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Grinding toasted spices without cooling
It is recommended when roasting whole spices in Indian cooking to cool them before grinding into a powder. Why do you need to wait for the spices to cool and what happens if you don’t? | The reason to wait is that warm spices tend to clump when grinding, and the cooling step should help avoid this. I have a bladed coffee grinder that I use as a spice grinder. I rarely wait for toasted spices to cool. Sometimes they do clump in the grinder. I don't find it a problem, and just wipe out the ground, but sometimes stuck spices. |
Boil candy for 1-½ hours to soft ball stage?
I’ve recently run across a recipe in a vintage cookbook (probably the fifties, as the phone numbers in it are exchange numbers) for “Two-Hour Candy”:
Two-Hour Candy
7 c. sugar
1 cube butter
1 lg. can Pet milk
1 sm. can Pet milk
1 bottle white Karo syrup
3 c. nuts
Mix first 5 ingredients. Boil 1 1/2 hours. Stir often. Cook until it
forms soft ball or 235 deg. F. Remove from fire and beat 1/2 hour.
Add nuts.
While I’m not experienced with using evaporated milk, my general experience is that if I attempt to boil a mix like that for an hour and a half, it will go far beyond 235° Fahrenheit.
This is probably about six times the amount of candy I would normally make, but while I would expect it to take longer to come to a boil, I would not expect it to take such a long time after it comes to a boil.
Am I wrong? Or am I misreading this recipe in some way?
“Two-Hour Candy” appears to be a unique title, and I was surprised at how few responses “Pet Milk Candy” returns. I did find an interesting Pet Milk cookbook from 1930, Pet Recipes, (it’s part of MSU’s fascinating Little Cookbooks collection) but found no corresponding recipe in it.
I realize that I could just boil it to the appropriate temperature and disregard the time, but that assumes I’m reading the recipe correctly and not misunderstanding terms that may have changed over half a century or so. | This is a known method to make dairy caramel. Instead of caramelizing the sugar quickly over a high heat and then quench it with the dairy, one starts with all ingredients combined, in a very wet mixture, and cooks the liquid out until the candy has the desired consistency. In the meantime, the sucrose/syrup's sugars and the dairy's lactose caramelize together.
It is not so unusual to need a long time for the process to work, for example Brunost also uses lactose caramelization and needs even longer.
I suppose the whole thing will work smoother if you keep it at a simmer rather than at a boil. I cannot say why the text says "boil", maybe they are not all that exact with terminology. Or maybe they really assume that you will sit at the stove all the time and stir as much as needed, as opposed to maybe letting it cook for an hour longer, but at a lower temperature. It is also possible that you do have to stir almost all the time once a certain consistency has been reached, so it makes sense to keep the boil a bit brisk from this point.
As for not being able to find similar recipes, it seems that the cookbook chose the title somewhat at random. It is a known method, and one can find many recipes for "caramel candy" or "fudge" which use it. "Evaporated milk fudge" will better discriminate between slowly-cooked methods and quenched methods. For example, that search term returned this video, which is a nice demonstration of the method. I would say that you can certainly disregard the time, as usual in candy making, it is the temperature that counts. |
how long is vacuum sealed meat safe at room temperature before spoiling
I've seen several great posts about food safety, such as:
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/34671
https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/17550
This includes the "safe limit for raw or cooked food is 2 hours". But what if that food has been vacuum sealed? Will it last longer before it must be disposed of? All I've found is that vacuum sealed food should not be left at room temperature indefinitely, but no comment on its safe limit. Perhaps it's also 2 hours, but I would like to confirm that explicitly.
I have steam-cooked dog food (chicken) that is sold refrigerated. Once opened, I store the food in vacuum sealed containers (zwilling), which i typically refrigerate between servings. On two occasions I have vacuumed the container, and then forgot to put it in the fridge. I find it ~4 hours later on the counter. I've thrown it out, but the act bugs me, particularly being unsure if it is still safe as it has been vacuumed. | Vacuum packed meat has been sealed, but it’s possible that bacteria was sealed in there with it.
If it’s some sort of a cured meat (eg, a cured sausage, dried or salted meats), then it might be okay stored at room temperature, but I’d only consider factory sealed containers for that— not my sealing it at home, where I don’t have the same sanitation practices as a factory)
It’s possible that you could vacuum seal something, and then pasteurize it, but I have no idea how to calculate safe times for that sort of storage. I suspect it would be similar t confit, which used to be a way to preserve poultry, but it’s quite possible that modern germs have made it no longer acceptable for room temperature storage.
I would recommend coming up with some sort of workflow to make sure you put things in the fridge after you’ve sealed the packages. Once you’re in the habit, you’ll be less likely to make the error. |
What is the best practice storage method for flour to avoid bugs?
I have recently decided that I'd rather have base ingredients that I am store in my pantry in order to make more meals from scratch as opposed to getting things premade. A friend of mine told me there's no way that they would store flour anywhere but the fridge, otherwise it would eventually get bugs in it.
I have looked around and found these two related questions:
Is it okay to keep flour in the freezer?
What is the best way to store the whole wheat flour for daily usage?
However I don't think that either really addresses specifically the concern of bugs, or the preferred storage location of pantry vs. fridge vs. freezer.
I don't do much baking, but I wouldn't be opposed to starting (provided that my flour doesn't get bugs in it!) For now though, most of my uses of flour would be in small amounts for stovetop recipes and the occasional breading, so I'm not too concerned about my flour not rising properly (mentioned here), or throwing off the baking time because of a temperature difference (mentioned here). Is the fridge enough to stop the bugs? Or is a freezer necessary? Is the container being airtight the only thing that matters?
EDIT: In response to a comment, I am located in Minnesota, in the United States Midwest region. | Based on my personal experience of living in a 100-year-old apartment building, where both pantry moths and flour beetles were basically chronic:
The freezer will prevent bugs more effectively than the fridge, which also works better than the pantry. Particularly, the fridge only keeps bugs from hatching, but the freezer will often kill the eggs. Both the freezer and the fridge (per the other questions) also have the benefit of making whole grains last longer.
However, a lot of us simply don't have the space to put all of our grains and legumes in the fridge or freezer. If you need to put them in the pantry, here's a guide:
Store all grain items, including flour, pasta, crackers, rice, etc., and all dried legumes in airtight thick-walled containers. Glass jars are ideal for this, but heavy hard-walled plastic containers will also work. Plastic bags are insufficient, as flour beetles can tunnel through a freezer bag. Yes, this means removing even new, unopened items from store packaging and putting it into a hard-walled container.
Regularly, at least 3 or 4 times a year, take your whole pantry apart, scrub all surfaces, walls, and cracks, and inspect all containers for infestation. If anything is infested, throw it out outside and clean the container with boiling hot water (or the dishwasher). If you notice moths or beetles, do this cleaning step immediately.
This works because pantry moths, flour beetles, roaches, and other pantry pests come from three sources:
They're already in the product. Bugs often infest grain products in the warehouse or at the store, since they have an effectively infinite food source there. While strong AC at markets will prevent the eggs from hatching, it doesn't kill them and they hatch once you get them into your nice, warm pantry.
They're already in your home. Pantry pests are able to survive on very little food or water and are legendarily difficult to permanently eradicate, since eggs can survive in tiny crevices.
They enter your home from outside in search of food. This is more true of moths and roaches than it is of beetles.
Airtight, thick-walled containers keep pests isolated on either side of the container, so the pests infesting a store product don't get out, and the ones in your home don't get in. The combination of containers and keeping your pantry scrubbed removes temptation for nearby pests, so they don't have a reason to crawl/fly to your pantry in the first place. |
Does store bought fully cooked rotisserie chicken need to be reheated to 165 degrees?
A little confusion on my part: I have a fully cooked whole rotisserie chicken which I put in the fridge. I read or google that when reheating to serve I should make sure it reaches 165 degrees.
Since the chicken is already cooked why do I need to reach 165 degrees? I could just as well eat it cold, no?
It says the same thing on the directions on the package it came in: 165 degrees. What am I missing here? | This is actually the recommendation of a lot of mass produced items.
They might have been contaminated after being made, and the producer wants to ensure that you kill anything that might have been introduced.
A cynic would also point out that this shifts liability to the consumer, as if you get sick from it, they can insist that you didn’t follow their reheating instructions. |
What is helping fried fish have more flavour?
Recently I’ve been frying some sea bass with salt and different oils.
I noticed when the surface of the Fried fish is more crispy it tastes better and also when I’ve used a saturated fat such as tallow or coconut oil.
When using say olive oil it doesn’t taste as good and seems quite plain.
I’m thinking the taste difference is due to two things:
On some occasions maybe I’m frying long enough and the malliard reaction occurs which creates its own flavour. However I notice the fish can taste more saltier like this. Does Maliard reaction combine with salt for a more flavourful affect or is salt getting cooked into the surface better when the factors which lead to a ballista reaction occur?
It seems the taste of the fish and salt go into coconut oil and tallow better than they do olive oil. Is it something about saturated fats that allow the flavour from fish, meat or salt distribute into the oil better than say olive oil? Or would there be no difference and it would simply be the different oil I’m tasting perhaps in addition to point 1 above?
Thanks | Different oils and fats have different tastes. Some may work better or worse with the fish. You may prefer some over others. In addition, as you point out, browning reactions significantly impact flavor. Further, evaporation of water during cooking concentrates salt, again, impacting final flavor. Flavor difference is, of course, objectively definable. However, your preference is your own, and subjective. |
Maillard Reaction at Higher Pressures
The Maillard Reaction requires temperatures of 140 to 165 Degrees Celsius; hence "browning" cannot be achieved with water when cooking under normal conditions since the boiling point of water is 100 Degrees Celsius, therefore to brown food we use oil, or direct heat.
However at 10 atmospheres of pressure the boiling point of water is 180 Degrees Celsius, which means it can reach the necessary temperature for "browning" to occur.
Can I sear a steak in water at 10 atmospheres of pressure? | Interesting question.
It seems that the short answer is yes and no, there is some Maillard reaction that goes on at high pressure (400 MPa or more; normal air pressure is 0.1 MPa). However, this has only been studied in model systems using glucose and lysine in buffered reactions, so by default this is in a liquid system, not a solid-liquid system like you describe. It seems this is also largely studied at fairly low temperatures, around 60 C or 140 F.
I found a fairly recent (2003) study here, with the full article here (likely paywalled) that indicates there is a strong pH dependency to this. At pH 7 (neutral) there is an inhibition from pressure, but as you become more alkaline (up to pH 10) there is some promotion of Maillard reaction, even at standard air pressure. A similar study (also paywalled probably) in 1991 found similar results up to 500 MPa.
The study also looked at browning and found a strong inhibition of browning by pressure, with almost no browning of the solutions taking place at high pressure.
However, in your system you are only looking at 1 MPa, not the very high pressures described in the articles. There is not really any precise way to extrapolate from the data in the papers to your system (liquid-liquid vs solid-liquid), but it looks like you could undergo the Maillard reaction, and probably brown too, but I can't say for sure.
Moreno et al J. Agric. Food Chem. 2003, 51, 2, 394–400.
Tamaoka et al Agric. BioI. Cherm., 55 (8), 2071-2074, 1991 |
What can I call this Swiss Chard side dish exactly in a menu?
What can I call this side dish (I have to write it on a restaurant menu)?
I have already written "cooked swiss chard" but I think it is not the exact definition. It is a mix of herbs that grow spontaneously on the fields, are then cooked and sautéed in a pan with oil, garlic and chilli. In Italian they are called "field herbs". | In the U.S., we would call usually these greens and not herbs. So why not use "sauteed field greens" or "sauteed wild greens"?
You should use a word like sautéed to indicate that they are cooked, because otherwise people will expect a salad. |
What was this mysterious food/dessert product in 1990s Finland?
Throughout the 1990s, I often visited Southern Finland with my family. More specifically, Hanko/Hangö.
In the stores, in the refrigerated area, they sold these yummy-looking desserts, or possibly food products. I'm not fully sure what they were, and I'm unsure if we ever bought any of them. (As a non-spoiled child, every little coin was precious to me and not to be "wasted" unless I could be completely sure in advance that it would taste good.)
I'm now trying to find out what these were called, and/or a photograph of the product. I don't remember any kind of branding/label or anything.
All I remember is that it was like a transparent plastic "circular" package, more or less approximating the dimensions of a normal (not too large) dining plate, but "thicker" (taller). It contained some sort of red "goo", possibly/probably some sort of jelly, with milk (or something resembling milk) poured around/over it, which looked extremely nice visually, the way the red and white parts were not muddled together but kept separated.
I don't think it was simply "klappgröt"/"vispipuuro", which they also sold in a similar manner, but that was more pinkish and separate from this dish: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Klappgr%C3%B6t.jpg/1280px-Klappgr%C3%B6t.jpg
This is probably a long shot, but hopefully, somebody might be able to know what this was called. Even if you do, however, it might not be possible for me to find a photo online, since it might very well be a very local and obscure product. You know, one of those many things which just cannot be found online no matter how much time you spend. Perhaps it was even made in-store and had no actual "trademark". | So, I asked someone I know from Finland, and while they also suggested Vispipuuro at first, they followed up with something that sound even more accurate.
It's called "Cranberry Kissel", and is bright red, goo-like, and fits your description pretty well.
This is Finnish recipe site that I got the photo from also suggests that you can add in whipped cream or something like that, which could be where you got the white aspect from. |
Imitating the flavour of canned cream of mushroom soup
Many brands such as Campbells, Batchellors and Heinz all have a distinct "mushroomy flavour" in their cream of mushroom soup that I can never quite imitate in my own soup recipe. All of them just state their fungi as "mushroom". I have tried:
Closed cap mushrooms
Button mushrooms
Chestnut mushrooms
Portobello mushrooms
Along with the common ingredients cream, onion, celery, etc but I can never reproduce that mushroom flavour. | What you are describing as a "mushroom" flavor is most likely umami, loosely translated as "savory". It is a flavor that comes from glutamates, which are found in foods like meat, mushrooms, tomato paste, and soy sauce. MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) is a refined/artificial version that can add an umami taste to food, which is often perceived as a "meaty" taste, but since mushrooms contain a lot of glutamates, what you are perceiving as a "mushroom" taste is quite likely the same.
Additionally, ingredients like yeast extract contain glutamates as well, and added flavors, both natural and artificial, contribute to the taste of manufactured soup.
Campbell's soup contains the following ingredients that give a savory/umami flavor, as do mushrooms:
Soy Protein Isolate, Monosodium Glutamate, Flavour, Yeast Extract
Batchellors soup contains the following:
Flavour Enhancers (Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium 5' - Ribonucleotides), Yeast Extract, Flavouring
and Heinz soup contains the following:
Yeast Extracts, Flavouring
so it appears that all the soups you mentioned are using ingredients not commonly found in home kitchens to amp up flavor.
You can try adding umami flavor to your soup by using lots of umami ingredients, such as tomato paste (also found in Campbell's soup).
Otherwise, the only way to acheive such flavors might be through MSG and similar flavor enhancers. |
Cooking liquid in oven turns crispy skin soggy
A few recipes I have tried calls for some liquid, typically a ladle of stock or broth, to be added to the baking tray before placing into the oven to finish the cooking process. (To assist in cooking the protein, not crisping the skin)
For example, a pan roasted chicken thigh is pan fried quickly to colour the skin before placing into the oven, skin side up (bottom and inside basically raw)with a ladle of stock. 15 minutes later, the chicken is cooked nicely but the skin is not crispy.
I have my oven set to 200 degrees celsius fan assisted. I suspect its all the water vapour inside the oven preventing the skin from becoming crispy as when I open the oven door, a large cloud of steam is released. What could I do to fix this?
Another example would be when roasting a belly pork with crackling. The belly sits on a rack above a tray of water. When the pork cooks the juices collect into the water below in order to make a gravy afterwards, but the skin isn't always as crisp as I hoped. | If you want crispy skin don't add liquid to the pan, I don't know why a recipe would call for a ladle of stock to crisp up the skin because it would have the opposite effect. Steaming before baking is a method used for making crispy chicken wings, but with that method you pat the wings dry before you bake them as moisture will prevent them from crisping up.
I love crispy chicken skin, and it's easy to achieve in a dry oven. I rub the skins of the pieces with a bit of oil, then sprinkle with salt and spices before baking them in a 200°C (395°F) fan oven for 35 minutes. It works every time. |
What type of onion is a "British Onion"?
I just moved to the UK from the USA, where we had access to all sorts of onions (being in Texas): yellow onions, green onions, shallots, red onions, white onions, sweet onions, etc.
We bought a bag of onions from a store here and they were simply labeled "British Onions."
They are bigger than shallots, but definitely smaller than the onions we used to get from Mexico. They look yellow on the outside and are greenish/white on the inside, but they are not sweet - they are rather bitter ;)
Is this just a brand of a sweet onion that is grown in the UK?
Further, are these equivalent to an "English Onion," which I've seen online when searching this query?
Thanks! | "British Onion" on the packaging isn't describing a type of onion, but advertising that the onions were grown in Britain (which is a common strategy to make produce more appealing in British supermarkets).
The variety of onion is the 'default' onion in the UK, often known as a brown onion to distinguish from other types, but apparently also called a yellow onion. The Wikipedia article describes the variety: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_onion
Supermarkets will sometimes have a variety of sizes available, and the flavour may differ a little by time of year, size, ripeness etc. I'm sure you'll find this is not the only natural product that tastes different to what you're used to. |
How to adapt Bundt cake recipes to other size Bundt pans?
I just impulse-purchased a couple of adorable Bundt pans that are 6" in diameter. Since this is not a standard size, how should I adapt recipes intended for other size Bundt pans? (Google tells me 10" is considered standard.) How do I calculate, or at least approximate, the appropriate quantity of batter, temperature, and bake time?
(The pans I purchased have a pale nonstick coating.)
Thanks for your insights, bakers! | The quantity of batter is the easiest thing to figure out. Take one large measuring cup, fill it with a known quantity of water, and pour into the tin. Once it's full, subtract the amount of water left in the measuring cup to get the volume of liquid that fits in the tin.
Alternatively, weigh the tin, fill it with water and weigh again. Then take advantage of the fact that 1 litre of water weighs exactly 1 kg to figure out the volume of water that fits in the tin.
As for time and temperature, that comes down to the precise recipe. In general, smaller baked goods bake at slightly higher temperatures than larger, so I would start by increasing the recipe temperature by 15-20 or so degrees Celsius. As for time, I would personally just keep a close eye on the cakes and start checking for doneness (with an instant read thermometer or a cake stick) after half the time for the original recipe. |
When cooking on an induction cooktop, can you leave a pot off-center or suspend it to slightly lower its temperature?
I like to cook using poaching and low simmering techniques (70°C to 85°C, about 160°F to 190°F). I want to get an induction cooktop, but the ones I can afford only have 10 temperature settings.
I worry that the gradations won't give me enough precision at low temperatures. Like, maybe at a 1 it'll heat the contents to 70°C, and at a 2 it'll heat them to 80°C - so I wouldn't be able to cook at 75°C if I wanted.
So I was wondering if it was possible to position the pot a little off center, or maybe put a few silicone mats under it or something, as a way of slightly reducing the heat. In the example above, Could I simply set it to a 2 and give it enough distance that the contents would stay near 75C? | I've had an induction cooktop before. The second method will work, I prefer to use a thin wooden coming board as the spacer. It's not perfect, but it is good enough for traditional applications like keeping soup at a simmer instead of a roiling boil. Putting it off-center won't work, induction stoves have a sensor and turn off if the pot doesn't cover the whole coil.
It becomes more difficult if you are cooking small amounts, if the temperature you need is higher (there is a risk the pan underside will get hot enough to damage the spacer after some time), or if your pan is thinner.
I have never tried to get a precision of 5 C, so I don't know how much fuss it will need. But there are two problems with that. First, the low settings of an induction stove are still quite hot. Second, the "low" setting is achieved by pulsing the coil to the "on" and "off" state over time. Since the heat transfer is so efficient, the water in the pot also constantly changes it's temperature, unless you get a rather large pot. |
Balancing biscoff spread for stuffed brownies
There is a recipe online for nutella stuffed brownies that I really like, and I want to swap out the nutella for biscoff to make a biscoff stuffed brownie. The recipe is this one in question: https://www.recipetineats.com/outrageous-nutella-brownies/
The biscoff spread is this one: (https://www.lotusbiscoff.com/en-gb/producten/lotus-biscoff-spread)
The problem is not with the recipe, but with the substitution. I think that just freezing a slab of biscoff (like it says to do with nutella) would make for a cloying brownie.
Is there anything I can do to "mellow" the biscoff spread so it isn't too cloying? I am thinking of blending in a neutral oil/butter to add more bulk without any flavour. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks! | Two options come to mind for me:
The first option I would suggest is simply using a thinner layer of biscoff spread. You can use one that is just a couple of millimetres thick instead of the half a centimetre of nutella in the recipe.
The second option would be to look up a recipe for biscoff cookie dough (American-style edible cookie dough flavoured with biscoff) and use that as filling for a more mellow flavour. |
How to stir porridge for even heating with an oversized skillet?
My stovetop cooking, don’t ask why, occurs in a 2-inch deep skillet
much wider than the stove’s largest heating element.
To evenly heat something thick, such as porridge or stew,
I have explored various patterns of intermittent mixing with a spatula.
Here is a schematic of my current method,
which at each stir takes two or more laps around the skillet.
Each arced stroke, beginning with 1, 2, 3 and 4 as indicated,
begins at the edge of the skillet and
is meant to bring less-heated food to the middle.
I have forgone strokes that go directly from edge to middle
as they seem to push each previous stroke’s result
back to the edge.
Are there other effective stirring patterns
for oversized skillets?
Internet search results in effect just say “stir, stir stir”
but not how.
This question also relates to stirring a tall oversized pot,
which also brings vertical stirring into play. | There's no real reason to use a fixed pattern for stirring. Just pay attention and if you see a spot that looks quite done, move it around to mix it with spots that are less done.
Since you mention that you've had trouble with the food near the middle getting burnt, you want to be sure not to leave anything there for too long. Try starting your strokes in the middle, moving outward. (Gently, so you don't slosh over the side.) Be sure your utensil gets right down to the pan and loosen/move anything that might be starting to stick.
(One other thought - if you plan to cook much before you regain access to your regular kitchenware, is there a thrift shop or some such where you could pick up one or two essentials, like a properly-sized saucepan? They're often quite cheap, and once you have your own kit back, you could just donate it back to the shop.) |
What is the best way to reduce the genesis of oil vapors and aerosols when frying?
I would like to clarify I am not asking about oil splatter nor am I asking about air filtration tools.
What is the best way to reduce the generation of frying aerosols and vapors that can condense on distant surfaces such as those in rooms adjacent to a kitchen without changing cooking temperature or method of cooking, in this case, pan frying?
Is the smoke point of the cooking lubricant the greatest factor for aerosols and vapors or is there something else that impacts it more strongly such as the amount of moisture in the food being cooked which increases the amount of sizzling and splatter which may generate fine aerosols that remain airborne?
Can an oil vaporize without ever reaching its smoke point or is the term "smoke point" synonymous with evaporation? Maybe my question is misguided and oils cannot actually vaporize, but rather only become a fine mist, or maybe the smoke itself is what is sticking to the surfaces as what appears to be an oily film.
Is there an index for different types of cooking lubricants regarding their evaporation points rather than smoke points if they do indeed evaporate? | The oil droplets to which you refer are actually called "explosive hot oil droplets" by researchers who have studied their distribution via fluid dynamics. They are part of a larger group of kitchen air pollutants called "kitchen-based aerosols." You might be interested in this paper, where the authors examine the impact of these droplets on indoor pollution. I can't find evidence that different oils respond much differently, and the solution appears to be proper ventilation. They are not evaporating, but instead being broken into very small droplets, as a result of interacting with high heat and water, which cause them to become airborne. This is why proper outdoor venting recommended. |
Cheesemaking and recipe scaling
I made my first attempt at cheesemaking this past weekend, this cheese specifically, and it didn't work out - I got curds separated from the whey fine, but they never became stretchy.
I'm curious whether the issue was that I attempted to scale the recipe. I didn't want to make the full batch the first time - mostly because 2 gallons of milk would have filled my 8 quart pan, the largest I have - and so cut things in half, like I would for a bread or similar.
Is this possible in cheesemaking? Or do scales work differently? It's very possible I had other issues - I don't think I scaled perfectly in a few places, and I may have allowed the temperature to vary a bit more than I should have - but I want to nail down this one first. | Cheese recipes scale pretty linearly, at least until you get small enough that it's hard to measure out the rennet or culture accurately, or large enough that it's challenging to heat and cool the milk. I have, on occasion, made a 1 liter of milk batch when 6oz of cheese was all I needed.
Queso Oaxaca is a "mozzarella process" cheese, though, and getting the temperature and acidity right for good stretching is notoriously finicky. I've made mozzarella at least a dozen times and I still got a stretch failure on my last batch, for reasons I'm not completely sure of. If you weren't able to hold the temperature steady during stage 4, for example, the curd might not have become acidic, and would have stretched poorly.
So: your cheese failure is normal, and had little or nothing to do with changing the scale, unless you really did mismeasure. |
Wooden butter knife sanding?
I received a wooden butter knife in the mail fairly recently: now my only question is this, will it need sanding to maintain its food worthiness or does it require something else to keep it food safe? I got it from Amazon.com if it helps. | It's hard to say exactly without knowing what wood it's made out of and how it was constructed - there are many factors to the durability of wooden tools and utensils. If all you are using this for is spreading butter, margarine and the like then you shouldn't need to do too much care, just wash it and especially dry it thoroughly after use. It's rotting that is usually the issue with wooden utensils.
I wouldn't sand it unless bits of wood start sticking out of it, which could happen depending on the direction of the grain. Sanding without having a good reason could actually cause you more problems then it would solve as you'll be rubbing off any finish it came with. |
Amount of water needed to soak buckwheat groats together with apple cider vinegar as prep for buckwheat milk
I'm attempting a recipe for buckwheat milk from Blissful Basil.
The recipe calls for the following ingredients:
1 cup raw buckwheat groats
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
3 cups filtered water
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch sea salt
and quoting the first instruction step:
In an airtight container, combine the buckwheat groats and apple cider
vinegar. Cover with warm water and soak for 8 hours or overnight.
Drain and thoroughly rinse with cool water.
The exact amount of "warm water" is not specified anywhere in the recipe. The "3 cups of filtered water" in the ingredient list is meant for another instruction step.
Have emailed the creator of this recipe but there was no response from her on this, hence I'm posting my question here and hoping to get some inputs! | The amount is indirectly specified by the wording "Cover with warm water". You simply put the groats in a vessel of your choosing, then add as much water as it takes to cover them well. Then, add several more centimeters, so they will still be covered when they expand during the soaking.
Since you always need to have an excess of water, there is no need to specify any exact amount. Just keep them covered. |
What to prepare first, the fries or the burger? How to serve everything crispy and warm?
I'll be serving 4 burgers (medium rare, toasted buns, choice of cheese, onions, lettuce, etc.) with fries. I can use the oven to keep some of these things warm and crisp, how should I go about it? What sequence, what temp?
Thank you! | My instinct is that you should have everything cook at the same time. Cut all veggies and make sure fries are pre cooked so the second frying is for exterior crispness. You should be able to drop fries while burgers are cooking. I would put burger down, drop fries, flip burger, pull fries, toast bun and then plate everything. Working to your ability. |
How can a flat rotating disk whip egg whites?
The Bamix 'beater' attachment is just a flat disk which rotates on an immersion blender. When it rotates the disk stays mostly in place, it doesn't displace the liquid in a way that moving a traditional whisk would.
How does that beater attachment work? For example, this promotional video using the attachment shows egg whites from two eggs turn into foam in less than 30 seconds. I have the attachment and contrary to my expectations it's just a flat disk without any ridges to increase friction when spinning around in the liquid.
How does this form of whisking work? | The flat beater blade isn't quite flat.
At least, it's not flat with respect to the axis of rotation.
The beater blade is a smooth disk, but it's mounted at a slight angle so that when it spins, there's a "wobble." It doesn't spin in a flat/smooth circle.
The mounting angle works kind of like a fan, with a single, solid blade. The angle and the rapid speed combine with the solid blade to create a lot of turbulence. Unlike a fan that creates a single direction of flow, the solid blade is pushing and pulling as the "wobble" moves up and down.
That "wobble-induced turbulence" creates something very much like what a whisk does, just at a higher speed and smaller area. |
Home canning coffee?
I've decided i'd prefer to make my own coffee and can it to have on hand when i'm in a pinch then get a bottle of cold brew at the grocery to store in the car.
I wonder if anyone else has experience with this or has suggestions/oversights that could easily be made.
Off hand I would think to sterilize the jar, add freshly made hot coffee which should be about 200°F directly to the jar, let it self seal. I do wonder if this going to be enough for the coffee to seal past being perishable both from quality and safety standpoint. | For safe home canning in a water bath, you need the contents to have a pH below 4.6. Coffee typically has a pH of at least 4.8, so you need to either add an acid to bring the pH down or use a pressure canner to process the jars.
Moreover, coffee is full of volatile compounds that degrade relatively quickly when exposed to air. Canned coffee would likely degrade quite a bit within a few weeks, unless you use a process more similar to how beer is bottled to prevent oxidisation.
I honestly think it would be less effort to make a big pitcher of cold brew once a week and keep in the fridge for coffee related emergencies. |
Why is meat sometimes tender and sometimes tough when cooked for a long time?
If you overcook a steak it will end up tough and hard to chew. If you cook ox tail for a few hours, however, it will become extremely tender.
What determines whether meat becomes tough or tender when cooking it for a long time? How can I maximize tenderness? | Fat, collagen or connective tissue, and cooking time and temp, all have an impact on tenderness. Steaks with uniform fat marbling are graded higher because, not only does fat add flavor, but when it breaks down it makes the steak more tender. Collagen begins to melt and dissolve to gelatin between 160F and 180F (71C and 82C). Oxtail (in your example) has much more fat and collagen than your steak. When the fat and collagen break down, you get tender and moist meat. Since steak has some fat, but much less collagen, it will overcook, the fat will melt out, and you will be left with an overcooked and dry product. Of course well-cooked steak can be tender (though, depending on the cut, some more tender than others)...and poorly cooked oxtail can be tough, so applying proper cooking technique to the particular cut of meat to maximize tenderness is critical. If you want maximum tenderness, find a high fat, high collagen cut, and cook it with moist consistent heat until the collagen melts out....short rib, or pot roast come to mind as examples, along with your oxtail. |
Are there any factors that can determine whether a dish will taste good other than experience?
What is the most analytical theory available for why recipes will taste good, such that they could be designed ahead of time and predicted to be tasty, and explained why? | It is incorrect to assume that there is no theory about the pairing of ingredients that result in a tasty recipe. Of course, many factors are at play when determining which ingredients work well together when combined. Ingredients that are commonly cultivated or harvested in close proximity were often historically used together, for example. This created a culturally accepted range of flavors, that became expected or understood to work. You may have heard the adage, "if it grows together, it goes together." There is something to it, generally speaking, of course.
However, more to your point, there are also some folks looking at the chemistry. These folks have been working at it for a while as well. It is an interesting question, with a theory, and the scientific testing of the theory that, I believe, is on-going. |
How long does polenta take to cook and how to reheat it?
How long does polenta take to cook? I never made one before. Chefs on YouTube always make it in like 10 minute tops. But people online have written that it takes like 40 minutes with constant stirring. Which one is correct? Also, once the polenta has gotten cold, how can I heat it again? | The time for cooking polenta is in the range between 2 minutes and 2.5 hours. It depends on the technique you have chosen, the starting material, and to some degree also on batch size and a few environmental variables, although those will rarely make a noticeable difference.
Since the range is too wide for planning, many recipes will give you an estimate. If you have picked a recipe which doesn't, you can look for other recipes which use the same technique as yours, and see their estimates.
If for some reason you need high precision, the only way forward is to measure it yourself. Make your preferred recipe a few times, stop the time, and average the results. It is probably more trouble than it's worth though, since polenta is rarely a critical dish when computing complex menu timings.
A side note on TV chefs - they have a vested interest in claiming unrealistically short preparation times. Their timings are "for show", just like the food photography in recipe books is "for show". Don't assume it will be the same under real conditions in your own kitchen. |
How to open this plastic cap?
How do I open this cap? It is from a bottle of Bombay gin.
(click to enlarge) | You shouldn't have to open it. That's a slow-pouring cap, you should just be able to pour out of it. If you can't, that's because it's broken somehow. |
Can you replace stout with Wychwood King Goblin in Christmas pudding?
So we’d ordered a stout for a Christmas pudding recipe, as part of an online supermarket order. But they’ve substituted it for “King Goblin” from Wychwood Brewery.
Now I’m not a beer drinker, and don’t know much about the flavour it introduces to a pudding. The ruby ale seems lighter in colour, and seems to have a similar alcohol content.
Will this make an appropriate substitution, or should we go and get some stout?
Thanks | This is likely a fine substitution.
I haven't tried King Goblin myself, but looking around online, I see some good signs:
The description of the beer on drizly (presumably provided by the manufacturer) mentions chocolate malt, and goes on to describe it as:
an indulgently rich, full, smooth beer
The reviews on beeradvocate consistently mention flavor notes such as:
Chocolate
"Dark fruit" or raisins
Caramel
Nutty/toasty
Toffee malt
Burnt sugar
These are many of the same qualities that you'd be looking for in a stout used for cooking.
Finally, this discussion thread from a homebrewing forum describes efforts to replicate it by hobbyists, and the comments there suggest that the original beer is not terribly bitter (~20 IBUs). This is good news, as particularly bitter beer is the primary thing you'd want to avoid when using it as a dessert ingredient.
It won't be perfect, as an English strong ale probably won't be as sweet or as thick as a proper stout, but I doubt it'll be different enough to cause problems for your pudding. |
how do I salvage canned mushrooms, canned with fruit fresh
I canned mushrooms with fruit fresh. They have a very acidic taste - tart not sweet. Can I fix them or make a soup from them to salvage the batch? | Fruit Fresh is a brand name for citric acid. It's used in canning to maintain an acidic environment to prevent spoilage. It's name comes from the fact that it's the same acid that makes citrus fruit sour/tangy.
It sounds like you've made some kind of pickled mushroom by canning them in an acidic environment. Some people quite like picked mushrooms, and if you search the web, you'll find many recipes for them.
Generally speaking, if something is too acidic by itself, you can balance it out with some "opposites" by countering with sweet (like adding sugar to lemon to make lemonade), fat (like mixing oil and vinegar for a salad dressing), even spice (like a hot and sour soup).
As for how to use your accidental pickles, you might start by looking at recipes to make pickled mushrooms to find one that appeals to you, and consider if there's anything more you could/should add to round out the pickle itself (ie, herbs, spices, etc). This may help you turn your accidental pickle into a palatable pickle. Then, secondarily search for a recipe that specifically uses pickled mushrooms. |
How to know what variety of tomatoes will be good as a spaghetti sauce?
I have never succeeded from making great tomato sauce using our native tomatoes and the final product always tastes flat. When I eat the tomato, there is always 0 hints of sweetness in them and not much juice comes out of it. Just by looking at the color, it may be simply poor quality farming as we live in a 3rd world country.
I have never been able to find tomatoes looking very vibrant red here.
So I always end up using packaged tomato sauce and add spices/meat to them instead of making them fresh because it never tastes as good. | I have never succeeded from making great tomato sauce using our native tomatos and the final product always tastes flat. When I eat the tomato, there is always 0 hints of sweetness in them and not much juice comes out of it. Just by looking at the color, it may be simply poor quality farming as we live in a 3rd world country.
Living in the US (supposedly a first-world country), I’ve had the same issues with most store-bought brands of tomatoes. The issue isn’t how they’re grown, it’s two specific aspects related to them being sold commercially in grocery stores:
The varieties typically sold are ones which have been actively bred to maximize shelf life and allow for growing year-round in greenhouses. This is, to some extent, at odds with getting good flavor.
Even with that optimization for shelf life, tomatoes still have a relatively short shelf life, so the ones shipped to stores are usually shipped under-ripe (they’re more durable this way and have a longer shelf life), and often are either not let ripen at all, or are artificially ripened (yes, this is actually a thing).
There are a couple of options I’ve found to get around this:
Look for tomatoes sold ‘on the vine’. That is, instead of being picked, a section of vine with ripe or near ripe tomatoes on it is cut from the plant and then sold as a whole. This approach results in a longer shelf life without the tomatoes needing to be significantly under-ripe, so the tomatoes you get tend to taste better and have a better texture.
See if you can source tomatoes from a local farmer’s market, or even direct from a local farm. These will tend to be in much better condition than what you get from a store, and also avoid the issues with ripening involved in getting them from a store.
Possibly consider growing your own. Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow, the only tricky parts are making sure the flowers are pollinated (without this, you won’t get any actual tomatoes) and picking the ripe tomatoes before they rot on the vine. This has the bonus that you can pick exactly the varieties you want for what you are making (I’m partial to Roma tomatoes for most things, though Beefsteak are my go-to for pureés and sauce bases due to them being enormous, and Super Sweet 100 are my go-to for salads due to their small size).
Failing all else, canned tomatoes work perfectly well for sauces and soups. Just make sure to get good quality ones of a variety that works well for what you want to do with them. |
How does ice cube bag work
An ice cube bag allows pouring water in and when turning an filled bag upside down, the bag seals itself. What is the physics behind it?
Demonstration | I'm not sure that this is on-topic for this site. However, basically it is a non-return valve AKA check valve, that only allows the water to enter. These consist of a flap that only opens in one direction - rather like a normal door. When return flow or pressure is applied against the valve in the opposite direction, the flap closes, preventing the water from going back out.
An analogy would be having a normal door in the middle of a tunnel. When wind blows down the tunnel in the direction the door opens, then the door can open and allow the wind through. If the wind blows in the opposite direction, the door will blow shut against its stoppers and block the tunnel.
If you have ever deflated a pool flotation ring or similar (like these ones), with the valve that you squeeze to let the air back out - these are non-return valves. Squeezing deforms the valve, pushing the little flap aside and letting the air out. |
Techniques for using (Polish) Pickle Pots?
I have a pair of Polish Pickle Pots, something like this:
But when I use them, I am yet to get good results. Mainly I've tried using them for sauerkraut (maybe 6 times), pickled beetroot (once) and miso (once). But always the content goes mouldy.
Even with plenty enough brine from the content, and the stones hold the cabbage below the brine level, then the stones themselves go mouldy (black mould).
Is there something I'm missing? My pickles in plastic, with water-filled bottles or other plastic bags as weights never seem to have the same trouble.
Is there a special technique for using these pots?
Is it mandatory to fill the air-lock around the lid (I do)? With water? | Since part of the problem is probably that the pot and weights are "infected" with mold spores, one thing I would suggest is heat-sterilizing the pot and the weights to eliminate any spores that might be embedded in the raw clay of the weights or any cracks in the glaze.
Here's how:
Place the pot, lid, and weights in a cold oven
Heat the oven to 180C/350F and keep it there for at least 1/2 hour
Allow the pot, lid, and weights to cool slowly, possibly by leaving them in the oven while it cools |
What to do with juices from roasting pork
I cook a few kilograms of pork loin at one time, and I get a considerable amount of juice. It's liquid while it's hot, and it's gel when it's cold. What can I do with it?
You can do a lot with chicken stock, but what can you do with pork stock? | Use it like chicken stock? Pork stock is delicious...but the meat juices are not yet a stock. Use the bones, some aromatic veg., and the juices. Make a stock. Use the stock in any application that you want porky goodness. |
How to crisp up/dehydrate thin slices of porchetta?
I made a small porchetta this weekend.
I want to slice it as thin as possible and crisp it up (used as topping for soups for example).
I was wondering: what would be the best technique to do that?
Slow oven heat over long time? Pan fried on low heat and remove fat? | It likely depends on what texture you're going for when you're done, and how much fat there is in the meat that you're curing.
I'll assume that you want crispy, and not the chewy type of dehydrated that you get with beef jerky.
If the cuts aren't very fatty, and you have the ability to slice the meat very thinly, then you could try placing it on wire racks and the low oven approach, and then break it up into flakes to use as garnish.
If the cut it fatty, then I would treat it more like lardon -- cut into small cubes, and cook in a pan over medium low heat until you've rendered the fat, then continue cooking (possibly turning up the heat) until the meat is crispy.
If it's not fatty, but you can't slice it thin enough, then I'd go with the lardon approach, but add some oil to fry the meat in. |
Can I leave cut (but airtight wrapped) aged pecorino at room temperature for a couple of hours?
I bought it for a friend and want to give it to them but I will have to travel with the aged pecorino cheese for a couple of hours at room temperature before giving it to him. Is it safe to do so?
It is about 150 grams and it is really aged and really airtight, wrapped in a thick plastic wrap (that is how I bought it from the store). | Pecorino Romano can be stored at room temperature for weeks, even without vacuum sealing. So you're fine. |
Taiyaki not forming correctly
I've been practicing making Taiyaki and my recipe seems to work. But I recently changed it a bit to make the batter chocolate flavored.
Here's the recipe I used:
60g All purpose flour
55g Sweet rice flour
10g Cocoa powder
40g Sugar
8g Baking powder
3g Salt
1 Egg
200ml Milk
3ml Vanilla
I fill one side of the taiyaki mold with a thin layer of batter, add the filling, then cover it up with more batter. I close the mold, flip it and let it cook for a few minutes. When I open it, one of two things happen:
The mold isn't completely filled even though I put batter all the way to the top. I end up with 3/4 of the fish.
or
Both sides are filled but when I open the mold, the taiyaki is split in half - like it didn't seal or each side cooked on its own and now I end up with two halves of the fish.
Note that the technique I do works well with the plain batter (not chocolate flavored). Is there something wrong with the recipe or am I doing something else wrong? | Since you say that you replaced some of the wheat flour with cocoa powder, that might explain it.
My theory:
In comparison to wheat flour, cocoa powder contains no gluten. Gluten is the glue that helps hold baked products together, making them less crumbly/fragile. Also, cocoa powder contains less starch than wheat flour.
In addition to the reduction in gluten and starch, cocoa powder also generally contains much more fat than flour. Unfortunately fat acts as a shortening agent, making the finished product more cake-like and crumbly, and fat can also inhibit gluten development.
I fear you've basically changed the composition of the batter too much, making the finished product too fragile to remove from the mould in one piece.
A possible fix:
Use a wheat flour with a higher gluten content such as bread flour, in order to help compensate for the addition of cocoa powder. Maybe also let the mixture stand a little while longer before pouring it into your moulds. A little extra time can also help develop the gluten.
I have the feeling that this may require some trial and error. I make no promises that it will actually work. Maybe test using a small batch so you don't waste too much of your ingredients while experimenting. |
What is "compression" as a cooking technique?
I've recently stumbled on Masterchef professionals as an American, and it's very impressive! Many chefs serve "compressed" vegetables and fruits (e.g. tomatoes, pears, cucumber, mango, etc.). What does it mean to "compress" these things? And does any home cooking technique compare?
I understand it means basically exposing them to negative pressure in a vacuum pack, which would "break down the structure" somewhat. Could it be possible that microwaving, freezing, or actually squishing these things under a heavy item (e.g. cast iron pan, or a brick) would achieve the same thing? | Yes, compression is simply pulling a hard vacuum on (usually) a fruit or vegetable. It's possible that you could somewhat mimic the effect with a weight. The vacuum is collapsing the cell structure. Often times, flavoring is added, and the vacuum serves to push that flavor into the product. I don't think microwaving would have the same effect at all, and while freeze-thaw does break down cell structure, often one is left with excessive liquid, and a breakdown of overall texture.
Probably the best known example is the watermelon "sushi" made popular by modernist chefs, maybe 10 or so years ago. |
Chicken soup has split. Can it be repaired
Today I made chicken soup. I roasted a chicken until cooked. I then removed the breast and leg meat, boiled the rest. I strained it, added a chicken stock Cube to adjust the flavour, added the saved leg meat and using a hand blender, blitzed. After adding a sprinkle of thyme and salt I brought to the boil to reduce. And then allowed to cool.
To my surprise, it has split.
I did not realise chicken soup could split.
Is there something which makes chicken soup split and can it be rebound (I guess with an emulsifier) | Pureed chicken and water is not a stable emulsion, no. There's nothing in there that binds the fat or suspends the meat particles. Most recipes for chicken soup do not call for pureeing the actual meat (they tend to have chunks of chicken in them), so you would normally not see split chicken soup. You could probably return it to its previous texture by adding a starch to thicken and stabilise it somewhat. |
Making overnight bagels - may have underkneaded, can I knead it tomorrow?
It's my first time ever making bagels. I followed this recipe with the overnight alteration. I kneaded for about 10-12 minutes. After trying the pull test, it kind of breaks before becoming translucent. It has been in the refrigerator for some time now. My question is whether I can knead them in the morning until they pass the pull test or should I bake them as is? | The given recipe is a very dry one - the author points it out herself - and it’s hard to get a good windowpane test with a low-hydration dough.
Gluten develops in two ways, either by kneading or over time when the flour comes together with water. An extreme example that relies only on the latter are no-knead types of bread.
In your case, the overnight rise should be enough to give you the desired gluten structure. Would probably bake them as is, only if especially large holes have formed would I do a quick re-knead, just to break them up. |
How can I thicken egg yolks for a sauce?
I'm thinking about making a sauce for burgers. Requirements are the following:
Tastes of concentrated egg yolk - for me perfection is the taste of yolk in a fried egg
For seasoning salt and pepper only should do the job, but I'm keen on trying some MSG
Thick, almost mayo-like consistency
I've tried many hollandaise recipes, with double boiler or blender methods, but nothing quite satisfies me. Butter in those recipes just weakens the taste. I also tried thickening with flour, however the texture change was unforgivable (maybe I messed this up somehow?)
Honestly, I'm cool with just putting fried egg into burger, taste is great, however it's a bit too runny and messy to eat.
I'm willing to try and report any ideas, I got like 50 spare eggs :) | Not a recipe, but I will share a technique. Using sous vide you can cook egg yolks to a consistency where they will behave like a sauce. You separate the yolks, and drop them into a container of oil, which is being heated in a water bath. Time and temperature determines consistency, which can range from runny to fudge-like (or hard boiled, but that is not what you are going for). Fish them out, and place them on your burger. Season as you like. Here are more precise instructions. |
How much is a sachet of gelatin in teaspoons or tablespoons?
I am following a muffin recipe which calls for 2 sachets of gelatin. How much is a sachet of gelatin in teaspoons or tablespoons? | Knox gelatin is 4 packets in a 1oz box, so 1/4oz per packet.
The Great Lakes canister of gelatin that I have says that a serving is "1 tbsp. (1/4oz, 7g)"
So I'd assume 1TB (roughly 15mL for those not in the US) per packet ... but I have no idea if this is like salt, where they don't all pack to the same density. |
Can a beef and pork mix burger be served medium
I have seen many record state a burger can be served a little pink. Even 'medium'. I understand what this means.
My question is about food safety: Is this also safe if the patty was a mix of beef and pork?
I can use common sense and predict if there was only 1% pork, then it is probably safe, but assuming the meat comes from a supermarket and is a 50:50 mix, is it recommended to cook this well done? | In most developed countries trichinosis is extreme rare, this is due to changes in the way pigs are raised. In the US there were only 16 cases reported between 2011-2015, for example, and in Europe the rates are similar. This means that you could serve pork completely raw with extremely low risk from a trichinosis point of view.
In a 50/50 beef-pork burger you have an equal amount of risk from the beef as the pork due to e coli bacteria, the meat really doesn't matter. Safety guidelines are to cook ground meats of any kind to 70°C/160°F, which is well done. As to whether you follow that guideline is up to you, millions or people have their burgers pink in the middle and it's rare anyone gets sick so the risk is small, but it's still there. Whether you take that chance is personal choice. |
What is Baker’s Cookie Coconut?
The Joys of Jell-O, on page 73, has a recipe for “Marzipan” that calls for “1 package (7 oz.) Baker’s Cookie Coconut”. This product doesn’t appear to exist anymore. It appears to be something different from Baker’s Angel Flake Coconut; other recipes in the book call for that ingredient, such as the Citrus Ring on page 45 that calls for “⅓ cup Baker’s Angel Flake or Premium Shred Coconut”.
A search of the Baker’s or Kraft/Heinz web site brings up no such product as “Cookie Coconut”. Various Internet searches for “Baker’s Cookie Coconut” or “What is Baker’s Cookie Coconut” bring up a lot of recipes, but no product. A search limited to archive.org brings up the February 11, 1970, Romulus Roman and a recipe for Coconut Dream Squares that…
…use Baker’s Cookie Coconut, a form of coconut developed especially for cakes and cookies.
The photograph of the squares is “Courtesy Baker’s Cookie Coconut”, and the caption includes:
The squares use a medium-cut moist cookie coconut developed especially for baking.
What is the nearest equivalent to Baker’s Cookie Coconut available today? | I've found a Polish language website at https://docer.pl/doc/n581exe which appears to contain at least some of the text from a 1977 Baker's recipe book, Baker’s Chocolate and Coconut Favorites (this is the sixth edition; the Internet Archive dates an earlier edition with the same cover as 1962).
It says this about the Cookie Coconut variety (click the button above the tags list to see all the text):
Baker's Cookie Coconut is perfect as an ingredient. The moist, tender wisps, sweetened just enough to bring out the coconut flavor, mix easily into batters and doughs.
That would suggest to me undried, finely shredded and lightly sweetened coconut.
For comparison, Baker’s Chocolate and Coconut Favorites (pages 3-4) says that “These four types of Baker’s Coconut are available”:
Baker’s Angel Flake Coconut is moist, tender, sweetened flakes of coconut. This popular coconut gives a distinctive flavor to every dessert, whether used as an ingredient or a garnish. Flaked coconut is available in 3½-ounce and 7-ounce cans; also in 7-ounce and 14-ounce bags.
Baker’s Premium Shred Coconut is one of the most beautiful, delicious decorations and ingredients for cakes and other desserts. Buy the 4-ounce, 8-ounce, or 16-ounce bag.
Baker’s Southern Style Coconut contains both long and short shreds and is a bit moister, as southerners like it. This coconut, which has made coconut treats traditional in the south, is packed in 4-ounce cans.
Baker’s Cookie Coconut is perfect as an ingredient. The moist, tender wisps, sweetened just enough to bring out the coconut flavor, mix easily into batters and doughs. It comes in 7-ounce bags.
It provides this advice for substitutions on the bottom of page 4:
To substitute coconuts: In most cases the shredded and flaked coconuts are interchangeable. However, it’s best to use 1 cup cookie coconut for 1½ cups shredded coconut or 1⅓ cups flaked coconut. When using shredded coconut in cakes, you may want to cut the shreds slightly with a kitchen shears or knife—otherwise the cake may be difficult to cut. |
I depressurized my canner and reprocessed jars with lids sealed. Will the food be ok?
The canner began coming to pressure, steam started shooting under the pressure gauge.
The jars began to seal when I opened the canner to fix the gasket. I reprocessed them all without putting new lids on (some were sealed), will the food still be good in those sealed jars? | If the canner pressure dropped suddenly from high pressure (either because a valve or gasket failed catastrophically, or because you quick-released the pressure), I might worry about the contents having boiled up, compromising the seals. But if the canner just failed to pressurize on the first try because of a leaking gasket, I don't see any reason for concern. |
Quantity of ingredients to make 150 veg sandwiches
I want to make veg sandwiches on the occasion of Gurpurab. I'm expecting 150 guests. But I'm confused about how much mayonnaise or chesse and ketchup I should use. Please help. | (Hopefully someone else can give a more specific recommendation, as I know this doesn’t completely answer your question)
The search term to use when looking for this sort of information is ‘quantity cooking’, and there are websites that have tables for how to cook for 25 or 50 people/portions
Of course, how much mayonnaise or other ingredient you use depends on the size of the bread or roll, but 1TB/sandwich for 150 sandwiches seems to be 96oz.
I have no idea exactly what sort of vegetables that you’re planning on using, but you might want to assemble a few sandwiches, weigh the contents, and extrapolate from there. (I say this because so many websites assume meat or cheese sandwiches, so the vegetable amounts are garnishes, not the bulk of the sandwich; assembling a few sandwiches before measuring helps to average out any errors.
Another website recommends 120 sandwiches per 100 people, but it really depends on many issues, as large men are going to eat more than children, and people eat less in hot weather. |
Is this layer on top of my fermented peppers mold? If it is not, is it still safe to eat?
I'm fermenting my home grown scotch bonnets, and I'm concerned that they're molding and are no longer edible.
My setup was an open container, with a relatively high salt to water concentration (I don't remember specifics. I googled proper fermentation salt contents, and used a high value, maybe 10%). I used another cleaned jar to weigh down the peppers in the solution, so there was very little air contact.
Unfortunately I had to change the container they were in, because I moved to a new apartment and couldn't transport them in the original fermentation container.
I washed the container before using it, and added more salt to the solution, since they were already fermented and I was only concerned about them spoiling.
Not long after changing containers, the ferment got brown clouds of something, but since they smelled good, I didn't worry too much.
Now, however, there is a translucent film on top of my solution, which is bad enough, and also puffs of mold around the top of the container.
Here's my theory on what this is: the layer on top of my solution is yeast, and some bits of pepper stuck to the lid are molding. However, I'm looking for some more opinions before risking eating these.
What I was planning to do was blend these into hot sauce. Is this still safe to do, since it would end up in my fridge for several weeks? Or should I use them up ASAP? Or is it dangerous and I should pitch all of it? | The growth of yeast is already slowed down by the approximately 2-3 bakers percent salt content in a dough, which makes round about 1-1.5% in total. So I doubt yeast will grow on a brine with 10% salt content.
Also I’m very sure the stuff on the rim of your jar definitively is mold and mold that is growing unintentional should never be considered safe to eat. Even if the stuff on top of the brine might be (partially) crystalized flakes of salt there is a high risk that the spores from the rim already have spread into your product. So, I’m sorry that I have to recommend to dispose this batch and to start over with a carefully sterilized container. |
Substitute for onion sweetness?
I have a lamb stew recipe which I'm trying to adapt for my sister, who can't eat onions, garlic, or other alliums. Usually when I need to substitute for garlic or onion, I use a tiny amount of asafoetida, which works well enough for that strong alium taste. However, that's not the role of the onion in this stew, and I'm a little stumped for how to substitute it out.
For starters, this stew only has three ingredients: lamb stew meat, onion, and water (plus a host of spices). It simmers for about 2-3 hours, during which point the onion dissolves completely and the tough meat becomes tender. (It's then served over rice; not important to the narrative.)
The onion serves to add a touch of sweetness, which mellows out the lamb meat. It also provides a slight thickness to the liquid. I tried omitting the onion entirely, and the end result was nearly harsh -- it's definitely something I want to try and substitute out instead of simply omit.
Asafoetida is a decent substitute for the garlicy/oniony taste, but that's not really the primary characteristic I'm going for here -- I'm looking for that mild sweetness that shows up after you cook onions low and slow until they dissolve into nothing. For thickness, I figure I can blend in minute quantities of corn starch until I reach the desired consistency -- but I can't figure out what to use for the sweetness.
Any ideas? | You might try carrot. It is a common ingredient, often used in Italian cuisine, for example, to counteract the acidity in tomatoes, when making a sauce. In my example it is grated, then simmered with the sauce. It won't break down as much as onion, but could add the subtle sweetness that you are missing, and if finely grated, I doubt you would notice it texturally. |
Must cast iron be cleaned promptly?
There is yet one more detail I seem to have just understood about cooking in cast iron pans.
After use (frying onions, frying potatoes, ..) the pan must be cleaned quite soon, perhaps within 24 hours of use.
This is the case despite using relatively little (grapeseed) oil: not so much to make the result greasy, but also not so little that food gets scorched and burns from direct contact with the bare pan.
If cleaning is not done promptly—if, for example, the pan is left with a thin (1 mm) layer of oil—the oil will tend to build a gummy, non-uniform, and non-polymerized layer that is hard to clean. Anything one uses to clean (even a stainless-steel chain cleaning tool) will become gummied.
Can you comment on this detail? Is this actually true? After a get-together when the kitchen looks frighteningly hard to clean, can one ever leave a cast iron pan for cleaning seven or so days later? Might it perhaps be sufficient to remove the excess oil before leaving for seven days? I can continue experimenting of course, but I'd rather hear expert opinion to reduce the number of these experiments.
Detail
If you do have a gummied cast iron pan, the only real solution is to leave it in the oven for one hour at 450-500F. (Lodge's website says so, and so it must be true.) I expected that the extra gummy oil will liquify and drip. Not so. It merely burns. I could then scrape the pan (until going back down to nearly the bare metal, wasting one year of seasoning), thinly oil, and bake again upside down briefly. | Cast iron should be cleaned ‘promptly’ because that is when it is the easiest to clean… while the pan is still hot. For the sake of your question, let’s assume that you are talking about an already seasoned cast iron frying pan. When you clean it immediately after you use it (or at least while it is still warm), you can just take it to the sink & brush all the food off with hot water (the hotter the better) until it is smooth & free of food particles. To scrub the food particles off, use something like a bamboo brush, corn husk brush, luffa, etc. that will not melt in a hot pan. Do not use dish soap inside your pan. If the outside &/or handle of your pan is greasy, it is okay to use dish soap on it to get the greasiness off the outside.
If your pan has gotten cold (whether it has been a few hours or a few days), all you need to do is to put enough water to cover the bottom of the pan including any remaining burnt on food and then bring your pan to a full rolling boil. Boil long enough for any burnt on food to loosen (use a flat edged utensil to scrape the bottom of the pan if necessary). Then wash it as if you just finished cooking, under the sink with the hottest water that will come out of your faucet (you might have to wait for your faucet water to get hot before bringing your pan to the sink to clean). You can also use the boiling water method immediately after you cooked something if there is a lot of food stuck on the bottom of the pan. Never leave water in your pan to soak and then come back later! Only use water to soak if you are in the process of cleaning your pan. Additionally, you can dry the pan on a stove burner and heat thoroughly until totally dry, let cool and then put away. Do this if you have any question that you may not have cleaned the pan as good as you think you should have (kind of like sterilizing your pan). There should be no greasy residue left on the pan.
If your pan is gummy, you are not cleaning your pan well enough after each use to get the grease off. Many people believe that you are supposed to coat your pan with oil after each use but this is not good for your pan. The oils will build up and can even go rancid on your pan. Lodge told you to put your pan in the oven at 500 degrees for a length of time because that is the only way to burn off the gummy oils that are stuck to your pan. However, you normally should not ever have to do this with a properly maintained pan. I have had a few pans fail on me & sometimes I buy some cast iron pans at a yard sale really cheap b/c they are all gummied. I save them and take them camping with me & throw them on an open fire directly on the wood coals and it burns off all the built on gummy oils and returns the pan back to raw. However, then you will need to start over and re-season your pan. |
Why does smell of curry 'stick' to silicone utensils?
Today I cooked curry with silicone utensils and it seems the smell doesn't go no matter how much I scrub it with dish soap. Googling tells me that boiling the utensils or scrubbing it with a paste of baking soda with warm water will remove the smell, but, what exactly is the reason that the smell is not removed even after repeated scrubbing? | Plastics, including silicones, are by no means impenetrable. Small, volatile molecules can diffuse through them – generally not very far, only a few micrometres†, so you seldom notice this phenomenon: even a thin-walled bottle hardly lets anything through.
However, it is far enough that these molecules will then be unreachable by soap, since soap molecules are big and basically not able to diffuse into silicone at all. Water does diffuse into silicone, but there it can't wash away the aroma compounds either.
Over time, the molecules diffuse out by themselves again, and for strongly aromatic ones this causes the notable smell of the utensils.
Baking soda consists of small molecules too (ions, actually). So these can apparently diffuse into the silicone as well, where they may bind to the aromas and thereby neutralize them in a sense. I'm not sure that's really how this trick works, though. A more effective way of getting the smell off is perhaps to just leave the utensils in the oven for a bit, something like ½ hour at 120°C, since heat dramatically speeds up diffusion – i.e. you just force the smells to come out more quickly.
†Technically speaking, diffusion can actually get arbitrarily far, but it gets exponentially slow with increasing distance, so practically speaking it is range-limited unless you have billions of years to wait. |
Marinade tenderizing process
This article is trying to explain some of the science behind marination, but I don't really understand what they are trying to say here.
As far back as pre-Columbian Mexico, cooks found that wrapping meats in papaya leaves before cooking made for more tender results. The active enzyme in the papaya leaves is papain, now refined from papayas and commercially available. The connective tissue that comes in direct contact with the protein-digesting enzymes gets broken down. These tenderizing enzymes also reduce the capability of the meat to hold its juices, resulting in greater fluid loss and thus drier meat. Enzymes are heat activated at levels between 140 F and 175 F and deactivated at the boiling point, so it serves no purpose other than flavoring to let the meat sit in a marinade at room temperature. Refrigeration is recommended to avoid the growth of harmful bacteria. Let meat come to room temperature before cooking.
So do these enzymes have a positive or negative effect? What's with that last part where they are activated at higher temperatures, but then says to refrigerate it? | It looks like you're confusing what's going on with enzymes, bacterias and temperatures. First:
Enzymes are large molecules, mostly proteins, that speed up chemical reactions. Tenderizing meat is one of these reactions: the enzymes will break down the connective tissues in meat making it easier to be cut (or chewed).
Bacteria are one-celled organisms that require food, oxygen, water, and appropriate temperatures in order to survive.
So if you use your tenderizer enzymes at a room temperature it's warm enough to promote harmful bacterial growth too fast, your meat will spoil and it increases the chances of you getting sick when eating it. Thus, refrigerate the meat until you decide to cook it so it won't spoil.
On the other hand, the enzymes won't do anything while the meat is in the fridge (temperature too low), but you can safely cook it when necessary without worrying about harmful bacterial growth.
Lastly, when your meat reaches between 140F (60ºC) to 175F (79ºC) the enzymes stop tenderizing the meat further and the meat will just release juices and get drier, so you probably shouldn't cook it for too long (you don't need it - the tenderization process should replace long cooking times). |
is it ok to eat spaghetti sauce that had mold on rim of jar?
I opened a new jar of spaghetti sauce and there was a dark hard substance like old mold on the rim. There was none inside the jar and the jar seemed to have been sealed properly. Is the sauce safe to consume? | Mold is a fungus and like other fungi it consists of a nearly invisible mycelium and a visible part producing the spores, the mushroom or in the case of mold the hairy stuff called the sporangium. As the rim part of the jar is under the lid I would consider it being inside the container and so there is a chance the mold already has spread into the sauce even if it has not grown the visible parts yet. In general molds produce mykotoxines so food with mold on it should never considered safe to eat (exceptions: blue cheese, tempeh, ...), especially because this mykotoxines can distribute and contaminate parts of the food that are not (yet) directly affected by the mold.
On the other hand 'dark hard substance' does not sound like a typical description of mold. You might want to double check if it is not just dried sauce or provide a picture of it for clearer identification. |
Most energy-efficient way to cook beans
I am wanting to cook relatively small portions of dry beans but am not sure what kind of equipment to buy. My main concern is energy efficiency: I expect to cook a lot of individual portions over the coming years and know from experience that if I cook them conventionally, that this means hours and hours of cooking.
What would be the most energy efficient way to cook these beans? If it matters, let's assume batches of 400g kidney beans, and that they have been soaked overnight.
I have a gas stove and the options seem to be:
Boil them in a regular stainless steel pot
Using a cast iron pot (better heat retention?)
Slow cooker
Pressure cooker (on the stove)
Electric pressure cooker
Not sure if there are other common options (I don't have access to niche products). I found blogs such as these on the topic, but these seem to be personal blogs with data from single experiments, not sure how thorough or reliable this is. | With your constraints, and looking strictly at energy use, an electric pressure cooker would be the way to go. This is because unlike a stovetop pressure cooker they're insulated, even if only a little. Unlike a slow cooker there's less thermal mass of pot to heat up, and with kidney beans specifically, you need a hard boil as well as any slow cooking, to break down the Phytohaemagglutinin. This will add to the energy use of slow cooking.
If you know you're not going to switch to much larger batches, a smaller pressure cooker would be better than a larger one, as you need to create enough steam to pressurise the pot, meaning boiling more water for the larger pot.
In terms of carbon emissions and cost of energy, they may be better than a pressure cooker on a gas stove, or they may not. This depends on your local energy mix and pricing. |
Substitute for celery in Thanksgiving stuffing
I'm planning on making a cornbread stuffing (likely one of the NYTimes' recipes) for a potluck Thanksgiving. (e.g., stuffing will cooked outside of the turkey)
Unfortunately, all of the recipes require celery. I'm allergic to celery and would like to make a portion without it for myself. What can I substitute for celery that provides the same flavor and texture? Celeriac and celery root are a no-go, and jicama and lovage aren't available where I live. | You don't need to substitute anything, you can just leave it out. I've made both regular and cornbread stuffing with and without celery and I've never felt it was missing anything without celery, in fact I personally prefer it. Celery will release moisture as it cooks, I've found that I can compensate for it by adding a small amount more stock or water at the beginning.
If you want to replace the texture element then I'd suggest chopped peppers, sauteed or roasted to partially cook them as if you add them raw they won't always cook through in time. Other options are apple and onion, although they are stronger flavors that may interfere with the result you want. |
Are cremini mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms the same thing?
They look the same. This BBC Good Food article describes the chestnut mushroom in very similar terms to how this Epicurious video describes the cremini mushroom.
Are there actually any differences between the two, or is the former the UK term and the latter the US term? | Possibly.
The fungus Agaricus bisporus goes by many names. There seem to be (at least) two cultivars, one of which is white when immature, and the other brown.
When immature and white, this mushroom may be known as common mushroom, white mushroom, button mushroom, cultivated mushroom, table mushroom, and champignon mushroom (or simply champignon).
When immature and brown, it may be known variously as Swiss brown mushroom, Roman brown mushroom, Italian brown mushroom, cremini/crimini mushroom, chestnut mushroom
(Agaricus bisporus, Wikipedia - emphasis added)
That same article also notes that there is another mushroom that's commonly called "chestnut mushroom," Pholiota adiposa.
When I search for "chestnut mushroom," more of the references are to this latter species, Pholiota adiposa, than Agaricus bisporus. So, according to these people, "chestnut mushroom" and "cremini" are not the same.
Personally, I wouldn't put much stock in that BBC article which has two separate entries for "white mushroom" and "closed cap" which appear to describe the same mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). And of course, portabello is also Agaricus bisporus, although, being matured, they might reasonably be considered a different "type." |
Making roast beef and Yorkshire pudding the old fashioned way
According to the history of Yorkshire pudding, at one time long ago in England, they would hang a roast of beef from a hook and have the drippings create the Yorkshire pudding beneath it.
Since standard recipes today call for a prerequisite amount of beef drippings, and since cooking a roast and pudding take about 40-60 minutes each, is there some way to make them now as they once were? Maybe with a roasting pan? | This website mentions that historically the puddings were made in a large, shallow pan and then cut into squares for serving. They were also made below a piece of meat usually placed on a spit
Their suggested method for a modern oven is to collect the beef drippings in a pan and then add the batter to it before proceeding with baking it on the high rack of the oven
This modification is due to the fact that the puddings need high heat to puff up properly. In olden times of cooking in an open hearth, the highest level of heat was close to the fire, below the piece of meat in the spit, since the heat would then dissipate upwards through the chimney
Nowadays, modern ovens tend to be hotter on the top shelf, especially if you are using the top heating element. You might be able to tinker with your oven settings to have it hotter at the bottom and then make the puddings the old-fashioned way - grease the bottom of the pan a bit before adding the batter and then use the pan to catch the drippings |
How to make savoury brioche bread
I know the original brioche recipe is supposed to be slightly sweet, but I really enjoy a brioche hamburger bun that one of my local bakeries does and it's really savoury.
I tried making brioche several times now, and the maximum amount of salt that I used was 7g (for like 340g of flour), but it ended more sweet than savoury every time.
I know this may sound like a simple answer: just add more salt, but I'm afraid of doing so because I know salt negatively affects yeast development.
Can I just add more salt until I like it and it won't affect the dough rising so much, or maybe should I remove some sugar? The recipe I follow calls for 35g sugar (again considering 340g flour) plus 60g milk which is already slightly sweet. | Brioche is not necessarily sweet. By definition it is a bread with a high butter and egg content...an enriched dough. Also, salt does not necessarily = savory. Umami defines savoriness. Fermentation increases umami. It is one of the reasons we enjoy bread in the first place. Adding more salt will just make your recipe more salty. I would consider reducing the sugar, and consider the quality of the milk, butter, and flour you are using. |
Is it necessary and possible to deactivate an added pectinase before making jam
I've experimented with pectic enzyme in the past to extract clarified cherry juice for cherry cider. I would blend the cherries, add my pectinase and then siphon the middle layer (of 3 layers) that form. It works very well.
Now I am considering doing this to get clarified mango juice for a jam for a tart. However if I am adding pectic enzyme to get the clarified juice then it seems very likely that I am effectively counteracting the pectin that I would add later for the jam. I guess this is called denaturing the enzyme.
Is there a known method to break down pectic enzyme before my attempt at making jam that will not damage the fruit juice significantly? | As a general rule you can permanently inactivate an enzyme by getting it to a high enough temperature. Boiling will definitely work, lower temperatures like 70 C will likely do so, but it will depend on the particular enzyme.
Significant pH change will reduce the effect of the enzyme but may not completely inactivate it: I suspect you don't want to go down that path because it will make your juice taste weird.
Given you are making jam you can take your juice, add sugar bring to the boil to denature any residual enzyme and then add pectin later. No point in adding pectin whilst the pectinase is still active! |
Why does mixing the salt and yeast sometimes work?
I've always learned that DO NOT mix salt with yeast. Because the salt kills the yeast, and the sugar actually helps. You should always put the salt.
So what is the "magic" of this recipe (Classic Challah Recipe) that they mix altogether? How does it actually work?
A long time ago I saw a video of someone doing a pizza dough that they just put the salt and yeast in two different parts of the bowl, so when it's mixed there is a low probability that will get together. | It doesn't work "sometimes", it works pretty much always. People are just being sloppy when they say "salt kills the yeast".
Certain levels of salt inhibit the yeast, so that it multiplies less, or slower. If you have an old or improperly stored package of yeast, or you are working with a strain which is not very resilient, then the negative effect may be enough that you don't get a healthy growth process established, and the dough doesn't rise at all. But it is a matter of probabilities, not of certainty.
So there is no reason for a recipe with a direct exposure of yeast to high salt concentration to not work, especially with today's modern, carefully engineered yeast supply. It just has a higher chance of failing when compared to recipes where the salt is added at a different step.
The recipe you linked is also not in any way critical. There you disperse both the dry yeast and the salt with the flour, and by the time you have added the wet ingredients and the yeast wakes up, the salt concentration is as low as it is ever going to be. The finicky recipes are the ones which ask you to bloom the yeast with a teaspoon of salt and teaspoon of sugar in a small amount of water, for example, or prescribe a different high-salt preferment method. |
Parcooking Root Vegetables for Roasting the Day Before
Every Thanksgiving a family favorite is roasted root vegetables. Specifically:
Rutabagas
Parsnips
(Heirloom) Carrots
Beets
I cut the vegetables into 0.5x0.5in (1.25x1.25 cm) strips of approximately equal size. Then, I coat them with olive oil, ground black pepper, and rosemary and roast them in the oven at 450ºF (230ºC).
The problem is that they take 60-90 minutes and take up substantial space in the oven.
My proposed solution this year is to parcook the vegetables the day before so they are done much faster but still develop the delicious caramelization that makes them so popular.
My question is what is best method (boiling, roasting, etc) and level of doneness to take them? | If I were to do this, I'd be inclined to take cues from double cooked fries --
Cook them (parboil, in the oven, or even frying) at a lower temperature until they're cooked through (so a knife or skewer inserted comes out easily), but not browned.
Let them cool, bag them up, and refrigerate them.
On the day that you're going to be serving them -- preheat your pans in the oven as hot as it will go. While this is happening, toss the veggies in a little bit of oil.
Spread the veggies on the pre-heated trays, and then put them into the oven. If it has convection, turn the fan on.
After a few minutes (maybe 10 minutes?) pull out one tray and do your best to flip the veggies over. Then swap it with the other tray (so if it was on top, it's now on the bottom), and flip over the veggies on the second tray, and put it back in the oven (on the empty shelf)
Repeat the last bullet until they're sufficiently browned to your liking.
As for your specific question -- I'm not sure of the "best" way. Boiling (or simmering) is a pretty traditional way of doing this. It can end up washing away a bit of the starches, but it also tends to make the surface just a little sticky from geletanized starch, which can be a good thing -- as you can then toss them around to rough them up, giving just a little more surface area for crisping in that final roasting.
But it's also easier to overcook them to where they're falling apart if you cook them in water. You can reduce this problem slightly by boiling slabs, and then cutting them into sticks after they've cooled down, but you'll also reduce that extra crispiness that you get from the starchy coating.
You can also par-bake in slabs, so it's easier to turn things over as they're cooking, and then cut them up. Par-baking has the advantage that it's easier to judge how it fits on the trays you're going to use, so you know how much you need to prepare.
I'd also consider par-cooking each type of vegetable individually, as it's possible that one might be cooked through before the other ones. And if you do the beets last, it'll be less mess to deal with. (I might even bag them separately, so they don't color everything else)
As for the doneness to take them -- cooked through (so no one gets an undercooked bite), but before it starts changing color significantly |
What is the methology for developing seasonings in the food industry?
I was wondering how large-scale snack food producers are coming up with ingredient proportions that have the desired flavour profiles.
I understand that developing a certain flavour profile is a matter of adjusting the proportions between individual components, and later scaling it up to production batches, but my main question is is there any formal (scientific) method for deriving those proportions?
For the sake of the example, let's assume that my seasoning uses 5 spices {A, B, C, D, E}. I was thinking into splitting each spice into few percent increments and deriving all of the combinations but the sheer amount of possibilities makes this method not feasible. | Food manufacturers literally do test hundreds, or even thousands, of combinations in order to arrive at flavors like "Summer BLT Potato Chips". The chefs who create these are known as Research Chefs, and as many chefs are employed this way as work in restaurants.
Likely professional research chefs do have formulas and rules for creating flavors, but these would be closely guarded trade secrets -- especially since they have access to ingredients you couldn't easily find or wouldn't use, like flavor enhancers and emulsifiers.
If you want to get started down this road, though, I recommend reading The Flavor Bible. |
Is there a guide for the purpose of each spice?
I'm wondering if there is a guide image or website that just lists most spices and what their purpose is, sometimes I don't know what spices to add to my food and it would help | There are many:
The Kitchn
Food Network
Greatist
Eat Clean Essentials
Spice Hunter
Better than the online resources, though, are books, because they can give you more instructions and context in when you'd use a particular spice, and how. This includes The New Guide to Spices, The Spice Companion, and others.
Yet even better: just pick up a cookbook for some spice-heavy cuisine (Indian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Thai, etc.) and start buying the spices needed for those recipes and following the recipes. One rarely uses spices separately from the food you're cooking, after all. |
Ensuring dry-brined turkey process is safe
I put my 22lb turkey in the fridge to start thawing last Tuesday in the evening. I took it out today and spatchcocked it and salted it all over with an herb/salt mixture and popped it back in the fridge to brine until Thanksgiving. It has only been out of the fridge long enough for this process.
My recipe says to brine for 3-4 days.
I've since read that the USDA recommends roasting 1-2 days after thawing.
This got me concerned that I'm going to serve a bunch of people a past-its-prime Turkey.
Does the brining extend this time in the fridge or is the 1-2 days too conservative? Thinking back I'm concerned I didn't salt the bottom enough and wondering if I need to add more or if I'm just overthinking this.
Thank's for the help! | While the term has gained popularity, "dry brining" isn't really a thing. This is going to ruffle some feathers (pun intended), but brining happens in a wet environment. It's definition is a "cure dissolved in water." When there is not water, it is "salting." So, what you have is a salted turkey. (I know...semantics. Sorry, it's a pet peeve. I like accuracy in language.)
So, perhaps an interesting question is, does either salting or brining extend the time poultry can be stored in the refrigerator.
Brining and salting were developed as preservation techniques, as salt greatly inhibits bacterial growth. However, you need a salt content of at least 3 to 5% in order to begin to have confidence that you are realizing this benefit.
Given that you just sprinkled salt on your bird, you probably have no way of knowing how close you are to that minimum. In fact, you would need about a cup and a half of salt (in a dry situation) to achieve 3% for 22 pounds of product, according to this calculator. I bet it is safe to assume you've used far less.
While people take chances all the time, no one is going to tell you that the USDA is too conservative, especially on this site. All the advice I see is to store only 1 - 2 days after thawing. However, there is no harm in re-freezing. Perhaps a viable solution is to place your bird in the freezer for a day or two. |
Is this coffee maker safe to use?
I pulled down my bialetti Moka to make some coffee and found it like this:
Is the coffee maker safe to use? Does it need cleaning? How should I clean it? | Moka pots are traditionally rinsed (at most) but they're also traditionally used frequently. They develop a coating over time. If I'm putting mine away fro a long period I do clean it, after which it looks like yours, but mine is around 60 years old
If it was put away dry (not so much the top part as round the seals and up the pipe) and stored somewhere clean, I'd use it like that. If it might have got dusty, a rinse and wipe with a clean cloth might be in order. After prolonged storage you might even want to run it empty to rinse the pipe through and avoid stale coffee flavour. There's no need to use detergent unless you're resurrecting an old one or suspect it's been stored damp. Even then the inside of the pipe is the bit to worry about, and that's not easy to clean. A cloth wrapped round a chopstick is good for that, after removing the filter and seal (or you can buy culinary "test tube" brushes).
Just for fun, here's what mine looks like. It's normally used at least 3 times per week, and it's still wet from rinsing in the photo. I actually rinsed it a bit vigorously this time so loosened some bits of the layer of coffee that had built up |
Can I pre-smoke a brisket safely?
For Thanksgiving, I was planning on slow-cooking a brisket in a smoker. However, I have learned somewhat last minute that instead of my family coming to my place for dinner, I will be going to their place. The issue is that we live roughly 6-7 hours apart by car.
So my question is this: can I do a partial cook in the smoker, then chill the brisket back down and put it in a cooler for transport, then finish the cooking there in a Crock Pot? Most places I've looked at on Google talks about cold-smoking the brisket, but I don't have time to go through that whole process (I leave early Wednesday morning and smoking there isn't an option).
My concerns:
Partially cooking the meat then cooling it back down will cause it to go dry and/or chewy.
I'd rather not fully refreeze the meat during transport (and I doubt I have time to anyway), but bringing it to fridge temps might result in it sweating during refrigeration and/or transport, damaging the crust and reducing or eliminating the flavor of the smoke.
Bringing the meat back and forth through the danger zone a minimum of three times may result in the meat being unsafe to eat.
Is there a way to do this in a way that is safe and retains the flavor (within reason), or should I just forget about it and settle for liquid smoke or something? | Yes, it can be done safely if you cook it fully (do not only partially cook it), chill it down quickly and keep it cold in transit.
You want to minimize the time that it's in the 'food danger zone' (40°F to 140°F), so even if you're planning on getting it to fridge temperatures, you should still place it directly in the freezer to chill it down for an hour or so, then move it to the fridge. You can also place some sheet pans in the freezer ahead of time, so you have direct contact with something nice and cold as soon as it's done smoking.
Meat that's been cooked and then chilled with have a firmer texture than if it's cooked and served immediately, because you'd have to re-melt the gelatin. (Alton Brown made use of this when he made stew)
To minimize the reheating time, I would heat some sort of flavorful liquid (like beef stock, or if you had drippings from the meat), slice the meat, and then place the meat in the hot liquid to come up to temperature.
I don't think you can save the crust easily. In a question about something similar with a pork roast, someone suggested cutting off the skin and heating that back up separately with dry heat (someone else suggested reheating in an air frier) |
Is it harmful to heat a whetstone?
I am cooking a pressed apple terrine (a derived version of this one from Raymond Blanc) where I need a weight to put on the apples during cooking. Problem is, the only weight fitting I have that fits the terrine is my whetstone. I wanted to know if the heat could damage it, or if it could be hazardous for my dessert ? | It's probably not a good idea.
If you know your whetstone is natural (Wikipedia) then it should be all right with a food-safe material in between (like baking parchment). Water-stones may well crack unless very well dried, so put the stone in a cold oven and turn on to about 80°C for a couple of hours, then allow to cool before using as a weight.
Most modern whetstones are resin-bonded ceramic and the resin probably can't handle that much heat without problems. The heat could damage the stone, release unpleasant smells from the resin into the food, or even release toxins. |
What is the most humane way to kill crayfish at home?
Signal crayfish are an invasive species in the UK. They are also really tasty and catching them can be a fun picnic activity for adults and children. A recent study has found that they, along with all decapod crustaceans, appear to be sentient and should be protected from unnecessary suffering:
There is also substantial evidence of sentience in astacid lobsters/crayfish (infraorder Astacidea). We have either high or very high confidence that these animals satisfy criteria 1, 2 and 4.
They have some recommendations, that appear aimed at professional catering establishments:
Slaughter (decapods). We recommend that the following slaughter methods are banned in all cases in which a more humane slaughter method is available, unless preceded by effective electrical stunning: boiling alive, slowly raising the temperature of water, tailing (separation of the abdomen from the thorax, or separation of the head from the thorax), any other form of live dismemberment, and freshwater immersion (osmotic shock). On current evidence, the most reasonable slaughter methods are double spiking (crabs), whole-body splitting (lobsters), and electrocution using a specialist device on a setting that is designed and validated to kill the animal quickly after initially stunning it.
I have searched for whole-body splitting (lobsters), but only get instructions relating to cooked lobsters. It also seems that doing so prior to boiling exposes the flesh to much more of the water as well as releasing intestinal contents, which would be expected to impair their flavor. I am somewhat familiar with working with electricity, and I could probably rig up something to expose them to mains AC, but it sounds tremendously dangerous to attempt. For reference the ones we tend to get are in the range 2 - 4 inches long.
What is the best way to kill and cook signal crayfish in a way that is consistent with humane animal welfare?
I note this question, but it is specifically about lobster, the greater size of which would make splitting easier and also the answers recommend methods that are advised against in the recent paper such as freezing (which in a domestic freezer could well be worse than boiling). | Food tech. guru Dave Arnold experimented with crustacean killing...mainly lobster, and mainly in search of quality. He wound up with the use of anesthesia as the best method...and probably most humane. He uses clove oil to do the job. It was done years ago, but you can read his entire post here. He adds 10ml of clove oil to 90ml of ethanol. He places lobsters in salt water (sea water is best, otherwise approximate ocean salinity). Then add about 2ml of anesthesia per gallon. Read the post. It is quite detailed and offers other options for fish and seafood slaughter. |
Roast Turkey - rinse or not?
I usually use the roasting bag for the turkey. I always rinse & pat dry before baking, but I read a recipe in a grocery store magazine that said not to rinse it; just pat it dry. Seems to go against safety practices.
Thoughts? | Rinsing is not necessary. In fact, from a safety perspective, it is more risky to rinse poultry, because you present the opportunity to splatter and cross contaminate other items in your kitchen. So, best not to rinse. Just pat dry and proceed. |
Why does pickling liquid need to first be boiled? (or does it)
In every recipe I have seen, brine in various combinations of ~50% acid, ~%50% other liquid + spices is always first brought to a boil before pouring over whatever it is we're pickling.
Curious why, what would happen if you just pickled with the combination of stuff by itself (assuming you thoroughly dissolved things like sugar)? | There are two big reasons to boil the water in this scenario:
Hot water dissolves salt, sugar and other things better than cold water.
Sterilization. We sometimes want to make sure that there is nothing alive that shouldn't be. Boiling water for a bit makes sure there are no unwelcome guests still alive like mold, yeast or germs.
As a side note, I think there are a lo of recipes that say "boil some water" because that's a simple reference point for "hot enough". It's much easier to know your water is boiling than whether it has reached some arbitrary temperature below that. |
Is there any gourmet rice cooking method where you don’t rinse the rice?
I’m curious if there’s any culinary tradition that chooses not to rinse rice because of a desired outcome. | An example would be Paella - the dry rice is either added to the hot liquid or gently cooked in the oil and aromatics until translucent, then liquid etc. is added.
The latter principle is also used for risotto.
Cooks claim it’s to retain that extra bit of starch to get the desired creaminess in the dish. |
I’m doubling lemon juice in a no-bake pie recipe to make it extra sour. What can I add to make it less goopy?
Every year my partner makes a lemon pie, and every year her guests want it to be more sour than the last. Last year we put in way more lemon juice than the recipe called for, but it came out a goopy mess. What can we add to get the pie to hold its shape? Is there any way to make it more sour without just adding more lemon juice? | More lemon juice is more liquid, which is likely the cause of your problems. If there's any other liquid in the recipe, you can try swapping it for the lemon juice, but it's possible that it might provide something else to the recipe that lemon juice can't provide.
You can try adding something else that's sour (tamarind, sumac, etc), or specifically buying powdered citric acid.
I would also recommend zesting the lemon (only the yellow part, avoid the bitter white pith) to help increase the lemon flavor without adding more liquid. You can also buy food-grade lemon oil or lemon extract. |
Freezing blue cheese
I've been told you can freeze blue cheese. I would like to freeze some for Christmas Day, in one month's time.
What would be the best way to prepare/wrap it and then thaw it to best preserve its texture and flavour? Is there anything I should avoid doing?
I intend to use Stilton, possibly Saint Agur also, but would anything else work better? | I cannot claim to know the "best" way, but I freeze various cheeses all the time, mostly cheddar but including stilton. I buy them wrapped in airtight plastic wrappers, leave them in them and freeze on day of purchase. I defrost them in the fridge over a day or so before I open the packet. It is pretty much indistinguishable from freshly bought. |
Why won't my whipped cream (with extras) stiffen up?
I wanted to spice up my whip cream so I used this recipe:
1 c. heavy cream, chilled
1/2 c. Packed light brown sugar
1/8 t salt
1/2 c. sour cream
2 t. bourbon
I chilled the mixing bowl, mixed the ingredients - let them chill for 3 hours - then used my mixer to 'whip' up the cream topping, and all I got was a consistency that was slightly stiffer than the sour cream.
Am I doing something wrong? Or is that the consistency I can expect from a sour cream whip?
(Oh - I'm at high elevation also - almost a mile up - that always affects everything in some way) | The minimum fat needed so cream will whip is 30%. Most brands sell whipping cream at 30%, a few at 33%. This means you cannot whip cream with any add-ins, except for hygroscopic powders (sugar) or a few drops of an essence or food coloring.
You should be able to whip a mixture starting with double cream (48%) and other water-based liquids, as long as the total fat content is 30% or more. Alcohol might be a problem, because it dissolves fat, you'll have to experiment if it works out or not. But first, you would need a source for double cream, and that's not easy to find. |
What are the names and purposes of these six kitchen knives?
My longtime neighbor had this collection of six GONON-GIRONDE high-carbon steel knives that she inherited from her mother. I thought that they were incredible, and must be wonderful to use.
Sadly she passed away, and her husband, who does not cook, knowing that I coveted the knives, gave them to me. They are a joy to use, and I think of her every time I get one of them out. The patina on them was there when I received them, and knowing that they are high-carbon steel, and stain easily, I clean and dry them immediately after each use. I also bought a nice whet stone set which permits me to put an exceptional edge on the blades.
I've assigned a number to each knife in the attached photo, and I would like to know the formal name and purpose of each knife. I am assuming that numbers 3-5 are chef knives, and that's how I use them. And I recognize number 2 as being the style of knife often used to carve smoked brisket here in east Texas (and it performs that task perfectly), but I am pretty confident that there's more to it than my simple observations. In additional, I am keen to know the name and purpose of numbers 1 and 6. (By the way, number 6 has a sharp edge, so I doubt that it is a bread knife.)
Any information that can be offered will be gratefully appreciated. | The first two are types of sabers. They’re used for butchering or cutting down large hunks of meat.
The next three are chef’s knives of different sizes.
The last one is a slicer, used for when you want thin slices of cooked meat. |
Steam pudding in square bowl
Emergency steam pudding q.
Is there a reason I couldn't use a square dish to steam a pudding in the oven (St John's steamed lemon pudding specifically)? Like, is the round bowl shape a structural necessity?
Sorry if this sounds daft. I can't find info anywhere.
Thank you so much in advance! | You can use the square dish. If the opening is smaller than the base inside the bowl (unlikely) then you will not be able to get it out in one piece. In any case you should be extra careful when removing it from the dish as the corners will be more vulnerable to crumbling. |
How can I prevent reductions from turning into molasses?
Last night I attempted to make a reduced sauce out of equal parts soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar. I let it simmer in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it got to a mildly viscous consistency where dragging my spatula briefly left a trail in the pan, then put it in a jar and put it in the fridge. The next day it was practically solid - I heated it up for 30 seconds in the microwave and it had the consistency of molasses. This was despite it being still pretty runny when I took it off the heat.
I've noticed this has happened a couple of times, and I want to know if there's something I'm doing wrong. Perhaps I should be taking it off the heat much earlier (though at that point there would be no trail left in the pan by my spatula, contradicting what most people suggest).
I also noticed at one point the mixture was bubbling quite a bit - I think I let it get too hot, which promoted crystallization of the sugar. Is it possible overheating the sugar results in too thick a reduction, and one should vigilantly watch their saucepan to prevent it from overheating? | You already stumbled over the correct answer - your reduction was held too long on the stove.
It doesn't matter what liquids and aromatics you are including, at the end you are making a sugar syrup. If you get it to be the preferred viscosity when it is in the pan, it will be too thick when it cools down. And yes, you do have to be very vigilant when working with sugar syrups of any kind, your timing has to be right up to maybe 20 seconds.
If you want your sauce to be thinner than what you are getting right now, you should either cook it for shorter time, or add more liquid after it has cooled. Both will work, you can choose depending on which is more comfortable for you and which flavor profile you prefer.
Most recipes of this kind are also meant for immediate serving. If you are keeping leftovers, you might take it to a higher viscosity, eat it hot, and then again stir in more liquid before putting it in the fridge.
And if the spatula sign is not useful for you, don't use it, it is just suggested as a help for the cook. It is maybe not well suited to the exact recipe, or maybe you imagine it differently. |
Is smoothing out an oven's on/off cycling possible with a pizza stone?
Will adding something like a pizza stone smooth out the highs and lows of an oven's cycling (the switching the element off and on)? | I've used pizza stones to even out fluctuations in two different ovens which had severe on/off temperature cycles. One oven was an older gas oven, and the other one an older electric oven. In both cases, installing the pizza stones did indeed lower the amount of temperature fluctuation in the oven; in the electric oven, fluctuations went from +/-45F to +/-20F, which helped a great deal with cooking times.
For this to work, the pizza stone needs to be sufficiently massive to act as a heat sink; each of the stones I used were over 15lbs. This will also cause the oven to take longer to heat up.
Pizza stones will also help even out random hot spots created by a bottom flame or element, but as @dbmag remarks, they won't do much, if anything, about top-to-bottom gradient. |
Isn't "bone broth" just broth?
Over the last couple of years I've started hearing a lot about "bone broth." But bones and water are where all broth comes from, right? Is there a specific type of broth that's "bone broth," or is that just a new coinage to make broth sound interesting and novel? | It's worse: bone broth is actually stock, not broth.
Stock, sometimes called bone broth ... involves simmering animal bones, meat, seafood, or vegetables in water or wine, often for an extended period
So yes, it's completely a marketing term. |
Frozen dinners extremely dry after reheating
Frozen dinners become extremely dry after reheating them, so much so that I choke on them while eating. Why could this possibly happen, and how can I avoid it?
I store them in the freezer (newish Samsung fridge/freezer combo), which is set to 0F, and they spend at most 1 week in the freezer. No signs of freezer burn.
I've tried:
Multiple brands, same results. Dishes I've tried (exact same ones): this or this
Microwave and oven heating per instructions on the box, same results. My oven is convection and my microwave is a regular 800W microwave (not inverter), which can be adjusted down to 600W.
Reducing power and increasing time in the microwave, same results. Example: 400g rice+chicken meal, box says 6 min at 750W, I do 6:25 at 700W.
I've not tried:
Reheating in the microwave with a glass of water inside. I'm concerned about 1) superheated water and 2) food becoming unsafe to eat due to most of the energy going to the water rather than the food.
Adding fresh water to the frozen meal before reheating it. Same concern as 2) above. Won't energy be spent in heating the extra water rather than the food itself, thereby making it unsafe? | This is going to sound odd, but there was a recommendation on TikTok recently about putting an ice cube in your food to be reheated, and then remove it once it’s hot.
This gives you just a little bit of steam to keep your food from drying out, without adversely affecting the time in the microwave by heating up a bunch of water.
America’s Test Kitchen had an explanation of it in which they said the surface moisture on the ice evaporates, but the frozen ice doesn’t actually get heated by the microwaves. (Which also explains why want to thaw frozen foods before trying to heat them in a microwave)
And of course, you want to cover your food to hold the steam in near the food, especially if you have a larger microwave. There are a few companies that make plastic covers that are slightly vented that can be put over plates or bowls. (I have one with magnets, that sticks to the top of my microwave when not in use) |
Can I make Turkish delight without refined sugar and cornstarch?
I'm trying to make Turkish delight with apple juice concentrate and tapioca starch instead of refined sugar and cornstarch. However, I haven't been able to get the consistency for two times, it becomes more viscous and spreads. In fact, after adding tapioca starch, it thickens very quickly, at this stage I thought that I shouldn't cook for a long time as with cornstarch, because tapioca is more unstable to heat? What do you think, is there a way to get a stable Turkish delight by changing these two main ingredients? | The tapioca starch shouldn't be that much of a problem. It has a very slightly different texture than cornstarch, but it produces the same firmness. The end result is only slightly gummier, in many cases imperceptebly so.
What won't work is the apple juice concentrate. Turkish delight is a type of candy; it is made out of sugar. The apple juice has nowhere enough sugar for that, it is still mostly water (I found a nutrition facts label stating it only has 38 g of sugar per 100 g). And the sugar in it is not sucrose, but fructose, which has a different consistency. Worse yet, it may also contain other stuff such as pectin, which will further do weird things to the final texture. So that is a big no-no. Even if you were using pure refined fructose, you couldn't expect to substitute it for sucrose (table sugar) and get the same results.
So, in the end, you are quite free in your choice of starch, but the sugar has to stay, and in the exact amount as prescribed in the recipe, you cannot reduce it either. I cannot think of a product that will work well as a substitute. If the "white" sugar is what you object to, you could use brown sugar - the amount of molasses used to color it is so miniscule, it won't interfere with the candy-making process, beside giving you a bit of a discoloration. |
Is it okay to wash your hands in the kitchen sink washwater (with the dishes)?
Is it okay to wash your hands in the same dishwater that you are using to wash the dishes? In other words, Can someone use the kitchen sink filled with soapy dishwater to wash hands after using the restroom? Is it safe or just gross? | No! This risks fecal contamination of the dishes.
One of the most common methods for disease to spread is the fecal-oral route. By washing your hands after going to the toilet in the same water as the dishes you're cleaning, you're transferring that fecal contamination to the water and then to all the dishes washed in it, and then to all the food eaten from those dishes. |
Basic Muffin Formula Range/Percentage
I regularly bake bread but have just started baking muffins once a week. While I am enjoying following recipes, I enjoy experimenting and was wondering if there are basic baker's percentages or a standard formula for muffins that I could begin to improvise upon. It seems like hydration, additions, etc. is pretty well trod for bread, but I am not finding anything particularly specific with muffins. | Michael Ruhlman, author of the book Ratio, suggests 2 parts flour, 2 parts liquid, 1 part fat, and 1 part egg (by weight). In the section on batters, provides a recipe which includes an additional 1 part sugar (for a basic sweet muffin), but he also suggests several variations on the basic recipe.
In general, Ruhlman's book is a solid reference whenever one is tempted to ask "are their basic percentages or standard formulae for ___?" The cover of the book gives a lot of basic ratios for cooking: |
tempering meats: good or bad?
I’ve read Meat (by Pat LaFrieda) and watched Thomas Keller (e.g. Masterclass episode) address this topic from two different, conflicting perspectives.
Pat says no, barring frozen meat, tempering meat to somewhere around room temp is both unnecessary and unsanitary.
However, Keller describes doing so as imperative.
Both of these individuals are very accomplished (one perhaps more-so than the other), so I’m unsure what to think here: is tempering meat good or bad? | Decades ago, the advice was always to let it come up to room temperature, but more recent advice is typically to not worry about that step.
It’s easier to achieve medium rare on a piece of beef while still developing a good crust on the meat if the center is cold when you start cooking it.
For stuff that needs to be cooked through, like poultry, it’s going to cook more quickly if it’s not cold in the center, but the total time (sitting on the counter, plus time on the stove or oven) is longer and there’s a higher risk of cross contamination. (Meat juices dripping on the counter, etc). You can cook at a slightly lower heat for more time, and achieve the same results, but this might not be acceptable in a restaurant where a relatively small delay might adversely affect the whole night when you compound the effects of a 2 minute delay for every time it’s cooked through the night if they’re at capacity.
Giving the meat a chance to warm slightly also gives you a chance to season it before you cook it. Again, some people are for and against this aspect, too. (Salting too early can draw out moisture, and flavors don’t really penetrate meat as quickly as we thought it does, so it’s still going to be right at the surface)
Changing from one method to the other does require adjusting your cooking time and temperature slightly, so it might require a little bit of adjustment by a cook to get fully dialed in to the alternate method, so I can understand a reluctance to change how they do things, especially if it would risk serving their patrons food that might get sent back because it wasn’t to their desired fineness.
When you get a cookbook, it’s basically documenting how they cook something. It will tell you how they find it’s best to cook something, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve exhaustively tried everything possible. And they might have different considerations in evaluating their ideal technique than your situation.
It’s also worth noting that although your chef who recommended only worrying about it when it’s frozen might be wrong on that for steaks. America’s Test Kitchen tested cooking from frozen, and although they said it wasn’t as good as a never frozen steak, they preferred it to a frozen then thawed steak. But they were also aiming for medium rare, so it’s possible that well done might be trickier from frozen.
If you have the opportunity, I’d recommend doing a test yourself, and see what works well for you, in your kitchen, with your pans and stove. (And it might be seasonal, as my kitchen is a different temperature in the summer vs the winter) |
Can I (or should I) re-roughen the interior of a ceramic mortar?
I have a ceramic mortar & pestle, approximately 10 cm across, that I use primarily for grinding whole spices. When I bought it about 15 years ago, only the exterior of the mortar (and a small amount of the interior) was glazed; the interior had an unfinished, rough texture akin to bisqueware. Similarly, the bottom 2–3 cm of the pestle was also rougher in texture.
After many years of usage, this rougher texture has been smoothed out in the center of the mortar and at the end of the pestle. I think (though it may just be confirmation bias) that this makes it less effective at grinding, as the spices are not "gripped" as much by the ceramic surfaces.
Is there a good way to re-roughen the grinding surfaces of this mortar & pestle? Or would it not be worth the trouble to do so? | Potter and maker of ceramic mortars here.
Should You: whether or not a mortar actually becomes smooth enough to affect grinding inside depends a lot on what kind of ceramic material the mortar is made from, and what temperature it was fired to. I have a steel-furnace-fired kaolin-based pharmacy mortar that's over 100 years old that I still use, and it's just rough enough (sandstone-like) for good grinding. On the other hand, many inexpensive handmade ceramic mortars are made from low-fire earthenware, and will totally grind smooth with use. Once the interior reaches the smoothness of 'polished wood', it's going to be harder to grind seeds (but see below). Mashing of leaves, roots, and aromatics should be unaffected.
How To: sandpaper. Get some 20 to 50 grit (depending on how rough you want it to be) wet/dry sandpaper. Dampen the mortar (you do not want to breathe the dust) and sand away. The carborundum of the sandpaper is harder than any but the hardest ceramics, and it should roughen it nicely. Then scrub out the mortar and let dry. If you have trouble sourcing low-grit wet/dry sandpaper, use a very rough grinding stone with a Dremel-like tool instead.
Think About: if what you do is primarily grind spices that come in the form of seeds, think about getting a Japanese-style "combed" texture mortar (see pic). These mortars are specifically designed for grinding seeds, and the rough interior won't grind smooth, particularly if you use the recommended hardwood pestle. |
How should I crack an egg?
I know how to crack an egg, but is there empirical evidence as to the best way to crack an egg? With best I'm referring to a method of cracking eggs that has the lowest chance of egg shells ending up in the receptacle.
Some chefs suggest cracking an egg on a sharp edge (like a knife), presumably to ensure the cleanest cut, and therefore the lowest chance of bits falling off the egg shell.
Other chefs recommend knocking an egg on a flat surface to obtain a circular shatter pattern, where you can place your thumbs to guide the shell with opening.
All techniques I'm aware of crack eggs along the smallest axis of the egg, so it can probably be a given that having a smaller radius helps to ensure a clean crack. | Many sources come out in favor of the "flat surface" method for cracking an egg:
America's Test Kitchen
Kitchn
Reader's Digest
Egg Farmers of Canada
All of these sources say more-or-less the same thing:
The flat-surface method is far less likely to result in broken yolks, or eggshell ending up in the bowl or pan.
While I know many people use the edge-of-bowl method, and a few use the knife method, I couldn't find any sources advocating for those methods. And while Serious Eats advocates for the one-hand method, it is specifically not on the basis of avoiding bits of shell.
And what none of the flat-surface sources had was any evidence to back up their assertions. Even ATK simple baldly states that the flat surface method is better, but does not do any testing with a couple dozen eggs to find out.
So, here's the obligatory answer of "there is no such study", which you can pick if it turns out to be true. Of course, maybe a member of SA is willing to ruin a whole carton of eggs to find out ... here's hoping! |
How can I make a really gingery cookie?
I have tried various ginger cookie recipes over the years, for gingersnaps, gingerbread cookies, pfeffernusse, and most recently pepparkakor. I never find the cookies to be spicy enough—I assume, not gingery enough. What can I do to bake a really spicy cookie?
By way of prior research: I am often generous in the measures of the spices; in particular, I often put in more cloves than the recipe calls for. (And when I made candied orange peel for the first time a few years back, I thought that might be part of the solution. Once I tried adding it chopped to the gingerbread cookie recipe above, but the result was equivocal.) | I often find that fresh ginger tends to lose its freshness over time when heated, and this might happen here. So I suggest ginger powder. Similar to garlic powder, this is a very fine powder made probably from the dried fruit, and surprisingly intense and close to the original. It might be difficult to find; I buy mine at an Egyptian spice dealer. (It's also awesome to put into hot chocolate...)
In addition, you mention an extra dose of cloves. Maybe try reducing that, as cloves tend to have a somewhat numbing effect in the mouth. |
Was "organic" food talked about in the 90s?
I watched the movie Spencer last night and it is about Princess Diana of the UK. There is a chef listing off parts of a menu and he often refers to "organic" food such as organic carrots etc. This took me by surprise as I don't recall hearing much about "organic" food in the 90s. This seems like more of a recent trend.
Was "organic" food talked about often in the 90s? Was this representation in the film seemingly realistic? | Yes, but you typically had to go to specialty stores to buy it. The US’s Organic Food Production Act was passed in 1990, and the topic was discussed well before that, as it was an attempt to standardize regulations that varied by state (although not all states had such regulations)
See https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/8889458
Before larger grocery chains carried organic food, you would have to go to a ‘health food store’, a co-op, or specialty grocery store such as Wild Oats (since bought out by While Foods after some possible stock manipulation)
You could also get organic food via mail-order. MOM’s Organic Market started out that way. |
How to massage an octopus?
This is definitely one of the weirder questions I've asked, but is there any easy way to massage an octopus?
I recently watched the movie "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and in that movie they show the massaging of the octopus which Jiro insists must be done for 50 minutes. There is no way I am going to spend an hour massaging an octopus.
In the video here we can see a different master sushi chef demonstrating massaging octopus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89wwP--bHMg
According to this guy his father massaged the octopus by putting it in a washing machine. I am not sure I want to try that and am wondering if there is a kitchen oriented way to massage an octopus rather than using the laundry room? | In the olden days fishermen used to "beat" or hit the octopus against a rock on the shore repeatedly. The main purpose of this endeavour was to soften its hard texture, so that it would take less time to cook it. The other (and more modern) option is to put a fresh octopus in a freezer and let it deep freeze for at least several hours. That breaks down "the fibers or texture" of the meat. |
How should I store spare royal icing?
After making a gingerbread house yesterday, we have some leftover royal icing (I only made 1 egg's worth, but it was still too much). How should this be stored for a few days?
While dried royal icing is clearly suitable for room-temperature storage, I'm not sure if the same hold when it's still wet (in a sturdy plastic piping bag).
In case it makes a difference, the egg I used was unwashed and unrefrigerated, as is normal here (though this one came from a household flock of hens not a shop). Also it was a stiff construction royal icing - egg white and sugar just stirred vigorously together, with a little water added as it was too stiff at first. | I was hoping for something definitive, but for completeness, this is what worked for me: I kept it in the plastic piping bag at room temperature.
It dried at the open end where I'd been piping, but after breaking off the dried bit it was still usable a few days later and tasted as it should. It's essentially pure sugar, so the water activity should be too low for it to spoil - it's not surprising that it kept well. |
How to make whipped cream just like in a canister?
I see that people make it with a blender or a whisker, but how to reproduce the texture in canisters? Maybe with a soda maker? | Whipped cream can be made by mechanically whisking it, such as with a hand whisk, electric beaters or a stand mixer, or it can be made, as in canned whipped creams, by dissolving nitrous oxide in it under high pressure, then releasing it from the pressurised environment. The rapid expansion of the bubbles as the nitrous oxide comes out of solution in the cream whips it, nearly instantaneously.
The manual whipping method does need to be stopped at the right time, before the cream is overwhipped into butter, which is not a risk with the gas method. Both methods typically involve slightly sweetening the cream and possibly flavouring it by mixing in sugar, syrups or other add-ins (I've heard powdered freeze-dried fruit is good) before whipping.
At home, one can use nitrous oxide to whip cream either by buying a premade canister, like the one pictured in the question, or by making their own using a whipping siphon, which is basically a small, screw-top pressure vessel that takes small canisters of nitrous oxide (or carbon dioxide, for other purposes, as it tends to make things it's dissolved into sour or bitter) and has a release nozzle that actually dispenses the whipped cream. |
Why are halal carts so much more prevalent in nyc than taco carts?
I expressed surprise to a friend that halal carts are so prevalent in nyc, whereas taco carts seem nearly non-existent, and he confidently told me that this is due to the halal foods being easier to prepare, since he thinks the different halal meats are made with the same seasonings, whereas preparing multiple taco fillings would be a lot more effort.
Is this true? I had assumed it was just some kind of culture / network effect thing in nyc, or that the current halal cart owners already had cornered the market on the licenses needed to operate food stalls.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks. | I can't speak to food truck demographics in NYC. But I can tell you that the "it's easier because you season everything the same way" argument just doesn't hold water.
First of all, different food items from what I think you're thinking of as a "halal cart" are seasoned very differently. Your friend is probably thinking of the prevalence of cumin in middle-eastern food, but there's a lot more going on than that. If you tried to take the flavorings one uses to make falafel, for instance, and use them to grill chicken, you'll end up with something burnt and underwhelming.
Secondly, one of the primary advantages of most "taco meats" -- in fact, arguably the key to the prevalence of tacos as a street food in Mexico -- is that they can be prepared in bulk, ahead of time. So you only really need to cook one at a time. It's not extra effort.
Finally, the idea that effort is directly proportional to how many "different seasonings" you need is just silly. Most of one's time in food prep is not spent seasoning things, it's spent cooking them. Getting in some variety by using different spices is the easy bit. |
Are “stockpots” concentrated stock packs in the refrigerated section of the supermarket?
Will mass-produced stockpots (gelled stock concentrate) be found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket or in the section where stock cubes are? | You sometimes can buy refrigerated stock, but the concentrated "Knorr Stock Pots" that I tried when they were on offer are shelf stable and sold with the stock cubes and powders. But products are different in different places, so I don't know in your case.
As a general rule, and why I decided to make this an answer and not a comment: If your supermarket has an online shop, search for the product in that and look for which section they're in: Sainsbury's (UK), where I probably bought them lists them under "Food cupboard | Cooking ingredients & oils | Stocks" and not under "Dairy, Eggs, and Chilled" (a bit of catch-all category for miscellaneous stuff sold in fridges, plus eggs which are usually near the milk but not refrigerated here). This gives a clue as to that supermarket's thinking, which tends to be consistent between online and in-store categories |
Are there other foods that are known to be not your taste based on genetics?
It is pretty widely known that cilantro tastes bad for some people only because of a gene that makes that herb taste like soap.
But are there other foods/herbs that are known to be your taste or not just with genetics? | This is an interesting question which I researched a bit, since I used do have night-mares of cilantro when I came first into contact with it in Portugal.
There are a lot of articles (like the ones linked in the comments of your question) about how genetics, how a certain part of the DNA is responsible for the experience of a certain taste, but not a lot of scientific papers about lasting taste preferences influenced by your DNA.
It seems much more to be an issue of habits and environment. Visiting Portugal for some years in a row, one day I didn't have to pick out the cilantro leaves anymore, actually started to like them so much that nowadays for me "more is better". That would not be possible, if I'm genetically designed to be a cilantro-hater
This paper speaks about moderate genetic basis of food preferences, which tends to not persist during time:
Conclusions: Food preferences had a moderate genetic basis in late
adolescence, in keeping with findings in children. However, by this
older age, the influence of the shared family environment had
disappeared, and only aspects of the environment unique to each
individual twin influenced food preferences. This finding suggests
that shared environmental experiences that influence food preferences
in childhood may not have effects that persist into adulthood. |
Can you make crepes/pancakes on a stainless steel pan without oil or butter so that it doesn't stick?
Can you make crepes/pancakes (and other pourable batter flatbreads) on a stainless steel pan without oil or butter so that it doesn't stick? Assuming the batter itself has no oil or added fat. | No. Any starchy batter, without oil, fat, or teflon*, will adhere to a stainless steel pan, and will be removable only with a scraper.
(* or other nonstick surface, such as ceramic nonstick or silicone) |
In large prawns are there 2 veins, which are to be deveined?
In large prawns, I sometimes get to see a thin black colored thread in the prawn even when it's mentioned that it's deveined. I've seen this is good restaurants and also in the frozen food packs. So, that thread something else or is it a vein? | The thick gray/black "vein" that is removed from shrimps and prawns is actually the digestive canal. The thin thread you sometimes see is an artery that runs down the length of the body (ironically, it has more in common with a vein than the thing we call "the vein"). While you could remove it, it's thin and delicate and connected to the flesh by smaller branching blood vessels, so it would tend to come apart and be a lot of work to remove comprehensively. |
What is the ratio of fat to flour in shortcrust pastry?
What is the ratio of fat to flour in shortcrust pastry? I cannot find anything on the matter, and it said somewhere that it was 4:1 but I've been told differently in the past, so I've come here to ask for different opinions. | Typical ratios are 3:2 or 2:1 (flour to fat). In fact, you can use a flaky crust recipe if you prefer, the difference is only in the mixing. I have used these ratios successfully for short pie/tart crusts, both sweet and savory, and for different types of cookie. But I must note that the textbook "The professional pastry chef" uses 1:0.88 flour to fat, with 0.38 sugar and 0.11 eggs added, as the basic formula intended "as a base for cakes and
pastries or to line tart pans [and to prepare] nothing-left-in-the-showcase cookies".
I haven't tried working with ratios outside the 3:2 to 2:1 range, but 1:4 strikes me as too buttery. It is probably not enough flour to hold together, you're more likely to end up with a stirrable roux base than a pastry crust. In fact, 1:1 is already a standard roux (although it might be a bit more pliable than stirrable if made with butter in an oven and then refrigerated).
If you meant it in the other direction, you can very likely make a crust with 4 parts flour to 1 part fat. Then it will be difficult to work all the flour into the fat, and you will have to add more water than with higher-fat ratios to get a cohesive ball. The more flour you add, the more you are leaving classic shortcrust territory and going into something else - something like a hardtack with a bit of fat. |
how many grams of butter can be absorbed by 5 egg yolks?
my 5 egg yolks absorbed 75grams of butter today. finished product felt like it can absorb more fat.
what's the maximum it can absorb?
anyone else experimented? | There isn't too much of an upper limit that way. Yolks can emulsify a lot.
A single yolk can emulsify a dozen cups of oil or more. What is critical is the ratio of oil to water: there must be enough of the continuous phase for the growing population of oil droplets to fit into. For every volume of oil added, the cook should provide about a third of that volume in the combination of yolks, lemon juice, vinegar, water, or some other water-based liquid
(from On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee).
At the same time, an emulsion made with many cups of oil (or butter) per yolk is not going to taste the same, have the same texture, or be as easy to make as one made with more standard ratios. So while you probably could make a sauce with as much butter as you like, there is no good reason why you should try it. If you pick a good recipe, you have a much higher chance of ending up with something enjoyable. |
how can i make 100% odorless tallow?
i used fresh beef suet. wet rendered twice. i made sure to not increase the heat too much (it barely simmered). but its smell didn't go away.
it smells like beef fat. you might say x smells like x because it comes from x. that makes sense but i just wish to make the tallow smell&taste odorless or like at least butter
how can i make this happen? open to any and all ideas.
ps. i make tallow to eat (i'm on low carb), so i don't want to destroy fat soluble vitamins in it, or make it more unhealthy. | You can't, not at all. It would go against the law of physics.
The human sense of smell reacts to the chemical makeup of substances we are exposed to. Not every substance has a smell, but when a substance does have one, then there is no way for that smell to somehow be "turned off". Saying that you wish it were otherwise is like saying that you wish water to stop being wet - it won't get you any other answer.
Things you may have heard in relation to odor, such as the wet rendering, are not aimed at it being odorless, they are aimed at it not having off-smells. For example, if you use a high-heat method for rendering which crisps the fat-and-meat mixture, you will end up with a tallow smelling of fried meat (because there will be traces of fried meat in it). So these methods are not meant for creating odorless tallow, they are meant for creating tallow which smells of pure tallow. |
Prime rib cooking
I'm seasoning and cooking a prime rib for 10-12 servings. One person can't have garlic. Can I cut 1 piece off, (season it without garlic), and cook it separately in the same oven at the same time as the main prime rib? | Yes, you can cook it separately, assuming you are roasting it you'll need to add the smaller piece later as it will cook much faster. If you are braising it you would cook it for a similar amount of time.
My main concern would be having a small piece dry out, you're essentially talking about roasting a steak, which I'd never recommend. If it were me I'd leave the garlic out of the roast and put it in a sauce instead, or just leave it out entirely. |
making a detox smoothie more palatable
I currently make a detox smoothie with the following ingredients: 1 orange, 1 banana, 2 cups frozen wild blueberries, 1 c cilantro, 1 tsp barley juice grass powder, 1 tsp spirulina, tbsp or Atlantic sea dulse.
It tastes like a dirty fish tank.
I can make something separate with all the stuff that doesn't taste good to me. (everything but the fruit and cilantro)
I like cilantro but not in my fruit, so I can put cilantro in a salad but all the other stuff is beyond horrible to me.
Is there any gluten, egg and dairy-free way to make the barley juice grass powder, 1 tsp spirulina, and tbsp of Atlantic sea dulse more palatable? Saying it's an acquired taste won't help.
I'm 2 years into trying to use this stuff. | Gelatin capsule.
You can buy empty gelatin capsules for endeavors like this. Put the seaweed powders in the gelatin capsule(s). You will not taste them. Wash the capsules down with the fruit smoothie. |
Why can't you make cheese from coconut milk?
People make yogurt by fermenting coconut milk. Why has no one ever made cheese? | Your question is based on wrong assumptions. Depending on your preferred definition, they have made both coconut yogurt and coconut cheese, or they have never made either.
If you choose a strict definition of "yogurt" and "cheese", then it is biologically not possible to make yogurt or cheese from coconut milk. Yogurt is made by fermenting dairy milk with certain strains of lactobacillus (or a few other bacteria species), which digests some of the lactose in milk, and denatures the proteins to a certain degree, resulting in the well-known texture of yogurt.
Coconut milk is chemically totally unlike dairy milk. If you add lactobacilluis to it, it cannot establish a colony, because the environment is totally wrong for it. You cannot ferment coconut milk with yogurt cultures.
Update: somebody commented that one can ferment coconut milk. I still wouldn't see this as yogurt. First, it is unlikely that it is done with yogurt cultures. Second, I would be more inclined to see the result as related to kvass or to boza, than as related to yogurt. Third, fermented coconut milk won't have the fine denatured protein mesh that gives yogurt its texture, it will have to be thickened by other means to become yogurt-like, as described in the next paragraph.
In recent times, some food producers have started making non-dairy yogurt replacement, some also using coconut milk. In that case, the lactobacillus is fermented in a medium in which it can establish a colony (I don't know if the coconut products are already added at that stage or not), and different plant-based ingredients are used to achieve a substance which has the optic appearance and the spoonable texture of yogurt, but does not taste like yogurt. Chemically, it is quite different from yogurt, but for many eaters, especially those starved for yogurt due to a restrictive diet, it is a good enough substitute.
There are also plant-based cheese substitutes, and in recent years, they have also gotten rather close in texture to real cheese, especially if you are not picky about closely imitating an exact type of cheese, but are only looking for something that melts nicely on a casserole or provides the right tang and saltiness in a salad designed with Feta in mind. A lot of these also use coconut-derived products as part of their ingredients.
But note that both of those types of product are 1) not actually yogurt (or cheese) but substitutes that have slightly similar sensory properties, and 2) are not made with the same method as cheese or yogurt. Since coconut milk does not behave like dairy milk chemically or nutritionally (in that case, nutritionally from the point of view of a lactobacillum), you cannot follow the same process as for dairy milk and get the same result. That would be like providing honey bees with cat food and expecting them to produce beeswax and honey. |
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