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Very very soft bread I was reading comments about oil or no oil. I use butter, but when cooking a 50/50 white/wholemeal loaf it is so soft its like cotton wool and nearly impossible to cut. Any ideas how get the loaf a bit firmer	For a firm loaf you want more gluten development. So: Cut out the fat: it impedes the reactions forming gluten. Make sure your yeast or sour-dough starter is active, or use instant yeast (very reliable in my experience): the carbon dioxide created as a by-product of fermentation promotes gluten development. Use strong...
Do you need more yogurt starter for more milk? I bought some Yogourmet yogurt starter packages and it says to use 5g per 1L of milk. However, if I am making a gallon at a time - is more starter actually required than it would be for just 1L?	Recipes call for a certain amount of starter to maximize the chances that your starter bacteria will crowd out undesirable wild bacteria. If you use too little starter you will increase the chances that some random bacteria will win the incubation war. Since you don't know what you will get this can be actually dangero...
What is the secret to avoid bitter-tasting rapini? At a certain pick-your-own-food-and-stamp-your-card-then-pay-at-the-exit restaurant, the salad bar includes a delectable rapini, even though it looks like it is prepared with nothing more than steaming or boiling, followed by sprinkling with olive oil and toasted sesa...	To get the best out of rapini, you need to blanch it first. Use well-salted water. Detach the thickest stems from the leaves (these can be peeled and used). Add to boiling water and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the water and chill (if using later), or add to a pan with plenty of olive oil and garlic to finish ...
After steaming for 5 mins, why are live PEI mussels shriveled, but PC's mussels plump? In both cases beneath, I steam the PEI mussels for 5 mins. on low heat, on a pan on my stove in 100 mL of white wine. I live in Toronto, Canada. Case 1: Live mussels from Pusateri's or Whole Foods Market. They're individually picke...	The President's Choice mussels in sauce are (properly) fully cooked and then frozen in packages for your convenience. I can't find heating instructions for their products but, regardless of which method you use, they should be prepared from frozen with the goal being to heat them - not cook them. Regarding the live PEI...
Should beans be drained after cooking? I cook beans and then eat them (usually without adding anything else). I know that soaking water for beans should be drained. However, I haven't seen anything definitive about the water that the beans are cooked in. As far as I can tell, it contains nutrients that I prefer not to...	It depends what you want to do with the beans. If you cook dried beans in chilli stew, or similar dishes, you don't have cooking water, you have sauce, which is meant to be eaten. This applies to many other dishes, and of course soup. If you want to make bean burgers, you need to drain them fairly well or you end up...
My Alfredo sauce always ends up gooey I’ve been trying to make authentic Alfredo sauce using this recipe. I’m normally pretty good with sauces, but this one is eluding me. I simmer the pasta water and melt the butter, and everything emulsifiers fine, but as soon as I add the Parmesano-Reggiano I end up with a gooey m...	Please do see the excellent answer to the Cacio e Pepe question, which applies to your future efforts. The recipe you link to is just bad, which is why it's not working for you. Boiling the butter and cheese in the pasta water is wrong, and will always result in clumps of stringy cheese. So the answer is to not use t...
Puff pastry for cream horns I am making cream horns and I bake the puff pastry on the molds, let them cool and fill with cream. I freeze some empty for later, but they are not crispy. How to improve on that?	You can freeze them after baking and then refresh them by letting them defrost all the way and then re-baking them for a few minutes. This gets back some of the crispiness but it won't be as good as freshly baked.
Why is it recommended to mix yogurt starter with a small amount of milk before adding to the entire batch? When making yogurt with Yogourmet yogurt starters it is recommended to boil the milk, bring it down to 110 degrees F, then take out a cup of milk and mix the starter, then add that mixture back into the main batc...	Dry powders are easier to mix if you make a slurry first with a small amount of liquid and then mix the slurry in. If you skip this step you will have clumps of dry powder floating on top of the milk and it will take a lot more effort to mix in. When you are using yoghurt as a starter for a new batch this step is not n...
Should an enameled cast iron pan be seasoned? Should I season my Michael Symon Home enameled cast iron frying pan?	Short answer: No, you cannot season enameled cast iron cookware. Enamel does not take seasoning in the same sense as cast iron or carbon steel. I don't know if seasoning would *hurt" the pan, but I've never heard of anyone seasoning their enamel cookware. So if you do try it though, let us know how it goes. If you’re ...
Why does cooking oatmeal starting with cold milk make it creamy? I'd always made oatmeal according to the "traditional" method of bringing the liquid to boil first, then adding the oatmeal. I recently discovered a recipe that calls for adding the oatmeal to cold liquid first, then bringing the mixture to boil - the cl...	Flour and cornmeal are well known to clump when added cold to boiling water. Such clumps arise when starch molecules unball and forming a mesh that traps other starch molecules, preventing them from hydrolysing in the same way. Hence lumpy gravy and sauces. For oatmeal I've observed similar clumping behaviour, but not ...
What is the fatty tissue in beef/pork after it has been braised/stwed? Perhaps this question has been asked before, but I am unable to find it. The closest I got was someone asking about chicken skin after frying. When a piece of meat with large nuggets or fat attached is braised or boiled, the fat can be seen on the ...	That is a type of protein and connective tissue. Mainly you have collagen and elastin in a cut of meat. Collagen turns into gelatin through heating and melts away. The elastin will get softened. I believe what you’re seeing is the elastin.
How to tell if a vegetable steamer contains titanium How do I find out why steamers sometimes have titanium, and which ones, if so? Also, why is it there in the first place?	If you mean metallic titanium - very unlikely. If you mean titanium compounds like the oxides - it is very likely. Titanium oxides are used in nearly all modern paints. I expect a fused ceramic coating is equally likely to contain titanium compounds. The people that write the info on the products are liberal arts major...
Incorporating Italian meringue into mousse Yesterday I made some mousse using whipped cream and Italian meringue as aerators. I incorporated the whipped cream to the base first and the Italian meringue last. However, the Italian meringue was a bit 'chunky' and did not easily incorporate into the mixture. In fact, I en...	I'm not sure it's possible to overbeat the meringue (not without falling asleep while doing it), so I don't think that could would be the main cause of a failed mousse. On the other hand, it's definitely possible to overbeat the cream for the purpose of being an aerator, and it's a very common issue. For mousses you do...
What's the difference between a deep fryer and a chip pan? As described in the Wikipedia article, a chip pan is a pan that contains oil for frying. The oil is heated to a high temperature, and then usually a metal basket is lowered into the pan for frying of things, such as chips. The article contains this sentence: ...	The part that handles the food is comparable, as you noted: A container for the hot oil plus a basket to lift the food out again. But the difference is in the periphery: A chip pan is just a pan (or what you may also call a pot), but the heating is done on the stove, like for all other pots. A deep fryer has its own ...
How to decode some less common food Expiration Date/Date Manufactured codes (US)? I was cleaning out and found some snack chips with date codes that are not in an obvious Day/Month/Year format. For example: 028 B2 A1 (Bloom's Potato Chips) 021 T B4A1 (Lieber's Tortilla Chips). Further complicating, neither says if ...	Manufacturers usually will decode the date if you call them, which I did. I am sharing the codes I have gathered for easier reference. Other users may wish to click Edit and add other manufacturers' codes. BRAND / CODE / TYPE(BEST-OR-MFG) / DECODE / NOTES Lieber's: 021 T B4A1: BEST: The 021 is 21st day of the year i....
How to stop frozen bananas making everything else in the freezer taste like banana? I freeze peeled bananas for making ice cream. I triple bag them in three Ziploc bags. This works fine. However, apparently they are making other things in the freezer taste like bananas. Apart from even more bags, does anyone have a so...	Use about 3-4 boxes of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda, one on each shelf in the freezer and use better sealing freezer bags and not ziplock. I would suggest a machine that heat seals them. Good luck!
How long can chocolate be held at temper? I just got a chocolate melter and have held some tempered pure chocolate (Lindt Excellence 90%) for a day at 33C. I intend to make up 3 or 4 truffles, a few times a week. What’s occurred to me is I can just keep this chocolate at temper indefinitely, adding 50g at a time as ...	I am not an expert in tempering, but I think the long standing time at 33˚C can contribute to V crystals reforming as VI (after all, they do this at room temperature over time). If this happened then it would cause the tempered chocolate to thicken and require melting and tempering again. Will look forward to more answ...
What's a pan and what's a pot? In Dutch, we have just one word for pots and pans, which happens to be "pan", so I was surprised to learn about the word "pot". I learned that pans are for frying, which is why they are shallow and pots are for boiling, which is why they are tall and have straight sides. But that doesn't...	I think the answer to your question lies in the etymology of the words. Pan is actually coming from Germaic pfanne (in Dutch panne). Which is from Latin patina (shallow pan, dish) and Greek patane (dish, plate). On the other hand, pot also has Germanic roots it means vessel (also in Dutch) coming from pottus (drinking...
What would be a good sub for pineapple, any other fruit or veggie for a strawberry pineapple mint salsa I need to sub pineapple with something else, im highly allergic to it.	Kiwi. Don't knock it until you try it. It will have a similar acidity and texture to pineapple. Use ripe kiwi and maybe a touch extra lime juice!
Dietary Fiber with Crunchy Texture I'm looking for a dietary fiber or a mix of dietary fibers (and other ingredients which act like dietary fibers such as sugar alcohols) with really low (even zero) food calories that I can create a crunchy (as in chips) or crusty (as in bread) texture. Please think of molecular leve...	I want to explain few things about dietary fiber. Soluble fiber is not digested in the small intestine but it can be fermented in the large intestine by normal intestinal bacteria into nutrients (which are absorbed) and gases. Soluble fiber can have 1-3 Cal/g (sugar, starch and other digestible carbohydrates have 4 Cal...
Does squid ink pasta bleed? Will the black color from squid ink spaghetti bleed onto other ingredients? I was recently given a package of squid ink spaghetti. I haven't used it before and I want to try something creative. I was thinking of separately cooking some regular spaghetti and mixing the white and black togeth...	No, as far as I know pasta made with squid ink, often called nero di seppia, should be stable, and the ink doesn't normally bleed. From my experience after boiling black pasta, even the fresh kind, the water comes out clear like with regular one, with just a bit of clear maybe slightly grayish starch being left behind....
What makes rice wet? Recently I've been making rice, but my rice is always a bit moister than I'd like. Normally it is visibly wet and somewhat sticky. My normal recipe is: Add a lot of water to a pan. Bring water to boil. Add rice. Move lid to be partially on. Keeping the water boiling. (Fairly large bubbles, ~2") ...	I'm going to copy/paste my answer from https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/93753/42066 because I still disagree with the usual methods posted... TL:DR - use less water, allow 'drying time' afterwards. I'm going to go contra to pretty much all the advice so far, but this is how I've been cooking rice for 25 years... Cle...
Can I turn skimmed into whole milk? Usually, we use milk with 1.5% fat. Occasionally, I need whole milk for a recipe. Can I somehow "enrich" the skimmed milk so that I have more or less whole milk?	Skim milk is whole milk with the cream removed so it can be sold separately. Simply add heavy cream. The ratio is about 1/3 cup of cream per quart of skim milk. Keep in mind that whole milk has been homogenized. Your cream has not and will separate out again if left undisturbed. This is not really an issue for cooking ...
Is my Anchor Hocking Oven Basics glass measuring cup inaccurate? For measuring I usually use my red plastic Betty Crocker cups. While rearranging some dishes, I noticed the 1 cup line on the 2 cup Anchor H one looked off - greater than one cup. I poured one cup from the plastic one into the 2cup Anchor Hocking one and...	I'd get a third measuring tool to see which one is wrong. One way to test this is to measure by weight (and IMO, all recipes should list ingredients by weight instead of volume) 1 cup of water is about 236ml which is 236g. Get 1 cup from your red cup and weight it. Get 1 cup from your glass cup and weight it. It should...
Can milk chocolate plus cocoa powder substitute for dark chocolate? I just got a smoking deal on milk chocolate and bought a bunch. However, I tend to like a darker chocolate flavor in my baking. I would like try to use the milk chocolate plus some cocoa powder (and perhaps butter) to substitute for dark chocolate. Do...	You wrote that you want to use this in baking and that's important. This idea will work well for baking but it seems like it would be much harder to pull off in tempered chocolate application like molding or dipping. Adding cocoa powder to a baked dish that contains milk chocolate will do a great job of bumping up the ...
Is iodized salt unsuitable for baking bread? I've heard it said that iodized salt produces an acrid flavor when heated to high temperatures, such as for baking. Is there any truth to this?	TL;DR: yes, use it. Many folks out there (my sweetie among them, so I hope she doesn't read this) claim to be able to detect an aftertaste of iodine in baked goods made with iodized salt. This is the primary reason we have non-iodized salt in the kitchen. The reason this is highly unlikely is that salt is generally on...
Why did my mango pickle become bitter? I dried the mango in sunlight, heated the oil and slightly roasted all masala before grinding it. Now the problem is that masala taste bitter. How can I fix it? The masala I used includes salt, rye seed, methi [fenugreek] seed, saunf [fennel], turmeric powder and black seed [nig...	My first thought would be you over-roasted the methi. Fenugreek seeds benefit from a light roasting or bhuna which removes the slight bitter edge they have - however, if you over-do it that bitterness comes back with a vengeance. To avoid the issue, I usually add fenugreek powder to my sauce as it's cooking. It still d...
How to prevent crust forming during frying, baking and grilling? I do not like the crust that forms on the surface of meat when frying, baking and grilling. It seems to me this is caused by oil being on the surface of the meat. In the case of baking and grilling I imagine oil comes out of the meat, sits on the surfa...	When you buy grilled meat from a store, it has been sitting in a fridge for some time, the crust will get less crusty because of the release of humidity from the meat. You could do it at home, grill some chops, refrigerate them for a couple of hours, the crust will be "gone" (at least become less crusty). If you want l...
Why does water always boil over when steaming shrimp? Normally, with some typical amount of water, when steaming vegetables my steamer never boils over. However, when I steam shrimp, it seems like no matter how low I keep the heat or how little water I use the water always boils over. Why is this?	Foaming is the result of proteins. For example, urine (sorry) foams when protein levels are high (persons with kidney failure can judge their urinary protein levels by how much foaming occurs). Vegetables have no protein; shrimp juices, plenty. Fats counteract protein foam formation, so egg whites ( very high prot...
How to barbecue an egg? I recently discovered that eggs are outstanding in front country hiking: inexpensive nutritious richer flavour than boiled cooks in 10 minutes just add salt. The only problem is that they explode! One thing I tried is vary the heat. My conclusion is that directly putting the egg onto feeble e...	From what I understand, the usual way to campfire-cook an egg (without pots'n'pans, I mean) is to pierce a little hole in it on one end, I think on the large end so the bubble of air leaks out before any egg does, and then partially bury it right next to the campfire so it bakes slowly-ish. I've heard of burying in ea...
what are these darker stains in radish? We have some radish that have these darker areas in the flesh. Currently, we are on the island of Malta where food ingredients are very low quality in general, so anything out of the ordinary immediately becomes suspicious :) Click for larger size image.	It's a fungal infection. If you google Aphanomyces raphani you will see much more serious examples but that how it looks usually when the outside is not affected (so also not thrown out by seller)
Would freezing ruin an emulsified broth like tonkotsu? I've developed something of an obsession with ramen lately. Tonkotsu ramen has a pork broth base, which is made with blanched pork bones left at a rolling boil for around 12 hours. Its creamy texture and lustrous, opaque appearance are explained by the fats and oi...	Freezing broth has no ill effects. I would think that you could just emulsify the fat by boiling the broth when you take it out of the freezer. Boiling it again will lose some liquid, though. Or an immersion blender could be useful for resetting the emulsion, if needed. Your biggest worry is making sure the broth doesn...
Fastest way to peel 2 dozen bananas? The bananas do not need to stay whole. Halves and quarters are fine Surely kitchen professionals have come up with a way (Note: apparently, banana peels are edible. I found an example of someone cutting the ends off and blending it into their smoothie, which is my use case. I'll tr...	When I've had to peel a bunch, I work in stages: Top and tail every banana Slit peel on every banana from one end to the other Use thumbs to split open peel and invert over a bowl You can rip through a whole case of bananas rather quickly that way.
Why is my boneless beef tough and unedible? I've been baking some meat (either lamb chops or boneless beef - not sure of cut). I coat it in oil, rub some salt on it and them immediately put it in the oven for 30 minutes at about 150f. Apparently, the oven is quick for a home oven. What I find is after about 20 minut...	Without knowing the cut of meat, thickness, etc. it is very difficult to fully answer, but take a look at this chart for steaks: http://chicolockersausage.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/cook-a-steak-blue-rare-medium-welldone.jpg (Putting link, not pic in case of copyright issues.) To summarize though, a medium steak is ...
Ganache alternative for "Nanaimo bars" Introduction I'm making Nanaimo bars for my coworkers. Some of them don't like chocolate, so I'm going to make a second, terribly non-traditional batch with different flavours (I'm thinking maple syrup is the obvious choice, dried apple, and cinnamon). I need an alternative to ch...	I would suggest a dark, dry caramel. If you make a dark caramel and add just a tiny bit of cream or butter to it at the end, it will be firm and dry (at least, as much as ganache is) and not "sticky", as you say in your question. The trick will be adding enough butter or cream that the caramel remains pliable, but not...
How do I stop all the sauce from being absorbed and the pasta going soggy? I have to make a pasta bake for 20 people take it to the meeting 6 hours before it will be reheated for dinner. How do I stop all the sauce from being absorbed and the pasta going soggy. Thanks everyone for your suggestions. As a trial I have ...	The secrets to a good pasta bake are: Pick the right past
Method for caramelizing Goat Cheese Balls without Breading? I was recently at a restaurant where I was served fried balls of goat cheese. They were white, oily, very slightly browned, and appeared to be without any breading. The outside of the balls were sweet. The texture was very soft and fairly consistent; it remin...	You can use a mini scooper to cut the goat cheese in spherical shape. After cutting the spheres, put a toothpick to it, coat it with castor sugar or dermerra sugar. Blow torch it evenly on all sides. Enjoy!!
Which kind of mortar and pestle replaces a blender? I can't stand the noise, and even just the idea, of a blender in my kitchen. I want to keep things more natural (less plastic) and waste free (less products). So I was looking into getting a mortar and pestle instead. I stumbled onto a great looking olive wood one bu...	As usual, Serious Eats has an article for this, covering what type of M&P to buy. They recommend a large granite model for most purposes, but an olivewood or marble one for certain special foods, like pesto. Your question is specifically "replacing a blender", though, and "even make some soups". An M&P will never rep...
Canning for couple of days to one week of low acidic cooked food without pressure canning? I would like can low acidic cooked food like vegetables or meat (chicken) to use with in couple of days to one week during summer vacations. I dont have pressure canner so, can I do it using Hot bath canning procedure?	NO! Using your method you have created the perfect environment to grow Clostridium botulinum, so within a couple of days you very well could have a thriving colony of botulism rich food. From USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning Ensuring safe canned foods Growth of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum in canned food ma...
Help identifying squash Hi, everyone – – I’m wondering if I could get some help identifying this type of squash. I grew it in my garden, and the plant seedling was marked as a pattypan squash, which it’s obviously not! The flesh inside is green, and I had to scoop out the innards and seeds before cooking it. The skin...	My best guess based on your photo is that it's kabocha (aka Japanese pumpkin) (image source). But squashes also hybridize pretty easily, so far as I know, so it could be a random hybrid rather than an established variety. Possibly one derived from kabocha or acorn squash. If you grew this from seed saved from last ye...
What's the secret to pan-searing a steak with regard to oil's smoking point? Lately I've been trying my best to learn how to pan-sear a steak at home and the main takeaways I've gathered from my research and distilling tips from the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver etc. are: the pan has to be really hot and not m...	If your oil catches fire, it is indeed too hot. But still, you cannot make a good steak without reaching the smoking point. "the temperature definitely isn't anything to write home about" - here you are wrong. Whether the tempreature is too much, too little, or just right, that's something you recognize by the behavio...
Most popular choices based on the concern of ingredients For example I can name it these choices: gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, organic etc., Is there any other style options?	Based on the concern of ingredients: Gluten free, Keto, Vegan, Vegetarian, Non-vegeterian, pescatarian, Eggeterian etc. Based on types of cuisine: Continental, Italian, Thai, Mexican, Burmese, Lebanese etc. Based on cooking techniques: Barbeque, Baked treats, Let's steam, Straight from grill, Stir fries etc Based on t...
Cooking a nice pan seared steak for picky eaters So here's the situation: I love a tasty steak. I also have really particular family. If the meat is not cooked all the way (aka very little or no pink left) it's still partly raw and no one will eat it. If the meat has globs of fat on or in it, they dissect it and remov...	The method you describe should work, timing wise you have it about right, except it will need longer if you are aiming for well done. Salting and oiling before cooking works well, as does letting the meat come up to room temperature (if you are aiming for rare medium-rare a cold steak isn't a bad thing as it lets you c...
Fully submerged water bath for stove top baking? So normally, stove top cooking never results in all around heat like in an oven but what if you were to submerge (underwater bath instead of just around the sides) a dish in simmering water and then cover it completely (to prevent water from getting in) until it's cooke...	Unlikely. Without even getting into the mechanics of how it would work, simple physics dictates that you can't get the temperature of this "immersion oven" above 100 degrees Celsius. Most cakes and breads are cooked at temperatures above 170 degrees Celsius. A second issue is that moisture can escape when baking in a n...
Gluten-free Carrot Cake batter mixed with normal Carrot Cake batter Yesterday I wanted to make 2 small carrot cakes (1 gluten-free for a celiac friend, and a regular one). For the gluten-free one, I literally just swapped regular wheat flour for corn flour (same quantities), and the texture of the batter looked alrigh...	Well, it went quite well. The flavour was really nice (I guess corn flour did not change the overall carrot cake flavour that much), and the texture (which was what I was most scared of) was as a normal carrot cake. The timing in the oven was more or less the same (as I used the same mold several times, I did not meas...
Cooking one-handed: things to watch out for I'm temporarily without the use of my left, non-dominant, hand (broken shoulder after a bike crash). Obviously my cooking will be rather limited but I still want to make some home made food. What should I be careful of? I'm mainly thinking of main meals - baking is right out...	I can give some general recommendations, but if I had some specific recipes that you were considering, I might be able to give more specific recommendations. First, I'd avoid using any tool that I can't clean one-handed. If you have a dish-washer, this might not be a problem, but even things like a blender you might h...
Canning potatoes in instapot canner I just realized that I canned some potatoes for 25 minutes instead of the recommended time of 35 minutes last night. The jars all sealed. My question is, do i throw those out or do i just have to use them quickly? Thank you in advance, I'm new to canning potatoes.	Joe's comment is correct. If you haven't canned them as long as the recommendation then you can't have confidence that they will be safe for a long period at room temperature. Your options are to try again or treat them as not shelf stable. The downside with trying to can them again is that the food is likely to be hop...
How to Save Overly Salty Tapenade I made a tapenade with the following ingredients: kalamata olives, capers, anchovy, garlic, thyme, lemon, olive oil. Although I rinsed the olives and capers (as per the recipe) the result is pretty salty. It's not inedible but would be a lot better if there was something to counter th...	Ideas: Veer into pesto. You could add walnuts or pine nuts and basil pesto style. This would be a good pasta sauce. I would eat it right now. Stretch it out with chopped spinach or arugala. Thin it with cheese. A dip with your tapenade and feta cheese or a mild blue cheese 50/50 would be dynamite. Or just with pl...
How to make Vegemite at home Could someone make their own? Vegemite is a yeast extract made from the remains of commercial beer production. Vegemite has an extreme salt level; a home made variant would probably lower the salt level to some extent. The broad intent would be to use the home made vegemite on toasted chee...	No, you need industrial machinery. Part of the manufacturing process of producing Vegemite involves using a centrifuge to separate out the yeast cell membranes from the rest of the product. As a result, without access to such a centrifuge, it is not possible to make Vegemite. Here is a description of the process I foun...
How to get a good fragrance from burnt rosemary? There's a particular cocktail I'm trying to produce which has a garnish of burnt fresh rosemary. Properly done, the rosemary is burnt with a torch to release some very fragrant, herbal smoke. However when trying to do this at home, I get smoke that smells like...just sm...	You need fresh rosemary and give it a quick char and not allow it to burn. That's sort of the same technique of using a blowtorch for crème brulée and the same "doneness" of charred vegetables - caramelized but not burnt If you're smelling smoke, it is already too burnt to use.
Make bread with flour different from the starter I have been able to cultivate a strong sourdough starter with whole wheat flour and semolina flour. Now I want to make a bread with all purpose flour, show should I proceed ? Get this already active started and make my bread or feed it with flour until it gets used to ...	Your starter should have no problem working with other flours, you don't need to acclimatize it or anything. Just use it as you ordinarily would. I would suggest bread flour rather than AP, the higher gluten content will give better structure.
How do you stop chickpeas exploding in the microwave? I put chickpeas & beans in my curry but when microwaving some the next day it exploded. How can I prevent this? (Like with eggs you just prick the yolk and no explosions)	First rule of the microwave... Always use a loose-fitting lid. It reduces the cleaning frequency of the interior from once a day to every 6 months or so ;) I'm pretty sure that unless you want to prod every single legume with a cocktail stick before putting it in the microwave, then you can only do so much to mitigate ...
How to interpret the date on these eggs? My organic eggs have a date of June 24 on them; today is June 28. Can I still cook them? (I am not used to purchasing organic eggs.)	Check again, the date should be 'sell by' rather than 'eat by'. If you're in the US, you should have at least a couple weeks to eat them after the sell by date.
What is the difference between using only yolks and whole eggs in a curd? So, i've been searching for an explination of why some curds use only yolks and others the whole egg while making a curd (for example a Lemon Curd). How can i exchange them ? How does it thickens while using only Yolk if the protein is in the Wh...	The yolk also has a fair bit of protein but it is combined with a huge amount of fat as well. Whites, on the other hand, have only protein. When egg whites cook in a custard they have to be mixed very well, cooked gently, and usually still strained, in order to avoid blobs of scrambled egg messing up the texture of the...
Lessen the acidity of fruit shrub syrup I made a strawberry/cherry shrub for the first time with a 1:1 ratio of fruit juice to white wine vinegar, about 5 cups total, and it turned out just a little too strong for my taste. Is there anything I can add to lessen the vinegar flavor about 10-20%?	You could simply change the ratio by adding more fruit juice; otherwise you're into experimental territory by adding alkali almost at random. Baking soda would reduce the pH, but I'm not hopeful for what it would do to the taste, or look. Whatever you decide, I'd test it in small portions first. You may end up just li...
Anything wrong with this chicken/can undercooked chicken be white inside? I was trying to fry some chicken without getting the outside to crust and so fried on lower than usual heat. Please see pics of the meat. I am concerned the chicken may not have cooked properly however as you can see from the pics it is white a...	Your chicken looks fine. It seems as if you have succeeded in getting the meat done without it drying out, which is always great! The surface does not look 'crusty' and as you say it's soft and easy to eat, I would say it's a success.
Can I deep fry food in butter instead of vegetable oil? I was wondering if it is possible to deep fry food that would normally be fried in vegetable oil in butter or lard instead? Will the result be different?	You can certainly deep-fry foods in clarified butter (also known as ghee) and in lard. In fact, there are many foods that are traditionally fried in these fats. They both have very high smoke points and are excellent for making crisp fried foods. For example, Puri, Indian fried breads, are deep-fried in ghee (clarif...
On what temperature should I leave my sauce to cook? I decided to cook a pizza sauce. I know that the longer you leave it on your stove, the better it might taste. I want to leave my sauce on the stove for an hour or so. At what temperature should I keep it?	Once it's reached a boil, then drop it to the lowest your burner will go. With the lid on, the idea is to have just noticeable movement, with as few bubbles as you can get. Many burners won't go that low; but a tomato sauce should be OK at a low simmer for an hour, so long as you stir it every 10 mins & make sure it d...
Why are chicken thighs sold as bone-in skin-on or boneless skinless but never boneless skin-on? Chicken thighs are fantastic pan fried skin down for that crispy texture. The bones tend to get in the way of eating them however, and they are a hassle to remove (though quick with good knife/shear technique). I'd love to ...	Actually while they are not easily found everywhere, some stores do sell the boneless skin-on chicken thighs and breasts. In fact, I just bought some of the thighs this past week. (I'm in the US, mid-atlantic region.) The reason most stores don't sell them that way is because it's a less popular option and therefore in...
Can I add peanut butter to cook and serve pudding to make peanut butter pie? If so, do I use less liquid? I'm wanting to make a peanut butter pie using vanilla cook and serve pudding. Can I do this and would I need to use less liquid?	Welcome! Per allrecipes , yes you can, and no change liquid is needed. The recipe in the link calls for a pre-made graham cracker crust and uses 1 cup of peanut butter. The instructions read as: Prepare cook and serve pudding as directed on package. Stir in peanut butter. Bring mixture to a boil and pour into graham c...
Chips/Fries Bake Identification Not sure if this belongs here but I've a family recipe that is effectively a pasta bake but instead of pasta you use skinny chips (UK) / french fries (USA). It came from an Aunt who lived in Canada who came home to the UK. The recipe is as follows: Chips/Fries, Onion (fried), Condensed ...	This looks like a variation of a tater tot casserole, of which there are many variations.
What is good water-pan placement for offset smoker I want to smoke a pork shoulder low and slow: 240 degrees at around 15-20 hours. I'm using an offset smoker, Oklahoma Joe Highland. What is a good placement of water pan(s) and why?	I have a couple offsets, I put my water pan on the grill grate closest to the firebox. This does 2 things, it's easy to replace the water after it all evaporates and it adds a block to keep hot firebox direct heat off the meat.
Why is syrup added to a cake before frosting? Why is syrup added to the inside of a cake before frosting? Maybe the cream sticks better with each layer of cake?	Brushing a cake with simple syrup before frosting is done to prevent the cake from drying out too quickly, and sometimes to add flavour (if a flavoured syrup is used instead of just water+sugar).
What is the shelf life of dehydrated, precooked meals? I'm planning to dry precooked meals with a food dehydrator to make them non-perishable for hiking trips. Some of the recipes I want to cook do have ground beef, chicken, or salmon in them. I want an estimated for how long they are safe if they were dried for about...	Dehydrating food is a common practice for trekking and backpacking. Dehydrating vastly reduces the water activity in foods, making them a less hospitable environment for bacterial activity. You'll want to use a reliable dehydrator with a variable temperature setting, as different ingredients require different temperat...
Olive oil in Japanese cooking I recently ventured a bit outside my usual European cooking and started making recipes from a "westernized" Japanese cookbook I was gifted. Some recipes for salads call for "vegetable oil" in the dressing. I usually make salad dressings with olive oil and didn't have canola or sunflower s...	Olive oil is not native to Japan and is never used in traditional Japanese cooking. (Yes, olives are now grown in Japan and olive oil is readily available, but so are burgers and pizza.) Your recipe's "vegetable oil" is almost certainly a translation of the Japanese サラダ油 sarada abura, literally "salad oil", meaning an...
Bulging product info Is packaged chunky guacamole: Ingredients: avocados, tomatoes & tomato juice, salt, onions, red onions, cilantro, lime juice,sea salt, jalapeno peppers & garlic. Plastic packed and bulging, okay to eat? It's not expired and kept refrigerated	Probably not; I wouldn't chance it. So: NO. Something is producing gas, thus there is unexpected fermentation (by microbe action). It is more likely to be bad than good. Guacamole should not be fermenting.
What does the ash content of broken wheat really mean? I purchased some broken durum wheat (also called lapsi or daliya in India) to make upma and was shocked to find that it contained ash. It seemed silly that someone would deliberately mix ash into broken wheat, and this site says it's not mixed in the flour, but ...	The "Ash" is not an ingredient in the flour To be clear, the "Ash" is a measure of what you'd get left - if you burned the flour. It is not an ingredient in the bag of flour. More specifically if you had 100g of flour - the "Ash" number is literally how much the Ash would weight if you burned all of it. As starch burns...
Calories in alcohol-based sauce brought to boil (bourbon chicken) In the same spirit as this question, I came across a keto recipe for bourbon chicken. I don't usually trust the calorie-count of recipes like this from the blogosphere, I have no clue where/how they're crunching their numbers. So I usually put the recip...	Chronometer uses the best scientific-quality database, which is from the USDA's FoodData Central. You can find the same data at nutritiondata.self.com, which is easier to access from a desktop computer (in my opinion). The data set for 80 proof spirits is here. For all of them, bourbon included, the calories from not-...
Whey from yogurt to curdle milk I know that adding acid to milk being cooked, will yield curdles that one can strain and store as cheese. Is it possible to use the whey from my homemade yogurt (now greek-style yogurt), but instead of cooking everything in a pot, I let it sit in proofing temp for a few hours? Will I ge...	If you let the whey sit with the milk at proofing tempreatures (about 42 to 49 C for lactobacillicus bulgaricus, somewhat lower for bifidus, streptococcus delbrueckii and some other strains), you'll get yogurt again. In order to get your type of "curds" (corresponding to Russian tvorog, or German quark, or Indian pane...
Is there a Guide to non alcoholic ice cream floats? Is there a guide to making kid friendly ice cream floats? In other words no alcohol content. Note that I come at it from an Australian perspective so ice cream floats from places like Mexico might not be as relevant as a focus on Australia or the UK or the US. This ...	In the US, ice cream floats are simply ice cream and carbonated soda, and so are naturally kid friendly. One of the most well known is the root beer float - vanilla ice cream and root beer. Another that seemed to trend some years ago was orange sherbet and cream soda. The flavor combinations are endless. Use your imagi...
Should you add specific garden-fresh herbs to a stew at the beginning or the end? There are several questions about when to add spices and herbs to soup, but this one is more specific. I'm making a stew that is to be thickened with roux. A soupy tomato based soup will be simmered for a few hours, blended, chilled, the...	It depends on the herbs. Something like thyme or rosemary or oregano can withstand cooking for a long time and should be removed before eating or blending (IMO) Other herbs like basil will not withstand long cooking time and should be added raw at the end, or at serving time to have their full flavor shine.
Advice for making/keeping shredded chicken moist? My dietician ordered that I eat chicken. I found that to eat the portion I'm supposed to eat (10oz), it's easier to shred the chicken and take 10oz of shredded chicken, rather than try to find 10oz breasts. I am trying to meal prep this chicken over the week. The way ...	The first issue I see is that you are over cooking your chicken breast. 20 minutes in a pressure cooker is really over doing it. Even a little over cooking dries chicken breast. Chicken breast needs to be cooked more precisely. A pressure cooker is not the correct tool for the job. So you first need to correct you...
How can I recognize good quality Genoa salami? A while back I saw a YouTube video on Genoa salami and they explained that good quality salami is rare in the United States. The people in the video were saying something like real salami is made from fat from a certain part of the pig's stomach and there is some special ...	Recognizing quality entails knowing the product and the producers. Obviously you need to taste and ask questions. The correct texture and flavor of the fat used in salumi is very important, as it is generally a very high proportion of the ingredient list (30 - 50%). In general, if you want "authentic" salumi, I would ...
Bottom of my charcoal grill keeps falling out I got a small charcoal kettle grill from Craigslist recently. I can't seem to get the little dish on the botton that holds the charcoal(?) to stay attached to it. It tends to just fall out when I put it in. Not sure if this metal piece is supposed to do something? I've be...	Push & twist, very similar mechanism to a bayonet-fitting light bulb. Three hooks go over three pins, then you turn it to lock. I cannot tell from the photos whether the pins are in situ. Just in case it's not entirely clear from that brief description, you lift the 'bucket' up underneath, it should fit outside the ...
What is the bright red ingredient in Japanese chicken curry katsu? I have had chicken curry katsu at different restaurants in different countries, and there is always a diced bright red ingredient, the color of a tomato, put on like a garnish. Some told me it was a red pepper, others a variety of carrot. I could not a...	This appears to be a Japanese pickle mixture, made with daikon radish amount other things, called Fukujinzuke (福神漬) Fukujinzuke is a mixture of Japanese radish (daikon), lotus root, cucumber and eggplant which are preserved in a soya sauce and sweet cooking wine (mirin) base. The sweet brown or red relish is served as...
Dry rub duration How long is too long to allow for a dry rub with small amounts of salt to sit on a pork shoulder and a brisket. I usually let it sit overnight, but am thinking of extending the time to 24 hours.	Twenty four hours will be fine. Most recipes I see suggest 8 to 24 hours, but if you look around on the BBQ forums, you'll find people who rub and leave in the fridge for up to 3 or 4 days.
Soda water first stored in refrigerator and then at room temperature If I put an unopened bottle of soda water in the refrigerator and decide two weeks later that there is not enough room so I store it in a cabinet outside the refrigerator, will it lose its bubbly taste and carbon dioxide?	If it's unopened it will stay perfectly fine, cold or warm, until the Best Before date printed on it. It doesn't need refrigerating until opened - unless, of course, you want to drink it cold ;)
Is striped bass suited for sous vide? I have to cook some striped bass tomorrow. It is from frozen, and in fillets with no skin (if it had skin I would pan sear it, but alas it doesn't). I was thinking, season with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Then sous vide @ 135, then serve it on a romesco sauce. I am fairly u...	I use sous vide as a tool in the kitchen on a regular basis. Over the years I've developed some preferences and recognize that as a tool, there are some jobs it does well, and other jobs where traditional cooking methods simply produce a better result. For me, I prefer fish cooked using traditional methods, and I woul...
Can a pasta pot be used for cooking sauces? I am considering buying a pasta pot, such as the All-Clad 6807 SS Copper Core. Can I remove the colander and just use the main body to cook tomato sauce? Or can it only be used for water-based cooking?	"Pasta Pots" for the most part are just pots that come as a kit with a fitted colander and a lid which make cooking pasta easier. In 99% of cases they are not exclusive to cooking water based cooking methods, and for the rare exception it would be plainly marked on the packaging when you bought it (if you didn't look, ...
How to understand flavors and when to use combination of them? I want to be a home cook and at some stage to become a chef having my own café or restaurant. Marco Pierre White always says when he likes a dish in masterchef: Great dish. It tells me that you understand flavors. What does he mean? How to understand whe...	Yes, all dishes should have flavour combinations, unless the dish consists of one single ingredient with no seasoning added, no oil added, it can't help but have them... even then a tomato for example has different flavour in the skin than it has in the pulp, than it has in the seeds, the inner leaves of a brussels spr...
Kneading bread dough If a recipe calls for ten minutes hand kneading a bread dough, how long should it take to knead in a mixer using dough hooks?	It seems there is no reliable conversion formula - if you check the websites of mixer manufacturers, they go as low as 1/5 of the time (KitchenAid) or suggest machine-kneading for about 4/5 (Bosch). And I don’t think it’s just because the KitchenAid is so super fast. The good thing is that the lack of a formula forces ...
What are the effects of abstaining from eating a certain flavor? I've often heard that we become accustomed to oversalty food and that abstaining from eating such foods for a few weeks could allow us to taste salt in lesser quantities again. From experience I would say this is true, though it could be placebo, but doe...	You nailed the correct wording in your question - "we become accustomed to". We tend to get used to and like what we become accustomed to. For the same reason that we get used to overly salty things, we can get used to less salty things. What we get used to becomes normal and what we like. I've experienced the salt red...
Does it make sense to vacuume brined meat? Why not sous vide in water directly? If you wet brine a piece of meat and don't apply anything else to it, why exactly do you need a bag? Why not cook the meat directly in the brine? While it cooks, it can brine some more. Handy, if you are short a couple hours on the brine. ...	Theoretically, there is no problem with your logic. In fact, during the early days of restaurant sous vide adoption, when chefs were using the same immersion circulators that scientists were using, it was not uncommon to poach fish directly in oil using an immersion circulator. Those original tools could handle that j...
Making Kombucha - problems and questions This is my first attempt at making kombucha. For the 2nd fermentation I had one bottle and one jar. When it tasted ok I put the bottle in the fridge and am drinking it now and it's pretty good (although maybe a touch vinegar-y). The jar I left in a cupboard at room temp becau...	All of your scobies look safe and healthy. They will start out thin and slimy. If you want to grow a more substantial scoby, leave your ferment for longer than usual until it is strong enough to not crumple completely and can continue to grow in future batches. For your food safety concerns, you want to avoid anything...
The role of fat (butter, oil) in caramel-required recipes? Why in some recipes with using caramel, like, for example, caramelized walnuts or chinese caramelized apples, its required to melt sugar in oil or butter instead of making caramel with water or just melt the sugar per se? typical recipe scheme looks like this...	I am coming rather late to this party, but here's my answer: Caramel made by heating sugar in fat (oil or butter) will never completely harden like caramel made in water or just melting sugar and will get very soft again when reheated. Also, it is much easier to control the color of the caramel when made in fat. In Chi...
If a cheese sold as pasta-cheese does not melt, is it "cheese"? This might sound like a dumb question: Back in the day I cooked some pasta for some friends and they bought this cheap grated cheese in the supermarket. I remember my shock because the cheese did not melt no matter how much time we heated it (not with the...	That's a processed cheese product. It may be allowed to be called cheese in some places, but that's a matter of product labelling regulations where you happen to be. The melting is a different issue. I'd expect that product to melt, though possibly not if it has the texture of parmesan - parmesan doesn't really melt on...
How do I salvage this bread dough? I was planning to make a brioche dough, but somehow managed to measure out and add cornstarch instead of bread flour. I've taken as much of the cornstarch out as I can, but there's about 3/4 cup still in there mixed in with the brioche ingredients. Is there any way to salvage this? ...	You can make some sort of bread by adding plenty of the highest protein wheat flour you have. You'll have to judge the hydration when you knead. I'd aim for proportions like a yeast-risen cornbread (or failing that a basic enriched dough) , and make it into rolls, then eat them warm (or reheated). Rising will also be a...
How to thicken a sour cream-based pastry cream? I did some research, but can't find the answer to my problem: I need to thicken the cream that I am making for my layered cake. The cream is made of sour cream and sweetened condensed milk. The cream, the way it is - is runny. It is good (and also preferable) for getting...	I'm wondering if mixing in some cream cheese in addition to, or in place of a portion of the sour cream, might help thicken things without altering the taste profile too much. Sour cream is roughly 73% water, while cream cheese is only around 53% water. That may be a way to reduce some of the water content without havi...
Keeping meat in salt water Let's say that I want to keep meat in my fridge for a week. From what I read, this is frowned upon, as it leaves time for bacteria to develop and to produce toxins which won't be destroyed by cooking the meat. However, I also read that in cold, salty conditions, only favourable bacteria deve...	I can only partially answer your question but still: Cold : yes, absolutely Salt : yes, that would help. Water ??? No. Bacterias love water. When trying to preserve meat you actually want to do the opposite, you want to keep it dry. That's how curing works actually. Absorbant paper is often used to prevent the meat f...
How to make homemade bread machine mixes for long-term store? I bought a bread machine that makes delicious bread, but in the weekday, I rarely have time to put all of the ingredients together. I would like to prepare many batches for a whole month, all at once. Many years ago, I could buy box mixes, for use in the ma...	You can certainly mix together all of the dry ingredients out of the above, and store them. They should store for a few weeks in the fridge, and a few months in the freezer. However, by dry, I'm referring to the following out of the above: Bread flour Nonfat dry milk Salt Yeast Granola Sun dried tomatoes, if complete...
When roasting or sauteeing vegetables, does it matter if it was fresh, canned or frozen? I am duplicating a recipe I used from Homechef, using store bought ingredients. One thing I often see is that canned or frozen vegetables (sometimes in streamable bags) are cheaper then fresh, but when originally cooking them they...	What would change would be the taste & texture. Pulses [bean/chickpeas etc] are virtually the same canned as cooked from dried. These are the usual two methods. Fresh isn't really an option to most people, so dried or canned are the accepted sources. Tomatoes are used canned so often they have become almost a "food typ...
Replacement for Thyme Im making a strawberry tart where the sauce is made from boiling thyme, port/tawny and strawberry juice. Is there any replacement for thyme in this?	The flavour of thyme can't be imitated by substitution. You can either omit it or devise a different sauce. Various herbs (basil for example) are combined with strawberries in various dishes, but the proportions are up to you. You may want to search for recipes using both strawberries and each of the available herbs to...
Does soaking in saltwater for 20 mins help cleanse mussels? After reading both sides of the debate (cp. beneath), I can't make up my mind! I live in Toronto, Canada. I buy my mussels from Diana's Seafood or Loblaws. Evidence for soaking in salt water for 20 mins Try This Simple Tip for Plump Steamed Mussels and Cl...	Where I come from (Portugal) it is quite common to see in most restaurants and establishments shellfish being soaked several hours to even days long before consumption, especially sand dwelling shellfish, which is not the particular case of mussels. The reason for this is that it keeps them alive and fresh for longer, ...
Could you brine steak? I have read that brining pork chops is a good idea but can you brine beef steaks of various cuts? Would this achieve anything good or spectacular or is it just a waste of time?	There certainly are proponents of brining beef to impact texture and flavor. In my looking across the internets, it appears that dry "brining" is more common than wet, but both are used for steaks. Whether or not the results are "spectacular" is up to you. So, I would give it a try to see if you like it. For me, I g...
Could you make sauerkraut with spinach? I'm just wondering if you can ferment spinach in a similar way you can ferment cabbage leaves? Would this have appealing results at all?	Something I've never tried, however, my immediate thought is the comparison of cooked cabbage to cooked spinach. I imagine nothing more than a jar full of green-black slime. I'd love to hear what happens if you try, though ;)
Freezing or drying "hardy" herbs I have some decently sized herb plants in my garden. In their respective prime I like to chop and freeze herbs like chives and parsley, while stuff like basil is only really good fresh. "Hardy" plants like sage, laurel and rosemary though? I have no idea. Would you rather chop these or...	Sage, Laurel and Rosemary can all be dried and retain a lot of their flavor. In fact, for laurel, the flavor is enhanced by drying. There is little to be gained from freezing these, and I suspect that chopping beforehand would decrease their flavor components significantly. For Rosemary and (Bay) Laurel - washed sprigs...
How to know if blackberries are safe to eat? I'm having a problem where the blackberries I buy from the store on Sunday seem to be spoiled on Monday. On Sunday, I specifically look around the outside of the box and check if any blackberries have white fluff on them. If I don't see it then, then when I actually open th...	As soon as you get them home, inspect for damaged berries & discard any that are not perfect. Wash the rest in a colander or sieve under cold running water. Drain well. Spread on dry paper towel for 30 mins to fully drain & dry, then put them in a new box with paper towel under & over - don't seal them with a snap lid....
How long will schmaltz last in the freezer? I have three frozen containers of schmaltz. The newest is three months old; the oldest is probably a couple of years old. Are any of them edible?	It definitely depends on the kind of schmaltz you are having, but to be honest I never have seen schmaltz gone bad, even after several years. I have had schmaltz in the fridge for over a year and it was still perfectly fine. I'd suggest the following: follow your gut. Just look at it and check for the usual signs. In ...
Meat thermometer doesn't "stop" measuring. How to know actual measurement? I recently bought a meat thermometer so that I could measure my chicken. This is the one I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IHHLB3W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I've tried using it multiple times but whenever I i...	To answer the "how far" part of the question: you want the tip of the probe dead center, where the meat is thickest, that's where it'll take the longest to heat up. Otherwise, as the comments mentionned, heat transfer from the meat to the probe is not immediate. Give it a good 20/30 seconds.
What is the measurable difference between dry basil and fresh? What is the measurable difference between dry basil and fresh? Is cooking with fresh herbs different than cooking with dry herbs?	In addition to the great answer by M.K: Most industrially dried and fresh herbs are not even of the same exact kind. Taking basil as an example: Most basil species don't preserve their aroma well during the drying process. So while you can use any kind of basil for fresh use, you can maybe only use certain kinds for d...

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