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How to store pizza dough in the fridge? I’m making about 12 pizza doughs. Typically when I make a few, I store each one in a ziplock and try to reduce air. But in this case I was wondering if I can just get away with a full size baking sheet and store as many dough with enough space between. Then wrap in cling wrap to...	From this site Make Ahead Tips The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. After 2 days, tightly cover the dough in its bowl with plastic wrap to keep the surface of the dough from drying out. You can also freeze the dough in well-wrapped 1/2-lb. balls for up to 3 weeks. Thaw overnight in the re...
Are the bake and broil elements in my Frigidaire oven interchangeable? We ordered a replacement element and realized after installing it that we installed what appears to be the bake element in the broiler element location. Will this be a problem as in a fire hazard?	You do not list any product model so there is no way to provide a definitive answer. All I can say is that the majority of bake heating elements are a single large loop around the bottom of the oven, while the broil element is usually densely looped back and forth with support struts holding the loops together. There i...
Making brigadeiros in Portugal similar to the ones in Brazil There is a famous Brazilian sweet called brigadeiro (I've seen a few questions related to it around here) that is basically made of condensed milk, cocoa or powdered chocolate, and butter. I've been making it my whole life using Brazilian ingredients (especi...	After much thinking and experimenting, it seems that mixing the ingredients thoroughly very well before cooking does the job. I used a very powerful hand blender I recently bought to speed things up (by a lot). My theory is that something there was coagulating very quickly with the heat and mixing prevents it from lump...
Recipe calls for rolled oats, I have old fashioned oats - can I substitute them in cookies? Can old fashioned oats be used when a cookie recipe calls for rolled oats?	Yes, Old Fashioned Oats and Rolled Oats are two names for the same thing. To wit: "Rolled oats are traditionally oat groats that have been dehusked and steamed, before being rolled into flat flakes under heavy rollers and stabilized by being lightly toasted." (from Wikipedia)
What are the main differences between a stand mixer, a countertop blender and a food processor? I'm looking to replace my countertop blender. Since my kitchen space is rather limited, I was doing some research to see if there are any "multipurpose" devices. I found out that there are also stand mixers and food process...	While two of the three items you mention are similar (though not identical) - the food processor and blender - the third is completely different - the stand mixer. There's actually a pretty awesome, in-depth guide to these and more kitchen tools on BuzzFeed. I'm going to reference this some and use images from it. Sta...
Can flavoring extracts be added to inverted sugar? I'd like to try doing a recipe with inverted sugar (hand pulled cotton candy), but am entirely new to candy making. I have the instructions to create inverted sugar, but would like to add a flavoring (as opposed to just the dye used in the video). I've tried googling ...	It should work, but the notion is that the flavoring should be intense so that just a little would need to be used. You don't want to substantially dilute the syrup. So a teaspoon to the two cups of water used to make the syrup would be fine. The other thing is that the flavoring must either be a liquid or completely ...
When changing recipe size, do I proportionally change bake time? I'm making chocolate cupcakes and halving the recipe. Do I halve the baking time as well? I'm not changing pans, it's a normal cupcake tin.	Baking times are based on the size of what's in the oven. If making 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 or 48 cupcakes of the same size, you bake them the same time, as each one "sees" the oven the same way or has the same volume/thickness from the outside where the heat is to the center. If making mini-cupcakes or giant cupcakes, or baki...
Is there a water kettle or dispenser that can keep the water lukewarm? I'm looking for a kettle or a dispenser that can keep or warm up the water around 100 F. The hope is to drink the warm water directly. All the devices I've found so far are made for boiling the water for making Tea, etc. I could get a dispenser, mi...	The easiest tool I can think of is a thermos - fill it with water at or slightly above your desired temperature and enjoy your supply for a few hours. On a larger scale, a tankless heater can give you a basically unlimited supply of water, but is almost certainly overkill. Please be careful with all devices that keep w...
How to keep a lunch box fresh for more than 2 hours? I've been searching about making a lunch box. From what I searched, food is usually safe for up to 2 hours after it was taken from the fridge (pasta, hardboiled egg, etc). However, if commuting takes 2 hours and the place I'm going doesn't have a fridge, which foods...	For a great answer on safety and temperature, see this answer. For your lunch, you could get an reusable ice pack to keep your food chilled. You could also separate the ingredients that need to stay chilled from those that don't and mix them just prior to eating.
What plants have the most oil? I was looking into making my own vegetable oil, something exotic they don't have on store shelves. So my question: Which plants, or what kind of plants, can you extract the most oil from? Would it be ones with low water content, or is it more complex than that?	Some background Unlike animals, which have large amounts of fat and related substances throughout their body (cholesterol for example is a major part of the animal cell wall, the insulation of nerves also contain lots of fat), plants have cellulose based cell walls and very little fat in most of their tissues. They use...
Safe and efficient way to keep hands clean while preparing food In various cooking videos (either online or tv etc) I have seen the cook typically touch either raw chicken or raw meat or raw eggs and then without washing their hands touch other thing like salt and pepper, utensils etc. If they do something before touc...	Your are following proper procedure by washing your hands after handling raw meat. In the videos you see, the ingredients are usually pre-portioned or are only going to be used once in the preparation of that specific dish. In that case, it doesn't really matter as any that is left over will be thrown away. At home it ...
Do I need to remove clove stems before grinding? I have whole cloves and need to crush/grind them. Should I break the berry parts off the much-harder stem and just grind that, or is the whole thing meant to be used? (I'm using a mortar and pestle, not a spice grinder, so non-mechanized manipulation may make a differen...	One clove is "the berry part", as you describe it, and the "stem". Use the whole thing.
How to cook better cookies despite a terrible oven? I am a college student living in a dorm for the first time. One of the luxuries I used to have at home was the ability to cook store-bought cookie dough cookies in my oven and have them come out tasty and goey. While my dorm does have the luxury of an oven I do not t...	As suggested by Catija, moscafj and Ecnerwal the first thing you want to do is get a oven thermometer to verify that the temperature you're setting is the one you're actually getting. If possible you might should to bring it back home to see how well your home oven is calibrated. It may be the case that your home oven ...
Which parts of star anise to use for grinding? I want to use star anise and need to grind them using a mortar and pestle. Should I use the whole fruits including both the seeds and the much harder to grind pods too? Do the pods contribute equally to the flavour as the seeds do? If the whole star is used, how to improv...	Finecooking suggests: If you need ground star anise, you can grind the whole stars (both seed and pod) in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Grinding seeds and pods separately and the respective olfactory sensation led me to believe that both parts contribute and are worth being used.
Long-rising/no-knead enriched breads? As far as I know, the fundamental thing that makes no-knead bread work is a high hydration, a small amount of yeast, and a very long rise. This is my understanding as derived from Jim Lahey's recipe, (and described and publicized in the New York Times). However, sometimes I want a...	This is a wonderful occasion for a cold rise! There are two main methods to prepare yeast doughs, warm or cold. The first is probably what you are familiar with - lukewarm liquid, a cozy spot for the dough and after one or two hours your dough is ready for the oven. The second is actually what many bakers prefer: A dou...
Bitter tasting salad I've noticed that sometimes when eating salad the first bite can taste quite bitter. Is this just the natural flavour of particular leaves and my palate adjusting to it? Is there a possibility it's caused by poorly washed salad that has not had the pesticides cleaned off?	The most likely thing is that it is the salad itself. Most lettuces are quite bitter plants, naturally. Modern supermarket varieties are bred for removing that bitterness, but it is not infallible, and you will still get the occasional bitter leaf. Heirloom varieties and less widespread salad plant species tend to be o...
Can I slow cook noodles? I’m an avid user of slow cooking due to my schedule and need to budget my meals. I haven’t tried but wanted to know if I could slow cook noodles.	If by “noodles“ you mean pasta that comes in the dry form with or without eggs, then yes, you can make that in the slow cooker. There is one caveat though: other than your meat, which won’t be affected by a bit of extra cooking time, pasta tends to become soggy rather quickly - or, at least “quickly“ in slow cooker tim...
Should I fry mushooms before adding to a red meat sauce? I'm planning on making a pressure cooker sauce using tomatoes, ground beef, sausages and wine — a classic Italian American spaghetti sauce. The method is to sweat onions, carrots, celery and garlic whilst frying off meat in a separate pan and adding in along wit...	You are right on track with pre-cooking/frying the mushrooms instead of dumping them just into the dish. I think they benefit greatly from it, especially flavor-wise, which gets a lot more concentrated. Whatever you choose to do, remember that mushrooms will exude a lot of liquid during frying. So if you add a signifi...
my cookie dough was in the fridge overnight and now its rock hard can I microwave it? Can I microwave the hard rock hard cookie dough that was in the fridge overnight?	I'm going with a tentative "yes, but" here. First let's have a look at what happens in your dough and why most recipes recommend refrigerating the dough before baking. A "basic" cookie dough consists of fat, flour and sugar (plus a few extras, obviously) that form a delicious, crumbly substance after baking. The secret...
How to replace booze in eggnog? I have been relegated to bringing "drinks" for a work holiday potluck. Fair enough. I love eggnog and would like to bring some. However, my recipe includes two jiggers of bourbon or brandy. It might be tempting to carry on as-is and feign ignorance, but my conscience says otherwise. So...	The easiest way is rum or brandy extract. The flavor is milder, but satisfactory enough. (Rum extract is far easier to find than brandy extract.) Most brands still have some alcohol (significantly less than the real deal, but still present), so it's important to consider whether you're just avoiding the intoxicating ef...
what is the purpose of lemon/acid in fruit maceration for pie baking? A lot of pie recipes will tell you to take out the liquid in juicy fruits, like apple and peaches, for pie baking. The purpose is to avoid a soggy crust with too much liquid. Some people even put tapioca starch to thicken the liquid. Fruits must ...	While there might be an acceleration effect, sugar on its own is very capable of drawing out liquids quickly. Two other effects are probably much more important: lemon juice is very effective in stopping cut fruit from oxidizing/enzymatic browning. taste balancing. Fruit is naturally sweet and sour, adding heavy amoun...
Pickled Eggs with slightly gooey yolks? In short, is it safe to make pickled eggs where the yolk is still soft? I want to make some jars of pickled eggs to give as Christmas presents but I hate hard boiled eggs. I have a technique down pat that results in solid egg whites and yolks that are orange and have a gel textu...	I want to do the same thing. Here's an article about acidification and its effect on pathogens in commercial egg pickling. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24215686/ It basically says that eggs must be held in refrigeration while approaching the correct acidity of less than or equal to 4.6 pH, but that the bacteria won'...
How to make, store, and reheat angel hair pasta for 250 in a tiny church kitchen My wedding is coming, and our main course is angel hair pasta with red sauce or white sauce, and add-ins which are cubed grilled chicken and broccoli florets. We are feeding 250 from age 2 up to age 90. I know that portion sizes differ fr...	There are a few questions about this topic already, but angel hair is very tricky as it's very easy to overcook ... but it also cooks quickly, so it might work. One of the big questions is going to be what other items you're going to be reheating, and so if all of the equipment that you mentioned are actually going to ...
Why does the crust of a freshly baked loaf of bread become less crunchy/hard over time? Something I noticed - I bought fresh bread today from a Polish bakery/deli. It was still warm when I bought it, so it probably just came out of the oven. When I got home and tried it, it was amazing. Just this incredibly satisfying...	It is not absorbing water from the atmosphere, rather, moisture is migrating from within the bread. Basically, as soon as a loaf of bread is removed from the oven, moisture migration begins to happen. It doesn't take long (hours-days) for that moisture to impact the crustiness of bread. Moisture migration accelerate...
tarry deposit in wok I've cooked maybe a dozen times with my flat-bottom wok (carbon steel, uncoated). A layer of ‘tar’ has developed in the bottom, which I've been unable to clean out. The ‘tar’ doesn't seem to affect flavor, but recently when I cooked tofu for the first time I saw unsightly black flakes on the tofu...	Depending on the construction material of your wok, you can try going through the following four steps: 1) boil water in the wok to loosen the "tar" as you suggested. 2) scrub it out with a paste made of coarse salt and vegetable oil (about 1:1) 3) use a chain link scrubber if the salt paste doesn't work 4) re-season ...
How can I make menemen look better? So, there is this famous Turkish dish called menemen. It does not look very appetizing: It is prepared using scrambled eggs, tomatoes, green pepper, onion and cheese. Here is a detailed recipe. There are some variations which don't use scrambled eggs, but sunny side up eggs, which ...	Without altering the recipe, that's what it'll look like (which I don't think is a bad thing, I like menemen a lot). However, if looks are more important, you could do a French alternative, piperade, instead. Its basically eggs cracked into salsa, rather than salsa added to eggs.
Cheese suggestions to replace melted Velveeta I have been given the honors of making appetizers for the family Christmas dinner. One of the traditional recipe calls for melted Velveeta, to go over a cooked sausage "pate" on top of a small piece of rye bread. To not hurt any feelings I'm going to make some of these wit...	If you want the smoothness of melted processed cheese, but not the extra trouble of making your own, you can use processed cheese in other flavors such as Swiss, sharp cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, and pepper jack. (Just to name a few.) Another option is canned or jarred process cheeses in various flavors. Lastly, and ...
Is washing hands before handling meat/poultry necessary? I was wondering if meat and chicken get cooked well, do we need to wash our hands before handling it?	Well, nothing is mandatory as long as you are cooking for yourself. If you are cooking in a commercial setting, there are clear guidelines on hygiene, including washing hands before handling food. There can be a lot of things on your hands that you might not want to go on your plate, including the dust after cleaning ...
Crock pot turned to warm for 45mins- 1hr I put beef in my crock pot with cream of mushroom soup and an onion soup packet around 1pm. I set it on high for 2hrs and meant to turn it to low. At 3:47 I realized I forgot to turn the setting to low so the crock pot was on the warm setting for about 45mins. My husband thinks...	The USUAL problem with "warm" (or off/unplugged) on a crockpot is when food that is not hot is placed in one and left on those settings, where it does not quickly warm to a safe temperature range. If the food was on "High" for 2 hours, it was hot. Depending on the specifics of the "warm" setting on your crockpot, it's ...
What's the benefit of chilling my cookie dough before baking? I'm making some chocolate crinkle cookies, and one of the recipe steps is to refrigerate the dough at least four hours before baking. Does this cause any changes in the dough such as something to do with gluten formation (or relaxation), or is it largely ab...	Anecdotally, the difference is in the spread. When tested, this is confirmed, along with it affecting the browning and the texture. When you start with cold dough, the outer edges of the cookie start to firm up before the middle has warmed up a lot. This means it will start crusting (and browning) before the fat in the...
Food was left in Instant Pot for a month and it grew mold. Is it safe to use it after cleaning? I have an Instant Pot. I made some rice about a month ago and haven’t used it since. Unfortunately someone in the house put the cover on the pot with the rice inside and left it there. I just opened it and it was covered i...	While the other answers here all suggest overnight soaking with chemicals and/or high-heat treatment I would say that cleaning it thoroughly is enough. Get all that you can out of it, then clean it with soapy water. If you still have stuck on rice soak it with cold water for awhile as that will help the starches relea...
Do I need to add pectin to make jam? I'm making a variety of jams. And I've never made jams before. I found some really fun flavours online, such as blueberry-lavender, spiced-fall-fruit, tomato-rosemary, and pear-vanilla. Some of the recipes call for pectin. A quick google search reveals that pectin is something tha...	I would probably just follow the recipes. If they're good, the amount of additional pectin they call for is what's necessary to get the jam to set well. If you use less than that, it might end up really runny. Different kinds of fruit have different amounts of pectin, and it's not evenly distributed through the fruit. ...
Which method of killing the lobster would cause the least pain and distress? The most common way of killing a lobster is to put it into boiling water, however we can read on Wikipedia page that it is one of the methods which cause pain and distress. The killing methods most likely to cause pain and distress are: Pla...	Put the lobster in the freezer for about 30 minutes, it will basically be in a sleeping/coma state when you take it out. Then cut into its head lengthwise to destroy its brain before it wakes up. Some people say that killing the lobster in a less stressful way gives the meat a better texture/flavor. But personally I h...
How can I make curved gingerbread sheets for a gingerbread house? I'd like to make a single cylindrical tower for my gingerbread house this year, about 8 inches in diameter and probably 6-8 inches tall. This doesn't have to be made in one piece. I'm fine with building it out of 2-4 curved pieces and seaming them toget...	Not knowing your recipe too well I’ll assume a gingerbread with a rollable and cuttable texture, like for gingerbread men. I would use a few empty cans with a slightly smaller diameter than your tower design. If you cut the can(s) lengthwise in thirds or so, you can drape rectangular strips of dough over them with on...
Trying sous vide techniques with an induction cooker I have a Nu-Wave induction cooker and the normal pans, and I want to try to use it as a sous vide cooker for steaks. I plan to get it going with the steaks and then move on to everything else, finishing with searing the steaks at the very end, right before serving....	Make sure to clip the bags away from the bottom of the cooker, where it heats from. If a bag ends up flat against the heating surface, without water between, then it could heat up far past the water temperature and melt the bag. Beyond that, if you're willing to stir reasonably frequently and it really does maintain th...
Liquid Nitrogen Ice cream Melting too fast! I am trying to make ice cream using liquid nitrogen and I am seeing that the ice cream melts very quickly. I'm using a spatula to mix the base with the liquid nitrogen in a vessel. Initially, I thought maybe I was using too little liquid nitrogen , so I added more liquid nit...	I used to use a cream and condensed milk recipe to make LN ice cream. It sounds like you're not using enough LN - while you should end up with something scoopable it takes quite a bit of beating to get there. We tended to work as a team, with one (often me) beating as someone else slowly poured in the LN. This minimise...
Butter and Butter Flavored Shortening I have a cookie recipe I am trying for the first time, and it calls for both shortening and butter. I only have butter-flavored shortening on hand for the shortening. Should I reduce the amount of actual butter the recipe calls for? Or should I trek back to the store for regular s...	Butter and shortening behave differently in the cookie dough, so unless you are planning to do more adjustments, I recommend you stick to the given butter-to-shortening ratio. If a recipe uses both, it's often to get the best of two worlds. This leaves the question of flavour. If you use the butter-flavoured shortening...
What squeezes out juice better, auger or press? I'm thinking to buy manual juicer. I considering two options: plastic auger one or thick aluminium press. Like this: And this:	Looks like the top apparatus gets my vote: takes care of breaking up the juice vesicles and the pressure of the top plunger helps squeeze it out. I find so many unpopped juice vesicles in my Mexican citrus press (bottom picture). Too much pressure and I get unwanted bitterness from oils of peel
How to keep cream from separating in milk? I have fallen in love with raw milk. It tastes so much better than processed milk. Raw milk is not pasteurized or homogenized. Because the milk is not homogenized, the cream will separate from the milk. Also, pasteurization or homogenization changes the flavor of the milk so...	A very quick option is to buy less milk at a time - unless there's a very specific reason to by in bulk, picking up a quart only when you're ready to use it may solve the problem, since it seems mixed when you buy it. Additionally, raw milk has a shorter shelf life than pasteurized, so buying fresh may be better anywa...
Accidentally omitted salt from my gingerbread cookies... what should I do? I forgot to add the salt in my gingerbread dough, and it's already in the fridge. Should I re do the dough? Is there a way to add it in?	Salt is primarily a flavor enhancer in cookies. It's unlikely that omitting it will affect the recipe greatly. I know people who regularly omit salt with no problems. Bake the cookies! Don't waste the ingredients. You probably won't notice a huge change in flavor. As a note, you're unlikely to get an even incorporati...
Which Whole Wheat Breads can be crisped on the stove? My aunt craves grilled bread, but her temporary residence for work has only an electric stove, and lacks an oven or grill. She loathes (pun intended) microwaves. What types of Whole Wheat Bread should she buy, to imitate "grilled bread"? She worries that not all g...	Any kind of bread can be toasted/grilled. The only things you really have to worry about are whether it has a flat surface to evenly cook and whether it's so crumbly it'll just fall apart. Anything you buy sliced will work, and anything you can cleanly slice will work. Note that an electric stove is not the easiest way...
Christmas turkey help (mostly organization) We are receiving the family at my parent's house for Christmas lunch at around 2pm; GF and I are doing all of the cooking. The turkey is fresh about 12lb. I think it should take about 4 hours and some resting time. We will have stuffing on the side. I was thinking of 3 scena...	You asked for any other options. I bet you could cook it all the way and safely rest it in a cooler (acting as a warmer). Finishing in another kitchen is a hassle. This leaves the oven open for other stuff.
What is a substitute for spry? I have an old fruit cake recipe and it calls for spry, what can I substitute for spry?	Use any other shortening, Spry is just a brand name (not being produced any more). We discussed Spry just a while ago in this post: Mystery ingredient in cookies with cream tartar
Chocolate covered cookies stuck to cooling rack I have some glazed chocolate cookies that I accidentally put on a cooling rack to let the chocolate glaze cool off, but now the chocolate glaze is completely stuck to the cooling rack. Any ideas on how to get the cookies off the rack without destroying them?	Turn the rack upside down, suspend it so that there is about a quarter inch between the cookie and the surface it will fall onto when it detaches from the rack, then heat the chocolate underside of the cookie (which is now the top that you can see because the rack is upside down) with a hairdryer/low temp heat gun so t...
How to adjust baking time if I adjust the quantities in the recipe? This video gives the following bread recipe: 1 kg flour 600 ml water 15 g yeast 18 g salt After doing all the preliminary stuff you'd expect, you shape the dough into a ball and bake it in a Dutch oven at 250 C / 480 F for 30 mins, then lower the hea...	You would not half the baking time, but it might take slightly less time. The best way to determine if it is done will be to measure the internal temperature. Most bread is done when the internal temperature hits 190F (88C).
What size pan should I use if I want to split a recipe in half that calls for a 13x9 inch pan? I have a recipe that calls for 13x9 glass pan, which I have used over and over successfully. This year for holidays I would like to split the recipe so that I get two smaller end products to give as gifts. How do I do this? ...	I have a couple of 8.5" x 6.5" pans (designed for toaster ovens) that I use for exactly this. The height is about the same as a standard 13" x 9" pan. I've split solid dishes like carrot cake or Spanish Bar Bread and looser ones like Spinach Marie or macaroni and cheese successfully. Just remember to check on the dish ...
What would happen if you use warm base on a compressor ice cream machine? Note: This question is for an ice cream machine WITH a compressor Pretty much all recipes for ice cream/gelato call for completely chilling the mixture before starting to churn. I get that for "passively" cooled machines (compressorless) it's im...	Firstly, it will work and you will get ice cream. However, cooling the base (a) decreases the time it take to freeze, and (b) potentially improves the flavor of the base (as ingredients meld together). Let's say you are not concerned with "b". The more quickly you freeze ice cream, the smaller the ice crystals...the...
How to dry wet sugar? How to dry sugar when it gets wet?	If the sugar is just damp -not wet beach sand- tip it through a sieve/strainer gently enough to catch the clumps. These lumps can be air-dried in a shallow layer (not humid conditions) then once again into a strainer and rubbed through to separate. Or just enjoy the homemade 'cubes' with your tea.
Why stud an onion? Why do some recipes call for studding onions, i.e., cutting little slits in the onion and putting cloves in? For example, when I cook a big piece of meat like cow's tongue, what difference would it make whether I put cloves and onion separately in the broth or studded? Is this just a convenience thi...	It's convenience, and actually doubly so: It helps to find the cloves (biting down on a clove is horrible, imho, much more than on a stray peppercorn) and it especially if you are using onions with the skin on helps in keeping the onion together. Not as much as leaving the root plate intact, but at least prevents the p...
Reasonable to store loaves and pound cake in garage during winter? (25-35 F max?) I receive a large package of baked goods from family every Christmas. I do NOT have enough freezer space to keep them frozen until we get to them. They usually arrive about 10 days prior to when we'll eat them (family gathering). We get ...	There will be no problem from a food safety perspective, as long as your garage stays within refrigerator temperatures, or within freezer temperatures. However, if you fluctuate between freezing and thawing, the quality of your baked goods will degrade rapidly.
How to tell the difference between sugar crystals and mold in dried fruit? I am making dried pears and I noticed that there are some white lumps on the surface of the fruit: This resource says that this phenomenon may occur in figs and that it is sugar crystallizing. However, pears are much less sugary than figs and ...	If you are talking about the cut surface of the pears, especially near the core cut-out, those little white dots may be not sugar, but a normal occurrence in pears, little gritty cells in the fruit. They are what crunch between your teeth when you eat a pear, aren't harmful, and are not mold. Mold would be in irregular...
Sugar won't dissolve in cacao butter In an attempt to make (vegan) white chocolate I noticed that the sugar doesn't dissolve in the melted cacao butter. For reference, this is the recipe I'm using: Organic Authority's "Four Ingredient Vegan White Chocolate Recipe" I melt the cacao butter au bain-marie, add the coconut...	Sugar won't dissolve in cocoa butter. Or in coconut oil, for that matter. When making chocolate, the sugar is smoothed and kept in suspension by prolonged grinding, conching, which is really a mechanical process... and one of the reasons making actual chocolate at home is very rare, absent specialized equipment, as th...
Cooking with rancid flour I baked some cookies and did not realize the flour might have been too old. It has been stored in my canister on the counter. Can rancid flour make anyone sick?	How "old" are we talking about? If the flour was white all purpose flour, was stocked in an airtight container, and your house gets not too hot in the summer I doubt the flour could have gone rancid. Rancidity is the deterioration of fats, and in wheat only the germ contains fat; white flour has been stripped off of ...
Yorkshire Pudding Batter -- Letting it "Rest" I've heard it's a good idea to let your batter rest overnight. Since there are eggs in it, I would think that it would have to rest in the refrigerator. I've also heard that the batter should be at room temperature when you pour it into the pan. So, should you refrigera...	I previously addressed this on a related question here. I cited Kenji Lopez-Alt's great article about Yorkshire puddings based on his testing a variety of recipes. For the full thing, you can find it on Serious Eats. As to resting and batter temperature, this is what he says: Resting Batter: This was what the tester de...
Why would a cookie recipe start producing puffier, slightly oily cookies over the past few years? I have a recipe for some chocolate chip cookies, and it's near and dear to my heart. I watched my mom making these when I was little, and it's older than I am, being from her mom too. They're both gone now though, and I h...	Short answer: I suggest you try all butter ...and make sure you don't make it too soft before creaming it. By comparison, here is a famous and popular chocolate chip cookie recipe (just the ingredients, not the process): 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted but...
Unusual Satay Sauce A local restaurant serves an unusual satay sauce that I love. Where the satay sauces I see in most places are essentially liquid peanut butter theirs is much lighter on the peanuts, red in color and with some hotness. It also doesn't contain any milk and the consistency is more oily/starchy. It's a...	The "western shortcut" to satay sauce is often to use peanut butter (a staple in US kitchens, available in many countries), add spices and possibly thin it a bit. It's typically peanut-coloured. Especially if no red chili is added. The method I learned from a Thai cook is to sweat a base of red chili paste, then add co...
British equivalent for Cane sugar I have an American recipe that calls for Cane Sugar, is this the same as Demerara or is it Light or Dark brown sugar?	If it only says "cane sugar" without any other qualifier, just use the normal white crystal sugar you have. There is a common attitude that cane sugar is supposedly superior to beet sugar (which is the prevalent sugar in Europe), although this might well be the result of successful advertising campaigns. In any case, i...
Time and temperature for converting collagen to gelatin in chuck roast cooked sous vide? I've been reading about the long low temperature cooking and its ability to convert collagen to gelatin. For example, Doug Baldwin describes some data here. I'm currently focusing on chuck roast since it's a tough cut and needs...	This depends on the end result you are looking for. At some point, if you leave it in the bath too long, the texture will probably go too mushy for most peoples' liking, but here are a few observations: Baldwin states that 131F (55C) is the lowest temperature for collagen conversion, and that at higher temperatures th...
Considerations for prepping breaded chicken for freezing I have chicken breasts. I want to cut into strips, bread, freeze and later bake or fry. The binder will be egg. The breading will be semolinia bread crumbs. There will be parmesan and italian herbs in the breading. Any special considerations compared to breading...	I don't think there are special considerations for the actual breading procedure. I think the most important considering is to individually freeze the breaded chicken strips. I'd place them on parchment, on a sheet pan, and freeze them. Then after they are frozen, bag them for later use. IQF (individually quick frozen)...
Homemade fermented coconut milk I made milk from a mature brown coconut by blending the flesh with water and straining through mesh. That was a week ago. I haven't used it all, and now I've discovered that it has soured. It's kind of slimy and has a tangy smell. Does anyone know if it's safe to use? Is this probiotic...	I'd go with "certainly not safe" - and probably rotten. Even for fermenting foods like yogurt or sauerkraut you need to follow a certain protocol to ensure the end product is safe. Yes, a pot of milk that was left out can turn into a delicious soured milk if the right bacteria grows in it. It can also turn into a nasty...
Lemon Butter Sauce too acidic My Lemon Butter sauce was way too acidic. What can I use to mellow the sauce? I started with 1/4 cup lemon, added shallots and garlic and reduced by half. Then added 1/2 stick butter, cherry tomatoes and fresh bay scallops, and served over angle hair pasta. It was very lemony and acidic.	If that is 1/4 cup lemon juice, that seems like quite a lot and reducing it is also probably making it taste even more lemony. If you want to keep about the same amount of liquid, try softening the shallots and garlic in 1 t olive oil and then adding 2T dry white wine and reducing. Add 1T lemon juice and bring to boil ...
How to refresh a frozen bagel My kids like their bagels like they just came from the oven or the bagel bakery with a crisp crust and soft chewy center. However, it is not practical to make bagels or buy bagels in the morning on school days. What can I do with a frozen bagel to mimic fresh out of the oven?	Buy or make fresh bagels and store them uncut in a plastic bag with the air squeezed out of it in the freezer for up to one month. When you want to prepare a "like fresh" bagel, run it briefly under water (I used filtered water) so that the outside crust is damp but not soggy. Wrap it tightly in foil with a small vent,...
Mixing starches with sugar to make chewy candies This is a bit of a Moby Dick for me. There is this candy, Gingerbon, that that has a very tough (for lack of a better word) chew to them. The texture is like a very chewy taffy that sticks to the nooks in your molars. However, it's resilient enough to not deform under m...	I think it'll be very difficult to mix everything without any liquid, but if you cook everything long enough until (almost?) all liquid is evaporated, maybe it's not necessary to list it anymore. But here is some info to get you started on your experiments: In Germany there are tons of "vegan gums" with very similar i...
Why do chefs in cooking shows not always seem to do things the "right" way? I've read some books about the science behind cooking, and I've watched videos of chefs like Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver on YouTube. It seems like those famous chefs don't always do things the way I'd expect based on the books. For example,...	I have a couple of observations: "Different" doesn't always mean inferior. "Best" from a science perspective, doesn't always mean most expedient in a restaurant or home kitchen. Sometimes the results of the difference between "scientific" best practice, and alternate restaurant or home kitchen practice are not noticea...
Harissa powder to paste How much harissa powder would be equivalent to one teaspoonful of harissa paste? I have tried to look it up online, but all I can find is "add water and oil to reach the desired result", e.g. here. I don't use the paste very often, so I doubt I will eyeball it right, any quantitative guidance ...	I was just in Morocco and asked some of the owners selling the spice how to do it, the answer I got was: Add 100 grams of Harissa powder Add 1/2 cup water Add 1/2 cup of EVOO I would add that I have not tested this yet, and 100 grams is a lot to be making at once.
Using half-eaten bones to make stock -- sanitary? Is it safe use half-eaten bones from a family dinner meal to make stock? Or is this unsanitary, and it's better to just obtain bones through filleting and deboning while raw or after slow or pressure cooking?	It's not sanitary, in the sense of following the health rules. Especially since it's unlikely that you're following the two-hour guidelines: the gnawed bones have been in the danger zone enough to potentially pick up an enterobacter that produced heat-stable toxins. Boiling will not fix that. And having been in somebod...
Beef rib roast - how much do the bones weigh? I'm trying to compare prices for bone-in vs boneless beef rib roasts (aka standing rib roast aka prime rib aka ribeye roast). What is the weight of the bones as a percent of the total pre-cooked weight? Without this number it's impossible to compare prices. (Please no deba...	The key factor is going to be the breed of cattle. Angus, a very high quality beef, also has heavy bone structure and a less favorable bone-to-meat ratio, where as limousine has a lighter bone structure with more meat-to-bone. Other breeds will vary as well, with hereford being (IMHO) the 'happy medium'. But, of course...
Baker's Ammonia with yeast—good idea? I recently made a moderately successful gluten free loaf of bread from a recipe for Japanese Milk Bread from the book Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread. Respecting the author's trade secrets, I won't copy the recipe here, but suffice it to say the dough ends up very much lik...	Can you list the leavening agents used in your Japanese Milk Bread? Baker's Ammonia is NOT a good choice. The milk is likely to trap the ammonia and leave an awful taste. Baker's Ammonia is Ammonium Bicarbonate and Ammonium Carbonate and was used before Baking Soda. You should only use this for low moisture baked items...
How to hold salmon after cooking for travel to family dinner? We'd like to bring salmon for our holiday family dinner. Is there a way to cook it at home and then take it to the destination without losing quality? (I expect it would be half to one hour between the time we would leave our house and actually eat.) Or s...	Most folks rely on smoked or cold salmon when travelling. It's a special treat getting hot salmon brought in. Cooking it right before you leave and keeping it warm will be the challenge. You might look at pizza delivery carry bags with the foil interior or create your own foil wrapped fish, wrapped in old towels and p...
What size disher makes "1 inch balls of dough?" I am making cookies in bulk. The problem is, every version of the recipe I am making uses the measurement "one inch balls". Given the number of cookies I am making, I'm not really looking to eyeball this. Does anyone know what size disher corresponds to a "one inch ball"...	Well, a one-inch diameter sphere has a volume of 1.74 teaspoons, or 0.58 tablespoons. It looks like the numbered sizes are in fractions of a quart, so if you could have any size you wanted, that'd be a a #110 disher. I assume that means you'll probably want a #100, which is 0.64 tablespoons, surely close enough for coo...
Calories in (cooked) pasta I bought a 500g pack of Tesco penne pasta recently – https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254878482 As you can see on the website, it states that 100g of the pasta contains around 176 calories. But after cooking the pasta, I noticed it weighed a lot more. I found that around 1/6 of...	The best way to be confident is to check some clear nutrition facts directly. The USDA reports that "Pasta, dry, unenriched" has 371 calories per 100g, and "Pasta, cooked, unenriched, without added salt" has 158 calories per 100g. So your 176 calories per 100g seems to be for cooked pasta; it's way too few calories for...
What does it mean when powdered ingredients get thin strings? I have found some strange strings in powdered ingredients in my kitchen. First time I noticed it in my instant coffee jar and I thought it maybe some kind of worm so I discarded the jar. Today I was very surprised to find the same type of thin string in my ...	I think you are right to figure it is some kind of insect. Little thin threads of cocoonish material in containers of stored food are a pretty clear sign. The strings make themselves noticeable by catching the dust particles from the food. Although it might seem strange to find insect activity in instant coffee, there ...
How do I easily get thin slices of guava paste? I made guava bars recently, with a layer made of slices of guava paste. The block of paste I had was pretty hard to cut thinly and evenly: it was very sticky, and firm enough to take effort to cut through along with the stickiness. Are there any easy ways to get nice sli...	Guava paste is easy to use when making it fresh, but canned with pectin it can be a pain. You probably need to go warmer or colder to get it to do what you want. If you go warmer you could try a couple of tablespoons on a small plate in the microwave. I usually put a coffee cup of water next to it to slow down the heat...
How can I pipe multicolored flowers? I've seen beautiful multi-color piping with buttercream frosting where the outer part of the flower is a different shade than the inner part. Here's an example: How can this be achieved? Is there a way to make the colors change without using multiple piping bags?	There are a few different methods to achieve this. The end goal is to get layers of different colored frosting in rings in your piping bag. The method I ended up preferring uses a piece of cling film/plastic wrap along with your piping bag and tip. This method also makes it easy to have colors change as you progress. S...
Australian Thickened Cream Can anyone tell me the UK equivalent of Australian Thickened Cream. Not sure if it's what we call Single or Double cream. Thank you	Thickened cream is cream that has a thickener in it with a minimum fat content of 35% - it whips well. I would look for something like this; I've seen cream called whipping cream which I would assume is the same, with the added thickener. If you can't find that the most similar cream is double cream - it's the most ver...
Burnt candied pecans I made a pound of candied pecans (egg white, brown sugar, vanilla...) and I guess I baked them too long. They are good except for a burnt flavor and I was wondering if anyone knew of anything I can do to them now to salvage them... a coating or something? I was considering brushing them with mel...	Cut the pecans a bit smaller than whole, fry up a bunch of bacon, super crispy. Crumble that up and mix it in: meaty, protein-y snack, ... or sprinkle it on salads, veggies, and stuff. The bacon will set your senses up for a smokey burned flavor, and unless the pecans are completely carbonized, it'll taste great.
Can I avoid overcooking my candied lemon decorations? I've been tweaking my grandmother's fruitcake recipe all month, and as part of this adventure I tried to make it a little fancier by adding some candied orange and lemon slices on top. This looked really cute and decorative when I put the candied slices on the raw ...	Try gluing them to the cooked cake with a sugar syrup or caramel. Caramel is quite sticky, so it should hold the candied citrus on the cake with no problems, at least during transport. How hard your caramel is will probably affect how well it cuts, but I think a somewhat softer caramel (or a thicker sugar syrup) woul...
Cooking 4 lasagnas at same time I would like to bake 4 3-lb lasagnas at same time. Recommended time for one is: 375 degrees for 55 minutes, remove film and bake an additional 10 minutes for browning. How much extra time is required and does the temperature need to be changed?	If you can fit all four into one oven and you use convection, just use the instructions for one. Like for all foods, you will want to monitor the progress and possibly decide to give it a few extra minutes or to pull it out a moment sooner. But that is a general advice that takes different oven calibrations etc. into a...
How do I keep track of how old food is? I've been paying more attention to food safety but I don't understand how people remember exactly how long a given item has been sitting in the fridge. If I want to make sure to stay safe, do I have to just write down what I bought/cooked/took out of the freezer and when? I have...	Label everything with the date it goes in the fridge. That's about all there is to it. In my house we keep a marker and a roll of painter's tape in a drawer near the fridge, which makes labeling food easy; then you just stick to the system, religiously. Incidentally, if it's not instantly obvious what's in a container ...
How to determine quantity of baking powder for baking simple cake? Do I need to double the quantity of baking powder,when all other ingredients are doubled for preparing simple sponge cake?	For doubling a recipe, yes, you double the amount of baking powder. Issues with increasing a recipe rarely cause trouble until you get to 4x or more. For baking though, you do want to make sure the depth of the cake is the same as for the original recipe though so that it bakes properly in about the same amount of t...
How can I tell if a steel rod is for sharpening or honing? I bought one of those rod tools before I fully understood the process. Now I'm not sure if the steel rod I bought is meant for honing or for sharpening. Is there a way to tell the difference simply by the look/feel of the steel?	If it's a rod, it's for honing, not sharpening. As stated in this article from Serious Eats: One of the biggest misconceptions about the particular type of kitchen tool you see above is the belief that it's a knife sharpener. It doesn't help that many manufacturers sell their honing steels as such. But a honing steel...
If doubling a chocolate mousse, should gelatin be doubled as well? I am making a chocolate mousse that includes gelatin, and I want to double the recipe. Do I need to double both the gelatin and the amount of water it’s dissolved in?	You need to double the gelatin, as it’s responsible for the texture and “stiffness” of your mousse. You don’t have to double the water, but you can, of course. The water is no essential ingredient, it’s just a means to dissolve the gelatin. But of course the gelatin will dissolve easier, if enough water is present, so ...
Why is it recommended to leave the last segment of shell on a shrimp? The question title pretty much says it all. Many recipes (such as this one) specifically recommend that the tail/last segment of shell be left on when preparing shrimp. Is there any reason for this? When I'm eating shrimp I generally prefer having...	The shells do have strong shrimp flavor that can contribute to a sauce, and are also left on for visual reasons. But personally, the choice of whether to leave it on depends on how I'm planning on eating the shrimp. If they are going to be picked up and eaten, it is nice to have a little "handle" to grab them by. If th...
Separating egg yolks the night before beating meringue When separating egg whites from yolks could a person do it the night before so the morning of making pies turns out faster?	Yes, that's fine - if you take a few precautions. Once you have opened your eggs, you are exposing the contents to the air. So need to protect the eggs from drying out: A matching small jar or plastic container is a good choice for the yolks. For whites, you can even put them in your mixing bowl and cover tightly, whic...
Chocolate mousse turned to scrambled eggs in cream So I was trying to make a white chocolate mousse. The recipe called for heating up cream, beating egg yolks, then combining the two and thickening over heat. I must've cooked it too long as the egg seems to have been cooked, it smells like scrambled eggs. The egg has ...	Did the recipe include a "tempering" step where you add a small stream of the hot liquid to the eggs while beating them, before adding the egg mixture to the hot bowl? If not, it should have - if so, did you actually do that? Many new cooks see something like that and figure it's pointless, so they just dump the eggs i...
Is it safe to wrap food in aluminum foil before baking it? It's hard to clean the baking sheet from the stains left by baking food. I was wondering if it is safe to bake the food wrapped in aluminum foil, or whether some aluminum may be leached into the food?	Not only is it safe but there are entire collections of recipes developed around "foil pack" cooking. Mostly centered around 'campfire' cooking, where one prepares all of the ingredients, wraps them tightly in aluminum foil and places the whole pack in the fire (or oven) to cook the dish.
What is this attachment for on this veg peeler? Just found a vegetable peeler with a very strange bladed attachment on the bottom of the handle. The blades are all parallel but arranged in a V arrangement. There is an arrow pointing in the direction of the sharp edge of the blades and we can’t work out what it’s for. ...	Anything you want to make thin strips of. Green beans, carrots, something small enough to fit in there. You drag it through and it is split into thin slices. This is an "action shot" from a slightly more specialized version available on Amazon.
Is there an upper time limit when simmering stock? I'm making veal stock that's later going to be reduced to a glace viande. In the past, I was always close enough to observe the process and strain the stock when done. I also realize that an hour or two and even longer isn't an issue when making stock. But today I wi...	You could implement a perpetual stock, where you keep it simmering indefinitely and renew it by adding fresh ingredients over time. The tradition of keeping a perpetual stew boiling for weeks or even months dates back centuries, and was a way to keep the ingredients from going bad in days before refrigeration. https:/...
How does "Infra-red" frying work? After many delightful meals at a friends home, made by "frying a turkey in an infrared fryer" I decided to get one for myself, specifically the "Big Easy" from CharBroil. Empirically I can see that this 'works' (and quite well) but I'm not sure I understand "How" it works. You have an...	Infrared refers to the region of the electromagnetic spectrum comprised by wavelengths of about 1 and 100 microns. As you said it lies just aside the reddish part of the visible spectrum (called visible based on our vision) and usually revealed by sensors based on semiconductors. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electr...
Does there exist a non-rust substitute for an iron-cast pan? I recently bought a new cast-iron pan and I am enjoying very much the upgrade in the quality of my food. As I understand it, the reason why food cooked in an cast-iron pan tastes better is that the pan heats the food more evenly (due to its thickness). On t...	It does exist, is the best of both worlds and what I use and it's called Enameled Cast Iron and I use Le Creuset... It's cast iron below the enamel finish Doesn't stick as much as real old-fashioned cast iron lasts forever as long as you don't drop them. (Your kitchen tiles will break too) once every 2-3 months boil ...
Why do some rolling pins only have one handle? I've been looking into getting a new rolling pin as I've been making more and more homemade pasta. One rolling pin that I came across has only one handle. At around the 5:15 mark of this video, you'll see that the knob of the handle is laying flat against the work surface...	As Megha says above, this kind of rolling pin is rolled by pressing on the pin itself, as you can see in the video. I have two such rolling pins in different sizes. The knob is not used when rolling out dough. The single knob is there for picking up the pin, both by itself, and for transporting rolled pasta, pizza, a...
Mixing 60% and 81% dark chocolate to get 70% I need 70% dark chocolate for a cake recipe (actually 72%, but the recipe notes that slightly lower content will be fine), also, according to the recipe, high-quality chocolate is not a must. In my local supermarket, 70% dark chocolate was priced extremely high, and 100 gra...	Functionally, it should work out fine; but it is not an exact substitute. Based on the fact that your recipe gives you a tolerance for both strength and quality of the chocolate I would say it is probably fine to proceed boldly with your plan to mix the two. You might try a small sample melt first (as suggested here) ...
Why do my weighing scales have ml and g? My electric weighing scales allow me to set the weighing unit to various different units. 2 of the units are g (grams) and ml (milliliters). However, considering 1ml at sea level should weigh 1g (and this is borne out in the scales' value; 100ml of water also weighs 100g), is...	Well as a chemist the densities of water and any watery liquid like milk will be very close to 1 gram per milliliter (g/ml) -- within a few percent. However corn oil would be off since it is about 0.90 g/ml. Lard seems to be about 0.87 g/ml. So be careful, but I'd guess that most ingredients in a recipe would work if w...
Dauphinoise potatoes: not fully cooked in cream? I am attempting to make dauphinoise potatoes using this recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/402620/dauphinoise-potatoes I am preparing them for tomorrow. So the aim is to put them directly into the oven tomorrow. I've done the cream and the boiling and they are ...	You don't want to serve under-cooked potatoes, they will not be pleasant to eat and might give people indigestion. However, there's no reason you would need to as they'll cook in the oven, in fact that's the idea, if you cook them in the cream until they are done they'll break apart. You don't need that step at all rea...
Chicken rejuvenation? Let's say for argument's sake that if I buy a rotisserie (cooked) chicken from my local grocery store and stick it in the fridge it will last 5 days before it starts to be detectably going bad. Prior to the 5th day the bird tastes and smells fresh. If I rip the meat off the bones on the 4th day a...	There are several things to consider here. Fist "detectably going bad" is probably beyond the point where there are potential safety issues. Second, it is probably difficult for you to determine how long the chicken may have been in the danger zone between grocery store cooking, storage, travel time to your home, and ...
is it ok to store quinoa, rice, lentils, barley, farro, kasha, black beans in the fridge? Is it ok to store beans, rice, grains in fridge? I've been doing this method for years....lots of rotation as I use these regularly. Is there any nutritional loss?	If you have the space there's no reason not to, and some good reasons to. For one thing, it reduces odds of various bugs infesting (or hatching out if the eggs are already present.) For things like ground whole grains (whole wheat flour) it also slows rancidity - though that should not be a problem for the whole grain....
Safe to use pressure cooker for beer stew? I was thinking of using a pressure cooker to prepare the Flemish rabbit. This requires stewing the rabbit legs in beer. Is it safe?	It is perfectly safe to add beer to any recipe in a pressure cooker. (well, any recipe you might use beer for outside a pressure cooker). While I've not done this with rabbit I have with venison (for chili), beef and chicken for various stews. Assuming your concern is adding a 'carbonated' beverage, this question has ...
shipping cheese I bought cheese blocks at the store, unwrapped them, divided them into smaller pieces, cold smoked them, and repackaged them with a seal a meal vacuum system. Will they be safe to eat if I ship them ground from Oregon to Michigan?	Lot's of food companies ship all sorts of foods, all of the time. While simply boxing up your cheese and sending it on the slow route from OR to MI would invite spoilage, you could package it an insulated container, include ice packs, and speed up the delivery. This will cost you, but your cheese will be better off.
what to mix with milk other than sugar to give good taste I want to drink milk without adding any sugar [ for Diet ] is there any alternative for sugar to mix with milk which give good taste ? I dont want honey [ more calorie ] , stevia , cocoa butter [cocoa butter is only fat]..... has anyone tried with cocoa powder,...	I spoke with a hospital dietitian about a study that concluded with the fact that as long as you are getting your vitamin D and calcium from other sources milk is unnecessary in the adult human diet. She agreed and noted that lactose is hard for many people to digest and added the fats and calories can be best "spent" ...
Turkey took 2 hours longer in oven with no bottom element Our Christmas turkey, which, according to weight, should have only taken 3 hours to cook, was in for almost 6 hours and still was not quite done at the bone. My oven is new, but does not have a bottom element. Could that be why it takes longer?	I suspect that your oven has a hidden bottom element as I've never seen an electric oven w/o a bottom element. Regardless, in a working oven the whole oven should be near the desired temperature. It will be a lot closer to even throughout the oven if you have a convection oven. Since the oven took much longer than expe...

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