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How long to cook pork chops sous vide? I'm asking because there seems to be huge variations in cooking times depending on the source. The recipe book that came with the sous vide machine I bought says 134 degrees for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 8 hours, but I've seen reputable sources on the internet give times fr...	A minimum of 4 hours isn't necessary. Pork chops don't have that much fat on them, don't have much tough tissue, and since their tenderness is on the same sort of level as decent steaks, I would cook them for a short time sous vide, not a long time. As you hopefully already know about sous vide: The duration of cookin...
Can I pasteurize milk in a jam jar? The InstantPot manual says that I can use a bottle or container to make yogurt. It says to first pasteurize the milk (using the steam function to heat it to at least 180F/83C) then cool to 115F/46C and add starter. Can I use a jam jar for this? I'm a bit afraid of breaking the glass...	Any jar sold for home canning will work for what you want. They are designed to handle temperatures higher than 212°F/100°C. What you want to avoid is thermal shock - a large and rapid change of temperature. Don't put cool/cold jar(s) in boiling water, don't put hot jar(s) directly on cool counter or in refrigerator/fr...
How to avoid too hot pan that causes fire I've start cooking large batches of food on Sunday in preparation for the week. One item is cooking chicken at a high temperature on my cast iron skillet until it is cooked through. Last night as I removed the first batch to put on the next I added some oil as it was needed. I...	Not likely that pan itself was hot enough to ignite. The auto-ignition point for cooking oils is 400 to 435°C (750 to 815°F). You must have splashed some oil and it contacted an ignition source (e.g. flame). One option would be to kill all flames before adding any oil. Note that on an electric stove, it'll take some t...
12-hour fermentation makes dough wetter After bulk fermentation of my dough for 12 hours, I find that the dough is too wet or sticky. Should I bulk ferment for a shorter period of time, and retard it in the refrigerator? I'm currently baking cinnamon bread with nuts. The recipe is 600g bread flour, 200g warm water, 20...	You are overproofing your dough. 2 teaspoons dry yeast, 600g flour and a warm rest of twelve hours sounds like a recipe for disaster to me - not to mention that half of the liquid is milk, which would warrant a closer look into food safety topics as well. Also, any extended kneading (if used) is usually prior to bulk f...
How to properly cook basmati rice in a rice cooker I do have a kind of problem with cooking basmati rice in my rice cooker. I am following the cooker instructions - for two cups (the cooker one, not the measurement unit) I use 200 ml of water. As far as rice goes, I am washing it multiple times - about 5 times every t...	Basmati rice will not cook well in rice cookers made in China. I've had success with Basmati rice in a Black and Decker rice cooker but solely if I soak for 35+ minutes and add a tbsp of olive oil and a 1/4 tsp of salt to it. But the Walmart rice cooker I used to have which was made in China had the foam issue you desc...
Flies in my bag of bread - bad bread? I just bought a loaf of sliced bread from the corner store (couldn't make a trip to the grocery store today) and when I opened the bag, there were two tiny flies in it, still alive. The flies have since been shooed away, but this raises some concerns - does this indicate that my b...	Sometimes the presence of insects in certain foods cannot be avoided. The FDA has regulations on this, but I couldn't find any specific references to bread per se. However, based on standards for some other foods in there, two flies probably aren't a big issue. At the same time, flies are well known for spreading bacte...
Why is it hard to ferment fennel? Fennel seemed like a natural for lacto-fermentation. There are many recipes with fennel as an ingredient (especially in cabbage kraut), but no one seemed to talk about just fermenting up a big ol' batch of fennel. So I gave it a spin using my standard brine: 3T kosher salt per quart...	After dumping out a couple of jars of failed not-quite-fermented fennel I wondered, "Could fennel have antimicrobial properties?" << facepalm >> Why, yes. Yes it could: An article on PubMed Another on PubMed One on Science Direct One on Research Gate Granted, these are about the essential oil and not the whole plant....
What is a good substitute for full cream milk powder? I'm interested in making this milk bread recipe and noticed it called for full cream milk powder. I only have skim milk powder on hand, but read that using just skim milk powder won't provide the full milky taste that using full cream milk powder would. I was thin...	When I am using skim powdered milk and want more fat, I just replace some of the water in the recipe with heavy cream. Your recipe doesn't have water, it already uses milk and cream. You could replace a little of the milk with cream to make up the difference. However, with all the cream and butter in that recipe, I dou...
Baking (pizza) stone and effects on puff pastry My pizza stone basically "lives" in my oven and I will be baking on it tomorrow. Also on tomorrow's kitchen agend	small palmiers, sugared slices of puff pastry. As the stone will be hot already, I'm wondering: What would be the effect of baking the palmiers on the baking stone vs. baking on a classic cookie sheet? (Assuming correct temperature settings and use of parchment to avoid burned in sugar in both cases.)
How to re-fold paper cupcake liners? Paper cupcake liners are made from circles of paper, then the outer parts are are crimped to create the (mostly) vertical sides. The shape of the liners should match the indentations in the muffin tin. In my stash I found a few batches of liners that mysteriously got "flattened" a ...	Maybe try reshaping a whole stack at once. You might slowly bend them back into shape by hand, holding the stack and in place with your thumbs and wrapping your fingers around to bend the edges of the circle back towards the proper shape. Only the top one or two liners might fold in towards the middle, because the l...
How much do I reduce the sugar when using a sweeter fruit in a pie filling? I've got a surplus of Bing cherries at the moment, since they're in season and therefore on sale everywhere. I have a handful of made-from-scratch cherry pie filling, but most call for tart cherries (and a relatively large amount of sugar, 1/2...	It's mostly a matter of taste. In theory you could leave the sugar out completely, it's not needed to "bulk up" the filling, but that would probably not match our expectation of "pie filling". Your own question mentiones blueberries, which have about the same degree of sweetness as Bing cherries. I would start with the...
Can you pasteurize flour at home? As a follow-up to this question about the safety of raw flour, and to possibly update this question about eating raw cookie dough: Is it possible/how can I pasteurize raw flour, at home, to kill any E. coli that may be present? If possible, what other effects (e.g., flavor, color, t...	In principle, I don't see why you couldn't take the flour to safe temperatures just like any other food. You'd have to reach temperatures which break down proteins, something like 165 F or 75 C should be sufficient (it's good enough for meat). This will break down the proteins in the flour too, so I would expect it to...
Can I replace eggs, oil and water with apple sauce or just eggs? So I am wanting to make chocolate zucchini bread and I plan on buying muffin mix from the store. I generally use apple sauce to replace eggs but I know the muffin mix also asks for water and oil. Do I add extra apple sauce to replace those two as well? I...	You can replace any of the three with applesauce, or all of them - with the caveat that it will change the taste and texture of the final product, with more difference from more substitution. You do not have to substitute all of them if you choose to substitute one of them - the substitutions would be independent of e...
Can I substitute white wine vinegar for balsamic vinegar in a steak marinade? I am following a recipe for a beef marinade. It calls for 1/4th cup of balsamic vinegar. However, I only have red and white wine vinegar and cider vinegar.	Balsamic vinegar is quite sweet, fruity and tangy, and not easily compared to other types of vinegar. The substitutes will work better if you're replacing a relatively little bit, especially in a recipe that uses other strong flavors... but the more important the balsamic flavor is to the end result, the more the subs...
How to make stone ground flour? Is there a way to make stone ground flour at home easily, preferably manually, from whole wheat/rye/kamut/spelt berries? Is that what a miller is used for, or is that only to make regular flour? Can I just use something like mortar and pestle? My end goal is to make sourdough bread and...	It is possible, whether it fits your definition of easily is questionable, though. Whole grain flour is made by grinding whole wheat/rye/... berries until you get a fine flour, a technique used since the neolithic age. The method that is still in use today is basically "rubbing the grains between a firm base stone and ...
Can panettone paper molds be used for other things? Can the paper forms used to make panettone be used to bake cake batter? Any cake, a basic dough, sponge cake, chiffon, genoise, etc.	Yes, they can be used for other dishes. I've never done it myself, so I cannot elaborate. I scanned the Amazon reviews for a panettone paper. I saw people had used them for sweet bread, muffins, some used it for cheesecake. I imagine the papers could be used for souffles and quiches. One Amazon reviewer mentioned you m...
What is the cons of using high temperature/low water to cook curry? I cook curry with curry power. (This kind.) They said pour it in water under medium heat. Sure enough after some time it starts thickening. When it is thick enough I considered this ready to eat. However what is contributed to make the curry from "raw...	One con of cooking this way, high temp and less water, is that your curry is much more likely to burn. Both lower temperatures and more water slow the cooking, making it easier to find the right spot where everything's cooked through and done, instead of overreaching the time or not stirring quite enough and finding t...
Kimchi not very fermented, did not expand or get juicy I just made some kimchi for the first time. Three heads of Napa cabbage. I put it in glass jars and left lots of room. It has been a day and and a half at room temp. and I still don't think it has expanded very much. It has a little liquid but it is just covering ...	Patience. Unless the weather is quite warm, a week is a more typical minimum fermentation time; three weeks if you use a refrigerator method.
Is it okay to freeze a cheesecake for a shorter period of time as opposed to chilling it longer? I'm sure this has happened before... you're bringing the cheesecake to the party, only to realize the recipe you're using tells you chill it for 12 hours! Is there any way around this? Will it come out horribly if we try t...	Don't freeze it. I tried that. The ice crystals that form at the lower temperature make the cheesecake texture awful and can cause cracks. However, people will eat warm cheesecake so just chill it in fridge for whatever amount of time you do have.
Store bought Mayonnaise is too vinegary? I haven't made mayonnaise myself but the one Ive liked while eating out, is the one that tasted like a 'smooth creamy salt-sugary eggy' paste. However I happened to buy a bottle of imported mayonnaise, and it had a very sharp vinegary kick to it, which I am kind of allergic to....	You cannot. I hate vinegar too, and can assure you, there is no way to remove the taste. If dilution works for you, do it, it doesn't matter what you use. If you really can't stand the taste, dilution won't matter, then you have to throw out the bottle. "It doesn't matter what you use" means that there is no specific ...
Pan sauce without meat I like pan sauces with my chicken or beef, but prefer the meat cooked over cast iron. Pan sauces apparently don't work well in cast iron, and should be done in a stainless steel saute pan. How can I make a nice pan sauce if the meat has been cooked in a different pan? The best I can think of is...	I think de-glazing the cast iron pan would be a good solution. After the meat is cooked, remove it from the cast iron pan, and with the pan still on the heat, add a small amount of liquid. Just about enough to cover the bottom of the pan 1/4 inch. Then scrape the bottom with wooden spoon to get up all that goodness stu...
Can I use unsweetened baking cocoa raw, or do products with it in it need to be cooked? I'm asking because I found a recipe online for an ice cream that calls for baking coco, but doesn't call for cooking. I've used baking coco before to make hot chocolate, but it seems that it wouldn't dissolve fully if not first put...	If we are talking about something like Hershey's (the brand I know) unsweetened cocoa powder (the dark reddish-brown very fine powder), it can be mixed with cold milk if you make a paste of it first, and then dilute it to the consistency you want. I.e. start with the powder, pour in the milk bit by bit stirring and "ma...
Conflicting instructions from different sources: roasting chicken Thomas Keller recommends bringing a chicken to room temperature before roasting. Peter Meehan and the Lucky Peach gang recommend chilling a chicken before roasting, as a fan describes here. Either they're going for two different results, or one of them ...	One is pointless, and the other is very specific. Keller's approach - bringing the chicken out of the fridge 45 minutes before - is pointless, because there's no way in hell any significant proportion of a chicken is going to get from fridge-cold to room temperature in 45 minutes, or any other time that still allows it...
Can rasam, a South Indian recipe, be boiled at high temperatures? One of my friends said "rasam" should not be boiled at high temperatures but he hasn't given any reason for that statement. Is it true? If so, could you give me the reason?	Yea, you should not. The principle behind Rasam is the same as the principle behind the soup. You want the liquid to be infused with the optimum flavour from the masala, tomatoes, pepper etc. Beyond that it begins to lose its characteristic taste. Even rasam that has been heated repeatedly, tastes much worse than one t...
Can the skin of lychee be used for anything? We recently saw and picked up some lychee from the grocery store. It appears that the skin is inedible, but my girlfriend is wondering if it could be used for anything. Should the lychee skin just be tossed, or can it be used in some way?	The rind is inedible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee I've had a lot to do with Asian culture, both in and out of the realm of the culinary arts, and have never seen or heard of lychee rind used for anything. There are some fruits like lime, lemon, grapefruit, etc., wherein the rind can be used for other purposes,...
Does Boursin cheese always contain garlic? Does French Boursin cheese always contain garlic?	The 'standard' Boursin flavour is garlic and herbs, which I would imagine would have to contain garlic, or they'd be in trouble for false advertising. However, these days they also produce other flavours like black pepper and chive and shallot. A cursory glance at the ingredients on their website shows no garlic in the...
How to neutralize the flavor of vanilla? Out of curiosity, is there any flavour that neutralizes or balances out with vanilla?	I think it depends on how much is too much vanilla. If your recipe called for a teaspoon of vanilla and you added a tablespoon, it probably won't be too big a deal. I often use more vanilla than is called for in recipes. If you are looking for something to "balance" the flavor a little bit, you could maybe try salt o...
Over salted kimchi I made sprouted soybean kimchi but it turns out I used too much salt. Is there a way to compensate for that now or is it too late to save the taste ?	I've been there, so I can tell you from experience that it is too late. The only thing you could do is mix it with a new batch of undersalted kimchi, but that is far more trouble than it is worth. Another option, which is highly dependent on how oversalted your kimchi is, would be to cook with it. If you do not salt th...
How long is bread "Safe" in the fridge? Now I know bread shouldn't be kept in the fridge, but I had leftover garlic bread from pizza stored in the fridge for two days. I warmed it up and ate them (I was really lazy today haha). then I thought....I wonder if those were bad? But since it's bread I figure 2 days shouldn'...	You're asking about a few different attributes here: safe/unsafe - food is safe when it's essentially guaranteed not to cause foodborne illness. Nothing is perfect, of course, but if a food safety agency says something's safe, it means there's a sufficiently small chance of illness that they're fine with telling every...
Why are holes punched into rice packages? When you buy imported rice in the store, there are often rows of tiny holes punched into the plastic bags. What is that for? Doesn't it contribute to spoiling and spreading of bugs?	The holes let the bags breathe, so they can be compressed without popping, and packed more densely. Spoiling and spreading bugs aren't generally huge issues. Rice doesn't really spoil or go stale or anything. (I suppose it can go rancid, especially brown rice, but it takes a long time, and keeping it airtight doesn't p...
Low sodium French Bread or Baguette Is it possible to make low sodium French Bread or Baguettes? My husband is on a low sodium diet and will only eat French Bread. I know there is a relationship between yeast and salt.	Salt will kill yeast if directly exposed; furthermore it will have an effect on the texture as well as significantly altering the taste. Just remember that if you are baking your own bread the amount of sodium is significantly reduced compared to commercial products (Most of the bread recipes I've used have very littl...
Is Bottle gourd and white pumpkin same? I would like to know whether the Bottle gourd and white pumpkin both are same? I found no answer in googling.	From the picture and your description "Inside It was like cucmber. Some seeds and soften stuffs", I would say that it is most likely a zucchini. Zucchini come in white (which is actually a pale green), green (which is pine green) and yellow, and the inside looks cucumber-like, although it is not as pleasant to bite int...
Old, unpasteurized orange juice has extra tang I've been buying unpasteurized orange juice recently for its richer flavor, as compared to pasteurized OJ. I've had some sitting in the fridge for about a week, and upon tasting it just now I noticed an extra tang that I'm pretty sure was not there when I first bought it...	It is almost certainly a fermentation - opened juice does not keep for a week in the fridge. So you got some bacteria in it which are creating tangy byproducts (lactic or acetic acid). It is a method of creating fermented drinks such as cider (or even fruit wine), but without following a tested process, you cannot be s...
Cooking with sourdough starter I have recently begun a sourdough starter. General advice is to throw away half the starter every few days then feed what remains with additional flour and water. Is there a reason why most instructions say to simply discard half of it? I just fryed up some "wholemeal starter pancakes" i...	The instructions should read to throw away half the starter if you haven't used it to make bread (i.e. the starter needs to be refreshed in order to continue living). If it doesn't get new flour and water, it has nothing to keep it alive. So it tells you to get rid of half (by baking or, at worst, chucking it out). You...
Is there a way to make ham in a casserole less salty? When I was pregnant, my mother-in-law helped me make several casseroles to freeze. We're still eating them, but the ones with ham have had some problems. At first, it was just ham, vegetables, and noodles with no sauce to hold it all together. So I started addin...	You need to add bulky things with no salt, so that it'll average out to a saltiness you're okay with. Although cream of mushroom soup sounds like a nice easy way to add some goopiness, it's probably pretty salty. If you can find low- or no-sodium soup, that'd be a much better choice. That kind of thing might be easier ...
Question on yeast quality? I'm about to buy some ingreadients for a bread recipe which calls for quick yeast. I looked up some info and basically it looks like quick yeast is instant yeast, so first off if I could get a varification on that, that would be great. But assuming they are the same leads me to my actual q...	Yes, quick yeast and instant yeast are the same thing. It doesn't have to be proofed in warm water before being mixed into the dough. SAF instant yeast is a good product, so personally, I wouldn't spend so much more for a specialty brand. Both brands contain yeast and an emulsifier, and SAF also contains ascorbic aci...
CaCl2 and cheese making I am learning to make cheese. I am reading up. I have questions. What is the use of Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) in cheese making? Amazon sells CaCl2(H2O)n hydrolysed Calcium Chloride at ~$8 for a 4 oz bottle. Can I use the $2 pack of CaCl2 icemelter crystals (also sold by Amazon) instead? Or the h...	In general, calcium chloride is used in cheese making to stabilize and firm up the curd. It's more necessary in milk that has gone through the standard modern processing routine (pasteurization, homogenization, etc.). Heating and harsh handling of the milk messes up the balance of calcium in various milk components, ...
Best internal temperature for chicken? I understand that, in order to cook chicken safely, the chicken has to be 175f or 79c. But is there a temperature for the different cuts of chicken that improves the flavour of the chicken?	The USDA recommendation for a safe internal temperature is 165 degrees for chicken. The breast, being leaner, shouldn't be cooked to any higher than that or it will dry out and be tough. The thigh can be cooked to a slightly higher temperature (165-175). That is the Kitchen Network's preference for taste and texture ...
What is the purpose of baking powder in batter? In particular, what is the purpose of the baking powder in this recipe: http://www.wearesovegan.com/korean-cauliflower-bites/	The baking powder undergoes a chemical reaction which produces small gas bubbles in the batter. The bubbles break up the batter coating (sort of like the geometry inside a sponge) so you wind up with a mass of little holes each surrounded by a thin layer of bready material, and it all fries up airy, light and crispy; ...
Scraping Caramel for Flan America's Test Kitchen proposes the following recipe as their "Perfect Latin Flan" (pg. 785, The Complete America's Test Kitchen Cookbook 2001-2016): This recipe should be made at least 1 day before serving. We recommend an 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf plan for this recipe. 4 2/3 oz sugar 1/4 cup wat...	(note : I'd have posted this as a comment because I don't have personal experience w/ this, but people keep complaining when I do as this might have enough information to be considered an answer) I don't know about this case, but in other times when you're cooking down sugar there's always a fear of 'seed crystals' get...
Can pickled pepper oil be used as cooking oil? I have about a half jar of pure pickled pepper oil as I have recently used up all of the peppers. The oil is a strange translucent color of yellow; I'm imagining a cup of highlighter fluid (if there is such a thing). I'm wondering if this oil is okay to use for cooking oi...	I would use it for anything other than deep frying or high temperature frying. It would be great for anything that requires oil but not cooking, like hummus.
sushi rice vs pudding rice I've done sushi a couple of times, successfully I must stress, and while in sainsbury looking for it I came across the pudding rice which looks exactly the same as the more expensive sushi counterpart. I found another thread here What is the best rice for sushi? saying essentially the same t...	So, just a quick update as it seems i forgot about all this. I eventually did it and used pudding rice for the sushi and it gave good results. Granted, I'm not a sushi maniac, or sushi trained l, meaning, somebody who's really into it perhaps will spot the difference straightaway. But to me it tasted and felt pretty mu...
Should I use oil to stop the steaks from sticking to the grill? I tried grilling my steaks on a little sparse steel grill in a convection oven. They came out great, with one annoying issue: they stick to the grill and have to be ripped off. This both damages the steak a bit, AND makes the grill hard to clean with the ...	I typically oil the grill. After brushing it to get off any remnants from the last grilling session, I take a paper towel soaked in vegetable oil (something with a high smoke point), and rub my grill down with it. (I hold it using a pair of tongs). I then let it sit for a couple of minutes, and then rub it down again...
How to butter and flour the chimney of a bundt form I recently baked a rather sticky cake which called for a bundt pan. When I use a standard cake pan, I first put on the fat (either pouring oil and swishing it, or smearing butter with my fingertips) and then add some flour. Then I stand the pan in the position of a w...	Use cake release. It's simple; just mix one part flour, one part solid fat (shortening), and one part liquid oil (roughly by volume). Assuming that your oils are shelf stable, your cake release will be too. (Or at least it will last for several months on the shelf. It may smell rancid slightly faster than the fats you ...
Mango chutney freezable? I have a recipe for mango chutney. Besides the mango, the ingredients are apple cider vinegar, onion, red bell pepper, and various spices. The recipe makes quite a bit, and I don't know if it would would be freezable? Thoughts?	There's generally no "safety" issues with freezing anything (provided your freezer is sufficiently cold and stays that way). Freezing is very good for preserving all sorts of food for indefinite amounts of time. The main problem with freezing is loss of quality - loss of moisture (freezer burn) and cell expansion are y...
How do I boil down a gravy? I'm following a recipe that required an hour of simmering, first 30 minutes covered, then 30 minutes uncovered. I guess I didn't get the simmer correct as by the end of the hour; the liquid should have boiled down into a thick tomatoey gravy. However, I still have a lot of liquid left. The...	There are two ways to thicken gravy: simmer down Requires time, patience and a wide pot to get a large surface area for optimum evaporation. Simmering down results in very concentrated flavours (including salt, so be careful with salting in the beginning). use a thickener This is often something starchy like flour or ...
How to loosen peanut butter in a sauce When making a peanut butter based sauce, how can I loosen the peanut butter and even out the consistency ? I tried adding a bit of hot water and mixing them, but even after simmering for a while in the pan with frequent stirring I still found clumps of peanut butter.	If you add all the liquids and a big solid lump of peanut butter, you'll have a tough time getting it all smooth, as stirring the (thin) liquid parts won't affect the (solid) peanut butter lumps, and the lumps (once they're small enough) will just swim around your spoon and not break down further. You need to gradually...
Time&Temperature vs energy needed for molecules structure's changes Recently I've read an interesting post about time vs temperature (Time vs. Temperature - What changes what?) I've been thinking about this problem for a long time. and I'd like to share an idea.. "A single piece of meal, need certain amount of energy...	The hypothesis is somewhat valid. The version which is true is: there is a correlation between the total amount of energy which went into the meat and the degree of doneness. And because the total energy is the rate of energy input multiplied by the time you are adding energy to the system, time and heat are interchang...
how to cook nondescript venison in a cast iron pot so its tender? Imagine you bought a piece of venison (unknown which part of the body, and exact species unknown, but probably red deer), and I have only a Le Creuset cast iron pot to prepare it. What would be the procedure to have the best chance of the meat ending up...	it turns out tough and dry when I tried to braise it, and the longer I cooked the tougher it was Then it is impossible to achieve what you want. All "low and slow" methods overcook the muscle tissue, making it tough. At the same time, they melt the collagen in the meat, turning it into lubricating gelatine. The cook...
How is flambéing different from just adding alcohol? A wonderful recipe in a book says: Slightly roast pepper with oil, then deglaze with brandy and light it up immediately, wait for the flame to go out. [Then add other ingredients] Since that process felt quite dangerous, especially if the pan is hot and the alcoho...	What is the difference between just adding brandy to burning it with regard to taste? Time and theatric impact (flambe is often done table side in a restaurant) are the big difference. Flambe: very quick, almost instant reduction of alcohol texture/composition changes to dish are limited due to short process visually...
What is the difference between Chapati and a Paratha? I have heard of folding a chapati dough while kneading to form a triangle. How is it different from not folding it? How does folding to a triangle and rolling a chapati makes the difference?	Chapati or roti -> Made by folding dough and making a triangle shape results in 3 layered indian bread. If you tear the chapati made this way it will show you 3 layers. Fulka -> Fulka is made by rolling the dough ball without folding it. This results into a 2 layer indian bread. Its easier to make a circle shape using ...
What does the "bagel" setting on toasters do? Usually, I put slices of bread in my toaster. Sometimes, I toast bagels. On my toaster, there's a little button that says "bagel". How does this setting toast the bagel differently?	Unfortunately, the function depends on the manufacturer. While turning off a set of elements may be common, another option is that the setting may just increase the cook time. Bagels are thicker and have more mass than sliced bread, so a longer toast time is necessary to have a similar level of toasting. In particul...
Do roasted almonds have similar calcium value to raw ones? I have stopped consuming any kind of dairy so I need substitutes for, among the rest, calcium. I've been advised to eat almonds, but I dislike the taste and texture of the raw ones. When I grabbed a bag of roasted almonds in the store, I saw no calcium in the ...	Looking at the USDA database, roasting the almonds does not affect the calcium levels (comparing equivalent weights). Look at the value per 100g or value per ounce rather than volume-based values and you'll see what I mean. Raw almonds average 269mg of calcium per 100g (or 76mg per ounce). https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb...
Why stir sourdough only with wooden spoons? When reading about sourdough (in german texts at least), they almost always say to stir it with a wooden spoon. Why do they do that? Does metal or plastic somehow interfere with the sourdough?	This is not true anymore, and modern recipes omit that part. Back then, when silverware was made either from silver or pre-stainless-steel-alloys the acid in sourdough (and other foods*) would interact with the metal and corrode/color the metal and/or spoil the food. So put your sourdough in your (stainless steel) mixi...
query on how to prevent burning of dum My dum biryani burns at the bottom each time even after using tawa. How about pouring a little water first just enough to cover the base of the vessel and arranging raw chicken/mutton at the bottom and then the half cooked rice on top for dum biryani ?? will it prevent burning an...	Keep the heat low. "Dum"ming the biryani is steaming it rather than cooking it with high heat. You'll also need to seal the container. Burning happens because of the lack of liquid and the high heat. Mainly because the water evaporates while cooking. So yes, a little water will indeed help, but make sure you keep the ...
What do I do with this spice mix? We've had these spice mixes for a while, one is for "Meat Masala" and one for fish. The ingredients and directions for the meat masala powder can be found here. The instructions are rather cryptic, though. "Required" salt? Curd? The directions don't look like any recipe for Tikka Masa...	"Mix with...required salt" is just a kind of awkward way of saying to mix in salt to taste. Might make more sense if you read it as "the salt required to make it taste how you want". Curd is basically a thick yogurt. As for how to use it... I certainly might try their recipe and see if you like it (whether it's canonic...
Using I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and salt in a recipe that calls for unsalted butter There's a cookie recipe I'm going to make that calls for 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and 1/2 teaspoon salt. We use I Can't Believe It's Not Butter as a substitute for butter, however that contains some Sodium already. So to f...	Your math and numbers look about right. I found 1/2 tsp. table salt is 3 grams, so about 1125 mg sodium. I would not add any additional salt in this recipe.
How to tell if shrimp is already cooked and what to do with it? I have some shrimp. Not sure if this is raw, and what to do with it to make it safe for eating. I'm not looking for a recipe, but a method of preparing these shrimp. I know how to peel shrimp, am I to boil them? Fry them? Do they look raw to you? Can I ea...	If you look at the label, you see "CKD SHRIMP..." which I read as "cooked shrimp". Even without the label, you have two indicators for cooked: the colour: raw shrimp are greyish-green, they turn pink when cooked the body shape: raw shrimp have a more "stretched" body, they curl up during cooking.
Can a slow cooker meatloaf get a browned crust? So my wife cooks a few times a year. She saw a recipe in one of her online magazines for Carla Hall's (Top Chef) meatloaf. The picture in her magazine clearly shows the meatloaf has a very brown crust on the top. It was cooked with big chunks of carrots, onions, pota...	It's very difficult. The trapped moisture can keep the meatloaf from drying out sufficiently to brown well. ... but if you vent the steam, you're also releasing a lot of the heat, so it might cool off too much. I'd personally try turning up the heat to high and leaving the lid askew for the last 15 minutes or so of c...
How powerful is my cooktop? I should have asked this years ago. When a recipe calls for "medium heat", I'll burn the dish. I've had this problem on an electric range and a gas top; probably more so on the gas top. I've tried reducing the heat but something can't be quite right cause the recipe may say to cook for fiv...	Beginning cooks often ask for the "temperature" they have to use to cook their food. What matters in reality is not the temperature, but the speed of heat transfer. And that is dependent on a lot of variables: type of food, amount of food, how much is it piled, pan size, pan material, and of course how much energy your...
How to spread peanut butter that is required to stay refrigerated? I recently bought some "natural" crunchy peanut butter from Harris Teeter. Other than natural my only other description is the oil rises to the top when it isn't stirred for a while. There is a very large message on the top that says: Refrigerate after...	The easiest solution that comes to mind would be to figure out how much you need for a sandwich, remove that from the jar, set it on the counter to come to room temp (or put it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds) and then spread it when it's warmed up. "Refrigerate after opening" doesn't mean that it must be in the fr...
How long do unrefrigerated opened canned peppers last? I received a couple homemade cans of banana peppers that were canned with a jalapeno in each for some extra heat. I absolutely love the taste of them, but I am curious how long they can last once opened when there isn't access to refrigeration. After opening, keep...	Given the vinegar, these sound like pickled peppers. Pickled items are usually made to last, even when not refrigerated -- preservation was the original purpose of pickling. As it says on the Wikipedia article about pickling: "Another distinguishing characteristic is a pH 4.6 or lower,[2] which is sufficient to kill ...
Can I put meat on a broiler rack without using foil? I have a sturdy broiler I use for broiling meat. It is very similar to the Cook N Home Nonstick Turkey Roaster, a rectangular cast iron deep walled pan with a rack inside of it. Formerly I have always put foil on the rack when cooking something, but recently I have ...	After cooking without foil for a week or two my experience is that there are two problems. One problem occurs if you are cooking anything that can fall apart or fragment like fish or stew meat. The pieces can fall through the rack into the pan. The other problem is that without the foil shield the waste oils and fats i...
Is my wok carbon steel (it is magnetic)and how do I proceed - seems I am ruining it I found what appears to be a new wok at Goodwill. It came with a lid that is very light with a wooden knob on the top and it seems to be aluminum. The wok however is much heavier, with two side handles of metal that are welded/stuck ...	Dollars to doughnuts, the film you have been fighting so valiantly to get off there is polymerized vegetable oil - aka "seasoning." The odds that it was coated with anything else are quite low. Since you're well into having destroyed whatever seasoning it had, go ahead and burn off whatever is left (place in oven on "s...
Tomato Products containing Citric Acid I read that tomatoes are often not picked in the optimal ripeness for canning and because of this, citric acid is added to promote further ripening within the can. I purchase bottled pasta sauce and canned tomato sauce and sometimes have a reaction from too much acid content. T...	Citric acid in canned goods is just a preservative, nothing to do with "ripening in the can" as far as I know. As you've noticed, it's plenty common in storebought canned food, but it's especially useful in homemade canned food. It keeps canned vegetables from darkening/browning over time, and can be used to make them ...
Can you make Sous Vide Steak in a Pressure Cooker? I have been reading about sous vide cooking and it seems like sous vide cooking is done under pressure. I want to try cooking a steak sous vide in a pressure cooker and then searing it to create a nice crispy edge at the end. Is this possible with a pressure cooker? W...	I'm afraid you have gotten something wrong. Sous-vide and pressure cooking are, as far as food physics is concerned, on the opposite ends of the scale. Pressure cooking allows you to increase the boiling point of water, thus reducing the cooking time. (Bad idea for a tender steak, btw., as soon as you exceed a certain...
How much gluten flour do I need to add? Ill spare everyone the boring details and just say that im trying to mimick a pizza at home. I know that the original pizza uses a flour with 15% protein but I can't find that flour available. Instead, I'm using bread flour that has 12.7% protein. I have gluten flour that has ...	If x is the fraction by weight of bread flour, then: 0.127x + 0.75(1-x) = 0.15 0.75 - 0.623x = 0.15 0.6 = 0.623x x = .963 So, use 96% bread flour and 4% of your high-gluten flour, by weight.
Enlarging from a home bakery to a commercial bakery I am presently a dessert baker in my licensed home kitchen and am moving to a retail storefront location with a commercial dessert bakery. My proprietary recipes for cheesecakes, layer cakes, brownies, cookies, and quick breads are adapted to produce excellent desser...	Much would depend on exactly what ovens you are either getting for the new location or that come with the new location. The particular commercial natural gas convection ovens I get to play with sometimes have blowers that can be high, low or off - but you risk more unevenness than a home oven if the blowers are off. Mo...
Can I use a plastic cup instead of a ramekin for my panna cotta? I don't have ramekins or custard cups. Can I pour the warm (not hot) cream-buttermilk mixture of panna cotta into plastic cups to refrigerate?	Yup, you can use any small food safe receptacle.
Eggless Belgian Waffles become unbreakably hard I am a big admirer of Belgian Waffles and hence have been trying to come up with the perfect recipe to prepare them. However, I cannot use eggs in waffles because majority of my cousins are vegetarian. My Recipe: 389 gms All Purpose Flour 5 gms salt 12 gms baking powder...	Flour, water, butter, and baking powder does not sound like a great egg substitute to me. Your best option is to just go find a vegan belgian waffle recipe. There are tons of them, and they should be much more reliable than trying to modify an existing recipe. If you're really set on modifying that one recipe, look for...
What happens if you cook chocolate pudding too long on a double boiler? I am having some troubles getting my pudding consistency right. The kind of pudding I am trying to make is of just milk, cream, sugar, cocoa and cornstarch. The double boiler I use is a small pot in a slightly bigger pot, filled with water. Until ...	It is a bit difficult to address all the points in your question, as it mixes up observations, assumptions and a very strange recipe, but I'll try. There are three types of sweet dessert relevant here. I'll call them custard, pudding and taffy, although the names are not used with perfect consistency everywhere. Cust...
Propane grill leaking from valve stem I can't find this problem anywhere via google. It's not solved by resetting the regulator (and I'll argue that it shouldn't be below), and doesn't seem to be related to this cooking.se question. Of my last four propane tanks, I've had this problem with two: I turn off all (five)...	I'm no expert on flammables, but I've grilled a ton in my day on various equipment, and feel I've learned a couple things that may help here. However, your mileage may vary, and take this all with a grain of salt. Is this a known problem? Depends on what this is. I agree with your read that this likely isn't your equ...
can one use a toaster oven to bake cakes and cupcakes? I am an amateur chef that has passion in cooking.m looking for a small affordable oven to use for my baking but I am not sure which one to go for. i.e a toaster oven,a microwave oven or a mini oven. please advise.	I don't know what a "mini oven" is, so I will skip this one. You should not, under any circumstances, get a microwave. A microwave is not suitable for baking. There are models which are supposed to be a microwave and convection oven at once, but I have frequently heard of them not turning off the microwaves when in co...
Challah braids melding together I am trying to make Challah using this recipe, and the bread tastes good, but the braids are melding together like this: What is going on here? I am kneading using the slap-and-fold technique without adding any extra flour, and I am testing the gluten formation using the window pane te...	There's nothing wrong with your dough, it looks like you are getting a good rise out of it, which is what you want. I can't see you wanting to mess with success. What you need to do is adjust your rolling and braiding technique to take into account how much rise you are going to get. Try rolling out your braids a bit ...
What salt should I use in a bread machine recipe? I've got a big book of bread machine recipes that does a really good job breaking down what ingredients perform what actions in the whole baking process and how modifying the recipe will change the final product. One thing that the book doesn't really cover is salt. Al...	In general, unless the book or recipe specifically states something different, "salt" is assumed to mean "table salt". If a recipe were to call for kosher salt or pretzel salt (like as a topping for the loaves) it would specifically call that out especially.
How to make a custard (royale) that sets up firm on the stovetop? I was trying to make royales for consomme for the first time, since I figured I already have spare yolks already. Following a recipe for custard in general that said one can use as much as 4 yolks per cup of custard to make it "firmer", I used the 7 yol...	A custard royale is not stirred during cooking, this leads exactly to the scrambeled eggg effect you had. This is fundamentally different from the standard custard process you are probably familiar with. The (preheated) cream is mixed with the egg and/or yolks, then put in the vessel it's supposed to be cooked in. It c...
Is there a frosting similar to whipped cream but without cream? Can I use butter or margarine for frosting instead of whipping cream in cakes? I tried frosting cake with butter and icing sugar but I did not like the outcome. Is there something else that'd come out similar to whipped cream without using cream?	There are dozens of different types of frosting. Whipped cream frosting is one of them. It's made very simply by whipping heavy whipping cream until it reaches stiff peaks and then adding a tablespoon or two of sugar to help stabilize it. It is light, airy, and not particularly stable for long periods of time unless it...
When to use glass vs. metal vs. stoneware baking dish? I've recently started to do more baking. I have metal baking sheets, metal bakeware, glass bakeware and I also know that there is stoneware baking dish, like this casserole. How do I decide which to use?	Before I say anything further, if you are beginning to bake, I'd suggest investing in a basic introductory cookbook, which can provide more detail than I will here. Also, you'll find that recipes will generally the type of pan to use. (And when no material is specified, metal is a pretty good default for most applica...
Should rendered pork lard be melting at only 85° F? I recently rendered a bunch of pork fat into lard. Some of it I froze (after solidifying in refrigerator), whereas the rest I put in mason jars and vacuum sealed. I just left these on a pantry shelf with a closed door (i.e. they're in darkness). It mostly solidified ...	The melting point of lard can vary quite a bit: Wikipedia claims as low as 86F, depending on the type of pork fat used. (I don't know what their source is, but that sounds about right to me.) That number will also vary depending on the exact rendering and processing method, particularly cooling which will affect crys...
How do you get gelatin from rendering cow fat? In this answer to another question, someone mentioned that they got gelatin out of rendering cow fat. I'm about to render a bunch of cow fat in a few days, and I was wondering how to get gelatin from it, in addition to the tallow? (i.e. I don't want to accidentally throw ...	I beg to differ with most of the responses. In my personal experience, rendering of fat - not simply suet - from 'general meat' produced a great deal of gelatin. I am using some as a base for tonight's stew at this very moment. No, suet would not render out significant gelatin, but I have just now rendered about 3kg of...
How to salvage a totally nuked cast iron dutch oven? Please note: I don't believe this question is a dupe. There is this question, which has some excellent answers, but they are suggestions that don't apply to my situation because I have ruined my cast iron oven differently than the user who asked that question. So l...	Simply put you nuked your food. The temperature got too high too quickly and the moisture in the pot boiled off faster than it could be replaced by the meat, and then all the fat and juice plus the meat in contact with the pot's surface got charred on. Fat from the meat got stuck all around the pot and adhered, and the...
Why is the dough in cheap pizza places so bad? I notice that in small, cheap "sub-shop" type pizza places the crust is almost always bad, what I call "spongy", having a rubbery texture and often little air bubbles. Higher class, brick oven type places, like Bertucci's or Pizzeria Regina have a much better dough which ...	Well, the most obvious difference is that the two "better" restaurants you mention serve brick-oven style pizza, which is probably quite different from the cooking method in a "cheap sub-style pizza place." Brick oven pizzas are generally cooked at a much higher temperature for a much shorter time, and the surface the...
Can you get food poisoning from calamari rings? I'm asking because cooking time can be hard to nail down - the quick cooking version involves cooking them for only 1-2 minutes (once thawed). It seems like such a low cooking time would be prone to error (some people sauté them instead of immersing them in oil, leading ...	You can get food poisoning from every kind of food. The thing with Calamari is that if you cook them too long they become rubbery. Nailing the proper cooking time is something that can be learned by experience. See this thread: How do you cook calamari / squid and avoid making it tough?
How can I preserve avocados longer? Avocados are tricky beasts. If you get them while the peel's still green, they're hard as stones. When they ripen, the skin goes brown and the flesh softens, but when this happens you have to eat them immediately or they'll start to go bad right away, often ending up full of nasty...	I haven't done a side-by-side comparison, but I find that once an avocado's ripe, I can keep it there for a few days by putting it in the fridge. It doesn't halt the process of getting brown spots inside, but it seems to slow it down some.
Have I over- or under-cleaned my cast iron dutch oven? There are several questions on this site addressing how to fix a cast iron pan or dutch oven when it collects rust or gets rock hard black food melted into it, including this question that I posted yesterday. The TL;DR version of that question was that I cooked a ...	The black areas look like seasoning, which is essentially burnt-on oil/fat. You want that (though probably you don't want proteins or sugars so much, but I'd guess you've removed them now). Seasoning is somewhere between a dull matte black and semi-gloss black, depending. Wet with the tiniest bit of oil (e.g., wiped on...
How did rust appear on my cast iron in a matter of minutes? So this has been an on-going saga the last few days, and I've already posted several related questions here, and I am feeling quite defeated. I have/had a beautiful 16" cast iron dutch oven from Cabelas. I took it out for a test spin the other night (I had co...	The problem with your last step was the lid, I think. If you had placed it on the hot coals, open, the heat should have driven the water off as you intended, drying the pot before it rusted. With the lid on, the moisture was trapped inside, and had opportunity to cover every inch of the metal - and, as Joe mentioned...
What does it mean if my chicken tastes like fish? I got the chicken fresh from Smith's, rinsed it, seasoned it, and it didn't smell at all. I put it in my mother-in-law's baking dish, baked it, and it smelled sooo good in the house while baking. I served it only for my husband to spit it out. It tastes 100 percent lik...	I can think of several things, but it's not the definitive answer (not enough info in the question): Oven was used recently for baking fish Dish/pot was used recently for baking fish Chickens were fed food containing fish. I don't know if this still happens, but in my country (The Netherlands) some 30 years ago, you c...
How can I make my kefir milk smooth and creamy instead of watery and grainy? Just started making kefir last week. My kefir comes out grainy and watery. Here is what I'm doing: I have about 2 tablespoon of kefir I add about 4 cups of 2% organic milk Leave it for a day on the counter (26 degrees centigrade) It separat...	I've been making kefir for about 2 years now and I've noticed a few things one of which is what you mentioned - kefir not thick and creamy. I've found when you use too many grains that's what happens. I make a pint (2 cups) so not as much as you but I only use two little pea sized grains. If they start to grow larger t...
Is there a basic ratio for dill pickle brine which will be safe for any vegetable? I'm looking for a bare-bones dill pickle brine recipe (for safe canning, and long-term storage—not for refrigerator pickles). When I look online, I see all these really fancy recipes that try to jazz things up, but I don't see any basic...	Essentially, food pathogens cannot grow below 4.0 pH and vinegar is significantly more acidic that that. If you go here and scroll down a bit, there is a good, succinct explanation. They use brines of 38 and 44 percent vinegar "for taste and safety". With this basic information, it would be easy to create brines tha...
How long does it take to cool 5 lb of deep fried chicken from 350 degree to 75 degree I need help: we had a problem with health dept. We put 5-10 lbs deep fried chicken in the walk-in cooler directly removed from oil. Around 350 to 400 degree then. After 1 and 1/2 hours in the cooler (cooler temperature was about 40 ...	If you really, literally want to know "how long does it take", you have to measure it yourself. Experiment a few times with the same chicken, and average the times measured. There is no way to calculate it for any practical purpose, and if anybody else measures it with their chicken and their cooler, they will arrive a...
Why is my stock jelly-like when cold but watery when hot? I made a chili with home-made stock that appeared to have plenty of gelatin in it as the chili wobbled like a jelly when defrosted but when I subsequently heated it the sauce was very watery. Is this a case of simply not reducing my sauce enough when I original...	This sounds right - if you used bones and connective tissue when making it, the collagen would become gelatin in your stock. When properly reduced (which you did), the stock should set in the fridge into a jelly. If you didn't reduce enough, there'd be too much water remaining.
3 piece Cocktail Shaker Question I never owned a cocktail shaker before and my friend gave me a mini cocktail shaker set from crate and barrel. From what he told me, I have a 3 piece shaker, a jigger, and a Hawthorne strainer. My question is why did the set come with a Hawthorne strainer if the 3 piece shaker has the ...	This is just my experience, but sometimes you can't get a decent pour through the built-in strainer in the top of a Cobbler Shaker, so taking off the top two parts (the little lid and the piece that has the strainer) and using the Hawthorne strainer is just easier. This is especially the case when you have things insid...
What is the purpose of Whiskey rocks? My friend puts cold rocks in his whiskey to cool it down. Is it to look fancy? Can he just put the bottle in the fridge to cool it down without needing to put rocks in it?	It is to cool it down without dilluting it - ice cubes would melt. And yes, you could simply cool the entire bottle, but it wouldn't look that fancy. Note that some purists would wrinkle their noses and insist that whisky1 is best enjoyed at room temperature and perhaps with a small dash of spring water. 1 And I'm so...
Can this tool be used to open cans? Target has a tool called can opener. Can it be used for opening vegetable cans, tuna cans, ..., which don't have pulls on their tops? How can it be used? I asked because I only used a can opener that looks different to the one above, and looks like this one.	Those two versions of a can opener operate on exactly the same principle. The difference is that the simpler one has a cutting "blade" that's basically just a part of the main body that's been bent at right angles and maybe sharpened a little bit, while the nicer one has an actual separate circular blade.1 Both will se...
Reuse frying & sauce pans multiple times during cooking session I'm a student and prefer to cook my own food rather than eating in the cantine. Due to time constraints, I cook only once a week, making different dishes of big enough portions to suffice for the entire week. Because I only have a frying and two sauce pan...	I think thermal shock is unlikely to be a problem at the temperatures you're likely to use. I had heard that it is mainly a problem if the pan is very hot (500 degrees or more, although some materials like cast iron are more susceptible to thermal shock than others) and if the shock is very great, like plunging the wh...
Fruit color change Just recently I have made 6 batches of Mango Jam. All turned very dark brown while cooking and are almost black when jarred but they taste great. What is the reason for the color change?	I reckon it could be due to oxidation of fruits. It's very common once you leave fruits that are cooked/uncooked in the open air. It probably helps if you could add a little salt in there ( even though it may seems weird, but it definitely works). The reason why factory made jam does not turn dark at all is because o...
What makes spicy heat linger? I'm a total chili-head; I snack on pickled hot peppers from Mezzetta (the pepper is Cascabella, which I have never seen fresh) almost daily. What I love most about them is that they don't seem all that hot until a few seconds after I swallow. If I eat a big pepper in one bite, the afterbu...	I've lived (and eaten my way around) South East Asia for nearly the last fifteen years, and I think I know the effect that you're describing. Feel free to let me know if I'm off. If what you're talking about is a slow and gentle burn that sort of creeps up, intensifies, and then mellows back down gradually (which is w...
Frozen scallops Hello I go scalloping every year and every time I cook them fresh without freezing them they taste great, but when I have an abundance of scallops I freeze them and eat them at another time but they are always so fishy tasting after they've been frozen. Is there any way to get rid of or atleast take a ...	Technically, this "fishy" smell is there because it's no longer fresh. Here's a link that scientifically explains what causes the "fishy odour" in our seafood. Below is a layman term of explaining the fishy smell. Have you ever been to fish market for example in Singapore? There's always a slight lingering"fishy" sme...
Blown sugar globe with smoke enclosed inside - is it a plausible candy to make? There is a candy called "smoke sugar", that was made by a character in a story - it was a bubble of blown sugar, with a breath of hickory smoke in the center. The ingredients as listed were powdered sugar, grape acid (equivalent to citric...	Almost exactly what you describe can be done, it’s shown in this video. The sugar isn’t hot blown, it’s isomalt, a lower-calorie sugar substitute used in lower calorie candies and by foodies because it is formable into interesting shapes, like your sphere. It's a sugar alcohol, derived from sugar, and is considered "n...
Why won't my sourdough form a shapeable dough that doesn't stick? I'm pretty new to the sourdough game and will admit that I have very little knowledge of the science behind it (hydration, etc.). I have so far tried two sourdough starters to make two simple sourdough boules which have both failed. The first was a Pau...	When I was young and poor I baked all the bread my family of 5 ate, for several years. I baked yeast and sour dough breads with various flours. So some hints: 1. Use good bread flour! King Arthur's or Hecker's brand, if those are not available look for a high gluten wheat flour, if possible unbleached. 2. Get good at...

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