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For a beef stock, why should I roast bones at 450? Everything in a beef stock seems to be about going slow and taking time. When it comes to roasting the bones though, it seems that most people recommend roasting at a really high heat. My instinct would be to roast them at a lower temperature to prevent burning. Is...	This idea is to use the Maillard reaction (the reaction between amino acids and sugars as meats are heated and browned) to enhance and concentrate flavors. The reaction begins at about 280 degrees Fahrenheit, and tops out at 330 degrees Fahrenheit, so, you could use a lower oven. It would take longer. Caramelization fl...
Can Thermomix(-style) appliances knead dough well? I make italian-style pizza, by kneading the dough in a bread machine. The machine does a very good job (it works it for around 45 minutes), much better than I could do with my hands, and using a pizza stone oven, I can make a pizza that is very close to a traditional ...	German article about different kneading appliances: https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/05/13/von-klebern-krume-und-knetern-sechs-knetmaschinen-im-praxistest/ In short: Thermomix is okay but leads to a warmer dough than others because of the motor being placed right below the bowl. Others knead from above, so the dough stay...
What are the differences between gumbo, jambalaya, and etoufee? From what I can tell it has something to do with the type of roux and vegetables used and maybe whether it should be considered more of a soup or a main course. Are these hard and fast definitions or more a matter of interpretation? Does whether it is mor...	Gumbo is a stew/soup, etouffee involves a roux to make it more of a sauce served over rice as a vehicle, and jambalaya is a one-pot meal with rice as an integral part of the dish--sort of like a cajun paella. All three tend to have shellfish where as gumbo and jambalaya tend to also have sausage (etouffee usually doesn...
Reducing butter levels in Swiss or Italian Buttercream I've looked all over for recipes for Italian or Swiss buttercream. All of them use tons of butter, from 2 sticks to 5 sticks. I'm trying to find a recipe that makes a reasonable amount (enough to frost and decorate a 2-layer 8" cake) with only 1 and a half sticks ...	If you are ok with a slightly less stable version (mainly an issue when piping fine details, swirls and such are no problem), and a more cream-ish color as opposed to the white meringue-based types, “German“ or custard-based buttercream could be your “low butter” alternative. It’s made by combining butter and a pre-mad...
What is the English name for chleb bez maki? Can't remember how I stumbled onto this but everything I google for chleb bez maki is in Polish. Can't find a Wikipedia article. Is this a traditional polish bread? What is the English name for it? I see there are chleb bez maki mixes but can't seem to find them online for...	Chleb bez mąki means literally in polish "bread without flour", you may find hundreds of recipes in the web. They are breads based in whole grains, oatmeal, etc... Chleb bez mąki
Purpose of hole in stove leading to oven I'm staying in a hotel and have access to a "electric coil stove" for one of the first times. I accidentally turned on the oven light and saw that the light was shining up through only one of the stoves: There's only a port from the oven into the top right stove, and note that...	A simple Google search yielded the following https://www.shopyourway.com/m/questions/1019973 All ovens are vented one way or another. You would not want to heat up the air in a sealed chamber because of thermal expansion. It would explode due to the heat expanding because it has no way to vent. A vent is also needed t...
How do I reduce kitchen temperature during cooking? My kitchen gets too hot during the summer while I am cooking. I have exhaust fans installed in the kitchen, but it's not really helping. I have four questions: Is there any other way I can reduce the kitchen temperature? Does the kitchen chimney help reduce kitch...	Sucking hot air out of the kitchen using the hood ("chimney") will cool the room, though possibly not by much on a hot day. A nice big open window to allow fresh air in will maximise this effect. Even on a hot day, the hood will cause a through draught, and the lower humidity, slightly cooler air blowing over you as y...
How best to cook frozen (homemade, not store-bought) blintzes? I made some blintzes from this recipe, and froze them as indicated in the note at the end. You'll notice that the recipe only gives instructions for cooking fresh blintzes, not frozen. When it comes time to eat them, should I thaw them and then fry them, o...	Thaw them longer and be sure they are thawed to the core before cooking; if you made them properly they will not break apart or unfold. I wouldn't recommend warming them in the oven because most oven's lowest temp still cooks slightly and deteriorates the dish. Once thawed FULLY cook as if it was freshly made (it, of...
Why does the breading always come off of my oven fried chicken? I love fried chicken, but have been trying to cook oven fried chicken instead due to the lower caloric content. I usually use chicken that has been soaked in buttermilk overnight, drain excess moisture, and then roll it in a flour/breadcrumb mix. After th...	The longer you let the flour/breadcrumb mixture set on the chicken before cooking, the more the gluten network will set up, which will improve adherence to the meat, as well as make the breading stay intact as a shell. The issue is that when you cook the meat, the breading and meat expand at different rates and are pul...
How much "buffer" or margin of error is in food safety guidelines? When I read food safety guidelines, I always get the sense that I should run for the decon shower if I even look at a piece of raw meat. I have to fight the urge to sprint home with my groceries lest the eggs become poisonous on the way. If I thaw meat...	A lot of the "time out of fridge" and similar guidelines must have quite a lot of buffer in a cool domestic kitchen compared to a hot commercial kitchen for which they're written. This is because the temperature is the food is what matters and that will change much more slowly is the ambient temperature is closer to fr...
Since when have eggs in the UK said "at home, refrigerate" (and why)? Eggs in the UK (and most if not all of Europe) are sold at ambient temperature. This question is specifically in this context. When putting a box of eggs away in the cupboard yesterday I noticed that they were supposed to be refrigerated. This mak...	Storing eggs in the fridge avoids temperature fluctuations, and ensures they are kept below 20°C. I am happy to report that there exists the British Egg Information Service, who state: For optimum freshness and food safety, eggs should be kept at a constant temperature below 20°C. To avoid the typical temperature fluc...
Dry and Tough Rumproast Me and my friends have been cooking a 2kg=4.5 pounds piece of rumproast in a bbq smoker. We cooked it at about 250°F for about 3 hours. After that we, wrapped it in tin foil, raised the temperature to about 300°F and cooked it for an additional 3 hours. Our thinking here was that we can raise t...	The Maillard reaction occurs about 280 to 330 °F depending on the food. For meats this denaturing of the proteins also results in the release of water, so the meat gets hard and dry. By cooking at a "low" temperature, you cook at temperatures below which the Maillard reaction occurs. Well done beef has a resting tempe...
How will reducing and freezing affect the flavor of stock? I have been working on making beef stock for about a month now. I am happy enough with the outcome that I would like to make larger batches and preserve it. It is currently the consistency of jelly after bringing down its temperature and letting it cool in t...	I've certainly never detected any adverse effects on the flavour from freezing and/or reducing stock. However I no longer reduce stock before freezing as it seems like a waste to boil off loads of water only to add it later, when the only benefit is saving surprisingly little freezer space. It comes out a little more ...
I have a built in deep fryer outside. Is it safe to leave oil in it I have a commercial grade built in deep fryer that I put in my outdoor kitchen. I have been using it for awhile now and I just leave the oil in the fryer and put a stainless steel cover on it. The oil looks to be in good shape not dark or anything a...	Assuming that your fryer is protected from the elements, the safety issues for an outdoor fryer are the same as for an indoor one. Fryer oil can be used over and over again. It absolutely does not need to be to be changed every use. Restaurants that use fryers a lot will filter the oil on a daily or near daily basis, b...
Can I use low-temperature cooking for foie gras I used to cook my meat (beef, duck) at 58°C, but I never cooked foie gras of myself. Is it possible to use this cooking method for this? I am wondering this because I saw a recipe with a beef piece half-opened with a raw foie gras inserted in. Then all of this baked but ...	You should be fine if you your product is in the oven until the center reaches 58C. Carry over cooking will cause the temp to increase slightly, and your fois will be in the safe zone.
Success tempering chocolate with Kitchen-Aid heated mixing bowl? So, I was given a Kitchen-Aid heated mixing bowl for Christmas, and following the instructions I have attempted to temper chocolate a few times without any success whatsoever. It takes a very long time to temper, so it's a time consuming and fruitless ta...	I haven't used the Kitchen-Aid, but I have the Kenwood Cooking Chef which is similar, and I frequently use it to temper chocolate. I have tried a couple of different ways: Heat the chocolate to 32°C degrees while stirring - This takes a long (looong) time and the results are not great (too viscous) Heat the chocolate ...
Why all that sauce just sitting in the dish in these stuffed bell peppers recipes? The recipes here and here each call for dumping a lot of a tomato & broth (+ onion) sauce in the baking dish. Like around .75 cup per bell pepper. That's way (way, way) too much to want to spoon over the peppers at the end, so is this s...	These recipes seem to be a misunderstanding how stuffed pepper recipes typically work. At least when we are looking at the Balkan tradition, where the dish originated - this answer focuses on it only. If there is by now a changed form in US recipes, it is not included in my use of the word "traditional". Traditionally...
Peanut butter becomes dry I tried to make some peanut butter at home in a blender. It worked as expected, resulted in a somewhat smooth butter. But after keeping it for about 30 minutes, it became too dry. The smoothness was all gone and started to appear powdery. How can I avoid this? I had added some honey and a li...	It's a natural process in homemade peanut butter (and in 100% peanut butters). The fat from peanuts is stratifying from the rest. This is assuming you keept the mixture in the machine for longer time. So A) you squished the fat and b) mixed the fat in again. If you stopped blending right after you "buttered" it then t...
How to add richness to a vegan dough? Usually whenever I bake I substitute milled flaxseeds + water for eggs, soy milk for milk, and margarine for butter. This isn't a problem when the sweet gets most of its flavor from other ingredients such as carrot cake, nut-based cakes, and pies. However whenever I try to make so...	Olive oil! Or really, any oil you prefer. Vegan butters would probably work too, but I prefer a good quality olive oil. You can get ones that are pressed with other vegetables/herbs/fruit etc. for example olives pressed with lemon rinds makes for a stunning lemon olive oil. Just sub out some oil for water/liquid. Or t...
Do you need cheesecloth to wrap around a dry aged beef? If so, how many layers do I need to wrap them and how does it work? I read from another article, that cheesecloth allows air to pass through while also preventing excessive dehydration since home refrigerators are less humid. But in my case, I control the humidi...	Cheesecloth is not 'required' for dry aging, but it is helpful. You can substitute a wrapping of paper towels. You want something to absorb the moisture that will be released during the aging process. For a good primer on home dry aging see Alton Brown's "Porterhouse Rules"
What, if at all, is the difference of cooking an egg on high or low heat? When I fry an egg I frequently cook them on medium-high and it takes 2-3 minutes with one flip. Some of my family will cook eggs over a very low heat that takes as much as 10 minutes. Do the eggs come out differently this way? I personally don'...	The proteins in egg white and egg yolk behave differently at different temperatures. It is an ingredient that responds to very subtle temperature variations. That is why it is a favorite item to cook for those of us interested in low-temperature cooking using an immersion circulator (sous vide). However, predating th...
Is there a general strategy to cooking a stew? I've looked at a couple of stew recipes with the aim of learning a general approach that can be applied to whatever I have on hand, but I can't see one. I was expecting something like: brown meat add hard vegetables after X minutes add soft vegetable after Y minutes Is ...	You can't give a general approach the way you outlined it, as different cuts of meat (and different ages of the animal) demand different cooking times. So the timing of the vegetables would have to be "X minutes before the meat is done"... (and that leaves out the characteristics of your particular batch of vegetables)...
What is meant when a spice is water-soluble? Coriander and basil are said to be water-soluble. However, I'm not quite sure what this means. If you put the leaves into water the leaves do not dissolve. They are still there at the end. I know certain nutrients can be water soluble — e.g., vitamin C — but what is meant ...	"Water soluble" vs. "fat soluble" refer to the flavor of the spice, rather than the physical leaves, seeds, or grains. That is, if you put a bunch of basil leaves (especially dried ones) in a glass of warm water, and leave it for a few minutes, the water will continue to taste like basil even after you've strained out...
Undercooked French Bread in Bread machine I recently bought a Hamilton Beach 2 lbs Bread-maker. Today I used their provided recipe to make a 2lbs loaf of French bread. I followed the recipe but my bread turned out looking under-cooked on top of the loaf and on the inside. I made the Italian Parmesan bread last weekend...	I'm going to base my initial diagnosis on this: I followed the recipe but my bread turned out looking under-cooked on top of the loaf and on the inside. I made the Italian Parmesan bread last weekend and had no problems with it. This time, the bread seemed to stay liquid after mixing for a lot longer than it did with ...
Tips for cooking pasta twice I would like to cook pasta twice, with a cooling phase before the second cooking. Unfortunately, I’ve found that reheating pasta isn’t easy: I would like to keep it al dente and prevent tangling/sticking. It is also important to heat it all the way through both times, and to cool it down c...	In college, I would oil the pasta lightly after cooking (so it didn't turn into a giant lump), then would steam it 'til it was warm, and add it to hot sauce. I was typically working with linguini or other strand pasta. I'd start it in the steamer for a bit, then turn the mass over. As it softened up, I'd lift it wit...
Are these knives safe? I am wondering if these painted knives are safe to use.	A knife that has a painted blade is best thought oof as a 'gimmicky' knife. There will be limited uses before sharpening starts to flake away the paint on the face of the blade. The paint itself is pretty chemically non-reactive in most cases (it has to be to harden and stick to the metal). There are some cases where p...
Reduce the hot taste in a Cambodian curry I made a Cambodian curry, but it was too hot! They say dairy is good for cooling hot curries, but this one I made has coconut milk in it. Would it be ok to put cream in it? If so, single or double??	If it is about keeping authenticity, more coconut milk would be the answer. If you just want a toned down but well tasting curry, any emulsified fat - coconut milk, cream, yoghurt - will do, as long as you add it carefully in a way that doesn't make it split and become grainy (so whisk it, add it carefully with the hea...
Looking for peach preserves substitute I'm making a dish that that has a "sweet and sour" sauce to it. The recipe calls for apricot and peach preserves. Unfortunately I am highly allergic to peaches. Does any one know what a good substitute would be? Could I just use Apricot alone and double the amount needed? I...	Apricots (Prunus armeniaca and peaches (Prunus persica) are botanically speaking “close cousins” and have a quite similar flavor profile. Fresh apricot tends to be both sweeter and tarter, peach is a bit milder overall. The difference is less pronounced with preserves. For your sauce, apricot alone (i.e. using more ap...
Do yellow lentils sprout after submersion for a few hours? Yellow lentils. Not consumed fast enough. Organic. Bought bulk at a health food store 28-29 months ago and kept in a sealed jar. After leaving them in water for 3-4 hours, they seem to be sprouting. Is that possible, so fast? One concern is that the sprouting ...	You correctly identified the little white things as sprouts, or technically the plant embryo. (So no insect larvae - phew!) But assuming that your lentils are already sprouting after three to four hours is a bit optimistic, even in Spring. If you split open a lentil or other legume seed, you will notice that the plan...
Deep frying corn kernels starts busting/exploding in oil I tried to prepare a recipe of crispy fried corn. I coated the corn kernels with corn starch, but the starch didn't stick to the corn kernels properly, so when I deep-fried them in hot oil they started popping, bursting.	It sounds to me like you are accidentally making popcorn, which is a result of hot gasses building up inside the hull of the kernel. Fresh kernels typically have a tougher hull than frozen or canned, both of which use methods that weaken the hull. Freezing the corn causes growing ice crystals to damage cells. Canned co...
How much flavor do you lose when you clarify a stock with an egg raft? I have heard conflicting things with stock clarification. One thing I have heard is that your stock will maintain its same depth of flavor but with clarity. Another source says that you have to start with a really high quality stock or your clari...	I'm open to correction, but in my opinion,the main reason for clarifying a stock, assuming gross impurities have been removed, is aesthetic. Not forgetting that the the appearance of food does change the impression of flavor. Floating ingredients can be shown off in clear soups - a sufficiently concentrated consommé,...
Using an ice cream maker with its own compressor I'm used to using the ice cream makers where you have to freeze the bowl first, but have now got a used Andrew James model 3368 ice cream makers with its own compressor - but no manual. I've read about putting a saline solution between the machine and the mixing bowl (I...	Usually with compressor machines you just turn it on and get it super cold, then make sure the dasher is spinning before pouring in the mix. Make sure the mix is below 40°F (4C) beforehand. I also chill down the spoon, container I’m putting the ice cream in, and any add-in’s I’m adding to it. Then spin it until the mot...
How to carry a knife around a kitchen safely? How do I carry a knife when moving between my cutting station and the sink for cleaning safely? Any way I hold it feels like I'm either endangering my fellow cooks or myself. Context: I'm not a chef, I cook at home, but my kitchen is large and there are often multiple pe...	One should try not to situate the cutting station away from the sink. Most of the time you clean what you are going to cut and you have scraps to put down the garbage disposal. If you need to clean the knife you also need to clean the cutting board. If I had to carry a lone knife around I would extend my arm down th...
When to apply a white egg wash on white wheat bread? My go to bread is a much appreciated result of many tips from this site. It is a basic 75% hydration high-protein wheat bread that proofs in total for about 4.5-5.5 hours. I think it qualifies as a no knead bread. I wanted to get a shinier and softer surface so I tr...	You are trying to counteract the formation of a crust - which is the opposite of what a good hot bake works towards. The key to this is to keep the surface of the dough as moist as possible and this starts already after the shaping during the second rise. Apply the first wash at this point. I personally go for a whole ...
Do percentages on ingredient lists of cookies refer to pre- or post-baking weight? Using Fox's Dark Chocolate Chunkie Cookies' ingredients as an example, per https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=273949462, Dark Chocolate Chunks (28%) refers to the weight before the baking, or is it the weight after the b...	This is on the list of ingredients, so it is the pre-cooked formula weight, to demonstrate to the buyer just how much chocolate chunks to expect. Post cooking, the chocolate has changed, as have the other ingredients. The ingredients also list: Raising Agents: Ammonium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Disodium Diphosp...
Can I use icing sugar instead of caster sugar? Are they the same thing? So there is a cupcake recipe I wanna make and it's my first time making it also one of my first time making any dessert like this. I got some icing sugar but the recipe asked for caster sugar. Are they both the same? If not can I use icing sugar t...	Icing sugar is much finer than caster sugar. However this way round you can probably get away with it ("probably" because without the exact recipe it's hard to tell). I have recipes for butter biscuits that differ only in one using caster sugar and the other using icing sugar, for example, and cake recipes that use i...
How can I remove surface rust from a cleaver and keep it off I was in Amish country in Ohio last weekend and found this in an antique shop. It seemed interesting and reasonably priced so I bought it. I did notice the surface rust. The cleaver is 9" from heel to toe on the blade and weighs almost 3 pounds. Can someone ...	For the rust you can try an oxalic acid cleaner like Barkeeper's Friend (try it on a small spot first!). It's worked great for my bakeware's cooked-on spots, and should be useful for rust as well. Using it will be a bit of trial-and-error, because leaving the metal exposed for too long will etch it, and not long enou...
Cheese crackers In a recipe using butter, flour, and cheese, what difference will it make to combine the cheese either first with the flour, or later after the butter and flour have been combined?	Assuming the butter is rubbed into the flour (as when making pastry), and the cheese is grated firm cheese there will be a difference. By trying to combine all at once, you'll struggle to rub in all the butter without trying to rub the cheese in as well. With cold butter it will be really quite awkward. With a fine ...
Better way to make Iced Tea Should I brew at full strength, allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating, or should I brew at a higher strength and “shock cool” over ice?	The advice I have heard is for stronger tea use more tea. Do not steep longer as it can get bitter. If you are in a hurry a stronger tea with ice could work but if you want to come from brew temperature to ice temperature it would need to start very strong. Maybe experiment with double strength and let it cool to ...
New York style pizza dough We have been open for two months. In this two months, I feel like the pizza dough is coming out different every time, even though we use the same ingredients and the same amounts. I have been worried lately because I see a gum line in my pizza dough and I don't know what to do to get rid of ...	First point I would not is that the mixer you mention (Avantco MX20 20 Qt.)is not recommended for pizza dough as stated here Secondly this not withstanding the capacity of this mixer for bread dough is 16-18 lbs (7-8 KG approx). By my calculation you are trying to mix around 30 lbs (14 KG). Avantco MX20 20 Qt. specific...
Why do beans squeak? We had some green beans in a chicken dish, and despite being well-cooked, they still squeaked against the teeth. Its not an unpleasent sensation, but it doesn't really blend with the other foods. This has happened with both Green and Yellow beans that have been sliced but not "podded" like peas...	From my experience, this is more likely to happen if the beans are cooked in a dry manner (eg as part of a pie filling, in a very thick sauce, or by sauteeing or baking) than when they are boiled - so par-boiling the beans before adding them might silence the squeak somewhat. Also, the texture (and colour) of cooked gr...
Does it matter if I start boiling hard eggs in hot or cold water? Does it matter if I in which water temperature I start to prepare hard eggs? Of course, the preparing time will be still measured from boiling - but does it make any difference? - regards the temperature difference between the eggs and the water. Also, ...	It depends on how fussy you are about your hard boiled eggs. If you wait until your water is boiling and then add the eggs for the same amount of time, every time, then you will get consistent results. If you add the eggs to cold water a variety of circumstances (actual starting water temp, stove setting, size/style of...
How do I get rid of excess flour on my dried pasta shapes? I dried some cavatelli I made with egg dough (I know it's usually made with AP, semolina and water but I was improvising), however, I had to add some excess flour around the shapes to prevent them from sticking during the drying process. I'm reluctant to cook ...	Brush the flour off using a soft cooking brush (or even a clean paintbrush). It might take a while, but as with making pasta itself, it's a slow and involved process which eventually gets faster. You might want to consider doing this over a baking sheet with a wire rack.
How to tenderize squid for ika nigiri? I was at a Sushi restaurant in San Diego today and ordered some squid nigiri. Although it had been roughly scored with a knife, it was still quite chewy. I'm assuming it was yari-ika. Is there a way to prepare squid for nigiri that's less rubbery?	Squid gets rubbery when overcooked and it happens really fast, so you should just blanch it for just a few seconds and immediately cool it in icy water. I used to score the squid on the outside (with a criss-cross pattern, not too deep) to prevent it from warping during the cooking process. It also adds a nice texture.
Is there a general algorithm for calculating the amount of yeast while making bread? I've had this question for a long time. I have several books with different recipes and the amount of yeast changes a lot. I know for a fact that it is better to work with less yeast and wait for a longer time for the bread to rise. B...	There are many variables that determine how fast bread will rise: The type and quantity of yeast, how much of that yeast is viable, temperature, water content, water availability, acidity, etc. A Note about water availability Some ingredients, especially sugar, compete with the yeast for the water in the bread. Dough ...
Can you marinade with tallow? I notice most recipes use a vegetable oil for marinades. If you use saturated fat, obviously it will become solid at room temperature or lower. Not sure if this affects its ability to marinade. So, can you marinade with saturated fat?	Theoretically yes, practically, it will serve no purpose. Marinades serve the purpose of drawing flavors out of the aromatics and herbs and distributing them to the food being marinated. To do so, they need to be in a form that can absorb and re-distribute. There are so many opinions on marinating...you know, everyone ...
Pizza dough keeps breaking through plastic When storing freshly made pizza dough in the fridge, I use your everyday plastic wrap, two sheets, to wrap around the dough. Sometimes, when the dough expands, it breaks through the plastic and the bit exposed outside the plastic dries up. Not the end of the world, but annoyi...	Use a 'big enough' baggie or 'big enough' rigid container. Most dough recipes call for the dough proofs (rising of the dough) to be double in size. Use a baggie or container 2-1/2 to 3 times the pre-rise size of the dough ball Many recipes call for an oiled/grease vessel covered with cling film (plastic wrap), kitchen ...
How do I make my bread heavy when baked? What ingredient do I add to my bread dough to make it heavy when it's out from the oven?	This is personal experience, and I am not a professional cook. However are you sure you are using the right kind of flour? I personally find making bread using anything except strong flour makes bread that is light and almost cake like, not very pleasant in my opinion. Strong flour has more protein and gluten and gives...
Energy usage of an oven Does it take more energy to heat an oven to 350 degrees from cold or to leave it at 350 degrees for one hour?	I will assume that your question is really "My oven is at 350 degrees, but I won't need it for another hour. Should I leave it on for the hour, or turn it off and then back on when I actually need it?". (This is more physics than cooking, but since you asked the question here, and I like physics...) The answer is that ...
Can infrared light in electric / induction cooktop hurt eye? Can infrared light in electric / induction cooktop hurt eye? I use them a lot and was wondering if it could end up hurting my eyes somehow. I read around that infrared light can end up hurting your eyes easily and was wondering / worrying about it.	Induction cooktops do not use lights to cook/heat. They use magnetic induction, which means there's a coil with electricity passing through it in the stove, which causes (induces) eddy currents to flow in the pan sitting on it, and as those dissipate the energy is turned into heat. All of this is completely safe, and i...
Recommendation for thickening agent for use in basil seed drink, to prevent seeds from collecting at the bottom I was wondering what might be a good choice for a flavorless and clear thickening/gelling agent for use in a home made basil seed drink. I am trying to imitate the commercially available basil seed drink pro...	There are several options - xanthan gum, guar gum, and plain old unflavored gelatin could all be used. You would need to experiment a bit to get the desired effect.
Smoked Pork Butt Question I’ve smoked two pork butts for 11 hours and they’re done- but I’ve not supposed to serve for 7 hours. My plan is to keep itv warm in the oven at a low temperature. Question is: should I wrap the meat in foil now and shred later, or shred now and keep everything warm?	I would wrap the meat and keep it warm. Otherwise its likely to dry out in the oven at 7 hours, even at low heat.
Is it okay for preserved lemons to float? I just a couple days ago started a batch of Moroccan preserved lemons, using a combination of recipes from 2 books I own and a few online. Basically, near-quarter some Meyer lemons and stuff with salt, then squish them in a jar, releasing some juice and covering it with a litt...	While traditional recipes do not (apparently) use weights, other fermentation texts highly recommend submerging the material being fermented ("Fermented Vegetables", Christopher Shockey and Kirsten K. Shockey) and I had also observed possible mold problems when fermenting lemons myself. Therefore, standard advice would...
Additional dipping sauces for cheese fondue? I have the fondue set pictured below (picture is of the box of the set): I will be using it for the first time and see that on the picture of the box there are saucers with additional sauces/dips. I was wondering if this is really done for cheese fondue and what sauces wou...	I was taught to make cheese fondue in Switzerland and also have a fondue cookbook and I've never seen or heard of sauces being used with cheese fondue. I would fill the containers with bread for cheese fondue, sauces for meat fondue and fruit and cake for chocolate fondue.
How did grease get in under cooktop on stove? Even though I don't fry things often somehow there is grease all along the gap between my gas cooktop and the rest of the stove (above the knobs) which I suddenly noticed. The cooktop does not lift up so I will have to clean what I can from the front. There doesn't seem ...	Most of the dishes we cook do have at least some oils and fats in them. Even when we are not explicitly frying, or even sauteeing, the delicious fragrant vapors which fill our kitchens when we cook waft around and get into every nook and cranny of our walls, cupboards and stoves, even places where we can't reach to cle...
What are the tasteful herbs served with dizi in Iran? I’ve tasted Iranian dizi and loved the herbs that where served with it. Leaves look like basil and have a minty taste. Does anyone know what it is? Thanks :)	I presume it was mint. There are a lot of different variations of mint, from really spicy peppermint down to fruity flavors such as strawberry. You probably had the Moroccan mint / Mentha spicata var. crispa. If you have specialty stores for Mideastern cuisine ask for "Nane" Edit, after your addition of the Picture: ...
What happens to cheese below 0°C and above +8°C? What happens to cheese if I transport it in cold temperature (below 0°C, up to -20°C) for 5-7 hours? What if it's at +10°C for 5-7 hours? Can it go bad? If it does, do cool bags solve the issue of cheese going bad?	Though my answer won't go into the "technical" side of things as Lorel C.'s answer, I can answer from experience. I regularly travel to The Netherlands and when coming back I'll always bring cheese back with me on the flight. (Flight duration ~4,5-5 hours) I've brought back all kinds of cheeses, last time I brought a b...
Baking Soft Boiled Eggs? For various reasons I have to bake yolks to the consistency of soft boiled eggs, what is a good temp and time to do this?	A soft boiled eggs yolk is nothing more than raw egg yolk warmed up. You stop the cooking process right before it begins to congeal. The yolk itself is not considered "cooked". At 145° the yolk will still be completely liquid, jump it to 150° and the yolk starts to congeal. At 150° those egg yolks have gone from comp...
Why cool creme brulee? Why bake, cool then torch the crème brûlée? Why not skip the cooling? Is cooling for setting? Cooling for 4-24 hours is in almost every recipe I find.	Crème brûlée is supposed to be served cold, with a hard, crisp caramel layer on top. So that requires cooling after baking. The baking is needed to set the crème, it might just be a bit firmer after cooling. To ge the hard caramel, you need to add the sugar on top and then torch for a short time, just before serving. ...
How can I pick the correct avocados for guacamole? I tried to make guacamole the other day and it completely failed because some of the avocados that I bought were not ripe. How can I know which avocados to pick in order to make good guacamole?	I find it super difficult to make guacamole without ripe avocados, as I like a dip with no huge avocado chunks in it. Thus, as you mentioned, ripe avocados work best. Ripe? To deem if an avocado is ripe or not, give the avocado a gentle squeeze. If it is firm but gives a little (is a little squishy) then it is ripe. ...
Why wine _before_ butter in shrimp scampi? According to this recipe: To make shrimp scampi you want to first cook the (marinated) shrimps in olive oil, then remove them, then lightly brown garlic slices, add white wine and let the alcohol evaporate, then add butter to melt and add the shrimps back. Is there some spe...	Because you want to cook (reduce) the wine down (or any other liquid). Also, adding butter, usually cold butter chunks in the pan at the end will help emulsify the sauce. in the grand scheme of things it is not a big problem if you add wine after the butter, but the result will be different, the wine will taste more ra...
How can I use corn meal more efficiently when making pizzas? When I make pizzas, I put down a bunch of corn meal on my wooden pizza peel. I then put the shaped dough onto the peel (corn meal), add the toppings, and slide it onto a preheated stone in the oven. This always makes a big mess, as corn meal slides off the p...	When I first started making pizza at home, I tried cornmeal then tried semolina. Neither worked to my satisfaction Despite that the box of Reynold's Parchment paper says 'Oven SAfe to 420 degrees F', I tested it at 550deg F for 30 minutes at 550 deg F (the max temp my oven can be set to) on a heated pizza stone with a ...
Does shortbread ship well? I'm planning on shipping shortbread to another state, and it may take 3-5 days to arrive to the destination. It's a fairly butter-rich cookie: 3 sticks butter, 5 cups flour, 2 cups sugar (about) plus spices. How well would they ship, and how long will they stay after shipping? Could they go ...	Shortbread ships well, especially if you make the individual biscuits fairly thick. Walker's should be your guide here: theirs are about 0.75 to 1cm thick, which helps prevent crumbling in transit. Shipping them in a tin is also advised. Shortbread is also fairly shelf-stable. Freshness time depends on storage condi...
Want to bottle and sell a marinade/sauce I have a marinade recipe I want to sell to local small stores but I don’t know the logistics of how to make the product last with shelf life and I’ve read about oils causing botulism. I’m not sure where to find this information or how to go about it .	Check the colleges near you as they may have a food incubator program. There are several in Louisiana both affiliated with colleges and privately owned. They have programs to teach you the basics, professors to help answer questions, staff to help take your recipe from small batch to larger quantities, and commercial k...
breaking off chocolate from a block of chocolate We buy a block of callebaut chocolate that is five Kg. We are not commercial. I'm looking for a easier way to break off the amount we need it's a block around 40 cm X 20 cm, thick around 5cm. There are indentations on the chocolate for pieces of 500g. If anyone can giv...	One option is to make sure it's well wrapped (preferably loosely), place it on a soft surface, couch or bed, and bring your weight to bear on it - pressing with something like a knee will be easier than using your hands. As the surface yields under your weight, it puts upward pressure increasing towards the edges of t...
How long can powdered coffee remain fresh? So, I hadn't had coffee for a long time. Plus, I was feeling a little sleepy in the morning so I decided to have a glass of coffee. It tasted a little different than the last time I had it, but I thought maybe I just forgot the taste or the amount of sugar was not same. Right...	If, as you say, the coffee smelled ok, was stored dry, and showed no signs of deterioration (lumping, strange colours, etc.), it is perfectly safe to use. The "Best before" date gives you the producer's idea of how long the coffee will last in its original packaging without losing too much of its taste, aroma, and visu...
Low tech strategies for keeping food warm I need to cook food from the middle ages and bring it to school for a project. How can I keep the food warm without using innovative appliances?	A couple options spring to mind. One way is, as ChrisH mentions, simple insulation, using layers of straw and blankets would be the most portable options. I also recall that during that time items could be kept warm by burying them, or using an earthen oven to trap heat and keep something warm for hours, but these w...
Are long brines neccesary for sous vide? I'm looking at a recipe which calls for two weeks of wet brining followed by 48 hours of sous vide for beef tongue. I've seen similar recipes for other tough cuts of meat such as brisket. It seems to me that if we're going to stick it in a vacuum, the meat can't really dry out ...	Typically brines are for tenderizing and penetrating flavour into the meat. The use of the brine would be to break down the tough meat Though a sous vide does tenderize mildly with the long cooking time you stated, you don't want to over cook it, hence the brine. Nor would the sous vide alone add as much flavour as th...
How do you make a smooth and creamy apple custard? I've been trying to figure out how to make a creamy custard ( like for a creme brulee) infused with apple (or any kind of fruit/berry) while keeping a creamy texture and avoiding chunks. Ive thought about cooking down the apples then heating the cream with the apples ...	Bake the apples and have them dry and crisp up (cut the apples thin so that they dry up evenly and crisp faster) and concentrate the flavour. Then blend to a powder and mix into the custard. Cook and reduce the apples till a very tender gooey apple pie texture comes and then thicken and reduce excess water as to not th...
Bold Setting on Coffee Maker I have a 12-cup programmable coffee maker (of the now - defunct Sears variety) and used the "bold" setting to brew a stronger coffee for a specific recipe. But, it now seems stuck on bold. How do I get it back to regular? I read the manual and have tried unplugging it, which reset everythi...	All other things being equal (water, bean, grind, filter...) the "mechanical" effect of a bold setting is to constrict the flow rate so that the water is perculating with the coffee for a longer period, thus rendering a 'stronger' (or more bold) flavor. (see https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/20202/6279) If you feel ...
Muffins are fluffy, but crumbly I just made muffins, which turned out to have a great flavor and density, but are very crumbly. I followed this recipe, and made the following substitutions: 1/2 cup of flour --> coffee flour 3/4 cup milk + 1/4 cup coffee --> 1/4 cup milk + 1 cup coffee The recipe also calls for the b...	It looks like you substituted fully a third of the total flour in the recipe with coffee flour. Admittedly I have never used (or even heard of) coffee flour before, but I bet it does not come out as sticky as regular all-purpose flour when mixed with water (or milk, coffee, etc.) You can make paste (for sticking up pos...
Home-made soy milk Yesterday I went to a chinese supermarket and bought a bag of dried, white and unprocessed soy beans because I wanted to make my own soy milk. I took about 100 grams of them and let them soak in water for about 20-22 hours. Then I put them into a blender with around 400ml of water. The result was a ...	I make my own soymilk regularly. The method I use is from Yoshiko Takeuchi's book Cooking with Soy. She explains that traditional Chinese soymilk is made by grinding the beans with cold water, while the Japanese method involves heating the beans to reduce the strong bean flavour. "Western" style soymilk, she says, is m...
What are some pros/cons of restarting a bread machine mid-cycle? The situation: I put all ingredients in the bread machine pan as usual (but with a little extra sugar or honey and liquid) and start the cycle. After the first or second kneading cycle, I restart the cycle. Sometimes I'll restart the cycle a second or th...	I'm not familiar with how bread machines even work, so I'm not sure if you mean that you are restarting the cycle and that means that (A) you are just mixing the dough longer, or (B) the dough mixes, then rests, then mixes, then rests, etc. Either way, not a good idea. For scenario (A), you're overworking your gluten. ...
Corn/Potato/Rice/Flour starches in deep frying Lately, I've been looking at a few deep fried recipes and have noticed different types of refined starches being used. As far as cornstarch goes, I've seen a sweet potato and Idaho/Russet (normal) potato fry recipes that used cornstarch for crispiness. This bon apetit rec...	Imagine you fry it as a whole If you want potato starch. Think, what it is like to fry a whole potato because potato starch come from potato. People cook base on recipe and lost interest in how the ingredient is made. If you want crisp imaging what it like to deep fried rice. So, rice flour will make your food crispy.
Storage of partially used jar of mustard? Because I use mustard for my own consumption only occasionally, I am buying smallest available packages (350 g) but after opening I can see unused mustard slowly changing into "water" and solid component. I understand that every food deteriorates but I would like to understand...	Mustard often separates, it doesn't mean it's going bad. It's likely perfectly fine, mustard stays good for years in the refrigerator. Just stir it up before using it to recombine. As for why it doesn't separate unopened, sometimes it does. Often you are buying a product that's been manufactured recently, so it hasn't...
Raw turkey leaked in shopping bag - how to clean other groceries? I bought some raw turkey drumsticks and put them in a plastic vegetable bag at the store. When I got it out of the grocery bag to put it in the fridge I saw that the shrink wrap had broken and the outside of the package was wet (inside the plastic veget...	I would proceed considering the rest of your product was contaminated. That being said anything that was contaminated can still be brought to a temperature of 165°F to ensure safety. (Oranges can make a good sauce and cucumbers are great for pickling. Many other vegetable are great fully cooked.) I would not risk treat...
Blue Cheese has gone bad? On the outside the white part of the cheese has got a bit yellow and the blue mold has turned green in a bit of places. On the inside, some tiny bits have become greenish too and some slightly brownish. However the white part didn't go yellow. The best before date is July the 1st. I store it ...	As explained in this Wired video Gordon Ramsay answer twitter questions Blue cheese can't go off. What it actually can do is turn from blue mold tint to green. If you search for Bleu de Gex you will see that the cheese is in fact yellow and mold is greenish. The only thing that would point to bad cheese is it's taste...
How long can I store open wine for cooking? I bought a bottle of wine larger than required for my recipe. How and how long can I keep the remainder, so I can use it in cooking again? (In other words, it needn't be drinkable.)	Wine has to be drinkable to be used in cooking, if it goes nasty you'll be adding the nasty flavors to your food! Don't cook with wine you wouldn't be happy to serve at your table. Wine keeps for a long time in the refrigerator, so cap it back up as tight as you can and get it in there as soon as you can after using i...
Leaving hard boiled eggs in water for several hours After the eggs boiled I left them in the hot water for 2 hours, drained them then put them in fridge overnight. Are they still ok to eat?	The strictest rule of food safety says ' In temperature danger zone (40-140 °F or 4-60 °C) for a total of six hours, with only two hours allotted to get through the 135-71 °F range (57-22 °C). So, let's suppose the eggs went from boiling to room temperature in two hours. We cannot say that the cooling time was even thr...
Please identify this nut covered cheese During breakfast at my hotel in Germany, I saw this kind of cheese. Can anyone help to name it? As I can remember, it tastes a bit sweet on the nuts.	This is most likely the “Castello” rum-and-nut covered cream cheese ring by Arla. The shape, the chopped nuts and slight sweetness are pretty unique. Arla sells its products in supermarkets, but is also a big supplier for larger catering customers. You should be able to find it in most larger supermarkets.
What went wrong with this bread? I just baked this bread using sour dough. Why is there a large hole in it? What can I do to prevent this from happening next time? Pre oven: Post oven:	You got close, it looks like you had good gluten and structure, I think there's a maybe more than one thing you can do to prevent this: This looks underproofed: You have bigger air holes on the top of the bread than the bottom, especially apparent on the bottom right of the bottom picture. A bit longer in the basket w...
How to clean smell from granite mortar and pestle I recently grinding some chilies with ginger in my granite mortar and pestle, and after cleaning it still has a bit of gingery smell (and maybe a bit of color too?). I washed it with warm water, let it dry, and then grinded some white rice in it as well. Is it okay tha...	Should be fine, in fact some people argue that a pestle and mortar is suppose to have remnants of past spices and that it adds to variety and such. If you're really concerned of the taste, smell or if you ground nuts (allergies), etc. or just don't want the smell/taste then soak it for a long period of time, then rewa...
About ripe bananas for banana bread I put mashed bananas in the fridge in a bowl for a couple days and they turned dark brown on the top. Are they still good after that?	Cut or mashed bananas, like many fruit, will turn brown after a very short time, a few minutes should show first discoloration and after a few hours, the surface will be brown. This is primarily a matter of aesthetics, because the fruit looks less appealing. As far as food safety is concerned, it depends on your defini...
Are egg rolls supposed to be eaten with chopsticks or hands? Are egg rolls, common in Asian restaurants, such as Chinese, Thai, or Vietnamese (at least in America), supposed to be eaten with chopsticks or hands?	It's a matter of personal preference when referring to restaurants in the United States. Some egg rolls are too large to be easily handled with chopsticks, and they can be eaten using your hands; smaller ones and similar preparations such as spring rolls can too, but you may find it preferable to use chopsticks. When c...
What makes pizza flour different from normal flour? The stores where I live do not sell pizza flour. How can I make stretchy pizza flour from raw or all purpose flour? You should be able to spin it.	Of course, you can make a stretchy dough from almost any flour, but stretchy isn't necessarily the only characteristic you are looking for. Firstly, which style of pizza are you making? The next question you want to ask yourself is what final result you are looking for. Then, see which ingredients, tools, and techniq...
Simulating the discontinued Lawry's Roasted Garlic Salt? Lawry's Roasted Garlic Salt was simply the best spice I've ever had. And had I known it was discontinued I would've bought a few cases. If you're familiar with it can you recommend something similar.	We know that: 1.1g contains 13% of the daily value of sodium which according to the FDA is < 2400mg/day so 320 mg checks out correctly. The total weight of the entire container is 201 g and the amount of servings is 183, so that checks out as well. (183 * 1.1) The ingredients are in order of weight: salt sugar modifi...
How to make my pizza dough Soft? I am kneeding my dough and it became very hard. It is even very hard to kneed more. I am trying to add more liquid (warm milk or water). It is still not soft. Also, the dough is not accurate means dough is a little bit like crumbly dough. Its not coming together. I added bread improver...	If you've added 250ml of milk for 1.5KG of flour then your dough is way too dry, there isn't nearly enough moisture for any kind of bread dough. A typical traditional pizza base recipe uses a ratio of about 5:3 flour to liquid by weight, meaning you'd need about 900ml of liquid for the dough. You've also added milk pow...
How do I cook with Salsola (land seaweed)? I've seen Salsola in buffets, but don't know how to prepare it. How do I prepare it, because I can't seem to find a recipe anywhere?	Salsola soda can be eaten raw or sautéed quickly - as a very rough rule of thumb, think “spinach”. If you are looking for recipes, it’s helpful to know that in Italian cuisine it’s called Agretti or Barba di frate If you search for one of these names plus “recipe”, you should find enough recipes to work from there.
Soaked chia seeds do not swell as expected I soaked chia seeds in milk overnight and kept them in the fridge. The next morning I did not find them very swelled. What can I do to improve this.	It is possible that the seeds did not look like they had swelled. While the seed itself looks like its size stays about the same, the "swelling" really comes from the fiber soaking up liquid, forming a gelatinous "blob" around each seed pod. And how much they swell will also depend on how much liquid they're soaking i...
What's the beef cut with solid, thick bone? I need a cut of beef with very specific requirements. I'm interested in bone first: It should have it medullary cavity approximately in the size of a small finger. It should have compact (dense, cohesive) bone walls as thick as possible. It should be cut perpendicularly to ...	You're doing it wrong™. Your question is, essentially, "What code-word should I use to tell my butcher to give me a cut of beef with properties X, Y and Z?" Don't do that. Just go to your butcher and describe what you want. Quite apart from anything else, the cuts of meat that, say, a British butcher understands will b...
How can we keep the crisp part of French Fries for longer time? Since few time I observed that whenever I make french fries, after 15-20 mins of its making it is getting loose. Is there anything doing that we can maintain the crisp of the fries for longer span i.e. for at least 20 mins or so?	I am no expert but I recently moved to a student apartment in the Netherlands and my roommates have some experience making fries. I'd say one of the main factor that makes the fries get soggy is the steam that comes out of them. If all of the fries are very close together, like in a bowl, the fries will basically steam...
Why does Chinese market take scales off the fish, & American does not? Where I live (California, USA), when I buy salmon fillets from the (American style) supermarket, they have scales on. Even though it is not too difficult, I don't enjoy removing the scales at home, partly because I don't like to handle the fish too...	Maybe you have a bad fishmonger ? they do a bad job by not removing the scales? Maybe the expect the regular clients not eating the skin? Can't talk about California, but here in Montréal, fish sold in supermarkets are scaled, especially if the fish is sold in portions. It is harder to remove scales in filleted portio...
How to store hot sandwiches? I am a student that recently moved to a student apartment, I have been making grilled sandwiches and storing them in aluminium foil to eat at uni. However, this causes the sandwiches to steam themselves inside the aluminium foil and the bread becomes mushy. How can I prevent this? Is there...	No, you can't make a grilled sandwich, seal it and expect it to still be crispy later. You can reduce the mushiness quite a bit by letting the sandwich cool completely on a wire rack before you package it up. If you don't have a wire rack you can make a lattice out of chopsticks or skewers, the important thing is that ...
How can components of a packaged food item exceed the net weight? In some packaged foods, the added weight of its components (like sugar, protein, carbohydrates) exceed the weight of the total item. Example:- 1 pack of Chocos Cereal has net weight 30g. But its components like Total Carbs + Sugar + Protein exceed the n...	As Zanna said, you can't just add all the values together, some items are a fraction of others. In this case, "total carbohydrates" already includes the "sugar" and "dietary fibre" items, so the total is "fat" + "total carbohydrates" + "protein", which adds up to 27g out of 30g. That leaves 3 g for water, ash (inorgani...
Is the sink or float test for eggs accurate? I recently read that the sink-or-float test to see if eggs are still good is not a very reliable judge; eggs float because as they age the eggs lose moisture and air replaces it. That’s what I read. If that’s true, is there a reliable way to test the viability of eggs, asid...	Eggs are a vehicle for a growing embryo. When that embryo is developing, it needs nutrients and fluids, and the egg yolk and white are those reserves, The fluid requirements decrease as the embryo develops, while the space requirements increase, and nature devise the mechanism of making the shell of an egg porous so ...
Kitchen clambake using kombu? There are special types of seaweed used in a clambake, apparently. I’ve never been to a real one on the shore, so I really don’t know what types are most commonly used. My question is: can dried kombu be used as the seaweed in a kitchen clambake (basically a seafood boil, except not boile...	Yes, you can use kombu. I would re-hydrate first, as these folks do.
Banana bread in disposable foil plates I am considering using a disposable foil plate to bake banana bread. Is this advisable or can it be harmful? If it is acceptable, how will I amend the temperature and cooking time versus the original 350°F, 55 minutes.	Quick breads in disposable foil is the lifeblood of bake sales across the land. There are loaf sized foil pans you can use. The 'plate' that you mention sounds like a pie-plate, which would make a very different shape and therefore baking time. If you use a loaf pan that looks like a regular steel or aluminun pan, then...
How do I cook frozen pastry I bought it from a farm shop (meadow fresh) as pictured. I know it goes in the oven. But what temperature or duration. Unfortunately it came with no instructions and I forgot to look for some when I bought it. Update: I followed the instructions from the answer below, and these things expa...	Trader Joe's sells frozen mini-croissants. The instructions for them are, as far as I remember: set them out overnight (or equivalent) on a lightly greased cookie sheet to "proof" (or "rise"). In the morning you may want to brush a thin coating of egg wash on them before cooking to make them shiny & beautiful (this is ...
Botulism risk - homemade pizza sauce? I've read a bunch of threads on botulism risks in various foods, but had a specific question about a recipe I sometimes use. This is for a pizza sauce. The recipe calls for: 1 can (28 oz) of crushed tomatoes 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1.5 teaspoons of salt 2 tablespoons of olive o...	First, a little context...botulism is extremely rare...only 145 cases in the US in 2015, and of those, only 15% were food borne according to the CDC. You do need to be aware and careful, but not fearful. There are lots of easier ways to get sick and die. Secondly, the risk is higher in low acid vegetables (pH of 4.6 ...
Greek yogurt substitute in baking? So this recipe (lemon rhubarb pie), calls for 3 tablespoons of Greek yogurt. What would be a good substitute for Greek yogurt? creme fraiche or cream cheese? And will it affect the final product?	Given your options, I would go creme fraiche, you may need to thin with a small amount of milk or water to get to yogurt consistency. Three tablespoons...you probably won't notice a difference.

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