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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.
... | 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,... |
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 plai... | 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 c... |
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 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 ... |
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 do... |
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 stre... | 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 kno... |
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 ... | 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... |
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... |
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... | 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 b... |
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 toas... | 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 s... |
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?... | 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 ame... |
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 ... | 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 desire... |
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, every... | 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... |
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,... | 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... |
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 an... | 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 ind... | 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 ... |
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 o... | 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 ha... |
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 r... | 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 ... |
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 w... | 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 ... |
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 ca... |
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... | 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" pa... | 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, u... |
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%... | 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.... |
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.
Flo... | 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 d... |
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 ... | 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 h... |
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... | 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 un... |
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... |
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 sticki... | 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 ... | 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 th... |
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... | 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 ... |
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 s... | 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 l... |
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 skille... | 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” kit... |
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... | 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 sea... | 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... |
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 scori... | 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 i... |
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 n... | 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 fri... |
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 fr... | 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 t... |
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 wil... |
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 com... | 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... | 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 inste... |
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... | 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, a... |
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... | 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... |
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 housem... | 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 stan... |
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... | 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. B... |
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 ... | 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 ... |
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 s... |
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 s... | 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 y... |
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 s... | 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 i... |
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... | 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... |
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 gla... | 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 s... |
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 t... | 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 ly... |
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... | 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 topp... |
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 integr... | 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 i... |
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 lo... | 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 bras... |
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 th... | 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 ... |
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... | 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.
Thi... |
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 America... | 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 c... |
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 wh... | 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... | 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 chill... |
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... | 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 ... |
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, thi... |
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.... | 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).
Y... |
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... | 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.
Serio... |
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 t... | 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 def... |
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 i... |
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 convectio... | 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... | 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... |
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 ingredien... | 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 ker... |
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 ... | 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... |
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 ... | 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 p... |
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 ... |
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 mi... | 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 ... |
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 ... |
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 ove... | 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 harvest... |
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 f... | 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, chick... |
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 produ... | 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 s... |
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 t... |
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 ... | 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 teas... |
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 usua... | 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 ... |
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... | 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 supermar... |
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... | 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 st... |
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... | 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 fu... |
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 rathe... | 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 clos... |
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 wi... |
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 wit... | 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 ... |
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 ri... | 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 ... |
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 t... | 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... |
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 els... | 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 a... |
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, sti... | 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... |
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 ... | 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... |
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 oa... | 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 granul... |
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 t... | 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 ... |
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 kernel... | 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. I... |
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 th... | 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 ... |
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... | 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 enab... |
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 spice... | 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 tim... |
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... | "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 countrie... |
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 (ei... | 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... |
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 c... | 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... |
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