Is it ok to refrigerate almond milk after I add honey to it? I bought a pretty big container of vanilla almond milk. I would like to add some honey to it, and shake the container. After I use it, I'll store it back in the refrigerator. Will this be ok, or is it bad to mix honey and almond milk and refrigerate them?

The reason honey shouldn't be kept in the fridge is that it crystallises easily at low temperatures (even that's just a change in texture, not a spoilage problem). Once mixed with plenty of water so the sugars are dissolved, that won't be an issue.

I would expect the addition of what's essentially sugar to have no negative effect on the keeping properties of a water-based mixture, but this is where we can't be certain. If you stick to the use by date, and in particular the "once open use within..." instructions (which are probably to use within a few days) you should be fine. There's a slim chance you might reduce the margin built in to these dates, but that's probably all. What's more important is to avoid getting it warm for a long time while mixing


What's the numbering system for spaghetti and does it matter? When I lived in Italy some years ago I remember an Italian friend explaining the numbering system for spaghetti (perhaps also other long pasta). How spaghetti was sold in Italy with a number indicating its fineness.

She told me that different kinds of recipes called for specific numbered spaghetti, if you wanted to be precise.

Can anyone else explain the numbering system for spaghetti better than my vague recollection? Do people in Italy really worry about matching the right numbered spaghetti with a given dish, and has anyone outside Italy encountered a recipe calling for a specific number spaghetti?

Ok, here is the straight dope, directly from De Cecco customer service:

  With reference to your question we would like to inform you that the numbers you mention do not have a logical criteria but are just code numbers which we give our products each time we make a new shape.


Should I add water to my homemade orange juice? I am considering adding water to my fresh-squeezed orange juice. The purpose is mainly to obtain a juice that is less acidic and easier to digest. I suppose there are pros and cons for mixing water/orange juice and I am wondering if mixing them is a good idea.

Does water affect the juice's nutritive or conservative value?
If adding water is a good idea, what kind of water should I add (mineral? boiled?) and in what proportion (50/50?)?

Does water affect the conservative value:

I doubt adding water would noticeably hurt the conservation value, but you could always add it to an actual serving, instead of pre-mixing it.

Does water affect the nutritive value:

It would of course go down per serving. Less juice in the same serving means less of the nutritional / healthy stuff in said serving.

What kind of water:

I would just use plain water. Mineral will dilute the taste even more than regular water, and actually create a different kind of drink.

My take on it, and thus a personal con:

Don't do it, unless you really can't take the acidity of fresh orange juice. The cheaper hotels tend to do it to create more bang for the buck (from their perspective), and I absolutely hate it. The taste suffers, and, for me less important, the nutritional value suffers. To my mind, orange juice with water lacks everything that makes orange juice delicious.


How does a chocolate pudding cake work? The name pretty much says it all.

This cake consists of a brownie batter, on which is sprinkled brown sugar and coco. Then hot water is poured slowly on it and baked.

For the brownie:

3/4 c flour
2/3 c sugar
1/4 c coco powder
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c water (or milk)
3 tbs oil

Sprinkle on top:

2/3 c brown sugar
1/4 c coco powder

Pour slowly on top:

1 3/4 c hot water

Bake at 350f for 30 min.

Somehow this separates into a cake/brownie like upper layer and a custard/sauce layer below.

How does this work?

What is the science behind Magic Cake?
This question is similar but seems to not be the same thing and work differently according to the answers suggested there, as none of the reasons would apply here.

I don't know that there's anything magical going on here.  The batter is initially more dense (and thus sits on the bottom), but it contains baking powder.  Baking powder generates gas, and the gas output increases as the temperature rises in the batter -- so gas output will become greatest once the batter is already beginning to solidify a bit.  Gas bubbles in the batter then cause it to become less dense, so the batter floats to the top of the liquid.

It's the same sort of thing that causes cakes to rise normally.  The only difference here is that you add some liquid and deliberately don't mix it in.  But thick batter will absorb external liquid very slowly.  (Think of what happens if you have a pancake batter that's too thick and try to correct it by adding liquid; you need to mix it in because gluten and protein networks hold the batter together.  And as batter begins to cook, the starches swell, making it even harder for more liquid to penetrate.  Think of trying to add flour to hot gravy and getting "clumps.")  Cocoa powder also repels water (because it contains fat, which, like oil, doesn't mix well with water), and having that on top of the mixture before pouring in the water may also have some effects in maintaining separation.

So, you have a liquid and a thick batter that don't mix well.  As the batter bakes, it simultaneously becomes lighter (due to gas bubbles forming from the baking powder) and harder for the added liquid to penetrate.  Thus, the denser liquid settles to the bottom, and the baked "cake" ends up on top.  The liquid may also begin to simmer during baking, which would serve as further agitation to push up any remaining bits of solid batter to the top.  The liquid obviously does absorb some cocoa powder, sugar, as well as starch from the flour over time from the outer layer of the batter, which thickens it enough to form a sauce or even a custard-like bottom.  The thickening of the liquid on the bottom is likely enough to maintain separation and prevent the liquid from gradually soaking into the top layer even after baking.


Alkaline ramen noodles shelf life in uncooked state I do make alkaline noodles by myself in our restaurant. David Chang suggests to mellow-stop the alcalic reaction to add citric acid. I dont have a good experience with it. The character of the dough changes. Its bloating (obviously) a little bit and its more prone to rip and end chewiness is not right. So we are making them every day fresh. As hours pass, they darken into gray-greenish color from previous yellowish. Those who make ramen noodles from scratch and cook them to order, how do you do it? How long do you keep your fresh-cut noodles for cooking to order?

I don't do this in a restaurant situation, but I make plenty of noodles at home.  They last quite a while frozen, and, like pasta, can simply be cooked from their frozen state.  Can you portion and freeze, then cook from frozen?


Coconut Shrimp-fry ahead for dinner party? I see a few opinions on my question, from a few years ago. Just wondering if anyone has an updated idea. I want to serve fresh and crunchy coconut shrimp as part of a dinner party for 12 people. I would prefer to not have the smell and time of frying, as my guests are in attendance. Can I fry two hours prior to dinner and have them sit at room temp....with a very quick flash-heat in the oven? If so, how long and at what temp (450 or so)? Wracking my brain to try and come up with the best viable option. Thanks so much!!

You will never achieve the same texture and doneness after two hours that you will when your shrimp come out of the fryer...unless, of course, you have access to a CVap oven.  The CVap was invented (I believe by Col. Saunders for Kentucky Fried Chicken) to solve the problem you identify.  Shrimp cook very quickly, but without access to a commercial deep-fryer (which I assume), cooking for 12 on your stove will be slow.  Personally, I would save something like this for a small gathering and choose a dish that I could pull off well for a larger group.


What is curried tapenade? I have just watched the A-Team film and B.A. seems to have an obsession with something called Curried Tapenade? My experience of Tapenade is that it's a Olive based dish and making a curried version sounds horrible. Does anyone who what Curried Tapenade actually is?

It is a joke. Coconut curry tapenade with toast points is ridiculous to begin with, and it is intended to be funny that a big burly man craves something that is supposed to sound dainty? or elegant?

I'm sure you can quite possibly make a dish and call it this. However, I can't imagine olives, coconut milk, and curry tasting very good.


Substitute ratio when using butter instead of shortening How much butter should be used to use as a substitute for 1/2 cup of shortening for a banana nut bread recipe?  I don't have any shortening on hand.

1/2 cup of shortening is 110 g, while 1/2 cup of butter is 114 g. Also, butter is only 82% fat. So if you want to be precise, use 134 g of butter: (100/82)*110 = 134. You may want to reduce the liquid by 24 g in this case.

If you don't care for precision, you can also substitute 1:1 and use 1/2 cup of butter. Most recipes for quickbreads are flexible enough for that, and you are changing the texture anyway by substituting a fat with a different melting profile.


Can cabbage leaf (stalk leaf not the outer leaf) be eaten? I am growing white cabbages and as the cabbage heart develops there are other leaves growing below the heart off the main plant stalk.  Can these leaves be eaten?

I am not referring to a cabbage in which the outer leaves are discarded, say when purchased and the outer leaves are damaged/soiled.

Found a few places suggesting it's safe (and nutritious) to eat the cabbage stalk/lower leaves:

University of Florida
Gardening Know How
Sainsbury’s


How can i achieve the same texture as Soft baked Pepperidge Farm cookies? I have tried their Soft baked Nantucket and Captiva Dark Chocolate Brownie and i really like the texture of it.It's sticky (or chewy),you can almost fold it and it'll bend rather than break.I don't know if i call dense or not but in the inside, there's no evidence of any air pockets that come from creaming method at all.

I try to mimic it at home but can't achieve the same result. My cookies came out cakey and thick.
for more info, I used melted butter and high brown sugar ratio, 1 egg+1 yolk and i used AP flour.

Thank you

ps.http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2012/09/pepperidge-farm-cookies-slideshow.html#show-269994 here how it looks like.

I don't really TRY to bake soft cookies, but in my experience the easiest way to get them is to use margarine or shortening instead of (or in addition to) butter, which is consistent with the package label. Additionally, putting them in an airtight container while they're still warm will have the effect of steaming them, which will result in a softer texture.


How do you prepare a rabbit? A family member gave me a couple rabbits to cook and I'm not sure how to prepare them. I'd prefer something on the smoker or grill. Do I marinate, rub, brine? I'm just not sure how to prepare it.

For Easter, a friend and I cooked rabbits.

We marinated for 72 hours in buttermilk, dijon, rosemary, and sage (NO SALT). Then boned them out and spatchcocked them (sort of a butterfly, with skewers to hold the flat spread out shape), seasoned, and roasted at 350 until done. Moist, flavourful. Served with parsnip puree, rosemary potatoes roasted in duck fat, and sorry but I forget the other veg we used.


Deep fryer oil guidelines Where can I find food safety guidelines on how to handle reusing deep fryer oil several times for a variety of different foods.
I imagine that oil used only for vegetables can be reused for longer (both safely and taste wise) vs oil used for items that contain dairy. That’s just one example.
I’m looking for the USA.
There is this but it doesn’t address vegetable vs animal products not does it address reusing the oil several times.

Serious eats has a good overview https://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/ask-the-food-lab-how-many-times-can-i-reuse-fry-oil.html
There is not a "how many times" or "good for a number of days" answer because there are too many variables, but your linked article clearly spells out what to look for to know when to discard.
Working in a high volume kitchen, we filtered the oil in each fryer for three services, and discarded it after the fourth. The exception was if we cooked fish, the oil would be discarded following that service.


How can I obtain perfectly peeled boiled eggs? Let me put some context to this question.

Sometime ago I checked into this hotel (it no longer exists). It used to be some mansion, and a chain converted it to a routine hotel. Lousy sound insulation, but I'm digressing.

The breakfast was included, and said breakfast consisted, among other things, of a huge bowl filled with boiled and peeled eggs.

I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but looking back at it now, I marvel that anyone can boil and peel a huge number of eggs and get everyone of them this perfectly peeled. My own talent, which includes pouring a generous amount of salt in the boiling water and plunging the eggs into cold water promptly 3-5 minutes after boiling, produces the rather unapetizing result you see below.

This answer seems to suggest that freshness is incompatible with ease of peeling. I hope that hotel, and workers, didn't merely rely on archeologic eggs to obtain this perfect peeling. I don't recall an unusual taste.

How can I obtain nicely peeled boiled eggs, every time?

To make the question a wee-bit harder, I'm often aiming for a soft core, removing from the heat about 2-3 minutes after the start of boiling.

Very slightly crack the egg with a spoon, stack with crack up, add salt, bring to boil slowly, and cool with cold water and ice.  Roll in your hand to crack the shell and keep rolling until the shell comes off.  Or kind of compress from side to top.  I worked as cook - I could just squeeze and open.


How to remove residual flavours from, e.g., a coffee press I'm considering using a glass coffee-press jug as a mixing vessel for other drinks but I'm worried about residual coffee flavour even after using normal detergent.

Is this something I should be worried about, and how would you clean the pot so as to remove any residual flavour?

The glass jar should be mostly residue-free due to the smooth surface.

Sometimes slight traces remain when the jar is hand-washed but the harsher detergents usually used in dishwashers should get rid of them easily. (Side note: Don't do this to the coveted stained teapot of a true tea aficionado...)

The other parts are a different issue: often, they are not dishwasher safe and there are plenty of tiny nooks and crannies where coffee residue might "hide" and cling to and impart the characteristic coffee flavour - especially in combination with alcohol, which acts as a solvent.

If you are planning on using only the jar for your martinis, run it trough the dishwasher, give it an extra rinse with clear water just to be sure there is no trace of detergent and cheers!


How to pick good clementines and mandarins at the supermarket? Sometimes I get some "dry" clementines with barely any juice, and sometimes they are juicy but bitter. How do I make sure they're juicy and not bitter?

Bitterness can come from underripe fruit (although a lot of times they'll just be sour or less flavorful), lack of juice is usually something that has been stored too long and dried out.

A ripe mandarin or clementine should be firm but not hard with a good, bright citrusy fragrance. Rubbing your finger on the skin should impart some citrus oil (unless it's waxed of coated...) I think usually the smell is the best guideline for flavor, although I have still sometimes had a fruit that smells great and tastes pretty bland. But I think usually if they are really fragrant that's a good sign.

The skin should be somewhat loose-feeling. If the skin is tight on the fruit, it is either not ripe or it is drying out (or it's not a mandarin or clementine).

Don't squeeze the fruit and bruise it, but when you pick it up, there should be a bit of give in the skin. Mandarins and clementines have very thin skins, but these still have the sort of spongy texture of other citrus. Because they are thin, they dry out quickly. It's hard to describe what drying citrus skin feels like - progressively rougher and harder than fresh, eventually turning into a crisp and brittle almost stony layer. I'm sure you would notice far before it gets to that stage, but it's not going to happen overnight. (But the fruit shouldn't be squishy or have soft spots, that is generally spoilage or damage.)

It should not feel dry and hard. A juicy citrus will feel heavy for its size, although for really small ones that's kind of hard to judge.

One more thing to note, though, is that most of the time, the whole batch of whatever type of fruit at the grocery store or at a particular market stall at any given time will very likely come from the same source. While there might be some better and some worse ones, overall they'll probably be pretty similar, unless you can clearly see that some are older or from a different source.

If you're not sure about a batch, just buy a couple and then get more after you see that they're good. (And if you find some great ones, buy a lot and freeze some for juice for later.)


Using a proof and bake dough I'm having trouble figuring out at what point to put my retarded Kaiser and sub rolls to the proof box . after a night in the fridge should I wait til the product gets to room temp?
I experiencing baseball kaisers and spotted subs .

When I retard dough in the refrigerator and then plan to do a final proof in a proofing box, I tend to put it right in from the fridge.  I don't know that there's any advantage to letting the dough come to room temperature first, other than making your final proof take longer (and there's no advantage to that, given that you've already developed flavor through retarding the dough).

In fact, for shaped rolls that have been retarded, I'd worry about taking too long for the final proof: I'd be afraid the rolls might deform with a longer proof and/or the outer skin of the dough would lose elasticity and cause the rolls to spread horizontally, rather than rise high during the bake.

So, for preshaped rolls, I'd put them in the proofing box right from the fridge.

If. on the other hand, you've retarded the dough in bulk or in rough rolls you plan to reshape before the final proof, then perhaps it would make sense to wait for the dough to come to room temperature -- then shape and do final proof.  (Though in that case, you can also bring the dough to room temperature in a proofing box too if you like.  I'd just wait to do final shaping when the dough is closer to room temp.)


How much overrun do I get with a compressorless home ice cream machine? I started making my own ice cream this year. While the French type works quite well, I've been having trouble with American and Gelato types.

I don't have an ice cream machine. I freeze small portions of icecream on a prefrozen wide porcelain plate. While a pinch of xanthan keeps the result reasonably smooth, the texture isn't great. It melts almost instantly, and when melted, it is as liquid as it was before - it turns to sweetened milk in my mouth even before I have swallowed it.

So while I prefer denser ice cream, I think that some recipes were created with a lot of overrun in mind. I thought of trying the Serious eats idea and creating the overrun after the freezing. But first, I don't have a food processor, and don't think an immersion blender will be good enough. Second, it will melt while I am blending.

I don't want to pay the money and simply don't have the space for a gelateria style ice cream machine with a compressor. I was wondering if the prefrozen churner type machines will help with my problem.

How much overrun do they produce with a typical ice cream recipe (say 2/3 3.6%, 1/3 30% cream)?
Does the texture suffer from the same problems (instant melting)?

Edit
Overrun is measured in percent. If 500 ml of mixture go into the machine and out come 750 ml of ice cream, this is 50% overrun (the air volume in the ice cream is 50% of the ice cream base volume).

I have a 1.5 qt cuisinart prefrozen-bowl style ice cream maker.

I haven't measured it specifically but eyeballing it I would say that my overrun is 50-75%.
I know that is a wide range but it seems to change depending on recipe, additions, and how long I let it churn.

My ice cream maker has performed well for 3 years now and I recommend it.

I suspect your instant melting problem may be because you are freezing the mixture on a flat surface it has too much surface area when you scrape it off. The serious eats experiment used ice cube trays which would help reduce this problem.

Personally I haven't done experiments to try and reduce overrun because I like overrun. The air gives a nice buffer that makes the product melt more slowly, gives a smoother texture, and makes it easier to taste added flavors.

It also makes the ice cream less rich so I can eat more of it.


Is there a tool to make bread balls? I’d like to make bread balls out of already baked soft and moist bread. The tool that I have in mind is akin to an ice cream scoop, but sharpened and thinner (since bread is much softer than frozen cream).
Is there a specialized tool for just that or a technique that would allow to form bread balls avoiding compression (and thus thickening)?

I can't imagine anything would be sharp enough - you have to saw it with a sharp serrated knife to just slice it.
Only think I could think would be maybe to try it frozen with a melon-baller or similar, but it would have to be really soft beforehand - sawing at frozen bread is even harder than at room temperature - but it might prevent compression.


In a restaurants' kitchen in SC, is it DHEC approved to store raw meat next to ready to eat food? In a cold table, is it dhec approved to hold raw meat up top next to ready to eat food, provided they have lids.  There is a 3-4 inch steel spacer in between each top holding area.  It would not be above the ready to eat food in any way, and the way the table is designed, splashing is not likely. If anyone could refer me to the specific law that would be great as well.  Thanks.

Here is a link to the South Carolina Retail Food Establishment Regulation page. I'd recommend looking at section 3-302. It says that except as specified, you should separate raw animal foods from ready-to-eat foods during storage, preparation, holding, and display. If you can't find what you're looking for I would call them and ask them what the regulations are because laws can vary from each locality.

Personally, I would never store or work with raw meat anywhere near ready-to-eat (RTE) foods without sanitizing in between. Also, raw meat is a TCS food, is the cold table going to keep it cold enough? I guess it depends how long you're holding it for. If your establishment is constantly handling raw meat throughout the day I'd recommend having separate stations for RTE foods and raw meat (cross-contamination between the two is extremely dangerous to customers and it's better to separate them altogether). Hope that helps.


How thoroughly do you need to clean the inside of a chicken before baking it? My wife's family breaks apart the inside and cleans out what is in between the bones. My family just rinses the inside and then bakes it. Do you need to be super thorough when cleaning a chicken or is the baking process going to kill all the bacteria?

Providing you don't leave anything unpleasant inside the cavity a good rinse under the tap is good enough. As you surmised, the process of cooking the chicken will kill all the bacteria. Just make sure it's cooked correctly :)


Why does dough break when kneading, and how to prevent/ameliorate it? I'm very new to bread-making in general; don't assume I'm necessarily doing anything right.

During my last attempt at making quick (baking-powder-based) flatbread, I was attempting to flatten and knead the dough after having let it rest.  What happened was that rather than bending or spreading as one would expect, the dough kept cracking/breaking into pieces here and there.

I have several questions related to this, feel free to answer any/all of them:

(a) What mistakes might have been made ahead of this point, in the recipe or the technique of preparing the dough, to cause this?

(b) On the other hand, what can be done to prevent it from happening in the future?

(c) Given a hunk of dough with this tendency on the table, what can be done to salvage and/or rectify matters?  This can be in terms of kneading technique, or adding anything to the dough to make it more cohesive.

It sounds like it didn't have enough liquid in it. Assuming we are talking about a normal wheat-flour bread dough, I can't think of anything else that would lead to cracking and breaking. Properly hydrated bread dough should be quite moist and elastic, and the only way you can "break" it is to stretch it hard and fast with a pulling motion.

Fixing this situation is hard. You can try to knead more water into it, but it has a tendency to just slip off the surface. Try spreading it out as thin as possible, spraying or rubbing on a little water, folding and kneading and repeating the process.


Technique for shaping meat for cordon blue (alike) In last few years I have eaten a few cordon blue like variations which were quite delicious.
I have tried replicating some of them at home, and while they were quite delicious I am wandering what techniques are used in professional kitchens to get the pieces in regular shape.

The specific meal in question is from a local grill bar. It was made of chicken ties and legs, which were deboned and (beaten?) into a escalope. Then they were filled with ham, cheese and a bit of cucumber, from the outside rolled into strips of bacon, shaped like a large cigar, and then fried (I think one piece was around 200 grams, maybe 20cm long and 4-5 cm thick, so quite large).

I have tried to make a variation of this at home, by removing bone from whole chicken legs, beating them slightly with a mallet and then rolling them up with the ingredients inside. I have wrapped them in foil, tightened it and placed them in the fridge overnight to help them keep shape. The bacon strips I had were not quite long enough to hold on by themselves so I had to connect most of them with toothpicks which I removed after frying.

They have been quite delicious and everybody liked them, but I would really like to improve them, as presentation wise they weren't as nice the ones in the grill bar.

For one thing my meat was not of such regular thickness as theirs. Theirs looked like it was made from a rectangular sheet of meat with uniform thickness that was placed in some kind of mold to make them all even :) My pieces were a bit uneven, and the weird shape left over after removing bones from chicken legs made some portions of final product thicker then others (more layers in the 'cigar').

Does anybody have experience with making something like this? How to shape the pieces of meat? By using kitchen mallet too much I risk shredding the meat. Does some 'thingy' like a pasta machine exist for thinning the meat? Can I connect smaller pieces of meat and somehow fry them (or grill) without them falling apart (some king of mold? deep fry or roasting so they don't have to be moved while cooking? stitching??)

Anyway, I am going to try some other options next time, but any ideas are welcome..:)

I would think this would be a great application for boneless, skinless thighs. I've never had much luck trying to get uniform pieces boning dark meat myself. Done commercially though, they're usually fairly regular. Trim off any excess fat and gently pound them out to about 1/3 inch (2/3 centimeter) between pieces of plastic wrap (don't use the jagged toothed side of a mallet, use the flat side or something smooth like the bottom of a pan). Place your filling on the chicken piece, add any "wrapping" (bacon, or ham slices or whatever). Just using one of the sheets of plastic you used for the pounding, tightly roll up the chicken with any filling and/or wrapping you desire, twisting the plastic wrap at the ends to get the tightest possible "cigar". If you want to use bacon to wrap, but your slices aren't long enough, overlap two slices at the ends and give them them a bit of a pound where the slices overlap. Chilling the roll should help keep the slices together, but you may need to tie them with twine. Chill for at least a couple of hours. After chilling, remove the plastic wrap and secure the rolls with a toothpick or twine, bread if desired. I would consider baking the rolls, seam side down on an oiled sheet pan instead of frying. If you end up "splicing" slices of bacon, try to keep the seam of the bacon lined up with the seam on the chicken. That way, baking seam side down will help keep both seams closed.


"Shelf"-life of frozen Kaffir lime leaves A scale infection ruined my vision of a constant supply of fresh Kaffir lime leaves. I salvaged the unaffected leaves and now have a baggie full of frozen leaves in my freezer - My local asian food store sells them frozen and I figured I'd take a leaf out of their book.

But how long will they stay fresh?

Of course I could buy a large bag of rice and a crate of coconut milk and put Thai/Vietnamese/... on the menu five days a week, but to prevent domestic mutiny I'd like to stretch that bag of leaves way longer.

I checked our canonical post and the links given there, but couldn't find a conclusive answer. And of course I'm wondering about quality, not food safety.

Answering from personal experience:
Mine are in the freezer now for 5+ months, and don't show any sign of degradation. Not in smell, not in texture, not in color, not in taste. I expect them to be like that for some time to come.


Why is it that every time I steam vegetables while cooking rice my rice cooker ruins the rice? Why is it that every time I steam vegetables while cooking rice my rice cooker ruins the rice? My rice to water ratio is the usual 1:2. My last two attempts included mushy basmati and jasmine rice. Luckily I was able to make rice pudding, but still what am I doing wrong? Thank you!

My guess is that your vegetables contain water. So in total there is more water than when you only cook rice. If you steam them, the water is released, so it's like you put more than 2:1 water in the cooker. Try reducing the amount of water a bit, until the rice is no longer soggy.


Substitute for Aluminum Foil - Grilling I have used aluminum foil when I grill salmon because it keeps the oil from running onto the heating element and smoking the fish.  Can anyone suggest a substitute for aluminum foil?

Dried palm fronds are traditional Thai. Not sure you have access however.


Adding citrus to stew while cooking or after I am trying to reverse engineer a recipe for a fava bean stew from the list of ingredients on a ready-to-eat can. The can, as well as every other (middle eastern) instance of fava beans I've had, was citrus zesty. The can lists "citric acid" but I intend to put lime juice.
I like many of my other stews and soups citrusy but I normally add lime juice or vinegar (sometimes even sumac will do) as a condiment before eating, not while cooking. I wonder if there are any advantages to adding it while cooking. Such as, for example, could it help tenderize the favas, in addition to adding citrus flavor? Is it best to add citrus, while cooking, right after cooking, or as a condiment before eating?

When citrus juice is added to a soup or sauce, it's usually added at the last minute, after cooking. The reason is that when citrus juice is cooked, it looses some of its flavor.
As Juhasz mentioned, dried beans should not be cooked with acid. Acid will make them take a lot longer to cook. It may also make the skins tough and unpleasant to eat. (Unless you removed the skins, as is sometimes done with fava beans.)
You could possibly use that to your advantage if your fava beans are fully cooked before the rest of the stew is done cooking. Adding an acid might stop the beans from getting too soft while the rest of the stew cooks. (Emphasis on "might;" I'm only guessing about this. All the references I've seen are focused on the goal of getting the beans fully cooked, not on stopping them from cooking too much.)
Summary:
Don't add any citrus or vinegar until the fava beans are fully cooked. If you do add some after that point, expect that the citrus juice will lose some flavor the longer you cook it. Add additional lime juice immediately before serving if you want that bright, fresh taste of lime juice.


Creme brulée heating milk In creme brulée, does milk/cream really have to be brought up to simmering point before being adde to the egg/sugar mixture and being put in oven in bain marie? Seems a waste of time to wait for it to cool down.  Is there a reason for the simmering point?

Thanks.
Ann

you need to temper the eggs, which basically means pre-ccoking them slightly so they can withstand the higher temperatures of the oven without curdling. getting your cream to the simmering point then whisking it into the eggs achieves this goal. there is no need whatsoever to let things cool down; bring cream to boil w/whatever flavourings you're using (e.g. vanilla beans), pour in a slow but steady stream into a bowl of your whisked-to-pale-yellow-ribbon egg yolks & sugar, pour through a very fine mesh strainer, skim off any foam, pour into ramekins, bake.

(For reference, I've made approximately five thousand creme brulees in the last year, this is the method I use every time).


Additional flour threshold: when and how to perform? For whatever reason (in my case, usually rookie mistakes), sometimes dough - after no additional flour - is worked/kneaded to a point where it does not reach a supple state/texture and instead is more porridge-like than anything else.
It is at this point I find myself sometimes, and I'm wondering how I can consistently and efficiently resolve this issue with a simple approach. I know more flour is certainly a way to mitigate this problem, but evaluating the quantity (and type) ad-hoc is something I simple do not know how to do.
What's a workable solution to this type of situation?

Adding more flour to a bread recipe until it looses stickiness is a mistake many inexperienced bread bakers make, and one I made myself. Dough recipes have a hydration level, which is a way of expressing the amount of water in comparison to flour by weight. A higher hydration level gives a more open texture with bigger holes, lower hydration gives a more dense loaf with smaller holes and a tighter crumb. High hydration doughs are stickier and looser than low hydration doughs, and it's nothing to worry about. Ciabatta is a great example of a very high hydration dough that is essentially a floury puddle, and that's normal for that recipe.
Recipes have a hydration level, if you add more flour than the recipe calls for you will reduce the hydration and you'll end up with a denser loaf. If you keep adding flour until it can't absorb anymore you'll get a barely edible brick. My focaccia recipe is very sticky and runny, but if I added more flour to it I'd ruin it.
I'm not saying I never add a sprinkle of flour to my bread if it's a bit too sticky or loose, but it's rare. If you are getting bad or inconsistent results I would try these things before adding more flour:

Weigh everything, including the water, in grams. My baking never got consistent until I measured by weight instead of volume, because you can never get exact with volume measurements. I convert all my recipes to metric, it's a minor one-time effort that takes the guesswork out of things. 10 grams of water is 10ml, i.e. two teaspoons. It may not sound like much but it can make a difference in a dough, and chances are you won't be able to tell 100ml from 110ml in a measuring cup. Weighing water lets you get the right amount of hydration
Take notes, if you follow a recipe and it still is a bit wet then take a note to lower the water content by 10-15 grams next time. Once you find the right balance note that too
Make sure you are using the right type of flour for the recipe. Bread flours contain more of the proteins that form gluten, and gluten formation absorbs water. If you are using lower protein flour it will absorb less water. If plain flour is all you can get ahold of then it will still make bread, you will need a bit less water. Course flours absorb less water than fine flour, so if you are using a coarse whole wheat in place of a finer flour you will need to adjust the recipe
Control the water, not the flour. If you have a recipe you suspect may have too much hydration it's better to withhold some of the water and add it in later if it's needed rather than adding it all and needing to add more flour. This way you keep the balance of flour(s), salt and yeast right
Remember that the purpose of kneading is to hydrate the dough and ensure a thorough distribution of the ingredients. Gluten forms naturally, helped by yeast, kneading doesn't develop gluten, it just gets it there faster by pushing all the water around. So when you start there will be a lot of unabsorbed water, and it will be sticky. This is natural, you just need to keep working the dough
Also remember that rising changes the dough structure through yeast action and gluten development, so a dough that is a bit loose and sticky may firm up after a rise
Kneading technique may make a difference, you may just need to do it a bit longer

So, before you think about adding more flour be aware of the result you are trying to get, and keep the above in mind.


how to make health bar hold (stick) together Much to my surprise - this came out cake like instead of crunchy semi-hard granola bar.  Asking for advice to save money and time.  I thought of eliminating the egg or possibly adding more egg white?  or maybe no cream? or don't use butter? Obviously, I'm not a scientist.

By the way, mixture "tasted" very good.

1 Cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal.

1/2 Cup each of the following:
toasted coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, chopped walnuts and slivered almonds.  Also 1/2 C very fine grounded sunflower seeds. (Maybe this turned into a cake?  What would've happened if I didn't add this.)

1/2 C Raisins, dried cranberries and dates

In pan, melted together 1/2 C Honey, 1/4 C unsalted butter, then when cooled, added 1 egg and 1/4 C cream, and 1 tsp vanilla.

Poured over dry mixture, coat all evenly, pressed tightly into 9x13 pan to
bake for 30-40 mins. until top is lightly brown. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

I would advise omitting the cream, as you mentioned yourself. It's a liquid, and combined with the ground sunflower seeds, eggs, butter, honey, and vanilla in the bottom of the pan, chances are good that that was your "cake." If things seem too dry as you mix them together, I would suggest adding another egg—it will help stick things together and add moisture without being as likely to stay moist, which is probably what created the cake texture. Eggs solidify with heat, they don't just evaporate like milk or cream.


Vanilla Extract with and without alcohol Are there any reputable research regarding ranking of vanilla extracts? I usually buy major retail brand at supermarket. It tastes fine in baking. However, I add it to cream or tea and other non-baking recipes. In these recipes it tastes harsh.

Is it the alcohol? I thought generic vanilla extract has flavorless alcohol?

Is it the brand? Has any major site (America's Test Kitchen, Culinary Schools) ranked vanilla extracts?

Might in this case, artificial vanilla be better choice?

According to the FDA vanilla extract must contain a minimum of 35 percent alcohol ("TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS"). That's roughly on par with vodka.

There's no such thing as flavorless alcohol. Ethanol has a flavor ("Bitter and sweet components of ethanol taste in humans") and alcohol (at least, when the dilution is greater than 35 percent) produces a burning sensation in the mouth and throat. Perhaps this is what you've identified as the harsh flavor.

There are pretty good alternatives, fortunately.

One option is vanilla flavoring. This is similar to vanilla extract, in that it's made from real vanilla beans, but it contains no or very low amounts of alcohol. Instead, the solvent will often be propylene glycol.1

The other very common option is what's sometimes called imitation vanilla, which is not made from vanilla beans, but instead from artificially produced vanillin. Such imitation flavorings may or may not contain alcohol.

Vanillin is an organic compound that's responsible for the most prominent flavor in vanilla beans. It's produced naturally in the beans, and artificially through a number of different processes (which some people think aren't safe, but most of the concern I seen seems not to be grounded in science, but in a fear of "chemicals"). Vanilla beans also contain a ton of other flavors, which is why imitation vanilla may be thought of as inferior. But, on the other hand, a lot of these other flavors can either be denatured or simply overpowered, especially when baked. The general advice I've heard (which may have come from America's Test Kitchen) is to use imitation vanilla in baking and vanilla extract for making things like whipped cream, where the vanilla is practically all you taste.

Adding imitation vanilla to tea may not improve the flavor (over vanilla extract, that is), but it costs very little, so it wouldn't hurt to try.

1: As with so much in the online world, there's a lot of bad information out there about vanilla flavoring. For instance, look at what Eden Foods says about vanilla flavoring:

  Natural Vanilla Flavor is an extract of many things using animal glycerin or propylene glycol (antifreeze) and a googol of other synthetic and/or toxic chemicals.

  https://www.edenfoods.com/articles/view.php?articles_id=83

Thirty seconds of Googling will tell you that antifreeze is ethylene glycol, not propylene glycol and that the FDA considers propylene glycol to be "generally recognized as safe" ("PART 184 -- DIRECT FOOD SUBSTANCES AFFIRMED AS GENERALLY RECOGNIZED AS SAFE")

The Center For Disease Control has put together a "Public Health Statement for Propylene Glycol", which you can read for even more information.


Making patties from half-cooked ground beef My roommate decided to store a sizable purchase of ground beef in the freezer. For reasons I don't entirely understand, he would thaw it as needed at cook temperature in the microwave, then refreeze.

Quite a bit of this beef remains, and it's been in the refrigerator since I discovered his shenanigans, but unfortunately it's difficult to make patties out of the meat because it's partially cooked. I don't want it to go to waste, so what might I use to hold it together while making burgers that still taste like burgers?

Ground beef is a perfect setting for bacterial growth anyway, Ground beef that has been partially cooked and refrozen multiple times is guaranteed to have a huge amount of bacterial contamination.


Food safety in an oven after cooking My wife was cooking a turkey leg/thigh quarter in the oven at 350.  She turned off the oven after cooking and mistakenly left it in there for two days(!).  If the leg/thigh was cooked to the right safe temperature to kill bacteria, and if 350 is hot enough to kill any bacteria in the oven, and if the oven was never opened after turning the gas off, would the turkey still be safe to eat?

I highly doubt that it would be safe, although I'm not certain that I can rigorously prove that it's risky. I've never heard of any principles of food safety that would establish it as being safe.
There are several reasons why I think it would not be safe:
Uncertainty about the temperature of the oven and everything in it
You mentioned an oven temperature of 350, but I'd imagine that this figure is based on what the dial was turned to when the oven was preheated, not based on a measurement with an accurate oven thermometer. Built-in oven temperature displays often aren't particularly accurate, and oven temperatures fluctuate over time, so it's not guaranteed that the oven was 350 °F to start with, let alone that it was at or above that temperature for an extended period of time.
You know for sure that the turkey was not at that temperature when it was put in, and so it's safe to assume that the turkey started out with bacteria. Since the oven was not opened after the turkey was cooked, it seems that the temperature of the piece of turkey was never verified with a meat thermometer, which is the usual recommended way of checking to ensure that meat has been cooked to a temperature that will reduce bacteria to a safe level.
Together, these factors create a large amount of uncertainty about the exact temperature of the oven and everything in it when it was turned off.
Bacterial spores can be hardy
I'm having trouble finding exact figures about the temperatures where bacterial spores die, but I have read that they can survive at notably higher temperatures than bacteria themselves. This page says that certain spores can survive up to 240 °F: ("Methods of Sanitization and Sterilization", by Maribeth Raines (Brewing Techniques)). Unless you overcooked the piece of turkey, it almost certainly never reached an internal temperature of 240 °F.
If any bacterial spores survived through the cooking process, the piece of turkey wouldn't be safe at this point.
Ovens aren't necessarily bacteria-proof
Again, I don't have good data about this, but as far as I know ovens are not designed to be bacteria-proof, so I wouldn't rely on that being the case.
Even a small amount of bacteria can multiply to unsafe levels in a single day
Basically, if any bacteria got on the piece of turkey in any way--surviving the initial cooking process, coming from spores that survived the initial cooking process, or coming into the oven after it was turned off--they have had plenty of time to multiply to unsafe levels. "Somewhat sterile" is not sterile, and is definitely not safe to leave in the temperature danger zone for two days.


Gas leak (and flames) around burner intake I've been reassembling a friend's old BBQ and one of the three burners seems to be leaking gas where it connects with the gas intake. When I turn it on, there's a flame and I can see/smell something burning inside, so I turn it off immediately. Anyone know why, and how to fix?

Here's what it looks like in action https://imgur.com/BcrmBYF, and here's the inside https://imgur.com/a/tZAMwhE

It looks like the burner tube is not sliding back far enough onto the gas outlet on the control valve. Then some gas leaks there instead of going into the burner. All the gas should go into the burner tube. The gas will aspirate air into the the tube, mix with the air and give blue flames at the little holes. If there is orange flame, the adjusting collar on the tube needs to be rotated. Your problem should be a simple fix of sliding the burner tube tight against the valve. It is a pretty forgiving system: I have a 20 year old grill that is on about the 5th set of burners, not made for the specific grill and have not had a problem. (I use the grill a lot). At the end of season I buy whatever burners are on sale, they have all worked so far.


What type of beer is best for beer battered fish? I was looking for a beer battered fish recipe the other day when I noticed most of the recipes don't state a style of beer to use.
Some of the recipes use a significant amount of beer so I assume that some of the flavor profile from the beer will carry over to the fish.

So I'm wondering, which style is ideal? Porter? IPA? Maybe a Hefeweizen?

The primary use of beer in a beer batter is its alcohol, which disrupts gluten formation and needs less heat than water to evaporate, improving the texture of the final crust. For flavor, most recipes using beer do best with a malty, low-bitterness beer, like a marzen, scotch ale, or (maybe) amber ale. Highly-hopped "put hair on your chest" IPAs are a bad idea: you don't want that bitterness. Hefeweizen would be fine.

A couple of commenters mentioned the carbonation as being an important factor. I suspect that it isn't. The volume of gas generated by evaporating the water in the beer will dwarf the amount of CO2 being released, even in the most highly carbonated of beers.


I forgot to turn my slowcooker on overnight w/ chicken in it, can I eat it still? I put chicken breasts and a bunch of salsa into a slow cooker to be cooked while I slept. I forgot to turn it on. When I woke up I noticed and put it back in the fridge.

I plan to cook it tonight (and hopefully not forget to turn it on).

Is this a bad idea?

I will note that the salsa appeared to insulate the chicken because it was still cool to the touch (not COLD though) when I discovered it in the morning.

Total time out of fridge would be about 9 hours.

EDIT: This is not a duplicate of the suggested question because I had a thought that it might be ok due to the chicken being slightly insulated and still cool. I have realized it is still not safe from the answers.

Without knowing for sure that the temp didn't stray into the danger zone, I wouldn't eat it. Within 9 hours I think it is very likely that the chicken went from refrigerator temperature to danger temperature.

40 degrees F is the start of the danger zone. See:

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/danger-zone-40-f-140-f/ct_index

I doubt the human finger is calibrated finely enough to reliably measure this temp with high enough confidence to avoid the risk of food poisoninng.


Home-make yogurt: add sugar / something else with the starter? I've read some recipes in the internet and this question about how to make my own yogurt.

Some recipes say to add a little sugar with the starter, so that "bacteria would have something to eat".

So, I've tried adding some sugar, in variable amounts, but I couldn't find a relation: sometimes my yogurt gets thicker, sometimes not.

Does someone knows if adding sugar (or something else) with the starter leads to a better (more thicker, less acid) yogurt? How much should I add? Is there a recommended kind of sugar for that?

The statement "so that bacterias would have something to eat" is incorrect on several levels- including grammatically.

Bacteria already have plenty to eat. There is a lot of sugar in milk. Cow's milk is 4-5% sugar. Additionally, giving the bacteria more to eat would allow them to create more acid and make the product more sour not less.

The bacteria used in yogurt making are lactobacilli and prefer munching on lactose anyway.

That said; Lactose tastes less sweet than the sucrose in table sugar. Adding sucrose will make the yogurt sweeter if that is your taste.

Making the yogurt thicker is done by

accurately controlling the fermentation temperature,
using higher fat milk,
adding protein in the form of dry milk powder,
or removing water after fermentation.

When I have added sugar to my yogurt it has not had a noticeable effect on the texture.


Differences between gel and gelatine Are they physically different? If so, what is the difference, between a gel and gelatine, or it's proccesses  gelation and gelling (gelatinization. gelatinisation)?

A gel is any liquid (usually) or gaseous medium suspended in a solid three-dimensional mesh which entraps the medium so that it does not flow.

By way of (somewhat flawed analogy) think of a giant role of bubble wrap.  Its mostly air.  But the plastic keeps the air from flowing at a large scale.

Gels can range from very soft to very hard.  New modern aero-gels have fascinating properties.

Gelatin is a protein formed when collagen (a connective protein in animals) is heated under moist conditions.  Gelatin forms cross-linked networks exceedingly well, and therefore is a wonderful gelling agent.

The name has also taken to mean the gel created from gelatin and a water-based liquid like stock or sugary flavored water. You may have guessed by now that gels in general take their name from gelatin.

So the specific answer to the first part of your question is:  gels are the general category, and gelatin (in the second sense) is a specific kind of gel.

I have never heard the term gellification.  The only verb I am familiar with is to gel.  The process is gelatinization or (more familiar to me), just gelling.

In those links in Wikipedia for gel, gelatin, collagen, and areogel you will find out much more.


flexible food grade plastics that won't melt at 105 C I'm in need of a food-safe gasketing material for a maple sap-boiling setup. It needs to be squishy like vinyl tubing but I want to make sure it won't melt or decompose or react with steam.

Any suggestions?

Most food-grade gaskets for boiling+ temps and steam applications are Silicone or EPDM, because they are flexible, inexpensive, take very high temperatures, and won't leak weird flavors. EPDM is considered the best for true steam applications. Buna-N (nitrile) and Viton would work as well, but may not hold up as long under steam pressure. For intermittent use, any of the four materials would work.

There are official "food grade" gaskets, but unless you are making product for commercial sale then you don't need products that have been FDA approved - just wash the gasket before installing to remove the packing lubricant.

I wouldn't bother with any big-box hardware stores, though some "specialty" hardware stores or home-brew shops may have what you need. Online is probably your best bet, however.

You might find these guys handy, retailers of many gaskets needed for the brewing industry, many of which may be applicable to you (particularly the standard DIN-style gaskets): http://www.brewerygaskets.com/

Also useful, EMI Supply sells these little tubes of FDA approved silicon sealant (more like a caulk): http://www.emisupply.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=9742

And for general purpose gaskets of every type imaginable, McMasterCarr: http://www.mcmaster.com/#gaskets/=gc516x

If you have more details on the dimensions needed, or the types of surfaces you are mating (including a picture?) it would be easier to choose a direction to go.


What are the ingredients (spices) of Sri Lankan curry powder? In the following accepted answer you can find the ingredients of the Indian curry powder.  I usually cook with Indian curry powder, however, I recently received some Sri Lankan curry powder.  The aroma is different when I use Sri Lankan curry powder, (in my opinion, better,) and it tastes different too.  Does anyone know the spices used in making Sri Lankan curry powder?

There are two main types of Sri Lankan curry powders, yellow and black. Yellow curry is much like stereotypical Indian curry powder, whereas black curry powder is roasted.

Also, in my experience, Sri Lankan curries tend to be hotter than Indian (and more than one friend of Indian heritage has expressed surprise that I enjoy Sri Lankan food, since they find it too hot.)


What can I do with chicken rib meat? When I buy packaged chicken breast at the grocery, I get the untrimmed ones because they're significantly cheaper, and trimming fat isn't a problem for me. But the rib meat that comes attached is connected by a rather large chunk of fat. I always end up cutting the whole thing off and throwing it out, with the rib meat. Is there anything I can really do with this meat so I'm not wasting it? Once in a while I'll throw it in the pan anyway, and then eat it myself when it cooks (which is way before the rest is done). But could I save them, maybe freeze them in a bag until I have enough to do something? Are there any other ideas?

Save in a bag in your freezer along with all chicken bones you come across.  Cleave through the bones to expose some collagen before freezing (consider roasting all ingredients before hand).  Add whatever vegetable bits you don't use in your cooking - including things you wouldn't eat (but nothing poisonous) to your bag, especially onions (including skin and root), celery, and carrots.

When you have a good amount, put in a pot and just cover with cold water.  A bit of vinegar helps promote a nice gelling of your broth.  Tomato paste, peppercorns, and a bay leaf will add to the flavor.  Simmer gently for around five hours.  Remove.  If you had fat still on your meat you may want to chill until the fat rises to the surface to remove the fat.

Your broth will keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge or it can be frozen until you have a recipe which calls for chicken stock or broth.  Your homemade broth will be an excellent addition to sauces, a great base for soups, or an excellent liquid for cooking rice, couscous, or quinoa.


Do I always need to peel the avocado or I can just chop it? Do I always need to peel the avocado, or can I just chop it?

I certainly wouldn't want to be chewing through avocado skin.  Unless you plan on throwing it in a blender and liquifying it, it'd be pretty nasty.


How can I package durian flesh so that its fragrance cannot be detected? How can I package durian flesh so that its fragrance / smell cannot be detected?

I tried to package some durian flesh using several layers of ziplocs followed by several layers of plastic bags but it didn't prevent the fragrance from escaping the package.

I would recon you´d need a glass or metal container, as aroma-molecules can diffuse though plastic.

This is basically the same Problem users of certain "herbs" have, so naturally there is a lot of information available if you look at the right places


Uncooked meatballs out in crockpot all day? Possible Duplicate:
  Is it safe to cook a steak that was left out (raw) for 7 hours?

My boyfriend and I prepared a delicious meatball dinner but forgot to plug in the crockpot !! we left them out all day while at work (9 am - 6 pm) in a sauce. It was cold out that day and I left the thermostat on 62 F (16 C). Should we throw them out?! There were 20 meatballs in total and I'll feel awful wasting all that food!

They were in the danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees for more than 4 hours.

If you were in restaurant, you would have to discard them.

Sadly, I recommend the same at home.


What's the best order to add ingredients to a Stir Fry? I make nice stir-fry with bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, sugar-snaps, jalapenos and bean sprouts (and anything else that might be handy and in danger of being unused before it expires)

I tend to chuck everything in together on a really hot wok, but is there a better way?

Will adding the ingredients at different times make a difference?
If so, what's the best way to do this?

Thanks

I always go in this order:

Garlic/ginger/chili/spring onion whites

This is to infuse the cooking oil with these flavours.  Cook for short amount of time ~30secs.

onions/peppers/carrots/harder veg

These need a little more cooking that the other bits, so I give them a bit longer.

mushrooms/sugar snaps/soft veg

These need less cooking, so bit less time.

bean sprouts

I like these to be a bit crunchy so add them right at then end and basically just warm through.

If I'm using bigger veg like broccoli/cauliflower then I do them separately to the other veg.  I use a little of the chili/garlic/ginger and fry that for 30 secs, add the broccoli fry for another minute or so just to brown the florets, then add some water, turn down the heat and put on a lid, to steam the broccoli.  Once its done I remove to a separate plate the add back in at the end.

It basically depends on how much you like each veg cooked.  If you prefer your peppers crunchy, put them in nearer the end.


How should I control the time and temperature when baking two dishes? I want to cook multiple dishes at the same time using a conventional oven. A 9x 13 pan with potatoes should bake in an oven of 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. The other dish, a ham, should be in a 325 degree F oven for about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

How long can the potato dish be cooked for at 325? Any help would be appreciated. This will be done for Sunday dinner while at church. Please help.

The ham should rest for at least 15 minutes after cooking, and probably longer than that.  So you could put the potatoes into the oven when the ham has 20 or 25 minutes remaining, and then when you take the ham out, increase the temperature to 350-375F and continue cooking the potatoes while the ham rests for 15-20 minutes.


Making sourdough bread in a warm and humid climate I live in a warm and humid climate - average temp is mid 80's.  I have been making sourdough and like the flavor, but the loaves are flat, very dense texture and crunchy crust.  Even when I bake in a bread pan the loaves don't rise much.  I use whole wheat WW in the starter and equal parts of white and WW in the bread.  Starter is working nicely and quickly, about 3 hours to double/triple in size.  Am thinking that I need to start using some yeast, but would like to bake acceptable loaf without it.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks, Mike

If your starter is tripling in 3 hours, it's unlikely that you need to add additional yeast.

If the humidity is causing your dough to spread as it rises, you could try slightly lowering your hydration to account for moisture in the air. You could also add a fold in your bulk ferment time to give more gluten strength.

You don't mention how long you are proofing your loaves, which could be very important. Generally sourdough will need several hours at a moderate temperature to rise properly. Be sure you aren't rushing to the oven. (When you poke a loaf, it will gently and slowly spring back when it's ready.) This may mean that you will need to proof in the refrigerator, basement, etc to keep your loaves cool as they proof.

Finally, if spreading continues to be a problem, adding some vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) can help get more volume in your loaves. This works by making the gluten tighter, so use it sparingly. It is especially beneficial in whole grain sourdoughs.


Is there a wine traditionally served with beef carpaccio? Is there a wine traditionally served with beef carpaccio?

Like, they would typically serve flammkuchen with federweisser.

Beef carpaccio is a fairly recent creation.  It originated in Harry's Bar in Venice in the 1950's.  The dish is said to be base on the Piemontese dish called carne cruda all'Albese.  The Veneto and Piemonte are two different regions in northern Italy.  Different wines are produced in each region.  Given that the carpaccio is based on the Piemontese original, that is a sensible place to start.


Why do Chinese grocers advise cutting and discarding flowers in Chinese vegetables? Many times when buying Kai Lan:

and Choi Sum

Chinese shop staff heartily say

  Cut flowers. Don't eat them. Flowers have insects.

Are they correct? How do the flowers harm you?
Were they referring to  pollinators that land on those flowers?

When a plant arrives in the kitchen, the ecological perspective doesn't matter any more. Any insect  present on a plant destined for human consumption is considered a pest by the consuming humans and by the cooks preparing the food for them, no matter what the plant considers it to be (pollinator, parasite, whatever). The average person dislikes consuming insects, and people who enjoy eating insect-based dishes frequently object to consuming insects of unknown species that are not part of the recipe. This is a cultural thing of course, my own great-grandfather always laughed at people cutting out worms from apples - for him, the worm was as much a part of the apple as the pips. But the average westernized cultural setting today views that insects are disgusting and should not be eaten.

So the seller won't tell you which insects these are - they don't know and it doesn't matter to them. They just assume that you don't want to eat the insects, like the overwhelming majority of their customers. And so they tell you what method to apply - cut away the flowers - to avoid eating the insects. I suspect that they may have had outraged customers returning vegetables as "defective" if they found out they have insects in their food, and have taken to preemptively give advice how to get rid of the insects.

As for the objective harm, that's highly unlikely to happen. There are very few insects which can damage your health, and these tend to be human or animal parasites, not the kind of insect which lives on a vegetable. So if you eat the flowers and swallow the insects unnoticed, no harm done. If you notice them, there can be emotional harm or not, depending on whether this is a disgust trigger for you or not.


When multiplying in baking, should I follow directions all-at-once or batches? If I am making pie dough, for instance, is there a reason to prefer doing things in batches, besides it being more manageable for my tools/hands? This would help answer this question (two good answers which differ on this point). Obviously, you want to divide the bulk into portions at the end, i.e. for the pies. But why sooner?

I always figured that following the directions all-at-once until the end ensured that the final product, by whatever multiplier, is consistent throughout.

I'm assuming that when baking in large quantities, we are measuring by weight, not volume, so accuracy shouldn't be an issue.

When making pie crust, you want to a) keep your fat(s) cold and b) avoid over-working the dough, both of which are difficult to do when working in large batches. Cold fat, evenly distributed throughout the dough, will steam and melt away during baking; that leaves the air pockets in the crust that cause flakiness. Developing the gluten in your dough is necessary for a strong, elastic crust, but if you develop too much gluten, your crust will become brittle and tough. Working in small batches allows you to thoroughly combine the flour and fat until you've reached the "pea" stage, and then incorporate your water just enough to bring the dough together for gentle rolling. The best thing you can do to pie crust is to handle it as little as possible.

If you're using a large food processor or stand mixer to "knead" bread dough, you could get away with making more than one or two loaves at a time because you want to develop your gluten to a much greater degree than you do with pie crust. Be sure, however, that you mix/sift together your dry ingredients thoroughly before adding the liquid components of your dough whether you're kneading by hand or machine.


What is the best way to store the whole wheat flour for daily usage? https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/33892/6168

  For longer storage, keep white flours in the refrigerator in an airtight container. All-purpose and bread flour will keep up to two years at 40 F in your refrigerator, according to the Wheat Foods Council. They can be stored indefinitely in the freezer.

What is the best way to store the whole wheat flour for daily usage?

Should it be stored in the fridge and taken out daily for usage and then kept back?

Hermetically sealed (airtight) containers. If it's not airtight you will eventually end up with flour bugs and they will move into to your non-airtight cornmeal container, and anything else they care to infest that isn't locked up tight. The old metal tins or quaint crockery are not adequate to prevent infestation, and sooner or later you'll buy some bag of something that already has the bugs in it; they'll spread.
I use plastic tupperware type stuff. It's cheap and effective. Beauty comes at a substantial extra cost.


What is the origin of fish sauce in asia? wondering about the history/origins of fish sauce, specifically in Asia. I haven't found anything after Googling a bit..

My friend claims that fish sauce was invented in Italy (the Romans?). Can someone help clarify?

It was called garum, and indeed the ancient Romans used it, as did the ancient Greeks:

Garum was prepared from the intestines of small fishes through the process of bacterial fermentation. Fishermen would lay out their catch according to the type and part of the fish, allowing makers to pick the exact ingredients they wanted. The fish parts were then macerated in salt, and cured in the sun for one to three months. The mixture fermented and liquified in the dry warmth, with the salt inhibiting the common agents of decay. Garum was the clear liquid that formed on the top, drawn off by means of a fine strainer inserted into the fermenting vessel. The sediment or sludge that remained was allec. Concentrated decoctions of aromatic herbs might be added. Flavors would vary according to the locale, with ingredients sometimes from in-house gardens.

Like the fish sauce of today, it was extremely high in glutamic acid, AKA umami.
In Eurasian Sensation the author says:

There appears to be no historical mention of fish sauce being used in Asia before the Early Middle Ages in Europe, which oddly enough is around the same time its use was dwindling in the remnants of the Roman Empire.

That begs a question, right? Did the concept travel, or did Asians develop it independently? Greater minds than mine are working to definitively answer that question:

...flowed from west to east and was eagerly adopted by Asians on the Silk Road. The recipes for garum changed and adapted as they moved east and became nuoc mam and nam pla according to cultural preferences and what gifts the Asian seas had to offer. Archaeologists and food scientists are working to confirm these flows and linkages...
The production of garum and Asian fish sauce is virtually the same as well. Fresh fish and salt in some proportion (recipes vary widely from 5:1 to 2:1) are layered in barrels, clay pits or earthenware crocks. Because of their large size, tuna were cut up before fermenting to prevent putrefaction, but most fish – especially the small species are processed whole and intact. In Rome, oregano and other herbs were added at the production phase for both flavor and to suppress bacterial overgrowth, but this step is largely omitted in the production of Asian sauces. The vats are then left to ferment – sometimes covered or sometimes uncovered (Carthaginian and Roman) in the heat and stirred every few days to a week to ensure even enzymatic digestion of the fish.

From The Silk Road Gourmet


Fresh tomatoes for home-made pizzas, is it worth it? I figured fresh tomatoes would be the best choice for making a tasty pizza sauce, so I bought like 8 kg of fresh Roma tomatoes as I found a good price opportunity, to make jars.  I already made a try a few months ago and it was a disaster, way too watery, but this time I planned on either draining tomatoes or removing seeds and gel/pulp before cooking them.

However now I'm starting to wonder if it's worth wasting my time again.  Indeed reading more on the web it seems that canned tomatoes are much more suitable for a tasty pizza sauce than fresh tomatoes.  Add to that that I'm not sure how mature the tomatoes are and should be and that in any case I'm not going to keep the fire below the pan for 5 hours or more, and the following question seriously pops up : is it really worth my time ?

Keep in mind that we're talking of home-made pizzas, I don't own a wood-fired oven myself, mine goes only up to 250 °C, so arguments for professional pizzas baked in 2 minutes may not apply.

No, it's not worth the bother. Get a few cans of crushed tomatoes and simmer them slowly with whole garlic cloves and some chopped onion for a few hours until it's thickened (but not like paste). Season and you're good to go.


What are the guidelines for creating a canning recipe? I am looking for the criteria that make an acceptable recipe for canning. Most sites say to only use approved canning recipes and not make substitutions, which is totally understandable, but surely there must be some guidelines for what makes those recipes acceptable? What levels of salt, acidity, water activity, etc make a recipe suitable to be canned?

Nearly any recipe can be canned, the only caveats are that lower-acidity foods and recipes require a specialized pressure canner to kill bacteria, and there is also a short list of ingredients which are never a good idea to can, but many people wouldn't think twice about adding/subbing into a recipe - fats, dairy and eggs shouldn't be in a canning recipe because they'll still go rancid, grains and flours are good insulators and will actually protect bacteria from the heat, and thickeners that people will often throw into a recipe like cornstarch or tapioca will chemically break down from the canning heat. You'll find plenty of cases of people canning grainy/floury things anyway with no ill effect, but that simply means there was no bacteria to kill in the first place. Better safe than sorry.

Most people don't even know what pH is, let alone how to test it or how a recipe alteration would change it. They also aren't going to know much about bacterial growth conditions or heat transfer. It's a heck of a lot easier for a recipe site or book to just say "no substitutions" than to try to teach people how to do it safely, especially when there's plenty of idiots who wouldn't pay attention and sue when they get bacterial poisoning.

So there's really only two guidelines you really have to worry about for your recipes:

Avoid the ingredients that shouldn't be canned, or at the very least, understand that you're taking a risk.
Foods with a pH level of 4.6 and below can be canned in boiling water. A pH of above 4.6 requires pressure canning. This pH chart gives some examples of commonly canned items.

Sources:

The acidity rule is a fundamental safety rule that any decent guide will have. Ball's guide mentions it first thing in "Getting Started". Most guides will simply refer to high-acid and low-acid foods. This safety guide from the National Center for Home Food Preservation details the pH reading of 4.6 as the dividing line, which is also visible in the pH chart linked in the answer.
The dangers of canning cakes and breads have been published by many research departments, including those at Penn State and University of Georgia
Thickeners such as cornstarch chemically breaking down due to the heat involved in canning is detailed in the Cook's Thesaurus. This breakdown is the entire reason for a product called Clearjel, which is also mentioned on the same page as a substitute for cornstarch
Clemson University states that no safe methods for home canning dairy products exist.


Shaved chocolate in cake batter? If I shaved a white chocolate bar and put the shavings in a cake batter, would they melt or harden?

From my experience it's likely that chocolate shavings are too small to keep any integrity during baking. They will likely melt into the batter as it bakes. If the batter is warm it may already melt then.

Larger pieces like chocolate chips are more likely to stay together enough to re-solidify into noticeable pieces when eaten.


Can I make a pecan pie with corn syrup only? I want to make a fructose free one for my dad. I am not a fan of sugar substitutes, either. Karo doesn't have fructose but sugar does. If I left out the sugar could I use corn syrup only or would it not set up?

It would seem to me that controlling the total amount of water in the recipe will be the trick, so you'll want a crystallized or powdered replacement for the table sugar rather than a syrup.

I've not tried it myself, but you might try using dextrose in place of the table sugar.  Dextrose is the commercial name for crystalline glucose, and I found it readily available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Now-Foods-Dextrose-2-Lbs/dp/B008MVJKFU/).

Normally when substituting one kind of sugar for another, assume 7 oz (by weight) per cup of sugar specified in your recipe, then weigh out that much of your alternative.  But there are multiple sources online that state dextrose is only about 70% as sweet, meaning you'd want to divide by 0.7 to adjust the quantity from sucrose to dextrose.  Here's a typical reference, though there were many others with the same information: http://www.livestrong.com/article/534691-how-to-bake-with-dextrose/

I'd love to know whether or not it works!  If you try it, leave a comment and let us know how it goes.


Gluten-free alternatives to beurre manie/roux for thickening sauce? I'd like to thicken the sauce for my Thanksgiving turkey a bit, without making it inedible for my gluten-intolerant guests. From other questions on this site, I understand that corn starch would be an option, but it might give a more starchy flavour. Same for potato starch. Arrowroot flour would probably work according to this question, but it's not always easy to obtain. Would rice flour work? Are there other alternatives?

Oh, have I got the answer for you. Xanthan gum. Here is an excellent article by two of my favorite bloggers on how to get started using it. Xanthan gum is easy to find at health food stores because gluten-free bakers use it extensively.


Substitute for celery in soup I'm making this Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Soup recipe and I wanted to know what can I use as a substitute for celery because it'll be difficult to get it before tonight.

Honestly, I'd say there is no substitute that you're likely to have on hand. The unique qualities of celery are mostly the cellulose crunch it provides, and the suggested substitutions like daikon, radish, bok choy or the like are even less likely to be in your pantry.

Most likely you'll just have to go without or make a trip.

If it is just the taste in that recipe you're going for, you could use celery seed if you happen to have that on hand.

Reference:  http://www.thekitchn.com/my-celery-dilemma-154426


Office (Loose Leaf) Tea Solution I am looking for a good system to make loose leaf tea at my workplace. The main requirements are that the tea tastes good and it is easy to clean in the toilet sink without much equipment. Bonus points if it's microwaveable, since I find that slightly more practical than an electric kettle.

I have considered:

cup with a ceramic or glass strainer. Doubts: is the mesh fine enough, or would it let the smaller leaves through?
steel strainers. Doubts: do they affect the water taste? Can they be closed tightly, or would they let the smaller leaves through? Is the steel mesh microwavreable?
cotton strainers. Doubts: do they dry in a reasonable time? Do they get dark and dirty after a few uses?
fillable disposable tea bags. Doubts: are they viable for a single person? They look quite expensive
French press, ingenuitea, or other similar contraptions. Doubts: they don't look easy to clean at all. Are they microwaveable?

What is your experience? Do you recommend (or suggest to avoid) one of these methods, or a new one?

Related questions: What's the best option for water for tea in the office?, Best Office Coffee Solution

I've been drinking loose-leaf tea at work for many years now, and have gone through most of these.

cup with a ceramic or glass strainer.

I've tried both the ceramic type with holes and the glass type with slots. The mesh is never fine enough for me. In addition the holes or slots invariably get packed with leaves and are a pain to clean.

steel strainers.

If you mean the tea-ball type, I can't comment. But a steel mesh strainer is my absolute favorite. I've been using the same one (pictured below) for years now and have never noticed any off flavors. Easy to clean: just dump out the leaves and give a good rinse, picking or sponging out the occasional stuck leaf.

Not microwaveable, but you don't want to microwave the leaves, anyway. Microwave the cup with water in it (put a stirrer in to avoid superheating the water. Yes, it can happen, and has happened to me), then put the strainer in when it's the right temperature.

cotton strainers.

I have never used one, so I can't comment authoritatively, but it seems like at the least they'd be harder to clean.

fillable disposable tea bags.

I hate disposable anything. I tried the type of bag pictured below and they were a pain. They tend to wick tea out of the cup and onto your table.

As for the other gizmos, I think for tea, simpler is better. The above are the only methods I've used, and I find the mesh basket is far and away the most convenient and best solution.


What's the best way to strain stock? I have a big pot full of chicken necks and backs on the stove which I need to separate into (a) stock and (b) everything else.

I'm wondering the best way to go about doing this. I've previously laid cheesecloth into a fine-mesh strainer and poured it through that, but the cheesecloth always seems to kind of clog up, making straining 4 litres of stock a very lengthy process. I also tried a coffee filter laid inside a strainer and got more-or-less the same results.

Alternatively, I ditched the cheesecloth and just used the fine-mesh strainer by itself, but, unsurprisingly, this method leaves some bits I'd rather not have.

I'm wondering: is there a better way? Or should I stick with the cheesecloth and work on being more patient?

Perhaps you could consider straining it twice? Use your strainer the first time to get out the larger particles and then do a second time with the cheesecloth so that it doesn't get clogged as easily. I imagine this wouldn't be any faster, but you'd have to fight with the clogged cheesecloth less.


how to cook with garlic and how to use in cooking and salads I like the taste of Garlic, can anyone tell me how to use it please? can you use it in salad or cooking like stew or pasta ECT ?
Please help.

thanks Trev

You can use garlic in almost anything, (except most people don't care for it in desserts).

Fresh garlic comes from the ground, or the store, in the form of a bulb composed of many (15-30?) smaller sections called "cloves". The cloves are each enclosed tightly in a thin shell/skin and the whole bulb is surrounded by many layers of a papery wrapping. The shells & paper need to be removed before you use the garlic. You can get a little item called a garlic peeler made of a silicone sleeve to rub the cloves with and it will take the skin off nice & easy. I don't have one, and peeling the cloves with a knife can be a little bit labor intensive and annoying.

Once you get the peeled cloves, you can use them many ways, either raw or cooked. Raw garlic retains its sharp pungency which is mellowed and sweetened a bit when you cook the garlic. The important thing to know is that garlic can burn easily, quickly, and suddenly (especially if it is chopped up fine and sauteed). I guess some people like that taste, but it is very sulfurous, strong, and different from raw or gently cooked garlic.

Some recipes call for garlic cloves to be included whole. Others say to slice. Very often you are asked to chop the garlic up fine or mince it, or you can even smash it in a little hand held garlic press. For salads, some people like just to rub the inside of the (wooden) salad bowl with a clove of garlic to impart a subtle hint of flavor to the salad.

If you want large quantities, you can also buy garlic which has been pre-processed in some way: Peeled whole cloves (but I think you have to buy a lot if you get those), pre-minced garlic or even garlic paste. I think the pre-minced or paste has a different taste, and not as nice as when you cut up the whole cloves yourself.

Just about every cuisine around uses garlic, and there are plenty of available recipes to follow.


Is it OK to marinate chicken and pork together? I just want to minimize dishes taken to a BBQ--marinating pork chops in a lemon/herb/olive-oil baste along with some chicken skewers. Is there anything to worry about with trichonosis when preparing pork in same dish with other meats at room temperature? I can't imagine it's a problem, but you never know...

Don't worry about the pork contaminating the chicken, but rather vice versa. A good rule of thumb with chicken is to treat it as a biohazardius contaminant. Because it is. Salmonella is present IN chicken meat, unlike other meats where you will only find microbes on the surface. Your marinade doesn't seem particularly inhospitable to pathogen growth, so cross contamination would be a nontrivial concern. OK, if you overcook your pork chops as some insist on doing, it shouldn't be much of a concern. However, may as well be safe and split the marinade between two ziploc bags. It's a small effort to mitigate risk.


How do professional bakers handle rotating trays while mass producing cookies/muffins/cakes/etc.? A widely-suggested tip is that one should (swap and) rotate their baking tray(s) half-way through a bake (to promote even cooking).

I was wondering how professional bakeries (read: not factories, actual bakeries) handle this operation when mass producing things like muffins, cookies, etc.? I'm under the impression a real bakery won't be using 1, but maybe 4+ trays of goods in one particular bake. That seems like a lot of tray (swapping and) rotating...

Or am I missing something?

Swapping and rotating baking trays is recommended in order to account for differences in temperature inside residential ovens.  Typically, the top of the oven is significantly hotter than the bottom.  This is less of a concern with modern ovens, particularly those with fans to circulate the air (commonly called "convection ovens").

Professional bakeries will use a professional oven that evenly distributes the heat and/or automatically rotates the trays, thus not requiring manual swapping or rotation of the trays.


Fully cooked, but requires a minimum internal temperature? I'm making a box of packaged chicken burgers. On the front of the box, it says "Fully Cooked", but then on the back of the box, in the cooking directions, it says "Heat to an internal temperature of 75C (165F)."

Why would I need to achieve a certain internal temperature if they're fully cooked?

There are arguments of the universal validity of such rules, but there has long been an argument that reheated meat that was pre-cooked should always be brought to full safe temperature.

The general idea is that cooked or not there is bacteria present.  If heated to only the 100-120F range, you have reached the temperature of highest active growth of many pathogens, without killing them.  Some will argue that this is safe, as long as you eat the item immediately, not let it sit and give time for that bacterial growth to bloom.  I would even put credence to this for items which I knew the preparation and handling history, but for prefab type foods, like ground meats and especially poultry, I personally would be reluctant to take risks, I would bring it to temp.

There also has always been disclaimers that the reheating to temp rule only applies to if you reheat at all, for instance, medium rare roast beef is often eaten cold as leftover, but the rule stated if you reheat, the reheat to what would have originally be considered a safe temperature, not part way.  With something like a prepped burger, again, I personally would not eat it cold, and just thawing it might put you into an unknown zone.  I would heat it.


Why is store bought frozen food worse than homemade? I made multiple dishes following recipes and froze them, and they tasted a lot better than store-bought equivalents.

Why does it happen? Isn't current technology capable of doing the same procedures that one would do in their house and freezing it?

Or maybe is that too expensive to have enough public buying it?

I thought that the worse taste of store bought product was merely the act of freezing but it looks that is not the case.

I think that at the end of the day, store bought frozen meals aren't per se worse, but rather that the manufacturer needs to appeal to a large, diverse audience of buyers and so their recipes are not tailored to your tastes. Recipes you make at home are often tailored to your taste by the mere fact that you selected the recipe and you know what you like.

They also need to use ingredients that they can get in large quantities, so the individual ingredients may not be the ripest or most flavorful variety (think tomatoes or apples).

Some things frozen at the store are probably better than at home, such as frozen vegetables or sometimes canned tomatoes. They usually have better technology to freeze the vegetables in the most efficient manner that best preserves their important qualities.


Best substitute for Gin There are a huge number of cocktail recipes that, being allergic to juniper, I've never been able to try because they contain gin. I know that juniper is a fairly distinctive flavor and gin won't be easy to substitute for, but I'm hoping there is some non-juniper-containing liquor which may be "close enough."

I'm not sure if you just want to be able to make the recipes, or if you also want to have the juniper taste without the allergic reaction so to speak. Finding a substitute shouldn't be too hard, but they won't quite have the same taste. Vodka is suggested for martini-type drinks:

This is a tough one to pull off, but in general, if you are making martini-type drinks, gin can sometimes be substituted for vodka, and vice versa. While these alcohols taste quite different, the texture and appearance of a cocktail is not altered by switching, and can often be just as good.
From: http://www.drinknation.com/bartending/substitute

I came across a video on making something gin-like out of vodka, but it says “juniper berries are the key ingredient.” Perhaps you could still add the cardamom and other spices to match the gin flavor more closely though. Here's another page with similar instructions (check the page for the recipe):

But what many people don’t realize is that gin and vodka begin life in the exact same way. You could even say that gin is nothing more than infused vodka. [...] In his book The Complete Guide to Spirits (HarperCollins, 2004), Anthony Dias Blue describes cold compounding as a legitimate method for producing gin.
From: http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2007/how-to-make-your-own-gin-without-a-still/

For other types of drinks, Cook's Thesaurus lists a few other possible substitutions:

gin This is distilled from grains and similar to vodka except that it's flavored with juniper berries, herbs, peels, and spices.  London gin = dry gin = English gin = London dry gin is the preferred gin for martinis and other mixed drinks.  American gin is similar, but isn't quite as heavy and dry as London gin.  Hollands gin = sweet gin = Dutch gin = Geneva gin = Jenever is sweeter and more aromatic than other gins and isn't normally used for mixed drinks.  Tanqueray and Beefeater are well-respected brands.  Don't confuse gin with sloe gin, which is sweetened.
Substitutes: vodka (This turns a martini into a vodka martini, a gimlet into a vodka gimlet, a gin and tonic into a vodka and tonic, a Tom Collins into a vodka Collins, and so forth.) OR white rum OR whiskey OR tequila OR brandy (This turns an Alexander into a Brandy Alexander.)
From: http://www.foodsubs.com/Liquor.html


What is this paste I got from boiling down coconut "whey"? I have been fascinated with taking byproducts of a fresh coconut, and this time I got this sweet and very sour paste from boiling down coconut "whey"

First, let me explain what is this coconut whey :

Took the meat out a fresh coconut, did not remove the outer darker skin (Mistake!)
Put the meat with some water on the blender, strained it in a nut milk bag, repeated the process until milk was achieved
Set the milk in the refrigerator for 24h for it to separate
Used the top cream to make butter and buttermilk
The bottom leftover part after the cream was removed is what I call the coconut "whey"

Now, I thought this whey would be mostly water and sugar, so take the water of you have... sugar!

After boiling it down, I stopped when it began to stick in the pan, the end result was a very sticky gooey paste, that at first taste is sweet but then comes a very unpleasant sour, maybe acidic aftertaste, might be due to not having removed the darker outer skin, or maybe due to the lauric acid?

So, any idea what is this? What can I do with it? Did I do something wrong that it became so sour?

I know this isn't the same as coconut sugar you see in stores as that one is taken from the tree not the coconut itself.

Picture (trying to dry it in the oven because its too sticky) :

"Coconut Sugar" is actually made from the sap of the plant, not the nut. Basically, you made a type of "coconut whey paste".  Since it lacked the fiber and most of the oils it was viscous and sticky.  Also, since it included "milk" from the "testa" (Peel of the coconut) it was sour.

So you reduced the whey down to its: solids + sugar + some testa.  As I said sugar is made from the sap of the tree so I don't know of anyone who has found a use for what you have created.  I would be very curious what you end up with if you peel the coconut before the process.  I would bet it wouldn't be as sour.

With a little more work you are well on your way to a "Coconut Protein Bar" recipe! lol

References:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11746-014-2447-9
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272590676_Composition_of_Coconut_Testa_Coconut_Kernel_and_its_Oil
https://foodcomas.com/2013/03/20/kerisik-coconut-paste/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/coconut-sugar


How do I know when my sauce is reduced enough? I followed this recipe over the weekend to try out something new:
Eric Ripert's Red Snapper and Morels in Port Reduction
My biggest issue was the sauce. It was very liquidy. I don't think it reduced properly and perhaps not enough butter? But I'm really not sure.
All the recipe says is:

Bring Port to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Lower heat and simmer until reduced by half (if using a gas stove, make sure flames don’t lick the side of the pan; if they do, the Port will burn and the sauce will be bitter). Add vinegar and simmer, lowering heat as needed to keep liquid from burning around the edges, until reduced to an almost syrupy consistency, 8–10 minutes. Remove from heat.
Bring Port reduction to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Cut remaining 3 Tbsp. butter into small pieces. Remove pan from heat and gradually add butter, swirling reduction in pan until emulsified, about 3 minutes. It should look shiny, not greasy.

But in my pot its pretty hard to tell if its been reduced by half. Are there any tips for knowing when this is done? A consistency or something I could look for?
I also wasn't sure and it doesn't specify during which, if any, of the steps should the lid be off vs lid on?

The whole thing should've been done with the lid off.  Any time you're reducing a sauce, you want the steam (moisture) to escape.

As for 'how thick', the standard test is 'coats the back of a spoon'.  If you stir with a spoon, you should be able to lift the spoon out vertically, and the sauce doesn't immediately drip off of it.

This test also lets you judge just how thick the sauce is, as you can look at how much is coating the spoon.  If it's too opaque to be sure, you can run your finger across the back, and judge the clean strip vs. the coated part.


What's a gluten free alternative to farro? I am looking for a safe gluten free alternative to farro for a Greek chicken soup recipe.

Perhaps a wild rice?

Farro is essentially a variety of wheat, and I assume your recipe is using it in whole form, rather than milled in some way. Therefore, you'd want to substitute another grain that will provide at least a similar texture.

Farro

Rice is gluten-free, so you could use any kind of whole grain rice as a substitute.

Brown Rice

You could use wild rice, although its particular texture is quite different and may or may not compliment the soup.

Wild Rice

It's useful to know that there are actually four different kinds of gluten:

Gliadin in Wheat
Hordein in Barley
Secalin in Rye
Avenin in Oats

Because farro is a kind of wheat, it contains Gliadin, which is the form of gluten people are most allergic to. However only one in five people who are sensitive to wheat are allergic to the Avenin in oats.

If you're cooking for others and don't want to take a chance, then don't even consider using oats. However, if for yourself or someone who wants to try oats*, they have a nice flavor that would be delicious in the soup.

Oats

Specifically, you'd want whole kernel oat groats — not cracked or rolled. Look for a package that says "gluten free", which really means they've taken precautions to keep the oats from being contaminated with gluten from wheat or other grains.

If you find you can tolerate oats with no problem, you may also be able to use rye and/or barley.

* Consult with your physician before trying any of these alternative grains.