Are there any yeast-less breads that can be used as sandwich bread? My son cannot eat anything that contains yeast. Are there any types of yeast-less bread that can be used as a sandwich bread?

There are roughly four types of bread by leavening: yeast breads, chemically leavened breads, sourdough breads and unleavened breads.

Yeast breads are obviously out of question. Chemically leavened breads are made with baking soda or baking powder, and are also often called "quickbreads". They are less common as pure breads, and mostly available as special recipes which are somewhere between cake and bread, such as banana bread or zucchini bread. I don't know if you can buy any of them easily, but they are extremely easy to make at home (about as easy as muffins).

Edit per the commenters' suggestion, this is probably your best solution. While most recipes for quickbreads in use today are indeed for banana bread and such, there are older recipes (especially from wartime) where normal, non-flavored bread is made with soda. Using them is probably the best you can do. Caveat: the more breadlike you want the texture to be, the more dense will you have to make the bread, because developing the texture takes time, and baking soda and baking powder lose their leavening properties with time.

I would advise you to stay away from sourdough breads. They don't contain commercial yeast, but during fermentation they catch wild yeasts. The wild yeasts are closely related to commercial yeast, and likely to trigger the same allergies as commercial yeast does.

The last variety, unleavened breads, are flatbreads. They are dense due to lack of leavening, so if they were made thick, the center would not bake. This means that you can't cut them into slices to make a traditional sandwich. But if you relax your definition of what a sandwich should be like, you can use unleavened breads like tortillas or matzo layered with the ingredients, or make actual wraps instead of sandwiches. Pay attention though, not every flatbread is unleavened, naan for example contains yeast. Knäckebröd is a flatbread which can be leavened or unleavened depending on brand, and it makes excellent sandwiches.

You can also try making sandwiches with non-bread substances. A jibarito is a sandwich where the filling is packed in fried plantain slices instead in bread. Other vegetable slices like zucchini or oven-dried eggplant should work too. Puffed rice wafers are also a good sandwich packaging, as well as savoury waffles (make your own or read the packaging, because there are yeast-leavened waffles).

Other types of leavening are not used in breads (such as meringue leavening which is used for cakes only), but if you like baking and want to make your son's diet more varied, you can try adapting cake recipes to savoury, breadlike results. Adapting recipes is more for advanced bakers though, because the sugar in cakes plays important roles besides giving them flavor.

It is important to note that most of my suggestions are pretty different from the everyday yeast breads most people use for sandwiches. You probably won't get anything too similar to them (quickbreads will be the closest). Don't try to imitate them as close as possible, you will be frustrated. Teach your son (and why not yourself?) to appreciate the substitutes which make for very tasty non-traditional sandwiches with their own charm.


Why do my Gnocchi get sticky? I am having trouble getting my gnocchi to behave properly. I nailed the recipe a few years ago but haven't made any in between and now they turn out sticky after cooking.
The dough behaves wonderfully. During cooking the gnocchi come to the surface as usual, I take them out, drop them in some sage butter and that's where they all stick together as one lump.

This is my method:

Bake potatoes
Peel while very warm
Rice
Add 10% flour (I also tried 20%, 25% and 30% - no change, 30% only made the dough fall apart)
Add salt and nutmeg
Knead gently
Roll, cut, shape ridges
Cook in boiling water

There is no egg in my recipe. Back then I did not use any and I have had plenty of amazing gnocchi without egg and in my experience egg tends to make gnocchi rather chewy.

I am aiming for a very light texture with just the right bite on the outside, as though there was an extremely thin skin on the outside.

That's actually almost what I get before cooking the gnocchi. What I am getting after cooking are very soft and sticky gnocchi with good flavour but they just don't have the right texture.

The dough in this recipe is a pleasure to work with. I am using waxy potatoes because the dough from starchy ones just falls apart.
Maybe that is the key to my problem: We had an extremely dry summer in Europe and potatoes do not behave as usual - I keep hearing that from my potato farmer as well as chefs.

Can you explain why this happens?

I made gnocchi for 2 years at restaurant... in those two years i observed to following things about making gnocchi.

the type of potato Changed the ratio of flour, and egg if using egg.
 As i am living in the Southern Arizona. I settled on using the Classic 1 lbs Russet Potato.
the size of the potato and how long and at what temperature you bake it... I have tried everything from purple fingerling potatoes to Sweet potato. they key i found was to try and cook them in a way that they released as much moisture as possible... I settled on baking my potato whole at 425 degrees F, lightly oiled, for 45 minutes in a convection oven on High Fan. when they were done, i would cut them in half for ricing and let them cool for 10-15 minutes, this would allow for the potatoes to release a lot of steam/moisture.
Getting my ratios right...I tried everything under the sun....i settled on a 1:1:1 ratio i found in an old Italian cook book... that would be 1 lbs riced potato, 1 egg yolk, and 1 cup flour....I did use rice flour on occasion if there was a gluten free customer...they were a little weird but not to bad. The key was not to mix more than you had to.
cooking/storage... as i was producing 50 portions 1 per week. I would toss the portions lightly in flour then freeze in deli containers, then boil off and toss in a pan sage butter similar to what you do. I seamed to work... as we had 8 different line cooks who mad this meal sometime there would be circumstances like your where they would stick together into a Gnoccho...Large Lump... i found this was mainly because they did not change out the water they were being cooked in... or the water was too salty, boiling temp lowers when salt is added.
any way... hope this helped....


How long does it take to cook frozen peas in a slow cooker? I mostly use frozen peas for cooking. But sometimes they remain hard even if I cook them for a bit longer, but peas remain pretty hard and fibrous, not soft. What can be done to avoid their hardness. I also do not put them directly to cooker. I soak them for sometime but this trick is also not working. What can be the reasons?

Adding frozen stuff directly to a slow cooker drops the temperature of the whole pot, which takes some time to recover.

I don't often use peas in mine but I've never had a problem with them if I pour boiling water over them and wait a few minutes before draining them and stirring them in, when the rest of the dish is finished.


How to get crispy vegetables chips/fries without frying? Specifically for sweet potatoes, I'd like to get crispy fries via the oven rather than a fryer. Here are some pointers I've read in other recipes:

Cuts must be as equal as possible to ensure even cooking
Wash off excess starch / let raw fries sit in a bowl of cold water to remove excess starch

Also, I just purchased a mandolin so I'd like to hear any techniques/advice on getting crispy vegetable chips.

Thanks in advance for the help.

-- Edit 1 --

Unfortunately, my results have been disappointing and inconsistent. With the thinnest setting on my mandolin, I sliced up some sweet potatoes and beets. I've tried some of the tips mention on the Chowhound. I've tried a variety of heat settings but I haven't found the sweet spot of heat and time just yet. With those two variables I really don't want to perform 10-30 trial runs but it's looking like I need to if I want to determine the best configuration. I'm going to try some other tips and report back.

There are lots of recipes for oven-"fried" sweet potato chips (crisps) and fries (chips) and I'll let you search that part. I've noticed a wide variation in recommended oven temperatures, from as low as 350 to as high as 450. Though I've never had great success with crispiness, my overall best results were with a temp of 425.

Crispiness with sweet potatoes is notoriously difficult due to the high water and sugar content (which will caramelize and make them appear and to some extent taste burnt, usually long before they crisp up). There's some discussion of this on Chowhound.

Key points seem to be:

remove as much surface moisture as possible prior to cooking
avoid overcrowding the pans, especially when cooking thicker cuts
use a convection oven if possible

If you have success please report back and tell us what worked!


How can I roast hominy while minimizing the popping? I am following this recipe for roasting hominy/posole. Basically, toss with oil and seasoning, bake at 400'F for forty minutes stirring every ten. I am not sure if the recipe intends for popped hominy, or roasting it, or if the recipe author differentiates the two. I am thirty minutes in and they look like this thus far:

The hominy has a nice texture, not yet quite corn nuts but pleasantly chewy. All of the reviews speak to the intense popping. While I assumed this would occur to some extent, after thirty minutes it was too much and I had to pull them (too many were hopping to the bottom of the oven).

Currently I am intending to use the hominy in a chili, so the texture they are at should be good. However, I would like to find out if there would be an approach to solving the following two issues:

To roast hominy, maximize hardening of spices, and roast without popping:

Would changing the oil ratio help (i.e. more/less oil)?
What about lower&slower or higher&faster?
I used a baking sheet per instructions, would another cooking vessel have worked better?

Removing the hominy, I used a large sheet of parchment to shield myself from stray hominy shrapnel, then used it on top to keep kernels in place while cooling (I didn't want to use foil as I wanted to avoid insulating the heat):

Would baking with a piece of parchment over the kernels (to hold the kernels more or less in place) adversely impact the roasting process?
Would foil be problematic (I am wondering about substitutions)?

Well, since you asked for it, with a warning that I've neither cooked nor consumed roast hominy:

If you cover the pot with something that doesn't let steam out, it might slow or prevent the roasting. A stainless steel mesh would let the steam out while also keeping the kernels in. Alternatively, you could use some heavy-duty foil with a lot of small holes poked in it. You could probably also shake it instead of stirring, since the kernels will be contained.

As for preventing popping, I'd guess that dehydrating the kernels first would help. Certainly old, dried-out popcorn is known for failing to pop. And the physics make sense; its basically the water heats, creates intense pressure inside the pericarp, which then eventually ruptures, yielding a BLEV explosion. So if you have less water inside the pericarp, you'll have less exploding.

So I'd try dehydrating them before roasting. Maybe just leaving them out to air-dry (though that'd probably risk spoilage), or a very low oven. Or a food dehydrator.

I have no idea about slightly higher or lower temperatures. Possibly, lower temperatures would result in the water boiling slower, allowing it to leak it without exploding. Or maybe higher temperatures would have only a small portion of the water heated, and then it'd explode out, but only slightly rupturing the kernel (because it'd be a smaller explosion due to less water being involved).

Apparently weakening the hull actually improves popcorn yield, at least according to a patent Google turned up. But I'm not sure how you'd strengthen it instead.


delaying moldy bread I always keep bread around, home-made or otherwise.  Is there a way to keep it from molding, or at least delay the process?

I've tried the fridge with some success (extra day or two), but I don't like my bread that cold to eat.

I've tried zip-top bags with no success (seems to mold faster).

Bread-box didn't seem to make any difference in time.

Thanks

I've been using Bread Bags (variation on Green Bags, not sure which came first) with some reasonable success.  I'm sure there are other brands and sites to buy them from.  I normally just grab them at the grocery store/BB&B.  I only remember the details from the green bags, but they have lining that absorbs chemicals that are released by vegetables to slow down decay. I assume the bread bags use something similar, helping to control humidity as well.

We also slice then freeze bread, getting out slices as needed, throwing them in toaster to reheat.


Storing bread dough before baking I'm looking to make a start in the world of baking bread, and have a quick question:

Once my dough is kneaded, proved and ready to go in the oven (i.e. in the tin) - does it need to be baked immediately, or can it be stored in the refrigerator overnight for example?

You can absolutely do that and in fact it will enhance the flavors of the baked bread and it is a recommended approach.

The yeast activity is reduced in colder environments, so, your dough will not rise too much after cooling some time. However, it's best to de-gas your dough and let it rise in the fridge (although not as much as doubling) again until you decide to bake it.


Crepes sliding off crepe maker base I recently made crepes with a crepe maker like this one. The first half of the recipe worked perfectly. Then, every time I dipped the base into the batter, when I removed it, the half cooked crepe would slide off into the pan of wet batter. Any suggestions?

If the first half of the recipe worked fine, it sounds like your crepe maker might be losing heat. Try giving the crepe maker a minute or two to reheat in the middle of your cooking.

Don't necessarily trust the ready indicator either. An infrared thermometer would help, but you can also drop a few drops of water on the grill. If the water quickly sizzles and evaporates, it should be ready.


Dried tomatoes vs. dried tomatoes in oil I have a soup recipe that calls for 24 oz. dried tomatoes in oil, drained and patted dry. I would like to use dried tomatoes (not in oil), but don’t have a clue how much to use.

Is there a conversion by weight? Should I substitute by volume?

I would probably substitute roughly by volume. 24 ounces in oil looks to be 2-3 cups, based on my memory of jars I've bought and a quick Google image search to confirm.

But I wouldn't do that with them fully dried - I'd rehydrate them in water or stock (the ones in oil tend to be less thoroughly dried out), and then cram them into your measuring cup (because they're certainly crammed into the jars with oil) and aim for 2-3 cups.

I might also add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the soup to compensate for what's inevitably in the tomatoes even if patted dry.

I tried to find a good conversion by weight based on nutrition facts (usually works!) but unfortunately sun-dried tomatoes in oil are sold by weight including the oil, but the USDA nutrition facts are for drained tomatoes. For what it's worth, based on a label from a specific brand (found a photo here), the ones in oil are 6/19 carbohydrates by weight (and does seem to be including the oil - it says they're also 5/19 fat), while the USDA says dried without oil are 55.76/100. The carbohydrates are all from the tomatoes, not the oil or any additional water, so that should indicate how much tomato there is.

So: 24 ounces * (6/19) / (55.76/100) = 13.6 ounces. But I'm not terribly confident about that estimate, because it's based on so little evidence, and there's a lot of room for variation here. It's at least in the right ballpark, though - I have about 6 oz of dried tomatoes that look to be about 1.5 cups, depending on how packed they are.


Can I make tea with carbonated water? Whilst staying with a friend who lives somewhere with very hard water, we got used to making tea with bottled, still, water as the tap water was too hard to make a good cuppa.

One day, we ran out of still water, but had some bottles of carbonated water.

Having previously ruined a kettle when I was a kid with the 'genius' idea of boiling milk in there I was reluctant to risk ruining his kettle to see if you could make tea using the carbonated water.  Once bitten, twice shy as they say.

So would this have worked out ok? ie would anything have been damaged?  would boiling water have spurted out of the kettle?

And could I have made a good cuppa from carbonated water, or would it have worked but tasted terrible (no dissolved oxygen?)?

In the interests of science I gave this a try. Used a can of carbonated water, boiled in my kettle. There was no boiling water explosion, although I more than half expected one. It seemed to maybe boil a little faster, but that's more likely due to the fact that it's less liquid than I usually heat.

Being a tea fanatic I have a lot of flavored teas but I opted for PG Tips, figuring I would taste any difference a little more easily. I caught very little flavor difference from usual, maybe a little stronger but that could be chalked up to any number of things besides using carbonated water.

So yeah, I think carbonated water would probably work in a pinch. Probably don't put too much of it in the kettle, though. (A small part of me still suspects that had it been full it would have shot boiling water everywhere).


Which type of chilli peppers for which cuisine? Indian food typically calls for chilli powder, what I believe is called cayenne pepper in other parts of the world.

Preferring spicier flavors, I find myself adding a pinch of this to other dishes even when the recipe doesn't particularly call for it, but I find that it throws the flavor off and adds a Indian touch to it.

What type of peppers would suit other cuisines? Specifically mexican, italian and chinese? What peppers should I choose to marry well with the inherent palates of these cuisines?

Each variety of chile has a subtly different flavor, but generally the kind to use is determined by how spicy you want the dish to be; spicier dishes need hotter peppers, otherwise you end up with a dish dominated by the peppers.   For this reason, most people sort chiles by their spiciness, measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The exact same papers can be used for Mexican and Indian cooking, as long as you want similar spiciness.

To give options, I like to keep 3 kinds of dried peppers: a mild paprika, a standard hot pepper, and a ground, smoked one. The sweet paprika is for savor, the hot pepper to add spiciness, and ground, smoked peppers bring that distinctive smoky flavor to dishes.  I usually use de Arbol pepper flakes (about 30k SHU) to add heat, and smoked hot paprika for smoked stuff.  When I have a dish that showcases the flavor of a specific pepper, it's time to get fresh ones from the store.

For general purpose cooking, many people use mild paprika to add sweet, smoky flavors to Italian, French, Spanish, and Balkan cuisines.  Generally these are of the Capsicum annuum species.

Indian, Szechuan Chinese, and Central American cuisine normally use moderately hot peppers, in the 10-30k SHU heat range.  Cayenne, tabasco, and de Arbol peppers are good examples.  Thailand (and some parts of India) use very hot peppers up to 100k Scoville, called Bird's Eye or Thai chiles.  These peppers may be either Capsicum annuum (normally milder) or Capsicum frutescens (normally hotter).

Finally, Mexico and northeastern India use the hottest peppers of the Capsicum chinense species, including habaneros and the naga jolokia, which go from 100k SHU to 750k SHU.

Mexico is a special case, because many varieties of pepper are mixed to get the desired flavor. Everything from bell peppers to habaneros gets regular use, and may be used smoked or dried.


What causes mold to grow on frozen meats? About 8 months ago we had a beef processed a meat processing plant.  When we picked up the meat it was all pre-packaged and frozen.  We immediately put it all in the freezer when we got home to be sure it stayed frozen.  Now I am finding packages of ground beef that has blue and green mold on the meat while it is frozen.  How does this happen?  We have had to throw away at least 15 pounds of ground beef.

Frozen food does not necessarily stay edible forever. There are some microbes that love (even extremely) cold climate. Such microbes are called cryophiles and can survive or even need temperatures as low as -15°C. There are microbes that show activity at temperatures as low as ~-200°C (http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Colwellia_psychrerythraea).

However, if you store your food at at least -18°C, most microbes will go dormant and you can store it for a long time without problems. Above that, however, there are several microbes that can and will grow and spoil your food, though I can't tell you which ones in particular. That's the reason frozen food bought in a store (in germany at least) has a label how cold it has to be stored for the minimum shelf-life to apply (often includes a table for minimum shelf-life at various temperatures as well).


What happens to pasta dough when it is run multiple times through the machine? Before, when I made fresh pasta, the dough would become a little "brittle" and was hard to work through the thinner settings of my pasta machine. Then I saw a tip on a cooking show to put the dough through the thickest setting several times (about 6 to 8 times), each time folding it onto itself.

The reason given in the show for the tip was that it would improve flavor/texture of the cooked pasta. However, it felt to me as if the dough became easier to handle (less "brittle") as well.

My question: what happens to pasta dough when you run it through the machine on thickest setting multiple times?

Some research I did before asking (that didn't give me an answer yet):

Remembering it may have something to do with gluten, I read through the Wikipedia article on gluten. It does mention elasticity in the "bread" subsection, perhaps the same thing is at work here?
Searching this Stack Cooking site I found this highly upvoted answer which mainly mentions gluten's effect on "elasticity" in the context of "chewiness", but doesn't related it to how well the dough can be handled.
Of course I tried to Google the answer, but that mainly results in recipes for fresh pasta.

You're alluding to the correct answer:  running it through several times basically kneads the dough and develops gluten.

Gluten provides strength to dough.  It forms a flexible, elastic 'net' (the 'net' portion isn't really relevant to pasta dough though) , allowing it to stretch more and is much, much less brittle.  Even better, would be to put it through several times, then let it rest for a few minutes so that the gluten relaxes and then continue.

You could also simply knead the dough longer.  Many pasta doughs are extremely dry and very difficult to knead by hand - so the kneading mainly happens at the roller stage.  If you're using a good mixer or feeling especially hulk-like, then you could knead further by hand.


Should I throw moldy Strawberries away? Should I throw away moldy Strawberries or just cut the bad parts off? They aren't super bad but I am a little paranoid when it comes to mold.

The visible mold that you can see is the fruiting body of the mold, that is the moldy-equivalent to the apple; much of the mold penetrates into its food substrate like the roots of a tree.

Since strawberries are fairly porous, the entire fruit is almost certainly full of the mold, even though it is not visible.

You should discard the strawberries.


Used too much lemon juice in Mediterranean salad I accidentally used a tablespoon too much lemon juice in a Mediterranean salad. The other ingredients are cucumber, tomato, mint, onion, and olive oil, with salt and pepper to taste. Oh my GOSH is it tart. How can I balance the acidity without compromising the flavor profile? Thanks in advance.

Might as well make this an official answer --

The easiest way to deal with too much of an acidic liquid, when there aren't any other liquids involved is to simply drain it, and see how it is.  If you don't have a suitably sized strainer or colander, you can use a slotted spoon to transfer the salad to another bowl while leaving the liquid behind.

If it's still too acidic after that, if it's in a colander or strainer you can try giving it a shake to get more liquid off ... although it might end up crushing the tomatoes.

You can also try rinsing the acid off -- you can use water, but it can mute the flavors and you may have to then drain it again and try adding back in some acid.  An easier approach is to use a lemon-lime (or other citrus) soda -- it has some acid, the citrus taste, but also some sugar to help balance out the acid.

... and failing all that, you can take Paparazzi's suggestion and add something with some fat in it -- olive oil or cheese can help to balance out the acidity.  (although we're usually working the other way -- acid to brighten up heavier fatty foods)


Process of water-bath food to pressure cooker? My daughter water bathed carrots and beets and then found out that they should be pressure cooked.  Can she just put them in as they are and pressure cook them, or should she start over the whole process of cleaning jars and new lids?  Will the food be too overcooked to process them again?

Ok. I've canned for 30 years. If the beets are pickled they are fine as long as they "popped". The vinegar acidity makes it fine for water bath. I've canned carrots using a pressure canner to "recommended" times. They were a disgusting mush. The only thing I pressure can now are meats and fish. Veggies I just sterilize the jars, cold pack the veggies, add boiling pickle juice or water, seal and then water bath process for 10 mins. When you open a jar it is pretty obvious if the food is spoiled. But this is not the "safe" way to can!  As of yet, I've not had a spoiled hat and no one has gotten sick. So just be aware that what I do is not recommended.


How to store/what to do with leftovers from Ayurvedic ginger & turmeric cold/flu drink? I've made an Ayurvedic drink for a cold/flu (though I adapted it to my tastes) - minced ginger and turmeric brought to a boil over medium high heat then simmered till it turns a dark amber color.

Can I store the leftovers in the fridge or are there any other ideas on how to store them?
What can I do with the leftover minced ginger and turmeric, which have been boiled and strained out?

It sounds like you have made what is essentially an oddly flavored vegetable broth.   According to Still Tasty, that should last about 4-5 days refrigerated.

The leftover ginger and tumeric is going to have given most of its flavor into the broth.   I don't think you would want to use it for anything, although it would be safe to eat.


Ice-cream-on-a-stick in refrigerator temperature In the summer, I used to make ice-cream-on-a-stick in various flavors. Some examples:

Chocolate flavor: melted cocoa + honey + coconut oil + almond butter.
Banana flavor: bananas + peanut butter + cinnamon + soy milk.

I just mixed them, put in a mould, put a wooden stick in each hole, and put in the freezer. Then, I could grab one in the morning and eat on the way to work as a breakfast.

Now, winter is coming and it is unpleasant to eat at freezer temperature, so I wonder if I can achieve the same effect in refrigerator temperature: is there an ingredient I can add to the mixture, that will make it freeze, and stick to the stick, in the refrigerator?

I'd look at making a cheesecake on a stick.

It is stable at fridge and room temperature;


How to stop oil separating from cheese I cooked something yesterday similar to a potato Gratin using a cheese sauce. I noticed afterwards that the oil from the cheese had separated and after serving it up, there was a pool of orangey oil sitting on the plate.

Is there a way to prevent this, either by using a certain type of cheese or some other way?

The cheese I used was a mature farmhouse cheddar.

I know you are worried about the flavor being bland, but have you tried mixing the aged, dry cheese with one that will melt better? The flavor of a good, mature cheese goes a long way, so I don't think you will notice a loss of flavor... Find a flavorful, relatively young, melty cheese, experiment with the proportions, and give it another try.


Alternative to salt when using Mortar and Pestle For numerous reasons, I need to prepare the vast majority of food salt-free. Been doing this since the 80's, and now we are very sensitive to any added salt in our food. This extends to, for instance, salting the water for boiling pasta or vegetables.

When I read about using a Mortar and Pestle, recipes often suggest adding a little salt to act as an abrasive. Clearly, from my family's point of view, that salt would not be desirable in the prepared dish.

What can I use as an alternative, without changing the flavors too much. For example, sugar might work from the abrasive point of view, but would add sweetness where it wasn't expected.

(Irrelevant, but someone will probably ask. 1/2tsp of salt in a meal is enough to cause my partner to be very ill. Hence the salt-free regime.)

2 solutions:

I have an unpolished granite pestle and mortar: they're much cheaper than the polished granite ones and are much more abrasive then a wooden or ceramic one.

I also don't use any salt, (for taste reasons, not for health reasons), but if your partner is intolerant to the Na in the NaCl (salt) you can get get 100% chemically pure CaCl2¹ from any decent pharmacy² and that is an unlimited allowed food additive according to the FAO/WHO and it tastes just like salt.³

Note 1: Food grade is only 85-90% CaCl2 and will not be sufficient in your case...
Note 2: Ask for the crystalline form...
Note 3: Talk to your physician about this solution before believing random strangers on the Internet!


can this spritz cookie dough be saved recipe was creamed butter, powdered sugar, flavorings and flour . dough is dry and crumbly not the usual consistency of spritz dough - should I try adding more butter ?

Ditto to eggs.  Otherwise, I would add water, not butter.


How to heat frozen stuffed pretzels other than bake them I have sold the super pretzels for years and heat them by microwave. However I am now selling their "cousin" which is made by the same company but they are stuffed with sweet cream cheese, jalapenos and mozerella cheese, and pizza sauce and cheese. I find the outside to be okay visually but the inside stuffing does not turn out as nice when done the same way. It is more rubbery. What/how can you heat these so they turn out like they have been in an oven but can be done quickly. I am in a concession trailer so space, power and time are all critical.

In case you do not have specific instructions from the company making them or a special warmer (see comments), I would try microwaving them first (e.g. defrost) and then broiling/baking them.

Alternatively, I've seen fast food cooks blast frozen foods in the microwave at high for a little while before throwing them into the deep-fryer, maybe that could be an option as well.

Or, since you mentioned that space/power/time is of the essence, you might even be able to use a combined microwaving/broiling function in case your oven offers it.

Experiment a little and you should be able to get the settings right quite fast.

PS: I'm assuming that thawing a few products beforehand is undesired and therefore leaving out that possible option.


Refreezing already thawed bread I bought a loaf of bread some weeks ago, which the lady behind the counter explained was frozen (because it was leftover). This was okay for me. The bread was still frozen when I bought it and I let it defrost on the counter overnight.

Then we didn't eat all the bread (just about 50%) and I decided to put the leftover half back in the freezer (before it would spoil).

Now I'm wondering: Is it ok to rethaw and eat the bread? I know there are several threads/questions regarding freezing - thawing - refreezing, but they don't handle bread (which I would believe to act differently than i.e. meat).

Thanks.

Yes, it is safe to freeze and rethaw bread, although it might not help with the quality.   Toasting it when you are finally ready to eat it will help bring out its best qualities.


Can you freeze a plastic mixer bowl? I made a chocolate crinkle cookie dough that needs to be frozen for 2 hours before forming and baking. Can I freeze it in the (Bosch) plastic mixer bowl or will that ruin the bowl?

It won't ruin the bowl, but be careful handling it. Plastic becomes more brittle when cold, and if you drop it, it may shatter or crack.


What is a good substitute for ground veal? I found a great looking recipe that calls for ground veal.  What other meats would be a reasonable substitute for flavor and texture for ground veal besides the obvious ground beef?  Lamb?

The original recipe calls for a total of 2 lbs of ground meat, 1/2 beef and 1/2 veal.

I would suggest a close approximation to the effect can be had by using either (in decreasing order of preference):

50% ground pork, 50% ground beef -- Some of the mild flavor of veal, with tenderness and flavor from the pork
100% ground beef -- It won't be as tender or as subtle, but still will be good

I would avoid trying to use as part of your substitution mixture:

Ground lamb, goat, ox, and so on -- flavor is too strong
Ground chicken or turkey -- these are extremely low in fat, likely to toughen your overall mixture, and likely to make it taste more poultryesque

Personally, I would also switch from whole eggs to just the yolks, which will bring the binding and tenderizing qualities of the yolk, without the slightly rubber-like texture of albumin based white, to more closely approximate the qualities the veal would have brought to the dish.


My yeast recipies seem to harden somewhat after baking I am using a kichen Aid dough hook machine. I made some great cinnamon rolls, but after they cool they become somewhat hard to the touch. I can reheat in the microwave for about 15 seconds and they become perfectly soft as they should be. Am I missing something in the preparation?

Using a dough hook versus hand-kneading won't make your bread harden after baking. If your rolls are hardening then you have either overcooked them, or there's not enough water in the dough. This can happen for several reasons:

The recipe doesn't call for enough water. Use a different recipe or add a bit more water to the one you have
The flour your are using is a higher protein content than the recipe is designed for. Gluten is a protein, and higher protein flours use more water. This isn't a bad thing necessarily, gluten makes your bread stretchy. The answer is the same: add more water
You are adding too much flour when kneading. I made this mistake for years! When you put flour on your surface to keep it from sticking you are reducing the moisture content of your dough as you work it in. This can turn a dough dry very quickly. If you want flour to knead with then reserve some of the recipe flour, but don't use more. Some doughs are meant to be sticky. If you want to keep it from sticking knead with oil instead. Personally, I let the dough stick and use that stickiness to stretch the glutens, it makes for faster kneading that way


How do I cook minced meat faster? I know how to cook it fine, with garlic, onions and some seasoning (olives and pepper some times). But the thing is, it takes too long for the water to evaporate (reduce) making it take long.

Is there a way to make it faster?

I'm a very novice "cook", so any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Use a large area pan to help the evaporation and use a higher heat with constant stirring to avoid burned meat.


Where is a 'coffee cup' measured to? A coffee cup that is described as a 8 ounce (for example) will hold this amount filled to the top of the cup's lip or to some other arbitrary level?

I assume you're talking about understanding quoted manufacturer's dimensions of a drinking vessel (and not some measure of what an abstract "coffee cup" might be, as when people talk about a "4-cup" coffee maker or whatever).

To my knowledge, there is no standard at least in the U.S. for these sorts of measurements.  My anecdotal experience is that cups and mugs are often slightly larger in capacity than advertised when filled to the brim, probably to take into account people's expectation that they can put a drink of X ounces in a cup made to hold X ounces without spilling it.  However, that "error" seems to vary quite a bit.  Years ago, I tried filling a few different mugs I had purchased just to get a sense of their accuracy in size.  If they were supposed to hold X ounces, some would be full up to within about 1/16th of an inch of the top, while others had a gap of 1/2 inch or more below the lip.  (Beyond my own anecdote, I also found more people's anecdotes here describing a similar trend.)

If I recall correctly, for whatever reason, there didn't seem to be as much error with glass measurements as there were with coffee mugs.  Particularly if you see a very specific measurement advertised (e.g., "8.6 oz. capacity"), it seems more likely that the measurement is right up to the top.  Obviously if you have a cup or glass with a line printed on it, it's generally more accurate.  (This is more common in Europe.)

If you're asking about this to use a random cup as a "measuring cup," I wouldn't trust any listed specifications for capacity unless you actually measure the specific cup yourself.


Are my capers still good? I have a bottle of green capers in brine in the fridge, opened.  About half of the capers are sitting on the bottom of the jar, and another half are floating.

Have the floating ones turned bad?  Or is this just a quirk of capers?  I haven't really noticed this before with previous bottles.

The bottle is just from the supermarket.

I dug around a bit, and most people seem to agree that this is normal caper behaviour, though no one has made any real assertion as to why, other than that capers have varying density, and the brine does not.

The usual tests for freshness (do they look/smell/taste okay?) are recommended. Brined capers should last ~9 months from the time the jar is opened, or 3 years in a dark pantry unopened.


The container of my food is domed/bulged, is it spoiled? This happens every now and then. It can be a package of fresh mozzarella, or a jar of marmelade, or something else. The packaging used to be flat, now it is plump.

Is this a sign of spoilage or not? How can I tell?

When your packaging has inflated over time, this is always a sign of bacterial activity. The bacteria start multiplying, and produce gases as a waste product, so your airtight packaging acts like a balloon. The pressure can get enough to bulge jar lids too.

For most foods, this is a clear sign of spoilage. You don't want bacteria in your food, especially in canned food! So, discard the food to which it has happened.

The major exception are fermented foods. They are supposed to have a thriving colony of known harmless bacteria in them. When the colony gets larger than you planned, it can inflate the packaging. Nowadays, it is unlikely to see it with storebought food, since they control the bacterial population, but it can still happen e.g. if you leave yogurt in a warm room for a long time, and of course food you have fermented yourself can do it frquently, if you keep it in a closed container. Fermented food is safe after bulging, but you have to check if you still like the taste, which will become quite sharp after overfermentation.

Also, this only applies to foods which changed their volume over time. Potato chips (crisps) are sold in already-inflated bags, but this is not a sign of trouble, it was done in the factory.

If you have no good reason to know that the bulging was caused by a safe process (overfermentation of fermented food, or factory-plump packaging), this is a sign of spoilage. The food is unsafe, no matter if other signs of spoilage are present, or if the typical storage conditions were present.


How long should meat be brined for in a 10 percent solution? I use a 10 percent salt solution for my brines. It just seems the easiest. 100 grams of salt per liter of water, but I have read that this is a bit high as most books speak of a 6 percent solution.

So I would like to know how long should you brine meat for at this solution? What time with this solution should you brine per kg of meat and does this differ between poultry, fish and red meat?

Just a rough estimation would be great as I don't want to over salt the food.

Depending on what meat and cut you are brining, and how you intend to treat the meat after brining.  You may need to experiment, anything from 50% to 100% of the time your recipe book suggest.  Search for brining guidelines and other useful information, there are a large community that have a lot of knowledge and experience.


Why does chocolate tempering requires reaching temperatures where "bad" crystals can be formed When tempering chocolates, we want that the chocolate will only contain beta crystals, for this, we melt the chocolate to a point where all crystals break, then cool it down to below the melting point of beta crystals, and then warm it back up to working temperature, which is just below the melting point of beta crystals. In many sources the lowers temperature to get to is 27°C, see for example this video by Callebaut Chocolate.

According to the Tempering section in the chocolate Wikipedia page, there are 6 types of crystals:

Crystal |   Melting temp. | Notes
--------+-----------------+-------------------------------------
I       | 17 °C (63 °F)   | Soft, crumbly, melts too easily
II      | 21 °C (70 °F)   | Soft, crumbly, melts too easily
III     | 26 °C (79 °F)   | Firm, poor snap, melts too easily
IV      | 28 °C (82 °F)   | Firm, good snap, melts too easily
V       | 34 °C (93 °F)   | Glossy, firm, best snap, melts near body temperature (37 °C)
VI      | 36 °C (97 °F)   | Hard, takes weeks to form

Where it's obvious that we want only crystals of type V, but lowering the temperature to 27 °C, just below the melting point of the type IV crystals, allows them to be formed, before they are broken in the reheating.

Why do we allow chocolate to go below 28°C and allow type IV crystals to form, and not stop the process at 29°C?

This YouTube video from America's Test Kitchen doesn't exactly address your question, but I think it hits it on the periphery towards the end.

Summary: Dan (the chef) goes over the traditional way of tempering chocolate (much like the method you link to / describe).  Then, he goes over their shortcut version.  In the shortcut, most of the chocolate is heated until it just melts in the microwave, then the remaining chocolate (having been very finely chopped) is added in (and microwaved in 5 second bursts, if it doesn't melt with the residual heat).  The result is close to, but not exactly the same as the traditional method.

My take-away and guess as to why: In the traditional method, a mix of type IV and V crystals are formed, but, I suspect that there are also some quantity of type III as well (in small pockets that are not the same temperature as the rest of the mixture).  I suspect that the creation of the different types helps keep crystal sizes small - which is one of the desired conditions of tempering.  By allowing the mix of small crystals to form, then melting the undesired ones, you may be allowing more smaller crystals a chance to form, instead of larger one.  If this is true, it might explain why the second method produces a slightly inferior temper: the seed crystals might be too large (from the just recently melted chocolate), and their initial growth is uninhibited by other crystal types.

I've just checked with my BakeWise book (tempering chocolate p 104-107) by Shirley O. Corriher (Amazon link).  On pg 106, she mentions that cooling dark chocolate to 82F/27.8C ...

  allows some undesirable crystals to form, but it gets good
  crystallization of the Form V crystals started.

She also mentions stirring constantly several times over.  This is usually an indication that one is trying to A.) keep temperatures uniform throughout a mixture and/or B.) promote small crystal growth.  (It's why ice cream makers constantly churn, instead of just chucking the mixture into a freezer.)

So, I'm going to stick with: formation of lots of small type V's, even with some type IV's, is more desirable than the formation of fewer type V's, but with no type IV's.


Is it okay to add extra sugar to a specific brioche recipe? A recipe calls for the following ingredients: (a version of potato brioche):

  250g potato
  1/3 cup milk
  1 tablespoon olive oil
  3 and half cups flour
  2 teaspoons instant yeast
  1 teaspoon bread improver
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1 teaspoon sugar
  1 large egg

But I like a taste of sweetness for my baguettes. Is it okay to add extra sugar, and how many tablespoons would be okay?

First of all, this recipe is not supposed to taste sweet. There is so little sugar, it must be there for tenderness - and even this is strange in a bread with so much glutenless filler (the potato). If it is in the sponge only, maybe it is only there to speed up the sponge rising time.

Adding sugar to a bread recipe is not trivial. Sugar interferes with gluten creation. The maximum sugar you can have in a bread recipe is two tablespoons sugar per cup of flour, which is not very sweet. And then you have to change the recipe: it needs much longer kneading, and more yeast. At very low concentrations, sugar does indeed feed the yeast, but if you use more of it, its osmotic activity interferes with its growth.

The probelm here is that you have all the potato in the recipe. This means you already have very little gluten compared to the mass of dough. And  also that it is diluting any sugar, reducing the sweet taste.

You can certainly try adding up to 7 tablespoons of sugar, but you should knead longer (double the knead time for the full 7 tablespoons - I knead standard brioche for about 30 minutes per hand before adding the butter) and will have to live with a bit worse texture. You can also try to use gluten strengthening tricks to compensate - add ascorbic acid (vit. C powder or a crushed pill), start with cold water, or add vital gluten.


Do sifting and whisking do the exact same thing? Some recipes suggest to sift the dry ingredients while some others say whisk the dry ingredients. Do they have the same effect?

Sifting and whisking are not the same thing. Sifting breaks up lumps in dry powder ingredients, mixed powdered ingredients, and makes the flour less dense. Some people would say sifting makes flour "airier". I measured the volume of flour before and after sifting and I found a significant increase in volume for the same weight of flour post-sifting. Sift flour when making light sponges, or if your flour has gotten densely packed over time.

Whisking is just a way of quickly mixing dry ingredients together, it doesn't break up lumps like sifting or mix things as effectively as sifting, but for many recipes it doesn't matter.


How to get rid of foam on shaken cocktails Here's a picture of a Jack Rose I made last night.  It tasted great, but I think the white foam is ugly.  I want it to be clear and jewel-like with no foam.

All my shaken drinks have this foam.  I have not observed similar foam on drinks I order in bars.  What are techniques for avoiding or getting rid of the foam?

Maybe I could scoop it off with a spoon, but I think I would lose too much of the drink that way, and anyway that's not what the bartender does, so I think there must be a better way.

[ The recipe I am using is: four parts homemade applejack; two parts lime juice, one part homemade grenadine, shaken with ice cubes in a metal shaker, then poured into a chilled glass.  The shaker has a perforated top, but I am not otherwise using a strainer. ]

Foam in shaken cocktails is often actually considered a desirable quality. This is the reason why you'll sometimes see egg white included in recipes like the whiskey sour - the proteins in the egg white help to maintain a long-lasting froth on top of the cocktail, which many drinkers find appealing. It adds a slightly different mouthfeel too and can make a nice change in some cocktails.

So, while I encourage you not to discount the foam completely, understanding what helps produce foam can also help you to avoid it. Scientifically-minded bartenders have conducted experiments on foam and how to produce it which we can learn from.

Basically, the foam is a collection of tiny air bubbles dispersed in the liquid, which is mediated by emulsifiers and proteins in the citrus juice. This is commonly lemon juice or lime juice (both of which do actually contain a small amount of protein) and could be either depending on the Jack Rose recipe that you're using. The more viscous the liquid mixture, the more stable the bubbles will be. Forming the foam in the first place takes a fair amount of force, which you provide with turbulence when you shake the drink with ice.

This suggests a few possible approaches: change how much turbulence you produce, change the viscosity, or try to eliminate the proteins.

Changing your method

Let's start with the approach that's easiest and most practical for the home bartender. This involves building the drink differently to generate less turbulence.

Don't shake. This has already been suggested by another answer, and it's certainly effective; it eliminates the turbulence almost completely. There are two problems with this: it takes much longer to chill a drink when stirring (it takes easily 45-50 seconds of continuous stirring to produce the chilling effect of 10 seconds of shaking), and the drink can taste "flat" as compared to a shaken drink. It's generally thought that shaking better integrates citrus juice and somehow "wakes up" the flavor of the citrus; I haven't seen a detailed scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but I'd guess that it's somehow related to oxidation of the juice, which can also change the flavor of citrus juice as it ages after being squeezed.
Shake more gently. Something of a middle way. Oddly enough, how hard you shake doesn't appear to be much related to how quickly the drink chills, but many Japanese bartenders in particular use a method called the "hard shake" to produce more foam in the final drink. Perhaps not surprisingly, the idea is to produce more turbulence. You can go the opposite route: shake gently, almost lazily, and only for as long as the drink needs to chill (10 seconds at most).
Use smaller ice. This is an interesting one! Dave Arnold, a well-regarded molecular mixologist, shares an intriguing finding in his wide-ranging book Liquid Intelligence. He's observed that using a single large ice cube (about 2 inches in diameter) seems to produce more froth in his shaken drinks. So you can go the opposite direction: use smaller, cracked cubes when shaking.
Let the drink stand before pouring. These foams aren't particularly stable, and they'll break down pretty quickly. If you let the drink settle in the shaker before you pour it into the glass, some of the foam will naturally break down. As an adjunct to this, pour carefully; the foam will rise to the top of the shaker and will pour out last, so you can keep it from making it into the drink if you pour slowly and are willing to discard a bit of liquid.
Use a blowtorch. This is a really cool suggestion from @DietrichEpp in comments, and works amazingly well! If you have a gas blowtorch available, you can pass the flame very quickly over the surface of the cocktail and eliminate nearly all of the foam. My guess is that this works by heating up the air within the foam bubbles and popping them, without appreciably heating up the drink itself. The only problem, of course, is that you need to have a blowtorch.

Change the viscosity

This gets a little more difficult, because the main element affecting viscosity in cocktails is sugar, which also balances the flavor of the drink. If you simply make the drink less sweet, you might wind up with less foam, but it'll also taste different. Still, there are a couple things you can try for the Jack Rose in particular.

Make your own grenadine. If you're not doing this already, I encourage you to try. It's really quite easy. Rather than using a pre-bottled version like Rose's, this allows you to adjust the ratio of sugar to water in the syrup and reduce the sugar content somewhat while maintaining a nice pomegranate flavor.
Use a higher-proof liquor. Alcohol is less viscous than water, so a spirit that's higher in alcohol content will reduce viscosity somewhat. If you're using an 80-proof (40% ABV) applejack in your Jack Rose, try seeking out a 100-proof (50% ABV) version like Laird's Straight Apple Brandy instead. This idea can apply to other cocktails as well; a lot of whiskeys in particular can be found in overproof versions where less water is added to bring down the proof.

Reduce the protein

The idea here is to eliminate some of the proteins from the citrus juice that mediate the formation of foam. That sounds promising, but it's also fairly advanced and perhaps too much work to make yourself a drink or two. Still, experimentation can be fun and worth exploring.

Note that for the Jack Rose in particular, pomegranate juice also contains proteins; if you're making your own grenadine as suggested above, you can do this with all the juices that you use.

Run your juices through a fine filter before use. Strictly speaking, this won't eliminate a lot of proteins, but it will reduce some of the particulates in the citrus juice that give gas bubbles a place to start forming. This needs to be a very fine filter: a coffee filter is a good start. Note that this takes a while, and you may need to change out the filters several times. A device such an an AeroPress can help you force the juice through the filter more easily for this approach.
Clarify your juices. If you really want to get serious, you can use methods otherwise applied to clarify stocks to clarify juices as well. This takes a lot of work and special materials, so be warned. However, it's a very effective filtration method that will eliminate almost all of the proteins and particles that cause foaming. Be warned that it does strip out some flavor as well, but it will produce a very clear final product.

It probably goes without saying, but you can combine as many of these ideas as you want. Start with changing up your method and move down the list if you're still not satisfied with the results.


Do Bouillon Cubes/Powder go bad? I just found an old jar of Beef Bouillon cubes and although there is no expiration date, I'm a bit skeptical about using them - do they go bad?

IF...

the jar was tightly sealed and stored in a cool, dry area
the bouillon cubes don't smell spoiled in any way
the cubes aren't off-color
are most likely under 2 years old

then they should be safe. Bouillon can keep for up to 2 years according to stilltasty.com. So, if you think they've been hiding out in the cupboard for over 2 years, I'd toss them.


What substitution can I make for blonde cane sugar in macaroons? I've found a beautiful (and simple!) looking recipe for coconut lime macaroons but it calls for blond cane sugar, which I haven't seen in any of my local supermarkets in the UK, nor have I ever used it in my baking.

Is anyone acquainted enough with either blond cane sugar or macaroons to suggest an alternative - especially a healthier alternative than straight up sugar?

Sucanat or turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw) would be pretty indistinguishable from blond cane sugar. One of them might actually even be the same thing under a different name.

sucanat

turbinado

Here's a bit more about the subtle differences between sucanat and turbinado. Time article

Here ya go, from Amazon UK evaporated cane juice UK

Also from Amazon UK sucanat UK

And one more turbinado UK


Why does adding commercial processed cheese to fondue change its consistency? I like to experiment with cheese fondues.  I've had good results with the traditional Emmentaler and Gruyère mixture, but the best result I've had was when I added some cheese from the supermarket that was labeled as a "Cheddar Blend".  I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it resulted in a fondue that had a wonderful creamy consistency, which very quickly settled into a nice even coating when lifting out the dipped items.  It didn't add a huge amount of flavour on its own, but it helped to carry the stronger flavour cheeses, which I've often had trouble getting into a good consistency on their own (they often either wind up too thin [leading to soggy wine-flavoured bread] or a bit grainy from the flour or cornstarch I try to use to thicken it a bit.)

My question, then, is what is it about this 'Blend' cheese that improved the consistency of the fondue?  I imagine it's something they add to make it a blend in the first place.

The magic is from Sodium Citrate

Most mass produced cheese it based on "cheddar blends". Basically large (50 Kg to 1 Mg) blocks of cheese are made in a milk factory. When a consumer product is to be made from it, the cheddar is shredded, flavour and/or culture is added, and then using heat and pressure it is re-packed into consumer sized packages

In some cases Sodium Citrate is added to improve the hold-together of the cheese

Sodium Citrate is an old additive for "cooking cheese", and it can be made at home with baking soda and lemon juice. Gently heat the juice of half a lemon in a microwave safe bowl, then add 1/2 to 1 tsp of baking soda and heat until fully reacted (bubbles cease). Add about a cup of grated cheese (hard or soft) and repeat a gentle heat and stir cycle until it forms a smooth "sauce"

This will remain liquid while warm

If you let this cool you can mold it, or form "slices"

http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-macaroni-and-cheese


Thicker steak: pan seared then oven If I use cast iron pan to sear it, and then put in the oven I have some questions:

If I sear it from both sides, one side 2 minutes, other 1 minute, and then put in oven for 6 minutes. Do I have to flip it half way? I wouldn't like one side to burn since the pan will be sizzling hot and will burn one side in the oven in those 6 minutes?
What is the usual temperature of the oven for this technique?
Shall I broil it, or have it somewhere in the middle?

If I sear it from both sides, one side 2 minutes, other 1 minute, and then put in oven for 6 minutes.

Note that required oven time will depend significantly on steak thickness and oven temp.

Do I have to flip it half way? I wouldn't like one side to burn since the pan will be sizzling hot and will burn one side in the oven in those 6 minutes?

It isn't necessary in all circumstances, but generally it will help to flip at least once.  This is particularly important if transferring a heavy pan (like cast iron) into the oven.

What is the usual temperature of the oven for this technique?

Varies.  Almost any oven temperature can work.  The question is whether you want to cook your steak faster or want it to be more evenly cooked.  The hotter the oven, the faster your steak will cook, but you'll have a thicker "gradient" from well-done to raw in the middle.  In other words, the faster you cook, the thicker the gray "well-done" part will be near the surface in order to get the center up to temperature.

A very low oven might require you to cook the steak longer (perhaps even 30 minutes or more, depending on how low you go and how thick the steak is), but there's a better chance it will be close to "medium rare" (or whatever you like) all the way through.  It will likely also be more tender and the fat will be softer.

Most people seem to like cooking steaks quickly, but there's no real benefit to a hotter oven other than getting the steak done faster.

Shall I broil it, or have it somewhere in the middle?

Depends on what you're trying to do.  Broilers cook by radiant heat, so they will likely cause more surface browning to occur.  If your steak isn't dark enough after the sear and you want more browning on the surface, then broil.  But broiling also tends to be a very high heat technique, so this is again more likely to produce a larger gradient in doneness.  If broiling (particularly close to the broiler), flipping frequently is recommended.


Which foods are high in umami? Which foods are high in umami ("savoriness") and how can I cook them to maximize the umami taste?

Umami comes from a very specific source: Glutamates and glutamic acid. MSG is a glutamate, so it is one of the best ways to add a bit of umami.

Meat, Kombu seaweed (used to make Dashi, and hence Dashi), mushrooms, onions, cheeses, soy and other beans, most high-protein foods.

Here is a quick list. Most are prepared foods, but it should give you an idea.


How does commercial whole grain bread stay fresh for so long? Every recipe for whole grain bread I have tried has the end result that the bread turns very hard within an hour of baking. I'd like something I could eat over the course of a couple days (breakfast toast and such). The 100% whole wheat bread from the store lasts two weeks - how do they do it?

Industrial breads use 'dough conditioners' that soften the dough and make working with it easier. You can buy such mixes online, here for instance, and I've seen them for sale in
natural food stores and the like. Other things that might work are adding a starch or a fat, or heat treating some of your flour in the microwave (a minute for a cup, don't do this to all the flour, it destroys some of the gluten). Guar gum or xanthan gum will help to keep things moist as well.

I've never used these techniques, so some experimentation might be necessary. Store bread in plastic bags as soon as it cools, and don't slice right away.


Does caramelization refer strictly to sugar or the cooking of anything? I constantly hear about caramelization, like in onions, which I believe have fairly high sugar content. However, I heard it in the context of beef today (Every Way to Cook a Hamburger (42 Methods) | Bon Appétit). Is the chef referring to the caramelization of sugar in the beef patty or the caramelization of something else? That is, does caramelization always refer to sugar?

Caramelization is defined as the pyrolysis of sugars.  Pryolysis is decomposition due to high temperature.  So, yes, caramelization is always an effect on the sugars present in an ingredient. The Maillard reaction, as pointed out in a comment above, also contributes to flavors and browning when cooking.  However, the Maillard reaction specifically refers to the interaction between amino acids and reducing sugars.  The two processes can happen together, but they are different processes. They are both forms of non-enzymatic browning.


What is the conversion rate between plum tomatoes and "regular" tomatoes? I have a recipe that calls for 12 plum tomatoes (seeded, skinned, and pureed). Can I substitute regular tomatoes, and if so, in what ratio should I substitute them?

Here is a picture of what I mean by "regular" tomatoes:

The tomatoes pictured are known as slicing or globe tomatoes. The conversion rate is going to depend significantly on the size of your slicing tomatoes.

While plum tomatoes tend to be rather uniform in size, a slicing tomato can range anywhere from 1.5 to 3x the size of a plum. If they're close to the size of a baseball, that would be about the 1.5x end of the range. If they're closer to the size of a softball that is the 3x end of the range.

I'm not sure what your recipe is, but you should be aware of two properties of plum tomatoes. First, they have a much lower water content than slicing tomatoes. This makes them great for stews and sauces. Second, their seeds are rather bitter; this is likely why your recipe calls for them to be seeded.

If you're using slicing tomatoes you can omit seeding them if you desire. You'll also want to cook them longer to address the higher water content.

What would honestly be a better option is to simply use canned San Marzano tomatoes. These are widely considered to be the best tomatoes for sauces. Plus they are canned at the peak of freshness, allowing you to have ripe tomatoes year round. Fresh tomatoes bought outside of summer are often lacking in flavor.


Melting Temperature of Mozzarella Cheese? I would like to take a 1 pound block of store bought low moisture whole milk mozzarella (Poly O or Dragone), gently melt it in a sous vide without breaking down the milk from the fat, roll it out to my desired thickness in a large sheet of cheese.  My question is at what temperature would I set the water bath?

This is tricky because you don't really want the cheese to melt, you want it to become pliable enough to roll.  When making fresh mozzarella, the curds are heated in 90 - 100 degree F water to make them pliable, then heated further (maybe 120 F) for stretching and folding.  This is for fresh. I would assume factory produced mozzarella will behave slightly differently, with a higher melting point.  I would do some small test pieces (maybe an 1/4 inch slice so that it heats through quickly and you can move on with your test).  Start at 85F and work your way up or down.  It shouldn't take long to zero in on a temp that is right for the application you have in mind. I would be curious to know what you want to do with a sheet of mozzarella.


Cream based substitute for milk I typically have heavy cream on hand but not milk so I'm frequently in need of a method to substitute the milk in recipes with cream.  It seems to me that adding some amount of water and sugar to the cream would get it closer to milk in composition.  I realize that the exact method and appropriateness of the substitution depends on the specific recipe but am looking for general substitution guidelines.

Yes, you can often do this substitution and I've done it successfully many times when I've run out of milk unexpectedly, but you should know that the substitution is never going to be perfect.

On a purely mathematical basis, let's say your heavy cream is 36% M.F. You need partially-skimmed 2% milk for your recipe.  If you go purely by weight (which is almost 1:1 for volume when talking about mostly water), then 250 mL of 2% milk will contain about 5 g of milk fat.  To get that from 36% cream, you only need about 14 mL, or approximately 3 teaspoons of cream.  (Note - don't do this, read on!)

Of course, diluting cream at a ratio of 15:1 is ridiculous and you'll end up with something that's just really watery, and that's because milk is more than just water and fat.  I only provide the above calculation for illustrative purposes, to show why there's no hard rule or even rule of thumb for this particular substitution.

With normal cream, most people go with half water, half cream, or if they're trying to approximate skim milk then maybe 1 part cream to 2 parts water.  If you have double cream, I would probably use 1 part cream to 3 or 4 parts water; that will give you a reasonable approximation of the consistency of whole or skim milk without making it too watery.

Please keep in mind that different recipes/preparations use milk for different reasons, so this isn't going to work everywhere.  I certainly wouldn't do it in baking, but for many stovetop recipes, the main purpose of the milk is just moisture, so you're fine to substitute cream + water and it doesn't really matter if you're "exact" - which you can't be anyway.


How to boil away water from a sauce without it splashing? When "slow cooking" a certain recipe, I need to keep a lid on the pot, or the sauce slowly but surely splashes all over the place.

However, with the lid on, the sauce retains much more water than I like.

How can I boil away the excess water, or otherwise make the sauce less watery, without incurring significant extra cleaning?

If, when reducing a sauce, you are getting splashing outside the pot, your pot may be too small for the application.  Use a larger pot:  a wider base will allow more surface area for evaporation, and higher sides will make it harder for the content to get out.

You can also purchase a splatter guard, which is like a flat sieve or mesh that you can place over the top of the pot to reduce splatter without blocking air flow

although these are more typically used to reduce the splatter from frying.


Brown Coconut water safety issue? If you like sour and the water is not rancid is there any danger in drinking the water?
If so what is the danger? I grew up drinking it and it was delightful. There were never any warnings against drinking it. If the water is unsafe to drink then in my opinion the coconut meat is also unsafe. Please be specific.

The only thing I know is that sour water from the brown mature coconuts is horrible tasting but I didn't get sick from it. I would not keep the meat if the coconut water is in question. The meat is not safe from bacteria if bacteria has touched it.

Check out what organyx has to say here about the pink and purple color: http://www.chow.com/food-news/84067/is-coconut-water-bad-for-you/

I've found this site very informative in the past: http://foodbabe.com/2014/07/15/how-to-buy-the-healthiest-coconut-water-and-avoid-the-worst/


Can you help me get my cream pie filling stiff enough? Everytime I make a pie, I get a different result as far as the stiffness of the pie.  I am trying to perfect coconut cream pie (and other cream pies).

I have been researching Shirley O, Corriher and Harold McGee's work, and understand that the alpha-amylase in the egg yolk must be deactivated by boiling for a short time (although I also saw things like "approach a boil" to keep from breaking starch bonds).  Otherwise it digest the starch as in the cornstarch, flour or tapioca starch.  I understand that once the granules burst and release the starch chains and bond, that the process will start to reverse after the cream reaches its thickest point.  So, I am careful not to stir too much, etc.  I researched the different starches and found that cornstarch is not very heat resistant, so I looked into flour and tapioca (cassava) flour or starch.  I don't think I have looked at arrow root as much.

OK, what about the sugar?  Will too much sugar make it runny (I did try a recipe with less sugar).   What about the milk?  I use whole milk.  Is there something with the milk?  Do I need to use cream instead? I have read about using gelatin, but am not sure I want that consistency.  Surely there is a secret so that the pie will come out right every time.  HELP!

My coconut cream pie recipe uses milk (2 cups, whole milk gives a creamier flavour), 6 eggs, 1 cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons of gelatin (and coconut of course). It doesn't go like jelly, it has more of a silky consistency.

You divide the milk thusly:

2/3 cup, sprinkled with the gelatin, whisked, and left to soften for 5 mins
1 1/3 cup to make the 'custard'

Once the custard is made (i.e. sugar whisked into egg yolks, hot milk poured in after tempering), simply whisk in the gelatinised milk. My recipe then calls for cream and the egg whites to be folded in (after cooling) to lighten the whole thing.


Too Soft Cookie Dough I've always considered myself a decent baker, but in the last 6 months, I've had trouble with several cookie recipes that I have previously had good luck with.  The dough seems to come out very soft and gooey, even after chilling, when it is supposed to be stiff enough to roll - either in balls or cut-outs.  I use margarine, but it's never been a problem before.  I occasionally substitute some whole wheat flour for some of the white flour.  Any clues?

Whole wheat flour isn't going to absorb the same amount of water as white flour, so that's probably the source of the problem. You can either add a bit more flour until you get the right consistency, or reduce the amount of liquid. Margarine counts as liquid as the majority of it is water, so reduce that and maybe add less egg. If it was me, I'd just try adding a couple more tablespoons of flour and see if that fixes it, don't add too much extra right away as you'd be surprised how little flour it takes to change from gooey to firm.


Is cooked chicken brought to work but left unrefrigerated for 5 hours safe to eat? I cooked chicken last night and stored it in the fridge right after.

Today I brought in chicken in a glass container within my backpack and opened it 5 hours later. I put it in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds and it still feels a bit cold.

Is it safe to consume?

Probably not, as you left it at danger zone temperatures (Between +40F and +140F [4.4C and 60C])  for so long).

What are the odds of food poisoning? You'll need decide


What's a good substitute for amchur? If I'm using amchur primarily just for the tanginess, are there any good substitutes? I'd rather avoid things like lemon juice, since often it's very convenient that it's a powder, not a liquid.

Amchur doesn't give much of a flavor other than sour, at least, not in the amounts I use of it. It does have a bit of a distinctive aroma, but really, to me, it is just a fairly neutral sour flavor.

The easiest, most neutral substitute would be citric acid powder. Unfortunately, they don't usually give concentration/strengths on the packaging, but comparing Ball Citric Acid for Canning to the powdered amchur from the Indian store, it's pretty close. I think the citric acid tastes a tiny bit lemony, but not enough to make a difference.

Also, the amchur powder I buy is generally quite finely ground, and the citric acid is generally in crystals. If you are doing something like a spice blend (e.g., chat masala powder) you would probably want to grind the crystals up to match the texture of the rest of the spices.

Depending on what you're making, there are quite a few substitutions, but most of them would be more obscure than (or at least as obscure as) the amchur, and all would be less neutral. Also, amchur is dry, so adding something liquid might affect your recipe. (Easy to adjust if you are adding to something liquid, of course.)

In many Indian dishes, most of the Indians I know simply do use lemon juice when they want to make something sour, especially for northern dishes. This really is quite common, and nearly every Indian cook I know in the US has a large bottle of lemon juice in the fridge for every day use.

If you're making something South Indian, tamarind pulp or paste is often the souring agent of choice, but it is distinctly not neutral. It has a distinctive flavor and will also darken things (in a somewhat yellow-orange-brown range).

Some regions also use dried kokum fruit in the same way (classic Maharashtrian aamti, for example), but I would say it is even more distinctive than tamarind, and it also will darken it (with a dark grey-green-brown range of color).

For both kokum and tamarind, you soak the pulp in water and add the soaking water without the pulp to the dish. You can also usually find tamarind concentrate (a tarry paste) but I've never seen anything like that for kokum.

One more option I just thought of is using some other unripe or sour fruit. Amchur is made by powdering dried green mangoes. You can actually sometimes find dried green mangoes at places like Trader Joe's and if it is unsweetened, a small piece of that can certainly be used, but it seems that any fruit that is firm and sour should work, such as an unripe plum or a very tart apple. In that case, I would suggest either cooking with a small piece or two of the fruit in the sauce (if there is one) and removing it later or you could try to crush it and press some juice out. The problem here would be in figuring out the correct amount to add, but I think you could start from the dried-to-fresh conversion rates for herbs.


Does cooking black bengal gram with salt lead to increased cooking time or lack of softening? I have heard that cooking bengal gram with salt can lead to increased cooking time compared to cooking it without salt.So i used to add salt just before serving the curry.Other pulses like green gram are cooked with salt without any noticeable similar problems of delayed softening. Is this problem about bengal gram or chickpea is true?If so why is it so?

No, this is a common myth. If you want to test it, you don't "try once with salt", you divide the same batch of beans and cook them both, one with salt and one without, under the same conditions, and repeat. This is what a food author did, although he seems to not have repeated the experiment: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/09/salt-beans-cooking-soaking-water-good-or-bad.html. His salted beans were somewhat better than the unsalted, and he states he now always cooks them in salted water.


can a crock pot go bad? We have a late 1970s/early 1980s slow cooker (Hamilton Beach Crock Watcher), inherited from my in-laws, that we used to use on roasts, pork loins, etc. and get incredibly tender, easy-to-shred, falling-off-the-bone results pretty regularly.

Lately, everything we cook seems to come out tough, though it sure seems like we're cooking the same cuts and recipes for the same lengths of time... Stuff gets cooked through, it just doesn't turn out as tasty and tender.

Is this possible or are we just losing our minds?

Depending on the design, the heating coil may have collapsed and is shorting out at various points

This may cause it to run hotter than intended, and result in problems you describe

Measure the current with a meter and compare to manufacturers label, if much higher it's time to scrap it. Unlikely to be easily repairable if it has a heating coil

If it is running hot it is likely to fail soon and not heat at all

Modern crock-pots used solid elements, not coils. They also often have physical temperature regulation systems, not just a simple element selector switch


How to judge quantity of fresh pasta dough per person Tomorrow I'll be making a big batch of fresh pasta for about 7-8 people.

I know that if I'm using dried or bought fresh pasta, I usually count on about 125-150g per person, depending on the pasta type and whether it is dried or fresh.

When making pasta dough I will add eggs to my flour weight.  Should I just approximate the total weight, and again count on 125-150g per person?  Or will the weight change while I am cooking?

For instance, if I have 1kg durum flour and 16 eggs, the raw ingredients would weigh approximately 1.8kg in total (based on 50g per egg and not allowing for any reduction in weight during cooking).  By my reckoning, that would feed 12 people generously.

Am I correct?

Michael Ruhlman (in "Ratio") suggests starting with approximately 1 egg per person, and adding the appropriate amount of flour.


Making real soured milk - what sort of lactobacillus culture to get? I am looking to make an antique recipe (amish milk pie) which calls for thick soured milk. I can get my hands on raw milk, but it's iffy whether or not it will have the correct lactobacillus present to make proper soured milk. So, I was considering purchasing a lactobacillus culture and mixing them (similar to fermenting just about anything else). The question is, what lactobacillus species culture to get? Lactobacillus is a pretty huge genus, and I haven't been able to find anything beyond, "lactobacillus." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus alone lists easily more than 50. And like most critters, a little difference in the strain can have HUGE consequences when consuming them.

Lactobacillus acidophilus is probably your best bet. It's a fermentative bacteria, is considered a probiotic, and using it results in a sour milk with an even, palatable flavor. The upside of using acidophilus is that you can buy it from the grocery/drug store in tablet or capsule form. I'm not sure about regional availability, but my local HEB has cold-kept acidophilus culture available for purchase which I have used in the past to make acidophilus cheese by fermenting at relatively high temperatures (though Streptococcus thermophilus is honestly better for making cheese). Alternatively, you can just put a scoop of fresh live-culture yogurt in your milk, which will work just as well.

Keep in mind that the temperature of fermentation will affect the consistency of the finished product. When making acidophilus cheese, I kept the temperature near 100°F for nearly a day. According to this wikiHow article, adding the culture to 115°F to 120°F milk and allowing it to set up for 6 hours will produce yogurt. This leads me to believe that adding the culture to milk at a lower temperature and letting it set up for a shorter time will yield soured milk that isn't thickened to yogurt levels. Since acidophilus doesn't require curing, you can just taste the milk as it sets to determine how sour you want it to get.


What's the source of the sweetness in tomato sauce that's simmered for at least four hours? I was reading up on tomato sauce, and it seems important to simmer the sauce for at least a few hours. The “Frankies Spuntino” recipe is about as simple as it can get, it doesn't even contain onions. It's said to produce a “thick and rich sauce, with the flavor of the sweetest summer tomatoes.” The key points to the recipe seem to be to use canned San Marzano tomatoes and to keep the sauce at a simmer for four hours. It's clear that the quality of the tomatoes plays a role in the sweetness of the sauce, but why the long simmer? What exactly happens to the sauce during this? This snippet of advice from allrecipes.com suggests the sweetness is due to caramelization:

  Cooking time can range from two hours to all day, depending on how thick and caramelized you like your sauce.

Is that correct? I thought that the sauce, being liquid and kept at a gentle simmer, wouldn't reach the necessary temperature for caramelization. If not, what exactly does happen? And does the process really need to take so long, is there a way to speed it up a bit?

I think caramelization might be the wrong word there. I would go for concentration. While some caramelization does occur around the rim of a pot of tomato sauce as the sauce reduces (and it's good to stir this residue into your sauce), the main increase in sweetness is due to a concentration of all things tomato-y as the water in the sauce evaporates.

Speeding up this process is not only possible, but, in my opinion, highly desirable. A long- simmered tomato sauce can often have an overcooked taste to it. One method to speed things up is to strain your canned tomatoes through a fine-mesh strainer, or something equivalent. Use what remains to start your sauce in the normal way and keep it at a simmer. The liquid, however, you can heat more rapidly at a low boil since there are very little tomato solids left in it to get that overcooked flavor. Once your liquid has been reduced by 60-75%, you can add this back to your simmering tomatoes.

If you start your sauce with fresh tomatoes, the quickest way to accomplish this is to freeze them. Once thawed, all their liquid will pour off easily. Boil down this liquid as described, quickly sauté your remaining solids, and then blend them into your reduced liquid with an immersion blender. This results in a very rich and flavorful thickened sauce that still has the brightness of fresh tomatoes and can be done in a fraction of the time mentioned in your question.


Pie Filling temperature I made a large batch of strawberry rhubarb pie filling and apple pie filling.  How long can it sit out on the counter and at what temperature has it spoiled?

The general rule for foods is that they shouldn't spend more than two hours in the 'danger zone' which is between 5 and 60 degrees Celsius. So once your pie fillings have cooled below 60 degrees they shouldn't be out for more than two hours, according to the strictest rules of food safety.

That said, a pie filling is typically rather similar to a jam which is a way to preserve fruits and berries. They typically contain to much sugar to spoil, so the main risk is mold if left out of the fridge for weeks. Whether your pie filling would have that property depends on the recipe you use.


Can I substitute quinoa flour for bleached flour in a baking recipe? I wanted to substitute Quinoa Flour for bleached in an apple nut-bread recipe - will it work, any adjustments for similar substitutions in general?

According to Bob's Red Mill, which makes the quinoa flour that I use:

  You can substitute this flour for half of the all-purpose flour in many recipes or completely replace wheat flour in cakes and cookie recipes.


How do I make Vietnamese Yogurt more tart? How do I make Vietnamese Yogurt more tart?

I've been using several online recipes to make Vietnamese Yogurt. The ones I buy from the store are much more tart then my own results.

My results:

Danactiv vanilla flavor - Way too sweet, but texture was alright
365 Organic Plain - Not too sweet, but not tart at all, texture was very thick

I have not been able to go to a store that sells Vietnamese yogurt due to the lockdown, so I didn't try that, yet. Hoping for an answer that allows me to make tart yogurt American grocery store ingredients.

Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgNtOOa8dg8

For incubation we used a warm water bath and left at room temperature (74F)

First, the tangness of yogurt depends on the culture, and somewhat on the temperature of incubation. Lactobacillus bulgaricus will give you a tangier yogurt than streptoci or bifidi-based cultures. So buy a lactobacilicus culture (either the pure culture or the yogurt made with it) and use it as your culture. Then make sure to incubate at the proper temperature (which is 43-46 for lactobacillus bulgaricus). If that's not tangy enough for you, leave the incubated yogurt one night at room temperature before putting it in the fridge.

Second, sweetness and sourness are an unusual pair of tastes in that they inhibit each other. I have not had vietnamese yogurt, but the Internet tells me it uses sugar. So consider reducing the sugar in order to get more of a sour taste when you eat it.


How can I improve this rice recipe I have an older instant pot pressure cooker (ip-lux50 v3) and I've tried making rice according to various recipes I've found on the internet and none of them have turned out well
This is one recipe I've tried
https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-rice/
The rice came out gummy and stuck to the pot. I'm hoping for suggestions of a way to make good rice based on this recipe

The rice can make the difference. The rice:water ratio can make the difference.
I don't know the figures for Jasmine, but quite famously half the bags of Basmati sold are not, in fact, Basmati. See The Great Rice Scam.
The images shown on that site give the impression they do aim for 'slightly sticky' so you can pick up with chopsticks.
First tests would be…
Reduce your water content.
Let it sit an additional 15 minutes once finished.
Experiment with leaving the lid on vs removing it & placing a sheet of kitchen roll over the top with the lid on just enough to hold it flat. [Greek/Turkish method]
Personally, I never rinse rice & I never use anything other than a regular saucepan. Perfect rice every time, in 30 minutes.
1 : 1.6 rice : water. [more than a pressure cooker of course]
Drop boiling water onto ready-salted rice in a pre-heated pan. This causes a flash boil which immediately separates the grains.
Quick stir once. Heat to minimum, lid on.
15 minutes at lowest heat.
Switch off. Leave 15 minutes more.
Done.


Baking chicken in the oven Can I bake small pieces of chicken in the oven on a metal bake sheet? Or would glassware be better?  When I say small, I mean 1/2 inch pieces

I think you are better off sauting small pieces of chicken on the stove. Small pieces of chicken cook very quickly and can dry out in the oven.


Does storing an apple with potatoes prevent the potatoes from sprouting? I don't know if this is an old wives tale because a Google search didn't bring me conclusive proof: in fact the top two results have exactly opposite answers on this question. Apparently both apples and onions contain ethylene gas but storing onions with potatoes is a big no no whereas I've been recommended several times to throw an apple into my bag of potatoes.

According to this article, the advice to not store onions and potatoes together has nothing to do with ethylene. Onions do not give off ethylene. It has to do with moisture. Both onions and potatoes give off some moisture. Storing them together makes both more likely to rot.

Apples, on the other hand, do give off ethylene. This begs the question, "What does ethylene gas do to potatoes in storage?" Here's what I found.

Ethylene exerts a dual effect on potato tubers: it markedly shortens the duration of rest, but it inhibits elongation of the sprouts during extended treatment. Source

Ethylene has been reported to break endodormancy following short-term treatments, but also to inhibit sprout growth and promote ecodormancy when supplied continuously – either starting immediately after harvest or at first indication of sprouting. - Source

“Endodormancy” occurs after harvest and is due to the internal or physiological status of the tuber. In this situation, even if tubers are placed in conditions favorable for sprout development, sprouting will not occur. “Ecodormancy” is when sprouting is prevented or delayed by environmental conditions. An example of this would be potatoes stored at lower temperatures having a longer dormancy period compared to potatoes stored at warmer temperatures. Source

short-term exposure of potatoes to ethylene gas encouraged more sprouting while long term exposure suppressed it. Source.

Summary:
If your potatoes are in the endodormant stage ethylene will break them out of endodormancy and move them into the ecodormant stage. Potatoes in the endodormant stage are very shelf-stable. Potatoes in the ecodormant stage are less shelf stable.
Once your potatoes are already in the ecodormant stage, there's no disadvantage to supplying them with ethylene. Ethylene will inhibit sprout growth at this stage.
But, you can't tell if your potatoes are in the endodormant stage or the ecodormant stage. The only way you can tell what dormancy stage they're in, is when they start to sprout. Then you know they're not dormant anymore.
So, you want to either:

Supply your potatoes with ethylene continuously, or
Wait until they start to sprout, then supply them with ethylene.

Once you have supplied your potatoes with ethylene, don't take away the source of ethylene.

Conclusion:
Don't:

Put an apple in with your potatoes for a while, then take it away. The ethylene will "wake up" your potatoes, and they will sprout sooner than if you didn't put an apple with them in the first place.
Put an apple in with your potatoes and forget about it. If the apple goes bad and starts to rot, your potatoes will be more likely to rot.

Do:

Put an apple in with your potatoes as soon as you put them in storage, remembering to check on them and replacing the apple if it goes bad. Your potatoes will sprout slightly less than without the apple.

-Or-

Store your potatoes without an apple, but check on them occasionally for sprouting. When they start to sprout, put an apple in with them. The apple will slow the sprout growth and make your potatoes last a bit longer.

Both options require you to check on your potatoes occasionally. If you don't want to do this (or don't trust yourself to remember), don't store them with an apple. Better to risk a bit of sprouting than the rot that a rotting apple will cause.


How to shell a coconut without breaking the seed? Quite a lot of the time I'm able to get large parts of seeds by hitting the shell against the ground. This causes bigger cracks in the shell than the seed, I can then pry off the outer layer. However, I've never been able to get a whole seed this way.

The only other ways I can think of would be dissolving it in an acid or using abrasion, but I do not know if these would work.

What is the best method of removing the dark outer shell from a coconut without damaging the inner white seed?

Freeze it and then break the shell careful with a hammer...


Do chile peppers heat vary depending on the season? I found a great recipe for Chilles Rellenos - the first time I made them - they came out perfect. I used pasilla Peppers and the spice/heat was just right. Since then, I have not been able to duplicate the heat level no matter what type of pepper I use. I'm removing the membranes and seeds - and the skin as I can - it's really hard to do. Other than that, the only difference I can think of is that when I made them the first time it was fall and now it's winter. I tried pasilla, poblano, anaheim - in all cases - they're not just a little hotter - they're excruciating. (to the point where just working with the peppers has my HAND burning a day later - and of course the Rellenos were too hot for anyone to eat, even after roasting and frying them.) All these peppers are listed as being "mild"... What gives?

Many references indicate that stress on the plant effects the heat rating of the fruits produced. "Good" stress (usually people want to increase heat) is generally a reduction in water supply, carefully and aptly timed, and/or increased outdoor temperatures.

While appearing dated and non-authoritative, this site, also looks very accurate from my experience around growing chiles, and states that (as is common, referring to spice/heat as pungency):

  ...total pungency amount of the medium and mild chiles increase
  dramatically when put under stress.

Normally, chile plants like summer weather (sunlight and warmth), and are not nearly productive in winter. What you're obtaining in winter months may be imported from a very different location, probably from a place on Earth where it was summer when harvested. As indicated in the above-cited article, the truly hot peppers don't get much hotter from stress.

Anecdotal addendum: fwiw & ime, chile plants grown in winter (the ones observed are nagas, tabasco, japone, jalapeños) aren't as productive and the peppers are not anywhere near as hot. So, when not grown in the proper conditions that a species expects - mostly enough daily sunlight or a long enough warm season, the heat in produced fruits can drop dramatically.


While making pepper oil with dry crushed red pepper, do I need to sterilize the jars to store for up to 6 months? I am planning to make a large quantity of oil cooked with dry crushed red pepper.  I fry the oil on low heat with the dry crushed red pepper for awhile and then remove it.

I plan to distribute it to friends as a wedding favor.

I don't have any experience with canning.  Is there a risk for botulism if I just throw it in a jar?  Or will I need to fully sterilize the jars?

Basic answer: it's generally recommended to sterilize jars before storing low-acid foods at room temperature. (Many canning procedures effectively sterilize the jars during processing.)  In your case, you should be certain the jars are clean and thoroughly dry as well.

Regarding your overall proposal: I'd only give away food gifts like this if I had prepared them according to an established procedure and recipe tested by a reputable food safety and preservation organization. Your proposal sounds like it could be safe, but I can't find any such recipes at the National Center for Home Food Preservation or similar sources. Generally, most food safety websites don't recommend storing any homemade flavored oils at room temperature or for more than a few days in the refrigerator.  (There were some older recommendations that allowed for dried herbs and/or herbs that were strained out of oil after a brief infusion, but even these were found to have a small risk -- because only lab testing can determine whether herbs are dried sufficiently or whether you've managed to strain out all the small particles -- and are no longer listed on most food preservation sites.)  Commercial preparations of flavored oils almost exclusively involve prior acidification of the additives to ensure safety.

Also, I would note that heating the oil hot enough to kill botulism bacteria will cause it to degrade somewhat in quality and flavor.  (This is another reason why commercial preparations use acidification.)

Lastly, just my opinion: I don't want to overstate the risk here (which is likely low), but without a tested procedure it's impossible to know for certain when storing low-acid foods at room temperature.  And botulism toxin can be deadly.  I know it sounds like a nice idea, but I personally would not give flavored oils as gifts.  Even if I found a reputable recipe from a food preservation site that had been scientifically tested, the people I give these things to have to trust that I know what I'm doing.  Personally, I tend to discard any flavored oils I've received as gifts before using (unless I would trust the person and know how the food was prepared).


Should I refrigerate eggs? I've read a lot of conflicting advice on whether it's advisable to store eggs in the refrigerator. The case against seems twofold: (1) that eggshells are porous, and eggs can take on unwelcome flavours, or even spoil faster in the fridge, and (2) that cooking with cold eggs can be problematic. But lots of people refrigerate eggs through perceived necessity.

Do eggs last longer in the fridge, and is the shelf life gain worth it? Or should I just stick them in the cupboard?

The exterior coating on an egg is known as the "cuticle".  It helps to protect the (porous) shell and minimize moisture loss, but it eventually breaks down as the chick matures and prepares to hatch.

The reason that eggs in the US are typically sold under refrigeration is because they are washed with warm water and detergent to remove the large amount of bacteria that are deposited on the shell while being laid.  Once the cuticle is removed the egg becomes more porous.

Most bakeries that are using whole eggs will typically keep several flats out at all times to have them at room temperature.  Eggs will store better and longer in the refrigerator but if being used frequently and fairly quickly, they can also be left at room temperature.  Howard McGee in On Food & Cooking says that egg quality deteriorates as much in one day at room temperature as it does four days under refrigeration.