimize?

This is an annoying problem, you've gone through all the effort to make beautiful loaves and then the razor catches and makes an ugly mark, or even deflates the bread a bit.

This is most likely to happen on high hydration doughs as they tend to be stickier. The trick is to stop it from sticking in the first part of the cut. The best way to stop sticking is to oil the blade before each cut. I drop some on a paper towel and use that to apply it, some bakers use an oil sprayer. Water also works, you dip the blade in water before each cut.

Also, there's technique. If you cut with the tip it's much more likely to catch, you need to cut with the flat of the blade. Don't press in hard, let the blade do the work.


Can coconut oil be used for frying? I found various contradicting sources as to whether coconut oil can be used for frying or not. Some claim it is "The ideal oil for frying" as it has a high smoking point, while some say it is not suited for frying, since it has a low smoking point. So which is true? Please give trustworthy sources - the more scientific the better.

Thanks in advance

There are multiple qualities, differently refined, on the market. Highly refined qualities that leave only the oil (various fatty acids) itself will have a very high smoke point and be suitable for high heat frying. There is a lot of saturated fats in coconut oil, which result in both the solid texture at low temperatures and the stability at high heat.

Unrefined or less-refined qualities will have other compounds left in, which can contribute to aroma (and possible nutritional benefits) but will also lower the smoking point and can actually result in an off taste and/or byproducts not considered healthy (why is off topic here).

Various smoke points are quoted, from 300°F for some unrefined varieties to 450°F for some highly refined ones. Exact smoke points likely depend on how exactly it was refined.

The exact same applies to olive oil, BTW: Highly refined varieties are known to be perfectly usable for high heat work, with the opposite being true of unrefined ones.


Deep freezing paneer (cottage cheese)? I have a packet of cottage cheese ( paneer ) and it advises me not to deep freeze it? I can't understand why. Any help? I had it deep frozen right from the time I bought it. It is also 3 days past its 'best before' date. Can I still use it?

I live in one of the largest cheese producing areas in the US. Freezing cheese is often frowned upon here, it often changes the texture of the cheese and can alter the flavor as well. Cheese, much like anything else, can freezer burn. Firmer cheeses typically are affected the least by being frozen. You'll probably see a lot of the whey separate out of the cheese upon thawing, and the texture will likely be different and much drier. Its completely possible to freeze the cheese, and it poses no health risks, but it will most definitely reduce the quality of your cheese.

A "best before" date is exactly as its stated, its best to eat if before the provided date with a concern for quality rather than health risks, however storage conditions make a big difference. As far as food safety, cheese tends to remain safe to eat until visible mold/fungi appears on the cheese. Though I say use your best judgement, and if you don't feel comfortable eating it then you should discard it, or to reduce waste compost it for your garden.


Cook steak in oven with tray meant for deserts? I'm a complete cooking newb. I saw on youtube the other day that you should cook steak in an oven before frying it. I think it makes it softer (not sure, please let me know).

But anyway, I never used an oven in my entire life. And I looked inside the oven and there are no trays in there. So I went to the store and the only trays I saw in the cooking section were meant for "cookies" that you cook in the oven, and other things like that, muffins etc. But they never mentioned steak.

So can I cook my steak on trays meant for deserts, or do I need to look for a tray meant for steaks? and should I even cook my steak in the oven in the first place?

To answer your question directly, if the method of cooking is what I think it is, the pan you use should be fine, even if it has a nonstick coating on it. You can read the second section to see if my assumption about your cooking method is correct.

It's important that you don't use nonstick cookware for extremely high heat cooking. If the nonstick coating gets to the smoking point, it releases gases that are toxic enough (as a friend tragically learned) to kill pets. This includes pans that go in the oven, and on the stovetop.

Since the temperature at which you're cooking the steak isn't that much hotter than you'd use baking cookies, it should be fine. If it does have a nonstick coating, you should not use it under a broiler, which is much hotter than just sitting in the oven while it bakes.

Even though it's not exactly what you asked, since you don't seem to be super confident in what you're doing, I'll give you a little more info on what I believe is the technique you're trying to pull off.

I think what you're referring to is the method of cooking where you cook a steak slowly in the oven until the internal doneness (rare, medium rare, etc.) is just how you like it, and then you give it a good hot sear in a pan so you form a flavorful crust on the outside. It's pretty intuitive when you consider the following:

Making sure steak (or chicken, or pork chops, or other quick-cooking cuts of meat) is cooked through simply involves getting it to the desired internal temperature. The more consistent the internal temperature throughout the meat, the more consistent the texture and juiciness.

The best way to control the overall internal temperature of the meat is to use gentler lower temperature methods of cooking so the inside has time to warm up before the outside gets overcooked.

Getting optimum flavor in a steak requires a nice sear/crust on the meat.

The best way to get a nice crust on your steak is to add a decent amount of salt, and use a high-heat cooking method to trigger the Maillard reaction (what's happening chemically when browning occurs) and perhaps some charring.

You can see where the conflict lies between these two needs.

Using the method you read about, you can use the oven to gently bring it up to temperature so it's consistently cooked inside, and then you can use a pan (which does not have a nonstick coating) to give it a nice hot sear after it comes out of the oven.

It is easy to overcook steak if you're not particularly experienced, especially using more complicated dual-cook methods. Nobody wants to eat a tough, dry mess. Though it's tempting to rely on cooking times you find on the internet, time is usually the least precise method to determine how cooked something is. I highly recommend using an instant-read thermometer to check the actual temperature inside.


Can you hone a knife properly by using another knife? I recall seeing this in movies. Can it be called the poor man's steel?

Absolutely not. A honing steel is significantly harder than the blade of a knife and is specially textured for honing.

Rubbing two knives together is more likely to dull or knick the blades than anything else.

The blade of a knife should never touch anything harder than a wooden cutting board. Not glass, not granite, and certainly not steel (except for honing/sharpening).


Is it sufficient to wash utensils, which have touched chicken, with soapy water In the kitchen, I am very health conscious and try to prepare and store foods with care

After working with a whole chicken, I usually wash the chopping board and knife with hot (but not boiling) soapy water (in particular, the dish soap I use is Fairy Liquid)

But, is this actually sufficient in killing all the unwanted germs and/or bacteria? I've seen maybe 1 article and people on forums stating that you should use bleach instead - is this necessary?

This question addresses whether or not soap kills "germs". The answer to your question has more to do with how pathogen free you really need to be. Firstly, knowledge about where your chicken comes from and how it was processed helps. Indeed, bleach or other kitchen approved sanitizers designed for commercial kitchen use are effective at eliminating bacteria.  The question is, to what degree do you really need to take this in your own kitchen?  I think personal comfort levels and needs vary for the home cook.  For me, cleaning hands, tools and surfaces with hot soapy water does the job.  I've never had a problem.  However, I could see instances where one might want to be even more careful.  For example, if a family member or guest had a compromised immune system one might want to play it extra safe.


Can an open package of sausage lead to contamination of other foods? My roommate has a pack of sausages in the fridge that has been in there for a week.
They opened the package tonight and left it in the fridge opened.
I don't know if I should throw it out or not?

Will it contaminate any of my food?
I had some meat in there that was covered by a plastic lid. Should I throw that away?

While there is some question as to the wisdom of keeping or eating long kept fresh sausage (which has a shelf life of a couple of days in the refrigerator), it cannot magically reach out and contaminate other foods unless it is in contact with the other foods, or dripping onto them.

This is one of the reasons food should be covered in the refrigerator--it minimizes the risk of getting dripped on (the main reasons are to prevent odor transfer and drying out).

You should also ideally have raw meats stored at the bottom of the refrigerator where it is coldest and they would not be able to drip on any other foods even by accident.

Micro-fauna and pathogens are everywhere, in the air, on surfaces, and so forth.  The presence of he questionable sausage, even older, doesn't change that fact.

If your other food is properly stored (covered, refrigerated below 40 F / 4 C), its shelf life is not going to change because the sausage is there; it is the refrigeration that protects it, although it will go bad itself in the normal course of events.

Now, as to whether you and your roommate should have a discussion on what you feel is appropriate refrigerator etiquette and usage, that is another question that cannot be answered here.


Any tips for degassing blended soup? I find creamy soups and many other thicker liquids too fluffy for my liking after blending.
I could do it the old fashioned way by forcing through a mill/sieve; must I?

Any other tips to knocking out a few more bubbles besides a few bangs of the pot. I tried whisking and bubbles were at the surface but not sure if whisking indeed created them.

Use a vacuum pump. People who pour liquid rubber into moulds use a vacuum chamber to get the bubbles out; I've heard of people degassing wine with a vacuum pump (see these youtube videos, for example); I wouldn't know why it wouldn't work for soup.

The question is of course where you get a vacuum pump. If you're doing this in a commercial kitchen I'm sure there are channels where you can get a professional one. For the home cook (like me), one option (inspired by one of those videos) would be to pour it into a wine bottle and then use a wine saver; Vacu Vin is a well known brand. You probably won't want to fill the bottle more than half full, especially if the liquid is very thick; the bubbles in the liquid will expand a lot if you lower the pressure, and it will raise the level of the liquid.


Can baking sheets continue to cook toffee? I make tons of toffee every year. And I mean tons. Never had a problem. Now this year, something so wrong. Same recipe. Same pans. Same house. Same stove. Same thermometers. I even bought new thermometers just in case. So here is the deal. Everything is fine. Cooks fine. Looks good. Smells great. Once it reaches desired temp, I pour it onto a lightly buttered baking sheet. Same as always. Cooks down. Put it in freezer. Everything is the same as I have done for YEARS!  Now when I take it out and break it up, it’s perfect around the edges but super dark and almost burnt in the middle. I can’t figure it out. So my question is this?  Could the baking sheet be “cooking” the mixture?  Can the pans go bad?  I don’t understand how only around the edges is good. I can’t stress enough how everything is the same down to the brand of ingredients. I’m about to lose my mind!  PLEASE HELP!

Toffee cannot continue to cook once it's been poured onto a baking sheet.  There is no heat source at this point and therefore there can be no increase in temperature.

All other factors being equal, I might suggest looking at your ingredients.  Are you using beet sugar this year when you usually use cane sugar?  It might seem like a trivial difference, but beet sugar does caramelize differently from cane sugar, so it's a relevant concern for toffee-making.

However, you might not need to get to the bottom of this mystery.  You know that the temperature you're using with the current ingredients and equipment is burning the toffee.  You could try cooking the next patch to 5-10 degrees less than your previous attempts so that it won't burn.  I'm pretty sure that 290 degree toffee will be just as crunchy and lovely as 300 degree toffee.


Need help choosing burner for wok I'm going to get a hand-hammered, round-bottomed wok through the mail in the near future. Trouble is, I have a glass top stove inside, so that's entirely off limits—not to mention completely useless in terms of heat output even with a wok ring. Thanks to the great Alton Brown, I was introduced to the wonderful idea of using a turkey fryer burner for this task. As I searched around, none of the burners that I could find (and I searched well) had the same wok-friendly design as the one AB used:

http://i.imgur.com/h7ksimQ.jpg

Notice the lack of any horizontal bars. The two-ring design works perfectly for this purpose, allowing the wok to sit comfortably in the center. However, I could not find a single burner that looked like that.

Could anybody point me in the right direction for a similar burner?

Welcome! Instead of searching for a turkey fryer burner, do a Google search for a propane wok burner. You will see that there are many to choose from and they are designed for just this purpose. Some even come with woks.

Not sure if cost is a factor for you but this is one of the cheapest I saw, $53 at target.com.

There are many types with different btu output and designs. Good luck with your search.


Is there any benefit to mixing bread dough by hand? A lot of bread making guides recommend mixing the dough by hand (as opposed to a wooden spoon, dough whisk or electronic mixer). Is there any actual benefit to the dough from this method? Or is it just a tradition?

You can achieve great results by hand or using a machine, it's a matter of technique. I prefer kneading by hand as it has the advantage that you can feel the texture of the dough change, and through experience you know when a dough is right. Hand kneading also is good for gauging the hydration of the dough, as you can feel if it seems to dry or too moist and act accordingly. Through practice you get to know when a dough too sticky, and sprinkle just the right amount of flour on to get it just right, or add a few grams of water to open it up.
A machine is less work, but as you aren't feeling the dough as you go it's harder to gauge when it's kneaded right, and it's easy to overdo it and get a tough dough. With a machine it's also harder to know if the hydration level is right as you aren't feeling it. You can remedy that by stopping often to feel the dough, which is what some people do, and through experience get good results.


Making noodles in a wok What is the best way to make noodle dishes like lo mein in a wok? I am trying to get the best noodle texture and a taste close to the restaurants.

I am not really giving you a recipe, I am give you a technique.

There are two ways to make noodles, you either boil them and then use boiled noodles as an ingredient, or you put in just the right proportion of moisture to dry pasta so it finishes just right in a very similar manner to cooking rice.

If you want noodles that are full of the dish's flavor, then you want to do the second choice.

The noodles are most likely cooked in a chicken broth base or water, and spiced with some blend of powdered or fresh ginger, soy sauce (more when using water less when using broth), teriyaki or hoisin.

When cooking with angel hair (not the same as lo mein thickness and will behave differently), just about 6 cups of chicken broth will be absorbed fully by 1 lb of dry boxed angel hair pasta.

Just to make sure this is clear, the pasta would be the last ingredient added for this pasta base. Of course you can add other things to your broth first like your mushrooms, meat, shoots, onions/leeks, water chestnuts, whatever you like in your lo mien. Add the pasta, stir it and after it has absorbed most of the water but before it starts burning on the bottom start tossing it around the wok to give it that smoky stir fried taste and texture

Well if you like fresh spinach in your lo mien, you would actually add that last and stir it in until it's wilted just before serving.

Fresh pasta will NOT absorb anywhere near as much water so keep that in mind if you plan to make fresh pasta.

Have fun experimenting!


What's the point of roasting a whole chicken? Recently I tried to butterfly a chicken before roasting it (in the oven) and I totally liked it. It cooks faster, browns more evenly and is easier to carve. It's slightly more difficult to move the chicken from the pan and I can't put aromatics (like lemon) inside it. These are the only disadvantages I can imagine and they don't look as very important.

So my question is: why mess with a whole chicken if you can butterfly it? What advantages (and disadvantages of butterflying) am I missing?

And second question, related to the first: why even stop at butterflying if I can separate a chicken into parts before roasting? No need to carve at all and it solves the problem when breasts cooks faster than other parts (I can remove them earlier). What are the cons here?

The reasons people still roast whole birds are:

Roasting a whole chicken is easier than butterflying it. While it's not tough to butterfly a chicken many people don't know how, or don't want the cleanup
It's less prep time to roast a whole chicken. If you are busy you can have it from the fridge to the oven in less than a minute, while butterflying or jointing it isn't super-quick
Aesthetics: some people like the look of a whole chicken on the table


How to blanch and peel nuts? I recently blanched and peeled the "skin" off 500g of shelled pistachios and 500g of almonds.

For the pistachios I poured boiling water over them, waited a minute, strained, and then rubbed the nuts in small batches in a clean cloth to pull the skin off.

For the almonds, I tried the same strategy as the pistachios. But this was not so good. The skin starts to dry too quickly. So I poured more lukewarm water over them.

Then I dried them in an oven preheated to 150C for about 10 minutes. They are still a but soft, so I may have to do this again later.

My question is, is there a better way? That took a really long time.

You're missing an important step here: You need to use cold water immediately after the boiling water in order to halt the cooking process.

Boil them for about 1 minute, then drain.  (You can pour boiling water over them, as in the case of almonds - it doesn't really matter how you do this.)
Submerge or rinse in cold water, to prevent any further cooking and softening;
Peel them.

For the case of almonds, you should not rub them in order to peel.  Just pinch the end - they should pop right out of their peels.  If you find it taking any more effort than this, stop, don't waste any more time on peeling, and just blanch them again.  If you've blanched them long enough, peeling will be very easy.


How to keep pumpkin fresh for a long time? I want to store some (about 10 kg.s) fresh pumpkin for a long time (3-6  months) to use in pumpkin pies mostly. What's the most useful way of doing it?

Can I put them in freezer? Raw or cooked? And if I do does it lose
quality/taste after defrosting?
Another option I have is to can
    them in glass jars.

Considering taste which one is the best option?

According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation (emphasis added):

  Freezing is the easiest way to preserve pumpkin, and it yields the
  best quality product. Select full-colored mature pumpkin with fine
  texture (not stringy or dry). Wash, cut into cooking-size sections and
  remove seeds. Cook until soft in boiling water, in steam, in a
  pressure cooker, or in an oven. Remove pulp from rind and mash. To
  cool, place pan containing pumpkin in cold water and stir occasionally
  (So Easy to Preserve, 2006). Pack into rigid containers leaving
  headspace, and freeze.

They offer suggest a variety of cooking methods before freezing the flesh of the pumpkin, but you may find that roasting offers the least work and best flavor development.

Pressure canning of cubed (but not mashed or pureed) pumpkin is also possible (as pumpkin is a low acid fruit, boiling water canning is not appropriate).   You should use only a trusted recipe if you choose to go this route.

You can also make pumpkin leather, although this does not to leave the pumpkin suitable for many recipes, and is only suitable if this the actual product you desire.


Kimchi versus pickles: sterilized containers? I've been reading up on how to make fermented foods and noticed something interesting - many of the recipes I've seen (pickled cucumbers, etc.) go to great lengths to warn about using sterilized jars or pressure canners, while recipes for kimchi never warn at all about this.

Is there something different about kimchi that makes sterilized equipment not necessary?

Sure. The containers should be clean, but because it's an active fermentation (very similar to sauerkraut, other than the ingredient lists typically differing) the salt suppresses the activity of certain undesirable bacteria more than the desirable ones (which are naturally present on the plant leaves), and then desirable ones take over and make things highly acidic, (lactic and acetic acids) which also makes bad bacteria unhappy. If you are using an appropriate jar, the CO2 given off by the action of the friendly bacteria also make it anaerobic. And that's how (Kimchee, sauerkraut, fermented pickles) work.

Mind you, I figure all the "good bacteria" I need are on the leaves, and tend to steam (and then cool) my container, but I do go for overkill sometimes.

Vinegar pickles are not fermented - it's just fruit and enough vinegar to make an acidic environment (which makes the bad bacteria unhappy, still) and then heat processing to try and kill off as many bacteria of all strains as possible.

I'm not quite up for writing a tome, and many tomes have been written on the subject.


What is this grilling utensil with two wire mesh panels? I want to buy this cooking utensil but have no idea what it is called and where i can buy one from. I think it is mainly used on barbeques. Ive tried googling and had no luck. I'll try describing it as best as i can.

It has 2 large rectangular flat metal wire mesh panels which fold onto one another like a clam when you close them. You can place meat in between the wire mesh  and clasp the handles together to hold the meat firmly between the 2 meshes. You can then cook the meat over a flame and flip the utensil to cook the other side of the meat.

A grill basket perhaps?

I've no luck finding the term for your specific description, but that seems to be an umbrella term for utensils that basically hold something so you can more easily grill it.


How does irradiated beef spoil? So I usually buy irradiated beef.  From what I understand, the beef is packaged, sealed, and the absolutely blasted with radiation.  I'm a nuclear engineer for a living, so I know that most things tend to die when exposed to the levels of dose that this beef is subject to.  Normally food spoils by having bacteria and mold and such munch away on it, but here, all of that should be dead.

If its perfectly sealed away, and there's nothing living inside the package, how can it spoil?

Your assumption that there is nothing living inside the package is incorrect. Food irradiation does not sterilise the food. It is very, but not totally effective. Therefore, given enough time, the meat will still spoil.

Irradiation does effect the quality of the food, so I imagine a balance needs to be struck between safety and quality.


Is it OK to leave pans unattended on an induction stove that is turned off? I was just wondering if leaving pans unattended on an induction stove while it is turned off is actually safe?  Could any external factor turn the stove on?

Last evening, I left one empty (but dirty) sauce pan unattended on the induction stove top as the dish washer was full.  The stove was turned off, but dirty as well, and the pan was slightly touching the controls.

During the night, there was a small power outage (2 computers were powered off this morning while one wasn't) and apparently, that was enough to have the stove turn on by itself, start cooking and burnt the left-over sauce completely black.

Moral of the story:

Even when you're tired after a late meal: clean the stove before going to bed.
Leave dirty pots in the sink and not on top of an induction stove!


When making french fries, can I precut them before baking or frying them? We are going on a skiing trip & are staying in a Condo. Can I precut potatoes &/or sweet potatoes into 1/4-inch matchstick fries before our trip then bake them there?

Regarding potatoes, not sweet potatoes:
It's actually great to precut potatoes for French fries, it gives you an opportunity to soak them in water, which removes the starch and simple sugars from the outside of the fries and even from just below the surface. In fact, many if not most places that make fresh cut French fries do cut the fries in advance and leave them soaking in the refrigerator until fried to order.
You don't say how long your drive is going to be, but if it is less than six hours, you can just put the cut fries and ice water in a Tupperware container for the trip. Longer than six hours you should probably either replenish the ice during the trip or use a cooler. Of course, depending on the weather, the trunk may work as a fridge - but don't let them freeze!
Your soaking container should either be pretty close to at least half-again the volume of your cut fries, or you should rinse them well first and change the water at least once while the fries are soaking.
From Caroline Russock writing for Serious Eats:

Russets or baking potatoes are the best, whereas waxy potatoes (such as Red Bliss or new potatoes) simply won't do. Soaking is key—this removes the starch, keeps the potatoes from sticking together, and eliminates the sugars that prevent the potatoes from achieving maximum crispness.

America's Test Kitchen (Sorry, paywalled) says pretty much exactly the same thing:

Experts agree (just ask McDonald's or our test cooks) that russet potatoes are the best variety for frying—either in a vat of bubbling oil or on a baking sheet in the oven. Unlike other potato varieties, russets produce fries with light, ethereal centers. But they are not perfect.
Russets can produce excessively thick crusts and somewhat dry interiors. The thick crust is caused by the browning of simple sugars in the russet, and the best way to remove some of the surface sugar is to soak the potatoes in water. The water has an added benefit. Potato starches gelatinize completely during cooking. The water introduced during soaking improves the creaminess and smoothness by working its way between the strands of gelatin starch. The final result is a fry that has a good surface crunch married to a smooth interior.

From the recipe attached the Serious Eats article:

Put the fries in a large bowl of cold water and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.

Be sure to dry them well before cooking!
Fresh cut French fries were a big part of the business in my café. It wasn't unusual for us to have French fries soaking for as long as two days, perhaps even three. I never noticed any quality problem from soaking too long, but the French fries were simply not good if we didn't have time to soak them for at least a half an hour.
Cook's Illustrated (also known as America's Test Kitchen) (Sorry, again paywalled) looked at oven fries. For that application, they soaked the cut potatoes in hot water. I suspect that starting at a higher temperature was beneficial for baking. To get the best of both worlds I might do a final soak in hot water. As I mentioned above, I haven't seen over-soaking as a problem.

For an easy, no-splatter oven fries recipe that would produce potatoes with a golden, crisp crust and a richly creamy interior, we followed this procedure: We soaked peeled russet potatoes, cut into wedges, in hot water for 10 minutes to remove starch. To prevent the potatoes from sticking, we poured oil, salt, and pepper on the baking sheet instead of on the potatoes. And to get the combination of creamy interior and crisp crust we wanted, we covered the potatoes with foil to steam them for the first five minutes of cooking for our oven fries recipe and then uncovered them and continued to bake until they were golden and crisp.


What's the minimum time to cook raw prawns? I typically cook raw prawns in boiling water for around 3 minutes. If they go over a little bit longer they can tend to become rubbery.

Is there a minimum/optimum time a raw prawn should be boiled?

There is an optimal temperature to which they must be cooked, independent of method (boiling, frying, whatever). This temperature is 50 deg. C. (This is lower than safety guidelines; if you want to eliminate the foodborn illness risk, you must eat rubbery seafood). Once the inner temperature of seafood has risen above that, its proteins undergo an irreversible change called denaturation, which changes the texture.

The time needed for reaching this temperature varies a lot. It depends on the size of the prawns, their initial temperature, the temperature of your water, on the total mass of water in the pot and on the total mass of prawns in the pot.

If you find it impractical to impale a prawn on a digital thermometer every time you cook, you need to experiment. Keep the variables I mentioned constant, and boil prawns for different times. Find out how much they need before they go rubbery, and then stick to it, keeping all the other variables constant. In your case, this will probably correspond to the three minutes you mention. For somebody else, who boils a different amount of prawns per batch, it will be different.

There is no minimal time, just as there is no maximal time. The minimal temperature for them to taste cooked is 45 degrees C., but you can eat them at lower if you don't mind them tasting raw. You can find the minimum time for your case as described above. The legal minimum temperature for US food safety is 63 degrees. You can't legally approximate it by time, you must use a thermometer, or, at home, you can go much above it just to make sure - when seafood turns stiff and dry, you can be sure that it has reached 70 degrees.


To freeze or not to freeze? I made a lasagna today (Thursday) that will be served on Sunday evening. What will yield a fresher-tasting result: refrigerating or freezing? I know that lasagna keeps in the fridge for about 3-5 days, and this is about 72 hours, but will it taste better/fresher if I freeze immediately after baking?

Rather than freezing it after baking, I would assemble the lasagna and freeze it today and then bake it on Sunday. It is rather difficult to reheat a whole baked lasagna from frozen without getting soggy noodles.


How can I reheat Onion Bhajis without an oven or hub to make them crispy? The UK lunch culture being what it is, microwaveable ready meals and snacks are a big thing, and most companies have a microwave and a toaster. While that works well for store-bought ready meal curries or bread, the package of onion bhajis asks for ten minutes in the oven so they come out crispy.

However, there's no oven available. If I pop them in the microwave, they will be thoroughly heated and safe to eat, but really soft and squishy. If I stick them in the toaster, where I can fit two on each side, they'll be really hard to get out and make the toaster greasy.

I tried laying the toaster on the side to turn it more into a grill, but given the state of the toaster, that created a lot of smoke from bread crumbs inside it now resting on the lower heating units, so that's no good because of its safety implications.

How can I reheat those fritters to get them at least a little bit crispy on the outside without an oven or pan?

If the bhajis fit into the toaster slots, toaster bags should work. They are primarily intended for toasted sandwiches, but it they can contain melted cheese good I wouldn’t expect a bit of bhaji grease to be a problem. They should work for samosas too.
Most supermarkets sell them, there are lots of brands available on the High Street or online.


How long can I keep Panna Cotta out of the fridge? I made Panna Cotta for a party. I don't have a fridge where I'll keep them, so most likely they'll be on a buffet table. I'm afraid of them going bad or becoming liquid (Or something like that) after sitting out of the fridge more than 4 hours I guess? I also know you shouldn't keep cooked food more than 4 hours out of the fridge but yes. Does anyone know?

Pack them in a cooler with ice (or freezer packs) and keep them in there as long as you can. Let them be the last thing you put on the buffet... just before the guests arrive.

You could also nestle them in a buffet pan full of ice, so they are displayed in a way that  makes them accessable for guests, but also keeps them from spoiling.


Transporting partially finished ravioli In a couple of weeks I am catering a private dinner for a work relation. I will be prepping everything in my home kitchen and finishing off in their kitchen, meaning I want to get every dish as close to finished as possible before transporting it.

One of the dishes I intend to serve is ravioli stuffed with cheese, herbs and eggyolks. I am unsure about the ideal stage at which to finish my home prep. Would you:

Prepare the pasta dough and transport it wrapped in clingfilm to be rolled out on site?
Roll out the pasta dough and cut it to size, leaving only the adding of the filling to be done on site?
Prepare them fully and transport them with the filling already inside?

Option 1 means I have way more work to do on site than I think is ideal.

Option 2 seems like asking for trouble in the sense of the pasta drying out and making the ravioli leaky.

Option 3 might make ravioli stick together, burst or any number of other disasters.

What would you do and why? Feel free to include your tips on how to protect the semi finished products during transportation.

I've done option 3 for a christmas dinner party, even with the egg-yolk trick. In one night I learned both that it can be done, and also that it can be a complete disaster.

I made three large pieces of ravioli per person, each with a different filling. I was most worried about the yolks breaking during transport, so I those in a separate tupperware box, very carefully with lots of flour. The rest I put in another box more haphazardly with less flour.

The egg ones were fine: out of 15, only 2 failed, which allowed me to serve everybody one piece at least. The others had completely stuck together and could only be turned into a weird mash in a frying pan.

So the trick is to package them properly: Give them a liberal dusting, do not let them rest on top of each other, and keep them from touching in general. Non-airtight containers may be better, since it stops the pasta from sweating. You might even consider creating a small cardboard partition inside the box to keep them from touching.

Plan to lose 10% to 20%, and do a small test ahead of time, and you should be fine.


Why is tomato paste so cheap? So, at target, Tomato Sauce is $0.84 / lb. But, tomato paste is $1.00 / lb. However, tomato paste has 4x as many calories, implying that they reduced it by 4x. This makes sense, since reducing tomato sauce to tomato paste in a pot generally reduces it by 4x. But, why is it not 4x as expensive? How is it only barely more expensive if it requires so many more tomatoes to create? Generally speaking even boiling for longer costs money. Milk powder is almost always more expensive than milk, for example (In all of the grocery stores that I've checked, at least). I can't find tomatoes for less than $1 / lb, which upsets me because I want to homemade tomato sauce and tomato paste but it's just not cost effective. Where are they getting practically free tomatoes?

What you are observing is that the bulk of the price of tomato products is not the tomatoes.

The price of the can and shipping far outweigh the few cents of tomatoes the can contains.

With fresh tomatoes you are still mostly not paying for tomatoes. You are paying for the gas and people to ship and stock your tomato and all the other tomatoes that were shipped with yours and thrown away damaged or unsold.


To thin chocolate candy coating, how much oil to use? I am trying to use chocoate candy coating on chocolate transfer sheets. The normal chunk of chocolate candy coating is too thick when melted, so I used vegetable oil to thin it for better spreading.

I used 1:2.5 ratio for this, 20ml oil for 50ml chocolate. It was thin and soft enough for spreading and hardens nicely in the refridgerator.

The problem is, however, that it stays soft and even a little bit runny at room temperature :(

I don't think this is a problem if my chocolates stay in the fridge but it will be problematic when stored outside.

Is my ratio off? Any other tricks you can suggest? Or if you have a golden ratio of your own please share!

P.S.: I used a kroger brand white chocolate candy coating

(SUGAR (SUGAR, CORN STARCH), PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED PALM KERNAL OIL, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, NONFAT DRY MILK, MILK POWDER, COCOA, SOY LECITHIN (AN EMULSIFIER), NATURAL FLAVORS.)

Yes your ratio is off. After melting if your coating is too thick add vegetable shortening (Crisco) a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Start with a tablespoon per pound and add just enough to get to the consistency you need. Crisco is solid at room temperature unlike veg. oil so your final product shouldn't have to stay in the fridge.


Over-resting waffle dough I'm planning on making belgian waffles as a dessert but I want to prepare the dough in advance.

Most recipes use yeast and require the dough to raise between 45 min and 1 hour.

Would it be disastrous to let the dough rest for a longer period (like 3 or 4 hours)?

It'll be fine. Just put it in the refrigerator after the initial rise. That will slow the yeast considerably. (If you let it sit on the counter for three hours, yeah, it risks over-rising and becoming a mess on your counter.)

I usually make yeasted waffle dough the night before. That way, all I have to do in the morning is heat up the waffle iron and get cooking. You don't even need to bring it to room temperature before cooking. (I also leave yeasted bread dough in the fridge, for as long as a week, but they need to be brought to room temperature before baking.)

You might even prefer it that way. The yeast will continue to work, slowly, producing more yeasty flavors. That's a key component to the flavor of good sourdough.


Proper temperatures for meats...foodie standards? Possible Duplicate:
  What is the internal temperature a steak should be cooked to for Rare/Medium Rare/Medium/Well?

I know that whenever you look at cookbooks they give you the recommended cooking temperatures for doneness in meats based on the USDA food safety guidelines. However, I been to certain restaurants where food has been cooked just slightly below those temperatures...essentially more on the rare side.

So what is the real safe temperatures for the meats that we eat? I.e. not thinking about any legal implications, what temperature would chefs cook their meat to? I'm trying to discern the difference, if any, between gastronomical and governmental standards.

This is purely personal preference, this is no magic number

Some people like it very blue, some like it grey. Some like it cooked it a very hot pan, some people like it simmered or steamed. Cook what you like

If you are going to have raw, or rare meat cooked at below your local governments recommendations, you should know the quality of the meat, or be involved in it's preparation (Zuckerberg style)

This is my wife's ideal steak. From the farm, grass feed young beef. Sirloin cooked plain in a hot cast iron pan for 30 seconds a side


I am using agave instead of sugar, do I add more flour to keep things right in cookie dough? I want to use Agave liquid sweetener instead of dry sugar.  How much extra flour would I need to use to offset the extra liquid?

When substituting a wet ingredient for a dry one, try approaching it from the perspective of reducing the liquid in the recipe to compensate rather than adding a dry ingredient. You almost always have more than one dry ingredient in and should try to keep these in their original proportion. This is especially true when baking; the proportion of sugar to flour to fat in your recipe can noticeably impact the texture, shape and cooking time of the recipe.

The problem with cookies is that often, there is no simple liquid ingredient; a basic recipe calls for sugar, fat, flour, egg and some vanilla extract (or another flavor). You can't tweak the extract too much because it's so concentrated, and anyway it's alcohol-based so the liquid component evaporates quickly out of your dough. That leaves the egg to play the dual role of moistening the dough and binding it together (see also: How does the number of eggs affect a cookie recipe?). While you can reduce the size and/or number of eggs in a cookie recipe, or leave out the egg whites, that would impact the texture of the cookie in a way you may not enjoy.

The general rule I use is to reduce the liquid ingredients by one-fourth the volume of liquid sweetener substituted, whether it's honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, agave, whatever. For a cookie recipe that has no liquid ingredient (like milk or cream), I would have to experiment a bit. That said, because cookies are small, the extra liquid will be released more easily than from something like a bundt cake or loaf of bread that has less surface area for the same volume; you may be able to partly make up for the extra liquid by increasing the cooking time slightly.

There are a lot of variables that go into a particular cookie recipe; you might be surprised how much the end product can change vary, using essentially the same ingredients. For an interesting read, look up some articles about Cookulus, an app that's supposed to let you adjust those variables to spit out the perfect recipe for your desired cookie (here's one for example). I heard about it on the radio a few years back but have never actually tried it out. Who knows, might help guide you in experimenting with this substitution.


Are these knives safe? I am wondering if these painted knives are safe to use.

A knife that has a painted blade is best thought oof as a 'gimmicky' knife. There will be limited uses before sharpening starts to flake away the paint on the face of the blade.

The paint itself is pretty chemically non-reactive in most cases (it has to be to harden and stick to the metal).

There are some cases where paints may have harmful compounds. This would have to be evaluated by looking at condition of the knife and the paint adhesion. So, evaluate whether the blade itself is worth using, then keep an eye on it.

In essence, a knife like this is perhaps used under low stress conditions, or as a decorative piece, but any serious cook will not use it for long.


Any way to make mashed sweet potatoes less stringy? Is there a way or technique to make mashed sweet potatoes less stringy?
Does it just come down to potato selection or can it be improved by a technique?

I peel and cook sweet potatoes with butter or oleo in a crock pot, about a half pound for 6-8 pounds of sweet potatoes, then use an electric mixer to pull out most of the strings - mix for a few minutes, lift up the mixer to spin off the sweet potatoes, turn it off and wash the strings off. Do that until only a small amount of strings are collected. Then to make it essentially string free, push the hot sweet potatoes through a good quality kitchen sieve with the back of a large spoon.


What are the proper steps to add the vermicelli in making dessert shemai? I am trying to make lachchha shemai. Should I put the vermicelli after taking the boiled milk away from the burner or should I put the vermicelli when the milk is being boiled over the burner?

I have not made this dish but I will attempt an answer based on the recipe I found and linked to in my above comment.

  Melt butter in a 4 qt pot. Break vermicelli into 3" pieces. Over low heat stir vermicelli into butter until it turns light brown. Pour in the milk and stir over medium heat until it boils. Put in the raisins, almonds and sugar.
  Continue to cook under low heat for 10 minutes. Add whipping cream and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and, when cool, chill in the refrigerator before serving

According to this recipe, the vermicelli is added before the milk (whipping cream), so it looks like it begins to cook with the butter at the start of the cooking process, and continues to cook with the heated milk portion of the recipe. Hopefully this answers your question.


Increasing my pancake recipe..Are soda and salt in a different ratio than the other ingredients? I need to increase my pancake recipe 4.5 times.  I seem to remember that the salt and soda are increased at a smaller ratio than the rest of the ingredients.  Is that true, and what is the correct ratio for salt and baking soda?

In a pancake recipe, it is unlikely to be a practical concern.

The reason these ideas get started is because:

Small recipes have intentional rounding-off errors to make measurements simple (1/2 tsp for example, instead of .4321 teaspoons)
Scaling up may magnify error
In yeast raised doughs, where yeast grows exponentially over time, scaling yeast up linearly can have some complex feedbacks with proofing times and temperatures given how long it takes to work on a larger volume of dough.  Because salt interacts with the yeast, it is also a crucial ingredient for scaling.  That doesn't apply here.

Pancakes, in particular are very forgiving and flexible.   They should scale linearly, in practice.

If you are exceptionally concerned, you can find a commercial recipe (often called a formula) which is expressed by weight and is much more accurate.   These should scale quite effectively.

One issue you may have is how long it takes to cook the larger batch of pancakes, and that you will be losing leavening from the batter during that time.  Unless you have four people working four griddles, you may be better off just making a large batch of dry pancake mix (everything except, typically, fat, eggs, water, and dairy depending).  You can then mix in the liquids in smaller amounts as you go along, essentially continually creating fresh batter for yourself.


How much fizz in water carbonated with ISI whipper? I have an ISI whipper, and want to carbonate water using this device and CO2 chargers. This should in principle be possible. I have filled the whipper flask up to the maximum and charged it with one charger. My experience with this technique is that there is rather little fizz in the water when I dispense it from the flask.

Am I doing something wrong here?

I use the gourmet whipper plus, ISI Soda charger and cold, ordinary tap water.

When carbonating in the ISI whipper, it is important to start with a cold liquid (or fruit, i.e. carbonated grapes).  Charge with one CO2, agitate, then slowly release the pressure so that you remove all air from the charger.  Then, charge with one or two (depending on size of ISI) CO2 charges to fully carbonate.  If you leave out the first step you are simply compressing trapped air, rather than dissolving CO2 into your product.


What's wrong with my iSi soda siphon, and how do I fix it? I am the happy owner of a soda siphon which I've used for the last three years on a near-daily basis to make sparkling water for sundry use at home. It appears to be this model, though I've lost the manual and there isn't a model number on the device that I can find.

The only problems I've had with it up to now have been due to operator error. However, the last time I tried to fill and charge with a CO2 canister, the siphon immediately released a short blast of carbonated water from the dispensing nozzle. When I squeezed the trigger, the water was poorly carbonated and trickled out much more slowly than normal; presumably that initial blast vented a lot of the gas as well.

I figured something was misaligned, so I emptied, disassembled, carefully reassembled to ensure there were no gaps, and refilled. Upon charging: same result, an initial blast without me squeezing the trigger, but this time contained in the sink. I tried to compensate by adding a second CO2 charger, then I placed the device in the refrigerator (letting it chill for at least a couple hours always seems to help with good carbonation).

A few hours later, I opened the fridge to find a puddle of tan, disgusting-looking water. It seemed to have leaked out of the siphon, and when I removed the charging nozzle cap I could see small bubbles and a trickle of water venting from the charging nozzle. The charging nozzle itself appears to be discolored (in truth, I noticed this before but figured it was just mineral buildup and cleaned it as best I could) and the interior of the plastic cap is corroded too.

As you can see, the majority of the discoloration is around a small vent hole on the side of the charging nozzle, and where the charger meets with the actual nozzle intake. The state of the nozzle cap interior leads me to believe that some venting and liquid seeping may have been occurring for a while, but this is the first I've noticed it and definitely the first time that it created a puddle in my fridge.

I've searched around for recommendations, but all I can find online are some not-very-helpful general tips on cleaning, and admonishments to only use iSi-brand CO2 chargers. I don't; I buy mine in bulk instead, but they're rated for the same gas purity as the iSi versions and are the same design. Out of 200+, I've only had one that wasn't pressurized enough and didn't fully discharge, so I trust them.

Any idea what might be causing the immediate venting when I charge the siphon? Would a thorough deep-clean fix the issue, and if so how would I go about doing that? Is there some maintenance that I could perform, and should be performing to prevent this in future? Or, am I completely hosed and in need of new parts, or worse, a whole new siphon?

I'm fairly sure that you should be able to get a "rebuild kit" with all the rubber parts (and perhaps a few others.) Due to the wonders of modern commerce, it's anybody's guess as to whether you might well be able to find a complete new siphon for less cost. If you have a second-hand store or frequent tag sales you can almost certainly find one barely used for less cost - lots of people get them and don't actually use them.

It certainly appears that the main gas seal at the charging port is toast, at least.

The instructions on mine included complete tear down diagrams as far as I recall - many things unthread to expose innards (such as the big slot on the white plastic part.) I have not actively used it in a few years, but I don't recall the process being all that difficult (but it was a bit off-putting to find the accumulated bits of metal seals that had blown into the mechanism over time.)


Why are there no recipes combining both yeast and baking powder? I've never seen anything with both yeast and baking powder. What's the reason for that? Shouldn't e.g. muffins get even more fluffy by adding some yeast? Or bread by adding baking powder?
I know there are differences in flavor, but there are cakes with yeast as also non-sweet things with baking powder. So that shouldn't be the problem...

The existing answers already explain why yeast and baking powder won't work together. But even if they did, you wouldn't have a reason to use them.

You seem to think that fluffiness depends on the amount of gas produced by the leaveners. In fact, it depends on both the gas and the ability of the dough to trap that gas. If you produce too much gas (no matter whether through yeast or through baking powder), then the fluffiness will be less than when using the optimal amount of leavener. This happens because your dough cannot hold the gas and the bubbles break, resulting in the dough deflating like a punctured tire. So even if combining two leaveners would have resulted in more "blowing big" action (which it doesn't, see the other answers), you would not end up with a fluffier end product. If you want fluffy muffins, you have to use a recipe and a technique which is best capable of retaining the gas produced by the baking powder. The amount of gas production is not a bottleneck.


Wine sediment clinging to top of bottle? I recently bought a fairly old bottle of wine (bottled in 2008) and I noticed that there was a bunch of schmutz clinging to the top third of the inside of the bottle after I poured a glass.

What is this and what does it mean about my wine?  Is it a bad thing?

Sediment is normal in "older" wines, it can simply be small particles of yeast that was not caught by the filtration.

As time goes by, the particles will stick together and fall to the bottom of the bottles.

Most of the time it will not affect the (taste and flavor) quality of the wine, but will show up more when not being cautious when pouring the wine.

Just be more careful when pouring wine; you can also use a decanter.

Slowly pour the wine into the decanter from the bottle to let the sediment get caught in the shoulder of the bottle.

If there are sediments, you will loose maybe 1 teaspoon of wine; but you will be assured that the wine in the decanter will be free of sediment and when pouring for friends at the table there will not be any sediment in the glasses.


Hazelnut spread preservation I'm making some hazelnut spread at home and trying to preserve it as long as possible. Basically, I blended a mixture of ground roasted hazelnuts, skimmed milk powder, sugar, cocoa powder and very little amount of hot water in food processor. I then added melted vegetable shortening and lecithin in the mixture and blended until it has a nice texture and spreadability. It was kept in a sterilised glass jar.

I was hoping the finished product might last a few months before it turns bad, however, there were some bacteria/mold/fungus on the surface only after about three-four weeks.

My questions are 1.) what causes the bacteria growth (is it caused by the water/moisture level) ? 2.) what other substitutes for hot water (to dissolve the powder mixture)?

Thanks in advance guys :)

what causes the bacteria growth (is it caused by the water/moisture level) ?

Each of these foods on their own are preserved by having too little moisture for bacteria or molds to live in. So in your specific case, it was likely the water which made it hospitable for them again, yes.

If you have a food which supports bacterial growth, you cannot make it safe by simple sterilization. The sterilization is not always sufficient, and you need laboratory tests of your recipe to confirm that it can work with sterilization (usually only OK for some combination of sufficient acidity and sufficient processing temperature, like water bath canning). And it is no longer shelf-stable after opening. So I wouldn't suggest going down that road. Sterilization of the jar doesn't matter.

You can try making any gianduja recipe that doesn't call for water-containing ingredients (butter or cream or water). There is no need to pick one with cocoa powder or milk powder. Or if you are very intent on using the powder, melt the sugar as for caramel (waterless method) but stop as early as possible, before you have gotten much caramel flavor. Add the powders to the caramel and mix thoroughly. Adding the shortening at the same time can make it easier.

The problem with this approach is that you can have difficulty making it spreadable, since the water thins it. But maybe it will work with enough shortening added.

As for botulism, I have not heard of gianduja being a botulism risk, but homemade variants usually require refrigeration, so you may want to research that separately.


Cooking pot with regulable water boiling temperature I'm looking for a pressurized pot where the pressure can be regulated in both directions, that is, higher and lower than atmospheric pressures (higher: high pressure cooker, lower: vacuum distillation).

Does something like this exist?
If so, what is its name?

I don't think that device exists, its hard to say something like that.

But I can tell you for sure that this kind of device wouldn't be very efficient or useful, let's assume you are using water for cooking, if you want to boil it and cook your food at higher temperatures you would use higher pressure, for lower temperature, lower pressure, but there is no need to control it with precision since the boiling temperature shows little variation with the pressure (at 2 atm you boil water around 120ºC, at 0,5 atm it is around 80ºC), so you basically have a pot that can be ajusted for high pressure or low pressure cooking, but without precision.

A second factor to consider is the packing, to go higher than 2 atm (where a normal pressured pot gets) you would have to get a more expensive packing system to prevent your pot from exploding, so now we have a regular pressured pot with the option for low pressure.

The low pressure system wold be quite complicated to develop, since when you boil the water it turns into vapor and will raise the pressure of your pot, so you need something that will keep put vapor out of your system, something like a pump would have to be constantly working fot that to happen, that's not very practical.

And at last, I can understand why you would want to cook with higher pressure, I do it quite often myself, but I can't see a good reason to do it with low pressure, there are many cooking techniques that use vacuum, sous-vide for exemple, but I have never seen one that uses it in a sealed pot like you are proposing. You could say you want to cook in low temperatures which is completely fine, but you can do it in a less complicated way, like using an electrical heater and thermostat.

So it may exis, but as i said it would be unpractical


Preserving Home Made Pasta How would one go about doing this?  Is it safe to freeze?

Pasta freezes well if you do it right.  In fact, I know of a very famous Italian restaurant in NY that freezes their pasta which they make fresh everyday.  They cycle through new pasta every three days and they serve A LOT of pasta.  The chef dared me to tell the difference.  And he's right.  99.9% of people can't tell.

To freeze, bundle into small amounts (e.g. wrap around your hand), enough for single servings.  Put on a tray, with a little semolina flour or cornmeal dusted underneath (to prevent sticking).  Keep each bunch separate, they shouldn't touch.  Put into freezer.  Once frozen (few hours), transfer to a ziplock freezer bag.  It will keep for several months, but I'd eat it within one month.

To use, dump straight into boiling water.  Make sure you have a big pot of water at a full boil (because the frozen pasta will drop the temperature more than unfrozen).  Stir immediately.

This works very well.


Why mixing hot syrup (sugar + water) into yolks in sabayon? Recently I browsed for tiramisu recipes where ricotta replaces the mascarpone.

In this particular (italian) recipe the sabayon is started by adding hot syrup to whipped yolks: I have always mixed crystal sugar to yolks.

What is the point of using hot syrup instead of sugar?

For sabayon, you have to cook the eggs to hold the foam. Normally, you first mix air into the (cold) sugar and yolk, then heat on a water bath. This looks like an alternative method for heating the yolks, similar to the Italian method for meringue.

I haven't used it, so cannot tell you how much it differs. If it behaves like Italian meringue, it will probably produce a slightly more stable foam, but with less volume, and will taste sweeter.


How can I replace sweetened condensed milk in key lime pie with goat's milk? I want to make a Key Lime pie using only goat's milk(cow's milk allergy issues). The filing is usually, if not always, made with condensed milk. No one sells sweetened condensed goat milk - not even Meyenberg. Any suggestions?

Here is a sweetened condensed milk recipe using evaporated goat milk.

1 - 12 oz can evaporated goat milk; 1-1/2 cup sugar.
Combine and simmer at least 30 min stirring often.

Maybe not as thick as "regular" condensed milk but when 4 egg yolks and 1/2 cup of lime juice are added it sets up just fine when baked in a graham cracker pie shell. A perfectly acceptable non-cow's milk Key Lime pie filling.


How can I make menemen look better? So, there is this famous Turkish dish called menemen. It does not look very appetizing:

It is prepared using scrambled eggs, tomatoes, green pepper, onion and cheese. Here is a detailed recipe.

There are some variations which don't use scrambled eggs, but sunny side up eggs, which might be a nice solution. However, the original dish is with scrambled eggs and I don't want to alter the recipe.

Are there any ways to prepare menemen and not make it look like vomit?

Without altering the recipe, that's what it'll look like (which I don't think is a bad thing, I like menemen a lot). However, if looks are more important, you could do a French alternative, piperade, instead. Its basically eggs cracked into salsa, rather than salsa added to eggs.


Keeping Beef Wellington warm vs delaying cooking after assembly I'm making Beef Wellington again and this time, I have to pick up my wife from the airport (about 60-90 minute round trip) before we eat it.

I want us to be able to eat as soon as possible once we get back home, but I'm not sure if it's safe to keep the cooked wellington warm on a low heat in the oven.

If that is in fact a bad idea: Could I do all the assembly with the pastry and just keep that in the fridge until it's time to cook? Does this increase the cooking time?

I'm making the full filet size BTW.

Food safety wise, as long as you keep the food above 50C it should be fine. However, due to the nature of the BW, you’ll probably end up having a very soggy pastry if you do so.

Refrigeration is an option:

Depending on if you will you pre-cook or just sear the loin:

If you pre-cook, you’d normally want the pastry to crisp as quick as possible, and then you can serve. So I don’t think it’s a good idea to refrigerate the pre-cooked loin.

If you just sear and assemble, as long as you have made sure the beef is well-rested and the filling of the assembly is as dry as possible, you can keep in the fridge even over-night.


Is it possible to make yogurt and cheese from spoiled milk? I get raw milk and to somehow pasteurize it, I boil it. The milk strongly curdled showing that it is spoiled and rotten (definitely, not suitable for drinking). Is it totally bad milk and I should throw it away? or it still can be used for making yogurt and cheese?

Even if it is possible, it is a very, very bad idea as you don't know what cultures or pathogens are in the already spoiled milk.

Fermented dairy products should only be made from fresh milk in good condition—and in most cases, that milk should be pasteurized while fresh absolutely as soon as possible from the source cows.