Getting veggies to go soft in the oven A few times now I've been cooking vegetables like butternut squash, sweet potatoes or normal potatoes in the oven and it took ages to get them to soften up.

Usually by the time the recipe says they should be done most pieces are still of the same consistency as when they were raw. Last time (sweet potato, convection 175°C) it took me over an hour to achieve a mostly satisfactory result when the recipe claimed it would take half that time...

So what am I doing wrong? More temperature? More or less stacking? More oil/liquid?

Edit: Yes. Temperature in the recipe and the stove are Celsius. I've cut the sweet potatos into slices of about 0.5-1cm as the recipe called for thick slices. Maybe that's too thick? They were mostly spread out with a bit of overlapping. The recipe taking longer is not a problem in itself but anoying if it's 9 o'clock in the evening and you're still waiting for your dinner...

Update 2: I've retried the recipe last night with the oven at 200 °C the whole time. I've noticed significantly more sizzling after the first phase (20 minutes under the aluminum foil). It took about 20-25 instead of the "official" 15 minutes in phase 2 (without the foil) and was now perfect.

I'm considering a few more changes to the recipe for next time (like extending the steaming time or raising the temp a bit more) but, in essence, raising the temperature did the trick. So I've accepted the answer. Thank you all!

More temperature?

If after an hour they haven't softened up at all, and this occurs with different vegetables (so you're certainly not just encountering a batch of old, dried out gourds or something,) the problem is almost certainly an inaccurate oven thermostat. Oven thermostats are notoriously unreliable. Get an oven thermometer and see what temperature your oven really is.

  More or less stacking?

for even cooking and optimal browning, you should arrange your vegetables in one layer on the tray. If this were the primary problem, the vegetables on either the top, bottom, and/or in the middle (depending on the intensity and direction of your heat source) would be undercooked while the more exposed parts would be more cooked.

  More oil/liquid?

Note, oil and water based liquids affect cooking very differently. Water-based liquids will get the vegetables to soften more quickly than oil because water transfers heat more efficiently than oil, and it can turn to steam which is a good medium for spreading heat evenly on an uneven surface (such as a pile of chopped vegetables.) It also kills any possibility of browning because water doesn't get hotter than 212. Just because it's in the oven, it doesn't mean you aren't steaming your vegetables rather than roasting them. There's nothing wrong with steamed veg, but that's a very different end-product than roasted veg. More oil will create more crispiness, but a thin, even coating over all of the vegetables should be the only thing you need to roast them properly.

Now, about that recipe: 175 is low for roasting those types of vegetables. Even without par-boiling/steaming them (which lets you finish them at a higher temperature for more even browning and crispiness,) I'd still go with something around 220. That said, even if the cut vegetables were heavily refrigerated, you still shouldn't be waiting hours for them to soften up if your oven was actually 175. Get an oven thermometer!

Good luck, and happy roasting!


How much is a bunch of spinach? I have some recipies for green smoothies, where some of the ingredients are for example "1 bunch of spinach" or "1/2 bunch of spinach".

The spinach I've found in the store are usually fresh leaves packed in a plastic bag of for example roughly 250 grams... But, how much is a bunch?

A bunch of spinach usually weighs something like 250-500 grams. My best guess is that something like half that is the stems, which can easily be as long as the leaves. So very roughly, I'd say a bunch is 125-250 grams. Alternately, if you want to go by volume (e.g. if your store has bulk loose baby spinach), think of a bunch as something like a head of lettuce, except with the bottom third to half mostly stems.

Full-size spinach also definitely gets a lot better than 4x6 cm leaves, so you may still be using somewhat more tender baby spinach, but that of course won't cause you any problems. (The stems on baby spinach are tender enough to eat, especially when blending, so you can use everything in your bags.)

In any case, smoothies are really forgiving - not only do you not need a lot of precision, but you can just add and blend until the color and flavor look how you want!


Does authentic Italian tiramisu contain large amounts of espresso? I see a lot of tiramisu recipes that soak savoiardi in pure undiluted espresso coffee.
Usually the recipe asks for a cup or more of espresso. As a person who regularly makes and drinks espresso, this seems way too much. It's both too much to prepare (8 shots!), and will make for an overpowering coffee flavor in the tiramisu.
I can understand if the recipes are adapted. Especially if the recipe asks for "espresso or strong brewed coffee", while no strong brewed coffee is a by-volume equivalent of espresso.
But, wouldn't original tiramisu recipes use espresso, but in some reasonable amount?
Or, is authentic tiramisu really so intensely flavored with coffee?

A typical tiramisu will serve a good number of people, so each serving is unlikely to have more than about a shot's worth of espresso. There's a limit to what the savoiardi will absorb so you'd struggle to get more coffee than that into a portion. Further, the flavour is diluted by the flavour already present in the savoiardi as well as the alcohol, mascarpone, cocoa on top and other ingredients. I wouldn't worry about the coffee flavour overpowering the rest. Obviously if you've made it before and felt the coffee was too strong then reduce the quantity.
Note that in Italy, caffè will by default refer to espresso, or at home to the product of a Moka pot or equivalent. Filter or drip coffees are not a native part of Italian coffee culture (hence the americano, imitating filter coffee by diluting espresso). You could search for older recipes in Italian (although according to Wikipedia, tiramisu is not an especially old dessert) but they will probably just say caffè.
Remember that tira mi sù means 'pick me up', alluding to the fact that the dessert contains enough coffee to wake you up a little at the end of a meal.


Do relish recipes typically include vinegar? I'm designing a sandwich and I want to include a fruit relish as a topping. Are there methods that don't include pickling?

Fruit relishes (including salsas, chutneys, and plain sauces like applesauce) can be made without vinegar.  But they almost always include some extra acid - if not vinegar, then usually citrus juice.

The acidity balances the sweetness of the fruit, and it preserves the color.

So you can make a fruit relish, substitute lemon or lime juice for the vinegar, and use it.  But of course, without a full pickling process, the fruit relish will only have a limited life in the refrigerator.


Is it okay to cover food in the fridge with paper plates? If I had some chicken and pasta on a ceramic plate and wanted to save the rest for later, when I put it in the fridge, is it fine to just cover it with a paper plate or should you use saran wrap?

Ideally, the paper plate is much more convenient and quicker to use, but I have concerns that the smell and taste may leak to other foods in the fridge.

How safe is it to use a paper plate to cover foods like this. If so, for how long? Usually I eat the food within the next day or two but am wondering how quick the process may be.

Ideally you should get airtight containers, but failing that, plastic wrap is indeed a lot better than just covering with a plate.

As you say, you'll tend to get more smells mixing around in the fridge if things aren't airtight, and it's something that can kind of build up over time, with the interior of the fridge just taking on a mix of all the smells. (Fridges can eventually smell weird even if you're not doing this.)

It's also not generally as good for the food; it'll dry out faster. Might not be an issue for everything, but sometimes it can be pretty obvious. It may also get contaminated a little more easily and spoil faster, but that's a little random, hard to say anything specific about time periods.


How can I incorporate brown lettuce into something appetizing? I have four bags of lettuce that have gone brown. A nice fresh salad is obviously out of the question. Is there anything I can do with it?

Brown lettuce may or may not be harmful to you, it depends on how far gone it is.

We get a lot of questions on this forum asking about how to use ingredients which may be past their prime, and the advice is almost always not to try - mixing bad ingredients with good ingredients is almost always going to ruin your good ingredients and waste time and money.

So don't try to incorporate it into anything, either make a dish that can stand on its own or throw it away. If it's not smelly, or slimy, or looks rotting then taste it. Try each type of leaf in each bag, if they taste ok then you could try making something out of it.

Personally I'd chuck it. I wouldn't want to be served brown lettuce, and I wouldn't serve it to anyone else.


Chopped onions in metal or plastic containers Which preserves diced onions better? A plastic or metal container?? I'm trying to figure out which is a better storage container.

The key thing to look for is that the container closes as tight as possible. Metal or plastic doesn't matter. However, I would probably use metal or glass, since plastic can absorb some of the flavour of the raw onions. This would then make that container unsuitable for storing other things.


How to get breading to stick to chicken? I made a simple breaded chicken recipe last night (mixed butter, mustard & bread crumbs together), but the mixture wouldn't stick to the chicken - any tips?

This has been answered in a related question : https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/13878/67

So, to sumarize & relate to your current situation : don't mix your coating together, as you want seperate alternating layers of wet & dry.

Your typical breading for chicken is:

flour, cornstarch, or some other dry powder, possibly mixed with salt, herbs and spices
egg, possibly mixed with milk or water
breadcrumbs, possibly mixed with salt, herbs and spices (but beware that some may burn).

You want to shake or let drip between each addition for nice, think coatings.  If you don't, as dry won't stick to dry, and wet won't stick to wet, you'll end up having a giant slip-plain and things will slide off.

If you're pan frying (instead of deep frying), you might be able to get away with your mix while cooking, but it'll likely come off when someone goes to cut into it.


What type of methylcellulose would be appropriate for gel noodles? I'd planning to attempt some flavoured methocel noodles; I know that type K is the softest (best for things like marshmallows) but I've never experimented with the firmer kinds and I'm not entirely sure just how firm they get.

I'm pretty sure I'll want one of the high-viscosity types and there's a supplier here selling 4000 cP, but will type A (A4M or maybe A15C according to this chart) be close to the texture of spaghetti or could it end up being too firm?

Which type would be similar in texture to the 1.7% agar solution used in Schellhoss's parmesan spaghetti recipe included in the Khymos collection?

Also, is there any chance that this type might "melt" as it cools back down to room temperature - i.e. would it be imperative to consume the noodles while still hot?

There's actually a commercial product designed for the purpose - methocel for gluten replacement can be used to make noodles.

http://www.dow.com/dowwolff/en/food_nutrition/products/gluten_replacer.htm

It would be hard to specify a grade comparable to the agar solution - the two things do not behave similarly when hot and cold. An agar solution giving a particular gel strength will have a much lower viscosity when liquified than a methocel gel of comparable strength. And there are several types of agar - it is a natural product, its properties depend on the seaweed species, locality and processing method.

Experimenting with solutions of E50 would probably get you there, but I'm not sure that the Schellhoss recipe tells the whole story. The combination of seaweed gel with parmesan makes me suspect that the gel is acting as a MSG enhancer on the high natural MSG content of the parmesan.

Whatever, hope these ramblings help your decision.


should I freeze a two-day refrigarated meat sauce? I have fixed a pot of turkey meat sauce and a pot of turkey meat balls and I did not have a chance to freeze right away, which I usually do, they have been in the refrigerator for two days... Is it still safe to bag and freeze?

Such a sauce should last 3-4 days at least in the refrigerator (based on comparing to Still Tasty's turkey soup or stew category, which is a conservative match; plain spaghetti sauce indicates 7-10 days but this probably not based on poultry).

This clock is based on refrigerated time; freezing essentially stops the clock while the food is fully frozen.

So yes, it should be safe to freeze your sauce.


Can I laminate pasta dough with meat? I've seen a number of sites talk about laminating pasta dough with herbs and it looks lovely. But I haven't seen anything about doing this with meat. I assume you wouldn't want to do it with uncooked meat, but I feel like you could do with thin slices of cured or cooked meat.

Is it possible to laminate pasta dough with meat?
Has anyone done this before?

Hmmmm very interesting idea.

You would need very thin flexible slices of meat of a consistent thickness, possibly tenderized. I can't see this being easily done at home unless you happen to have a meat slicer - or can access meats prepared like this.

I suspect that cured, readily sliced meats would work best in terms of consistency for the meat; something like Prosciutto could work just fine, because it is thinly sliced and fairly consistent in thickness. It would perhaps work with sushi grade Tuna or other fairly firm fish (salmon) that can be sliced thinly - the only difficulty then would be cooking it, which would ruin the texture I think.

I don't think that raw meats would work well at all, though carpaccio?? - it would be very difficult to slice them and you would have problems with contamination of your pasta machine, even if things went perfectly.

I can see some pretty interesting pasta coming out of this - imagine having alternating pieces of prosciutto with herb in a wide noodle, or even layered herb and meat.


What is the shelf life of dehydrated, precooked meals? I'm planning to dry precooked meals with a food dehydrator to make them non-perishable for hiking trips.

Some of the recipes I want to cook do have ground beef, chicken, or salmon in them. I want an estimated for how long they are safe if they were dried for about 24 hours at 70°C (158F).

I plan to dehydrate the meals, freeze them until I go on the trekking trip, and then have the precooked meals in my backpack for the whole duration of the two week trip.

The food during the trip will not be refrigerated, but the temperatures are likely to be between 15°C and -5°C (59F-23F).

Dehydrating food is a common practice for trekking and backpacking.  Dehydrating vastly reduces the water activity in foods, making them a less hospitable environment for bacterial activity. You'll want to use a reliable dehydrator with a variable temperature setting, as different ingredients require different temperatures and times to properly dehydrate.  I think it would be better to dehydrate your ingredients individually, then combine them into meals.  For example, Backpacker Magazine has a handy guide with some good suggestions.  Dehydrated vegetables have a very long shelf life.  From my internet research, it seems that many folks recommend consuming dehydrated meat within two weeks.  I'm not sure you want to freeze your products.  They might become moist when thawing, thus beginning the re-hydration process before you want.  This could theoretically impact safety.


How do I make candy shells? How do I make candy shells like M&Ms or Reese's Pieces have?

You can give your candies hard shells by dipping them into a melted mixture of one part water, two parts sugar, and 1/2 part corn syrup. Melt those ingredients together over medium to medium-high heat until the sugar has totally dissolved and the mixture is at the hard crack stage (295-310° F./146-154° C.). Remove your pot of glaze from the heat and place it into a waiting metal bowl of ice water. Once the glaze has stopped bubbling, begin dipping your candies immediately. Once dipped, set them on an appropriate, lightly greased surface to cool (use a flavorless oil or kitchen spray for greasing).

You'll want to skewer your candies to dip them; never attempt to dip candies into hot glaze by hand. You'll also want to set everything up for dipping before you make your glaze: have your bowl of ice water ready; have a greased tray or marble slab/counter ready to receive your dipped candies; have your kitchen to yourself (distractions aren't good when working with hot glaze).

Your glaze will cool very quickly, so work carefully but efficiently.


Mr. Coffee seems to know the future Why does the coffee coming out of my coffee maker appear weaker or stronger, in correlation with the amount of coffee grounds, even from the first few tablespoons to drip into the carafe?

I would think that the first cups of coffee would be stronger and the entire amount would only lighten up as the last cups of water extract less from the grounds. Even when I miss by 1/2 tbsp in a 10-cup brew, it seems the coffee "knows" that it will be weaker and the first cup is light in color and watery.

What gives?

Your coffee maker puts water into the grounds at the same rate regardless of how much ground coffee you have put into the filter. The water will stay in the filter area for the same amount of time regardless of the amount of coffee in the filter.

If there is less coffee in the water, then there is less of the flavorful soluble coffeeness (various amino acids, caramelized sugars and aromatic oils) for the water to pick up. The same amount of soluble material becomes more dilute in the greater amount of water. Some coffee makers adjust for this and release less water at a time if you are making a smaller amount of coffee.

If the water sits longer in the grounds of will pick up more flavor, but not all of it is going to improve the flavor. If it sits too long in not enough grounds it will become more acidic and more bitter.

Alton Brown has a great episode about the science of coffee, BTW. http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats/2-series/true-brew.html


Topping bread with poppy seeds or sesame seeds Should the seeds be sprinkled over the dough before baking, or will they burn?

Should they be soaked first to prevent burning?

Should a wash (cornstarch?) be used to stick them to the dough?

Anything else I need to know?

You should sprinkle them onto the dough before baking. They shouldn't burn, but they will toast and release some tasty oils. You don't need to soak them either.

Using a wash depends on the wetness of your dough. If it's fairly wet, you'll probably be fine. If it's a drier, more stable dough, use a simple egg wash, which will help the seeds stick and give a nice glossy finish to the top of your loaf.


Infrared on regular gas grill I have a regular gas grill (Brinkmann) and I'm trying to find a way or a workaround to have an infrared on it, have any of you tried that? is it possible to use something like this by placing it on grill?

YES!! You can do this!! It's even Brinkmann/Charmglow who offers the solution.

Brinkmann produces a "drop-in sear burner" that bolts to the side of typical stainless steel barbecue grills.  It's called:

Charmglow Brinkmann Stainless Steel Built In / Drop-In Sear Burner 814-6805-S
This comes in a "Dual Fuel" model or a Natural Gas model.

See: https://www.amazon.com/Charmglow-Brinkmann-Stainless-Natural-814-6805-N/dp/B00FY5038K

These get upwards of 800 degrees F, plenty hot enough for searing those steaks.

I have a 10-year old 3-burner-plus-side-burner Altima/Sonoma grill that this bolts to the side of.  I'm sure it would also bolt right onto my Charmglow 4-burner + side burner unit I got at Home Depot 7 years ago, probably fit even better.

This assumes that your grill has a side table or side burner that is bolted to the side of the main grill unit, and can be lifted off and removed after loosening the mounting bolts a little.  After removing the "stock" side table from your grill, you slide this one on and snug up the bolts.  OK, all that is if you get lucky and the bolt holes line up.  In some cases, you will probably need to drill some holes through the side of your existing grill in order to mount this as a side table/burner unit replacing one of the factory ones.  Still, relatively a piece of cake.

You can get it either in dual fuel propane/natural gas model ($150 at time of writing) or in a natural gas only model (under $100 while it lasts). If you go with the propane fuel version, you may need a second tank and regulator.  Still, a small price to pay for the safety and performance of a sear burner and enclosure designed to work together.

Why cobble together a potentially unsafe "Frankenburner" retrofit of a sear/infrared burner into a grill it was not designed for, when you can do this instead?  With this sear burner and enclosure were that designed to work together, you neatly avoid the fit and safety issues that can arise when trying to mix and match replacement burners from other "real" infrared/sear burner grill models into an enclosure that was not designed for it.

On top of that, you still have all the normal functionality of the regular burners on your grill.

When this side sear burner encloser is bolted to the side of your grill, you can still use it as a side table when the burner top is closed.

See this product:
https://www.amazon.com/Charmglow-Brinkmann-Stainless-Natural-814-6805-N/dp/B01CGX5H8I/ref=pd_sbs_86_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01CGX5H8I&pd_rd_r=BXAWZZS0VHB7HDE4EX3X&pd_rd_w=EOx2B&pd_rd_wg=Ox1hP&refRID=BXAWZZS0VHB7HDE4EX3X&th=1

P.S. Sorry if I sound like a salesman, I'm just happy to have a solution that is safe, takes so much of the guesswork out, and lets me sear thick steaks without affecting/compromising any of my grill's other functionality.


What alternatives are there to tomato based pizza sauces? I know someone that can't eat citrus foods or foods with high acidity so when it comes to pizza this means having it with no tomato based sauces. So far this means having ranch or an Alfredo-type sauce, or worse yet no sauce! Aside from these can anyone suggest any other alternatives we can try?

Suggestions I have would be a basil pesto sauce, bbq, or a sweet chili sauce.  I have not tried this, but rather than ranch, I wonder if you could do something with caesar?


Why are my caramelized onions dried out? I've tried a few different methods of caramelizing onions - several combinations of butter, olive oil, medium heat, low heat, occasional/constant stirring. It seems that no matter what I do, they dry up and turn crispy as they brown. The flavor is there, but the texture is more like onion straws than the soft, juicy onions I'm trying to make. Am I cooking too long? Not stirring enough? I'm sure it's something simple I've just missed.

I am aware of this question. I've followed similar techniques, I'm just not getting the results I'm looking for. I hope that's enough to constitute another question.

Without seeing the result and knowing your exact technique, my best guess is that you're not using enough liquid, or that you're using heat that's too high.  High heat will essentially fry the onions, like you would expect by dropping chicken or potatoes into a pan full of hot oil.

Properly caramelized onions should take at least 20 to 30 minutes, I try to go for an hour whenever time permits.  I actually stir as little as I can without allowing them to sit long enough to burn.  Over-stirring shouldn't be a problem; under-stirring may be.

To start, you want the bottom of the pan to be covered with a thin layer of oil, and then make sure you stir the onions very well to coat them completely right after you toss them in.  Begin with the pan on medium-high heat to get the oil up to temperature, once it ripples and you put the onions in you can lower it quite a bit.  I rarely put it above 5 (out of 10, glass-top stove), and if I see things going crispy, I'll often drop it to 4.  I'd rather take more time and have softer onions.

Are you adding any liquid along the way?  Sometime, when doing large batches, 15 minutes in I find that I don't have enough oil in the pan, and I can see them starting to crisp up a bit more than I'd like.  When that happens, lower the heat a notch, and add a touch more oil (or, as I prefer, a cube of homemade stock) to the pan.  It'll take some practice, but eventually you'll be able to know how much liquid to use instinctively.  The reason I prefer stock for my "second add" is because I know the stock will evaporate off, as mentioned in the question you linked to, you don't want to be pouring off flavor at the end of the cooking time, so evaporation is a good thing!

If you're using cast iron, I recommend trying stainless steel, I get much better results with the latter than the former.  I'd guess that it's because I can dynamically regulate the temperature better with the stainless steel - with cast iron, once you realize you're at too high of a temperature, it's hard to lower it quickly.

If you need a step by step guide to start you off until you get a feel for everything, there is a great guide here and another here.  The difference is that one recommends 1 teaspoon of oil per onion; the other uses 3 tablespoons per onion.  I find that for my kitchen, it's somewhere in the middle (I just eyeball so I can't give you an exact number, unfortunately) - but if you try both methods on your stovetop you should be able to use that data to determine the right amount for you.


How do I distribute fillings evenly in flan/pudding mix? I bought the following flan/pudding

I followed the instructions:

300 ml of cold milk
add content of the package
beat 3 minutes until fluffy

However the small pieces of chocolate were all on the side of the bowl. Is there a way to have them uniformly distributed inside the cream?

After they're stuck to the bowl, lightly "fold" them in.

Youtube search for "Folding Ingredients" here...


Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it? I like mint and sometimes put some in a cup of water. My question is can I grind the mint into a fine powder and dissolve it? Maybe if the water is warm? Usually mint like in this pic

just settles on top of the water and the flavor slowly seeps into the water. If I grind it up even finer will it dissolve? What should I use to grind it?

No, mint won't dissolve in water (leaves are mostly cellulose), but it does make excellent tea.
Boiling water, steep 5-6 minutes.
For best results, I recommending purchasing whole leaf mint intended for use as a tea. That way you can experiment and determine which kind of mint you feel makes the best tea (or make your own blend, I like spearmint tea with a single peppermint leaf thrown in).


Ceramic crock pot - No cracks, but looks like coating is spotted. Can I fix it? I made beef stew in a crock pot for the first time, and didn't realize I shouldn't store the food in the ceramic pot.  No cracks, but looks like coating is spotted. Can I fix it?

I found this question asked and answered in... ahem a different forum. The gist is that they recommend letting it soak in white vinegar and warm water before scrubbing and it should come right off. A couple other posters recommended a product called Bar Keepers Friend for cleaning.


Why does frozen spinach have so much less iron than fresh spinach? I have been trying to increase my iron intake and was dismayed to learn that my frozen spinach only has 2% of my daily iron needs while fresh cooked spinach has about 20%. I have been under the impression that freezing vegetables preserves their nutrients from the moment they are picked/frozen and that transporting fresh vegetables across the country depletes the nutrients.

There was a whole about this some time ago either on TV or the internet or someplace.

So when I read the back of my frozen spinach container I was really surprised to find that it only has 2% of what I need.

Why is this? Is there a difference between the kinds of spinach that are grown for canning/fresh/frozen? Does freezing break something in the case of spinach? Does this happen with all fresh green leafy vegetables?

Thank you for your time.

Judging by the nutrition information I can easily find (for example, from nutritiondata.self.com), frozen spinach is generally cooked by boiling and draining. That's pretty much what I'd have guessed; it's certainly the easy way to cook things.

Unfortunately, that means that some nutrients are lost with the discarded water. I doubt it'd be different for any other green leafy vegetable - though it's certainly much harder to find frozen mustard greens!

The nutrition information for fresh spinach is for fresh, raw spinach; if you boiled and drained it, you'd make the same sacrifice that the frozen spinach has.

As for your generalization, freezing vegetables and fruits does preserve most things pretty well - but only what's actually left in them when they get frozen! And while transporting fresh vegetables around can cost you some "freshness", it's not going to affect minerals. Some vitamins could be lost by breaking down (I'm not an expert here, but it seems possible) since they're more complex molecules, but minerals are just single elements. Those iron atoms won't fall out of the spinach on the way, and they're certainly not going to be transmuted, either!

Edit: Essentially what's been said in the comments is that the USDA nutrition facts say that "Spinach, frozen, chopped or leaf, cooked, boiled, drained" has about half as much iron as "Spinach, cooked, boiled, drained". A discrepancy, indeed, though not the same one cited in the question. My interpretation here is that the frozen spinach is simply not cooked in the same way (boiled and drained more thoroughly) as the non-frozen.

An alternative, proposed by Adisak, is that the frozen spinach nutrition means that you've taken the already-cooked, frozen spinach and boiled it again and drained away even more nutrients. This seems unlikely; frozen spinach is already cooked, so there's no reason for the nutrition information to assume that you'll boil it over again. The description (it seems to me) is referring to the cooking that took place before it was frozen.


Why did my gumbo stored in a metal pot refrigerated overnight change? I make gumbo all the time and offered to make some for a event I was attending today. I cooked 6 gallons in three separate batches. I added them to a 8 gallon metal pot. I let it cool for a few hours and then placed it in my fridge. I also had some of the same gumbo stored in a tupperware container overnight. The gumbo in the metal pot looked completely different and had an off taste.  The batch in the tupperware container tasted perfect.

I often cook large quantities of food and I have never had anything like this happen to me. I would never serve anything that was not perfect for my guests. I had to cancel the gumbo.

I would like to know if I did something wrong or if this was just a fluke. I have taken the Food Prep course and I understand the cooling issues and temps that food should be kept at.

I can think of a couple answers here:

The larger volume of soup in the pot stayed hot much longer than in tupperware, and so it continued to cook, or fermented/spoiled overnight.
If the pot was aluminum and the gumbo acidic, the two reacted.  I've seen this happen with long-simmered, acidic stocks.  The color changes, and the flavor sometimes does too.


Is my microwave still safe to use after accidentally heating metal in it? My small kid used a metal bowl in a microwave oven and there was a spark. I immediately switched off the oven.

There was a burnt mark on the left side of the oven. Though the microwave oven switches on (Light is one), I am not sure if it actually works.

Will the microwave oven in general work even after such spark and burnt ?

The spark was a voltage jumping over a gap somewhere. This may occur again, but so long as the magnetron survives, you should be okay.  The problem with sparks is they can leave a carbon trail deep inside which is conductive and may actually make the next spark occur at a slightly lower voltage. If this happens enough, you will eventually (or shortly) damage the unit and make it unusable.

I actually work as a product safety consultant and I can say, so long as you have an approved product (CSA, UL, ETL, or TUV) this sort of fault was actually tested. You should be a safe enough and not start a fire.


how long can i microwave microwaveable plastic containers for? I've got a microwave container and no oven and looking to cook some stuff - is it possible to microwave a container that's marked as microwave safe for 40 minutes or so?

A microwave-safe container shouldn't be heated significantly by the microwave (only by conduction from the food it contains). So, it should be fine, so long as the food is, and as long as the food doesn't exceed its allowable temperature.

You can test fairly easily—put the container, partially filled with some water, in the microwave for a few minutes. Does the container heat up, possibly more so than the water—especially where its not in contact with the water? If so, I'd be reluctant to use it in the microwave for that long.

Some containers are microwave safe, but only for heating to maybe 160°F or so. A common example is LDPE (often used for plastic wrap). Some can't take boiling for more than a short time (e.g., HDPE). Polypropylene should be fine, even with boiling. Go any hotter (e.g., filled with oil, which is probably insane) and most will fail. If you're lucky, the container will have a resin ID code on it, LDPE is #4, HDPE is #2, polypropylene is #5.

Your microwave may not be fine with 40 minutes of strait microwaving, or with the steam buildup. You should probably check its manual.

I assume also you've read Jay's comment about converting recipes, and that you're doing something where 40 minutes won't result in charcoal.


Slow cooker lasagna with a liner I’m making slow cooker lasagna and want to put a liner in the cooker. Has anyone been successful with this method?

I was referring to the plastic type disposable liner. I made the lasagna without it anyway, just sprayed the interior with cooking spray. I see no reason for anyone to judge my energy level. BTW the lasagna came out great, just used the noodles right out of the box without preboiling. New favorite method.


How to protect honey jar from ants? Is there any technique to prevent ants from getting into a honey jar? The outside of the jar is covered with dead ants every day.

Currently, I am wiping the surface of jar with a wet cloth before opening the lid, but I still see dead ants inside the lid, too. (They are not in the honey itself, though.)

Here are a few options:

Make a salt barrier around the jar.
Keep jar in a bowl full of water.
Use air-tight container (doesn't need to be a jar).

Any of the above should keep ants away from your honey.


Spaghetti noodle issues I need to cook spaghetti for about 70 people.  How do I cook up the noodles that morning and avoid soggy or stuck together noodles? I am assuming my heating option at this event will be the portable tray pans with the little heating candle underneath. So, should I cook the noodles, cool with cold water, and add a little olive oil to keep from sticking? Then to heat back up slowly mix some of the hot noodle water back in? My plan was to make both spaghetti and alfredo also.

Liberal amounts of olive oil is a must. I'm not so sure about the idea of adding hot water to the precooked pasta. It is usually the other way around.

Some italian restaurants will pre-cook pasta al dente before the meal time rush, drain it, mix it with olive oil and then will dip it back into boiling water for a minute before draining and serving.

https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/cooking-tips/article/make-ahead-pasta


Does using wild rice in soup suck up all the broth if it is held after cooking? This is my experience with rice and pasta. I was wondering if wild rice is less ‘needy’ in this regard and would soak up less broth.

As you many know wild rice isn't a type of rice but rather a grass. Your intuition is correct that wild rice absorbs a lot less liquid than white or brown rice. However, what you can normally buy is a mix of the two so this may not be the solution you would want to go with particularly since straight wild rice is harder to digest.
If you want rice or pasta to absorb less cook them separately and combine shortly before serving.


Half cooked fried fish I had fried fish at a restaurant and it wasn’t cooked all the way. I brought it home and wondered if it was okay to finish cooking the next day or will it make me sick?

Throw it away, seriously. Foodborne illness risk increases with the type of food, the conditions in which it was cooked and how long it was at room temperature. Given that it was never cooked right in the first place and it probably stood out awhile you really should play it safe on this one, it's not worth getting very sick to save a bit of food, especially since it won't have good taste or texture now anyway.


Damaged knife blade repair I've got a set of knives I've been using for roughly 12-13 years, which I've never had sharpened since the day they came home. They also haven't always been the best cared for, and occasionally abused. As a result of these treatments, the blade is, quite obviously, rather damaged.

A few years ago, I purchased a hand sharpener specifically made for that brand/model by the manufacturer. However much it helps, the blade is still far from clean or mint condition.

So I was wondering, before investing in either getting them professionally sharpened, or buying a whetstone, if they're even reasonably salvageable, or should I save my pennies, sell them for scrap metal and use the proceeds for a new set which will be better treated.

Attached are two photos of the blade as a whole, as well as a representative portion of the cutting edge's damage.

[

Professional sharpeners here (The Netherlands) would charge around 50 cents per centimeter of knife or, more common, just 5-6 euro per knife, regardless of size.

You paid around 10$ per knife (9 euro and a bit). The price of the knives alone (150$ for 14 knives 12 years ago, let's say 190$  corrected for inflation) doesn't sound like a price I expect to pay for quality knives.

My advice: If the prices for sharpening are anything like they are over here, scrap them, invest in good knives, and maintain them.

Good whetstones aren't cheap either, and given the state the knife/knives is/are in, you'll be whetting for some time to come, unless you go hardcore, and do it the belt sander way.

In addition: Think about if you will like sharpening knives. It's not a 5 minute process, and, as Rumtscho mentioned in his answer, it will take practice (indeed: DO keep that old knife around for learning how to sharpen!).
I happen to like it, I find it a very meditating thing to do, but one knife will take 30 minutes for sure, and that's when I don't go all the way to the 10000 stone (I really, really like sharp knives). And depending on how picky you are about maintaining the sharpness (and how much you use them and on what), it's not a yearly drill too: Every two/three months they're up for sharpening, while in the meantime stropping them before use.

It can be pretty steep investment, but good knives will last a lifetime. I tend to keep in my mind what my grandparents used to say: "We're not rich enough to buy cheap". Cheap stuff you'll have to buy again and again. And again. You're better of with a one-time bigger investment.


Is there any reason to use fake white chocolate chips instead of the good stuff? I'm making funny cookies for a friend. They're no-bake refrigerator cookies made with (get this) Capt Crunch cereal, peanut butter, nuts and the aforementioned "chocolate". The recipe specifically states the brand of white chocolate chips (yucky fako). Is there any reason NOT to substitute good white chocolate like Ghirardelli? My one concern is that the chocolate is what holds the cookies together and perhaps the fake stuff cools harder after melting. The brand specified in the recipe contains sugar, nonfat milk, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, palm kernel oil, cornstarch, artificial flavor, salt and lecithin. Not so much as a molecule of cocoa butter.

EDIT: As it turns out, I have a half bag of the yucky-fakos. I can't remember or imagine why, but there they are! I feel an experiment coming on. I'm going to divide the recipe into thirds. One-third will only contain the "Creamy Vanilla Premier White Chips (el fako)", one-third will be made entirely with Ghirardelli White Baking Chocolate [bar], the final third will be half and half. I'll make them tonight and report the results!

Here we are, three months after the experiment, I'm finally getting around to writing it up! The fact is, the results are not very exciting.

Straight from the fridge, the three cookies (made with all Ghirardelli white chocolate, all fake white chocolate chips and a half and half mixture) were indistinguishable. At room temperature the all Ghirardelli cookie had a very minor negative. It slightly melted in the hand as you held it to eat, a vaguely unpleasant feeling. The other cookies did not melt in the hand, but tasted the same.

So, for simple no bake applications like this, there is no reason to spend the extra money for "real" white chocolate, the fake stuff is just as good and may even be slightly better.


Why does water evaporate from curry better when you off the gas then heat again? When I cook curry I often try to make it dry.  When I try to simmer the water off I notice the water takes time to go and sometimes when i think its done i still see a little water in it.

However I notice that if I make a watery curry, when I reheat it over 2-3 days for a little time the water inside evaporates rapidly.

Does anyone know the reason for this?

Liquid in the pan actually does evaporate more quickly with boiling; however, you may be pulling more water out of your ingredients for a variety of reasons ie salt or acid is drawing off water. Or ingredients packed together in pan (mushrooms esp get watery packed together)

Surface drying of veg (not immersed )during storage may prevent further water loss when reheating.

Developing a 'skin' can prevent veg and meat from losing moisture.


Low-sodium alternatives for Asian cooking sauces? I love Asian cooking, but my doctor wants me on a low-sodium diet. Unfortunately, even the "lower-sodium" or "reduced sodium" versions of sauces (soy, tamari, etc.) are extremely high in sodium. Is there any alternative that can replicate the flavor of these sauces without the heavy dose of sodium?

Unfortunately, the sodium chloride salt is a requirement for the fungus and brewing process which goes into making soy sauce. You are extremely unlikely to find a much lower-salt soy sauce; however, experiment with vietnamese cuisine which uses more chili and less soy.

If you can tolerate some sodium, this is the lowest sodium soy sauce I can find: Kikkoman less salt soy sauce. It has 3.4g sodium per 100ml, which gives 170mg per 5ml tsp, around 6% per tsp or 18% per 15ml tablespoon. (These percentages are based on the US and UK sodium recommendation of 2400mg per day, or 6000mg of salt.)


Seasoning pasta water Is it possible to oversalt pasta water? Will the extra salt be unabsorbed or would the pasta be noticeable too salty? Is there anything people add to pasta water for seasoning  (I.e ground pepper or anchovies)?

It is definitely possible to oversalt pasta water. I managed it when cooking soup noodles. I used a very small pot with to little water and then lost more water to evaporation, increasing the salinity.

This isn't to hard to avoid though. Generally one should make pasta in lots of water, and the water should taste like the ocean water.
It is very difficult to salt your noodles later.
According to gimmesomeoven the proper amount is

  1 pound of pasta : 1 tablespoon salt : 4 quarts (16 cups) water

This sounds similar to what I have heard from others as well.
This answer says the relationship between salt in the water and the uptake from the noodles is linear, more salt = saltier noodles.

One thing I add to pasta water sometimes (especially for some one pot dishes where the noodles are boiled with a lot less water, which means you can't salt as much as it will all end up in the dish) is soup boullion powder. Another recipe is drunken noodles where the pasta water contains red wine, turning the noodles red.

I think that if something is added in significant amounts and is dissolved into the water then it will flavor the pasta. Pepper is probably not dissolved into the water and I don't think it would bring much at this stage.


What is the glaze on a bakery-style fruit tart? I am looking to re-create a bakery-style fruit tartlette. I was wondering what the glaze on top of the fruit tarts you find in US bakeries is and how you can create it at home.

I have heard that it's just heated apple jelly, but I imagine that might change the flavor of the whole tart. It seems like it's largely a preservative since I don't see any glaze in home recipes, but I like texture it adds.

The glaze on most fruit tarts is just melted jelly.  Given the small quantity involved, you probably wouldn't particularly notice the apple flavour.  However, there's no reason you couldn't use another type of jelly if you preferred.

If you take a look at many fruit juice blends, you'll note that the base is usually apple, even when that's not the advertised fruit flavour, so it's obviously not an overpowering flavour when mixed with other fruits.

This Tips for Pies and Tarts page has a couple suggestions at the end for glazes for fruit pies and tarts.


Pasta edges break when being rolled in pasta machine When I make pasta, and roll it through my pasta machine, the edges always end up cracking up a little. It becomes quite difficult to pass it through the machine without it tearing and dividing my pasta in half.

The resulting pasta is not bad per se, but it feels like I may be doing something wrong in the pasta-making process.

I follow recipe quantities - usually 3 whole eggs and two yolks to 500g "00" flour. Bring together on the work surface. Knead for a while and wrap in a damp cloth, leaving it to rest for 30 mins or more.

I then roll through the machine on the largest setting, folding over a couple of times before reducing the settings down to the smallest one.

Here is an example of the cracked edges I see.

As you can see, it's also hard to maintain a good direction as it goes through the machine.

Alas, my pasta rarely looks like the stretchy, silky pasta that you see being thrown around by professional chefs. What might I be doing wrong?

I'll added this as a comment, but it's probably close enough to a full answer, so I'll post it as one. My homemade pasta recipe is a little different. I initially got it from America's Test Kitchen TV show. I think they have a couple of different ones, but if I remember correctly off the top of my head, it's 2 cups of flour and 3 whole eggs. It's always a little on the dry side and I usually need to add a touch of water or oil to get it a little softer than theirs appears to be.

I knead it as you do and let it rest in the fridge for 15-30 minutes. This allows gluten to develop and the dough to relax some. If you put the fresh dough through the machine, it's going to be tight and won't run through properly. You seed this effect in pretty much every kneaded dough.

Once its set, my recipe calls for dividing it into 6 equal sections. It seems like a small amount of dough, but gets long once you start thinning it. This is where I run into issues like you're having. I take a ball of dough and cover the others. They demonstrate on the pasta episode by leaving one uncovered and it cracks horribly by the time she's rolled out the others. Anyway, I smoosh it down a little with my hand so it'll get started in the machine and run it through a couple of times to get a rough sheet.

At this point, it looks a lot like yours. The edges are all cracked up. Whether this is do to a lack of liquid or something else, I don't know. What they call for on the show to fix this is to roll it though, then fold it in 3rds. Then rotate it 90 degrees and run it back through the machine a couple of times. Because you folded it over and turned it, you have the smooth sides. The cracked sides are now at the ends of the pasta. If you repeat the process, the cracked ends are then folded into the pasta. Again, I don't know if it's doing anything scientific or just pressing the drier parts into the moister areas and normalizing the hydration levels, but it leaves me with a square of pasta that has smooth sides. It usually only takes 3-4 repetitions to get this.

At this point I begin thinning it a click at a time. One other trick I saw on a different video, that works for me, is once you get enough length to the pasta, roll it through till the end is a couple of inches from going through the rollers, then take the beginning and press it firmly onto the end, creating a loop. You can roll it through, sealing it and use your other hand to flip the pasta enough to give it slack. It takes a little dexterity, but I find that once I get the motion down, it's much easier than making sure the pasta doesn't wad up and stick to itself under the machine and then getting the end started again. Once it's the thickness you desire, simply run a butter knife or plastic spatula across the pasta before the rollers, then roll the end through.

Give this a try with your recipe and see if it helps your cracked edges. Good luck.


Eating dehydrated uncooked red potato I sliced some red potatoes and put them, without any prior processing (no cooking, no frying etc.), in a dehydrator at 45 celsius. Several hours later, they came out crispy and tasty. However, when I tried the same thing with white potatoes, they were not tasty at all  (as in this question: Dehydrator potato chips). Although my dried red potatoes are tasty, I fear that there might be an unhealthy substance in them. Is it safe to eat those uncooked dehydrated red potatoes?

Short answer: no, it is unlikely. There are some concerns with eating potatoes, but these apply to any form of consumption of them.
Longer answer:
Maybe. The main risk from potatoes (along with most garden plants) is ingestion of pesticides, fertilizers etc added to the garden where they were grown. So long as the with-holding periods are observed for these additives, and the tubers themselves washed sufficiently, these should not be a problem.
There are additional concerns:
Potatoes (and tomato, peppers (chili), eggplant/aubergine) are members of the Solanaceae, which is known as the "Nightshade" family. Nightshades all contain something known as Solanine, which is an glycoalkaloid toxin. Glycoalkaloids largely result in neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms, resulting in muscle cramps, vomiting, nausea, headaches, diarrhea at low levels, and can even cause death at high levels.
Solanine can be found in any part of the plant, including the tubers and is not reduced by boiling or dehydration, although temperatures over 170 C (~390 F; i.e. baking and deep-frying) can cause a reduction in the level. Most of the solanine is found in the skin, so peeling the potatoes removes a large majority of it. There is also a suggestion that green patches on the skin of a potato indicate higher levels of solanine, and places like the US National Library of Medicine recommend against eating green potatoes.
It seems that there is some variation in alkaloid levels in different potato varieties (May be paywalled), and they are higher in organiclly grown potatoes than non-organic.
Apparently you can test for solanine by placing a small piece of the raw skin in your mouth for a few seconds. An itchy feeling or bitter taste indicates high levels of solanine and related glycoalkaloids.
Having said all that, it seems that alkaloid poisoning is rare in the general population, though possibly misdiagnosed as food poisoning in many instances as symptoms are similar. Masses of potatoes are consumed in the western world, and given the low rate of alkaloid poisoning, I think you will largely be safe. Sources indicate that eating up to 5 g (0.18 oz) per kg (2.2 lb) of body weight per day of green potatoes does not cause acute illness. If, as your name indicates you might be, are a typical Israeli male of 85 kg (187 lb; which is also a pretty typical western body weight), this equates to 425 g (0.9 lb) of green potatoes per day.
TLDR: most likely safe.


Is it possible my cream was too cold prior to whipping? I've whipped cream before. I recently bought whipping cream (a brand I'm not familiar with) and placed in the fridge prior to whipping. When I took it out of the box, it was a somewhat solid consistency (not liquid at all). So I tried whipping it and every time, it separates into curdle and liquid before even forming soft peaks.

Is the problem because the cream is solidified? instead of a liquified version where the air can encorporate. In this case, should I bring it outside first to see if it will liquify somewhat? Or should I just toss this container and buy my regular heavy cream instead.

Sometimes whipping cream separates a little bit in the package and forms a solid layer on top of the liquid cream. This is normal and should not effect its whipping properties.

The few times I have had a hard time whipping cream has been on really hot days or when the cream doesnt contain enough fat. The cream has then separated in the same way as you described. Your cream should have about 40% fat.

You should easily be able to tell if the cream has gone off by smelling or tasting it.


Salted chicken safe refrigeration time I have a chicken burrito that has a high salt content and lots of hot sauce in it. Will it stay safe refrigerated any longer than regular cooked chicken (which has a 3-4 day cutoff)?

Response to possible duplicate:

I've searched the linked article and it doesn't answer my question. My question is specifically about how salt affects the timing.

I believe your question was addressed in part of an answer here: How long can I store a food in the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer?

"What about mold?

[...]
Mold can grow even on refrigerated foods, and even those high enough in salt or sugar to deter bacteria."

The rest seems to indicate that you won't get much past the 3-4 day "cooked food" range no matter what.

As a guess, you won't deter mold unless you use enough salt to make the food inedible without washing.


Käsespätzle like the ones in Bavaria I'm really impressed how here in Bavaria people can cook some delicious things... Well I fell in love with Käsespätzle. I keep having trouble making them just like at the restaurant, where no matter what, the chef doesn't want to tell me his secrets.

I basically buy the Spätzle at the supermarket, let them cook 1 minute in salted and boiling water, then put them (without water of course) in a wok with some olive oil.
Meanwhile I "fry" onions chopped into small rings in a bit of oil until they become brown, and I prepare some grated Gouda cheese.
I put onions and cheese on the Spätzle and I stir until the cheese melts.
Easy.

The difference between mine and the restaurant's are the following:

The Röstzwibeln ("fried onions") are not totally crunchy
The consistency of the Spätzle is somehow different
The entirety doesn't seem to develop crunchy sides after the last steps

While I'm ok with the fact that the supermarket-Spätzle cannot be super-good, I don't get how to cook the onion and I feel that I'm using a wrong cheese (beware: I don't want CREAMY stuff, I want the CRUNCHY one!).

Can anybody help?

In order to get crispy-crunchy fried onions, you need to deep-fry them at a high temperature. Pan frying just won't get them crunchy, they'll just get softer and softer as they get browner and browner. I don't know where you are from, but we have a product in the US that is ubiquitous in late fall, particularly on the Thanksgiving table. Perhaps something like this could give an effect more like what you want?

Here's an Amazon search that shows similar products from all over the world.

You say you know that supermarket-spatzle can't be super good, so I am not even going to go there. I'm sure you could find highly rated recipes yourself.

As far as cheese having crunch, the key there is to not stir it while it is getting a bit brown, either under the broiler or on the stovetop (or both, to get crunchy surfaces on both the top and bottom). Also consider using aged Gouda instead of young. That will reach a crunchiness faster, and the flavor will be more intense, allowing you to use less, which will also make it easier to get crunchy.

EDIT: Another thing you can do to get crunchy cheese is to bake it into crisps first, then crunch them up and sprinkle them onto (and into) your completed, or nearly completed, dish. That way you can get melty (with the same cheese baked in) and crunchy if you'd like. That will work with any hard, aged cheese like Parmesan or aged Gouda.

That picture is from Giada De Laurentiis's recipe for Parmesan Crisps.


Safe to put honeycomb in tea? I put a big chunk of honeycomb in my tea. And it looks like my boiling tea completely melted the comb. But now the water has a weird texture to it. And now I'm worried about drinking the wax. Is it bad?

Honeycombs are the bees’ “storage containers”, i.e. cells out of beeswax filled with honey. Beeswax melts at around 62-64 C (144-147 F), so its no surprise that the combs melted in hot tea.

From a food-safety perspective, beeswax is totally harmless. The (purified) wax “cera alba” is used in foods, medicine (even in bone surgery!) and cosmetics. The European Union has not given a maximum allowed daily intake.

As you are using honeycomb (as opposed to brood cells), the amount of “dirt” or debris that might be in the combs is minimal, certainly nothing worth worrying about.

In short, enjoy your tea! If you dislike the texture, e.g. the small hardening wax chips floating on the cooling tea, skim them off.


How can I make a stable olive oil and vanilla ganache? I've just made some vanilla macaron shells that I plan to fill with an olive oil and vanilla ganache.

How should I go about doing this? Should I just make it like a regular ganache or will it just split and not form an emulsion?

Disclaimer: I've never tried to make a ganache with olive oil, so take that into consideration as you read the following.

First, I have to assume that you're trying to use olive oil to replace the cream that's normally used in making ganache, perhaps to make a non-dairy ganache. If that's not right, please clarify your question.

Ganache is essentially an emulsion of cocoa butter (usually from chocolate) and cream, plus vanilla and/or other flavorings, that is allowed to cool to the point where the cocoa butter solidifies. It's the solidified cocoa butter that gives ganache it's firm texture. The greater the ratio of cocoa butter to cream, the firmer the ganache will be. If you want to replace the cream, you'll need to make sure that you replace all the components that have an effect on the emulsion. Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking explains the structure of ganache:

  The continuous phase of this mixture, the portion that permeates it,
  is a syrup made from the cream's water and the chocolate's sugar.
  Suspended in the syrup are the milk fat globules from the cream, and
  cocoa butter droplets and solid cocoa particles from the chocolate.

He doesn't say it, but I'd guess that the milk proteins from the cream might act as emulsifiers to help stabilize the emulsion, much as they do with butter.

The melting point of olive oil is obviously different from that of butterfat, but since you heat the cream in order to make ganache anyway, olive oil might still work. Given what McGee says, you'll need to make sure that you add an appropriate amount of water so that there's enough syrup to suspend the butterfat, cocoa butter, and solids. How much is an appropriate amount? Cream is usually 20-40% butterfat, so starting with a 1 part oil for 2 parts water seems reasonable. You might also need to add something that'll act as an emulsifier, like lecithin.


Is Bami Goreng the same as the dish labelled as 'Singapore Noodles' in the United Kingdom In the UK, Bami Goreng or Nasi Goreng appears extremely rarely on far-eastern take away menus however almost all menus offer Singapore Noodles described as a

  Dry, spicy noodles with ham, shrimp and/or chicken

Are these two dishes exclusive or is Singapore Noodles for all intents and purposes the dish of Bami Goreng?

My a palette is not refined enough to pick out any subtle differences such as lack of soy sauce etc which may yield a clue.

There is a high level of similarity between the two dishes, as they share an origin in the same Chinese dish. To answer your question, let's look at the differences:

Bami Goreng is an Indonesian / Malayan dish where the flavor is influenced heavily by the presence of Terasi in the spicing mix. This type of shrimp paste has a very unique taste that sets Indonesian cuisine apart from all other Asian traditions I have tasted.

Bami Goreng in the Indonesian kitchen is made from thick flat noodles made from wheat flour such as the ones shown here.

As far as I know the Singapore variety is always made with thinner rice noodles. A very important distinction as the two types of noodles have very different flavor and texture.

Where the taste/spicing of the two is concerned, the Indonesian version is mostly savory from the use of the Terasi, sambal and ketjap. What is typically served as the Singapore version is seasoned with Curry Powder and should therefore have a more spicy/sharp character.

In all honesty, all these distinctions rely on the correct naming of the separate dishes in the UK. They should be quite different, but in practice the same dish might be sold under both names.


Substitute baking powder for yeast in a focaccia? I was going to make a focaccia-like dish, but found that I don't have any yeast. Can I substitute it with baking powder? How?

Short answer:  no, you cannot without radically changing the recipe until it is something completely different.

See my answer here for more information:  https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/32294/14401


About 'sharpening"; do you PUSH OR PULL the blade across the stone? Do you PUSH or PULL the blade across the stone??

Depends on the stone. If it's a countertop wetstone, then you want to angle the blade slightly, while you pull and slide outwards. You never want a purely straight pull.

If it's a handheld micro-sharpener, then (while holding the blade at the sharpener designated angle) out and up, minding your fingers and wrist.

If it's a sharpening steel, there's a quite intricate motion that I can't quite describe in words, so I would suggest you visit YouTube.

For more on knife sharpening and diagrams, see: http://www.buckknives.com/about-knives/knife-sharpening/

To clarify on "pull" and "outward":

Pull means to pull the knife directly towards you, as if it were a rope in a tug-of-war game.

Outward means dragging left-to-right or right-to-left, as if drawing a line.

A pull-outward motion would be pulling the knife towards you while dragging it across the stone. This should create a diagonal motion that is heavily accentuated towards having more pulling  movement than outward movement.

As noted in the comments, I am an advocate of pulling the sharp edge of the blade with the blunt edge leading, rather than the blade leading. To visualize, imagine a knife in your right hand on a stone. The sharp edge is nearest your left hand, and you move it across the stone towards your right.


Uses for thick "country-style" phyllo? I bought a few boxes of Phyllo (Fillo) that is described as Horiatiko / Country Style - Extra-Thick #10. Extra-thick is definitely relative; it is probably twice as thick as normal phyllo but still paper-thin. The first thing I did with it was to make a spinach/manouri/feta filling seasoned with ras al hanout, brushed the phyllo with butter, rolled them up and baked til golden. It was good, but not nearly as flaky as normal phyllo.

So my questions are (1) is there something I should be doing to have it come out flakier or is that just how the country-style is? (2) are there particular applications where the country-style is considered preferable?

It's meant that way. Good for pies, etc.

See this link on phyllo types if you like.


How do I keep my bread pudding from collapsing? I'm using my mom's bread pudding recipe which is:

2 1/2 Cups of Bread Bits
2 Eggs
1 Cup of Milk
1 Tsp of Vanilla
1 Tsp of Cinnamon
1/2 Cup of Sugar

I doubled the recipe and put it into two pans and baked it for 45 minutes. It rose quite a bit, but as soon as I pulled it out of the oven it collapsed like a dying star.

Is there anyway to keep it from collapsing?

A souffle by any other name will fall as quick.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist). But this is absolutely normal, there is nothing in this recipe to support the structural integrity of cooling air bubbles. You can reduce the amount of rising, which will result in a smaller collapse. To do this, beat the mixture less (prepare it by hand instead with a mixer to be sure) and ensure slower, more even heating in the oven. But of course, the collapse will occur.

There is some advice floating around which is supposed to reduce the falling rate of souffles. You could try following it even if your recipe doesn't involve whipping the eggwhites. It involves things like not crowding the oven and carefully buttering the form, usually with layers of butter and sugar (or parmesan for savory souffles). It won't hurt to use them. But don't expect a risen pudding after it has cooled.

Update. I read Charlotte Farley's answer and thought that it would be great if it works. I had a hunch that it might not, but it would be so awesome if it helps! So I made the experiment.

I made the bread pudding exactly per the recipe given here. I didn't separate the eggs, but took care to whip them for a long time before adding the milk, to ensure a good rise. I baked it in silicon muffin cups, exactly 5 gram of bread and 45 gram of egg mixture per cup. After 45 min at 150°C, I quickly removed three cups from the oven and left the remaining three cups there for another 45 min. As a control, I used a simple cheese souffle (basically a mornay sauche with whipped egg whites) and repeated the procedures, using 50 g mixture per cup and baking for 20 min at 175°C.

The results:

These are the bread puddings. The directly removed are in the lower row, the ones which remained in the oven are in the upper row. I didn't measure them, but they are nearly the same height. In the oven, all had risen maybe 1 cm over the cup edges, so they all lost ~50% of their oven height. The first group collapsed the second they were out of the oven, the others deflated slowly in the oven, but were already low when I took them out.

I weighed both groups after cooling. The "direct from the oven group" weighed 116 g, or 11.3 g average moisture loss per pudding. The "left in oven group" weighed 101 g, or 16.3 g average moisture loss per pudding. When I tried them, I liked the moister ones better, but both groups were OK. Neither was unacceptably dry or egg-white-rubbery.

These are the cheese soufflés. They rose more in the oven, to maybe 2.5-3 cm above the cup edges. Again, directly removed ones are in the bottom row, the oven cooled ones are in the top row. There is no visible difference, they all seem deflated to the same size. The weight results are similar as in the bread pudding case: 122 g for the three directly removed souffles, 109 g for the oven cooled ones. Again, I felt that the moister ones tasted better, but this could be a subjective preference. I wouldn't consider the oven-cooled ones "bad" on their own.

Conclusion: The slow oven cooling doesn't work :(

Estimated 5000 calories worth of egg dishes plus a small package of American bread (opened) available for free, collect in person only.


Making lemon oil from vodka I recently made some lemon oil.  Here's how I made it (question at the bottom): I took the zest of about 12 lemons, packed it in a half pint jar, filled it to the top with 80 proof vodka.  Left it in the window sill for about 5 days.  Then I strained the zest out of it.  I placed the remaining vodka/lemon mixture in the same half pint glass jar, and placed it in a pot of "almost boiling" water to heat it up to evaporate the alcohol off.  I monitored the temperature of the solution and it varied between 180-190 degrees.  The solution was boiling, telling me that the ethanol was boiling off.  I waited till I didn't see any more bubbles in the solution.  I then took it out, strained it again.  So, theoretically, what I had left was lemon oil.

QUESTION: It didn't really have the consistency of "oil" - it was still kind of watery.  Does lemon oil have a thick consistency like vegetable oil?

It appears that you made some type of lemon extract, as opposed to a lemon oil. Probably good, but not lemon oil.   There are two ways I know of to infuse flavor into oil.  Both involve starting with oil...either a neutral oil or an olive oil.  First is to heat the oil with the desired flavor product, thus extracting the flavor into the oil.  The other, does not require heat and, therefore, protects the quality of the oil (such as with an olive oil that my be destroyed by heat).  That is to use an isi-type whipping canister.  Here is the process: http://www.starchefs.com/product_education/iSi/whipper/html/recipe-lemon-infused-extra-virgin-olive-oil-dave-arnold.shtml


Cored tomatoes measured before or after coring? If a recipe calls for 3 pounds of tomatoes, cored, should you start with three pounds of tomatoes and core them, or should you have 3 pounds after coring? I would have thought that you start with 3 pounds of tomatoes, but the gazpacho recipe I made tonight seemed light on tomatoes when I followed that logic.

Generally, assuming a recipe in English, if you see the word order "3 pounds of tomatoes, cored" you should assume that you start with three pounds, and then core them. If you see "3 pounds of cored tomatoes", it suggests you should weigh them after coring.

However, the first is still rather imprecise, as the amount of impact from coring could depend on the size and variety of tomatoes, and how severely you cut. The second instruction would be slightly less imprecise, though variables like the amount of skin on each tomato will depend on their size. So, if I were writing a recipe, I'm not sure I would choose the first wording unless I also specified a size grade of tomatoes.

If the recipe was carefully tested, it probably was carefully tested based on the ingredients available in the region the author was from at a specific point in time. I read about a historical recipe for that started with "3 ears of corn" or something along that line, and the cookbook author who rediscovered the recipe quickly realized that the size of 1980s ears of corn was much larger than 1800s-era ears of corn. So keep in mind that a recipe is going to leave a lot of knowledge unspoken and dependent on context that may not match yours. If you feel the recipe was light on tomatoes, use more next time. Eventually it will be your recipe, rather than the author's.


My pork rinds won't puff! I was following the recipe here:

How do you make pork rinds?

and ran into a situation.  When I get pork rinds from the store, they are beautiful and puffy like a Funyun.  I followed this recipe exactly and am left with deflated rinds!

Can anyone help?

That recipe doesn't seem right to me

Trim excess fat off with a knife, using boiling water will toughen the skin

Keeping your rind in easy to handle oven sized slabs. Pre cut it with a very sharp knife so it can be pulled part when done. Cut 5 mm to 10 mm wide strips, but not quite end to end

You can use a scalpel, craft knife, or "Stanley" knife to do this. Use a steel ruler too!

It doesn't need to be cut all the way through though, as it will snap off once fully cooked, but this can be messy

Rub with salt. I always lightly oil first too, but some people don't like that. Rub with spices if required

Cook in your oven as hot as it will go on fan mode. If the oven steams up open the door a little

It should look something like this when done (these aren't great)

Go as long as you dare. The longer the better. But be warned there is a very small window between perfect and on fire :-)


Why aren't my macarons as soft as professional ones? I recently bought some macarons made by professional bakeries. When I got home, I threw them into the freezer and, days later, I checked on them. When I took a bite, it was still nice and soft. The cold temperature seemed to have had no effect whatsoever on the product. It was as tasty and supple as if it had been left out at room temperature.

The macarons that I make don't do this though. When they come out of the freezer, they're just crunchy. If I leave them out to thaw at room temperature, then they do soften up, but the store-bought ones don't need to thaw at all. I'd like for mine to do this as well. How can I keep my macarons soft while they're also being frozen?

I believe this has more to do with different ingredients in the "professional" category.  Modern professional bakeries(whether industrial sized or not) often have access to a wide variety of additives, some of which are not even required to be listed on the "ingredients" list specifically.  This varies widely by country; common euphimistic examples of such ingredients in a very general sense include words like "spices", "emulsifiers", "softeners", "stabilizers", "anti-caking agents", or "preservatives".

I would suspect a hydrophilic substance first.  Commonly used "softeners" are various plant based gums and fiber.  Think guar gum, xanthan gum, inulin, cellulose, or psyllium husk.  A cookie which I know to be very high in one or more of these softeners is known across the U.S.A. as "Chips A'hoy Chewy".  These cookies tend to stay softer in almost any condition, from frozen to relatively dried out/stale, than home made cookies.

All of these potential ingredients are available for the home chef today(including many I have not mentioned), but would not be typically found in your kitchen or at your local grocer.  You would want to look at a shop or online vendor specializing in "molecular gastronomy".

One of the things I do with cookies in general(which would not work very well with anything frozen, but I feel the need to mention anyway) is to place a slice of bread into an airtight storage container with fresh cookies after the cookies have cooled to room temperature.  This will keep almost any kind of cookie softer than other storage methods, while the slice of bread will seem to have dried out significantly by comparison.  This precludes the use of additives entirely.  I suspect this probably also carries a higher spoilage risk, due to the addition of humidity, although I've not had any issues with cookies spoiling this way before they are eaten(usually within about 5 days).  Refrigeration would help tremendously if there was a desire to keep them far longer, although I would not recommend freezing.

All that said, I have little experience with macaroons, specifically, so your experience may vary.


Why do I add stock to risotto slowly? Risotto recipes always call for adding the stock slowly. Why do we do that?

I've read in a couple of places it may help cooking the rice more evenly, or prevent it going stodgy?

All due respect, it's a myth.  You don't need to add liquid slowly.  Perhaps there used to be a reason (maybe years ago rice was processed differently), but at this point you're pretty much wasting your time constantly stirring.
Many cooking publication/blog has a "no stir" risotto.  You can check out Serious Eats - which has a great breakdown of why risotto can be cooked w/out stirring every minute, and Cook's Illustrated - though CI doesn't have any of their usual "science" notes.
Yes, people call the "no stir" a half way risotto, or say that the technique is what makes it risotto.  But it's only backed up by tradition and hand-waving, "The starch is on the outside, so the grains need to rub each other." Of course the grains need to rub each other, and you probably still sear your meat to "keep the juices in" too.


Is it safe to use glass cooktop cleaner to clean and polish stainless steel pots? My glass cooktop cleaner has abrasive materials and other components which are very effective when cleaning the hob: grease, burnt and solid stuff...

I thought this could be used to clean and polish pots too. I tried with an old pot and the results look amazing (I didn't take a picture before, but it didn't look like that at all):

The question is: is it safe to use?

While rubbing I could see the abrasive material's effect: once the grease and rust was gone the cloth started becoming gray like the pot, presumably from the steel particles that were being removed. I made sure to clean it up a couple of times with water and soap to remove all those particles, so I guess that would not be a problem. But maybe other components could damage the pot in the long term, or worse, be unsafe for cooking?

Update (ingredients)

<5% Nonionic surfactants
Perfumes
Limonene
Benzisothiazolinone
Methylchloroisothiazolinone
Methylisothiazolinone
2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1.3-diol

The sticker literally says "Among other things", so I hope they are harmless if they are allowed to omit them. :-D

It depends on the abrasive.

In the USA, there is a class of "soft abrasives" designed for effective scrubbing while not scratching cookware and barware.  This includes the brands Bon Ami and Barkeeper's Friend.  These, and abrasives like them, can be used on most cookware, and certainly on any kind of steel.

Harsher abrasives, such as Comet Bleach Powder and Ajax, are designed for cleaning porcelain and will scratch most cookware and even some kinds of glass.  You can use them on anodized aluminum coated cookware, because the coating is basically corundum (and this a hardness of 8).  However, even for these, harsh abrasives will wear down the coating over the years, eventually stripping it off (based on my personal experience).

The cleaner you linked to is probably fine for steel, since it contains no harsh base chemicals; the strongest surfactant is limonene.  The only thing that would make it not-safe would be a silica-based or corundum-based scrubbing agent.

Please also see discussion in the comments regarding calcium carbonate as a scrubbing agent, and why Comet and Ajax are harsh (because of strong basic chemicals).


How to fry tortillas for poori? Whenever I deep fry tortillas to use as poori (as in halwa poori) it becomes very crispy and hard. I want to know how can I keep ot soft?
I use uncooked tortillas.

It's a late answer, but I do this all the time when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to make traditional roti. Heat up oil to 300 to 350 in a skillet .about 2 inches of oil. Or use your deep fryer at 350, just make sure it's large enough. The most important  thing is your oil needs to be up to temperature.  As soon as you toss in the tortilla it should automatically  pop and bubble up .count to 15 seconds and flip for 10 more seconds....let it drain on paper towels in a large bowl and cover with a kitchen towel to let the steam seep back in to keep it soft and moist....if it's crunchy it's because  your oil wasn't hot enough or it just sat too long frying...the while frying  process shouldn't exceed 25 seconds.
By the way I used the burrito tortilla flour type. Burritos  are bigger.


My hotpot has a stand attached to it So my dad bought a hot pot. I know what you cook in a hot pot. It says in the bottom "Hot Pot." But the bottom isn't what I expected. Normally, a hotpot is in a bowl shape. But this one has somewhat a stand. It's like a small inverted bowl attached to the bottom and it keeps the hotpot still. It's hollow. Is this normal? How do I use this hotpot? Do I just place the hotpot with it's stand on top of a stove?

You say you know what to cook in a Hot Pot and confirm that this product is identified on the body as a 'Hot Pot', but I think the issue may be that 'Hot Pot' means different things in different cuisines.
Where I come from a Hot pot is a lamb, potato and onion dish which is slow cooked in an oven. In East Asia it is a soup that simmers on the table while you cook morsels of ingredients in the broth. In India/South Asia, it is a vessel designed to keep cooked food warm until it is needed some hours later.

I suspect you were looking for a vessel suitable for the East Asian Hot Pot but what you have is an Indian Hot Pot.

This short advertising video includes a model called a ‘dome hot pot’ which looks very similar to the one you have., and the video description call these ‘insulated casseroles’.

I can’t find explicit product details for an insulated hot pot with a ‘foot’ design, but insulated or double walled hot pots are for keeping food warm, not for cooking it. As an example here’s a Q&A for a flat based version on amazon.co.uk

Also from Attila brand hot pot on Amazon:

  Do not place the Attila Hot Pot on hot surfaces or near open fire

So, if I am correct and you have an insulated casserole, I would recommend you only use it to keep food warm, and do not place it on a stove.

Indicators that it is an insulated casserole/hot pot would be:
- Indian origin
- lock/clip lid to keep food tightly sealed
- thick side walls and lid indicating two layers of metal with vacuum or insulation between.


issues with mexican restaurant-style white cheesedip Recently I was trying to replicate the Mexican Restaurant-style white cheese dip that can be found in mexican restaurants around the south east United States.  (Specifically I was thinking of the cheese dip found at the El Toro chain around Atlanta, Georgia)

I used the following recipe:

* 1/4 cup butter
* 1/4 cup white flour
* 2 cups whole milk
* 1 tsp. ground cumin
* 8 oz. canned chopped green chiles, like Chile Ortegas, drained
* 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 tsp. olive oil
* 2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded, deveined, and finely chopped OR 1 to 2 canned chipotle chiles chopped
* 8 oz. monterey jack or asadero cheese, grated
* salt to taste
* fresh ground pepper to taste

I Used a mix of Monterey Jack/Asadero/Queso Quesadilla cheese and omitted the jalapenos since my girlfriend complains about anything spicier than a bell pepper

First making a roux, then adding the spices and chilis, and finally stirring in the cheese.

However, the result was extremely bland -- I could taste the green chilis and not much else, including cheese.

What can I do to get something with more flavor?  I'd love to be able to make this at home.

If you want more flavour, add more flavour. That sounds like I'm being a smartass, but it's true. Starches absorb/obscure flavour, which is a large part of why both the nouvelle cuisine and the molecular (or whatever you want to call it; I hate that term) movements prize reductions and non-standard thickeners, respectively.

First of all, I'd echo Michael and suggest you not use a roux. That will instantly create more flavour (this is assuming you're keeping the roux blonde, and not cooking it darker for more intense flavour).

Second, you will want to introduce a liquid phase to the dip to keep it dippable as it cools while you eat it. I would suggest cream, or sour cream. Buttermilk would also be lovely for a nice tang. You won't need much, I would just substitute for the milk you are already using, and only use one cup to begin. Add more as needed to adjust consistency. Bring your liquid product to a slow simmer, and slowly whisk in your cheese until incorporated.

For the cumin, garlic, chiles, I would start by toasting the cumin in a hot dry pan, then add your olive oil, sautee the onions first (or even go so far as to caramelize, which would be lovely), then add and lightly cook the chiles and garlic. This will bring out more flavours.

I don't know what you mean by 'Queso' cheese; Queso is just Spanish for 'cheese.' Queso fresca? Queso blanco? But I would look for cheeses with more flavour. The ones you are using are fairly bland (comparatively) and will not provide an intensely cheesy experience.

Season at the end.

I would first, however, simply try making the same thing without a roux, and using half the milk. The flavour difference will be significant.


On what temperature should I leave my sauce to cook? I decided to cook a pizza sauce. I know that the longer you leave it on your stove, the better it might taste. I want to leave my sauce on the stove for an hour or so. At what temperature should I keep it?

Once it's reached a boil, then drop it to the lowest your burner will go.

With the lid on, the idea is to have just noticeable movement, with as few bubbles as you can get.

Many burners won't go that low; but a tomato sauce should be OK at a low simmer for an hour, so long as you stir it every 10 mins & make sure it doesn't start to stick. If you take the lid off the temperature will drop, but the sauce will reduce quicker.

Alternatively, get one of these simmer rings - a few $£€ on eBay from China. That will let you drop the temperature to lower than bubbling, almost slow-cooker style.
I use one on gas. I don't know what else it's compatible with.


How to make thick Asian sauces? Is there a common ingredient, or cooking technique, that gives sauces such as Teriyaki, General Tsos, Orange Chicken; their thick/syrupy texture?

We sometimes make dishes in a crock pot; we have a recipe for a teriyaki chicken, and another for a honey sesame chicken, but the liquid we end up with is always very watery/liquidy. What can we do to thicken the sauce; so that it gets the texture that I am used to on Asian chicken?

Note that this does not necessarily only apply to Asian cuisine; sauces such as A-1 steak sauce or even BBQ sauce seem similar; though it's quite possible that their thickness is due to completely different reasons.

Thickening agents

To thicken, you would mix in an agent designed to do so. There are many options, but here are some that are directly applicable to Asian cooking:

Corn starch - Works well in small quantities, though I find it has a tendency to turn sauces into jello in the fridge. If you have too much liquid in your sauce and use a relatively large amount of cornstarch, you can have unusual effects when trying to reheat the leftovers. Specifically, cornstarch solutions can suffer from shear thickening making it hard to return a gelatinized corn starch sauce to liquid form. However, this is 'authentic' in the sense that it is probably what is in your neighborhood General Tso's purveyor's recipe.
Xanthan gum - Works well in very small quantities; it doesn't take much to thicken a sauce. I don't think there is anything very Asian about this ingredient, it's more of an 'industrial' food additive. Still, it is flavorless so won't impact the taste of your sauce. Xanthan gum has the opposite effect of cornstarch, namely shear thinning. I don't find the shear thinning to be an undesirable trait.
Potato or Tapioca starch - These are my personal preference. These starches act more like flour, in my opinion, and since I have more of a cooking background with gravies and roux, I like these options. To a certain extend, you will have the same shear thickining effect that you will get from corn starch, but I've never gelatinized a sauce with either of these ingredients, so that drives my personal preference.

The above listed don't need more than a few minutes at heat to achieve their thickening effect. Be sure to stir in completely and be patient; if you add thickening agents in haste you can easily end up with too much (again, I find this to be a big problem with cornstarch). Also, for all of them, be sure you don't have too much liquid in the first place; a sea of sticky sauce can often be overpowering.

There are plenty of other thickening agents in common use (flour/roux, egg whites, pectin, gelatin). You could give any of these a try, but I wouldn't consider them "Asian" in any way, so I don't feel like these answer the question.


How does MSG enhance food flavor? Back many moons ago I used MSG all the time. When a lot of controversy cropped up I gradually went away from using it as I was concerned about the high sodium content it was purported to have.

Now, after doing more reading, I found that MSG has only approximately 1/3 of the sodium content found in table salt. So, my trusty Accent is back in my spice cabinet.

My question is how does it enhance the flavor of foods?

As you are no doubt aware, there are 5 basic tastes - salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. Umami is the savoury flavour of mushrooms, cheese, cured meats, and so on. MSG is essentially 'pure' umami. In other words, MSG is to umami what salt is to salty and sugar is to sweet. So if you add it to savoury dishes (throw a parmesan rind in to vegetable soup while it's simmering) it enhances their savouriness.


Over-proofed pizza dough, pâté fermentee? So I made this pizza dough. I started it with a biga, then put it into the fridge for cold rise. Then I got kinda sick, and the dough stayed in the fridge for, like, four days. I’m afraid it’s over-proofed, and the yeast has crossed that rainbow bridge.

I’m gonna make the pizza anyway, but if it turns out that it is over-proofed, can I still use a small piece of it for pâté fermentee? Or is that just pointless?

Sure, go ahead and use it. That's exactly how preferments are made. As long as it doesn't have obvious spoilage signs (mold, ropiness) it's good to mix in in proportions up to 50% of the final dough.


How to make the perfect root beer I have already noted this question about making root beer, but I wanted to explore further, so I hope you'll indulge me.

I want to make a home made root beer that is similar in taste to the A&W brand. Obviously, I want to make something different, or I could just buy A&W... but that's my starting point. If I can approximate that, then I can experiment from there.

There are some points that I am stuck on:

Most online recipes suggest either using "root beer extract", or "sasparilla", or "sassafrass extract". I understand sasparilla and sassafras are different roots, but is "root beer extract" another way description for either of the roots, or is it a catch all term for pre-mixed root beer flavouring?
Is there a noticeable flavour difference between sassafras and sasparilla? Should I really try and hunt down sassafras without the carcinogenic ingredient, or is it not worth the effort?
Where can I find a reliable supplier of the key ingredients that ships internationally? A lot of suppliers have either unclear web sites or their stock seems to come and go. Recommendations would be really welcome!
What I like about A&W over, say, Barq's, is that it seems thicker. The foam holds longer and the mouth feel is creamier. What would be the ingredient or method that would steer a root beer brew towards being thicker?

Thanks for any tips!

I have long kept a copy of an old usenet posting on my web server that addressed the flavorings issue. There are alternatives to sassafras, and sarsaparilla plus dried burdock may get you most of the way there, and I always like the drink called sarsaparilla a little more than most mass market root beers. Birch beer has its charms, too. I think you can experiment with a few different barks and roots. Wintergreen and some of the other ingredients are used for other reasons; I'm pretty sure they were present in earlier forms of root beer as well.

See http://www.jagaimo.com/bistro/rootbeerfaq.html for the old discussion I kept a copy of (circa 1995). The same posting covered some suppliers but they may or may not be relevant 16 years after I collected that posting.


Home made yeast cinnamon rolls deflating? I use an old time recipe that uses high-gluten flour, mashed potatoes flakes, sugar, salt, oil, yeast, eggs - I make them very often and lots of times have no issues.  However, lately I'm having issues with them falling after I get them out of the oven.  They come out looking wonderful, but as they sit they fall flat.  Any idea of what is happening?

More details:

I proof the yeast each time to be sure it's alive. I use active dry with 3 tbsp yeast + 1 tsp sugar in 105-115 degree water to proof it. I could have gotten sloppy as mentioned, being in a rush to get them done might have made me try to hurry things a bit too quickly. I will also try putting half the batch back in for 10 additional minutes to see if that cures the problem along with working the dough just a bit longer.

Next time pop half of the batch back in the oven for an extra 10min and see if they too fall.
Getting the gluten to really set may be all that is needed.

If not, dough might be a bit weak -shorter strands of gluten with a lot of starch- and decreasing water or working the dough longer are the next possible experiments.


I have seaweed salad with sesame flavor. What are some good ways to garnish it or nice things to garnish with it? I'm curious for some ideas on what to make with seaweed salad.

Asian style - usually with a sprinkle of white sesame on top and that's it.


Does ceramic non-stick cookware "fail", and if so, how? I've heard of pans with ceramic non-stick surfaces; it seems some reports on internet say they may "fail" in about 6 months.

How can these pans "fail"? Do ceramic-coated pans require non-stick-friendly devices?

Normal nonstick surfaces fail by getting scratched, having spray-on butter encrusted into it, and if damaged could release toxic coating. Do ceramic non-stick surfaces have a similar problem?

I have a ceramic-coated pan too, and always treated it with care (plastic utensils, no overheating, etc.) It failed too, after some time (I think I've had it for 9 months now, and used frequently).

Unlike a failed Teflon pan, it does not look or feel any different. But while at the beginning it was superslick, with everything gliding right off it in a fluid motion, now it is only moderately non-stick. I can still use it as normal, including for such problematic cases as omelets. But if I fry without fat, I need a spatula to dislodge the omelet from the surface. In contrast, when I bought it it was like polished ice. It is still more non-stick than, say, enamelled or seasoned iron, and definitely better than stainless steel. But it isn't as good as a good-quality PTFE.

If the non-stickness keeps at this level, I still think that it makes sense to buy it, if you have the money. They are expensive, especially the brand-name ones, but can give you nice, even heating. While they will give you less non-stick performance, they are more robust than PTFE - metal utensils don't damage them, they don't overheat as easily - and I found the non-stickiness sufficient. The nice thing about them is that the quality ones aren't thin aluminium, mine has a 10 mm sandwiched steel bottom - you don't get this in PTFE. So they can be used for applications impossible with PTFE, and will give you a better heating in the cases where PTFE would have worked.

On the other hand, you can decide to go traditional, with a combination of PTFEs for the sticky applications and iron or steel for everything else. It will probably give you a better tool for the stickies, as long as the PTFE coating itself doesn't fail through accidental overheating. It is up to you which style you prefer, but the ceramics aren't the panacea they are touted as.