Marinade and Smoke Chips I am planning on doing a pork crown for Christmas and have zeroed in on this recipe, which calls for a marinade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhgZN1zoLTE

I also would like to have a smokey flavor, for which I plan to use wood chips on my gas grill.

Will the smokey flavor play well with a marinade? Should I marinade the meat first and put it in the smoking grill (not an actual smoker) or should I rather smoke it first a bit and baste it in the middle of cooking?

For me it makes sense to marinade at the beginning to preserve the juices, but I am wondering if the marinade will prevent the smoke from penetrating the meat or if the smoke marinade combination will be weird?

I am also considering putting a dish with water in the grill to create some steam for moisture and only apply the marinade at the end, but am wondering if a steam and smoke combination would work?

Marinating means that your product will be in the marinade before cooking.  It is a surface flavor application.  It does not seal in juices, nor does it penetrate the protein.  Marinate as you would for grilling.  Grill/roast (with smoke chips if you wish).  You are not technically "smoking," but that is beside the point.  You can certainly baste, throughout, with your marinade.  If this is the case, you may want to reserve some that raw meat has not come into contact with for this purpose. You will pick up the smoke flavor, even with the marinade and the basting.


making scalloped potatoes, need to be in oven for 3 hours,what temperature should I have them on I need to put scalloped potatoes in the oven for 3 hours, what tempterature should I have them on?

I found a recipe for slow baked potatoes that has the potatoes in the oven for 3 hours set at 350F. According to the author:

"The accepted practice is to bake potatoes for an hour. But here's how long to bake a baked potato if you want it to be nutty and soft: three hours, yes, that's no typo, it really is 'three' hours. The skin and flesh are both completely delicious when slow-baked for a long time."

Recipe here.

However, I am unsure whether this theory holds true for scalloped potatoes. Most scalloped potatoes recipes I came across had the potatoes being baked in the oven for ~1 hr at ~350F.


Are those skillets damaged? I'm posting links to photos on Dropbox of 3 de Buyer skillets I own. They have been placed into the dishwasher over and over again against my advice unfortunately.
I want to know if what I'm seeing on them now is rust, and if so are they permanently damaged or is there something I can do to revive them?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/okzx2s5d68ajegh/IMG_3935.jpeg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3meqro6akl6e15i/IMG_3936.jpeg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gycyjwv5rdsp56f/IMG_3937.jpeg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g01tpvixx6g2fsu/IMG_3938.jpeg?dl=0

These appear to be carbon steel pans. Carbon steel pans are similar to cast iron in that they are raw/uncoated metal and need to be seasoned to maintain a proper (rust free) cooking surface. The big different from cast iron is simply that carbon steel is thinner, and less massive--which makes it more responsive to heat changes, as it holds less heat within itself.
Virtually all advice for care of cast iron pans also applies to carbon steel. How to care for cast iron advice is plentiful on the internet.

Stop using the dishwasher. The detergent in a dishwasher is far too aggressive and will wash away seasoning.
Dry the pan immediately & thoroughly after washing--popping it on the stove to heat it up works great.

To finally answer your question...
Your pans aren't ruined--they just need some love. Your carbon steel pans can be easily saved with re-seasoning. This is simply a matter of scrubbing the rust off, and going through a process to polymerize oil on the surface to prevent future rust.
Then, have an intervention with the person who loves to put them though the dishwasher, and explain that they are abusing these pans and need to start hand washing them.


Hot espresso poured into a cold cup - is that dangerous? When making a flavored iced drink - for example a mocha - what is the correct steps to take in order to make the best drink. Is it ok to pour the hot espresso over the measured amount of chocolate at the bottom of a cold cup ?

There are frequently conflicting opinions about coffee preparation, as everyone has their own way that they like it best. Keep in mind that these are just opinions though and you should prepare the drink however it most appeals to you.

That said, there are a few things to keep in mind: If you're using solid chocolate or cocoa powder, you'd want to add hot liquid directly to that to melt it. Most flavorings will dissolve best in hot liquid, but syrups can be stirred in to cold liquids as well. The main thing you'd want to avoid is pouring hot liquid directly over ice, as that will water down your coffee a lot. Generally my method is to pour the espresso over the syrup, swirl it to dissolve, add cold milk, then add ice last. If I'm making an iced Americano, I do add the espresso directly to ice and then omit adding water (or reduce the water).


Should I use olive oil in in baking? Many sources suggest that olive oil loses its distinctive flavors when heated to high temperatures (e.g., Can extra virgin olive oil be used for stir frying, roasting, grilling?). When olive oil is used in baking, however, it would typically stay at lower temperatures than it reaches in sauteeing or roasting. Do baked goods made with olive oil retain any of olive oil's distinctive flavors?

(For what it is worth, I am particularly interested in whether it is worthwhile to use olive oil in breads such as focaccia and in cakes made with oil.)

There are some cakes (usually of Italian origin) specifically made with olive oil.

In breads, you can certainly use it, although there often is not enough olive oil for its flavor to truly be appreciated.

New York style pizza dough, for example, is traditionally made with some olive oil.


Melted chocolate inside the cookies What kind of chocolates are used to make the lava-cookies?

How can i keep it in liquid state inside the cookies?

Thank you.

ps. Sorry, my English is as bad as my baking skill.

Assuming the cookie you mean is basically a filled chocolate chip cookie baked in a muffin tin with a chocolate filling:

With one exception all of the top recipes call for chocolate chips as the filling (the exception using a commercial fudge product).  Some used regular, one used milk chocolate chips.  Given the way the recipe works, any chocolate chip—or for that matter, chopped bar chocolate—will work, although you will want to select quality brand that is actually true chocolate if you can.

You cannot keep chocolate from re-hardening when it cools.  This recipe is meant to be eaten warm from the oven, when the chips are still melted.

If you have used a brand of chip that is true chocolate (with cocoa butter, not a replacement fat), you may have some success reheating them in the microwave, to remelt the chocolate.  The fat in the chocolate chips will absorb microwaves better than the surrounding cookie dough, so the chocolate should melt relatively quickly.   This may or may not work with chips where the cocoa butter has been replaced with other fats.


Refrigerator Life Of Cooked Clams I steamed some clams seven days ago, and not all of them were eaten. I removed the shells and stored the flesh in a plastic container in the refrigerator. After seven days are they still safe to eat, since they were well cooked and refrigerated?

It's too risky for my tastes.  Cooked seafoods (fin-fish and shellfish) are nearly a perfect growth medium for bacteria, so they have a particularly short shelf-life even when properly kept refrigerated -- perhaps three days.  Here is a PDF from the Texas A&M Agricultural Extension Service with some useful guidelines.


How to get all the rice out of the pan? Often when cooking rice a lot of it ends up sticking to the bottom of the pan and gets wasted. I'm using a frying pan with a non-stick surface. Is there a way to get all the rice out of the pan easily?

I find that a silicone spatula is frequently better at getting the pan clean than a stiff spatula like a wooden one. If your rice is slightly burnt into the bottom, you might have to use both - scratch it off with the wooden spatula, then collect with the silicone one.


Beef Steaks : Cooking older-grade meat (C-Grade) I'm an amateur cook and I can't afford to buy "good" steaks, so I made my own Sous Vide circulator to try and get the best out of cheap meat cuts. Thing is, where I'm from, even the less-glamorous cuts of A-Grade beef is too expensive for me. So I buy C-Grade rump, which is basically meat from older animals.
My question is: How do I adjust my Sous Vide temperatures and times for the older beef? I tried a 1-inch rump steak at 65C for 2 hours and it came out dry cos all the juices from the meat seemed like it oozed out into the bag. I salted it before the sous vide phase.
I previously tried a big piece of rump on a 16 hour cook time, and it was also very dry cos all the juices had come out into the bag.

What are my option to make a decent steak out of C-Grade rump?

EDIT#1: So a few suggestions that my temp controller isn't accurate... I do have a candy thermometer lying around. I'll try double-checking it against that. Also, from the other question that was linked, there's  a suggestion to hold back on the seasoning until after the cook is done. I'll give that a try next time. I've looked at Douglas Baldwin's "Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking" and I think I might try a sub-60C cook to extract the magic from this passage:

  Indeed, collagen begins to dissolve into gelatin above 122°F to 131°F (50°C to 55°C) (Neklyudov, 2003; This, 2006). Moreover, the sarcoplasmic protein enzyme collagenase remains active below 140°F (60°C) and can significantly tenderize the meat if held for more than 6 hours (Tornberg, 2005).

EDIT#2 : See my link below. It's a scholarly article on fibrous connective tissue, which makes comments about older animals and the effect on collagen. It's a bit over my head, but might be interesting to anyone who has the appetite for food science...
Click Here for the article

Older animals will have much more flavorful meat, but the only way to get the meat tender is to cook for a long time with moisture, at a relatively low temperature. This means braising or steaming. It is unlikely that sous vide methods will provide the temperature necessary to break down the collagen proteins, nor does it usually provide enough moisture. It is really not appropriate to use this grade of meat for steak, or any quick cooking method.

A possible alternative would be to use a marinade which includes fresh pineapple juice or papaya juice. These juices contain enzymes which break down the protein structure of meat and make it more tender, but must be used fresh, as the canning/pasteurizing process denatures the enzymes, making them ineffective.


Alton Brown's Buffalo Wings See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSaR4WmVvRI

Alton Brown refrigerates his wings, then steams them, then refrigerate them again. The rationale behind refrigerating them was to dry them out so they would be crispy after baking them.

Was the first refrigeration actually needed? The wings are steamed afterwards, so pre-drying them seem pointless. Or was the first refrigeration's purpose something else?

Interestingly, that first refrigeration isn't mentioned here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/buffalo-wings-recipe.html

I don't see how refrigerating the wings before steaming them could possibly make a difference. They were initially refrigerated as he toyed with the idea of frying them or baking them directly, but then he was inspired to steam them to remove some of the fat before baking. It's artistic licence to tell a better and slightly longer story, nothing more.

If you go to the official recipe, you'll see that it skips this step:


How to get cracks in my ginger molasses cookies I used this recipe to make ginger molasses cookies. Though the cookies tasted great, my cookies didn't develop any cracks in them like the ones in the picture. I tried baking them for longer, but that just resulted in them becoming more crispy and browned a little more.

How should I modify the recipe to get the traditional cracks in the cookie?

EDIT: The only modification I made to the recipe was to use unsalted butter instead of margarine.

Chris hinted at it -- to get the cracks, you need to have the top set early, so it's not going to expand while the middle's still trying to rise, and there's still enough leavening left to break through the crust that formed.

You have a few things that can go wrong:

The oven isn't hot enough. (it needs to set the top before the middle's fully risen)
Not enough leavening (it needs to be strong enough to crack the top once it's set)
Using a single-acting baking powder (double acting gives extra rise when it gets heated)
Not creaming the fat long enough (creaming cuts little air pockets into the fat, which means the leavening has to do less work)
Making too thin of cookies (you need enough mass in the middle so it finishes cooking after the top's set).
Mixing the dough too much (you don't want to develop gluten; it needs to be tender enough to crack easily)

As Jennifer mentioned -- old baking soda can be a problem.  I'd also consider investing in an oven thermometer to make sure that it's really providing the temperature the dial claims, as those are the two things that are going to be the most difficult to judge if they're a problem or not.

You'll also want to make sure the oven is properly pre-heated (so it doesn't loose all its heat when you open the door to put the cookies in), and avoid opening the door again 'til it's time to pull them.  If you have to rotate them (as the oven cooks unevenly), do it as quickly as possible so the oven's not open for very long.


Reducing Canned Pumpkin (as per America's Test Kitchen) I have a request from a friend for a Libby's Pumpkin Roll. I don't have any experience working with pumpkin because I don't like pumpkin. That particular recipe was a holiday family tradition for him, so of course I want mine to be superior to any he's ever had. America's Test Kitchen does a trick with canned pumpkin, they add the seasonings (basically pumpkin pie spice) and cook it over medium heat, reducing it significantly. "Canned pumpkin puree often lends a raw, metallic flavor to pumpkin bread. We cook down the puree to eliminate those off-putting flavors." OK, if ATK recommends something, that's usually good enough for me. One pretty safe option is to measure the pumpkin per the Libby's Roll recipe, add the seasonings, weigh everything, reduce it per ATK, weigh it again and add the water back. Then I'm dealing with the same measurement of pumpkin, same moisture level, perhaps better tasting.  However, since I'm doing the reduction step anyway, I'm wondering if I can amp up the pumpkin flavor a bit, without ruining the texture of the cake. Since I'm going to be rolling it, I need to be particularly careful.

So, my first question is if the adding the water back to the reduction is as safe as I think it is. Secondly, I'd like to know if can get away with tweaking for a bit more pumpkin flavor. Advice?

ATK's method, while it may reduce the canned taste, has two primary outcomes:

It heats the pumpkin puree
It reduces the water volume

The flavor intensification is due to the reduction.  If you are not willing to change the water ratio of your base recipe, there is litte point to doing it, and then adding the water weight back.

So the question is:  does bringing the pumpkin up to a simmer in a pan actually signficantly reduce the canned taste?  While I suspect it doesn't at least when the final cooking stage is included, it is a pretty easy step to do, and won't cause you much trouble other than an extra pot to clean.

While you may need some trial and error, increasing the percentage of pumpkin solids in your swiss roll recipe will reduce the structure of the cake; it may tolerate a small increase (perhaps to the 1 full cup or even more, reduced slightly if you want to) without becoming too soft to roll.

While raw pumpkin is about 90% water I suspect the Libby's product is already reduced, to probably 70 or 80% water (I was not able to find a definitive answer), you may want to reduce your total pumpkin down by 2/3 to 3/4 of the volume above the base 3/4 cup called for in the recipe to keep the total liquid close.  So if you add 1/2 cup of pumpkin, for a total of 1 1/4 cups, reduce it by 3/8 of a cup; this would be easiest done by weight where it is 3 ounces.

Pumpkin and eggs are the only signficant water in that recipe, so you cannot substiute out another liquid to allow you to bring in more pumpkin.

Finally, consider that product vendors are especially motivated to write recipes that show their products in good light, and are reliable.  There is almost certainly some margin of error in that recipe for experimentation to account for the variance of their customers' cooking habits, but it quite likely close to ideal already or they would not have published it.


Can I use cream of tartar in place of tataric acid I have an old recipe for Green Tomato/Ginger Jam , it needs 3/4 tsp tartaric acid, can I substitute cream of tartar and if so how much?

Green Tomato/Ginger Jam: Skin 1 3/4 lbs green tomatoes by plunging them into boiling water for 8-12 minutes. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, sprinkle with 3/4 lb sugar, 1 1/2 tsp,powdered ginger and 3/4 tsp tartaric acid. Leave to stand over night. Next day, add 2 oz root ginger and 3/4 tsp lemon essence. Place in a pan and simmer until tender. Add a little extra water if the tomatoes are very hard. Add another 1 3/4 lbs. of sugar. Stir until dissolved and boil in an open pan for about 5 minutes.

Green Tomato Pickles: Slice 3 lbs green tomatoes into a pan with 1 lb onions, sliced, 1 tablespoon salt and 3/4 pt vinegar. Cook about 45 minutes. Add 8 oz brown sugar, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp dry mustard and 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, and cook slowly for 1 hour, stirring constantly. Bottle while hot and then seal immediately.

While normally I would hesitate to recommend this source, eHow has a good article on the difference.   Cream of tartar is ground, partially neutralized tartaric acid, and not generally a substitute.

In the end, they recommend:

  If your recipe calls for tartaric acid and you don't have it, using
  cream of tartar might work. For every teaspoon of tartaric acid,
  replace with two teaspoons of cream of tartar. However, using tartaric
  acid will produce better results.

However, there are very, very few applications of cream of tartar in cooking.  The most prominent is encouraging foaming of egg whites.   With good technique and patience in whipping the whites, it can simply be omitted with good results.

It is also used in some candy making, to interfere with crystal formation in sugar work.  In this application, substitution may actually be effective, but you might wish to use alternatives such as invert sugars or citric acid.

In the specific jam recipe, if you are canning, one purpose of the tartaric acid is to ensure the canned goods are sufficiently acidic as to prevent the growth of botulism, and keep your put up green tomatoes safe.  In this context, you should not substitute.  When canning, always follow trusted recipes precisely, to ensure a safe outcome.

Even if you are making refrigerator jam, this is not a good substitution candidate, since you may need the acidity to help get a good gel.   You might be able to use citric acid (I am not sure how the acidity levels compare), but don't try this if you are canning.


Is the milk spoiled when a thin layered textured appears in the bottom of pan? I use Pasteurized Amul milk (see here). Last time, I purchased it on May 3rd and has expiry as today, 05-05-19.

(Outside temperate in our area is around 35-40 degrees)

I keep it (packaged when not boiled, in pan once opened and boiled) in the fridge  all the time except when it is used. I first brought it out on May 4th morning, boiled it and used half of it (total 500 ml). Stored the remaining again in fridge in pan.

I boiled the remaining milk just a few minutes ago (tonight will be expiry).

Here's what I observe:

Mostly, I see no layer or negligible layer when I first boil the milk on 4th
When I boil it again next day in same pan (I don't change the pan during whole process), there's still fat in it, a creamy yellow layer on top but the bottom layer (highlighted in image) is perfectly noticeable this time.

Now, I don't note any sour taste or bad smell or the curd like solids in it. It seems fine to me.

But does this layer mean it has started to go sour and will rise eventually?

This layer just means some milk proteins have cooked onto the bottom of the pan, and says nothing at all about the age or condition of the milk. It's more likely when you boil a smaller quantity due to the more rapid heating. During can help avoid this.

However repeated heating and cooling isn't generally a good idea. With milk you can get away with it but it would be a better idea to boil only what you need (which would also be quicker and use less energy).


When to add vegetables in slow cooker? I'm doing a nice beef roast in the crock pot today. Normally I roast the carrots and potatoes together in the oven but due to other things I need the oven for I'm going to add them with the roast. I really want to avoid mushy vegetables but not sure how long before the roast is done that they should be added. I'm using "baby" carrots and diced potatoes about the size of a golf ball. I'm looking for cooked but firm. I have very little liquid in the bottom of the slow cooker as well.

I've been trying different ideas on this for a while now.  I can't get it done well so I've started to cook the vegetables separately.  It only takes about fifteen minutes to gently boil them.  I've been thinking about a second crock pot for the vegetables but have not done that yet.


Is unsour sour cream too new or too old? My supermarket only has one supplier of sour cream, so I always buy it. It appears to be made by a small company.

All last year, when I purchased the product, it appeared like any sour cream you can purchase in the US. But during the last 3 times, the taste and texture was different. First, it was not sour, the nearest flavor I can imagine would be cottage cheese, but not so sweet. Second, the texture was quite unusual. Rather than having the usual creamy texture, this was grainy, as I imagine sour cream would look if one mixed in some sand.

The date I purchased the cream was 10 days after the produced date.

Is this taste and texture and indication that the sour cream is too old?
Or perhaps an indication that the sour cream needs to age more to become sour?
Or just a different style of sour cream?

It sounds like the sour cream was frozen and thawed.


Ground Beef vs. Ground Pork I have a meatball recipe that calls for ground beef, but all I have on hand is ground pork. How might that affect the binding of the ingredients and the cooking in general?

It won't. In meatballs, pork and beef will behave pretty much the same, the flavor will just be of pork or of beef. The only real difference that you're likely to see (other than flavor) is if you are substituting ground pork for beef of a lower fat content. Ground pork in the US is not generally labeled for fat content, but tends to run about 20% fat. Ground beef is common in that range too, but a lot of people choose lower fat ground beef as it is labeled for fat content.

If you want to find meatball perfection, check out Serious Eats.

Don't worry though, your meatballs will be fine.


How can I make the best use of prime beef? I generally buy Choice grade beef, but will sometimes spend the extra money and buy Prime.

How should I prepare Prime beef so as to take proper advantage of the additional tenderness, marbling and overall flavour of this grade?

So far I've just been serving it on the rare side, or making carpaccio, but would not have a problem with serving it less rare.

If I'm spending the money to get prime, aged beef, I'm going to cook it rare if I cook it at all. The more you cook it, the more flavor you're going to lose. In the restaurant business, it's not uncommon to slip you a substandard chunk of meat if you order the fillet and you order it well done. How would you know the difference between good and bad at that point?

Likewise a lot of additions. There is a place in town here that does an extraordinary fillet stuffed with goat cheese and cranberries, and one of the best I've ever tasted was covered with bearnaise and crabmeat, but, as a general rule, don't add a lot of extra flavors to high quality beef. The worst thing you can do is hide the taste, since that's what you're paying for.

Still, aside from the two that I mentioned, you can stuff with blue cheese, make beef wellington, or make beef stroganoff (Link is to James Beards version, which, imho, is the best); quality of meat is huge in stroganoff. I'd only use fillet there, or some other very lean cut. Saved the marbled stuff for the grill.


Can any potatoes be cooked in the microwave? I bought these baby potatoes from sainsburys and it says on the packet you can microwave them in 7.5 minutes and they will be ok to cook.  I imagine they are not precooked or am I wrong?
This got me thinking if I get any potatoes and cut them into small enough pieces can I heat them in the microwave without oil and butter same as with these baby potatoes?
Thanks

Yes, you can cook potatoes in a microwave. If you have not cut them up, poke a few holes in the side with a fork or knife point to allow steam to escape.


Is a steak OK to eat if it fell down, but I cooked it afterwards? If I am cooking steaks at a grill and one of them accidentally falls down on the floor/ground, is it safe for me to wipe it and cook it for a certain amount of time (till it is pretty well done) and then eat it? Or should I throw it away?

Sure it's safe. You are about to char the outside at very high temperatures, nothing's going to survive that, so cleaning it is more about flavor than safety. I wouldn't just wipe it though, clean it with water or you might get a dirtier steak flavor than you'd like.


Why does day old rice make for a better tasting fried rice? I'm trying to understand what is it about day old rice that makes it better for fried rice, and how exactly to store day old rice for fried rice.

Specifically, what exactly am I aiming for when storing cooked rice for a day to make it optimal for fried rice? Is it simply exposure to oxygen so that the rice crusts up?  Should the rice be refrigerated overnight, but left exposed? Should it be wrapped, and kept outside in room temperature, or in the refrigerator?

The goal is to sufficiently dry it, so that you get the right texture of your fried rice. You want it to be noticeably dry, so that it will fry rather than steaming, and not clump together. It's okay if it's clumped up as it dried, as long as you can break it up without it sticking back together.

It does not actually have to be stale (changes in the starch that happen over time), just dry. So it's not exposure to oxygen, it's just moisture evaporating, i.e. exposure to air that's going to happen no matter how it's stored.

There are a lot of ways to accomplish this, including refrigerating for a day (or even 12 hours). There's no need to leave it uncovered. That might let you get away with a shorter time, so you could try it as a way to rush, but be aware that it may pick up smells from your fridge.

You can also use a fan to dry it quickly at room temperature. Simply leaving it at room temperature for a long period is unsafe, though, so I wouldn't recommend that.

See this recent answer and the Serious Eats article on fried rice it's largely based on for more details and related information.


Why is it necessary to preheat an oven? Just about every recipe advises to preheat the oven before using it. I often forget this, but luckily this doesn't seem to matter all that much. Hence my question: why would it be necessary to preheat the oven?

When you don't preheat, you cook your food at a lower temperature as your oven heats up for the first 5-15 minutes, depending on the target temperature and your oven's strength.

For forgiving foods, like a casserole, this may not affect you much - you'll just have to bake longer than the recipe says to. As long as you're careful, you'll be fine.

But if you're baking something that should be baked for a short time at a relatively high temperature, your results are going to be very different. For example, take traditional Southern biscuits: they're baked very hot for less than ten minutes. This cooks them all the way through, and browns the top and bottom. If your oven starts out cold, they're going to be done in the middle before they're brown! Beyond under-browning, you'll also run into problems like lack of rising in steam-leavened foods. Pastries, in particular, could probably be disastrous.


How to caramelize white sugar without burning it? Last day I was trying to caramelize sugar to make sugar cage. I start of by adding lots of sugar into small amount of water.After that  started heating it. After few minutes it started to bubbling and suddenly it changed it colour to light brown and before I could do anything it turned into dark brown and burning smell came. Now the quetion is when do I stop heating it? I want it to taste sweet but it tasted bitter.
Edit:Though I have accepted an answers I would like few more answer too.

It is perfectly normal for sugar to turn dark brown when making caramel. If it turns even darker, it is because it has been burning too hot.
The final temperature should be around 234 F, so you want to get there gradually.
As for the color, many recipes call for cream to make it smoother and tender, but only incorporate it after the crystals are fully dissolved and you're ready to take it off the burner.

I've seen a few youtube videos with just sugar and water for sugar cages...


How much citric acid powder to use when preparing fruit for drying I am preparing prune plums for drying and want to keep them from discoloring.

From Teresa Marrone's "The Beginner's Guide to Making and Using Dried Foods" -

"plums need no pre-treatment."

The standard range, per quart of water, is 1 to 3 teaspoons of citric acid. Since they supposedly don't need it at all, I'd lean towards the lower end, if you want to use it anyway.


How should I clean my metal mesh tea strainer? I have one of these teeli tea strainers, and it's wonderful. It's a very fine metal mesh basket with plastic frame. I've had it for perhaps 10+ years and it's still working well after brewing thousands of cups of tea.

The Problem:
However, it seems that the metal mesh is slowly becoming "clogged" or something.  The tea still infuses fine, but it's more prone to spilling and dripping because water doesn't pass through as quickly.  How should I clean this thing?

What I've tried...
I generally don't bother to clean it (just empty and reuse...) because it doesn't get "dirty" as such.  Occasionally, I'll give it a rinse in the sink, or a scrub with regular dish detergent and sponge. Sometimes when bits seem to be stuck, I'll take a toothbrush or other dish brush to scour a little more thoroughly. I've also tried soaking in water.

What "They" Say:
The teeli web site doesn't seem to have any suggestions for cleaning; hardly surprising since it's not needed any significant maintenance in 10 years of service.

Searching for this yields a lot of links.  Many are about strainers with larger holes, or bigger mesh (closer to a regular kitchen strainer), or about removing stains. Others suggest what I've tried, and I'm not sure about the other suggestions I've seen:

a couple posts say to soak in vinegar.  I am afraid this might corrode the metal or make the plastic (and all further cups of tea!) taste like vinegar...?
eHow even suggests to soak in bleach?? Yikes.

Before I start soaking my beloved tea strainer in various household chemicals, I wanted to see if anyone here had this problem and has a good solution?  Long-term soaking?  Boiling?  Vinegar?  Baking soda?  Special brush?  Alcohol?  Compressed air?  BLEACH?!  Anything that you've tried that should I avoid?

Good news: I finally got 'round to cleaning the strainer, and it's clean and works well again. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.

I ran it through the dishwasher (twice), with no benefit; still clogged.
Next, I put dishwasher detergent (not dish soap) and the strainer into a small cup. Then I added boiling water and let it sit overnight. The residue came off easily with a toothbrush. Bingo; clean and clear.

Works well now! Thanks to all.

Pictures follow!


Milk substitute for ice cream and others I'm thinking of reducing my dairy intake. For ice cream, I'm thinking of using a milk substitute and wondering what works well.

I'm thinking of:

starch sources for a "roux" like concoction:

potato: flour / starch

rice flour / starch

corn starch

chuffa

Possible thickener / emulsifier (to add in very small quantities)
-konjac

fats:

canola oil

coconut oil

I can currently make ice cream with just milk (no cream) by adding another fat (canola oil or coconut oil) but milk has those magical micelle fat globules. In freezing it might not make such a big difference (since things might separate slower in the solid state). What have others tried and what works in terms of flavor?

Ciao Bella has an excellent 'coconut sorbet', that had the creamy quality of ice cream, without any actual dairy.

They released a cookbook a few years ago, and although I don't have it, I did browse through it in a store ... I don't remember the whole recipe, but I recall there being actual coconut meat in it, not just coconut milk.  I don't remember there being any other starches or thickeners in it.


Sniffing out a rotten egg from the dozen Is it possible to tell if an egg has gone off?

I am not referring to those eggs that have been especially brined to look like they've been sitting around for decades, but to fresh eggs you want to use and not feel like being punched in the face with a sweatier-than-thou sock.

Is there a trick to detect if an egg is rotten before opening up the shell?

Yep. Rotten eggs float, fresh eggs sink.

This is because eggshells are porous, so over time water vapour and gases leak out, reducing the egg's mass.

A fresh egg will lie on its side on the bottom of a glass of water. The older the egg, the more it sits up, until it's floating.


Why is glucose not used in many cake recipes? Glucose is used in some recipes to make a cake soft and fluffy (for example, this Strawberry Shortcake recipe video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc6F_dLJo8o).

What is the reason glucose is not widely used in other cake recipes?

Glucose is very expensive, unlike caster sugar (sucrose, also commonly called "table sugar") which does the job, and is much easier to work with. Glucose in the modern kitchen is only really used in meringues.


Can induction electric cook-top simulate wok hay? Last updated Mar 25 2019, this Serious Eats article proffers the WokMon to approximate wok hei.

This is a type of wok ring or burner, right?
I know electric cooktops are measured in kW, not BTU. Can you TRY to achieve wok hei on them?
If my priority is wok hei, better to buy a gas stove or electric cook top?

I have wokked on Induction cook tops. Because they are so effective at transferring heat it works quite well! But there are a few things to consider:
1. you need a flat bottomed wok, which means it is slightly harder to stir
2. You cannot lift the wok above the cooktop which means you can not "flip" the
food.

So you have to manually stir.

And you can't just calculate the kW to BTU, because induction cooktops heat the pan directly the per-watt efficincy is much higher. In my experience a domestic induction cooktop at full power (2000watt ish) is better than a domestic wok burner but not nearly as hot as a specialized wok burner.


How can I harden the centre of a partly cooked christmas cake My christmas cake has been baked for the correct time as per recipe but the centre has remained soft whilst the outside is hard. Would a period in a microwave finish the centre without ruining the remainder?

I have never tried cooking a partially-done cake in a microwave to finish, but I don't expect it to turn out a desirable result.  You may be out of luck for the current batch.

In future, I recommend going by internal temperature, rather than total cooking time.  Depending on the recipe, cakes using wheat flour tend to set around 200F (93C), so aim for 205F; you may need to do a batch or two as an experiment before you find out the perfect "done" temperature for your cake.  Get yourself an instant-read thermometer or probe thermometer; make sure the tip of the probe is in the very middle of your cake when you take your readings.  Also, keep in mind that the cooking process continues even after you pull the cake out of the oven -- as the cake sits "cooling", the residual heat on the surface slowly penetrates to the middle.  Be sure to give your cake time to finish this resting process before you cut into it or stick it in the refrigerator/freezer.

As for hard-on-the-outside, there could be several reasons for this, but the one that comes to mind as likely is that the sides of the cake set too quickly for the recipe.  This could easily happen if the material of the pan you are using is too conductive.  Glass and ceramic bakeware heats slower than metal, and among metal cake pans, dark surfaces heat faster than dull or shiny ones.  If you are already using glass/ceramic bakeware, then get an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is heating to the correct temperature.  Even top quality oven thermostats rarely stay accurate over time.  If that doesn't reveal any problems, try dropping the oven temperature a little and extending the bake time.


Kitchen Aid KSMC50S stand mixer attachments and dough hook I inherited a Kitchen Aid KSMC50S stand mixer from my mother. It was purchased new around 1998 or so.

My model has a sticker right above the accessory port that says "No attachments available for this model."

Why not?
What makes this model different than the others that accept accessories?
Is it even true?

The dough hook I have is a replacement. The bowl-lift is calibrated to match the beater attachment depth (it is very tight but doesn't hit the bowl and picks up everything). However, the dough hook sits about 3/4 inch off the bottom of the bowl.

While mixing 4-5 cups of flour (two loaf recipe) dough, much of the dough stayed at the bottom of the bowl and never climbed the hook like the recipe says, even after 10 minutes (much longer than the recipe said it would take).

What is the correct/expected clearance below the dough hook?

The replacement hook is a spiral type.

Is this type compatible with this mixer?
If not can you please direct me to the correct one?

The reason is because it is a commercial mixer, the normal KitchenAid accessories are not NSF rated. Regular KitchenAid accessories should work just fine, but there are stainless steel NSF rated accessories from other manufacturers available if you cross reference the part numbers.


Kneading bread dough If a recipe calls for ten minutes hand kneading a bread dough, how long should it take to knead in a mixer using dough hooks?

It seems there is no reliable conversion formula - if you check the websites of mixer manufacturers, they go as low as 1/5 of the time (KitchenAid) or suggest machine-kneading for about 4/5 (Bosch). And I don’t think it’s just because the KitchenAid is so super fast.

The good thing is that the lack of a formula forces you to learn how to recognize a well-kneaded dough. I let you in on a little secret here: if a recipe gives a kneading time, it’s simply an estimation or approximation of how long a user may have to knead to reach a certain stage. Individual technique and even working speed varies so much, that a value like ten minutes is just ballpark number.

When you prepare a bread dough, your goal is to create a gluten structure that will trap the gasses and give you the desired crumb texture. There are two main methods:

One uses mechanical kneading for a “long” time and you can recognize the desired results when the dough becomes very homogeneous, smooth and so elastic that it can be stretched to almost translucent thinness (-> window pane test). That’s what a recipe that calls for ten minutes of kneading is aiming for, so check for that stage when using a stand mixer.
The other approach doesn’t knead, but just mixes the ingredients and let the gluten develop over time (-> no-knead bread, stretch-and-fold). But that’s a totally different concept that needs a lot more time. Not the method of your recipe, though.

So in short, if you really need a number (e.g. if you want to set a timer and walk away), instead of finding a generic conversion formula, you could measure how long it takes for your recipe and your machine to get a well-kneaded dough and then use that value in the future.


How can I tell if fish is fresh? I love fish, and I love cooking it. The thing is, I don't have any idea how to buy fish.

Considering common fish in a grocery store (salmon, whitefish, tuna, grouper, etc.), how can I tell a good specimen from a bad one? When the difference is not clear, which way should I err?

Is there any different set of criteria, when I'm buying fish at an outdoor market?

As a rule of thumb for a whole fish, and not a fillet -

the gills should be bright red
the skin/scales should be bright and shiny like metal
this fish shouldn't really smell of anything except 'watery'
the flesh should rebound quickly when pressed
the eyes should be bright and clear
really fresh fish is also quite slimey to touch if it's straight out of the water. I remember being quite surprised at this from my first fishing trip a few years back.


When is granular erythritol as good as powdered? Is there any recipe for which granular erythritol (i.e., crystals) is at least as useful as powdered erythritol (i.e., very finely ground)?
Cooking with granular erythritol usually requires dissolving it. In my experience, erythritol doesn't dissolve in fat at all, and it barely dissolves in water: a saturated solution tastes only mildly sweet.

The crystals are only really useful when you want a crystalline form, for instance sprinkling on top of sugar cookies where you want that crunchy sugar texture. I sprinkle raw sugar crystals on top of some cocktails as well (when there's a froth on top to support them) as a garnish, I imagine you could use them that way as well for a lower calorie version.
For any application where you want it mixed in the crystals are not better than powdered, as you point out they are hard to mix in.


How to properly disinfect surfaces What chemical product should I use to disinfect surfaces that may get in contact with the food? (wooden table where I knead bread/pasta and etc)

With this COVID-19 frenzy it's impossible to find alcohol (what I usually use for cleaning) so my wife bough a bunch of Clorox desinfecting wipes. I was wondering if it's safe to use it

This is honestly a HUGE topic, with literally reams of government guidelines on what's effective for surface disinfection.  For example:

USDA Clean Then Sanitize
FSIS Cleaning Regulations
5 Steps of cleaning and disinfection

So partly this depends on how sanitized you want things to be.  For my part, I just clean my counters with a mixture of Simple Green (a concentrated organic soap) and water.  If you're really concerned, you could do a second washing with a weak bleach solution (wear gloves!).


Butter separation in english toffee candy I've read recently some articles about English toffee candy and the issue of butter separation was mentioned there.

I am looking for further information abut this phenomenon (what causes this separation of butter from the candy during cooking) and how can one prevent the separation
besides using an emulsifier (like lecithin).

Someone has mentioned that salt has a stabilizing effect on the emulsion, is it true?

Butter separation doesn't only refer to the butter separating from the toffee (sugar), butter is make of milk fat rendered and the milk solids, when butter separates this is due to these parts separating. This is the fat that you see on the toffee, this usually comes from the components cooling at different speeds.

As with anything that you are making using melted butter, like a hollandaise sauce, adding a spoon or two of very hot water and agitating helps with the dispersion of both the fats and the heat. Stirring is an important component to ensure the heat is equally distributed throughout the mixture.

Thanks to @Aaronut for correcting the language!


How many dried herbs are mixed with a kilo of tomato sauce? How many tablespoon of dried oregano should be placed for a kilo of tomato sauce for my spaghetti sauce? Please answer my question.

There is no set amount or rule to guide you, as there is a lot of variation in tomato sauce for spaghetti.  Some people use oregano, some use marjoram, some use thyme, some use basil...some use a combination.  Oftentimes fresh herbs are used, rather than dried herbs.  A tablespoon of dried oregano sounds like a lot to me, unless you really like that flavor.  I would start with much less, see how you like the flavor, then add more until it is of your liking.  It is much more difficult to remove or alter the flavor if you start with too much.  I would suggest you begin with a quarter teaspoon and work your way up.


Thin crust pizza on barbecue I want to make a pizza on my charcoal barbecue. I saw a few videos from Weber, but none show how to get a thin crust.

What is the secret to a thin crust pizza and can it be done on a charcoal bbq?

The secret to getting a thin crust is... use less dough. It's that simple. Pizza dough is flour, water, salt, yeast: there is no magic ingredient that will make it thinner. Simply use less dough per pizza. You may find that when you first shape the dough it will try and spring back. In this case, just cover it and leave it for 5 minutes for the gluten to relax.

As for the charcoal grill, there is no reason why a thin crust pizza should be done any differently to any other pizza. It's entirely doable.


Why won't my ground beef thaw? I put ground beef in the fridge 3 days ago and it's still frozen! Why isn't it thawing like normal?

Either you've insulated it or your fridge is really cold. I suggest using a thermometer to check your fridge temperature.

Parts of your fridge may be at slightly different temperatures than other parts; it may help to move it to a warmer part of the fridge (if that can be done safely, you don't want it dripping on your produce, for example).

You could use the cold water method to defrost your ground beef if you're going to cook it all once its defrosted. The USDA has thawing instructions. Generally, I'd avoid microwave-thawing ground beef, unless its going into chili or similar, because those cooked bits on the outside prevent forming it into patties, etc.


Why is my vegetable stock bitter, but the chicken stock not? I have exactly the same procedure and ingredients for cooking vegetable and chicken stock - of course, the latter contains chicken meat, which is the only difference.

The ingredients I put into my stock are:

onion,
a few garlic cloves,
two carrots,
celeriac,
parsley root,
leek,
spices: bay leaf, allspice and peppercorns.

Simmer time - about 2 hours.

It quite often happens that my vegetable stock is bitter, but it never happened with a chicken stock. I read here and there that vegetable stock shouldn't be cooked for long - even 45 minutes should be enough, and if simmered for too long it may become bitter. However, chicken or any other meat stock recipes call for a much longer time, and bitterness should not be a problem.

Thus, why is there a risk of vegetable stock becoming bitter, while it is not that much of a problem for a meat stock?

I notice that your recipe doesn't include any salt. That's important, because salt decreases the sensation of bitterness. Chicken contains a certain amount of salt, and I suspect that's making the difference. (The "umami" -- brothy -- taste of chicken may also decrease the sensation of bitterness, though as I understand it there's still some disagreement about that.)

Try mixing 1/8 tsp of salt into one cup of your vegetable stock as a test. I suspect that'll decrease the bitterness to a comparable level.

Oh, and if you want to make your stock less bitter without making it more salty, use parsley stems and leaves instead of parsley root, and celery (including leaves) instead of celeriac. Those two roots will be the primary sources of bitterness.

Incidentally, I very much approve of you not salting your original stock, and instead salting whatever you use it in. Unsalted stock is more flexible, and is more forgiving if you decide you need to concentrate it.


How to do frozen yogurt I would like to do at home frozen yogurt. Do I have to use an ice cream machine, or is there a technique to prepare it without a machine?

PS: I don't really like ice cream without the machine as the ice crystals are too big. I wonder if the highest density of yogurt helps.

You can do it sans machine, but you are limited to small batches, and it tends to form crystals. You have two choices, bags or freezer container. Bags tends to make less crystallized product, and is a bit faster.

Bags

Get a large 1 gallon ziploc bag, lots of ice, a ~2 cups salt, a small, 1 quart bag and the mix to be turned into ice cream (or frozen yogurt). Chill the mix in the fridge beforehand. This helps the mix cool more quickly and evenly, meaning smaller crystals, meaning creamier product.

Place the cream mix in the small bag, and leave a bit of air. Make sure it is sealed well, you may want to double bag it. Put the small bag in the big bag.

Fill the big bag about half way with ice and add a few tablespoons of salt. Seal the big bag and start mushing the small bag from outside the big bag, moving it around and getting it in contact with the ice. You probably want gloves or to wrap it in a towel: it gets really cold. After the ice melts down, add more ice and salt, keep squishing until the stuff in the bag gets hard. You can toss it on the floor and squish it with your feet while watching TV or reading. Put it in the freezer for a few hours to condition.

This isn't quite as nice as a machine. To compensate for the extra crystallization, you can add more fat and sugar, since those stop large crystals from forming. With frozen yogurt, I don't think there is much you can do.

Freezer Container

This is easier, but makes lower quality product. Simply put your mix in a large container (leave at least half empty), and place in the freezer. Take it out every 10 minutes and shake vigorously for a few seconds. Repeat until it won't move anymore. Use a fork to fluff the mix.


What is the proper technique for making an angel food cake? I made one this weekend for the first time in 2 years, following a recipe. As I was following the instructions, I felt like it was missing something and when I looked at the end product I determined I absolutely did not have the proper technique.

I know now that the egg whites should have been at room temperature, but what else did I miss?

Is confectioners sugar better than granulated?
Is cake flour (over all purpose) a must?
Should the sugar be whipped with the egg whites or folded in with the flour?
What is the proper temperature? (375 for 40 mins was too much in my oven)

Answering your specific questions, since there's no way for us to know exactly how you did it just by linking to the recipe:

Confectioners' sugar has smaller granules than granulated sugar, which means that you actually get more of it in a cup than you do granulated.  However, if you're making your batter properly, the sugar should completely dissolve, so if you're going by weight there should be no difference. (And you should be going by weight.)
Cake flour is much lower-gluten, so you get a lighter, fluffier texture. All-purpose flour has much more gluten and you'll end up with a chewier end product.
The proper temperature is that which will bring the center of the cake up to temperature before the exterior burns.  In order to get your temperature just right you should preheat the oven well in advance and allow it to stabilize first; give it at least 15 minutes after coming up to temperature.  Also, get a proper oven thermometer rather than relying on the one that's built-in to your oven, and if your temperature is particularly unstable you might consider doing the baking inside of a cloche or a Dutch oven (which needs to be preheated as well, of course).  And, the time stated in the recipe is just a guideline - you should be keeping an eye on it and using a bamboo skewer or similar to test doneness, rather than just looking at the outside.

And one which you didn't ask about but which is a common problem:

When you fold the flour into the batter, do exactly that - fold it in, gently, so that you don't disrupt the airy texture.  Don't stir it or mix it or whip it or anything else, and certainly don't overwork it.


Why let a pressure canner vent, before putting the weight on? Most instructions for pressure canners mention, that you should let the steam vent for a while, before placing your weight on it.

What is the purpose of this? Why not start with the weight on? And how can I determine how long exactly I need to let it vent?

Example:

Source: https://www.thechoppingblock.com/blog/under-pressure-pressure-canning-for-advanced-preserving

In canning, you have to be very sure that you have produced the exact conditions needed for the process to work properly. If you deviate a bit, it can happen that bacterial spores survive. These "exact conditions" mean not only "keeping temperature X for time Y". You have to make sure that proper heat exchange happens where it needs to happen.

In the case of the venting step, it is needed to ensure that your canner is voided of air entirely. When the water starts to boil, it turns to a gas and this gas mixes with air. If you do it in a sealed container with a small exit (like a canner), the steam can push out the air, but it needs some time to do so. This is why recipes are designed with a vent time at the beginning. Air pockets would interfere with the heating process.  Only after you have achieved the canner-full-of-steam-without-air condition, can you start building the pressure.

You can see a quote for it here:

  Then allow the steam to escape for an additional 10 minutes to vent the canner. This step removes air from inside the canner so the temperature is the same throughout the canner

Which brings us to your other question, how to know when to stop. The simple answer is: do exactly as your recipe says, and don't deviate. If it says "10 minutes", put a timer and let it go for 10 minutes. OK, you do have some wiggle room in the "longer" duration, if it takes you 3 minutes to manage to put the weight on, your food is still safe despite it having been vented for 13 minutes. But don't go below what the recipe tells you. And also note how sensitive the recipes are to change - canning the same recipe in a different size of jar already changes the safe times. So, really, don't try to second guess your recipe, do as you are told.


Shell-on Frozen Prawns and Power Outage I love everything from the sea, but am a little squeamish when it comes to cooking shellfish etc. myself

I have a large bag of Frozen, shell-on Black Tiger prawns, as well as two trays of 'Jumbo' Black Tiger prawns in my freezer (these are enormous, almost Lobster-like, three per pack).

My particular issue with these is that while they are well in-date, we have had two x 6 to 8 hour planned power-outages over the time I've had them in the freezer. I followed the usual guideline, as in keep the freezer closed during the outage.

Should I be concerned, or just cook up these (still beautiful looking) Crustaceans?

Thanks!

(My first post here, so please forgive any errors.)

Without knowing the internal temperature of your freezer for the duration of the power outages this is impossible to answer.  Since these are planned outages, I assume you have experienced them before.  Do items in your freezer remain frozen?  At the very least, they will have experienced some freeze/thaw cycling, which would likely impact the texture of the prawns.  It is obviously not ideal. So, yes, I would be concerned.  How concerned is impossible to judge with the information provided.


why do my pancakes (crêpes) take such a long time to cook? I am making crêpes and I wonder why they take such a ridiculously long amount of time to cook, about 5 or 6 minutes per pancake. I remember once upon a time I was making crêpes cooking them about 90 seconds on one side, and than 30-60 seconds on the other side, and they where ready. Now, after 3 minutes of cooking on one side, they are hardly separable from the pan, and it takes at least 5 minutes in total to make them eatable.

I tried both on medium and maximum flame. I am now doing it on a propane-butane portable stove in a van, but the maximum flame on the stove doesn't differ visually in size from a maximum flame in a brick-house stove. When I was doing them some years ago it was in a brick house on methane gas.

I do it on a simple thin Teflon-coated pancake pan.

I also don't use any eggs, and I am trying different mixtures of flour, usually about 85% of wheat flour, and the rest either: corn flour, rice flour or powdered milk. And 900 ml water per 400 grams flour mixture.

But even when I tried making them once with 900 ml milk plus 400 grams wheat flour, they also took a long time to make.

Is it because of the lack of eggs, the heat is too low, the pan is bad or something else?

What to do to cook pancakes at a rate of 1 pancake per 2 minutes again? On propane-butane without using eggs. Preferably only using grain products and water.

If it doesn't contain eggs, or at least something that serves as a substitute for eggs, it's not a crepe. Crepes cook quickly because eggs need very little time/heat to set up. Like justkt said, what you've described is a tortilla. I'm not exactly sure how or why a tortilla "sets up" (if you can even use that term for a flatbread), but it's a completely different mechanism than cooking eggs, and takes a much longer time.


How to cook/serve Confit de Canard? I was in France some time ago and bought some Confit de Canard with me back home. But how do I cook it for best result? And what do I serve with it? Also, what would be a good desert?
I'm thinking of Foie Gras as entrée.

Usually it is removed from the fat, and warmed in an oven.  The exact instructions will probably be on the tin, but from memory I think it was about 15 mins @ 180c, as you only really need to warm them through and remove the excess fat.

We have always served it with potatoes roast in some of the fat from the tin.  Usually par-boiled, minced garlic added, then shaken in the boiling pan (with a lid on) to mix the garlic in and to rough up the edges so you get some nice crispy bits, then put into a hot tray of duck fat (go on be generous with the fat, it's delicious) and into a hot oven till crispy.

You could also serve it with dauphinoise potatoes, which would also be great.

Accompanied by french beans or broccoli or some other green veg, and some crusty French bread to mop up the fat with.  mmmm.  Makes me want to go and get my tin out of the cupboard for tonight.


What is the difference between roasting and toasting? Specifically, I have a recipe that calls for toasted peanuts. What is the difference between roasting a peanut and toasting a peanut? I can find roasted peanuts at the store, but not toasted ones, so I will probably try and toast my own at home, but don't know whether to start with raw peanuts or already roasted ones.

The previous answer which says to toast something means to brown it is accurate. The difference between roast and toast is simple, really: roast means to expose something to dry heat (in the west, usually in an oven) and to cook whatever it is right through; toast means to brown the outside of something, either held over a fire (as in marshmallows) or placed under a dry heat source such as a grill or inside a toaster.

In practice, for your peanuts, its a lot easier to roast them than it is to grill them to get a toasted effect, but toasted should mean you put them under a grill and shake them about to brown them all over rather than 'cook' them right through. The risk with toasting under the grill is, obviously, burning - I've 'toasted' cashews in a hot oven by shaking them about a bit periodically for a short time, and I've also done it in a dry pan on the hob. The only time I did it under the grill, I burnt the lot...


Can I use whole milk instead of powdered milk? I just received a bread machine and I wanted to make a loaf of bread but I don't have powdered milk. Can I use whole milk instead of powdered milk?

Can you? Yes. But you will need to offset a liquid (water?) and powdered milk. You will need to work backwards from something like this: http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/reconstituting.htm to remove X powdered milk and Y water to use Z milk.

Say your recipe called for 1 cup water and 1 1/2 tablespoon of powdered milk. Because one would normally use 1 1/2 tablespoons of powder with 1/4 cup water to get 1/4 cup milk (this may depend on the brand of powder, but this is a good general rule), working backwards you would remove 1/4 cup of water and replace that with whole milk, and then add 3/4 cup water.


Why do you need eggs when making icecream? I was looking for a good recipe to make pistachio almond ice cream, but all of them needed Eggs.

My uncle used to sell home ice cream in Mexico, and I'm 100% that he never used an egg to make pistachio almond ice cream, or any other ice cream.

However, it's not the first time I see eggs listed as an ingredient for homemade ice cream.

Is there any particular reason for that? Why do you need eggs? What other thing can I use instead of eggs?

There are two main base recipes for ice cream. French style ice cream contains egg yolks, which help make it soft, rich, smooth, creamy, custardy. Philadelphia style ice cream (sometimes called American style) has no eggs, and relies on the fat in the cream to keep it soft, but will still never be as rich and smooth as French style, and will still tend to freeze harder.

You can make pretty much any ice cream in either style, including the pistachio-almond you want to make. You can look around for recipes without eggs; I wouldn't be surprised if you manage to find one one. Or you can simply use a Philadelphia style base, and look at one of the recipes you found to see how to add the pistachio and almond. Depending on how rich you want it, you'll want 2-3 cups of heavy cream for each 1 cup of milk; about 3/4 cup of sugar should work, depending on how sweet you want it. If that's not rich enough for you, you can even replace the milk with cream. (You could also just go find a recipe for Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream and use that as a base - it doesn't get much simpler than that.)

(P.S. You could also try gelato, something like this recipe - it uses corn starch as a stabilizer instead.)


How to increase the carbonation for water Kefir fermentation? I want to make my fermented water kefir drink more fizzy.
I used to following recipe
1st Fermentation 24h
78g    sugar
237ml  hot water
1.2 l  room temp filtered water

2nd Fermentation 48h
51ml   Lemon Juice
1l     Kefir water from 1st Fermentation
5g     sugar for each 0.33 l bottle

I used these fermentation lids which lets oxygen out but no in. after the second fermentation the the drink is as flat as ironing board.
How can I make the drink more carbonated?
Update
After the second try, I did use just the flip-top bottles and closed the bottle tight. I opened the lids once a day since I was afraid of an explosion.  Opening the bottle might have reduced the carbonation. It is adequate but could be a little more. Nevertheless, safety first.
From my experience, close the lid tight and leave it outside for about 24-48h.  Leave it closed at your own risk.

The “fizz” is created by adding the CO2 under pressure, so that it dissolves (native speakers are welcome to add a better term) in the liquid, then fizzes when opened.
For artificially carbonated drinks, either small tablets of frozen CO2 are added when bottling, or the CO2 is pumped into the liquid (think Soda Steam).
For natural CO2, e.g. champagne and kefir, the yeasts must work at least some of the fermentation time in closed containers, the typical process is that for the first, very vigorous fermentation, an airlock prevents pressure buildup, and in a second step, the almost ready drink is bottled and stoppered or corked, so that the remaining yeasts create enough pressure to carbonate the liquid, yet not enough to burst the container, then die back as planned from lack of food or alcohol level.
It is a bit of a fine line, though. If too little sugar (= “yeast food”) is left at the time of bottling, the drink stays mostly flat, if there’s too much, you may be in for a nasty (and potentially dangerous) surprise, like that one year when my darling MIL used “just a few extra flower heads” in her elderflower champagne. If you know your kefir strain, you’ll soon know how much sugar in the second fermentation is just right. For starters, I would simply bottle up according to the recipe’s second step and see what happens. Just make sure you use a sturdy container, that can handle the pressure. And plastic can be safer than glass.


Candied almonds made In a crock pot didn't harden, are still gooey I made candied almonds In a crock pot according to a recipe. They did not get a candy coating on them. Now I have a large bowl of gooey nuts and don't know what to do with them. They are too expensive to throw out.

I'm not an expert on candy-making, but it sounds to me as if you didn't heat the sugar sufficiently.  The temperature that the sugar reaches will affect the texture when it cools:

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/sugar-stages.html

I'd attempt to heat it back up to hard-crack state (300°F), and see if I could recover it.

Being that I don't have a candy thermometer, I'd probably try something stupid, like spread it out on a sheet pan (on a silicone mat) and bake it in a 325°F oven 'til it got close, then turn the temperature down to 300°F and just let it sit for a while.

Candymaking generally requires pretty specific temperatures ... I'm not sure that I'd trust a crockpot unless it was one of those digital controlled ones with a temperature probe.  (but I suspect most of those are intended for meat, and may not be able to handle temperatures above 250°F)


Whats the simplest possible spicy thai curry? I love massaman, green curry, red curry, yellow curry, etc.

Can any of these be made quickly at home with only 4-5 ingredients?

Yes, you will need to buy a pre-made curry paste if you want to get anywhere near 5 ingredients. Mae Ploy is a reputable brand.


What exactly is "Sushi Grade" fish? What exactly makes some fish "Sushi Grade"?

"Sushi grade" means that it is safe to prepare and eat raw.  In order to do that, it must be frozen to kill any parasites.  That means it either has to be:

Frozen at -20° C (-4° F) for 7 days; or
Frozen at -35° C (-31° F - "flash frozen") for 15 hours.

There aren't any official regulations about the fish itself or its quality, and most sushi/sashimi distributors have much more stringent rules of their own beyond the freezing guarantee.


Substituting Peppers What pepper can be substituted for a habanero when no habaneros are available?

Scotch bonnet is very similar, if they're available.


Reducing stock and then adding water In the past I would simmer stock without a lid on, and the results were generally good. Strong flavor and good gelling after refrigeration. The only problem is that this resulted in very little stock to make soup out of, so I would have to water it down. Lately I have been trying leaving the lid on while simmering but it doesn't seem to work as well. The stock never gels at all (even when adding chicken feet to my usual chicken bones) and the taste is bland. I cannot see any reason why it would make a difference, but is there some advantage to reducing a stock first and then adding liquid as needed later? Does this extract flavor better?

Basically, a good stock is fairly concentrated.  In general, home cooks use too high a water to bones/veg ratio for a proper result.  So, when you leave your stock uncovered you are concentrating everything and, perhaps, getting a good result...at least one you like.  However, this is difficult to tell without knowing your recipe.  With respect to adding water back later, it is not an uncommon practice to reduce a well-made stock further, by half or more, simply for storage purposes.  Then when ready to use, water is added to bring it back to the original strength.


Is there a use for the rind after making Citrus Sugar? I have made Citrus Sugar and am now separating the lemon (and/or orange) rind from the sugar. Now I am wondering is there any use for the leftover citrus rind?

Depends on how fine you have shaved the rind/zest, you can consider candying it (boil it in syrup till it become very transparent) or dip it in chocolate after candying it. if it is too fine, then add it into your next chocolate recipe to get orange-flavoured chocolate....


What can be done with accidentaly oversalted beef? I mistakenly marinated some thin beef with regular salt for one day before barbecuing it, turns out you're not supposed to do that! Even after washing it, it is unbearable to eat it by itself.

I'm using brazilian "Coxão Mole" which I tink translates to topside.

I was thinking it has to be some kind of sauce, maybe tomato based, but how? Never done it with pre cooked meat before.

It feels horrible to mess up so much food, I can't throw it away.

Here's a photo if that helps, it's very soft:

Oversalting is best dealt with by serious dilution.

I'd make a large, not very meaty dish from it, with lots of vegetables, cooked for a while. Fry onions and other veg, add liquid, and stir in the cooked beef. But soaking the meat should help as well. Either soak in plain water and discard the water, or soak in something you might add to the sauce (wine, beer, diluted citrus juice... ). I'd also cut it small before soaking/cooking. Most of the salt will be on the surface but you want to expose add much as possible of the meat to the liquid. Soaking should be done in the fridge, for a few hours.

You could go for a tomato-based sauce, a curry using coconut milk, or a sticky orange and chilli sauce, so long as the ratio of beef to everything else (and beef to initial liquid) is small. The initial liquid shouldn't bring any more salt with it, which rules out most cmmercial stock preparations, and possbile home-made stock. These are just ideas, many beef in sauce dishes would adapt. I wouldn't add more meat, but many people would.


How does pH and temperature affect emulsification of vegetable oils? This question discussed about how the molecular properties of the fat in vegetable oil affect emulsification in the making of Mayonnaise. The answer in there suggested that lemon has minimal role (if any) in the emulsification.

I made mayonnaise using home made unsweetened soy milk. I made the milk by soaking the soy beans overnight and boiling them before blending. Then squeezing out the milk, I added 100 ml milk to 200 ml of corn oil (2:1::oil:milk ratio). To this I added 5 lemons squeezed out. And then used an immersion blender to blend it. Initially the milk and oil were immicible. But on blending the layers mixed together.

However the mayonnaise I made did not become creamy. It was a watery liquid where the oil did not form a separate layer. I do not know why it did not become creamy.

I would like to know how the environmental factors external to the fat molecule like pH and the temperature of the solution to be emulsified affect emulsification.

How does temperature affect emulsification?
What is the best temperature for emulsification?
How does pH affect emulsification?
What is the best pH for emulsification?

Edit 1:

After reading the answer below, I was able to make excellent mayonnaise.

I first blended the soy milk with salt while slowly adding oil. After all the oil has been added, I added the curdling agent (lemon juice or vinegar). I visualize the emulsion being contained by the curdling of proteins. This produced very nice mayonnaise even without mustard (which is a stabilizing agent). It was a little thin compared to the mayo with mustard. Thank you all for helping!

This is a rather complicated issue, so I will answer it in steps.
Only oil and water
This is not something that is usually done in the kitchen, since the emulsion is not stable. But it is useful to consider this simplest version first before going on to the more complex ones. Let's assume that all you are mixing is water, oil, and maybe a bit of citric or ascorbic acid.
Here, the only influence of temperature is that you want the fat to be properly liquid when you start out. If you have fat that is solid (e.g. coconut oil) or cloudy (e.g. oilve oil you have kept in the fridge), let it warm up before you begin. In theory, higher temperature will be somewhat better, because the particle movement will give you a bit more mixing. In practice, you have to do so much forceful agitation to build the emulsion without any emulsifiers, that the contribution of higher temperature will be negligible. So the lowest possible temperature is given by freezing one of your components, and the highest possible is 100 C, where your water will evaporate.
You don't have any chemical reactions happening in this case. The pH doesn't matter.
So, in this case, the best temperature and pH are: any, within the typical range.
With an emulsifier
As above, it assumes that you are using water, oil, maybe some acid, and the emulsifier.
There is a wide range of emulsifers used in cooking, each of them with rather complex thermodynamic properties. Each of them has its "preferred" range of temperature and pH in which it performs best - in fact, some of them don't even work outside of a narrow pH range, and others require the presence of additional chemicals, such as sugar or calcium ions, to work at all. So nothing more specific can be said, it really depends on the exact emulsifier.
To find out the best temperature and pH range for a given emulsifier, consult a reference book on emulsifiers.
With protein
Traditionally, the only emulsifier frequently used in the kitchen was the lecithin contained in egg yolks. Also, many foods used in emulsions contain proteins by themselves. So you will most likely find yourself making an emulsion that contains proteins.
Here, it becomes more complicated. You have both emulsification and curdling going on at the same time. Your goal is to have the curdling happen, but at a slow pace, and not all the way, so the proteins will build a weak silky mesh interspersed with the oil bubbles of the emulsion, instead of having them create hard pieces separated by liquid.
In this case, temperature and pH become very important, and they are also interdependent. Also, it is not only temperature per se that matters, but (at least for eggs), the speed at which the temperature changes. Slower warming up leads to better sauce textures (that's why you should start with room temperature eggs).
If you do it without acid, you have to gently heat your mixture while emulsifying, and stop at the right point, before it curdles too much. For egg yolks, the ideal temperature is 72 Celsius, it will be different for other emulsifiers and/or other sources of protein. If you also add acid, it promotes curdling, and makes it difficult to achieve the right texture. So, texture-wise, the best pH will be neutral. But if you do have to change the pH out of safety or taste considerations, you will have to heat slower and to lower temperatures, and/or add buffers (e.g. sugar in a sweet emulsion) that counteract the acid effects.
This means that in the end, the pH will be determined by your recipe, and the optimal temperature will vary. The recipe is likely to give you vague instructions on how to heat (e.g. with a water bath), but not an exact temperature. So you have to go by the instructions and observe the process, using your experience to decide whether the heating has to be sped up or slowed down.


Type of salt to use for Indian recipes I cook lots of Indian food - can I use kosher salt\crystallized sea salt for my curries? I like the way you have more control on how much salt you're adding because of the crystal texture - but ill the salt crystals melt properly? And should I add the salt slowly during the cooking process or atthe end?

You can use Kosher salt or sea salt or even table salt but keep in mind that they are interchangeable by weight NOT volume. Volumetric measurements fail because of different sizes and shapes of salt crystals. Kosher salt crystals are, as you pointed out, larger and end up with larger gaps between the crystals when measured by volume than the smaller table salt crystals that settle together more closely (consider the tiny spaces between grains of sands versus the larger spaces between pieces of gravel). This means that a teaspoon of table salt actually contains more salt than a teaspoon of kosher salt. This means that if your recipe calls for a teaspoon of table salt you will need to use more than a teaspoon of kosher salt. They will dissolve equally well. As to when to add salt, add minimally at first then adjust the salt to taste at the end.

Edited to add: you can find a rough conversion of volumetric measurements of different salts here: http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-home/culinary-salts/salt-conversion-chart


Can I use flour to make a carrot soup more thick? I made a carrot soup without the use of a blender as described in previous question link. Which was to chop the carrots and onions really small. The problem is that the result is quite watery.

In the recipe for goulash, I use flour to thicken the soup, in the frying stage. Can I do something similar here? Or will it ruin the taste. I was imagining throughing in some flour with the carrots and onions as they fry.

How much flavor the flour adds will depend largely on how long it fries with the veggies.

The longer it fries the nuttier it will taste- until it starts to burn of course. If it doesn't cook for long enough (it doesn't take long) it will taste raw which is not pleasant.

You should cook your veggies until they are done and then add your flour and cook just until it starts to smell nutty. I assume this is similar to what you do with your goulash.

Overall- I think that the flavor of even a fairly dark roux would work well with an onion and carrot soup. You could even use this to salvage your already watery soup by making a roux separately and wisking it in.


convection microwave that also broils How do convection microwaves that also broil work?  I am researching (SharpR1874 and Sharp R1881LSY) such ovens that boast a broil feature.  One clearly states it has an element in the top, the other never does say, only convection heating distributed by a fan.  So, do they both  have an element?

Generally speaking the same element is used for both broil (grill here in the UK) and convection.  In the latter mode a fan distirbutes the heat evenly around the oven, but for tall items in particulart the top heat from the element can be a little fierce.  I've got 2 Panasonics that work this way, and when investigating those all major rivals seemed to be the same.


scaling of kneading when scaling bread recipies I usually make a pizza dough for 3 pizzas, from 500g flour, but once I made a double sized portion, with doubling everything in the recipe and I was not totally happy with the result. Since then I have read that scaling should work the way I did it, with proportional amounts of everything, so that should be fine, but I was wondering: if the recipe says X minutes of kneading, then if I double the amounts should I knead for 2X minutes or the same amount? Are there any good advices for scaling?

When it comes to kneading, scaling partially depends on your physical capabilities. It's a physical activity, you may not be able to manipulate double the dough in the same way. If you have the arms of a gorilla it will probably take far less than double the time, if you are on the weaker end of the scale it may take you longer than twice the time as you might have to get it partially kneaded and then split it into halves to complete, or you simply tire and slow down.

The message here is to knead for a result, not a time. That's actually one of my primary pieces of advice when bread baking in general, and not just kneading. Knead until you get the texture you are looking for, no matter the time.


Lemon juice as a natural preservative for soups Can lemon juice be used as a natural preservative for soups?

Additionally, Russian soup Borsch has a lot  of cabbage in it, as far as I know that makes it last longer. Do you think cabbage can help a soup to be preserved longer?

What are other natural preservatives that can be used for soups?

There is this question Are there any natural preservatives that can be used in Soups or Stews? but the answer doesn't address lemon juice or cabbage or any other natural preservatives.

Anything that will keep bacteria and other spoilage microorganisms from growing will extend shelf life.  Acidity and salt are the most common historical preservatives, since they create inhospitable environments for many microorganisms (or only allow the growth of ones that are less harmful).  In high concentrations, sugar can also function in this way, as in jams or jellies (though this is probably not applicable to soups).  Unfortunately, any soup with enough salt and/or acidity to stop bacterial growth entirely will probably be unpalatable.

That said, lemon juice is highly acidic, so it's likely that it could prevent spoilage a little longer than in soups without it.  However, unless you're adding a lot of lemon juice, chances are this effect will not be long enough to call it a "preservative" -- but it might make your soup last a day or two longer in the fridge.  A fairly acidic soup using things like tomatoes, lemon juice, vinegar, etc. will generally last a little longer than a similar one without those ingredients.

Nevertheless, the normal storage recommendations for soup should still be observed.  Soup in general is very perishable.  Stocks and broths are a near ideal growth medium for any bacteria that might contaminate them, and various ingredients in soups could contain spore-forming microorganisms that are not completely killed during cooking.  More importantly, not all spoilage -- even that from dangerous bacterias -- produces odors or molds that could be easily spotted.  Thus, while adding more acid to soup probably makes it safer a little longer, I still wouldn't depend on it to last more than a few days even using proper cooling procedures and stored under proper refrigeration.

As for cabbage, I'm not aware of any significant anti-microbial properties.  It's possible that soups which contain more vegetable matter (like cabbage) will also contain less meat and other ingredients prone to fast spoilage, but the cabbage by itself isn't likely to have a significant effect.


Using unrefined sugar to make candy I have been trying to avoid refined sugar (white sugar, corn syrup, etc.) for health reasons.
usually I replace it with demerara sugar, but I can also use honey, date syrup, unrefined cane sugar.

Is it possible to make candy (that will taste good) without the refined sugar?  Are there some candies that will work better than others?

This history of candy is rife with how to make candy from different sources of sweet, which also in turn means there is a huge amount of regional and cultural variety based on what is available to a local candy maker. The recipes are going to be VERY different with vast variations of end results.

Think honey based candies...Mary Janes, bit o honey are nothing like any other candy. Nougat is another platform for candy that can't be hardened. Hard toffees (like a brittle think Heath and skor) soft toffees, or baked seed candies have honey in them that isn't "hard" but it's stiffened by baking and drying.

Look for recipes that use your chosen primary ingredient. You might have to hunt a lot and learn new keywords other than "candy".


The pressure cooker gauge was wrong for cans of soup I processed in the past 5 weeks. What can I do with the soup? I've been pressure canning zucchini soup the past 2 years and it's a beautiful thing. This year I used a different pressure cooker, and I've just found out that 15psi on this pressure cooker is actually more like 13psi, and the internal temperature gets to 235 maximum when it says 15psi.

Well, that means that I didn't meet the rules of 240-250 degrees for 15 minutes and I have 20 cans of soup to show for it. I also learned while researching that it may not be a good idea to puree the soup before canning due to high viscosity and heat distribution, and it is indeed pureed, so I have two issues to combat. All of the can seals are still in tact, but it's only been a few weeks.

I've come up with a few options:

Re-can the soup. Just put new lids on, bring the water up to boiling for a minute or two before putting the lid on and building pressure. This will help with heat distribution from room temp up to boiling point since this is not freshly cooked and hot soup. I will also keep the water level in the pressure cooker to just below the fill level in the bottles to further combat the viscosity/heat distribution issue with the puree.
Sterilize then freeze the soup. Pour the cans from matching batches right into the pressure cooker, bring it up to pressure to kill anything that may have formed, then bring down to about room temperature inside of sealed pressure cooker, pour into containers and freeze it. This method addresses my fear of the pureed/viscosity issue.
Refrigerate, use ASAP.
Put the cans in the freezer.
Leave it alone. Is 235 degrees good enough? Are those extra 10 degrees important? Is everyone else in the world as precise as me, or was there a safety factor when they came up with those numbers?

I'm not sure which is the safest option. All I know is I dodged a major bullet by finding this out early. In the future I will can the soup before pureeing as well.

I personally to be on the safe side would freeze it in another container.  To freeze it inside the jars you would have to make sure you left enough room for expansion, which all foods to when frozen.  If you didn't leave enough room to freeze in the jar, I would worry the lid would pop-off.  That is why I feel your best bet would be freezing them in another container, leaving room for expansion.

The pressure cooker has the ability to sterilize, but it takes time. Clinical sterilization can only be  achieved by running a pressure cooker that reaches 15 PSI at high pressure for 30 minutes – pressure cookers that do not reach 15 PSI, like most electric models, will require even more time.

Few pressure cooker recipes actually need 30 minutes of cooking time. Pressure cooking food for less than 30 minutes is not going to kill any more bacteria than bringing food to a boil (212F/100C). However, just like boiling without pressure, bringing a cooker to pressure will kill most bacteria responsible for cases of  food poisoning like, Salmonella6, Campylobacter7, Lysteria8 and E.Coli9.

Read more: 3 pressure cooker nutrition myths that just won’t go away… ’till now http://www.hippressurecooking.com/3-pressure-cooker-nutrition-myths-that-just-wont-go-away-till-now/

I found this on Pressure cooking for Dummies:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/pressure-cookers-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Temperature-Pressure Ratios for Pressure Cooking
The following table translates the pressure setting on your pressure cooker to temperatures and pressure levels:

Pressure Setting    Cooking Temperature Pressure Level in Pounds per Square Inch (psi)
High pressure   250 degrees 13–15 psi
Medium pressure 235 degrees 10 psi
Low pressure    220 degrees 3 psi

Should you try the freezing method, make sure you get as much air out of the container as possible to minimize ice crystal formations at the top, and freezer burn.  I bet you can use the puree to make some great recipes over the winter, even bread depending on the kind of spices you added.
Good luck


How do I adjust the temp to bake country ribs so they take twice as long? I want to cook my pork country ribs for about 4 hours, while we're at church.  They're covered, and have a sauce on them.  The original recipe says 1.5-2 hours at 350°.  What temp would be the best for that cooking time?

I don't consider this a complete answer, but I've been told enough times to stop putting potential answers in comments ... so ...

Temperature / time curves are so strange for meats that I find it easiest to look at a whole bunch of recipes, and find the one(s) that match the time I'm looking for, and then average the temperatures from those.

To expand that comment into a real answer, for this particular case, allrecipes.com gives 41 recipes when searching for 'pork country ribs'.  I then weeded out those without temperatures (stovetop, grill, slow cooker), or that weren't actually country rib recipes, leaving me with:

250°F : 2 hrs, drain fat & liquid, coat w/ sauce, another 1hr
300°F : flour & brown on all sides, bake ribs in sauce for 1.5hrs, turn over, another 1.5hrs.  (problem: calls for basting 'several times', which  slows things down)
325°F : simmering for 10 minutes, bake for 1.5hrs
325°F : 1 to 1.5 hrs (until 160°F/70°C)
350°F : 1 hr, add sauce, another 1hr
350°F : grill for 12 minutes, bake for 1hr, add sauce, bake another 1.5 hrs.
350°F : 2 hrs
400°F : 1 hr

Slow cooker, just for comparison:

low :

6hrs ('asian style', so I assume wouldn't be 'fall off the bone')
7 to 9hrs
'about 8 hours' (until tender)
4hrs, add sauce, another 4 hrs
9hrs, straight from the fridge
8 to 10 hrs 'til falling apart (x2)
3 hrs  (major outlier)

high, then low:

1hr high, 8-9 hrs low.

...

So um ... wow, that wasn't useful.  I likely should've made sure if they were bone-in vs. boneless.  And it's possible those baked w/out sauce would have less insulation and cook faster.

Looking at more recipes isn't making it any clearer, but I'd have to say 225 to 250°F to get it take 4 hrs -- warm enough to dissolve the collagen, but low enough to make it take a while to overcook.


Old oil on cast iron Dutch oven I have a Dutch oven that remained in storage for about three years. Apparently I covered it with oil prior to the storing. Now,it has that old oil smell to it that I can't get of.

Any advice on how to remove the oil and smell?

Try burning it off. Put it in a 500 degree oven for an hour or so. If there is oil on it, it will smoke.

After that, you may need to re-season the Dutch oven.

Good luck.


When is it appropriate to serve shrimp with the tail still attached? I ate at a local Italian dive last night and ordered Shrimp Fra Diavolo, which included a spicy sauce served over linguini noodles.  The dish was great, but the tail was still attached to the shrimps and I was annoyed that I had to remove the tail to eat my dinner.  Is this normal?

Other than shrimp coctail, when is it appropriate to serve shrimp with the tail still attached?  Are there flavor/seasoning benefits to cooking shrimp in the tail?

It's quite common. I had Garlic Prawns (shrimps) in a faily exclusive restaurant in Darling Harbour (Sydney) last weekend, with shells still attached to the tail.

From what I can gather it's mostly about aesthetics. I suspect there is some truth in the idea that it gives the impression of more shrimp for your money as well.

Some also argue that it adds flavour during roasting or sauteeing.

It should also be noted that many people will in fact eat the tail. (The entire shrimp is edible.) It's not my preference, so a simple pinch at the base of the shell and the shrimp will slide right out. (They usually - or at least should - provide you with a small finger bowl filled with water, and sometimes a slice of lemon, when you're expected to remove the tail shells yourself.)


Adding chili powder to a dish makes it dark black Chili powder was homemade, Chilies were dried and sent to nearby mill to grind and make it fine. When I started using this powder it makes the dish black and it looks black but tastes fine. Wondering what contaminated the powder, does anyone have any similar experiences?

I make my own chili powder by drying (already dried) chilies in the oven till crispy. I then add them to a food processor and grind them to a rough powder.
The result is a very dark chili powder that will often darken what it is added to substantially. If I cover a steak with it the steak is blackened. Adding it to lighter soups and stews also darkens them substantially.
As you send your chili powder out to be professionally ground it likely comes out much more finely ground than my inexpensive, old, food processor. And because of that is likely to color anything you add it to more than mine.
Like @GdD said I would bet this is what is happening with your chili powder.


Resources for determining cooking substitutions Judging from the number of questions tagged substitutions, this is a common thing to ask.

Are there any resources to find substitutions, and what circumstances those work under?  For example, applesauce can partially substitute for oil in muffins (because the oil is for moisture content), but can't substitute for oil when cooking an omelet (because the oil prevents the egg from sticking).

This one from AllRecipes.com is pretty comprehensive. I remember finding one a long time ago that was laid out in categories though. Maybe someone else can find it.


What type of oolong is Twining's oolong? Or what would this be closest too? Edit: From the UK site, there is good reason to believe that Twining's is ALSO Iron Goddess of Mercy, but it tastes nothing like the IGoM I got from Numi. From what I've read about oolong, "nutty and fruity" are not typical characteristics of IGoM, where as the floral, honey suckle-like flavor of Numi's is. So I'm thinking Twingings is mislabeling their tea since Iron Goddess of Mercy is a well known type of oolong. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen tea mislabeled so its not unthinkable. This chances the question, to "what oolong is nutty and fruity".

Recently I discovered that I love Twining's oolong tea.  It has a light, refreshing flavor. Unfortunately, in the US, it is only sold in units of 20 bags, so I purchased a 1 pound bag of Numi's Iron Goddess of Mercy.

The tea is certainly good, but I prefer the Twinings. Where Twinings is nutty and fruity, and it tastes like neither black nor green tea, Numi's tastes much like green tea with a floral falvor. Its still good, but I like the Twinings better.

I then looked up oolong and found that unlike green, black, and white tea, oolong has a wider range of variation. While its true you can have different types of green or black tea (Darjeeling, gunpowder green, sencha, macha...) those all have, at their base, the same ingredient: camellia sinensis leaves that have been dried and processed either with 100% oxidation (black), or 0% (green and white). The difference between green and white is then when the leaves are plucked.

In the case of oolong, the oxidation, and the means of oxidizing, varies greatly (from 8% to 80%), and from mild bruising to fermenting. Iron Goddess of Mercy is one such type of oolong.

My question is then, "what type of oolong does Twinings sell" because I would like to buy a big bag of the stuff (albeit from another company).

Another bit of information that might help: The tea, brewed, is darker than the Iron Goddess of Mercy tea (at least Numi's) which implies greater oxidation.

From the UK site, it looks like it is also a type of Tieguanyin tea from Anxi in Fujian Province. Now Tieguanyin translates to "Iron Goddess of Mercy", so you are heading in the right direction.

I suspect, having had some incidental exposure to the tea manufacturing process for a different manufacturer, that the exact blend will be a matter of which farms they get the tea from, and which methods they use for preparation. These are likely single supplier farms - so they will only sell to Twinings or a handful of companies. It is said that teas have a terroir similar and even more complex than those ascribed to wines, so it could well be that the taste is down to the farms they have as suppliers.