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What are the mechanics of raw milk and products made from it?
I'm stuck in a bit of a strange predicament... As many of you know, getting access to raw milk is a problem for many in the Western world, whereas information is abundant. Yet, here I finally am with an unlimited source of raw milk but unable to find any meaningful/decent information.
I was hoping one of you could guide me with either a link or just a quick summary.
Basically, I just want to know what the underlying processes are for working with raw milk and what it turns into under what conditions?
For example: the other day I wanted to make sour cream. I found an article online that said: raw milk doesn't rot, leave it out at room temp for not more than 2 days, gather the cream from the top, and put it into a mason jar for another day. I mean sure -- these are good pointers on how to get from point A ("I have raw milk") to point B ("I have sour cream"), but very little actual information on the underlying workings (what happens if I leave it out for 3 or 4 days? After I gather the cream, what is the remaining transparent liquid in the jar and what can I do with it? etc).
Basically, I'm not looking for specifics on how to get from a point A to a point B, but rather -- if I'm at point A, what points can I get to from there, and where can I get to afterwards?
How (in a short quick approximative summary) does one make yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, butter, cheese, etc?
I apologize for the dumb question and really appreciate any response(s) in advance. | Basically the processes are those that have been used for 1000's of years. Components of the milk along with some bacterial species that are commonly found in milk can, under the right conditions, produce some or all of your products.
First off, the online article is completely wrong, milk can and does "rot" - introduce some fecal coliforms (e.g. from off the often unwashed udders; see page 2 in pdf here, and table p 13 and references therein for prevalence of contamination, see also here for more detailed information) and you will certainly know about it within a few hours at room temperature. You will know this also if you have ever come across an old container of milk full of lumps and a horrific smell. There is a reason why large scale dairy industry keeps the milk cold from milking the cows to delivery to the factory - it's to stop the milk going off. Always store your milk at fridge temperature to slow bacterial growth. Note that fermentation of the milk products into soured forms generally selects against pathogenic bacteria and often enables longer storage and greater food-safety because of this. However, never assume that it is safe for consumption just because you have fermented the milk to make a different product. Correct storage is incredibly important for food safety with milk products.
For any of the cultured products - yogurt, cheese, sour cream etc., it is best to add cultures of the specific type of bacterium associated with the product. This ensures that you have the right one in there and are less likely to waste your raw milk by having overgrowth of unwanted microorganisms, some of which may be pathogenic and can make you very sick. Do not rely on your sense of smell or taste to detect pathogens. Many do not produce smells or tastes and can have very high bacterial loads before you can detect them from taste/smell alone.
From milk, skim the fat that floats to the surface and you have cream. Take the cream and churn it and you will have butter - you need lots and lots of cream for this. Buttermilk is technically the water component left after you remove the butterfat from the cream, but you can also add cultures to this one to produce the soured version more commonly seen commercially today. Incidentally cultured butter is also a thing: see the Types section in the linked page for butter.
Sour cream is cream with some culture added, usually Lactobacillus species that produce acid to make the cream "sour" thereby precipitating a lot of the proteins in the cream and making it thick and creamy. The same process happens for milk to yogurt.
The rest of your list are generally made from milk, often whole milk, but not necessarily. The exact product depends on how long you ferment it and what you do with it once it is fermented (and usually what you inoculate it with, in the case of cheeses). From whole milk the easiest cheese you can make is essentially mozzarella. Mozzarella doesn't require fermentation, but does require rennet, which most cheeses use somewhere in the manufacturing process anyway. You can also make quark by heating soured milk (add acid - lemon juice or (white) vinegar, or ferment) and straining off the whey.
For yogurt, which then can be made into soft cheese, you can inoculate with any plain, unpasteurized yogurt from the local store. Incubate this in a warm place for a few hours and the yogurt will be ready. Incubate for a couple more to make it thicker. With thick yogurt, place it into a cheesecloth and strain overnight in a cool place to produce a soft cream cheese like product called yogurt cheese. Yogurt and yogurt cheese products are probably the easiest milk based processed products to generate for a beginner.
Harder cheeses take a bit of work and know-how - you need to know how to culture, add rennet, slice the curd, pack, store to mature etc to produce each one. There are many many varieties of cheese out there, each one is slightly different in production and often take specific bacterial species, and sometimes a milk from a specific type of animal (e.g goat cf. cow) or variety/breed of animals (e.g jersey milk cf. holstein/friesian milk) or pasture type to produce its distinctive flavour. |
How do I age ginger?
For the past few months all I can find is young ginger from the grocers. I am in need of old ginger which I can't quite purchase.
I have tried to leave it out in the kitchen in an open basket (no sunlight) but it went all mouldy. When I did this, the average temperatures in my (Australian) city were a high of 30C and a low of 15C.
How can I age young ginger, so as to have 'old' ginger?
Ginger photo : | What's the difference?
I did a little research, and this article does a good job at summarizing both the taste difference, and the growing difference.
Young ginger (or spring ginger) is harvested at the start of the growing season, before it has gotten as fibrous, and when the exterior skin is still thin & delicate. It also has a more mild flavor. Mature ginger (what the OP calls "old ginger" is simply grown longer and has a tougher skin, and more pungent taste.
Full text from the above article:
Fresh ginger is available both young and mature.
Spring ginger. Young ginger which is sometimes called spring ginger has a very thin skin that requires no peeling. The skin is edible. Young ginger is very tender and has a milder flavor than mature ginger. Young ginger is found in Asian markets in the springtime.
Mature ginger. Mature ginger is usually harvested in the fall and has a tough skin that must be carefully peeled to reach the flesh underneath. Mature ginger is more pungent than young ginger.
Just harvested ginger—whether young or mature–should have a fresh, spicy fragrance.
So what can you do?
Once it's harvested, there isn't really a way to "mature" it at home in your kitchen. That needs to happen when it's still in the garden. You could try simply using a "heavier hand" and use more ginger to compensate for the slightly more delicate flavor, though that still won't be the same thing as using mature ginger to begin with. |
Should canned fish be flaky?
Properly cooked fish is meant to be flaky and not tough or chewy.
I just had some canned mackerel and noticed it was not flaky but rather a bit tough and chewy. Is it just a bad batch or does the cooking process cause it to be like this? | Fresh fish is considered ready for serving at 60-65°C (plus minus a bit, depending on what kind of fish, cut, personal preference etc.). At that point, fish will fall apart into moist flakes if pressed with a fork, but not crumble on its own. Heat the fish further, and the proteins will denature in a way that the fish is perceived as tough and dry.
Safe canning for non-acidic protein-based foods requires temperatures of above 117°C, in practice up to 130°C. This is necessary to ensure food long-term safety and to destroy heat-resistant pathogens like the infamous C. botulinum.
In short, you can either have perfectly cooked, juicy and tender fresh fish or a shelf-stable product. They are mutually exclusive.
Your canned fish is perfectly fine for canned fish, not a bad batch, but simply can not have the taste and mouthfeel of a freshly cooked à point mackerel. |
What blender is required to create an emulsion?
Let's consider for specificity an emulsion prepared with the use of a protein possessing emulsifying properties as an emulsifying agent. Domestically most commonly prepared protein-based emulsion is mayonnaise.
Recently Cook's Illustrated has complicated matters by reporting that at least one of the blenders they tested using a tachometer has the blade rotating at a speed, which does not correspond to the specified by the manufacturer. It looks like these findings were not replicated by other teams. Defects are not uncommon in production of household appliances, but if it is not a problem to measure temperature within an electric oven using a thermometer, measuring speed of rotation is not as easy since a tachometer also has to be tested for accuracy of performance. Yet the speed of rotation is a critical determinant of emulsification efficiency. What also is of interest is that manufacturers like KitchenAid (probably the second most highly rated brand after Vitamix) do not specify the speed of rotation of their blenders’ blade, so a blender suitable as an emulsification device can be five times less expensive than renowned for high speed alternatives if it meets minimum speed and power requirements.
So I would like to know whether anyone here has experience of using different blenders for emulsification and does not mind to share it with others. | An emulsion, like mayonnaise, can be made with a fork, a hand whisk, an electric whisk, a stick blender, or a traditional blender with a jar. I've made mayo, at some point or another, with just about all of these. For home use, the hand whisk is often the most convenient if you are handy with the technique. However, I find a stick blender to be the best option, for speed and easy cleanup. One caveat is that the container you are making the mayo in should be just slightly larger than the blade end of the stick blender. For me, a cocktail shaker is perfect. |
Could I use a sous vide rack for cooking lasagna in boiling water?
I enjoy cooking my lasagnas in boiling water before using them in the pan. I am perfectly aware that putting a little oil in the boiling water helps avoiding the noodle to stick together. But I cook rather large and thick organic lasagnas noodles and I never really managed to avoid the two following issues:
the noodles will still stick together;
the noodles fall on the bottom of the pot making the water suddenly boil with unexpected bigger bubbles;
I usually cook 5 noodles only in the same pot, and need to do it three times in order to get 15 noodles for my recipe.
Then I discovered the following picture:
and while I couldn't find the very same tool anywhere on the web, I finally discovered a cooking tool called "sous-vide rack", some of them being circular:
(other models here)
I don't know exactly what they are made for, but I would like to know if it would be safe to use them for keeping lasagnas noodles in a vertical position in boiling water for 5 minutes. I understand that this tool is intended to be used with some water, but I am not sure the water is intended to be boiling water (I mostly ask about the temperature and the material), and while I don't see much reason why I couldn't use it for my purpose, I prefer asking before purchasing one. | There are no metals used in cooking that can go in hot water but not boiling water.
While metal racks for sous vide aren't meant to contact food directly they're still cooking equipment, and should still be made of food-safe materials (e.g. common culinary grades of stainless steel).
From a safety point of view I'd have no concerns at all.
Whether these racks would be much help is another matter. The upper picture shows the lasagne sheets sitting on flat shelves. I'd expect them to stick a bit; this is one time oil might help but you'd have to apply it to each layer of the rack. The second picture only has a few slots available, so the sheets would be prone to sticking together.
A stainless toast rack (example from Amazon US, not a recommendation except it's about the right shape) would also work. Do be sure to buy one that's stainless steel and not chrome plated; the plating tends to flake off at the welds before long
You can cook pasta slightly below boiling, especially when you're only par-cooking as in lasagne. What I do if I need to precook lasagne is this case is: fill a jug (sized so the sheets sit on end) with boiling water; add the sheets one by one to make sure plenty of water gets between them; briefly microwave (perhaps 2x1 minute bursts). Par-cooked like this they stick a little to each other but no problematically so. |
Can meat spoil outside the fridge if it's baked into bread as a filling?
I made some meat buns tonight (that is, buns with cooked chicken stuffed inside them before being baked), and I'm wondering if I should bother keeping the buns inside the fridge, because that would mean having to reheat them later.
Will the chicken inside them even go bad if the bread's there to protect it? It seems to me that the bread will act basically like a tin can and keep the meat preserved as long as the bread is, since the meat inside was heated and all the bacteria that might have been on it was cooked to death.
Is this a wrong way of thinking? Should I just refrigerate them just to be safe? | There are two differences between your buns and a tin can.
First, your buns were heated to a core temperature of under 100°C. Yes, your oven was probably set way higher, but the water content in your filling prevents it from getting hotter than boiling water. Commercial canning is done in the vicinity of 120-130°C, which is possible because the cans are cooked under pressure. So unlike in a can, most pathogens were destroyed, but not necessarily all of them. For human consumption, that’s perfectly fine as long as the remaining ones don’t get the time-temperature combo to regrow.
Second, a bread dough may be dense (although the aim is usually something different), but by no means airtight. Interestingly, wrapping meat in dense dough was used as preservation method in medieval times - the “ancestor” of today’s pork pies and pastries. But while the hard flour crust (not intended to be eaten originally) did form a protective layer and usually extended the shelf life more or less, it was by no means food safe judged by modern standards - although some pies were stored for months. But your fluffy buns are truly not a protective layer. Which means you should refrigerate your buns, but also that you get to enjoy the whole dish. |
Sage - how much can you eat fresh?
I have just bought a flowerpot of sage - Salvia officinalis.
I know that the leaves can be used for tea. But can they also be eaten fresh, as a snack or as part of the salad? Is there any limit on the amount of fresh Salvia leaves that is safe to eat per day? | Sage (Salvia officialis) is a staple herb in various cuisines. It pairs with veal in an Italian Saltimbocca or pork in the British sage and onions stuffing and is eaten even on its own, e.g. battered and fried. So yes, it’s clearly edible. However, personally I would not serve it as a salad leaf, it’s probably too pungent to be truly enjoyable, but taste is of course personal preference. There are recipes that use sage in vinaigrette, though.
As the flavor is quite intense and a little goes a long way, most consumers will never nibble on enough to get in the range where the thujone content matters (similar to the amygdalin in apple pips). But let’s do a rough estimation to get a ballpark number. The amount of oil that can be extracted from S. officinalis leaves is between 0.5 and 1 %. That oil can contain up to 50% thujone, so we can just use the 0.5% as thujone content of fresh leaves. Considering that the LD50(mice) of thujone is 45mg/kg and that 30mg/kg gives a 0% mortality, a healthy 75kg “average person” could probably eat 2g of thujone or 400g sage leaves and be fine - but it wouldn’t be a good idea nevertheless, taste-wise. Excessive, especially habitual/long term use is sometimes discouraged.
The EU has limited the amount of thujone from sage a food product may contain to 25mg/kg. That would equal 50g sage leaves in 1 kg prepared food.
Conclusion: Enjoy cooking with your sage, forget about the salad leaves idea.
————-
Further reading: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20727933/ |
How should I wash butter muslin?
I used butter muslin (the link is to the specific product I used as an example) to roast a turkey crown (following the method from this article). I now have a piece of muslin with a tie-die pattern of browning from where the creases were. I can get most of the butter out by rinsing it in the sink but obviously it needs proper washing before I store it and use it again.
Can I put it in the washing machine on a typical clothes-washing cycle? (Not quite on-topic, but how wary should I be of putting it in with clothes I don't want to ruin?)
Is there anything I should do after washing it to make sure it is food-safe? Is there any risk of detergent residue I need to look out for? I normally use 3-in-1 laundry capsules. | Accept that it will never look pristine white ever again.
Whatever you do, don't wash it in Persil. That stuff is designed to make your clothes bright & nicely perfumed, not something you need in your turkey - "seven day freshness" isn't quite what they meant in the adverts. At least it doesn't have fabric conditioner in it, which would be even worse. No-one ever bought Comfort for how good it tastes;)
Unless you want to invest in some pure soap* - flakes or liquid at various prices from reasonable eg Wilko's to truly ridiculous "they saw you coming & laughed" then you'll be fine just washing it in regular washing-up liquid, or give it a soak in bleach first, so long as you rinse it afterwards until you can no longer smell it. [I'd just go with Fairy myself & put up with the staining].
*& run it through the washing machine all on its own, wasting an entire wash cycle for one cloth. |
Geographic variations in coconut milk
My local supermarket sells numerous brands of coconut milk. Some brands, by their packaging and location on the shelf, are marketed for use in Thai cookery; other brands target Indian or Caribbean cuisines. There is a substantial difference in price between the different brands: a factor of ~5 between the most expensive (Thai) and the cheapest (Indian).
Are there any significant geographic variations in what is sold as 'coconut milk', so that I should buy the brand marketed towards the cuisine I want to make? Or can I use whichever one I consider to be most attractively-priced? | If you examine the ingredients on different brands of tinned coconut milk you can find percentages of coconut ranging (and I used the Tesco Supermarket website to get a sampling as they always list product ingredients) from 25% up to 72% and possibly higher. There will also be varying proportions of water, thickeners and emulsifiers such as Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Carrageenan, Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Polysorbate 60 and Locust Bean Gum.
Sometimes the coconut content is described as 'coconut extract', I have no idea what that means.
Products marketed as 'Light' will typically have more water than coconut.
It is possible that in markets outside the UK there are 'better' canned products available.
I get Creamed Coconut in block form, which is 100% coconut and can be grated into the dish as required, where you can add such liquid as you choose and the gratings melt into it as it heats. You can also get this in sachets if a whole block seems like it would be more than you need. |
Can I mix food grade lye (sodium hydroxide) with water to make kansui?
I have food grade lye (sodium hydroxide) from pretzel making and I want to make chewy noodles, either ramen or Chinese noodles. Many of these recipes call for lye water or kansui.
I have found many resources about making your own kansui from baking soda (for example Can I substitute baking soda for kansui powder?), but none that start with lye.
I've found that kansui has a pH of about 12.6 and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) has a pH of 14. Using a pH calculator, I should get a pH of 12.6 with 0.04 moles of NaOH in 1 liter of solute (water). That's 1.5 grams per liter. (It has been a while since high school chemistry so please jump in here if I'm making a massive mistake)
Is this a valid approach to making lye water or kansui? What might I be overlooking? | 80% potassium carbonate, 20% sodium bicarbonate at some concentration https://omnivorescookbook.com/kansui is likely to behave very differently than your sodium hydroxide.
Kansui is probably strongly buffered, while your pH is
likely to wander. That sort of thing is liable to wreck recipes.
I'd find a good how-to online, and make the stuff right. |
Is it possible to have a keto stew?
Is it possible to have a keto stew?
I would guess no since you need a starch eg a fair quantity of onions and carrots?
Is there anyway it can be accomplished? | There are literally keto stew recipes when you search keto stew on google.
From
Delish.com:
When making keto stew:
choose low carb vegetables
replace potatoes with less starchy root vegetables
use onions and garlic judiciously
small amounts of colorful vegetables add visual appeal
add the vegetables at the last 40-60 minutes of cook time
Also, you can add heavy cream to your stew as the thickening element. |
Substitutes for beer... in beer cheese soup
Sounds odd I know, but some preservatives in beer can be an allergen... I found a beer cheese soup that I really really enjoyed. My question is, are there non-beer substitutes for "dark" beer that might do well in a spicy beer cheese soup like the one linked below. I'm curious if anyone has found a sub that still gives off the same dark beer flavor in the end result?
Simply Altered Eats: Beer Cheese and Chicken Soup | Note: This is a suggested experiment, rather than a tried-and-tested solution
From the comments, yeast and malt extracts were suggested. I'd go further and say both, as neither will replicate beer flavour alone.
Both are rather variable. Some experimenting will be required.
In case you go too far with either of them, I suggest you have spare ingredients on hand to allow dilution (leftover soup should freeze well, to avoid waste)
I suspect that too much yeast extract will be worse than too much malt extract, so use caution on that. Yeast extract (referring to Marmite/Vegemite or own brand equivalents) is used in some vegetarian recipes as a source of umami; it's useful in savoury dishes but can get overpowering. It also has salt, so you might need to reduce the salt in your recipe.
I'd guess at a starting point of 2 tbsp of the liquid malt extract I've used and 1 tsp of yeast extract plus 0.5l (1 pint) of water for 1 pint of beer. That balance could be way off, but luckily both are highly processed and won't change much in cooking so you can add more to taste (as you can with salt).
A little acid wouldn't hurt (ideally lactic acid), maybe 1/2-1tsp of malt vinegar in that same substitute pint.
A way-out idea I'd be tempted to try (as I've got it on hand) is replacing the flour with dried sourdough starter, to bring in some yeast flavours and acid
Luckily that recipe doesn't call for a particularly bitter beer, as that's harder to get right. I wouldn't worry about bittering agents. You could though: hop extracts are rather strong (used at a few ml per gallon of beer, though they're available. If you wanted to try them you'd need to dilute the extract first then add, otherwise you might find one drop too little, two drops too much. |
Difference between Vietnamese and Moroccan preserved lemons?
One ingredient that I enjoy using is Moroccan preserved lemons, which are lemons that have been packed in salt. However, I don't always get around to making my own, so I sometimes buy them at Middle Eastern markets, where jarred ones are quite expensive ... from $7 to $12 a jar in the US.
So I was startled to find a jar of Vietnamese preserved lemons at a local Asian market for $3. As far as I can tell, these lemons are made exactly like Moroccan ones are: with lemons and salt, and indeed the ingredients on the jar are lemons, salt, and water.
So ... are there other differences I should be aware of, or can I just enjoy my new cheap preserved lemons? | There's probably not much difference.
There is a fair amount of variation in preparation methods for Vietnamese preserved limes and lemons (chanh muối). The Garden Betty recipe you linked is probably the most common technique - soaking nearly-quartered lemons in heavily salted water for a few weeks - but that may not be the same method used for the $3 jar you found. Sometimes sugar is used in addition to the salt. Like your Moroccon recipe, sometimes no water is added and the salt instead draws juice out of the fruit to supply the preserving liquid. Boiling the lemons before jarring them is very common. I've also heard of other pre-jarring routines like scrubbing them with salt, sugar, and even tea, or letting them partially dry in the sun first. They may also be jarred in different forms, such as thin slices or left whole.
There is also the obvious case of what actual fruit to use. Because of the nature of citrus fruits, there isn't really a clear divide between limes and lemons in the first place, and there are quite a lot of varieties and hybrids that make classification difficult. I live in the US and use Meyer lemons and Key or Persian limes (which themselves are actually lime-lemon hybrids). The Moroccan recipe calls for doqq and boussera, but suggests Meyer lemons if the traditional varieties can't be found. In Vietnam the fruits are called chanh tây and chanh ta, but I'm not actually aware of a definitive conclusion on which one is technically a lime and which one is a lemon.
Overall, I'm not familiar with different spins on the Moroccan approach, but I assume there's a similar range of variance. That said, it seems like it's basically the same process. Besides the choice of fruit - which, outside of Morocco or Vietnam, is probably going to be the same anyway - I think it's safe to say that any differences between the two cultures are indistinguishable from differences between variants within the same culture.
Of course, the easiest thing to do is just spend the $3 and find out how they taste! |
Can I still use a Tagine that was outside for a while?
I have a ceramic Tagine that I used regularly to make Middle Eastern dishes.
However over the last few months I didn't use it and it sat outside on the balcony for a while, collecting rain water and dirt.
I took it inside and cleaned it thoroughly but I am still not sure if it is a good idea to use it.
Will the rain / dirt / etc. have any lasting effect that may not be visible and ruin any dishes (e.g. having absorbed a foul taste) or am I fine after cleaning the Tagine? | If all the tagine was exposed to is water and dirt then you should be fine as long as you clean it off and bake it to drive out any water. Tagines are generally unglazed on one side so will absorb water, if you don't dry it out it could crack when you try to use it. the process would be put it in a cold oven and turn it up to 170°C (350°F) for 2 hours, then turn the oven off and let it cool overnight with the door closed. The baking may tell if you have problems, if it smells nasty you'll probably want to get rid of it, if it's a normal clay smell you should be good.
If your tagine has been exposed to significant amounts of weed killer, bug killer, liquid fertilizers or other chemicals then it may have absorbed them in which case you'd want to think twice about using it. If there's been a couple of sprays around it there's nothing to worry about. |
Potato for a purpose
I noticed that my super market sells packaged potatoes for different purposes, for example they sell:
potatoes for a salad
potatoes for baking
potatoes for frying etc..
They all look pretty similar to me. Are these labels just for marketing, or is there an actual difference?
I usually just go for whatever is cheapest at the time. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong if, for example, I buy potatoes for a salad and use them to make fries. | Yes, there are differences. Unfortunately, many potatoes have been bred for crop yield and storage over flavor ... and so the flavor differences that you might see in South America don't tend to be so prevalent in the US and Europe.
"Factory farming" in many ways started because of potatoes. McDonalds wanted to get rid of regional differences in their french fries, and so contracted with farmers in Idaho to grow a single variety of potato for them so they could get the uniformity that they wanted.
Starch:
The main difference for those sold in the US is the type of starch in the potato -- most potatoes can be sorted into 'floury' vs. 'waxy' types:
Floury potatoes (also called 'baking potatoes', 'mealy potatoes', or 'starchy potatoes') will fall apart after cooking. This means that they disintegrate if you try to use them for soups and stews, but they make a lump-free mashed potato or a "fluffy" baked potato. Russets are in this category.
Waxy potatoes (also called 'boiling potatoes') will soften but stay a little bit firm and mostly stay in one piece after cooking if you don't agitate them too much. This makes them better for stews or potato salad where you want distinct chunks of potatoes, but worse for really fluffy mashed potatoes. "Red" potatoes tend to fall into this category.
There are also in-between types, such as "Yukon Gold" (some people put "white" potatoes in this category) -- they'll mash up okay (maybe with a few lumps), and if you use them in stews, they'll have firm chunks but the outsides will start to break up if you stir too vigorously. This is actually a benefit in some recipes.
As the starches change over time, "new" potatoes tend to behave more like waxy/boiling potatoes even when they come from a baking-type potato.
Sugar:
Some potatoes are sweeter than other varieties, although this can also change during storage. (Cold storage will get many varieties of potatoes to change their starches into sugars ... but it may happen unevenly). Sweeter potatoes will brown more, which can cause problems if they brown too quickly or unevenly when subjected to high heat (frying, roasting), which means the potato is either undercooked while looking pretty, or too dark when it's fully cooked through.
If you're working with a recipe that calls for a specific variety of the potato, sugar levels can often be the reason. There's at least one recipe out there that relies on cold-induced sweetening to try to convert American potatoes to more closely match an Austrian variety.
When starting out, you might not worry so much about the facet, other than considerations about long-term cold storage.
Water/Moisture Content:
How wet a potato is affects how it cooks and how well it stores. It can also affect how much liquid it'll absorb when making mashed potatoes or similar, so a drier potato will allow you to add more flavorful liquid.
But I can never remember which varieties are dryer than others, so I rarely use this as a consideration. It's often more important to know that when a recipe calls for letting the potatoes to steam after cooking but before mixing in other ingredients, it might be about moisture release, not just cooling.
Shape/Size:
"New" potatoes and "fingerling" potatoes have a large surface area for their volume. This makes them a complete waste if you're going to be pealing them. They're better for skin-on, whole or mostly whole (halved / quartered) preparations.
If I'm going to be doing some sort of peeled and cut up preparation, then I want larger potatoes so I don't spend so much time peeling them (and waste so much volume compared to what's left).
Even if I'm leaving the skin on, I tend to favor slightly larger potatoes as I don't have to spend as much time scrubbing them. I'd rather quarter larger potatoes for roasting instead of dealing with the tiny potatoes.
If I'm baking potatoes, then I'll try to select ones that are uniformly sized, and a reasonable portion for what I'm preparing. (larger if it's the main thing, like chili over a baked potato ... but smaller if it's intended as a side). If I'm selecting loose potatoes, I might try to get some variety of size (so that people have a choice), but I try to stick with ones that are roughly the same circumference but different lengths so they cook up in roughly the same time.
Skins:
For applications where you're not peeling the potatoes, especially when they're an important part of the dish such as potato skins or twice-baked potatoes, you may want to consider the texture of the skins. "New" and "Red" potatoes tend to have thinner skins, while Russet potatoes tend to have a thicker, rougher skin.
Color:
As the colors come from chemicals produced by the plant, there can be distinctive flavors associated with them, but they also provide variety on a plate. (although beware of mixing your own, as they'll cook up differently. Stick to small "new" potatoes.
Also note that skin color is independent of the flesh color. Most "Red" potatoes in the US such as "Red Bliss" are stark white on the inside ... but there are some varieties that have red flesh.
Flavor:
Flavor is a bit of a weird thing, as everyone processes flavors a little bit differently. I like the various yellow potatoes, as I find them to be more "buttery", but I've never done a blind taste test so I have no idea if it's the yellow color that's tricking me.
If you're serving the potatoes with a fairly plain preparation, then the potato flavors are going to come through better... but if you're covering it with vinegary pulled pork or sour cream and chives, then it's probably not worth paying extra for an exceptionally flavored potato.
Packaging/Processing:
You can get pre-washed, microwave-in-the-bag potatoes if you're willing to pay more. For smaller potatoes, they may not be vastly overpriced compared to loose potatoes of a similar size (and smaller potatoes are a PITA, so they can sometimes be worth it)
Bagged potatoes are a cost-savings, but they're also a bit of a gamble -- are the potatoes all the right size/shape for what I'm cooking? Is there going to be an off/weird/sprouting potato hiding in the bottom of the bag? Am I buying the right amount for what I need? (ie. I going to eat 5lbs of potatoes before I have to worry about sprouting?) Are the potatoes fairly smooth, or will they have lots of wrinkles or shovel damage that I have to scrub at?
In general, potatoes in grocery stores tend to be cleaner than in the past, but not all processors have the same equipment to wash & dry their potatoes before sale, so some are just ... dirtier. Usually, there won't be as much variation within a store, but you might see it from store-to-store. (or store-to-farmstand) |
Dried garbanzo beans not expanding when soaked
I recently tried soaking dried garbanzo beans for the first time. The 'quick soak' method which involved boiling them for 5 minutes and then letting them sit an hour didn't seen to change their overall size as much as I expected, and neither did leaving them to sit in water for another 12 hours. Does this mean they are bad to eat? | The soak doesn't swell them to 'cooked' level; the cooking does that.
It is true that very old beans will never be tender, but you have no good way to find that out before you spend the next two hours simmering them. [Change the water first & don't salt them until the last half hour].
This covers most of the basics, over several methods - How to Cook Dried Chickpeas (Ultimate Guide) |
Can you bake or grill well done lamb chops that are also soft?
I bought some grilled lamb chops from the shop and they were soft, juicy and medium rare.
I reheated them and quite quickly the outside browned and went crusty and the inside got cooked. The result was tougher meat with a not soft surface.
Is it possible to have soft, tender lam chops by grilling or baking while having it well done too? | No, you absolutely cannot. "Well done" is primarily a description of texture, and that texture is not soft and juicy. When you bake meat (or any other protein), it goes through many different stages, depending on the temperature, and you stop when you have reached the desired texture. If you stop at the texture of "well done", you can never return back to the soft texture of "medium rare". |
Why does salt and seasoning stick better to hot foods?
In every recipe I see for fries, popcorn, churros, and other foods where I normally want to add the salt/sugar/seasoning at the end, everybody says to make sure to do it while the food is still hot so the seasoning sticks. Why is this? Is this just something people say, or does it really matter a lot? | It's really not about temperature at all.
"While it's still hot" is a great description of when to do it, but it's not why.
You want to salt fried food when it's straight from the oil, because the surface is still wet with oil. This ensures that the salt sticks to the surface of the food. As the food sits, the surface will dry (it cools off at the same time-- which is where the "while it's hot" advice comes from).
Even with non-fried foods, heat often comes with surface moisture, either from the cooking process or from the steam being released by the hot food.
Salt sticks to "wet" surfaces. Freshly cooked, still-hot food usually has a "wet" surface (either from water, steam, or oil). |
Is it safe to wash meat packaging before throwing it away?
Is it recommended to wash plastic packaging for raw meat before disposing of it? I see advice to just rinse it with soap in the sink to prevent the bin from smelling.
However, I also see it is usually not recommended to wash raw meat as there is a risk of cross contamination - wouldn't the same risk be here as well?
Clarification: I mean before throwing it into bin for landfill | Rinsing or washing the container is no worse than rinsing or washing a plate on which you have let your meat rest. But do it when you take your meat out, not a couple of hours later, to avoid spoilage starting.
If you send yours to landfill, cleaning it is for your comfort.
Where and when I grew up we would never bother, but we did accept that bins smell of spoiled food. If you want to keep your bin from smelling you may want to clean it. |
What are the consequences of dishwashering a cast iron skillet?
I know that with cast iron skillets, one isn't supposed to put them in a dishwasher to allow bits of what was cooked (called seasoning) to build up, since some people think that that produces better tasting food (maybe it does, I'm not taking a stance on this), but what would happen if one dishwashered it? Can it then be used like a stainless steel skillet (meaning spray some olive oil cooking spray to prevent sticking at each use) that isn't so sensitive to overheating and can be put in the oven, or does it cause some sort of problem, like a release of toxins or rust? | A cast iron skillet which is regularly washed in the dishwasher will be progressively stripped down to bare metal, which will quickly and consistently rust. It will not be usable for cooking until you clean it of the rust and re-season it.
Incidentally, I think you might be confused by the term "seasoning". Seasoning consists of polymerized oil, not "bits of food", and its purpose is to protect the skillet and reduce sticking, not to produce better tasting food. If you don't want to use a seasoned pan, for whatever reason, you should not use cast iron. |
Chinese dumplings vegetarian style - mushrooms raw or cooked?
I recently started making Chinese steamed dumplings (Jiaozi) with cabbage and beef mince. In this version I simply mix together all the ingredients for the filling (cabbage, onion, beef) when they're raw, fold the dumplings and steam them for a few minutes.
I've now seen recipes for vegetarian variants, e.g. with mushrooms, tofu and some other vegetables, plus the cabbage. For the mushrooms in particular some recipes suggest frying them in the pan before mixing them together with the rest of the filling. Is this always necessary and if not what are the pros and cons of cooked vs raw mushroom? Is it to drain some liquid first? | Is this always necessary and if not what are the pros and cons of cooked vs raw mushroom?
If you don't fry the mushrooms first, they will turn out rather watery and bland. So yes, you could say it's to drain some water first, though I don't really drain the water; I let the water evaporate. |
Books for very high level vegan cooking?
I'm looking for a book, or some books on cooking vegan on a very high level. There are several nonvegan michelin star level books, and many "quick and lazy" books, but I'm having a hard time to find one that covers vegan dishes on star niveau.
Can someone recommend a book like this?
If there are books that contain a lot of vegetarian receipts that can be "veganized" without destroying the whole meal, that would be fine aswell :) | I'd recommend Crossroads, by vegan chef Tal Ronnen. While not quite The French Laundry Cookbook, Crossroads is nevertheless on the very gourmet side of vegan. And I can attest that the recipes are pretty good. |
Ground Turkey "with natural flavoring"
I notice that Foster Farms brand ground turkey (in Calif, USA) is actually labeled "Ground Turkey with natural flavoring". I am curious what sort of "natural flavoring" Foster Farms has added to the turkey meat. The ingredients list is no help as it just lists the two ingredients: ground turkey and natural flavoring.
This product is not sausage. It seems to be just ordinary ground up turkey meat with no visible herbal particles or spicy looking speckles, etc. Does anybody have any idea what natural flavoring this might be, and why it would be added to ground turkey?
Would salt be considered a natural flavoring? OR do you think they might add MSG? | Ground turkey has rosemary added as a preservative.
Effect of Commercial Rosemary Oleoresin Preparations on Ground Chicken Thigh Meat Quality Packaged in a High-Oxygen Atmosphere
I have wondered the same thing. It seems ground turkey invariably has rosemary. I thought maybe turkey had some funk that was countered by rosemary. But I could never taste the rosemary. It turns out it acts as a food preservative. I imagine that having "rosemary" on the label is more palatable to consumers than some chemical preservative name. |
Does boiling water deactivate malt enzymes?
Will mixing boiling water with malt flour deactivate the malt enzymes?
I’m trying to adapt a recipe for mämmi that involves mixing mixing a combination of malt+regular flour with boiling water in a 1:2 ratio (by weight) and need to understand whether the point is to stop the enzymes or to encourage their action.
Overall it is add 3 parts boiling water to 1 part malt, then 2 parts regular flour, off the heat. Mix and let sit. | Yes, heating to boiling temperature will destroy amylase.
Depending on the ratio, the goal of that recipe may be to destroy the enzymes, to gel the starch, or to help the enzymes be most effective. It’s not uncommon for particularly old and traditional recipes to use a combination of boiling water, ice-cold water, and room-temperature ingredients to reach a particular temperature, as the ratio of inputs will determine the final temperature pretty accurately without a need for a thermometer. If the water to malt/grain ratio is about 1:1 by mass, that would put the enzymes at their optimum temperature for converting starch to sugar. If it’s a lot more water than malt/grain (again, by mass) then the purpose is more likely to deactivate the enzymes and/or gel the starch. |
Should leftover meat be stored in cooking juices?
I put some pork shoulder in the slow cooker along with water, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, and spices. I then cooked it until it was falling apart. There's enough to last about a week.
Should the leftover meat be stored in the juices, or will the acids break it down too much? Would it be better to store the liquid in a separate container, and just spoon some over the meat before reheating? | If not consuming right away, it is often recommended to allow meat that was braised to cool, and be refrigerated in its juices. For this reason, many recipes suggest making a braise a day ahead for better flavor. I don't think your concern is break down of the protein, as much as it is shelf life. If you are not going to fully consume the product within 3 - 4 days, freeze a portion of it. |
Is there such a thing as a dish being bland from too many flavors?
My girlfriend has asked for my opinion on a few dishes that she has been experimenting with, and not being particularly well-versed in the language used to discuss food, I have been having trouble expressing my opinion on two specific dishes (namely, a stew using ground beef and a Thai curry with chicken).
I have eaten several different versions of both dishes over several months, so I have developed a pretty good sense of which versions of them I like the best. We have also tried similar dishes from local restaurants in order to have a common reference point. Generally, I think that the dishes taste fine, but sometimes I feel that they become "bland" (for lack of a better word) from too many spices.
What I mean is that sometimes when she prepares them she will use only a few specific spices or none at all and more fresh ingredients. To me, these versions taste the best. They have strong, distinct flavors, and I think that they taste more like the restaurant dishes that we've compared them to. However, she usually finds these versions under-seasoned, so she also experiments with adding lots of different spices. When she does this, she still isn't happy with the result but she says that the dishes taste more "complete" or more "harmonious" or just generally better. On the other hand, I think that these versions taste same-y or bland, which she doesn't understand since there are objectively more flavors in the dish. I have tried to describe it like the flavor equivalent of that color of brown you get when you mix all the paints together or if an orchestra just played all the instruments at once without regard to the timing.
To me, these versions sort of feel like filling in all the nooks and crannies of the flavor landscape to make the experience boring and flat. She says that I just don't understand flavor and that that's not a thing that happens. She says that adding more flavors complement and round-out the taste.
I am nowhere near as knowledgeable about food words as my girlfriend, and she also has a much more sensitive and discerning palate than I do. So it may be possible that I am just a bad food critic, but I would really like to understand my experience better and hopefully communicate it better to my girlfriend. My question is this: Is there such a thing as "the flavor equivalent of the color brown" in the sense that too many different flavors can make food sort of taste bland? If so, is there a technical way to describe that sensation? | I think the description you're looking for is what is often described as "muddy flavors" or "fighting flavors" or "muddled flavors" (though the latter is also a term used for a specific technique, so searching the internet will give lots of results for that).
This doesn't mean that it tastes like a mix of dirt & water--but rather that the flavors are no longer distinct, and possibly fighting with each other.
When you create recipes, the goal is to get all the individual pieces to come together to "sing" like a harmonious chorus. Each element comes together to do it's individual small role so that when it comes together it create a beautiful song. If you use too many strong flavors, they fight with each other--like trying to build a choral group out of egotistical soloists who all want to shine as the center of attention.
That "group of egotistical soloists," in food, creates "fighting" or "muddy" flavors. |
Is yoghurt mixed with milk safe?
I have always been told that you shouldn't drink milk and eat yoghurt together. So today in the kitchen channel when they made a smoothie with milk and yoghurt I was shocked. Since I couldn't find information online, I ask here: is it safe to drink milk and yoghurt together? | Yes, that’s perfectly safe.
If your yogurt has live yogurt bacteria (so not pasteurized after fermentation), some of that bacteria would turn the fresh milk into yogurt if given enough time - but we are talking about hours in a rather warm environment, not in a smoothie that is mixed and then consumed rather quickly or stored in the fridge.
The milk is just to thin the smoothie without watering it down or the yogurt to add a bit of acidity without curdling the milk. |
Is ginger soluble In water, fat or both?
Is ginger soluble/can it creates strong flavours in water, fat or both together? | No, by strict interpretation of your question, ginger itself is a plant. Plants are typically insoluble as they are composed of chemicals that are fat and water insoluble to a greater or lesser extent.
However, the major spice component in ginger is [6]-gingerol, this is a volatile ketone that is soluble in a range of organic solvents (oils/fats seem likely), but only very barely soluble in water. There are a range of other flavour/scent compounds found in ginger, some of which will be water soluble, some will be organic solvent soluble, that play a role in the taste of ginger, but these are too abundant to go into.
Note that water or fat solubility has only a partial influence on your ability to taste the ginger. You can make tea from ginger and taste and feel very strongly the gingerol, but this is because the gingerol is forming a fine layer of oil on the surface of the water and you can taste minute amounts of it. In addition, it scores 60,000 on the Scoville scale - similar in range to a cayenne pepper and much hotter than a jalapeno, so in a tea with nothing to cushion the effect, the heat is very obvious. |
Why is vinegar not applied to rice used for onigiri like rice for sushi?
So sushi and onigiri (rice balls) are similar to a naive eye to me wherein there's some shaped rice.
Sushi usually gets some vinegar for taste and to help it stick to my understanding.
Yet onigiri doesn't? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onigiri At most the rice gets plainly salted?
I was wondering if there are particular reasons whether for construction, taste etc for the difference in handling. Both can be eaten hand held so my possible theory of sticky vinegar undesired for onigiri doesn't make sense.
Is it a cultural or traditional reason? | Not a Japanese chef, but I do homemade nori rolls and onigiri:
The purpose of the vinegar in sushi rice is to flavor it, not to make it more sticky. If anything, the vinegar makes it less sticky due to adding a little acidity and moisture. Sushi rice is supposed to be delicate and "crumble" when you bite into it. In contrast, onigiri rice should be tough and springy, almost like a dough, so you want to maximize stickiness.
For this reason, while sushi rice is specifically cooled to room temperature before being formed, onigiri rice is not; it's best to make the balls with the rice still warm from the cooker. Mixing the vinegar into the rice would cool it, and make it harder to form firm balls that hold up to being stuffed into a lunch sack. |
Is cured meat broth edible?
We bought a chunk of raw beef in brine in the store. I was marked "fully cured,... boiling will develop pink color". After adding some water and slow cooking it overnight it turned into delicious corned beef with beautiful color and texture.
I tried the broth, it tastes very salty but also delicious. Wanted to keep it for a beef soup but not sure if the chemicals used to cure the beef may have deposited in the broth in unsafe concentration. Anyone has an experience and/or knowledge of that? Is the broth edible? | All the ingredients used in curing are safe to eat, otherwise they would not be able to be used in a commercial sense. Typically cured meats of the sort that you describe are called something like "corned beef". These are produced using a curing salt that is composed of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite along with regular table salt (sodium chloride). The sodium nitrate is the component responsible for the pink colour as it converts myoglobin in the muscle into the pink nitrosomyoglobin.
Corned meats can be cooked and eaten without boiling them, often by roasting. As roasting without boiling would result in you consuming all the salts in the meat without those lost in the boiling process, you can, by inference, assume that the broth is also safe to consume as it contains only a portion of the salts from the meat.
In addition, bacon and ham make excellent and delicious stocks, and these are often cured in a similar manner to corned beef, so your stock should be safe to eat. |
Does freezing raw milk kills harmful bacteria present in the milk?
I have been drinking shakes made from frozen raw milk; just wondering that could it lead to any illness.
Does freezing raw milk kills harmful bacteria present in the milk? | No, freezing in a normal home freezer does not kill bacteria. They typically just enter a dormant state and reactivate as soon as you thaw the milk. Freezing a safe food extends the storage life, but does not make an otherwise unsafe food safe. |
Why doesn't a microwave heat the air around food, in addition to the food itself?
I'm reading Harold McGee's "On Food And Cooking", and in the "Microwave Cooking" section he writes:
Since the air in the oven is not heated, microwave ovens can’t brown meat surfaces unless they’re assisted by special packaging or a broiling element. (An exception to this rule is cured meats like bacon, which get so dry when cooked that they can brown.)
My question is: if the radio waves generated by a microwave are passing through air in order to reach the food that is cooked, and since air is made of molecules just like food is, why don't the radio waves affect the air molecules the way they do the food molecules? | With all electromagnetic radiation, including visible light and microwaves, absorption depends on the molecules doing the absorption. Air is mainly oxygen and nitrogen, and these don't absorb very well at the 2.4GHz frequency used in microwaves, while foods do. A lot of this is down to the very efficient absorption by water, and almost all foodstuffs contain a fair amount of water.
Note that the air does warm up with heat from the food. For short cooking times this isn't a big effect, but for things that cook longer it's significant |
How do I store untempered chocolate?
My chocolate tempering was a flop! I am left with half-tempered Easter chocolates for my daughter.
Since this is my first time and she doesn't really care, and another question said it's OK to leave these as-is for home consumption, I'm going to just give them to her like this and try again another time once I buy a thermometer.
I know they are more likely to melt in this state, so how do I store them so that they remain solid? I am concerned about putting them in the fridge due to picking up moisture. | They are not that much meltable. Also, there is some chance they will become actually more pleasant, since the unstable crystals tend to turn into the next higher type over time.
So, I would just keep them at room temperature and not worry much. If milk chocolate (or worse, bad quality milk chocolate) doesn't spontaneously bloom in your place, your untempered chocolate shouldn't melt either. And it does melt slightly and then re-sets, it won't be that much worse for eating than plain untempered chocolate, maybe it will just have some added fat bloom. I have eaten many advent calendars in that state.
The fridge is also best avoided for great quality chocolates into which you invested lots of money or effort, but if they are already in the "I'll eat it so I don't have to throw it away" state, it doesn't matter that much. You can therefore use the fridge, if you prefer it over the room storage. They won't actively soak up any kind of moisture while they are cooled. What will likely happen is that you will see some condensation when you get them out for consumption and they warm up again. They are perfectly edible in that state too.
Bottom line, people tend to pay great care to perfectly-tasting chocolate, but once it is less than perfect, it is unlikely that you can make it significantly worse by storing it in the wrong place. |
What is a refrigerator tray in older recipes?
Many older cookbooks call for filling a “refrigerator tray”. For example, in the 1960 Better Homes and Gardens Dessert Cook Book the recipe for “Banana Ice Cream” says to “Pour into refrigerator trays. Freeze till firm.” and in Anne London’s 1972 American-International Encyclopedic Cookbook, the recipe for “Refrigerator Tray Pie” says to “Pack half the crumb mixture into a refrigerator tray. Chill… Return to refrigerator to freeze.”
Doing a search for “refrigerator tray” on archive.org, I found the pamphlet for Use and Care of Your New Norge Refrigerator which mentions many uses for refrigerator trays, all involving freezing in some way. From the various recipes for ice cream and other frozen desserts on pages 31-32,
Pour into refrigerator trays and freeze.
Freeze in refrigerator tray.
…freeze in refrigerator tray until firm.
From this, I can deduce that a refrigerator tray is something that you can pour liquids into and then put into the freezer, but that’s about it.
Those pages also mention trays without the qualifier “refrigerator”:
Pour into tray of chilling unit and freeze to mush.
Pour into tray and chill to soft jelly… Return to tray and freeze to desired firmness.
Turn into freezer tray and freeze 45 minutes to 1 hour.
The list of definitions on page 9 does not include a definition for refrigerator trays, although it does include one for ice trays, and specifically mentions using them for making ice cream:
Ice Trays:
Fill the trays with water to within 1/4 in. of the top. Place trays in their section on top of main freezer compartment. When making Ice Cream, use the aluminium tray by removing plastic cups or dividers.
I would guess that the ice trays mentioned are the metal trays for making ice cubes, which used to come with a removable (always metal, in my limited experience) divider that doubled as a loosening device for the ice cubes. They seem awfully small for use as a dessert pan, but then the Better Homes and Garden recipe did use the plural for its mention of refrigerator trays. | I ran a quick search on ebay Images. Looks like a refrigerator tray is a shallow glass or enameled dish. I saw a few plastic ones, also from the 60s-70s. |
Microwave Oven Operating Frequencies
I have read that industrial microwave ovens operate at 900 MHz rather than the more common 2.4 GHz ovens found in most homes.
Why is this?
Some examples of this claim:
Continuous Microwave Processing for Heating Materials
Comparing Microwave to Conventional Heating & Drying
The latter link claims "[The 900 MHz] range allows more efficient penetration of the microwave through the material." Though I don't know why that would be. | "Oven" is probably the wrong word to use. Industrial microwave heating systems are used in many manufacturing processes that may not have anything to do with food preparation. Industrial heating systems may be much larger than a residential oven, or may not resemble
a residential oven at all. They may be part of a continuous manufacturing process (think of an assembly line).
The longer wavelength (lower frequency) may provide more even heating in larger spaces than shorter wavelengths (fewer "hot spots"). |
I'm having trouble making grilled cheese, what am I doing wrong?
When I cook grilled cheese, I put a tablespoon of butter on the pan, and the pan is hot enough that it quickly melts and sizzles.
However, when I put the bread on, it just soaks in the liquid butter on the pan and the bread doesn't make any sizzling noises. I also use mozzarella cheese as my cheese for grilled cheese. Why won't my bread cook? | Preheat your pan on low to low-medium. Build your sandwich. Butter the bread or the pan. It doesn't matter. Place the sandwich in the pan. Keep the heat low, to low-medium. Wait. Check the underside, looking for a golden brown. You want the heat low, because you want the cheese to begin melting without burning the bread. Be patient. When you see evidence of the cheese softening and a golden toasting, flip your sandwich. Again, be patient. You may have to adjust heat until you find the sweet spot for your stove, but keep it low, and complete the task by looking for melted cheese and golden toast. |
What equation should I use for microwaving food?
Prepackaged microwave food typically says to microwave on high for n seconds. It usually says that the instructions are meant for an 1100 watt microwave (give or take).
My microwave is only 950 watts.
What is the equation for me to get the new time? Is it time x (1100 / 950)? | Simple answer
The same equation, because the power or wattage between both your microwave and the reference/recipe microwave are close enough that your formula would be a decent estimate of time with some "tolerable" error (and will work for any case this happens).
Technically speaking this means you just estimated cooking time by thinking it would behave linearly when the power between microwaves isn't that different, which is a decent estimate with some error (but also not really true and mistaken for whenever this doesn't happen).
Elaborate answer
For your specific case (owning a 950W microwave and having 1100W instructions) even though mathematically speaking an 86% difference (950/1100*100) in wattage seems like much, when you take into any consideration the available data like this one (source)
Notice that you can literally validate your formula by checking the data. So if for example you have a 1000W and you have a recipe with 3.10 minutes of cooking time tested with 1200W microwave, your formula estimates the cooking time to be 3.10*1.2=3.72 minutes, but the actual time in the table implies you're off because the real time is 4.03 minutes. So like I said before, decent estimate with tolerable error.
However, in reality cooking time in a microwave behaves non-linearly and thus, whenever the difference of wattage gets larger your formula doesn't work.
To give a formula for that case is harder when you realize the amount of variables to take into account, so this is why tables like the one above exist to give you some perspective of the cooking times. One would think that the table above solves the whole problem, but realize that those are cooking times for a specific food (baked potato); so if you have a food with no data I'd say experimentation is advisable at your own risk :D.
PS: I'm a mathematical engineer who likes cooking and just wanted to provide another perspective on the matter. Hope it helps! |
What is this cast iron skillet with diagonal ribs intended for?
I'm not actually sure if "skillet" is the right word for this, but it seems close. We got this second hand, so not sure of its origin.
The particular feature that I'm not sure of is the set of diagonal raised 'ribs'. Seems like they would keep the food items from the bottom surface. Is this something like what you would use a wire rack for when baking?
It is 10 x 10 in. (25 x 25 cm) and 1 1/2" deep.
Is this skillet intended for something specific? We're located in the USA if that makes any difference. | Those are commonly called grill pans.
Image Source
With a grill pan you can get an appreciable experience of outdoor grilling indoors, and staying indoors has gotten more and more necessary nowadays due to the pandemic...
The ridges allow juices to flow off the meat so the meat doesn't just sit and boil in them (like what a grill does). |
Why are most circular pizza peels designed with holes in metal
I am looking to buy a pizza peel. In the UK, I'm noticing a difference in styles, and was curious if there was a reason more than design
There is the "paddle" design, which is more rectangular and a solid piece of metal
Almost all of the longer handled circular (rounded) peels seem to have holes in the metal as per below.
This design seems counter intuitive to me - the dough could easily sink into the hole making it more difficult to slide the pizza off. Not only that, but by having holes, there is less area to be floured before putting the pizza on top of the peel
Given both of the designs are (as far as I know) designed for the same purpose (to transfer the pizza), is there a reason why circular peels with longer handles seem to all have cut outs like the picture above? If any one has used them, does it hinder transfer (or at least, sliding the pizza off) | The Chef Pomodoro round peel you picture is described by the manufacturer as a ‘turning peel’.
A turning peel is a must-have to easily rotate the pizza multiple times with precision.
Taking that cue I checked a few more on Amazon and they were mostly described that way.
A Turning Peel is specifically for rotating the pizza while it is cooking. I imagine that the radial slots allow increased friction making it easier to turn the pizza. I don’t think you could use it to put a thin, fresh, homemade pizza into an oven.
One reviewer of the Chef Pomodoro peel says:
The turning peel worked great and freed up my regular peel so we could keep making pizzas inside while I was cooking them outside.
which indicates a separate function from a peel you would build a pizza on. |
Is pink salmon the same as Alaskan?
I'm new to salmon. I've been trying new dishes but I read online that Alaskan salmon is not the greatest. But is pink salmon the same as Alaskan salmon?
I've been using chicken of the sea pink salmon wild caught, for quick dishes like sandwiches or salad etc..
Just wanted to make sure I'm eating the right kind. Any suggestions for canned/pouched salmon are welcome. | I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I know quite a bit about salmon. You have to, or they exile you.
First, I have no idea why you'd think that Alaskan salmon is bad. Given their extensive river networks and vast areas of untouched wilderness, Alaskans catch some of the best salmon in the world. The salmon that is categorically inferior is farmed salmon, or salmon that's raised in a pen. Now, farmed salmon tends to have a lighter, "pink" color to it compared with wild-caught, so I can see how you might get confused between that and Pink Salmon.
Pink Salmon is a specific species of salmon. It's not considered as desireable as Coho, Chinook, King, or Sockeye, mostly because the shorter lifespan of the Pink Salmon means that it has a less well-developed flavor. However, its short lifespan also means that it bounces back quickly from fishing, and as a result is the most sustainable and ecologically responsible salmon to eat. They catch a lot of Pink Salmon in Alaska, but it's also available from Canada, Washington, Oregon, and Russia.
And ... since you're using commercially canned salmon, you're really not going to taste a lot of difference between salmon varieties anyway.
If you want to try a little better quality canned salmon, I'd suggest any of these brands: Wild Planet, Crown Prince Natural, or North Pacific Seafood (although, to be fair, Chicken of the Sea isn't bad). You can also splurge and order from a tiny specialty place like Totem SmokeHouse. You can also try Canned Red Salmon, which is generally Sockeye, and has a different flavor. |
Are these both ways okay to lower the flame in these types of gas stoves?
Before asking this question, I really tried to find an answer online, but I failed. Basically, we mostly have manual igniting gas stoves. If you press and turn the button on left (90 degree) and use a lighter/matchbox, it gets turned on. To lower the flame, you just turn it further a bit on left.
But my mom has always warned me to not to turn it so left that it becomes 180 degrees. I wonder what happens after that. Further, my mon never told me what happens when you keep the button between 0 degree and 90 degrees. I feel it should also lower the flame just like when the button is between 90 degree and 180 degree (i.e., turned to very left). Because I don't see any point in the design of a button that goes from 0 degree to straight 90 degree and between them you are not supposed to get anything. And you're not supposed to do this to lower the flame. I feel there can be a reason for it but I don't know if that's right or wrong.
I'm not sure of any these things and I can't even experiment as it's dangerous stuff.
I really felt frustrated when I googled this and I saw results like:
Fix your low/high frame
Your burners are malfunctioning. How to fix at home
Your gas stove buttons fix*
But I don't have any problem with my gas stove. I got really tired of all these. Neither I could find a video on YouTube.
I can't show you exact model of my gas stove as it is made by some not so known brands, but looks like most gas stoves in my neighborhood are like these. Otherwise my neighborhood people won't be able to know how to use our gas stoves (unless you know how to operate multiple types of stoves). Similarly, my mon also knows how to operate theirs. All are same and manual.
Even when I visited New Delhi, which is a big city than my hometown, I found same settings, but I didn't ask them how to operate, because everyone knew same things which I knew. So I felt they will also don't know what happens between the 0 degree and 90 degree.
Online example of similar product is here.
Here is a user guide, which exactly explains how to operate, except the problems and doubts I have:
Now, I don't know if you're familiar with these or not and there may be differences between western and Indian stoves, so that's why I've tried to provide enough details and images and links. Hope you'll understand my doubts.
So, are the following ways correct to adjust the flame?
(a) When button is between 0° and 90°
(b) When button is between 90° and 180°
(c) When button is horizontally full turned left (180°)
If yes, is it safe to keep the button between 0 degree and 90 degree (just the way you use to lower the flame by keeping the button between 90 degree and 180 degree)?
If no, what would be the reason for it? (Asking this because I really can't believe this fact. I feel it would be a bad design. A new user is very likely to keep the button between 0 degree and 90 degree because there's generally no warning/alarm for it unless someone tells you not to do it) | I don't know exactly which type of valve they are using, but they all pretty much work the same.
You seem to be imagining the gas flow curve to look like this:
The difference between the two sides is that the 0° to 90° transition is designed to move from 0% gas flow to 100% gas flow very quickly and the 90° to 180° transition is designed to perform a slow, controlled transition from 100% to the minimum flow to maintain a flame (exact amount depends on the burner design).
I've seen them designed several ways, but this is a simplified visual representation of a valve:
Lighting the flame at 100% is necessary because it maximizes the area with the correct air/fuel mix to more easily initiate the flame. Once lit the flame will maintain a horizon where the air/fuel mix is correct automatically as you change the fuel pressure.
From the 90° position, turning the dial clockwise will cause the flame to abruptly turn off at some point, then the remaining rotation is used to tighten the valve so no gas leaks from the valve.
So yes, the gas flow will reduce the size of the flame as you close the valve, but it's very difficult to control the flame level on that side. The actual curve of gas flow looks more like this: |
Can pumpkin pie be made apple pie way?
If I put thinly sliced raw pumpkin between two pie crusts, will the filling be cooked enough by the time the crust is golden? | Not only is this possible, I have done it. One of my favorites, in fact. But the most palatable version I've made varies a little bit from apple pie - rather than just tossing cinnamon sugar with the filling all willie nillie, I slice the squash very thin, line it against the edge of the crust, and keep working to the center. Think of it as like a tarte tatine - all lined up in a row (only this is not upside down like a tarte tatine).
Also, instead of just relying on caramelization on its own, I make a raw egg custard (just 4-5 egg yolks, a volume of sugar roughly equal to the quantity of the eggs, and some cream whipped together), add my nutmeg and cinnamon and other warm spices, and pour the raw custard all over the sliced sweet potatoes. I like to garnish with some additional nutmeg. Sometimes I like to add a splash of rum to the custard. It is so delicious, especially with a gingersnap based crust.
It's also possible (and encouraged) to brulee the top when the custard is done, and line the edge with some candied pecans. |
Is ginger drying out the same process as when making ground ginger?
If you Leave fresh ginger out it ‘goes bad’(looses its zingy flavour and becomes tough and chewy).
Some recipes call for dried ginger which I believe is achieved by heating in an oven or just leaving it out in the sun.
Is the process to get dried ginger doing the same thing as when ginger ‘goes bad’ from leaving it out so you don’t have to heat it or put it in the sun you could just leave it out?
Put another way is what I have described as ‘bad ginger’ usable to make dried ginger or is this not suitable?
Thanks | Drying any food is a race, if you do it too slowly it spoils or grows things. In hot and dry climates you can leave it out in the sun, in your kitchen it will just rot. You would need to use an oven or a dehydrator, otherwise it's just bad ginger. |
Electric cooktop for sous vide-level precision?
Yes, I know, but bear with me here.
I've been thinking about getting an electric cooktop, and reading about them online a lot of people seem to mention that on some of the low settings, their cooktop will keep water at a constant boiling/simmering temperatures, like, say, 90 C (194 F)
In order for that to happen, it must mean that the heating element itself is only heating up to that temperature, high? And thus of course the temperature cannot get higher than the hot plate itself.
By that logic, if an electric cooktop happened to have a setting that would leave it at around 74 C (165 F), does that mean I could use it to cook some chicken breast precisely to its safe internal temperature?
Would be like a sous vide - no risk of over- or undercooking it! Right? Or am I missing something?
EDIT: For further clarification, when I say electric, I mean traditional ones with a solid plate burner. Sorry!
EDIT 2: Okay, so not sous vide-level precision. I've learned a lot from your wonderful answers, and my new plan is to lower my standards and attempt the following:
Putting a pot of water with a lid on the electric coil cooker (so it's an enclosed space filled with a great thermal conductor)
Cycle the device on and off figure out a rate for, erhm... manual time modulation that would keep the coil at X+Y Celsius (where X is the temp I want and Y is however many more degrees it needs to be to compensate for heat loss, which I would need to figure out for that setup as well)
Turn it on and off again at regular intervals according to the rate I found (yeah impractical but I could get a smart outlet to do it for me if it works!)
Maybe I could get a large pot (more thermal mass, less temp variation) and exclusively use it for this (more consistent setup, less temp variation), and figure out a reliable duty cycle that keeps it at a given temperature for three different quantities of water (such as a third, two thirds, and nearly full capacity).
Hopefully I can end up with water consistently at maybe +-4 C of a target temperature, and finally achieve hands-off, dummy-proof cooking! (useful since I can be a bit of a dummy sometimes). If you're wondering why I don't get a circulator, I've made a comment down below to clarify. | Absolutely not, this cannot be built. There is a reason sous vide is called sous vide and not sous PID. Cooktops are, by design, a device that emits a constant amount of energy (oversimplified) into the surrounding space, which is the opposite of what you need for keeping a constant internal temperature in a chicken breast.
If you would build a cooktop with a heat element that would stay constantly at 74 C, then put a pot of water on it, the pot would constantly sit at (74 - X) C due to thermal loss. X will vary for each combination of pot and water volume you use. And the water is a special case which you can keep at a constant temperature that way, not a chicken breast. So even if somebody were to put in the expense and effort to build such a heater (and nobody does, both resistive and induction heaters are time modulated), you still wouldn't get what you want.
If you do want your food to stay at a constant temperature, you first have to put it in an enclosed space, then heat the fluid in that space to a constant temperature. The traditional way to do it is with an oven. Keeping an oven at constant 74 C is possible, but if you put a naked chicken breast in it, it would take too many hours to get to be 74 C internally. So the next logical step is to surround it not with a great insulator like air, but a great thermal conductor like water - and then you have built the simplest device suitable for the task, which is a sous vide.
For completeness, there are cooktops with a probe that goes into the food, although they are niche and expensive, or you could rig one yourself. They would work for the pot of water, but for frying a chicken breast, the element will be working just like an old-fashioned heat element and heat to much over 74 C, until the breast itself reaches 74 C, at which time the cook would remove the breast instead of letting it sit there, so the controller would never even get a chance to start working and the situation is equivalent to sticking an external probe in the breast.
Update in response to your Edit 2:
If all you want is to keep a pot of soup/stew in a not-too-precise temperature range, all you need is to take a standard cooktop and put the dial at the proper setting, "proper" being something you learn by trial-and-error for your combination of stovetop, pot and batch size, fine adjusted by observation during cooking. You may have to readjust a bit over time, but only rarely. This is not some new method though, this is the way everybody cooks on stovetop. I don't see why you would complicate things by trying to overcompensate (and introduce new errors) by manually turning on and off on a preset schedule. That would mean both more work and worse results than the normal way of cooking. |
Is it normal for parts of fresh ginger to be chewy?
I have been trying to select fresh ginger by buying hands which are not wrinkled, light brown, hand peel-able, etc.
What I have found is that on some days eating raw ginger complete melts in my mouth and an other days bits of it remain chewy. Some parts also feel like strings.
I'm wondering if on those days bits of the ginger feel more chewy did I buy a less fresh piece or is it normal for parts of the ginger to be chewy so long as it's not the whole piece and therefore parts which feel like strings or chewy are still fresh so long as most of that piece was chewable? | Ginger is generally quite a fibrous/stringy root already, but will tend to become harder with time as it dries out or becomes less fresh.
However, the age of the ginger (i.e. when it was harvested) probably plays a bigger role in how fibrous it is; the older it is the more fibrous it becomes. Younger ginger is also sweeter and less spicy than older ginger as some sugars are converted to starches, and the colour of the ginger's juice also tends to become paler with older ginger.
Variance in stringiness in one piece of ginger might just be down to thinner parts drying out faster than thicker parts, but whether it's "fresh" is too subjective to answer - if you find it too stringy you could use it for something other than eating directly. |
On preserving dried ginger
Based on my reading, preserving dried ginger is the same as preserving fresh ginger I.e airtight and in the fridge.
Is there anything more that can be done to preserve the dried version. After dehydrating it, will not grounding it immediately and instead grounding it at the point of use make a significant difference? | Dried ginger can be kept at room temperature, in any cool dark place (like your pantry), for months to years:
Dried, ground, or crystallized ginger should be stored in a cool dark pantry in a sealed container. Spices with the moisture removed do not really go bad (unless they get wet), but they lose their potency over time and will no longer add flavor to food. If the aroma is gone, the flavor is most likely also gone from the dried ginger.
That's the whole point of drying it; so that it lasts longer without refrigeration. |
Is it safe to only rinse visible residue from container if I then refrigerate the container?
I like to eat off silicone containers. I've noticed that if I rinse them right away after eating, there will be basically no visible residue left on the surface.
Now let's say that, err, I had a friend who is lazy and gross and was considering rinsing a container that way and placing it in the fridge in between meals, eating in that same container throughout the day and only washing it properly after dinner.
That would be yucky, yes, but not dangerous, right? Since the fridge can keep a whole container of food safe for a few days, surely it can keep some microscopic food residue safe from morning until night? The food would only stay briefly in the temperature danger zone (4-60 C or 40-140 F) when eating, so it wouldn't add up to two hours of non-safe temp throughout the day.
I coul-I mean, my friend could even rinse with hot water, or place it in the freezer instead to make extra sure. Or you know, actually wash it for real, but it's a really lazy person I'm talking about here.
EDIT - To summarize: I want to know whether it is dangerous to not fully clean the container in between meals throughout a day (like three or four times). I would only give it a quick rinse to remove visible residue, and then keep it under 4 C / 40 F, where bacteria won't grow too quickly (and then clean it properly afterward for the next day). | I see you're familiar with the "danger zone" concept. I think the only on-topic way to answer this is to help you add up the "danger zone" time, (and raise the concern of cross contamination!). I will say in response to your heading, there is no "loophole" in food safety guidelines. They are pretty stark in that things are either safe or not.
Eating something that has been treated "unsafe" aren't guaranteed to make you ill--but for this site, "will it make me sick?" is off-topic, while "is this considered food safe?" is on-topic, so I'll focus solely on the latter.
Cross contamination ❌
It's not guaranteed this will happen, but every time you handle something, you risk cross contamination. Uncovered food in the fridge can also be a contamination vector. Each time you reuse a dish without washing, you essentially double your chances of having a problem. A trace of e. coli on an apple peel during breakfast has a chance to be transfer to the plate, grow all day long and be ingested during every meal of the day, increasing the chances that you might get ill.
Danger zone math ⚡
Keep in mind that this is a CUMULATIVE time for the food (and residue)--it doesn't reset when the food hits your bowl. Also, food safety guidelines consider a plate to be "contaminated" with food from the time food hits it until the plate is properly washed/sanitized (ie, with soap). Even if there is no visible residue, if it hasn't been washed properly the plate is treated the same as if there was still a full serving of food on it, from a food safety perspective.
Based on all of that, you'd need to add up time the ingredients (for everything that was on the plate) are unrefrigerated coming home from the grocery, being prepared & cooked (between cold and hot), after cooking on your plate, time in the fridge while cooling back down, repeat for each meal.
If you use the same plate for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert without washing, you'd essentially be calculating the danger zone time as if you had breakfast leftovers that you refrigerated then reheated at lunch. Then added extra lunch leftovers and put them in the fridge. Then you reheated breakfast and lunch leftovers, added some dinner leftovers and back into the fridge. Then reheated breakfast, lunch, and dinner leftovers to eat them for dessert.
So it gets complicated to do all that math... But there's a lot of time that will accumulate as it passes from warm to cold to warm to cold, etc.
My verdict? ⚖️
It seems unlikely that you'd be able to add up all that time in the danger zone and still stay within the time window that is considered food safe by government food safety guidelines.
If you're already going to rinse it water to remove visible residue, a quick swipe of a soapy wash cloth seems like a low-difficulty added effort to wash away the remaining unseen food & bacterial residue. I'd even possibly argue that a quick soapy wash is no more difficult than trying to find a way to stay within food safety guidelines. |
For microwave hot chocolate, why pour the hot milk into the chocolate rather than mixing the milk with chocolate then heating?
I read on the back of the unsweetened Hershey's cocoa powder box that I should first heat milk in a microwave and then pour into another cup with the powder, salt and sugar. This tasted much better than when I directly mixed in the powder with milk and heated.
What exactly is causing the taste difference? i.e: are there any scientific explanations for the above? | You were using real cocoa powder, not an instant drink. You probably cooked it in the microwave, or at least part of it. When milk over the powder, it was certainly not hot enough to cook the powder. So beyond any lumps that might have come together (you don't describe if you took measures against it), there is certainly a taste difference between cooked and uncooked cocoa. |
Cheese soufflé with bread cubes instead of egg whites
In this video: Cheese Soufflé that NEVER Falls! - Chef Jean-Pierre, Chef Jean Pierre proposes an interesting method for making cheese soufflé; instead of folding in beaten egg whites to his custard, he uses diced bread cubes (with crust removed) to provide the air that will make the soufflé rise.
His reasoning for using bread is that the soufflé will not fall (only slightly) and could thus be fully cooked in advance (hence making a foolproof recipe for beginner cooks).
This method relies on 2 key aspects:
The bread is broken down in the heated custard environment and
The soufflé will not fall because of the bread
Could someone explain from a chemistry perspective why 1) and 2) occur?
For 2), my guess is the broken down bread provides better structural integrity than egg whites, though I am not sure why. | There is nothing to explain here - the claim is simply wrong.
You can certainly put bread in custard and subject it to heat. It is traditionally done in French toast, for example. I could even buy that under some circumstances, you won't notice that you are chewing on what used to be bread - the inside of a French toast is quite soft, and if you don't know what it is, you might not recognize it.
But first, I don't believe that the bread in this recipe will disintegrate fully to the point where it is completely mixed with the custard. (And if it did, it wouldn't turn "into flour"). You can see in the video how, before sticking it into the oven, the bread cubes swim on the surface, even after he purposefully wets them on top at around 10:20. And after he takes it out, the surface is rather uneven with a few lumps, and while he does have cubed shallots and dried tomatoes in there, the shapes look awfully like bread cubes - see for example the closeup at 11:50.
You could, in theory, mix the bread fully. For that, you would have to wait until it is soaked well, and then physically mix it, with a fork or with the blender he praises so much. But in the video, it is implied that no such mixing happens.
The second claim is that the souffles don't fall. This is entirely wrong. When he puts the souffles in there, the ramekins are filled "all the way to the top" (quote from 10:28). When he takes them out, they are risen slightly, I'd say less than two centimeters - you can see a good shot at 11:19. That's expected, since there are no egg whites to rise during baking. And then, while he plates them, they fall back to the rim of the ramekin. He even mentions it at 11:29
"Eventually, they're gonna fall. A little bit. They're gonna fall right at the rim."
Don't be fooled by the "little bit" - if you remember, they were filled to the rim when they went to the oven.
So, even in his own video, you can see that the soufflés cannot hold any of the expansion they got in the oven, and fall to their original size once they cool. This is exactly how any soufflé behaves, with bread or otherwise. |
From a food safety perspective, what's the difference between a dish I ate in and rinsed off afterward vs. a dish with food that I didn't eat in?
I have asked the following question before: Is it safe to only rinse visible residue from container if I then refrigerate the container?
I've gotten some great answers to it which help me further understand the variables at play here, but I stubbornly suspect a large part of their final conclusions was influenced by gut instinct, rather than genuine consideration of the scenario vs. other more traditional practices that are considered food safe.
(EDIT: I was wrong! It appears the defining factor here is the bacteria that would be introduced by eating - specifically the stuff in the saliva that would be transferred into the container via cutlery.)
I've then decided to ask a more specific, more rigorous question, which would hopefully help me decide whether I am wrong in this analysis, and if so, why. I propose two scenarios:
Scenario 1
Say I came up with a hypothetical monster recipe that included some scrambled eggs, pot roast, broccoli with cheese, steak, and black bean chilli. Then I took half of it, had a horrible time eating it, and left the rest in the fridge until the end of the night, when I reluctantly ate the rest.
(Wow, that wouldn't be a very good recipe! Yes, I agree.)
Scenario 2
Say the next day I decided that all that stuff would taste better separately, and prepared each meal individually throughout the day. I then ate each meal off the same dish, rinsing it afterward in a manner that would remove all visible residue from the dish.
For the purpose of the question, assume I rigorously measured the total sum (food+container) of time spent in the temperature danger zone, including transportation, preparation and storage, and taking into account time to cool down in the fridge etc, and it added up to exactly an hour and thirty minutes in both scenarios. I am aware it would be more difficult to perform such a calculation in Scenario 2.
I know Scenario 2 sounds more gross, but are there factors that make it worse from a food-safety perspective than Scenario 1? Would Scenario 1 be considered not food safe by government standards (due to cross contamination and mixing a lot of foods)? If not, why would Scenario 2 be any less safe? One could argue it would be even more safe, given that there is way less food in the container most of the time (a microscopic amount).
The only thing I can think of that would make it worse is the potential presence of saliva in a dish I've eaten in vs one I haven't, which would interact with the microscopic residue left on the dish - but I imagine the water would readily rinse away the spit. | The answer is exactly what you speculated - the spit. Well, not the spit itself, but the microbial contaminants from your oral cavity that you are introducing to the food when you eat.
Your mouth (and rest of you too) contains a whole bunch of microorganisms (around 700 species in the mouth). Each time you put an eating implement in your mouth and return it to your plate, you are introducing some bacterial components that can multiply in the food residues. If you used your fingers to pick up some of the food or touch the plate at all, you introduced a different set of bacteria, which may be good or bad.
When you rinse a plate all you are doing is removing gross (see definition B) contamination. There is still microscopic contamination there, particularly oils and other non-water soluble components.
Bacteria in general are very small - most are around 0.5 - 5 micrometers (that's 1000ths of a millimeter or 0.00002 - 0.0002 inches). These are so small that no matter how well you rinse there will be some left on the surface of the plate you ate off and these can multiply in the presence of the food residues also left on the plate. How much they multiply depends on the temperature (that's why cold used for storage), nutrient source (how readily metabolizable they are) and which strain of which species they are.
When you ate the meal the night before, you introduced a bunch of bacteria. Every time you take the food out of the fridge and it reaches the "Danger zone" then the bacteria are multiplying. This then leads to the question of dose.
In scenario 1 you have a bulk meal that is all sitting in the danger zone for 1.5 hours, which could provide a massive inoculuum of bacteria when eaten. This is not directly comparable to eating in scenario 2, where it seems that it is only the plate that is in the danger zone for the whole time.
If in scenario 2 you are taking each component and reheating it separately on the same plate, such that the sum total of time for all the food components is 1.5 hours, then this is likely less risky than having a bulk of food all sitting in the danger zone for 1.5 hours. In this case the plate could be providing an inoculum to the food that enhances growth once the food is reheated, but how big a component to the risk this is, is very hard to say as it will depend on the bacterial species (and all the biological complexity there) and just how much of it is there before the food is added, and what food components it is multiplying on.
However, and this is the important bit: We can't tell for sure which of these scenarios is more likely to be a problem. It would take extensive scientific testing to prove it. Take all that we say on the internet with a grain of salt because we are not all food safety experts (I'm a virologist for instance) |
Dairy-free bechamel?
My toddler recently developed a bit of intolerance to lactose. However, some of his favorite meals are moussaka and lasagna, not the least because the bubbly intensely flavored bechamel topping that roasts up in the oven. Typically for these recipes, I make a traditional white sauce or bechamel by melting butter and mixing in flour and cooking it out with very little color, then progressively whisk in milk until the sauce coats a spoon, then the final result is tempered with 3 eggs and shredded parm so that the baked product solidifies.
I can't find any suggestions on the internet for replacing the milk, butter, and cheese. Would olive oil in lieu of butter, and water or a nut milk (walnut or pine nut) instead of cow's milk, and omitting cheese suffice as a replacement? Is there any reason to believe the ratios would be out-of-balance using these substitutes? | Butter: Butter is an emulsion of fat and water (more or less)—it is typically around 80-82% fat (European butters tend to have a little more fat, American butters tend to have a bit less)—and this fat is solid at room temperature. This suggests that a good substitute for butter would be another solid-at-room temperature fat (such as coconut oil, lard, bacon grease, etc), plus a little bit of water.
Personally, I have had luck with coconut oil and a splash of coconut milk when cooking for vegan friends, but this leaves the sauce tasting a little coconutty. Lard or bacon grease will similarly flavour the sauce, but this may not be a negative—macaroni and cheese with bacon, for example, is a great combination. Olive, canola, and peanut oils have also worked for me in the past, but result in a slightly different texture at the end of the day (which you likely wouldn't even notice in a casserole like moussaka or lasagne).
That being said, butter has very little lactose in it. A lot of people who are lactose intolerant do not have difficulty with butter. It might be worth experimenting with your child to determine whether or not butter is a problem (e.g. go through the process of an elimination diet, and add butter back into the diet in a controlled manner to see if is tolerated).
Milk: As noted above, I have had good luck with coconut milk. Because the phrase "coconut milk" can be ambiguous, I specifically mean something like Thai Kitchen's unsweetened coconut milk. It should be noted that this has a much higher fat content than dairy milk, so you may want to water it down a bit. Nut milks, soy milk, or oat milk should also work well—you are really just looking to get something that is mostly water with a bit of fat in it.
You could also consider lactose-free milk. There are a number of commercially available brands of lactose-free dairy milk, which are made by treating milk with with the lactase enzyme (this is an enzyme which breaks down lactose, and is produced naturally by most people—lactose intolerance is generally the result of a person's inability to produce lactase).
Another alternative would be to consider the milk of another animal—my understanding is that there is some anecdotal evidence that goat's milk is often better tolerated by people with mild lactose intolerance. Goat's milk has about as much lactose as cow's milk, but is apparently otherwise easier to digest. Again, experimentation with an elimination diet might prove fruitful. On the other hand, goat's milk has a rather distinctive flavor which many people find off-putting, so maybe not.
Cheese: I have never found a non-dairy cheese which I thought was any good. There do exist vegan cheeses, some of which even seem to melt like dairy cheese, but I (personally) find them all to be quite bland and unappealing. They compare favorably to Kraft singles, but that seems to be damning with faint praise. That being said, taste is personal, and your milage may vary. Vegan cheeses are meant to replace dairy cheese in a one-to-one manner, so if you find a vegan cheese you like, it should
On the other hand, cheese often has far less lactose than milk, and the longer a cheese has fermented and aged, the less lactose it is likely to contain. I am not sure what to do about the ricotta in a lasagne (assuming that you use ricotta in your lasagne), but the parmesan should be well-tolerated as it typically contains almost no lactose. For other cheeses, as a rough rule of thumb, the older and harder a cheese is, the more likely it is that it will be well-tolerated by a person with lactose intolerance.
Again, an elimination diet might be in order. |
How can a tandoor oven cook skewered meat evenly
I am going to build or buy a tandoor. Before I invest, I have done some research into how to cook in one.
The part that confuses me is, all the video's I have seen, show the skewers in the tandoor that are nearly vertical as per this picture.
In my mind, this would make it impossible to cook evenly enough given the meat at the bottom of the skewer is closer to the heat source and as such, will cook much faster compared to the meat closer to the lid (that is further away from the heat source).
I'm not aiming for perfection with my question, meaning, I don't expect every piece of food to cook 100% perfectly / evenly etc. One video (at 7:50) I've seen even shows that the meat at the top was a higher temperature compared to the meat near the heat source.
My question is, how can this cook so evenly? | It is called a tandoor oven, not a tandoor grill or a tandoor hotplate. It is enclosed, and with thick walls, which means heat is coming from the sides too, not only the bottom. Also, there is convection, and with a lid on, the hot air doesn't escape.
In short, it is the same principle as any other oven. |
Can one create any flavor combination by breaking down the five modalities of taste into their chemical form and adjusting proportions accordingly?
Can one create any flavor combination by breaking down the five modalities of taste into their chemical form and adjusting proportions accordingly?
Namely, if you broke down sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and umami into their rawest chemical form, could you combine these chemical to create virtually any taste? | While your wording is somewhat ambiguous, the answer is a resounding "no" for both possible senses of the word taste. To avoid confusion, I will use the word taste for only the sensation of sweet/salty/sour/bitter/umami, as in "tastes slightly salty", and the word flavor for what we perceive when we eat a given food, as in "tastes of strawberries".
Starting with the sense I think you meant: flavor.
This is a highly complex sense involving many different types of receptors.
The main ones responsible for flavor are the smell receptors. Every human has receptors for several thousand molecules, and the set of those receptors varies somewhat between individuals. Alone the task of recreating the exact combination of molecules which create the smell of a single food is impossible (usually the full list of molecules is not known anyway).
And if you want a perfect match, you also would need to include
the receptors for taste (the five I mentioned above)
the receptors for temperature. While every given food can be eaten at a different temperature, there are cross-communication effects both on the level of the receptors in the mouth (e.g. sucrose loses a lot of its sweetness if consumed very cold) and on the level of the brain (you might not recognize beer if somebody served it to you piping hot, because you are not accustomed to tasting it in this context)
the receptors for touch - texture is an inseparable part of the flavor experience
the receptors for fat - we don't usually notice their contribution, but they exist in our mouths and participate both in the experience of taste and the feeling of satiety
the receptors for pain - relevant for hot/spicy foods
previous knowledge/priming of what you are going to taste. It may come as a surprise to you, but we are not all that good at recognizing flavors. I have seen manufacturers create a "guessing game" by releasing new flavors short-term and have the customers send their guesses to win a prize. While I have never sent a letter, I have tried such "mystery flavors" and usually had no idea which flavor it is supposed to be. And while these are artificial flavors with a very limited complexity (see below), first they include the most characteristic smell of the real thing, and second, I am pretty certain that if I ask an average person to close their eyes and feed them a small piece of a typical supermarket-issue fruit, most will have difficulty recognizing it.
Of course, you don't have to create an exact match to invoke an association of a given flavor, this is how foods with artificial flavoring "work". They tend to contain 3-4 of the most prominent smell molecules of the given food (a single one in the cheapest case), roughly match the flavor direction of the original (I have never seen somebody put strawberry flavoring in pringles-style chips - but note that you don't want a perfect match, nobody would want a candy that has the sweetness levels of a real strawberry) and the rest - and it is a big rest - is labeling, to give you the knowledge mentioned above.
So, to the second sense of the word: taste in the strict sense.
This is also impossible, simply because there is no "rawest chemical form" of any of the five tastes. See this older question for more background. Each of the taste receptors can be triggered by different molecules, and produces a different taste profile - the bitterness of quinine tastes very different from the bitterness of bitrex, for example. You cannot even use one kind of bitter to imitate another kind of bitter - so you certainly cannot match any possible combination of the five. The best you can do is to do is a very rough imitation, which will lack all nuances. |
What is the ratio of tomatos/onions to egg when making omlette?
I don't know exactly what I'm doing wrong but my omlettes don't have the rigidity as seen in restaurant omelettes and ultimately I get this mixture consisting of chunks of tomato's , egg and onions.
So, I think this has to do with the ratio of vegetable to egg I use which is 1:1:1. What should be the correct ratio of vegetables when cooking omelettes? | In most styles of omelette vegetables are optional. The obvious exception is the Spanish tortilla, where sliced or grated potato (and possibly onion) adds strength, but that's cooked more slowly and not turned.
Tomatoes in particular are tricky, as they're so wet. The same would apply to courgette, for example. Large quantities of veg also make it harder, as the egg will be too deep to cook through, so you end up breaking it up. You can try finishing it off with top heat (grill/broiler) but I've never bothered as it means heating up another appliance.
Cooking small quantities of veg in with the egg is possible for some things (onion, mushroom, pepper, for example, probably started before adding the egg) but it's not easy to get it cooked just the right amount, and too much will lead to collapse.
Instead, what I do for larger quantities or wetter veg is pre-cook the veg by frying in the same pan, then drain and reserve. After that I cook the seasoned egg into a nice flat omelette, return the veg and any other fillings such as cheese to one half, and fold, for a filled omelette. This way you can put as much or as little veg as you like. You can also microwave the veg. |
With few items, it easier/safer to use the fridge for everything, are there trade offs?
I don't keep much food in the house, and generally use the fridge as a general purpose store for all kinds of food, as a way to slow down chemical reactions and lifeform growth alike, as well as spending less time considering the type of storage for a particular item.
However I've recently experienced some potential pitfalls, some honey has solidified into what could be a crystalline sugar solution, and a recent, official peanutButter/marmite mix developed a thin, non-fury, jelly like, yellow layer on some of its surface, apparently these are due to keeping the foods in an environment that is too cold.
Is it true that there are trade-offs either way regarding heat? | Besides the issues already mentioned, you should also beware of storing some dry goods in the fridge, especially if you live in a high-humidity area.
Basically, every time you open the container outside of the fridge, you will exchange it for more humid air. In the fridge, the moisture will condense.
If you're storing something in amounts similar to the amount that you'd use at once, this usually isn't a problem. It's more of an issue with items that are used just a little bit at a time, especially if they might clump up or have reactions to moisture (such as baking powder)
There are also a number of fruits and vegetables that may do strange things when in the fridge. (tomatoes lose flavor, potatoes get sweet, etc. See Which fruits and vegetables should be kept in a fridge, and which outside? ). Also, it traps ethylene gas, so you may have issues if you have both ethylene producing and ethylene sensitive foods in your fridge. |
Why does KitchenAid recommend against using the Dough Hook on Speed 1?
KitchenAid's manual for the stand mixer contains several warnings not to use the dough hook on any speed other than 2. While lots of websites explain how high speeds can overheat the dough, what can go wrong at low speeds? | A KitchenAid mixer does not have adjustable gearing; at low speeds it’s being run at low power. If run at low power with a viscous, resistant load like bread dough it can end up stalling, either continuously or repeatedly during the knead. This can overheat the motor and reduce its lifetime. |
Why is matcha whisked?
I find that in authentic videos of making matcha (ones made by japanese people themself) that the preparation begins with mixing a bit of matcha powder with water and then whisking it (see 1:46 of this video for an example). My question is what exactly is the reason for doing this? | Because matcha is ground so fine, whisking helps break up clumps; usually with a matcha whisk (chasen). If you were to try with a spoon or a normal metal balloon whisk you would find that clumps form.
Think about cocoa powder and how that sticks together perhaps? Usually a good whisking is needed to mix it into e.g. milk. |
Do I need to grind Ceylon Cinnamon sticks for coffee/tea, or can I add them whole?
I got some Ceylon Cinnamon sticks, but I haven't purchased the coffee grinder yet. I was wondering if I could add the sticks whole when I brew coffee or tea.
If so, how much per cup?
Do I need to boil the stick for prolonged period of time, or can I just put it with the coffee grindings and pour boiling water over it?
Also, would it be wasteful compared to grinding the stick into powder before brewing first? I.e., will a stick release its compounds fully, or will a lot of them remain inside the stick? | You can definitely put a whole stick of cinnamon in with your coffee grounds or tea leaves. If your cinnamon stick is very tightly coiled, the hot water may not reach the inside of the coil. Split the stick lengthwise so the water can more easily reach the inside of the bark (that way you get flavor out of both sides of the cinnamon bark instead of just one side.
You're correct that you won't get all the cinnamon flavor out of a cinnamon stick in a single use. However, it doesn't have to be wasteful - you can reuse the cinnnamon stick multiple times. After your coffee is brewed, pull the cinnamon stick pieces out of the grounds, tap off any remaining coffee grounds, and lay them out to dry. It helps if you do this while the grounds are still hot, so the residual heat in the cinnamon stick helps it to dry fully. Make sure the cinnamon stick doesn't end up sitting in water. You can put it on a dry towel, or prop it up on the edge of a clean mug, or put it in a mesh strainer.
Re-use the cinnamon stick as often as you make coffee. When you notice it starting to lose flavor, break it into more pieces. Eventually, the parts will run out of cinnamon flavor and/or get too small to be worth the effort of saving, and you'll start a new stick.
Note: this works because the cinnamon stick has only been exposed to coffee grounds (or tea leaves) and hot water. Don't save a cinnamon stick that you've used to stir a cup of coffee with milk or cream. You won't be able to get all the milk or cream off of the cinnamon stick, and it won't be food safe for your next use, and it might taste bad. (Of course you can reuse it if you make your next cuppa immediately; just don't save it for tomorrow.) |
French culinary terminology for dicing vegetables
The French language has many specific words for cooking. What is the term used for food which is diced into tiny pieces? | The name depends on the sice of the dices. There are:
Brunoise as the smallest one with up to 1.5 mm
Jardiniere ~5 mm
Macédoine 5 to 7 mm
Parmentier 0.8 to 1 cm
Carré ~2cm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_culinary_knife_cuts |
How do I ask for eggs, sunny-side-up, but with the top cooked more thoroughly?
If I ask for eggs, sunny-side-up, they will have yellow barely cooked yolks. At home I avoid this by placing a lid and creating hot air or steam that cooks the top more thoroughly. How do I ask for this style at a restaurant? What term do I use? | As you and others have observed, there is no unambiguous yet precise set of egg vocabulary for you to use here that will be understood generally, especially in countries where it is not common for people to have very specific egg requests in restaurants/cafés/diners/etc.
Instead, I would advise you to politely explain your preference when you order, in much the same way as the title and body of your question: 'I'd like my eggs fried but with the top cooked more thoroughly rather than runny, if that's possible'. The cooks are the food preparation experts here and they know what equipment is available to them, and this avoids linguistic issues or confusing them by demanding a specific method of achieving your goal. |
Long term stability of okara flour
I make a lot of tofu and soy milk from soy beans, leaving me with a lot of okara as a by product.
"Okara, soy pulp, or tofu dregs is a pulp consisting of insoluble parts of the soybean that remain after pureed soybeans are filtered in the production of soy milk and tofu.
...
Due to its high moisture and nutrient content, okara is highly prone to putrefaction, and this has limited its commercial use" - Okara - Wikipedia
It's high in protein and other nutrients, so is a shame to leave to waste, but it's not something that can be stored as-is for very long, it starts to go off after a day or so.
The only feasible options for long term storage are freezing, or as I have found - dehydration.
I stick it in the oven spread out on a tray at 100c for a few hours, stirring occasionally. Then blend the resulting clumps into a kind of soy flour.
The resulting flour is useful for all kinds of things - adding to protein shakes, using a 50/50 mix with wheat flour to make bread, adding into oat porridge, etc.
Can I expect to store the flour for just as long as other more common flours such as wheat flour? Do I need to worry about oxidation? (Soy beans are high in oils). | The safety of the flour will depend on water activity. We cannot know the water activity of the flour produced in your kitchen, but 1) home dehydration is known to generally create shelf-stable products, and 2) if you could create a powder, it is pretty certain that you don't have enough moisture for bacteria to survive. And while molds can survive much lower amounts of water than bacteria, the good news about them is that you will notice dangerous levels of mold itself, while bacteria can be dangerous before you notice rotting. So I would tend to treat it as any dehydrated plant matter and consider it safe.
The oxidation will certainly happen. It does not fall under food safety, but is considered a quality issue. Oxidation is common in flours. Commercial wheat flour is defatted and has antioxidants added, but other types of flour, especially nut flours and nut meals, are eaten oxidized, unless you grind them fresh for every dish. For any quality issues, it is up to you to decide whether they bother you. |
Where do you want 90% lean beef?
The burger recipes I've found online called for rather fatty ground beef, like 80% or 73%. (Spruce eats: 15 - 20% fat), Smoked BBQ source: 15 - 20% fat, Taste of Home: 20 - 40% fat (sic!), Spoon university: 20 - 30% fat, The Kitchn: 20% fat, Serious Eats: at least 20% fat, Steve Raichlen: 20% fat.) I didn't pay attention and bought some 90% lean beef. I guess the burgers will still work out, but it got me thinking.
If everybody says you need fatty ground beef for flavor, in what kind of recipes do you actually want these 90+% ground beefs, and why? | This is partly down to taste. When you make burgers much of the fat runs out by the time it's done, so you need to start with a high enough fat content that the burger isn't dry when it's done. I've made burgers with 10% fat when that's all I can find rather than 20% (my personal ideal), and they are very tasty as long as you don't overcook them. I find the extreme of 30% which I've seen recommended in places to be too greasy, but again that's my taste - I find too much fat covers the flavor of the meat.
Where you have to be very conscious of fat, whether minced or not, is in dishes where the fat has nowhere to go, like stews, braises and casseroles. Very fatty meat in these can end up with a greasy end result, which is not to most tastes. I use around 10% mince and lean cuts for those types of dishes. |
What is the reason for the automatic fruit and nut dispenser on some bread makers?
What is the difference between putting fruit or nuts into a bread maker at the beginning and adding them via the fruit and nut dispenser on some bread maker models? I thought it might be due to the the fruits/nuts sinking but with the amount of stiring/kneading done it feels like they should be pretty well mixed anyway. | Fruit and nuts can potentially soak up some of the liquid. The liquid is then removed from the hydration of the bread during rising/proving, so you might end up with a mix that is too dry to form a loaf or that is unable to be kneaded properly or to rise properly.
Adding the fruit and nuts after some mixing and kneading means that there is much less available liquid for them to soak up, as the liquid is bound in with the flour already.
Edited to add: In many instances bread machines are on a timer, so that the bread is ready when the person wants it to be. If fruits were added into the liquid before a timer-controlled loaf, then they may well not only absorb a portion of the water, they may over-swell and become so soft that they disintegrate into the bread during kneading. This is generally not the desired end-point of having fruit in breads, where most recipes have the fruit as visible pieces. |
When should I add curry paste?
This week I was preparing Thai curry and something odd struck me when comparing the two packages of curry paste in my pantry. They're both from the same brand; the yellow curry says
Cut 300-350g of meat (substitute) or fish into pieces. Stir fry the curry paste for a short time over high heat and add the meat. Add 600g of vegetables and stir fry for another 2 minutes. Add 400ml of coconut milk (or less to taste). ...
but the red curry says
Cut 300-350g of meat (substitute) into pieces and stir fry until they're brown. Add 600g of cut vegetables and stir fry for another 5 minutes. Add the bag of curry paste and the 270ml of coconut milk. ...
Notice the difference when the curry paste is added. I've checked another recipe for red curry which says to add it first. I can imagine it makes a lot of difference whether it's in direct contact with a very hot wok, or just warmed up as part of the sauce. But what is the actual difference, and why would it differ between packages/recipes? Or would this depend on how it has been prepared before packaging? Also, suppose I have a package of curry paste which doesn't include a recipe, what's the general advice for it? Add it first or later?
(For those of you able to read Dutch, this is the yellow paste and this the red one. They're generally available at the supermarket known for its hamsters.) | You typically want to bloom the spices by cooking it over high heat for some period of time. But if you cook it for too long, you risk burning the spices.
If you're trying to brown meat, the moisture in the spices both make it more difficult (because of the spices burning first), and throw off the color to let you easily tell when it's cooked properly.
When you're making a dish that cooks quickly (like fish) or that you want to stew more than brown, I'll cook the spice paste first, then add everything to it.
In general, my procedure for using spice pastes is:
Cook down onions or other veg that needs to soften and/or brown meat (optional)
Add spice paste
Cook for a minute or so (optional)
Add whatever remaining ingredients
Cook for another minute or so
Add liquid
Simmer until cooked through
I'm actually more surprised that your paste didn't mention cooking the paste for a minute or so, or letting it cook with the vegetables before you add the coconut milk ... but it's possible that it contained an ingredient that doesn't like high heat.
It's also possible that the goal for the red curry dish is for the individual ingredients to maintain their own distinct flavor with there being a sauce at the end, rather than it being more like a stew where the flavor meld together. |
Can steam from my rice cooker's steam vent sanitize sponges?
My rice cooker will vent steam at the red arrow, when the rice is almost cooked. I've been holding my sponges and toothbrush heads over, but not blocking, the steam exhaust to try to sanitize them. Does this work?
I thought about microwaving my sponges, but "Stop Microwaving Your Sponges, Immediately"! | If boiling, microwaving or washing sponges in the dishwasher or cloth washer does not disinfect them, steaming them will not, especially in a rice cooker vent where the steam quickly loses temperature.
Throw them away and replace them regularly or, if feeling ecologically conscious, don't use sponges. |
Sous vide topside beef- what went wrong?
So, I’ve had many sous vide successes over the years but yesterday suffered what feels like a big failure and I’ve no idea why.
Long story short, I had a 2kg beef topside joint which I seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper then cooked for four hours at 56C. When I took it out of the water it felt deliciously soft- even delicate. I cooled it immediately in a cold water bath and then left it in the fridge overnight.
The next day I blasted it in the air fryer on as hot as it gets until the fat left on it browned and caramelised. At this point it looked and smelled fantastic.
The problem is that when sliced and served the meat is extremely chewy and not nice at all to eat. Parts of it that were not chewy were absolutely delightful and tasted great but so far the majority of it has needed prolonged chewing then spit out what’s left of that mouthful. It breaks my heart to see a mountain of chewed meat left on a plate!
So I’m wondering what I did wrong? Most recipes online suggested 56C and 4hrs were the correct choices. At this point I’m stumped. Could it just be as simple as a tough piece of meat? What can I do to save it, since I’m not really looking forward to eating any more of it right now? | Your process is in line with the practice of sous vide and cooking beef topside roast, which leads me to believe that the culprit is your particular cut of beef. Did you purchase at a reputable butcher shop, or pick it up from the shelf of a grocer? In either case, it might be worth a conversation with a knowledgeable butcher for some advice for next time. In the mean time, maybe mince or grind the leftovers and use for a pasta filling like an agnolotti. |
Can one use butter to replace cream or milk in drinks?
While many liquids exist that serve as an alternate to milk for the lactose intolerant, I'm wondering to what extent can butter melted and mixed with water serve as a milk substitute, even if an imperfect one. Specifically I'm considering drinks, such as coffee, hot chocolate. Drinks that often don't require cream of milk but which personal preferences often include adding some or replacing water with it.
If I'm out of almond milk or non-lactose creams for my coffee, would mixing in a little butter make it creamier?
If I'm making hot chocolate and want it creamier than when made with just water, would a little butter help?
I've read questions on here that there is limited success mixing buttermilk and butter to get cream but it doesn't work for all uses, but that seemed to be focused on baking and whipping cream and not drinks. | No, it won't help you at all. Butter won't mix with any drink short of vla*. You will end up with a cup of coffee with a puddle of greasy melted butter swimming on top, or a chunk of butter if you are using iced coffee.
I've read questions on here that there is limited success mixing buttermilk and butter to get cream
The only question I have seen here which claims successful mixing uses milk (not buttermilk) and butter, emulsified with a vintage hand-operated device. If you had the device, there would still be two big problems left:
it is made for milk + butter, not water + butter
having the emulsion be stable under heating is quite a requirement - after all, even real cream separates in coffee if it has been standing around several days (if yours doesn't, it probably has added carrageenan).
And if you find out that it works nevertheless - are you really prepared to search for that kind of device on second-hand markets, have it take up space in your kitchen cabinets, and then, just when you are frustrated because your morning coffee is brewed but you have no cream, spend half an hour cranking?
If I were you, I would store a few sachets of powdered non-dairy creamer.
* I am now expecting a number of comments listing drinks which will mix with butter after all. My hunch is that none of them will be the kind of drink to which people add milk after serving. |
What kind of dish/pastry consists of white bread with ice-cream or some sort of mousse inside?
I found this randomly:
To me, it distinctively looks like non-sugary bread. It looks like the kind of bun you normally use for making sandwiches, for example put butter and/or cheese inside. It doesn't look like it's "sugary" and intended for being a pastry.
Is this a famous/known "dish"/product/concept? | This is almost certainly Brioche con Gelato, which is Brioche, a sweet and rich bread with gelato a rich ice-cream made with whole milk and sugar. |
bread dough always too sticky
I have two recipes for bread; one is Julia Child's Sandwich bread and the other is honey wheat bread using the recipe on the back of the King Arthur wheat flour bag (can't find the recipe online for some reason).
I've made both breads twice and I have the same problem: the dough is always too sticky. When mixing the ingredients together, it looks like dough but almost like a batter (if that makes sense). But as soon as I try to knead it, it becomes super sticky, getting stuck on my hands and work surface the more I try to work with it. So I ended up adding A LOT of flour to get it manageable, sometimes almost double what the recipe calls for. And even then, it starts to stick to me so I add more flour. The last time I made the breads, I used a stand mixer and after 4 minutes the dough was becoming more batter-like and drooping from the dough hook, so I ended up kneading it by hand (and adding a lot of flour).
Yes my bread always ends up a crumbled mess when I try to cut it and I know I shouldn't be adding so much flour but I don't understand why my dough is so liquidy that I have to add more flour.
I have done a few different things. Like using less water at the start and sifting the flour before using it, and I even made it at different times of the year (summer vs winter in south-central US), and the dough is always too liquidy.
Someone told me I should wait awhile for the flour to absorb the water before I start kneading it (by hand or in a stand mixer) but I'm worried that would affect the yeast.
I'm also a novice baker (I guess you could call bread making baking?) but I run into wet dough issues all the time, and I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas what I'm doing wrong (aside from adding way too much flour for kneading).
For reference, I always do the scoop and level method and use the same measuring cup for measuring water.
Edit: thank you all for the tips and suggestions! I've never used an actual cookbook or used any books for cooking, just online and occasionally videos. So I will definitely look into getting a book for properly making bread especially. | There are many potential causes, it is impossible to say which one (or maybe multiple ones) is the problem in your case.
Wrong measuring. The only way to exclude that for sure is to start baking by weight.
Wrong flour. You mention that you are in the southern US, I have some vague memory reading that they use bread terms a bit differently. Look at your flour package and make sure that it lists at least 9.5% protein. But if you want to have it easier, I suggest making it with bread flour (11-12% protein). Also, these recipes are made for standard wheat flour, don't do any substitutions.
novelty. Maybe you are simply not accustomed to working with doughs on the wetter side. Especially if an elderly relative taught you to make stiffer doughs by hand, they may have told you to do it without measuring and just add flour until it stops being sticky. Many bread recipes are made with doughs that are sticky during work. If you want to start using them, you will have to get accustomed to them. If not, just disregard any recipe above 70 or 75% hydration.
wrong kneading process. Maybe you are kneading for too little time, or not resting properly.
I am uncertain how to interpret your descriptions, and whether it is predominantly the novelty factor or a problem with the dough. "super sticky, getting stuck on my hands and work surface" - for the Julia Child recipe, this is not super sticky, it is normal for dough with 83% hydration and some butter to stick during initial mixing. "batter-like and drooping from the dough hook" - if it was a ball that was slowly drooping from the hook of a turned-off mixer, then it wasn't batter like. Or did you mean that it was dripping from the hook?
In any case, it seems that you are not getting the results you want, and your attempts at troubleshooting are not helping. So, I would suggest to stop using shorthand recipes from random sites, and learn making bread from a book that describes the whole process of making the dough, proofing it and baking it, as well as containing proven recipes and info on proper troubleshooting. Once you have gathered this initial knowledge, you can start hunting for additional recipes again. |
Microwave sponges or not?
I can't decide between the conflicting research! Who's correct?
Stop Microwaving Your Sponges, Immediately.
“When people at home try to clean their sponges, they make it worse,” Egert said — similar to how people can encourage antibiotic resistant bacteria if they don’t follow the doctor’s orders.", from a Seattle Times article
Our research suggests that long term cleaning might select for potentially pathogenic and/or smelly bacteria. We think this is because some bacteria can adapt to the cleaning process, survive the microwave or dishwasher, and can easily grow to higher numbers again. from a blog
The microwave was one of the next most effective, zapping 99.9% of germs.
"Basically, what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes," says researcher Gabriel Bitton, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Florida, in a news release. "People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave." from WebMD | The question in the title is unanswerable. Your own search shows that there is no simple prescription of what you should do.
The question "who is correct" is: both of them.
The side you are interpreting as "you should microwave sponges" tells you that microwaving kills most of the bacteria. The side you are interpreting as "you shouldn't microwave sponges" tells you that, after you have microwaved the sponges, the next generation of bacteria that grows in them is harder to kill, and potentially more dangerous to your health. Both statements are completely compatible with each other.
What is wrong is to interpret these tiny pieces of data as a general prescription for optimal behavior. They are simply not sufficient to draw any conclusions from that kind. And the way it looks, nobody has done further research (which would be immensely complicated) to determine whether it is better to microwave or not microwave, and if you do microwave, then in what pattern. It would probably take several professors' full careers to settle such a question (because you would need longitudinal studies too), and I doubt that there is enough public interest to finance that, seeing that nobody has identified a major public health problem stemming from washing your dishes with a sponge.
So in the end, you will have to base your personal decision to microwave or not, and base it on some criteria other than which one presents a higher risk to your health, since that information is presently unknowable. |
Something dark gray coming off of sheet pan after scouring
I've been using a stainless steel sheet pan and an aluminum sheet pan for baking/roasting for the last year (new to cooking). I used the steel one regularly, so it accumulated a lot of brown stains. Eventually I started lining it with aluminum foil until I found a way to clean it. On a friend's advice, I got steel wool, and with some vigor, dish soap, and time, I scrubbed all that grime off. Also scrubbed off the little bit of grime on my aluminum pan.
Felt pretty proud of myself until I noticed that the fingers of my dishwashing gloves were stained DARK GRAY. I used wet paper towels and wiped the steel wool, the steel pan, and the aluminum pan, and it appears the gray color is mostly coming off the steel pan. A little bit of gray is also coming off the aluminum pan.
What on earth is this stuff? Is it no longer safe to use either of these sheet pans for cooking? If not, can I make it safe or do I have to toss them? | It is oxidised aluminium (Al2O3). This is formed by oxidising with the oxygen in the air to form the aluminium oxide. Al2O3 forms a very thin (4 nm) impermeable layer on your Al, which prevents further oxidation and appears as a dull grey on the surface. Polished Al is shiny and can be highly reflective.
Al2O3 appears as a dark grey/black colour when you scrape it and some of the underlying Al off the sheet with your steel wool. It is likely that your "steel" sheets are actually aluminized steel, as the steel itself is not rust-resistant. The aluminium coating on the steel prevents corrosion from the air by forming the aforementioned oxide layer. |
What to use to tame my chicken tikka masala?
I love chicken Tikka Masala but I’m afraid it doesn’t always like me. If I cut the masala portion in half what can I use in its place? Maybe double the yogurt?
Note: The dinner is a meal kit with the masala sauce provided in a sealed packet. The sauce is in liquid form, not a powder. The amount of sauce is meant to go with 1/2 lb of chicken thigh meat. The meal kit is meant to serve two. | You're thinking along the right lines with using yoghurt. In fact because yoghurt is often used to tone down spice, you might find that you can use more than half the sauce, if you increase the yoghurt.
But you probably wouldn't want to double the yoghurt to make up for the missing sauce. Instead replace the sauce you didn't use with yoghurt. So if the packet contains 200 ml of sauce, and you only use half of it, you'll be short 100 ml, so use an extra 100ml yoghurt. You might find that's a little runny, so might want to use a bit less.
If you have tomato puree/paste or even passata, you could mix some of that into the extra yoghurt. Most tikka masala recipes include some tomato, so this will maintain the flavour without the heat. Puree will have a slight thickening effect compared to yoghurt, while passata will be thinner,unless you simmer it long enough to reduce. |
Can I use Yakult as a yogurt starter?
I'm wondering if we can use Yakult as a yogurt starter to obtain drinkable yogurt? | Update: Yes, it is possible.
After a note in the comments, I tried researching and had to go no further than Wikipedia to see how it is done commercially: The incubation happens in the presence of glucose and continues for 7-8 days. I checked their source too, an article in an encyclopedia on food technology, and the information was correctly transcribed.
Method
I decided to try it out. As I didn't have glucose, I poured in a random amount of agave syrup (a mixture of glucose and fructose). Indeed, at 8 hours (my standard incubation time for Lactobacillicus Bulgaricus yogurt) it was still completely liquid. But after 24 hours, it started looking good, and now, at hour 36, it has firmed up as normal yogurt.
Result
The Shirota yogurt turned out to be quite interesting.
Visual
It looks like normal yogurt, with a small layer of whey on top, which looks somehow different from typical yogurt whey. The top slightly-fatty layer that builds on top of other yogurt is on top of the liquid layer and not below it. The colour is very slightly off-white, but nowhere near as orange as Yakult drinks.
Taste
The yogurt tastes differently from standard yogurt. It has a fruity smell, and is more sweet than sour, with bitter notes mixed in. I didn't notice acetic acid smells, the sourness must be predominantly lactic acid. The smell is rather subtle. The texture is unremarkable, just like standard Lactobacillicus yogurt.
Verdict
At first, I was afraid that the long incubation time and the need for dextrose might mean that L. Shirota is difficult to grow, and might not work well under not-so-precisely controlled conditions, producing spoiled milk instead of yogurt. Now, having smelled the yogurt, I am pretty sure that there is a lot of the original Shirota culture growing there. My new hypothesis is that they need long growth times to achieve a very high concentration, so they can dilute it to make the drink and still get a strong taste.
Long-term results
I left the yogurt to incubate somewhat longer than a week. I was not happy with the result.
Some of the glasses got a band of light-reddish colour, reminiscent of commercial Yakult but slightly paler, while others got no such band. Those who had it had the band in the top third of the glass, but it was not the top layer.
The yogurt smelled quite sour. I tasted just a little bit, the taste was sour, but not as much as over fermented L. Bulgaricus yogurt. I didn't smell much acetic acid if any. There was a bit of sweetness in the taste, but no more than at the beginning, it felt. The Shirota-typical smell was subtle, not much stronger than at 36 hours.
After some more resarch, L. Shirota is sensitive to the absence of certain nutrients, mostly aminoacids and vitamins. See https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2019.108735 for details. But note that even without nutrients, they reached a good (for typical yogurt, not for yakult) concentration after 31 hours.
You can use most yogurts as a starter, no matter the brand. The only requirement is that they contain live culture, and all the ones marketed as a probiotic should have it.
It should give you normal yogurt, not a yogurt drink. You will have to follow a recipe for a yogurt-based drink if you want it liquid - just water and sugar to taste should do, of you want to mimic Yakult, or you can branch or into more interesting stuff. |
Why did my Zwilling Aluminium pan cookware surface corrode just after 1 month?
On March 3 2021, I bought this Zwilling 33 cm / 13 inch Aluminium deep saute pan with lid. Please review pictures below, inside my red circle. The coating on the surface appears to have corroded! Why? What went wrong?
I was careful not to scratch or corrode the coating! I used sponges to clean. I used plastic heat resistant Turners. | This is not corrosion, this is damage to the non-stick surface.
Overheating the pan can damage non-stick coatings. As these marks are in the centre of the pan I suspect that there are two possibilities:
The pan was heated too hot and damaged the coating
The "corrosion" is actually damage to a layer of polymerized oils/fats analogous to seasoning on a cast-iron pan. |
Is it possible to repair damage to the non-stick surface?
I thought I signed up before writing that post, but I can't edit it! Sorry for screwing up. I want to provide details here. Thank you so far for assistance!
I used that pan JUST on Electric Cook Top in my house. I never knew overheating can damage non-stick surface! Someone asked how do I heat it? I usually oil the surface with Sunflower or Safflower Oil — because they have high smoke points! I usually just use medium or medium high heat. SOMETIMES I crank up the cooktop to max heat — if the pan holds many ingredients and the food is cooking too slowly — or if I want to stir fry rice, noodles, vegetables, seafood like Asians.
At max or high heat, I NEVER leave the pan empty or dry on high heat!!! On low to medium heat, the pan can be empty or dry when I am offloading ingredients and onloading new ingredients. Like if I finish stir frying ginger and rice at high heat, I turn down cooktop to low heat. Then I pour out vegetables. Now pan is empty. Then I pour in my raw vegetables and crank back up to high heat.
Now I have a question. I paid $129.99 + 13% tax in Ontario Canada = $147 for this pan. Can someone fix this damage? Is it economical to fix? Or smarter to buy a new pan? I contacted Zwilling about a replacement. | no you cannot practically repair teflon damage. In theory you could probably spray more teflon over it, but you would likely want an even coating, which would mean stripping the pan anyway. Plus, the teflon would be very hard to get a hold of, you'd need spraying equipment, and then a curing oven to bake it at something like 400°C.
Personally I don't recommend spending a ton of money on frying pans. The expensive pans don't really offer anything worthwhile over cheaper pans. You can get tri-ply teflon (brand) pans from ikea for $30-40. if you want high heat cooking I'd recommend stainles/carbon steel or cast iron |
Will uncooked meat tenderise or toughen while stored in a refrigerator?
In an effort to make fewer food shopping trips, I want to store meat in the fridge for a few days before cooking.
However, if I'm entertaining guests I want the meat to be as tender as possible.
Will storing meat in the fridge for a couple of days affect the tenderness to any noticeable degree? | While dry aging does impact texture, storing a portion that you might purchase for yourself, or a small number of people, in the refrigerator for a few days will not impact the final texture. Instead, consider purchasing high quality cuts, and the correct cut for your application. Consider a tenderizing pre-treatment (some marinades are intended for tenderization). Finally, of course, cooking process will greatly impact the final texture. |
Can Ice Cream Maker Wall be Too Cold?
There seems to be a recommended minimum temperature for making ice cream of about -30C. But, the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-200C),
which is often used for the same purpose, is much lower.
So, what is the harm in making ice cream using an outer freeze wall below -30C? | During freezing, you care about two parameters - crystal size and overrun. While people making ice cream at home will frequently tell you that smaller crystals equal softer ice cream, that's not exactly correct, especially when you can control the two parameters over a wider range. In reality, smaller crystals make smoother ice cream, while more overrun makes softer ice cream.
In the context of commercial ice cream freezing with a conventional freezer (not liquid nitrogen), if your ice cream freezes too quickly, it will be frozen before it has been properly frothed by the dasher, and you will end up with too dense ice cream. This is why commercial freezers are made on purpose in the -23 to -29C range. They could build them colder, but that is not desirable. This seems to be true over a wide range of technologies, since both batch freezers and continuous freezers operate at these temperatures. The amount of overrun is then controlled by dasher speed and dasher design.
I don't know the exact physics of liquid nitrogen ice cream and why it works well. I could imagine different scenarios: maybe people consuming it prefer low-overrun ice cream, maybe the boiling nitrogen introduces sufficient aeration, or maybe the dasher breaks it up into very fine pieces because it is so incredibly brittle. Possibly somebody with first-hand experience will comment on this. But it is a different principle than conventional ice cream preparation where you want to give your ice cream time to get churned properly before it freezes too much. |
Does invisible mould exist?
Sometimes I feel weird after eating food that by all appearances looked normal, including the interior.
For meat and produce I can understand there might have been bacteria that of course wouldn’t be observable or that the food was undercooked. But how about bread, frozen foods, and well cooked foods? | Yes, mould (or mold) can be invisible. When an item is visibly moldy, the visible part of the mold is actually the fruiting body. (You can think of a "fruiting body" like the flower on a plant. It's the structure that produces and distributes spores, much like flowers produce seeds.) The main body of the mold is a fine network of root-like structures called hyphae. The hyphae extend through the food item, digesting it to convert it into food for the mold. Once the mold has enough energy, it produces fruiting bodies, which in turn produce spores that allow the mold to spread through the air to other food items.
Hyphae are usually invisible to the naked eye. So yes, you could be eating food items that have mold hyphae growing through them that just haven't fruited yet. The hyphae cause chemical changes in the food which make it unsafe to eat.
I've noticed this myself with homemade baked goods that have sat around for several days. There's usually a period of a day or two where the item will taste strange, but before there's visible mold. (Interestingly, the particular strain of mold I have in my kitchen tastes a bit like cooked pineapple. I love pineapple, so it actually tastes good at first.) I often eat half a muffin or slice of bread before noticing that it has an unusual taste. But partway through eating that muffin, I'll start to notice the new flavor, and it starts to taste not so good.
My advice is to listen to your taste buds, and if you get partway through eating something and it starts to taste bad to you, take that as a sign that it might not be a good idea to continue eating it. That feeling is not always because of food spoilage, though. Sometimes it's because you're starting to get full, or the food is too salty, or one of a long list of other reasons why that food item might not agree with you.
Try to pay attention to what food items start to taste bad to you, and look for patterns over time. If it's usually with a particular type of food that's been sitting around for a while, then maybe you're not storing that food correctly and it's starting to spoil. If it happens repeatedly with different batches of the same type of food, you may have an allergy or sensitivity to an ingredient in that food, and you should consult a doctor or nutritionist for help in figuring that out. Some foods, like apples and potatoes, have a high satiety value. Foods with a high satiety value can make you feel like you've had enough to eat before you've actually eaten enough, and continuing to eat that food may make you feel nauseous. This is useful if you're trying to lose weight, but inconvenient if you have a small budget and you're trying to make that food item a staple of your diet. |
Is Pad See Lew the same as Pad See Ew?
I have been looking across the Internet to see if these two Thai dishes (Pad See Lew and Pad See Ew) are the same. I believe that they are and that they are just spelled different in different regions (possibly). But I’m not sure so I thought I’d ask for some seasoned advice.
Pad See Ew is sometimes spelled Pad Siew, Pad Siu or Phat Si-Io. | These are both the same dish and can go by various spellings as noted in the OP. |
Can any liquid food be beaten into a mousse?
Hervé This discovered that one can make chocolate mousse with chocolate and water only.
This recipe is shown in this MasterChef video, and also detailed here.
Essentially, one melts chocolate with water, then whisks it over an ice bath to incorporate air bubbles, and after a while the mousse is formed.
Is this property unique to chocolate? Would this be possible, with, say, a strawberry purée? | Chocolate is a solid at room temperature, strawberry puree is not, so I strongly doubt that the strawberry would result in a foam.
The reason chocolate would form a solid foam is that it is largely composed of a two substances - sugar and fat. Together with the air these can form a solid of fats (similar to whipped cream) with microscopic sugar crystals helping keep it in place.
The only thing a strawberry puree would have that might reach similar consistency is the sugars. If you were to heat to a high enough heat that the sugars polymerize crystallise (like in candy), and whisk, you might get a structure like a mousse, but it would be crunchy. |
Why does beating egg whites with cold water increase the volume of incorporated air
From Wikipedia,
beating an egg white after adding a small amount of cold water considerably increases the amount of foam produced.
Why? What is changed by adding cold water? | When you beat an egg white, you incorporate air into the water contained in the egg white, thus making an emulsion. The kind of foam that we obtain is the result of the proteins present in the egg white trapping the air in the water.
So it makes sense that if you add a little bit of water you will produce more foam. I assume it has to be cold water because emulsions are fragile and would be destroyed by hot water.
Careful with the quantities though, I haven't been able to find a clear table of quantities but most of the recipes mention just one coffee spoon of cold water. |
How to remove every insect from romaine lettuce?
How do I get rid of tiny insects on my lettuce, I know that there will always be insects on it but I'm so paranoid about it. I have a huge fear and I love lettuce so much. I get rid of most insects by first removing each leaf, soaking the lettuce in a vinegar water mix for 10 minutes or so, and running each individual lettuce leaf through water.
Usually this works, but I always get these little insects that don't seem to get off, I literally see them holding on to dear life when I run water through them.
I posted a pictures here too
Is there a way to get rid of these little insects? Also, what are they? | Meet the common aphid. These little insects suck sap from your salad and are totally harmless, should the occasional hitchhiker slip your attention.
To remove them, there are a few home remedies:
Soak the leaves in salted water (a tablespoon for a large bowl should do).
Or use a few dashes of vinegar instead.
Both soaking methods can be improved by gently agitating the leaves every now and then and if you use a bowl and let it overflow instead of dumping the lettuce in your kitchen sink, the aphids that float on the surface get carried away instead of reattaching themselves when you lift out the leaves.
Except for really heavy infestations (can happen to the most diligent the organic gardeners), I often simply rinse the little critters off the individual leaves under running water. Think of your faucet as a “mini pressure washer”: Don’t hold the leaves right under the faucet, but lower and let gravity help you. Then even a little water is surprisingly effective. In my experience lukewarm water works better than cold water, but I can only speculate why. Maybe because cold water makes the aphids “stiff” and they can’t let go? The most stubborn ones come off with a gentle nudge with your finger, fingernail or (if you are especially squeamish) a knife tip. |
How to get vegan cheese to taste like cheese
I have yet to find a vegan cheese that tastes like cheese. It seems that all recipes use mainly nutritional yeast as flavoring and while it's delicious and has a cheesy flavor to it, it doesn't quite taste like real cheese. My question is how can I make vegan cheese that tastes like actual cheese? I've found some recipes that use fermented tofu as part of the flavor component and that might give it the fermenty flavor, but what I really want is the sharp flavor that comes with cheddar. Is there anything I could add to make it taste like that? | According to Eater, the latest and most sophisticated vegan cheeses involve fermentation of the cheese base itself, rather than by adding any particular ingredient:
The process for making fermented vegan cheese, which is most nut-based cheese, is quite similar to that used to make dairy cheese. A nut is soaked and then blended with water to create a milk base, to which a culture is added.
As such, if you're making your own, then you need to look into how to ferment your own nut milks and other ingredients. |
How to properly clean raw chicken cut in pieces?
In the country where I live, whole chicken is the cheapest protein you can buy and I cook it every week at home. I always ask the butcher to cut it into pieces for me and I use it for stews, grilled, fried, cooked in the oven, anyway you can imagine. It is cheap and incredibly versatile, selling for around 1,6€/kg. The closest meat product would be pork chops selling for around 3,5€/kg.
Because the chicken is cut in pieces it comes with small bits of fat and chicken insides that don't taste or look good in my dishes. I remove these with a knife and then wash chicken under running water to remove the smaller bits. If I don't wash the chicken I get smaller bits of fat and blood vessels in my food. But I was horrified to stumble into articles that say washing raw chicken isn't safe. It spreads bacteria into the countertops and the sink and there's evidence that the bacteria can remain after the kitchen is washed. Everyone agrees washing raw chicken isn't safe. The alternative is patting the chicken with kitchen paper, but this will make it hard to remove the small bits of blood and whatnot that are holding on to the chicken. What can I do to safely clean my chicken? | There are several studies published on the presence of campylobacter (which is the bacteria of concern) in chicken. You didn't specify where you are, but the findings are fairly consistent worldwide. Chicken has a much higher incidence than other poultry products, and other proteins, though campylobacter can be present there too. Of course, this is all made safe when cooked. So, the concern with washing is cross-contamination, as you correctly point out.
I would use a paper or cloth towel to remove any bone fragments that might be dangerous if chewed or swallowed. Then dispose of the paper towel or wash the cloth thoroughly. Bits of fat can be removed this way as well, or cut off with a knife.
As for any remaining blood or parts that are not easily wiped away, just leave them. Try it. See if you think they make a difference in the final product. I assume that you will not even notice them... or you can scrape that away after cooking. If that is not possible for you, perhaps search out another butcher who will prepare it the way you like... or give your current a butcher another try, but this time ask him or her to remove the parts you don't like.
This all might be a bit of extra work, but you will soon find a rhythm... and, for the money you are saving, it might be well worth it. |
What are these spaghetti-like strings in the rice I got from a Turkish shop?
I bought some rice from Turkish shop and as you can see in the picture it came with this spaghetti like strings with it, I’m not referring to the green stuff.
Do you know what it is and would it have been typically boiled with the rice or added at the end? | It's toasted vermicelli.
This dish is called şehriyeli pilav in Turkey, riz bi sh’arieh in Lebanon and Syria, shehrehi yeghintz in Armenia, and reshteh polo in Iran.
The basic idea is that you brown the noodles in a little bit of oil or butter, then add rice and cook basically as you would cook steamed rice.
Below are four sample recipes. Note that the Persian version (the last in this list) is more complicated, uses a different noodle (a kind that's more common in Iran) and has a crispy bottom.
şehriyeli pilav
riz bi sh'arieh
shehrehi yeghintz - and if you read that article (it's worth a read), you'll learn that this dish was also the inspiration for Rice-A-Roni. More like the "Yerevani treat"!
reshteh polo |
How to preserve this alcohol free herbal bitter?
I have an alcohol free herbal liquid bitter. The ingredients are:
“Vegetable Glycerin, Purified Water, Astragalus Root, Centaury Aerial Parts, Gentian Root, Ginger Root, Rosemary Leaves, Fennel Seed, Cardamon Seed (210mg).”
I know alcohol based bitters can last for a long time. After opening this what factors can lead this bitter to go bad and how long can I expect it to last? | It is not that it is going to turn bad, the issue is that the interesting components of this bitter are mostly volatile. Volatiles and the flavor components of bitters are more easily "dissolved" into/preserved by alcohol. Water is terrible for this. So, the best you can do is purchase or make small amounts, be sure to keep it tightly sealed, and keep it away from direct light. It's hard to say how long it will last once opened...days maybe, but I can promise it is much less time than a bitter made with alcohol. |
Meat loses weight after some time
Context
My physic teacher told a story where he bought some beef, put them into
a vacuum (separated), measured their weight and put them into the freezer. Some days later he wanted to cook one of them but he couldn't see a difference between the beefs and his other meats. So he decided to weight them since he wrote their weight down before. Surprisingly none of them had one of the noted weights, he told that they were completely different. His biggest beef weighed about 1.300g but now it weigh less (I can't remember the number anymore).
What's your question?
What could be the reasons that the beefs lost their weights, although they were packed in a vacuum and put into a freezer? | If the outside of the bag was wet (such as if it were rinsed after sealing), that water will have evaporated. There may have been some small amount of outgassing from the plastic itself. Neither of those effects would amount to more than a few grams. If the reported difference was greater than that, the most likely explanation would be measurement/recording error. |
Is it ok to eat kimchi that is causing its package to expand?
For non-fermented foods, I feel like it's obvious that they shouldn't be consumed if they're causing the package they're stored in to expand, even if they're still within the "best by" date. Does this apply to fermented foods like kimchi?
I had some yesterday and, while it's still in date (just), the sealed package was notably "inflated". It popped when opening and the kimchi made a "fizzing" sound for a little while. It didn't smell off and it tasted OK, albeit a little more acidic than usual. So far I haven't suffered any adverse effects.
I have one tub left. Is this Korean Roulette, or should it be fine? | Fresh kimchi will continuously release gas as it continues to ferment; unlike some other fermented foods, it contains active cultures. Commercial kimchi is often packaged with a "gas absorber", but that can only do so much. So yes, it should be fine. |
How do I make my blended soup a more appealing colour?
I was following this recipe for minestrone soup. This recipe includes a red tomato base, as well as some green vegetables.
I like to blend my soups up after to make them smoother. However, when I do this I end up with an unappealing brown colour to my soup, since the green veggies and red from the tomato combine to be brown (at least this is what I assume is the reason).
I've seen this with other soups I've made before; anytime I have tomato + greens in a soup it happens.
How do I improve the colour of the soup to make it more appealing? Or am I overthinking this?
(I know brown soup exists and can be appealing (e.g. Windsor soup), but in this case when I blend it the colour just comes out like a mossy brown colour that looks kinda gross). | Of course “appealing” is quite opinion-based, so let’s look at the problem in a slightly more neutral “how can I avoid the colors mixing when I blend the soup”.
In short, you can’t.
If you have a significant amount of green and red veggies, that is.
One of the appeals and key features of a classic minestrone are the colorful ingredients that give you a bright and versatile palette, almost a mosaic in a bowl. But let’s not argue with the question’s premise.
If you want to blend the whole soup, you need to stay in a limited range of the color wheel, which means for your soup everything that’s between red (as dictated by the tomato base) and yellow will be fine, as is white or translucent. Stay away from green. Blueish ingredients are quite rare and not part of a minestrone, so we can ignore that. In your example recipe, the spinach is out.
Alternatively you can blend everything except “the green”. That means you need to either fish out all the green vegetables or cook them separately. That said, the spinach in your recipe will cook so quickly that you could even add it after the blending step. And of course you still get chunks in the purée.
If your desire to blend is not motivated by the desire for a chunk-free result but about thickening the soup, you could use alternative ways to thicken the soup. An easy way would be to scoop out a few of the starchy ingredients (e.g. the potatoes), mash them up and put them back. Or introduce an additional thickener, e.g. a starch slurry. |
How does the flavour from aromatics actually get into food?
I've always wondered what the exact mechanism is which allows flavours from aromatics to permeate food. For instance, I bake chicken with sliced lemon, sliced garlic, and parsley (each in hefty amounts), and it doesn't really seem to matter where the aromatics are in the pan when I put it in the oven, as the chicken still comes out with some of the flavour.
I haven't been able to find an answer online, perhaps because it's simpler than I'm imagining. Is the chicken basting in a liquid flavoured with the aromatics? Are the flavours of the aromatics carried in evaporating water molecules through the air?
Also, what are the implications of this mechanism of flavour transfer? For instance, where should my aromatics be placed relative to my food in order to maximize flavour transfer, and what ingredients work best as aromatics?
If flavours are aerosolized and transfer to the food that way, is it a good idea to loosely cover the food with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven to "trap" the flavour particles? | There's lots of different ways to answer this question.
Is the chicken basting in a liquid flavoured with the aromatics? Are the flavours of the aromatics carried in evaporating water molecules through the air?
The answer is yes to both, and it really depends on what you're cooking and how you're cooking it. I'll try to think of a couple examples, but before I dive into that, there's some plant science we need to discuss.
When the aromatics heat up, they release their own oils, and the oils are part of what flavours the food (there is still flavour in the leaves/spices/fruit itself, so not all the flavour is coming from these oils). For example; when you cut into, say, an orange peel, you (typically) smell a strong orange scent. What you're actually smelling isn't the fruit inside (because you haven't made it to the fruit just yet), but the oils of the peel that get released because when you broke the peel, you broke the cell walls of the plant and released the oil into the air (sometimes you can even see the spray of oils depending on the lighting). This is also why some recipes tell you to "bruise" your herbs, because doing so breaks the cell walls and allows the oils to escape easier/faster (side note but this is especially true of dried herbs! Whenever I add dried herbs to food, I always pour them into my hand and rub them as I sprinkle them to bring out the flavours more). These oils then dissolve into water, fat, or alcohol, and thus flavour the water/fat/alcohol. Typically, these oils dissolve best in fat.
Let's talk about the example you gave of chicken with sliced lemon, sliced garlic, and parsley. For this example, I'm assuming this is chicken breast baked on a sheet tray, and I will also be assuming you're using olive oil (or any oil/fat). When the chicken and aromatics get heated in the oven, the chicken will start to release fat and the aromatics will start to release their oils. Some of the flavour of the oils will be released into the steam and will lightly flavour your chicken, which is why your chicken has "some of the flavour" of the aromatics. However, the majority of your flavour (in this case) has actually dissolved into the fat that you see on the sheet tray. There will probably be brown bits on your sheet tray as well - this is called "fond" and it is basically concentrated flavour. If you were to remove the chicken and aromatics from the sheet tray and make a gravy/pan sauce using the fat and scraping those brown bits off, the flavours of your aromatics will be much more intense in the sauce than the meat.
Another example I can think of is pho broth. Pho broth is perfumed with star anise, cloves, and cinnamon. To get the best flavour from these aromatics, you would heat them up before adding them to the broth to release their oils. From there, the aromatics simmer with the broth for a few days. This allows the aromatics to release more oils, and allow the oils to dissolve into the broth, thus adding their flavours into the mix.
Also, what are the implications of this mechanism of flavour transfer? For instance, where should my aromatics be placed relative to my food in order to maximize flavour transfer, and what ingredients work best as aromatics?
Typically you'll want to place your aromatics as close to the meat as possible, and sometimes inside the meat (in the case of things like whole poultry). Again, it kind of depends on what you're cooking and how. If you're roasting in the oven it's not a huge deal so long as you don't open your oven a bunch of times during the cooking process. The steam generated doesn't really have anywhere to go in the oven until the door is open, so keeping it shut helps trap the steam and the oils inside.
As far as ingredients that work best as aromatics? That entirely depends on what flavours you like. You could get a notebook and jot down what flavours you put into a dish, then when you're done eating make a few notes about how it tasted (ex. 'needed more glaric', 'too much thyme', 'didn't like the taste of star anise and dill together'). You'll get to know your preferred flavours and find combos you love. If that's too much hassle, try to find cooks/chefs on YouTube or Instagram and follow their recipes, especially if it's a new food or flavour you're trying out. Josh Weissman, Binging with Babish, Sohla El-Waylly, and Alison Roman are a few of my personal favourites. Buzzfeed/Tasty recipes are typically pretty easy to follow and great intros if you're very new to cooking.
If flavours are aerosolized and transfer to the food that way, is it a good idea to loosely cover the food with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven to "trap" the flavour particles?
I wouldn't recommend covering your food to "trap" the flavours, unless otherwise stated by a recipe, because you risk either overcooking your meat or making your food soggy, and no one wants that.
I hope that helped! |
Should I salt the water when boiling store-bought dry potato gnocchi?
Should I salt the water when boiling dry gnocchi? I have seen some recipes where they do salt the water, but also advice on some websites recommending not to do so.
Most information on the internet seems to be about fresh gnocchi, so I’m not sure if the advice would be different for dry gnocchi.
These are the ingredients of the gnocchi:
Edit
So far people are suggesting to salt the water. So, I would like to share a source which recommends not doing so:
A culinary article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the following:
"Typically you cook pasta in salted water," said Wisniewski. "But in the case with gnocchi, the salt will cause the potato starch to become sticky, and you'll end up with a mushy product."
It seems they are talking about fresh gnocchi here, but a counterargument to that for the case of dried gnocchi would be helpful. | If there is no salt in the gnocchi, then salt the water. Pasta (and probably dried gnocchi) should always be cooked in salted water. It just tastes flat otherwise. |
Is MSG able to penetrate meat like chicken breast and steak when dissolved in a brine?
I am trying to figure out whether adding MSG to a water based brine will allow the MSG to 'penetrate' the meat. I know it is soluble, but I'm not sure whether this means it will be able to diffuse into the meat in the same way regular salt does. I remember reading a claim (a comment online) that the size of the molecules involved in the MSG means it will not work.
Is this true? I am hoping to actually try this out, but it would be helpful to know the basic food science/chemistry behind it to figure out the optimal concentrations etc. | Yes, MSG will penetrate, and it appears to diffuse about 1/3 as fast as table salt. You will learn a lot from this link. You'll need to scroll down quite a bit, or search the page for MSG. |
Can you season over some thin flash rust and get a usable pan as a result? What are the downsides of doing so?
I've had a carbon steel pan with some thin flash rust spots. I've tried to remove them by scrubbing, but after applying a new layer of seasoning it turned out I hadn't removed all of it.
While I find a lot of posts online about how to remove rust from pans and how to prevent rust in pans, I can't find a clear answer to the question whether a thin layer of rust under layers of seasoning is actually harmful. The way I see it, once there's enough seasoning on top of the rust there won't be any oxygen for the rust to expand and the surface that touches your food is free of rust.
What are the downsides when you have some flash rust in a carbon steel pan and continue seasoning over it until the pan stops giving off rust when rubbed with an oily paper towel?
Some of the problems I can imagine happening (but I'm not sure if they will happen):
The seasoning won't hold onto the pan as well as it would without the flash rust.
The new layers of seasoning won't 'grab onto' the rusty parts meaning that you will never arrive at a point where the existing rust is trapped inside layers of seasoning. In other words, when rubbing it with an oily paper towel the pan will always continue giving off some rust. | An iron pan is one single piece of substance. It just stays the way it was cast.
A patch of rust is a brittle, powdery substance. It will crumble with time, pieces of it falling off, no matter if they have a bit of seasoning on top or not. So, you will end up with these spots being "naked" again.
Additional to that, in any kind of applying coatings (in the kitchen and outside), "hiding" pieces of other stuff under a coating (even if it is "just" an old patch of the same coating you are applying) is a hallmark of shoddy work. The integrity of your new layer is compromised, and you get quality problems over time. Any professional painter spends more time sanding away old paint than applying new one. It is just a physical property of coating layers that they require an even surface with known-good qualities. If you want a good coating on your pan, you will have to do the stripping work. |
Why does my girlfriend love onions, but hate garlic?
So, my girlfriend absolutely loves garlic, but hates onion with a burning passion. I'm reading up on this - they're both allium vegetables, and that's cool and all. But why is she offended by onions, lukewarm on leeks, and greedy for garlic? Chemically, what's going on, here?
I plan to experiment with various kinds of onions to obtain more data. | While onions, garlic and leeks are related, their flavours are not the same and a person may well like one but not another, or even like one cooked one way but not another (for example, fried but not raw onion, or roasted but not raw garlic). You ask "chemically, what's going on here" – there are different chemicals, as you can surely intuit by tasting the three for yourself (and each chemical will change during a given cooking process too).
Food preferences are idiosyncratic, and while sometimes you can identify a reason (for example, there is a specific gene related to finding coriander/cilandro unpleasant, or someone might have previously had food poisoning after eating a particular item and afterwards be unable to stomach it) on the whole you shouldn't expect an explanation deeper than 'because she does'. |
Lentils and barley used together
In Polish Sausage Lentil soup, can I use some barley to replace some lentils - can I mix the two? Same question only opposite - in Turkey, Tomato, Barley soup, can I also use some lentils? | Yes to both questions. Lentils and barley can go together quite well in a soup. Here's a recipe for a lentil and barley soup as an example. Compare it to your soup recipe to see if there are any major differences (especially in cooking time or liquid to barley/lentil ratios). My hunch is that the barley will absorb more liquid than the lentils, so you may need to increase the water a bit. Just keep an eye on the soup as it simmers, and add more water as needed.
There's one caveat about your turkey, tomato, barley and lentil soup idea. Legumes take longer to cook when the cooking liquid is acidic. Tomatoes are acidic. Lentils cook quickly enough that they will get fully cooked even in an acidic broth, but it takes longer. (If you were using a slower-cooking legume, such as beans and chickpeas, I would recommend pre-cooking the beans.) Here's a recipe for a tomato, lentil and barley soup as an example. Notice that it simmers for an hour to get the lentils fully cooked, whereas the soup without tomatoes only has to simmer for 40 minutes. If you want the faster cook time, simmer the soup for about half an hour before adding the tomatoes. That will give the lentils time to get nearly done before increasing the acidity of the broth. |
How can I tell if my extra virgin olive oil is rancid?
I couldn't tell by smell if my bottle of Great Value olive oil was rancid or not - and decided to taste it to check - about 2 teaspoons. It had the bitter, peppery sorta burn in the back of my throat that some people have said is characteristic of good olive oil.
Is it likely that it is rancid? I can't quite describe its smell or taste. | Good olive oil is supposed to have a peppery burn in the back of your throat. It is also not uncommon for it to have bitter elements. There is no way to discern if your oil is bad by your description. Olive oil that has been exposed to heat or light, or is just old, will no longer smell fresh. Fresh olive oil generally has grassy aromas with some olive mixed in. Rancid oil might smell waxy, some describe it as smelling of old crayons or old walnuts. It might taste fatty, as opposed to fresh and grassy. If it is rancid, couple of teaspoons is not going to cause any harm. |
What is this on sourdough starter?
I have a sourdough starter which I feed roughly once every 2-3 days (throw away 95% of it, refill with water and flour). Sometimes I forget and wait 5 days between feedings, and by that time it often has developed what looks to me like mold on the top. It looks super interesting and I'd really like to know what it is. A picture is below. It's grown like this a few times, and the starter keeps rising and producing good bread, so it's definitely still alive and well. | That is Kahm yeast. Not harmful but can leave a bad taste in bread made with it. Remove 20g from the bottom and continue from there. Possibly from contaminated flour. |
Can I refrigerate lower hydration dough for storage like I would no-knead dough?
I've been baking with the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day recipe for nearly a decade, off an on, and like a lot of people I decided to try to step up my game over the last year. I feel like I've reached the point where I have a good mastery of techniques with that recipe, and wanted to try out a more "standard", knead-needing, lower hydration recipe.
So I whipped up a batch of the basic dough in the river cottage bread handbook (60% hydration, all bread flour), and damn son. Compared to what I was getting with my no knead dough, that crust.
So now I want to figure out how to combine the best aspects of these recipes, which to me would mean be able to make larger batches at a time and refrigerate to use over a few days. I don't mind kneading at all, and taking the time to punch down etc.
I'm not sure what makes the no knead recipe work well with the fridge. My guess is that, since I'm not building up and long gluten chains by hand, I don't have to worry about it over fermenting and breaking down the gluten structure after several days of fridge time, maybe?
So how would I apply this to a more "normal", kneaded dough? Maybe just toss it in before final proof but it's only good for 2-3 days? Maybe do one less punch down and rise before putting it in? Maybe dont bulk ferment at room temp at all, just knead and straight into the fridge? And in that last case, maybe give it time for an extra rise at room temp before the final proof if I take it out on the first day or two?
I know I should probably just try to figure this out in my own but that would take a lot of flour =) | For dough storage at fridge temp it is best to refrigerate immediately after kneading, but you can also do so at more or less any time during rising.
Storing immediately after kneading will allow you to keep the dough for 2-3 days before you need to use it. It will slowly start to rise over this time, and the rising process is the limitation on the storage length. The slow rise also tends to give better flavour. However, if it has started to rise before you refrigerate, it will not keep for quite as long, as you have the limit on rising. |
Reducing acidity in Northern Indian Cuisine (chana masala)
I have been buying various spice mixes to make Pakistani/North Indian food myself. My issue is that in dishes with yoghurt and/or tomatoes, the end result always winds up being too sour. It happens with my karahis and also, most annoyingly, with channa masala.
I have tried various kinds of yoghurts, including plain low-fat yoghurt but also a Turkish one I found which had 10% fat. The result didn't change much. So, I don't think the type of yoghurt I am using is the problem.
Other than the acidity these dishes turn out alright. Which steps can I take to reduce the acidity of my dishes?
Update
I am restricting this question to chana masalas since that's what I have played around with the most. However, I am open for more general answers as well.
I usually put about half the amount of onion as tomatoes. Other than that, I usually follow the recipe on the box. The one I am currently using is this one. | The questioner reports using fresh tomatoes. At least in my country, fresh tomatoes are always a disappointment: the common large varieties are not very sweet and because they are refrigerated, they have very little flavour. This is one possible reason why the curry comes out too acidic.
To bring out the sweet notes in tomatoes I suggest roasting them first. But it is easier to use high quality tinned tomatoes (for example Italian San Marzano tomatoes). Tomato puree will also significantly increase the sweetness. |
Is it safe to smoke a 20lb turkey?
I just spatchcocked a 12 lb turkey, smoked it in temperature around 225-275 F (107-135 C) for about 3 hours. I did it in a kamado joe classic 3 with SloRoller. It came out amazing. Fully cooked, tender and flavorful
I’m wondering
Is it possible to do the same thing with a 20lb turkey?
Some random sources I googled suggested that that’s crossing into the “danger zone” anything above 12lb. | The main concern with smoking large whole turkeys is that heat may not get into the cavity, so the inside may not get up to temperature fast enough. When you spatchcock a turkey the heat can get to both sides evenly, so you take away this problem and a 20lb turkey should be fine. Kamado Joes (I have a Classic 2) have excellent heat circulation so I wouldn't expect you to have a problem with a whole one, but spatchcocking will give you better results. |
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