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Best heat source for fondue? Will an induction cooktop work? I recently visited a fondue restaurant, which had a cooktop built into the table. By all appearances, the cooktop appeared to be an induction cooktop, but I wasn't sure; it could have simply been a contemporary-style glass-top burner. Does an induction cook...
In my experience, the lowest setting of my induction cooker - 120 watts - is too high and results in scorched chocolate and will also burn dairy products like a cheese sauce. I wouldn't use it for a fondue - I would use a candle. It's possible this restaurant had specialty induction cookers that could reach lower tempe...
Trimming ends off snow peas I'm curious if it is customary to trim the ends off snow peas or should I just leave them on and eat them. I always clean them but it is time consuming. The picture shows an untrimmed one on top and a trimmed one in the bottom.
I do trim them, but not as rigorously as you do. I really just take off the tips. There is an exception to this though. The ones you show in the picture have been harvested quite young, but this is not always the case. You can have situations where the end that holds the little peas has a tough fibrery texture. In thos...
Non-glass baking containers for both microwave and oven use Are there any lightweight baking containers that can be used in both microwave and oven. I have bought prepared meals in these but have never seen them for sale. I do not want glass.
The material you'd want is silicone. For example, there are silicone baking molds. They are often used in professional kitchen settings, but I'm sure you find find some online. Here's an example. There are probably other kinds of silicone containers that can handle oven well, and they can definitely handle microwave.
Is it a known technique to serve hot crispy-crust sandwiches on edge? So, I'm not a chef and there are few foods I'm good at cooking. Grilled sandwiches, however, I would say are one of these few. Of course, for such sandwiches, with grilled or toasted bread, the crispness of the bread from toasting or grilling is a m...
I think this is a perfectly legitimate question. Flat plating of a grilled sandwich will almost always result in the bottom piece of bread being steamed by the time it is eaten. Grilling with thicker or denser bread somewhat alleviates the problem, as well as grilling with a roll sliced and grilled on the cut side. As...
Hot vs Cold Chinese culinary standards Is lamb chops cooked in frying pan considered hot (Yang) or cold (Yin) by Chinese culinary standards.
I would go with 'yang' for seared lamb. I come from a Chinese family that owned a restaurant for some time. Yin has always been characterized as gentle or moist cooking techniques such as steaming, braising or simmering (gau yuk aka kau yuk). Yang has always been characterized as abrupt or dry cooking techniques such a...
Maximum cooking time for beef joint in slow cooker? I usually cook a joints of beef by browing it in a pan and then putting it in the slow cooker all day (about 8 hours) completely submerged in stock. At the weekend I have family coming over, so the joint I have got is twice the size of the usual, and we are eating ...
I do think there is a maximum to the duration of stewing a cut of beef. There is in my opinion such a thing as too tender and soft. If you plan to cook the meat as one large chunk you will have to add a little to your normal stewing time, but I would not go as high as 15 hours. Cooking and re-heating is quite an intere...
Where to get fresh rose petals( rosa demascena) that are organic and/or pesticide free I need to make rose water and therefore need fresh rose petals (rosa demascena) that are organic and/or pesticide free. Is there any place to get these in the uk?
I bet a whole foods or organic market would be a good first place to look. Alternatively, Ask anyone who grows them. From what I understand roses are very popular in the UK. I bet there is someone who doesn't spray and feed their roses with chemicals.
What does "de-bearding" mussels mean? Have come across this in quite a few recipes, that mussels need to be cleaned and de-bearded. First time cooking shellfish so just want to be sure I know what they're talking about. Thanks.
The beard is also known as byssus threads. They are the filaments that the mussel uses to secure itself to hard surfaces. They are usually brownish and may appear somewhat like seaweed. Most mussels commercially available have been farm-raised so often the beards have already been removed during processing. If you have...
Do induction cookers increase risk of cracking cast iron? I recently purchased a counter-top, one element 1800W induction cooker, mostly just to see how well the technology worked compared to my gas range. I took it out of the box and immediately threw about a half inch of water in a cast-iron skillet as a test and se...
Cracking? No, not in my experience. I own like 20 cast iron skillets (I've been told I have a problem). Warping? Yes. I have a 2,800 watt per burner commercial induction stove with a very small pattern like yours. If you repeatedly overheat a pan on high for searing, it will eventually bow outwards. Warping can be miti...
Does "1 lime leaf" mean a pair of leaves, or half a pair? I love lime leaves. In fact, I bought a lime tree so that I can have them all the time without making a grocery run. The leaves look like this: I have some very nice recipes that call for them but even my French/Cambodian cookbook with the amazing illustrated ...
What does "1 leaf" mean? Since there does not seem to be a clear consensus, this answer will attempt to weigh both positions. For the sake of clarity, in this answer: Digits (1, 2, etc.) refer to the number indicated in the ingredient list; "Full leaf" means two attached segments, as they grow from the tree; "Half lea...
Why do fry cooks use water to cook burgers? I'm sitting at a diner and I'm curious if there is a reason as to why the fry cook cooked my burger the way he did. The process is different from the one I'd use at home. The cook put the burger on the flat top, the covered it with a metal domed item that looks like a cloch...
I often use this technique at home to cook proteins. It shortens cooking time by using steam as a heat transfer medium to cook the top of the item at the same time as the bottom. You can also use this method on frittatas, dumplings, etc. You can also use flavored liquids to impart flavor as well. I particularly like ...
New to cooking - how long to cook chicken breast pieces in a wok? just wondering, how long should I cook chicken breast pieces in a wok over medium heat for? They're around 1cm thick chicken breast pieces. I tried cooking them today and although they looked white, one piece had a tiny streak of blood (blood vessels?)....
Unfortunately, temperature is the only thing you can go by: the phrases 'medium heat' and '4/6 on the hob' don't really give us any information, and there could be significant variations in cooking time due to the shape of the wok, the starting internal temperature of the chicken, the shape of the breasts, and so on. ...
Can you make bread with the yeast in beer? I am looking to make some beer bread by substituting beer for water in some of my favorite recipes. I have heard that beer has yeast though, so I was wondering if the yeast in beer would work to ferment & proof my bread. I was wondering if there is enough for say, an overnig...
Made bread today by replacing the yeast and half the water with hefeweizen beer I brewed recently. I used equal parts beer and water, along with a little sugar, to make a yeast starter, thereby multiplying the amount of yeast present. Works great and provides hints of the distinctive hefeweizen underflavors of clove an...
Making a 2 ramekin recipe into an 8 ramekin recipe: Do I change the cooking time? I've read answers about doubling a casserole recipe in a larger container, or putting two cake pans in the oven instead of one. But what about a recipe that asks you to put your ramekins into a shallow pan with an inch of water in it, an...
Should be exactly the same - what you are cooking is the same size, how many you are cooking makes no difference. One cupcake or 50 would take the same amount of time to cook, if that's easier to think of. A pan of boiling water in the oven does not care how many ramekins are in it, so long as there's some space betwee...
Slowing motor and electric smoke coming from Magic Bullet blender? I have a Magic Bullet blender at home and I have been using it for the past month or so everyday to make some smoothies. I always blend fruit (both frozen and fresh). I'm not sure if the contents that are blended are related, but I've noticed the blend...
It's basically dead. The insulative enamel surrounding the wires in the motor has become overheated. That is where the smoke is coming from. If you continue to use the unit the enamel will degrade completely resulting in an electrical short. It is actually a bit of a fire hazard, so I would suggest discontinuing use of...
Adjusting baking powder to work with almond milk A family member has a dairy allergy so we often substitute non-dairy milk in recipes. Most often, this is almond (it's what we have in the house for the kids to drink, and is therefore always on hand). However, if a recipe involves baking soda or baking powder, almond m...
Baking soda reacts with acid to create CO2 and lift. Baking powder already has the necessary acid included. Cow's milk is slightly acidic. Almond milk is slightly alkaline. It may be that there is just a little bit less of the necessary acid to make your leavening react. Experiment adding a little acid. Cream of tartar...
Maintaining Sourdough Starter Given the time of year and my home's shoddy heating, I opted to put my starter on top of the clothes dryer to keep it warm. With five people in my family it gets regular use, especially towards the end of the week, so the actual level of warmth isn't an issue. But I am a little leery of t...
The vibrations will have an effect: On you, because it will be harder to judge the "ripeness" of your refreshed sourdough. You often want to catch the point "just before its starts to go down again" - which will be hard to do when the shaking machine bursts the bubbles all the time. I doubt that the yeasts and bacteri...
Can a blood orange be half bloody? I've got a "sanguino moro" (blood/red) orange, but it appears to be only half-bloody, as in the photo below. However all figures I've found on the internet show oranges that are purely red inside, for instance the ones on Wikipedia. Is this normal? Should I be worried about it? I'm m...
While many pictures show them deep red (perhaps for the dramatic effect?), even orange flesh wih only some red tinge is normal. Even the wikipedia link you gave in the question states: The Moro is a "deep blood orange" meaning that the flesh ranges from orange-veined with ruby coloration, to vermilion, to vivid crims...
What is this black stuff coming off my George Forman grill? I bought this George Forman Grill with detachable trays that are supposed to be dishwasher safe. I noticed that after the dishwasher there's this black soot on them. What causes this? Is there anyway of preventing it? The drip tray that came with the grill ha...
Most likely your problem is caused by your dishwasher detergent. Many of them will cause aluminum to oxidize creating the issue you are experiencing. I would suggest that you hand-wash and remove the oxidation as it looks quite extreme. (You don't want any of it to come off in the dishwasher and be deposited on other d...
What is hunter's chicken My long held opinion of this was that Hunter's Chicken was chicken breast, stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and, occasionally, with barbecue sauce over the top. Recipes like these seem to agree with me. However, I've just been looking around the web to see if I could get a recipe with an...
There are a lot of different dishes, and not enough names, and different parts of the world don't agree with each other on what things should be called. In general, there is no standard for what a dish a certain name corresponds to. I believe for example Italy has standardized some recipes, but there are still people m...
Can you substitute honey for sugar in a pickling brine? That's about it. I want to make some vinegar pickles (from the Momofuku cookbook, if it matters). My partner is on a diet that forbids refined sugar but allows honey. Will honey work for this purpose?
Sugar is not critical to the pickling process - it exists primarily as a flavorant. Pickling preservation requires one of two methods - either immersion in vinegar of a sufficiently low pH to kill off unwanted bacteria, or through natural fermentation with probiotic strains of bacteria. Honey is known to have antisepti...
Ingredient Identification: Hong Kong restaurant spicy spice I was at a fast food restaurant in Hong Kong which was apparently popular for its spicy dishes - there were cartoons on the walls and lots of red peppers everywhere. It looked like a chain, sort of on the level of In-N-Out or Five Guys, but with spicy ramen....
It's possible it was a combination called 麻辣 (ma-la,) literally "numbing and spicy", a mix of hot chilies and Sichuan peppercorns (which are called Huā jiāo [花椒].)
How is King Arthur bread flour made? I checked out their website and other sources but could not find any details as to what their bread flour is actually composed of. Does it include both the bran and germ or is the bran removed? And if bran and germ are removed then how is it different from the all-purpose flour mil...
They make whole wheat flour, but their bread flour is definitely refined; it does not contain bran or germ. Their bread flour is milled from a specific hard red spring wheat from North and South Dakota. That particular wheat is higher in protein than the wheat and wheat blends of other brands of bread flour. KA's whole...
Yolks flat and breaking We have had our own chickens for over 20 years and feed them on crushed grain and laying pellets and they eat greens in the fields. The fresh eggs have always been plump in the centre when cracked. Lately the yolks are flat and even if carefully broken into the pan they tend to rupture and leak...
Age, pure and simple. I used to be a free range egg producer and our chickens were retired to homes happy to have them as pets and occasional layers by the time they were two years of age. Eggs become larger as they age but as they get beyond two, most hens lay a lot less and quite frequently the eggs can show their ag...
Pasta Salad+Chicken freezer storage for a week? Maybe this is silly, but im a bit paranoid when it comes to spoilage and me and my wife are doing this new "make lunch for a week" thing to save money and stop us from eating out. Anyways this week is home-made pasta salad with home-made italian dressing + Baked Chicken ...
I'd seriously doubt it going bad in 5 days if your fridge is set to a proper temperature and it was prepared with some semblance of proper sanitation. A vat of the stuff taken out of the fridge for serving 4 times, yes. An individual serving stored in the fridge the whole time, I doubt. The pasta texture will get weird...
How to tenderize large squid? My whole life I've been buying small squid (maybe 4-6" long bodies without the head and tentacles), which are very mildly chewy and tender. All it takes is sautee them in a little OO and they are good to eat, IOW, no additional tenderizing is needed. Yesterday I got some large squid, abo...
Papaya is a known tenderizer for octopus, squid, and other meats. Another option is papaya enzyme tablets found in the supplement section of drugstore. Either can be added to the recipe while marinating or cooking. The tablets have the advantage of imparting no flavor. I can't judge the amount without a recipe, but pre...
Advantages of metal vs glass stockpot lids I just ordered a new 6 qt stockpot (that I use for soups and stews) and it came with a metal lid. All the stockpots I owned before had glass lids with a small vent hole to release some steam. An obvious advantage of glass lids is that you can see the food being cooked and mo...
They don't break if you drop it on the floor. That about covers the advantages of a metal lid here. The "heat kept in" is largely a matter of the steam condensing on the lid, and is pretty much exactly the same for metal or glass lids, or a sheet of tinfoil over the pot. If they are on, it is, if they are off, it's not...
Why do some quinoa seeds sink and some float? I was boiling quinoa the other day and I noticed that, when I dumped them in a pot of water, a minority of seeds (maybe 10%) floated and the rest sank. Why do some stay afloat?
Air pockets. It's why wormy beans/grains will also float - the surface tension of the water prevents it from entering into small crevices. If you have cracks or holes in the grains that contain air, the whole ensemble will less dense than the surrounding water and will therefore float.
Chicken Noodle Soup I am under the weather, and I am longing for some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup. I have 6 bone-in chicken thighs in my freezer that I can use, as well as boneless chicken breast (But I read boneless breasts tend to dry out and become stringy after cooking). I am planning to make the chicke...
To your specific questions, bone in thighs would work well and you would not have to add extra broth/stock to compensate for not using the breast. In fact, I would prefer the dark meat of the thigh in crock pot cooking as dark meat is very forgiving if over cooked or in long slow cooking applications. I would also wa...
Is it okay to eat silver One of my friends recently went to India and brought back some sweets today. These sweets have a silver layer on top. Therefore, I'm quite curious as to whether or not it is safe to eat silver. As far as I know, there is no processing mechanism for heavy metal in the human body. I think that ...
This is a reasonably common practice in South Asian cuisine. Some reasonably credibly information can be found in the Wikipedia article on vark. Quoting from the section on safety: Gold and silver are approved food foils in the European Union, as E175 and E174 additives respectively. The independent European food-safe...
How do I tell if a rutabaga is fresh? I recently bought a rutabaga from the store, having never done so before, and every single one on display had an oily feel to it - not sticky, but slick like it had been coated in a soft wax. Is this how a rutabaga should feel when it is purchased? If not, what should a rutabag...
That is wax, it's done to help keep the moisture in the root. Turnips are also. You know it's getting along when it gets soft and spongy or when the skin starts to wrinkle, same with turnips, beets, parsnips, carrots....You pretty much can tell whether they are good or not in exactly the same ways. Are the firm and cri...
Would a tagine be better for high altitude braising? I am thinking of getting a 2 quart Le Creuset Tagine for braising. I'm at around 5000 feet, and so am stuck with a lower boiling temperature for water - 9 degrees Fahrenheit less then at sea level. I was wondering if the "cooling tower" in the lid of the Tagine wou...
The benefits of using a tagine will be marginal at best. It will save some moisture loss over a dutch oven, however the cooking time will continue to be around 25% longer than conventional recipes as the tagine won't raise the temperature over your lower boiling point at all. Your moisture loss will continue to be high...
Does incorporating whipping cream in a chocolate syrup extend its shelf life? We bought a box/carton of whipping cream a few months ago and it sat on the freezer for some time and we used it earlier to create a chocolate sauce/syrup for a cake. However, we didn't need everything so there was some left in the carton. W...
If you have an ingredient which is supposed to be cooked through, and cook it before it expires, the shelf life of the now cooked dish would be the standard for all cooked dishes, 3-5 days, no matter if the expiry date of the ingredient falls within these 3-5 days or not. Assuming that your syrup is cooked, and your cr...
Can I cook duck breast a day before? I have to serve a 'carpaccio' of roasted duck breast tomorrow, but I'd like to prepare it today. I want to serve the duck breast on room temperature, after cooking it medium rare or medium. Can I cook the duck breast today, store it in the fridge overnight and let it come to room ...
Yes, you can do that. Simply make sure that the duck isn't at room temperature for too long. 2 hours is the strict limit: you may wish to be more... sensible about it. I'd suggest slicing straight from the fridge, as it will not only be easier to get thin slices when the meat is firmer, but it will also de-chill quicke...
Is cooking a raw steak in the microwave safe? I only have a microwave in my room and I'm moving away in a month, so I don't want to buy an oven or any kitchen appliances, but I still want a steak, is it safe to cook it in the microwave?
Yes, it is safe. It is really more a question of quality. I would suggest that, in your specific situation you get a browning dish. (It would be something that you could still use after your move, if you like.) Please see the excerpt below from this page . There is nothing like a charbroiled steak straight off the gr...
Why is my sassafrass root bark tea always so bitter? I've been on a quest for a while now to make my own root beer. I've tried all sorts of recipes using all sorts of ingredients, and I now have this huge collection of spices and roots and leaves... but no root beer to show for it. It always comes out bitter and kind ...
Sassafras tea will naturally taste a little bitter. When I was younger, a friend of mine used to bring us some sassafras root in order for us to make this tea. He always recommended never to make it too strong because of the affects of the bitterness on the stomach. Try using smaller doses of sassafras in your tea. It ...
Does one really need to add sodium bicarbonate if one already uses baking powder? I find that sodium bicarbonate ruins the taste of many cakes and cookies. If I'm using double acting baking powder, do I need to add the sodium bicarbonate as well? I have come accross so many recipes that require both ingredients.
If the recipe calls for both (and it's a good recipe), it actually needs both. A common reason is that the baking powder provides leavening and the baking soda helps neutralize a bit of the acid. It's a little surprising you're finding that baking soda ruins the taste and not baking powder; baking powder contains bakin...
White wine vinegar in sweet and sour sauce Can I sub white wine vinegar for white vinegar in sweet and sour sauce? Answer much appreciated!
Sure. It will taste a little different, but fundamentally, the main thing is the acid - you'll just get some extra flavor (which you may or may not consider an improvement) from white wine, cider, red wine, rice, malt or balsamic vinegar, rather than white.
How do I dissolve chunky powder completely in milk? I am talking especially about Cadbury Bournvita. That powder has tiny and somewhat hard chunks in it which don't get dissolved easily. How do dissolve it completely in milk?
I think the Q&A linked by @Joe has most of the tricks in it. Hot, paste, make syrup, blender, etc. Mixing stuff into cold milk (unless specially prepped for that) is not a good scene. Surprising they haven't done better at that given the marketing, but corporate competence is a rare thing - they may be too big to get s...
Placing a ceramic bowl over stainless steel saucepan I have a few ceramic bowls that are oven, microwave, and dishwasher safe (I normally hand-wash them, though). I was looking at recipes for lemon curd and some of them recommended putting them in a metal bowl over a saucepan that has steaming water in it. Is it possi...
It will take longer to heat than a thin metal bowl. It probably wouldn't crack, being oven-safe - it's just being exposed to steam, not direct flame, so long as it is above the water, not sitting on the bottom of the pot (which is what you describe.)
How long do peanut butter sandwiches last at room temperature? We're going on a long flight with our family tonight. I prepared peanut butter sandwiches for the kids, and would like to pack it already to avoid the last minute rush (or forgetting them). We're not leaving for another 12 hours or so, and it will probably...
I've done it before without problems. Even if they're peanut butter & jelly (something that's typically stored in the fridge), it has so much sugar in it that it's inhospitable to microbes. If you want to play it extra safe, and the sandiwiches won't be easten shortly after you leave, you could place them in the freez...
Can pasteurized milk turn into yogurt by itself? During the winter, I often leave milk on my porch to make room in my refrigerator. During a recent warm spell, I had an unopened gallon of pasteurized milk on the porch for two days around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. When I opened the bottle to see if it had survived, it ha...
What you got is more properly characterized as buttermilk (in the current usage of the term) than yogurt. Pasteurization does not sterilize milk, and it can have been any kind of bacteria which can survive in milk. The process was the same as in any other cultured dairy: bacteria started multiplying, producing lactic a...
Boiling Water For Pasta - With Lid On....Do I Have To Wash The Lid? I hope this is an appropriate question for the site. Today I was cooking pasta. To begin with, I filled a pot of water and placed the lid on top. Then I cranked the heat up until the water was rapidly boiling. At this point, I was of the opinion th...
It depends. In a commercial setting - definitely not. In a private one, well, you have some leeway. However when cooking pasta you might want to add some salt and/or olive oil to the water, which might get on the lid. Also pasta might release some starch while being cooked, which might also stain the lid. In your case ...
Is pasteurized milk safe to drink? The word pasteurized is written on the milk packets (like the ones shown here). They have a use before date. Assuming it's been refrigerated the whole time, and it's still before the use before date, is it safe to drink the milk straight away from the packet? Or does it still have to...
Pasteurized milk is the standard way milk is sold in industrialized countries. How it's packaged can depend on the country but it's perfectly safe to drink provided it's consumed by the "use by" date. Pasteurization is a heat-treating process: Pasteurization (American English) or pasteurisation (British English) is a...
How do I quickly get okra to stop being goopy? It's irritating to cook any recipe with okra. I love okra, but it always takes a long time to burn off all the goopy stuff. Is there a way to get rid of it more quickly so my okra will be ready sooner?
The best way that I have found to cook okra, and prevent it from being slimy is to avoid cooking it with moisture. If you dredge it in seasoned cornmeal, then pan fry it, you get none of the slime that is common to okra. I haven't done any tests to verify if a quick fry would then prevent it from developing slime if yo...
First slicing, then cooking, or the other way around? I would like to try out a recipe for a gratin of beets and potatoes. For this I will need sliced potatoes and beets. I always like to cook vegetables for a bit before putting them in the oven to make sure they're done. Should I first slice the beets and potatoes an...
With a gratin, the idea is that the vegetables (traditionally just potatoes) are sliced so thinly that they cook very easily in the cream/cooking liquid while retaining some texture. If you pre-cook the vegetables, they will just disintegrate into a mush during baking.
Can I boil bratwurst in beer to cook them? I bought Red Hook Bratwurts today, and I'm making them tomorrow. Does anyone know if I could boil them in beer since it already was pre made with beer (Red Hook), or would it not be a good idea? Also, how long do you cook Brats on the grill or oven?
Assuming that they are uncooked, you can certainly simmer your brats in beer (don't let them boil, that will burst them). I'd try to get a hold of some Red Hook and use that. Simmer them gently until they are almost done, about 15 minutes. Simmering in beer will only intensify the beeriness of the brat. If you like bee...
Will it wreck the dish if I pre-soak beef in brine, and then slow roast with Marsala? I've found that pre-soaking my beef in brine helps to break down the fibres, making the subsequent roast tender. I've found a recipe for slow-roasting beef with Marsala. I'm wondering if I can combine the two, or if that will be a t...
Do it! Marsala is sweet, brine is salty. You may be on to something here... Really though, I always brine anything I roast or sous-vide. No issues here. EDIT: I would recommend using olive oil instead of butter if you are still worried. Not to mention Marsala + olive is delicious.
Tea infused with caffeine I am trying to increase the level of caffeine in everyday tea to 150mg. I am using powder caffeine with L-theane. The powdered caffeine is obviously very bitter how do I mask the taste without adding fruity style flavours Scott
The average caffeine content of black tea is around 50mg/8oz. Green tea is much lower in caffiene, around 30mg. My guess is that you're trying to replace the caffeine kick of coffee, which is more in the 150mg/8oz range you specify. Further, you can increase the caffeine content of black tea simply by brewing it long...
Cleaning burnt-on grease with ammonia I recently ran into this (put your pans etc in a closed container {a garbage bag will do}, pour in a bit of household ammonia and let it sit for many hours) and love it. However, I also have some pans with those black plastic? handles, is it safe to do on them also? I also have ...
After asking this in multiple places and finding nobody with an answer I decided to test with the gunkiest cover. The handle came through fine. I'm not going to try the teflon pan.
What is the emulsification power of 1 egg yolk? How much oil (fat) can one egg yolk hold safely before you risk the sauce breaking?
Surprisingly high -- something like 6 gallons of oil can be emulsified by a single egg yolk. In addition to the site linked, I've seen similar experiments by Kenji Lopez-Alt and James Petersen. So if your mayonnaise refuses to emulsify, it's NOT because it doesn't have enough egg yolks.
How to decide how much to dilute extremely hot chillis I have come into the possession of a couple of naga varieties. We don't know which ones exactly, but google search seems to confirm that I do have some very hot varieties on my hands and they may average close to 1 million Scovilles. I was thinking of making some ...
Given that you don't know what you have, I'd favor making up "more of less 100% chili sauce" or as close to that as your methods come, taking care, and not tasting it. Then take one tiny amount of that (a drop, a 1/4 teaspoon, a mL) and dilute it in whatever seems likely in your estimation (I suppose based on "possibly...
Is it still possible to make cast iron skillets as good as the old ones? You always hear people talk about old cast iron vs. new cast iron: the old stuff is lighter, smoother, and generally better, while the new stuff is heavy, pebbled, and generally a poor imitation of what cast iron ought to be. So fans of cast iron...
"Back in the day", cast iron pans were manufactured in a much more labor-intensive way. Each sand mold (minimum of 2 per item) was hand-rammed around a form, which was a wood (later aluminum) "positive" of the pan to be produced. The forms were slightly larger than the finished pan to allow for the shrinkage of the i...
In order to mix the cocoa powder in water/milk, is it a good idea to put the cocoa powder in the milk while heating it? The answers here Dissolving cocoa powder in milk tell us to manually dissolve the Cocoa powder in the liquid. Will it not be a good idea to put the Cocoa powder in the liquid while heating it so that...
No, it is not a good idea at all. It will be worse, not better. What you are missing here is that cocoa powder does not dissolve at all, never, it just disperses in water (or milk). So there is no reason why methods for dissolving stuff would work with cocoa powder. You will need to use a method created for colloid-pro...
Lighter chocolate cake I am making a Guinness chocolate cake and I need the color of it to turn out lighter to match the colors for a wedding. I have already used non Dutch processed cocoa but the lightest it got was maybe dark chocolate color. What I am going for is a carmel color. Is there anything I can do to bake ...
What you are asking for is physically impossible. There is a reason why the color system when working with physical dyes (as opposed to colored light) is called additive. You cannot take out a color which is already there. When we are talking about a cake, cocoa powder or pure chocolate can be considered a pigment, an...
Does anyone know how to make a Sous Vide style cooking vessel? The last year I was in culinary school (2014) my chef instructor was really excited about culinology and the new innovations that were emerging and becoming to be utilized more often in the industry, like for example Sous Vide cooking or "under vacuum" in ...
You could probably do it on the cheap, but the temperature precision might suffer in the process: ($0-$3) A container for water that can handle being warmed up a bit. (recycle something or buy a 5 gallon bucket) (~$20) A small submersible garden pump. (I have no idea what temperature they're rated for, but I use one ...
How can I make my tea stronger? I know it sounds like an obvious question. At work, my colleague has a drip-filter machine he uses to brew his tea. He puts about two table spoons for an eight cup pot. This makes nice strong tea. I use a glass infuser teapot, which I put two teaspoons in for about a mug of tea. Th...
You cannot make it stronger with this style of pot. You are limited by Nernst's law: the amount of solute extracted from the leaf into the tea does not depend only on the amount of tea leaves, but also on the current concentration of solute in the liquid surrounding the leaves. If you make tea using loose leaves in a ...
Inside of the cookies turn up soft, almost uncooked? I don't know what temperatures I have to be using to bake cookies but I am following a European cookie recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LON4tuXR93A The problem is I searched for the same recipe and found out many different ones with almost the same ingredients...
Don't use the pizza stone for cookies. Stones absorb a ton of your oven's heat and will really mess up your baking times. They're designed to be preheated in your oven before you ever put a pizza (or other item) on them. I have never tried it before but you might be able to use the pizza stone if you preheated it but t...
Can you separate out the Gliadin from Gluten? When I looked this up, this is the information that is first presented to me- Gliadin is a class of proteins present in wheat and several other cereals within the grass genus Triticum. Gliadins, which are a component of gluten, are essential for giving bread the ability to...
The difference between gluten and gliadin is the one already explained in your question: Gliadin is a precursor to gluten. You could say that gliadin is to gluten what grains are to porridge. Gluten is the result of glutenin reacting with gliadin in the presence of water, just like porridge is the result of grains "rea...
Barbecue sauce with onion My husband is making barbecue sauce and putting chopped cooked onion in it. He made large amounts and stored some in mason jars and put them in the pantry; he put 3 squeeze bottles in the fridge. I'm scared the onion may spoil but he doesn't think so . Please help
Unless he actually canned the sauce (processing the jars in boiling water bath or pressure canner as appropriate) and was working from a trusted recipe, no, this is definitely not safe. It takes processing like this to make canned goods shelf stable. And the recipe is important too; for example if the pH isn't low enou...
gel substance to keep food moist? I've seen this in mostly chain supermarket and Costco. When they make sushi, they would brush this clear gel like substance on the sushi maki roll either to keep it moist or fresh for long period of time. Anyone know what that stuff is call?
This is likely to be guar or xanthan gum http://www.uwec.edu/Dining/locations/upload/SushiDO_Ingredients.pdf (Look at one of the items like a Philadelphia roll). Not very appetising but does keep in 'kind of' fresh
How can I tell the difference between instant yeast and active dry yeast? I have a jar containing yeast but I'm not sure whether it is instant or active dry. Is there any way to tell the difference? Thanks.
You can't really tell by looking, at least not without a known sample of the same brand. The good news is that they are usually interchangeable 1:1. Make a recipe you know well. Does it rise as you expect? Or does it take more or less time? That will most likely give you your answer. If the dough behaves as usual, it's...
How do I cook these two items in the oven at the same time? If I need to cook salmon in the oven at 375° for 15 to 20 minutes and crab cakes at 400° for 20 to 25 minutes, what do I do?
Set shelves high and low. Preheat to 400. Put in the crab cakes for 5 minutes on top Turn down to 387.5 ;-) Put salmon in on lower shelf. Check in 15 minutes. Most ovens are not all that precise, really, and most recipes allow for that (your 5 minutes of variance on each item.) The top of the oven tends to be hotter t...
Live Tomato Zucchini Lasagna - what does live mean? I was looking at the menu of Candle 79 - a vegan, organic restaurant in Manhattan. One of the items on the menu is titled: Live Tomato Zucchini Lasagna - cashew cheese, marinated wild mushrooms, tomato sauce, basil, pine nut pesto. What could the 'live' possibly im...
I'm pretty sure the word "live" means that it's raw and uncooked. I found a recipe for Raw Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna that's very similar to the menu item you describe. It uses zucchini "noodles", cashew "ricotta", along with marinated mushrooms, and tomato sauce to make a raw and meatless "lasagna". The only apparen...
What can I do with some whipped cream and egg yolk mix? I had a bit of a cooking disaster last night, where I was trying to make a tiramisu using a recipe I'd never used before. The recipe called for mixing marscapone and egg yolks, but I was using cream instead. I was hoping the cream would whip and be fluffy, but ...
What you have sounds like a cross between a zabaione and a custard. Depending on what equipment you have, you might consider: heating it slowly in a double boiler while whipping it. chill it, then use it to make ice cream. It's likely too runny to use as a soufle base (fold it into whipped egg whites, then bake). Yo...
Chemically, what happens when you temper an egg? Chemically speaking, what happens when you temper an egg? Why doesn't it simply cause the eggs to solidify or scramble?
One of the reasons is what cantido probably meant: you can overheat the eggs quickly if you pour them into the hot milk. Heat transfer is proportional to the distance from the boundary between the two materials. If you pour a thin stream of hot milk into tepid eggs, most of the eggs don't get heated, because they are f...
Idiomatic combinations of peanut butter, jelly, and bread Is there a reason why, at least in the US, that: 1) on dry bread, we typically eat peanut butter AND jelly, not one or the other; 2) but on toast, we typically eat either peanut butter OR jelly, not both?
The answer is mostly just "it's tradition", as with most questions like this. I do think the pattern you've described isn't quite the actual one. What really happens is that we tend to eat peanut butter and jelly on sandwiches, and put one or the other on single slices of bread, because with a sandwich you can spread o...
How do I clean a pot after boiling eggs? After boiling 8 batches of eggs, how can I clean the build up of calcium off the bottom of the pot?
Put some water in the pot Add vinegar or citric acid (whatever you can get your hands on more easily). (Sorry, I have no measurements, I always eyeball it. I guess up to 5% for vinegar is fine, or one or two teaspoons of citric acid depending on the pot-size...) Heat to a rolling boil... (do NOT put your head over th...
Temperature to disable enzymes in soy beans When making soy milk, I've understood that you should disable some enzymes and that you do that with boiling heat for minimum of 15 minutes. Since boiling soy milk usually result in a messy boil-over, I'd like to use a lower temperature instead but haven't found any informat...
According to this Lipoxygenase is a crucial enzyme to deactivate. And in this paper they use 60°C for 30 minutes after soaking the beans. But the pH may also be important. For normal water pH is around 7.
What to do with a failed cake? Yesterday, my wife baked a cake. Unfortunately, it was a disastrous fail. Instead of fluffy and juicy it turned out to be a compact and painfully chewy mass (not to say mess). It is so compact that the raisins lying around started orbiting it. Now we were discussing on how to utilize it...
...mix into ice cream...dry in low oven or dehydrator and use as "breadcrumbs"...use as struesel topping on another cake....??
Will spoiled food always make you sick? Kind of a strange question, but say something has spoiled, i.e. smells bad, tastes bad, etc. Will it actually always make you sick? Like for instance spoiled dressing, let's say it tastes sour, smells nasty and you eat it, will it make you sick? If so what actually makes you sic...
What most people don't get when it comes to food safety: Spoiled food has a chance of making you sick. When food is visibly spoiled, it has large bacterial colonies growing in it. This means that it has been exposed to conditions which were promoting bacterial growth. Anything which was present on your food will have ...
Mold is growing on my cheese, what is common practice? I love cheese and I am always buying and trying new types. Because of this, my cheese stash starts to grow faster than I can eat all of it. Sometimes mold starts to grow around the outside before I get to it, particularly the cheddar. I practice good storage tec...
I cut it off also. Don't tell your friends you do it. I have heard you can freeze some cheeses, but I think it looses flavor with freezing. flavor is after all why you buy and eat cheese. have more cheese tasting parties.
Lobster Death! Freezer vs. Alcohol I love lobster but I must admit I am not very good at cooking it. I want to make this easier on my self by just adding the lobster to a flavorful broth. I've heard in the past that if you are going to boil lobster for best results you should purchase the lobster alive and keep it a...
The way fish (shelfish included) is dispatched impacts both its flavor and texture. The Japanese have a long history of this knowledge. This type of fish killing is called ike jime. Dave Arnold did some interesting research on this. You'll find it here: http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=5731.html Bottom l...
Do I roll sushi with or without gloves? So I was rolling sushi the other day and I noticed how much easier it is to do with out plastic gloves on. The stickiness of the rice dose not accumulate all over your hands as fast as it does when you are wearing gloves making it much easier and faster. The conundrum here is...
As the comments already cover, thou shalt not trifle with the sanitation department rules if you want to stay in the business. You might try tighter gloves or gloves of different (but still acceptable to the sanitation department) plastics/rubbers, or with different surface textures. Many "food service gloves" seem to ...
Cake help urgent! I am baking 1kg chocolate cake and it is already in oven from 50 mins. I'm baking it at 180 degrees temperature. The cake has risen well. But the mixture is not set yet. (I did the toothpick test) I can feel it moving. I have shifted the cake to the first rack a minute before,earlier it was in the mi...
Nothing is wrong. Continue baking until the toothpick comes out clean. The toothpick test is more definitive than time and temperature (and temperatures are not always what they claim, but don't drastically alter yours without feedback from a RELIABLE oven thermometer..) As I mentioned in a comment on another post, I ...
Why is my cheesesteak meat tough? I made Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches and the resulting meat was quite tough and hard to bite off and chew. For the meat I used eye of round steak, cut into roughly 3in by 1/8th-1/4th in strips. I did not marinade the meat or season until salt and pepper during cooking. To cook the me...
My experience has shown that you need to slice the meat against the grain when preparing it for sautéing. The shortened muscle fibers make for a more tender piece of meat. After that, the quicker you can cook the meat, the better. Round steak tends to be best either quickly cooked or cooked for an extended period of ti...
Is safe to eat jerky with white mold? I recently ate a jerky with white mold on it (see below), I donot know if I should be okay with that? The mold grew on jerky because I placed it in a moist environment days before.
There are some kinds of mold which are safe to consume (blue cheese is a common example) but in general they are not. While you might often be fine eating a bit, there's no guarantee, so to be safe you should throw out moldy food like your jerky. See the FDA's advice, for example. Note that mold is okay on some kinds o...
Are any kind of wood-chips good enough for smoking? I was watching a Heston Blumenthal Show called "Cooking like Heston" the other day, the episode was on potatoes and he made doughnuts using them. one of the things he did to prepare the potatos for the doughnut mixture was to smoke them using wood-chips. I have seen...
You can't just pick up any old wood chips but you can get ones for cooking at the hardware store. Even Home Depot or Lowes should have wood-for-smoking available. You have to be careful since if you get chips made out of treated lumber for example the resulting smoke could be poisonous. Probably not something you want ...
When braising, how deep should I fill a single pot? Mark Bittman's recipe for chicken Adobo says: "Combine the [ingredients] in a covered skillet or saucepan large enough to hold the chicken in one layer". The recipe calls for 3-4 pounds of chicken. I'm wondering what is the reason that the chicken must fit in one lay...
If you are simmering, boiling or poaching something, the depth does not matter. As long as your food is completely immersed in liquid, all the liquid has a sufficiently regular temperature due to convection, and it cooks well. So the stews you mention are no problem, you can fill the pot up to the brim. Braising is a ...
Food safety issues related to eating raw frozen vegetables I just pulled out a package of frozen spinach and noticed a warning "Cook from frozen, product must be cooked before consumption". I found the same on a package of frozen baby peas and I'm sure I've seen it many times before on vegetables that are often eaten ...
While I agree that these types of warnings are conservative and partially CYA, I would suggest that they not be dismissed. What needs to be understood is that there are other factors involved past the production method. Even if a mfr./producer observes and maintains the highest quality standards in their production fac...
How to avoid elephant skin on no-knead bread? When I make my no-knead bread, the bottom of the bread always becomes extremely thick - almost like the skin of an african elephant. I bake the bread in an IKEA 365+ pot made of stainless steel. The bottom of the pot is quite thin. Do you experience something similar when ...
I have been baking no-knead bread in a heavy porcelain 2-qt.soufflé dish with a glass lid with great success and consistent crust on all sides. My recipe is based on Jim Lahey's magical recipe at http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread but I use only 1 1/2 cups water, 1 cup white whole wheat flour, 2 c...
Pan size affecting evaporation time I've got a pasta sauce which I create from scratch. I currently add various ingredients like vegetables or tinned chopped tomatoes that come with some water. One of the steps in the recipe is to simmer away the vast majority of the water. The issue is that the quantity of the water ...
The amount of energy required to evaporate the water stays the same, no matter what the size of the pan is, but a bigger pan could potentially collect more energy since the area in contact with the cooktop would be larger. There is also a larger portion of the water in contact with the pot, making it easier for more en...
Meat curing vs fermenting I got into somewhat of a heated debate with a friend recently. He keeps on talking about fermenting meats. I told him that he should stop using the word fermenting when talking about meat because that would bring forth a big misunderstanding. I was of the opinion that meat is cured and grapes...
So...you're both sort of correct, just depending on how you look at the question. Curing vs Fermentation First, let's have a quick science primer on food. All of the food humans consume and utilize for energy can be broadly categorized as differing ratios of protein(remember these are amino acid (AA) chains), carbohy...
Lime substitute for nixtamalizing corn I want to have a go at nixtamalizing some corn. Upon doing some research I figured I could find the lime (calcium hydroxide) that's traditionally used for the process at the local international food market. Turns out all they sold was something called 'carbonato', which I'm prett...
At least in theory what you're proposing should work, however I wouldn't mix sodium hydroxide, calcium chloride, water and corn all in one pot as you seem to be suggesting. I'm not chemistry expert, but as I understand it sodium hydroxide and calcium chloride react easily when dissolved in water to form calcium hydroxi...
Garlic turned to black powder? Today I cut open a garlic bulb only to discover that the core was mostly black powder. What on earth was that? I've never seen it before in my life. From the outside the bulb seemed to be fine. It wasn't obviously rotten or dark or anything like that.
Your garlic was moldy within it's peel, then dried out, leaving you with a "garlic mummy". This happens occasionally, sometimes with a single clove, sometimes with the entire head. According to the OSU Plant Clinic, there are different types of mold commmon on garlic, but most seem to be visible from the outside. In y...
How to remove residual flavours from, e.g., a coffee press I'm considering using a glass coffee-press jug as a mixing vessel for other drinks but I'm worried about residual coffee flavour even after using normal detergent. Is this something I should be worried about, and how would you clean the pot so as to remove an...
The glass jar should be mostly residue-free due to the smooth surface. Sometimes slight traces remain when the jar is hand-washed but the harsher detergents usually used in dishwashers should get rid of them easily. (Side note: Don't do this to the coveted stained teapot of a true tea aficionado...) The other parts ar...
Recommendations for making ice cream with milk and corn starch (corn flour) I started off making ice cream in the French style with cream and egg yolks. I've mostly been using David Lebovitz's web site and his fantastic book the Perfect Scoop. I've recently been experimenting with using a milk/corn starch base which i...
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer has a (somewhat) similar base to this, in that it has no eggs, and uses a mix of milk and cream - along with a tiny bit of cream cheese to provide the requisite proteins, and corn starch to thicken. In my opinion, it's one of the best ice cream bases out there. I...
Chicken bone broth, what is the brown stuff at the bottom of the pot? I often make chicken bone broth using a simple recipe of chicken backs, chicken feet, water, apple cider vinegar, parsley, salt. Ingredients are organic. The resulting broth tastes excellent. My concern is the brown crud at the bottom of the pot. ...
Could be a lot of things, depending on how clean the bones were, but assuming everything was clean, then my guess would be bone marrow. It's exactly that color and texture: (Source: My Life As A Foodie) It gets darker when cooked - refer to the link above for more photos. Don't worry about safety, bone marrow is nutri...
Is Italian style gelato achievable with standard home ice cream makers and home freezers? I've not had much success trying to make Italian style gelato at home though French style ice cream works very well. I'm using the Cuisinart ICE-100 which comes with both an ice cream and a gelato paddle. The gelato paddle defin...
Since you say French-style ice cream works fine, but the gelato is freezing rock hard, I suspect the problem may simply be the serving temperature. Gelato needs to be served at a warmer temperature than ice cream. Unfortunately the temperatures I've found are pretty variable (some say 5F, some say 10-20F), but everyone...
How to crack several types of nuts in one batch? I have a big bag of mixed nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts) in their shells that I want to crack open to enjoy later. I have tried to look up how to crack individual types of these nuts but they are all different. Can I just dump all the nuts in a barrel an...
You really can't automate this. As you noted, each nut is cracked with a different technique and requires an individually independent amount of force. Soaking the nuts won't accomplish anything desirable.
gluten free gnocchi tasting too much like potato I made my first batch of gnocchi this weekend and after quite a bit of work, I got gnocchi that didn't taste great. The consistency was ok; they did not disintegrate when I boiled them for a couple of minutes. BUT it felt like I was eating potatoes, nothing less, nothi...
Is it cheating to put the cheese inside the gnocchi? I've used grated hard cheeses to help take up some of the moisture from gnocchi before. If you use cheese, plus some herbs or spices (nutmeg is pretty classic, a bit of rosemary might be nice as an alternative, or even lemon zest), it shouldn't taste like a baked po...
What can I do with the meat and fat trimmed from the top of lamb ribs? I'm making rack of lamb tonight. I got the rack at a local farmer's market and it was a bit less butchered than I expected. I can (and did) trim it myself, but there seems to be a lot of meat embedded in the large amount of fat I trimmed off the to...
I always save all my scraps to make stock. I'm not sure what you would do with lamb stock, but it would probably make a good sauce to use on lamb. The fat that renders out is also useful for future cooking of whatever it came from (duck fat for duck confit, for example). I just throw all the scraps into a slow cook...
Cooked Cottage Pie, refrigerated. How to reheat Last night, I made a cottage pie and cooked it in the oven for 30 minutes, once cooled down I placed it in the fridge. What would be the best way to reheat this? I've read somewhere that 180 for 45 minutes would do it, but I wondered if this would overcook the mash, whic...
180C (350F) for 45 minutes should do the trick. Just make sure it is piping hot in the middle before serving. Cover the dish with foil to prevent the crust getting any crustier. You will still want to take it off for the last ten minutes of cooking to crisp it though, as the foil will make it soggy. You can absolutely ...
How long can i cook a bone in Pork Shoulder? I have cooked bone in pork shoulder many times before and I am about to do it again but I feel the need to experiment slightly... My plan is to cook the pork shoulder in the oven for 8 hours at 100 degrees celcius (212 degrees faranheit) then transfer it to my smoker, where...
Don't cook by time, cook it until it's done (you can slide a probe into all parts of the shoulder with practically zero resistance. That said, 16 hours for a 4.5 kg (10 pound) shoulder doesn't seem outrageous. In fact, at those cooking temperatures, I would be surprised if your pork was done cooking by then. Bear in mi...
Can I turn a can of red kidney beans into red bean paste for Japanese Style Red Bean Paste Buns? I have a can of Red Kidney Beans, and I want to use it to make Japanese Red Bean Paste Buns. Looking online, I found that these buns require Azuki Beans for the paste, not Kidney Beans. Is there a way to turn Kidney Beans ...
Welcome. According to the excerpt below from this page , kidney beans are an acceptable substitute. azuki bean = adzuki bean = Tiensin red bean = aduki bean = asuki bean = field pea = red Oriental bean = feijao bean = red chori Equivalents: 1 cup dried yields 3 cups cooked beans Pronunciation: a-ZOO-kee Notes:...
Au poivre without green pepper, is it good? So I am trying to learn different recipes. One I'd like to do soon is the steak au poivre, it's a quite simple one but all the recipes I found say you need green pepper (peppercorn, not bell) and I can't find it in the local market. I'd like to know what other kind(s) of pep...
Technically, green peppercorns are from the same plant as black or white peppercorns. Green peppercorns are unripe black peppercorns, and white peppercorns are black peppercorns with the outer coat removed. Green peppercorns are true peppercorns of the Piper nigrium flowering vine plant.... Green peppercorns are rea...
Is it possible to heatproof (insulate) stainless steel pot handles? I made a mistake of buying a Cuisinart 6 qt stock pot with two major downsides: opaque lid (can't see inside) and non-insulated, metal handles. I wasn't thinking about those features much as I was shopping and the latter now pretty much renders the ...
There are a variety of heat resistant silicon accessories that will serve your purpose. Here a couple from Amazon.com* Duncan-2-Piece-Short-Handle-Holde JAZ Innovations Cool Touch Lid Handle Cover Not an endorsement of either Amazon or these products.
Are these eggs rotten? I have a carton of fresh eggs here. They don't expire until this time next month. They don't float in a large bowl of water. But many of these ones after being hard boiled have a very strong sulfur smell. So i looked it up but now i am confused. Some say that smell is a normal reaction that occu...
What you're describing sounds normal to me. It's the result of overcooking them. The eggs themselves were fine. At a guess, you unknowingly messed up the timing for the particular batch described here (alternatively, the eggs may have been smaller than usual). Over cooking hard boiled eggs will result in the smell you...
Caulk gun-like dispenser for whipped cream What are some good solutions for dispensing whipped cream into swirls in a consistent fasion, maybe a specific shape etc.? I was envisioning something just like a caulk gun where you fill the container with your cream and then squeeze out of it. I tried googling buy all I g...
My suggestion would be to use a piping bag. You can get various tips so you can change up the swirls and lines as you like. Added by Jolenealask
Bread doesn't split at the score I've got to the point where my bread springs beautifully (I can see it grow). Unfortunately, no matter how I score it, the score always spreads open gently, then hardens along with the rest of the crust. Then, 5 minutes later, the bread splits open at the side. I usually bake a batard...
I agree with many elements of the previous answers -- it could be due to the wet dough "resealing" and/or to the crust hardening too early and preventing further expansion. Doing a more horizontal slash than a vertical one is helpful to get good "ears," and extra moisture will keep the crust softer for a little longer...