Should I peel turmeric? I want to know whether there is any need to peel the skin of turmeric from a palatability, taste, food safety or hygiene standpoint? Is there any relevant nutrient content, above that of the turmeric flesh, in what is discarded after peeling?

To address a few points:

palatability, taste

There's not much taste to the "skin."  As with ginger, it's more of a texture thing.  For larger/more mature pieces, the skin can be thicker and perhaps create more of a texture contrast.  I think most people tend to peel it, but it's not strictly necessary.

food safety or hygiene

No significant food safety issue.  Hygiene is about the same as any root/rhizome vegetable.  That is to say: anything in the dirt will likely be on the skin, so if you don't want to eat the dirt (and what may be in it), scrub well or peel.  If you are concerned about possible pesticides or something else in the dirt, peeling is likely efficient for removing any on the exterior.

As for nutrition, after a few searches, I haven't found good information that implies any significantly different nutrients in the skin.


Why is my beef broth the wrong color? Beef soup bones were on sale today, so I thought I’d make a broth )(stock?). I roasted the bones for a couple of hours, then added them to the pot along with some onion, celery, and mushroom stems. As it came to a boil, there was virtually no scum to skim.

The broth is milky white. I can’t seem to get a beef broth with characterstic dark golden brown color that characterizes a French onion soup base.

As suggested by OP in a comment, it is likely that a milky, creamy broth is the result of fat emulsifying into the broth due to too-violently boiling the broth. For context: when making a Tonkotsu ramen broth, this style of milky broth (typically made with pork rather than beef bones) is often the desired result, hence you'll find recipes calling for a sustained rolling boil for hours (whereas traditional French stocks would be kept at a simmer), or even suggestions to blend up your broth.

Thus, the answer to this question would be to cook the broth at a simmer, rather than a rolling boil.


Does lime juice make jalapeños less spicy? I make guacamole with a whole jalapeño and the last time it was hard to mash so I poured lots of lime juice in this time. It was hardly spicy at all. Did the extra lime juice make it less spicy?

Lime juice isn't going to make it less spicy, if anything I've found it accentuates the spiciness a bit although I'm not sure of the mechanism. It could be that the acidity frees up more capsaicin  compounds (what makes hot food hot), or wakes up your taste buds more.

Most likely you have simply added a weak jalapeno. Peppers of the same variety can vary in heat strength quite a bit depending on the where and how it was grown, although you'll get weak and strong peppers from the same plant. You can make up for the lack of spice by adding more jalapeno or a bit of hot chili powder.


Japanese term for when the Sushi chef prepares meal for you What is the Japanese term for when the sushi chef prepares a sushi meal for you based on what the sushi chef deems to be fresh and good, as well as what you would be interested in eating?

I believe this is a term or style.  There's generally no ordering off a set menu.


Good websites/cookbooks covering more tailored approach to cooking vegetables? The produce I get in weekly CSA box are all quite unique. I get at least 3 different kinds of kale, 4 different kinds of lettuce, and so on. Even with the same kind of lettuce, sometimes it's young and pale and other times it's dark green and hard to eat raw (but it's yummy when sautéed). The carrots in winter are sweeter than the carrots in spring. Young onions are vastly different from normal onions.

The vegetables are all in high quality so I want to cook them with the most suited cooking approach (i.e., I don't want to simply substitute vegetables).
Is there any good website/cookbook that can help me search or learn more tailored approach to cooking different stages of vegetables?

I'm looking for a website/cookbook/other resources where I can continue to learn, rather than specific tips for specific vegetables.

There are a myriad ways to cook vegetables, some of which are suitable for younger, more tender specimens, and some of which are suitable for older, more robust (one might even say tougher) examples.

The general principal (and there are a many exceptions) is that the older and tougher the vegetable, the longer you cook it.

I think your question indicates you already have the the start of the answer:  if it isn't pleasant raw, cook it.  And if it isn't pleasant when cooked briefly, cook it longer.  Basically, the tougher and chewier (which often is directly related to how mature the vegetable is) the item, the longer it should be cooked.

Very young baby vegetables, and delicate leafy greens, young peas, and similar very tender vegetables are suitable for salads, or just being wilted on top of a hot dish without additional cooking.

Middle ground vegetables (these tend to be vegetables that you might eat raw on a crudite platter--they are substantial, but not tough) of hardier species like asparagus, as well as younger versions of hardy greens like kale, broccoli and so on benefit from a moderate cooking period such as roasting for 10-15 minutes, a brief saute, or a brief steam, but you may enjoy them with some of their original texture and snap left.

The sturdiest vegetables, and the most mature, such as mustard greens, older kale, mature cabbage, older Brussels sprouts, broccoli stems, and such benefit from long cooking which bring out their flavors and soften them.  The long, slow cooked southern braised greens are an example.  These vegetables can take the heat and retain their character.

It is difficult to give you a single rule, as their are a variety of treatments that will work in any given case.

Some cooking methods often come up, as they are optimal for the different rough categories:

I would suggest googling for recipes on the specific vegetables you have received, including their varietal name if you know it, and see what trends you get.  Combining this with your growing intuition and experience should soon have you consistently creating vegetable dishes you enjoy.


What type of wok apparatus is depicted in this home? The following looks like a standalone burner, not just a wok ring. What is it called? What would the power output be like? Where can I find more information?

The upper green arrow looks like it is pointing to a frying/draining rack on the inside edge of the wok.  The lower green arrow looks to be pointing to the base of a wok rink to a wok range.  There would usually be another flashing or baffle to prevent the intense fire burning your hands or wok handle.  It may be on the other side of the picture.  That would be my best guess on it.


How do I preserve papalo? I have a lot of papalo in my garden, and want to preserve it. What method should I choose to do this? I want to use it throughout the winter, and maybe some next year. The internet suggests that drying is not a great option, so I am looking for other preservation methods.

It seems that you've already done some research on the subject, as you mention that it doesn't dry well.  Searching for 'papalo' using an internet search engine found http://www.appalachianfeet.com/2010/05/07/how-to-grow-and-use-papalo-wrecipes/ :

  It doesn’t dry well, but it can be frozen if it is pureed with water or oil and put into ice cube trays.

This method is mentioned in one of the answers to a related question.


How long does kvass keep? How long does an opened bottle of commercially made kvass last in the fridge?

I would have expected the answer to be "weeks", given that it's fermented and would likely just slowly get stronger, but a bottle of Belorussian kvass 1 I recently acquired says it has to be kept below 6°C and "не более суток" (not longer than a day).

In this case, I recommend you follow the manufacturer’s label text.

Traditional kvass is fermented (often in a home setting), and will contain live microorganisms, that keep unwanted ones at bay, similar to a well-established sourdough culture.

But of course there are a few caveats:

Some manufacturers don’t use the traditional fermentation method and sell a flavored, carbohydrated drink under the same name. This won’t have the “preserving” lactobacillae and yeasts. Consider this a kvass-flavored lemonade.
Traditionally fermented kvass that still contains active starter culture will continue to ferment - which is not a good idea if you want to ship a product. Like for beer, the manufacturers will ensure that the activity is stopped, which again means that the preserving effect of the culture is lost. (You will get some of the yeast though, unless it’s filtered.)
Even if someone shipped the still-active brew, there is no way to ensure that they are still alive by the time the consumer opens the bottle.

In short, while your home-fermented drink will keep for a while, the safe approach is to stick to the instructions.


What's a good cornstarch/flour to broth ratio for a chicken-broth gravy? I have found that chicken broth or stock does not thicken as easily as beef broth or stock will. I often find myself adding too much flour or cornstarch, hoping the chicken broth will thicken, but in the end all I have is starchy tasting almost-gravy.

I guess what I'm asking is what's a good stopping point, how not to add too much cornstarch? ...and is there a way to get rid of the starchy taste if I go past that point?

For gravy, i think it's better to start with the roux and add the hot liquid to it until you get the consistency that you want, instead of the other way around.

To make the roux, after you make a roast, leave a couple of tablespoons of fat in the pan (or just melt some butter) and add an equal amount of flour and cook for a couple of minutes to get rid of the starchy taste.  Then add the hot liquid a ladle-full at a time until it's the right thickness.


Heating meatballs in pasta sauce I made meatballs yesterday in the oven and I'm going to add them to pasta sauce tonight to heat them up and add them to spaghetti. My question is how long should I boil the meatballs for in the sauce before adding it to the pasta and serving.

The recipe I was looking at didn't use the oven so they cooked the meatballs in the sauce for 20 minutes without stirring and then another 20 minutes while stirring. So I would assume I just have to boil the meatballs long enough to heat the sauce and the meatballs. However contrary to this while looking up how long I should cook the meatballs for I came across one recipe that cooked the meatballs in the oven and then cooked them in the pasta for one hour even though the meatballs were already cooked.

So my question is how long should I cook the meatballs in the sauce? What are the benefits to cooking them for a longer or shorter time? Can you cook them for too long and if so what is too long?

20 or so minutes cooking the meatballs in the sauce has always done the job for me. You want to cook them sufficiently long so that they absorb the moisture and flavour of the sauce, but not too long such that they lose their firm texture. The reverse process of the meat flavouring the sauce is also an important one.

As a side note, it is more advisable to simmer the sauce, rather than boil it, or it will likely become too thick and may even burn.

In general, the combination of initially cooking the meatballs in the oven, and then simmering in the pan is the right way to do things. This ensures that the meatballs are sufficiently cooked, do not fall apart, and have the right firmness. Worth noting is that you should pad off the grease on the meatballs before putting them in the sauce.


Why is tin loaf bread not usually scored like other forms of bread? Here is what I already understand, Bread needs to be scored so that there a clear path out for the pockets of gas that will expand when heated up, if there is no scoring the gases will burst from a seemingly random place which could miss up the way it looks, why doesn't that happen with recipes like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luqevMbco8Y

or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrUdtzXquWk

I think I can see where the gases burst on the side but why don't they score it

If you look at your videos again, you will notice that the loaves did rise a lot during the second rise in the tin. They were fully proofed and therefore the oven spring (the expansion in the oven) is minimal. Plus, they are both baking at relatively low temperatures.

Bread can be baked at different stages of proofing, you may have heard of the poke test - essentially indenting your loaf and see how it springs back - to determine when a loaf is fully proofed. Catching a full proof is a tricky thing because on the other side of “full” lies “over-proved”, which for free-form loaves means essentially a collapsed bread instead of oven spring. So for many free form loaves, bakers will bake at a “well-risen, but not yet fully proofed” stage and slash to allow for the greater expansion of these loaves. Slashing a fully or even slightly overproofed loaf is a bad idea, it will likely collapse the bread. Steaming also helps to keep the crust pliable for a bit longer.

A bread in a tin can also be scored, but you can go for a full proof with less risk: If you overproofed slightly, the tin will still hold the bread together where a free-form loaf flows outward. If you look at your videos, you will notice that the bread rises a lot before going into the oven and only a bit during baking.

The type of bread is also a factor. Your videos show a classic white sandwich loaf. This kind of bread has a rather fine crumb structure with lots of small holes, achieved by kneading after the second rise. This type expands very evenly, which means less uncontrolled bursting. And finally, both bakers use rather low temperatures (180-200 C is low in bread baking terms), which means the top crust won’t set as quickly as at hotter temperatures and the oven spring is also a bit slower and more regular.


What rice should I use when a recipe asks for "short grain rice"? If a recipe says "short grain rice", which would be the correct rice to use?

Basically:

"Long grain" is just a generic classification for rice whose milled grains are at least three times as long as they are wide. (Don't worry; you don't have to be good at math to love rice.) Common varieties are usually simply labeled "long grain," but you might know them as basmati, Carolina, jasmine or Texmati.
With "medium grain" rice, the grains are less than three times as long as they are wide. Look for bomba, carnaroli, arborio, vialone, Valencia or Thai sticky rice, to name a few.
This is the last one that involves math, we promise. "Short grain" rice indicates grains that are less than twice as long as they are wide. To confuse things a bit, though, medium grain and short grain rice are often combined into this one category, which includes sushi and CalRose rice.

Source: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/guides/rice.php
Short grain rice isn't a specific rice. It is a group of rice that shared similar short grained characteristics. Generally speaking, short grain rice is short and stubby. When cooked, it will be chewier and stickier than its longer grained counterparts. You can tell they are short grain by what they look like.
Use this picture as a reference for what they should look like. And many rice packages even write the words "long grain" and "short grain" on the front.


How many people would a bushel of average sized blue crabs feed? I am getting a bushel of crabs tomorrow morning for football and dont know how many people to invite over. How many people do you think would all be able to have a good amount to eat out of a bushel of crabs?

also , the crabs are mixed... not a specific size.

There's no fixed number, as you have too many other variables:

How big are the people eating?  (athletes are going to eat more than kids or people on diets)
What are they being served with?  (If it's just a table filled w/ crabs, they're going to eat more than if you have other side dishes available)
How experienced are the people with eating crabs?  (Some folks are so slow at picking crabs they'll give up in annoyance.  Others are so skilled they'll wolf them down quickly.  In high school, some folks I know from the Eastern Shore would pick the backfin out then trash the rest, ignoring the flake and the claws)
How are they being served?  (very spicy will slow most people down.  And you have to remind the crab newbies to wash their hands before using the bathroom)
What temperature is it?  (on really hot days, people eat less)
How long is it going to be?  (if you're hanging out all day, people might get a second wind and go for more crabs)

I'm going to guess that if they're 'mixed', they're probably mediums, so maybe 7 or 8 dozen per bushell.  3 or 4 crabs per person is about typical, adjusting mostly based on the the factors above.  (large, physically active folks or experienced pickers might eat 6 or more ... inexperienced folks often give up by the second one ... but you'll want more if you're doing it as an all-day thing, or if it's almost all crabs and hardly any sides)

I guess just make sure you have plenty of drinks and some sides for those that give up on the crabs or if you run out.

...

And don't just go and pitch the shells afterwards ... you can generally get quite a bit more meat going them a second look through (the folks who skipped claws if nothing else), and picking whatever's left over.  Freeze that meat, then rinse the legs (most people don't crack and suck them) to get most of the seasoning off, crack them, and simmer them to make a crab stock for bisque.  If you have a really large pot, go for the rest of the shells, too ... strain, boil it down to concentrate it, then freeze.

You'd be tempted to add extra stuff to the stock besides the shells, but as we don't know how much seasoning's still on the crabs, you really need to wait 'til it's done, then add other stuff when using it to make the final dish.


Buttermilk + Butter =? Watching an episode of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" (episode: House of the Rising Bun) and AB is demonstrating a recipe for cinnamon rolls. In the "wet" mix he includes both buttermilk and butter.

Now, since buttermilk is milk after the butter has been churned out, why would a recipe call for both?

Obviously, proportion would be an issue, but whole milk + (less) butter should equal buttermilk + (full amount) butter, shouldn't it?

Hah, I get to cite my new copy of McGee's "On Food and Cooking" for the first time! There are several things going on here (all of which can be found in the 2004 edition of McGee, most on page 50).

Firstly, as Nathan indicates in his answer, most of the liquid that is sold as buttermilk these days is in fact not "real" buttermilk, but so-called "cultured buttermilk", made from ordinary skim milk and fermented until acid and thick.

Secondly, even traditional buttermilk was somewhat sour, though less than cultured buttermilk. To find out why, let's examine the processes that were involved in making it. If you want to make butter, you start by separating milk into cream and whey. Since the 19th century, we typically do that with a centrifuge and it goes quite quickly, but before then, we would leave it to gravity. That would take a while, and the milk would start to ferment while it happened - especially in warmer environments. This fermenting is essentially lactic acid bacteria converting lactose into lactic acid, which sours the milk a little.

So in either case, you would have more lactic acid in butter + buttermilk than in butter + whole milk.


What is the proper term for real oil vs. flavoured oil? Is there a better term for flavoured oil?

For example, a "chili oil" is clearly not same as "grape seed oil" or "snake oil".

Chilli oil has at least touched chillies (or chilli extract). Pizza oil on the other hand is neither made from pressed pizzas nor flavoured with pizza extract.

English isn't logical. French isn't either, but at least it would use Huile de pépins de raisin, huile (aromatisée) au piment fort (or more commonly huile pimentée or huile piquant) and huile pour pizza, i.e. oil of, (flavoured) with, or  for something.


Corned Beef Brisket left out I purchased a Corned Beef Brisket from the store and forgot to put it in the refrigerator. It was sealed. The package was cool in the morning. Is it safe to still use?

...Ditch It! Why Risk getting Sick and having the "Trots" complete with Chills!


Homemade yogurt & flavours - Keeping it thick I am getting a really thick yogurt with fresh whole milk + cultures.
What I do is:

get the milk (3,8% fat) boiling (95°C)
keep heating the milk, lowering the temperature to 85/90°C for ten minutes
Cool the milk down to 40°C
Add cultures and mix properly
Store the milk for 9Hrs in a recycled Easiyo thermos with hot water wrapped in a pile

Simply perfect

One day I have tried to add jam and sugar during step 2, however the yogurt didn't get thick at at all, although it had a perfect taste.
Conclusion: adding flavors may conflict with bacteria development.

So the question is, from your experience, what flavors and how much sugar can be added to yogurt allowing a proper thick yogurt? I have personally added vanilla powder at step 2

Share your experience!

Creating the right environment for bacterial fermentation

Yogurt is made using a few different bacteria which excel at digesting the lactose in milk at warm temperatures. Each of those factors (culture, temperature, composition of milk,) is important in creating an ideal environment for bacterial fermentation.

You would not try fermenting yogurt using yeast or a bacterial culture different from yogurt starter, and you wouldn't expect the yogurt to ferment if you held it your refrigerator instead of a warm thermos. The composition of the milk is equally important. If you change a major component of the milk, such as by adding sugar, some fermentation may happen but the result will not be what you expect.

"Live active culture" vs. actively culturing

There is a difference between bacteria that is "alive" or "active" and bacteria that is currently doing something.

Imagine dry baking yeast in a canister. The yeast is alive, but inert. It's not in an environment where it can do anything. Add moisture and carbohydrates for it to act on, and it goes nuts. Put that dough in the refrigerator, and it slows way down. Until you cook the yeast it doesn't "die" or "deactivate" it just has various states of activity depending on its environment.

The yogurt culture is alive when you add it to the milk, alive when you're done incubating it, alive when you add sugar, and alive when you eat it, But it can't turn milk into yogurt unless you give it a very precise environment -- the right culture, the right temperature, the right environment in the milk, including the right amount of sugar.


How to Avoid Soggy Chopped Nuts in Baked Goods I avoid putting chopped nuts inside quick breads because they tend to result in a soggy texture, not crisp as nuts should be. (I think it's less of a problem in cookies.) I'd like to hear how others deal with this. Is coating them first with something an option?

Related question: if I toast nuts in the oven, am I better off toasting them whole and then chopping, or chopping first and then toasting?

Relating to your second question: toast, then chop. When you chop first, it is too easy for the smaller pieces to burn.


What is the difference between "vanilla" and "Mexican vanilla" Some ice cream around here is marketed as the flavor "Mexican vanilla".

It seems sweeter and has obvious vanilla seeds (or something that looks similar). Is there a type of vanilla pod that is uniquely Mexican? Or does the flavor mean "vanilla in a Mexican style" and refer to some technique?

There are several distinct species of the vanilla orchid used for food flavouring, the most common being vanilla planifolia, vanilla tahitiensis and vanilla pompona (in that order).

Vanilla planifolia is usually marketed as "Bourbon vanilla", most of which is grown in Indonesia and Madagascar. The same species is also grown in Mexico, but they have decided to call it "Mexican vanilla", which is purely a marketing designation. At least the Mexicans claim their vanilla to be of superior quality, but the vanilla extracts sold in Mexico are often stretched with tonka bean extract, which has a similar taste and aroma to vanilla, but contains coumarin, which is banned as a food additive by the US Food & Drug Administration. Other countries have less strict regulations, often only regulating a maximum coumarin content.


What to do with tofu? Last night I made a delicious vegetarian stromboli and was left with a lot of excess crumbled extra-firm tofu. It was the first time  I have ever cooked with tofu, and as such I have no idea with what to do with the (uncooked) leftovers. What techniques/flavors can I utilize to make it delicious?

I usually don't buy crumbled tofu, but since you have that, I would suggest making tofu burgers. Add another hearty ingredient, like lightly roasted finely chopped walnuts, or baked eggplant cubes. Combine with chopped onions, garlic, grated carrots, and breadcrumbs.  Bind with beaten egg. Season with your choice of herbs or spices, such as thyme, oregano, basil.   Form into patties, fry lightly in olive oil and sprinkle with tamari (or soy sauce) until both sides are browned.  Bake until fully cooked in the oven at 375 degrees. Serve on a bun just like a beef patty.


Is there a difference between green and spring onions? I've seen some recipes call for green onions but always use spring onions? Is there a difference between them? Is there a better substitute?

It's a regional preference on what they're called.

When you're buying seeds, they're also called "bunching onions", and I grew up calling them "scallions", although I think that scallion specifically don't have a bulb yet formed, while green/spring onions might.

update : A little research suggests that "spring onion" is the preferred term in the UK, AU and Canada, "green onion" in the US south, and "scallion" in the US northeast, however I'm not sure what the exact boundries are as in the US mid-atlantic, I'll see both "green onions" and "scallions" for sale, with "green onions" being larger (scallions with no bulb, maybe 12"/30cm long, while green onions might have a 2"/5cm bulb, and have over 24"/60cm of green top).  It's possible that "green onion" might be a polysemous term that varies by region.


Can the amount of salt in the recipe be right? I made sushi for the first time at the weekend.  the seasoning for the rice had this recipe:

125 ml rice vinegar
30 ml mirin
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons salt

This was for 460g rice (dry weight).

This seemed like a lot of salt to me.  Today I made some more rice, but only single quantity and I realised that last time I forgot to double the quantities of sugar and salt when making double the amount.  It was quite salty last time, but I should have put 4 tablespoons of salt in.

That can't be right can it?  What was it more likely to be?  2 Teaspoons?

It's been a while since I made sushi but 2 tablespoons does sound a little on the ridiculous side.

Various other recipes use similar amounts (to each other):

AllRecipes: 1 tsp salt (for 1/2 cup vinegar and 4 tbsp sugar)
Alton Brown: 1 tbsp kosher salt (for 2 tbsp vinegar and 2 tbsp sugar)
SushiRecipes: 1 tsp salt (for 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup sugar)
Epicurious: 1/2 tsp salt (for 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar)

In fact, although sushi rice recipes tend to vary significantly with respect to the proportions of rice, vinegar, and sugar, they are all remarkably consistent on the amount of salt.  The Alton Brown recipe calls for a tablespoon, but 1 tbsp of kosher salt is in fact equivalent to 1-2 tsp of table or sea salt.  Even on the Epicurious recipe, the 1/2 tsp is only for 1 cup of rice - you'd double it to the same 1 tsp for the standard 2 cups.

I assume that the recipe you're looking at must have meant 2 tsp and not tbsp, but I think even that is too much; I would stick to the 1 tsp used in almost every sushi rice recipe I've ever seen.


What makes a hot dog a hot dog? I like hot dogs, but I'm always conscious that they are a means by which unspeakable bits of meat can be made appetising, even when they get a fancy name like bockwurst to cover the fact.

So I bought a packet of Tesco brand vegetarian hot dogs and was surprised to find they look and taste like the ones with meat in them. Then I bought a pack of Tevion vegetarian hot dogs - they taste "right" too and they're kosher! The texture is similar to the real thing with both products as well.

So what makes a hot dog a hot dog? As far as I can see, you don't need meat!

EDIT: The responses so far are focusing the question.
The hot dog is a bland sausage, designed to use up "meat" that would otherwise be regarded as unsaleable. The meat contributes little or nothing to the taste and texture, it is ground so fine - but the sausage has definite taste and texture.

So there are two questions;

1) what IS the flavour of a hot dog? It is not unique, because companies across the world make them, but I can't give it any labels;

2) what agents do they use to make this finely ground mass of disparate ingredients cohere into a skinless sausage shape that stands up to being cooked without falling apart?

Hot dogs are a an example indigenous to North America of a class of sausages called emulsified sausages.   The meat and fat are ground so finely that they emulsify together into a smooth paste.  Other sausages of this type include German Frankfurter Würstchen (of which the hot dog is a descendant) and Italian Mortadella (which is also the pre-cursor of the American Bologna sausage).

Hot dogs are cured, and typically hot smoked and sold fully cooked.

They can be made from a variety of meats, but beef and pork (or a mixture thereof) are the most common.

Hot dogs require a careful balance of lean (for the protein myosin, which provides the binding and structure to the sausage), fat, and water (usually added in the form of ice during the manufacture ring process, to help keep the nascent emulsion from breaking by keeping the mixture cool.)

There is no binding agent as such in hot dogs:  the myosin in the meet forms a matrix that provides the structure and chew of the sausage.  A hot dog without enough meat (or some other protein source) would not hold together.  This is much akin to the way a pâté is made--in some sense, a hot dog is a pâté stuffed into a casing, and hot smoked.

While it is possible to add fillers (and emulsify in additional water), it is not necessary and high quality manufacturers do so in moderation or not at all.

The major flavor elements in a New York style hot dog (where they originated) are typically the cured meat itself, salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika, as well as the smoky flavor.  Around the world, emulsified sausages are flavored with a wide variety of spices, especially warm spices, but these would not be typical in a hot dog.

You can find a recipe and slideshow with detailed pictures of the hot dog making process at Serious Eats.  It shows all of the key steps:  selection of ingredients with a careful balance of lean and fat, initial grinding, emulsification, stuffing, and smoking.


Can I use edamame pods to make a vegetable broth? I’m currently saving various vegetable scraps to make veggie broth. I have a bunch of leftover edamame pods that I would normally just compost, but I’m wondering if they would work well in my broth. Would that taste okay?

I wouldn't expect them to have much effect on your broth either way.  The pod shells are fairly fibrous and don't have much flavor of their own.


Can I use parchment paper for all cookies I would like to know if I can use parchment paper for any kind of cookie?

The short answer is yes.
Parchment cannot be used as muffin/cupcake paper, (this actually goes without saying).

Parchment paper can be used for virtually anything, unless it is extremely oily and/or in a near liquid state.

Good luck.


Learning how to cook again, burned cooking oil making pancakes but not sure what it produces? I've tried to research my problem but for whatever reason either I'm not using the correct terms or getting results that don't match what I think I'm experiencing.

I moved into my apartment half a year ago and finally got around to learning how to cook again.  I've cooked maybe 20 years ago as part of the Boy Scouts but there are things, namely pancakes, that I do remember how to do.  The problem is that I have always cooked with natural gas stoves and not electric I don't know the term but it uses those coils and heats things up quickly.

I put the setting at little below medium, heated up the pan and put in my unrefined coconut oil.  I wasn't aware how hot the pan was and it began to smoke to which I put it under the already running at high speed hood that I have.  I lowered the temp but quickly cooked my pancakes and turned it off.

The problem I'm asking is that I ran my projector in the other room and it got hazy.  The image was perfect but the amount of particles in the air was enough to show the beams of light in midair.  Same with a traditional flashlight but only for a distance of about three inches.  You can't see it otherwise with the naked eye (weather was cloudy).  I thought it was smoke but neither of my ionizing fire alarms went off.  I know it went to all corners of my apartment but it has no odor and after a few hours I checked but I can't tell it ever existed.  It has no residue and no smell so everything seems to be fine.

I'm just really confused as to what it is.  I decided to pop open my front door to let it air out and the living room cleared out in about fifteen or so minutes and I think because of how my apartment is circulated it took a little bit longer for the bedroom and bathroom to clear out.  I'm also afraid of it damaging some keepsakes I have so not sure the best way to clean it, if it needs it.

I've cooked with it recently on low and not had the problem reoccur.

From an NIH paper about cooking fumes:

  "Frying at high temperatures also produces aerosols of fat with small aerodynamic diameters of 20–500 nm which disperse in the air of the kitchen and nearby facilities."

People like me who wear glasses while cooking know all about this. Even being in the same room as someone sauteeing something undoubtedly means needing to clean the fine grease spots off of your glasses. If the air temperature outside allows it, you should run your hood/fan not only while you're cooking, but for a little while after to remove as much grease from the air as possible. Even hoods that don't vent to the outdoors have crinkly 'filters' designed to trap airborne grease droplets so they don't travel too far. Even with decent ventilation, the grease droplets will eventually accumulate on just about anything that shares airspace with your stove, including your projector lens.

As an aside, like butter, unrefined coconut oil has a very low smoke point. You should only use it at reduced temperatures, and use more refined oils for higher-temperature cooking. Though it takes a little experience to judge it precisely, putting a few droplets of water on a pan and seeing how they behave is a pretty good way to test it before you add oil. If it evaporates nearly instantly or exhibits the leidenfrost effect, it's too hot for low-smoke-point oils.


General Principles of making risotto I made risotto for the first time last sunday - thanks to the advice I got from the posts here and here. I came to know about risotto from this site (probably not the correct way to learn about the recipe, as the questions in this site deal with particular aspect of the recipe of a food item thus expecting you to know the recipe ahead).

It was good (well, I have never eaten risotto before, so can't really compare) to my taste. There were so many recipies for risotto. Some call for wine, some do not have wine. Some call for juice, others for vinegar, some say no need to add anything beyond stock, etc...

I basically made vegetable stock, then fried rice in olive oil and added this stock to it slowly, ladle by ladle, over 30 minutes. At the end I added a mixture of fried vegetables to this cooked rice. The recipe tasted good. However I don't know what I am missing.

So my question what are the general principles when making a risotto? For what purpose is each ingredient (not the individual ones but generalised like stock, wine, juice etc...) added and when is it added?

The only thing I am sure about is that I can fry any variety of vegetables and add them to the rice at the end.

The important part of making risotto is that you're moving it around in a little bit of liquid, so you end up scraping of the outside of the rice, causing the loose starch to thicken the remaining liquid to a creamy consistency.  The overall dish should be creamy but not mushy, with the individual grains of rice still having some firmness to them.

As for your specific questions :

For details on preparation, see https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/137/67 .

Most ingredients are simply for flavor.  The acids (wine or vinegar) change how starch cooks and can keep it from getting too mushy, and add some brightness to the dish, but aren't absolutely necessary.


What is the correct internal temperature for rabbit meat? I have never cooked rabbit before, and my charts don't include rabbit. Are there food safety considerations speaking for thorough heating, as with chicken, or is it acceptable to cook it medium rare? Also, what temperature corresponds with the different grades of doneness? I intend to roast half a small rabbit in the oven; the meat doesn't look suited for collagen-based cooking, the animal is probably too young.

In the food safety section of Modernist Cuisine (1-138) it says that all wild rabbit must be cooked through:

  Wild rabbit must be cooked well done to kill any tularemia bacteria; for rare or medium cooked rabbit dishes, chefs can substitute farm-raised rabbits that have been kept segregated from their wild relatives by trustworthy breeders.

The section on meat (3-96) recommends bringing rabbit loin to an internal temperature of 59C (138F) and going by the section I've just quoted this is obviously only for farmed meat. The recommendation for the legs is to cook sous vide for 1 hour @ 66C (151F) which again obviously refers to farmed because that's definitely not long enough to tenderise wild rabbit meat.

I would really recommend cooking the leg meat and loin separately as I find that the loin dries out long before the legs are cooked through. The legs are much nicer braised too.


What causes odd off-flavor/smell in tofu? I have found this only very occasionally in Tofu. (Maybe about 3 or 4 times, ever: that would be something betw. 5-10%?, I imagine)  I don't think the Tofu is spoiled since the date is fine, and it doesn't smell stinky like rotting beans (as I have experienced with tofu once or twice when I kept it a little too long or tried to save an already opened package in fridge).

Right away upon opening the plastic package, you can smell the funny (kind of "chemical"-ey, like Clorox, a little bit) smell. After cooking, the tofu tasted stronger than usual: saltier and a little bit tart. My daughter spit it out because it was so different, but I ate it anyway (it wasn't exactly disgusting - just odd).  Husband didn't comment except to ask why daughter spit out her food.  I think he didn't notice this tofu "problem".

This is Trader Joe's "organic sprouted extra-firm", the kind I always buy. I am asking mostly out of curiosity, since I think I will try buying a different brand in the future.  But does anyone out there know what I am talking about & have an idea what causes this ?....  Oh, another clue I forgot to mention: nobody got sick.

Going bad.

It's not necessarily unsafe to eat yet, but tofu can pick up a slightly spoiled flavor even before it goes bad.

Especially since tofu has so little flavor of its own, it's easy to taste if it goes slightly off.

You can mitigate this by storing it in clear water and changing the water frequently.


Precise temperature reading on induction cooker I have an electronic thermometer that I've used on an induction cooker and it is getting crazy. The thermometer starts buzzing and the temperature displayed is highly volatile. It's just unusable.

What would be a good solution for precise reading on an induction stovetop. An analog thermometer is a nice workaround, but it is not a real solution as the precision is generally too low. I'd like a precision of 1 to 3°C (0.5 to 1.5°F). Maybe there are digital thermometers that can handle the magnetic field ? So please, be specific about the maker if yours is working on induction.

I use a Sunartis E514 digital household thermometer on an induction stove, and I get normal readings.

I can't say it is the best thermometer out there, as it is a bit slow. The specification is 4 to 10 seconds measuring time. From experience, it doesn't need 4 seconds to change the display when immersed in hot liquid, but while it gives you the temperature with 0.1°C precision, I guess this temp is slightly lagging. That can ruin a batch of candy or dark chocolate, but these are still doable if you are mentally accounting for the lag. It is great for everything else. The low price is another advantage.

I can't promise 100% that it will work with any induction stove. Mine is a small portable one, and maybe its magnetic field is weaker than that of a full-sized stove. For temperature-sensitive applications, I usually cook on 500 Watt, but I've had the thermometer inside (also very close to the bottom of the pot) at higher settings, so I hope it will work. Nevertheless, it is probably a good idea to get it from a place with good return policy.


Portable ways to daily grind & powder/ paste 8-9 overnight soaked & peeled Almonds while traveling? Portable ways to daily grind & powder/ paste 8-9 overnight soaked & peeled Almonds while traveling?

Portable/ Light while Traveling:

May lack access to large food processor/ mixer/ grinder & will consider ideas/ methods using:

Manual/ Hand drive device/ or crucible/ vessel/ tool?
Automated & mechanized Small/ portable dual voltage 110/240 V device(s)

Lacking food processing expertise:

I'm a young male who lacks the knowledge/ wisdom from my mother's decades of kitchen expertise & experience; and tool set / utilities

I will ask her as well, but hope wider pool can give some diverse answers

Purpose:

This is for a herbal/ traditional medicinal home made recipe
Needs to be done freshly every morning after overnight soaking

So easy, fast, time efficient will be crucial

Overnight Soaked & Peeled Almonds consistency differs from dry almond/ or almond powder

It may or may not become a butter

PS: First question on Cooking SE, so please be kind :) and don't negative me.

Read this already: How do I grind almonds for making marzipan?

Use a small mortar and pestle, so you're not dependent on electric outlets, batteries or such. With this small amount, the required manual effort is very low, and you can use a very small mortar and pestle, so you can pack light. Also, you can soak the almonds in the mortar itself. And it is also possible to add other ingredients directly to the mortar after the pressing is done.

You will end up with a paste rather than ground almond flour, but I don't think you can get almond flour with soaked almonds in a food processor or a mill either.


What's the technique for frying plantain? After enjoying a recent BBC Food Programme podcast about bananas I bought some green plantain. I fried them, for breakfast, and ate them with an egg. They were hard and dry and not very nice.

My method: I sliced them 8mm thick along the diagonal and fried them in a little oil until golden, being careful to avoid burning them. I seasoned, patted them dry with kitchen paper, and squeezed over a little lemon.

Is there a problem with the method? Perhaps the plantains were poor quality? I live in Bath, UK, not a very multi-cultural area.

In the Caribbean green plantains are treated much like potatoes.  One technique that is common is twice-frying, usually with a soak in water either before the first fry, in between, or both.  Soaking plantains allows them to absorb a little water to help steam the inside as it fries, much like one would do for American-style french fries (UK: chips).  One example of this technique is Tostones.  The Puerto Rican classic cookbook "Cocina Criolla" by Carmen Valldejuli calls for soaking the plantain pieces in room temperature water with salt and crushed garlic for 15 minutes as well as dipping them in water immediately before the second fry.  Like many potatoes, green plantains will often turn brown if left out in the air for too long after being peeled, soaking in water also helps prevent this from occurring as well as reducing the amount of free starch on the outside which can cause over-browning.

Elsewhere, both in the Americas and Africa, green plantains are cut very thinly and fried into plantain chips (UK: crisps).  These are usually 1-2mm thick and also benefit from presoaking.

If you decide not to fry them you could also boil them in salted water like a potato or boil them in vinegar with onions, garlic, and spices to make an escabeche. You could also partially cook them in salted water or stock then bake them in the oven.


Why does barbecue sauce break down and become watery in baking I have a great brown sugar, onion, spices and catsup-based barbecue sauce for pork spare ribs, but when I bake the ribs in the oven, the sauce turns watery and thin. What do I need to remove or add to keep it thick? Thanks.

When you bake meat, certain proteins in it change and contract, squeezing out liquid. That liquid will mix with any miscible liquid around it, of course. The result will be colored like your BBQ sauce, but will be diluted.

If you'd like to have a thick glaze of BBQ sauce on the finished meat, the solution is to apply it late in the cooking process, once much of the liquid has already come out of the meat. Once you've added the glaze, make sure not to cover the meat: you want additional water vapor to float away, not to re-condense and rain on your ribs.

Now, if you'd like to improve the flavor and texture further and don't mind spending more time to do it, you can do a hybrid of those two methods. Cook the meat with the BBQ sauce, tightly covered, until almost done. Drain off and reserve the liquid. and skim off as much fat as you can. Boil the liquid down in a saucepan until it's quite thick, then re-spread it on the ribs. That process takes longer, particularly if you're being really careful about the fat, but the gelatin and flavor in the resultant glaze will be worth it.


Why wait for some hours before filling any food into a new freezer? User manuals of some freezers indicate that for the first few hours after switching on the new freezer, one should not put any food into it. For instance, I am looking at a specimen that requires me to wait for 6 hours before starting to fill it.

Note that this is unrelated to letting the freezer stand upright for a while before switching it on.

This rule is alluded to on various non-product-specific websites, as well. Two examples:

"When you've set it to what you want, give it a few hours before you start filling it up with food – some fridges have a light that'll let you know when it's ready."
"It is only in the case of new freezers that you must wait a number of hours before storing frozen foods (You should consult your manufacturer’s handbook for more information)."

What is this restriction based upon?

If I put some frozen food (bought in a frozen state) into a new freezer right after switching it on for the first time, what could happen?

Is it bad for the food?
Is it bad for the freezer?
Is it bad for either of these no matter what, or only in specific circumstances?
Or is it one of those restrictions that are reiterated by many who do not actually remember what the rule was for and under what circumstances it was applicable?

UPDATE: Here are some clarifications, as the scope of this question appears to be unclear.

First, I am not asking for

what the restriction says
what might be a valid guideline if I ignore the restriction
how I might preserve frozen food during the initial period

I am truly looking for the technical rationale behind the restriction as stated.

Most of the "cold" in a freezer isn't stored in the air.  It's stored in the contents of the freezer, and in the walls (air has a very low volumetric specific heat).  However, the thermostat controlling the compressor works off the air temperature.

If you start filling a freezer before it's had a chance to properly cool the walls down, the food is exposed to an effective temperature that is far higher than the freezer's setpoint: heat gets transferred from the walls to the food, warming it up to unsafe levels.  Only once the walls reach thermal equilibrium with the air is it safe to start filling the freezer.


Dealing with frozen ground beef Last night, I had a small disagreement with my mother. She asked me to cook beef tacos for dinner. However, upon getting to the kitchen, I saw that the ground beef I was going to use was not fully thawed, there was still a good chunk of beef that was frozen together. Naturally, I didn't want to cook it as it would cook unevenly. She told me to start with the sauté but put it on low heat so the frozen chunk would get thawed and it would break apart. She also noted that cooking it in low heat prevents the unfrozen parts from getting overcooked.

Now my question is, is that actually a sound cooking method? Wouldn't cooking meat on a low heat be bad for the meat as they wouldn't get a good color on them which means they wouldn't get good flavor? On a normal day, I'd allow my ground beef to fully thaw, get on room temperature, season, then sauté.

There is a common misconception that you should absolutely never cook meat from frozen or near-frozen. This is incorrect. I would also not recommended putting any meat on a low heat to thaw it out - you are asking for tough meat at best and food poisoning at worst.
The aim when cooking meat is to bring the internal temperature up to a safe level for a sufficient amount of time that any pathogens are destroyed. When you're talking about a large roasting joint, then it is absolutely a good idea to fully thaw it (in the refrigerator), because it takes a relatively long time for the indirect heat of an oven to get to the centre of the meat.
However, with smaller cuts of meat you intend to cook with direct heat, cooking from frozen or near-frozen conditions is absolutely fine, provided you take extra care to ensure it is properly cooked. For example, there is no problem with slicing a chicken breast when it is still partially frozen (in fact it's easier to slice) and sauteeing it straight away. In fact, you can buy frozen, pre-sliced chicken that you fry straight from solid frozen.
With your ground beef, provided the centre was not so rock solid that you couldn't break it apart, you would have had no problem simply frying it as normal, though it may well have taken a little longer to get up to a sizzle. If it was rock solid, you could speed up the thaw by wrapping in plastic wrap and running it under cool water for a while.
Furthermore, there is virtually no benefit in bringing meat to room temperature. Even for small cuts like steak, the amount of time needed to bring it anywhere near room temperature will put it well in the zone where you should think about throwing it out, according to the USDA.
Serious Eats tested this:

I pulled a single 15-ounce New York strip steak out of the refrigerator, cut it in half, placed half back in the fridge, and the other half on a ceramic plate on the counter. The steak started at 38°F and the ambient air in my kitchen was at 70°F. I then took temperature readings of its core every ten minutes.
After the first 20 minutes—the time that many chefs and books will recommend you let a steak rest at room temperature—the center of the steak had risen to a whopping 39.8°F. Not even a full two degrees. So I let it go longer. 30 minutes. 50 minutes. 1 hour and 20 minutes. After 1 hour and 50 minutes, the steak was up to 49.6°F in the center. Still colder than the cold water comes out of my tap in the summer, and only about 13% closer to its target temperature of a medium-rare 130°F than the steak in the fridge.

and in terms of the effect on cooking:

So when searing a steak, the vast majority of energy that goes into it is used to evaporate moisture from its surface layers. Next to that energy requirement, a 20, 30, or even 40 degree difference in the temperature of the surface of the meat is a piddling affair.


How to best store cupcakes? When I put them in the fridge, they developed a kind of a moist surface by the next day. Should I just leave them outside in an air-tight jar? If yes, then for how long will they stay fresh?

Yes, you should store them in a air-tight jar, and the best is to store the jar in a cool place in the house. The fridge is to moist for storing cupcakes. You can store them in the jar for about 3-4 days, but they won't taste fresh any more. So I would suggest if you want to store them longer then 1 or maybe 2 days, freeze them right after they cooled down from baking. If you use a topping, you can top your cupcakes when they are thawed.


What advantages does a brasing pan have over a full Dutch/French oven? I own a Le Creuset French/Dutch oven, but I'm considering getting a Le Creuset braising pan also.

I understand the oven is great for large/tall braising and stocks, soups, chili and the like. I also understand that the braiser has a wide base and is good for smaller quantities.

What other advantages am I missing?

I have this shape (without lid) as a cast iron pan, not enameled. I mainly use it in the oven, not on stovetop.

It's a great pan for gyvetch, moussaka and generally Middle eastern oven dishes. You can brown the meat and sweat the onions in it on stovetop, then add the other ingredients and put it in the oven. All the juices stay in the pan - if you brown in a frying pan and then transfer to a ceramic pan for the oven, you lose some juices even with good deglazing, and it's logistically simpler to continue in the same pan. Also, the stovetop browning preheats the pan, saving time and energy.

When it is in the oven, it has the advantage  that the hot air moves freely over the surface of the food, so you get the benefits of convection. The Dutch oven's high walls prevent that. Also, as Joe said, you could theoretically fit two of them in the oven at once.

I also find it great for baking bread, its thermal mass gives it a function similar to a bread stone. When it is used open, it doesn't give you the pseudo-steaming advantage of baking in a closed Dutch oven, but on the other hand, it produces a nicer shape than a Dutch oven.

For stovetop, it can double as a paella pan. It can also be used as a substitute for other pans - especially if unenameled, because it's nice to have something which can withstand scorching temperatures but is larger than a steak pan. It can even double as a wok in a pinch. But these are side benefits. You can probably use a large Dutch oven for the same purposes anyway.

If you don't do much of Balkan or Middle Eastern cooking, it's not so important to have one of those. Especially as a cooking beginner you can find other equipment with higher ROI. If you are looking at those just because you noticed them in the shop, have the money, and want to enjoy your new hobby - I understand you, because I used to be in the same position. My advice: don't start with the gear. Start with a few simple, cheap items, and dive headfirst into cooking. When you find that your success with a recipe is hobbled by missing gear (as opposed to your skill, bad ingredients, etc.) and that you make this food style frequently enough, that's the time to invest in high quality items.


Can excess oil make french fries soggy? My co-workers and I are in a debate. We brought some french fries home from a fast-food restaurant in paper bags and they got soggy. My co-workers maintain that the combination of steam and soaking in their own oil made them soggy. I claim that it was only the steam, because excess oil does not cause food to become soggy.

Can sitting in oil make things soggy?
If I submerged a french fry in oil overnight would it get soggy. If so, would that be from the oil or the moisture in the fry?

Both. Is it soggy with moisture? Or is it soggy with oil?

In both cases, the problem isn't excess oil, after all, French Fries are usually deep fried. The problem is that the moisture isn't adequately driven out of the fry and/or that the fries sit in cold oil.

The crispiest French fries (read that non-soggy) are first soaked in cold water to remove excess starch, dried, deep fried in lower temperature oil to drive out all of the excess water, then deep fried in hotter oil to crisp the outside.

Then they are well drained while hot.

Unless the fries get quite crispy, they're going to get soggy with oil as the oil on the outside of the fries cool, even if there really isn't all that much oil clinging to the fry. Unless the moisture is well driven out (interior of the fry is fluffy), the fries will get soggy with moisture as they cool.

In the worst case scenario, you can have both greasy and wet cold fries.


vinegar in lollipops How much vinegar can I use in a lollipop recipe without upsetting the  "setting up" of the candy?  There is a remedy for hiccups that uses sugar and vinegar as an instant cure and I desperately need to try to get as much vinegar into the mix as I can.  Never made candy before!  Please help.

From what I could fine in a cursory search of recipes, the typical ratio for vinegar candy is 4:1, sugar to vinegar, usually done as 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup vinegar.

The highest ratio I found was 3 cups sugar to 1 1/2 cups vinegar (Dottie's Vinegar Candy Recipe).  That, however, was specifically for a soft candy--taffy.

I'm not sure whether the higher ratio means that that mixture could not reach hard ball stage if heated high enough or if it's merely the choice of the recipe writer to make a softer candy.


Saving a pavlova that didn't form a crust I have cooked my pavlova the same way I normally do, however it hasn't formed a nice crust like it usually does. I've heard that it may have something to do with the humidity? (It did rain here today and was a reasonably warm day.) Can I put it back in the oven and to save it or do I have to start all over again?

I have never tried it myself,  but a torch can be used to make a crust on the meringue in a baked Alaska. Testing it on a small part of it could give you a clue if it is worthwhile.


Beef broth vs. beef stock I have a few leftover bones from prime rib  but not really enough to make much stock . I have a little extra prime rib meat left over and wondering if I can make soup stock with it too. we don't really want to eat the prime rib after making the stock either. Thanks!

Yes, certainly, but it won't do as much good as you might expect. It takes a surprisingly large amount of meat to add significant beef flavor to beef stock.

If you want to go ahead, be sure to brown the extra meat, to get maximum umami flavor out of it. (You will want to brown the bones, too; I'd roast them in the oven.) Another way to add extra beef flavor is to throw in some ground beef, which has the nice benefit of giving up its flavor quickly.

But it might be better to throw it all in a gallon ziplock and stick it in the freezer. Keep accumulating bones, then make a potful of stock all at once. (You can keep them for months, or even longer. The biggest worry of freezing meat is freezer burn, which isn't a problem if you're just making stock.)


Is there anything I can use in pumpkin custard to replace salt? I am on a strict low salt diet. Have been looking for pumpkin custard recipes and all have salt. If it's for flavor only, which spice(s) could I add or increase to kick it up a bit?

You can certainly omit salt from a pumpkin custard recipe. It's there as a flavor enhancer, to provide contrast to the sweetness. The texture of the custard will be just fine without it. Desserts without salt can sometimes seem insipid, but the mixture of spices in pumpkin custard should prevent that issue. I wouldn't add any additional spices.
Sometimes I forget to add the salt to a pumpkin pie, and no one notices the omission. Pumpkin pie filling is basically the same as a pumpkin custard.
Some pumpkin custard recipes have a pecan topping, which would add some additional texture and flavor. The pecan topping is a mixture of pecans, brown sugar and melted butter, sprinkled on top of each custard before baking.
Or you could make candied pecans as an optional topping. As with the custard it will be fine to omit the salt. If you're serving guests and not all of them are on a low-salt diet, you could make two batches of candied pecans, one salted and one unsalted.

edit: as chasly mentioned, if you are on a low-sodium diet there are various salt substitutes that don't have sodium, such as potassium chloride. I can't specifically recommend them because I haven't tried them. Potassium chloride is often described as having a metallic taste. The benefit of having some saltiness might be outweighed by the metallic taste, but it might be worth experimenting. You could split a batch of unsalted custard and add salt substitute to one half.


Lemonade as a base for steak marinade I have marinaded steaks in the past with acidic juices, usually including orange juice.  The acidity seems to help with the tenderization of the meet and the slight sweetness in addition with salt and spices makes for a great flavor combination.

Is it possible to use lemonade as a base for a marinade? If possible what is an ideal recipe for a decent cut of beef?

I use a basic marinade of lemon juice (from the squeeze plastic lemon, not fresh), brown sugar, Dale's sauce and Worcestershire sauce, so it would be similar to a lemonade base (lemon juice and sugar)

The lemon juice tenderizes and cuts the salt of the last two ingredients. Brown sugar also cuts the salt and gives it "caramel like" coloring. The Dale's and Worcestershire sauces just have nice flavor profiles when combined on any red meat.

I do the same for chicken but substitute Teriyaki sauce for the Worcestershire.


Is horse meat safe to eat? It's been in the news lately about horse meat being disguised as beef.

Is this really that serious?

Is horse meat unsafe? Or is it just taboo because horses are "cute"?

It is perfectly safe to eat (when produced, transported, and so on under sanitary conditions, just like any other edible meat).

In some cultures it is considered a delicacy; in others, it is not considered appropriate to eat, but those issues of cultural norms, not of safety.

The news is because it is a violation of trust (truth in labeling) in a cultural background where horses are not normally eaten.  Personally, I might wonder what other shortcuts the purveyor had taken if they are lying about content...


Roasting pan substitute / roasting rack for pork shoulder? I'm making pork shoulder, slow-roasted in the oven, but I don't have a roasting pan. I have a baking sheet, a glass casserole dish, a large, high-sided cast-iron skillet, and an enameled cast-iron dutch oven. Does it make a difference which I substitute, and if so, why?

Second question: I've seen some recipes where a bed of celery is laid down to act as a rack. How does doing that or not affect the dish.

Update: I suppose this question is a partial answer to part one: Enameled Cast Iron vs Stainless Steel Roasting Pans

Any of those will work, but you want a rim to prevent any drippings from making a mess in your oven.  In general, the lower the sides, the better for overall air circulation around the roast, but it is not essential.  If you want to be able to deglaze the pan, avoid the ceramic or glass pan, as they cannot be used stove-top.

Using celery (and carrots) as a make shift roasting stand is very effective.  They will add their aroma to the pan juices, which is often a good thing.  (Note that by the time the roast is done, they are usually spent and not worth eating.)

IF you don't want the flavor from vegetables, any small rack which will fit will work.  If you don't have one, you can improvize one by crumpling up aluminum foil into a long snake shape, and coiling or zig-zagging it on the pan just large enough to fit the roast.

For a slow roasted pork shoulder, you could also go without any rack or elevation, at the cost to some small amount of crust development on the bottom.   Depending on your desires, this may or may not matter--when I do an indoor pork shoulder for pulling, I don't bother with a rack.


Why does my Wonder Pot now bake unevenly? I've been using a Wonder Pot for a year and a half, mainly making cake and the occasional bread.

Recently my cakes have started baking unevenly, with one half of the pot completing the baking before the other half. I usually end up turning the pot 180 degrees when it is a little more than half done, in order to evenly bake. This was not an issue when I was first using it.

Anyone experienced with Wonder Pots know why this might start happening, and what can be done to fix it?

I have recently changed stovetops, and it is possible I'm not getting the flame height right, or the positioning (although it is pretty centered).

It was already used when I got it, so perhaps the metal disc is worn out and no longer distributing the heat evenly. (Does that even happen)?

You can see pictures of the top and bottom of my disc here. I'm not sure if corrosion or rust is the right way to describe it, but you can see that there is some kind of something on the disc, and it appears a little uneven. It doesn't seem all that different from the picture on wikipedia, though.

Your flame may look even, but check the heat diffuser component of your wonderpot in your photo - you see the sootmark? That's a clear indication[PDF document from Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers] that the flame isn't burning cleanly... soot is made of carbon byproducts that should have been consumed by a clean burning flame, which consists of both fuel (cooking gas) and air. The burner's job is to combine both to make a clean flame. That much soot means it's not burning efficiently, which leads to uneven heat.

It can also lead to the production of carbon monoxide, which is not a good thing.

You will need to clean and calibrate the burner so it produces a clean, pure blue-white flame that burns clean on the bottom of your pots, or replace it if that doesn't help. This should only be done by someone knowledgeable in gas appliance repair.


What is the best standmixer 350 wattage or higher What is the best Stand mixer with 350 or more wattage?

Opinion-based questions aren't a good fit, but I can at least give an answer that's a good fit!  How about some things you can use to evaluate a stand mixer?

Check the fit between the attachments and the bowl.  Does the whisk reach all the way to the bottom?  If not, you'll have trouble whipping egg whites as liquid pools up underneath where the whisk can reach.  Does the paddle reach all the way out to the sides of the bowl?  If not, you'll have trouble creaming and need to stop to scrape the sides of the bowl more often.

As for power, forget about wattage.  That just measures power usage.  A combination of horsepower (the force the motor is capable of generating) and torque (which is rotational force specifically) tells you about how powerful the mixer is.  Some mixers have high horsepower, but generate comparatively low torque due to the design of the transfer gears.  You may have to go to the manufacturer's web site for these numbers.

Check the capacity.  If you want to make double batches of dough, you'll probably want something 4.5 quarts or larger.  Most high-end mixers have a 6 or 7 quart capacity.

Look for a model with a bowl lift versus a tilt head.  That makes it easier to use the mixer without worrying about where it sits with relationship to your upper cabinets.

Hope that helps!


Milk for Coffee - Shake and Hit Every time I get my cappuccino in the morning, the guy that makes it takes the cup of milk, shakes it, then hits on the table a few times, then does the same thing for a couple of times, only after that pours into the cup.

Why does he do that? Why shake, then hit a few times, then shake again?

I'm a bit of a coffee nut, having bought my own espresso machine & grinder and have been pulling my own shots and learning how to create different coffee drinks for some years now. I am by no means an expert, however:

What you're seeing when the barista is swirling/tapping the milk jug is called "polishing". It's the step after they've steamed it and does two things

1) The swirling "polishes" the milk/foam to give it a nice "shine" (best described as looking like paint).

2) The tapping removes any larger bubbles - your aim for steamed milk for coffee drinks is generally to get a "micro foam" which as it sounds, has micro bubbles.

Bit of extra info:

To control how much foam you get is right at the start, when you initially start the steaming - you have the steam wand just under the surface of the milk so it introduces as much air as you need. Similar idea to whipping cream really. After introducing the air, you submerge the steam wand and use the steam to "spin" the milk - this mixes the foam with the milk to increase it's volume (and also starts the "polishing" process).

To control where the foam goes, you adjust how quickly you pour. Just dumping it all in the cup will churn the milk and foam together. Pouring with a spout in a more controlled fashion will pour the milk in first, then the foam after (same idea as helium balloons rising, the foam is lighter than the milk)

Hope this helps :)


Make pate easier to spread When i get my Pâté out of the fridge, and try to spread it on bread, I notice it gets really chunky and hard to spread all over the slice.

I have tried other pates that are much softer and spread smoother around. The one I have even breaks the bread sometimes. Is there any trick to make it more "spreadable"?

The simple problem is that you need to warm up the fats sufficiently for it to spread.  The same holds true for many other fatty spreads, like chevé or neufchâtel.  You can get around this somewhat with two tricks:

Place the knife you're going to be using to cut the pâté in a cup of hot water for a minute or two before slicing.  Dry it off, then slice in.  You may wish to warm it again between slices and/or spreading.
Thinly slice the pâté.  You'll have an easier time spreading two or three thin slices than one thick one.

Your other option is to let it warm up out of the fridge.  I personally prefer not to leave the whole thing out, I just slice it, place it on the bread, then put the unused portion back in the fridge; I then let the sliced portion sit a little while before trying to spread it.  (this works okay in the summer ... not so well in the winter with the way I heat my house)


Do onion savers differ from other storage methods? Santa got me an onion saver this year. It's essentially just a plastic container for a cut onion. Does this differ in any meaningful way from a plastic bag or Tupperware container? It seems a little unnecessary...

It's the exact same as a Tupperware, and totally unnecessary... Unless you need the visual key of an onion shaped tupperware to remind you that onion is inside.


Difference between Organic Bread and Fresh Bread Please, what is the difference organic bread and fresh bread. People are getting me confused.

Fresh just implies that the bread was never frozen (or canned, irradiated, salted, pickled or otherwise preserved, but those almost never apply to bread).
Organic, at least in the US implies following a set of FDA guidelines regarding prohibited methods or techniques or ingredients in producing the product.
From the USDA's Labeling Organic Products Fact Sheet:

Organic products have strict production and labeling requirements. Unless noted below, organic products must meet the following requirements:

Produced without excluded methods (e.g., genetic engineering), ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge.
Produced per the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List).
Overseen by a USDA National Organic Program authorized certifying agent, following all USDA organic regulations.


What is the difference between a New York Strip and a Bone-In New York Cut Sirloin? The iconic Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse in DC was not able to answer my question at dinner and I truly wish to know the answer.

The short answer? The bone. And here's why.

As this page shows, (the Wikipedia entry for Strip Steak), there are several name variants for the very same cut of beef. You've simply hit upon two of them, let's say. A New York Strip is a sirloin, but is generally cut from the uppermost section where, that is, the meat is most tender (aka does less work). This is called the strip loin part of the sirloin. It's my personal favorite, bone in. But that variation is known as a Kansas City Strip. This is the distinction you have made with the idea of a "Bone-In New York Cut Sirloin"

That said, the New York Strip may be cut, prepared, and served with or without bone. The presence of bone adds just one more dimension of flavor that some diner's prefer and, of some note, serves to prove that the cut came from the strip loin. More definitively, here we find

  The strip steak is also known as striploin, shell steak, Delmonico,
  New York or Kansas City strip steak. Cut from the strip loin part of
  the sirloin, the strip steak consists of a muscle that does little
  work, and it is particularly tender. When still attached to the bone,
  and with a piece of the beef tenderloin also included, the strip steak
  becomes a T-bone steak or a Porterhouse steak. The Kansas City strip
  steak usually has a portion of the bone connected, whereas the New
  York strip steak is boneless.

Here too, we find yet other variants on the name as well as a graphic which shows where the cut is taken from

  This cut has many aliases, New York steak, Kansas City steak, boneless
  Club steak or Ambassador steak to name a few.

Given all these nuances and variants, it's no wonder not even the surest restauranteur had for you a ready answer to this question.

[EDIT]

Having since learned that this is a Smith & Wollensky menu item, as worded, there's really no excuse for their not having been able to make for you this distinction.


Cooking polenta until it 'comes away from the sides of the pan'? When you cook polenta, you are instructed to cook it until it 'comes away from the sides of the pan'. Why is this when starch cooks at around 100C? Is it to evaporate some of the water, or to make sure the individual 'grains' of polenta are soft and cooked?

If you try some when it's only just come to a boil, it's pretty obvious that it's both of the things you suggest. The cornmeal won't be cooked (it'll be gritty, still half dry, not soft) and there'll be too much liquid still.

You could of course use less liquid, but that wouldn't change the fact that polenta, like most other food, doesn't cook instantly. It needs some time to soften and absorb water all the way through.


Jam "separates" in processing I've been making jams and jellies for a while now.  While I don't have this problem as much with marmalade, for some reason my jam usually separates when being jarred and canned.  By separate, I mean the fruit all migrates to the top, leaving the bottom half just liquid (jelly-ish).  Is there a reason this happens or something I can do to prevent it in the future.  The taste is still good, but I was thinking it'd be nice if the fruit stayed consistent through-out the jam.  :)

Edited for recipe and directions.

Basic jam recipe:
5-6 cups chopped fruit
4 cups sugar
1 pkg low sugar pectin
1/2 tsp butter

I reserve sugar and pectin per instructions on package (1/4 or 1/2 cup sugar - I can't remember) and set aside.  Then I put the fruit, butter and remaining sugar in a pot to bring to a boil.  I add the sugar/pectin mixture and boil (I think) for a minute.  Then I put the jam into prepared jars and add a lid and a ring and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.  Then I put the jars on a table to cool and set up.

This recipe is on the low sugar pectin instruction sheet.  I just vary the types of fruit and sometimes the types of sugar (brown sugar, honey, etc. but always use 1/2 cane sugar).

I made apricot/jalapeno jam in August, and I had directions from an experienced jam maker.  She said, after it starts to jell, remove the pan from heat, let it set a minute, then thoroughly stir before putting the jam into your jars for processing. Then the fruit doesn't float to the top. It worked quite well. I used liquid pectin for that batch, too, don't know if that was a factor as well.


How to tell the proper amount of oil to use when sautéing vegetables and meat? A common meal That I make in a pinch is Italian sausage with peppers and onions. I'll cut up a few red and yellow peppers, a whole onion, and throw it in a pan with some olive oil. Once the vegetables cook down a bit, I throw in the sausages, making sure they contact the pan so they can brown.

My problem is that I can never tell how much oil to use. I always end up using too much. My vegetables are drenched in oil. I hate having to break out a measuring cup to do precise recipes, as I'm trying to get a natural feel for the right amount, and I also don't know how, and if, I should scale up or down the oil if I'm making a bigger batch.

Are they any good rules of thumb I can apply to get a natural understanding of using oil in this manner?

I would do it the other way round, I'd fry the sausages first, then add the veg.  This has a few benefits as I see it:-

The sausages will brown more evenly, purely aesthetic but some people will think they are not cooked if they are not brown.
You'll get the oil out of the sausages so you'll have a better idea of how much oil to add when you add the veg, if any.
The veg will sweat down in the sausage oil which is likely to be much nicer than the other oil
You can cook the sausages on a really low heat to start with so that they really get sticky and caramelised, then when you add the veg back in you can add a spoon of water/vinegar/stock to deglaze the pan an get that lovely sticky sausage goodness all over your veggies, which will be delicious.

You could optionally take the cooked sausages out of the pan and do the veg separately, or keep 'em in there, I'd probably take them out so I could turn the heat up a bit without having to worry about the sausages.

I'd say that when you do add the veg you want a thin (1mm ish) layer of oil in the pan.  Depending on the pan this is probably a tables spoon or 2. You probably don't need to scale up as if you are cooking a bigger batch you will probably use a bigger pan, and so a similar depth of oil should suffice.  If you are using the same pan, but with a deeper amount of veg, then I would add a little more, but I would make the depth of oil in the pan proportional to the depth of veggies.

Remember the golden rule.  You can always add, you can never take away.  And once the veg start to cook down and the volume decreases then the oil ratio will be higher, so start out with a little less than you think, just enough to   coat the veg when tossed in it.


whole spices vs garam masala? There are usually two ways of adding khada masala spices(cloves, cardamom etc) to a curry:

Add the whole spices in the beginning in oil
Add garam masala in the end

What kind of difference in flavor do these two methods create and which is better to use?

It would depend on the spices that you use.
For fresh spices - whole pieces of cardamon/ cloves/ cinnamon etc., I would add these spices at the beginning with hot oil, so the aroma of these spices would release to the oil. Stewing it slowly would also make the flavor slowly develops.
For adding at the end, maybe you mean adding the garam masala powder. This powder could add back some "kicks" or highlight as some of the "volatile" aromas are lost after cooking.
However, there is not a clear cut between methods 1 and 2, instead, you can add fresh spices at the begining and garam masala powder at the end. Just to make sure that the flavor is kept balanced when you use both methods.


Anise Seed vs. Fennel Seed with Taste as No.1 factor I've noticed that in some recipes Anise seeds can be used interchangeably with Fennel seeds.  I understand their taxonomical differences but in regards to taste, can they be used interchangeably without any big difference in taste?

For example, I've found a lasagne recipe which calls for fennel seeds.  I do not have any but I do have Anise seeds (not star anise).  Could I use the Anise seeds in the recipe without much noticeable difference?

I thought this was an interesting question, so I went into the kitchen and had a comparative chew. Anise Seed (or aniseed where I come from) is smaller, darker and gives a more immediate anise hit, but it fades quickly. Fennel seed is two or three times larger and paler. When you chew it, there's little flavour at first, but then a wash of anise flavour comes in. I think fennel tastes a bit softer, smoother, "greener" and more rounded.

If I had to substitute anise for fennel, I'd probably use a third or even a quarter of the original quantity. Although you might just want to leave it out. I agree with bikeboy - the great joy of fennel in Italian food is biting on fennel seed and getting that green-spicy hit in a meat dish (oh! I have a pasta dish with sweet Italian sausage, tomato, cream and fennel that is to die for). I don't think you'd get the same effect with anise.


How much of methylcellulose is safe? Not a duplicate of this question, as I know that it's used for cooking, I just don't know how much of it is safe.

I heard that methylcellulose is used as a laxative (it is not digestible, just like regular cellulose), and I heard it has other side effects that caused the food industry to limit its use. I'm concerned that too much of it may cause diarrhea. I believe some small amount should still be safe, otherwise it wouldn't be used at all. The question is: how much? And does safety depend on methylcellulose/total food mass proportion, or does it depend on the amount of methylcellulose alone? Any personal experiences?

There is no safe number determined.

The position of the FDA is

  There is no evidence in the available information on methyl cellulose that demonstrates, or suggests reasonable grounds to suspect, a hazard to the public when it is used at levels that are now current and in the manner now practiced. However, it is not possible to determine, without additional data, whether a significant increase in consumption would constitute a dietary hazard.

(from SCOGS)

So, all you can do is to follow recipes and hope that they constitute "levels that are now current and in the manner practiced".


How to convert normal sponge to chocolate sponge I have a recipe for a normal Victoria sponge. I also have a huge box of Swiss hot chocolate powder. (The kind you sprinkle onto hot milk to make drinking chocolate.)

Is drinking chocolate a good way to add chocolate flavour to a cake? Or is that likely to not work?
How would I go about using it? Can I just add it, or do I need to adjust the other ingredients? How much should I use?

Drinking chocolate isn't 'chocolatey' enough to make a chocolate cake. You need cocoa powder - replace 3 tablespoons of flour with it et voila, chocolate sponge.


How do I get the filling inside pâte à choux? How do I get the filling inside a pâte à choux (cream puff)?  Do I have to cut a hole in the baked pastry form?

Also, is there a way to get the filling inside without a pastry bag?  Using a pastry bag is always really messy!

They are a little hard to find, but if you can find a "Bismarck" pastry tip, they have an elongated tip that is perfect for poking into your cream puff to fill. And, on a side note, a couple ways to keep your pastry tube from getting so messy... Put it inside a drinking glass and fold it down over the sides to fill it. This holds it open and you're less likely to spill all over the edges. Then, once you gather the open end, use a rubber band to tightly hold it closed. This reduces the mess dramatically.


How can I achieve a good socarrat with paella cooked in the oven? I'm cooking dinner for a friend who pointedly bought me a paella pan. Normally, I would never consider making paella in the oven, but my stove is electric and the coil is not nearly as big as the base of the pan. So I looked around and found this recipe from Bobby Flay.

I just made a test batch with just the sofrito and rice. Since the recipe didn't mention the socarrat, I figured I'd be slick by preheating my pizza stone at 500F and placing my paella pan on that. It didn't work for creating the socarrat, but other than that, I was mostly pleased with the results.

So, I'm pretty married to the technique in the recipe, but I'd still like to get that crusty rice layer on the bottom. I tried putting the pan on the burner for a few minutes after the rice was done, but that just gave me a burnt bottom layer.

Any ideas?

Putting the pan on the burner will deliver too much heat in too little time - aka a burnt layer.

You want constant heat from the bottom during the whole cooking time. In an oven, your pizza stone is an excellent start, supplying a thermal mass. I recommend increasing the heat from the bottom compared to the heat from the top, even if this could slightly increase the total cooking time:
Set your oven to "bottom heat" and / or put the pan on the lowest rack possible. A sheet of foil can also shield the pan from top heat.


How can one clarify orange juice to clear orange flavoured gelatine? In UK we have a small cake called a jaffa cake which has a sponge base with an orange flavoured gelatin disc covered two thirds of base (think flying saucer/UFO shape) and covered with chocolate.

I can temper chocolate and I can cook sponge.  I was wondering how they made the clear orange gelatine part.  Specifically how can one take orange juice which is opaque and arrive at an orange flavoured clear gelatin?

EDIT:
A different way of asking is how come marmalade is clear?  I mean I know that one can make a consomme from tomato juice or beef by using egg whites which uses the albumen to filter out pulp but there must be a different technique for orange juice.

LINKS:

Bartender advice on clarifying fruit juice - suggests coffee filter (also mulls agar)
Agar clarification - agar is vegan gelatine - article suggests simmering, cheesecloth and coffee filter
Clarification Agar vs Gelatin

You might try simple agar clarification.  Dave Arnold has written extensively on the technique.  Basically, you use agar to create an orange juice gel. Once set, you use a whisk to turn the gel in to curds.  Pour into a cloth, hang, and allow to drain. Done correctly, the orange juice will be clear.  You can google the technique.  It's fairly easy and doesn't take too long.  You can then manipulate that liquid in many ways.  This is not how marmalade is made, but it will allow you to clarify almost any fruit or vegetable based juice/puree without a centrifuge.


Is there any substitute for vital wheat gluten? There's pizza dough recipe which calls for vital wheat gluten and I can't find it anywhere in India. Is there any substitute for it? Can I use seitan as a substitute?

No, there is no substitute for gluten, at all.

The gluten + soft flour combination is itself a substitute for bread flour, so if you can get bread flour, as Catija suggested, use it. If you can't, you need another recipe. Especially if your goal is to "not make it complicated", don't use substitutes. Substitutes are always complicated. The easy thing is to follow a recipe without making changes, and there are thousands of good recipes, so if you can't make one, choosing a different one is easier than looking for substitutes.

Seitan is not a substitute for gluten, even if you grind it up. In seitan, the gluten is already set, but you want it "raw" for making dough.


What is my fish's story? I purchased salmon that seems to have an interesting history:

[Norwegian flag] NORWEGIAN* SMOKED SALMON
FARM RAISED AND COLOR ADDED
harvested in the icy Norwegian waters of the Northern Atlantic and delicately smoked with a mild, low salt cure
*PRODUCT OF GREECE

I'd be interested in knowing my salmon's provenance. How did it get that label?

All Atlantic Salmon* is farmed, so for it to be "Norwegian" it had to come from a farm off the coast of Norway (which is the world's third largest source) then shipped to Greece for further processing. The colour is added in their feed because they're pale compared to wild salmon otherwise; so Greece was potentially where it was filleted & cured. The trip to Greece would have probably been by ship, whole, frozen. Possibly on ice, by truck, but Greece is a long way from Norway by road.
It could even have been processed before shipping or en route, so Greece was left to do just the final packaging.
Some details & numbers on this page - 5 Key Differences Between Atlantic Salmon And Wild Salmon.
Shipping information from SeafoodFromNorway.com
*Atlantic Salmon is the species, there's only one in the Atlantic, whether it's called Canadian, Scottish or Norwegian.


How to make sure teapot is safe after being on fire without water I left my teapot on the stove for about 30 minutes by accident. By the time I noticed, all the water had boiled out. So, I turned off the stove and let it cool.

When I went to put water in it again, black flakes began to come off the bottom of the pot on the inside, but I could not scrub out all the flakey stuff easily.

I have a stainless steel teapot. Are these flakes hazardous? How do I clean my pot to make sure it's safe to drink from again?

It's probably just limescale stuck to the bottom of your pot that blackened. I don't think burnt limescale is harmful, but it shouldn't be too hard to remove. You can try cleaning it using standard means to remove scale from kettles, like using vinegar.


Why is my Frozen Yogurt Grainy? I used Cal Peternell's recipe:

1 cup of whole milk
1/2 cup of half and half
1/2 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
3 cups of whole milk yogurt
zest and juice of a half lemon

BUT... Instead of half and half I replaced it for cream because this is what I had at the moment. Could that be the culprit?

Quicker freezing = smaller ice crystals.  One hour is a long time, that likely contributed to your grainy texture.  If the Breville ice maker is your only option, make sure your base is as cold as possible before using the ice cream maker.  That means refrigerating it for several hours in advance.  You also might want to strain your base through a fine sieve first.  This would help to ensure that the graininess is not coming from your ingredients.


Why does my minestrone soup end up with so little liquid? I have been attempting to make minestrone soup recently and I find that by the time I finish cooking it, the "liquid to bits" ratio is not particularly good and there is not enough liquid to really call the dish a soup.

Is it ok to reduce the cooking time? Or increase the amount of stock at the beginning? Or can you suggest another method of ensuring that at the end my soup has more liquid.

Are you "simmering" or "boiling" the soup?

When preparing soup, especially from stock, anything above a very slow simmer is going to reduce the soup, so you end up with something that's more concentrated but - obviously - also much thicker.

What you should be seeing is just a few bubbles escaping to the surface every minute or so.  That's it - that's all it takes to cook.  If you're seeing more bubbles than that, you've got the heat turned up too high and your liquid is evaporating.


Forgot to Turn on Crock Pot I put a frozen beef roast (about 2 lbs) in the crockpot with some sherry and onions, but forgot to turn the crock pot on.  The lid was on, and when I got home about 6 hours later the roast was still mostly frozen (I could only get a fork into about ¼ to ½ an inch) and the outside of it still felt very cold.  I immediately put the whole crock pot in the fridge and I'm wondering if I can cook the roast today, or if I need to toss it.

Thanks!

If it was still mostly frozen I think it's just fine and no different than leaving out on the counter to thaw in the morning before going to work.


mixing dry yeast, water, salt and flour When aging pizza dough in the refrigerator for 1-2 days, I mix the salt and "Saf-Instant Dry Baker's Yeast" (a Japanese brand) with the flour and add room-temperature or cold water.  I always get lots of yeast bubbles within hours in the fridge, and lots of rise when par-baking, so I know the yeast is happy.

When I tried making same-day dough, I fell back to habits I learned as a kid, to mix the yeast with water as hot as I could stand my finger in.  I mixed salt in that water too, and that was the only time in years of weekly baking I got no rise.   Question part 1: Does salt kill the yeast??

Question part 2: Is there any reason to even use hot water if room-temp water works fine with this brand of yeast?

Question part 3: is there any reason not to simply use the mix of dry ingredients that I have success with with refrigerated doughs?  If not, why do books/recipes/relatives insist on the hot water dissolve-the-yeast step, which means you have a couple more utensils to wash?

The answer is, as you suspected, you killed your yeast.

If you look at your original description of the process, you add the yeast to flour, along with salt and then add hot water, the flour is presumably room temperature, so it acts as a cooling agent and spreads the heat out so that most of the yeast survives and the final mixture is about body temp (37 C, or 98.6 F), which happens to be about the best temperature for yeast to grow. You do however need a little warmer to activate dried yeast, but this will be only a matter of 40 C/105 F

When you do this with just the yeast and water: You say that you use water that is as hot as your finger can stand. This happens to be about 55-60 C/130-140 F, yeast are killed by water hotter than about 45 C/120 F. To determine the tmperature, do not use your finger, these tend to be less heat sensitive than other body parts, instead drop a little on your wrist, if it feels comfortable, then it is good to go. If it feels hot the water may be too hot.

You can indeed just mix the flour, yeast, salt and add warm water for an instant dough, there is often no need to proof the yeast (this is the water step). The proofing step does lower the risk of your dough not rising because the yeast were inactive though, and then you have wasted ingredients...


My yeast looks lke brown water I am making bread and my yeast is not foaming. I am using water at 110 F and my yeast is good - I recently used it a couple of days ago, and it worked fine. This time, it looks like brown water; it has dissolved, but never foamed. I keep my yeast in the refrigerator.  Instead of using it right after I have removed it, should I pull it out and let it warm up first? I don't think I pulled it out and let it warm up the last time, but I am unsure.

110F is almost too hot for the yeast. 100F works just as well and leaves a threshold of safety.

You do not have to warm the yeast before placing it into the water.

Try 1/2 tsp of sugar in 50 grams of 100F water to start the yeast. It should be a party in there within 10 minutes. If not, you've got dead yeast.


How can I fix rips in a puff pastry sheet? Sometimes, a sheet of puff pastry that I'm working on will tear or rip.  Sometimes this happens when I'm unfolding the sheet of puff pastry, and sometimes it happens when I'm shaping the pastry around the other ingredients.

How can I fix rips in puff pastry to best preserve the height expansion of the pastry?

I think it depends how fussy a presentation you are working on. If it has to be perfect, there really isn't going to be any fixing it. If some variation is acceptable, just wait til it is a bit softer and patch the rip back together like you would any other dough. You'll get less nice separation of the layers in that area.


Iron soup kettle with rust I have an iron kettle that is pitted with rust in pits. How do I get rid of rust so I can cook chowder in it? We have tried using a wire brush, filled with water and boiled it. Saw vinegar can be used but don't know how long to leave it in kettle or if needs to be diluted.

I'm assuming that you're referring to a cast-iron kettle. One of the common strategies for removing rust from cast-iron is to rub the oxidized areas with steel wool. You'll want to remove as much of the rust as possible that way, and then you can consider using a wire or plastic brush, soap and water.

Subsequently, once you're confident you've removed the rust, brushing with food-grade flaxseed oil (or shortening, in a pinch) and heating the pot for a period of time, then letting it cool so that the coating is mostly polymerized, will help reduce the likelihood of future rust development.

There is a guide to restoring cast-iron covering roughly the same set of steps.

The reason for preferring flaxseed oil is its polymerization properties as noted above, but you may want to see a more detailed explanation.


What tools are needed for making wafer cookies? I like to eat wafer cookies, such as the ones in the picture here. These usually come in three flavors (chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry). Unlike regular cookies, which I can bake in the oven, and come out as round and thick, wafer cookies seem to be made of many layers and have a waffle-pattern on the outside. Unfortunately, cannot find any in the supermarket, so I want to make my own. Do I need any special machinery to create these cookies?

Perhaps you can use one these?

http://www.thecooksden.com/cuisinart-pizzelle-press-grill-brushed-stainless-nonstick-wm-pz2/

Buying one these might be little over the top:
http://hanshuangying.en.made-in-china.com/product/IoQnJEqGOOkC/China-Complete-Full-Automatic-Wafer-Press-Machine.html

Pizelle maker at Amazon