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Is it safe to rinse tins and plastic bottles out with hot water?
When making dishes with tinned tomatoes etc, it is good practice to rinse these out with water to get the remaining contents out. Sometimes, to save on washing up I use hot or boiling water instead so I can then dissolve a stock cube etc. In the liquid.
Having read that tins are coated and bottles can leach chemicals, is this a safe practice? | Tinned food is already cooked above the temperature of boiling water (Canned Food Alliance). So with tins it's not a problem. Rinsing with something acidic or very salty may not be a good idea if the container didn't hold comparable food in the first place, as it may cause corrosion (that's why tomato tins are lined, to stop the acid attacking the metal).
Tetrapak-style cartons use a different approach, Aseptic packaging in which sterilised or pasteurised food is packed cold into sterilised containers in a sterile environment. However the inner layers are polyethylene which can be used up to 120°C briefly and 110°C for longer. So they're OK too. There may be exceptions to this, so you may wish to avoid using boiling water just in case.
Plastic bottles are different - many are PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) which has a far lower maximum temperature. If you pour boiling water into a PET bottle, you're quite likely to leach stuff out into the water, and you may even end up with boiling water on your feet as the container softens so much it could break. Use cold water for rinsing plastic bottles (not all are PET, but it's easier to just use cold for all of them; some others also soften enough to be awkward to handle, which you don't want with boiling water) |
Does pepper dissolve into hot / boiling water similar to salt?
I read this article here on why whole peppercorns are used and looked at this quick 30 minute recipe for chicken pho which uses peppercorns instead of pepper.
It just seems a lot more expensive and wasteful to use peppercorns for Chicken Pho.
If I use plain pepper, will it dissolve into the broth? Is there an easy way to modify this recipe for plain pepper? | While one of the answers to the other question addresses this, it's not the chosen answer (which is wrong), and it doesn't really complete the reasoning, so I'm going to answer here.
The reason for adding whole peppercorns to soup and other long-cooking dishes has to do with flavor release. Piperine, the main flavor chemical in black pepper, is highly volatile, and does not dissolve in water. This is why, for most dishes, you add any black pepper near the end of cooking or even when plating the dish. If you add ground pepper any earlier, most of the piperine will be released by the ground pepper grains and cook out before you eat the dish.
For soups and other dishes where you want the piperine to be released slowly, and give it a chance to penetrate the ingredients (such as the chicken in the chicken pho) before cooking off, you want a "slow-release piperine". Fortunately you have one in the form of whole peppercorns.
You could definitely skip the whole peppercorns in pho, and replace them with ground pepper towards the end of cooking. However, you'd have to figure out several things:
how much ground pepper to replace the more subtle whole peppercorn flavor
when to add that pepper so that it wasn't either overwhelmingly peppery or cooked off and bland
And, even so, it wouldn't taste exactly like it would if you were following the recipe.
So, to summarize: no, pepper doesn't dissolve in water like salt, and, no, it would not be easy to modify the recipe.
My recommendation: find a cheaper place to buy peppercorns, like a discount food store or an Indian market. |
Does yeast lose strength over time?
I make bread about 2-3 times a week (all the bread we eat) and get yeast in a small jar (Fleischmann's), kept refrigerated. For a mid sized bread, I use 5/8 teaspoon of yeast. However, I have noticed that, the older the yeast, the less the dough rises. When the yeast is pretty old, the dough is as much as an inch below where it rises when it's new, in a KitcheAid mixer metal bowl (about 1 gal). As a result, the bread is thicker and less fluffy.
Does yeast lose strength over time and should I add a little more yeast as it ages? | The reason why many recipes have you proof the yeast (combine the yeast and sugar and check for activity) is because yeast can go bad. This isn't a binary thing, as you suspected it weakens over time before being fully useless. You can try overcompensating with more yeast but it's a guessing game as to how much more you should be adding. Some other solutions:
Throw it out and get new yeast. This is probably the best solution for beginning bakers.
As @Stephie notes in the comments, you can simply keep the same amount and use visual cues instead of time. Often recipes will say something like 'let rise for 1 hour or doubled in size'.
Perform a yeast freshness test
Get a 1-cup liquid measuring cup.
Add half a cup of warm water. If you have a thermometer, it should read 110° to 115°. If not, just make sure that the water isn’t steaming or hot to the touch – you can comfortably let your finger sit in it for several seconds.
Dissolve a teaspoon of granulated sugar into the water.
Add about 2 and ¼ teaspoons (or a ¼ ounce packet) of dry yeast.
With your watch or timer, observe how long it takes for yeast to active. Within 3 to 4 minutes, it should start to rise. Within 10 minutes, it should be very foamy and have risen to the 1-cup mark.
The added benefit of the yeast test is that you can use it to estimate how much more yeast to add if you want to go that route. For example, if it only rises to the 3/4 cup level, you may want to double the amount. |
Substitutes for Sabra liquer
I am making a simple torte, just eggs, walnuts and shredded coconut. After is baked and out of the oven I am to pour 1/2 cup orange juice mixed with 1/4 cup Sabra liqueur. What other liqueur can I use? | The flavor profile of Sabra liqueur is described as rich chocolate and orange.
So if you have it, chocolate liqueur and orange liqueur would be the straightforward substitute.
If you don’t have chocolate liqueur, you could instead either add chocolate into the batter, dust with cocoa or add a chocolate glaze.
If you don’t have orange liqueur, consider orange peel either in the batter or on the cake.
If have neither and substitute both elements, you should decide whether you want the alcoholic component or not (use a fairly neutral kind in the drizzle).
As a liqueur contains sugar, you may or may not have to add some to the drizzle, depending on how much sweetness your substitutes bring. |
How to order cheeses by strength for a cheese tasting event?
I read on https://www.northlightfoods.com/blog/2015/12/15/host-your-own-cheese-tasting-party:
Organize your cheese tasting order from mildest cheese to strongest cheese.
That's a typical advice I used to hear in France.
However, I was told that cheese strength is subjective, and may be a factor of several elements such as "tensile, compressive, shear, ductile, elastic, plastic, brittleness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, hardness, flexural" (quote from bob1). Should I instead base the cheese order on one of these factors? Or do the order in some other way? | As was pointed out in the comments to your other question, there is no objective definition of 'strong' when it comes to cheese.
But good news! Cheese tasting parties don't have to be based on objectively measurable qualities! Just taste the cheeses yourself (or make assumptions about their taste, based on what you know about them, if you don't want to start them before your guests) and arrange them how you want. If you want to follow this advice (which is entirely optional, and not universal) then you can do so based on your impression of which is stronger than which.
It's also worth noting, in case the ironic tone wasn't clear, that bob1's comment to your other post was about the many definitions of 'strong' in English, not a set of suggestions on what 'strong' might mean when applied to cheese. When people describe a cheese as strong, they are making a subjective judgement about the experience of eating it. |
Does it matter if you don't preheat the oven for frozen French fries?
Whenever I use the oven to prepare frozen French fries, the instructions tell me to pre-heat the oven to X degrees, and then put the fully frozen French fries inside when it's ready.
But it's often a waste of time to stand around and wait for it to slowly get ready, so I tend to put them in before it's shown with the light indicator that it's at the right temperature. Also, I take out the French fries from the freezer at the same time as I start the oven, and spread them out on a thing, so they are ready to go into the oven. Maybe this make them thaw a little bit.
Since the times specified on the package never seem to be accurate at all, it doesn't seem like it matters. But maybe it does?
Why should I wait until the very last minute to take out the frozen French fries from the freezer, and put them into the oven only when it's fully reached the temperature specified on the package?
Is there something about doing it in my "impatient" way which fundamentally ruins the food? Or have they simply timed it "directly out of the freezer, immediately at this degree" at the French fries research lab? | For fairly forgiving things like french fries, I've never found it makes a difference. Typically I turn the oven on, get the chips (which is what we call them here) out of the freezer, and the baking sheet out of the cupboard, put the chips on the sheet, put the rest away, then put them in the oven. Maybe 2 minutes of preheating. They take maybe 2 minutes longer. This is with a modern electric oven, that reaches the set temperature in about 10 minutes. It may use the grill element to start preheating, but it's not a fan oven.
It saves a little energy, but not much, as for short cooking the majority of the energy is in preheating.
Most cook-from-frozen things are probably OK this way, as they have to defrost and cook, and defrosting will start nicely at lower temperatures. I wouldn't do this for baking, or for anything thick, so not pizza (even pre-made frozen), and even chunky potato wedges are marginal (I'd be cooking those from raw room temperature potatoes). |
Are beef calories for uncooked or cooked meat?
I see a lot of online descriptions of calories in beef, but none of these say whether the beef is uncooked or cooked. Should I assume they are talking about raw, uncooked beef, or is it just random useless information about which I can make no assumptions? | If they really don't tell you whether it is for cooked or uncooked, then you indeed can't know it.
I would be rather surprised at finding such unlabeled data though. It is rare, and if you, for some reason, happen to find a site so bad that it doesn't define what it measures, then just use a different site. For example, the site you linked lets you pick which calories you want to see, and with the link you gave, it is for cooked beef. You can switch to uncooked, if you wish (and to a weight measurement, which makes it more comparable).
Also, beef is a natural product, not an engineered food with a standardized manufacturing process. The numbers presented on nutrition labels are an average created after multiple measurements of the same food. The difference between two different batches of beef can easily be larger than the difference between the number published for cooked and uncooked beef. |
Are lye and baking soda interchangeable (in varying quantities) for bagels/pretzels?
My understanding is that lye and baking soda are used in water baths when making bagels and pretzels in order to reduce PH. I got some lye and it is working wonders but it is a bit of a hassle to use it safely, which is non-negotiable. I know lye is far more alkaline than baking soda, but could I simply use a much greater amount of baking soda? Is PH the only variable here? | Yes, the pH is pretty much the only variable - especially in the pairing you are describing, since both are sodium salts. I suspect you may get taste effects if you were to use, say, a potassium-based salt, but that's not relevant here.
Since pH is the variable we need, they are not interchangeable. You need a strong base to get a good crust on a pretzel, and if you only use baking soda, with its low pH, you will end up with a crust that is between a pretzel and a simple boiled bagel. Of course, if this result is good enough for you, then you can do it this way and enjoy your food. But if you want the authentic, dark brown, chewy, glossy crust, you have to go with lye.
Update For a bit more background: Not every base is created equal. There are many salts which, when dissolved, create a solution that is only weakly basic. They have the chemical property of a "final" pH which is independent of concentration - once you reach it, it doesn't matter if you keep adding more and more of the salt to the water, it stays at the same pH. The exact value of the final pH of a base is determined by the ions into which it separates when dissolved. The basic and acidic ions of the salt both have an intrinsic chemical property called dissociation constant.
To cite bob1's comment,
For H2CO3 [baking soda] these are H2CO3 <-> HCO3(-) + H(+) and HCO3(-) <-> CO3(2-) + H(+) with dissociation constants of of 6.37 and 10.25 respectively. pH = 1/2(pKa + pKb).
This means that baking soda creates a solution with a pH of 8.31, which isn't very much. Even if you keep adding more baking soda, the pH won't get higher. So there is no way to use baking soda to get even close to the effect of a 4% lye solution, which has a pH above 13 - that's a huge difference. |
Preheating in toaster oven
This is not a duplicate of other question currently being asked.
My question is in regards to specifically toaster ovens.
How does a toaster obtain and control the desired temperature within enclosure?
e.g.
If oven is cold, is heating element set to max until temperature is reached?
Do toaster ovens control amount of heat heating element puts out, or just cycle the element on/off? | Ovens are generally built as simple devices, and toaster ovens even simpler.
The vast majority of electric ovens out there use a resistive heating element hooked to a thermostat, usually a mechanic one. They cycle on and off during the baking period, with generously chosen set points for turning on or off.
I am quite sure that the ovens don't cycle during the preheating phase, or rather, that for most ovens, "preheating" is just the time until the first time the thermostat turns off. Logically, this also means that the heating element is going full strength during that time - I haven't ever seen ovens which try to regulate temperature by reducing the electricity flow.
Even if there are full ovens which work differently than that, I doubt that there are different toaster ovens. First, both preheating and temperature control are much less important, or physically possible, than with large ovens. Their whole point is that they heat much more through direct radiation than through conduction and convection from a constantly warm environment. Second, they are much cheaper, so the producers stick with the simplest, most well-known, and cheapest mechanisms possible.
This is not to say that you will never ever find a toaster oven that doesn't try to do it in some fancier way, because it is certainly possible to build. But there is no incentive to have it any other way, and I haven't seen it in the wild, so my educated guess is that anything else would be a rare outlier.
The above assumes a classic toaster oven, which is controlled by mechanical knobs. If you have an oven that is controlled by electronics (recognizable by a display and/or touch controls and/or words like "smart", "electronic" etc. in the name) then all bets are off. Any of them can be programmed in a different way from the next, and even in ways which don't make sense for cooking, and you have no way to know what yours does. |
Can I substitute Dried Anchovies with Fresh Anchovies?
I'm trying to make the broth part of Maanchi's tteokbokki recipe and it calls for dried anchovies. I'm on a bit of a time crunch so getting them online isn't the best and the closest Asian market is hours away. Could fresh Anchovies replace the dried ones? | Speaking as someone who has made this broth, it will not work. Fresh anchovies will add too much oil and will break up in the broth, making it cloudy and too fishy. You really want to look at other dried ingredients.
The answers to this question cover a fair range of what those dried ingredients could be. |
Is it ever safe to use a non-stick pan under the broiler (e.g. frittatas)?
I see a lot of frittata recipes call for using a non-stick pan, and for finishing under the broiler (or "grill" in UK-speak). However, I have also read that non-stick pans in general are not broiler-safe. Can anyone clarify the science on this? Are recipe-writers just giving people really bad advice? | Summary: it's kinda-sorta bad advice, but not terrible
Teflon starts to degrade at 260C (500F), which is why authorities recommend against broiling, where items directly under the broiling element can get above that temperature.
Frittatas, like Spanish tortillas and a few other dishes, have some conditions that can ameliorate this, however:
Generally you only broil the frittata for a couple of minutes
The pan is mostly full of frittata, which means that only the edge is directly exposed to radiant heat
Many recipes call for broiling on low instead of high
That said, though, if you made frittatas frequently in a nonstick pan, and finished them under a hot broiler every time, I would expect your nonstick pan to start losing its coating around the edges. It's not something I would do, particularly since there are so many alternatives do cooking one this way:
Use a cast-iron pan
Bake it in a moderate to warm oven
Flip the frittata and don't use the oven at all |
Is it normal now for convection to cycle on and off?
I just upgraded from an older (20-year-old KitchenAid) oven to a new medium-high-end one (GE). In my old oven, when I turned on convection, the fan ran continuously, and it was pretty good for accelerated browning of foods. I've found that the new oven cycles the convection fan on and off rather than running it continuously -- and at least so far, doesn't seem very effective at convection browning. This is a bit disappointing considering the cost of the oven.
What little commentary I can find on the internet seems to treat this on/off cycling as normal. Is it? Is this how most new convention ovens work? | I believe that the modern oven only uses the fan when actively heating up the interior or when the heat is not equally distributed anymore. That way it would save some electricity.
If that's the case, then allowing some heat to escape, eg by slightly opening the oven door in certain intervals, could provide your desired effect.
Alternatively it's worth it to try using your new oven at a higher temperature. It is possible that the thermometer of your old oven was less accurate or the convection wasn't working as well, so that the browning happened due to locally elevated temperatures. |
Did I just get butter out of a milk centrifuge?
recently I bought a milk centrifuge like this:
I processed whole cow farm milk in this and it separated the cream from the milk. Or so I thought, after letting the cream rest in the fridge, it was hard as butter and after scratching the white surface of the cream, everything below was a pale yellow.
The centrifuge has some regulator to make the output more or less thick. I will try that next time.
With the current batch though, I wasn't sure I got butter or some super fat-saturated cream. I tried processing some of that butter by blending it in ice water and churning for about 20 min until it would start coagulating again. The end result is barely different from the start. I am not event sure it produced buttermilk because I had to process it by adding water and ice.
Here is the final product:
Is it possible that the centrifuge would have processed butter right off the bat? What else can I do to ensure this butter is fully processed and not in a near-butter state? | As always with sticking things into categories, there is no clear answer. You can choose yourself whether you want to consider it butter or not.
Milk, cream and butter all lie on a spectrum, with milk having ~4% fat, and purest butter having as little water as possible and being almost all fat with only a little bit of other stuff (protein, sugar and water). With every drop of whey you squeeze out of your product, it gets a tiny bit less like milk and a tiny bit more like butter.
The "natural" (folksonomy) categorization is the functional one. Milk is good for drinking straight, cream is good for whipping and for making somewhat-thick sauces, and butter is good for use as a fat for frying, or for producing certain things like shortbread crusts and cookies. So if you are interested in this kind of use, you can simply test what your product does better - does it perform well at frying and badly at whipping, or the other way round - and then attach the label consistent with this usage.
There is also the legal classification, but I doubt that it will help you much. It requires cream to be at least 30%, double cream at least 48%, and butter at least 83% fat. From the appearance and from your description, it seems that your product is somewhere between the 48% and 83% numbers, and not especially close to either one. So it seems to fall into the no-man's-land which doesn't legally exist.
If neither classification is helpful for you - e.g. if you just want to use it as a bread spread and don't care about it behaving either like cream or like butter, or if you want to use it as in a recipe as a substitute for mascarpone or clotted cream - then your question has no correct answer. You can call it either cream or butter, or something else you fancy. In any case, you will know what you use it for. Other people's reaction will mostly be a surprise (and sometimes rejection) no matter what you call it, since they will not have handled this kind of product before and it will differ from their set expectations of what either cream or butter is. |
What exactly are American recipes containing "smoked sausage" or "smoked Italian sausage" referring to?
I have recently come across several American recipes that call for an ingredient described as 'Smoked Sausage' or 'Smoked Italian Sausage'. Here in Australia, we try to be a little more specific, so is it a longer, skinny item like Cabanossi (Popular on pizza) or Kabanos, or one of a plethora of sausage products that are either smoked or cooked in a brine tank, or even both? Are they short or long? Are they relatively unspiced etc, or garlicky, peppery etc? | This question is difficult to answer without knowing what region of the US the recipe came from, and how old it is.
Sausage making in the US for a long time was highly regionalized, with the sausage style based on where the people of that area primarily emigrated from, so they might be in a Germanic, Polish, or Italian tradition.
These days, however, and for the past 20-30 years, there are major national distributors (e.g., Hillshire Farms) who simply sell products labeled ‘beef smoked sausage’ and ‘smoked sausage’.
Unless you have any other information, assume that you can get away with any pre-cooked, moist (not dried/cured), lightly smoked but otherwise non-assertive sausage, as it’s more about protein and texture than anything else. It would likely be a medium grind (not a coarse sausage like soppressata, but not homogeneous like a frankfurter, either). It’s probably pork, or a blend of pork, chicken, and beef, as that would have been otherwise specified.
Update: I forgot to mention the size aspects. Smoked sausage is usually sold as a loop, which were 16oz until a few years ago. Due to shrinkflation, they’re now usually 14oz. It’s a single sausage, no casing, about 3cm in diameter. “Italian” typically means that there’s fennel seed, but it’s usually sold as a raw sausage (in links maybe 2.5 to 4oz each). |
How to sous vide eggs in their shells without cracking
I recently tried pasteurising eggs at 57C for 90 minutes, gently adding them directly to the water with a silicone spoon. When finished, I discovered three out of the six had cracked.
Ideally, I want to store them in their shells in their original box, is there any way of preventing them cracking during this process?
If I do remove the pasteurised eggs from their shells, how long can I keep them if I vacuum seal them and store them in the fridge? | Try placing them in the water bath when the water is at a similar temperature as your eggs, then heating them together. |
Is a stainless steel stain in a pressure cooker safe?
I placed a stainless steel idli stand in a pressure cooker (unsure if the cooker is Aluminium or steel, but it has the word "wrought" etched on its worn out bottom), poured some water into the cooker (the water was pre-boiled in a stainless steel saucepan on an induction cooker) and steamed some idlis. After steaming, I see this dark something at the bottom of the cooker, everywhere except where the idli stand was placed (the lighter coloured circle).
This is what the idli stand looks like:
And this is what the pressure cooker looks like:
Questions:
Did the stain (or perhaps it's not a stain. Perhaps it's a layer that got eroded) get created as a result of the reaction with the metals and water? What causes it? There's also a very thin white layer that gets created on the portion of the idli stand which is immersed in water.
How do I get rid of the discolouration? Already tried using a liquid dishwashing agent. Didn't work. Tried a bit of vinegar and baking soda too. No use.
Is it safe to cook using the pressure cooker, in its current state?
Update1:
From a few searches, it could be:
Chromium rust (but it couldn't be the same as in my case).
Water deposits. Could perhaps be removed by vinegar or baking soda.
Update2:
When I float an Aluminium container on the water in the pressure cooker, a white layer develops on the container. The white layer had also developed on the portion of the idli stand that was immersed in water. Am assuming it's some minerals dissolved in the water. I'm having frequent kidney stones, so I assume there's a problem with the water. | My guess from what is shown is a carbonaceous material from some organic burned in the pan. Likely can only be removed mechanically/( eg scraping, scrubbing). It is not harmful. You did not effect the stainless surface with cooking temperatures ( did not add to the normal chrome oxide). Your stainless pressure cooker may have an aluminum core. |
Cooking beans safely - contradictory advice
I'd like to cook beans from dried, but I see a lot of contradictory safety advice about neutralising the toxins that occur in raw beans.
I've seen:
Rolling boil for 5 mins before simmering until tender.
Rolling boil for 10 mins before simmering until tender (that's what's on the cooking instructions on the back of my pack of cannellini beans, for example)
Rolling boil for 30 mins... (that was the FDA)
Just bring to a boil then simmer (lots of American recipe sources recommend this)
I assume there's maybe a trade off between safety/pleasantness i.e. hard boiling for longer at the start might result in less nice beans, but a lesser chance of poisoning?
Can anyone clarify the science on this? Why does advice vary so widely? | Per discussion, we are talking about Phytohemagglutinins as "toxins".
Current research indicates that, regardless of the rest of your cooking routine, you should cook kidney beans at 100C (a roiling boil) for at least 5 minutes. Lower temperatures (90C to 97C) may also destroy the lectins, but they might not. This has obvious issues for folks living at altitude.
Many sources will recommend more than 5 minutes in order to make sure that cooks have the beans at 100C for at least 5 minutes.
Kidney beans are quite hearty; boiling them for 10 minutes will not harm their texture in any way. |
What is this type of cookware called used for roasting and baking?
I'm looking for the English name for this cooking utensil:
It can be used for roasting on top of the stove, or it can be put in the oven for slow cooking.
I've stumbled upon 'roasting dish', or 'baking dish'. But when I search for these terms, I get results that differ from what I'm actually looking for:
Source: Google image search | To me, that's a Dutch (*) oven. You could also call it a "heavy braising pot." Often, they are enameled, so you could call it "enameled pot" also.
In general, a dish doesn't have a lid, and a pot does, so a roasting or baking dish will generally be that open thing in your lower pictures. (The exception that proves the rules will be casserole dishes, some of which do have lids, but may not be ok for the stove.)
(*) - not because it's from the Netherlands, but because it lets you do baking-like things without an oven. Same as Dutch treat, Dutch courage, and Dutch uncle - in the US, it means not-really. (The UK does something similar with French.) In an outdoor cooking situation, a cast iron dutch oven that sits on a fire and has a small twiggy fire actually set burning on its lid will give you quite oven-like results for some foods.
Le Creuset, probably the most famous brand of the enameled version, calls them French Ovens and Dutch Ovens interchangeably on their Canadian website. I have no connection with the firm. |
How to fit spaghetti in small pan without breaking it
I only started cooking for myself 2 years ago when I was 14 - one of the foods that I cook for myself every day as part of my gym diet is spaghetti, I weigh around 200g of it. I fill my largest/widest saucepan (medium size) up just under halfway with water then I wait for the water to boil - then when it boils I add a small handful of salt to the water. I don't add too much water because it dilutes the salty taste of the spaghetti when I eat it.
Then I add the spaghetti - when I was first starting out cooking spaghetti I just dropped it in there and left it for about 11 minutes before I served it - but the problem with it is that a large portion of the spaghetti takes 2-3 minutes to sink into the water so when I would eat it there was always a more uncooked part of it that was less satisfying to eat.
So recently I started forcing the spaghetti with some wooden spatula so that it would fit in the pan and then start the 12-minute timer on my phone once it was all in there - allowing some of it to break if that was what it took.
But now there's a few new problems that come with having uneven spaghetti:
some of the short spaghetti gets stuck in the pan when I pour the spaghetti in a colander
some of the spaghetti gets stuck in the colander or goes through its holes down the sink when I fork some of it out into a bowl
the spaghetti loses heat a lot faster in the colander whilst I'm eating the first bowl because its in smaller strands
i just prefer eating longer spaghetti
How do I manoeuvre the spaghetti into the pan without breaking it - would a certain piece of equipment help? Do I need to buy bendier spaghetti that doesn't break as easy - what is the name of this type of spaghetti? | I think your process is pretty close. Add more water to your pan. If necessary, add more salt. At the boil, drop in your spaghetti. I like to use tongs, but a spoon or fork will work. Gently stir and press down the softening bottom part of the spaghetti. It should only take a minute or so for you to submerge all of it. Give it a stir. Turn the heat down so it doesn't boil over. Keep an eye on it. It still may want to boil over. After a few minutes give it another stir, paying attention to any sticking. Stirring occasionally during cooking will help. You don't say what condiments you are using, but it is almost always better to cook for a minute or two less than the directions on the package, and finish the cooking in a pan with the condiments. I remove the cooked spaghetti from the water with tongs, and place it in the condiment pan. Then I have the starchy pasta water to use in my condiment so I ultimately get the right consistency of the completed dish. |
Preventing mug from breaking when making mug cake
I am making mug cake in a pot using steaming method and I will use normal tea cup.
I want to know what precautions I must take so that the cup doesn't break after baking | The only precaution you can take is to have the temperature change happen as slow as possible. This includes:
don't use cold mugs, start them from room temperature
put the mugs in the steamer before you have turned it on
let the mugs cool down slowly
This doesn't mean that you will never have mugs break on you. It can still happen, but it will be a rare occurrence. Just make sure you are only using cups which you can afford to lose, not the most expensive china.
Also: Mugs and cups have handles, which get shaped separately and attached during the production process. The attachment point is then a place with high risk for breaking. So ideally, you would use something without a handle, if you have it. Good choices would be ramekins, or maybe Japanese tea cups, if you find ones that are large enough. |
How much dough (by weight) to make to fit my bread tin
My bread loaf tin does not have any labels on it (e.g. 1lb, 2lbs etc.). It does not have a lid. It is also not squarely shaped, so calculating the volume by its dimensions is not clear.
Instead, I determined that it holds 2,100 grams of water, when filled to the brim. Based on this, how much dough, in grams, should I make to fit the tin? If it is insightful, I am making white bread. | 1g of water = 1ml = 1 cubic centimeter, so 2100g of water is 2100 cubic centimeters. Converting that into cubic inches gives us 128 cubic inches, which equates to a 1.25 pound pan. So, use a 1lb recipe and increase it by 25%. |
10" induction pans don't work with my GE induction cooktop but 8" and 12" pans work?
I'm happy with my GE portable induction cooktop (single burner). I have two 8" pans (one cast iron, one induction-certified Oxo) and one induction-certified 12" pan (Nuwave) that work great. I've tried three induction-certified 10" pans and none work! Oxo, Sensarte, and Green Pan brands. Is it possible that my induction cooktop is incompatible with 10" pans??? | Induction cookers are tricky. They heat with a donut-shaped antenna under the glass top. You have likely noticed a circular "hot spot" in your pans. This is the size and shape of the underlying antenna. Consumer induction cooktops all have single-donut antennae. Commercial units, which can cost more than 10X as much, usually have two concentric "donuts" for better coverage.
The circular graphic on the stovetop is not necessarily centered over the donut antenna. My Frigidaire induction has one graphic a full inch off-axis. You can tell by putting 1/8" of water in a large cast iron frying pan and putting the burner on "hi". The circle of bubbles will identify the center of the antenna. Center your pot there, not over the graphic.
The burners have sensors to determine if a magnetic pot is correctly located above the antenna. That's why they "know" to turn off if you lift the pot. And why burners will sometimes refuse to heat small pans, especially cheapies.
Your misbehaving pans may be "induction compatible", not "induction optimal". Laminated pans which are optimized for induction are more expensive to manufacture.
I suspect it is this "safety" sensor which is causing mischief. If a cheapie pan is off-center from the antenna, the cooktop may interpret that as "no pot present".
The magnet test is helpful, but not foolproof. Trust in cast iron. All other pots must prove themselves. |
Is my sourdough starter ready
I’ve been attempting to make sourdough starter for the first time over the last week. I’ve followed the recipe from this website:
https://www.coles.com.au/recipes-inspiration/recipes/sourdough-starter
I’ve used spelt flour which is about 11% protein and bread flour which is also about 11%.
I’ve noted that it smells good (i.e doesn’t smell astringent (I was told to look out for this)) and has a yoghurt like consistency. However, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t rise and doesn’t have the bubbles one would usually expect for sourdough starter (not at the level in the photo from the recipe linked above).
My question is, would it be ready to use?
Appreciate your feedback/suggestions.
Thanks | We have lots of sourdough questions and answers, but my quick search did not locate one that specifically responds to your question. According to Maurizio (lots of good info in this link), in general, a starter is "ripe" or ready to use when is has risen, you see bubbles on top and around the edges, and it smells sour. I usually like to time my use of the starter as close to its peak of rising in its starter container as possible. It's hard to tell from your picture from above. There are some helpful pictures on the linked page. It sounds like from your description that you are on the right track. |
What are the cheapest options for a thickening agent for making soups?
I'm trying to make soups (e.g. tomato soups, with some veggies, chillies, etc) and would like to make its cost lowest possible.
One problem that I have to solve is choosing the right thickening agent in order to make the soup cheapest possible.
Flour seems a common choice, but there is also xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is more expensive per gram, but looking at the cost per gram is misleading as different amounts in grams are required to thicken a given volume. For example, only a few grams of xanthan gum are required to thicken a serving.
To be more specific, suppose that I have 500ml of hot water that I'd like to thicken, what's the cheapest way to thicken it with a soup-like consistency?
There are many more thickening agents than the two that I have mentioned so far, and this complicates the problem for me as I'm not experienced with thickening agents nor soups. Therefore, experts' opinions here would be really helpful, specially that this question seems not answered here, and my search attempts failed to find any website that answers it. | An absolutely definitive answer would be based on a formula that takes into account the thickening power per weight of different thickeners as well as the cost per weight of the thickening agent.
That's completely unnecessary however because I can tell you without a doubt that the cheapest thickener is wheat flour. I don't have to do any of that work because food companies have done that for me: they keep their prices competitive by getting the most effect out of the least price, and they use wheat flour and cornstarch for soup thickening almost exclusively. Xanthan gum may be used in some gluten free recipes, but it's rare. If it was cost effective they'd be using it everywhere.
Of the two most frequently used, cornstarch is double the thickening power of flour, but is far more expensive. The quick checks I did showed anywhere between 10-20 time the price of flour, so at least 5 times the cost for equivalent thickening power.
Cornstarch has distinct advantages over flour as a thickener: it doesn't need to be cooked before it's added and it adds a nice gloss, however purely on a cost basis you won't get cheaper than flour. |
Can I reheat cooked meat without thawing
I've looked online and have found conflicting opinions. Is it safe to reheat cooked meat in the oven without thawing it first?
For instance, can I cook a cottage pie or a chicken curry, for example, then freeze it (after it has reached room temp), then put it straight from the freezer into the oven, and cook it?
I'm only interested in safety here.
If it is not piping hot in the middle, is this a safety concern? Or does it really not matter, since the meat has already been cooked? | Sure you can - so long as you do it carefully & get it up to temperature right the way through before eating.
If you ever buy frozen cottage pie, lasagne, anything like that from the supermarket which cannot be stirred whilst heating, then the instructions will allow for that in the heating time & temperature.
If you have a food thermometer, all well & good. If not and you're uncertain, err on the side of caution. My usual trick for anything I need to heat through without poking big holes in to test it is to heat at about 160°C [or even lower, 140°, if it's particularly large] for 'at least 15 mins longer than you think'. This is going to depend on depth & overall size - supermarket products tend to be quite shallow to aid heating through, but for a 'family-size' home made I'd be looking at something like 40 - 50 minutes, hence the lower temperature. You don't want the outside to burn before the inside is heated.
Partially-heating is potentially very unsafe, so until you develop a feel for this, you really are going to have to poke holes in the middle to be absolutely certain it's hot right through. |
What is the science behind skyr setting without rennet
I've read from multiple sources that rennet used to be one of the ingredients in making skyr but it's not used anymore outside of traditional recipes. I do understand that acid + heat causes milk to curd and indeed, when I heated up a skyr I thought didn't develop to reuse the milk it did separate because of the lactic acid. But heating the milk with bacteria inside will kill the live cultures, so surely this is not how skyr is supposed to set.
The recipe I followed (and others I read to compare) insisted that heating milk to 95C and keeping that temperature for 10 min is required for the skyr to set later after I add the bacteria. It also advised to heat the milk very slowly, 1L of milk for over an hour and let it cool slowly, without an ice bath.
My question is mostly about this: is it possible that the way in which I heat and cool the milk before mixing in live cultures can influence if the curds will separate or not? And if it does, then why does this happen?
Here is the recipe I followed: https://icelandmag.is/article/make-your-own-skyr. | is it possible that the way in which I heat and cool the milk before mixing in live cultures can influence if the curds will separate or not?
Yes, it is entirely possible. Proteins are very complex structures, probably the most complex one we as humans get to deal with. And they get changed by both heat and acid in unpredictable ways - people have to empirically find out what happens when protein-rich foods are heated under different conditions.
The most important part tends to be the final temperature. But the rate of heating is also known to have an influence on the final texture. This is usually seen in very sensitive preparations, such as yolk-based custards, while in other cases, the difference is too little to be noticeable in the final product. I don't know the exact mechanism, and I doubt that it has been investigated completely, but it is normal that, under different conditions, proteins deform in different ways - and apparently, they tend to create less "smooth" results if heated too quickly.
Temperature change rate isn't considered a factor in standard yogurt (bulgarian or western-european style), there you can scald at any speed and you will end up with good yogurt, as long as you take care to hit the right temperature before going on with the next step. But skyr is not entirely the same as yogurt, so it is possible that it does need the slow rate of temperature change. I cannot personally confirm or deny that, since I haven't made skyr myself. So it could be a real thing, or just a kitchen myth, both options are realistic. |
Why would a cake mix call for the same number of whole eggs or just whites?
I have a Betty Crocker white box cake mix and the box says to use either three egg whites or three whole eggs. This doesn't make sense to me: if I used whole eggs wouldn't I use less, more like one and a half? | Think of the recipe as needing 3 egg whites, and optionally 3 egg yolks. Often if you have a cake mix that calls for oil, somewhere on the package will be a "light version" which is the very same additions and quantities, just not the oil. No extra water or milk or whatnot to make up for it.
The liquid volumes for most cake mixes are not as precise as they seem. Just leaving out the egg yolks, or just leaving out the oil, doesn't require adding some other liquid to make up for it. The cake may end up with a slightly different texture, but it will still be cake. |
What is the apparatus used to keep meat upright called?
My mother has this thing that we use to cook whole chickens with. It is a round tray with four holes in the sides. It then has two pieces of strong wire in the shape of an omega sign that clicks into the holes. You then put the whole bird on top. Basically sticking it up the chickens butt. This keeps your bird upright in the oven. For some reason having your chicken upright when you cook it makes a tremendous difference in taste.
We just called a rotisserie, but that does not seem to be it's name. After many years of faithful service the countless liters of gravy we ladle over countless chickens have rusted holes in the tray. So, I would like to know what is called so I can replace it. | I believe an upright/vertical chicken roaster/rack is what you are looking for. |
What to do with forgotten, uncovered raw chicken in the freezer?
Three weeks ago I bought chicken breasts on sale and froze them uncovered on a pan lined with wax paper.
I meant to come back the next day to vacuum seal them but of course I forgot about them or I wouldn't be posting about it.
Additionally, I don't see any ice build up or noticeable freezer burn.
Here's a picture for reference:
Should I pick up where I left off and continue with the vacuum seal or would that be pointless because of some potential loss of quality or safety issue?
My original intention was to use them for just about anything, but now I'm cautious and am leaning towards boiling them and using them in a pulled chicken recipe to cover any flavor/texture issues.
I'm relatively new to freezing raw meet so any advice will be much appreciated. | There’s no safety issue; frozen is frozen. It’s hard to tell from the colors in the photo but they do look a bit dehydrated. Assuming your freezer doesn’t smell weird, this would cause no taste issues and only minor texture issues. They should be fine for pretty much any preparation method other than steaming (even that would be fine if shredded). |
Soujouk from hamburger
Can Armenian soujouk be made from regular OTC hamburger? Every recipe I've seen calls for multiple grinding of high quality beef from an experienced butcher. Not having access to this process I've made 10 lb batches 5 times with no problems using regular ground beef hamburger experimenting with different proportions of fat 80, 90, 93 percent. The meat is always refrigerated. I purchase 10 lbs of hamburger, add the spices, knead it well, refrigerate overnight, bag it in linen and hang to dry in another refrigerator for approximately 5 weeks. Slice, eat and enjoy. My concern is this may be unsafe. While I love the outcome and the taste I am worried about playing Russian roulette with my health. I have no education in food safety or preparation. Thank you for any suggestions. Ten pounds are drying in the refrigerator now. Continue, or throw it out? | Without claiming to dive too deeply into food safety education, I don’t think it’s a good idea to use pre-ground store-bought hamburger for the following reasons:
A significant source of risk with regards to meat is surface contamination (ignoring intra-muscular parasites). This typically happens during processing and handling. If there is contamination, it will generally stay on the surface of the meat, not penetrate it. So even on the off-chance that there’s something unwanted in a piece of meat (and we are within the recommended time-temperature safety boundaries re. bacterial growth and toxin formation), searing the surface will kill all questionable bacteria on the surface - and when serving raw meat like steak tartare, we can never eliminate all risk.
When hamburger is ground, the original surface area gets incorporated deeply into the resulting mince and the overall surface area is increased immensely. Potential contamination can get carried deeply inside the lump of meat, where it can grow (albeit very slowly if chilled properly), including the anaerobic nasties like C. botulinum. This is why fully cooking hamburger is recommended for food safety reasons.
If you use this hamburger from a commercial setting for your sausage, you are already starting out with an ingredient that’s not safe to consume raw. The further processing of cold curing will not turn an unsafe ingredient into a safe one. It’s up to you whether you want to consume your product. We can’t say whether it actually contains bacteria etc., food safety only deals with statistics and whether for a given product and given parameters, an item can be considered safe or not.
In raw sausage making, you typically start with large chunks of fresh meat (“safer” as described above and from a trustworthy source) and mince/grind it yourself, then immediately add (curing) salt, which will prevent bacterial growth (not adding salt is really playing Russian roulette with regards to food safety). So for your next attempt, you should rethink your choice of ingredients and remember that all raw sausage has a small remaining risk (as there is no heating step involved), so it’s not recommended for vulnerable groups like pregnant or immune compromised people, small children or the elderly. |
How to make clotted cream in the instant pot without the yogurt function?
I found a bunch of recipes to make clotted cream using the yogurt function (https://www.thatskinnychickcanbake.com/homemade-clotted-cream/), but I have a Duo Crisp, which does not have that function. It has sous vide, saute, pressure cook, and slow cook.
Is it possible to make using any of those? | You don't make clotted cream in an instant pot without a yogurt function, which is why you are not getting any search results. Making clotted cream involves heating cream to a constant warm temperature until the cream clots, which is similar to making yogurt. The yogurt mode on an instant pot heats to that relatively low temperature. If it doesn't have that mode it's going to pressure cook the cream and you won't get the result you want.
The steps above are not only wrong but possibly could damage an instant pot or pressure cooker. There are few recipes that would call for 4 hours of pressure cooking, and with the amount of water called for in these steps after 4 hours the cooker is likely to run dry, which is not a good thing. ChatGPG pulled generic instructions for an instant pot, then the time it takes for some other methods to make clotted cream and mashed them together to give you something not only wrong but possibly dangerous.
Don't trust anything ChatGPG or any other AI chat tool says, they are clever but not designed for accuracy! |
What is the intended use for an extra deep skillet?
I had to resist purchasing a so-called "deep" cast iron skillet that was on sale for a good price because I couldn't imagine what I could do with it that I couldn't already to with my regular cast iron skillet or my stainless steel saucepans...
This particular skillet is just over three inches deep.
I've been slowly crossing over from teflon to cast iron, so I like to grab good north american-made stuff if I see it on sale, but I just couldn't justify this one because it seemed a bit niche. | As moscafj mentions in a comment, I would mainly think of a deep skillet as being useful for deep frying. Depending on shape, it might also be usable as a Dutch oven (at least for some Dutch oven uses, like baking buns) if you can find an appropriate lid.
It is not something I would purchase for a “general purpose” kitchen. |
Processing corn into hominy
I recently bought corn from a local co-op (blue flour corn), with the aim of turning it into masa. I nixtamalized the corn with an alkaline bath that I made from slaked lime. I used 1/4 cup of slaked lime per 10 cups of water. I had 1.8 gallons (30 cups) of water for 3 pounds of corn. After boiling the slaked lime into the water and letting it right for a bit, I added the corn and boiled for a while. Then I let it sit over night for 12-14 hours before rinsing and drying. The corn turned the classic yellow color of hominy (at the ends, it was blue corn) and it smelled of hominy. However, most of the corn didn't puff up to the size of dried hominy you'd buy in a store. Any clues to why this might be? | It is likely that you didn't boil/cook long enough...or didn't include a rinse then cook step after the initial boil. It sounds like you were closer to nixtamalized corn used to make masa. Hominy requires further cooking so that the kernels are fully hydrated and cooked through. |
how to unseam - or otherwise safely open - steel olive oil cans
Is there a simple household technique to undo the seam of olive oil cans?
Olive oil is sold in 3L metal cans. They might have a shoebox profile - are brand names OK? Filipo Berio brand. There are smaller volumes as well. These metal olive oil cans are seamed in some specific way, similar to other cans. If the can could be "opened" the way modern-era "can openers" do - leaving no sharp edges, the can might be put to new uses around the kitchen or beyond.
I have tried an Oxo modern-era "can opener" that leaves no sharp edges - but this makes a mess of the can. I have a 6-inch hand seamer that will not work. I have tried a cold chisel and this has some promise but also makes a mess of the can.
I have looked for unusual tools and found out about can seamers, jump shears, or other things. There was an artist on public television showing how she undid certain metal cans with a pedal-driven shear. One day perhaps I might get such a tool but for now I am looking for easier/simpler methods. I might ask about this on Arts and Crafts Stack Exchange, but figured to start where the olive oil can came from - the kitchen. Perhaps if I know what to look for, it will help - for instance, the type of seam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_seamer
... but even if I "open" the can in an ordinary fashion, it would be interesting to know the precise process that introduces the seams. | I re-use large soda and beer cans, my guidance is not to try and undo the seam if you can avoid it because then there's a relatively sharp edge you have to deal with. The seam is blunt, you don't have to worry about people cutting themselves on the top. A can opener with a deep reach is best for this, don't worry about the edge it leaves because you can soften that using a file. You may have to hunt around one that's got the depth.
If you do decide to get the bead off you can do it by filing the very top of the bead. Better yet use a rotary tool with a metal cutting disc to carefully grind it off, it's much faster. |
Help Trying to Achieve a Specific Baguette Scoring Pattern
I freely admit this belongs in the category of obsession, but there is a specific look I always want to achieve for my baguettes and sometimes I get it, but I have a hard time reproducing it.
Here is an example of what I'm looking to achieve:
Here's the scoring before baking:
Here's an example of somewhat disappointing results:
and the scoring pattern before baking:
These batches were the same weight each and same recipe. Comparing them, I can't see much difference in the scoring pattern before baking, but the resulting looks are quite different - in the top ones the "burst" open portion takes up most of the top surface of the baguettes, while in the bottom ones the pattern is mainly isolated to the middle portion of the top surface and not as pronounced.
One difference I do see is that the top ones are smaller before baking, possibly because I didn't proof them as long (unfortunately I didn't record the proofing time for these; this is always a variable because of room temperature, etc.). But I have tried shorter proofing times in general and find them to only result in smaller baguettes overall.
Any specific suggestions or tips for how to achieve the pattern in the top batch after baking?
Edit -
New batch Sunday testing my theory that less proofing time could lead to better bursting:
I messed up the first score on the bottom one but I think this is the right track as proofing time is really the only variable in all three batches. I could also tell as soon as I scored that the seams started to open up on its own which I take as a good sign.
Next time I will proof for even less time. I know the guidance is to wait until an indentation springs back slowly but just thinking logically here, as long as the baking environment is nice and steamy I'm speculating that to achieve the best "burst" a high amount of gas pressure before scoring and baking is more important than maximizing the pre-bake rise.
Any further tips/comments appreciated! | This is not a matter of scoring, but a matter of crust management. The difference between your two pictures is that the dough in the first (desirable) batch has managed to spread more before the crust hardened.
For consistent results, you will have to be more consistent in everything that contributes to a crust. This is annoyingly difficult, because it involves pretty much everything about bread baking - proofing stage when it goes into the oven, actual oven temperature during the first minutes of baking (which is not the number shown on the dial), humidity inside the oven, and surface tension of the raw loaf are the most important variables that come to mind. The good news is that you have the capability to achieve the right combination, you just have to be even more obsessive about finding out what you did, and repeating it :)
We have older, well-voted questions with some additional detail, especially How to achieve great baguette crusts, and Bread doesn't split at the score. There is also What effect do different slash patterns have on bread oven spring?, although not as relevant as the first two. |
What does the USDA mean when it says cooked (meat) is good for a range of days?
For example, it says cooked beef is good for 3-4 days. Does this mean that some cooked beef will not be good after 3 days? Should extra precautions be taken if eating food between 3 and 4 days? If there is some risk after day 3, would it not be better to dispose of food at the beginning of the range?
Or, if I am incorrect, how should I interpret '3-4' days? | The problem is that there are a lot of variables that go into the calculation:
How good was your hygiene when handling the food? (After cooking, packaging, etc)
Was the meat left out at room temperature or cooked and then immediately packed and cooled?
Did you cook it thoroughly to pasteurize it?
How well is your fridge maintaining its temperature?
Is anyone that would be consuming it have a weakened immune system or have pre-existing GI issues?
Will the food be immediately reheated and consumed or spend more time at room temperature?
Many people can probably get away with eating food that’s been in the fridge that’s past the recommendations… but restaurants have other considerations as they don’t know who the food might be served to or exactly how it will be used in the future.
If you’re practicing good hygiene habits, and your fridge is known to be working properly, you should be fine at 4 days. If you’re cooking for children, the elderly, or anyone who’s already sick, you might want to make sure it gets eaten earlier.
If you’re fighting with some weird reoccurring mold problem in your house that you just can’t get to finally go away… well, even three days might be pushing it. |
Miso Marinade Did Not Char
I followed this miso recipe and cooked it on a foil lined sheet pan directly under the broiler.
Somehow, I only succeeded in burning the excess marinade on the foil, whereas all the marinade coating the fish retained its light brown miso color.
Any ideas as to what could have prevented it from browning properly? | I've made that recipe before. Lopez-Alt's assertions to the contrary, getting a good browning on the miso sauce is actually highly dependent on having a good, pre-heated broiler and having the fish exactly the right distance away. The first time I made it, I had the same result as you; the fish was fully cooked but the sauce hadn't browned.
Here's things you can do to make browning better with this, but you'll have to tinker around and try various ones to get the combination that works in your oven:
Precook the marinade, reducing it by 1/3 and making it thicker
Add 2 Tbs more sugar do the marinade
Pre-heat your broiler making sure that it's very hot before you put the fish in
Test distances of 4cm to 10cm from the broiling element/flame
Make sure the sauce isn't thicker than 3mm on top of the fish
Finish it with a blowtorch
Good luck with this. At least it tastes delicious regardless of whether it's browned or not. |
Can you save pancake batter for one day?
I only need a few pancakes at a time. I would rather cook fresh than freeze cooked pancakes. | You could mix the dry ingredients and mix the wet ingredients, but store the mixes separately. When you want to cook some pancakes, take (e.g.) 1/3 of each of the mixes, mix them together, and then cook them. This means you don't lose the leavening power and your main time constraint is how long an egg-milk mixture will last in the fridge.
The question @GdG linked to has an answer suggesting something similar for cakes, but it doesn't work for many cakes since there isn't a clear wet-dry separation up to the last step. |
Are there tables of wastage rates for different fruit and veg?
In recent months I have been paying particular attention to food costs. As part of that I have looked at the price of different fruit. It is easy to calculate the price per Kg of unprepared fruit, and I am surprised how cheap for example pineapple is compared to locally produced fruit. However I suspect there could be more wastage in pineapples.
I could work this out for myself, ie. weigh the product before and after preparation. However I thought that this must be a core variable that goes into food production process control calculations, so someone must have worked out wastage rates for all sorts of products under all sorts of conditions. Are these publically available? I think they would be very useful to a lot of people, particularly in the present economic circumstances. | The USDA has a handbook of yield ratios for various raw ingredients. Note that some goods have a high variance in yield, from the foods themselves as well as how you prepare them; your own kitchen scale will be more accurate for the foods you buy and prepare than the measurements given here. |
How to preserve a sugar, oil free homemade chocolate spread?
I'm starting to make a business of selling homemade sugar and oil free chocolate spread, which will be sweetened with dates.
My ingredients are:
Sugar free cocoa powder
Hazelnuts
Dates
And water.
I do not want to use any additives and that's where I'm stuck because I'm not sure who I would be able to preserve the spread.
Can I preserve the spread using the canning technique and how long would it last before opened?
Looking forward to hearing your tips.
Thank you in advance. | I have two different chocolate spreads in my cupboard and neither of them have any preservatives because they don't need them. Both are relatively dry and have a high sugar content, making them a hostile environment for microbes.
What they don't have, however, is added water. All of the spreads I've seen have oil instead, which makes them shelf stable and require no refrigeration. Oil also gives it a gooey, spreadable texture and a luscious mouth feel.
Whether you could make a shelf stable product with added water depends on how much water you end up adding. You could get by with a little, too much and you end up with a product that needs refrigeration after opening, which will make it hard as a rock and not spreadable. As for how much water makes it vulnerable to bacterial growth I cannot say, it depends on the type of dates you use and how dried they are. You'd need it analyzed in a lab to be sure. |
What to look for in an air fryer
I'm looking to get an air fryer to make stuff that is usually deep-fried, like falafel, chicken nuggets or spring rolls, hopefully with less oily taste and without having to buy and dispose of considerable amounts of oil.
Prices vary wildly, here's one for 42 USD and here's one for 174 USD. Both have about 1400 W and about 4 liters capacity.
Is the difference of 130 USD really just about having a shiny digital display or are there other differences that I should take into account? | There’s nothing fundamental which would differentiate two separate ‘classes’ of air fryer. The main difference that’s obvious from the product description is that the cheaper air fryer does not have a separately removable wire basket. This would make removing food while keeping the fat behind somewhat more difficult, and likely reduces the effectiveness of convective heating.
Beyond that, it’s presumably just a matter of one or more of:
Name recognition; Phillips invented the air fryer, and are known for making good ones, so they can charge more and people will pay it.
Standard differences in materials and manufacturing quality; perhaps the cheaper one uses thinner metal, a poorly built motor, or the circuit board is poorly soldered. |
Amounts of MSG and natural glutamates in bouillon and soy sauce
Bouillon has a tasty umami flavor, as does soy sauce. The umami in bouillon can come from added MSG (monosodium glutamate), while the umami in soy sauce is said to arise from naturally occurring glutamates.
What is the amount of MSG or naturally occurring glutamates in bouillon and soy sauce?
In their concentrated forms
Diluted in common stock recipes
Does one tend to have more? I’m looking for absolute mgs and percent! | Just answering the "soy sauce" part of your question. The "bouillon" part of your question is completely unanswerable given the vast range of products that call themselves bouillon. For that, read the package.
For soy sauce, there's a paper. Naturally fermented soy sauces contain l-glutamic acid, rather than MSG, and they contain between 8.77 and
147.98 mg/mL of it (note the very wide range there). If you want an exhaustive treatment of everything that's in your soy sauce, read the rest of the paper. |
How to identify extra virgin olive oil with desired taste profile?
While many extra virgin olive oil bottles state “floral” or “fruity”, these seem like generic terms applied to most oils. Similarly, even those that omit the “peppery finish” description, have a pepperiness to my tongue.
However, I once tried my housemate’s dad’s olive oil grown in Portugal and it was actually floral and fruity. It also had no pepperiness whatsoever; It tasted like a well-watered Mediterranean meadow, a bouquet of freshly picked wildflowers, and dense stone fruits just harvested.
I was shocked and enamored. And I have never tasted an olive oil like that again. I have sought out Portuguese oils and oils that exclude any mention of “peppery,” but I have yet to taste again an oil like that truly floral and fruity one from so long ago :)
Here are two sub-points to my question about accurately identifing oils with specific flavor profiles:
Is there any consensus or regulation on the terms used to describe olive oil, or is this entirely at the manufacturer or retailer’s discretion?
Are there particular manufacturers, retailers, places-of-origin, or 3rd-party tasting organizations that use precise and reliable descriptions to help identify an olive oil with the flavor profile that is being sought? | I'll speak to the first bullet. There is absolutely consensus and criteria for judging the quality and characteristics of olive oil. There is, for example, a World Olive Oil competition, which makes use of a set of criteria.
The International Olive Oil Council governs 95% of world wide olive oil production. Their standards (many documents) may give you insight into what you are looking for. They have guidelines for tasting panels, for example, that specify the criteria that you are asking about. |
Does oven polenta actually work?
Several sources give recipes for making polenta (cornmeal porridge) in the oven instead of on the stovetop. Among them are: America's Test Kitchen, Epicurious, NYT, and Martha Stewart. I got the recipe I tried from Deb Perlman's Smitten Kitchen Keepers, which went:
put 4.5 cups room-temperature water and 1 cup polenta in a casserole dish and stir
cover tightly
bake at 375F for 40 minutes
What I ended up with was 3 cups of water on top of a layer of hot, wet, but undercooked polenta. I had to finish it on the stovetop.
My hypothesis is that doing polenta in the oven doesn't actually work. This is upheld by those recipes, which each have different temperatures, proportions, steps, and cooking times, and that those sources mostly never mention oven polenta again.
Am I wrong? If I am, why did it fail so dramatically for me?
(just to eliminate some of the obvious: my oven is calibrated, and the polenta was fine once I cooked it on the stovetop, so it wasn't "too old") | I have cooked polenta in the oven several times. I found the most success by starting with hot water so that I when I stirred the water and polenta it thickened up a bit. I think this helps it hold together instead of separating. I like to make a very firm polenta, so I used 2:1 water to grains and that worked well. Because it was so thick I found an immersion blender was helpful to stir it all before baking. I have also tried 1:1, but that came out more like a thick cornbread so I don't recommend that.
One of the linked recipes says to stir half way through cooking. Maybe yours failed because it wasn't mixed enough, and it separated too much before it got hot enough to stay mixed together? If you try again I suggest any or all of:
Making sure it is mixed enough initially.
starting with hot water so it soaks up more water right away and stays mixed
stirring halfway through
The more water you use, the more effort it make take to keep it homogenized. If you are using close to or over 4:1, then you might need to pay closer attention to mixing it thoroughly initially or part way through. For all the old mythology about cooking polenta, it is a very flexible grain to cook.
My preferred recipe for a extra firm polent |
How to store garlic in hot and humid tropical climate?
I live on a tropical island where it is almost 100% humidity year round and average daily temperature is something like 32 degrees celsius (89 fahrenheit) with nighttime temperatures seldom going below 27 degrees (80 fahrenheit).
I need to store garlic for a long time because I live alone and the supermarkets here sell garlic in large bags with too many to be finished in a week. But everywhere I searched online tells me to store in in cool dark place and never put it in the fridge as they sprout quickly. However there are no cool dark places in the tropics! They usually go bad so quickly and I have to waste a bunch which is a shame because I love cooking with garlic. | A root cellar would be the classic situation: a space dug under a building that’s deep enough that it stays cooler than on the surface. But they can hold a bit of moisture, so may not be best for dried items. (I guess you could put them in a jar, then down in the hole?)
You can also make a cooling jar by taking two unglazed pots, and filling the space between with sand. Keep the sand damp on hot days and it will result in evaporative cooling to keep the insides at a lower temperature. (But again, this is wet, so you might need to protect the garlic from the humidity)
I would recommend talking to older folks on the island. Chances are, some of them remember what techniques were used before modern conveniences to keep food from spoiling, and they would be most likely to work given your climate.
You could also preserve the garlic. It won’t be the same flavor, but black garlic (low temperature fermented/cooked?) has a much longer shelf life than raw garlic.
Another option would be to make friends with your neighbors and split a bag with them. |
What is sortexed rice?
Here is a link to rice I want to buy. It is quoted as being polished and sortexed. I was wondering exactly that meant? Sortexed is not a word I heard before. | It's a word derived from the brand name for a machine used in processing the rice.
As the word already suggests, it is a machine for sorting the rice. With rice that has gone through this process, you can save the step of sorting it manually, and just cook it straight out of the package.
Rice has to go both through a size-sorting and "remove unwanted contaminants" step before being cooked. Size-sorting is easily done with sieves, but the contaminant step is very work-intensive. It is also very important, not only because of the yuck factor (it removes bugs and diseased kernels) but also because rice-as-harvested contains small stones, which can break your teeth when eaten.
Historically, people had to sort their rice at home. Nowadays, rice sold in Western countries is pre-sorted, and this information is not listed on the label. The label can make sense either in a country where both sorted and unsorted rice is sold (the link you showed is from South Africa, a country with huge inequality, so it is very likely that you would have customers for both kinds there) or in a country where people, for some reason, prefer machine-sorted rice over manually sorted rice (maybe because of higher trust in the machine's ability to spot all stones, or because of the higher visual uniformity of the result). |
How many items per order of dim sum?
Dim sum traditionally comes in multiples of 3 or 4 in each steamer basket. However, there doesn't seem to be any resource to let the customer know whether you are getting 3 or 4 dumplings/items.
Is there a hard and fast traditional rule for each type of dim sum? Do har gow 蝦餃 and shu mai 燒賣 always come in 4s or do some restaurants serve them in 3s? What about wu gok 芋頭角 or char siu bao 叉燒包 - do they come in 2s or 3s or sometimes even 4s?
Factually, when dining at a dim sum restaurant, how do people know how many they will get? Is it always the same amount (a sort of tacit knowledge that regular customers pick up from experience) or, factually, can it differ between restaurants? | I have eaten dim sum in many places and there is no hard and fast rule to it, it varies from restaurant to restaurant even in the same location.
In general the smaller the individual item is the more there is on a plate, Har Kau are small so you get 4, dumplings, paper prawns and other larger items take more space so you usually get 3. Bigger is more expensive, so having fewer means the plates will be similar in price as well as the general amount of food. |
Do tea filter bags filter out vitamins and minerals?
I'm talking about the classic paper tea bags (sold empty) that you can buy and then put whatever you want in; sometimes different sizes are available for cups vs teapots, etc. Yes, I do realise most "pre-filled" tea bags like Lipton have bags made from roughly the same material, but I don't know if those don't filter out nutrients too. | Nutrients are microscopic, the pores in tea bags are far too large to act as a filter. However, tea bags will absorb a very small amount of liquid, and in that liquid there will nutrients, sugars, colors, volatile compounds and other things in suspension. So, the bag is going to absorb some of the tea, but the amount is negligible.
That doesn't mean that everything will get out of the bag, though. Even though the pores in the material are too big to trap nutrients the material is going to impede water circulation. Also, when the leaves expand they tend to get constricted by the bag, which further reduces flow. If you stir the bag around or squeeze it you'll often see darker water coming out of it, which demonstrates this effect. The upshot is that the material isn't filtering vitamins and minerals, but the slower circulation means some tea is going to be left inside the bag, and therefore nutrients along with it. Stirring the bag around a bit helps to a certain extent. |
Type of silk to use for making tea bags
I am investigating the possibility of making my own reusable tea bags. There are several types of textiles to choose from, each with their own pros and cons:
Paper tea bags are cheap and common, but tend to impart a bleach-like flavor onto the tea.
Nylon is also a common choice, but I have concerns about its tendency to leach micro plastics into the tea.
Cotton bags are easy enough to clean, but aren't convenient because of how they might carry over flavor from previous brews.
Finally, there is silk, which I consider to be the best option because of its more hydrophobic quality.
So, here are my questions:
What type of silk should I ask for at the textile store? I found the following types to choose from: Charmeuse, Chiffon, Crêpe-de-chine, Dupion, Georgette, Habotai, Organza, Satin, Tussah, and Velvet
At what temperature would this type of silk start to decompose? (Anything above 100C should be fine) | This is an interesting idea, but I don't think it's all that practical - or at least not as good as you seem it to be. Still, you can try it, just don't expect wonders.
At what temperature would this type of silk start to decompose?
Strictly speaking, at about 40 to 45 degrees Celsius. Silk is, after all, made out of proteins. This is why silk clothing, if washable at all, is labelled for 30 degrees wash.
I said "strictly speaking", because it won't decompose the way a paper towel decomposes in the washing machine. It will change its texture, but not fall apart. It will get more brittle each time you use it - but you will get multiple uses out of it, unlike a paper bag.
Out of the silk types you listed, I would go with organza. There are commercial (synthetic fibre) teabags which mimic organza, and they work well. It is permeable enough to be a good filter, and quite form-stable. A second choice would be chiffon, and maybe etamine if you can ensure only large plant parts. Habotai/ponge of the thinner kind would also be permeable, but it's so fine I suspect it won't last too long. Other kinds (twill, georgette, velvet) are decidedly too dense, and also quite expensive.
You will have to pay lots of attention to the construction. Silk is very delicate, and frays easily. And since you will be cooking it frequently, and possibly exposing them to sticks and berries and hard leaves, you can expect damage to emerge soon. You'll need an overlock, and I wouldn't just seam-and-serge in one, but really do overlock on the exposed sides, and additionally do the side seam, maybe even a jeans-strength seam.
And a last note, while cotton is indeed very absorbent, I would still expect flavor to carry over between brews with any natural fibre you choose. Silk may be less prone to it, but not zero. And pay attention to what kind of tea you are making in it, because silk is more reactive to alkalis than to acids, so some herbs will damage it more quickly than others. Keep it out of direct sunlight, even for drying it, since it's rather sensitive to UV. And finally, pay attention to signs of mold, it can happen during storage, and your bags, unlike clothing, will be frequently wet.
Added thoughts: With all these caveats above, you might after all look into fabrics that are not pure silk, to reduce the speed of disintegration. Ideally, you'll accept some amount of synthetic fibres, since they are what can make a fabric strong. If not, maybe look into something like a silk-flax voile, if you can find it. But since not all fabrics of the same content are created equal - a silk thread around a synthetic core will create a many times stronger fabric than a silk thread shot with a bit of lurex for sparkles, even if both say "90% silk, 10% nylon" - it is best to go to a specialized store and get advice in person. Also, very important - touch the fabric, evaluate how dense it is, how stable, and whether you have the skills to sew it (silk is notoriously difficult and requires a good sewer and a good machine). This means that you shouldn't go to the corner fabric shop that caters to quilters and organic-jersey-moms, but to somebody who specializes in rare natural fabrics, for example for theater supply or historic reenactment. |
Is this white stuff in my lemonade bad?
I like to pre-mix Country Time brand pink lemonade and leave it in the fridge. I've noticed this white stuff accumulates at the bottom after a few days and goes away if I shake the container.
I used to pre-mix in a plastic container and noticed the same thing so switching to glass did not solve the issue. I've sterilized this bottle using boiling water before adding the mix but it did not help.
I even switched from tap water to purified bottled water. The tap water is hard and always leaves sediment on the fixtures.
There doesn't seem to be any visible growth and the pre-mix never gets cloudy nor taste funny. Is this just non-sugar ingredients settling at the bottom? | First of all, relax. It's not going to hurt you.
What it's not:
- Mold
When a food is contaminated with mold, typically the visible portion of mold (but importantly not the only portion that has grown and contaminated your food), is found on the surface. In drinks it often has a spongy texture and would generally not settle to the bottom unless shaken thoroughly. It also will not generally have a sandy or powdery texture, which best as I can tell from that picture, is what you've got above. While there are molds that vary beyond what I've described here, your drink has not molded.
- Microplastics
Microplastics come in two classifications: primary and secondary. Primary are the larger of the two, anything 5mm in size or less, and you would generally be able to discern without much difficulty if plastics of this size were contaminating your drink, certainly they wouldn't have needed time to settle before being noticed. The smaller microplastics, secondary ones, are what happens when sources of primary (or larger) micro/plastics break down, from processes like natural weathering or going for a wash in a laundry machine. These smaller secondary microplastics are not typically visible to the naked eye. I suspect as well that they would be likely to stay suspended, being very small and (most probably) neutrally buoyant. In any case, as Rumtscho mentioned in his comments, it would be a very serious problem if something like this went wrong during manufacturing. Not that it doesn't, but it's likely not this.
What it probably is:
- Insoluble Compounds
As dbmag9's answer mentions, this is a possibility. However I find it unlikely, personally, that there are many insoluble compounds in a powder designed to dissolve readily in water. These would make up a significantly smaller portion of ingredients list. From the ingredients I was able to find online, magnesium oxide is one such insoluble ingredient. I think it's reasonable to say some of the precipitate may be insoluble compounds, but personally it's much more likely to me that a majority of it is...
- Soluble Compounds
The main ingredients in Country Time Lemonade are all readily soluble in water: sugar, fructose, citric acid, ascorbic acid, and sodium citrate all dissolve. I suspect several of the others do as well, though have not bothered to confirm as much for each item listed in the ingredients. If you're not bothered by tasting it, you could attempt to isolate a portion of the lemonade which has fallen out of solution and compare its smell and flavor to that of the original powder and of the completed drink. It should carry a similar, although perhaps not exact, flavor depending on which ingredients precipitated out at what rate.
So why are the soluble ingredients falling out of solution?
There's several possible culprits, and the likeliest is a mix of these and perhaps more things I haven't accounted for:
- Lack of turbulence
When we shake or stir something, we help to suspend the insoluble ingredients, and aid in soluble ingredients dissolving. We're both adding energy to the drink through mechanical action and breaking down the clumps. Any excess of the soluble compounds will join the insoluble ones in solution. As it is left undisturbed, however, it settles back down to the bottom. The solution is one you already employ: shake or stir before you consume it.
- Saturation
It's possible that at the ratio of water to powder that you use, the water is fully or nearly fully saturated. This would make it so that as conditions change to make the water to powder ratio even more extreme the soluble ingredients would begin to precipitate out of solution. This would happen even more quickly if the ratio used is such that there is an excess of soluble ingredients, as there would be no need for the ratio to change for some of the soluble ingredients to precipitate out. A possible solution for this would be to adjust the ratio of water to powder to use somewhat less powder, and see if you still enjoy it equally.
- Evaporation
So why is it that the water to powder ratio is changing? Over time the water will evaporate, especially true in warm settings but it remains true inside of a fridge, and even if covered, so long as the cover isn't air-tight. You're already doing at least some of what you can to account for this: keeping it in the fridge. In addition, ensure it's covered as tightly as is reasonable and, if the problem happens, you could add a little water to dilute it. Overall though, I think this is likely to be one of the smaller factors unless you're making up very small batches and leaving it sitting out somewhere warm and sunny for a few hours.
- Temperature
We can experience a similar effect as with evaporation even if the water to powder ratio stays the same. If the water's ability to hold ingredients in solution goes down, the end result is the same as if we had less water. And temperature is a major factor in water's ability to hold something in solution. When making a simple syrup (sugar and water), for instance, we heat it on the stove to help easily dissolve everything. Same with adding salt to water used to make pasta, if you add it while the water is cold it will take longer for it to dissolve than if you add it while hot. Ingredients generally have an easier time dissolving into water when they are warm. And as those ingredients and the water are chilled in your refrigerator, what once was easily soluble will begin to precipitate out. Stirring should mostly help to dissolve this through introduction of energy, but letting it sit out a little while before you drink it is another way to fix this. You could also make it as needed and chill with ice, instead of in bulk.
Your best option, in my opinion, is to do what you already do: shake or stir the ingredients back into solution/suspension and enjoy. But feel free to play around with any of the other offered ideas to see what you like best. |
Will a lye solution damage enameled cookware?
Got some very thick baked on oil inside of a Lodge dutch oven with an enamel lining. Avocado oil, baked on in a 500F oven while making bread. Can I save some time by just filling it up with warm water (~175F) and soaking for a while with a lye solution before I scrub off the oil? Will this damage the surface? The surface is not pristine, it's an old DO and saw a lot of use before I got it.
A lot of advice says use baking soda, which is pH 8.5. Lye is 13 but I know it will get rid of those polymerized fats.
I'm aware of all the danger of lye, I've used it to strip cast iron pans with no issue.
edit to clarify: thinking 1 tsp of lye powder to 3 qts of water. The real question is will any concentration of lye destroy enamel? | There are two reasons why I would not do it.
"Enamel" is not a single substance, but a class of substances. They can have different chemical properties, including corrosion resistance. And the enamels used in cookware are calculated to be resistant to what is usually encounterable in a kitchen. This is certainly not lye at pH 13 or above.
The Internet supports this intuition: for example, this site lists the corrosion resistance of enamels for different use cases, and while they don't have pots, pretty much all household items they list are formulated for the pH range of 2 to 10.
A second reason is that you don't only have to worry about the enamel as a substance. You have an enamel-lined pot, and these are very prone to chipping, and sometimes crazing. I would worry about lye "finding" these discontinuities in the enamel layer and attacking them. The iron of the Dutch oven itself shouldn't have any problem with it, but the problem would be the bond between the enamel and the iron. This bond is always weaker than either of the two materials, and anything that attacks there has a chance of destroying it and letting the lining layer peel off.
I will admit that I don't know whether the bond between iron and enamel can withstand lye, but seeing that it is one of the most corrosive substances a person will ever encounter, I wouldn't try it out on a pot I value. |
Why my pizza dough turned out so filling and heavy on the stomach?
This is the recipe:
1 kg pizza flour
680 gr water
4 teaspoons dry yeast
12 tablespoons olive oil (and even more for handling the sticky dough)
2 tablespoons salt & 2 teaspoons sugar
kneaded for 15 minutes on a stand mixer with a dough hook , than rest for 3 hours.
The pizza turned out beautiful and delicious with a lot of air pockets in the crust, but was just awful to digest, everyone in my family said that, so its not a personal problem. what should i change to make it more lightweight? Maybe its the ridiculous amount of olive oil that i used? Thank you ;) | Both the amount of salt and the amount of olive oil in that recipe are on the very high side for a standard pizza dough recipe, so if you found it disagreeable I'd suggest reducing both. With that amount of olive oil, I'd say that you were making more of a focaccia than a pizza dough (although focaccia with pizza toppings is generally quite tasty). |
Sourdough starter brown liquid (hooch) forming earlier than expected according to this recipe
I am following this recipe to make sourdough starter (Masa Madre = Mother Dough = sourdough starter?). According to the recipe, it takes around 5 total days (I won't put quantities, I will just use units):
Add unit of integral flour and unit of water, mix. Cover and let it rest 24h
Dough might look the same, it's okay. Add unit of strength flour and unit of water. Some sugar and mix. Cover and rest 24h.
Bubbles start appearing, bigger in size and (using translator) "pungent smell". This means the starter has begun to activate. Add U strength flour and U water, mix. Cover and rest 24h.
Brown liquid might start appearing. Remove it (I'll reference this below), and feed it with U strength flour only, mix, cover and rest 24h.
Ready to use!
I've been researching a bit on hooch, and it basically means that the starter is "hungry", so, ready to be fed more with flour (and water?). I started to make this recipe yesterday at around 19:00. How is it possible that in that recipe, it is only appearing in the 4th day, but while me doing it, it appeared after only 13-14h? How should I proceed, following (or not) this recipe? There's a question on this site but in here it appears at least 2 days after, so on the 3rd day.
Here there is a picture of my starter after 14h aprox.
Also, the recipe mentions to take the liquid away. Now, I have noticed that culturally speaking, I've found more commonly breads that taste sour, in northern countries I've visited/lived in, Germany, Netherlands. But I have not tasted that much sourness in bread in Spain. Is it possible that some areas are used to take the liquid out, and some other are not? And why?
I'm mentioning it because the words Masa Madre (starter or sourdough starter), does not have the word sour in it. And therefore if we have a pan (bread) of masa madre, it means it's made of starter (not yeast from the supermarket), but not that it tastes sour. And from what I read, this liquid is what makes the bread taste more sour (I have read recipes that explicitly say "if you want a more sour/pungent taste, leave the liquid or some of it). | Based on photos and chat, I'd say there's two possibilities:
The brown liquid in this case is just water, and it's brown because of the wholemeal (integral) flour.
You got lucky with flour that already had a lot of natural yeast on it, resulting in extra-fast fermentation.
The way you can tell the difference is how it smells. If there's no smell at all, then it's (1); if there's a sour, alcoholic, fermented smell, it's (2).
Either way, you want to proceed with 3-5 days of building up the strength of your starter. If it is fermenting fast, you might want to feed it every 12 hours instead of every 24. Do not add any sugar.
The reason you discard the liquid (hooch) is that it is an alcohol-and-water solution that the yeast give off as a waste product. Stirring it into your starter actually inhibits yeast growth. It's not related to how sour any resulting bread products you make are. That's a function of flour, rising time and technique, not holding on to the waste alcohol. |
Using vegetable peelings to make stock
I read somewhere you can use vegetable peelings to make a good vegetable stock, I loved this idea of producing even less waste but I have 2 questions.
Are there any vegetable peelings I shouldn't use, eg. Butternut Squash has a really hard skin is that okay to use
Will I get loads of pesticides if I do that? | For some veg it makes sense:
the peelings of well-scrubbed carrots and parsnips,
the bits you remove if your celery is stringy, and celery leaves (I grow my own so always have leaves)
non-muddy trimmings of leeks, spring onions and other alliums
onion skins - but only if you want your stock brown.
outer leaves of brassicas, but in very limited quantities or the flavour will dominate. Can be better if browned first, and of course must be well-washed.
If you grow your own veg, the top growth of garlic and carrots can be added, as can undersize leeks and spring onions as you thin them.
Home grown herbs can be added stems and all, though probably not really woody bits.
Potato peelings only add starch, not flavour, and are best avoided.
In between are things like squashes - they'll add very little flavour, and probably a bit of starch that you probably don't want.
You do need quite a lot. I'm more likely to do this making turkey stock at Christmas when I have the bones to go in as well, and I'm preparing a lot of veg. Even then I usually add an onion or two as well as herbs from the garden. |
Can you overcook beef when browning before braising?
I'm making a braised beef stew with a chuck roast and the recipe calls for browning the beef chunks in the oven at 550F for approximately 10 minutes. While the beef developed a rich browned exterior, the interior temp reached as high as 170F when I pulled it from the oven.
Will this result in overcooked, dry beef after I braise it? I usually brown my beef on the stovetop before braising and never reach an interior temp over 130 degrees during the browning phase. | It may make a difference in the timing to what I can only call the 'last turn' [having no science to wave at] when at around the 4-hour mark a braise goes from perfectly converted collagen & ultimately soft juicy beef, into strands of inedible string.
At the point you've finished browning, what you're looking at would be way overdone for a steak, but barely started for a braise, so the term 'overdone' is really relative to the end point, not the start point.
I would err on the side of caution in your long-cook phase, if you're cooking stovetop. Depending on how long you would normally give it - for me, as I say the break-point is about 4 hours at a stovetop simmer, then I'd start testing it from maybe 3 hours & see how it's getting along.
If you're not in a position to actively supervise, then 2 hours today & another 2 tomorrow tends to be pretty safe. Tomorrow's timer starts from when you put heat under, not when it reaches boiling. Drop it in the fridge in between, once cool enough. Many 'stews' will benefit flavour-wise from that approach too.
If it's going to be entirely done in the oven, as these times tend to be shorter because of evaporation, then your original cook time will probably be fine. |
How can I improve the colour of my red wine mousse?
I've tried making a red wine mousse to go along with a chocolate mousse. My approach was similar to making the chocolate mousse itself, just with a different core ingredient. I heated up red wine, then beat in small cubes of cold butter one by one until it started to emulsify and then added more butter. Just like a beurre monté but with wine instead of water. I let it cool a bit and whisked in some egg yolk to thicken. Then I folded in egg whites beaten to stiff peaks with sugar and whipped cream and let the mixture set and cool in the fridge.
While the taste is promising, the texture needs a bit of work. The colour however is not at all to my liking. It's kind of a "dirty" red. I added some red dye to the egg whites which made them look appealing but that didn't help much once they were folded into the wine mixture. It would be okay if it was a nice pink, a bright red or some deep burgundy colour, but as it stands now it's just ugly.
What would be a good way to improve the colour? Is the outcome simply a result of wine being mixed into a very fine foam, or is there some chemical reaction with the egg whites? I actually tried adding a splash of red wine to the egg whites prior to beating them (acidity helps with stabilizing them and wine has some acid in it) and to my surprise the colour almost immediately turned into something more akin to blue than red when starting the whipping.
Here's a picture of the outcome. As you can see the red wine mousse looks kind of muddy, for lack of a better word. Kindly ignore my non-existent plating skills, this was just a trial. | Red wine changes colour with pH. It's slightly acidic, more so in younger wines that are a brighter red. Many fruit and veg compounds act as pH indicators, such as those in raspberries and red cabbage.
Egg whites on the other hand are alkaline. Only slightly when they've just been laid, but increasing with storage.
This probably explains your bluish effect from adding wine directly to the egg, and contributes to the muddiness of the red in the mouse.
Using the freshest eggs you can and a young wine should help but a further source of acid might be needed.
I'd still expect the result to be a bit of a dirty red and perhaps pale, but maybe it could be close enough or adjustable with food dye. This is partly dilution of the wine, but mainly the light scattering the makes emulsions look whiter and more opaque than their ingredients. This means saturated colours will be harder to obtain. |
What lentils did I buy?
I'm new to the forum and new to cooking lentils. I bought a bag of lentils at the store and all it says is "lentils". Now understanding that there's different kinds of lentils, with different applications, I'm not sure what I'm working with here.
Is there a standardized lentil sold in American grocery stores? Mine are an undescribable color of greenish/yellow, some around round in shape, while some are flat on one side and round on the other.
Could anyone help me identify what type of lentils I purchased? | Those are standard "brown" (or "grey") lentils; they're what most Americans mean when they say just "lentils". They are called "whole masoor dal" if you're Indian.
Confusingly, they are also sometimes called "green" lentils. I say confusingly because lentils de puy are also called green lentils, but have a different cooking time, texture, and flavor.
If you skinned them, you'd find that the inner lentil was vermillion in color, which are known as "red lentils", or "masoor dal".
They take 35-55 minutes to cook, usually, depending on how soft you want them. |
julia child pot au feu recipe
For Julia Child's Pot au Feu recipe in MTAFC, the final instruction is to separate the vegetables, meat and stock, and "pass the stock along" with any of a list of optional sauces.
Is the dinner guest supposed to just add some of the sauce in their bowl along with the soup/stew mixture when it's all assembled? | Pot au Feu is traditionally served as two and sometimes even three courses, bone-marrow on toast, soup & 'solids'. You can serve them up simultaneously if you wish & your diners can sample each course as they prefer.
Good illustration & recipe ideas at SpruceEats - |
What additional uses are there for a food dehydrator?
Recently browsing a certain online website I've discovered the cost of food dehydrators has fallen considerably since they first came to market. Realising that I may incur the wrath of my other half if I purchase yet another "White elephant" kitchen appliance, what are they most useful for in the domestic kitchen? It is clear that they can be used to produce dried fruit, which is then eaten all by itself. Are there any uses beyond that, which may make them more versatile? | I've got one, and I don't use it much.
Dehydrating food is worth it if you have a surplus of suitable homegrown or cheap local produce, or if you particularly want dehydrated food for some reason (portable snack probably). If your oven goes cool enough you can dehydrate in that, except the fumes from dehydrating chillies make it worthwhile to do that outside.
Dehydrators are rather bulky, so mine ends up stored in the attic, which is partly why I don't use it often. |
Can I replace a cake's sugar with simple syrup?
I'm baking a genoise cake consisting of flour, eggs, sugar, and optionally some melted butter. I want to add a strong tea flavour to it.
I'm afraid adding tea directly will mess up the batter, so can I replace the sugar with a simple syrup made with tea? If yes, is there anything I should adjust - like removing the egg whites to reduce moisture? | No, you can't do that. It will totally change the whole cake layer and make it potentially inedible. Besides, the tea flavor won't be strong.
You cannot remove the moisture, because the genoise is pretty much moistureless anyway. The egg whites cannot be removed. Not only is their role the opposite - they make a drier cake, not a moist one - but also they have a huge structural role in creating the sponge. Without them, the result won't be anything even close to a genoise.
If you really insist on trying this, you will have to use a different recipe, something much simpler than a genoise that produces a heavier, denser cake. Look for something that uses the muffin method, these recipes are much less sensitive to changes. Also, the added taste will be stronger, because the cake will be both more substantial, and will contain more fat. Ideally, find a recipe that is already written for a liquid form of sugar, like corn syrup or honey, and use your tea syrup there. |
What’s the actual difference between soy sauce and miso?
To me, it seems like they are both just fermented soy beans, with the result being mostly glutamate with a bad smell. Soy sauce seems to be just the water that miso was left to steep in. | Yes, and no. Soy sauce could be said to be a by-product of miso. It can also be said to be a way to use “spoiled” miso. As step 2 for both products differs:
Both start out with the same aerobic (“with air”) fermentation process, using the same mold and milk acid fermenting (“lactobacillus“) cultures.
But for miso, this process is stopped before the mold sporulates, while for soy sauce, it is stopped right after it sporulated. (Which would be bitter, spoiled miso.)
Note that for organisms, from fungi to plants to animals, the act of making offspring (like spores) often causes drastic changes, which can wildly alter the chemical composition. Another example of this is is how flowering plants put all their resources in the most important part of them: Their flowers. So if you harvest them after they flower, they may be much less flavorful.
For miso, it is put in anaerobic (“air-free”) conditions. Of course it won’t make spores with no air to spread them around. But it also causes a very different fermentation. It is like the difference between making bread (airy fermentation makes CO₂) and alcohol (air-free fermentation makes ethanol).
After that, it is essentially done, and it will continue to ferment if possible, whether it’s aging at the factory or in a jar on your shelf.
While for soy sauce, it is then mixed with salt water and regularly stirred, keeping it fermenting aerobic and with a bigger focus on killing organisms that can’t tolerate salt, before it is filtered to leave only the liquids, and most of the time pasteurized. That makes it shelf-stable too. (Unpasteurized soy sauce is available though.)
So in essence, the differences are sporulation and air, or even more compact: The life that those fermenting organisms had was quite different. So their bodies and poop (which is what that lactic acid and alcohol literaly are) tastes quite different too.
TL;DR: Miso is to soy sauce what beer is to sourdough. :) |
Non-dairy substitute for meat to protect from tomato acid
I have an Italian cookbook and I really like the Bolognese Meat Sauce. However, I have learned I really do not do well with dairy and one of the steps is to “cook the meat in milk before adding wine and tomatoes to protect it from the acidic bite of the latter.” Is there a non-dairy substitute that would protect ground beef from the acidic bite of tomatoes? | There are many 'bolognese' recipes – although purists will say they do not count as authentic to the Italian origin – that do not use dairy. Indeed, bolognese is very popular in the UK and I think most people would be surprised to learn that the Italian standard recipe includes dairy (as well as white wine, not red).
You will be fine just leaving out the milk from your existing recipe; 'protecting from the acidic bite' is just a florid way to say 'tastes a bit better' and the difference won't be dramatic. This is also somewhere you could experiment with substitutes like non-dairy milks. You could also search for bolognese (or meat ragu) recipes and pick one without dairy that sounds appealing. |
How do you make homemade tortillas if the masa or corn meal is raw?
In the rescent past, I learned how to make tortillas from pre-cooked corn meal. The already-cooked, already-ground corn meal is also known as, "instant corn meal".
I ground my own corn this time, but I do not know if anything special required because the masa is raw and uncooked
I tried the following:
mix the raw corn meal (masa cruda) with water.
form the dough into balls the size of golf-balls
squished the balls of dough flat in a tortilla press
fry the tortilla in a dry pan with no oil for less than 5 minutes.
It did not work. The tortillas from only coarsley ground corn and water are not flexible. The tortillas snap in half. No tacos can be made. They are crumbly and brittle.
If I am using raw uncooked corn, do you reccomend that I fermet the corn on a bowl of water and yeast for a few hours?
Do you reccomend precooking the corn? I could spread the dry maiz crudo out on a cookie sheet and bake it in an oven for an hour or two at an extreemly low tempurature. Could make dough from pre cooked corn.
I only know how to make tortillas using factory-made instant pre-cooked flour. | In order for you to make tortillas, the corn needs to be nixtamalized, which you need to do when the corn is in its whole kernel form. Nixtamalization uses lime (cal), not yeast.
Since the corn will be soaked at the end of nixtamalization, when you grind it up it makes a wet masa dough than can be used directly.
Serious Eats documents the whole process. |
Can you make Soya milk with Soya Chunks?
I want to make soya milk, like it is done in this recipe. The recipe calls for soya beans, but my INDO-PAK shop sells Soya Chunks, but not the beans. Was wondering if Soya Chunks is acceptable and what variations in the recipe should be used when you use the chunks instead of the beans? Just for reference these are the soya chunks I have my eye on. | Soy milk is made from grinding up soy beans and cooking them to dissolve out their fat, sugar, and protein into water. The soy juice is then nutritionally reminiscent of cow's milk.
When the soy milk is exposed to calcium or magnesium the proteins denature and make cheese-like curds (Tofu).
TVP is made by extruding defatted soy flour through a 200C nozzle that basically denatures and melts the proteins
and causes them to make a spongy protein mesh. They won't denature again- nor will they ever dissolve into liquid again.
Unfortunately, Soya Chunks can't be used to make anything like soy milk.
Soy milk is easy to make. If you can find dry soy beans you can make the milk yourself. The beans ship easily and at this point it's hard to imagine a place on earth where they can't be found. |
Why chicken colour is like this?
Following is chicken fillet picture and best before was 2 days ago. Why there discoloured?
Is it safe to consume? | This looks like it dried out. Presumably, you opened the package a few days ago, removed a few pieces, and kept the remainder in the fridge. It looks like you had another piece atop the two photographed ones, so the top stayed normal and the exposed sides went dry.
For further evidence, touch the darker parts and see if they feel drier than the light pink ones. |
Heat/Fire hazard with over the range convection oven?
I'm interested in getting a new combination convection/microwave oven that would fit over the range. There are wooden cabinets just above and around the space where I currently have a microwave. Would there be any safety issue or heat/fire hazard having a convection oven in that space? | The manual for any sort of oven should specify the necessary clearance required in each direction. Since different machines will differ in operating temperature, insulation, construction etc., there's no general answer we can give here other than to check the manual before purchasing and take the requirements seriously. |
Why do most (all?) recipes call for cooked rather than dry beans?
I'm thinking of recipes like chili, which have a "brothy" component to the finished recipe. One would hope that adding dry beans to an appropriate amount of liquid, loaded with aromatics and spices, would add flavor directly to the beans as they cook. I can imagine the counterpoint being the differing amounts of liquid that dry beans might absorb, according to variety and age, but it doesn't seem as though that would be hard to compensate throughout the cooking process. | Because the amount of liquid, time, and environment needed to cook dried beans will affect the finished result.
Beans absorb and require a very high proportion of water. A lot of people either presoak dried beans overnight to help shorten the cooking time. For your hypothetical chili, you are adding on hours of cooking that cook turn the rest of your ingredients into mush.
Another factor is that acidic ingredients increase the cooking time for beans. Cooking dried beans in your chili would increase cooking time because of the tomatoes. |
What is the difference between whole grain wheat and whole wheat?
I am somewhat confused on the concept of whole grain wheat vs whole wheat. The product in question is "Triscuit" biscuits. The manufacturer does not know so I thought I would put it online. Maybe there is a wheat guru out there.
By the way the ingredient label says whole grain wheat BUT underneath the logo is "White winter wheat". So technically we have potentially three different animals running around. They are whole grain wheat, whole wheat, white winter wheat and short of visiting the factory and walking through the manufactring process this may be an impossible mystery to solve. | From this article, it appears that "whole wheat" is a more restrictive term than "whole grain":
Whole wheat flour is made by milling 100 percent of the kernel into a powder. Very similar whole grain products are made by recombining the separated milling fractions in the proportions originally present in the whole kernel. These are similar in appearance. Both are good sources of dietary fiber.
From the ingredient name "whole grain wheat" on the back of the Triscuit box, it looks like they are going the "recombining the separated milling fractions" way. Probably since they can optimize storage of each different fraction and/or purchase them separately when the price is advantageous. |
Why does a whetstone create old paint like substance
I am new to using whetstones. As such, I purchased a cheap Whetstone (manufacturer is FULUDM) and used an old cheap knife to practice.
What I've noticed is, the 1000g grit (which is a green stone) seems to generate a paint like substance. My searches online provide 0 results as to what this is.
Is this expected or does this indicate a fault or a poor technique?
My technique? Soak it for 30 minutes and ensure there is a thin layer of water on the top at all times (as per the instructions). Hold the knife at about 22 degree angle (depending on material).
You can see the state of my knife from the Whetstone
And this gif should also show the paint like substance generated (sorry it's so low quality) | This is perfectly normal.
Both faces 'suffer' from the physical action of rubbing them together, as you sharpen the knife you abrade the surface of the whetstone too.
As the grit is very fine, it forms a paste, which just needs rinsing off after you've finished.
Eventually, you'll wear a hollow where the knife has worn away the stone, just like footfall on an old stairway. |
Is a lightweight mortar suitable for cardamom?
I am looking for small size and lightweight mortar and pestle.
I checked online (amazon.in) and offline but all products are very heavy. I need a super lightweight mortar. Will that work well for cardamom pods?
If a light mortar is not suitable, what are the alternatives to crush cardamom? | Cardamom (inner) seeds are fairly soft, and crush well in my olive wood mortar (the pestle is made of the same wood). Cracking the pods to get at the seeds is even easier.
Although olive is one of the hardest and densest woods, it's a lot lighter than ceramic or stone. Mine is similar to this one on Amazon UK (the pestle could be the same but the mortar is slightly different). Mango wood and beech are also used; they're only about half as hard as olive but should still be OK for cardamom. Unspecified wood is to be avoided as it could be very soft and not much use for spices.
The only thing I wouldn't use mine for is fenugreek, because the seeds are very hard indeed and tend to need impact rather than just pressure in a rocking/grinding motion. They might damage it but also the shape of the pestle isn't right for smacking the business end down onto them.
It's my spare as I avoid using utensils that will be damaged by the dishwasher, so it hasn't been heavily used. I sometimes cook properly when travelling with friends, and taking this one means a bit less weight in my already-heavy food crate, plus it's sure to be clean and dry when I pack. Typically when I'm cooking away from home I'll be crushing cardamom, coriander, and cumin, possibly mustard seeds for dhal or chilli. In the former I use a preground asafoetida/fenugreek mix which gets round the need to crush anything very hard. t's also fine for black pepper and allspice. |
Browning food too large for a frying pan
Does anyone have any tips to browning large quantities of food that will take too long to do in batches in a frying pan? For example meatballs, which I will brown before putting in the oven with a tomato sauce. Can I use the grill or oven? What temperature would you set it at? | Grill, oven, or broiler can all work. Specific temperatures for the oven are not necessary, because ovens vary wildly and are rarely that precise. You can just think in terms of low (200 - 300F/93 - 149C), medium (300 - 400F/149C- 204C) and High (above 400F/204C). For the grill or broiler, you simply have to keep an eye no things and turn regularly so as not to burn. For browning in the oven, I think in terms of high heat...so I might set my oven at 475F/246C. Place items on a sheet pan...again, keeping an eye on things and turning as necessary. I would suggest you have the largest risk of overcooking with the oven method, as the other methods will likely brown faster.
(BTW, meatballs can also be poached in sauce without browning). |
Can dough mixture be refrigerated?
I was trying to make cinnamon rolls but noticed that I’m missing two cups of flour and it’s too late in the night for me to get more. I’ve already made the mix (yeast, milk, and sugar) and added two cups of flour (I need 4 cups for the recipe).
Is it okay for me to refrigerate the mixture and just continue my buns after tomorrow when I get more flour? They have not been through their first rise yet since it’s not full dough yet, just a lumpy mixture. I’m hoping the fridge won’t kill the yeast. | The refrigerator won’t kill your yeast, but it will also merely slow down, not stop its activity.
Yeast is most active (multiplying and producing CO2) at temperatures around 30°C - that’s why most recipes suggest letting your dough rise in a warm place. However, the tolerance range is way wider and yeast will still be slightly active at refrigeration temperatures (but perhaps not in the extra cold zones). Bakers use this effect for specific preparations where they rest their dough for sometimes days (no-knead bread is a prime example) or convenience (preparing buns in the afternoon or evening and baking them in the morning).
For your case, simply make sure that the dough mix doesn’t have dry lumps, but a shaggy dough is fine - I would even recommend you don’t fully knead the dough. Then place it in an airtight container with enough headspace or cover it well to prevent drying out and leave it in the refrigerator. A few hours won’t matter and if you leave it longer, you should see activity in the dough.
Proceed with your rolls when you have time, but I would recommend you use visual and haptic clues (e.g. increase in volume and the way the dough feels and springs back) over resting times in a recipe. You may also need not the full amount of flour if your dough had this initial phase in the refrigerator, so add the new flour slowly. |
Is this yellow substance on my chicken meat a fat deposit, and is it ok?
This was a Plymouth Rock chicken from my own yard, the first one to be eaten, hopefully. I am not sure about this yellow substance. Is it just fat deposits? Is it normal, and should I just remove them? | According to this website (linked below) yellow fat is a good thing! Says it's
"the result of a grass-based diet which is high in chlorophyll.
The cartenoid beta carotene in the grass is the same as the orange colour found in carrots. This is what produces the yellow fat in chickens as well as the bright yellow yolks in pastured eggs."
https://www.dirtycleanfood.com.au/blogs/unearth/why-is-our-chicken-fat-yellow |
Is bird feed edible?
I can buy bird feed for 10 - 20 ZAR per kilo. Choice grade flax seed or hemp seed go for R40 - R60 for half a kg.
I just want any random type of fibrous plant based seeds to blend in my smoothies. Is there anything added to bird feed that makes it unfit for human consumption or is it just left over seeds from the mills that did not make the cut? (Like I suspect)
I just cannot pay such a ridiculous premium for such a basic food stuff. I suspect the yuppie health shop are taking the vegans in the suburbs for a massive ride. | There’s nothing added to the seeds, but there’s a good chance that some things are not taken out of the original harvest.
Grains and other seeds can contain lots of foreign materials, from dirt and debris to seeds from other plants. They are grown on a field after all, there’s soil, wind, rain and then they are harvested and transported. Part of the processing steps for seeds and grains for food production is to “clean” the batches and do some tests with regards to quality standards. Overall, these contaminants are usually mostly harmless (although biting down on a stray stone can be very uncomfortable and keep your dentist busy, effectively eating up all potential savings from buying bird food over human food), but if you have a batch with grains/seeds that have gone bad or contain harmful other seeds, things can get nasty.
Cleaning steps for livestock feed are less meticulous and for bird seed, processing is down to the bare minimum (basically what’s necessary for storage purposes), because ultimately the birds will pick up the seeds one by one anyway - think Cinderella and the doves.
So in short, the choice is yours. The bird seed (assuming we are talking plants that are part of the typical food store range, not just any random seeds) should be edible, whether it meets your expectations of safe is up to you. If money is an issue, I would rather check out whether cheaper options like non-name-brands or buying in bulk are available. Although for the latter, time is a factor as especially oily seeds can go rancid quickly, so can be worth to calculate carefully. |
Use bone marrow and skin from chicken stock
Every time I make chicken stock with a carcass it feels like I'm still throwing away a bunch of skin and marrow (and some meat chunks), but I love the idea of using everything.
Is breaking up everything in a food processor and then straining it problematic for the stock or food processor? I've read that breaking up bones can make your stock "cloudy" but I don't see why that's a problem...I'm also wondering if this would make it taste bad or render it indigestible. Thank you!
Edit
To clarify, my question is whether it could be useful to process (blend up) the carcass at some point, either before or during cooking. Without processing, it seem like a lot of material gets thrown away when I strain it. For example, you can break apart the bones and see the marrow. | To clarify, my question is whether it could be useful to process (blend up) the carcass at some point, either before or during cooking. Without processing, it seem like a lot of material gets thrown away when I strain it.
I doubt that breaking up the bones will make the stock indigestible -- from what I've read, chicken bone marrow is safe as long as it has been cooked. So the question seems to me to be whether breaking up the bones will improve the stock, and if so, whether the improvement is worth the extra effort. At this point, I think the question is subjective -- try it, and do it if you like the results.
I definitely wouldn't use a food processor or blender to pulverize everything beforehand. That seems like it'd be hard on the food processor, and probably unnecessary. Instead, start making the stock as usual. Once the stock has simmered for an hour or two, most of the collagen will have been extracted and the bones will become brittle. At that point, you can pick out the larger bones (which contain the majority of the marrow). Snap them in half, or give them a quick chop with a cleaver, and return to the pot for a little more cooking.
I don't think there's any use in breaking up the skin, as the skin is already very thin and fully exposed to the hot water, so everything that's likely to be extracted will be whether the skin is cut up or not. |
What can remove extremely baked on grease?
I have a high-temperature home electric Pizza oven.
Despite my best efforts to keep it spotless, There are places (stainless and glass surfaces) where spatters of oil/grease have become hard baked on, to the point where they are shiny and hard.
I am struggling to find a product that will remove this stuff, it's so hard that it could be scraped off with a blade but I don't want to damage the surfaces.
I've tried general oven cleaner, which did have a cleaning effect but won't touch this stuff. Tried some harsher stuff like acetone, thinners etc; no effect, baking soda; nothing.
Even tried "Pyrolytic" cleaning (i.e full temperature: 400C) but that's angered it and made it harder!
EDIT: This appears to be "oil polymerization" | Raw metal and glass are extremely durable at least partly because you can clean them with harsh chemicals if needs be. I had a similar situation, my oven got extremely dirty with baked on grease, the strongest cleaner I could find in the store barely made a dent in it. I tried applying a paste of baking soda and dish soap, which also barely made a dent in it.
In the end what worked for me was to use a razor blade window scraper on the glass and metal parts, and repeated applications of the strongest oven cleaner I could find in the areas I couldn't scrape. There's no magic answer, it just takes elbow grease as my grandfather used to say.
As has been mentioned in comments if you glass is coated then you should think twice before using a razor on it. My ovens don't have a coating, but if you don't know don't do it! |
Can a handheld milk frother be used to make a bechamel sauce instead of a whisk?
Has anyone tried this and did it work? I'm curious if it would give a similar, or maybe even better result compared to hand whisking.
Edit: I don't have a milk frother right now, and was thinking of buying one for this. | Answering for some additional information:
Technically, you could use a milk frother for making bechamel, in the same sense that you could also use a pair of chopsticks or a large fork (I've done both, while travelling). The question is whether it would be a good tool for making it. And the answer is no.
In addition to the underpowering issues that Tetsujin mentions, there are the issues that most frothers:
Aren't shaped well for scraping the butter & flour on the bottom of the pot;
Have small delicate wires that wouldn't be great for moving much milk around (they're more designed for frothing like 200ml of milk);
Have short shafts (like 8cm) that wouldn't allow you to use a deep pot;
Have bare metal wires that would scratch a nonstick pot;
Spin too fast.
Lemme explain the last, because it's why you don't really want a powered appliance for making bechamel at all. Generally, you whisk bechamel relatively slowly (you do the same with polenta, custard, etc.). You don't want to whip air into it. Most powered mixers of any kind (frothers, handheld mixers, stick blenders) are designed so that their lowest speed is still way too fast, and will result in incorporating air into the bechamel, which you don't want. It might even prevent the bechamel from thickening properly. |
Is it possible to thicken oat milk based sauce when dairy would naturally be thicker?
After switching to oat milk I recently tried to use it in a box-dinner that I previously used dairy milk in. I noticed that it didn't thicken into a sauce nearly as well.
This kind of makes sense intuitively; oat milk doesn't curdle the same way, it lasts longer, it's just not going to respond in the way dairy milk would. That said, is there something I can do to help it along like adding flour or cornstarch? I'd rather just have one type of milk for drinking and cooking if possible. | Both flour and starch will gelatinize (=thicken) any random liquid. Milk is not directly related to this reaction, it works even with juice or plain water.
As flour can leave an undesired aftertaste if not cooked through properly, I would recommend corn or potato starch instead.
The standard dose for sauces is 1-2 teaspoons per cup of liquid, but as your dish already contains corn starch as thicker, I’d suggest simply making a slurry of a spoonful of starch and some cold water or your plant milk and add it slowly to the hot sauce until you reach the desired consistency. |
What is this slimy Asian leafy green?
I bought this leafy green at H-Mart, a Korean supermarket. It was labelled "Monchoy", but I can't find anything online for that term! Both raw and sautéed, it has a slimy texture reminiscent of okra, and I'd like to figure out how it's typically cooked. What is this vegetable usually called, and what part of the world does it come from? | Although it's hard to say without seeing the stalks, your description of the flavor and texture is consistent with Malabar Spinach, also called Wood Ear. It's used in a variety of Asian and African cuisines. |
What is the edibility of fish organs?
Are organs of fish edible? For example, I was wondering about the heart, liver, and all the other unidentified organs or glands inside mackerel, before deciding to discard or keep them.
Are different organs treated differently?
(I can't identify most of the organs.) | Most fish are pretty similar to other animals in this regard. All organs are edible (with well known exceptions such as pufferfish liver), but some are unappetising at least unless cleaned and prepared properly (the gall bladder, and the digestive organs).
Since fish tend to be small, most of the tastier organs aren’t worth rooting around for and individually handling. The liver, the roe, and the swim bladders of large fish are the only exceptions you’re likely to find (the latter dried and boiled for isinglass). But whole mackerel, sardines, anchovies, and other fish were and are used whole to make fermented fish sauce, so it’s clearly not a question of poisoning. |
How to break mince beef apart for a bolognese, and then brown it
I am able to break mince beef down into a much less coarse material, by
putting the raw mince into hot water in a pan, then
breaking it apart easily with a spoon.
See an example here
It appears that the absorbed water helps weaken bonds in the strands of mince, and it breaks up.
Then, I need to properly brown the mince beef. This is difficult as there is too much water in the mince. The browning of the mince is critical for the flavour of the bolognese, as is the fineness of the mince/ragu.
Is there a good way of breaking up and browning mince that anyone knows? Maybe this whole adding to water thing is a bad idea? | Your profile shows you live in the UK, so unless you buy your mince from 'posh' butchers rather than a supermarket, then water is already an issue - your meat already has 5% added before you buy it*. It most certainly doesn't want any more. It's quite a task to get rid of what there is.
Actually making British supermarket mince truly fry takes a bit of effort and as much heat as you can get into the pan.
If I'm making anything that starts with meat [chunks or mince], onions & garlic etc, then I start with two pans, not one. A regular saucepan which will be what the final sauce will cook in, and the biggest frying pan you own. You can work them simultaneously, as it takes about the same time for each.
Use a wooden spatula, not a spoon. 50p from any supermarket - when they have them in stock. You want that square[ish] edge to work for you.
As you're getting your onion prepped, but both pans on with a bit of oil, full flame, each according to the pan size, so the saucepan goes on a medium-sized ring, frying pan goes on the largest. As soon as you drop your onions into your oil, drop the heat back to half & give a quick stir every minute. Drop your mince in the other, which should just about be smoking by now. Keep the heat on the frying pan up full.
You'll see it lands in 'stripes', or a less appetising image… worms [unless you've seen that horrible new packaging from Sainsbury's which looks like a single compressed block of goo]. Set the spatula across the stripes so were working across not down the grain, then using the square end, start from the far end, working towards you. Push through it, drag back, push through, drag back. Do this rapidly rather than carefully, it will take maybe 20 or so 'strokes' to work down the length of the pack. Each push will separate off half an inch or so. For a standard supermarket pack you'll probably need to do this twice to cover the width of the block in two passes. The heat of the pan is helping you at this point, as even in a decent non-stick the 'block' will slightly stick to the pan, preventing it skidding around while you work. It will free itself up within a minute, no need to worry.
That's knocked it down to much more manageable chunks. By now the underside will be nicely seared, but the rest raw. As you start to now spread this around the pan, give it a good shuffling about, turning a new raw face down as much as you can.
About now, all the spare water will start to come out of it. You paid for that water & whatever is being washed out of your meat, so we're not going to pour it down the sink, we're going to evaporate it off & keep the rest.
Once it's really starting to boil rather than frying, you can concentrate on breaking up the last few bits that have survived until now.
BTW, don't forget to keep your onions moving every minute or so whilst you're doing this.
Wait until the water is almost evaporated off. Keep it moving a bit but there's no rush at this point - your pan has been cooled to the temperature of boiling water & cannot get any hotter until it's gone. The full flame is to drive the water off as fast as possible. Right as your onions are nearly ready, you can add your garlic. Another stir. Your meat should by now be about dry & you can at last brown it a bit.
Success.
Separated, browned & ready to go into your onion/garlic, perfectly sautéed; ready & waiting for your tomatoes & herbs.
btw, that Youtube method is terrible. There's no point at which the meat is ever browned, it's just boiled. Browning - Maillard reaction - is an essential part of the flavour. They also mush it into a paste, which isn't really what you want; there should be a little 'body' or 'grain' remaining in it.
Late note:
It turns out to be 5% they can add without having to tell you. I always thought it was 10% [detail above changed]. Government guidelines at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meat-products-sell-them-legally-in-england |
Using Butter in Enriched Bread Dough - any differences between soft vs melted?
I live in northern NY and my kitchen is cold a great deal of the year - so mixing butter into bread dough takes much longer and typically leaves large chunks of butter in the dough. I often have to take it out of the mixer and kneed out the butter chunks by hand.
The last few times I've made an enriched dough (in this case brioche and rum baba) I've added the butter to the milk and warmed them together until the butter melted and used this in the dough instead.
I did not notice a difference - it kneaded and baked the same as before. (The baba's were my best batch yet - beautiful crumb, delicious). But just because I didn't notice a difference doesn't mean there isn't one. So my question is - am I missing something?
Can anyone elaborate on what difference using melted butter makes in the finished bread? (Does it change the structure, taste, texture etc?)
The only relevant comment I've found on using melted vs softened butter was from ATK testing it in a doughnut recipe; they said it made the dough feel greasy - but I did not find this to be the case.
Edit:
I found a comment in another post, here, explaining how fat inhibits gluten development - this suggests a difference in the dough depending on when the butter is added, but not between solid or melted butter. Nevertheless, it does seem relevant so I linked it. | This Youtube video compares adding softened or cold (but flattened with a rolling pin) butter to a white dough that had already been kneaded for 3 minutes. The amount of butter was 24% the amount of flour, both by weight. The dough was then kneaded for another 7 minutes. For melted butter the butter was added at the start and the dough kneaded for 10 minutes. In all cases a strong dough developed after 10 minutes.
After baking the three loaves looked very similar. The presenter said he would be happy with any of them. No comment on the taste.
The presenter points out that usually butter is added with other enrichments, such as eggs or sugar. In this case, he found that the dough made with melted butter required at least 5 minutes more kneading than the other two. This seems reasonable because, while all fat hinders gluten development, melted butter will coat the flour most quickly. More kneading time is obviously inefficient and risks over-fermentation. |
Japan Pufferfish preparation technique training
Where can I find resources on how the Japanese chefs are trained to prepare pufferfish delicacy safely? I understand their standard requires a written and practical exam.
I've tried searching for authoritative books on the topic but can't seem to find any resources on it.
Surely there are resources geared towards exam preparation. Perhaps such books may contain information on general food safety such as preventing cross contamination etc.
This definitely falls under the professional hospitality sector as this is a high risk task (no homemade or DIY) and you can't make simple mistakes without severe health consequences. | You are saying it yourself: since fugu preparation is no place for DIY, you won't find general resources on how to learn to prepare it, because easily available resources would be a prompt for DIY attempts.
One needs to train under the direct supervision of a trained person
How does one obtain authorization to cook fugu?
Fugu cooking licenses are granted to those who pass a fugu handling examination, usually after having undergone apprenticeship under someone already qualified.
It should be noted that fugu cooking licenses are administered by local goverment (ie: prefectures, municipalities in the case of cities like Osaka or Kyoto), therefore the contents of the exam and the apprenticeship prior can differ from region to region. The course that one must complete can take longer in some places, while the exam can present itself to be more difficult in other areas.
For instance, in what is said the be the strictest place regarding fugu licensing in Japan: Yamaguchi Prefecture, it is necessary to work for at least 3 years under someone qualified before being allowed to take the exam, while in Tōkyō it is possible to take the test after 2 years of apprenticeship.
Also to be noted:
Fugu in the world
It is also interesting to note that Fugu dishes can also be found in South Korea, where it is called bok-eo (복어). It is also imported into the United States where it can sometimes be served under very strict regulation and licensing. Fugu is, however, entirely banned in the European Union.
To address the comments that there are videos explaining how to do it:
I am very passionate about Japan, and I have read many things related to Japanese food, including also the topic of fugu.
One of them, which I can't find back to properly quote, mentioned that the art of preparing fugu is not in removing all the toxic parts, but in doing so while leaving just enough toxin that one feels it without ending up being killed. The Japanese connoisseurs call the slight numbness which should follow eating well prepared fugu "the taste of death". Judging the amount of toxin in a fish and tune the subsequent cleaning based on that is hardly teachable in a Youtube video. |
What are these two brown spots in my enamel pan?
Recently two brown spots appeared on my enamel pan.
They are some distance apart, but appeared around the same time and have a very similar look, with a dark spot surrounded by a whiter area and a brown outer edge, so I have the feeling it's related to the coating rather than some damage that has been done.
Is this the enamel coating that went (or is going) bad? Is this pan still safe to use? | So, I have some bad news and some good news.
The bad news is that those look like rust spots that are a result of a flaw in the enamel coating allowing moisture and salt to get through to the iron underneath. The rust then bleeds through, producing that stain. I can even see the crack in the coating in the second close-up. This can be the result of normal wear & tear on an old pan, but if this is a relatively new pan it's probably an indication that the enamel coating isn't very good.
The good news is that you can still use the pot. That much iron oxide isn't going to do anything to you. However, you can expect the rust spots to get worse over time. |
Salvage tuna marinated in pineapple
I was experimenting with marinating tuna steaks in a pineapple/orange sauce and when I seared one, it had a mushy surface and overwhelming pineapple flavor. I still have a few steaks marinating. Can they be salvaged? | No.
While you could get most of the pineapple flavor out of the tuna by soaking it in ice water for several hours, you couldn't restore the texture. Pineapple contains a natural meat tenderizer that has broken down the protein structure of the fish. Soaking out the juice won't firm it up.
I suggest mincing the fish with some hot sauce and using it for spicy tuna rolls. |
What is the secret to to Vietnamese spring roll skins?
I'm Dutch and in here we call spring rolls "loempia's". Probably due to our history with Indonesia. They look like this 99% of the time.
Recently I went to France and they call them "nems" there the spring rolls looked like this. Probably due to their history with Vietnam.
Some differences I noticed were that the skins were more crisp and less smooth than "ours". Also the filling was quite different, more meaty. I prefer the once I ate in France a lot more, so I'd like to know how to make them myself. | The first picture looks like spring rolls made with wheat flour-based wrappers and deep fried. The filling also appears to contain a large proportion of cabbage and carrots. The second picture looks like they were made with rice-based wrappers and also deep fried, probably cha gio. The filling for these usually has bean thread noodles with a relatively larger proportion of meat (usually pork). Careful - in my experience, the rice-based wrappers have a tendency to trap steam and explode when deep frying. |
How long can you marinade chicken, keeping it in the fridge?
There is a famous fried chicken recipe of Google chef Charlie Ayers . This recipe calls for marinating chicken in the fridge for 5 days. However Nestle, and USDA say that marinated chicken should not be kept in the fridge for more than 2 days. So which is right? | I would suggest going with the advice of the USDA over Nestle corporation. That said, the USDA site does not state that longer than 2 days is unsafe, rather that marinades, which tend to be acidic, begin to break down the protein after this point. That is a texture and preference issue rather than a safety issue. The recipe you link contains buttermilk (also acidic). I suspect that this will impact the texture of the final product IF it were held for 5 days. However, the recipe does NOT say to marinate for 5 days, but that you can hold it for UP TO 5 days.
Marinades are a surface treatment. You don't get added benefit beyond a few hours. The marinade does contain quite a bit of salt, so there may be some brining happening. Again, not much added benefit after a few hours or a day.
In the end, I would be personally more concerned with texture. Over night is plenty...maybe two days....yes it will be safe at day 5, but you might not like the texture as much. |
Can you use the butter from frying onions to make the Bechamel for Soubise sauce?
Traditionally, onions are slowly braised in butter before being drained, puréed and added to a pre-prepared Bechamel sauce to make Soubise sauce.
This seems a terrible waste of flavour, if you were to make the Bechamel last of all with the onion-flavoured butter, would this be too overpowering and would it ruin the final sauce?
(I'm assuming here that any water added to the butter during the braising/poaching process would not effect the thickening of the milk/cream and would have evaporated off). | I don't know specifically about using the butter to make soubise, but you can certainly make a bechamel sauce from the butter used in the frying. I have done so many times - usually for use in a pasta based dishes such as "Mac and cheese".
The onion flavour is present, but not too strong and seems to be mostly retained in the onions themselves.
The water that boils out of the onions (and butter) has evaporated by the time the fat from the butter reaches the boiling point of the fat. As you can make bechamel from things like olive oil, the water content of the butter and/or onions isn't a huge consideration in the process anyway, unless you are removing the onions before they caramelize and are still losing water. At this point you could simply let the water boil off before adding the flour. |
What should I do to keep the color bright when I use natural pigments such as blue spirulina to make baked products？
I am trying to make some bakery products with natural coloring, but I found that the color is very bright at the beginning, but after baking, this blue color becomes dull, do I need to add something else to keep it What about the original blue? | You cannot keep it. This is just how the chemicals in spirulina work. It isn't suitable for coloring baked goods.
Spirulina coloring has been tested to be heat stable to about 45 C. Between 45 and 70, it starts to degrade, and above that, it goes away very fast. Also, the optimal pH is very mildly acidic, between 5.5 and 6. Baked goods need to reach a temperature of over 95 C, and the batter is frequently mildly alkalic, due to baking powder or egg whites. So, the conditions in a baked good are directly incompatible with keeping spirulina bright blue. It doesn't matter what you add.
For reference, see Physicochemical degradation of phycocyanin and means to improve its stability: A short review. |
When does a spatula or spoon become sterile during cooking?
Imagine the scenario. You are cooking chicken in a Bechamel sauce. First you fry the raw chicken in the butter, stirring until the chicken is partially cooked. You then add some flour, stir and fry some more. You then add milk, a stock cube and seasoning, stir well, bring to a gentle simmer, cover and stir occasionally until the chicken is cooked through.
Will the utensil become sterile under these conditions or is there a risk of contamination from the raw chicken?
Is there a difference in risk factor between utensil materials e.g. steel, silicone or wood?
Could the risks in 1 & 2 above be eliminated by keeping the utensil in the covered pan during cooking rather than sitting on a utensil rest or dish? | Making stuff sterile, in the medical sense, i.e. pathogen-free, is incredibly hard. You basically need an autoclave, and of course tools that withstand prolonged exposure to high pressure steam at well over 100 degrees, so wooden tools are right out, and any plastics will degrade very quickly.
What you probably mean is "food-safe" which is a far cry from sterile under normal conditions. As long as all participants in a meal are relatively healthy, i.e. not undergoing severe immunodepressant therapy, I personally wouldn't bother using several tools along the way, neither with eggs nor chicken nor fish. Stirring hot sauce will probably bring contamination down to reasonable levels within minutes, if not seconds, especially since you have the additional decontamination mechanism of "washing" the tool with the sauce. |
Sputtering Avocado Oil at High Temps
I recently purchased avocado oil from Costco, specifically Marianne's Harvest Brands Avocado Oil. I've tried frying/sauteing with it a couple of times, and so far, every time I've heated it up, it started sputtering badly. Is this common?
I imagined it would heat up like Canola or Vegetable oil, smooth and glassy, but as soon as it got hot enough, it started sputtering like crazy! The only thing I can think of is that I put the oil in a recently washed marasca bottle before pouring it into the pan.
Has anybody else had any issues with sputtering avocado oil when heating it up? | Sputtering usually means there's water present, so your oil must have some sort of water contamination. It's probably condensation left over from washing your bottle. You can determine this by pouring in some oil from the original bottle. If it doesn't spurt then you simply didn't dry the marasca bottle well enough, if it does your oil has been contaminated and you should take it back.
If it's only the bottle that has some water in it there's nothing to worry about, you could heat it up and slowly get the water out of it but I suggest you just leave it and accept it's going to spurt. |
How do intentionally prepare oatmeal which is as sticky and gluey as possible?
I have ground dried corn I to masa and a friend showed me how to make made homemade tortillas.
However, the thick homemade tortillas could never be used make tacos because the tortillas snap in half if you try bend them.
Somtimes, boiled oatmeal is very sticky and gluey.
How do you make cornmeal or oatmeal which is as sticky and glue-like as possible?
If I mix gluey oatmeal with coarse ground corn, the the gluey oatmeal might make homemade tortillas, matza, indian naan, gorditas, pita, or flatbread easier to fold in half.
How do we make an oat-based edible glue-like additive for different kinds of homemade bread? | This is all about hydration and gelatinization of starch. Similar principles apply to corn and oatmeal, but I'll concentrate on the latter since I'm very familiar with it from making porridge.
Peak gelatinization for the starch in oatmeal occurs at about 95C. A gentle simmer is fine, but a racing boil will cause granules of unhydrated starch to form. (Something similar happens if roux is added to a too hot sauce.) Likewise, gentle stirring helps, but vigorous whisking will break up the suspension. Also I suggest you deliberately allow a thin layer of oatmeal or corn to stick to the bottom of the pan: it seems to have extra thickening powers once it is scrapped off and incorporated thoroughly into the mixture. Towards the end, you can deliberately let a skin form on the top before stirring it back it.
Finally it is critical to add water slowly: whenever you feel the suspension thicken, it's time to add a drop more.
I've found that milk can actually make a less creamy porridge, perhaps because the fat gets in the way of the starch matrix. So I'd suggest preparing the oatmeal with water, and then adding milk/cream only at the end.
Another huge factor is how much your oatmeal or corn has been preprocessed. In the UK one can buy 'instant oats', which have already been finely rolled and partially cooked. These hydrate very quickly. At the other extreme, pinhead oats really have to be soaked overnight. I have had good results by going further and partially cooking it, to the point where the starch granules have visibly broken up. Even treated in this way, it can take 20 minutes or more to form a creamy porridge the next morning. |
My pasta maker roller has warped
My son was making pasta but stuffed a huge dollop into the roller, which has then caused the roller to roll in an oval shape rather than smoothly; so now I get horizontal 'stripes' in the dough from where it rolls thinner in some places than others because the roller gets thick, the thin again in one turn.
Does anyone know how I can get the shape back in the roller, or stop it shifting backwards and forwards on its bar if this is what's happening?
It's a new machine and I'd like to save it if I can! | You probably need to first establish what's bent.
If the roller cylinders are solid steel, then possibly an axle. If they're hollow, then the cylinder itself is more likely.
If the axle is bent, then there's a chance you could bend it back to approximately straight again, depending on what equipment you have access to - though it will always be a weak point. If the cylinder is distorted you can probably forget it.
Time for a new roller. |
Why does the second bowl of popcorn pop better in the microwave? And how can I capitalize on that?
Picture this.
I make 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels in the microwave. No paper bag - just a glass bowl with a glass lid, where the lid has holes in it to allow steam to escape. After about 5 minutes, about 3/4 of the kernels have popped. If I go longer, the popped kernels start to burn, and even some of the unpopped kernels burn too. So I stop at 5 minutes, with the bowl about 80% full of popped popcorn.
I then empty the glass bowl of all the popcorn into another bowl, for eating. But before eating, I make another 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels in the microwave again. This time, at about 4 1/2 minutes, there are so many popped kernels that it lifts the glass lid off the top of the bowl, perfectly cooked. I empty it into my eating bowl...
I didn't use oil or anything, but I got perfect air-popped popcorn from just a microwave. Only thing is, it took two tries. Also, this happens every time. Part of the reason I make a second bowl at all is because the popcorns are just so much better than the first bowl's.
How can I get the first batch to cook just as well as the second one? I have tried "pre-heating" just the bowl in the microwave for about 30 seconds. It does help. But apparently this is actually very bad and dangerous for the components of the microwave.
I don't know what's happening. But if I had to guess, there are tiny water molecules in the microwave that are messing things up. Or, something about the bowl being warm helps the kernels pop.
Do you have a suggestion on how to make a perfect bowl of air-popped popcorn in one go? | You might need to experiment a bit, but my guess is your bowl [or lid] isn't perfectly transparent to microwaves & is itself heating. In effect that's 'wasting' the microwaves. Second time the bowl is hotter, giving the popcorn a better chance.
You could test with just half an inch of water in the bottom of the bowl. If the rim gets hotter than the water, or even hot at all, reject the bowl for microwave use.
Personally, I won't use any bowl proven to absorb microwaves itself. It makes the process unpredictable… apart from the risk of trying to pick a bowl out that you expect to be cold at the top, to find it's skin-flayingly hot.
Try something plastic & heat-resistant instead, or just a paper bag, like supermarket microwave popcorn.
Comments below seem to be intent on inventing more & more weird & wacky ways to try avoid this simple two-minute elimination test, or alternatively propose ridiculous science-free theories.
I'm determined not to respond to any more of these ;) |
Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich - adapted to ingredients from the UK
Making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the UK. What is required, what is traditional, and what is optional?
Firstly: what type of bread? Must it be white, brown, wholemeal or granary? Are there any significant differences between bread in the US and UK?
Secondly: Butter, margarine, nothing. Should I butter my bread before adding other spreads? (Idiomatic combinations of peanut butter, jelly, and bread suggests nothing) I guess it is peanut butter on one slice and jelly on the other.
Thirdly: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter. These are the two types that are generally available in the UK - is it the same in the US? Is one type preferred, or is it a matter of taste?
Fourthly: Jelly. I'm aware that this is the jam-like spread (and not the gelatine-based substance) but what flavour? In my local supermarket I can find "seedless raspberry jam" and (in a section for sauces to serve with meat) "redcurrant jelly". Are either of these acceptable approximations of the concord grape jelly that I understand is traditional? How much jelly should I use: a thin scrape or layered on thickly?
Finally: Am I overthinking this? | Firstly: what type of bread? Must it be white, brown, wholemeal or granary? Are there any significant differences between bread in the US and UK?
It must be robust enough to hold up against wetness of the jelly without soaking through, but not tough enough that it's a jaw workout, which would cause the ingredients to splurt out the sides.
It must be moist enough to hold up against the stickiness of the peanut butter in your mouth, but not so wet that it folds over in your hands as you try to hold it like a soggy thin-crust New York pizza.
It should be mild enough that nothing in the bread itself overpowers the taste of the peanut butter and jelly.
This rules out some breads—a good baguette, for instance, is too tough; Hostess white bread is too feeble and soaks through; caraway-heavy ryes are too intense; and oily garlic-herbed focaccia is right out—but there's plenty of room for variation.
An English muffin—this is what Americans call your “muffins”—works fine.
A brioche roll will make PB&J into a dessert; a sandwich rye bread without caraway will make PB&J into a savory meal.
A typical multigrain sandwich bread is a good choice: not bland like a white or whole wheat bread, but not too intense on its own to overpower the main course.
Secondly: Butter, margarine, nothing. Should I butter my bread before adding other spreads?
It's PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY, not PEANUT, BUTTER, and JELLY, silly.
The only reason there's no law against this is that nobody in the history of PB&J sandwiches has ever even contemplated violating such a law.
(If you're tempted to add butter, your bread is probably too dry or tough.
Sandwiches around here are lubricated with mayonnaise by default, not with butter—and definitely not margarine.
But nobody would ever dream of doing this with PB&J.)
Thirdly: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter. These are the two types that are generally available in the UK - is it the same in the US? Is one type preferred, or is it a matter of taste?
Matter of taste.
Note: Peanut butter is a mixture of ground peanuts and, optionally, salt.
Period (full stop).
Any other ingredients—like sugar, palm oil, hydrogenated dog snot, or who knows what other balderdash the private equity barons have stooped to adding—make it an abomination upon humankind.
If it doesn't separate naturally, it's been desecrated by evil.
(Store it upside-down to make stirring easier when you open it.)
You can use unsalted peanut butter, but salted peanut butter will make the whole thing taste stronger.
You can always add salt when you stir it if you got unsalted peanut butter.
Fourthly: Jelly. I'm aware that this is the jam-like spread (and not the gelatine-based substance) but what flavour? In my local supermarket I can find "seedless raspberry jam" and (in a section for sauces to serve with meat) "redcurrant jelly". Are either of these acceptable approximations of the concord grape jelly that I understand is traditional?
Any flavo(u)r you like, although redcurrant or cranberry are probably too tart for the job.
Personally I like elderberry best, but strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and grape are all reasonable choices.
Your seedless raspberry jam will do just fine!
How much jelly should I use: a thin scrape or layered on thickly?
Taste differ, but to me the important thing is for the jelly to lubricate the peanut butter and not to be a sugary fruit soup that you dropped your bread in.
Too much and it will squirt out the sides.
Try a gradient of a thin scrape at one end to a thicker layer at the other end to see what you like.
Finally: Am I overthinking this?
Absolutely not!
Source: an American who spent formative years subsisting on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch (and sometimes dinner). |
Curled, Tender Beef in Noodle Soups (esp. Vietnamese)
I've noticed that both in Europe as well as Vietnam, the beef slices in noodle soups (in particular phở bò) tend to have two salient qualities:
they are absurdly, melt-in-your-mouth tender, and
they are very curled up.
The beef is sliced quite thinly and added to the bowl of boiling hot broth right before serving. In particular, the meat is not stewed or boiled beforehand. While I don't know what cut it was, the prices at the places I've eaten at suggest they most certainly did not use the most expensive, tender cuts, and yet the beef was softer than anything I've ever eaten, but also curled up tightly, even more than e.g. bacon does in a frying pan.
What's the procedure to obtain both properties above (which I assume connected)? I would venture the guess they use some sort of chemical meat tenderizer, but I am not sure when and how exactly. | In your case it's probably brisket or flank steak, which are stringier cuts and are therefore more prone to curling. Slicing them very thin lets them cook through after a quick dunk in the hot broth and makes them tender without the long cooking that these cuts would usually require. They might also be frozen to enable them to be sliced thinly or after cutting for general preservation, which could make them even more tender. I doubt there's a chemical tenderizer or marinade involved, but you can always ask the restaurant. |
How to prevent butter-based filling to spread out from rolled/knotted pastries?
When making Swedish cinnamon rolls (kanelbullar), or any similar rolled/knotted pastries, I have an issue with the filling oozing out of the pastry when baking it. Recipes are calling for a filling usually made with butter, sugar and spices. (The ratio being commonly 4 butter for 3 sugar, in weight + spices). When using that filling, I usually get a lot of leakage from the pastries, with a lot of the filling ending up on the baking tray.
Below, a picture illustrating the problem (brown filling on brown silicon mat is not the best, sorry):
Are there solutions to that problem? | The butter may not be coming out of just the filling, it could be coming out of the pastry itself as well (this is more common with laminated pastry like puff pastry). Either way your best solution is to refrigerate the pastries before baking. Butter melts at a relatively low temperature, about 34°C/94°F, so by the time you roll out your pastry and spread the filling the butter in both will be very soft and it will be melted in the oven in a very short time. If you refrigerate the pastries you are giving the pastry time to form a structure to contain the filling before it melts, and stabilizing the butter in the pastry itself.
If refrigeration doesn't work and you still get leaking then your filling has too much butter in it, try reducing the butter or adding a small amount of powdered sugar to it. Adding powdered meringue is a trick to stiffen butter cream icing which may work for a butter based filling as well, although it may add a flavor as well. |
What is this sofrito/confit technique the chef from Mokonuts talks about?
The chef from Mokonuts refers to an onion sofrito/confit that is braised for 4-5 hours. What is this technique, where can I find more about it?
https://www.cnet.com/health/how-to-make-the-best-tasting-beans/
Sofrito could be many things, but at Mokonuts we slowly confit lots of
diced onions in a lot of olive oil for 4 to 5 hours. They should be
confited, but not burnt, and should end up looking like sun-dried
raisins. The result is an aromatic and pungent purée of onions that is
packed with flavor. This onion preparation is then used as a base for
the legume cooking liquid.
Sofrito is not 4-5 hours and neither is confit. | "Confit" in French literally means "to preserve", but has the culinary meaning of "slowly cooking food to make it preservable", Wikipedia has a nice write-up on it.
So I do agree that slowly cooking onions over 4-5 hours is a sort of confit. "Caramelized onions" is a term more commonly used in English-speaking countries as far as I know. This is usually done by adding small splashes of water or white wine to keep the onions from frying too quickly. Check out this recipe from Serioseats for a detailed writeup.
Sofrito, on the other hand, is the typical Italian vegetable base for stocks and stews with small diced onions, carrots, and celery, and occasionally garlic, fennel, and other additions. |
How can you deal with bitter taste from grapefruit peels without sugar?
I've been working with grapefruit a lot recently, and really enjoy it. I'm trying to make use of the entire fruit, with candied peel and juice, to get every bit of goodness out of this amazing fruit.
When I’m using the water I boil the peel in (either mixed with the juice or alone), it is extremely bitter, and I have to use quite a bit more sugar than I'd like to make it palatable.
What other ingredients besides sugar would work well in a liquid could counteract the bitter taste and make the water palpable? I’m a kitchen newbie and could really use some advice here.
Right now I'm just mixing the water boiled off the peels with the squeezed juice and pulp, then adding sugar to make it palatable. So far I've just been working by taste test, and don't have specific proportions sleuthed out yet. | The rind of citrus is frequently blanched several times in boiling water to REMOVE bitterness, before candying the peel. So, it is not surprising that you find the water bitter. That water is typically discarded. The only way I know of to counteract that bitterness is with a sweetener of some sort. Your options are various sugars, honey, agave, or, I suppose, artificial sweeteners. I'm not sure about "good stuff". In my opinion, you are better off discarding that water. |
Why does Marco Pierre White use a spatula instead of a Soup Ladle?
https://youtu.be/yeg67jnZozU
I usually use a soup ladle when making soup. I see Marco using a spatula when making his soup in the linked video. Why is that?
I get that plastic utensils are preferred when using non stick cookware so not to scratch the coating, but a spatula seems odd when dealing with nearly half a gallon of soup. | I'd use a wooden spatula rather than one of those over-flexible plastic ones, but…
a soup ladle is for serving soup. It's completely the wrong implement for making it.
You can't stir properly, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom or round the edges whilst frying/sautéing or even later whilst simmering. You can't scrape round the pan sides, or pick up a knob of butter… It's just too clumsy at that point in the process. |
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