Is there any way to salvage an old rusted wok? Hello Seasoned Advice: I cannot find an answer on any previous posts here relating to woks about what to do if the wok is Already Rusted. I found this wok in my husband's house when I moved in - he has no idea where it came from or how long it's been there.  I have no information about this wok, other than that the faded manufacturer's label indicates it was made in Taiwan, presumably by an Asian cooking supply house - has Chinese (?) characters above, then in English: "Seven S---G Co., Ltd" (the --- indicates where the label is faded and illegible) with an address, international phone number and fax number. It is black, has a welded, hollow steel handle with a hole through it for hanging, and looks to be a commercial, or restaurant-grade wok of carbon steel, well used. It was stored in an under-counter cabinet next to a leaky sink, so I have no doubt about where the original rust came from. Has about 10 small pits on the bottom and almost half of the entire upper right side of the circumference of the wok is almost one continuous thin (not pitted) area of rust.

Previously, I had spent the better part of a day alternately: scrubbing the rust (with coarse salt and fine salt), wiping with vegetable oil and heating over a high gas flame -then repeating this process 3 or 4 times until I was sure there was no rust or moisture remaining (although it is still pitted in some places at the bottom), and then another thin coat of oil to seal against moisture, heated again, then wiped. It worked very well for a couple of weeks, but as I don't currently cook Asian-style on a regular basis, after a few weeks of disuse it turned rusty again, almost worse than when I found it.

Should I be using steel wool to scrub the rust down to bare steel first, or just the salt? Using a different oil? (WD-40?  Just Kidding). Oven vs Gas burner heating?  How should I be storing this? (I have limited space-so most of my equipment is hanging on the walls or on a steel kitchen shelving rack, so I don't think air-flow is an issue.)

As this looks like a relatively decent piece of equipment, I want to do more Asian style cooking and be able to use it on a more regular basis. Is this wok salvageable? I would hate to have to put it on the curb and spend the money for a new restaurant-quality wok.  Thanks in advance for any guidance. P.S., I have pics, but due to a software issue with my camera, I am unable to post at the moment - will try to send pics if I get an answer to this question.

Hi Leigh Anne and welcome to Seasoned Advice! First let me say that you will probably get a few different answers as many of us have different ways of handling such issues.

Since you had what sounded like a pretty good amount of rust to start with, I would recommend a thorough cleaning with steel wool to ensure that you have removed all of the rust. Be sure to rinse well and dry thoroughly.

Regarding the type of oil, I would recommend a good quality vegetable oil. You could also use a good quality vegetable shortening. Make sure to apply a very thin layer and wipe off any excess, especially since you are not using the wok frequently. Any excess residue can become sticky or gunky when the pan is left to sit for a period.

As for gas burner or oven, that is really your choice. I personally would use a gas burner but many prefer using the oven.

All in all, it sounds like you already have a pretty good handle on this. A couple of other things you may want to consider, though. Even though you are keeping the pan in the open air, humidity may be a factor. Also, if you live near a body of salt water, salt in the air could be a problem. You may want to consider keeping the wok in a closed plastic bag. (I do this with any cookware that hangs or sits outside of the cabinet to ensure it's always clean and dust-free when I am ready to use it.)

Good luck! :)


Making crumpets in advance? My fiancée lived in England for a few months a couple of years ago, and has spoken about crumpets ever since.

I've never tried them myself, but I'm planning on making a few for her breakfast on her birthday in a couple of weeks.

I found several recipes, but they all follow the same basic structure:

Mix stuff.
Let sit for about an hour.
Make crumpets in pan.

Step 2 is somewhat problematic here, I don't really have that hour.

Is there any way I could make the batter in advance?

Or could I make the crumpets in advance and reheat them?

You are better off making the crumpets in advance and then reheating them. The rising agent in crumpets is usually bicarbonate of soda or baking powder, and so the batter can't be 'held' in the fridge like a yeasted batter - it would be very dense if you left it too long.

So, make the crumpets, then reheat them. I'd suggest using the toaster - this is how crumpets are sold and prepared in the UK. Make sure you have plenty of salted butter on hand too!


Is it normal for raw farm onions to smell like manure? I bought onions from a truck passing the streets in Mexico and even after peeling the onions smell like manure all the way to the core.

Is this normal? If so, why don't grocery store onions have that smell?

Toss those. That does not sound normal at all. But, possibly, ask someone else to smell them as well.

Cheers


Can I use parboiled basmati rice just like ordinary non-converted basmati? tl;dr Do the cooking time, behavior, taste, and texture of parboiled rice differ significantly enough from non-converted rice such that a simple substitution will yield undesirable results?

I accidentally purchased a large bag of parboiled basmati rice. I make a variety of dishes with basmati rice, but I've never tried any of them with the parboiled version. Can I just use the parboiled rice in place of the non-parboiled? Or do I need to make various adjustments to cooking times, steps in a recipe, methods, etc? And will the results (taste, texture) be different from non-parboiled even with said adjustments?

For example, here is my basic basmati rice recipe, which I make in a pressure cooker. Will this recipe work with parboiled?

Rinse 1 cup rice until it runs clear
Let drain ~15 minutes in colander
Heat 1 tbsp oil or ghee in pressure cooker
When hot, sauté the rice for a minute or so
Add 1.5 cups of water or vegetable stock
Close pressure cooker lid and wait for full (high) pressure
Manually pressure cook for four minutes.
Let pressure come down naturally
Fluff and serve.

Also, the directions on the bag say to soak the parboiled rice for an hour before cooking. I don't typically have the time for this: the whole point of rice is that it's easy and quick to make. But plenty of recipes using basmati, including ones for just plain basmati by itself (i.e., white rice with no added meats or veggies, as in the preparation above), ask for the rice to be soaked, and I never do; I just wash it and let it drain for about 15 minutes. Is soaking de rigeur for parboiled?

Finally,  I'm worried that cooking times for more elaborate dishes will be thrown off by the parboiled rice, resulting in unevenly-cooked mixtures of rice, veggies, spices, and (on the rare occasions I cook it) meat; and that the resulting dish will be significantly altered in taste and texture as a result of using the parboiled rice instead of white.

Are these concerns valid?

Parboiled rice should be cooked more or less the same way, but may come out a little less sticky than regular rice. It should taste exactly the same. Your recipes should work just fine.

I would probably do a trial run with a quick batch of the plain rice as you would normally do it just to make sure since parboiling as a process is different in different parts of the world.

Good luck!


What is the difference between a Jus, Sauce and a Gravy? I've just booked my Christmas meal. This included Sausage, mashed potatoes and an Onion Jus. Why Jus and not Gravy?

Begs the question,  What is the difference between a Jus, Sauce and a Gravy?

What’s the difference between gravy, jus, sauce and coulis?

  Will says...

  •    'Gravy is made from the juices of oven roast meat, thickend with
  a starch such as corn flour.

  •    Jus is made from the same juices
  that has been refined and condensed to get a clear liquid naturally
  thickened.

  •    Sauce could be made from the same juices with other
  ingredients added such as wines or spirits to compliment the food.
  Sauces can be served hot or cold.

  •    Coulis is a thin fruit or
  vegetable purée, used as a sauce. If the purée is too thick, you can
  add some water and sometimes sugar'.

Source: http://www.41portlandplace.com/news/116/send-head-chef-will-carvalho-your-questions-about-the-kitchen

My personal feeling for sauces is they can be made from anything. Parsnips, Mushrooms, Celeriac etc when 'Gravy' and 'Jus' must have Meat juices as their base.

On menu's you'll often see 'Gravy' on pub menu's where they aren't trying to sound to posh, probably using some sort of packet mix. Jus' on French style menu's OR people trying too hard. Finally you'll see something like "Beef and Juniper Sauce" on my menu and many others because... Gravy sounds too common and Jus sounds too poncy.


How to judge temperature and time for deep-fried turkeys? I'm using an electric fryer. After pre heating the fryer to 375 F and putting the thawed bird in, the temp will drop to 275 F and stay there.

So my question is: At a constant temperature of, say, 275 deg F, what is the formula to figure out how long to deep fry a turkey?

If there is one statement that you will read here over and over again it is:

Use a thermometer to determine the doneness of your meat.

There are many "formulas" depending on bird weight, cooking method and - frankly - gut feeling of many cooks, but for a formula to reliably work you would have to factor not only the weight of the bird, but also starting temperature of the bird, build (lean? chubby?) of the bird, temperature of your oven or frying oil, the heating ability of your oven or fryer or, beware, the coals you are roasting the bird over and almost everything else except the lunar phase.

Is this possible? Sure, and I guess some weird physicist1 has developed and possibly even posted it somewhere. Do you want to do the calculation when you are preparing side dishes or isn't it easier to poke a thermometer in the bird's breast and thigh and be done with it?

The formulas serve to give you an estimate of how much time you should need for a bird - give and take a bit.
So to get a ballpark number according to Paula Deen:

  Three minutes per pound plus five minutes per bird.

Start meassuring a bit before that and remove your turkey when it has reached 150-155 F, carry-over cooking during the subsequent thirty minutes resting time should let the bird comfortably reach the target temperature of 165 F.

1 No offense to hard-working physicists - I picked just the first cliché that seemed to fit.


What non-dairy filler to use in white chocolate style coatings? Recipes for white chocolate style cake (or ice cream/truffle/...) coatings (the snappy kind, not soft frostings) tend to rely on cocoa butter, shortening, sugar... and milk powder as a filler. Soymilk powders are not available everywhere and make an unreliable substitute due to very brand dependent additives and properties. What can be used as a reliable, non-dairy filler?

Honestly, I would look at almond flour.

what milk powder gives to the recipe is proteins, sugars, and fats - all of which are present in nuts.  This is also why almond milk is totally a thing, there are a lot of similarities.

Two major differences are, there will be an almond flavor instead of a (milder, more "neutral") milky flavor.  And, almond milk has some of the almond solids removed, using almond flour is therefore "grittier" (not quite sure how else to put it) that using milk powder.  A true substitute would be extracting and dehydrating almondmilk, so those extra solids aren't present.  But, honestly that's a lot of work, and almond flour will probably work well enough - though you might revisit if you're using a lot, or if you think it's worth the extra work.

Of course, any other nut flours will also work, and even soy flour or coconut flour (both of whose precedents can be made into -milk) can be adapted.  The extra flavors will be in the finished product, but they can be left as subtle, or celebrated, or something.


How can I make whole grains stick to the top of bread? I want to bake bread or bagels that have whole grains like poppy seeds, cumin, caraway, etc. stuck to the top.

I have tried just pressing them to the top but they fall off during or shortly after baking. I tried an egg wash but I don't want my bread to have an eggy surface.

Does my dough need to be wetter? Do I need to water down my egg wash more? Or is there a better way entirely?

Use a boiled cornstarch wash for an in oven glue

Egg wash is a great glue, but generally lets go again when heated in the oven. Best used after baking not before


What is the best way to store loose tea to maintain its freshness? This is the tea I use. Like Coffee needs to be stored in freezer, are there any storage restrictions for loose tea leaves also?

Tea needs to be kept away from heat, light, air, and moisture. The best way to store tea is at room temperature in an opaque, airtight container.

Your container should not be plastic, because odors from previous uses (even if its only been used solely for tea) could contaminate your current tea.

Do not store tea in the freezer or refrigerator. Opening and closing of the door causes rapid humidity changes that cause moisture to seep into the container and degrade the flavor of the tea.

Some cheap tea containers can be found here: http://www.specialtybottle.com/teatincontainersmi.aspx

Personally, I would go for one with a twist or latching cover rather than a slip cover, just to ensure that it's airtight.

References

http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/information/INFOstoring.asp
http://www.teavana.com/tea-info/tea-storage-for-loose-leaf-teas
http://www.teavivre.com/info/proper-storage-of-tea/
http://verdanttea.com/how-to-store-tea/


Should I get the small or large size of a pour over brew device when I'm only brewing one cup? (eg. Hario V60, Woodneck) Assuming that I am only going to brew a cup of coffee for myself and won't be brewing more than one cup at a time, should I still get the larger of the two sizes (or three sizes in terms of the V60) of the pour over brewer?

I don't know if I should get the large 480ml Hario Woodneck Drip Pot or the 240ml version. Similarly the 02 or 03 version of the Hario V60 pour over dripper.

After some researching online, I could only find a general preference that people tend to get the larger of the sizes and brew with less grounds. Another reason people say to get the larger one is because the replacement filters/accessories are easy to find and are cheaper than the rarer/more expensive than their smaller counterpart.

On the other hand, some people advise to get the smaller version of the device if you only plan to brew for 1 person because the spout of the water can go nearer to the surface of the coffee ground and that there will be less turbulence when pouring, creating a better cup of coffee.

I have not brewed with a pour over method before and have no experience in manual brewing except for using the french press, aeropress and cold brews.

Should I get the small or larger sizes of pour over devices? What are the pros and cons of the difference in brew device size?

Really appreciate any help, thanks!

I've had this discussion on more than one occasion with my mother.

All else being equal, our experience has been to get a coffee maker optimal to the size of pots you will be brewing.

By getting a maker too large, the grounds will not receive the hot water in the rate or pattern that is intended for that size.  Having a basket of grounds filled only part-way will not process the water and be able to activate the grounds in the same way as if it were full.

Your best bet is to get a one-serving brewer, especially if that is all you ever intend to make.  If you ever had the opportunity to make more than one, repeating the process would not be as bothersome, since you indicated you would be making one pot at a time for the most part.


where to keep an opened can of condensed milk safe Where is the best place to keep an opened can of condensed milk safe? I know the unopened one is okay on the counter but what about when you open the can to use half of it?

You have to keep it in the fridge. This is generally true of any open can or jar. Once the seal is broken, you have to refrigerate as with any other non-conserved food.

Personally, I also refill it in a glass container, because sometimes the oxidizing metal of the can gives food an off taste.


What is the best way to store homemade sauces? Sometimes I make korma, satay, masala or pasta sauce for meals in advance. What is the best way to store these, once they're made? Ideally the sauce won't go off within a week and I want minimal loss of flavour. I would be grateful if anyone here can tell me the best method of storing them.

If you apply a best-case/worst-case/likeliest-case approach to estimating when you will be using the sauce, you will want to maximize food safety (i.e. shelf life in fridge is shorter than in freezer or in a jar), time to prepare (i.e. defrost), and time to store (i.e. jarring).

If you have a given sauce X, all risks being equal, and you want to store it for one to four weeks, I would recommend freezer bags for the following reasons:

Food safety: a sauce will last a few days in the fridge, it will last weeks and months in the freezer or in a jar
Time to prepare: having your sauce in the freezer means being prepared in advance to use your sauce, and defrosting the night before, in the fridge or a jar you can just open and use it
Time to store: in the cases of jarring/canning, the storage process is cumbersome for a one-off sauce that is not being stored in multiple quantities, in a pyrex in the fridge, or a ziploc in the freezer, it just takes as long as pouring it into the container

Jarring will have the best shelf life in all likelihood (assuming you don't contaminate your jars, or end up with exploding glass), as freezing your sauce may cause a separation, and in the fridge it will pose a health risk quickly.

Storing sauces in securely closing plastic freezer bags, in the freezer, is my preferred method in the scenario you have outlined as it allows you to portion out smaller quantities, has a good mid-range duration of food safety, and isn't terribly likely to cause any flavor issues within three to six months, let alone in the scope of one. As for defrosting, it sounds like you are already planning out your dishes, and putting a bag of sauce on a plate in the fridge in the morning wouldn't be problematic.


What kind of reaction is this? I have made elderflower 'champagne' a number of times, but I don't really understand it. I ferment other drinks and foods, and generally understand the process quite well, but I'm not sure about this.
I'm wondering if it is-

some sort of yeast off the elderflowers
A kind of reaction similar to vinegar and bicarbonate of soda (I assume not)
Some other type of symbiotic fermentation/wild yeast or something I haven't thought of.

The recipe includes elderflowers in a gallon of water with 1 lemon, 1 1/2 pounds of sugar, and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar soaked together for 24-48 hours and then bottled for 2 days for carbonation.

It is certainly a fermentation. A simple chemical neutralization wouldn't need that much time, and wouldn't produce lasting fizz.

You can be certain that there are wild yeasts everywhere: in the air in your kitchen, on your elderflower, probably on your utensils, etc. It is impossible to say which ones prevailed in the fermentation, the ones you brought in with the elderflower or the ones which came into it from some other sources.


Dried basil leaves instead of bay leaves I have to make an Indian curry which requires bay leaves. Apparently I don't have them at home. I read on google here that dried Basil leaves can be a good substitute for bay leaves.
Now dried bay leaves, which we use in curries and soups have a strong flavor totally different from the minty flavour of Basil leaves.
Can anyone advice me on this, if someone has used this substitution.

No, this would be a bad substitution. Instead use cinnamon, in a smaller quantity, and preferably whole. Or leave it out entirely and rely on the other spices in your dish.
In my opinion at least, dried basil leaves are mostly flavorless. They certainly lack the sweet, fresh, minty flavors of fresh basil. They might lend your dish some complexity or slight woodiness like a Mediterranean bay laurel leaf from the plant Laurus nobilis. But even in European dishes, this seems like a poor substitute.
But in any case, the "Indian bay leaf" or Cinnamomum tamala is a whole different species, and probably what your curry recipe is looking for. Unlike the subtle menthol and tea-like qualities of a bay laurel, this leaf has a mild cinnamon scent. Thus a better substitute is cinnamon or cassia.
More generally, both these leaves have quite subtle flavors. In a dish with many different flavorful components, it plays a relatively minor role. It can often be omitted without a huge loss in flavor.


Does chili paste require refrigeration? A recipe I am planning to make calls for chili paste, which I have never used before. I found some in the grocery store (it is Sambal Oelek ground fresh chili paste), which seems to be more liquidy than, say, tomato paste. I only need 1/2 a teaspoon, however, so I will have plenty left over.

Does chili paste require refrigeration after it is opened? It does not say anything about it that I can see on the jar. Also, how long will it last after being opened (regardless of whether or not it needs to be in the fridge)?

I don't know if it technically requires refrigeration, but I've always kept mine in the refrigerator and had it survive for at least 6 months with no noticeable degradation.


How long does Peanut Oil keep In my case its still sealed in the container, and http://www.eatbydate.com/other/condiments/how-long-does-oil-last/ claims 3 years (unopened) / 2 years (opened) but that doesnt seem to jive with experience.

Any have more data on lifespan of Peanut Oil?

This answer says that unopened vegetable oil lasts for about 6 months, opened 1-3 months (source: Julie Garden-Robinson, North Dakota State University, FN-579 Food Storage Guide). This corresponds to your experience.


Making Pepper-Flavored Vodka I'm interested in infusing pepper flavor into vodka like in Naga Chili Vodka.

Are there any peppers I should specifically avoid and how should I infuse the flavor/spiciness?  In addition, other than varying the types of peppers and number of peppers how can I control the spiciness?  Is a higher proof of vodka recommended, and does the quality of the vodka matter in this case?

From my limited (but successful) experience, here are some answers to your subjective questions:

Choose peppers whose flavor you do want
Avoid peppers whose flavor you do not like (I'd never infuse green bell pepper, blech!)
Choose a vodka you'd want to drink (if you like cheap vodka, use it, if you like expensive vodka, use that)

As far as the mechanics of making the infused vodka:

Chop the peppers up coarsely, drop into a glass jar with the vodka, taste every 12 hours until you get the flavor/heat you want, then strain the vodka.
The longer you infuse, the stronger/spicier the result.
If you're going more for flavor (less for heat) remove the seeds and pith
The proof of the vodka (80-100) will have little difference in the end result as far as the infused flavor goes.  Everclear (190+ proof) will probably extract flavors faster, but do you want to drink it????

If, on the other hand, you are really just wanting to get the spiciest drink available, then don't bother infusing vodka, just google how to get/make capsaicin concentrate and use that directly.  Then add directly to the drink of your choice.

I've not tried dried chilies, but I imagine a Chipotle infused vodka would make an awesome Bloody Mary.


Making a vegan potato-puree like course without whole potatoes I live in Thailand in which potatoes in retail supermarkets can be a bit expensive because of a bit low demand due to low traditional usage in local cuisine. In my opinion in Thai bazaars the price is likely to be a bit lower though. Although, it would be hard for me to make these in my apartment as I don't have much tools in quite small kitchen, in which I have an electric stove with small pot and common sized pan.

I desire to make a vegan instant potato puree like course.
In Thailand, as in the rest of the world, instant Potato puree like courses are commonly sold ready to eat by "add hot water and heat" method in "convenience stores" and I consider to prepare something similar with potato starch by my own because I find these instant courses unhealthy (filled with synthetic materials with doubtful effects on human health and also expensive).

Using potato starch might be good for me because people use it to make non traditional cakes in this country and it is likely to be sold online in large quantities for small businesses (although I am a single buyer) and could be mixed with ingredients and cooked fast.

To clarify problem I'm trying to solve is making a vegan potato based or primarily potato based Potato puree; desirably without using whole potatoes (or with using a small amount).

Notes

I never found dried potato flakes in local stores in my area but online shopping might be a good alternative
Any other staple food (rice/corn/semolina, etc) doesn't necessarily do with the problem I am trying to solve

My question

I assume potato starch (which is of course just the starch and not the whole potato) would be a basic ingredient of a potato puree like course and if so, what else do I need besides potato starch, for making a vegan potato-puree like course without whole potatoes?

You're vague about what's available at a reasonable price in your area, but there are plenty of things that are used to make vegetable mash:

Root vegetables.  (Turnip, parsnip, yams, sweet potatoes, rutabaga/swede, carrots)
Winter squash.  (Pumpkin, butternut squash, acorn squash, etc.)
Cauliflower

None are necessarily a direct replacement, as some are more strongly flavored, some have more moisture (but you can bake/roast them to help dry them out before mashing), and some are more fibrous (cut up spaghetti squash and sweet potatoes across the fibers before cooking, to reduce the length of the strands).

If you really want to use potato, then look for 'potato flakes' not 'potato starch', but make sure to follow the package instructions, as just like real potatoes, they can be gluey if you're not careful.  (I suspect it's that they need some fat ... I usually use olive oil, although you may want to go with something more neutral in flavor).

They can also be reconstituted and mixed with other mashed vegetables.


Egg pasta vs. water+semolina pasta texture I recently started experimenting with making pasta from semolina flour and water. I noticed it has a slightly "slimy" texture after cooking, compared to that made with eggs.

Is it supposed to be like that? If not, should I knead it more? Or add more flour?

usually in Italy, when we make "homemade" pasta without eggs, we used to leaving the pasta some hours to dry. If the pasta is drier, the "slimy" effect tends to fade.


Will hard boiled eggs absorb salt through the shell? In this America's Test Kitchen video they add salt to the cold water when hard boiling eggs.

Would the salt actually permeate the shell and flavor the egg? That seems unlikely to me and is just a waste of good salt.

(Apart from the salt, that method is not new to me. My old, Mom-gave-it-to-me-when-I-got-my-first-apartment Betty Crocker cookbook has the same instructions.)

Salt or acid is often added to the water when boiling eggs to denature egg whites faster should there be a crack and a leak.

I have not read anything that experiments whether this is effective. It also sounds like "don't wash mushrooms" or "pasta must be cooked in a ton of water" kind of old wives tales.


Can anyone identify this type of green tea? My house mate brought back from green tea from either China or Malaysia that was dark green balls that unrolled to large, thick leaves when steeped and I'm struggling to find anything similar!

It didn't have the same young/grassy taste like some of the jasmine tea I've had and instead tasted quite earthy and ... green! (Sound stupid I know)

Does anyone have any pointers to what I should be looking for? When I've searched for whole leaf green tea it comes back with Jasmine Pearls which are a lot longer and thinner when steeped but these were more substantial

In general, your description - dark green balls which unroll to full tea leaves, sounds like some variety of gunpowder green tea.  It is a quite common Chinese technique, as I recall.  Each pellet (also sometimes called "pearls") is a rolled and dried tea leaf, which unfurls when steeped.

However, it is difficult to get more specific than that without more information.  There are several types of green tea that can be rolled into "gunpowder" form, with differing grades of tea, amount of aging, and years or growing locations (given growing conditions) all contributing to somewhat different flavor profiles.  You might be able to use the terms and look to see how the information about which varieties of gunpowder green match your house mate's tea or your experiences (or your own preferences) - but without more knowledge I don't know how to pin down the same kind of tea.


What conditions make xanthan thicken? I have used xanthan a few times, sometimes successfully, sometimes less so. The one thing I've noticed: it is certainly not enough to just stir it in until it is well dispersed. Sometimes it will not thicken no matter what I do, sometimes it will stay liquid for ages while I'm stirring and then suddenly become one big gloop with no taste left. And sometimes it will get thicker with whisking and then get back to liquid.

Following factors could play a role:

stirring
whisking (actively beating air into it)
time (maybe I have to leave it to hydrate on its own?)
temperature: I have gotten it to thicken at room temperature, but does it work better or worse when hot or cold?
liquid ingredients: How does the percentage of sugar, fat and other solids influence it? What about pH?

Can somebody explain

How do the above factors affect thickening, and
What is the most efficient method to get a liquid thickened?

The viscosity of a xanthan solution is virtually unaffected by temperatures from
freezing point to boiling point of pure water and it hydrates rapidly in cold water. You don't need to let it sit on its own and the temperature doesn't matter.

The viscosity of a xanthan solution lowers when whisking or stirring, a process known as shear thinning. When you stop whisking, it will return to its previous viscosity. This will not factor in to thickening. That being said, you can get a xanthan gum foam using an immersion blender.

Between pH 1 and 13, the viscosity of a xanthan solution is practically constant. Unless you're using it for a strange application, you're good.

I cannot find any information on sugar or fat or other solids and their interaction with xanthan gum. Anything that can be dissolved in water would theoretically affect the xanthan gum's effectiveness, so I would expect sugar to be an issue, but fat or solids are obviously not.

The only thing you don't address is the concentration of your xanthan gum solution. Modernist Cooking Made Easy suggests a by weight ratio of:

0.2% ratio for light thickening
0.7% for a thicker sauce
and up to 1.5% for a very thick sauce

Additionally, the thickening effects only hold up for a day or two. What are you trying to thicken, specifically?

References

http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/hyxan.html
http://www.lucidcolloids.com/pdf/xanthan.pdf
http://www.modernistcookingmadeeasy.com/info/modernist-ingredients/more/xanthan-gum


preserving hot peppers without damaging heat How is this possible? My garden is starting to produce but I don't yet have enough to make into hot sauce. It would be easier to mske a large batch at the end of the season. Texture isn't important, just preserving flavor and heat since it will be sauced and canned. I am growing serrano, scotch bonnet, sweet hot cherries,  habañero, and ghost peppers.

The heat in peppers (capsaicin) is quite stable.  Any number of preservation options will work, as long as you include the hottest part of the peppers which are the ribs and membranes holding the seeds.

You can choose a method based on your goals and ambition:

Pressure canning
Dry them (follow guidelines from a reputable organization, for example links below)
Freezing
Pickling (and canning)

For your use case (storage for a few months prior to making hot sauce), freezing may be your best option.

See also:

UC Davis guide to preserving peppers
Penn State Guide


How do I incorporate chiles into a chocolate cake recipe? One of the traditional combinations of chilies and chocolate is a Mole sauce or the Aztec hot chocolate drink, it has also made a reappearance in the modern confectionery scene. How can I incorporate chili in to an existing chocolate cake recipe?

An easy way of incorporating a spicy kick into any existing chocolate cake recipe that uses actual chocolate would be to substitute a portion of the called for chocolate (with a matching chocolate type; i.e. dark and dark, milk and milk) that already has cayenne or some other hot pepper ingredient. Of course, you will need to experiment to get the right level of heat.

Adding straight cayenne powder while the chocolate is melted, or shredded would also be an ideal time to ensure even distribution of the spice. In the event your recipe does not use an actual chocolate base, but rather something that replicates the flavor, the time to add the cayenne would be when the 'flavor packet' is added.


What is coffee garlic? Gordon Ramsey did an AMA on reddit. He said this:

  "I would go down the rouse of recently we've been using lots of dry
  spaghetti, with lots of coffee garlic, chili, preserved lemons. Once
  we've roasted off the garlic, the chili, the shallots folded in the
  spaghetti, olive oil. We've been putting some really nice cans, tuna,
  over the top of the spaghetti, so it's almost like a sort of quick
  fish past the dish but your using cans, very good cans, of tuna. with
  some fresh capers, parsley, and a little bit of preserved lemon.
  Delicious!"

I'm not sure if this is a typo or not but does such a thing exist as coffee garlic?  What is coffee garlic?

Coffee garlic, is as suggested most probably a phone typo reply from Gordon Ramsay's AMA.

However, there is a youtuber who has a "spicy garlic coffee spaghetti" video (posted before the GR's AMA).  This consists of instant coffee, red (sweet bell) pepper, garlic and chorizo.
Also if you care to research you'll find dishes with coffee and garlic together.


Frying Eggs—Sticking to the Pan I've recently found a recipe that I really enjoy, but it calls for a sunny side up egg. Every time I try to fry an egg in this way it ends up sticking to the pan, the yolk breaks, and it ends up as an eggy mess.

I've tried multiple pans including my cast-iron pan, a teflon, pan, and others but they seem to always stick. What am I doing wrong?

The key to non-stick cooking is to heat up the pan enough before adding oil. This allows the microscopic "teeth/pits" on the surface of the to pan close up as the metal expands from heating.

Only after reaching this point, add oil. If the recipe calls for a lower heat, the pan will still remain non-stick even if you let it cool down, now. Otherwise, these teeth/pits will bite down on the food that is being cooked.

Use the "water test" to know when the pan is hot enough to add oil. Besides being fascinating to watch, passing the water test ensures the pan becomes amazingly non-stick.

When the pan is hot enough, water will ball up like mercury and slide around the pan without evaporating. The temperature required is pretty high, but I've found the non-stick properties remain if I add the oil and let the pan cool to the cooking temperature I want.

Note: preheating the pan like this applies to non-stainless steel pans, but water only balls up like mercury on stainless steel. Also this may not be safe to do on a Teflon-coated pan.

Detailed explanation of how/why this works: On properly heating your pan


Safety of glues in wooden chopping boards It seems to be becoming more difficult over time to get a wooden chopping board that isn't made of separate pieces of wood that are glued together.

I did find some sites discussing how to choose a food safe glue:

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/articles/food-safe-glues/
http://www.ehow.com/about_4727757_glue-making-cutting-boards.html

The latter site states "Boards that are not made with FDA-approved glues should not be used for food preparation as the toxins in the glue could leech into the food."

Is anyone aware of any studies done into whether the chopping boards generally for sale are actually safe? (For the US, does the FDA check when they are imported?)

Obviously the quantity of glue that would make it into food would be very low, and probably undetectable by taste or sight. Has anyone experienced any ill effects from using a chopping board made with glue that's not food safe?

My research led me to the fact that it is the glue that gets the FDA food-safe approval or not.  The Wood Whisperer's website addresses the different kinds of glues used for cutting boards:

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/articles/food-safe-glues/


How to differentiate a ceramic pan from a teflon one? I was in the store looking to buy a new pan, i found in the local store they sell them but i can't tell if this is a real ceramic or just white teflon (i don't know if that exist) both pans had similar surface/texture to the touch, so that made me doubt of that.

How i can tell the difference between ceramic and teflon?

Have never seen white teflon coating on cookware (even if white teflon exists in other applications); if you want to minimize exposure to teflon fumes in case of overheating accidents (eg if you have pet birds in the house), be aware that some ceramic lined pans have a teflon protected outside.

Some black/grey/patterned "ceramic" coatings, however, seem to be hybrid (teflon reinforced with ceramic dust).

If in doubt, check whether there is a manufacturer and product name for the coating mentioned on the packaging - this is common with good quality coated cookware, you can then look up the specs for it on the internet. If such research yields unclear results, that does not speak for the quality of the coating.

Be aware that the average ceramic coating you'll find on cookware is far from equal to teflon in nonstick properties, seems to be more sensitive to thermal shock or other damage - while it will not come off, it will quickly lose the nonstick properties. Also, white ceramic coatings can stain.


My cheese is too mushy This past weekend I wanted to try to make my own cheese for the first time. I gathered the typical ingredients: milk, rennet, and citric acid and went to town. Making Riccotta and Mozzarella seemed to work out alright, so I decided to try a harder cheese; however, in order to do that I had to press the cheese so that it compressed into the proper form. It was difficult to determine how much weight to put on the curds to get them to form. Too little force and it gets mushy, too much and I felt like I would compress it into a singularity! Has anyone done this before that could offer some weighty advice?

How are you pressing the cheese?  Are you using a cheese press?  I have done some traditional cheese making and it does take a lot of force.  Not quite to the point of creating an atomic reaction though.   For something simple, look for a Dutch press.  It is a lever based press that helps.  A screw press can also work.


Why didn't the toppings on my pizza stick to the dough? I made homemade pizza the other night and it was delicious except for the fact the toppings wouldn't stay on the cooked dough. It was a Chicken Alfredo pizza with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, and chicken. I used a metal round pizza pan to bake the pizza and the taste was amazing! However, like I stated earlier, the topping and the cheese would fall off. Why is this? How do I make it stick to the dough? Maybe I put too many toppings on the pizza, but I believe I put a perfect, good amount. Thanks for the feedback! (:

Probably, you spreaded too much sauce on your pizza base; that is why melted cheese could not get onto the base.

You might make that pizza in a hasty. So, you put your uncooked pizza in an overheated oven.

You need to select the mozzarella cheese which can work as like as glue stick used in heat-gun. I believe you can make your pizza perfectly after 2/3 more trial and error.


Why does cooking mushrooms longer alter the taste so much? When pan frying sliced regular white mushrooms, I prefer to cook them on high-heat with a generous amount of EVO until they shrivel up quite a bit and become golden brown in color.  This is opposed as opposed to cooking them with less heat for a shorter duration to the point where they do not change in size and only darken slightly, or not at all.

I find that mushrooms cooked to this lesser degree have a distinctive taste and smell (that some dislike very much), yet when raw or cooked to the degree in which I first described, they do not contain this smell or taste.

My question: What is the reason for this?  Perhaps there is some sort of chemical responsible for the change in taste (similar to the idea of raw garlic versus well cooked or roasted garlic).

I can't speak to specific chemicals/aromatics for mushrooms, but this kind of thing does happen with all kinds of food. The initial cooking is releasing aromatics that were previously bound up in the food somehow, so you quickly get some stronger flavors. But aromatic molecules are volatile (that's why you smell them!) and also generally more prone to breaking down, so as you cook longer, they escape, or are broken down into something else without so much flavor, leaving you with something milder.

Think about onion, for example. When you first start sauteeing it, there's a lot of really strong onion smell coming off, maybe even enough to make you cry if you're prone to it. If you eat it then, it'll still have plenty of sharp onion flavor. But as you cook longer, those flavors mellow out; going to the extreme, slowly caramelized onions have no sharpness and very little onion flavor.

I think the initial strengthening of flavor may be stronger with mushrooms because of their structure. They seem dry at first, with all the water bound up inside. But as you start to cook them, their structure breaks down and they quickly release a lot of water, and with it, those flavors.


Curried parsnip soup, not flavoursome enough I've just made a big batch of soup but the curry flavour is too subtle, how can I spice it up at this stage please?

Add more curry powder, or whatever you were using. If it's a powder, it won't need to cook much longer to take up the flavor. If it's a paste or liquid you can just stir it in.

If it's something bigger and you can't grind it, you'd need to cook a while longer to get the flavor out. If you also don't want to cook the soup much longer (if perhaps it has chunks that you don't want to overcook), you could take out a bit of liquid to cook the spices in then add it back in.

It's also possible you've undersalted it, or could use some more richness from stock (or bouillon cubes/paste, but be careful not to oversalt).


Too much onion flavor in dip I've just made a cream cheese, mushroom and onion spread and the onion flavor is way too strong.  Is there any way I can reduce it by adding something?

It would be helpful if you would post a full recipe as that would eliminate fruitless suggestions. Two things come to mind:

If the onions are included raw, you should wrap the chopped onions in a towel and wring the 'juice' out.
Acid of some kind could help too, either exchange sour cream for the cream cheese or find a way to incorporate lemon/lime juice.


Debeard or purge mussels first? In the process of cleaning mussels, should I be letting them purge, then remove the beards? Does the order not matter?
I ask because I don’t want to give the mussels any discouragement of purging and I am not sure if that would affect it.

Soak first, then debeard.
I'm not sure that there is any real difference but everyone I've worked with, from grandmother to chef, from fisherman to fireman has done it that way. And there is something to be said for an amassed amount of experience.
One last to add though (and this is why I say that I'm not sure there is any real difference) is that while I get most of my mussels diving out with friends (so wild-caught and with beards and frequently barnacles to clean), most that I've seen in the past few years are commercially grown on ropes and usually don't have beards at all.


How to prevent overcooking of eggs in Carbonara sauce? Carbonara can be absolutely delicicious if everthing goes perfectly; but it can also be tasteless, chewy and lumpy, if the egg is overcooked. Does anyone have what they regard as a fool proof method for preparing Carbonara?

Cook the pancetta on a large pan, so that it fries in its own fat. It must turn red, but don't cook it too much as you are going to cook it a bit more later on.

Open two eggs. If you like the color of the carbonara intense, throw one white away, and keep one white and two yolks. Put them in a bowl, then add grated parmigiano and mix with a fork. The amount of parmesan should be at least the same volume of the eggs, maybe even more (twice does not hurt). This will give you a rather firm but still flowing compound. Firm is better than too liquid.

Cook the pasta. Spaghetti is the norm for carbonara, but also penne is a good choice. Get them "al dente" or some second later, as you prefer. Drain the pasta and put it in the pan you used to cook the pancetta (where the pancetta still is). Pour the egg/cheese mix on top of the pasta and put the pan on gentle heat, while you continue moving and mixing. Detach any layer of cooked egg from the bottom of the pan while you mix. The perfect carbonara must not be liquid, and it must not be clumpy solid, so keep mixing or you will get a pasta omelette.

Once you are done, turn off the heat, and take spaghetti up with a large fork, so to disentangle them while you transfer them on the dishes. move them in the dish with a small oscillating movement to disentangle a bit more. Continue like this for all the dishes you have to serve. At the end you will have the pancetta remaining in the pan, and you put it on top of each dish.

Add more grated parmigiano and some ground black pepper and eat as soon and hot as possible !

Additional notes: try to stay a bit scarce on salt in the pasta water, and do not add salt to the egg. The fact is that the pancetta is already pretty salted, and you risk to obtain a very salted final result. Carbonara should be salty, but not too salty.

I heard about modification with butter and cream, but I have never seen them used, at least in my family and circle of friends.


Graham Crust Cheesecake is so hard to cut? How come with I follow the instructions to the letter on the Nasbisco Graham box for the cheesecake recipe that my crust come out so hard to cut upon serving? I dont think I'm over cooking it and I alway chill it in the refrigerator overnite! Please help me!

It sounds to me that you are simply pressing too hard and compressing the crust too much. Use the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to press just hard enough to keep the crust in place. Very little pressure is necessary.


How do you separate the skin from pork? I cure my own bacon with the skin still on the pork belly because I do not know how to remove it. I tried slicing it off with a knife (type unknown) but quickly lost patience. What is the best way to accomplish this task?

Also, I have 50 pounds of pig fat with which I intend to make lard, but I must removed the skin from it as well.

A technique that I've seen is to score the skin in strips on the outside and then cut and peel the skin like a band-aid with a sharp knife (paring or boning) aiding the separation.  I'm not a butcher, but last time we cured meat, we (two people) went through 100 lbs of fresh meat meticulously in about 20 minutes using this method (the other person was a southern Italian gentleman who was an old-hand at this).

You use the knife to cut and separate the skin from the meat and end up with long strips of fat.  The skin separates from the meat nicely if you work at the interface layer of the skin and the meat.

With fat, you do a similar method.  Except this time you place the skin on the cutting board (fat side up) and essentially scrape the fat off the skin (almost like a fillet action).

In both cases, you grab the skin with one hand and use the knife to separate/wedge the skin from the meat/fat with the other (see the safety note below).

Important safety note: always make sure the knife blade is pointing away from you and you're "cutting away" from your body.  Also make sure the hand that is holding the skin is behind the blade and not in the path.  This is to make sure that if your hand and knife run away, injury does not occur.


Basque cod with sous-vide I recently cooked bacalao al pil pil, a Basque recipe. The trick is to render the gelatin from the fish at a low temperature, reserve the fish meat and then mount the gelatin with oil. The whole process is somewhat longer.

The question is that codfish has a thick part and a thin part. So over/under cooking is always a problem. That's where I thought of the sous-vide technique. At what temperature could the fish be perfectly cooked and at the same time release all the gelatin?

Per this paper, you want an extraction time of 15-60 mins at 113F / 45C. This patent uses temperatures below 131F / 55C. Both of those temperatures may be too low to make the cod actually taste good / cooked. 140F is a fairly typical temperature for sous vide fish. While 113F has some interesting results, it may or may not work for your dish as the result comes out quite different than standard cooked fish. However, I don't think that using a higher heat will have a negative effect on the gelatin extraction, so I'd start with 140F and work down from there.

This process may cause other problems though. In addition to extracting the gelatin, any other juices from the fish will mix with your gelatin. In a pan, these may steam off, but with sous vide you're stuck with them. I think you're likely to end up with a mixture that's much more watery than if you used a pan. You may find that this needs to be boiled down a little bit in order to get the desired consistency of your emulsion.

As always with sous vide, you've also got potential safety issues. You'll never reach pasteurization at 113F. You should check Douglas Baldwin's A Practical Guide To Sous Vide for cooking times (which are highly dependent on width).


Are you supposed to stir sauerkraut while it is fermenting? I am making sauerkraut I have the cabbage and salt in the crock. I mixed it together really well as I did this.  I know it takes several days to be ready to can. Do I stir it some more while it is fermenting?

I do not stir my cabbage once it starts fermenting, but I cannot say whether it would affect the ferment if you stir it.


How do I reduce kitchen temperature during cooking? My kitchen gets too hot during the summer while I am cooking. I have exhaust fans installed in the kitchen, but it's not really helping. I have four questions:

Is there any other way I can reduce the kitchen temperature?
Does the kitchen chimney help reduce kitchen temperature? I read one ducting kitchen chimney is as powerful as 15 exhaust fans. But I also read that kitchen chimney mainly help to fight with odors, oil, etc, but not temperature. My friend said using kitchen chimney will definitely give some relief. I really want some expert/experienced advice, will it really help to reduce kitchen temperature by at least some degrees?
Are there other appliances like air purifier, humidity controller that can solve this issue?
Should I stop trying to reduce kitchen temperature, as it's essential for cooking? (But, I really want food getting cooked, not myself :'(  )

Sucking hot air out of the kitchen using the hood ("chimney") will cool the room, though possibly not by much on a hot day. A nice big open window to allow fresh air in will maximise this effect.  Even on a hot day, the hood will cause a through draught, and the lower humidity, slightly cooler air blowing over you as you cook will be much more comfortable.

In very rare cases where the outside temperature is above the inside temperature (traditional buildings that are designed to cool at night and heat as slowly as possible during the day) there's little you can do.  Such buildings aren't really designed for use with air conditioning (and they often come from a tradition involving outdoor cooking)

Some other things you can do that make at least as much difference:

Cover dishes when cooking and turn the heat down (yes, even if it's not traditional).  This is especially useful when boiling/simmering as the steam contributes to the discomfort.
Some dishes can be brought up to boiling point then insulated to continue cooking.
In a heatwave I've been known to get a long extension lead and an electric hotplate and cook outside (probably not an option in an apartment unles you have a balcony).


How to defrost coriander / cilantro? My local supermarket has cheap frozen coriander/cilantro.

But when I defrost it by leaving it in a bowl for an hour, it turns into a slimy mess.

How can I defrost it so that I get nice fresh leaves?

Frozen supermarket coriander/cilantro is perfectly good to use whilst cooking. Very similar to adding stems for flavour. You'll never get fresh looking leaves to finish the dish from the ice blocks, but stir it in and you will get that background flavour. Delicate leaves, Basil is similar, are either fresh or they aren't.

Don't worry too much about the look and you'll be fine. Bear in mind that you're adding water to the recipe, and put a pot plant on your windowsill for the finishing touches.


Converting stand mixing time to hand mixing For each minute of using a stand mixer on high, approximately how long (or how much effort, quantified) should a mixture be mixed (whisked/beaten) by hand to achieve similar results?

Baking recipes are frequently encountered which only supply instructions requiring  use of an electric stand mixer. Sometimes these recipes indicate that mixing by hand is possible - and indeed, that used to be the main way mixing was performed.

This question inquires as to mixing/beating batters, specifically; such as cake or gluten-free batters - not kneading.

I remember when cake mixes included the number of strokes needed to mix the batter by hand.  The Betty Crocker FAQ website (a U.S. baking mix company) suggests 150 strokes per each minute of electric mixer time recommended.  Note: that is not 150 strokes per minute!  So if the directions call for 2 minutes of mixing, that translates to 300 strokes.

Betty Crocker FAQ Site

EDIT

The stroke count in this answer is specifically for use with a cake mix.  As KatieK pointed out, mixing time and strokes are really dependent on the ingredients and desired consistency for that particular recipe and step in the recipe.


Are there any recipe ingredients that scale in a non-uniform manner? A question I asked on the stats Q/A has a comment that reads,

  [...] to make 8 times the amount of food a recipe describes you don't just
  octuple all the ingredients mentioned (eg. salt)".

Some recipes, of course, don't scale well if you try to cook them in larger batches, but that's not what I understand the comment as saying. I understand it to say that, when scaling recipes you may need to use different multipliers for different ingredients.

I feel fairly certain that this is not the case for most recipes. I wonder though, if there any recipes where the ingredients do not scale uniformly.

Things applied in a non-linear manner do not scale linearly, i.e. when the 'Surface to volume ratio' matters, the recipe will not scale linearly.
See  http://kitchenscience.sci-toys.com/scaling for a discussion mostly on how the timings are affected.

One example is breading: You will not need to double the breading linearly on a single 200g piece of beef/chicken compared to a single 400g piece, since the surface area will not change with the same factor as the weight, i.e. the surface area will not double when the weight doubles.

On the other hand, if you use twice as many pieces of chicken, you will need twice as much breading.


How can I tell when red bananas are ripe? Recently we bought a hand of red bananas. We watched them for a while, but couldn't sense a change in them (they don't change color). We eventually opened one and it was hard inside. How can I tell when they are ripe?

They do change color, just not so obviously as normal bananas. There's a slight greenish tint that disappears as they ripen, and the red becomes a bit deeper (some people say purplish).

They also get softer - including the skin getting more tender, just like yellow banana skin. Just think about how bananas feel when ripe, feel your red bananas, and (perhaps with a tiny bit of trial and error) you can figure it out.


Pressure cooking green beens I am canning my green beans and I have my camp chef in the garage that I am pressuring them on. So I go distracted and didn't realize they had already met their 13 lbs and had been there for... I don't know how long, so I guessed. Now I am nervous I didn't pressure them long enough. I cooked them 10 more minutes from the time I realized they were already pressuring. They look fine. Should I pressure cook them again to make sure? AND, what if I don't re-pressure them, will they make us sick?

Looking fine isnt enough to tell you that it is safe.
The bare minimum process time in the pressure canner for pints is 20 minutes (25 minutes for quarts). if you only processed for 10 minutes that you timed and an unknown length of time before that then I'm not sure if anyone can reliably tell you if it is safe or not.

To be perfectly safe as well as confident in your assumption of safety then it would probably be best to just reprocess according to the times in the tables from the link below.
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/beans_snap_italian.html

edit: I noticed that you said pressure cook and not pressure can at the end of your question. There is a difference between pressure cookers and pressure canners and a cooker is usually not sufficient as a canner. Make sure that what you are using is actually a canner - some manufacturers incorrectly label their cookers as cooker/canners.
There is more detailed information at the links below:

Why pressure cookers are not sufficient for canning: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/factsheets/pressurecookers.html

More information on using pressure canners:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general/recomm_canners.html

(links are okay here... right?)


How to avoid collapsing bread? I know there are already similar questions but I thought I would share my baking process to get more specific advice.
I'm currently using a variation of the French dough recipe that came with the bread maker. Also I am cooking in the oven rather than the bread machine.
The original recipe uses:

400g flour
250ml water
1tsp yeast
1tsp salt
10g butter

I have replaced the butter with lard, but most importantly I am using a sort of starter instead of the dry yeast.
This is basically a loose dough made with a tiny amount of yeast, water and flour. I feed the starter every 2 days with flour, water and sugar.
I use 2 spoonfuls of the "starter" for a loaf. The taste is good but the texture is quite inconsistent.
I am probably doing the proofing wrong: 2-3 hours at room temperature to get it started, then overnight in the fridge. Next morning I knock it down and wait for it to grow again. It's ok but not fluffy enough. The crumb is too compact.
This time I let it proof overnight at room temperature because the fridge was full. I wasn't too worried because when I went to bed it hadn't started raising yet.
In the morning the dough was doubled so I cut it in half and made two loaves. I waited 3 hours for a final rise but when I touched the loaves they collapsed.
I had a go with one hoping it would raise in the oven but got a "flat".
So i added some flour (100g) and water to the second one and let it proof 1 hour. It seem it had doubled but after cooking I found the crumb was very compact.
How should I proof my bread?
I'm attaching pictures of the 2 loaves.

There are many variables in bread-baking: ingredient ratios, kneading, bulk rise time and temperature, shaping, final rise, baking vessel/surface, and oven temperature. All of these things significantly impact the quality of your loaf. You've specified some of these in your question, but not all of them, so it is hard to get a full picture of your process.
The biggest red flag with your procedure is the "starter" you describe. The flat results and need for extremely long rises suggests that you just are not getting enough leavening. Sourdough starters have a reputation for being finicky; you cannot make a true starter by haphazardly mixing water, flour, yeast, and sugar. If you want to go down the sourdough path, you should carefully follow a tutorial, like this one. But be forwarned, it is an involved process.
However, since you seem to have commercial yeast, the most straightforward approach is just to use it. "Straight doughs" where you mix the yeast with the rest of the ingredients immediately prior to the bulk rise are the easiest and most consistent way to bake. You should probably stick with this process until you achieve good shape and texture; only then move on preferments or sourdoughs.
I think you would find more success starting fresh with a reliable recipe than tweaking your existing procedure. This Hearth Bread recipe from King Arthur Flour would be a great place to start, and seems to be similar in style to the loaf you are attempting. Try to follow all the steps carefully, as bread making is hard! Try to master a basic recipe before attempting your own variations.


Roasting large quantities of garlic: whole unpeeled heads or peeled cloves? I'm going to be making a soup dish that calls for 50 cloves of roasted garlic.  I have always roasted garlic by cutting off the top of a head, drizzling it with oil, and wrapping with foil.  Then when they're done I just squeeze out the paste from each clove.  But some comments on the recipe say it's easier to roast them already peeled in a covered dish so you don't have to squeeze 50 cloves and deal with all the stickiness and peels.

Since I already know how to easily peel whole cloves very quickly, it doesn't make much difference in the amount of work for me to do it either way.  In fact, it's probably quicker to peel them.

My question is, does it affect taste or any other quality to roast them as an entire unpeeled head rather than as peeled individual cloves?  And if not, should roasting time be adjusted?

Garlic roasted as a head, as unpeeled cloves, or as peeled cloves is all much the same. It is just easier to handle unpeeled, and even easier when kept as a head

For easy results just trim the excess paper skin and roots of a whole garlic head, carefully trim just the tops of most of the cloves

Don't drizzle with oil and wrap in foil, this will just make a mess, and steam them more than roast them. Garlic is already very oily, it shouldn't need any more. Roasting items should be exposed to dry heat, not steam

Roast until soft and medium-dark brown. When cooled slightly, pull cloves apart and lay them out on a board. Squeeze out each clove using a firm spatula or other blunt tool. This should not be too messy. Wear disposable gloves if you don't like garlic on your hands


Is the liquid I get after pressure cooking a whole chicken a "complete" stock? Recently I've been buying whole chickens (~4-4.5 pounds) from the grocery store and pressure cooking them to great effect. It cooks fairly well, and I add about 1.5 cups of water to get it started. When the chicken comes out, I end up with just under a quart (4 cups) of liquid and fat. I strained off the fat and ended up with a liquid that got beautifully gelatinous overnight in the fridge.

In previous attempts, I've always taken this liquid along with the bones and little bits of meat, added more liquid to get to about 8 cups total, added aromatics, and pressure cooked it again. I end up with much more liquid (obviously), but it doesn't end up as beautifully gelatinous as the initial liquid.

My question is this: if my initial cook is in the pressure cooker, should I expect any additional extraction of flavor or gelatin from the carcass and remaining bits, or is it likely that all the substantive extraction took place on the cook of the whole chicken, and that the liquid I got the first go-round is all I'll get?

If you are cooking the chickens whole, and I think you are from your description, then your cooking liquid has not had sufficient contact with the bones to extract the available gelatin. You should absolutely be able to make a stock with the carcass later.

As you say, even with the nice gelatinous cooking liquid you have from your first step, you don't have a whole stock without the aromatics. My advice is to make your stock with the carcass as usual, but add your cooking liquid too for a nice boost.


How long can I store mole? I'd like to have a go at making some kind of mole, but all the recipes I have seem to make big batches. How long can I keep mole for, either in the fridge or freezer?

In the freezer, more-or-less indefinitely, depending on how good your freezer is.  Certainly months to years.

In the fridge, it depends on the kind of mole.  Quick moles (like various green moles) don't keep very long, maybe a week at most.  A long-cooked mole should keep a bit longer -- up to 2 weeks -- since all of the ingredients are completely cooked.

If you're not planning to use it within a week, though, why not freeze it?  The texture won't take any harm from freezing and thawing.


What does soffritto do to minestrone? I have read some recipes for minestrone where it calls for making a soffritto before adding water. What would happen if you omitted this step and just added raw onion, carrot and celery to the boiling water, as you would do with the rest of the vegetables?

The vegetables don't need to be browned, hence it appears to me that shallow frying them is not necessary if it is followed by boiling either way.

A soffritto is the Italian cousin of the French mirepoix. Both consist of small cubes of root vegetables and onions.

The gentle “sweating” in fat enhances the sweetness of the vegetables and brings out the “umami”, an almost meaty flavor. In the onions it also breaks down the sharp pungency. The process will form a flavor base that brings a certain “heartiness” to stews and sauces.

You can skip the step - many soups will use the raw, coarser chopped vegetables - but the results would not have the properties listed above.


What is the advantage of using buttermilk in baking? I would like to know the main advantage of using buttermilk as a hydrator and minor source of fat (1% fat, right?) in baking, over using regular milk or cream.

Since it's a byproduct of producing butter, I would suppose that early peoples developed recipes to use buttermilk solely, instead of remixing it with butter like in most recipes I see online -- though this is just a comment rather than a question, feel free to share any insights.

Backstory is I tried whipping my own butter to use in my cookie recipe. The results were absoutely superior (soft, fragrant cookies), since the butter still has some buttermilk left inside. I was able to produce the same yield whilst holding back one egg from the usual recipe.

Historically, milk was accumulated in the churn until there was enough to be worth making butter. The milk would, of course, ferment. Both the butter and the watery buttermilk took the sour, fermented flavor.

Modern buttermilk is different. It is low fat milk that has been cultured and fermented. It is thicker and creamier but has a similar soured flavor. (I've been told. I've never tasted historically fermented buttermilk.)

Therefore, historical recipes are not going to be the same as modern recipes that call for buttermilk.

The "buttermilk" left in your homemade butter would not have fermented and would not be similar to historical or modern buttermilk. It does have a good amount of sugar and protein, and of course water, that would affect your recipe.

In modern recipes, buttermilk is used to lower the ph, add a tangy flavor and a creamier texture than milk. The added fat is not usually a factor. Creamy buttermilk can be made with skim milk.

As dlb pointed out in a comment, the creaminess and acid allows chemically risen baked goods to be fluffier with the same liquid and fat content as regular milk.


Using white wine in the cooking Once I was in an italian restaurant where you could see the chefs cooking. My friend ordered a a pasta whose sauce was made of vegetables red meat and white wine. As far as I could remember he cooked the vegetables and meat in a wok pot and then basically "deglaze" the pot with no more than what I would assume a half cup of white wine then I think he added paste and mixed altogether. In the end it tasted very aromatic as if he boiled away the alcohol from a whole bottle of wine and added the remaining grape essence to the pasta.

I tried the same process I cooked the vegetables, occasionally adding a spoon of white wine then added meat and whenever the pot was hot enough to boil a spoon of wine instantaneously I added a spoonful of wine again. I preferred this method because I did not have a wok pot and strong enough fire. In the end I ended up using a cup of white wine which gave little to no taste to the food at all.

So what am I doing wrong, is it the choice of wine that makes the dish very aromatic or choice of cooking method?

Update: After alot of tries I have seen that Moscato wine gives the most flavor to the food as the wine itself is very aromatic and sweet. For two portions of food I use one glass of it and a spoon of balsamic vinegar to balance the sweetness. In spanish dishes it is also used for bean and meat stews which I have also seen to be very nice.

There are several things that come together to produce the overall flavor profile of the dish, not all of them having anything to do with the wine.  Traditional factors such as good spicing, blooming the spices, browning ingredients and so forth continue to have a huge affect.

Deglazing with some wine adds the following:

Acidity.  Wine is an acid food product, and this brightness can enhance the overall flavor of the dish.
Sweetness.  Wine can also be sweet, which acts as a flavor enhancer.
Fruitiness.  The fruity qualities of the wine may compliment the other flavors of the dish.
Alcohol.  The alcohol in the wine will not completely evaporate.  Some will remain, helping to dissolve and make volatile some flavor components which are ot soluble in either water or fats (this is especially true in tomato based dishes).  This can give foods cooked with alcohol an extra depth of flavor.

The first and last of these affects probably have the most profound affect on your dish.

Adding the wine in dribs and drabs probably doesn't help, but in the end you need to use enough wine to have a good effect on your dish.  Even though it will be reduced, it is still an ingredient, and you need to have enough to matter.

I do suggest adding it all at once, and letting it boil away; this should work quite well.

The quality of wine you use also matters.  You want a wine that tastes decent, even as a beverage.  My personal preference for cooking is a Chardonnay, but I don't think that preference is universal.


Chinese Hoppin' John In the American South, Hoppin' John is a popular New Year's meal. In honor of the Chinese New Year, I would like to make a Chinese variation on Hoppin' John.

In place of bacon, I thought I'd use BBQ Pork. However, I am unfamiliar with legumes (beans) used in Chinese cuisine other than soybeans. What are some other bean choices that would work for this?

Also, not sure about tomatoes being used in Chinese cooking. What would an alternative be for tomatoes?

Thanks.

The Chinese use what is often referred to as black beans, but they're actually fermented soybeans.

Azuki/Adzuki beans are the beans used in red bean paste. Most often, they're sweetened and mashed. But I don't see any reason you can't use them in Hoppin' John. I'd temper the slight sweetness of the azukis with a bit of black bean paste to give a more savory flavor. (The barbeque'd pork is already going to be a bit sweet.)


Do tomato-based sauces change/enhance flavour when left in the fridge? I cooked some green beans in a tomato-based sauce then ate some and left the rest in the fridge 3 days ago. I tasted it today, and it was better than I remember: is this a known phenomenon or am I not remembering right?

Most sauces, tomato based or not, will improve in flavour after being left overnight. This is also true of stews and casseroles. The received wisdom is that it gives the flavours a chance to 'marry' and blend, though I'm not sure of the science behind it.


What coarseness of japanese waterstones is ideal for cooking? Depending on the grit coarseness you can sharpen very blunt objects or refine an already sharp edge. Generally speaking, one can expect that a kitchen knife is much less heavily used than say, for example, carpenter tools or a pocket knife used to cut wood. I suppose for a kitchen knife there is no need for very coarse stones (say, below 200). Am I wrong here?

Oh absolutely, you certainly don't want to sharpen a kitchen knife on a 200 grit stone! You'll want one medium stone in case you ever need to remove a nick or something (but then you should probably take your knife to a pro at that point), and then probably like 2000-4000-6000 grits for routine polishing. (Note Japanese grit numbers are different than American oil stones).


How do I adjust a bread recipe for long, cool proofing? I've got that recipe that calls for 21g of fresh yeast for buns that shall only rest for one hour: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.chefhansen.de/2013/10/07/the-golden-october/&usg=ALkJrhjEB2ncHCn-QroNukS7DWPli2tLBA

If I want to proof the dough overnight or for 24 hrs, 48 hrs etc: how do I need to adjust the amount of yeast to use? Is there any rule of thumb to apply?

Edit:
The ingredients for the buns are:

250 g Hokkadio Pumpkin
50-75 ml of milk
21 g cube fresh yeast
150 g wheat flour type 550
360 g whole wheat flour sifted, remove the bran for later
1/2 tsp caraway seed
1/2 tsp fennel pounded
2 tsp salt
60 g butter

Seeing the recipe now, my only advice is: don't.

Long proofing is something which is done with white wheat bread to add some aroma. And it depends on the yeast having very good growing conditions.

What you have here is a quite complicated dough. It has a ton of pumpkin in it, and most of the flour is whole wheat. And then you are adding spices, which have yeast retardant properties of their own. This is a dough which will have trouble rising. Keeping it alive for 24 hours won't be too easy, getting a decent rise out of it will be worse, and getting good added taste instead of some off tastes with this mixture is in the stars.

And even if you managed to proof the dough well in a long process, you won't get the effect you are hoping for. In pure wheat, a long fermentation gives you subtle fermentation aromas, but nowhere as strong as sourdough, and a very specific texture which people tend to seek out. You can forget the texture in this overloaded dough, and the spices will cover the taste change pretty much.

Just use the recipe as intended, and if you want long-fermented bread, take a recipe which is meant for that, there are enough of those around.


What consistency should flan have when it is removed from the oven? I am making flan for a dinner party this evening. The recipe indicates the flan should be baked for an hour before chilling. However, having never cooked flan before I am unsure what the flans consistency should be when it comes out of the oven. Is a little runny okay? Will the flan already be "firm," or does that happen during the chilling process?

It will firm up a little bit during chilling, but not much. It is certainly supposed to be firm enough to keep its shape on its own when taken out.

If you have baked creme caramel or cheesecake, then try to get it to a similar consistency as these. If you haven't, you may want to use a roast thermometer. The final temperature (assuming a traditional flan without starch or flour) should fall in the 85-90 Celsius range.


How to make Fennel juice? How to make juice from Fennel Seeds? In India we eat fennel after meals, but I want to make some drinks using it.

You can buy fennel seed extract, but I can't find instructions to make it. I assume you could just crush the seeds, put them in vodka and strain in a week or two.

If you don't want to use alcohol, you could also use propylene glycol or glycerine.

Another thing you might consider is using vinegar the same way. That could certainly be an interesting accent to certain drinks.

Any kind of attempt to juice the seeds isn't going to work. Extraction should work, I'll experiment with it. I'll update this post in a couple of weeks if no one beats me to it.

EDIT: It says on WIKI that you can make a tea with fennel seeds. By golly it works! I used slightly crushed fennel seeds and added boiling water. Once it cooled to drinking temperature, I strained it. I'm drinking it now, it tastes like fennel seeds. It's quite nice with a touch of honey.

Later EDIT: I just checked on the fennel seed extract in vodka and the vinegar. Both seem to be working just fine. I think the vinegar has some real potential. Maybe not so much with fruit, but perhaps with vegetable juices and/or kefir. I'm also thinking that it is going to make a great salad dressing.

UPDATE: The extract made with vodka is exactly how I expected it to be. It's a bit boozy (of course) but it tastes like fennel seeds. A few drops of this could easily replace actual fennel seeds in any recipe I can think of.

The vinegar is another story entirely. This stuff is awesome. I'm not yet sure exactly how I am going to use it, but I will, and I'll make it again. Furthermore, this has inspired me to make an infused vinegar using all of the whole spices that I still have from my most recent adventure with pho (Vietamese noodle soup). I can imagine it as a secret ingredient in all kinds of goodness. Thanks for the question which in turn inspired good stuff!


How can I clean the brush that I am using for burnt pots? How can I clean the brush that I am using for burnt pots? It is black and greasy..

Automatic Dishwasher

I toss a number of my cleaning tools (sponges, brushes, etc) into the dishwasher anytime there's a bit of extra space. If done regularly  it keeps the grime buildup from happening too much.

If yours is REALLY greasy, you might want to try heating some soapy water in a pot and simmer it for a little while. (This will get the pot quite greasy too, so be ready to clean that as well). You can even boil it if the plastic is the right kind. Heat will help dissolve the grease.


Can you make pan gravy if the turkey was brined? I've read every question here that mentions brining a turkey, and I've seen conflicting remarks about whether the pan drippings are suitable for making gravy. (None of the existing questions actually address this point directly.)

So: if I brine the turkey, will my mom still be able to make her amazing gravy from the drippings, or will the result be inedibly salty? Does this depend on the particular gravy recipe? (Mom's involves sour cream and garlic, and sometimes mushrooms.)

I believe that I have made some of those conflicting comments.

It is definitely possible to make an excellent pan gravy with the drippings from a brined turkey.

It is also really easy to have the gravy turn out inedibly salty if you aren't careful.

Make sure you follow the brining recipe. Don't have too high a concentration of salt and don't brine for too long. Rinse off the bird, inside and out, before roasting.

I have also read, from reliable sources such as Harold McGee, that gravy is impossible. My own experience would suggest otherwise.


Is whitebait safe at 42c? I am having trouble getting whitebait to the correct internal temperature.  After I simmer it for a few miniutes I put the thermometer in and it goes up to 42c and not 63c(145f) which is the safe temp for fish.  Im not sure whether because the fish is small its not possible for the reader to get a correct reading.  the points on my thermometer are quite big and probably for larger cuts of food though it seems to go in the flesh.

the problem is if i cook it to a higher temp it just overcooks.  so am i cooking it safely and correctly or not? is my thermometer reliable, what am i doing wrong since safe seems to be overcooked and cooked seems to be unsafe, it could also have to do with my thermometer but not sure.

thanks

what am i doing wrong since safe seems to be overcooked and cooked seems to be unsafe

You are doing nothing wrong, this is as it should be. It is the cooking which scrambles the proteins of both the fish and the bacteria living in it, making the food safe in the process. The fish is not safe at 42 C. I don't have charts here, but if you looked it up and saw it is safe at 63 C, then that's the temperature needed for safety.

You just have to decide what you want - safety or a given state of cooking - and cook your fish to the respective temperature.


What is the proper amount of time to thaw + brine a turkey simultaneously? I recently saw a tip that you can thaw a frozen turkey in your brine, and I'd like to try that this year. I was planning to thaw my turkey for 3 days in a cooler of water.

I've actually never brined before, so I'm a little worried about over-brining and turning my turkey into mush. The bird we got this year is just under 15 pounds, and the package says to thaw for "3-4 days".

Everything I've found so far says to brine for 1-2 days. Should I plan to start using brine about half way through the thaw process (maybe even leave the wrapper on for that first half, too?), instead of the whole time, or will the bird being frozen initially prevent the brine from doing its magic early on, thus preventing mush?

A few things aren't quite right here.

1- a cooler full of water for 3 days.
A turkey will take 3-4 days to thaw in the fridge- between 35-40F. Quicker methods call for submerging in running water for some hours. Submerging the turkey in stagnant water- even if it started as ice water- will allow the turkey to rise well above 40F over the course of 3 days. You would have to add ice or have the turkey somewhere colder than 40F for this to be safe.

2- brining too long turning a turkey to mush.
The salt in a brine denatures some proteins and supercharges the bird with water. These will make the meat more tender and seem more tender respectively. That said- the risk isn't that the meat will get mushy. Unless you are adding some other ingredient to the brine that is actually a proteinase like papain the risk is not mushiness but being too salty.

3- 1-2 days of brining.
I have never seen a recipe that called for brining this long. The brine recipes I have seen are on the order of 4-10 hours. If your brine recipe calls for this length of time then it is probably more dilute than the ones I use. In such a case it would probably be fine to thaw it in the brine if you address the safety concern.

The turkey being frozen will prevent the brine from penetrating but as the bird thaws from the outside in the outside of the bird will have more alone time with the brine than the deeper meat. I can't say whether this would be a problem- especially as Harold McGee says that the salt from brining isn't able to penetrate very far into the meat anyway.

Unless it is cold enough outside (or you have enough fridge space) that you could brine the turkey at <40F for 2 days while it thawed I would recommend at least mostly thawing it before introducing it to your brine.


Are there significant differences between different brands/models of immersion blenders? I'm thinking of purchasing a new immersion blender as a gift for somebody that has a very old one which is quite literally being held together with duct tape.

I own a Sunbeam model which I believe is rather cheap (it was actually a gift to me several years ago) and although I use it infrequently, I haven't had any major problems with it.

My internet research on immersion blenders hasn't uncovered much other than a few unverified statements that molecular cooks prefer the Braun models for foams.  No explanation of why, and I haven't even seen a Braun in any store here, but regardless, the intended recipient of this doesn't make foams, she primarily uses it (often) to make creamy soups and maybe a few other purée-based dishes.

I seem to be seeing the same Cuisinart model everywhere and am starting to wonder if I should just get that one and not bother looking for anything more... premium.

Are there actually any characteristics or features that make some immersion blenders better than others, either in general or for a specific purpose?  If so, what are they?

Also, I'm not necessarily looking for a recommendation, but a few times in the past I've been told to look for features which were apparently unobtainable, so if there are any unique/premium features I should be on the lookout for, it would help to have at least one example of a model that has them.

America's Test Kitchen published a review of eight models in the April 2010 issue of Cook's Country.

Their test covered several common tasks for an immersion blender:

Mayonnaise emulsification
Making soup
Whipping cream
Making smoothies with frozen ingredients
Making pesto

They evaluated the blenders on three criteria: performance, usability, and ease of cleaning. The only blender to perform at the highest level across all three, and the only to win their top honors of "highly recommended" is the Kalorik Sunny Morning Stick Mixer.

The model that I use is the KitchenAid Hand Blender. I have never had a problem with it, and it was the only other model reviewed to be recommended. It was dinged a few points in the soup & whipped cream tests.

The remaining models were either recommended "with reservations", or outright not recommended. The reasons for these included:

No cup included. The cup is important for ensuring optimal mixing.
Battery powered
Having to hold two buttons to use
Ridiculously loud
Excessive vibrations
General discomfort & fatigue
Poor performance with one or more of the food tasks. This was typically attributed to either a weak motor, or a poor blade cage design. A poorly designed cage can restrict the circulation of food resulting in portions being over blended.

None of the models  reviewed included a Sunbeam or Braun. However, the Cuisinart model was, and received the lowest marks of all.


Using nuts in pavlova meringue I want to use ground nuts in a pavlova meringue, but I am having difficulty deciding what cooking technique would be best to use - recipes for meringue with nuts added seem to require a higher heat (350f/ 175 C) and shorter cooking time, cooling out of the oven, whereas the traditional pavlova meringue requires a hot oven turned low and cooling completely in oven. I want the base to have the texture of a traditional pavlova, I suspect the other method produces a moister, chewier result, but would like to be sure. Also, if making in the traditional style, should I still add cornflour or will the nuts substitute for the cornflour?

A meringue with nuts in it is called a "japonaise".  If you search this, you will see many different recipes for a nutty meringue.  All meringues are crunchy in the beginning but become moist when left out or filled, provided they are properly cooked in the beginning.  I wouldn't worry about the texture as long as you use the meringues right away or store them properly (wrapped air tight and in a dry place - NO HUMIDITY).


How long after baking do American chewy cookies get their normal texture? I just baked my first ever batch of American-style cookies (chewy chocolate chip cookies). I used the correct ingredients, including actual wet brown sugar, except for the chocolate - I had no chocolate chips, so I used chopped milk chocolate (I know, I know...).

I have experienced this type of cookies as a light, but not soft baked good. When I have had them, they have been slightly airy, but more tough than brittle. I suppose that this is the desired texture, as they are called "chewy".

I took my first batch out of the oven, and it seems that I reached too deep with the glove and touched a cookie. It was squished. All the cookies turned out to be puffy and prone to deflating. Also, they have a cracked surface, unlike the pictures in the recipe illustrations.

Is this normal? Will they get their expected texture later? How much will I have to wait for them to get the desired texture? Or did I make a mistake?

I didn't cool the dough, although I have read often that cookie dough should be kept cold. The reason is that this recipe directed me to melt the butter, and didn't include cooling steps, so I assumed that a warm dough is normal for the recipe.

The cookies will set (take on their final texture) about by 20 - 30 minutes out of the oven.  Coming directly out of the oven, cookies will absolutely be soft and squishable; which is why you should wait a few minutes before moving them off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack (you can cheat this time if your cookies are all on a sheet of parchment paper, and you move the parchment paper as a whole).


What gas output required for home stir frying? I love stir fries, but I've never been happy with the result from using my 2400w electric nonstick wok.

I've bought a nice heavy steel one and know I need a gas burner but not sure of the output I really need? My bbq has a 12000btu output side burner (about 3.5kw) which will obviously do better than the electric wok, but is this enough?

What is the optimum output to use without getting into the professional output range?

Here's a quote from the short section "Stir-Fry" in the Gargantuan work "Modernist Cuisine":

  ...a wok burner can deliver up to [...] 200,000 BTU/h of thermal power. [...] By comparison, Western-style professional gas burners deliver [...] 15,000-30,000 BTU/h), and domestic gas  burners [...] 6,000-14,000 BTU/h)...

So for professional stir-fry ("bao" in thai - I think), the hotter the better. But there's also non-professional "chow" stir-fry, which is, in "Modernist Cuisine"s words, more like a "covered saute". You don't do the asian stir-fry because the flame is just too small, so you cook the fresh foods in their juices, stop while they're still crisp, and know that the world holds compassion also for guys with stoves like ours.


What is the purpose and effect of using knuckles when kneading bread dough? Some recipes specify that the baker's knuckles should be used when kneading the dough. What is the purpose and effect of using one's knuckles as part of the kneading process?

I don't think that it is really necessary to use your knuckles. Rather, there are ways to knead dough well, and ways to knead dough badly. I have seen ineffective people pinching the dough, or turning it between their hands, or other strange motions, which in a cargo-cult way resemble actual kneading, but don't do anything useful.

My guess is that whoever writes such instructions has learned a correct way of kneading that involves the knuckles, and writes down the admonishment to remind people that they have to do it right for the recipe to work well. The reason for the choice of label may be because the author is unaware that there are effective kneading methods which don't use the knuckles, or because the author has taught new kneaders and has found out that "use your knuckles" is a good cue to get them to use the right kind of motion.

A third possibility is that the author is referring specifically to the punching down step of a double-rise bread process. In that case, the motion between the first and second rise is not the same as standard kneading, and maybe the author wanted to underscore the difference.


What is the correct flour, sugar, butter ratio for crumble? Looking through a number of fruit crumble recipes I see that there is a wide range of ratios used for crumble topping. Some use equal amounts of flour (or other dry ingredient), sugar and butter. Others use about half the weight of butter and sugar to flour. Others still use double the amount of sugar and butter to flour.

Is there a definitive ingredient ratio for crumble as there is for pastry (3:2:1)? If so, what is it?

There is no single ideal. More sugar and butter will mean a more crunchy crumble top (and one that browns or burns more quickly), more flour will make it more sandy - they each have their place. The juicier the fruit, the sandier I like the topping to absorb some of the juice. The longer the fruit needs to cook, the more resilient to cooking the topping needs to be. And of course for a tart fruit like rhubarb, you might like more sugar in the topping to balance it - or you might just add sugar to the fruit and leave the topping alone.

My goto mix is 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter. But play with it a bit and vary it according to the fruit you are using - and I don't just mean "rhubarb" or "apples" but taste a bit of today's fruit to see how sweet it is, how soft it is, etc.


Why can't whole milk be substituted for cream in caramel sauce? I learned to make caramel sauce pretty recently and for a while was on a serious sauce-making kick.

Anyway, the day after Christmas I went to make a batch and noticed I didn't have any cream. I did a quick Google search and a few sites said I could substitute whole milk for the heavy cream in my recipe. When I got to that stage and added the milk it very quickly became apparent that those sites were wrong. Instead of thickening and becoming creamy the melted sugar simply dissolved away and I was left with a really nasty smelling pot of sweet warm milk.

So obviously I can't use whole milk instead of cream, but I'd really like to know, for curiosity's sake, why it doesn't work.

Quite simply, it's the fat content.

Whole milk or "full-fat" milk is 3.25% fat by weight. Heavy cream is 36-40% fat by weight. These two products are at opposite ends of the fat spectrum, and there's very little difference between 1% and 3% when it comes to an item such as caramel sauce, for which the optimal ratio is about 50% fat. (A little butter can boost the fat content from 40% to 50%).

You might be able to substitute standard/single cream (18-20%) or maybe even coffee cream/half-and-half (10%), but any lower than that and you're just making sugary milk.

Other alternatives to (possibly) get it thicker:

Use (much) less milk; I'd advise not attempting a direct substitution, just find a recipe based on milk. Even the best milk-based caramel sauce will still be substantially runnier and/or grittier than a cream-based sauce.
Considering that butter is 80% fat and homo milk is 3.25%, you could use a mixture of (approximately) half milk and half butter that would emulate the fat content of heavy cream. I've never tried this personally, and I suspect that the flavour might be a little off, but at least it would be closer to the expected texture.
Try a reduction (simmer off the water in the milk). You'll be simmering a long time, and you'll have to watch it very carefully to make sure it doesn't burn, and you'll probably have a nasty stuck-on mess to clean up in the pan afterward, but it will thicken.


Baking naan without an oven? Is it possible to make eggless naan without an oven?

I've had good luck baking naan on an indoor grill. I have an electric one, but you could use a stovetop one as well. Just apply a little butter, ghee, or spray oil, wipe it off, and bake.

(Click for larger images)

I used an alternative method to make lavash: an inverted wok over a stove burner. You'll need a gas stove to do this one. I applied them dry, cooked about 1-2 minutes on one side only. You can brush with butter or ghee after they're done.


Is there a compressed gas device designed specifically for creating infusions? This answer about creating infusions suggests using a compressed gas siphon to quickly infuse liquids with flavours from 'fragile' herbs.

The manufacturer of the popular iSi compressed gas siphons seems to sell whipped cream and soda siphons, but neither is advertised for the aforementioned infusion purpose.  I'm not at all averse to using one of these devices for this different purpose from that which it was designed, but I'd like to find the most usable device for creating infusions using compressed gas.

This leaves me with the following questions:

Is there a compressed gas device designed specifically for creating infusions using this method?
In general, would a soda siphon or a whipped cream siphon be more suited to creating infusions?
Are there particular attributes to look for in a compressed gas siphon that lend themselves to creating infusions?

1) I do not think so, the technique was described in e.g. modernist cuisine, they suggest using a ISI siphone and if I can remember correctly does not describe any other tool. Any pressure chamber would work, if you have access to one :-)

2) I have something like this which can be charged with both soda and cream charges, that is what I woudl suggest. (mine is not ISI). Think both you show will work since both charges are the same.  Charge with N2O (cream charge).

3) For the infusion part, you want pressure, look for size of the device that suits your needs. The bigger, the more you can do at the same time, but will require more charges for same pressure.