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How Salt and Pepper, Minced Chili Garlic INTO frozen lobster meat? How get 椒鹽 into 龍蝦?
I want cook at home O Mei Restaurant in Richmond Hill's "Deep fry body and head with spiced peppered salt and minced chili garlic". But I don't want deep fry for health. I can pan fry with sun flower oil.
But I use frozen lobster meat. How flavor spiced peppered salt and minced chili garlic INTO lobster meat? In Chinese, how I stuff 椒鹽 into 龍蝦? I want taste spiced peppered salt and minced chili garlic! Not enough just sprinkle spiced peppered salt and minced chili garlic in wok with lobster!!! | The flavour profile of "pepper salt" (椒鹽) is generally a combination of Chinese five-spice (五香粉), garlic, and chilli. Restaurants first deep-fry the protein (lobster, squid, fish, etc.) then combine it with everything else in a wok.
However, your problem seems to be that there isn't enough flavour in your version, which really doesn't have much to do with whether it's deep-fried or not. You could try:
Simply adding more seasoned salt/garlic/chilli to taste
Marinating your lobster in a combination of Chinese cooking wine, salt, and sugar for ~30 minutes
Frying your minced garlic and chilli with five-spice powder for longer, blooming the spices and flavouring the oil
Before pan-frying, coat your lobster in seasoned cornstarch for flavour and to help it crisp up |
Dairy-free substitute for milk when marinating chicken
A number of recipes involve soaking meat in milk, buttermilk or yogurt, for example several Middle Eastern lamb recipes and traditional American southern fried chicken. Someone I'm cooking for is allergic to dairy. What dairy-free substitute would give the most similar effect and why?
(Slightly related answer about effects of milk) | Milk has been used in marinades for a long time, and it does work. It is thought that it is the calcium in the milk that activates enzymes in the chicken rather than enzymes in the milk tenderizing the chicken, see this article for the science. This means you can use soy, rice, or any milk substitute, but you'll get the best result from the one with the most calcium. This article lists the mg of calcium per 1 US cup (235ml) of cow's milk and substitutes:
Cow's milk: 300mg
Rice milk: 283mg
Coconut milk: 41mg
Soy milk: 19mg
So it looks like Rice milk is the best substitute from a tenderizing perspective.
There are other ways of tenderizing chicken, pineapple for example does a great job, however if you want authentic middle eastern milk substitutes are the way to go. |
When we go to the butcher's shop, which color meat should we choose? Cherry-red or brownish-red?
When we go to the butcher's shop, we see cherry-red and brownish-red meat in the cooler. I know that change in color alone does not mean the product is spoiled. Color changes are normal for fresh product. USDA says "When exposed to air, myoglobin forms the pigment, oxymyoglobin, which gives meat a pleasingly cherry-red color."
The main issues I wonder are these;
1- When you go to the butcher shop and see 2 different colors from the same meat in the cooler, which color meat should we prefer? Cherry-red or brownish-red? Do these meats have any advantage over each other?
2- Can we say that brownish-red meat is better rested than cherry-red meat? Or is this just about oxygen contact?
Thanks | The color of beef and other meats is actually a pretty big topic. It is influenced by the animal's diet, the particular breed, how much the muscle was worked, how much the meat has been exposed to oxygen, and how fresh it is. The USDA and other agencies put out articles about it, and it's widely debated which is "better".
There are some stores that will intentionally keep meet away from oxygen until it is displayed and then introduce oxygen to have the meat "bloom" so it looks particularly red, but this reduces its shelf life. It would actually be better to buy beef that has not bloomed and is more purple in color because it's likely to be fresher.
Another aspect for beef is the fat. Studies have shown that grass-fed and free range beef has higher nutrients (which is why you see so many "grass fed" labels), and this causes the fat to take on a yellow color. This meat can have a much stronger flavor, and is sometimes gamier and a little tougher, even though it is more nutritious. I prefer this kind of meat but some people don't.
I have learned to pick meat based on its appearance and the color is just part of it. You learn to determine what looks fresh and does not, it's the color but also the sheen, how well it "stands up", is it flopping or falling apart, is there any kind of sheen on it. There is a difference between the gray color you get from oxidation and the beginning of spoilage, and naturally darker colors of fresh meat. I will sometimes have the butcher flip it over so I can see both sides, they will of course put it in the case with the best side showing and if it's been sitting a while the underside may show that it is gray and starting to lose its freshness. I hate it when I buy a pre-packaged steak that looks good and bring it home and flip it over and it looks like it's several days old. |
What is the real temperature to caramelize sugar?
A lot of web pages claim that sugar caramelizes at ~160C. But also a lot of recipes caramelize sugar in a simmering water. The boiling point of water is only 100C. So how can these recipes succeed so well in practice? | a lot of recipes caramelize sugar in a simmering water.
Calling the solution "simmering water" isn't a good characterization. The boiling point of pure water is 100C. But the boiling point rises as the concentration of sugar in the solution increases. Once you're above 75% or so, the boiling point increases significantly. For 90% sugar (still 10% water remaining), it's up to around 120C.
As the water evaporates, the sugar concentration, the boiling point, and therefore the temperature all increase. When you reach 160C, there's probably less than 1% water and the decomposition of the sugar (carmelization) rate starts to increase significantly.
There are some charts/tables for different concentrations here, but they only goes up to 90% |
Having difficulties seasoning my new cast iron pan due to the coarseness of the texture. Please help!
I just bought a new cast iron casserole pan that is only enameled on the outside. I tried seasoning it earlier today by pouring a tablespoon of flax seed oil on the inside and spreading it around with a paper towel. Sadly, I realized shortly after that the texture on the inside of the pan is quite coarse and it causes the paper towel to "shred" leaving very little pieces of paper behind everywhere around the pan. These pieces are obviously instantly soaked in oil and become quite hard to remove. It's almost impossible to do a good job at covering the whole pan in the oil because of this. Something similar happens when I use a kitchen towel, except rather than leaving pieces of paper behind, the coarse texture of the pan causes little "hairs" from the fabric of the towel to be left behind on every wipe.
I imagine I don't have to sand down a brand new pan just to get it to a point where I can season it properly, right? It's my first cast iron pan so any help is appreciated. | We have many comments, but I'm going to throw this in as an answer…
Your issue is lint, on a rough surface, so use something that is categorically lint-free.
A sponge. Any type.
A Moppet, the yellow side of a pan-scrub, anything.
It won't absorb quite so well as a cotton or paper towel & squeezing it out to mop the last bit might be a bit of a task, but it won't shed fluff all over the surface. |
What would you call this spatula?
It's my favorite but its getting a bit worn and I've been trying to order a replacement online. I've tried "spatula with scooped sides" and "spatula with angled sides" but nothing leads to what I want. Everything I look for just leads to a regular flat spatula, or sometimes a rubber spatula, an angled spatula or even a fish spatula.
It's a slotted spatula with slightly angled sides to help scoop up food. | It's an egg slice - like a fish slice but more curved & wider.
It's for flipping/serving fried eggs… though tbh I just use a fish slice for anything like that.
Your only problem with searching it is 'egg slice' brings up a million hits for slicing eggs, so 'egg slice spatula' or 'egg fish slice spatula' might hone it down a bit. Lots of manufacturers have many things that vary in shape between the two profiles, egg or fish.
I always think half the issue with this is that no-one else knows it's properly called an egg slice either - so searching gets pretty tough.
You might get a better set of hits with 'egg turner spatula' as it seems many people call them an egg turner.
It does also look a bit like a slotted chuan, but if you search chuan, you don't get holes. |
Vegan Cheese - Almond Milk Curdle
Does almond milk curdle?
I tried to make it curdle to make vegan cheese. I added vinegar and cooked it and nothing happened. I continued to cook off all the water and was left with essentially an almond paste. How do you make a colloid like this curdle more to make it like cheese? | Vegan cheeses are typically mot made by curdling a vegan milk. As you have noticed, vegan milks don't curdle when you introduce an acid. Vegan cheeses tend to be made by either making a nut paste with some add-ins to give it a nice flavour and texture, or by thickening a vegan milk mixture with some starch or agar agar. |
Can I adapt a baking recipe for a Dutch Oven to a Casserole Dish?
I'm cooking a recipe for a Bread that requires a Dutch Oven.
All I have is a Casserole Dish.
The recipe calls for 40mins then 20 mins in a 400F Oven in the Dutch Oven.
My question is: Can I adapt a baking recipe for a Dutch Oven to a Casserole Dish? | They are different terms for the same object, so yes.
In the images you have chosen the first is metal and the second ceramic; these would have different properties in terms of browning the food that comes into contact with the base and sides. But products branded as 'Dutch ovens' come in metal and ceramic, and products branded as 'casserole dishes' come in metal and ceramic too.
In addition, for the specific recipe you are using the author has added:
You can use any 6 quart dutch oven, cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or
ceramic bakeware (with lid) that can heat up to 500 degrees F.
So I would have no concerns about the equipment as long as it has the desired volume. |
I have used Mr Clean Magic Eraser to clean my porcelain bowl, what to do next?
According to https://gimmethegoodstuff.org/mr-clean-magic-eraser-is-it-toxic/
You shouldn’t use it on dishes or something you eat off of as bits of the polymer are left behind. You should avoid formulas with added fragrance or bleach. All that said, as far as cleaning products go, Magic Eraser is actually one is among the safer options, especially considering how well it works.
I have used Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to cleaned a porcelain bowl. Should I throw my bowl away? Is there any protocol to clean my bowl afterward to remove any possible polymer on it?
I aware that Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is made from formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer . My concern is if any trace amount of formaldehyde will enter food ware. | Just rinse it off. It sounds simple, but unless it's a very porous surface, a quick rinse should work fine. I would say you're even fine to continue washing your things with a Mr. Clean. I'm sure it's toxic to take a bite out of the "eraser" but I doubt very little (if any) should be left over on hard surfaces like porcelain, and would not likely hurt you in such small amounts. I believe they even make one for washing dishes that is infused with Dawn soap (just don't use it on nonstick surfaces, which will be toxic and also ruin your pan). |
Does my Kimchi need to ferment longer?
I made my first batch of Kimchi, it has fermented for about a week & the bubbling seems to have slowed down. Can I eat it now or does it need to ferment longer in the refrigerator?
Also, the liquid level seems to have dropped during fermentation such that the kimchi at the top of the jars is no longer under the liquid. Should I add more liquid or just leave it be? The kimchi tastes quite salty, if I add more liquid should I add salted or unsalted water? | You can eat kimchi at any point. More fermentation/time simply means more funk. It is more likely that things are floating, your only risk is mold forming on the surface. You can add a weight of some sort to keep the exposed ingredients under the liquid, but if you are going to keep them sealed like that, mold formation is less likely, unless you remove kimchi with fingers or non-sanitary utensils. You can also add brine, but I don't think that is as common in a kinchi situation, as it is in other pickling situations. |
How (much) can I minimise the cooking time of red split lentils?
As I can't go camping or bike touring at the moment, I'm taking the chance to experiment with some home-made dehydrated meals - doing everything at home but as if I was on the road. One idea is based on red lentils, with a separate sachet of dehydrated vegetables/vegetable powders/herbs/spices to rehydrate into a sauce, the whole thing served with couscous or pasta.
Stated cooking times for split red lentils range from 10 to 30 minutes; my DIY lightweight alcohol stove runs for about 10-20 minutes on a fill and I'd ideally like to boil water for the accompaniment as well on a single fill (both to minimise the amount of fuel I have to carry and to avoid the risks associated with refilling a hot stove or delay waiting for it to cool).
So how quick-cooking can I make my red lentils? My first thought is to soak them for a few hours, which I tried today (4 hours soaking) with reasonable success. This simulates knowing by mid-afternoon that I need to cook a dinner. I may experiment with a shorter soak, as it would be good to be able to cook at shorter notice. But is it possible/worthwhile to cook them and then dry them again (properly dehydrated so they'd keep)? Is there some other idea I'm missing? | I can’t give you numbers as I haven’t experimented with it yet (but am very inspired to do so by your post), but assuming that you will be heating water for a morning coffee or so, have you considered putting the lentils into a smallish thermos container, topping them up with boiling water and letting them soak / slow cook during the day? Adding your dehydrated veggies and spices wouldn’t require any serious cooking at all, just a quick reheating or bringing it back to a boil.
The idea is roughly based on the principle of a haybox, where food is cooked by placing the hot out into an insulating environment. And combined with the “quick soak” method for beans, where the beans are not soaked in cold, but boiling water, but for just thirty minutes instead of overnight.
Admittedly, this would probably get the lentils in the danger zone for longer than the canonical two hours, but on the other hand, we are not dealing with proteins like meat, raw eggs or dairy. But you could always adjust the time when you start the lentils to fit stricter food safety guidelines or your personal risk tolerance, e.g. boiling the water at your lunch break. |
How to grow baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) at home without creating a sourdough starter?
I've got some commercial yeast (fresh and compressed, the one in cubes) at home, which, as I've understood, is mainly made of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. My question is, is it possible to feed it and let it grow at home.
I don't want to make sourdough, though. I suspect that if I let it feed on flour, I'll contaminate it with lactobacilli. Can I feed it with some sugar (sucrose, for example)? Or should I just give up? | You can try it on agar.
Or you could imitate the industrial method. The industry uses diluted molasses and aerates the solution - yeast needs oxygen to multiply, in anaerobic conditions it does not multiply but converts sugars into alcohol.
You could also try to sterilize the flour (pressure cooker / oven).
Note: air contains wild yeast cells and lactic acid bacteria. So the chances that they contaminate your culture is high.
Also note: if the culture is not well aerated, it produces alcohol, which in turn attracts acetobacter, which turn the alcohol into acetic acid.
When culturing mushrooms, the growers try to make sure that the selected mushroom strain is the one, that colonizes the substrate first, because it can then outcompete moulds and bacteria. I think if you have a high yeast ratio, it might be able to outcompete lactobacilli. This way you could probably use flour without having to worry that it turns sour.
Edit: lactic acid bacteria likes anaerobic conditions, in the presence of O2 it forms H2O2 which limits its growth. This could also be used to improve your LAB/yeast ratio. |
Overworking bread dough by hand
Recently, I tried to make naan using this recipe:
Combine 375g flour, 75g yoghurt, 200g water, 6g sugar, 4g salt, 15g oil, and 2g yeast and let rest 20 minutes.
Knead 1 min then rise 45 min, repeat.
Divide the dough into 5 pieces, roll into balls, let rest 30 min.
Bake on preheated pizza stone 2-3 minutes and brush on garlic butter.
However, I let the dough rise overnight in the fridge rather than for an hour and a half at room temp, and had to punch down and quickly knead the dough two extra times. The next day, when I went to stretch the dough balls out, they tore easily and did not stretch well, like the dough had been overworked. Is this a result of the additional punch downs? | Probably not. The enzimes in the yeast and flour break down among others the gluten, which is responsible for the dough structure.
Some reading material on enzymes
Too much protease activity would break up the gluten, destroying the network that forms during kneading. A little bit, however, softens the dough and makes it more workable. If the dough is allowed to autolyse (i.e., rest) or if preferments are used, proteases have time to work before kneading, making the dough easier to knead.
I would say this is rather "over-leavening" than overworking. (Over-leavened breads stay usually flat.) But the additional punches probably also helped breaking the remaining gluten chains. |
Why does pistachio ice cream not taste like pistachio nuts?
I have eaten pistachio nuts (roasted, salted) many times and I like it. I also like pistachio flavoured ice cream, but I don't find it much similar. If it wasn't named like that, I would probably not make the connection at all.
Why is the flavour so different? Is it similar to "Banana" flavoured ice cream, which often uses some chemical compounds supposed to taste like banana, but which doesn't really either? | Firstly, let me disagree and say that I have tasted some (amazing) pistachio ice creams that tasted very much like the actual nuts. That said, I can think of several reasons why the ice cream might taste differently from the nuts:
Artificial flavours, like you suggest. You might be able to figure out from the ingredients list if these are used.
Salt. If you have only eaten salted pistachio nuts, you might have a different benchmark for pistachio flavour. Salt is a flavour enhancer, after all.
Temperature. The temperature of food and drinks radically changes how it is perceived when tasting. This is why (bad) coffee is OK when hot, but terrible when at room temperature, and why melted ice cream tastes much sweeter than the frozen stuff.
A final side note, which I include mostly because I find it interesting: I used to think 'banana flavour' was based on a different type of banana than commonly found in stores. Doing some searching for this question, it turns out I was wrong. |
Strawberry & Raspberry jam discoloration
For about 3 yrs i have been using a jam/jelly maker. After a few months of storage, the strawberry&raspberry discolor. I do follow the canning bath directions. The only thing I do not follow is I decrease sugar to 1/2 or 1 cup (vs directions of 2cups). I have tried bottled lemon juice as directions say. Still discolors after 3-4 months. I have my water tested and it always passes the test. I water bath the jars after filling for 10 min as recommended. I’m at a loss and wonder if I’m overlooking something? I appreciate any thoughts! | For strawberry jam, the discoloration that happens over time is when the pelargonidin, i.e. the red color breaks down, leaving you with a brownish-red or greyish mush instead of a vibrant red jam.
The breaking down is sped up by a warm environment and exposure to light, starting with long cooking time (probably not an issue in your case), and continuing in storage. The easiest way is to store the jars in the freezer - they will be protected from light and once thawed, still have the enticing red of freshly cooked strawberry jam. We pulled out a jar the other day that was from last year and there was no visual difference noticeable.
Alternatives are adding a small amount of a more stable red color, e.g. black currant, aronia, elderberry or even beet juice. It may change the “pure” strawberry flavor, though.
The more color is in your jam at the beginning, the longer will it stay red. If you have the choice, choose fully ripe fruit and cultivars that are red all through the fruit instead of ones with a paler interior. But in the end, freezing is the safest method.
As raspberries’ red is based on the same chemical components, I would assume the same mechanisms apply as for strawberries. But raspberry jam never lasts long enough in our home to change color, so I don’t have experimental data available. |
A “puck” of frozen food
I found a recipe that calls for 5 “pucks” of frozen spinach. I cannot find a definition of the term. I need to know how many ounces are in a puck? | The term "puck" is not in general use for food, but it seems to refer to a hockey puck-like volume of frozen spinach. (Spinach is commonly found frozen into blocks.) Presumably the author of the recipe had a particular brand - and therefore size standard - of spinach in mind. The spinach "pucks" in my freezer are about 4 oz each, but other sizes are also common.
Find a better recipe, or ask the author for clarification. |
Converting a stovetop to a griddle
I want to use a full stovetop griddle in my regular stovetop. I have this https://www.webstaurantstore.com/vigor-23-x-23-portable-steel-griddle/247PG2222FH.html My issue is that the heating ends up being uneven hot in the spots where the burners are and cold elsewhere. Is there someway I could get even heating across my entire stovetop? I have a regular residential gas stove. I’m trying to cook large amounts of scrambled eggs and hash browns at once. | Well, you'll never get the entire griddle evenly heated. But this griddle is pretty thick (3/16") so the results will not be too bad if you allow the griddle to preheat for a long time (at least 30 minutes). You'll still have hot spots and less-hot spots, but there won't be any 'cold' spots.
You're going to have to learn how the griddle performs and how to move the food to different zones to cook it the way that you want.
As a side note, even in commercial kitchens parts of the griddle are hotter than others. This is quite useful to cook two things at different temperatures, or to move something that is already cooked to a less-hot spot while another component of the dish finishes cooking in a hot spot. |
Why are savory crepes from some restaurants brown?
I've gotten savory crepes made with a darker batter than sweet crepes. What ingredients/cooking technique produce this? | I suspect that you're lucky enough to have had the proper savoury pancake from some regions of France (e.g. Brittany). This isn't known as a crepe in French, but as a galette. This word also has other meanings, as a type of cake, tart or biscuit (British English)/ small crisp cookie (US English).
Wikipedia has an article discussing many types. French Wikipedia lists many more. Here's a related picture from Wikipedia for comparison:
Breton galettes, i.e. those of the pancake variety, are made using buckwheat flour which itself has a mild savoury flavour, not exactly nutty but in that direction. They're a greyish brown rather than the golden colour of crepe. French names for buckwheat flour include farine de sarrasin and farine de blé noir, the latter meaning black wheat/grain/corn flour. Fillings are savoury (various cheeses, ham, etc.); occasionally nuts and honey are used together with savoury ingredients. Traditionally, galettes are paired with sparkling cider.
Galettes are not widely found outside France. In fact, even in France they are not easy to find outside Brittany, Normandy, the Loire region and the Vendee. I have been able to get them in the UK in the past. I've never seen them in the US (checking your profile), but haven't tried to find them either. |
Pattern in carrot's body
Is this rhombus-like pattern in carrot totally random or is it a specific variety? If so, good to know for decorating ideas. | It is a symptom of unusual growth conditions not variety or anything
Over-watering is the most likely culprit. This resulted in rapid growth. As carrots grow from the center, the formerly small outer parts weren't able to grow rapidly enough to keep up with the middle and resulted in spaces left behind. |
Solutions of making cookies less crumbly and dough not being able to be shaped into balls?
I made cookies from a YouTube recipe but it was too crumble even before baking.
The ingredients are:
900g plain flour
300g sugar
Half teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
350 ml oil
Cinnamon
It's baked at 240 C for 15-20 mins.
See the video GHRIBIA COOKIES.
What are possible solutions like what kind of ingredient shall I add without affecting the taste? | Ghribia cookies are meant to be extremely tender and delicate. Making them with just oil is tricky. The dough will be slightly crumbly and difficult to work with. If they're too crumbly to shape at all, then you need slightly more oil until the dough is just workable. Recipes that use some butter or even an egg yolk are easier to handle and stick together easier. So for this particular recipe, add slightly more oil (it won't take much, so be careful). And in general, if you want an easier recipe look for one with butter (or vegetable shortening to avoid the butter taste) or egg. |
How many of this mug would be 750 grams of flour
To make pizza dough, I'm trying to measure 750 grams of flour. However, I don't have access to any weight measurement tool or any standard cup. I have this mug as unit of measurement. I wonder how many of this mug would roughly be 750 grams of flour?
Cup diameter is 7 cm
Cup height is 8 cm | Buy a 500g pack of flour. Fill the cup with flour and measure how many cups can fill 500g of flour. You can then do simple math to understand the weight of flour each cup is holding. |
Whetstone with an angle guide
I was thinking recently to maybe buy a whetstone so I can sharpen my knives at home. I read all the threads here, on reddit, elsewhere.
I understand that:
It is an art, rather than a simple process.
It is very easy to curl your edge and ruin your knife.
It is a good idea to get a stone with grit around 800-1000 for general sharpening and possibly a 3000 grit for refining the blade at the end. (I don't have a knife that justifies a 6000+ stone, yet.)
With regards to 1 & 3 there's not much I can do or say, things are what they are. But with regards to 2, I am a bit confused. All the comments I've seen say that with low quality stones (or with too-fine-for-what-you-actually-need stones) the problem is that you will need to do 50 passes and maintaining an angle is impossible, so you're bound to screw things up.
How come nobody mentioned angle guides? I see them everywhere on Amazon, and they seem to solve exactly this problem. Is there something "they're not telling us" about these gadgets? Are they secretly bad, or become useless very quickly as the stone wears down? | I found https://youtu.be/kwg18GUJ3nw?t=222 where he explains that angle guides are nice, but they can reinforce bad practice, take away your ability to sharpen by feel, or be flexible with regards to the angle at the tip. Moreover, the clip-on guides can scratch your knife, which is sometimes undesirable if it has a nice finish (e.g. Damascus or hammered). |
taking a tart out of a glass dish
I'm looking to make a tart like this or like this
but I don't have those tart pans that have the removable bottom, I've only got a glass dish.
I'm wanting to take the tart out of the dish and put it on a plate once it's done but I'm not sure how I'll be able to do that. Can I line the glass dish with some baking paper or something so I can pull it out of the dish once it's done, or something?
thanks | You can line a typical pie pan with parchment paper.
Cut a precise circle to cover the bottom, than a precise rectagle or trapezoid to fit the side. You can use a tiny bit of butter or shortening to stick the parchment paper to the pan and keep it in place.
Once it is cooked, you can work a knife then a spatula or two under the paper and lift it all out in one go.
This is the technique I use making a tartine or even when using a springform pan, because it makes keeping the dish intact relatively much easier. |
What does resting mean
I'm a little confused with what resting actually means.
I've typically seen this term being used where you move food (typically meat) from the oven/grill/heat and then keep it warm for "some time" (maybe 10's of minutes depending on the size).
What has confused me is Gordon Ramsay's burger video, where he is cooking burgers on a BBQ. He then moves the burgers to the "resting" rack (if that is the right term) within the BBQ. This rack is still above the heat. To me, this is not resting, this is cooking at a lower heat.
https://youtu.be/v191Y8AUk6w - He says this at 4:43 where also says "they'll continue cooking". AT 5:50, he closes the lid!
I'm assuming resting does not mean "left alone" because many recipes, such as a roast, call for us to put meat in the oven and leave it alone until cooked.
So my question, which may be a double question is: Is there a definition of what resting means and if so, what is it? | There is, as you've seen, no universally precise definition. Broadly, though, "resting" refers to allowing heat to diffuse through the food. Although the burgers are "still cooking" once placed on the higher rack, the amount of heat being applied is nowhere near as high as when they were on the grill, and following the resting the temperature differential will be lower than when they were first taken off the grill. |
Rising dough with closed/airtight lid?
We have, because of Corona, started to make our own bread daily. This means we have dough in a round bowl in the fridge all the time, taking up a lot of space we can't use (on top of it, but also around it, because of the corners).
I was wondering if it's possible to buy a square container with a completely closing lid, to make space on top of it in the fridge, as an extra shelf.
The problem I see, is that the yeast is creating air bubbles in the dough, basically filling the container with gas and therefore overpressure.
What kind dough-containers would be suitable? Do they need an air-valve to prevent overpressure in the container? | Most containers are not completely airtight. If you are worried that something like a cambro container seals too tightly, you can cover it with a baking tray or square plate, rather than the original lid. Alternatively, just poke a few holes in the lid.
Of course, make sure that there is enough head space between the dough and the top of the container, to avoid spills. |
Are there any resources specifically on cooking with high-heat wok burners?
I recently got myself a high-power wok burner, like the ones they use in professional Asian restaurants. Cooking with it is a ton of fun, but sometimes I find myself overwhelmed by the heat output. The wok is getting too dry, the seasoning is burning off, stuff starts to stick like crazy, and so on.
Are there any books/video guides/websites on specifically cooking with high-power wok burners? I know there are many Asian cooking channels on Youtube, but the ones I found just cook, and don't explain any theoretical basics. | You're in luck -- there was a paper earlir this year than analyzed the physics of making fried rice by professional Chinese chefs:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsif.2019.0622
My take away from that was that you have to flip things fast when you're dealing with high heat -- three times per second.
Almost every list that I've seen of wok cooking recommendations calls for re-seasoning at the beginning of your cooking. Most go into wok selection and what's needed to initially season a wok. Some discuss prepping all of your food in advance, as when you're cooking with that sort of heat, taking a minute to chop up the next ingredient means you've already burned what's in the wok.
Here's a small sampling, although not all are specifically about high heat cooking (except maybe for the one that's from a manufacturer of stoves, so it seems a little spammy):
https://inquiringchef.com/how-to-cook-with-a-wok/
https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-cook-with-a-wok-article
https://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/wok-skills-101-stir-frying-basics.html
https://firstwefeast.com/features/2016/10/how-to-cook-with-a-wok/wok-two
https://www.bluestarcooking.com/top-10-tips-for-mastering-wok-cooking-at-home/ |
Overly buttery hollandaise?
This is my second attempt at making hollandaise. I did it with a double boiler, and the recipe was 1 egg yolk, 4 tbsp of butter, a little water, lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper. When I tried it, it was rich--almost repulsively buttery. As far as I can tell, the sauce looks right, and it definitely didn't break. My only thoughts are it needed more lemon juice to cut the butter or more air in the emulsion. I might have also cooked it a bit too cool as it started to solidify within 5 minutes of plating. | Many recipes call for different ratios of egg yolk to butter. Egg yolk size can vary substantially. Your recipe is definitely at the low egg/high butter end of the spectrum.
Considering it came out looking great, add another egg yolk next time, and another the time after that.
I like 3 yolks with half a stick of butter, made with USDA AA large eggs, cooked sous vide (no double boiler). |
Overheating a pizza stone?
I bought a pizza stone without realizing that the max temperature it would withstand is 450 F (according to the instructions). My oven goes up to 550 F, which is the temperature I'd rather bake my pizzas at–is it OK to overheat the stone for the sake of the pizza? | As always, it comes to the meaning of "OK". The most likely scenario here is that the stone's life is shortened and it cracks. It's impossible to say when this will happen, it could be soon or it could stand up to hundreds of pizzas.
So if for you it is worth it risking the stone, you can do it. If you want to avoid with certainty the stone breaking after 4-5 uses, don't use it outside of the parameters determined by the manufacturer. |
Dough failed to rise
To bloom the active dry yeast as part of my recipe, I had to substitute 1 cup whole milk (which needs to reach 110F) with organic evaporated milk (0.5 cup) mixed with 0.5 cup distilled water - this mixture was mixed and then brought to 110F. After trying to bloom (no noticeable blooming) occured and mixing with 3 cups of bread flour and 1 cup AP-flour, the 1-hour resting period resulted in perhaps a ~0.1-0.2 increase of the initial dough size, which is unacceptable and confusing.
All things considered, what possibly resulted in this failed attempt at this ingredient substitution? Also, what are some options to mitigate this situation?
EDIT/UPDATE
Using organic whole milk (same volume/temperature), blooming occured! So, do not use (just) evaporate milk for uses as I described it. | Could be that your yeast was simply not alive.
You could simply try to bloom the yeast with water and sugar. It should become visibly active within a few minutes. |
Storing water after reconstituting dried mushrooms
I like to use dried mushrooms when I cook. I soak them in water for a while and then I use the mushrooms. Normally, I either pour the water down the drain or use it right away to give more flavor to rice.
Would it be safe to store that water in refrigerator to use for cooking rice another day? If so, how long can I keep it in the fridge? Are there any special precautions I should take? | For one day, I would think keeping it in the fridge is ok; use a covered container.
For more than one day, I'd freeze it;
Heck, I would freeze it from the start just in case I don't use it a day after. |
How to replace large eggs for medium in a recipe?
The cookie recipe calls for 2 large eggs and I only have medium. Is there a way to make up for the egg loss or substitutions? | There’s a good chance that the difference of what will be perhaps half a tablespoon just won’t matter in the final product. You don’t say what exactly you are going to make, but if your recipe was so sensitive to minute inaccuracies, it would probably be weight-based for all ingredients, including the eggs.
If you really feel your batter is too dry, add a small amount of liquid (milk or whatever fits your recipe) and you should be fine. |
What's the trick to seal sous vide foil if liquid contained
I experience problems with sealing sous vide dishes if they contain liquid. Think of marinade for example.
While sealing, the liquid is flowing up and prevents proper sealing. Current workaround is to take more foil for example or seal without proper vacuum.
Do you know of a 100% working trick? | I would say that having lots of liquid makes your life easier, not more difficult, because you don't need the vacuum at all.
The purpose of the vacuum is to have heat conduction take place properly. If you were to put a piece of dry food in a plastic bag and close that, the air trapped in the bag would act as an insulator, preventing from the water bath to heat the food.
The good thing about marinades and other liquids used in cooking is that they are great heat conductors. So if you have a bag full of liquid, with pieces of solid food swimming in it, the sous vide process works as intended, without any vacuum.
The most practically convenient way to go about it is to use ziplock bags without a vacuum device. You place your food-with-liquid in the bag, submerge most of the bag, and manually press out the air, then seal by hand. A few air bubbles will be left inside, but they're not a problem.
From there, you can proceed the same way as with a heat-sealed voided bag. |
Heating charcoal on induction stove
I would like to heat up charcoal in my house, so I can pour some oil on it and give my food a BBQ-ish aroma and slight smoky taste. How do I heat a piece of charcoal using induction stove? I suppose it is dangerous for the induction stove. | Induction cooktops generate heat on iron or steel elements. There's no fire involved.
You want to lit a piece of charcoal on fire. That requires a flame. Induction doesn't generate flames, just heat, so you won't be able to light up your charcoal with just that - I'm not even sure the induction will generate enough heat to light your charcoal piece on fire.
I'd recommend a small gas torch, such as those for searing or creme brûlée. |
Brioche bread texture
I made a loaf of brioche today following a French recipe. Here's how it looks:
I don't like its texture. It's bland and a bit dry. Honestly, the taste of overnight-proof bread is not very atractive to me (perhaps because I used instant yeast instead of fresh yeast???).
Here's the recipe I used:
50ml milk
6g instant yeast
2 large eggs
250g bread flour (13% protein)
125g unsalted butter
50g sugar
1g salt
I kneaded the dough with hand mixer and checked with windowpane test. The dough was soft, and almost not sticky because of butter.Then I covered the dough with plastic wrap and let it proof at room tempearture for 2 hours, deflated, then covered and let it proof in the fridge overnight (around 10 hours).
After shaping in the mold, I let it proof again for another hour.
Finally, I baked at 170°C for 30 minutes, and 160°C for 10 minutes.
How should I improve it? If anyone has a brioche recipe that is soft, moist, flavorful and buttery (like Harry's brioche), it would be great.
Thank you very much. | I am pretty certain you simply overbaked your brioche. "Bland and dry" is a very common symptom of that. Also, if we look at the recipe, you had a quite small loaf, which you baked for 40 minutes.
The first solution I'd try in your place is to bake to internal temperature of 96C, then remove immediately from the oven and swaddle in a kitchen towel, possibly spraying with water before covering.
The other things you can do are finer tweaks, but they shouldn't have that much of an effect on the dryness as such. You have way too much yeast, especially for an overnight raise. I've read books that suggest using more yeast for a brioche, but that's because they also have a shortened raise and/or baking from cold (to keep the very buttery dough firm when forming). I personally don't care much for long rests, so I would maybe reduce the yeast only partially (maybe using 2.5 to 3 g) and do two raises at room temperature, as with normal white bread. If you want to keep the retardation, then use less yeast, about 1.25 g. But since your dough is neither under- nor overproofed, the amount of yeast shouldn't have much impact on texture, mostly on aroma only. |
Is the yellow skin of a raw chicken indicating that it has been dyed?
Yellow skin in raw chicken is seen is some parts of Mexico and I was wondering if that color is obtained using dyes. I've done lots of research both online and asking people who have knowledge about raising chickens but have received a lot of conflicting information.
To be clear, this is the kind of yellow I'm referring to:
So far, I have found the following things, which some contradict each other:
The yellow skin is caused by eating marigolds.
The yellow skin is caused by dipping the chicken in hot water and removing quickly.
The skin is dyed yellow due to cultural reasons.
The skin is dyed yellow to help with gutting the chicken.
The skin is dyed yellow to give it a more tasty look.
The yellow skin is caused by eating grass.
The yellow skin is caused by eating special bird feed to puff up the chicken.
The yellow skin is caused by eating carotenoids.
Does anyone have more information about what really is causing this intense yellow? I'd appreciate a paper, research or official information so I can use this to stop the spread of misinformation among my local community. | The skin is yellow probably because the chicken was fed with maize.
Age and race of the chicken are a factor, too.
In Germany (and propably Europe) you can explicitly buy „Maishähnchen“ that is fed purely with maize.
If you compare this with the standard grain (wheat) fed chicken you can see the distinctive difference in Color |
Remove soap water mixed with granulated sugar
Due to the lockdown amidst COVID-19, I bought granulated sugar online and got it delivered.
To take extra precaution, I washed the sealed packet with soap water.
Later I found out that the packet had some small holes and the sugar inside is now mixed with soapy water.
Is there any home-remedy using which I can refine/purify/clean the sugar and remove the soap water out or would I have to just throw the entire packet of sugar? | As sugar dissolves extremely readily when damp, let alone wet, you could just manually pick out the clumps.
If it's not clumped, it didn't get wet. Soap itself wouldn't travel any further than the water through the sugar, but the smell may. If the soap was perfumed, just getting the clumps out may not be sufficient. If you can still smell it afterwards, just throw the whole lot out.
I'd consider sugar & soap to be equally soluble in water [for these purposes] & therefore no home remedy will separate the two once they're mixed. There's no rescue for the clumped parts, only that which remained dry. |
How to clean up after kneading dough?
I've been making my first steps in baking recently. I usually knead the dough in the same large bowl I mix the dough in to minimize the mess but it's still a pain to wash the bowl and any sponge I use for it gets ruined afterwards.
Any advice on how to make washing off dough? | Kneading in a bowl is time-consuming and doesn't give as good a result as kneading on a flat surface, however I'll concentrate on cleaning.
First, don't let things dry out, it's much easier to clean when things are moist, if you do let it dry out moisten it and let it soften before you try and clean it. Use cold water as hot water makes starches and proteins stick a lot more. Next, invest in a curved dough scraper, and use it to scrape out the dough scraps from the bowl into the garbage before you clean it. A curved plastic one works best as it has a bit of flex, although in a pinch you can use a big metal spoon. I scrape by bowl pretty much clean before I put it into the sink. Use the flat of the scraper to clear most of the dough and flour from your countertop, then spray down with water, let it soak for a few minutes, then scrape again. Once you have it scraped well sponge it down. |
Skills that are only learned by professional chefs?
I always liked cooking as a hobby, however, I am sure that a professional chef that has been trained well has aquired many skills that are hard to learn for a layman. As I don't have respective experience, I can only speculate, but I would assume that, among others, such skills are: speed, the ability to cook for many people at once and the ability to deal with pressure while cooking.
But this is only my guess and I would like to know from someone with respective experience which skills are learned by professional chefs that laymen often don't learn. | I don't think the skills are any different. The same basic skills apply and can be put to use at home or in a restaurant. It's just that pros have a lot more practice, repetition, and refinement of those skills, and can thus execute at a higher level, and consistently. Additionally, they have access to tools that might be too costly for most people to keep in their own kitchen...like a pacojet, or quality extrusion past maker...etc.
They also accumulate more tacit knowledge accumulated from time in the industry, so that the skills can be employed in creative ways. There are what you might call tips and tricks that are employed...something minor like placing a wet paper towel on top of herbs that have been prepped for a garnish comes to mind as a simple example...but I really can't think of anything out of reach for a curious home cook in terms of skills.
However, the other thing to know is that pro chefs also must consider efficiency to a much higher degree than home cooks. Not only efficiency in terms of speed and reduction of wasted steps, but also economic efficiency. I suppose many home cooks have to consider this as well.
Maybe the bottom line is that pro chefs learn skills because they have to. Home cooks can learn the same skills, often because they want to, but they aren't out of reach. |
How can I tell if katsuobushi is made from bonito or the real deal?
I feel like this is another "real wasabi or not" conundrum.
Essential to Japanese cuisine, especially indispensable in dashi, katsuobushi is not cheap in Japan or in the U.S. But how can I tell if a pack of katsuobushi I see in a store or I have sitting in my pantry is made from real skipjack tuna or its cheap substitute bonito?
I know there isn't a whole lot to choose from when it comes to buying katsuobushi in the U.S. What makes this matter even more confusing is that a lot of the product-of-Japan katsuobushi sold in the U.S. -- at least every kind that I have seen -- lists "かつお" (skipjack tuna) as its ingredient in Japanese, but also has a separate English label that says "ingredients: bonito". Which is it then? Are there methods through which I can tell if a pack is the real deal? | I suspect that what you have here is a translation issue:
There are a range of fish called "Bonito", which are largely fish from the mackerel family. However, one of the fish also known as Bonito is the Skipjack Tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), which goes under a range of names including Arctic Bonito, Bonito, Ocean Bonito (see the huge variety of local names listed according to the FAO here)
To quote the site:
UK : Bonito , Striped bellied bonito , Striped bellied tunny .
USA : Arctic bonito , Bonito , Mushmouth , Ocean bronito , Oeeanie bonito , Oeeanie skipjack , Skipjack , Skipjack tuna , Skippy , Striped bonito , Striped tuna , Victor fish , Watermelon , Hawaii: Aku , Aku kinai .
As food labeling requirements are reasonably strict in both the USA and Japan, I suspect that if you see it labeled as Skipjack in Japanese, then it almost certainly is Skipjack (well, so long as you can rely on the fisheries people to be properly identifying their species), and what you are seeing is just the local variant name which someone has decided is the name for this type of fish in the USA. |
Why does frozen food still have an expiration date?
In a below 0°C environment, no bacteria or fungi may grow. How could time "spoil" frozen food?
edit: More concretely, I have lobsters and pizza dough that stayed really long in my freezer, are they completely useless now? | Frozen food does spoil over time. Much slower than even just thawed, sure, but don't expect that something that would spoil within few days at just above 0°C will last with unchanged quality for years at -18°C (even if it were always at that temperature). There are also physical and chemical effects contributing to spoiling of food.
Freezing refers to water forming ice. The spoiling of the aqueous parts (water and the stuff dissolved in water) is extremely slowed down due to the phase change liquid -> frozen.
But food is not only water, and e.g. lipids (fatty, oily) parts are much less affected by the lower temperature. The lipids in food are are often mixtures of fats and oils that get slushy and finally more and more still in the temperature range we're talking about. E.g. squalene (which is fairly abundant in some fish oils) has a freezing point of -75 °C - having such components helps keeping the mixture from freezing (crystallizing).
Lipids can go rancid by hydrolysis and/or oxidation. This is slower in cold temperatures (as a rule of thumb, for lipid oxidation I'd expect maybe an order of magnitude slower for 10 °C lower storage temp. So 3 weeks instead of 2 days. If you manage consistently -18 °C instead of +2 °C, maybe several months, but not years. Gas-tight containers help against oxidation by oxygen from the air - but it is extremely difficult to seal food really air-tight at a time scale of several months.
Hydrolysis would be hampered by forming of ice, so the prediction of the time scale isn't that straightforward. In particular glycerol (e.g. from hydrolysis of lipid) will act as anti-freeze and keep some tiny fraction of the water in a liquid phase where it can help hydrolyze further lipids.
Fish need to have lipids that stay suitably liquid at water temperature (i.e. for some fish even around 0 °C). Thus, while tallow is more-or-less solid already at +20°C, fish oils are liquid at close to 0°C. Which means that at the same -18 °C both oxidation and hydrolysis will be faster in cold water fatty fish than in the meat of warm-blooded animals.
Health considerations: hydrolysis is affects the sensory quality, but AFAIK does not have health concerns (triglycerides are anyways hydrolyzed in our lipid metabolism).
Oxidation of (unsaturated) fatty acids OTOH leads to so-called lipid oxidation products (duh!). They include mutagenic and carcinogenic substances. BUT: this is also something that happens inside our body during lipid metabolism, and sufficiently often that we do keep detoxification pathways up and running. We includes the animals of whom we're discussing the meat here. This detoxification uses antioxidants (that's why they are healthy), and in the cells they are stored together with antioxidants (e.g. vitamin E). Before lipid oxidation (and the formation of potentially unhealthy components) starts, the antioxidants are used up - that's their biochemical purpose. In terms of health effects, in this stage, we're not getting as much of the particularly healthy antioxidants out of this food as we'd have gotten by eating that meat earlier, but also there aren't yet particularly unhealthy compounds in it.
All in all, I'd say also the oxidative rancidity is not very concering in this scenario:
we're quite good at detecting rancid fat (also from hydrolysis) so the risk of unknowingly eating dangerous amounts is low.
The lack of antioxidants from this piece of food can quite easily be compensated by adding some more fresh veggies or nuts to the meal. In addition, the potentially toxic effects from possible lipid oxidation products can to a certain extent be counteracted by eating yet more antioxidants. Add another big spoon of broccoli with some fresh nuts or almonds to your meal.
If you're frying meat/fish in oil, that may be a far more important source of lipid oxidation products in your diet.
Volatile substances (which are important for smell/"taste") also have lower vapor pressure but it's still above zero. Getting a container gas tight at a time scale of months is difficult. In the end, after a year or so in the freezer is is quite possible that all the food acquires the average freezer smell/taste.
Health effects well, we don't know what substances float around in your freezer. But the total amount you eat probably doesn't differ much whether you let one piece of meat "soak" in that atmosphere for a years vs. 12 times eating a piece of meat that was in there for a month.
If you flash-freeze food, there will be tiny ice crystals, but given enough time they will grow (depending on temperature again, the colder the slower, and the more gas volume the more). This has two consequences for the food: the crystals can grow so that they damage the cell walls (in fish/meat or vegetables): the thawed meat is noticeably more tender, for vegetables we call the same effect mushy and often do not appreciate is as much. (Freezing in a home freezer is sufficiently slow to get this effect)
The 2nd effect is that even at these low temperatures, water evaporates (that is part of how the re-crystallization processes work), and pure water crystals form. Over time and helped by temperature changes (due to opening, putting in new stuff, cooling cycles), pure water tends to crystallize outside the food at the wall of the container. This water comes from inside the food, which is dehydated (freezer burn).
Health effects none, or only indirect ones: destroyed cell walls may mean that microbial spoiling is faster once the food is thawed. But here again the time at -18 °C makes hardly any difference compared to the slowish process of freezing in a household freezer.
Dehydration/freezer burn also causes the protein to precipitate but that doesn't cause health concerns. And cooking/frying anyways leads to even irreversible protein denaturation (denaturation from drying may even be reversible).
In terms of packaging, vaccum sealing (in a material that is has low permeability for oxygen - not all plastics are gas tight on the time scales we're talking about, and permeability varies for different gases) helps. Frozen fish is sold glazed with a protective ice coating that also helps, both against freeze burn and by adding another barrier for oxygen.
below 0C environment, no bacteria or fungi may grow
I wouldn't bet on this as a general fact of life, see psychrophile microorganisms.
But for the food-relevant microorganisms it is a good approximation.
For your lobster, all that I explained about cold water fish will apply. It may not taste well any more. In terms of microbiological spoilage, months at -18 °C matter hardly at all compared to the time spent not or incompletely frozen.
For the yeast (pizza) dough, while you can freeze yeast dough (dried yeast is usually produced by a freeze drying process), yeast can also die and your home freezing process may not be as nice to the yeast as an industrial process optimized to keep it "alive". But you'll notice if it doesn't rise when thawed - and as @GdD points out, you may not need it to rise after thawing.
If there are freeze burned spots, you may get away with thorough kneading like when the surface of the resting dough accidentally dried a bit. Also, you can check the smell before putting any toppings. |
What could this utensil pair be used for?
The photo is of a utensil found in a European (French) kitchen. What is its use?
The knife is 7 inches (18 centimeter) long. | The handle of the round plastic object feels really distinctive to me. It would clearly work with a normal hammer-like grip, but it also has the thumb-print inviting the user to choke the grip up close and apply lots of force. I'm pretty sure it's for scraping.
The metal tool is a bit confusing; it looks like it could cut, but it's clearly not a knife.
After a minute's thought, I'm comfortable guessing that this is a child's pumpkin-carving kit. |
What does the halal label mean to non-muslims for non-meat foods?
For example kosher berries or salad are checked more thoroughly for insects than usual as far as I know, so could be attractive to non-jews who don't want to accidentally eat insects.
Are there similar reasons to search out or avoid halal food for non-religious reasons?
I restrict this question to non-meat food because there is an existing question where the answers all focus on meat. | Since Halal food can't contain pork meat / by-products or alcohol, you'll see some ingredients substitutes (for example, Halal candy will not contain pork gelatin for sure; instead probably agar-agar will be used). So it might be advantageous if you can't consume alcohol or are allergic to pork.
As with any substitutions, sometimes you'll see a difference in texture / flavor, sometimes not. |
How can I substitute dutch chocolate cocoa for flour and maintain proper recipe PH in this cookie recipe?
I have an old family recipe for Chocolate chip cookies
2 ¼ cups flour
1 cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate Chips as desired.
Add dry ingredients then wet ingredients to a large bowl, mix until well incorporated, seperate into golf ball sized dough balls, bake at 375°F for 8m15s
I want to make it into a chocolate chocolate chip cookie. I've followed advice from several online sources and just replaced about 1/4 of the flour with cocoa (so it's 1.5 cups flour , .75 cups cocoa). I've tried with both regular cocoa and dutch process and I really like the darker look of cookies that come out with the dutch process, however their texture isn't right. I have used this recipe and the flavors seem good, but I also want to get the texture right; the original recipe is very chewy, soft and moist, but the chocolate modification wound up much drier than I wanted.
After some research I found that the basic issue is that I've screwed up the PH of the recipe. I believe the fix involves substituting some or all baking soda for baking powder, but can't find a clear rule for how much. My guess would be since I'm effectively removing 1/4 of the acidic ingredients (flour, ph 6-6.8) and swapping them for ph neutral ingredients (dutch process cocoa), I should replace 1/4 of the baking soda with baking powder as well, but can't really find any information on how to go about replacing baking soda with baking powder or what ratio.
Edit: Upon more research I've also found that instead of modifying the baking soda I could just add some volume of cream of tartar, but I'm still not sure how to calculate this cost. | I doubt this is an acidity issue. Most flour is pretty neutral, the reason your cookies seem dry is that they are dryer. Cocoa powder is about 7% moisture, source doc here, whereas flour is about 14% moisture, see this site for details. Add to that cocoa powder is very fine, and likely more absorbent than the flour, and the fact that the dutching process makes the powder more absorbent. So the cocoa you add is dryer, and absorbs more moisture from the rest of the ingredients and you will need to add some in to replace it.
Looking at the math .75 cups of flour is about 85 grams, 14% of 85g is 11.9, rounded up is 12g. Cocoa has about half the moisture, so you have lost about 6g of moisture in your recipe, which is just over a teaspoon, under ideal conditions. However, often when flour is stored it absorbs more moisture from the air as it is not kept airtight, so you could be losing more. A dry cookie dough will sometimes have trouble coming together, and be crumbly, which is something I would look for in your case. I would try adding a teaspoon of milk or water to your recipe and see if that creates the right consistency, and then add another if it still wants more. |
Butter chicken too tomatoey
I recently made Sanjeev Kapoor's butter chicken and found the taste too acidic/tomatoey. It was tasty but it lacked the authentic butter chicken flavor. This was surprising to me considering the amount of spices called for. I followed the recipe nearly to a tee.
My leading theories are:
did not cook tomatoes long enough (cooked about 15 min)
did not cook tomato puree long enough (cooked about 15 min)
too many tomatoes (8-10, followed by 2 cups tomato puree)
Any thoughts? | Any time you find a tomato based food item "too tomatoey" you're more than likely tasting the acidity of the tomato products. I always add a pinch of sweetener to any tomato based dish I make. And why you often hear of somebody's secret ingredient in a chili cook off to be something with sugar in it like peanut butter or chocolate or honey.
Start with a teaspoon of honey, sugar, brown sugar, agave nectar, etc, and go from there. Also, try using coconut milk as the cream butter chicken recipes call for, as that may also alter the taste to conform to what you are accustomed to. |
When a cheesecake recipe says "freeze" for 1 hour do they mean literally freeze in the freezer or do you put in the refrigerator?
When a no bake American cheesecake recipe says "freeze" for 1 hour do they mean literally freeze in the freezer or do you put it in the refrigerator to cool? | Given the context, I would say that this means to place in the freezer for one hour. Otherwise, if the author wanted you to place it in the refrigerator, the recipe would state "refrigerate." |
Savory Cotton Candy?
One thing I've always wanted to do is make savory cotton candy, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I understand that cotton candy is spun sugar so that introduces a challenge. I have a cotton candy machine but I'd be willing to try any technique that would result in the texture being that of cotton candy. I'd like to go as savory as physically possible, (ham flavored cotton candy would be one of my goals).
This may sound unusual but this is not a joke. I sincerely want to taste savory cotton candy. It's an experience I can't even imagine. | After researching this, I think there are a few possibly options you could try (though I haven't personally tried any of them, they seem worth experimenting with).
Isomalt
Apparently isomalt can be used in place of sugar in most cotton candy machines - though it should be ground and sifted so it doesn't damage your machine. Isomalt may be a better starting point than sugar to get you in the direction of savoury, as it has only 50-60% of the sweetening power of sugar.
Lactisole
This is an interesting chemical that interferes with your tastebuds and inhibits sweet flavours (it blocks the TAS1R3 sweet protein receptor). Apparently adding this at a concentration of 100 parts per million will block sweet flavours. In that same link it discusses Domino's Pizza using this so they could add sugar to their pizza crust for aesthetic reasons - to encourage browning while it baked, but inhibit the sweet flavour as obviously that isn't what most people are after in a pizza.
Adding Flavour
There seems to be a few ways people do this. The easiest option seems to be flavouring the isomalt or sugar using flavour extracts or essences. A quick google search seemed to indicate that pork essences/extracts exist, so this could be an option if you're after ham. One important note I saw in a few places was if it is a liquid essence, add slowly to prevent clumping, and ensure it is completely dry before attempting to use it. If you're adding a flavour that naturally has a lot of umami flavour, you could also try adding some MSG to bring this out even further.
Another approach to flavouring the isomalt/sugar seem to be simply mixing the sugar with other ingredients and letting it infuse over an extended period of time (this seems to work with things with strong flavours, e.g. herbs, spices, coffee beans, chillies, fruits, and other whole ingredients). You could also try blending more delicate ingredients directly into the sugar directly (those approaches are described here).
Though I don't have any references to support it, I have seen some discussion of further enhancing the flavour of infused sugar by heating the infused sugar to hard crack stage (146 to 154 °C, or 295 to 309 °F), then breaking this back down into a powder. I'm not sure if this does work, or how it would work with isomalt, but another potential experiment to try.
A quick warning: All of the suggestions I've given should work in a cotton candy machine in theory. In researching this I spotted a lot of discussion of different ingredients burning/damaging machines cotton candy machines in some way, but couldn't spot a consistent pattern of what caused this damage and what didn't. You might have to take a risk if you want to experiment enough! I'd love to hear your results if you do try it. |
Can various fats be used as a strict substitute for pastry dough?
If you take the three main types of fats used for puff pastry. Lard, butter and margarine, can they be used interchangeable or is there caveats between the three? I found a nice recipe for puff pastry that uses butter but I want to use marge for a vegan option. | Apart from flavour, the two main issues you might encounter when substituting margarine for butter are:
Different fat content. There are margarines explicitly produced and marketed as low-fat options. For baking, you do not want these. As butter usually/always (depending on your location) has a fat content of 80%, you want to substitute an ingredient with a similar makeup.
Different kinds of fat. Margarine is made with vegetable oils, which contain less saturated fats than butter does. As a rule, saturated fats are more solid than unsaturated fats at the same temperature, which might lead to more 'melting' when substituting margarine for butter. However, margarine contains stabilisers making it more or less behave like butter; it is hard to predict how these will behave when baking, though.
You will probably be fine substituting full-fat margarine for butter, but if you want to err on the side of caution, my advice would be to look for a recipe that uses margarine. |
Is it safe to eat sushi with different toppings (cooked and raw) after 24h?
I have been reading posts in the internet, but it just made me more confused. My conclysions after reading several posts of different websites:
Some say that sushi (the rice) with sashimi (raw fish) should be safe, but the cooked food shouldn't (this fact shocked me a little bit as I would expect the opposite).
Others say completely the opposite, as I was expecting. Even like 16h after storing it in the fridge, if it has sashimi (raw fish) it should be thrown (depending on the freshness of the fish. If you ordered it, its impossible to know).
Context:
I went at a friend's place yesterday at about 22:00. We chilled (using this verb in the cooking exchange just sounds weird, sorry) for a few hours and then I went home, not without taking the enormous sushi tray that was leftovers from a few hours before I went there.
Some info:
The sushi tray was on the table, not in the fridge. So my friends probably ate and then went to the living room without putting it inside the fridge. Let's say 5h passed.
When I got home, I immediately stored it inside the fridge.
Some sushi has raw fish (sashimi), some has cooked stuff (like japanese omelette) and I think there are some vegetarian or vegan ones.
Picture of the tray: | What matters is time in the Danger Zone. If your sashimi heated up to room temperature it should certainly not be consumed: for instance E. Coli doubles in between 15 minutes and 1 hour in warm conditions. (Sushi on the same tray is likely to get cross contamination.) Chilling it later does not help: the bacteria have already grown.
A very cautious recommendation is that any food that has spent more than 2 hours above 4C should not be consumed. This is particularly important for raw fish and meat that will be contaminated with bacteria. |
How can I make pastry cream for a cake filling more a bit more firm/sturdy?
How can I make a pastry cream for a cake filling a bit more sturdy/firm. My recipe called for 5 egg yolks and 3 T. cornstarch, 1 1/2c. whole milk, 1/2c. whipping cream. | The egg yolks and cornstarch both serve as thickeners. Increasing the cornstarch is probably the most practical way to make that recipe firmer; try 5 tbsp as a start. (You could instead increase the amount of egg yolk; this will give you a more solid texture, rather than just a thicker one.) |
How do I keep eggs from sticking to a pan while cooking?
I like to cook eggs in my toaster oven, but the one thing that I don't like about it is how the eggs will stick to my pan after cooling and its just so difficult to clean off afterwards. I end up having to take a very stiff brush to the pan and even then it takes a full 5 minutes of scrubbing to clean it off.
How do I keep the eggs from sticking to the pan in the first place? A few things:
It's usually around 3 eggs, whisked in a bowl, and salted before being poured into the pan (I think its called a fritata?)
The pan is definitely NOT non-stick. I think it's an aluminum cake pan, but I don't really remember.
I butter the pan before pouring the eggs in.
Oven is set to 150 C, cooks for about 10 minutes. I realize I might be overcooking things, but would NOT overcooking solve my problem?
I need some advice here. Is there a way to solve my problem with this pan or should I just go out and buy a new one? | This combination is never going to work - it will stick no matter what.
If you want to keep this method of baking, you will have to switch the pan. A nonstick pan will work, and while it is new, you might even be able to slide off the eggs without any crust sticking to the pan (while later it will be just easier to clean from the stuck stuff). You might also decide to switch to a glass pan - it will also stick, but you will have an easier time cleaning it, especially with a bit of a soak. Using glass in a toaster oven will make the eggs stick a bit more though, because it creates a stronger crust.
In both cases, there will be some time involved in cleaning that's more than just cleaning, say, a bowl in which you reheated some soup - there is no way around that with your chosen method of preparation. |
Dry crispy skin on sourdough starter: is it mold?
My sourdough starter is 2 months old. Some week or two ago it started to have a crispy skin on the top. The smell changed a bit, but it is still sweet-acid smell. I cover a jar with the starter with a kitchen paper towel. I replaced the jar with a clean one but the skin persists.
The bread I got from it is still decent.
Is it
mold? | I would guess it is just drying out. I keep my covered. If it is on the counter preparing to be used, it is in a jar with a loose lid. If it is the refrigerator, for longer intervals between baking, it is in a sealed plastic pint container. |
Can I still use my Worcestershire sauce?
So we have this Lea&Perrins Worcestershire Sauce from the past 6-7 years ago. And I would like to really know if it is still safe to consume?
I've done my research but I'm still not sure if I could consume it because I do not know how it actually tastes.
It is kinda dusty on the top, but it was last opened years ago and it was just in our cabinet so i don't know if it is still safe to consume | Lea & Perrins Worcestershire is shelf stable. As long as it's been in the cupboard with the cap on, it is safe. The flavor may have degraded, but it won't make you sick. |
Does white wine have an expiry date?
A few weeks ago, in a local Tesco store, I bought two carton packs of 2,25 litre white and red dry wine (Lion's Gate).
I noticed that the white dry wine package has an expiry date:
While red one doesn't have it:
Is this just a print error? Or is it true that white dry wine can expire while red one does not have an expiration process / date at all? If it’s the latter, can anyone explain what causes this difference?
The question is important for me especially, because - as you can see - just a few weeks ago, I purchased a wine that has a supposed expiry date that was 6+ months before today. So I am unsure if I can drink it safely or rather should return it to the shop.
I don't know, if that plays any role here, but both products were packed in plastic bags in carton packages (bag-in-box). The inner bag has only a production date printed on it and no expiry date in both cases. | Please re-read the text - it says:
BEST BEFORE: ...
This doesn’t refer to any food safety issues, merely quality. The manufacturer states that until that date, no significant or perceptible deterioration of the sensory quality will happen (provided its stored appropriately). After that date, the quality may (or may not) suffer. It’s not a statement about food safety.
That said, from a food safety perspective you can keep the wine for a very long time, probably indefinitely. Why the manufacturer chose to state a best before date for the white wine only is unclear, probably because whites tend to be more susceptible to flavor changes than red. Note that today most modern wines, especially those that go to supermarkets, are not made for long-term storage, rather for consumption within just a few months after sale. Only some vineyards will still produce wine for future generations. Bag-in-box packed wines are usually intended to be consumed within six months or so after bagging and four to six weeks after opening. But neither of these time frames is set in stone or related to food safety. |
How can I make 'rich chocolate' flavor?
I am in the process of making a DIY Soylent meal replacement. I've tried Hershey's cocoa powder and it tastes awful.
Commercial manufacturers of flavored protein powders, shake powders, etc. make such tasty drinks. What substances and flavorings do they use?
For reference, my recipe was:
Oat flour
Flaxseed powder
Barley powder
Whey protein isolate
Acacia gum
Hershey's cocoa powder
Sugar
Subsequently I also tried adding nutmeg powder and cinnamon as suggested by some recipes on CompleteFoods. It didn't help.
I've read that the commercially available powders contain isomaltulose, maltodextrin, and xanthan gum. Do these have anything to do with how the drink tastes?
'Rich chocolate' does not have anything to do with richness. It's just a common phrase shake/powder sellers use for their whey protein/shakes.
How can I do this?
Edit: Got a hold of the ingredient list of the desired end result. Which ingredients make for the creaminess and richness, as if I were drinking a milk shake? | Frankly, Hershey's cocoa powder is low quality. Buy a higher quality cocoa. One objective measure is the cocoa fat content.
This is from Harold McGee's Keys to Good Cooking, published by The Penguin Press, New York, 2010, p. 476:
Higher-fat cocoas make richer dishes. To compare the fat contents of different brands, check their nutrition labels. |
What to be mindful of with cake flour
I substituted cake flour for AP FLOUR in my pancake recipe. Do I need to reduce the liquid ingredients as compared to AP flour? My batter seemed runnier and therefore pancakes were flatter—but also seemed more tender. Anything else to be aware of when working with cake flour? Should I cook at a lower heat? Since cake four produces less stiffness (gluten) do I need an additional levener like baking soda and an acid?
1 cup AP flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 beaten egg
3 tbsp melted butter
.75 cup milk | Cake flour is mainly used in situations where less gluten is desired, that's why the pancake was more tender. Cake flour is also lighter in color and texture, since it is usually bleached. It is also milled finer. If you are substituting cake for AP flour, you will probably need a couple of additional tablespoons of cake flour per cup of AP flour. Leave your leavening as is. |
Blind baking: Does the choice of weights matter?
Blind baking is done by lining a pastry shell first with parchment paper and then with some kind of weights to ensure that the bottom stays flat and the sides upright.
I have seen recipes that use rice, lentils, beans or even ceramic pie weights. And apparently all of them work. But does the choice of weights matter? Is there a difference e.g. between rice (small grains, each comparatively light) and beans (larger heavier beans)? Has anyone tested this? | What matters is keeping the crust from puffing and pulling away from the pie plate or tart mold. So any of those work...more or less the same, but the typical drawback is that it is difficult to keep the sides of the crust in the proper form. One of the most ingenious ways to deal with the issue is to line your pie plate with dough, place parchment on top, place an empty pie plate on top of that. Now flip the whole thing over so that the empty pie plate is on the bottom (placed on a cookie sheet). The dough is now baking upside down on top of the empty pie plate (leave everything in place, so that the dough is between plates with parchment while baking)...no shrinking or puffing. Also...a well-chilled dough helps. You can even form, then return to the fridge for a while to chill before baking.
Edit after question in the comments: The question from @Alex led me to revisit the origin of this technique, which I recently heard about on Dave Arnold's radio show, "Cooking Issues." It comes from a book called Pie Marches On by Monroe Boston Strause. It can be found online. It does not use two pans as I originally thought, rather, he blind bakes on the bottom side of one pie tin. Then flips onto a shallower pie tin for cooling and filling. |
For what culinary reason would a bread recipe choose skim milk?
Skim milk is specified for the whole wheat bread recipe list included with my new bread maker. Is there a particular culinary reason to specify skim milk not skim milk/whole milk? The other ingredients are whole wheat flour, self-raising flour, salt, sugar and yeast. | Skim milk contains less fat than whole milk. Fats limit the formation of gluten in bread dough to some extent, leading to a tighter, 'softer' crumb. As the milk is apparently the only source of water in your recipe, the recipe authors could have tried to limit the amount of fat.
That said, there is also a good chance the reason for skim milk is health-related. |
how to extract Glycyrrhizin from liquorice root?
I recently learned that Glycyrrhizin, which is naturally present in liquorice root, is a strong sweetener (30-50x stronger than sugar depending on sources).
Some traditional recipes call for infusing liquorice for tea, but besides this I could not find much information about how to use liquorice as a sugar substitute.
So my question: How can I extract glycyrrhizin from liquorice to substitute for sugar in recipes?
Should I grate / slice / blend my roots before putting them in water?
Shall I boil for 10 minutes (more / less?) or leave it in cold water overnight?
I'm assuming the last step would be to filter the water / liquid and use this 'syrup' as my sweetener, but is this assumption correct? | Assuming that you have Glycyrrhiza glabra, the glycyrrhizin content should be somewhere less than 25% of the content - which is plenty for an extraction, and means you won't need a whole bunch of root and specialist techniques to extract it.
A quick google search leads me to believe that the procedures for extraction of the glycyrrhizin are fairly simple - maceration (literally chewing, but in this context meaning mashing/grinding/blending) followed by steeping for about 4 hours at room temperature (see also here). It looks like water alone is a pretty good solvent for it, but a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% water is better.
From Wikipedia, it looks like the solubility is about 10 mg/ml (milligram/milliliter) in water. This is assuming that you can get a saturated solution from a pure compound. You will likely not get this sort of concentration, at least not without a bunch of other compounds coming across and giving you a strong liquorice flavour. Note that the average detection limit for sugar/sucrose is about 12 millimol/litre or about 4 mg/ml by my calculation - so with something 50x sweeter, you should have no problem sweetening things to a similar level as sugar using a solution with as little as 0.08 mg/ml. Your major problem with attempting this process is going to be how to measure how sweet your extracts are - you can do it by taste, but that will be very subjective.
Also note that many recipes for things like cookies call for crystalline sugar to provide structure in the batter rather than purely for sweetness, so you will need to substitute some of the liquid for your liquid sweetener and work out something to add to maintain the structure. I am sure that there this is a well worked out solution for this already for people wanting cookies without the sugar, so I will leave it to you to research. |
Adding a smoky flavour without adding spiciness
I rather like a strong smoky flavour in some of my food - I've tasted some rather lovely smokey vegetarian Mexican bean wraps for instance. However, I've struggled to replicate this in my own cooking without making things rather hot!
I've tried smoked paprika, which is lovely but the smoky flavour simply isn't that strong in any that I've tried. Cumin didn't seem to do much, and Chipotle has a lovely smoky flavour - but unfortunately a fair punch of heat to go along with it.
Is there anything else I can try to get a nice, strong smoky flavour but without the heat? | Depending on what food you are trying to imbue with a smoky flavour, you have multiple options. I here focus on methods that will just give you a smoke flavour, rather than smoked ingredients.
Actually smoking the food seems an obvious suggestion. The internet will suggest any number of ways to set up a smoker at home, although you might not want to go through the effort or have to deal with the smoke.
Cold smoking is often done with cured meats and fish. As the name suggests, this is smoking (actual smoke from actual fire), but without the heat, often accomplished by creating some distance between the fire and the food, and having the smoke travel from the former to the latter. This guide seems quite comprehensive, including some ideas for a home setup. Cold smoking has similar drawbacks to hot smoking.
Some companies make 'smoke guns' such as this one by Breville/Sage, that accomplish the idea of a cold smoker on a much smaller scale. Thus, no need for elaborate setups, nor the risk of smoking up your whole house.
Finally, you can look for ingredients or additives that give you a smoky flavour. Liquid smoke is reasonably common. I have also seen powdered versions of this. |
Soda Bread disaster
I've just tried to make this recipe from the BBC Good Food site: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/simple-soda-bread. The only variation was I used semi-skimmed milk (2% fat) instead of the whole milk specified. The result on mixing the wet and dry ingredients was a sloppy, gloopy mess, completely unsuited to be "shaped into a ball". Was it because there wasn't enough fat in the milk, or is there likely to be another cause? | The fat in the milk is a red herring here. At best, you would have to be a professional baker who knows the same recipe by feel to be able to notice the tiny difference made by 2% vs. 3.8% milk in that recipe. I would start in very different directions.
First, was it really a disaster? This is a 80% hydration dough, and that with whole flour - I would fully expect it to be sloppy and gloopy. There is nothing wrong with that. If you haven't baked bread of different hydrations before, or no soda bread (which has lower gluten and so doesn't come together as much), you may be imagining something firm and plastic like pasta dough. This is not what the recipe is about. When they say "shape it into a ball", they don't mean a sphere, they mean a boule. It will be certainly wider than it's tall. Just continue working with it.
If it is too extreme - e.g. it becomes a flat disc, or even flows freely - I can think of two possible problems.
maybe you didn't measure correctly. The recipe is given by weight, but if you tried to measure by volume, you might have been off. Or you were not perfectly concentrated and by mistake put in 500 ml milk and 400 flour, or a similar mistake.
maybe you used a different flour than what they have used. While white flour is pretty standardized, whole flours can differ a lot in their absorption ability.
Update: As per J..'s comment, the amount of lemon juice can be significant for that amount of flour. It might be worth using a smaller lemon, or not that much juice. (Or maybe go with real buttermilk instead of creating a substitute on the fly).
In any case, you can try saving the failed recipe by adding a little bit more flour this time (but don't make it as firm as mid-hydration yeast bread dough). |
please help fixing my portugese sauce (a kind of korma-like non-spicy curry sauce served in hk and macau)
The original recipe generally advise on pan-frying the sauce with oil. I want to avoid that and still make it taste good by just putting everything in a pressure cooker...
Here is the everything in my recipe when first put in pressure cooker for 20 minutes:
a carrot (cut by food processor)
two small or 1 big potatoes (cut by food processor)
one small or half a big onion (cut by food processor)
a big block of curry roux (equivalent to 2-3 small block of curry roux)
a teaspoon of salt
a teaspoon of sugar
5 teaspoons of chicken consomme
200ml yogurt
1.5 teaspoon of tumeric
1 cup of water
(coconut milk made by putting 5 table spoon of coconut fine and half a cup of water in a mixer)
After 20 minutes, I stir the mixture and add 0.5 cup of water and cook for another 15 mintues.
After 15 minutes, I stir the mixture and add another 0.5 cup of water depending on how thick the mixture is.
The result is not satisfactory. I try adding a can of cream of corn soup from campell. It does not help.
Any recommendation would be welcomed. Thanks | At a guess, though you need to clarify - not 'rich' enough & probably thin in both flavour & texture, with a grainy edge.
Yoghurt adds acid, rehydrated coconut is absolutely no substitute for coconut cream.
Rehydrated coconut won't provide either the flavour or the texture of coconut cream. It will leave the sauce thin yet slightly 'gritty'.
Yoghurt is going to add an acid edge that this sauce doesn't need.
Pressure-cooking rather than frying off in an open pan then allowing to simmer will keep too much liquid level in the sauce, exacerbating both the above points.
Once you've corrected those, if you want 'more curry but no more heat' then try adding some garam masala.
I'd also add garlic & a little light soy sauce.
If you're not having this with the traditional chicken, then you're also missing the ingredients the chicken would have been marinated in - soy, shaoxing, ginger - so maybe some of those too.
You're also missing the oil that the frying would have added, but if you don't want to add that, the coconut cream will have to be the only fatty mouth-feel ingredient. Lose all the fat, lose the mouth-feel of the sauce, I'm afraid.
You could cut the coconut cream to coconut milk, but I think that would still come out too 'skinny' in taste & texture.
Personally, I'd double the curry roux, but I just like more kick than traditional in this type of sauce ;) It will help the texture, though. |
Why does fruit from a particular market go bad so quickly?
I live near several produce vendors, including a supermarket, small grocers, and a semi-open-air market. The open-air market carries more local produce, but some items are imported to Canada from the U.S. The other stores source their fruit more internationally, but still have a great deal of local fruit.
The fruit from the open-air market seems to go bad much more quickly than fruit from any other store. A box of blueberries will have mold in it a day after I bring it home. Peaches shrivel and develop mold within 3 days. This occurs whether or not I keep the fruit in the refrigerator. Does the market, which is a permanent structure (not a collection of stalls), possibly have more mold circulating? Is this just how fast fruit goes bad on certain supply chains? Could it be that the fruit at the market is older? | Shelf life and taste of fruit are inversely correlated. A few factors off the top of my head are:
It is extremely difficult to breed a fruit variety that's good at two things at once. The varieties that are bred for long life are not bred for taste.
It is "very expensive" for a plant (metabolically) to produce aroma, it's also expensive to produce color, and it's expensive to produce sugar. All three at once are really rare.
fruit that has been picked earlier (less ripe) lasts longer and looks better, and is less tasty.
fruit that has been stored under refrigeration lasts longer, and is less tasty.
fruit that has more aroma is more attractive to insects, whose bite sites spoil a fruit directly and also create openings for bacteria and mold to enter
fruit that is riper (and tastes better) is easier damaged during handling, which makes it easy for bacteria and mold to enter
Combine that with a segmented market. On the one side, you have the buyers who are not very sensitive to taste, and are sensitive to convenience and price. They buy at supermarkets, and tend to choose their fruit by looks. Then you have farmers who corner the "high-taste" market niche with fruit that is optimized for taste, and they find buyers who are willing to pay more and give up the convenience of shopping at a supermarket in order to get the best taste. These farmers don't have the incentive or resources to optimize for traits that diminish taste, and sometimes are against it because of personal conviction. These farmers tend to sell at open-air markets.
Bottom line, if you value shelf life very highly, the best strategy for you is to buy your fruit from suppliers who optimize for it, in that case the supermarkets. |
How to avoid smoke during pan searing meat?
I've been cooking in my cast iron skillet on medium/medium high heat with olive oil.
No matter what I cook, (chicken, fish, etc.) the oil and fat in the pan starts smoking long before the food is done. Eventually the meat gets there, but by then the house smells like the food.
I've seen this post, but any other advice I may be missing to avoid all the smoke? Lower temp? Different oil? | There is absolutely no way to completely avoid smoke while searing meat in olive oil. The process happens far above the smoke point of the oil (not to mention, of the meat itself). Smoke is going to happen.
With that said, if you use an oil with a higher smoke point (canola or grapeseed come to mind), and use very little of it, the smoke output will be minimized. You really don't need much oil for searing. |
What if I microwave Beyond Meat?
I have a bag of Beyond Meat crumbles. Before reading the bag, I microwaved the crumbles in a bowl until they were thoroughly heated.
...Then I noticed that the bag says "DO NOT MICROWAVE". Is there a health concern with microwaving the product, or are the directions intended to ensure that the product is as enjoyable as it can be? | There are no health concerns with microwaving food. Microwaves excite water molecules to heat food, they don't change food or make it dangerous. When a product says do not microwave it means one of 3 things:
The packaging is not meant to be microwaved: heating some types of packaging can cause bad tastes or smells in food, or cause the packaging to release unhealthy chemicals. Putting the food in a microwave safe dish solves this problem
Microwave heating causes undesirable texture changes in the food. Microwaving can sometimes cause a rubbery texture, or make it soggy
As @fraxinus rightly points out some foods can explode in the microwave, especially food with a shell or airtight covering of some sort like eggs and potatoes. Heat causes pressure to build until the shell or covering fails, causing a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' as they say in the aerospace industry when something blows up
Number 2 is the most likely reason the package said do not microwave. |
Can I use this air fryer basket with a non-stick coating as a grill basket?
Scenario
For (reasons), I have an extra inner basket for this model of air fryer. I have completely removed the handle assembly; what I'm left with is a single piece of non-stick coated metal. I've been grilling a lot recently and experimenting with ways to cook different types of veggies on the grill I came across the concept of a 'grill basket'. I was wondering if I could use this air fryer basket on the grill. I use a Weber kettle charcoal grill and I'd have the basket on top of the grate, not directly in the coals.
The air fryer itself maxes out at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, but I couldn't find any information about the temperature rating of the actual basket or even specifics on the coating used.
N.B.
I couldn't find any good information about this online except for fairly common assertions that 'one shouldn't use non stick cookware at very high heats' without much in the way of specifics.
Looking through this stack I found Why would a portable barbecue warn against using pots on the grill? which actually didn't include any info on my topic and also Cooking temperatures with non-stick cookwear which (surprisingly) didn't either.
Question(s)
What potentially deleterious effects might result from using this air fryer basket with a non stick coating on a charcoal grill?
Specifically what might be the possible negative outcomes from simply throwing some veg in there and trying it at least once? | Nonstick vessels don't mix well with grills. First, it is likely to get overheated - I assume the basket is PTFE, which starts deteriorating at a little bit over 200 C (compatible with your fryer temp rating). Second, with grilling, you frequently have a situation where a tiny amount of oil (e.g. from a marinade) gets smeared on the rack (or basket, in this case) - that small amount then polymerizes in the heat and, on a nonstick surface, becomes a sad, useless version of cast iron seasoning.
If you really want to try grill baskets, search for a stainless steel solution, or try repurposing something else like a collander or steamer insert.
Also, note that we cannot answer your question on "definitely dangerous, probably safe, or something else". Any potential health effects (or lack of those) of overheated teflon are off topic on the site. |
Is there some sort of pot with a sort of sieve on the bottom to separate sauce?
I'm not a native English speaker so I'll do my best to explain what I envision.
I was wondering if there is some sort of... kitchen utensil, a pot of some kind that has a... sieve of some sort at its bottom to separate the food I'm trying to cook from the juices it extrudes?
So, say I'm putting some peas and corn in this thing and sprinkling them with grated cheese on top. Putting it in the oven when heating the cheese will start to ooze fat which kind of grosses me out, skip the judgement, I like the way I am, so it'd be perfect if there was this sieve thing at the bottom to let the fat through but keep the peas and corn on top.
Anyone know of such a thing or two separate utensils that are designed to be combined in such a way? | Broiler pan.
This is mine. The last thing I made on it was bacon this past weekend. It worked just like what you want - the bacon cooked and the fat dribbled down thru those slots into the pan below.
I have melted cheese many times on this pan. It is perfect for nachos.
The other nice thing about melting cheese under the broiler is that you can get it really hot, fast. The cheese melts some but gets toasty too which is the best of all.
I am too much of a provincial to know if other countries incorporate broilers in their ovens. In US ovens the broiler is a heating element or heatable screen on the top of the inside of the oven. Stuff to be cooked is placed underneath.
I always sit on the floor next to the oven when I am using the broiler because I am easily distracted and stuff burns in a heartbeat. I was taught to leave the oven door open a crack when using the broiler.
Not sure why there is so much white space under the photo of the broiler pan. That is not how the photo looks. Ideas? Edits? |
Substitute spelt for white flour
I heard Spelt flour is lighter and easier to digest. Can I substitute spelt for white flour in my standard white bread recipe that I make all the time? Or, do I need a spelt specific recipe?
What kind of dough does spelt flour make? Is it very sticky? Hard to work with? Any tips to keep in mind before giving this a shot? | Spelt can be substituted 1:1 for whole wheat flours to generate about the same characteristics in the final product.
I'd say spelt bread is more coarse, and tastes like grain, but there's a matter of preference and perception on that.
Recipes calling for white flour have overshadowing variables and variations, so trying with a blend and seeing how you like the result is the way to come to your answer... Try making a batch with half of the flour replaced and a quarter of the flour replaced and see if you like what happens. |
Why do my grains smell like my room?
My rice smells like my room and it's kinda weird. It tastes fine but I moved the rice to another location that smells different and I can still smell the strong smell of my room whenever I sniff the rice, even after rinsing and cooking.
However, this isn't only my rice, I have oatmeal that I keep in cabinets and it smells exactly like my cabinet before and after cooking.
My main concern is: is my stuff safe to be eaten? In both cases I've eaten them both and nothing bad has happened so far, they both still taste as if they were original (hence they are also not even expired or best by date yet).
But I am wondering how they absorbed the smell. I can't find any information on grains absorbing smell anywhere. | Anything absorbent will absorb smells. That's why fabric picks up smells easily, wood will over time, and glass won't. As I'm sure you know from cooking grains, they are quite absorbent, and that applies to smells as well.
All techniques I can think of to remove smells from other items aren't ideal for using on food, so your best bet is probably to cover it up with some strong spices. To prevent your grains from picking up smells in the future, store them in something airtight so air and smells won't permeate the container and reach your food. Open containers are the worst, tightly closed cardboard boxes and thin plastic bags are a bit better, sturdy airtight plastic containers are better still, and glass containers with metal lids are the best. |
How can I skin hazelnuts at home?
I am trying to make a hazelnut butter, for the ultimate gain of a vegan Nutella-like outcome, but in order to do so I need to use "skinned" hazelnuts. I've tried the following:
Boil a cup of hazelnuts in 2 cups water with 3 tablespoons baking soda
Drain
Put in ice bath to cool
Rub skins off with towel
I got to the fourth step, but it was difficult to get the skins completely off of the hazelnuts. I was using a paper towel, and it turned out using my fingers was easier.
How can I get completely clean/blanch hazelnuts? Am I doing anything wrong or using something incorrect? | There are really two methods. The roasting method, where the nuts are roasted, then placed in a kitchen towel, and the skins are rubbed off. The second is the blanching method, where you blanch for 2 - 3 minutes, then rub the skins off. I've had more success with the roasting method. However, it does take some time, and you will have some stubborn ones, where the skin does not come off easily. In either case, I would not use paper towel, but a more sturdy, cloth towel. You may not get every one completely clean. |
Why isn't the Shapton Glass Stone 1000 Grit 5mm sharpening my WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife?
My grandpa bought the Shapton Glass Stone 1000 Grit 5mm
to sharpen his WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife.
He educated himself a whit by watching YouTube videos, and his sharpening has yielded metal shavings onto the Sharpening Stone. He tried to cut squashes with it, but it hasn't become any sharper! Why? | This is like saying "I bought my grandpa a Faber Castel pencil and 200 gm acid-free paper, and now the pencil is not drawing realistic portraits, why".
Knife sharpening is a fine motor skill. The only way to learn it is through hours of deliberate practice. It is also a tricky skill to learn, because you don't really get immediate feedback per stroke, and there is not that much affordance. So it is more difficult to learn, especially learn on your own, than something like throwing a ball.
If your grandpa wants to sharpen his knives with a stone, he will have to put in his hours of learning. It is impossible to say how many he needs before he starts to see consistently good results, it can be a dozen or it can be over a hundred.
It is best to start learning on old, bad knives, since a learner's first attempts frequently destroy the edge, making it more difficult to repair it later. |
What is the difference between all these flat breads?
Different areas have different types of flat breads, but is there any meaningful difference between them? What is the difference between pita bread, roti, naan, and tortillas? Is it just different types of flour used in each case or is there any other differences in texture and taste. | All of the 'flatbreads' you describe are generic terms which encapsulate many, many variants (e.g. there are dozens, if not hundreds, of types of 'roti' from cultures across the globe). So I'll have to make some assumptions about exactly which type you are referring to.
Pita These are typically a two-layered flatbread, formed when a flattened dough piece separates into two distinct layers during baking. That pocket formed during baking is a key difference from the others that you mentioned. Pita are a yeast-leavened bread, something which would greatly impact the texture of the bread (i.e. Leavening agents are used to achieve a light and crunchy texture and to increase the volume and porosity of bread crumbs). Depending on the leavening process used, this could also impart a slightly sour taste to the bread. This family of breads could encapsulate 'pita pocket' style breads, the style of bread used in Greek cuisine to wrap Souvlaki, and numerous styles of Arabic bread.
Roti There are so, so many variants of a 'roti'; from Malaysian Roti Canai to Trinidadian Roti to Sri Lankan Coconut Rotis (just to name a few). I feel like the differences between these types of rotis would be a big question in itself, as they range from flaky, oil-rich doughs, to filled breads, and more. The wikipedia page for 'roti' might provide a jumping off point if you wish to explore some of the common types. There are so many styles and base ingredients here that you'll find such a wide array of flavours (from different base ingredients and flavourings) and textures.
Naan Again, there are many variants of naan, but I'll focus on what I think is the most commonly known type, i.e. Indian naan. These are another leavened bread, with a distinct 'bubbly' texture, cooked in a very hot Tandoor (a deep, cylindrical oven typically heated via charcoal or wood). This cooking method is a key difference from most 'roti', which are cooked on pan or griddle-like surfaces. This cooking technique will impact both flavour (imparted from the oven) and texture (an entirely different cooking environment is created). Milk or yoghurt is often used in Naan dough to give it a softer, chewier texture than many of the other bread types you have mentioned.
Tortillas Again, lots of types, so I'll talk about corn tortillas - the type common in Guatemala or Mexico. These are made from Maize (i.e. corn) that goes through a curing process to create a dough called Masa. This dough is then pressed/rolled out thinly, and cooked on a 'comal' (a smooth, flat griddle). It goes without saying that these naturally taste wildly different from the breads mentioned above because they use a completely different base (corn vs. other grains). And even then there are huge variations amongst corn tortillas (Mexico produces 42 varieties of maize). The three most common types of maize are white, yellow, and blue. Personally, I find the differences between these types of maize quite pronounced - I find blue maize to have quite a floral flavour. A good tortilla is typically slightly puffy when fresh cooked, and stays pliable and a little stretchy. You should be able to taste the fresh corn.
As you're probably sick of me saying throughout this answer, there are so many types of flatbreads, with a myriad of interesting flavours and textures to try. Go try some out and see! The comment above by dbmag9 that links to Wikipedia's lists of flatbreads looks like a great place to start. |
Why do baking recipes often tell you to "make a well" in flour before adding wet ingredients?
Many instructions for baking bread, cakes and other yummy things specify that you should "make a well" before adding more ingredients. One example is here
What's the reasoning behind this?
I've found some sources say that it helps ingredients mix together, but I don't see how that could be. I also read it helps avoid ingredients sticking to the side of the bowl, which I'd say is unavoidable when you're mixing up a dough regardless of how nicely shaped your well is.
I understand that some baking is more about technique than anything, but is this step really adding any benefit? | You don't need a bowl to make bread dough. You can make it on your kneading surface, by mounding up the flour and adding water. Of course, the water will just run off... unless you make a well in the flour to hold it until it's mixed in.
There is no good reason to "make a well" in flour in a bowl. |
How do I choose between shredded and finely shredded cheddar cheese?
I use shredded cheese for spur of the moment enchiladas or to top burgers with. I learned the hard way that my supermarket store brand sharp cheddar does not melt well, so my next purchase will be for a mild cheddar. They have both "shredded" and "finely shredded" and I'm wondering what the optimal use case is for each. Obviously finely shredded will melt faster so I'm wondering is there any reason not to get that? (Btw, I know hand shredding block cheddar is best for melting but I like the convenience of having a bag of preshredded cheddar in the freezer I don't have to worry about molding over.) | You probably want to check for the lowest proportion of added anti-caking agent (here potato starch is used). That's the reason it doesn't melt very well.
If you're going to freeze it, you could grate a large batch of a block you like and freeze that - the best of both worlds but a fair bit off effort in one go. If I was doing a lot I'd use the grater attachment for my food processor. |
What kind of cheese "skin" is this?
I regularly buy Frico's Beech Wood Smoked Processed Cheese but there's this outer layer, kind of like a skin that I don't understand what it is really.
Label, just in case:
The cheese is, firstly, covered in some sort of protective, dark, plastic (?) layer that needs to be cut before it could be eaten:
(not shown is a clear plastic cover beneath this layer that also needs to be removed)
Then we get to the cheese, itself, however it has this dark... skin(?) which I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with:
It cannot be peeled, it seems to really be just the surface layer of the cheese and I have eaten it without problems, it isn't plastic or something like that, however when I melt the cheese the yellowy innards melt fine, but that skin(?) never melts and rests in the bowl looking like a waste product.
Does anyone know what it actually is and if it should be eaten? | That's called the "rind". It's the outer layer of cheese, hardened by the drying process, and colored brown with food coloring in order to imitate more artisinal smoked cheeses (where it would be actually brown due to smoke). It's perfectly edible, and doesn't generally taste any different from the rest of the cheese food. |
Poisonous Escoffier recipe?
I found a strange recipe in Escoffiers's Guide Culinaire:
2939 - CHERRY WATER
Stone two lbs. of very ripe cherries, and rub them through a sieve. Put the purée into a basin with the stones crushed in the mortar, and let the whole macerate for one hour. Then moisten with one pint of filtered water, and strain the juice trough a woollen bag, or muslin folded in two and stretched.
Add a piece of well-washed ice and six oz. of loaf-sugar, and put the whole in the cool for twenty minutes. Flavour, when about to serve, with four liqueur-glassfuls of Kirsch.
The saccharometer should register 9° when inserted into this preparation.
To me, this sounds like a straightforward way to give your guests a nasty cyanide poisoning. But given the author, and the fact that this was probably served to a large number of people over the years, this doesn't seem to have happened. Is there anything in this recipe that would neutralize the amygdalin from such a large amount of ground-up cherry pits? | Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a chemist.
The recipe does not tell you to ingest the crushed pits themselves, just the juice that you extracted. The question then is whether you will extract a significant amount of amygdalin using water. This answer on the Chemistry SE suggests using methanol to extract amygdalin from apricot pits. This video also goes into extracting the cyanide from cherry pits, which takes quite a bit more effort than just letting the pits sit in water for an hour.
Thus: the recipe does not neutralize the amygdalin, but the final product is unlikely to contain dangerous doses of the stuff. |
Why are quiches baked in fluted tins?
Is there any particular reason why quiches are usually baked in a fluted tin, rather than in a regular straight-sided cake tin? | TL;DR Quiche pans are fluted because quiche crusts are ruffled.
Quiche crusts are ruffled for the same geometric reason as muffin liners and some coffee filters are ruffled. Try fitting an inelastic disc into a cylinder, covering the bottom and sides, and the disc builds ruffles on its sides. Since the ruffles of the crust are somewhat fragile, they are best supported within flutes.
This is one of the cases (much rarer than most people think) where it has an objective advantage, as opposed to randomly developed tradition.
Quiches are made with a crust of shortbread or flaky savory pie dough. This dough is not very friendly in handling. It tends to crumble rather than stretch, sticks everywhere to the point of smearing, and has low tolerances with respect to temperature, mechanical stress, and others.
Imagine you have just rolled out your crust - which is hopefully all in one piece, evenly thick, not stuck to your counter or to your rolling pin, not so cold as to crumble from stiffness and not so warm as to smear or lose its flakiness, and circular (as opposed to a map of the Scandinavian peninsula complete with fjords). Getting all these at once is already an achievement which requires quite a bit of skill and/or luck. Now you manage to lift your crust from the counter and place it in the pan.
The crust is now lying such that its center coincides with the center of the pan. The edges are draped over the sides of the pan, so there is a gap between the crust and the pan. You now start fitting the crust into the pan by lifting the edge in one point, and gently stroking the radius pointing to that point from the center to the pan wall, such that the crust lays flush on the bottom of the pan. At that place where the crust meets the pan sides, both the crust and the pan have the same radius.
Now your crust is a bent disc. Let's say your pan is 3 cm deep and has straight, non-fluted sides. Then, if you have the crust follow the side in one point, the radius of the crust at the upper edge of the pan is 3 cm larger than the radius at the same point in the bottom of the pan. Choose a next point 1 cm further the circumference of the pan and also press the crust there. The arc of the pan between the two points will have a 1 cm span - but as the crust has a larger radius, its arc at that place is longer! Basically, when you try to bend the crust to go up the sides of the pan, it ruffles. And you have no elasticity to work with to somehow make the crust get together on top or stretch on the bottom - if you try, it tears or crumbles. You also can't just fit the ruffles beside each other - you can try, but their shape will suffer a lot during baking, if they don't break apart under pie weights during prebaking. If they survive, they will be underbaked because of their thickness.
When you have a fluted pan, the troughs of the fluting take in the ruffles of the crust. You now have a single-thickness crust everywhere without stretching, tearing, or whatever. It bakes properly and doesn't have any problems with geometry. Also, it looks pretty.
Given all of the above, I am pretty sure it was a major factor in the design becoming popular.
For those who have trouble imagining it visually, I found a video which shows the process pretty well. Interestingly, this baker strengthens the crust by folding it double and then smushing it into the flutes, something I have never tried. |
Preserving Sauces With Meat
I'm making a hot dog sauce that contains tomatoes, bacon & soy sauce. I've tried to preserve it with vinegar, but lost the taste of the product. What can I use to preserve the sauce in a glass container and how long could I store it in a refrigerator? | When preserving food, safety is of top importance, so I would not recommend experimenting haphazardly with sealed jars and preservatives. Generally, cooked leftovers can be kept in the fridge for 3 to 4 days with no special treatment. If you need to keep your sauce for longer than that, we need to do something else.
Pressure canning cooked meat is feasible; however, it uses specialized equipment. It also requires some exactitude to do safely. Unless you are interested in diving into the rabbit hole of canning, I do not think this technique would be convenient.
Using acid to preserve your sauce is a bad idea. Although vinegar or another acid can prevent microbial growth (for example, in a jar of pickles) any significant quantity will make your sauce too sour as you already observed.
Freezing is probably your best bet, both from a food safety and a convenience perspective. Put the sauce in a plastic container, or even better a plastic bag. It can be safely frozen for weeks or months. When ready to use, there are multiple ways to safely defrost the sauce. But the easiest is just to reheat from frozen, either on the stove or in the microwave. |
Should I stir my sourdough starter before measuring?
I'm new to using sourdough starter and some directions aren't very clear. I'm not sure if it needs to be stirred down before I measure for cooking and for feeding it. I've been stirring down the starter before measuring both when feeding and when cooking with it. Is that the right way?
Also, I've only been keeping 1/2 cup of starter to feed, adding 1/2 cup water and 1 cup flour. If I keep more, do I need to increase the amount of flour and water I add? | Rather than worrying about whether you 'stir down' the starter before measuring by volume, you should really be measuring by weight. Kitchen scales are cheap and incredibly helpful, especially for any kind of baking.
Regarding feeding: there are almost as many different feeding ratios as there are sourdough starters. None of these are set in stone. A common ratio is 1:1:1 starter:flour:water, again by weight. Thus, if you keep more starter, you feed it more. |
Is there a term for "mildly scrambled" eggs?
I'm of the impression that "scrambled eggs" means the eggs are completely beaten to where the yolk and white are completely blended before being cooked.
And "over easy/medium/hard" is where the yolk is intended to be unbroken.
Assuming that's true, is there a specific term for when the yolk is intentionally broken, but not beaten/blended with the egg white, then cooked? So there ends up being distinct areas of white and yellow in the cooked result.
E.g. in the following picture, I cracked eggs right into a frying pan with a little bit of oil, then broke the yolks - and let them run where they wanted, flipping the eggs over once or twice to get it cooked all over - but did not try to blend or homogenize the yolk and egg white together. | To me that's a "fried egg with a broken yolk", or fried egg, flipped & broken. I make them a lot, but never thought about a name for them. They go really well in sandwiches, without turning them into a banjo*.
It doesn't qualify as 'scrambled' because it has none of the method of 'regular' scrambled, it's not broken & whisked/stirred outside the pan. It has no salt/pepper/water/milk. It's not heated gently whilst continuing to stir.
It's just a "fried egg with a broken yolk".
*For why a runny egg sandwich is called a banjo - see Forces.net - Ever Wondered Why It’s Called An ‘Egg Banjo?' [just watch the video, it's short]
For why I don't think it's "country eggs"… imnsho, anything with 'country' tagged on is because no-one knows what else to call it. Google 'country eggs' & you see a million different cheerful 'farmhousey' things you can do with eggs ;) |
Continued use of the same dripping for frying - is it advisable?
I fry lamb chops and leave the dripping in the pan where it solidifies. Next time I cook something, the lamb dripping imparts extra flavour.
I have heard that some people just wipe a frying pan instead of washing the grease off. I don't even wipe the pan - I let it build up.
My reasoning is that (a) dripping doesn't go off and (b) any germs/bacteria would be killed by the heat of frying.
Note: I leave the pan covered by a lid when not in use.
Is there any reason that I shouldn't continue with this practice? | Firstly, I would challenge both of your assumptions.
(a) dripping doesn't go off
Like any other fat, lamb drippings can and will go rancid over time.
(b) any germs/bacteria would be killed by the heat of frying
While it's true that any molds or bacteria themselves will be killed by heat, the same does not hold for any toxins they may have produced.
Secondly, when you fry anything, you introduce small particles into the cooking fat. These will burn and -- health risks aside as they are off-topic for this site -- start ruining the flavour of the fat.
You can cook using animal fat rendered from lamb chops, or pork chops, or bacon, etcetera, but you should filter the fat, keep it refrigerated and cannot expect to reuse it indefinitely. |
What are "cheese Parmentiers"?
From Clarissa Dickson Wright's A History of English Food (2012):
[In the 1920s, British] hostesses also started to serve canapés: little cheese Parmentiers, asparagus rolled in thin brown bread and butter, delicate crab patties, and, of course, the ubiquitous vol-au-vents [...] (source)
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737–1813) was a French proponent of the potato.
Googling "cheese Parmentier" just wants to tell me about hachis Parmentier, basically a French version of shepherd's pie, dating back to at least 1898. ("Hachis" here I think is French for "a chopped-up thing," and has no relation to the Spanish word for "hashish," but I'd appreciate some authoritative enlightenment on that point too.)
Hachis Parmentier does contain both cheese and potatoes, and also phonetically sounds like "(ha-) cheese Parmentier"; the only reasons I'm doubting this identification are (1) that I can't find any evidence at all that anyone's ever actually referred to hachis Parmentier as "cheese Parmentier," and (2) little shepherd's pies sound like they'd make terribly messy canapés.
So, what did Clarissa Dickson Wright mean by "little cheese Parmentiers"? | Some quick Googling leads me to believe these are "Bouchées Parmentier au Fromage" (literally 'mouthfuls'), which seem to be some sort of potato-and-cheese croquette.
To find this, I did a Google image search for "Parmentier au fromage". This shows many different dishes (lots of which are indeed shepherd's pie-like, but it also gives a few hits on the Bouchées. These seem to be perfect as a canapé, so fit the description in OP's question. Searching for "Bouchées Parmentier au Fromage" yields only these. It's admittedly not a water-tight argument, but it's the best I could find. |
Sticky, messy sourdough: overfermented, or ambient factors?
I've made the same sourdough bread a dozen times before, with small variations in parameters:
360g white flour
240g whole wheat flour
390g water
That's a 65% dough with 60% white and 40% whole wheat flour. I've been using the sponge method wherein the night before baking, I'm mixing half the flour (300g) with the water and 60g stiff (100%) sourdough starter.
The next morning I mix in the rest of the flour, 2% salt, and knead by hand.
This has worked well throughout March-May, but the last two times I attempted it I'm having trouble with dough that is sticky, stretchy, and a nightmare to handle.
Last time I ventured for 70% hydration and 1:1 white to whole wheat flour and it got very messy and I abandoned it.
Now, when I'm sticking to my tried recipe, I'm still having the same issue:
No matter how much extra flour I incorporate, the dough will not become more manageable... it seems it's ready to swallow an entire pack!
Do you think it could be:
the sponge, which was left at room temp. for about 10hrs, is overfermented? (I don't have a picture, but it looked normal, bubbles like a tapioca pudding, no signs of hooch)
the ambient humidity has messed up the recipe in a major way?
a combination of both?
It's warmer (25C) and wetter (55-65%) here this rainy June as opposed to ~22C / 40%.
If the sponge is overfermented, does halving the starter help in any meaningful way? Or should I give it less time?
If the flour has been soaking up water in the pantry, how much water should you add to get a predictable result? Do I just weigh a pack of flour and work out how much extra water it holds?
As for The Blob, do I continue to incorporate flour into it and hope it starts holding shape, or does an overfermented sponge preclude me from getting a decent loaf?
Update
I've been using the same brand of white and whole wheat flours throughout. Nothing substantial about the technique has changed. I knead the bread by hand 10-15 mins through a series of smear-scrape-twist motions, as shown below in the River Cottage Bread Handbook:
65% hydration with 60-40% flour mix was my safe space, and the dough just doesn't seem to come together as of late. | This is a bit unusual, but from your picture, I think your long rise at a high temperature (25C) has indeed overfermented your sponge. It's not so much that the yeast is used up: in fact it might still be active. The problem is that the gluten that developed in the first few hours has been broken down in the long fermentation. Hence the lack of structure. You can't fix this by adding any small amount of flour.
Instead you could use this dough as preferment. Then you will need to add plenty more flour and water (maybe matching the amounts already used) and knead again, or use a no-knead rise (but not 10 hours) to develop gluten.
A method for finding the moisture content of flour that's practical in a home kitchen is suggested here: https://bakerpedia.com/processes/moisture-in-flour/. |
What is a good technique for making a very small amount of caramel?
By caramel I mean caramelised sugar made into a sauce with butter.
What is the best way to make a caramel sauce if only a tiny quantity is required? What is the smallest amount of sugar that is practical to start with?
For making a very small amount, the 'dry' method where one just heats the sugar alone seems tricky: I find the sugar burns and hardens into burnt sugar/toffee very easily. The 'wet' method where one adds water to moisten (maybe 1/3 sugar to water by weight) has also given me poor results: some sugar gets burned while the rest is still dissolved. Adding the butter right at the start seems to work better, but I find it's hard to get a really rich caramel taste this way: it's more a sweetened butter sauce. | You make small amounts the same way you make large amounts: dry or wet, doesn't matter, take your preference.
The problems you have are related not to the method, but to the wrong vessel. For example, for the dry method, you have to have the sugar neither too thick, nor too thin. For small amounts of caramel, you have to go with a small pot, possibly go down to 12 or even 8 cm (at least that's what works for me; if by "tiny" you really mean something like a tablespoon of caramel sauce, you might have to use a tiny vessel, like a muffin tin or a single portion cezve). The other desired quality is to have a vessel which provides even, measured heating, so a thick heavy bottom is always preferable.
Also make sure to use the right temperature, "sugar gets burned while the rest is still dissolved" sounds like you might be using too high heat. |
Can I know if lemons are safe to eat whole (peel and all)?
Is there any way to tell if lemons contain a residue of something that is harmful to humans?
The last two winters we have been buying oranges in bulk through a website, directly from the farm and i really like it. I would like to buy lemons in bulk too.
They say their lemons are not treated with anything but I would like to have a little more reassurance. The fruit is not certified organic.
When buying in a store I assume the person buying the fruit for the store tests occasionally and consumer organizations and governmental organizations also sometimes test.
But now I will be buying directly from the farm, without the middleman so to speak.
Related:
Lemons and oranges coated with imazalil
EDIT:
The type of answer I am looking for is how can I test, at home, in the kitchen if the fruit is covered with something like fungicides. I know citrus is often waxed, but that can be washed off, and I will wash the fruit anyway before eating.
Alternatively, maybe pesticides and fungicides are so expensive that farmers are likely to avoid it if they can. Remember, these fruits are shipped straight from the farm, only fruit that is in season is sold, so there is no reason to keep them long. | this may be too simple. But I would think you could ask the owner of the website what chemicals the farmers use. Especially if you are concerned about particular ones. I haven't seen a web store without a "Contact us:" link
I guess the owners could lie to you, but without knowing a lot about chemical tests, that's the best I've got. |
Why does meat dry out in high heat despite being submerged in liquid?
My understanding is cooking over long periods will break down collagen and other proteins. Won't the breakdown of protein cause the meat to lose structural integrity, thereby letting liquid in? | Meat being "moist" or "dry" is an oversipmlified description of the texture. It is not a straightforward measure of the amount of liquid, and also, meat is not a sponge.
When people say that a piece of meat is "moist" or "juicy", they mean a specific texture that includes muscle fibers at a very specific stage of denaturation - they have some elasticity when bitten into, providing resistance, but are also relatively easy to crush during mastication. There is also lubrication from cell plasma (which is not pure water, but a mixture of water and proteins, gaining some colloidal properties) and fat. Even if you could produce a squirt or gush of water (or sauce) similar to what would happen if you were to bite on a wet sponge, that wouldn't really contribute to the texture people seek.
Dry meat means meat in which proteins have been denatured to a quite advanced stage. They harden and become chewy, the actin and myosin no longer slide against each other, and I'm not entirely sure what happens to the cell plasma, but I suspect that part of it oozes through the damaged cell walls, and another part seizes due to the dissolved pieces of protein, just like overcooked egg custard seizes. If you have fat left, it will provide some lubrication, but today's meats are produced with extra low amounts of fat, due to customer preference and cost efficiency.
Even if water were to enter the meat in its "dry" state, it won't turn it into a pleasant texture, because, as explained above, this is not about actuall wetness. But also, liquids don't penetrate meat that well. Take, for example, a piece of meat from a stew that has been stored for 2-3 days in the fridge. There will be stew liquid on the surface, but if you wash it, you will find little evidence of that liquid, maybe only within the first 2-3 mm. If you cut it in two and lick it, it won't taste like stew liquid. If you squeeze it, no stew liquid will come squirting out. In short, it turns out that the physical structure of meat with heat-damaged cell walls doesn't really permit for soaking up liquid.
Combine the two effects, and you will find out that most mental models that the public has about meat texture ("moist" having to do with adding moisture, or browning to "seal in the juices") are wrong. What you are trying to do is to get the proteins to the state in which we expect them, and that is achieved with some, but not too much, heat. |
How should I store salmon en croute?
I've half a pound of salmon en croute (made from this recipe) left over from dinner this evening. I've never dealt with pastry encrusted salmon, so I'm not sure of storage best practices. I'd like to store it for approximately 12 hours, preferably in a way that preserves the puff pastry's stable, yet light, texture. Any ideas? | From my experience, storing it in the fridge is the only option, but it will hardly taste as before. Storing it uncovered will make the pastry super dry afterwards (at least when I stored it my first times), and covering it with a plastic film might make it a bit soggy (the pastry).
I'd recommend storing it in a lunchbox (or with a plastic film, AND inside a lunchbox if you can). I think it will preserve as max as possible the texture and taste but... don't expect too much. Salmon en croute has to be eaten recently made! (from my experience and recipes at least). |
Steak pie filling thickener
for all bakers out there, which pie thickener do you use? I have tried to use Modified starch which smell bad when making slurry then pour in hot gravy liquid and I have noticed it changes its taste a bit but thicken very nicely.
I would like to know which thickening do you guys use. I have googled and cornstarch is always come up and i have tried it. While hot, it thicken to the right consistency i want but when cool over night in the chiller, it becomes like hard gelly i can pick and break into pieces. I am not sure if i use the cornflour too much or whatever but while it's hot, the thicken consistency is just right for steak and cheese pie but for some reasons, when cooled, it becomes like hard gelly. Oh the taste is no good too.
Please help! | Normally, I aim to have very little liquid in my filling before it goes in a pie, rather than thicken it a lot. It just seems to keep the pastry better & saves me having to blind bake the base. I use what I've drained off to make gravy for serving.
I do thicken what liquid remains, I don't drain it all, & my preferred method is with a roux.
Just use plain [all-purpose] flour, made as a roux or just mixed with water & stirred in.
For a roux, I'd make that up in a separate pan. Let your pie mixture cool for a while first. Equal parts butter & flour. Melt the butter, stir in the flour a few minutes, then add the meat/gravy mix. Get some of the gravy in first, until the overall mixture becomes manageable; it will start off by transforming to one lump, but if you keep adding gravy slowly & keep stirring it will never come out lumpy, guaranteed. Gradually add your meat/gravy mix to it until it's all in.
If you mix flour with cold water then add to your hot mixture, you will need to be carful not to get lumps, pour in slowly, stir constantly. I'd also then let it simmer for a while, otherwise you get a bit of a raw edge to the taste. The thickness will be the same as with a roux, but the flavour isn't as good, imho.
Made this way it won't go gelatinous like cornflour would. Making it as a roux will also keep a bit of 'shine' to the sauce, more than the cold water method. |
Does saturated fat result in crispier fried food?
I was watching this video of Kenji making Kung Pao chicken, in which he claims that frying in saturated fat results in crispier food. Is there any truth to this? I found this page stating saturated fats resolidify after frying, which results in the food being less oily tasting, but I am not sure how that translates to the food seeming/being more crisp. | Having looked into this a bit, I have some hints for an answer. I'm still not convinced I understand the full mechanism, so any feedback is welcome here.
I think some of my sources might be paywalled; apologies for anyone unable to access them.
Reading a few studies on the effects of different variables on the outcome of deep frying (specifically potato chips), I found the following information.
Oils higher in saturated fats are more 'stable', that is, they show less change in chemical composition when heated (3).
Hydrogenated vegetable oil in one test (1) provided the crispiest results when compared to refined soya bean and groundnut (peanut) oils. The difference got bigger with increasing temperature, suggesting the stability of the more saturated oils has some effect.
This last point is corroborated by (2), who showed that the difference between different oils is biggest at higher temperatures.
The results from (1) in particular support the idea that more saturated oils result in crispier foods. The question why still remains unanswered, however.
Side notes:
While (1) found that the hydrogenated vegetable oil produced the crispiest results, people on average preferred chips fried in peanut oil.
Sources:
M. Rani and G.S. Chauchan, Effect of intermittent frying and frying medium on ihe quality of potato chips; Food Chemistry, 51 (1995), pp. 614-617.
A. Kita , G. Lisińska and G. Gołubowska, The effects of oils and frying temperatures on the texture and fat content of potato crisps; Food Chemistry
Volume 102, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 1-5.
E. Choe AND D.B. Min, Chemistry of deep‐fat frying oils. Journal of food science 72.5 (2007): R77-R86. |
Is there a way to quantify smoke in meat while cooking?
I've observed across multiple meats and cuts of meats that the other impact of smoking varies greatly. Additionally, while actually smoking my perception of the flavor is overloaded and doesn't return to normal until probably the next day.
The three variables I consider are the
meat itself, the time spent in the smoker, and the temperature.
Outside of extremes (like obviously too hot or too short) I find it virtually impossible to disentangle the individual variables' impact on desired outcomes (smoke flavor added, fat rendering, protein breakdown) and undesired outcomes (dry, tough, et cetera)
The goal is to adjust my recipes more purposefully and efficiently; not just to follow someone else's recipe.
Is there a proxy (not simply tasting) way to know the amount of smoke penetration or smokey flavor?
Edit: I'm thinking something along the lines of the charts showing sous vide eggs by temperature, or the doneness of a steak, or milk in tea. The intent is to known that "it's done enough" while smoking. | Well... yes. There are analytic chemistry techniques used to measure the concentration of phenols, which are the primary contributors to a "smoky" flavor. You could test samples taken from the meat at different depths to measure penetration. You'd need a reasonably well-outfitted chemistry lab to do a good job of this.
Honestly, though, objective measurements are not the right way to go about this. There's a reason food scientists do both chemical and organoleptic tests. Objective chemical measurements are always going to be an imperfect approximation of subjective experience. If the color of the test strip tells you something's not very smoky, and your tongue tells you it is, which are you going to believe?
If what you're looking for is a way to reliably compare the results of multiple attempts over time, just take small samples and freeze them, then compare them [using your tongue] once you're back at max taste. |
By how much should I shorten the cooking time of a slow cooker recipe if I'm only using half the meat?
I'm thinking of making either this recipe or this recipe for pork tenderloin in a slow cooker.
As easy as a slow cooker is, I'm no slow cooker expert, and have run into problems where the meat ends up seeming "dry" (even though it's literally soaking in a sea of liquid) when I mess up the amount-of-meat-to-cooking-time ratio, either by using a smaller cut of meat than the recipe calls for, or cooking for longer than the recipe calls for.
Both of the recipes linked here call for 2 lbs. pork tenderloin, and I have a 1 lb. cut.
The first recipe calls for 7 hours on low, and the second one calls for 6-8 hours on low. So if I only have half the meat, by how much should I reduce the cooking time? I'm guessing halving the cooking time is not really the right move. | You should probably not reduce the cooking time by a lot, if at all. These recipes assume you are keeping the meet submerged in liquid at some constant temperature for several hours. Assuming your tenderloin is not somehow less thick than a 2 pound cut would be, nothing in the recipe changes. The core temperature of the cut won't take any less time to get up to temperature, and the lower thermal load from having less product will also not affect slow cooking.
Ideally, have some flexibility in when you expect to be done cooking and stop when you have reached the desired results, rather than after some arbitrary period of time.
Apart from that: if you are having problems with meats coming out dry, you might want to check out this question and answers. To summarize: cooking lean meat for long times is usually not ideal. |
What are these white spots in my bread dough?
I'm making hot cross buns following this recipe: https://domesticgothess.com/blog/2020/03/09/vegan-hot-cross-buns/
About an hour into the first rise, I'm seeing these alarmingly mold-like dots in the dough. I didn't see these when I was kneading it.
The only things I might've done abnormally for this recipe were:
My soy milk might've been a touch too hot when I added the yeast. I was afraid it would kill the yeast, but it looks like the dough has risen normally. Not sure if that has something to do with the appearance of these spots.
For the soy milk, I made it using cooked soybeans blended up with water. It was done in a high speed blender and the soy milk appeared quite smooth, but could these be unblended soybean chunks?
I used kosher salt. Perhaps the salt was not fully dissolved by the time I let it rise.
Are there any other possibilities for what these spots could be? | It's impossible to say what it is - but I am quite sure what it isn't. I have never seen or heard of a pathogen (mold or otherwise) which is able to build visible colonies during such a short time at room temperature, especially in the presence of yeast. And your yeast was not dead - the dough rising proves it.
This is almost sure some ingredient not being mixed well. There are a few alternative explanations such as you covering the bowl with a nonpermeable lid and having enough condensation to drop onto the dough surface, or maybe (and we are getting into really weird/rare territory here) the vegan substitutes acting in unusual ways and managing to clump somehow. I would bake and eat - it is one of the exceptions where I can't connect this unusual photo to the "when in doubt, throw it out" rule. |
Pasta machine rolls dough wider than machine
I have a (admittedly rather cheap) pasta roller that I try to use fairly regularly. The issue is that when I am rolling it out,the dough keeps getting wider, not just longer, beyond the size of the rollers, and then getting all mangled at the edges. It also has a hard time feeding in straight. Every video I watch on pasta making doesn't seem to show this, so it is just some trick they aren't mentioning, the cheap machine, or what? | You might be rolling the dough too thinly, too soon. Start by feeding a somewhat flattened 'disk' of dough through the pasta machine at its widest setting. Change the setting by at most 1 for each subsequent pass.
You might also benefit from 'laminating' the dough: after the first pass, fold the dough in thirds, turn it 90 degrees and pass it through the machine again. Here is a picture demonstrating the procedure from the Serious Eats "Science of the Best Fresh Pasta" guide. |
Can I make idli without rice?
I want to avoid rice due to my diabetes. So can I make idli only with urad dal? Currently, I am using rice rava and urad dal in the same proportion and the idli comes out nice. Thank you | You can also do it with Yellow/green Moong Dal or Millet. I used this recipe before - it's a mix pf Urad Dal and Millet https://masalachilli.com/proso-millet-idli-no-rice-idli-recipe/ |
Why is there a sheet of paper in packages of minced meat?
In German supermarkets, minced meat is usually sold in a plastic box under what’s described as a “Schutzatmosphere” (protective atmosphere).
It looks like this:
Not visible in this image, the meat is always placed on a sheet of paper.
Why is that done? I haven’t found the meat to stick to the plastic more than to the paper, and I can’t think of a reason why the meat would go bad faster without the paper.
Also, the plastic boxes usually have a grill-shaped bottom, so the meat would probably not sit in any liquid coming from it. | The paper isn't for you. It's for the robots.
Packaged ground meat like that is ground, portioned, and packaged automatically. The blocks of ground meat are formed by extruding them into an endless strip which is chopped into blocks and moved around on conveyor belts. To prevent the meat from adhering to the belts or falling between them, the strip is formed on a roll of waxed paper, which is sliced with the rest of the meat and remains on the bottom of the blocks through the remainder of the processing. It's not important to remove the paper, so they don't bother.
You can see an example of the technique at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPRea1f8sg4 . |
Iranian Sweet Dish consisting of Lamb Paste
I am trying to identify a dish I had a while ago while traveling in Iran. It was in Isfahan, and none of the languages I speak seemed particularly common with the locals, so I only got patchy details in addition to the actual experience of the dish.
The dish:
was served in a shallow plate, for dipping/scooping.
had a paste-like consistency, somewhat similar to hummus, but less chunky, more rope-y, and much more homogeneous.
was mainly sweet, with a slight hint of savoury taste and saffron.
was yellow-to-orange in color, I assume on account of saffron spicing.
was made (primarily or mainly) of lamb (I double-checked with the serving staff as well as other patrons).
I found it hard to believe given the taste and appearance, but after making sure everybody agreed on the fact that it was meat, both the consistency and the slight savoury taste made more sense. I don't know if it's eaten as dessert by the locals, but I would certainly think of it as dessert. It was very sweet.
Do you know:
what this dish is called?
how exactly it is made? | As confirmed in comments, the dish is khoresht mast.
According to this recipe and this video, the main ingredients seem to be lamb or beef neck, yoghurt, sugar, saffron, rosewater, and garnishes of pistachios and barberries.
The lamb/beef is simmered with onion and turmeric then mashed and blended, and mixed with an egg yolk, yoghurt, and sugar. This is gently heated, to which saffron water and and (optionally) rosewater are now added. The mixture is then chilled, garnished, and served cool. The video explains everything quite well. |
Firming up Neapolitan Pizza Crust
We cooked some pizza last night and had a good time. However, the crust was limp. I was expecting to tap the bottom and hear the tap tap tap sound but it was too soft.
We have an Alphaforni 5 Minuti Wood fire oven running at 500°F. The temperature was measured using the built in thermometer. I had preheated the oven for over an hour.
The dough was sitting out of the fridge for about 2.5 hrs before we got it into the oven.
How can I get the bottom crispier?
What would cause such a soft bottom? | 500F is not really that hot, in terms of Neapolitan pizza. Traditionally, they are baked for 2 minutes or less, at 700F - 900F (371 - 482C). So, this could be a temperature, and/or a cooking surface issue. What type of oven are you using? On what type of surface is your pizza cooking? |
Days kept after opening mentioned in packages and how valid are they?
I bought a pita bread package, that I saw it writes: after opening keep in an airtight container and consume within 2 days.
The thing is that I am keeping it in the refrigerator and it is been more than 2 days and it looks fine.
I don't understand why they mention that taking into account that the package is quite big to be consumed within 2 days anyway (too many pita breads).
Is there something I should be cautious of? | It's probably a "best before date," which means the pita bread will lose quality after that date.
Pita bread tends to dry out and get stale quickly. |
With vs without egg fresh pasta cooking time
If you have identically sized/shaped/thickness of fresh pasta noodles, with egg and without, is there any difference in cooking time?
My son and his girlfriend are vegetarian and vegan, so I'm looking to make an Italian pasta dish next time we get together for a meal. Most of the recipes I see for fresh pasta are for recipes with eggs.
Any difference in cooking time? | Egg v. no egg does not influence cooking time for fresh pasta. There are plenty of egg free versions. This is a go-to for me, and produces a great pasta.
Thickness...whether or not it is filled...cooking from frozen all influence cooking time a bit. In an interview with a well-known pasta chef, I heard him state that most people (in US) over cook dried pasta and under cook fresh pasta. |
Settling Up the Dispute over Poached Egg's Definition
Fact: You can poach an egg without acid, although adding a tiny bit helps a lot with the egg white to set easier.
Current situation: My friend (a culinary graduate) 'poached' an egg without vinegar and he called it between boiled and poached but it's neither of them because there's no acid component. I (not a culinary graduate) told him that it's still a poached egg because of the action rather than the additional ingredient, in this case. He insisted that without acid that creates the ideal texture, it can't be called poached. He also told me to read culinary book (which I tried to look up on google but apparently they gave me recipes instead).
Additional Knowledge: According to online dictionaries, 'poach' is defined as
to cook in simmering liquid. 1 2
Since my friend told me to read culinary book, I assume there is an origin or culinary-based theory/definition about poached egg, which I don't know anything about.
Question: If I boil an egg out of its shell without acid, is it still called 'poached' egg, or is it simply a shell-less boiled egg? | As far as I understand it, poaching is poaching (cooking in simmering liquid)...whether it is an egg or a portion of fish. It is the cooking process. I don't think this is debatable.
While acid in the poaching liquid helps to denature the proteins and allow the white to more readily stay together, there are other ways to achieve this, by using the "vortex method", for example. No one could logically argue that this egg is not poached...and no one uses the phrase "shell-less boiled egg"....right? |
How to make a gel that doesn't harden at below freezing temperatures
So I have an idea for a lemon bar ice cream and I want to swirl in the custard and add chunks of short bread in. I could just make the custard for a lemon bar as is but I suspect that after freezing it won't maintain the same gooey texture and flavor. Is there enough sugar in the custard to solve that problem? Is there something I can do to keep it gooey, like caramel, if I swirl it into the ice cream? | There are a number of ways to depress the freezing point of a solution, the most common of which in an ice-cream context would be adding sugar and adding alcohol. Another solution, if you're not married to the idea of the lemon custard being a separate swirl mixin in differently flavoured ice-cream, would be to have the lemon custard be the custard for the ice-cream in and of itself.
For the first option, the higher the sugar and alcohol content of your lemon swirl mixin, the lower the freezing point will be, and the softer it will end up in the final product. The fat content of the lemon custard might increase and sort of 'spread out' the freezing point also. To this end, you could try making your lemon custard with a higher sugar content than usual and maybe some added vodka (or limoncello if you can get it) and seeing how that freezes. If it still freezes too hard for what you want, you might abandon the idea of a lemon custard and go with a lemon syrup or puree that might be closer to the consistency of more conventional berry swirls you see, while relying on the ice cream itself to provide the creaminess and fat content you expect from a lemon bar custard.
Serious Eats has a guide for making such a thing here.
You might also consider, instead of mixing in a lemon swirl, replacing the ice cream custard itself with something to evoke your lemon bar topping. I don't know what your recipe for lemon bars uses - I'd be familiar with a 'lemon curd' mixture made from lemon juice, zest, sugar, eggs and butter, but you might be using something more 'custardy' with cream and/or milk as the dairy component. In either case, if you modify that recipe to proportions more typical of an ice cream base (presumably by adding or increasing dairy content), you can skip the lemon swirl entirely and just have a shortbread mixin. |
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