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Firm vs. crisp vs. crunchy for apples
I see these terms used to describe apples on signage at markets and I'm wondering whether they are meant to imply different things and if so what?
For example, this page uses the terms "firm", "crisp", and "crunchy" for different varieties. | 'Firm', 'Crisp', and 'Crunchy' are not standardised labelling/marketing claims and will vary between vendors. The marketing or procurement teams, or the grower of each variety, may have given the descriptors.
From a sensory evaluation perspective, 'crisp' and 'crunch' also don't have set definitions but some research on consumer opinions has 'crisp' associated with lighter, higher pitch noises and 'crunch' with heavier, lower pitch noises.
Some interesting articles below on crisp vs crunch - the first is very comprehensive on the mechanics and perception, and is free:
Critical Evaluation of Crispy and Crunchy Textures: A Review.
Michael H. Tunick, Charles I. Onwulata, Audrey E. Thomas,John G. Phillips, Sudarsan Mukhopadhyay, Shiowshuh Sheen, Cheng-Kung Liu, Nicholas Latona, Mariana R. Pimentel & Peter H. Cooke.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10942912.2011.573116
A review of acoustic research for studying the sensory perception of crisp, crunchy and crackly textures.
Lisa Duizer.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-2244(01)00050-4 (paywall)
Crispiness and Crunchiness - A Difference In Pitch?
Zata M. Vickers
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-4603.1984.tb00375.x (paywall) |
Any substitutes for a pizza peel?
I'm not cooking with a special pizza oven; I'm just using a regular oven with a pizza stone. However, I don't have a pizza peel. What can I use to put the pizza onto the stone? Any way I can make a makeshift pizza peel? | Use a cookie tray. Turn it upside down. Place a piece of parchment on the upside down tray. Build your pizza on the the upside down, parchment covered tray. Slide the parchment, with pizza, onto your pizza stone. You may find a spatula or tongs helpful to reverse the process once the pizza is cooked.
Edit: In an attempt to make those of you with concerns feel a bit better, just wait a few minutes, until the crust firms up, then slip the parchment out. Finish cooking without parchment. Use tongs or spat to remove cooked pizza back to underside of tray. |
What can you replace eggs with in noodle dough?
What can you replace eggs with in noodle/dumpling dough, that is dough for boiling? Without eggs, noodles have this glue-like glossy appearance and, in my view, inferior texture. As a big noodles fan (I mean home-made noodles, not store-bought pasta), I can say with confidence that the difference is clearly noticeable even when you make your dough with a 1:1 egg to water ratio. That tight springiness goes through the window. This question offered some general ideas about egg substitutes. I'm not sure anything fits, really. Laxseed mixed with water is expected to mix some seed bits in, compromising the smoothness. Apple sauce, banana are going to affect the taste. Commercial egg replacers are not easy to come by, I don't have a vegan shop nearby. Any suggestions? | Not all noodles or pasta has egg anyway.
You don't need to substitute, you can just leave them out. You can make them with just flour & water, or optionally add a little oil & salt. The longer you let the dough rest, the chewier the noodles will be. Some people add a little baking powder to soften them up. |
Why do my silicone spatulas melt in frying oil?
I have bought three silicone spatulas so far and all of them start "melting" when used to flip frying eggs.
I don't leave them in the pan or anything and, supposedly, silicone should be able to withstand much higher temperatures than frying oil.
But I've had the same happen with a "silicone basket"-like utensil (I don't know exactly what it was called) which, quite literally, melted and fell apart when I used it for the first time to fish french fries out of the frier.
I also see a lot of people having the same experience over the wire/internet.
Why is this happening and is there a way to confirm the utensils are real silicone and not something else?
EDIT:
After some digging I have discovered I have, in fact, bought a nylon spatula, instead of a silicone one.
I am going to copy @unlisted's comment for benefit of future readers:
Though both obviously 'plasticky' nylon is hard & silicone is soft. If it will squish a bit, it's silicone. Nylon will bend but you could never describe it as 'squishy'. Of course, even if it passes that test it may still not be food-grade. | If the products are melting and falling apart in hot oil at cooking temperatures I think you have experimentally confirmed that they are not food grade silicone. Food-grade silicone should be completely functional in the range of frying temperatures.
In a guide to food-grade silicone:
Temperature resistance is one of the principal attributes of food-grade silicone. This is particularly crucial in food processing where temperatures can vary from boiling hot to freezing cold. Food grade silicone can generally function in temperatures varying between -60°C and +250°C (special grades up to +300°C). Source
In a guide to safe deep-frying:
If you have a food thermometer heat the oil to 160C for low, 180C for moderate and 190C for high. Source
As for buying reliable products, my recommendation would be to buy branded products from reputable shops. With experience and common sense you can get a sense for what brands and products to trust. |
Can I use j-cloth to squeeze water out of grated zucchini?
As per title.
Can I use j-cloth to squeeze water out of grated zucchini ?
I will be using never used/new j-cloth. | You could, but it shouldn't be your first choice. J-cloths are too porous and not nearly strong enough when wet; they are likely to tear spill the zucchini all over the counter while squeezing. You'd have to treat it very carefully to not stress it too much.
A plain cotton, linen, muslin, or blend cloth is going to work much better. I use a cotton flour sack towel, which can then be washed. If you don't have those, putting the shredded zucchini between triple layers of paper towel is still a better bet than a single j-cloth. You could, conceivably, layer the zucchini between multiple layers of j-cloth, using 4-6 of them. |
How can I curate ingredients for my child to do foolproof self-directed sensory play + baking?
My 6 year old child really likes to play "spices" where we put various herbs, spices, flour, and other ingredients into small jars, set those on a baking sheet, and give her a mixing bowl. She mixes them and, usually, makes some sort of dough she wants to bake. She has a lot of fun doing this and it helps her experience new scents and flavors. Historically we just buy cheap spices at the store and don't really overthink it.
So far the main problems we have had are:
We have a hard time finding complementary herbs/spices that can be mixed in somewhat arbitrary proportions and not end up completely disgusting. Sometimes the spices conflict with each other and sometimes they are spices you generally don't use more than a tiny pinch.
Since she wants to bake things, we try to provide something to make it "bakeable" such as baking soda, yeast, sometimes even eggs. Usually, though, the end result is unappealing - often too spongy or too hard - and she doesn't want to try it. When it isn't unappealing she really likes it and finds it rewarding.
It would be really nice if we could put a little more prep work into this and be able to give her all her ingredients to play with, knowing that they are the right proportions that make something relatively palatable in the end, and be able to do this repeatedly.
She does also help us with "real" recipes which is obviously a critical thing for helping hear learn and understand cooking, but this self-directed play is really important to her and helps expand her palate and calm her.
It would be nice if I could come up with the following system:
measure out a set of ingredients and put them into appropriately-sized jars
nearly all ingredients are dry and would not spoil in a week or so
give her all the jars on a baking sheet along with any water needed
have a pre-defined temperature and time for baking
when combined, the entirety of the ingredients would be tasty when baked
when some ingredients are not fully used (randomly), would not be terrible when baked
clean up afterwards; be able to repeat this over and over without too much expense (no saffron, etc.)
How can I approach this task? | The easiest way would be to make a very simple cookie dough that relies on a lot of dry ingredients.
I personally like to make different seasoned and flavoured banana cookies for breakfast and think the recipe meets all the guidelines you asked for.
As I personally prepare the ingredients also in jars and measure them by cup and teaspoon to make it easier for myself, I hope the recipe below works for you and your kid.
Basic ingredients:
1 banana (you can additionally add nut butter for liquidity)
max 1 tsp baking powder
ca. 1/2 to 1 cup of dry ingredients like granola, oats, flour or a mix out of them
Ideas for the dry ingredients and flavour/spices:
Basically, everything you like, which is dry and could be measured pre-hand e.g.
nuts
dried fruits e.g. raisins, cranberries, raspberries
chocolate chips
sprinkles
coconut flakes
seeds
…
It’s completely up to you, what you would like to add to the cookies. Be creative and experience with the flavours that your daughter likes. If sweet or hearty - there are no limits!
Just make sure to follow the steps in the order below and add a banana + baking powder + any kind of dry base.
Steps:
Mash your banana with a fork in a bowl until it’s banana puree - consistency like a smoothie.
Add all the dry ingredients (except baking powder and spices) until you have got a stiff but sticky dough.
If it runs off the fork it’s too liquidy, if you can knead it with your hands it’s too stiff. It should be somewhere in the middle.
As dry ingredients you can use: Oats, (e.g. coconut or spelt) flour, pre-mixed granola, nuts, dried fruits, sesame, puffed rice, a bit of couscous or quinoa, cocoa nibs, espresso beans, chocolate drops etc. etc.
If you add multiple ingredients, I would recommend starting with the smaller and finer ones and then adding whole nuts, etc. It’s easier to add only a bit of each, to begin with, and then more until the dough has got a nice, chewy consistency.
Now mix ca. 1/2 to 1 teaspoon baking powder (depending on how much dough you have) and your spices.
I like to add organic turmeric powder or barley grass powder (the banana overpowers the flavour and the powder gives a nice colour), cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger.
There are no limits to what you can or can’t add. For example, if you are more of a crisp and less of a cookie person, add as dry ingredient sesame seeds and seaweed sprinkles and as spices sea salt flakes, umami and hot sauce or pepper.
You can adapt the recipe fully to your taste!
If you like your cookies extra crunchy or caramelised, add some coconut flakes, puffed rice, a drizzle of honey, etc. on top.
Bake your cookies at 180°C / 356°F for ca. 15min. until they are golden brown. |
Ruby chocolate explained
I have a problem understanding Ruby chocolate. It is still a mystery for me in many areas:
Why does Ruby chocolate have virtually no fiber in it? As I understand, it does contain some cocoa solids which provide pink color and should also be source of dietary fiber as is the case in dark chocolate. The most Ruby chocolates I've seen claim around 0.7% - 0.9% dietary fiber in it. Doesn't make sense to me.
Why does Ruby chocolate always contain milk in it? Isn't there any "dark ruby chocolate" i.e. without milk available somewhere? Just sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter -> like normal dark chocolate.
What is the color of cocoa butter extracted from Ruby cocoa beans? Is it pink or yellow? My guess is yellow because I believe the pink color comes from cocoa solids.
Why there isn't any Ruby cocoa powder available? I mean finely ground dry pink cocoa solids which are left after cocoa butter extraction. | Ruby chocolate is a type of chocolate, not a type of cocoa bean. Just like "white chocolate" is a specific combination of cocoa solids, cocoa fat, milk and sugar, milk chocolate is another combination of these, etc., so is ruby chocolate.
So, to your points:
Why does Ruby chocolate have virtually no fiber in it?
Because it has almost no cocoa solids. You say that it has "some" cocoa solids, but the actual amount is very low. It is actually quite comparable to colored white chocolate, but the ingredient which gives it its coloring and aroma is extracted from a specifically preprocessed cocoa bean of certain varieties ("ruby cocoa beans"), not synthesized.
Why does Ruby chocolate always contain milk in it
Because that's what ruby chocolate is. It is the specific combination of milk, preprocessed ruby beans, etc. If you were to make dark chocolate out of the same beans, it would be dark chocolate, not ruby chocolate.
What is the color of cocoa butter extracted from Ruby cocoa beans
I haven't seen it done, so I cannot tell you what it looks like, physically. The liquor they use will certainly be colored, but it is also theoretically possible that the cocoa butter has a pink tinge.
Why there isn't any Ruby cocoa powder available? I mean finely ground dry pink cocoa solids which are left after cocoa butter extraction.
This is a marketing question, not a cooking question. The producers haven't decided to market it that way, and we cannot know what factored in in their decision. |
There are black stains on the kitchen tissue when I wipe my pan after washing, is it safe to use the pan?
After washing my pan with dishwashing liquid, I was wiping it dry with a kitchen tissue and noticed black stains on it. So I washed the pan again with dishwashing liquid and wiped it but the black stains would still show up on the tissue. Also, in the areas of the pan (the exterior) which were only wet and had no dishwashing liquid used on it when wiping it also turned the tissue black.
The pan:
The kitchen tissue: | This pan looks like uncoated aluminium. It is quite normal for uncoated aluminium to rub off in this way, after all it is relatively reactive, and the reaction products have to go somewhere.
Your pan is safe, this is expected behavior. If you don't want it, you will have to use a different type of pan, such as stainless steel, or aluminium with some kind of surface treatment (PTFE, anodizing, etc.). |
Do I still need to adjust for high altitude if using a pressure cooker?
I've lived at a high altitude (between 6000' /1830 m and 7200'/2200m) for several years now, and I'm still trying to find consistency in high-altitude baking and the adjustments needed for different types of bakes. I've been experimenting with baking in my pressure cooker (instant pot). Since low air pressure and higher rate of evaporation are two big reasons for adjusting recipes at a higher elevation, this made me wonder—does using a pressure pot negate the need for high-altitude adjustments, or is there another set of adjustments needed that would be different from a standard oven? Does the pressure inside a pressure cooker remain constant despite the elevation at which it's being used? | You still will need to adjust for altitude with an instant pot. The cooker is adding 12-15 psi above the ambient pressure, which is lower at altitude. That means the total pressure inside the pot is lower than most recipes might expect, leading to longer cook times.
A bit of the science is explained here:
Practically speaking, what all that science amounts to is this: In a sealed pressure cooker, the boiling point of water goes up as pressure increases.
At standard atmospheric pressure, the boiling point of water is 212°F. But in a standard American pressure cooker, the pressure reaches 1 atm or 15 psi (pounds per square inch) above standard atmospheric pressure*, or 2 atm, which is typically the maximum pressure limit on most cookers. At 30 psi, the boiling point of water is about 250°F.
Using a Pressure Cooker at High Elevation
What about pressure cooking above sea level? You might be aware that general cooking times and temperatures for certain recipes differ in places like Denver, CO, or high up in the Andes. At high altitudes, the atmospheric pressure is lower**. For example, in Denver, the ambient pressure is around 12.2 psi.
** Pressure is lower at higher elevations because most of the air molecules in the atmosphere are held close to the earth’s surface by gravity, which means there are fewer air molecules above a higher altitude surface than there are above a surface at a lower altitude.
In general, a pressure cooker adds pressure above the given atmospheric pressure. That means the force that closes the valve as pressure builds in the chamber includes the force of atmospheric pressure. For example, if the atmospheric pressure in Denver is 12.2 psi, then the absolute pressure of the chamber at full pressure is 27.2 (12.2 psi + 15 psi)—nearly 3 psi less than at sea level. Looking at our trusty ideal gas equation, we know that lowering pressure will lower the temperature in a system. In this case, the boiling point of water in a sealed chamber cooking at high pressure will be 244.8°F, almost 6 degrees lower than the same system at sea level.
Of course, a lower boiling point means slower cooking. What does that mean for you? It means you have to increase cooking time to accommodate lower pressure and lower cooking temperature in order to get the same results. A good rule of thumb is to increase cooking time by about five percent for every 1000 feet above 2000 feet elevation. |
Baking squash: cut side up or down?
I bake my squash (butternut, etc.) cut side down on parchment paper, 350 degrees, for 50-60 minutes. Seems to work out fine. When I was first learning to cook I followed recipes which called for oiling the cut side and baking cut side up.
I was just looking at this NYTimes recipe Butternut Squash Soup and it reminded me of the early recipes I learned from:
Rub the flesh of the squash with 1 tablespoon oil and season with
salt. Place the squash cut sides up on a small baking sheet, and cover
tightly with foil. Bake until the flesh is tender and a knife can be
inserted easily, about 50 minutes.
My question: is there a point to that extra effort? What benefit is there with the oiling/covering with foil vs. just baking cut side down? With the latter, the cut surface is protected and does not dry out. The salt can be added later.
Am I missing some cooking nuance here or is this simply a matter of style (and/or parchment paper)? | One reason to cooking cut side up under foil would be to have a gentler heat via steam, as opposed to direct thermal contact with the baking dish.
Direct contact with something like an aluminum sheet pan, especially if there's fat involved, could lead to a different surface texture than one that was purely steamed. |
Why won't my pizza cheese brown?
I'm trying to make pizza that's comparable to ones you get at restaurants. It's pretty good, but it's lacking those classic brown spots on the cheese.
I'm using pre-shredded mozzarella cheese, so I thought that the rice flower anti-caking agent added to it makes it harder to brown? I am not using a pizza stone either, and am cooking my pizza at 425F for 15 min
I get melted cheese, but it's completely white, with splotches of red sauce. It looks like I poured Elmer's glue all over my pizza.
What can I do to get my pizza cheese to brown right? | It isn't browning because the top of your pizza is not getting hot enough to brown the cheese. One solution for baking pizza in a home oven is to use the broiler near the end of your bake time. You can also place your rack as high as possible, cooking as close to the top as you can. Just keep an eye on the broiler situation if you do this, and also use the broiler step I suggested. |
How to crack a bucket of walnuts quickly without compromising the taste?
I read that you can accelerate the process of cracking walnuts by freezing them — the shells either crack all by themselves or are otherwise so brittle that they can be opened with one hand. However, this somehow ruins the edible parts too. Walnuts, thus extracted, are suitable only for cooking and roasting.
Is there a way to crack many walnuts simultaneously, without compromising the taste and texture? OK to compromise aesthetics of the product. | Find the right tool your best bet.
I have best luck with key type plus a nut pick.
Or the spring type:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IEzK8MVGa0s
For speed, hammer works great too and with some practice actually yields more than walnutbutter. |
What is the benefit of overnight oats compared to traditional oatmeal cooking methods?
The primary advantage I hear people talk about is that overnight oats take "little prep time", but isn't that true of oatmeal anyway? Is it just a fad because it's something different and you can use a mason jar? Or is there a true reason or benefit to overnight oats compared to traditional cooking methods, particularly quick oats? | They taste different. Some people like the taste of "overnight oats" better than regular oats, and some people absolutely hate them.
"Put a bunch of stuff in a jar and leave it" is simpler, for some, than cooking oats on a stove (or even a microwave).
Overnight oats prep happens at night, at which time many people are less rushed than in the morning, when oatmeal is typically eaten. I, for one, would not have time to cook oatmeal in the morning, but I definitely have time to prepare overnight oats the night before and throw it in my bag before leaving to work.
Not everyone has a way of cooking oats at the place where they usually eat breakfast. I suppose you can eat traditional oatmeal cold, but likely many people would prefer overnight oats to traditional oats for eating cold. |
How do I modify a Victoria sponge cake recipe for a larger cake tin?
I normally bake Victoria sponge cakes using an 8-inch tin for 50 minutes at 160c (320f), on the fan/forced air setting.
Today I attempted a 10-inch, same temperature but increasing the time to 1 hr 15 mins. However, the middle sank when I removed it from the oven, and the skewer test showed that it was uncooked in the centre.
It was already browning so didn't want to risk increasing the time any further. What else could I have done differently?
I did fill the 10-inch tin more than I would an 8-inch, so perhaps I should have stayed with the same depth? | You added more volume to the cake so you will need to make adjustments to bake it thoroughly. A couple of things I recommend:
not only increase the time but also reduce your temperature. This
will help your cake cook through to the center before overcooking
the edges. I recommend reducing in 15 degree (F) intervals as you
experiment.
part way through your bake (once the edges begin to
brown), place foil around the edges to keep them from browning
further while still allowing the center to cook.
bonus- I'd guess the collapsing comes from the center being uncooked, so the above should help, but if you're still running into this problem also consider your mixing methods (let eggs come to room temp, cream fat and sugar before adding eggs, etc.) these can affect the airiness of the batter and ultimately rise. |
How can you tell if a mangosteen fruit is ready to eat?
I was able to get my hands on mangosteen, a dark purple fruit that is grown in Southeast Asia that is hard to find in the United States. It's got a hard shell on the outside that feels like a very unripe avocado with a very flat and sturdy stem. It's been sitting in my fruit bowl for about a week and the firmness has not changed and I don't smell any fragrance. How do I know if it's ripe enough to eat? | How do I know if a mangosteen is ripe enough to eat?
It is ripe when the rind is dark purple.
The color and feel of the mangosteen will help you know when it's
ripe. You’ll know that a mangosteen is ripe when it feels a bit heavy
in your hand, the outer peel is smooth, purplish red in color, and
yields slightly with gentle pressure from your thumb.
Unripened or over ripened mangosteen will be hard (like, knock-knock
hard) on the outside and darker colored peel.
Source: Mangosteen FAQs – FruitStand.com
You can tell if it is ripe when it feels heavy for its size, is smooth and the skin is purple. Also, it will yield slightly to pressure when pressing the side.
Source: Mangosteen How To Eat It and What Does It Taste Like
You might want to know how to tell if mangosteen is ripe. When it
comes to this, you should note that the best way to tell this is by
observing the rind of this fruit.
The color for it should start to become purplish and it will
eventually become dark purple. Once this happens, the fruit is ripe
enough to harvest it and you can then start eating it.
Source: How To Tell If Mangosteen Is Ripe (Answered) - Miss Vickie |
Does "hydrogenated vegetable oil" on a US food label legally mean fully hydrogenated?
Some food labels list "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" as an ingredient. Others say "hydrogenated vegetable oil." Are there any US regulations regarding how those terms differ? Can the term "hydrogenated vegetable oil" legally be used for partially hydrogenated oil, or does it only apply to fully hydrogenated oil? | According to US law, hydrogenated means fully hydrogenated.
If the fat or oil is completely hydrogenated, the name shall include the term hydrogenated, or if partially hydrogenated, the name shall include the term partially hydrogenated. If each fat and/or oil in a blend or the blend is completely hydrogenated, the term "hydrogenated" may precede the term(s) describing the blend, e.g., "hydrogenated vegetable oil (soybean, cottonseed, and palm oils)", rather than preceding the name of each individual fat and/or oil; if the blend of fats and/or oils is partially hydrogenated, the term "partially hydrogenated" may be used in the same manner. |
Is there any non-animal substitute for butter?
Because of my dietary restrictions, I am not allowed to consume butter any more. I miss that creamy flavor, especially in mashed potatoes. It used to be one of my favourites, but now I don't enjoy it as much. Is there any non-animal substitute for butter? | Vegan “butters” will be the closest substitute based on your requirements. They are specifically formulated to have the taste and mouthfeel of dairy butter, but contain no animal products.
Margarine, also a good substitute for dairy butter, is primarily vegetable based, but may contain a small amount of flavorings from dairy. |
How to hand polish gummies?
I would like some advice on how to hand polish a batch of gummies. I have MCT & Grapeseed oil and carnauba wax.
I can emulsify the carnauba wax together with the oils by heating them together. Now my question is how can I hand polish my batch of gummies? It's a small batch (60), and I don't have a coating pan or tumbler. | If you're determined to hand-polish them, I'd recommend settling the dehydrated gummies on a wire-rack over a baking sheet, then using a silicone brush to coat one side. Once dry, flip the gummies and do it again, coating the uncovered side.
The downside to doing it this way is that you'll leave double the "foot" of thicker coating on the gummies where the wax-solution drips off towards the bottom, so think about the placement in relation to the shape of your gummy.
If you're looking to emulate a tumbler, I would suggest using a sealed plastic container (Tupperware, an old takeaway container, etc.), adding your gummies and your solution and shaking the tumbler until it looks like the coating is evenly applied. At this point, you can leave them on a wire rack to dry.
You can do multiple coats, so personally I would err on the side of thinning the wax-solution, and using too-little coating multiple times over too-thick a coating once. |
How can I fix a liquidy choux pastry (Gougères) dough for piping?
Last week, I attempted to bake Gougères for the first time. It was my first attempt at baking with Pate a Choux. The recipe I followed called for six large eggs, but I knew adding the last egg would make the dough runnier than the optimal consistency. When I added the mixture into a piping bag, it was watery and didn't hold shape. Is there a technique or something I can add to the dough mix to correct the dough from being so liquidy? May I add flour to the runny dough and mix it in an electric mixer to tighten the consistency, or is that not recommended because I already mixed the eggs into the dough in a previous step? | Most of the sources I've seen online say that you absolutely shouldn't add more raw flour to liquidy choux dough.
The recommended solution seems to be to make half a batch of dough without the eggs, and mix that with the overly-eggy dough, either a bit at a time until the correct consistency is reached, or all at once, and then add more eggs to the combined doughs if necessary.
Another solution is to put the dough back into a pot, and cook, stirring constantly, over very low heat until the dough thickens to the proper consistency. |
What is this Laotian mystery leaf?
In Luang Prabang, Laos, I was served this mystery herb on the side of a dish of green papaya salad (ຕຳຫມາກຫຸ່ງ tam mak hung, aka som tam on the Thai side of the border).
What exactly is this? The flavor was quite strong and rather bitter. Google Lens thinks it's either khat or asparagus, both of which are quite definitely wrong. | I think that is Neptunia oleracea (Water Mimosa).
The leaves are normally fanned out but collapse in when touched.
It is a vegetable "commonly eaten raw or stir-fried in Thailand"
https://www.tarladalal.com/glossary-water-mimosa-1481i
You can see the leaves aligning more here:
https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/3334636150
Apparently the roots are also used medicinally in Malaysia and Thailand for things such as headaches, earaches, and skin wounds.
https://pondinformer.com/water-mimosa-neptunia-oleracea/ |
What went wrong with my choco-chip cookies?
The first time I made this recipe written recipe here a few months ago, it worked perfectly. But I've tried making it again two times after that, and it's failed both times.
The first time, the cookie was perfect - great texture, great taste, and amazing gooey pockets of chocolate. It looked exactly like the recipe. The second time, though, it was a disaster. They were totally flat and had spread a lot. They were also super, super greasy, and made my belly hurt. The third attempt had basically the same issues, just not as extreme. They had spread a bit too much, and were more flat and dark around the edges.
Something I noticed while making the cookies was that my ice cream scoop was able to push out the dough from the first batch quite easily without deforming it. The next two batches, though, didn't quite like the scoop pushing them out. I managed still using it for the second batch, but I decided to form the dough from the third batch with my hands. The scoop I have is made of plastic with a lever that basically pushes the cookie dough (or ice cream) out.
The only thing I did different from the recipe was the brown sugar - there's no such thing as brown sugar where I live, so I added 2 tablespoons of molasses in addition to the 220+100 grams of sugar, all three times.
Another thing to mention is that I've been having some problems with my oven recently. It's really only about half an year old, and I've been having problems ever since I've got it. In the beginning, its temperature seemed off, but I think it's fine now. Then later, a small part of the grey coating on the bottom heating wore off, giving way to the silver metal below. Recently, it's time dial stopped ticking and moving back to zero, and a recent batch of peanut butter cookies I made had a clear gradient of less browned on the left side and more browned on the right side.
One thing that makes all this really confusing is that my first batch, even though I made them all exactly the same way, was perfect. I don't understand why the dough would be any different at all the next two times - so why was it?
3rd March, 2023:
After many times having the oven repaired but finding no difference, I lost hope in the bad oven idea.
But on a hunch, I bought a good oven thermometer, and turns out my oven was 70℃ too hot! The problem was the oven after all.
Thanks everyone! | Adding molasses shouldn't be a problem, it's a common addition when brown sugar isn't available. It sounds like your oven's broken, and not heating up properly. Cookies spreading out too much is a sign your oven isn't hot enough, and if you are getting a bad stomach from them they are likely coming out undercooked. I suggest you get an oven thermometer and test its internal temperature. In any case it sounds like your oven has at least two other issues, hopefully it's still under warranty as you should get it fixed. |
How do I tell when my over medium eggs are done?
I can make an egg over easy, but somehow I can't get over medium. I've tried different methods like lower heat, longer time and high heat, shorter time. At best I end up with a yolk that's overcooked on the edges, but still too runny in the center. | Have you tried a lid? (or bowl, if on a flat-top griddle)
Trapping steam on top of the egg helps to cook it more evenly, IME (not that I claim to be all that good at it.) And it's not just me, as I've seen actual fry cooks use the bowl trick.
As for judging done-ness, that's a matter of "how jiggly is the yolk" but despite your title, your question seems to be more about how to achieve it, rather than how to judge it. |
What is the correct way to use fermented (and unfermented) soybean paste?
One easy way to make boiled or stir-fried vegetables more exciting is to drizzle soy sauce and sesame oil.
To diversify the flavor, and while still taking inspiration from Korean and Japanese kitchens, I have attempted to dissolve/dilute a bit of:
Korean, light-colored, fermented soybean paste,
Korean, dark-colored, fermented soybean paste, and
Japanese soybean (miso) paste
in some water and add to various dishes such as:
boiled vegetables,
stir-fried vegetables, and
vegetable broth and (largely unseasoned) homemade chicken broth
but the outcome is far from exciting. It doesn't come close to the flavors of even the basic dishes served at Korean and Japanese restaurants.
What is the correct way to use fermented (and unfermented) soybean paste?
(Hint: a little of any of these goes a long way; beware of buying too much too soon and being unable to use it before expiration.) | First of all, the Korean middle one is not soybean paste at all, but chunjang (춘장), a black bean paste. This is used as a condiment for stir-fries, in particular the noodle dish jjajangmyeon; it's not suitable for soups.
The leftmost one is Korean soybean paste aka doenjang (된장, you can spot the characters in the top left corner). Unlike miso, doenjang is not "diluted" with rice, so it tastes stronger. The most popular way to eat this (and also my favorite) is as the base for doenjang-jjigae, a tasty stew.
Finally, the Japanese one on the right is a "nothing added" (無添加 mutenka) plain miso, which means it's missing the other key ingredient for miso soup: dashi stock, which adds salt and umami flavors. Dashi can be made from bonito (katsuo) or kelp and is easily purchased in "instant" powder form, just add a pinch (quarter tsp or so per bowl, it's strong stuff!) to the boiling water and mix in before adding the miso. Many commercial brands of miso have dashi premixed (出汁入り dashi-iri), which eliminates this step. |
What does preheating the oven mean when there is no preheat option?
I'm trying to preheat my oven to make pizza, but there is no preheat option. Does the "bake" setting mean the same thing as preheat? | Yes, that is the same thing.
pre-heat just means that you bring the oven up to the right temperature before putting the food in. |
Long cook with a pause - what happens to beef?
I'm making one of my many types of long-cook meal, this time Hungarian Goulash, using beef skirt.
All is at a simmer, which I would keep up for four hours. However, only three hours into this, I must go out for two hours. I don't want to leave it unsupervised for a total of five or more hours, in case the meat turns to that unappetising 'wood-chip' texture - there's a break-point between 'done' & 'over-cooked' at about the 4-hour point and I want to catch it at the optimum, not past it.
What happens if I switch it off now & pick up again when I get back?
Assume for this that the temperature won't drop into the danger zone in the intervening period.
Will the cooking pick up where it left off, once it's back to temperature, or will it change state somehow after cooling?
As an extreme example, I'm thinking of potatoes if you heat them just until they clarify, then switch off & allow to cool, they will then never cook to fall-apart soft. [Neat trick for patatas bravas, but not suitable for everything.] | I think particularly for stews, where the meat is submerged in a braising liquid, the only thing to be concerned about is the danger-zone temprature you identified. For my own sanity, I'm gonna assume you're eating it all once finished rather than cooling it off and reheating it (and therefore passing it through that danger zone one more time than is necessary).
Assuming it's magically cooled down to room temp, there's very little that's going to change in the meat that hasn't already happened in the first couple of hours of braising; especially if you're returning to it relatively soon.
If it's a single hunk of meat rather than pieces, you might want to consider flipping it to give the un-submerged side some chance to soak up juices, as it may have dried out slightly; but I wouldn't call that a change in state, exactly. |
Making jelly using erythritol & monk fruit extract in place of sugar
I'm making jelly. The box of pectin says not to reduce the sugar or it can cause 'set failure'. I want to use 'erythritol w/ monk fruit extract' in place of sugar (purchased from Costco). Will that effect how my jelly will set b/c it's not regular sugar? | Yes, the instructions are pretty clear about that. If you want to make a reduced-sugar jelly, you’ll need to use a modified pectin which is designed for reduced-sugar jelly. |
Do I need a wooden spoon to make proper Pate a Choux?
I have a lot of silicon spatulas at home, and I was told I needed to buy a wooden spoon or spatula to make pate a choux the correct way. I watched a couple of Bon appetite cooking videos, and the instructors mentioned that it's the traditional French way of cooking choux. What is the advantage of using a wooden spoon to mix the choux verse with a regular spatula? Do I need a wooden spatula to mix my dough while cooking over the stove? | This is one of those cases where wood works best. The main problem with silicone is flexibility, you need something that is sturdy so you can scrape the pan as you stir. The benefits of wood for choux are that wood is sturdy, doesn't heat up like metal, and thick. When you make choux time is of the essence, you want to be able to achieve a consistent mix quickly, a big wooden spoon is the perfect tool.
That doesn't mean you can't use silicone. Pick a large, rigid spatula and stir like crazy. |
Why not fry a turkey on a portable induction stove?
All the information on the internet I can find about frying a turkey outdoors involves a propane burner. Wouldn't a portable induction stove be safer, because there is no flame?
I recognize that I would need a more expensive stainless steel pot than the more common aluminum ones. Are there any other limitations that I would run into? | There's no reason you can't use a portable induction ring, as long as you can find one with the power to heat up a big pot of oil and keep it at the right temperature.
The challenge you'll have is equipment. The problem is size, the pots for frying turkeys are pretty big, often far bigger than the portable induction rings out there. Often they cover the controls, which is bad because you can't adjust the power without moving a very big, heavy pot full of oil. Also the heat from the pot can fry the electronics and ruin the ring. You'd need to find an induction ring where the controls aren't going to be at risk from the pot, and you can reach them. |
Can I use Laban (a yogurt drink) as a substitute for buttermilk?
I live in the Middle East, and can’t find buttermilk for use in baking. We do however, have a plain drinkable, pourable yogurt called Laban , by a brand called Al Marai ( please google to see what it looks like and it’s consistency.) Will this drinking yogurt work the same as buttermilk in a recipe? It is made from cows milk, tastes exactly like plain yogurt but it’s a thick liquid in consistency, the same consistency as buttermilk as available in the UK. It is not as runny as other drinkable yogurts available in the West like actimel or Yakult. | Probably.
I rarely have buttermilk around, and I most commonly substitute yogurt mixed with water. The kind of laban you're talking about* would be a similar mixture.
King Arthur Baking Company has published this nice article about buttermilk substitutions on their website:
Here are the most common suggestions [for substitutions]:
1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice mixed into 1 cup of milk. Let the milk stand for 10 to 15 minutes, until it thickens very slightly and curdles.
1 3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar mixed with 1 cup of milk. Shake until the cream of tartar dissolves.
Sour cream thinned with milk or water to the consistency of heavy cream.
Plain unsweetened kefir.
Yogurt thinned with milk or water to the consistency of heavy cream.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2019/01/28/how-to-substitute-for-buttermilk
The author of that article tested these substitutes in a number of different recipes and found that thinned yogurt consistently performed the best, or just as well as the other substitutes.
So, if your laban is really just diluted yogurt, it will also probably perform fine. But it might be worth trying to make diluted yogurt yourself, and testing that against laban.
*A note for other readers: in some places laban (or leben, or liben, or lben - لبن) is "buttermilk", in the traditional sense of the word. This kind of buttermilk is the liquid that's left over, and strained off, after cultured cream has been churned to make butter. Confusingly, this butter byproduct, is not what contemporary recipes call for, when they ask for buttermilk. What contemporary recipes are actually looking for is made from homogenized, pasteurized milk that's been inoculated with some bacteria cultures. This kind of buttermilk bears some similarity to traditional buttermilk, but it's typically quite a bit thicker. So, ironically in places where laban means "buttermilk", it may not be a good substitute for buttermilk. |
What is the optimal way to freeze bananas?
This is something i've always had difficulty finding a foolproof method for. Some swear by keeping it unpeeled, but I find that it's harder to unpeel. If cut up, it looks like you need multiple ziploc bags to ensure that it doesn't turn colors, and that a freezer bags aren't 100% effective.
Is there a tried and true foolproof way to freeze bananas? | The best way to freeze bananas so that they don't turn brown and are easy to use, is to peel, slice and flash freeze before you put them in a freezer bag.
Simply peel and slice your bananas. Lay them flat on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer for 2 hours until they are solid. Transfer them to a freezer bag and remove as much air as possible.
You can freeze these for up to 3 months and they will not turn brown. |
When making bread, is it possible to freeze the dough?
I like to make flatbreads but have minimal space for kneading/making the dough, which requires a lot of effort to move away kitchen items and machines. The recipe I usually do uses yeast with about 1 hour of proofing time.
What I would like to do is make a large batch of dough and preferably freeze them in portions to defrost, roll out and bake in a frying pan.
I figured since they are flatbreads, it might not matter that much, but what effects can this have on the dough? | Yes, dough can be frozen, later thawed and continue making bread. There is, in general, no effect on the dough/yeast once it's thawed/re-warmed. Freezing them relatively flat will help them to freeze/thaw faster than as more rounded (ball or log) shapes.
An alternative (not one I use or particularly suggest, but you might want to know it exists) is to "par-bake" breads and store them frozen. In that case you can pull from the freezer and bake, since you've already let it rise and "set" the structure by par-baking before freezing. This is common in commercial baking (for, e.g. restaurant supply) to allow "freshly baked bread" without anything other than the final baking being done on-premises. They do take up more freezer space. |
Is there a trick for softening butter quickly?
I often don't realize a baking recipe requires softened butter until after I start adding in the other wet ingredients and it's too late to wait for butter to soften the normal way (with time). So, I will usually microwave the butter until it accidentally all melts or add in the butter when it's still too hard, which impacts the overall success of the recipe. What are some tricks for softening butter quickly? | Use a grater
If your butter is too stiff, try using a cheese grater on it. The mechanical action will warm the butter slightly and soften it, and the huge increase in surface area will allow the room's ambient warmth to soften the butter much faster. Spread the butter shavings in a single layer to maximize surface area, and they should soften in a few minutes. You'll be unlikely to over-soften the butter with this method, so you won't run a risk of winding up with melted butter instead of softened butter. |
I put canned meat back in the pressure canner to process longer- is that ok?
I recently got a little confused about the processing time for canning meat broth. I canned a batch of quart jars and processed them for the recommended 25 minutes, removed them from the canner, and they sealed. I then worried that I should have processed them for the longer “canned meat” time of 90 minutes (which I now know wasn’t necessary). About 12 hours after the first canning, I put the sealed jars back into the canner, and processed them for 90 minutes. I took them out, they were (still?) sealed and seem fine.
Now I’m thinking, maybe that could have actually compromised the seal or some other safety aspect? I don’t plan to do that again, but I am wondering if I ruined the broth that I double canned without replacing the lids. I see that the recommendation for reprocessing would be to open them and put new lids on finger tight again. Does anyone have insight on this? Thanks in advance. | So, they have been over-processed, which is not a big deal for something like broth where you don't have any crispness you are trying to keep by limited processing time.
You're worried that the seal is compromised.
Are the lids popped down? You say they are still sealed, so presumably, yes.
If they are popped down, they are sealed, and the seal is, therefore, not compromised.
That's the whole reason for "safety lids" that pop down. The old rigid glass tops with rubber seals gave no indication if they were sealed properly, or not. The flexible metal lids do.
Removing lids to use new lids is protocol for failed seals (not the case here) and repacking (hot) is also required for thick stuff that wasn't sealed or processed properly the first time (also does not apply here.) Your jars were processed as specified, and safe, and then they took an extra trip through the canner, and are still safe.
My default for anything I've boiled for hours before canning it is to somewhat extend the processing time, since it won't harm the already-boiled-a-long-time product in the jars, and under-processing is actually hazardous, while over-processing is not (though it can spoil the appearance or texture of things that were not boiled a long time before going in jars.) I've spent hours making it, so spending (say) 10 minutes more than needed in the canner (just to be sure) has minimal impact on my overall time spent. |
Best way to get consistent results when baking a purposely underbaked mud cake
A Swedish chocolate cake called Kladdkaka, a large fondant/brownie hybrid underbaked in the middle. I have done this cake maybe 30-40 times, and sometimes it turns out fantastic, and sometimes it's too underbaked or too dry.
Most recipes recommend baking this at 180°C for about 20-40 minutes, depending on which recipe, on regular settings (over/under heating).
I want to get a consistent result with minimal dry edges.
Can I utilize the convection setting in my oven? Or will that make it worse?
Should I lower the heat and instead bake it longer? | I'm not a fan of convection for cakes and brownies, in my experience it tends to dry them out or burn them, I would usually only use convection for brownies when I am concerned about consistent airflow. However, in your case when you want a nice and done outside with a gooey inside convection may work well, although you can use conventional mode with a slightly higher temperature to achieve the same thing.
Rather than looking at this from a time and oven temperature perspective I would suggest you go by internal temperature to see when it is done. I use a digital instant read thermometer to take temperature measurements, if it's below I keep it in a few minutes longer and check again. For gooey brownies I aim for a temperature of 85°C(185°F), give or take a couple of degrees C in the dead center of the brownie.
The benefit of this method is that you can use a range of temperatures and times but you'll always have the right gooeyness. You can then vary the oven temperature and mode to find what gives you the right outside result. Write down your temperatures and results and within a few batches you'll have it nailed. |
Does squeezing out liquid from shredded potatoes significantly reduce cook time?
I tried the following casserole recipe from a cook book. Mix fish filet pieces and fresh peas in a casserole dish. Add a mixture of cream and white wine as sauce. Peel and grate potatoes, squeeze them in a cloth or sieve to reduce the moisture, mix with grated cheese and then put that as a layer on top of the fish pea mixture. Bake in the oven at 180°C for 35 minutes.
When reading that I was already suspicious on whether the potatoes would cook through, so I baked it for 45 minutes instead. It still had the effect I feared, the fish and peas were well cooked but the potatoes weren't cooked through. I had to remove the potatoe cheese layer and pan fry it for a few minutes.
I did squeeze the potatoes in a sieve and got some liquid out but I could have done that more thoroughly and reduced the liquid even more. Would that help to get the potatoes cooked that quickly?
I don't think the cook time of different varieties of potatoes varies that much and the recipe didn't specify a variety. Otherwise I'm not sure what to change to make this work. Fish and peas cook through relatively quickly so I don't want to increase the oven time by a lot more. | Squeezing out moisture from grated potatoes doesn't make them cook faster, the reason you do that is because it gives you a crispy result. If you don't wring them out they'll be mushy, and any water shed will go into your casserole.
The way to make sure the potatoes are done is to give them a head start, either by pan frying or zapping them for a minute or two in the microwave.
Incidentally, you don't get much water out using a sieve, you're better off wrapping them in a tea towel and squeezing the heck out of them. |
Is cod supposed to fall apart?
Usually, for a number of reasons, I don't cook fish (I know, it was probably ill-judged of me). What with my recently imposed dietary restrictions, I decided to give it another chance to compensate for a lack of meats I could eat. I bought cod, filleted it, put it onto my non-stick grill pan (which turned out to be not as non-stick) and grilled it for just a few minutes on each side. It was tender (so I believe I didn't overdo it), but I could hardly flip it or take it off the pan: it easily disintegrated, fell to pieces. Is it supposed to happen to cod? Was it bad cod (it smelled fishy – not spoiled, mind, but I heard fresh fish doesn't smell at all)? Was it a method of preparation that didn't suit that kind of fish? | That's totally normal for cod, it's a flaky fish. The best way to keep it together is to leave the skin on, if possible.
If the fish is skinless your best bet of keeping it together is to handle it as little and as gently as possible. The way I do it is to flip it once, starting it on the top first, then after a minute flipping it to the bottom, which is where the majority of cooking takes place. There are spatulas for fish which are longer to help support the fish as you turn it and keep it in one piece as you take it out, I actually use a crepe spatula for the same purpose.
If you treat it gently and use the right tools and pans you can keep even flaky fish together. |
How to can chicken wings so that the bones are mostly soft
I am trying to figure out if it's worth my time to try to replicate a commercial dog food product, Merrick's Wingaling wet dog food.
The important part is the chicken wings, which I assume are cooked in the can. They are clearly cooked and soft enough that they fall apart with a little bit of applied pressure (and therefore are too soft to splinter) but are still sturdy enough to be briefly handled.
(I put them in a Kong and it keeps my dog occupied for quite some time. He is pretty uninterested in the cubed chicken bits inside, which is one of the reasons I want to try to make "the good stuff" on my own. [Also, I think I can save some money doing it myself.] Now especially, it burns my biscuits to waste food and he is unresponsive when I show him how much this stuff costs.)
I understand that, as a low-acid food, chicken must be canned under pressure. However, most of my research shows results for human consumption, like these hot wings. Nobody is talking about the bones, which I understand.
So then, the question is, how can I can chicken wings at home so that the bones are mostly soft? | OK, so one person on reddit has done (almost) what you want and provides details (thighs, not wings.) They used 10 lb steam for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Altitude not specified. They did not get what they wanted at 1 hour 15 minutes. |
Discrepancy of convention for specifying dimensions between stovetop and baking pans
I noticed what appears to be a discrepancy, and I would like to confirm.
When skillet manufacturers assign labels to their wares (cast iron, triply, etc), then a "12″ skillet" has a bottom diameter actually of just 10″. If/when covered, then the cover diameter is 12″, and that is why it is termed a "12″ pan".
Baking pan manufacturers measure instead the bottom of the pan. Hence an "8″ square pan" has 8″ bottom dimension. On the odd chance it conveniently comes with a cover, then the cover will have a side dimension of 9 1/2″ (or thereabout).
Did I get that right? This is not terribly important for stovetop pans, but it does matter for baking since the dough ends up with a different thickness when poured (which would require adjusting the baking time). | You are correct.
Pans for the stovetop tell you about the opening at the top, which means that depending if the pan is straight sided or sloped, it can be a dramatically different size when you consider how much area it has at the bottom for browning food.
Pans for cakes typically tell you what size cake they’ll end up making, although something like a “9x12” inch glass pan may be a rough approximation, cake pans are typically more accurate as it’s a rather important factor when considering what pan you’re buying. |
What's the point of cooking bones for 24-72 hours for white stock (白湯) if European stock extracts everything in up to 8 hours?
Traditional European meat stock (chicken stock, beef stock, etc) is boiled for 6 to 8 hours. Supposedly (according to many answers on this website) there should be absolutely nothing left to extract from the bones and meat after simmering for that time. Yet Chinese white stock is made by boiling (not simmering, but proper boil) bones and meat over one or multiple days.
I have a prepared chicken carcass that I'm planing to turn into a chicken stock. I wanted to boil the leftover bones from making stock for another day to make a white stock, but after some reading it seems to be a waste of time. I might still try it just to experiment. | I think the hypothesis is incorrect: there are certainly Western recipes for stock that suggest cooking for 24-72 hours, such as here: http://realeverything.com/tutorial-thursday-broth-stock-bones/. Most recipes I find for Chinese white stock in English also suggest cooking only at most 4-8 hours.
I have never made these long stocks but the longer cooks are claimed to continue creating more gelatin out of the bones, until the bones disintegrate under mild pressure. That certainly isn't true about bones cooked for 4ish hours, in my experience, so something is happening in the long cook, although I don't have any clear information on how significant that something is. |
Meaning: muffins are "blind"
The following expression was used in an old baking book, "The Modern Baker, Confectioner and Caterer" (1907) by John Kirkland:
The bad results so frequently obtained are generally due to the method
of cooking. If the batter is in the least degree too stiff" the
muffins are certain to be " blind ".
What state of muffins is expressed to be "blind"?
The book is accessible online here and the above expression is found at page 153 (an original book page).
Thanks in advance. | The same book has another use of the word blind with more explanation:
Care has also to be taken that rolls are not allowed to prove too much, or they fail to retain the neat shape given at moulding, do not open out as they should, and are in fact what bakers call blind.
The recipe you are asking seems to be for what is called a crumpet, which is partially yeast and partially bicarbonate risen. Crumpets are griddle cooked rather than baked, and you get a holey, spongy texture from the 'spring' you get from the chemical leavening agent's reaction. If the mix is too thick you won't get this spring, leaving the dough constrained. So the definition I'd give from these two uses is 'lack of spring'.
Note this term isn't used anymore, as far as I know. |
Can salt and sugar be used simultaenously to preserve food?
For example, Amla (Indian gooseberries) can be preserved by candying them in sugar, or preserving them in brine and vinegar.
However, the candying makes them too sweet and preserving in salt makes them too salty. Not just taste-wise, but also health-wise.
Instead, can we use a combination of sugar and salt to preserve them? That would avoid the overload of either sugar or salt.
If yes, then how? When applying sugar, they usually advice not to add water. So would that necessitate dry application of sugar and salt? | Technically yes, it is possible to create a recipe which is preserved by both salt and sugar. But this doesn't mean that you can get any significant reduction in the total amount used (or, controversially, even in the amount of each).
That would avoid the overload of either sugar or salt.
No, it won't avoid it. You absolutely need such an overload to preserve the food. If you reduce the amounts to the point where you can eat it without it being too much for you, it won't be too much for the bacteria either, and the food won't be preserved.
Instead, the result would be a food where you get an "overload" of sugar and salt at the same time (which, to me personally, tastes worse than a high amount of either one on its own).
Remember that sugar is not really a strong preservative, so it always has to be combined with other methods. Simple syrup on its own is not shelf-stable; when you use sugar for preservation, you have to either combine it with drying (=candied fruit) or canning (=jam). So, in typical salt-based methods, you can forget adding a little bit of sugar; it may even make a pickle unsafe by providing more food for bacteria. You would have to achieve a really high concentration of sugar for the whole to work.
So you could try the opposite, adding some salt to the sugar-based preservation methods. But how are you going to go about it? When candying fruit, what you do is to saturate everything with a sugar syrup, then let the extra liquid evaporate. How do you suggest to reduce the sugar? If you make the syrup more diluted (because you now have the salt), this only means that you would have to wait longer for the extra water to evaporate in the drying phase, after which you will still have the same high concentration of sugar.
You could make jam with less sugar and add salt, but in fact, you can also make jam with less sugar and not add salt. Basically, what jam requires is a proper acidity level and a proper sterilization procedure, independently of sugar levels, that's why you can can vegetables in water just as well as fruit in syrup. So, by adding salt to jam, the only thing you have gained would be a changed taste, probably for the worse.
The commenters mentioned a few cases of real-world recipes combining salt and sugar. They were all recipes for cured meat or fish, which is a very different process from your plant-based example. I cannot tell you to what extent both ingredients are contributing to the preservation in these recipes, and to what extent the sugar is there for taste only (they are all salt-and-nitrate driven preservation methods, you cannot preserve meat with sugar alone). If you try them, you will note what I said at the beginning of the answer: they still use a substantial amount of salt and sugar, and the taste is very intense. |
Is this meat that I was told was brisket in Barcelona the same as U.S. brisket?
I was born and currently live in Barcelona. Here in Catalonia, or in Spain, beef is not butchered in the American style, so I can't get the cuts that are used for American BBQ.
So, after my search and speaking to many butchers, the final conclusion is that apparently, our cattle is very slim and the brisket part is too thin to use as U.S. or other briskets.
I finally found one place where they sell briskets. It is a very specialised shop with lots of rare meats. I ordered two briskets and I'm posting two pictures of each. The meat was just unpacked.
In these pictures I still had not touched or trimmed anything.
The two pieces of meat were apparently very different from what I had seen in videos and pictures. First I even thought it was not a brisket at all (now I'm about 90% confident it is). One of the pieces had almost no fat. There were several cuts, one really big. My general feeling was that both pieces were not treated properly.
Now I want to order another brisket from there and I'd like to ask them to give me a better product but I'm not sure if I'm right and the product could be better handled or if it is just my ignorance.
So, what should I ask them? | That looks like a pretty typical brisket to this American.
The tricky thing is that "brisket" means different things. I'll put aside that butcher cuts are different around the globe, and just speaking from an American perspective.
"Brisket" is both a large primal cut, made up of two smaller subprimal cuts that you would see trimmed and available at the grocery store or butcher shop.
The "brisket plate" is the trimmed cut most often sold in American grocery stores as just "brisket" and what many folks mentally associate with what brisket looks like.
What you have looks like a whole brisket primal, untrimmed.
So what should you ask your butcher?
I'm not a Texas BBQ expert, but I have bought and smoked large briskets, and I think your brisket looks similar to what I can buy if I want a brisket primal. It looks fine. You could direct your butcher to trim it a bit more, to get rid of some excess fat and various "dangly" small bits along the edges. But I personally prefer to do that myself, so I can keep the trimed pieces and eat it myself. |
How do I fix my smoke-emitting pizza stone?
I'm trying to cook "authentic" pizza in a home oven. The recipe I'm following asks that you preheat the oven to the highest it can get (500°F/260°C for me) with the stone inside. So, I follow this instruction. For the first 15 minutes, everything's fine. Then, I see liquid forming at the top of the stone. Soon enough, tons of smoke is coming out and I have to turn on the fan. I decided to abandon my plan to create the perfect pizza because of this problem with my stone.
I think the liquid coming out of the pizza stone is oil that's been absorbed from past times I've cooked with it. It wasn't a problem then because I didn't preheat my pizza stone previously and only cooked at 425°F/220°C. Then, the oil heats up and evaporates into smoke.
How can I fix the issue of oil coming out and smoking up everything when I'm preheating my stone at high temperatures?
Edit: Just found out that my mom puts oil on the stone every time she cooks pizza D:< | You'll have to burn it off, but you can do it quite slowly, then it should be fine for future use.
Although 425°F (220°C) is rather cool for pizza, it's around the smoke point of many oils. But as you didn't preheat the stone when you used it at this low temperature, it probably never even got that hot (BTW you sound like you've learnt this by now, but if you're not going to preheat it, there's no point using a stone).
So you should probably start by putting it in a cold oven and turning on to 425°F. When that temperature has been reached and held for a good few minutes, and it's not smoking, increase by 25° and wait until it stops smoking. Keep going until you reach the maximum on the dial.
You can do all this on a day when you can ventilate well, not just before use. Alternatively it's not unknown to use pizza stones in barbecues, so you could try and burn it off outside, but without the temperature control.
If there's any chance that water could have soaked in, from even a brief dip or a wipe with a dripping wet cloth, start with a couple of hours not far below boiling point (say 80°C or 200°F) to dry it.
New stones are supposed to be baked with nothing on top before first use anyway. I think mine wanted the drying step when new as well. |
Substituting black beans for ground beef in a meat pie
My wife has recently decided not to eat meat, so we have been substituting black beans for ground beef in some of our favorite dishes. This has worked fine so far, but I am not sure about making this substitution in cheeseburger pie. The recipe calls for browned beef with sauteed pepper and onions, tomato sauce, breadcrumbs, and some spices to be baked in a pie shell with a cheese topping. Simple and delicious.
So far, we have simply done a pound-for-pound replacement of ground beef with beans. But I worry that mashed beans (as we have done in the past for meatball substitutes) will yield a pie that is too dry and dense while un-mashed beans will not be cohesive enough to be served as a pie (like a pie shell filled with bean salad). Should I mash some beans while leaving others whole? Any other suggestions for a vegetarian cheeseburger pie? | I often use beans instead of meat, and I think you'd get away with it, but your concerns are certainly valid - it might come out a little dry. It partly depends on the proportions, especially of the tomato sauce.
I can offer a few suggestions to tweak your basic recipe:
Mash the beans (some or all - I'd go for all, knowing that some will be merely broken when others are no longer recognisable as beans) with some suitable liquid. That could be more sauce, for example, but something including both water and oil is best.
Increase the amount of onion, softening (some of) it slowly for longer with the lid on, incorporating the resulting tasty liquid into the beans. Even better is to make caramelised onions - I make big batches in the slow cooker and freeze them.
Mix a little grated cheese in with the beans - not necessarily a tasty cheese, but one that melts nicely. This will have a slight binding effect if serving hot, much more if you're planning on allowing it to cool.
The first two suggestions allow you to adjust the feel of the filling, the last less so as the cheese would melt when you bake the pie - but I do only mean a little cheese.
Some more ideas, adapting further from your original:
When making bean burgers, I start from dried beans, and slow-cook roughly chopped onion (plus garlic and chillies) in with the beans. When I drain the beans I reserve the cooking water, and add some back as I roughly puree the beans in a food processor. That could be a viable option here too.
When I make a bean chilli, it has sweet potato, pumpkin, or squash in it. Adding some diced, roasted veg of that sort would be good for the texture. I suggest quite finely diced, and not a huge amount. |
How can I dissolve turkey powder in water?
I dehydrated the turkey breast, ground it in a blender, then ground it in a coffee grinder. When I add it to water and mix it, only a small part of it dissolves. How can it increase its solubility in water? | Meat will never mostly dissolve in water, because it mostly isn’t water-soluble. (If it were, how would you make chunky soup?) What you’re looking for is a smooth suspension of the particles. If you had special equipment like a wet grinder, you could maybe produce a homogeneous enough slurry that could be dried and reconstituted (though it’s not what a wet grinder is really designed for). But I don’t think this is something a coffee grinder could do effectively. |
Is Swedish Krokan known by another name?
I'm part of a Twitter baking group and we like to make the same things that were on Great British Bake Off.
This week a challenge involved making a tower of a Swedish biscuit they called Kroken. It was made with ground almonds and icing sugar. They were assembled in tall towers and the show mentioned they are popular at weddings.
However in trying to find recipes online Google seems to not know and turns up lots nuts in sugar type recipes.
Is it possible that it is known by a different name so I can find some recipes. | Krokan in this case is traditional Swedish wedding cake (the current Swedish king and queen had one, for example), of individual intricate shapes made of a marzipan/almond based mass with sugar and egg whites, that gets piped and baked, then assembled. It’s occasionally (mis-)translated as e.g. croquembouche, but that’s technically incorrect.
The Swedish Wikipedia has an article, so with a bit of google translate you could learn more.
The most interesting bit for your research is that the recipe seems to be pretty much identical to the Danish/Norwegian Kransekake (“wreath cake”), just shaped more intricately. That should help when searching for recipes and more information. |
How do you know if sunflower lecithin is still safe to consume?
So I looked at the tub of sunflower lecithin that I bought around July 2021 and it is clear that the color has turned from a much whiter color with hints of yellow to an salted egg yolk-like color with hints of white.
Taste-wise it now tastes normal at first, then immediately turns very sour like I've eaten some sour candy then extremely bitter shortly after.
A fresh batch of sunflower lecithin would taste slightly bitter, but it was very tolerable and no hints our sourness at all.
Odd thing is it hasn't been even 1 year since i've opened it (although not refrigerated and only at room temp) and kept in the pantry cabinet.
Best used by date is still April of next year but it is already inedible for me. My coffee tasted so bad | All food safety guidelines that give a time frame or similar have a second statement that can roughly be summarized as “unless you see some form of deterioration before ”, that can mean evidence of mold or fungus, but also changes in taste and texture, loss of seal in canned foods, basically everything that indicates that the food item is clearly no longer in the state it was at originally.
Then the timelines for food safety don’t apply any longer - the times are guideline assuming nothing went particularly wrong and are based on statistics. Just as reaching the end of the “safe” time slot doesn’t mean immediate or certain spoilage, there are a few cases where things go bad before that time.
If the taste has become unpalatable plus there’s a change in color, I would classify that as “probably unsafe” and certainly not usable any longer. |
Raw Mincemeat cheesecake (uk christmas food)
I have this recipe for mincemeat* cheesecake, but it is a refrigerated recipe so it won't be cooked. Will the suet in the mincemeat even be edible?
Edit: so I made a fundamental mistake, the mincemeat in the jars is cooked and not raw.
mincemeat in the uk is a mixture of apples, dried fruit, brandy and suet*. here is a bbc recipe for making it https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/traditional-mincemeat
**suet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suet | In general mincemeat has already been cooked and the suet distributed. The recipe you link just happens not to on the assumption that it will be cooked later, and it doesn't keep nearly as well as most recipes, because the apple isn't cooked.
I used to make this Delia Smith recipe which gently cooks it, then you have to stir as it cools. I used to make a batch every other year, that's how well it keeps. It's also far better than bought mincemeat (I used to buy the pastry but make the mincemeat for my mince pies. The other way round is far more common but my hands are too hot to make good pastry.)
Commercial versions do sometimes have visible bits of suet despite being cooked (probably because stirring during cooling isn't possible when it's packed hot). If starting with such a commercial jar, or the recipe you linked, I suggest warming it through, then stirring a few times as it cools, before using the cooled mincemeat in your cheesecake.
Another option if you were making mincemeat specifically to stir into a cheesecake would be to simply omit the suet. Although it's a decent fraction of the ingredients, you wouldn't miss it in a cheesecake. If the mincemeat is used in a layer, the suet might be needed to stick it together, then (assuming a biscuit base) you could spread it on the base before it's fully cooled. |
sweet potato dish - what can i prepare ahead with my recipe
I made a recipe with fresh sweet potatoes last year - on Thanksgiving day. It was time consuming and I'd like to do what I can ahead. The recipe also has alcohol in the casserole.
Can I peel, cut and freeze or refrigerate the slices ahead - and if so - which one - freeze or refrigerate. Also how much in advance
Can I go beyond that - to make the whole thing - brown sugar, bourbon - etc. ahead - what is best to do ahead and how long ahead can I do it.
THANKS | It would help to have the entire recipe, but in general, any sweet potato casserole can be made ahead in its entirety, chilled and refrigerated, even a couple of days in advance. Then, on the day of the meal, just reheat in the oven. |
What is the best way to carry milk to work?
I live in Japan and milk is sold only in cartons here. I take milk to the fridge at work. I currently put it in a black plastic bottle with black cover but it stinks like it is off after only a few days. The milk is fine as far as I can tell. I doubt there is food safe plastic bottles here. I carry by bicycle and the bar fridge is small and at times very crowded as it shared so spillage is a great risk. What is the best solution? I use the milk for adding coffee and cocoa- I may have one drink or many drinks- depends on how sleepy I am that day. I buy 1 litre cartons as I am poor but I couldn't drink 1 litre at work in a week even. The main milk is always fine. | The key thing is that you empty and wash the container regularly (ideally daily, but at least every few days). If there is a bad smell that is a sign that something is wrong; most likely some milk remained somewhere like a screw top or drops on the lid, which has gone off in some way.
Any bottle sold for drinking water should be food safe in terms of its material, so I would be very surprised if you cannot find anything. However, I would try to find a bottle which:
is easy to clean completely, so no complicated closing mechanism or built-in drinking straw.
will provide reasonable insulation while the bottle is out of the fridge, for example a thermos bottle (which uses vacuum in the walls to insulate the contents).
Anything suitable for carrying hot coffee is likely to work well for your needs, in case that's a useful way to search. |
Why do commercial pressure fryers typically operate at 12 PSI?
I’ve been doing a bit of research into pressure frying and I’m curious to hear if anyone has thoughts on why commercial pressure fryers do not typically exceed 12-15 PSI.
According to Henny Penny’s literature, their pressure fryers operate at 12 PSI with an oil temperature of 325 F. At 12 PSI, the boiling point of water is roughly 245 F so there’s an 80 F difference between the oil temperature and water boiling point. Even at this relatively low temperature, pressure fried chicken is roughly 30% faster than atmospheric fried chicken.
Wouldn’t we be able to fry chicken even faster if the pressure and temperatures were increased? Why do you think 12 PSI is industry standard?
An extreme example would be oil temperature at 450 F and pressure of 155 PSI. This would yield a boiling point of 370 F and would maintain the 80 F differential between oil and boiling point. This would likely require extra thin pieces of chicken to fully cook before the breading burnt, but I’d imagine there’s a point somewhere between 12 PSI and 155 PSI that would allow for much faster frying times without burning the breading. | Accidents and failures.
12-15 lb steam is no joke if things go wrong, but it's a level that has a wide array of adopted practice and engineering for home use and kitchen (home or commercial) use. A boiler operator's license is not required for operating these devices safely.
A steam explosion resulting from 155 PSI (10.5 bar) steam would be far more disastrous - likewise, the pressure vessel to contain it would have to be far sturdier. In most areas, operating such a device would indeed require a boiler operator's license. Early in the age of steam folks who thought like you are thinking were free to implement their high-pressure schemes, and they managed to kill people, and laws resulted in most areas that limit the steam pressure that can be used in devices accessible to unlicensed operators. |
Why consume DRIED apricots within 21 days?
I bought a large bag of dried apricots at Costco. I was planning to enjoy them slowly over the next few months (the Best Before date is in mid 2023) but the label says: "Reseal and refrigerate after opening and consume within 21 days."
I find that weird. Dried fruits usually keep for months and months. The only clue I've got is the ingredient list mentions 2% water. Any idea? Safe to consume after 21 days? 3 month? 6 months? Thank you so much! | I would be cautious but not overly so
The risks are low
First of all, dried fruit are not a breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria due to the low water content. They might spoil but, according to this USDA Q&A, you will notice if your fruits go bad and even if you accidentally eat one you will most likely be fine. So be cautious but unless you have a special health condition you shouldn't be putting yourself too much at risk.
Note that I found conflicting information but it seems that once they spoil they might start growing pathogenic bacteria. So just to be safe, still throw away spoiled dried fruits.
The take away is that (in almost all cases) as long as you store you dried fruits in a reasonable way (don't have them in water, very hot places, next to other raw food, etc...) they will spoil way before becoming unsafe to eat. And you can tell when something is spoiled. So you can trust your senses to know if they are good.
This comes with a few disclaimers I listed at the end of the post.
"Best before" is not a food safety indication in the US
Then it is worth noting that, in the US |
I made butternut squash soup and it asked for garlic but it is overpoweringly garlicky how do I fix that
I am making a butternut squash soup it asked for garlic shallots maple syrup garlic butter salt pepper and nutmeg. When it was all blended together it was a little bland so I added additional garlic and some time. Now I get an overwhelming aftertaste of garlic. Can I fix this? | Was the first garlic/shallots cooked with the soup, and second addition of garlic raw?
If so, try cooking it some more. In future, consider "roasting" (which for typical roasted garlic recipes is 99% steaming in foil in the oven with oil - there's a little caramelization, but it's not roasting in the usual sense of the word) the additional garlic before adding it to mellow it out. |
Why would HTST/UHT milk be "unsafe, but not taste bad"?
User @rumtscho notes in another question's answer:
If you are trying to keep the milk for multiple days in the fridge
It will become unsafe after 3-5 days, there is no way around that. If
you switch to UHT milk, it will still be unsafe 3-5 days after opening
the container, but it won't taste bad, so ...
What does this mean for the milk and the decision of whether to discard it?
(Traditionally I would discard milk if it tastes off to me.)
Specifically, a trajectory explanation of which microorganisms are killed of in the milk via UHT, so that it might not go "bad" taste wise, would be helpful. | Most food borne pathogens are colorless, odorless, and flavorless, and will not always impact the taste of food. Smell and taste is not an indicator of food safety. There is a difference between spoilage (which would impact flavor and odor, but not always make something unsafe) and pathogen growth (which would make a food unsafe). For example, sour milk is generally unpleasant for most of us, but generally not unsafe. The response to your quoted answer is reasonable in terms of how food safety works. I would quibble with the 3 - 5 days. What I see on the internet is that UHT milk is shelf stable for months until opened. Then it should be refrigerated and used within 7 days-10 days if continually refrigerated. |
Does shaking a jug of milk impact its longevity
With some products like non-homogenous milk and ciders with precipitate its desireable to give the jug one or two sharp shakes for consistency. But I've found myself habitually doing this even for homogenized milk that doesn't need it, and was wondering if this had any negative effect.
My concern was to what extent the introduction of oxygen impact the flavor and longevity of the milk. Short-term, this does make the milk a bit foamier, but does this also accelerate spoilage? Are there any other advantages or downsides to this habit?
I've found an article on the subject of shaking that confirms there's no nutritional impact but there's no details on the impact of aeration--possibly because its a non-issue? | While aeration in industrial milk production is a tool used to impact flavor, I doubt a quick shake of your milk jug has much influence at all during the time that you are consuming it. |
What fruits/veggies/other to keep at "partial freezing" (−3°C/27°F)?
My fridge has a "partial freezing" compartment where the temperature is kept at around −3°C (27°F). It is promoted as a feature for storing meat and fish, but... I don't eat any animal products.
Any ideas on vegan-friendly uses for such a compartment? Are there any fruits or veggies which will benefit from this storage temperature? Nuts? Seeds? Tofu? Anything else? | Freezing tofu breaks down some of the cell structure and gives a texture many people prefer after cooking. As long as its really below 0C your compartment will work. I'd allow 12 hours to freeze a standard 1lb / 454g block, or more if you don't first remove it from the packaging and drain it. Of course it will be faster if you first cut the block into smaller pieces.
Many vegetables do not freeze well, for the same reason that the expansion of water into ice on freezing destroys the cell structure. For instance try freezing a carrot: you'll find it turns into mush. Exceptions include peas and broccoli and (arguably) spinach, where the frozen product is far denser than the fresh and good for use as an ingredient, e.g. in spinach pies. |
Freeze or refrigerate meat for a few days?
I usually do the shopping for the week on Sundays, and I often leave the meat in the refrigerator for 5 or 6 days, so I am wondering if it would be better to freeze it immediately after buying it and defrost it later or just keep it in the refrigerator. | This depends on the type of meat. Poultry, ground meat, and offal should only be kept at refrigeration temps a couple of days, so you probably want to use first or freeze. Steaks, chops, and roasts can hang around in the refrigerator a few days more. By day 6, you are getting near the end of the window, so it might be better to freeze. Personally, for all cuts, if I am not using in the next two days, I freeze. Simply because life gets in the way...or plans change, and I may not use the product when I think I am going to. So, you can't go wrong by freezing, as long as you build defrosting into your weekly plan. In this case, I move from freezer to fridge one or two days in advance. |
Is there a rule of thumb for the order in which different vegetables should be cooked?
Say I'm preparing a stew that calls for various ingredients such as celery, carrots, leek, onions...
Is there any rule of thumb in which order to add these ingredients to the pan, taking into account they will cook later in the pot as well, with the rest of the stew? In recipes, I usually see the onions being added first. However my intuition is telling me that because diced onions are smaller than for example carrot disks, they are done faster (as in, slightly browned) and thus should be added later?
Currently, I'm going about roughly as this:
carrots first because they take longest until done
onions alongside other veggies
wait until they're "just short of being done"
add rest of the stew, e.g. salça (tomato paste), strained tomatoes, beans, and stand by helplessly as I hope the vegetables don't overcook
How do you take into account that the vegetables that were added on their own at first continue to cook with the rest of the soup?
What's the worst thing that can happen when not taking these times into account properly, other than your vegetables becoming a little mushy? | Typically in a soup or stew, aromatics (onion, celery, bell pepper, carrot, garlic...etc) are cooked first, and slowly in some type of fat. You can put them all in at once, though sometimes I hold off on the garlic, because it tends to brown more quickly than the rest. Other than that, it is not necessary to sequence these base ingredients. Then add tomato paste (if using) cook a bit...then liquid. Other, ingredients (like the tomato and beans you mention), can be added after the aromatics are translucent (or browned, if that is the flavor profile you are going for). |
Can I recognize insecticides in tea?
I am a tea fan (especially Chinese teas but Japanese as well)
I found many places on the Internet to buy teas. Good quality and natural tasting.
What is important to me is the quality in term of taste (natural, without any aromatic addition) but also in term of ecology (I would like to avoid as much as possible insecticides and other endocrine disruptors).
So far, might be a bit surprising, but I found very good quality longjin (green tea) and some da hong pao (black tea) on Aliexpress for excellent rate regarding other more "premium" platform...but I am not sure how to know if what they call "bio" is a "real" control in term of insecticide.
So my question is : is there any method - achievable at home- to know the "percentage" or any trace of insecticide in a tea that I bought from the internet ? Like something that I would put in my brew that tells me if any kind of chemicals is present ? | Disclaimer - I don't know for sure.
However, I doubt there is a dipstick or any other "do at home" test that would allow you to quickly identify if insecticides are present. This is because insecticides have quite a large range of chemical types, with differing amounts/concentrations for their effective range and different stabilities once applied, making it more or less impossible to test for them all quickly and easily. There are labs around that can test for types of insecticidal residues, particularly the organophosphate ones, as these are particularly nasty to life in general; but I can't see any quick tests that don't cost a small fortune and require a set up lab to run them.
Many of the commonly used ones are derived from natural sources (e.g. pyrethrins - you will probably find these in your home bug spray canister), but are now made synthetically, and I think are considered "organic" (as in organic farming; they are certainly chemically organic [carbon based]). These are effective at very low concentrations and don't last long outside.
In general (in the Western world at least), farms that produce things for consumption have mandated stand-down periods after spraying, which lower effective concentrations of insecticides and other applied chemicals to levels that are deemed safe by the local authorities. What these levels are depend on the country and are often tested for in the supply chain to ensure that consumers are protected. I can't say whether your sources adhere to any such rules however. |
What is the difference between durum whole wheat flour and hard amber durum wheat?
The Meijer brand package description is "whole wheat pasta" and the ingredients are "hard amber durum wheat". The Kroger brand pasta package description is "100% whole wheat pasta" and the ingredients are "durum whole wheat flour".
That sounds the same, but the Meijer fiber content per 56g is 24% Daily value and Kroger 56 g is 18% Daily value. The texture and taste is markedly different.
Why would the one which is not 100% whole wheat have more fiber? What does the word "hard" in the ingredient list mean?
I am looking for a pasta that is whole wheat with nothing removed or added just ground up. Pretty simple. | What is the difference between duram whole wheat flour and hard amber duram wheat
As with any edible plant, durum wheat comes in different cultivars. "Durum whole wheat flour" is the generic term covering all cultivars. When one brand says "amber", they are referring to a subgroup of cultivars. It is analogous to saying "apples" and "red apples". One of the brands seems to have chosen a more "poetic" style in their ingredient list.
the word "hard" in the ingredient list is a mystery
"Hard wheat" is just a synonym for "durum wheat", so saying "hard durum wheat" does not offer any specific information. It must be part of their decision to use fancier descriptions in their ingredient list.
Why would the one which is not 100% whole wheat have more fiber?
It doesn't. When you look at the nutrition labels, both have 6 grams of fiber - admittedly, I didn't find a product of either brand claiming 18% DV, but one had 24% and the other 21%, both with an absolute value of 6 g fiber per 56 g pasta. So they are using different DV references, or they made a mistake.
There is no "the one which is not 100% whole wheat". Both are 100% whole wheat, see above.
I am looking for a pasta that is whole wheat with nothing removed or added just gound up.
This can't be guaranteed by labelling. The relevant CFRs are 137.200 and 137.225, and they allow quite a few processing steps for whole (durum) wheat flour. Ascorbic acid and bleaching have to be listed on the label of the flour itself, but I'm unclear whether they have to be mentioned on the label of pasta made from such flour. Added enzymes don't have to be declared, and they can of course process it in other ways, without adding more stuff. |
A cheap piece of equipment/appliance that can help with reducing stock in a room that is not suited for cooking
I've just reduced a 4l of stock in my "kitchen" to 0.5l by boiling it over an hour.
I wrote "kitchen" with quotation marks, because that room might have been designated as a kitchen when the apartment was being built, but I'm pretty sure I see a lot of sagging paint on the ceiling that wasn't there before, the windows in all the rooms in the apartment look like it's just been raining inside and all the sachets I keep in the spice cabinet are wet.
Is there something I could buy that would collect the steam from boiling and prevent this from happening again? The obvious answer would be to install a hood and connect it to a vent (which is conveniently located at the exact opposite point to where the stove was installed), but that would easily set me back a few $1000 and what I can afford right now is more in the range of $60.
Summary
Is there something I could buy within $60 range that could handle collecting steam from 3.5l of evaporated water boiled within one hour? Maybe a dehumidifier made specifically for kitchen or a special lid that allows evaporation but collects the water? If it helps, I'm located in Poland and the price range is actually around 280 PLN. | Well, what you’re looking for is called a “still”. It boils liquid and condenses and recovers the vapor. Most commonly (in cooking) a still is used to boil off and collect pure alcohol, but stills I’ve seen are also capable of boiling off water — in fact, in places where stills are legal to own but alcohol distillation is illegal, distilling water is the excuse under which stills are commonly sold. But it really will work for you; you’ll end up with reduced stock and some distilled water. |
Is Finger millet flour boiled in water safe to consume
I boiled one tablespoon of Finger millet flour in one glass of water for two minutes and then added rock salt and drank it, it was ok, but is it the correct method to cook Finger millet four? | Whether that’s “the correct method” is entirely a matter of opinion. But yes, boiling millet flour and water for two minutes would result in a food which is safe to consume. Millet does not contain things like cyanogens which need to be property cooked to become safe, and any period of boiling will be sufficient to deal with microbes like E. coli which might have contaminated the flour. |
Spices very powdery when cooking
This is a constant problem I have when cooking chicken dishes with low water content. I add my spices and a bit of water so that everything mixes. The problem exists in the end result. When I taste the curry the taste is very powdery. I could go as far to say that I could possibly taste the individual grains.
Recipe:
Ginger Garlic paste into hot Pan when oil is sizzling. Chicken later. Add spices : Black pepper,salt , Cumin, corrainder power , garam masala and water to dissolve.
Notes: Chicken Breast cooked for 12 minutes | After comments… 12 minutes is nowhere near enough time to cook in the spices, but is long enough to turn chicken breast into small pencil erasers.
'Because of laziness' all you have is some spices in water, not 'a curry'.
The basic gravy/sauce for a curry is onion, ginger & garlic, sautéed down then liquidised/blended/puréed… then simmered with your spices for several hours. For chicken breast curry, you add the chicken right at the end. Thighs you can simmer for hours, but breast is ruined if over-cooked.
The spices will never actually 'dissolve' as such; they'll remain solids, but they'll soften so there's no gritty edge left to them, and at the same time impart their flavours through the oil & water.
You can batch basic curry sauce & keep it in the freezer for months. Then all you need to make your final curry is the chicken.
You can freeze finished curries - but not chicken breast. Lamb, beef, chicken thigh will all improve for long-cooking. Chicken breast, if you ensure it's cooked in the sauce, will be over-cooked by the time the curry is cool enough to freeze, then will get another dose of over-cooking as you re-heat it.
You can even buy ready-prepped onion in the supermarket. |
Fix for over spiced molasses cookies?
I usually add more spices to my molasses cookies but this time, I added just a smidge too much. They are "good" but not "great" as I would like them to be for Thanksgiving. I made one batch and have the remaining batter in the fridge.
Can the batter be saved?? If not, do you have recommendations for a frosting to balance it out?
Cheers!
JJ | Since you have batter in the fridge you can make more batter without spices and mix the two before baking.
Something like a cream cheese (or other fairly substantial/thick) frosting might help the ones that are baked. |
How to preserve bone broth?
I will soon receive a few kg of fresh boar bones. From these, I want to make bone broth and preserve them in Weck jars, as I don't have a freezer.
Unfortunately I do not have a pressure cooker of any kind. What's my best bet to minimise the risk of spoilage or botulism? How long can I realistically keep the preserved bone broth?
I've read about some approaches boiling the jars twice with a two day wait at room temperature in-between, killing the C. botulinum bacteria as they leave their spore stage. However, I'm not sure if that'll actually do the trick. | You cannot do this safely without a pressure canner (not pressure cooker). Freezing is probably your safest and easiest option, if you don't want to invest in a pressure canner. To save space, cool the broth, then transfer to freezer style zip lock bags and freeze flat. This would also decrease thawing time. Another space saving tip is to reduce your finished stock by 1/2 or more, concentrating your product. Then add water when you use. |
What type of nonstick pan is this?
I need a new nonstick pan. I saw a video with a pan which looks good to me. The person in the video didn't grease or oil at all, and her pancake didn't stick to the pan. She could flip her pancakes perfectly.
This is a snapshot of the pan. Can you please identify the type of pan, so I can search for similar pans? | To the extent that it can be told from a picture, probably "ceramic" coated if it's non-stick coated at all. Might just be seasoned carbon steel. It certainly shines like oil was applied, perhaps off-camera, but if not, that might be due to shiny ceramic.
However, the various black marks are more typical of stuff burnt onto a steel pan that shines due to oil than a clean enough to be shiny ceramic pan.
Odds are excellent that the oil you didn't see being added to the pan is in the batter - there are many tricks without even getting into the the ones requiring video editing. Plenty of folks can manage the "flipping pancakes" level of "non-stick" with a cast-iron pan. One aspect of that is making sure it's hot enough before the batter hits it. Oil in the batter is another. |
Why is my meat loaf not holding liquid?
I tried to make an Azerbaijani-style meat loaf (apparently also known as blood bread) as shown in a YouTube video (turning on CC on the video will give you ingredients, but not quantities or cooking/resting times). Here’s how I reverse-engineered the recipe (scaled down for some 2 servings):
250 g beef, ground
250 g mutton, ground
125 g lamb tail fat, cut into 5–10 mm cubes
2 eggs
Garlic powder, ground black pepper, dried mint, cumin, paprika, salt
Breadcrumbs (6 bread ends, over a week old and completely dry, ground up)
1 onion, finely chopped
250 ml milk (instead of cream and water as I didn’t have cream)
50 ml sunflower seed oil (didn’t have corn oil)
I made the kind with the cheese and egg topping shown in the video. I made one single pan, with two tomato quarters, some 70 g cheese, an egg and 80 ml sour cream for the topping. I baked everything at 200°C for an hour, using a stainless steel pan.
I already noticed the dough was quite runny and did not hold shape as well as in the video when making the pit for the topping. When comparing my results to the video, the blood bread in the video seems to have gotten more thermal energy than mine – the meat on mine hardly browned (though the egg mixture did). Most importantly, mine was drowning in liquid (which looked like a mixture of water, fat and coagulated proteins). Also, the meat in my recipe looked quite crumbly (basically like cooked ground meat) whereas the original has formed a dough that solidifies when cooked.
What has gone wrong?
Too little heat? (If so, what would be a good temperature?)
Baking time too short? (If so, what time would have been required?)
Too much liquid? (If so, what amount of cream and water would I use for 500 g meat?)
Not enough breadcrumbs? (What ratio is recommended?)
Do different characteristics of milk vs. a roughly 1:1 mixture of cream and water have an impact on moisture retention? (Which?)
Did I get some of the ingredient ratios (eyeballed from the recipe) wrong?
Something else? | 250ml of milk, or any liquid such as water or stock sounds like a lot to me compared to the other ingredients. The original recipe uses 6 bread ends worth of crumbs, depending on the size of the bread ends that may be quite a lot as well.
What is most likely happening with your version is the bread crumbs are not effective enough, this is probably because your bread ends are not dried out. The easy way to fix this is to spread the crumbs out on a baking tray and bake them for 10 minutes or so, until they turn golden. Alternatively you can use pre-made store bought breadcrumbs. It's also possible traditional bread ends from the area are large, in which case the ones you are using may not be as big so you are using less crumbs than the recipe intended.
There are two ways to go about this:
Ration the milk: add only enough milk to get the consistency you want with the breadcrumbs you have added
Adjust with breadcrumbs: add all the milk at once and keep adding breadcrumbs until you get the consistency you are after
Either recipe will get you a consistency that is stiff enough to be a meatloaf, the difference will be in the breadiness to meatiness of the result. When I make a meatloaf I'm looking to add minimal breadcrumbs to make it as meaty as possible as that's what I grew up with so I'd use option 1, however the name blood-bread makes me think that breadiness is what you are aiming for, in which case option 2 may be better. I'd have some store bought breadcrumbs on hand in addition to bread ends if you go that way, just so you don't run out. |
Added too much sugar to tomatoes. How can I fix it
Making my moms homemade spaghetti sauce and her direction said add 1/2 c sugar for 2 qts Tomatoes. It tastes too sweet for me. Can I fix it easily? | That does seem to me to be a lot of sugar for a pasta sauce recipe; most I've seen that call for sugar at all would use at most a few tablespoons per two quarts, and even then only if the tomatoes were naturally not very sweet (i.e. the sugar would only be added if necessary).
Regarding how to fix it, you have a few possible options; firstly, as moscafj suggested in the comments, you could dilute the sugar by adding more tomato, ideally having prepared it the same way you did the original batch, up until just before you added the sugar.
The other method I'd suggest would be to try balancing out the sweetness with additional salt or acid; our tongues treat the four 'basic' flavours (salt, acid, sweet, bitter) with some degree of mutual exclusion, so the stronger one is the weaker the others will appear to be. I'd suggest you be careful with this method; if you go too far with adding extra salt and/or acid (such as vinegar or lemon juice), you might end up with something that tastes closer to ketchup than pasta sauce. I'd encourage you to go by taste; separate out a cup or so of the current sauce, taste a bit, think about whether it would taste better if it was saltier or more acidic, then add a small amount of the relevant ingredient, stir, and taste again until satisfied. Once you've got a good handle on whether your particular sauce can be rescued by this method, you can take similar steps with the full batch. |
How to add bourbon flavor?
I’ve fermented two batches of sriracha, one in a small bourbon cask, the other in a mason jar.
The bourbon cask fermented batch flavor is fantastic. The mason jar batch is tasty too.
I’m curious how I might add some bourbon flavor to the mason jar batch.
I want to avoid heating the sriracha as I would like to retain the probiotics from the fermentation.
I don’t want to add the bourbon directly to the sriracha as the alcohol will kill much of the probiotics also.
I’m thinking to heat some bourbon in a skillet and then light on fire to burn off the alcohol, then pour the remainder into the sriracha. | What we think of as "bourbon flavor" is due to a combination of things.
Bourbon is aged in a new oak barrel that has been charred on the inside. The important thing is not so much the layer of char as it is the layer of wood with caramelized sugars just under it. As the liquid in the barrel experiences temperature cycles, it expands and contracts, penetrating the caramelized layer and leaching caramelized sugars and other flavor compounds out. The longer the liquid sits in the barrel, the more it will leach out.
You have several options I can think of.
Get another bourbon cask and transfer the contents of the mason jar to it. I can't imagine that the sriracha needs to ferment in the cask, just sit in it for some period of time.
If cost and/or space is at more of a premium than time, once the batch currently in the cask has been bottled, transfer the contents of the mason jar to the cask and let it age. This won't have quite the same effect as the first option, as some of the cask's character has been removed by the first batch. You will probably need to let it sit longer than the first batch did, and even then it probably won't turn out exactly the same.
You can buy toasted oak chips, cubes, and spirals from homebrew suppliers and add them to whatever you're fermenting/aging the sriracha in. You'll get similar results (but not identical) to fermenting/aging in a cask, at a lower price point.
For quicker results, soak some of the toasted oak material mentioned above in hot (but not boiling) water. After a long soak, add some of the water to the sriracha. How long to soak, and how much to add, is a matter of taste.
For the quickest results, add bourbon neat to the sriracha. @Ecnerwal is correct that you probably won't add enough alcohol to severely impact the fermentation. In fact, fermentation of any sort usually produces alcohols as a byproduct, so your probiotics are already used to them to some extent. |
I have a recipe that calls for 2 chicken broth packets-what does that equal in bouillon granules?
I have a recipe that calls for 2 packets of chicken broth. What does that equal in bouillon granules? | The size of the packets, as well as the strength of both the packets and the bouillon granules, can vary by brand, so the best comparison you have is the recommended amount of water to add to each. If the packets you mention are like these from Amazon, then the instructions on the box say to reconstitute them with 1 cup of water each. In that case, look at your container of bouillon granules, see how much is recommended for 1 cup of water (mine says 1 tsp, yours might be different) and use that amount for each packet of broth. I also have some bouillon cubes that say to dissolve in 3 cups of water: for those I would use 1/3 of a cube (the amount for 1 cup of water) to substitute for 1 packet of broth. |
Should I compensate for lost water when working with frozen rhubarb?
Rhubarb is a naturally stiff plant, but when frozen and thawed again, it becomes very soft and spongey and loses a lot of water. When attempting to make rhubarb dishes, such as pie or jam, should I attempt to compensate for that lost water or treat it as is? | That’s a tricky question.
While yes, you are discarding some of the juice when straining thawing rhubarb, some rhubarb recipes are struggling with managing the liquid even fresh rhubarb tends to lose when cooked - and it’s likely to lose more than fresh rhubarb with the double damage to the cells, first from freezing, then cooking.
So I suggest a balanced approach:
For all recipes that have a bit of leeway, can be mushy or liquidy, get down to the desired consistency or thickened, use the juice. Think jams, compote and similar.
For cakes where the fruit gets stirred in, I tend to strain some of the juice, possibly making up for the difference by using a bit more, so thawing more frozen rhubarb than the fresh kind a recipe may call for.
And in notoriously fickle (read: moisture sensitive, prone to soggy bottoms) preparations like some pies, I either strain most of the thawing liquid and either discard it or thicken it separately (e.g. cooking it with a bit of starch) and add it back in. Another option to compensate can be adding more dry ingredients that can soak up the liquid, breadcrumbs or ground nuts can work well. |
Is it safe to start using seasoned cast iron grill/griddle after 7 years?
A friend's been sick and had not been using his cast iron grill/griddle for approximately 8 years. He decided to give them to me. The grill/griddle was seasoned (with oil) 8 years ago, but the oil on them is now sticky to the touch. If I don't want to get food poisoning, do I need to wash off the old oil with soap? or is it safe to start using the grill/griddle as is? I've attached a picture for reference. | It won't give you food poisoning, but re-seasoning (rather burning off clean and then immediately re-seasoning) is advisable if sticky (which means, IME, it was oiled and put away 8 years ago, not actually seasoned (heating to polymerize the oil) 8 years ago.
The canonical seasoning/re-seasoning cast iron thread here: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/a/647/34242 |
Does this flour dish exist in other countries, and what is its name?
I found a very interesting old dish in Ukrainian cuisine. In this video a woman cooks it https://youtu.be/-eq9ggNSWjg
It is a variation of pasta soup, for which the most salient feature is that the pasta is quickly formed into irregular pieces by a rubbing motion between the two flat hands. It is then boiled in milk thinned with water, and the whole result (pasta and cooking liquid) is served together as a soup.
I am interested in where people cook this dish, what different cooking processes are used, and what related dishes are called. In Ukrainian cuisine this is called "Zatirka", "Styranka", or "Sukanytsia". | While it is really hard to prove a negative, I would say that no, this exact dish seems to only have arisen once, and is only common among East Slavic people - which is a better way to describe its origin area than by modern country borders.
Starch-based soups do exist around the world as a poor people food, although they are not as popular as various types of gruel (which is the cheaper preparation, since milling is an expensive process in low-energy societies). But on most continents, wheat is not the dominant cereal. So for example in Japan, people traditionally eat a gen-mai soup (rice based), and similar is true for other continents. So it should be sufficient to look at the most similar dishes in Europe and see if they are virtually the same.
European countries do have traditions which are highly similar to this soup, but they happen to have developed slightly different in their detail. None seems to combine all the central features of this specific dish.
Having a soup made from barely-shaped dough. This positions the zatyrka in the middle between a noodle soup, a flour soup and maybe a bread soup. In noodle soups, the noodles tend to be elaborately formed, for example in a ravioli soup. Also, when talking of "noodle soup", most people imagine a soup that is broth-based and has vegetables added. Standard flour soups don't have any shaped lumps at all, and are anyway rare outside of the same Eastern Slavic culinary region, except for a few exots like the Basel flour soup, which is more of a drinkable gravy. The closest geographically separated relative of the zatyrka in this sense is probably the trahana, which is made in ex-ottoman regions. There, sourdough is cooked into a soup, but without shaping, just dissolving it in water. The zatyrka process is halfway between these two ideas, and doesn't seem to be practiced in other regions.
making noodles by rubbing. Examples of this exist, e.g. Schnupfnudeln and Spätzle, but they are not the same process, don't produce the same shape, and aren't traditionally made into a soup.
making a soup with a milk base. This is quite common in dairy producing areas. The less similar examples are chowder-like, but you can find dishes like Kappeler Milchsuppe (Switzerland) spread throughout the European continent, which involve cooking up bread, grains or noodles in milk. There are also sweet variations.
I must admit that I am not very familiar with the cuisines of the countries around the Caspian sea, which would be a good candidate to have similar foods, maybe they have similar dishes which I have missed. |
How deep does gaseous smoke penetrate meat?
I am wondering how deep smoke flavor can penetrate meat on a smoker. Does smoke penetrate 2mm, 2cm, 30cm, infinitely?
Some might argue that the smoke ring around meat indicates how deep smoke penetrate but my understanding is that this has been disproved.
Please answer within the context of meat smoking. For example, if smoke can penetrate very deeply but it takes approximately 2 weeks then this is perhaps not feasible since most smoking takes 1-12 hours.
The answer must have some sort of evidence (e.g., a chemical analysis and argument, blind taste testing of various layers).
A nice big thick boneless ham could be a good example to work with since it could arguably be spherical. | ...not very deep. Smoke is almost entirely a surface treatment. In the linked article, Blonder demonstrates that "much like sugar in a brine, smoke does not penetrate much beyond the surface." The smoke flavor molecules are pretty complex and large, so would not penetrate the structure of the meat. It doesn't matter how long you smoke, the flavor doesn't get much beyond the surface. |
If you coat meat with spices how do you prevent them from burning when frying or grilling?
We are always warned when cooking with dry spices (e.g. chilli powder, cumin, coriander etc.) not to let the spices burn when cooking as they will turn bitter.
If one wishes to use a dry rub (e.g. garlic powder or curry powder) what is the best way to seal the meat yet at the same time not burn the spices? If you keep the oil temperature low so as not to burn the spices, surely you will not achieve the temperature required to kick off the Maillard reaction? Or is that the whole point of using a dry rub?
(I'm thinking here of meat that is partially coated with spices rather than with a thick coating or dredge sealing the meat completely). | The simple answer is you don't sear after rubbing, because you can't prevent spices from burning. You use a dry rub method for low to medium temperature cooking.
You are probably confusing maillard reactions and caramelization. Maillard reactions happen at a lower temperature, starting at 120°C, low and slow cooking is what develops them. Caramelization starts with sucrose sugars at about 160°C.
You could in theory sear, then rub spices on meat, however that will mostly prevent the flavors from penetrating. |
Is there an equivalent to brownies in other cuisines?
In "American" cuisine, there is a baked good called a brownie, which is peculiar because it exists at a kind of intersection of cookies (biscuits), cake, and fudge. Brownies often have a cookie-crunchy exterior, and the moist interior of a fudge cake. It's an in-between confection.
Does any other cuisine have this kind of liminal baked item, that crosses over cookies and cake? We couldn't think of any, so turning it over to Seasoned Advice to find one. | The Swedish kladdkaka is pretty similar to the brownie, even though it's mostly classified as a cake, rather than a cookie. (It's typically served as a segment of a round cake, often with either icing sugar or whipped cream on top.)
And if you're looking for border-crossing items in general, there are lots of things on the border between 'bread' and 'cake' or 'cookie'. Panettone, donut and taralli all straddle this border at different places. |
When does parboiling "begin"?
I had a recipe for roast potatoes that states to parboil for 5 minutes before putting in the roasting tin.
Unfortunately I don't have the recipe still with me for reference but this is a general question for when instructed to parboil for a short time.
Generally speaking, when does the 5 minutes actually start? If I bring the water to boiling point, then put in the potatoes, they cool the water, and it can take nearly the 5 minutes just to get back to boiling point. So should I start timing as soon as the spuds go in the pot, or should I wait until it's boiling again, and then another 5 minutes? | A good recipe should have guidance on the desired end state you are aiming for, and experience with cooking will help you know what to aim for too.
In the case of roast potatoes, the aim at the parboiling stage is to get to a point where a knife can easily go partly into the potato, so that they are partially cooked and to help the outsides get roughed up in the fat before roasting. This will take different amounts of time depending on the potato size (and probably also their variety). Prod them with a knife to see if they are ready rather than relying on a timer. |
Is there a dry peppermint flavoring?
I want to make a peppermint cocoa mix but I can only find peppermint extract in liquid form at my grocery store. Is there such a thing as a dry peppermint flavoring thats natural? | Dried peppermint leaves exist. Probably a bit more roughage than you want in cocoa, but if you want natural, that's the stuff.
I would expect that mixing oil of peppermint or peppermint extract with the sugar (if normal hot cocoa with sugar) would result in a still-dry mixture at normal rates of oil/extract and sugar for hot cocoa. Sugar free the dried leaves are my best bet other than Joe's suggestion in a comment on the question if you could find sugar-free mint candies. |
Feeding pasta dough through Kitchen aid roller
The problem
I recently bought a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the 3 in 1 pasta roller/cutter attachments to make fresh pasta.
I found a few recipes online, made some dough and when I get to the part where the dough must be fed through the rollers, one of the following happens:
Nothing happens, the dough won't "latch on" the roller or the roller won't "catch" the dough so it doesn't go through
The roller does catch part of the dough, but it doesn't go through properly. Some of the dough accumulates on top of the roller while the rest of the dough goes through... and then the accumulation goes through at the end.
The result is a wrinkly dough with curled sides and tears...
As you can see in this example, the dough should just go through smoothly, the bottom part STAYS at the bottom instead of being split in a part that stays on top of the roller and one that goes through.
Since I am new to making fresh pasta, I'm thinking that the dough is the problem, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. There seems to be so many possible recipes that all "work" in YouTube videos and nobody seems to have any trouble just feeding the dough like I have.
What I have tried
Followed this recipe using all-purposed white flour - no success
Followed this other recipe using non bleached all-purpose flour - no success
Speeds: the manual says to use speed 2 when rolling, some people have used speed 1. I tried both speeds but that does not fix the issue
Thickness level: I never went beyond 1 (the widest setting)
Measurements: made sure I used a scale for flour measurements
The roller attachment's brand is Kitchen Aid, not another third party module
What I have noticed
On my roller attachment, only the roller directly connected to the Kitchen Aid motor rolls. The other one (used to adjust the width setting) does not roll and seems static. Is this normal?
EDIT
: NO, it is NOT normal. I recieves a replacement for the roller and tried the same recipe (the first one) listed above and everything worked fine. Both rollers have to roll. When adding flour between each step, I would put flour on the counter, dab my hand in it and lightly rub both sides of the laminated dough. Eventually, when the dough gets thin and large enough, I was able to stop adding flour.
The side of the dough that goes through is on the same side as the roller that revolves and the dough accumulation occurs on the side of the static roller
The question(s)
Is my roller attachment working as intended?
If so, does anyone understand my problem and know a fix?
Are there things I should look out for that could help improve the situation?*
Why use that Kitchen Aid attachment
I once bought an actual pasta rolling/cutting machine with a handle. It broke after one use (could not turn the handle smoothly at all) and this time around I decided to try the Kitchen Aid attachment. | Nothing happens, the dough won't "latch on" the roller or the roller
won't "catch" the dough so it doesn't go through
Flatten it some more. Polished steel is as “grabby” as you’d expect; it can’t pull a big wad of dough through, but it has better leverage against a flattened one.
The roller does catch part of the dough, but it doesn't go through properly. Some of the dough accumulates on top of the roller while the rest of the dough goes through... and then the accumulation goes through at the end.
Yep, that’ll happen. Early on, there won’t be much gluten development, and the rollers can easily tear the dough to rags. That doesn’t mean it’s ruined; just roughly layer the pieces into a mostly-solid piece and keep going.
If so, does anyone understand my problem and know a fix?
Some combination of:
flatten your dough by hand more before you roll it
Don’t worry about it, and keep re-rolling the bits
Increase your dough hydration so it’s more pliable and sticky initially.
Either of the first two is recommended. The third is not recommended.
Oh, and while speed 1 or 2 is fine, I find speed 1 is preferable on the first couple of passes, and also while thinning the sheets (to prevent the outer edges from curling in). |
Rhubarb green can you eat
Rhubarb this is the first year we have grown, and I’m told you can’t not eat green rhubarb in the first year… any advice would be appreciated | You can't eat the leaves (unless you have a deathwish.)
Not eating the stalks in the first year is more about trying to establish a heathy plant than any food safety issue. By not stressing the plant with harvesting when it's barely established itself, you improve your harvests and plant heath in future years. An established bed can go 40+ years, so it's not a terrible investment of time, overall.
Most anyone with an established patch will normally be happy to give some away, or possibly sell it not too dearly if you're total strangers and you don't know someone you could just get some from for this year. Worst case, try a farmer's market. |
Could it really make sense to cook garlic for more than a minute?
What really puzzles me is the tendency of some cooks to boil or stew garlic for extended periods of time. Even if you don't dice it finely, as I usually do, some of it is going to be destroyed in terms of flavor, and you won't get as much "bang for the buck". You can add less garlic, avoid cooking it for long and get the same result! Can't you? Could it really make sense to cook garlic for more than one minute? I got that figure from one Georgian chef (Georgia meaning "a country in Eastern Europe") | It's not about "bang for the buck" - it's about different flavor profiles from the same ingredient. A small amount of nearly-raw garlic is not the same as a large amount of cooked garlic, which appears to be the false equivalence you've drawn.
As a very simple example that's highly illustrative, take a head of garlic and follow a recipe for "roasted garlic." |
Why did my macarons deflate in the last 4 minutes of baking?
I've been learning how to make macarons using the Bravetart/Stella Parks recipe (archived on Wayback Machine). Here's what happened in my most recent attempt:
When piped out on the sheet, the batter stayed somewhat mounded up (so I don't think they are overmixed, or at least, not as much the last time I did it!).
When in the oven in the early stages of baking, they had some nice height to them, though no feet at any stage, as shown in this image (around 5-7 minutes in):
However, after taking them out of the oven, they were totally flat---only about 4mm thick. (I did bake for a few extra minutes since they had already deflated and seemed very squishy still). The surface is rough, and looks like it is full of small holes, as shown in this image of them still on the tray:
The same thing happened for every tray I baked, so for the second tray I watched the whole time & saw that they "deflated" with about 3.5 minutes left on the timer (so, after they had been in the oven about 14.5 minutes).
Other possibly relevant details:
I have an oven thermometer, so I know the oven was indeed actually at 300 degrees
I have a stand mixer, so I was able to follow the timing & speed directions of the recipe exactly when making the meringue. I indeed ended up with a very stiff & dry meringue.
I do not have a food processor, but I used pre-ground King Arthur almond flour, and used a blender for 30 seconds in batches to grind it a little finer with the powdered sugar. Not sure if this was necessary, but my sifter/sieve is very fine, and even with the extra grinding takes a little effort to get the mixture through.
I knocked each tray a couple times on each side to pop bubbles. My last tray I let sit for 30 minutes after knocking, and I noticed more bubbles had developed, so I of course knocked it again to pop them (but, it turned out the same as the rest). | Caveat: I'm not much of a baker and I'm going off my memory of my/my wife's attempts to make them quite a few years ago, which almost all ended up like yours...
I would say that the steam which causes them to rise has managed to escape - there are a few ways this can happen and most of them are caused by bubbles in the mixture.
Don't gently knock from the side, give that tray a firm sharp tap down flat on a bench/table to get rid of the bubbles.
Don't pipe them too big - too big and they aren't strong enough to support the dome themselves and collapse. 1.5-2 inches (3.75-5 cm) is about as big as you want to go. A template will help with this.
The top after piping should form a smooth dome (not an irregular mound = too dry) shortly after being piped and not spread outside the template (=not stiff/dry enough).
On the plus side; flat ones are still super tasty and deliciously chewy, so have fun and don't worry too much about failures when trying to master this. |
Milk curdles while heating to make yogurt…is it safe to eat?
I had some old milk in the fridge that smells like it’s on the edge. I decided to make yogurt with it. While I was heating it, lots of curds started to form. Is it safe to eat the yogurt that I’m making with it? | I wouldn’t. If the milk curdled, it’s a sign of spoilage and the very last thing you want to do now is keep it in a warm environment for a prolonged time.
And while many yogurt recipes include a pasteurization step where you heat the milk to near boiling (not all do, btw.), this will not turn clearly unsafe milk (as indicated by the curdling) into a base for a new product. Especially if the process includes a fermentation at warm temperatures for many hours. |
What is this core inside a coconut seed?
In the German survival show "7 vs Wild", one of the participants opened a coconut seed to find it filled with something he calls a "cake" (the light-yellowish part in the image below). It seems to be extremely delicious according to his excessive reaction when tasting it the first time.
The texture is described as "spongy" on the touch. The taste is said to be the same as a coconut but much more intense.
The video sequence in question can be found here.
When researching for "coconut cake" I only find recipes for baking, but nothing similar to this coconut seed core at all.
What exactly is that, and how can it be obtained? | The coconut seed -(what is given in question) is actually known as the coconut "apple". It is a sweet, spongy mass (cotyledon) that dissolves and absorbs the endosperm.
This happens when the coconut is ready to shoot some leaves out and is an edible, soft predecessor. This part is actually the Coconut Cotyledon which is sometimes called the 'Coconut Embryo' or 'Coconut Apple' and is suspended in germination and is generally eaten raw. |
Do spices grown in higher altitude above 1500m for e.g. ( Himalayan foothills ) have any special feature or higher potency?
Do spices and herbs sourced from the foothills of the Himalayas such as Black Cardamom, Ginger, Pepper, etc have higher potency or flavor profile?
Compared to hills, they would lack nutrition, but how does a lack of abundant nutrition and a tough climate result in the potency and flavor profile?
Would love to learn about your research findings as well as personal experiences. | This is only a partial answer concerning pepper, but it is known that coffee plants grown in higher altitudes have lower caffeine content [1]. This is due to the lower abundance of insects, against which the coffee plants protects itself with caffeine (which is an insecticide).
It seems there are studies on the effect of piperine (the active ingredient in black pepper, piper nigrum) as insecticide as well [2]. Also, there is the well known effect of capsaicin in capsicum plants (chilis) that also serve as a deterrent against mammal consumption (but not against birds, which is the evolutionary intent, so to speak, as to spread the seeds further).
Together, I think it might be possible to conclude that pepper grown in higher altitudes/harsher climates might be milder actually, due to lower pressure on the plant to protect itself against consumption. If the flavour profile overall, on the other hand, is more potent or developed, is probably a subjective taste.
Also, consider the sought-after Kampot pepper is grown in an area very close to the sea in a humid climate, pretty much the opposite of an arid mountain climate.
[1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996917307858#:~:text=Caffeine%20and%20CGA%20contents%20decreased,1%20100%20m%E2%88%92%201).
[2]: https://academic.oup.com/jee/article-abstract/70/1/18/2212311 |
What is the best way to learn cooking for a student?
I am a student, and generally any cooking I do ends up being a disaster (unless it's cooking eggs or boiling dumplings in water), and I do want to get better. I don't know where to start. I can't attend cooking courses offline, since I have a job, and I am busy pretty much most of the time. And I have no wife or girlfriend to teach me.
It feels like I'm lacking very basics of cooking (like how hot water or pan must be, or how to know if my meat is cooked). How should I learn cooking from scratch? I don't want to eat pizza every day and die from liver cirrhosis at 30 :(
Thanks in advance | Some general tips and pointers for your start:
In most contries I know there are one or two 'standard' cookbooks that have been re-issued and updated for decades and that usually explain and teach basic techniques from the scratch and in an easily understandable way. Get one of these, even if it might look a bit conservative at the first glance it will serve as a source for sound and reliable basics. Usually there´s a good reason why the latest kitchen hack from the web is not what your granny or professional chefs are doing.
Stock up your inventory with basic ingredients and spices you always will need like salt, flour, rice, ... so you wont have to worry about these when planning for a recipe.
Focus on one thing at a time and proceed step by step. Set your todays goal on perfectly al dente pasta while a convenience pesto will be good enough. Then make a sauce from scratch tomorrow.
Have a backup option in your shelf in case things fail completely. If they do, don´t get discouraged, at least you have learned how not to do it.
Take notes to keep your experiences. There are things like this specific, strange temperature offset of your oven beyond 250° that no book or tutorial will ever be able to teach you.
If you are short on time in your daily life look out for recipes that build up on each other. Something with a bechamel sauce on Thursday and something with a meat sauce on Friday, will make a great Lasagna on Saturday.
Stay curious. |
What is the purpose of "shock chilling" food after cooking?
Recipes often have instructions like:
Remove bag from bath and immediately transfer to an ice water bath to shock chill the turkey.
— (The Foolproof Sous Vide Thanksgiving Turkey).
I never see them giving any reason for doing this though.
Sometimes it's done before putting it into the refrigerator or freezer, and sometimes (as in the above example) it's before browning it in the oven.
What exactly is the purpose of "shock chill", and in particular, what happens if it isn't done?
Note: I can understand needing quick cooling to prevent over-cooking, but in this case the method is sous vide, so that isn't a concern.
Nor is bacterial growth. | Even with sous vide, both overcooking and bacteria can still be a concern.
In this case, it's about over-cooking. Consider the meat just under the skin you want to brown. If it starts at the ideal cooking temperature, by the time the skin is nicely browned in the oven, it will be overcooked. By cooling it first the oven reheats it rather than overcooking it. It's probably quite a thin layer that would overcook, but avoiding dry meat just under the skin is presumably why you're cooking it sous-vide in the first place.
Chilling in cold water (ideally quickly) before putting it in the fridge or freezer reduces the amount the fridge warms up, protecting the rest of your food from loss of quality (or even spoilage if you put lots of hot stuff in there).
Sous vide temperatures usually aren't enough to kill all bacteria, so even in a sealed container some can start regrowing if it sits around warm for a while. Rapid chilling avoids that, especially for whole cuts of meats where the surface is the highest risk. Then you can carry one cooling in the fridge if you're storing. |
Can we use probiotic medicine for bacillus subtilis culture?
I am from India and we do not get Natto (Japanese dish) starter for making Natto. I found that it contains mostly Bacillus subtilis, so I was wondering: can I mix the Bacillus subtilis strains available in the pharmacy to prepare my starter from scratch? | Bacterial are named by species, not strain. Each species has innumerable strains. For instance, Escherichia coli has over 700 major strains. Some can kill you. Most are friendly.
It is analogous to breeds of dog (over 300). All dogs are Canis familiaris species with numerous "strains" (breeds). Some can kill you. Most are friendly.
So when you pick up a "probiotic" Bacillus subtilis in the drug store, are you buying a poodle or a Rottweiler?
Culinary micro-organisms tend to be very specialized. The lactobacillus found in yogurt is unlikely to be the same lactobacillus strain that is found (along with yeast) in sourdough starter.
I make my own yogurt, beer, malt whiskey and sourdough. I try to source my bugs from commercial food products as close as possible to the taste I am after.
I suggest you make an effort to obtain commercial Bacillus subtilis var. natto and learn a way to propagate it. |
Can you help me identify this dish?
Kurczak po Chińsku (or Chinesse Chicken)
This is a very popular dish sold in Vietnamese restaurants in Poland.
Is this an authentic dish? (I guess not!)
What is its real name? | It is not unique to Poland.
Apparently "red chicken" in Vietnam goes back a ways, both as a local variation of Chinese char siu, and (confusingly) as a pedigree of the breed of chicken used in standard Vietnamese chicken per this Egullet thread.
Per that thread and other places, it seems to be highly regional within Vietnam itself. For example, none of the many Vietnamese restaurants in my hometown have it, possibly because most of the folks here immigrated from North Vietnam. So my guess would be that a bunch of Vietnamese moved to Poland from whereever "red chicken" was popular, apparently somewhere in South Vietnam.
The Polish version, of course, is likely to have some local customization, based on ingredient availability if nothing else.
Note: I am not Vietnamese, Polish, nor have I ever eaten chicken in Vietnam. The above is all from internet searching. |
How to label jars so the label comes off easily?
I have made several batches of jam over this summer and would like to label the jars.
I am printing the labels on my laser printer for a more professional look. Also, I want to reuse the jars, so getting the labels off again is a requirement. This rules out the usual sticker-type paper labels, as they are a pain to get off.
Until a few years ago, paper labels with some kind of water-soluble adhesive were the norm on store-bought jam (and other) jars in Europe (but are now increasingly being replaced by those pesky self-adhesive labels), and one approach I looked into was to replicate that.
Some folks out on the net have suggested gelatin: mix ground gelatin with water (1:1 by weight), heat it and apply it to the back of the label, then place it on the jar. I have tried that, and while it initially sticks well, most labels come off again once they dry.
Another option might be self-stick labels made of plastic rather than paper, which are less prone to tearing and can thus mostly be peeled off in one piece. However, they would need to be laser-printable, i.e. resist the usual temperatures found in the process and come in a size I would be able to feed into the printer.
A cheap hack would be to print the labels on regular office paper, and attach them with transparent tape, but that ends up looking cheap.
Has anyone found a feasible way to attach labels to jars so they can be peeled off easily, or come off in the dishwasher?*
*) While some self-stick labels do come off in the dishwasher, the adhesive gets into everything and is impossible to get rid off, ruining your dishwasher in the long run. I’m speaking from my own experience. | The classic solution some homebrewers (and possibly others, but that's where I learned about it) use is...
Milk. The animal sort. (Vegan milks are less likely to work well, but vegans can make a similar glue out of flour.)
As glue. No need to bother with actual casein glue made from milk. Straight up skim milk, (non-skim should also work) on regular paper holds well, and then soaks off easily. Just a few drops spread on the back of the label to barely wet it, and smooth the label in place on the glass. Let dry.
So long as you don't get the jar wet before you're ready to remove the label, works well, looks good, takes very little milk, so it's cheap and easy if you have milk around at all.
I would suggest sticking to soaking the label off before the dishwasher, rather than dumping a bunch of paper into your dishwasher. |
How to avoid black spots on bread baked in iron tin with baking paper inlay
I am trying to make a sourdough bread with least effort. My receipe is as follows: Add sourdough starter, rye flour, salt and water, mix. Put in a iron tin and wait for 24 Hours for the sourdough to do its work. Bake it.
To avoid that the bread sticks to the iron tin, I lay out the tin with baking paper. I have 2 tins, one with coating and one without. In the tin without coating, the bread gets ugly black spots, and I wonder how to avoid this. I found out that the spots are tasting of metal, so I am pretty sure now that the metal makes the spots, and not burning baking paper.
I especially wonder if the baking paper and tin combination is playing a role here. I know that the sour PH of the dough can corrode baking tins, but I thought that this would not matter when using baking paper.
Here are the black spots
Here is how i prepared the pan
The other bread turned out ok (same oven, same time) | I do something similar but use reusable non stick sheet. Mine is rated to 250°C and I use it up to 240°.
My loaf tin is plated steel, and looks very similar to yours. I suspect your baking paper isn't fully waterproof over the rising time, and is allowing the acidic water from the dough to react with the metal.
You might find that simply double lining the tin is enough. You could experiment with foil under the baking paper, or even wiping cooking oil over the inside of the tin before putting the paper in. |
Is copper safe for long-term food storage?
This question is inspired by this answer, which suggests storing simple syrup in a copper vessel. It fairly conclusively demonstrates that copper can keep the simple syrup from growing mold, but comments also raised the point that it may not actually be safe due to copper leaching into the simple syrup.
It's very clear that copper isn't safe for acidic foods: 4-101.14 in the 2013 FDA Food Rules even contact with foods with pH 6 or lower. However, it provides no such limitations for non-acidic foods.
I've also found various sources saying that lined copper is safe, but of course in that case, there's not actually copper in contact with the food, so it doesn't directly say anything about the copper itself (and also doesn't help anyone store their simple syrup). It does suggest that copper itself might not be safe, since the lining is presented as a requirement, but it's not exactly conclusive.
So: is a copper storage vessel, with copper directly in contact with the stored food, safe for long-term storage?
Please provide sources specifically about food. (Notably, the existence of the copper IUD does not prove anything here, since it's not at all clear that copper leaching into food which is subsequently ingested is comparable to an IUD, and in fact I've found at least one study that found that serum copper levels were not altered in copper IUD users.) | Short answer: No.
The quantities of copper you might find in water in the USA are regulated, not by the FDA, but by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and other bodies outside the USA. The EPA commissioned a report on Copper in Drinking Water (2000).
They have clear guidelines for the amounts that are acceptable in drinking water. We can make some assumptions that the same would apply for a simple syrup, as it is mostly water with some dissolved sugar.
The article linked above states
Characteristics of the water that can increase the leaching of copper include low pH, high temperature, and reduced hardness. Electrolysis of copper from pipes can result from using household pipes to ground appliances. The length of time that the water has been sitting stagnant in the pipes can also greatly increase the concentration of copper to several milligrams per liter in the water (EPA 1994).
We can assume that a simple solution or water sitting stagnant in a vessel would also leach copper from the vessel and result in increased concentrations. Now, I'm assuming you're not going to be drinking a lot of simple solution stored in copper vessels at any one time and it is worthy of noting that copper is an essential nutrient, but you only need vanishingly small quantities before it becomes toxic, around 1.5- 3 milligrams per day (for an adult; less for a child).
I also found the following publication: Water quality and risk assessment of copper content in drinking water stored in copper container, which states that water stored for 168 hours (7 days) can have up to 0.823 mg/l copper, while pipes can have between 4 and 70 mg/l with stagnant water (PDF; see page 33860).
Full references:
1: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2000. Copper in Drinking Water. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9782.
2: Manne, R., Kumaradoss, M.M.R.M., Iska, R.S.R. et al. Water quality and risk assessment of copper content in drinking water stored in copper container. Appl Water Sci 12, 27 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-021-01542-x
3: EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 1994. Drinking Water; Maximum Contaminant Level Goal and National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for Lead and Copper. Fed. Regist. 59(125):33860–33864. |
Can I eat food with a bit of mold if I treat it for X minutes in the microwave?
This question may sound as stupid as it is, but I just want to feed my curiosity (I am not going to eat mouldy food).
I am trying to find a common point for these two assumptions (provided that both are true):
Many years ago I was told that microwave heating purifies food out of any valuable nutrition values, because microwave radiation plus high temperature kills all biological forms of life (i.e. "good" bacteria) or organic chemistry (i.e. vitamins) that exists in heated food.
About 2-3 years ago I also run through a question asked here (can't find it now) to which answer explained that there are only 2-3 examples of food that can be still eaten after removing mold. All other thousands of food examples must be recycled, if mouldy.
If both assumptions are correct then how it is that treating a food with a little bit mold over it for about 5-7 minutes in microwave at let's say 800 W doesn't do the same (point 1) to mold, which is after all a biological component (fungi?)?
Isn't 5-7 minutes of heat and microwave emission enough to kill all colonies of mold and enough to make food again eatable?
(of course I am talking about "bad grey mold", not "good cheesy blue mold") | No.
In many cases, it's not the mould (or bacteria etc.) itself that poisons you, it's toxins released by the pathogen. Killing the mould doesn't say anything about what happens to the toxins, any more than killing a creature cleans up its excrement. You should assume this to always be the case as even if you could identify the most visible mould as not too much of a threat, you're quite likely to have other forms as well.
It will also taste bad, as you'll know if you've ever bitten into bread that hadn't kept as well as you'd expect, without noticing mould spots. |
Is it normal for key lime pie filling to be bubbly like water and overflow while baking?
I made mini lime pie in muffin tin and after a while, the filling is boiling like water and overflows. I bake it in 180c (350f-ish) and after 30 minutes they don't seem to ser properly. Shoulf I bake it longer? | If you are following a recipe for a full-sized pie and baking it in muffin tins, the time will need to be adjusted (less time.)
Sounds like you went far past the point you actually want to be making the custard and just boiled it. |
Using leftover Cuban bread
At the holidays, my office does a holiday party. Last year we had Cuban food catered. We are doing the same this year too. Last year we had A LOT of Cuban bread left over. I expect the same this year.
Since Cuban bread has a tendency to be a softer (less hearty) bread, if I used the leftovers to make bread pudding, would the bread simply dissolve into the dessert? | Yes, you can.
You can take advantage of the bread dissolving, or you can bake the pudding without a soaking period to get distinct cubes of bread. |
Cooking roast potatoes with a slow cooked roast
Not very experienced cook I have mastered a normal roast where the meat is cooked about gas 6-7 for a couple of hours but I want to try a slow cooked pork roast (6 hours first hour on a high heat then gas 3).
The issue I have is that I only have 1 oven and will need to roast all my veg. Normal wisdom would tell me this needs to be at a higher heat, can I still get crunchy roast poatatoes at the lower heat, or will this need some clever timing with me starting the veg off as the meat finishes cooking and then turning the heat up as I let the meat rest? | Turning up the heat while the roast rests works wonderfully. When I do a roast turkey, I let it rest a full hour, which gives me lots of time (and oven space) to do the roasted vegetables entirely during that resting time.
When I do a smaller roast, that rests maybe 15 or 30 minutes, I put the potatoes in with it at a lower temperature, and get them cooked, then give them 15 minutes or so at a hotter temperature to get crispy and browned. It works great.
You don't need "clever timing". You give the potatoes 30-45 min at the lower temp, and 15 or so at the hot. Or if the meat is going to rest a long time, then just go with however long you cook potatoes at the hot temp. |
How to make cocoa powder soluble in water or milk without sugar?
Since cocoa powder is not soluble in water/milk (the physics prevent the molecules of cocoa from entering into the molecules of water/milk) none of the suggestion given will actually work. And given that I tried, before I researched and found out that it is in fact impossible, I do know it to be true. I have tried using butter to dissolve the cocoa powder before adding it to the milk. I've had limited success with that. In time the butter with the cocoa tends to separate. I sweeten with stevia. Does anyone know of something that can be added besides sugar that will allow the cocoa powder to dissolve into the milk molecules? | As already answered, it does not dissolve anyway. It's a suspension of fine particulates.
Practical methods to make it clump less (other than mixing with sugar) are:
use hot liquid (hot cocoa is easier than chocolate milk)
start with making a paste with a small amount of liquid, rather than
dumping the cocoa powder into all the liquid (this also allows doing that
step hot, and then mixing the paste with cold liquid if you are not
after a hot result.) |
Unopened wine bottles kept in fridge. Are they still good?
I have a couple of bottles of wine in my fridge that have never been opened (original packaging) and have been there for ~3 years.
Would that mean that the wine have become worse and hence should dispose of the bottles?
Or does it mean the wine has "matured" and is even better?
Was keeping them in the fridge a good choice? | It depends on the wine. A bit cold for standard "cellaring" of wine, and some wine matures well, while other wines are short-lived.
It should not be dangerous, anyway.
You can taste it and decide for yourself which way it went, if any. At which point you'll need to drink or dispose in a relatively short timeframe, as it will no longer be sealed (though things like a vacuum stopper can help maintain quality for a while.)
Sometimes "not so good for drinking" is "fine to cook a stew or marinate with." so don't jump to dumping it unless it's truly awful. |
Can we keep alcoholic beverages indefinitely?
I have some never opened alcoholic bottles under the kitchen sink and has been there for years. The are basically whiskey, vodka and bacardi.
I always thought that alcoholic drink never go bad and even the taste doesn't spoil and can be kept for years but my other question about wine got me thinking if that is not the case.
So can we keep alcoholic beverages indefinitely without even spoiling their taste? | Short Answer: Yes.
In general, unopened containers of alcohol have an indefinite shelf-life. For example, there are 500+ year old barrels of wine which are likely still drinkable (i.e. not only safe to drink, but pleasant). Alcohol itself is a preservative, and will prevent nasty organisms from growing. As such, I would not have any safety concerns about old bottles of liquor (especially if they are still sealed, but even if they are not---I have a bottle of whisky that I have been sipping on for about 20 years). However, there are things which can change over time.
Beer
When beer is exposed to ultraviolet light, it can become skunked. This is why beer is generally kept in brown or green bottles, as these are better at blocking UV light than clear glass. It is also worth noting that one of the defining features of beer is its effervescence—those tiny bubbles of CO2 are part of what makes drinking beer pleasant. Once opened, the CO2 comes out of solution pretty quickly, leading to flat beer.
Mold can also grow on the surface of beer, or in a container which has been in contact with beer (e.g. homebrew equipment which is not properly sterilized). Properly bottled beer will not grow mold as long as it is unopened. Once a bottle is opened, it can be exposed to mold. However, mold is typically pretty obvious, and the beer will no longer be pleasant to drink long before it gets moldy.
Thus opened containers of beer will likely remain perfectly safe to drink for a longer period of time than they are pleasant to drink. Unopened containers should remain safe virtually indefinitely.
Wine, Cider, and Sake
Wine continues to change and evolve after it is bottled. There are some wines which improve with age, and others which are meant to be drunk "young" (e.g. [1] and [2]). Wine also reacts with oxygen, and changes significantly once it has been opened, which will changes its flavor and character over a short period of time (e.g. you'll notice significant changes after only a few days—eventually, you'll have vinegar).
Sake and cider are similar. Unopened bottles will generally change very little over time, and opened bottles will react with oxygen.
Finally, as with beer, sparkling varieties of wine (such as champagne) go flat fairly quickly after they are opened.
Again, just for emphasis, wine which as been sitting in a bottle for a long time is generally safe to drink, but it may not be pleasant.
"Hard" Liquor
Hard liquors, like whisky, rum, tequila, and vodka will basically never go bad, and will experience very little change once they are bottled. For something like vodka, which has very little flavor, even opened bottles will change very little over time.
For more complicated liquors, such as whisky or rum, which are aged in (and take on the character of) barrels, the complex molecules which carry flavor and aroma can react with oxygen. However (in my experience), these changes are very subtle, and have very little effect on the overall experience.
In short, something with a higher alcohol content is going to be both safe and pleasant to drink for a very long time, either opened or unopened.
Dairy
There are some drinks which contain dairy, e.g. Bailey's Irish Cream or (appropriately for this season) eggnog. These types of drinks are often lower ABV and may have some risk of spoiling. However, it will generally be pretty obvious that the drink has gone off, as the milk will curdle.
Again, I would imagine that sealed bottles will last basically forever, and I would have no problem drinking from an old bottle if there are no signs of spoilage. But if you do see or smell something off, throw it away. It should be obvious. |
I accidently steamed chicken I intend to bake
I'm quite embarrassed.
I tried to copy the way my daughter bakes chicken legs in the oven with vegetables and baby potatoes. First I put the potatoes in after washing without drying them first then I already had the vegetables in the baking pan. Then I put the chicken directly on to top of the potatoes and vegetables, but I put everything in the oven before the oven had preheated long enough.
So I ended up cooking everything for 1.5 hours and the chicken legs reached 180F but everything was steamed instead of baked crispy.
Can I fix it? | At the risk of (slightly) overcooking, yes you can crisp that up.
First, you open the oven door wide and let all remaining steam escape.
Then, you switch on only the broiler and place the rack on one of the lower shelves, probably second from the bottom (assuming a standard size oven), close the door again and start watching like a hawk. Problem is, your dish can go from soggy to burnt in less than two minutes, a lower shelf will somewhat mitigate that. So if your oven has a glass door, watching is easy. If not, you need to peek inside very often, once you start to see the first browning, I would check every 30 seconds, tops. In case of doubt, take the tray out sooner rather than later, the browning is not linear.
Of course I am sure you dish is delicious as is too - so you may as well serve it as “steamed chicken and vegetables” and try for a crispy result next time. A few helpful tips you already figured out, a few more would be to avoid overcrowding the pan and if you notice excessive moisture in the oven, to open the door wide once (or even a few times) for about half a minute to let the steam escape. |
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