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What is direct heat? Why is it that when I check google images for Direct heat, I see pictures of a flame under a grid like surface? Is that direct, or indirect? And what'd you call sticking a marshmallow directly in a flame to toast it? no grid at all. Is there a unique name for that? <Q> Direct vs. Indirect Heat are terms usually used when referring to American style BBQing or grilling. <S> While the terms can apply to other areas of cooking as well their usefulness makes the most sense in this context. <S> Direct Heat <S> A method of heat transfer in which heat waves radiate from a source (for example, an open burner or grill) and travel directly to the item being heated with no conductor between heat source and food. <S> Examples are grilling, broiling, barbecueing, and toasting. <S> ( source ) <S> Keep in mind that the grill itself doesn't really act as a conductor as much as a way to hold the food in a static position relative to the heat source. <S> To better understand direct heat, understand it's complement: Indirect Heat <S> When using indirect heat, your goal is to never have any part of the meat directly over flames or charcoal. <S> You can only do indirect cooking with a charcoal or gas grill that has a cover. <S> In this respect, it acts very much like a convection oven... <S> the heat swirls around the inside of the grill and the meat is cooked from all angles. <S> This also eliminates the need to 'flip' or turn your meat during the cooking process. <S> ( source ) <S> This is generally used to cook large pieces of heat that need a long time to cook. <S> A smoker is an example of the kind of equipment used to cook with indirect heat. <A> I believe the direct v. indirect distinction originally comes from grilling. <S> There, its essentially a question of do you put the food directly over the heat source (burning charcoal, gas burner, wood longs, etc.) <S> or do you put it on the other side of the grill. <S> Putting it directly over concentrates most of the heat on the bottom side of the food; putting it on the other side allows the heat to distribute to all sides of the food. <S> Naturally, since its spread out, its also cooler. <S> So, you can then generalize that the following are more like direct heat: <S> Sitting on the coals in a foil pouch. <S> (Or on the wood, whatever fuel). <S> Under a broiler, gas or electric Held with tongs over a burner on a stove (e.g., a pepper) <S> In a sauté or fry pan, with only a little oil The heat-contact side may be being hit by heat upwards of 1000°F in some methods. <S> And some examples of things more like indirect: <S> Baked in an oven. <S> In a smoker (what's called BBQ in the American South) <S> Boiling, steaming, braising. <S> You also get some things that are harder to classify, like if you deep fry something its being cooked evenly all around, but at a heat delivery rate more similar to direct heat. <S> And some odd things like a slice of bread in a toaster (mostly like direct heat, but with two heat sources). <S> Direct heat is used to cook thin cuts of meat (thin steak); indirect to cook large cuts (roast). <S> Sometimes both are used; you may use indirect heat to cook a thick steak or roast through, but direct heat to sear the outside. <A> I'm going to pull quotes from BBQ god Steven Raichlen to help answer your question: <S> Direct: food is cooked directly over and just a few inches away from the flowing coals at a temperature in excess of 500F. Indirect: food is cooked adjacent to, not directly over, hot coals. <S> Direct heat is therefore hotter and fiercer, and suitable for thin, small tender cuts of meat (or breads), and will cook for a relatively short time. <S> Therefore the images you're seeing are direct heat. <S> Indirect grilling is better suited for oven-style cooking: ribs, turkeys, whole fish. <A> In what context are you hearing these terms? <S> I'm most familiar with direct vs indirect cooking with regards to grilling. <S> Indirect grilling is often used for slower cooking (ribs, brisket, etc) and provides more even heat. <S> Direct grilling is great for quick searing, burgers, grilled pineapple, etc.
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In the context of grilling, direct heat means that the meat is directly over the flame, whereas indirect heat would be a configuration in which the coals are on one side of the grill and the meat on the other (often with a pan of water or other liquid underneath).
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What kind of peppers are used in Gochugaru (고추가루)? I'm trying to make kimchi, but I don't have any chili powder (gochugaru -고추가루). Does anyone know what type of chili pepper(s) this is made from? I'm trying to find it at a normal western grocery store (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Remke...) I figured if I knew what type of peppers it was made from I could find something equivalent. <Q> When I go to the Korean supermarkets in LA, I usually see half an aisle just dedicated to 고추가루 in all kinds of forms (mild to spicy, fine to coarse grind) and colors. <S> I don't know that there's any specific pepper than it is all about <S> how sweet and mildly spicy 고추가루 is supposed to be. <S> You could start from there to make your own by sun drying and crushing whatever peppers are available to you. <S> If you are looking for a substitute that you can buy at a western store, try crushed red pepper flakes (the kind you see in the shakers at pizza places). <S> You're going to be adjusting for taste/spiciness anyway, so not much of a dealbreaker. <A> Mc Cormick now makes Korean Red Pepper Flakes for sale at some Costcos (also in smaller containes at the Supermarket). <S> I bought a large container and I am going back for more. <S> Great flavor and heat for just about everything. <A> The county I live in produces a lot of chillies called Cheonggyeol (청결). <S> They also produce gochugaru here. <S> Here's a link . <S> After some asking around, I can confirm that these are the peppers they use to make Gochugaru (고추고루). <A> Buy dried chilis and blend them into powder <S> It sounds like this community doesn't know more about the specific peppers used (and their North American subsitutes) than what @janeylicious has proposed. <S> Howeover, I propose a different methodology for finding a good fit. <S> pasillas, moritas, guajillos, puyas and more. <S> Turn a chili or mix of chilis into a powder by putting them into your blender or food processor. <S> Pro-level blenders like Ninjas, Oster Versas and Vitamixes are great for this. <S> Use the homemade powder as your recipe directs, and compare the taste to how you remember. <S> You can use a chili guide to inform your adjustments. <S> Eventually, you should be able to do much better than red pepper flakes for pizza. <A> It's really hard to find substitute because the way it is processed is different too. <S> I'm not sure what the chilies are called but they are quite long and slender. <S> The Korean ones are bright red and sweeter and the ones in western markets are pretty dark and bitter. <A> If you are unable to locate the real Korean pepper powder, I think you will have to make a blend of your own. <S> Ancho chilis have a fairly similar flavor, but are not hot enough. <S> So you would have to mix some amount of a hotter powder into ancho powder, and that could give you what you seek. <S> Nothing is going to be perfect, but this can get you to a reasonable facsimile. <A> Yes, you can buy just about anything from Amazon, but sometimes "the hard way" is more fun, and you get to put that much more love into your K-food. <S> This is certainly not the authentic Korean method of making gochugaru, but it works for me, and my kimchi turns out great! <S> : <S> Find a relatively "fresh" bag of dried "Chiles Japones" in the Mexican/Hispanic section of your grocery store; <S> at least 6oz. <S> (You want them to be slightly pliable; if they are overly dry and brittle, the next step will be frustrating, if not painfully impossible.) <S> Carefully remove and discard ALL the seeds and stems from the dried chiles; <S> don't worry, it will be plenty spicy (and much tastier) without them... <S> please, DO NOT scratch your eyes or touch any other sensitive part of your body at this point... <S> ouch! <S> Put all the nice red parts in a coffee/spice grinder and process until it looks just right... <S> like flaky dust (dusty flakes?) <S> ... you'll probably never want to use that grinder for coffee beans again, but it's worth the sacrifice. <S> 3.5 <S> No matter how pretty it looks, DON'T sniff it; you'll be sorry <S> (like I was the first time)! <S> Now you have something that looks and tastes a whole heck of a lot like Gochugaru... <S> Proceed to make yourself some Kentucky Kimchi ("Kentuck-chi"?), and let us know how it turns out! <A> You can order from <S> Amazon.com <S> if you can not find in market near you. <A> I find Aleppo chilies are quite similar. <S> They’re also at the same heat level as the Cheonggyeol peppers. <S> (10,000 scoville).
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You can buy dried chilis of many varieties from Latino and sometimes American grocery stores: anchos, de arbols.
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What is the best way to douse a charcoal grill? When the heat of a charcoal grill gets too hot, what is the best way to douse the fire; the objective being to lower the temperature without putting the fire out completely? How much water should be used when burning charcoal in a very primitive grill or pit without a lid or adjustable vents, and how should it be added (poured, sprayed, etc.)? <Q> Add some coals over the hot ones and/or reduce airflow some other way (many grills have slits or vents to control airflow, play with those, close them partially). <S> Both should reduce heat output (adding coals of course will mean the grill will burn for longer and will eventually heat up again). <S> I'd not throw water or other liquids on it. <S> Only makes a mess :) <A> South American style toss salt over the coals. <S> Works well, looks sassy, but makes a big salty mess <S> More practically just use fully combusted cold ashes from previous fires. <S> Gently scatter them over hot coals to reduce airflow and lower temperature for a while. <S> Use a large tin with big holes punched in the lid to makes handling and shaking easy, or just get messy and scatter by hand Hardwood ashes that have been quickly sifted should not be too dusty so as to make a mess with the food <A> Instead of dousing the coals, in a primitive setup, you would be better served to manipulate distance from heat source as your form of temperature control. <S> It can be as simple as adding or removing bricks to space your grill from your flame, or as complicated as a pulley-based system to raise or lower your grate. <S> This can impart a rather nasty flavor into your food. <S> If you are unable to or uncomfortable with changing your grate distance, then salt or some other dry smothering agent would be viable. <A> Heaping some pre-soaked (apple, etc) wood atop the embers cools coals and creates steam and smoke. <S> For more info, read up on smoking food in a barbeque.
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Using water will cause your coals to smolder, which can give off creosote (less likely with charcoal than wood, but still a possibility).
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What's the difference when smoking in a spherical grill and in a smoker? When smoking in a spherical grill like the Weber One-Touch, will the result be different then when a real smoker is used? What is the difference? <Q> No, it won't be different. <S> It is, however, a bit harder. <S> The issues are mainly: <S> It's harder to get the heat away from the food. <S> So you end up cooking with some direct heat. <S> This can be avoided by using a small amount of well soaked, large wood chunks and get them smoking with some normal charcoal. <S> You should also use indirect heat by stacking the chunks on one side of the grill. <S> If you use wood chips, this won't work. <S> They burn too fast and need too much of an ignition source. <S> Heat insulation isn't very good. <S> The walls are thin and you have to remove the whole lid to tend your food. <S> The heat dissipation can be a real issue for long low and slow recipes. <S> Smokers either tend to be well insulated (brick or ceramic) or have small doors so you can access your food from the side. <S> Adding fuel can be a pain. <S> It's made easier if you have a grill surface that is hinged. <S> If you don't, I'd suggest getting one if you are seriously considering smoking. <S> It makes adding fuel much easier. <S> Of course, adding fuel causes the above heat dissipation issues, so add fuel as infrequently as possible. <S> That said, I smoked for years on a Webber grill, and it worked just fine. <S> I did, however, upgrade to a Big Green Egg at the first available opportunity. <S> The results are more consistent and the process is much easier. <S> But you'll be fine getting started with the webber. <A> Assuming you are using wood chips in both cases to generate smoke, the main difference is the distance from the heat source. <S> You can get similar results with the normal grill by using indirect heat (placing the coals on one side and the meat on the other), and further separating the the meat from the direct heat by placing some foil between the meat and the coals. <S> Here is an interesting article on turning your normal kettle grill into a smoker: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_turn_your_kettle_grill_into_a_smoker/ <A> What does differ is the process. <S> You will have a more difficult time controlling temperatures in a kettle. <S> While you can effectively maintain low temperatures with the grill, bear in mind that it was not designed for that purpose, so you will have to monitor it pretty carefully. <S> Also, your food will be closer to your fuel -- there is no escaping that -- so you will have to rotate the food to ensure even cooking. <S> However, the results come out largely the same. <S> I use a Weber Smokey Mountain for most of my barbecue, but if I don't need to go as long, I'm doing less quantity, or I want to go with much higher heat, I'll still set up the kettle.
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The results aren't really any different between a Weber kettle and a smoker. In a smoker, the smoke from the coals has time to cool before reaching the meat, which cooks the meat indirectly, and at a lower temperature.
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How do I get sausages to cook evenly in a pan? Whenever I cook sausages in the oven, they cook evenly. The issue is that sausages take about forty minutes in the oven. However, whenever I use a pan, they do not take an age to be cooked but they never seem to be cooked thoroughly (some appear to be raw in the centre as well as not being evenly brown). So, how do I cook sausages in a pan? EDIT: Adding water with the olive oil really does work. <Q> Whenever I have cooked sausages in a pan, I have always added some water in the pan that way they cook through on the inside. <S> Once they are cooked through and the water has evaporated, I keep them in the pan to crisp up the outside. <A> Not 100% sure what you mean by 'evenly', but assuming you mean they brown in some parts and not others <S> then what you need to do is pretty labor intensive. <S> You basically have to stand there with tongs and continue to turn the sausages the entire time they are cooking. <S> If they are not perfectly round they may want to roll over in which case you'll either need to squash them into shape or just hold them in place with the tongs so they don't roll over. <S> If instead you mean that some sausages cook more than others <S> then you just need to move the sausages around, trading the under cooked ones with the ones that are cooking faster. <A> This gets them nice and sticky and means it's easier to get an even browning. <S> Incidentally, doing sausages in the oven shouldn't take 40 minutes - about 20 mins at 200C <S> does the job admirably. <A> The four sausages in the picture above are OVERCOOKED! <S> In fact, I'd call 'em Arfur Sausages, like King Arthur with the cakes he burnt. <S> I use a ribbed griddle pan for this. <S> Then you can rotate the sausages with tongs, and the ribs keep them on the straight and narrow. <A> I tend to poach them for about 10 minutes, (poach, not boil), and then fry them over a medium heat for about another 10 minutes.
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I've found the best way to cook sausages in a pan is to do it very slowly over a low heat, turning occasionally.
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how do I cook sausages without poking holes through them? I hear that when cooking sausages, you shouldn't poke holes in them as it will allow the flavour to spill out. But whenever I don't do that with fat sausages, I end up getting the outside charred but the inside uncooked. <Q> If you are charring the outside then you are cooking the sausages too fast. <S> Sausages are best when cooked relatively slowly: on a low pan, or under a medium grill. <S> 20-25 mins in a 200C/400F oven usually does the trick as well. <A> <A> This is the trick to sausage. <S> Your want to cook it slowly, evenly, for a longer time. <S> If you blacken the sausage casing while the inside is still raw your cooking to fast. <S> In a fry pan, turn the heat down to just above the point where the grease "spits" and cook for 30-45 mins. <S> In an oven, 350 F for 45-60 mins is a better bet then higher temperatures. <S> On a grill, the trick is to let the coals get to the "glowy" phase then add a pan of water to the grill. <S> The water will help regulate the temperature Cook the sausages around 350-400 F for 40-50 mins. <S> Remember to use the dampers to control the temp on a large scale. <S> The water is an awesome trick to help control the temp spikes, and to keep the temp stable. <S> When boiling sausage (yuck) a high boil for over 90 mins is what I have done. <S> But I don't like it <S> so I don't have a lot of experience in doing it. <A> You can also cook sous vide at (pork at 60C) for about an hour, then finish on grill or in pan. <S> No poking necessary. <A> Buy Skinless or cook in two way grill, ie., George Foreman type of grill.
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I find that boiling the sausages first (in beer or water) until they are cooked, then lightly searing the outside with a little oil in the pan is the best way to cook sausages without splitting the casing.
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How do I prevent burned chicken breasts when cooking on the stovetop? Ok I'm going crazy with this. I've tried everything, but no matter what I do, it always results in my chicken breast burning and becoming black. Here is what I usually do: Grab a chicken breast, wash it with water. Next, I season it. I usually add salt, pepper, curry, and lemon pepper. Then I grab a pan and I've tried these things to cook the chicken with: Olive Oil Vegetable Oil Butter All of them usually result in me burning my chicken. I set the temp at like 5.5/10 on the knob, so that it takes its time and doesn't burn. What am I doing wrong and what should I do instead? <Q> I suspect the blackness comes from the spices you put on the chicken burning. <S> Try this technique I learnt from Jamie Oliver: <S> Season your chicken as normal. <S> Put the pan on a high heat until it's hot (not stupid-hot, just hot). <S> Add olive oil and the chicken skin-side down. <S> Cook for about 5 minutes. <S> Meanwhile, take a square of baking parchment or greaseproof paper big enough to cover the pan. <S> Fold it in half until you have a 'folded fan' shape. <S> Hold the point <S> so it's roughly over the middle of the pan, and tear off any excess that goes over the side of the pan. <S> Unfold and you should have a circle of paper. <S> Scrunch it up, then run it under a cold tap and give it a shake. <S> Turn the chicken over, turn the heat to medium low, then place the wet paper (a 'cartouche') on to the chicken. <S> Finally put a heavy pan lid (the lid from a casserole is ideal) on top. <S> Cook for another 20 minutes. <S> The moisture in the cartouche helps keep the chicken moist and prevents it from burning. <S> Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the breast, so do check it's cooked through before eating ( <S> cut it open and check it's not pink). <A> Season chicken. <S> Top side down in quite hot all-metal pan, with vegetable or olive oil. <S> If your oil starts smoking, too hot. <S> Just slightly cooler than that. <S> Cook until seared with a nice crust. <S> The chicken will be largely raw at this point. <S> Into 350F oven for 14-18 minutes. <S> Voila. <A> If you're cooking skinless, boneless chicken breasts, I would recommend pounding the breasts flat. <S> That way, you won't have to cook them as long. <S> Reducing the time means that it's less likely that your spices will burn. <S> Wrap the chicken in plastic wrap or wax paper, and use a rolling pin or meat mallet until they are even. <S> (I usually go for 1/2 inch thick or so.) <S> According to my favorite recipe, at 1/2 inch thick, over medium heat (5 out of 10), the breasts will cook six minutes on each side. <S> Plus you can then deglaze the pan with chicken broth to make a sauce. <S> (Add broth and seasonings, cook until it's reduced by half, then remove from heat and add butter and an acid.) <A> A couple answers above seem to have skirted around the question of whether you were using boneless breasts, or bone-in, skin-on breasts. <S> The boneless ones are certainly easier to work with, but I've had much better luck working with the full bone-in/skin-on breasts. <S> They take longer to cook, but you've got that extra layer of skin and fat for protection. <S> Which is really what you want, right? <S> Keep the chicken in long enough so that it's done, but not so much that it's turned into a big, chewy burnt wad. <S> You can also count on the brine to deliver some of the seasonings you were looking for. <S> Try the brine with the bone in/skin on breast and any of the cooking techniques in the other answers (especially the finishing in the oven after a good stovetop sear as you'll be able to monitor the changes and make a more timely adjustment than if it was on the stove), and you should see good results. <A> Take your pick: <S> Pound it <S> flat before cooking - this will drastically reduce the required cooking time. <S> Brown it in oil first, then add sauce to the pan and finish it in the sauce. <S> Finish it in the oven. <A> Well, there are number of things you can do to try and reduce overcooking, but I think the real answer has already been hit upon -- the seasonings. <S> Most seasonings aren't nearly as tolerant of heat as the chicken itself is, and what you are seeing isn't so much burned chicken as burned spices. <S> (Want to see? <S> The pepper, and the lemon in the lemon pepper, for sure, will have problems. <S> Not sure about curry powder.) <S> You may have better luck with a brine or some such to impart flavor, or adding the spices at the end, but if you are going to spice it first, you will have to cook it at a very low heat to avoid burning the spices. <S> Salt is safe, but the rest should be used just before taking it out of the pan.
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Also, one of the best ways to combat the dry, overdone chicken breast is a quick brine ahead of time. Try putting a bit of olive oil in the pan, add seasonings, and watch them...
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Best way to measure Spaghetti/Linguini portions? What's the best way to measure how much Spaghetti/Linguini is 1-portion. I know there are tools which basically measures the diameter of the bundle of dry spaghetti. But are there simpler tricks which don't require any tools? <Q> Italians weigh it <S> and it's really the only fail-safe way. <S> 40g for a small portion, 100g for a big plate full. <S> Cooked volume will depend on the type of pasta, but with spaghetti for example about 55g of dry will produce about 1 cup of cooked spaghetti. <S> This agrees with @Martha: 2oz = <S> about 57g and 1 cup cooked sounds like a reasonable serving size. <S> Even if I would eat more :-) <A> (This is found in the nutrition information.) <S> Then divide the amount in the box by the number of portions. <S> I just pulled down a box of linguine from my shelf. <S> One pound yields eight 2 oz. portions. <S> Which means all you have to do is divide in half three times. <S> It won't be exact, but you'll get pretty close. <S> (To get exact, you could always count the number of noodles then divide by eight. <S> But that's WAY too much work.) <A> I have a Joseph Joseph spaghetti measurer . <S> It looks like a camera aperture and measures up to 4 servings. <A> For spaghetti or other pastas with a small cross sectional area: hold a bunch of dry pasta in one hand and a beer bottle top in the other fit the end of the spaghetti bunch into the beer bottle top <S> this amount is a small-medium sized portion for 1 person ... <S> although like Todd Chaffee said, I would eat more :) <A> Count them! <S> 100 spaghettis are a good portion (100g circa) for 1 person. <S> As for linguine, since they're a bit thicker I would go with 75 of them. <A> Standard plastic bottle... <S> Cola or else ≈ 1 portion :)
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Using a kitchen scale with a big bowl on top should work for just about any pasta shape. Well, one obvious answer is to look at the number of portions in the box.
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Odour removing metallic soap: what is it and how does it work? When browsing for kitchen tools, I found a metallic soap. It's purpose is to remove any (food) odour from your hands. Here 's a cheap ($2.55) example. I am unfamiliar with this.Does anyone have any experience with it? Does it really work? If yes, how?Are there odours which it removes better/worse? And does it last forever (This may of course depend on the brand and model) ? <Q> These soaps are simply soap-shaped lumps of stainless steel. <S> You'd get the same results from rubbing a spoon on your hand, or rubbing your hands on the sink. <S> I've never read any in the past, nor was I able to find anything convincing while researching this answer. <S> Various explanations abound but should all be treated as speculation until some hard experimental data comes out: <S> About.com's Chemistry Ph. <S> D thinks it's a chemical reaction with sulfur , but admits that it's speculation. <S> I find that explanation dubious at best, because the whole point of stainless steel is that it's non-reactive, and not all of the odours that S.S. supposedly removes are based on sulfur. <S> Another cooking blogger references McGee and postulates that it might be due to static electricity , which is sort of corroborated by the Straight Dope's hypothesis of ionization . <S> Follow-up comments to the former entry dispute his claim, as well. <S> Finally, the Straight Dope link above also suggests that the metal might simply be acting as an abrasive. <S> This, to me, is the most plausible explanation, but there's still no specific evidence supporting it. <S> Again, if you care about anecdotal evidence, someone did a little experiment on SD's discussion board and claims that rubbing with anything works - it doesn't have to be metal - which supports the abrasive hypotheses. <S> Then again, it's questionable whether the experimenter here actually impregnated the skin or just got a little scent on the surface. <S> So make of it what you will; nobody seems to know for sure <S> why it works, but anyone who's tried it can tell you that it does work. <A> I don't know the exact chemistry behind it, but I am sure someone else will, but it has something to do with a reaction/bonding between the stainless steel and sulfur (if I am not mistaken) in the onion/garlic/fish. <S> After washing my hands after cutting up onions, I have just taken a bit more soap and rub my hands against the faucet since it is stainless steel. <A> I can only say, that from my own personal experience, this does indeed work, i just dont have the foggiest idea <S> how... <S> So I can only base this phenomenon on, <S> yes, you guessed it, my own use of stainless steel soap. <S> It would seem that there does exist, a certain fraction of magic in the world, and this is one such instance :)
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But don't waste your money on one of those "metal soaps" - just use a metal ladle, or the handle of a knife, or any other metal surface, and rub it on your hands under cold running water. There's a ton of anecdotal evidence that stainless steel works; unfortunately there seems to be very little scientific evidence backing it up.
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Which baking dish is best to bake a banana bread? When I bake a banana bread or cake at home, I always use a square Pyrex(about 20cm in width and 7 cm high) dish. The batter only fill the dish at half its height or less and I set my oven to 350F. I bake the banana bread for 30 min in the middle of the oven and when I check for doneness, the middle part is a bit wet(about 90% done) while the surrounding area is perfectly done. Is a square Pyrex a good way to bake banana bread and cake or should I get a loaf pan or bundt shape one? Does a loaf pan bake the banana bread or cake evenly in a set period of time? From this recipe , the baking time in the load pan seems to be 1 hour compared to 30 min in the Pyrex. <Q> The different choices of baking pans will effect texture and baking time. <S> The more surface area the more crust and the faster the baking time. <S> As you noticed, it does require longer to bake. <S> Muffin pans are also very popular because of the convenient shape and faster baking time. <S> If you like the shape and texture of your bread in a baking dish then by all means keep using it. <S> I won't criticize you for it. <A> I have never tried banana bread in a square pan. <S> I have used loaf pans and it always cooks evenly that way. <S> The center is of course still the last to cook <S> but when it's done the entire loaf is evenly baked and moist. <S> But the pan might not be your problem. <S> Although Pyrex cooking times are generally shorter, 30 minutes seems too short. <S> I would bet your oven is running hot. <S> Oven dials are usually not very accurate and it might not be a bad idea to invest in an inexpensive oven thermometer, or just try a lower temp and 40 to 45 minutes to see if that gives you a more evenly baked result. <S> In a regular loaf pan I remember getting a perfect result at more like the 50 minute mark, rather than a full hour as that recipe suggests. <A> As Sobachatina said, "Best" is subjective. <S> There is a significant difference between baking in glass loaf pans (pyrex), standard metal loaf pans, and non-stick loaf pans. <S> All three will require different time adjustments for the exact same item. <S> You may also want to play around with the temperature a bit. <S> When trying to find the right temperature for baking, I drop the oven temp by 25 degrees F, and add about 10 minutes to the cook time, then I check for doneness (if not done, pop it back in for another 10 minutes, check, etc.) <S> Hope this helped.
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Recipes call for a bread pan simply because then it looks like bread and is easier to slice. "Best" is subjective.
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how do you get sushi rice to not stick to your hands? I am laying out my sushi rice by forming it into a ball with my hands and spreading it on the nori. I watched some video tutorials on this, and it seems like the rice is not sticking to the chef's hands. How do you not get the rice to stick to your hands? <Q> Keep your hands wet. <S> I usually use a small bowl of water next to my prep area, and dip my fingers in whenever things get sticky. <A> Moisten your hands with a clean, damp towel. <S> This helps the rice not stick. <S> Look at any sushi bar; the chef will be frequently moistening their hands on such a towel. <A> When you use vinegar for the rice, rub some on your palms and fingers diluted with water. <S> But be sure to flick it off, or your hands themselves will get sticky. <S> Damp towels work too. <A> I was invited to a sushi making class when we visited Tokyo. <S> We were each given a small bowl of water to moisten our fingers so the rice won't stick. <S> After our trip, I made some at home and decided to use the back of a soup spoon and lightly spread the rice scooping as needed to cover the nori. <S> Usually 2 - 3 small scoops will do as opposed to 1 clump. <S> I make sushi all the time now and this method works best for me; rice is more evenly spread out and does not get squashed. <S> Yum! <S> Good luck, ENJOY! <A> I wear a thin disposable glove and put a drop of olive oil on it. <S> The first rice ball I make will have the most olive oil residue on it <S> but after that it is unnoticeable on the remaining pieces and there is zero sticking. <A> When making aranchini ," Italian rice balls " in my presses i use flour before pressing. <S> Since flour is used in the next step for dredging it allows the rice not to stick to the mold and can be easily removed. <S> Also i have found water works as well. <S> But when you add moisture you just increasing the probability of future tackiness. <S> As for Sushi, flour wouldn't be a wise choice. <A> Renolds makes a non-stick foil . <S> It's the bomb for spreading and pressing. <A> The way that we sushi chefs do it at the bar is to keep a container of parsley filled with water.
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Just dip the back of the spoon in water before spreading the rice. A moistened micro cloth helps as well.
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Are there substantial benefits to grinding your own flour? I've read that most of the nutrients of wheat are stripped for the sake of shelf life. Is this marketing propaganda or is there truth behind it? It was my impression that white flour (even fortified) is nowhere close to the original thing but whole grain flour is still pretty good. The grinders are pretty pricy and after that even buying large amounts of grain (if you can find it) doesn't ever appear to pay off. Am I mistaken? Are there any real benefits to doing it yourself (whether nutritional or not)? Does it taste as good? (Sorry, I know this question is opinion-oriented, but I'm curious) <Q> You're very correct <S> the grinders are pretty pricey. <S> I believe we paid about $300 for ours. <S> There are a few good reasons for me to have a grinder. <S> Whether they are good reasons for you is your call. <S> 1- I can grind whatever I want. <S> Right now I am using hard white wheat. <S> Unbleached, hard, white wheat flour is more expensive than your run-of-the-mill flour and comes in annoyingly small bags. <S> I also grind beans, quinoa, oats, etc. <S> 2- I can control the fineness of the grind. <S> This is a minor thing but it is nice for me to be able to experiment with the texture of the product. <S> In practice I usually leave it on the same setting but it is finer than the flour I can purchase. <S> 3- Wheat flour is very perishable. <S> I go through a fair bit of flour. <S> As much as 200 oz in a heavy week. <S> In order to have enough wheat flour on hand for a couple weeks it would have to live in the freezer. <S> I don't want to waste that much freezer space. <S> Whole wheat berries last almost indefinitely. <S> 4- <S> I like the flavor better. <S> It tastes fresher and more nutty. <S> This may be imagined- <S> I haven't done any double blind tests. <S> I should do that. <S> 5- <S> Cost- <S> I had to do some of the maths as I don't usually pay a lot of attention to this. <S> King Arthur white wheat flour costs approximately $1.00 a lbs. <S> I buy 25lbs bags of bulk white wheat for $12-$15 or $0.50-$0.60 a pound. <S> If I use around 10 lbs of flour a week (usually a little less, it varies) <S> I am saving about $5 a week. <S> If you don't have access to wheat that cheap or don't make that much bread then of course the savings will be less. <S> As for nutrition- <S> I read all the time that the nutrients in whole wheat flour degrade very quickly. <S> I'm not a chemist but those results seem plausible to me based on how quickly the flour itself degrades in quality. <A> "Wholemeal" or "whole wheat" flour is mostly 100% whole wheat in most countries. <S> They used to remove the "brush" though, but I suspect modern grinders take care of these now <S> This will effect it's nutrition and shelf life <S> The source of the wheat is going to be the biggest taste changer. <S> I have had flour from a local Dutch windmill using stone grinders etc, it had a great texture, but did not taste significantly different <A> A friend of mine has been experimenting with different kinds of rye bread for quite some time. <S> He's come to grinding the rye flour himself. <S> I've been tasting the bread for most of the time. <S> The grinders are indeed expensive. <S> Manual ones are cheaper, but it's really a lot of work to grind even a smallish amount of grain (I've tried). <S> Off-the-shelf flour is so cheap that the grinder probably never pays off in that sense. <S> Where I live, whole-grain rye flour isn't readily available in stores. <S> Thus what you get by grinding yourself is certainly different, and in my opinion tastes better. <S> The shelf life of whole-grain flour is relatively short, but that's no problem if you only grind what you use. <S> I believe the scientific consensus is that whole-grain flour is more healthy than the standard stripped version <S> (but I'm no expert). <S> It tastes better. <S> If you bake a lot, I'd say that's enough reason to start grinding. <S> However, having said that, I don't believe there's much difference in taste nor nutrients between off-the-shelf whole-grain flour and self-ground flour. <S> I certainly wouldn't start grinding wheat myself, but I don't like wheat very much. <S> At least here you can get whole-grain wheat flour easily from stores. <A> I would like to comment on this as well, as I grind my own flour because of cost savings. <S> We bought our Kitchenaid Flour grinder for quite cheap, and with a wedding gift card, it only cost us $20. <S> I grind my own wheat, because it is very cheap. <S> A farmer gets about $6-7/32L 32L = bushel) of wheat kernels. <S> This amounts to 2-3 times about of flour, so about 90L of flour. <S> Flour weighs about 0.5g/mL, so about 45kg of flour. <S> For 45kg of flour, I'd say $7 isn't such a bad price. <S> As I work with farmers, I've never had to pay for wheat kernels, as a ziploc bag is pennies to them. <S> Ground whole wheat kernels taste very strongly like bran. <S> I would not recommend using 100% whole kernels as you feel like you are eating a bran muffin. <S> I always mix my whole kernel flour with white flour and a dash of whole wheat flour. <S> I would also just like to point out that there are many types of wheat. <S> Here in western canada, we primarily grow Hard-Red spring Wheat. <S> This signifies a high protein, and is better for bread. <S> Any of the "Soft" Red/White Wheat, are low protein, and are better suited for pastries. <S> We need a higher protein, to have a higher gluten content, as gluten is responsible for the bread being able to rise well. <S> I would also like to point out that, the protein content often is variable amongst every field yet, so if you're asking a farmer for a bucket of wheat grain, I would recommend having at least 12% protein <S> so your bread will rise. <S> If you would like to know more about wheat, I would recommend asking a farmer!
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As I understand it, when you grind your flour it may not be as good as commercially ground flour if your grinder causes the wheat to heat up.
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Do you use paper or cloth towel for patting a meat dry before frying? It is advised to pat a steak dry before frying. I've used paper towels in the past for this, but sometimes parts of them stick to meat. Now and then I've used a clean cloth kitchen towel for patting and put it immediately to wash bin for hygiene reasons. This seems a bit wasteful to me. How do professional kitchens do this? If they use cloth towels, how often they wash them and do they use different towels for different kinds of food (meat, vegetables, fish, chicken) ? <Q> I was not familiar with advice to pat meat dry, so I asked a chef what was going on. <S> The answer was... complicated. <S> First, if you're working with meats that were frozen, you're going to want to remove any moisture which comes from the freezer (frozen humidity, which is essentially water). <S> For un-marinated meats, you want to be careful how you pat them. <S> The important distinction, in all cases, is not to remove any natural fluids (blood) from the meat. <S> This would remove both moisture and flavor, resulting in bland, dry cuts of meat. <S> So, do not press the meat when patting; this will squeeze moisture out. <S> You should lightly touch/brush the surface, so excess moisture wicks away. <S> That's it. <S> For marinated meats, it can depend a bit on the marinade, and how much your supposed to keep for flavor. <S> Otherwise, stick with the "remove excess moisture, but nothing else" idea. <S> So, long story short, if paper towels are sticking to the meat, you're removing too much moisture. <S> Maybe try this the other way around: <S> set a paper towel on your work surface, hold the meat in some tongs, and touch the meat to the towel as you're putting them on to fry. <S> As to how professional, large scale kitchens do it; they don't. <S> They'll take a large sheet pan, place a drip rack in the pan, and place the steaks on the rack. <S> This allows excess juices to flow off naturally, and everything is easily washable and reusable. <S> If the meat is not cooked quickly after set to dry, you can baste drippings, marinade, or oil onto them just before cooking. <A> I think that paper towel would be best for hygienic reasons and convenience. <S> In professional kitchens I have been in, the paper towels are a tough thin beige type that don't pill easily. <S> We use them to dry many foods and they don't disintegrate or stick. <S> Asking a janitorial company about them could let you know where to purchase them. <S> If you are concerned about using paper towels for environmental reasons or whatever your reasons are and want to use cloth, then there are a couple of foodsafe things to keep in mind. <S> The cloths used on meats should be used only for meats to prevent cross contamination. <S> They should also be sanitized properly to prevent food borne illness. <A> Then I wrap tightly in cling film to shape, portioning a day or two before they are needed. <S> I would usually do 5-20 at a time <S> so I do not think of the tea towel as being wasted.
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For large commercial preparation I wash the meat (as it is delivered cryovacted) and use a clean cloth tea towel or better yet, a chucks cloth to pat down.
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What Old World Europe countries (apart from Germany and Italy) have their own unique pasta traditions? I was doing some research on websites and came upon a site where a German pasta company had been trying to sell their products into the US (the site is down, looks like the enterprise was not successful). There is a list of their pasta types given:Fadennudeln, Schnittnudeln, Bandnudeln, Walznudeln, Nudelnester, Drelli, Spiralen, Makkaroni, Knoepfle, Bauern Spaetzle. Apart from learning the meaning of the name "Knopfler", I was very surprised to find such a range of pasta with specialized names coming from Germany. I have eaten pasta in Germany, but never before realized that they have their own "pasta tradition". Being English, with a pasta tradition imported from Italy, I am wondering if other countries apart from Germany and Italy have their own "pasta traditions"? I am thinking Old World Europe; of course the USA has its local variations, but they are not what I am looking for. My focus is on a unique noodle version. <Q> I can think of several Polish noodle types. <S> Uszka - shaped like tortellini, filled with mushrooms. <S> Usually served in soup. <S> The composition is basically the same as gnocchi, but they're formed differently: you roll the dough into a rope the size of your thumb, then cut it into pieces diagonally. <S> Kluski lane ("poured noodles") - a thin egg and flour dough that's drizzled into boiling water. <S> Usually served in soup. <S> Similar to spaetzle. <S> Pierogi - a round piece of dough that's folded around a lump of filling, making a semi-circular shape. <S> The filling can be a number of things. <S> The most popular one is a mixture of potatoes and farmer cheese - "pierogi ruskie". <S> They can also be filled with ground meat, cabbage, or fruit. <S> Łazanki - flat square pieces of pasta, less than an inch wide. <S> Usually mixed with sauerkraut, mushrooms, and optionally sausage or salt pork. <S> The name is probably derived from lasagna. <S> Knedle - these are eaten in Poland, but I think they're originally from Hungary. <S> It's a ball of potato dough (similar to kopytka, above) with a plum in the center. <A> Spaetzle are pretty unique as pastas go--they're almost dumplings--and it shouldn't be hard to find recipes. <S> Beyond that, I'd look to Asia for true variations on noodles <S> that aren't just shape variations of the standard semolina noodle or egg noodle. <A> In Turkey you have an interesting type of (I would call them) ravioli, at any rate stuffed pasta called manti , and I have not seen anything quite like it elsewhere. <A> On the Balkans, there is yufka . <S> Don't let yourself be fooled, this is a Turkish word meaning a type of bread, but in Bulgaria, ex-Yugoslavia (and I think Romania too), it is used for a type of noodle. <S> For this noodle, you make a dough like you would for a banitsa (this is a dish similar to a strudel). <S> It only has wheat flour (not semolina) and water. <S> Then you roll it out in flour until it is transparent (~0.3 mm). <S> The sheet is first dried in the air for some days, then baked a bit. <S> The drying and baking makes it crack, resulting in irregular scales. <S> The picture shows the dried yufka. <S> The prepared noodles are cooked in water and usually served with feta cheese and butter. <S> BTW, I don't think that there is much of a noodle tradition in Germany. <S> Germans eat lots of pasta today, and most of it is indeed produced locally, but I think that they have (except for Spätzle) imported and simplified the Italian custom, probably in more recent times. <S> The rest of the terms just denotes different shapes of noodles, but unlike Italy, there are no rules for which noodles go with which kind of sauce. <S> The different shapes are just used interchangeably by German cooks. <S> Some Germans could tell you that they have a different type of noodle, called Maultaschen . <S> This is something of a border case, but I consider it to be a dumpling, not a noodle. <S> On the other hand, it could be argued that if ravioli are a noodle, then Maultaschen are a noodle too. <S> Either way, Maultaschen are traditional food from Schwaben. <A> Hungary has a unique (as far as I know) noodle speciality, called "galuska" or "nokedli" (see photo). <S> They are often compared to either the swab "Knöpfle" or the swab "Spätzle", which can be an approximation only, since they taste very different and are, all in all, absolutely distinct (see my comment below)! <S> Therefore the Hungarian Wikipedia entry is the best resource to learn about them. <S> These also come in varieties, with sheep quark cheese in the dough, for example, called Sztrapacska then, also part of Slowakian national cuisine. <S> Another, typical, Hungarian (and Slowak) noodle is "tarhonya" . <S> These are small noodles, which get sautéed in a little oil or bacon, before getting cooked in boiling water (or right into the dish, they are being made for, so they get cooked along with it). <S> Besides this, Hungarians have a lot of pasta types, just as the Germans. <S> And no, these are not italian style pasta <S> , these are distinct, just as the German's. <S> By Kobako (photo taken by Kobako) [CC BY-SA 2.5 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)] , <S> via Wikimedia Commons <A> Tiny rice grain shaped noodles (Kritharaki/Orzo) are often found in greek and turkish dishes, even though an italian adaptation (Risoni) seems to exist. <A> From France : Raviole du Dauphiné , some kind of small ravioli, Crozets de Savoie , a small flat square-shaped pasta Spätzle , also made in the north-east of France
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In Germany, you get practically two types of noodles - Hartweizennudeln , noodles made with 100% durum semolina (the Italian type), and Eiernudeln , noodles with eggs added to the dough (not sure if they are always made with durum, Spätzle usually isn't). Kopytka - made of flour, potatoes and eggs.
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Does meat need to be washed before preparation? I don't even remember where I have learned that, but I've always thought it common knowledge: Before a piece of meat gets seasoned, or malleted for tenderizing (sorry, don't know the English word for that), or marinated, or thrown into the pan, or ground, it should be first washed under the faucet, and then patted dry. When I think of it, it also makes sense to me, because the bacteria are always on the meat surface, never inside. So I don't think it is a vestige of the time one got bloodied cuts from the village butcher, but that it applies to the modern meat pieces sold on absorbent pads too. And then I read this question , which presumes patting (but doesn't mention washing). Most of the answers and comments seem to indicate that patting isn't always considered necessary, and there is no mention of washing the meat or of the dripping water from the washing. In fact, the answers and comments wouldn't make much sense if one assumes that the meat has been just washed. So is washing compulsory, is it optional but a good idea, is it plain useless, or does it even have disadvantages for the meat? <Q> It's neither necessary nor a particularly good idea; it does little to remove bacteria from the surface of the meat (which you're about to cook, remember) and runs the risk of spraying/dripping bacteria all over the kitchen. <S> The FSIS has an article on it here : <S> Washing raw poultry, beef, pork, lamb, or veal before cooking it is not recommended. <S> Bacteria in raw meat and poultry juices can be spread to other foods, utensils, and surfaces. <S> The only exception would be something like vac-packed, wet-aged meat where you need to remove the salt, but that's a matter of preference. <S> I have never washed a piece of meat in my life <S> and I'm still here! <A> I believe the rinsing would cause a lot of the blood and meat juices to wash away,leaving less flavorful and less juicy meat. <S> I had a friend who did not like "bloody" meat <S> and she washed it so much it looked pale pink. <S> Needless to say it did not taste very good and had a weird texture. <A> I wash the blood off the cryo-vacted scotchies and porterhouse when portioning bulk meats. <S> I also thoroughly rinse the chest cavity of whole chicken and fish frames to remove organs and blood clots. <S> There is no need to wash meats and seafood you buy ready from a supermarket or butcher (with a possible exception of live Mussels). <A> Chickens we always wash in Egypt , first by rubbing with flour and salt then rinsing with water and/or soaking in water with some vinegar added . <S> Beef if prepackaged , I cook directly, no washing . <S> Chicken livers , etc.,... soak in water with some vinegar , drain thoroughly before cooking . <S> Any slimy or smelly meats / fish of any kind , even slightly , I throw away / compost immediately . <S> Careful with re-freezing , not recommended . <S> Thaw in fridge overnight . <S> But I do have friends who insist that all meats must be washed before cooking .
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I always pat my meat dry but never wash it with water.
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No broiler - is there a way to fake it? My range (oven) does not have a broiler (grill), but I've been coming across recipes lately (for pizza, in particular) that require one. Any suggestions on how to fake it? One thing I've tried is to preheat a baking stone, placing it above where I'll put other things. Unfortunately, it didn't work too well. <Q> I hate to say this, but broiling a pizza IS faking it! <S> You could get <S> one of those small electric ones that are popular with students and other one room living people for less than $20 - or just cook things right at the top of the oven (that works too well for me) - or use a blowlamp. <S> Personally, I don't need a broiler to reduce food to a charred mess ... <A> A toaster oven works great for smaller items. <S> Most toaster ovens come with a broiler. <S> Plus, toaster ovens are just a great tool for cooking smaller items without using a bunch of energy and heating up the house (especially in the summer months). <S> Unfortunately a full sized pizza wouldn't work so well in a toaster oven. <S> (Although you could split the dough and make two rectangular pizzas. <S> Bake one today and save the other in the fridge for a couple days before baking.) <S> For something like pizza it might be best to just bake it. <S> If you do that make sure to line the bottom of the oven with foil to catch any cheese or oil that falls/runs off the edge of the pizza. <A> A broiler gives all of the heat from the top, and none from the bottom. <S> If you really wanted to try to achieve a similar effect, and your oven didn't have a broiler option <S> , I'd do the following: Adjust one rack in the oven to the desired height from the top element. <S> Adjust a second rack slightly below that other one (as close as possible, so you can still comply with the next step) <S> Spread out a bunch of sheet trays (preferably shiny or light in color) on the lower rack, attempting to fill the rack entirely. <S> You could also wrap the rack in heavy duty foil, if you didn't have sheet pans of an appropriate size) <S> Turn the oven up as high as it can go. <S> Prop the door of the oven open (if the sheet pans stick out too far because you rotated them, so much the better) ... <S> and you'll waste a lot of heat, and might not be so fun in the summer time, but it'll give you something similar to a broiler. <S> And as tempted as you'd be to close the door of the oven, don't do it; if the oven gets up to temperature, it'll shut the heating element off. <A> Best bet is probably to use a barbecue. <S> Barbecuing pizza is all the rage these days - Sur la Table and Williams Sonoma are featuring bbq-ready pizza stones in their summer catalogs. <S> Of course, you don't need a stone, you can put it directly on the grates if you flour it well, oil the grates and use a peel to drop it on there fast. <S> Keep the grill covered to get it as hot as possible. <S> This is the closest you'll get to a coal- or wood-burning brick oven without building a DIY brick oven outside or a frankenweber . <S> Another alternative to stoneware is cast iron. <S> I use a 12" cast iron skillet and I think it works better than my pizza stone. <S> I put it in the broiler, but you can put it in the barbecue or in the oven, preheated as hot as the oven will go.
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If you're looking for a crispier crust you can try putting the pizza directly on the oven rack.
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Which spice gives brown colour to Indian curry? Many of the premixed curry pastes and curry dishes I have eaten have a brownish / reddish colour to them. I have a nice collection of spices that I cook with, but my curries seem to always look and taste quite similar. Most of these are a yellowy colour, dominated by turmeric. Thinking of butter chicken and also a goat masala that is available at a local restaurant; what dominant coloured spice am I missing that would give my curries a red or brown colour? I am assuming that these would introduce me to some new flavours that I can mix and match with. Note: I already have paprika. <Q> I've seen a lot of different curry recipes with varying levels of authenticity, but the most common ingredients I see in curries that might impart that colour are: Garam masala (brown) Chili powder (red) Cumin (brown) <S> Paprika (red) Tandoori powder (usually a mix of masala, cumin, ground red pepper, fenugreek, and others - very red) <S> Saffron (red) <S> Still, it's all kind of a moot point, because, in Indian restaurants the most common source of red is actually red food colouring. <S> Don't kid yourself; Indian restaurants use plenty of "artificial" ingredients - they also usually use food colouring in the saffron rice, which is how they get those few vibrant red grains to mix in with the yellowish rice. <A> I actually have two slightly Zen comments about this, in that they don't answer your question though they may solve your quandary. <S> First, you might have the right spices but get the ratios wrong. <S> In my exeprience, the ration of cumin to turmeric is about 4 to 1, sometimes more. <S> Turmeric is to be used sparingly, half a teaspoon is usually plenty in a big dish. <S> This may be why things are a little too yellow. <S> Second, colour doesn't only come from spices. <S> A source of a lot of redness, at least in the Indian food that I know how to make, is tomatoes. <S> I once learned from an Indian chef that a lot of dahls and curries have onions and tomatoes in them, usually grated to pulp. <A> The brown colour that seems to predominate many 'curry' dishes comes mostly from the largish (in proportion to other ingredients) quantities of cumin and coriander used as the main basis for most indian curries. <S> The addition of garam masala towards the end of cooking will also impart a brownish colour. <S> The red colour you refer to can come from any number of different sources, which is why it's unwise to use 'colour' as a basis for what the dish my actually taste like, or trying to replicate the taste of a dish based on its colour. <S> The red colouring can come from: artificial colouring, tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato puree, red chilli's, chilli powder, paprika and so on. <S> If you're trying to replicate the 'flavour' or taste of a specific dish <S> it's far better to try and do so with spice combinations and ingredients and cooking techniques than worrying about the final colour. <A> This story reminds me of the famous Indian story of an Elephant and blind men describing the elephant. <S> Firstly, not all Indians curries are brown. <S> Mostly, the meat curries are brown. <S> And, to get that brown color, Indian cooks do not use any color. <S> They first create what is called as 'Bhuna Masala' by frying onions and/or grated dry coconut along with garlic, ginger, whole spices and powdered spices. <S> This roasted mixture is brown in color and that is what gives the curry a brown color. <S> The more you roast, the darker will be the color, but you have to be careful because more roasting can burn your spices and will make your curries bitter. <S> Only experience can teach you when to stop roasting and add water to the mixture to make the final curry. <A> Other than red chili powder (not the spice blend you use to make chili, but just ground chili peppers) and cumin mentioned above, another ingredient I was introduced to by an Indian friend is tamarind. <S> Adds some brown to curries, but also a wonderful sweet and sour flavor. <S> I second the comments about making sure you've thoroughly browned your onions... should take a good 30 minutes, and not overdoing the turmeric. <S> On the tomato front, you also want to make sure that after adding tomatoes - typically after browning the onions and frying the spices - that you cook down the resulting mixture until the oil starts to separate from the tomato mixture. <S> All of this <S> and you should definitely not end up with a yellow curry. <A> The Indian curries get their color usually from the spices used (red chilly powder, turmeric, garam masala... etc.) <S> My family personally likes dark red / brown colored spicy curries.... and to achieve that I usually use fresh tomato puree and paste of fried onions . <S> I slice large onions and deep fry them till crisp and then store them in the refrigerator in an air-tight container (they stay good for 8-10 days). <S> And then when I'm required to use them in my curries, i just grind them in my mixer grinder by adding a spoon of water to make nice thick paste... and use it in my curry..... <S> And from there my curries get a lovely dark red color...!!! <A> I too notice that curry pastes are less yellowy than curry powders. <S> Maybe the oil-base dissolves the pigments better or the oil itself is rather dark? <S> Could there also be tamarind in the paste? <S> That certainly darkens a dish. <A> Usually Indian curries have a spice base that has a ratio like this-(say for 1 kg of meat)1/4 to 1/2tsp <S> turmeric : <S> 1tsp red chili powder(Kashmiri mirch or Degi mirch) : <S> 1TBS coriander powder
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The red of the chili powder with the yellow turmeric & green/brown of the coriander with browned onions in suspension give the reddish brown hues many Indian curries have.
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What impact does the order of assembly have when making cookies? What is the impact of assembling a cookie batter in a different manner than that described in the recipe? What's the best general order for combining the creamed fat & sugar, the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients? For instance, the Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie recipe says to add the eggs to the creamed mixture, and then the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda). I sometimes add the dry ingredients, and then the eggs. What problems might this cause with the finished cookies? <Q> Generally with baking you mix all the wet ingredients, then all the dry, then incorporate the latter into the former. <S> This prevents clumping and helps make sure everything is mixed uniformly. <S> In some recipes, adding the eggs (often un par un , or one by one) also contributes (via the yolk's supply of lecithin) to emulsifying e.g. butter and milk together. <S> The best way to find out, of course, is to experiment. <S> Next time you're making these cookies, make a double batch. <S> Do one according to the recipe, and the other your way. <S> Honestly with cookies <S> I doubt you'll see much difference; they're basically foolproof (I have, when in a hurry, made chocolate chip cookies by dumping everything in the mixer, whacking it about with the paddle attachment, and then folding in the actual chips. <S> Worked fine, basically). <S> When it comes to baking things that are more finicky--cakes etc--I would follow the recipe directions. <A> First, fat & sugar are part of the wet ingredients. <S> Given that, I do it different than daniel suggests. <S> I always add the wet to the dry. <S> Adding the wet to the dry tends to be less messy, and allows for easier mixing when you start. <S> It's less messy because you're not pouring powdery dry ingredients. <S> It mixes somewhat easier at the start because you're pushing the wet into the dry instead of pulling it up through the dry. <S> This means you're also less likely to flip a big cloud of dry ingredients across your kitchen. <S> This technique is explained by Alton Brown in his book <S> I'm Just Here for More Food: <S> Food + Mixing + Heat = Baking . <S> See Also: A chowhound thread which contains supporters for both methods, and in which some claim that it wet-to-dry leads to less clumping. <A> I think the key in this case is making sure that you've thoroughly incorporated everything. <S> Since (wheat) flour has gluten, the more you mix it while wet, the tougher it can become, hence mixing the egg thoroughly with the butter and sugar first. <S> Is it going to cause disasterous results? <S> Unlikely, unless things aren't mixed well. <A> I would suspect that mixing the flour into the creamed butter before adding the eggs or other liquid could do the same thing to a lesser degree. <S> It could also coat some of the flour, giving you a more tender cookie vs. the chewiness from developing the gluten.
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There was a mention on Serious Eats that mixing baking powder with the sugar before creaming gives you a dough that you can wait longer before baking (as the butter coats the baking powder keeping from reacting with the liquids until it's baked.)
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How do I replace sugar with golden syrup in a cookie recipe? I made Toll House Cookies using this recipe this recipe . They turned out fine, but you could feel the sugar crunching under your teeth (I used half brown, half normal granulated sugar). Next time I want to try for a more chewy texture and I read that this can be achieved by using golden syrup instead of sugar. What is a good ratio for replacing sugar in my recipe? I'm assuming that by adding syrup (= more liquid), I could be throwing off the balance between wet and dry ingredients. Also, should I use powdered sugar instead of granulated. Or maybe I just didn't cream my butter with sugar properly? <Q> If you use golden syrup to make biscuits, they come out harder than they would with sugar, they don't come out chewy. <S> That's why most recipes for ginger nuts include syrup. <A> You answered your own question. <S> You didn't cream the butter/sugar properly. <S> And no, don't use granulated powdered sugar; the sharp edges of sugar crystals actually help to create air pockets in the butter, making the cookie slightly lighter. <A> Also, golden syrup will make your cookies cook faster be aware of it! <A> The best way would be to substitute by weight: remove X grams of sugar, replace with X grams of syrup. <S> However... <S> I think your real problem was with the brown sugar. <S> Older brown sugar can develop lumps in it that don't cream properly, and stay as hard chunks in the finished cookie. <S> I look out for these lumps while creaming the butter, and crush them with the back of a spoon to break them up. <S> If your sugar has a lot of these lumps, you might consider either sifting it before use, or blitzing it in a food processor.
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Corn syrup would give you the chewy texture you are seeking.
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What is liquid glucose? Two days ago, I was making ganache as a topping for cupcakes. I needed, as expected, cream and chocolate. But '1 teaspoon of liquid glucose' was also on the list of ingredients (for 12 cupcakes). I didn't think I had that, so I used 'fondant sugar' (powder sugar with a bit of water, described here as poured fondant). Is liquid glucose something specific you can buy in stores, or is it a collection name for all kinds of sweet, liquid stuff (honey, syrup, fondant etc.)? If it's something specific, can you make it at home as well? And yet another question: if I would have added (powdered) sugar to my cream, would I have accomplished ganache as well (after being poured over chocolate), since I think the sugar would dissolve in the cream? (Just to be complete: my ganache was fine.) <Q> Corn syrup in the US is similar but has a few extra compounds. <S> As far as I can tell it is used for similar reasons as liquid glucose in the EU. <S> http://www.ochef.com/784.htm <S> It is used for a couple reasons: it is thicker than sugar syrups. <S> when making candy a little corn syrup can be added to the sugar solution to prevent crystallization. <S> in the US <S> at least, it is much cheaper than cane sugar. <S> You can buy it in stores <S> here- <S> I can't say whether you can in Belgium. <S> I have, on occasion, been forced to use a very thick sugar syrup in place of corn syrup. <S> The recipe used the syrup for reason #1 above and turned out well. <S> If it had been in there for reason #2 it would have been less successful. <S> In general, if you can find it, it is probably better to buy than to make a substitute because of reason #3. <A> Liquid glucose is also commonly known as glucose syrup . <S> It's half as sweet as cane sugar, and does not crystallize easily. <S> This makes it popular among pastry chefs. <S> Glucose syrup is almost always made from corn, but it can also come from potatoes, wheat, barley, rice, or cassava. <S> When it is derived from corn it is commonly known in the USA as corn syrup . <S> Be aware that this is distinctly different from high-fructose corn syrup which has been processed to be much sweeter. <A> I live in South America, and the product "Jarabe de Goma" lists the ingredients as water, glucosa, and goma arabiga <S> *, so it looks like this is Liquid Glucose in South America at least. <S> * <S> I'm not sure what this ingredient is, as it translates to Arabic gum!
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First of all- glucose is a different sugar than table sugar.
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What is the purpose of baking soda in chocolate-chip cookies? I thought baked goods which include baking soda should be put into oven immediately, otherwise they won't rise. But some cookie recipes call for cooling the dough in the fridge or even freezing it, which seems would negative the leavening properties of soda. Does it have other purpose or could it be left out? <Q> Baking soda also raises the PH of the product resulting in better browning. <S> Soda can be left out. <S> Many recipes- especially for chewier cookies- <S> don't call for any leavening besides the eggs. <S> http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-chewy-recipe/index.html Cookie recipes often call for the dough to be chilled so that it spreads less in the oven before it sets. <S> This creates a taller, less crispy cookie. <S> Cookie recipes don't typically have very much water in them for the soda to dissolve into. <S> Much of the water is tied up in the butter and won't be available until the dough melts in the oven. <A> The baking soda helps to develop a small amount of new air cells with carbon dioxide and speeds up the browning process. <S> Resting and cooling the dough allows some carbon dioxide in these cells to escape, but this isn't enough to eliminate the effect of baking soda and make the cookies flat. <S> Why would baking soda help with leavening? <S> When leavening, new air cells form while mixing the batter, not in the oven. <S> In the oven, air cells only grow. <S> This is why many recipes call for creaming the butter and sugar to add extra air to the batter. <S> As you indicate, conventional wisdom is that baking soda batters leaven quickly, or in technical terms, baking soda has a low "bench tolerance." <S> Especially in runnier batters, baking soda reacts quickly with acids like chocolate, brown sugar, or buttermilk immediately <S> so you need to bake them asap to take full advantage of the carbon dioxide produced. <S> If you wait, the carbon dioxide can diffuse out and the air cells will shrink. <S> Several considerations counterbalance this problem of gas escaping. <S> First, cookie dough is drier than many other baking mixes, especially after hours of resting (resting causes water absorption), slowing down both baking soda reactions and more importantly slowing down the escape of air. <S> Second, both the baking soda reactions and the escape of air are much slower at low temperatures. <S> Finally, cookies do not require as much leavening as cakes or breads, so some gas escaping is permissible. <S> Other secondary considerations include softening chocolate's acidic bite and weakening the gluten in the flour. <S> Baking soda by itself can be used as a leavener and at medium temperatures (around 80 degrees C) begins to produce a small amount of carbon dioxide in a dehydration reaction. <S> This reaction is too weak to be significant, which explains why you never rely on baking soda alone and always mix it with something acidic. <S> I've never done any experiments with the amounts of baking soda or amount of time after baking soda is added and how it affects baking, but those could be interesting experiments. <S> Source: <S> How Baking Works by Paula I. Figoni <A> Recommended reading: J. Kenji López-Alt -- <S> The Food Lab: <S> The Science of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies From the posting: <S> As the butter melts and the cookie's structure loosens, this frees up water, which in turn dissolves baking soda. <S> This baking soda is then able to react with the acidic components of brown sugar, creating gases that cause the cookies to rise up and develop a more open interior structure. <A> Baking soda is an alkaline powder. <S> When alkaline powder mix with an acid a chemical reaction occur and generate bubbles these bubbles work to lift your dough while baking. <S> Proper cookie dough consist exact amount of baking powder.
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As already pointed out, one of the main reasons for adding the baking soda is to raise the PH, which speeds up the browning process.
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How can I cut lots of cherry tomatoes in half quickly and evenly? Is there a tool to cut cherry tomatoes in half? Since they are so regular it should be possible to build such a machine. Alternately, what can I do to improve my speed and accuracy when halving them with a knife? <Q> Yes there is. <S> It's called a knife . <S> I use a Shun 10" chef's knife, but you could certainly make do with a much cheaper one. <A> When attempting to slice a lot of regular sized items, if you're not all that picky about the orientation of the cut (eg, if it's through or perpendicular the line between the blossom and stem), you can do the following, if you have a well sharpened knife that isn't going to slide on the skin of the tomatoes: place a few together on your cutting board. <S> place your hand on top and arch your fingers up slice horizontally through the group of items, between the counter and the palm of your hand <S> (no need to rush this, go slow) <A> I've found here: http://www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com/2012/06/streamlining-tomato-halves.html great advice to take two take-out plastic containers (shape of plastic plates) <S> fill with tomatoes - put tomatoes between them like sandwich <S> , so they will not go out thanks to containers/plates boarders cut through <A> Take two lids off any size food storage container you find fitting. <S> Fill one with as many grape tomatoes your heart desires. <S> Place the second lid on top facing down. <S> Mine is in fact a 13" <S> so I can cut about 12 boxes of cherry tomatoes in half in under 2 minutes. <A> Serrated knives leave scar marks in soft bodied foods, like this one, so if you are using it for presentation then this is not an option. <S> What you can do is take two small cutting boards, or two small straight edge items, shorther then the length of your blade. <S> Fit, in a single file line, as many tomatoes as you can between the boards, use them to press against the fruit so hold them still then under a bridge made by your hand cute the tomatoes. <S> I use two six inch cutting boards which fit about 7 cherry tomatoes and a 7" non serrated blade. <S> Once you get good with it you can cut like 200 a minute or more if you are really good. <A> Even better for any tomatoes a Serated Knife (one with ridges such like a bread knife).
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Take a serrated bread knife and cut the tomatoes in half between the lids. If you're nervous about cutting yourself, and you have plates that have a bit of a lip if you flip it over, you can put a plate down, upside down, fill the center with items to be cut, place another place on top, then while holding the plate down with light pressure, slice between the two plates.
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Are there carcinogens in grilled foods? I do a lot of grilling (various vegetables and meats), but was recently told this will have similar effects to smoking. Is there much merit to the concerns over grilled foods containing carcinogens? <Q> Short answer: <S> yes. <S> Long answer: depends on what you're cooking. <S> HCAs, a family of mutagenic and cancer-causing compounds, are produced during the cooking of many animal products, including chicken, beef, pork, and fish. <S> In January of 2005, the federal government officially added HCAs to its list of known carcinogens. <S> Cancer Project nutritionists determined that many commonly grilled foods contain alarmingly high levels of HCAs. <S> This table lists the five foods containing the highest levels. <S> (Source: Cancer Project/The Five Worst Foods to Grill ) <A> The risks are low and mainly come from burning animal fat. <S> Leaner meats are better. <S> It applies to fatty fish also. <S> I've also read that natural lump charcoal is better than treated briquettes. <S> You can google this stuff and find tons of references and articles talking about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), but there's not a lot of science saying specifically how much of it will hurt you. <S> And people have been doing it for thousands of years, though evolutionarily it was probably less meat, most of which was lean meat from game and more vegetables in the diet. <A> The source of @Todd is fairly accurate on what can be grilled or not: basically, nothing , if you want to eat healthy stuffs. <S> However, the Cancer project website gives a link to a list of things that you can put on the grill <S> and I attest that they give tasty nice meals. <A> Here in South Africa we are grill, or barbecue (we call it "braai") nuts. <S> We grill anything from vegetables to red and white meat to fish and shellfish, using charcoal, wood and gas. <S> I've been eating grilled-food by the bucket loads since I can remember. <S> The average South African braai's at least once a week. <S> Unfortunately I don't have a scientific source or cite-able reference for you, but to my knowledge South Africa doesn't have a specifically higher percentage of cancer cases than the rest of the world as caused by eating grilled food. <S> So my answer would be a definite no. <S> At least no more than cooking your food in any other method or anything else you do in your day-to-day life, in any case.
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Grilling some popular food items can produce cancer-causing compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) There's little risk associated with grilling vegetables.
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How to get rid of the taste of flour in homemade bakery? I usually get random cookie and cake recipes from the internet and try them. They are good but all of them have floury taste to me. Possible culprits are the flour I use and how I mix and bake dough. I use Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour and my hands to mix ingredients, having no mixer. What can I get wrong? Is there an easy fix? <Q> Assuming you aren't very unlucky and happen to download a series of bad recipes <S> I think it's one of a few things. <S> It's possible you could be undercooking your goods. <S> Fully cooked baked goods should not taste like flour. <S> If this were the case though you'd likely have some cookies that weren't floury. <S> The most likely culprit though is packed flour. <S> If you are using volume measurements (most likely given the source) for flour, it's quite possible to use nearly twice as much flour as the recipe intends simply because your flour is packed down more than the author's was. <S> Don't undo your sifting by rapping your measuring cup on the counter either! <S> Simply scoop, scrape to level and dump it in the mixing bowl. <S> See Also: What Kinds of Recipes Should I Sift/Aerate <S> The Flour? <S> How can I make sifting easier? <S> What is the purpose of sifting dry ingredients? <A> I've only ever had this issue if I under cook the baked item. <S> You get the same issue if you don't cook your roux long enough. <A> My grandmother was born in 1909 in New Zealand. <S> She moved to the UK and started her family. <S> When we were young she was always busy in the kitchen, making bread, cake, lemon curd, fruit scones...… she would allow the mix to sit, somewhere cool before she cooked the scones. <S> It made all the difference. <S> I tried her recipe which the family recorded, my father's verdict.... ' <S> its a bit floury!' <S> and the reason? <S> I hadn't allowed the mix to sit long enough- <S> I was too impatient. <S> SO my suggestion, try setting the mix aside for several hours and seeing if it makes a difference. <S> Same with making pastry. <S> You would mix it, roll it out on grease proof paper and then stick in the fridge for a few hours of the next day before using. <S> Its funny because this is how things were done <S> 100 years ago- <S> and none of the modern recipes either online or in cook books mention this. <S> But it was once de rigueur!
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It's also possible that you could be mixing insufficiently. I recommend using either a food processor or a sifter to sift your flour adequately before measuring.
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Why is butter usually labeled "Sweet Cream"? Most (or even all?) butter found at the grocery store is labeled "sweet cream". Is there a distinction between this and another type of cream, and if so, what is it? <Q> It means the butter is made from cream that hasn't been fermented. <S> Sweet cream butter tastes, well, sweet, and if it is from really good fresh milk you may be able to taste grassy notes. <S> Both are good in their own way. <A> "Sweet cream" is the same as "cream" (as opposed to sour cream). <S> So they are telling you that the butter is made from cream, which is naturally rich in butterfat. <A> Where I live in Germany <S> it's common to find both types, and they're clearly marketed as two different things: the Süßrahmbutter (sweet cream butter) is sweeter and fattier than the Sauerrahmbutter (sour cream butter). <S> I did a bit of research on how the production differs: the milk gets initially through a process of centrifugation to separate cream from skimmed milk. <S> The cream gets then pasteurized at 90° <S> -110°C and subsequently left alone for 3 to 29 hours. <S> This process of maturation is where the production method of the two types of butter differs: For the cultured butter the cream gets stirred for one day together with different sorts of bacteria, a culture of natural lactic ferments, to break down fats and sugars and give it that special flavour. <S> The cream for the sweet butter gets simply stirred for a day or so without adding any starter. <S> It's legal in Germany to add up to the 16% of water during the whole process. <S> EDIT: source <S> [German] <A> My paternal Grandmother (who lived in the mountains of North Carolina), had only one milk cow. <S> Every morning and evening my Uncle would milk this cow. <S> My Grandmother would skim off the cream and put it into a large crock (that had a top on it, and was kept in a corner of the kitchen). <S> The milk was put into the refrigerator and was used to drink or for cooking (any milk not used that day went to the pigs). <S> No matter what the season was, the cream was not put into the refrigerator. <S> After a couple of days, the cream had clabbered, and she would use a device that looked like a giant egg beater with an electric cord attached, to agitate the cream to make butter. <S> This process left the same "product" that naturally happens if cream is whipped too long. <S> Of course, the device she used was a modern version of a wooden butter churn that she had learned to use as a young girl. <S> The whey leftover from this process was then refrigerated and was used as buttermilk (which is how it got its name). <S> I remember that butter as being darker yellow than sweet cream butter, with a tangy flavor. <S> My Maternal Grandmother (who grew up in Pennsylvania and only knew sweet butter with its light yellow, almost white color), argued with my Mother that my Paternal Grandmother must have used food coloring to achieve the dark yellow color that my mother described to her. <S> A couple of years later, when she visited my parents and watched my Grandma make butter, she was surprised at the color and flavor. <S> Now, unless you have a cow, it is difficult to make butter that way. <S> I imagine, perhaps, if you added an acid to store bought heavy cream, it might be possible. <S> But, because of the process that makes milk "safe" to sell, it is very hard to get the cream to clabber. <S> This makes it hard to achieve the flavor that I remember. <S> I have let the cream sit on the counter for a couple of days, and the resulting butter's flavor did come close. <S> There were a couple more steps to my Grandma's butter making, but they are not essential to this subject. <S> I hope anyone else who asks this question will get a little more insight on this subject from my own experience. <A> According to the Third addition of "Bailey's Industrial Oil and Fat Products", butter would have been classified as either sweet or ripened. <S> Ripened butter was given its flavor by the chemical compound diacetyl, which was the by-product of various commercially available strains of streptococci.
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Butter made from fermented cream is known as "cultured cream butter", and it has distinct sour, lactic acid notes.
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How to wash pesticides from fruit skins? We eat many fruits and veggies at home and I am concerned about the amount pesticides on fruits like strawberries. Is washing the fruit effective enough? Does a thorough wash vs. a quick rinse make any difference? <Q> A long term answer would be to grow your own if possible. <S> That way you have complete control over your food. <S> Or at least purchase from a local farmer that is willing to let you see how he/she grows their produce. <S> Even organics need to be washed. <S> Most all commercial organics use a form of pest control (most likely diatomaceous earth), they also use natural fertilizers like manure and compost. <S> None of those things are items you need to directly ingest. <S> After a soak wash again. <S> For foods with pitted surfaces, strawberries, potatoes, etc, use a soft bristled brush to gently scrub the food. <S> That will get most anything off the outside. <S> Of course there will be trace amounts of anything that was sprayed on the item inside of the item. <S> Hope this helps. <A> Since you don't know which pesticide (or herbicide) was applied to your produce/fruits, you should opt for both a regular wash, and a wash with acetic acid (vinegar). <S> Many pesticides are non-polar - meaning they're not soluble in water; therefore washing with plain water won't do much good for you. <A> This might be very dependent on where you live and how 'good' the environment/pesticide guidelines are where you live. <S> Most fruits with a hard 'skin' won't let any pesticides leak through choose those when in doubt.
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The best advice I have is to wash then soak fruits and vegetables in lukewarm water.
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How to avoid cooked pasta soaking up sauce when stored? I often make up a box of pasta (dried) with some sauce that I make from leftover ingredients for work the next day. The sauce is always either tomato or cream cheese based. By lunch the next day, the pasta has soaked up a good amount of the excess sauce that was previously filling the base of the box. Aside from storing the pasta and sauce in two separate boxes, is there anything I can do when cooking to avoid this happening? It does not appear to be a problem in supermarket ready meals. <Q> If I plan on storing my pasta in the fridge with the sauce, I take the pasta out of the boiling water and immediately rinse it in cold water. <S> I rinse until the pasta has cooled completely. <S> Make sure to drain it well. <S> Afterwards, I either mix a little sauce in the pasta to help keep it from sticking or just put the sauce on top. <S> Basically I'm trying to stop the pasta from continuing to "Cook" in the sauce. <A> Adding a little milk (to the creamy pasta) or water before reheating cooked, wet pasta is a good idea because pasta will continue to absorb the moisture in the sauce and 'cook', leaving it dry and overcooked. <S> You can compensate for this in large quantities (like supermarket meals) by slightly under cooking the pasta and relying on this process of moisture absorption and reheating to finish the cooking process. <A> The problem might also be caused by the fact that cooked pasta releases gluten, which thickens your sauce. <S> "Washing" your pasta before putting the sauce in it, as suggested, is a good method, but probably the most simple thing to do in general is to keep your sauce a bit more liquid, and mixing your pasta with a bit of olive oil just before you add your sauce. <S> This way your pasta is somehow "coated" with oil which could prevent a bit the soaking of your sauce. <A> This works best if you know the portions that work for your family/guests, but is especially handy when trying to enforce measured portion sizes. <A> I found an extra-yummy recipe for mac and cheese where you put the hot pasta in the casserole, add some butter, mix until it melts, then add the sauce. <S> It's the first recipe I've found where the sauce didn't soaked into the pasta. <S> I wonder if the butter makes a barrier. <A> What I like to do when I'm making pasta and chicken is to first cook the chicken and add the sauce to the chicken. <S> Then I boil the pasta. <S> When I'm ready to serve, I simply serve my pasta on the bottom with the sauce and meat on top. <S> If u want to cook everything together and have leftovers the next day, you can always cook everything the way I said, put some pasta aside in one Tupperware, chicken and sauce in another container and then cook the rest of the meal together if you like
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I've started pulling out the leftovers before finishing cooking a pot of pasta, so that the leftover portion is only partially cooked, rinsing them and letting them cool before adding any sauce.
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Reduce hotness of beef Jerky I made some beef jerky with Maddog 375 hot sauce (generously poured into the marinade). It's ridiculously hot and basically unedible (I can eat it but just slowly). This kinda sucks because I don't enjoy it, and it seems a waste to throw it out, can I do anything to it to reduce the heat on it? Wash it? Any ideas? <Q> Jerky can be rehydrated. <S> Soak it in liquid, the way you would mushrooms, until it becomes somewhat plump. <S> It will remain a little chewy and keep a lot of its flavor. <S> It will give a unique flavor and texture and the stew will dilute the spiciness- hopefully to a manageable level. <S> Look for recipes for "backpacker's stew" for examples. <A> I'd personally go with Sobachatina's method of using it as an ingredient in something else. <S> (it's also good to chop up some and add to cooked rice or rice & some veg. <S> as a one pot meal) <S> ... <S> Unfortunately, this might mean wetting down the surface, and if you're going to do do that, you might be better off soaking it, changing the liquid, and re-drying it. <S> Your other option might be to try to give it a glaze ... <S> honey would be my first thought (look online for various techniques for honey glazed bacon), maple syrup would be my second. <S> Of course, it'd then be hygroscopic, which is going to reduce your storage lifetime. <A> A recipe I use all the time which is delicious and easy is: - 125g hoisin sauce 75g tomato <S> puree 35g tomato ketchup 2 tbsp honey <S> 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce <S> 2 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated (optional) 2 cloves garlic, finely grated Juice of 2 limes 2 pinches of chilli powder French parsley to garnish <S> My suggestion would be to use some of the (non-hot) ingredients above and add them to your sauce. <S> I would definitely leave out the ginger/chilli/garlic ingredients if you were trying this. <A> I have done the same thing a rather enjoyed it, thats just my opinion. <S> I agree with chopping it up and making a stew or my personal favorite making a Texas chili from it. <S> Either way you cant go wrong. <A> yes! <S> you boil the jerky in hot water for about 5-10 min. <S> dunp the water out and fill with clean water and simmer for another 10-15min. <S> once that is done, soak the jerky in a "not spicy" marinade. <S> dehydrate and eat. <S> there may still be some kick, cause i dont know the level yours is at now, however this will reduce the hot greatly <A> Eat with a large glass of V8. <S> It will still be super hot but I find the acid from the tomatoes helps make it more tolerable if you enjoy actually enjoy hot things.
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but if you really wanted to try to save as jerky, you might be able to tone it down a little by adding some sweetness to it. Chop it up and cook it into a stew.
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Keep fettuccine from sticking/clumping while cooking? This question addresses how to keep pasta from sticking after it has been cooked. This question is what I want, but was wrongly closed. All the answers from the first address the sticking post-boiling, and my problem is the sticking during boiling. How can I prevent this from happening? <Q> Simply put, you have to stir them the first three/four minutes of cooking. <S> Be sure to boil them in enough water (at least 1 liter per 100 grams). <S> From my knowledge pasta tends to stick when the wheat used is of poor quality. <S> A good pasta should not be transparent when seen in direct sunlight, but it should be of a nice pale yellow color and opaque. <S> Good Italian pasta brands that you can find outside of Italy are De Cecco (which I fear might be quite expensive, and probably not so easy to find), or Barilla (easier to find). <S> Both of them has cooking instructions printed on the package. <S> You might want to cook them for 2-3 minutes less than what's printed, then eventually cook them the remaining couple of minutes together with your sauce. <A> I find it's most important to make sure that it's moving well at the beginning; a quick stir after adding the pasta does wonders, and sometimes a second stir after the water comes back to a boil. <S> I also try to make sure the pasta goes in with a little bit of separation. <S> Strand type pasta are the most difficult, but if you hold it in both hands, and give one a twist, it'll cause it to fan out, so you can get it to disperse better when it first hits the water. <S> For most others (shells, penne, orzo, etc.), I pour it in over a few seconds rather than just completely upending the box. <S> Sufficient water for boiling <S> so there's space for the pasta to move also helps. <A> You can also try adding olive oil to the pot of water before it boils. <S> the olive oil and occasional stir will help the noodles from sticking. <A> This answer to your referenced question should address your issues. <S> The important part is step 3: <S> Stir pasta for a couple of minutes after pouring it in the hot water Stirring frequently in the first few minutes, as well as using plenty of water will address your sticking issues.
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In addition to that be sure to buy some good quality pasta.
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Bowed bottom on Stainless Steel fry pan Is there a way to "fix" my stainless steel fry pan that does not sit flush on my cooktop stove? <Q> Had a warped stainless steel pot I was getting ready to toss, but decided to give it one more use since I forgot it was warped until I needed to use it right away. <S> Was making tamales so it was on a good simmer for about 3-4 hours. <S> Placed a heavy cast iron Dutch oven on top while it cooked to try to get better contact with my ceramic top stove. <S> Left it to cool and forgot about the pot until I went to clean it in the morning. <S> When I did, I noticed the warp was all gone. <S> Pleasantly surprised and glad I did t throw it away. <S> I will definitely be more careful with it in the future. <S> Hope this is helpful to someone out there. <A> In order to 'flatten out' the steel wall and deck plates on a ship, after they are welded into place, they are alternately heated and quenched with water, which has the effect of shrinking the metal, reducing or removing the warps created from the heat of the welding process. <S> What I will do with a warped pot or pan is heat <S> it dull red on the stove and apply wet cloths to the warped part(s), if the whole thing is warped, I start in the middle. <S> Successive treatments do reduce the warping. <S> Just be careful, and wear leather gloves and a heavy long sleeved shirt, the steam is hot, and will burn you very badly if not careful. <A> No, there isn't. <S> You'll either have to live with it, or get a new pan. <S> Some pan materials are more resistant to warping, like cast iron (either enameled or raw). <S> Those are a little pricey, but if you take good care of them, your grandkids will still be using them. <A> Cook something in the pan, even if it's just boiling a little water. <S> Take it off the stove, dump out the contents, but do NOT cool it or run it under any water. <S> Now, flip it over face-down on a large, flat surface. <S> I have had good success just using a dishtowel over a plastic cutting board. <S> (Don't use a wooden cutting board, as what we are about to do in the next step could break it apart at the joints)You want the rim of the pan face-down in good contact with the level surface all theway around, with the handle hanging off the table where it won't interfere. <S> Very important. <S> The idea is to have that rim face-down, the pan still HOT (hence the dishtowel over the plastic cutting board, so it doesn't melt). <S> And this needs to be on a STURDY table. <S> You'll see why. <S> Don't be shy. <S> Hit it hard. <S> Test. <S> You'll find that it sits level on the stove again. <S> Just a few whacks, test it. <S> If it's not enough, flip it and whack it again. <S> NOW... <S> From now on, after you cook in it, do NOT put it anywhere near any water or anything cool until it has a chance to cool on its own. <S> It is true that really high-quality cookware with very thick bottoms does not sufferfrom this. <S> But your average everyday stuff, you can still avoid the problem if you avoid rapid temperature changes. <A> As a rule, to keep my stainless steel pans from warping, I let them cool naturally, on the stove. <S> Only when they are cool enough to put my hand on the bottom of the pan without burning myself, will I put it in water to wash. <S> When hot meets not hot, if it is metal, it will warp! <A> When it it already warped, use the rubber mallet technique, it works. <S> A bit of advice how to prevent the problem in the first place. <S> Someone mentioned deglazing. <S> When deglazing use room temperature liquid. <S> Cooking wine shouldn't come directly from the fridge. <S> Secondly to keep you pans from warping pour liquid in from the edges. <S> Cooking is fun, don't let fear of warping pans discourage you.
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Take a large rubber mallet (NOT a regular steel hammer!), and whack the centerof the pan a few times. I have had some limited success using a technique borrowed from large steel fabrication and construction, specifically ship building. If you dump out the contents and immediately put it under water, even warm water, the rapid temperature change will make the bottomwarp upward.
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How do I ensure that I cook scallops all the way through? Whenever I cook scallops, they tend to shrink up quickly and burn on the outside. Even though I leave them in the pan for several minutes at a time, despite the shriveling and burning, they always end up raw in the middle. The insides are cold, fishy tasting, and, to be honest, pretty nauseating. What am I doing wrong? I usually saute them in a little oil on high heat, flipping them every so often when the side touching the pan starts to brown and stick. Scallops are my favorite food; please help! Thanks! Alyssa <Q> High heat and quick cooking are essential for scallops. <S> Several minutes cooking will result in fishy racquetballs. <S> Firstly, remove the scallops from the fridge half an hour or so before you cook them, so they're not stone cold (but don't put them anywhere warm or in the sun). <S> Heat your olive oil in a pan until it starts to sizzle. <S> Season the scallops, then place them in the oil. <S> Don't move them for 90 seconds so they develop a nice crust. <S> Once that's happened, turn them over and cook for another 90 seconds. <S> That's it. <S> If you want to see the process, Gordon Ramsay's official YouTube channel has a couple of videos: Part One <S> Part Two <S> (Part two follows straight on, so you can see how quickly they're done). <A> How big are the scallops? <S> If they're the really fat ones, then cooking them all the way through on top of the stove might be hard. <S> Sear them on both sides in a pan, then stick the pan in a hot oven for a couple minutes. <A> My question was answered about letting my scallops warm up a little at room temperature. <S> But searing scallops all the way through makes them tough as shoe leather. <S> What I do is sear my scallops until a nice brown occur on one side, not moving them around. <S> And then flip them over not moving them around until the other side has a nice brown crust. <S> But, you can't go by such a restrictive time as 90 minutes either, depending on the thickness of the scallop and the temperature of the skillet. <S> I use oil in a non-stick skillet and non-stick spray in a regular skillet. <S> When I get done with my scallops, they are raw in the middle but verily warm. <S> But I love them cooked this way. <S> And it is a bit tricky <S> so it is important to sear these on high heat preferably in a heavy skillet.
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First of all, I pat my scallops as dry as possible before putting in the skillet.
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Kabobs to Fajitas - how to make the meat tender I made a bunch of kabobs. Now I want to turn the leftovers into fajitas. How can I keep the meet tender for the second dish? I'm using beef and chicken. The kabobs were (slightly over) cooked on a BBQ. <Q> Slice it thinly across the grain. <S> That's it. <S> If it's properly sliced, it'll be tender, as there isn't enough internal structure left for it to resist it falling apart. <S> Even though it's not technically the correct way to to cook fajitas, I'd go with a mix of Bruce's #1 and 2 : <S> simmer it ' <S> til warmed through in an appropriately flavored liquid (a mix of lime juice and any generic italian salad dressing works well), then drain, and give it some some fast heat to sear. <S> Of course, this assumes that they're already cooked ... if they're not, then just marinate, cook, and slice (again, against the grain). <A> A few options: Low and slow. <S> Faster + hackier . <S> Store overnight in something like the braising liquid from #1, with some acidic base (lime, for example). <S> Reheat normally. <S> Smash to bits . <S> Before reheating, put the meat in a baggie and smash with the butt of your knife (or some other smashing tool). <A> You can take any meat and slice it thinly to make it instantly tender, adding an au jus or sauce and voila!
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Reheat the meat slowly in the oven (or slow cooker) at a low temperature (above 165F) in a tasty liquid. You could also use a rolling pin.
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What can I do to make beaten egg puffier and fluffier? The way I cook an egg is like this. I take the egg, crack it in a bowl, pierce the yolk, then whisk it a bit. Then I add a bit of soy sauce, and fry it in a pan. However, the egg always come out a little bit flat, and hard, so is there a remedy to this? <Q> Yes, a few suggestions: (1) You are most likely cooking it at too high a temperature. <S> Scrambled eggs will come out maximally tender if you do them over very low heat, stirring almost constantly. <S> High temperatures cause the egg proteins to knot up and become tough. <S> For 4 eggs, figure on at least ten minutes of slow cooking. <S> (2) You can incorporate more air by whisking more vigorously, or if you want them really fluffy, by running them in a blender before cooking. <S> (3) <S> To increase tenderness, you can also add an extra egg yolk, or more butter. <A> Another thing to recognize and beware of is the age of your eggs. <S> Fresher eggs are fluffier than old eggs. <S> Adding a bit of whole milk will help with the fluffiness. <S> According to Cooks Illustrated , the fat from the milk will actually separate the protein strands in the egg and allow more air into the mixture. <A> Use a medium heat and a lid (or upside down plate) on the pan so that the eggs are steamed as well as fried. <S> You will find they go extra fluffy! <S> If you want real scrambled eggs try my technique for that Better Scrambled Eggs <A> Here's an article about making fluffier omelets . <S> They recommend that you use a hand blender to make the mix frothy. <S> Alternatively, you can use a hand blender on just the whites, then fold into the yolks later. <A> You can guesstimate 1-2tbsp for 4 eggs. <S> Obviously whisking the hell out of it definitely helps a lot. <A> In the book "The Science of Food and Cooking" by Allan G. Cameron, it is mentioned that eggs are acidic, this book also devotes a large section to leavening. <S> My brother, after experimenting a bit came up with the proportion of 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder to every two eggs. <S> This works really well for any type of mixed egg, quiches included. <S> It also seems to work better if the baking soda is added to a small amount of water to dissolve and then mixed into the eggs.
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Adding cold water to the eggs will mixing will also help increase the fluffiness.
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Why do we use so much water to cook spaghetti? Every time I cook spaghetti in a regular pot, I get the feeling that I could save litres of water if the pot had been created with spaghetti cooking in mind. This is especially true when I only need 1-2 portions. Cooking smaller pasta is more efficient. Is there a culinary reason for using so much water? Do professional kitchens use a better method? <Q> A tall thin pot is a hazard as it can be tipped over all too easily <S> The book says use lots of water to ensure even cooking and to stop the pasta sticking. <S> But regular stirring will solve this problem too Just use less water in a regular pot and feed the pasta into the boiling water. <S> It takes about 30 seconds for long spaghetti to soften enough for it to fit into a regular pot. <S> It cooks just fine WITHOUT breaking it up if you give it a quick stir after a minute, and then every couple of minutes or so <S> If you know your stove temperature and spaghetti type, it will only take a couple of goes to work out the least amount of water you can use. <S> I use about 1 l of boiling water for three adult servings of spaghetti in a medium domestic pot. <S> With the lid half on it is cooked to a firm bite point in less than 8 minutes, and the water just covers the spaghetti when finished <A> Your suggested design would topple over very easily, especially on a gas hob with a grate, risking serious injury. <S> Aside from safety concerns, your design would also be inefficient as there is an extremely low surface area in contact with the hob. <S> It would therefore take longer to heat up. <S> Since the pasta is bunched together, there is a lower surface area of pasta in contact with the water, further slowing the cooking process. <S> Your design would also cause some serious sticking- <S> you'd likely end up with a stuck-together tube of spaghetti with this. <S> A smaller, normal-shaped pan can be used while avoiding sticking if you can be bothered to stir it more often, but a large pan with plenty of water would be the ideal solution. <A> You need a lot of water to dilute the starch in the pasta. <S> Less water = more sticking. <A> This means your pasta won't "cook" or absorb the proper amount of water. <S> I purchased the "Fasta Pasta" as seen on tv "device". <S> It goes along with your question of a tall, thin pasta pot, but is made for cooking pasta in the microwave. <S> It uses a LOT LESS water than cooking on the stove. <S> I don't know why. <S> I seriously dislike "as seen on TV" gizmos, but this one was worth it. <A> The more amount of water in a pot the more consistant the water temperature will be. <S> A very small amount of water would cool down once the pasta was added which would take longer to boil, and cook the pasta at a lower temperature causing the center of the pasta to cook more which would likely keep the pasta from becoming al dente. <S> You could make fresh pasta if you'd like to have perfectly cooked pasta with less water consumption. <A> I've been cooking pasta (successfully) for nearly 40 years and I'm here to tell you that you don't need a boiling pot of water to cook pasta to perfection. <S> You can start it in cold water and you don't need all the water that many espouse you need. <A> If you really only want to cook one or two portions of pasta, you can also boil water in a wide, flat pan. <S> I'd say stainless steel is best - it shouldn't be too shallow - and cook the spaghetti in there. <S> Also works for other "long" foods like asparagus. <S> EDIT: <S> I also think using less pasta water is better for getting starchier water to create sauces that then stick better, like pasta aglio e olio.
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If you use too little water when cooking your pasta (on the stove), the starch to water ratio will be too high.
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How can I get brownies to bake evenly? I can never get the middle of my brownies "done" without overbaking the outsides. The middle is tasty, but gooey. What is the secret? <Q> Oven Temperature <S> Most ovens keep inaccurate temperatures with respect to your setting. <S> You may be setting it to 350, but it could be baking at 375. <S> I would suggest investing in an oven thermometer. <S> I've seen these for a dollar-- <S> well worth the investment. <S> Baking Vessel <S> I was surprised to find this out, but the pan color actually affects heat conduction. <S> If you use a non-stick tin, for example, your brownies are more likely to burn. <S> I've seen some people use silicone brownie pans to minimize this kind of uneven cooking. <A> <A> You can put your brownie pan in a larger pan...then fill that larger pan with water about 3/4. <S> cook as normal but <S> the water in the larger pan with help diffuse all the direct heat to the sides.
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If your problem is the center of the pan rather than the vertical center of the brownies, you could use "The Edge Brownie Pan" .
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Stuffed peppers that don't burn on to the pot My wife and I enjoy peppers stuffed with a meat/rice mix (with spices). We start with raw peppers and uncooked meat, and put the peppers in a small pot (or tagine) with tomato puree or tomato paste-based sauce around them, and cook for ~40 minutes. The result is usually to our liking (tasty, meat is cooked through, peppers are an appropriate firmness, etc.), with one exception: the peppers always burn on to the bottom of the pot. This puzzles me, since the tomato-based sauce around them boils gently or simmers, which I would have thought meant that there was enough liquid to keep the peppers from burning on. Apparently not! Does anyone have methods for cooking this or a similar dish that avoids burning? (Again, the dish tastes great--the burnt-on pepper just complicates clean-up.) <Q> You need a small wire grid to put on the bottom of your tagine. <S> You can make one by cutting up an old cake cooling rack Also consider baking for 3/4 of the time and then switching the oven to grill with the tagine lid off for the remaining 1/4 time (or thereabouts) . <S> This should still keep them moist, but just lightly crisp the pepper tops without burning the tops or bottoms. <S> These results are not to every tagine owners liking though <A> The sauce itself will stay not much above 212 F, but locally at the bottom, it can get much higher and scorch, and that will be especially true under the peppers. <S> You could also try oiling the pot, that may help some. <A> At that length of time, peppers will burn to your pot pretty much regardless. <S> I'd suggest placing some parchment under the peppers. <A> Bring it to a simmer on the stove, then stick the pot in the oven. <A> I often make stuffed peppers with a rice/mince mix in the oven. <S> A little brown on the peppers is good - some of the nicest pepper flavour comes from the Maillard reactions; I do a number of things to prevent the peppers being too burnt, though: <S> I use raw peppers, seared mince and half-cooked rice (i.e. for Basmati, same volume of water and rice in a pot, bring to boil, let all the water boil out). <S> I put a little butter in the bottom of the pot, and put the liquid / herb / spare stuffing mix in before the peppers so that a layer of sauce separates the peppers from the bottom of the pot. <S> I also add a small amount of the liquid into the stuffing mixture itself. <S> (The liquid component is typically not tomato based for me, though; I have tried variations with a tomato base a number of times and generally find them too sour for my liking. <S> I use stock made with bayleaf, and creme fraiche - this works even better for stuffed cabbage leaves :) ) <S> As the mince is pre-seared and the stuffing mixture already warm when the peppers are stuffed, I can get away with a lower oven temperature than would otherwise be required to ensure it is cooked through. <S> I generally also go for a longer cooking time than 40 minutes. <S> I use enough liquid to reach about a third of the way up the peppers at most, and cover the pot with foil to prevent it from boiling dry and to allow the top to steam; unlike a pot / casserole dish lid, foil is thin enough that the tops of the peppers / stuffing will begin to brown and crisp towards the end of cooking.
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One option would be to cook the peppers and filling separately, then stuff the peppers and simmer them only briefly with the sauce.
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Can you make cheese curds with pasteurized milk? I have this recipe for cheese curds that I want to try: http://www.ehow.com/how_5106352_make-cheese-curds-poutine.html , but it specifically calls for raw milk which is near to impossible to get here. I make yogurt with pasteurized milk and it works no problem, but does cheese somehow work differently? <Q> ehow is not a source of reliable information. <S> It is a content farm, and therefore most of it's articles are effectively screen scraped (either by hand or using 'bots). <S> People get paid to make content, but there is no peer review process <S> There are plenty of other sources on the web including this site :-) <S> that explain the cheese curd (paneer) process, and that you can use pasteurized or even milk powder with perfect results <S> Raw milk is <S> NOT a requirement to make curds, and in a blind test is not identifiable. <S> The taste is affected by the fat content and the cows diet. <S> How well you extract <S> just the whey will also affect texture and taste <S> How do you make paneer? <S> Search SA for Paneer <A> What they probably meant to say is not to use ultra-pasteurized milk (aka UHT). <S> UHT milk won't form proper curds, they come out small, grainy and unpleasant. <S> I learned of this when I bought a cheesemaking kit, and actually experienced it by mistake in my excitement to try a new toy. <A> I use non-homogenized whole milk that has only been Vat or Batch pasteurized. <S> That pasteurization process does not kill the bacteria necessary for proper curdling or coagulation of the milk. <S> This type of milk produces the same quality of curds as does using raw milk. <S> This type of milk can be purchased at any health foods store.
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I have found that pasteurized milk will make excellent curds as long as the milk is not ultra-pasteurized (UHT).
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Why rinse basmati rice? Every Indian recipe I see seems to insist on rinsing basmati rice before cooking it. Why, I have no idea, because I never rinse it, yet I can discern no difference between my rice and rice cooked by other people that have, presumably, spent the extra 15 minutes rinsing. If the stickiness is the difference, as suggested in this thread , then I would suggest that not rinsing the rice would make eating rice-based thali a lot less traumatic because the grains would clump together more easily. <Q> I am wondering if the origin of this step in the recipe comes from recipes written in India, and have been copied over into western book without asking this questions. <S> I do know that many times in India, rice is stored in sacks with some kind of insecticide (usually boric acid) <S> applied to it. <S> So there's always a need to wash the rice before it's cooked.. <S> So maybe this step comes from that.. <A> Sometimes rice is polished using talcum powder, which is one reason you would need to rinse it. <S> Another reason would be to get rid of extra starch. <S> The extra starch cause the rice to clump and stick, which isn't what you are looking for with basmati rice. <S> Normally you just rinse it until the water runs clear. <A> Rinsing is a matter of personal taste. <S> I'm not sure why anyone would spend 15 minutes doing it <S> though - I rinse my rice about six times (fill the saucepan, tip it out, repeat). <A> Basmati rice is supposed to flow freely though, if it clumps, you are using it against the norm and should probably stick with a stickier rice. <S> Usually Basmati is used Pilau style, or in a Biryiani, then the grains are slightly coated in some form of fat (oil, ghee, etc), so the starch you would definitely want rid of. <A> I have never washed any rice before cooking and every grain is perfect and separate. <S> Perhaps its the way I cook rice. <S> I put a little oil in the pan, sauté for a few minutes, then add the water and salt, mix it and cover until its ready. <S> Always perfect. <A> Then I got fed up and couldn't be bothered. <S> Nothing changed - the rice remains fluffy.
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The idea is that it removes excess starch from the rice, which if left in can result in a 'gloopy' consistency. I used to rinse basmati rice prior to cooking by steaming in a closed pot.
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Tricks to preserve chips (french fries)? Since I can remember I've always been crazy about chips (french fries for the Americans). As a result I always make too much when I make them for me. The problem I have and have always had is that they never seem to keep very well. The minute they cool off they become floury and stale. I find that this even happens with oven chips. When I was a kid my mother used to reheat chips for me in the morning, melting some butter over it, which help rehydrate them somewhat and give them a bit of flavour, but this never really worked all too well. What I'd like to know is if any of you know of some tricks to help preserve the chips? And also for interest's sake why this happens? This never seems to happen with baked potato or mash. They do lose some of their flavour sometimes, but not in the same way chips do. <Q> Here is an excellent recipe by the guys over at Cooking Issues (and also a follow up report ) with almost everything you'd ever want to know about chips. <S> That first recipe is supposedly good even after they've cooled off: <S> Our standard fries are good even when cold. <S> Another option is to cook a lot of chips but stop after their first frying and freeze them; when you want to eat them, simply put the frozen chips into the fryer for the second frying. <S> This also has added benefits: <S> Freezing acts like partial dehydration. <S> When the frozen fries are finished, they liberate water freely, leading to rapid dehydration and good crust formation with a porous interior. <S> Pre-frozen fries are crunchier than fresh and stay crisper longer after they are fried, but they tend toward hollow fry. <A> I've found that reheating Fries/chips in the toaster oven is the best way to reheat them. <S> They're crispy and not dried. <S> They end up just as good as before. <S> if you don't have a toaster oven, maybe a standard oven would work for you? <A> If you prepare a lot of chips and blanch them in boiling water for 5-7 minutes, then drain them well, you can freeze them and then just use them as you need them. <S> That is how they prepare frozen chips at the factory. <S> but they don't keep more than about two hours when they've been par-fried first <S> - they lose texture and won't fry crisp. <S> I've known a lot of chip shops <S> Not a lot you can do to revive them when they have been fried . <S> My mother would peel the potatoes and cut them into thin slices which she cooked in the frying pan - "frying pan chips" as they were called in our family. <S> Quite often she would peel the potatoes the day before, then leave them to one side in a bowl, covered with water. <S> They always tasted better when she did that ...
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prepare chips by frying at low temperature first, then put them to one side and fry portions as customers ask for them, but with the waxy varieties of potato used for chips in the UK they don't keep more than about two hours when they've been par-fried first - they lose texture and won't fry crisp.
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Peeling and dicing potato before boiling it I've mostly seen people peel a potato after it has been boiled and then cutting it to pieces if required. Given it's muddy exterior, I find it cleaner (and probably takes less heat) to remove the skin with a peeler before boiling. Am I losing anything when I use my method? What do you suggest? <Q> A lot of us just eat the peel, but assuming you don't want to... <S> Certainly it's going to be a lot <S> faster to boil a potato that's already been cut up than to boil a whole one, <S> so between boiling whole and peeling, dicing, then <S> boiling, I'd certainly pick the latter. <S> It doesn't really have much to do with cleanliness, though; a good washing leaves the peel plenty clean and safe (and like I said, I eat it). <S> You're not losing anything with your method, besides the nutritional value of the peel. <S> I imagine the reason a lot of people boil their potatoes whole is to be able to peel them without a peeler. <S> You could sort of have it both ways. <S> If you partially cut the potato (thick slices, probably), you could boil them in not much longer than it'd take to boil small cubes, then peel the slices by hand, and cut further if necessary. <S> Not sure it'd really save you a ton of time, but if your peeler is dull/broken/missing/stolen, it'd be a decent fallback. <S> (You could probably also partially boil them whole, peel, chop, then finish cooking, but that's starting to sound like it just makes more work.) <A> Boiling potatoes with the skin on leads to much less absorbtion of water. <S> This is particularly desirable when making mash. <S> And I'm not sure who upthread said mud isn't water-soluble or why. <S> Do you know what mud is made of? <S> Dirt and water. <S> In what universe would that not be water-soluble? <S> Scrub <S> your taters, toss 'em in cold water, bring to boil. <S> Peel if needed (personally I love leaving the peel in mash I make at home, nice texture). <A> This keeps them from getting too water logged and "soggy". <S> This may also help with your "Muddy water" problem, since the inside of the potato is protected by the skin. <S> Give them a good scrub with an old tooth brush, under running water. <S> If you're making a small quantity, microwaving potatoes works really well. <A> It's very easy to peel a boiled potato. <S> You just rub it a bit and the skin falls off. <S> I've seen this recommended in recipes for potato salad that use red potatoes. <S> Since the red potatoes are smaller, they are more of a pain to peel, but they do cook relatively fast, so it end ups being easier to boil, peel, cut instead of peel, cut, boil. <A> Where I live (my household, the households of my family & the households of my friends), people always peel potatoes before boiling them. <S> Most don't use a peeler, but a kind of paring knife (for more information, but not in English: link ). <S> I think this is the case because a lot of people still buy potatoes from farmers, so the potatoes are really really dirty. <S> Washing them could be too much work. <S> Even when the potatoes are store bought, people peel them before boiling. <S> I think it's just a habit. <S> The only thing I've heard is that it's better to not cut the potato in pieces before boiling, because you lose nutrition. <S> I have no idea whether this is true. <S> Once in a while, people here do boil potatoes with the skin on, but only if these are 'new potatoes' (the first potatoes of the new season). <A> I would suggest washing your potatoes. <S> This link has a fine step-by-step. <S> I typically use a brush with a medium-hard bristle, meant for scrubbing vegetables. <A> It depends on the result you're after. <S> If you are going to eat it boiled or steamed, just go ahead as you already do. <S> However, if you want to make mashed potatoes, then it's recommendable to leave the peal on. <S> That way, the potato takes less water and absorbs the milk, butter, nutmeg, or whatever...
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If I HAVE to boil potatoes, I prefer boiling them whole, with the skin on.
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What causes yogurt in sauces to split? How to prevent it? A lot of my favorite curry recipes have a yogurt based sauce in them, but on a pretty regular basis when I make them, the yogurt ends up splitting into basically curds and whey. What causes that, and how can I prevent it? As an illustrative example, last night I made a simple tofu curry as follows: warm evoo in a pan add chopped onion, saute briefly add curry seasonings, allow to warm/season the oil add cubed tofu, toss to coat cook for a while, tossing periodically to lightly brown the cubes turn heat off add plain greek yogurt stir to combine In the few minutes it took to finish the rest of the meal and start plating, the yogurt had separated so I had a clumpy, lumpy, yogurt soup instead of a smooth creamy sauce. <Q> Yogurt is a mesh of denatured milk protein that traps the whey. <S> When yogurt is over-heated those proteins tighten and squeeze out the extra whey. <S> When the protein matrix is cut it will also leak whey. <S> To combat this add a little starch. <S> A little cornstarch mixed into the yogurt will prevent the yogurt proteins from over-coagulating. <S> All heated yogurt sauces that I have seen include starch for this reason. <S> I should also add that this problem occurs mostly with lowfat yogurt. <S> Extra milk fat in yogurt will interfere with the protein's ability to coagulate the same way the starch does. <A> You are trying to add the yoghurt at too high a temperature. <S> Let the dish cool to around 75 deg C before adding the yoghurt, and make adding the yoghurt the last thing you do before serving. <A> In addition to reducing the temperature of the curry, you can also: <S> Temper the yoghurt - combine a small amount of the warm sauce to the yoghurt before adding it to the curry. <S> This helps when adding cream, milk, or eggs to a sauce. <S> Whisk the yoghurt - use a fork or whisk and vigorously mix the yoghurt. <S> As the fats and proteins are emulsified in the liquid, this ensures an even starting distribution. <S> Add an emulsifier - add a teaspoon of mustard powder or lethicin to the curry before combining the yoghurt. <A> One option is to substitute cream for yoghurt. <S> That's what's done in a lot of Indian cooking. <S> When yoghurt is used, it's usually added at the end, and not at high heat, just as James points out. <A> The usual ratio is- <S> 2 tsp white flour to 1 cup <S> yogurt <S> 1 tsp corn starch to <S> 1 cup yogurt 1 tsp gram flour to 1 cup yogurt 1 tsp rice flour to 1 cup yogurt <S> Also, remove the dish from the heat source & stir yogurt mixture in, then return dish to heat source to warm dish through and you won't get lumps. <S> This also works with other dairy products to prevent splitting like heavy cream & buttermilk. <A> I've also seen another suggestion: strain out the vegetables/meat from the sauce, add yoghurt to the sauce one tablespoon at a time, whisk it in very quickly, and bring the dish back up to a boil, stirring the whole time, before adding a second tablespoon. <S> I've found that approach to work quite well. <S> I think the reason this works is that the yoghurt is quickly dissolved in the sauce to the point that there are no macroscopic clumps, and then each microscopic clump of yogurt is deliberately curdled by bringing the sauce to a boil, which prevents macroscopic curdles from forming later, and results in a smooth texture despite thoroughly cooking the yoghurt. <A> I concur with adding starch to prevent separation of a yogurt-based sauce with the caveat that one should NOT use arrowroot or lecithin. <S> Arrowroot is a great thickener, but when used with dairy, arrowroot turns the mixture to a very unappealing slimy, mucous glop. <S> The same holds true for using lecithin powder, another fine emulsifier to have in your "kit." <S> Again, with dairy products, lecithin tends to turn the sauce slimy. <S> There are many alternatives to arrowroot and lecithin which do work well, including powdered tapioca starch, potato starch (really good), rice flour and corn starch as already mentioned. <S> I find it best to mix the starch with a bit of cold water first to form a slurry or paste and then add this to the yogurt sauce, little by little, and one can get the desired thickness and prevent separation, and avoid lumps entirely. <A> Put the yoghurt in a bowl and carefully stir the sauce, not too hot, into the yoghurt! <S> i.e. Do it the other way round.
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Stir a little starch into the yogurt before adding it to the hot dish & it will not split.
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My tomato sauce is very watery It has flavor, but its consistency is too thin.Will letting sit over medium low heat evaporate enough to increase its density or is this useless?Would bringing it to a boil help more. I don't want to ruin its flavor and am afraid bringing it to a boil with high heat will do just that. <Q> Yes, cooking it more to evaporate off some of the liquid will definitely help. <S> This is called reducing a sauce. <S> A moderate simmer would be the appropriate temperature. <S> You want to see occasional bubbles but definitely not a rolling boil. <S> Stir it occasionally, making sure to get the bottom of the pot to avoid any scorching. <S> It is possible to have it be quite liquid on top and rather dense in pockets on the bottom, which can then get well above 212 F and reaching the point of burning. <A> There are a few things you can do to thicken your sauce: <S> Many Bolognese sauces are simmered for 30+ minutes. <S> Thicken - add 1-2 tbsp of corn starch (or flour tempered). <S> Many commercial sauces do this. <S> Add paste - add a small tin of tomato paste ( <S> in addition to either of the above). <S> Adds both flavour and thickening mojo. <A> Fresh tomatoes contain natural enzymes which will break down pectin and other other thickening components. <S> By heating rapidly to a boil (or nearly so) at first, you will deactivate these enzymes. <S> Then reduce to a low simmer to preserve flavor components during the remainder of cooking. <S> If you don't do this first step, the sauce will turn watery and you'll spend a much longer time thickening it again by reduction (or other means). <S> For more details see Kenji Lopez-Alt's Q&A here <S> (where he quotes Harold McGee's similar advice on the same topic). <S> (Note that this advice only applies to sauce made from fresh tomatoes. <S> Canned tomatoes have already been heated in the canning process, so the enzymes should already be deactivated. <S> Canned tomatoes can just be simmered slowly.) <A> Beware of hard boiling tomato sauce. <S> Once it starts to thicken it'll burn to the bottom of the pot if not stirred every few minutes. <S> That'll impart a 'Carbon-ara' taste that most people don't like. <S> Dried mushrooms, Shiitake or other, such as you can get cheaply in asian food stores, make an excellent thickening agent for tomato sauces. <S> They hydrate in 10 minutes <S> or so when boiled, and suck up a lot of water in the process. <S> If you don't want chunks of mushroom in your sauce, the dried material can be powdered in a coffee grinder before adding to the tomatoes. <A> You need: <S> A large (.25 lb) <S> parmesan cheese rind Time: <S> bring to a boil first and then reduce to a simmer. <S> expect no less than 4 hours. <S> A deep kettle is better to reduce the chance of scorching because of too much surface area with a shallow pan. <S> Note: <S> The above is the Italian (Luca) way and guarantees a thick fresh tomato sauce. <A> Definitely simmering longer will help the sauce. <S> I agree with previous answer that you should bring it to boil and then turn down the heat to simmer. <S> I've made both fresh whole tomatoes and canned. <S> Another thing that I've noticed is that using the right pan is HUGHLY helpful. <S> A wide shallow pan will do much better than a deep pot. <A> There is good advice here already but another situation people may run into is getting a watery sauce when using whole canned tomatoes, <S> e.g. San Marzano's. <S> I prefer to not blend my sauces. <S> If that it the case with other readers here remember that you really need to break the tomatoes up with a flat edged wooden spoon/spatula or some masher in the pot throughout the cook. <S> It'll help release the water that builds up after you kill the heat as the pulp relaxes and squeezes water out.
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Simmer - you can simmer the sauce at a low heat for quite a long time without affecting the flavour (generally improves it). Contra the previous answers: when using fresh tomatoes, one key to avoiding watery tomato sauce (and sauces based on many other kinds of vegetable purees) is to bring to close to a boil quickly at the start.
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What causes a tomato sauce to have a bitterness and getting rid of it? My tomato sauce is coming out great, lots of flavor, especially after I was able to reduce it following the tips here However, it is still slightly bitter. What causes a tomato sauce to have a (in my case, slight) bitterness and how do you get rid of it? Is there an anti-bitter technique that is commonly used. <Q> A few things can cause tomato sauces to become bitter: <S> Overcooked spices . <S> Both basil and oregano can become bitter with long simmers. <S> Add them near the end of the process. <S> Under-ripe tomatos . <S> Store bought tomatoes are often picked green and ripened in the store. <S> These tomatoes make less sweet sauces (which may be contributing). <S> Cooking in an aluminium pan . <S> Aluminium reacts with the acid in the tomatoes and adds an off-putting flavour. <S> Seeds/skin in the sauce . <S> Both seeds and skins can be bitter. <S> You can improve a bitter sauce by adding a small amount of baking soda (or salt), and something sweet (but not too much). <A> In the same vein as Bruce's answer, try using plain diced tomatoes and adding the spices yourself instead of using the "italian" variety. <S> Also, If you use garlic in your sauce too that might sweeten it a little and counteract the bitterness without adding sugar. <A> Skin the tomatoes but keep them whole in the sauce 'til cooked. <S> They will break down when they're ready. <S> Seeds are bitter. <S> Also I add a couple of sweet bay leaves. <A> I've found the following to make tomato sauces bitter: <S> Tomato seeds Underripe tomatoes Burnt garlic <S> Usually, adding sweetness helps somewhat, although letting the garlic get too brown, let alone <S> burn it, can hardly be corrected for. <S> Some things I've found to help: <S> Extra carrot Brown sugar <A> You can add half a carrot to the sauce and remove at the end. <S> The carrot absorbs the acidity :) <A> I find the seeds of fresh tomatoes to be the cause of the bitterness. <S> Its hard to get them all <S> but that is okay. <S> Then a bit of cane sugar. <S> This will balance the flavors a bit but some bitterness is good as it is a flavor of fresh tomatoes. <A> I can’t answer the first part of the question: why tomatoes are bitter (and it looks like a few people already have anyway). <S> I use three methods for sweetening tomato sauce. <S> The first two you can use with anything: red current jelly and port <S> (port is my favourite cooking ingredient because you can use it in place of red wine in most cases, too). <S> The third I came across online (can’t find the source), but basically, put your tinned tomatoes (or whatever) on the hob and then cut a brown onion in half and drop that in the sauce. <S> Then cook it for a long time (maybe two hours). <S> At the end, just take the onion out and chuck it.
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Try to remove as many seeds as possible by squeezing tomatoes after blanching and peeling.
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Is food immediately taken out of the microwave safe to eat? Do we have to wait a few seconds to let the microwaves go away, or can we eat it immediately? Of course, I assume that the food is not too hot to be eaten. <Q> Yes it is completely safe. <S> Microwaves do not linger in food. <S> The microwaves stop as soon as your microwave stops. <S> A microwave is just an electromagnetic wave similar to a radio wave, but at a higher frequency. <S> It works by exciting molecules, particularly water, in the food and giving those molecules some of its energy as heat. <S> Microwaves do not alter the structure or composition of molecules or atoms directly, which is what happens with ionizing radiation (gamma rays, x-rays, and UV-rays). <S> You could cook your food with gamma rays, but you would ionize many of the particles making them radioactive. <A> I'm assuming you're thinking you might have to wait for the microwaves to disappear from the food? <S> ( Edit: actually, you said so explicitly …) <S> Well, I don't think the physical properties of microwaves work that way . <S> ;) Interestingly, here's an article titled “ Microwaved Food Isn't Safe to Eat ”, which I'm personally taking with a large grain of salt; but note that of all the claimed dangers with microwaved food, the possibility of “ingesting” microwaves isn't one of them! <S> (The article does claim health problems have arisen from the microwave field next to a microwave oven; which is contradicted by the information found on Wikipedia .) <A> Regarding the microwaves going away: Microwaves are essentially the same kind of electromagnetic radiation as light, just in a different frequency range. <S> If the oven's light-bulb gets turned off at the same time as the magnetron, the microwaves should be gone by the time you stop seeing the light. <S> Of course, there may be long term effects I'm not aware of <S> but you might try asking about that on a biology-oriented site since hobodave has already ruled out radioactivity from the physics perspective. <S> I am not a biologist, micro- or otherwise. <S> I'm also not a nutritionist, but I've heard that microwaves can reduce the nutritional value of food. <S> I'm certainly willing to believe that the interactions are small and complicated enough to be very difficult to fully observe. <S> Further, I can believe that the pro-microwave and anti-microwave lobbies are pretty lop-sided in terms of funding and effort. <S> Finally, it seems to me that nutrition is a complex enough subject for a lot of nutritional advice to be under constant revision. <S> Given those thoughts, I see the following possible approaches: Eat a ratio of microwaved to non-microwaved food commensurate to your risk tolerance/aversion (cost) vs. perceived convenience, etc. <S> (benefit). <S> Accept a credible, seemingly balanced viewpoint such as this one: http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/Microwave-cooking-and-nutrition.shtml Fund/ <S> oversee one's own clinical study over a number of years, applying one of the prior options while you await the results.
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Regarding safety: I have eaten microwaved food on several occasions with no ill consequence.
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Seasoning for Ground Meat I am trying to figure out how to season the ground meat in my goulash. Here are the ingredients that are in the dish. What seasonings would be best so that the dish comes together nicely? Other ingredients: turkey sausage corn red bell pepper green onions tomato sauce oregeno egg noodles a little bit of mild salsa topped with shredded cheddar cheese <Q> Well, for a start it's not really goulash without paprika. <S> Having visited Hungary numerous times I'd also say it's not really goulash with ground meat, turkey sausage, corn, egg noodles, salsa or cheese either, but each to his/her own. <S> Other than that just salt and pepper. <A> I propose the zest of several oranges! <S> (Along with the aforementioned paprika, of course.) <S> UPDATE: It just occurred to me I used to toast caraway seeds, crush them and add them to the mix as well. <A> for goulash,ditch the turkey, ground beef, cheese, salsa, and corn. <S> Add chunks of beef (or maybe mutton), lots of paprika, some potatoes, garlic. <S> Probably needs other ingredients as well, pepper for example (or something similar). <A> You're direction here is.. unique, for a goulash. <S> However, as I look at where you're going with this, I'd say be sure to use a proportionally larger quantity of both red and green bell peppers, too . <S> I think what defines the flavor of the dish is the duo blend of bold beef and bell pepper, with a minor presence of tomato. <S> Paprika helps establish robustness to that taste, as will onion and garlic. <S> The rest is just ancillary, but will add depth. <S> Elendi's recommendations for spices are spot on, and I might add pinches of rosemary and marjoram if there's enough beefiness to support that extra headiness.
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Thyme is always nice in stew-style dishes, as is a bay leaf.
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Does paneer have to be cooked? I want to just toss it into some indian food I have. Does it need to be cooked first or is it ok if it just warms up a bit when I throw it in the sauce? <Q> Paneer can be used as is. <S> Sometimes it is fried to extend shelf life. <S> This makes paneer very soft. <S> If you do cook paneer, it will not melt, like most other cheese varieties, because it's an acid-set cheese. <A> Well, I am Indian, so let me tell you this: in traditional North-Indian cooking (and this is where paneer is widely used), paneer is almost always cooked. <S> Yes, no problem with not cooking it, but uncooked paneer is not a good dish. <S> It is more a dry and stingy (for lack of a better word) cheese. <S> So you see paneer or cottage cheese is best served cooked and well seasoned. <S> That is where the real magic of cheese lies! <S> P.S. Google "paneer pakoda". <S> This is a unique dish which will show you the versatility of the item. <A> It does not have to be cooked. <S> It's cheese! <A> I didnt think paneer melts. <S> You can boil it and boil it in a curry and it still maintains its shape. <S> But you can eat it raw! :-) <A> It could be eaten raw, but is generally heated or cooked. <S> Personally, I find that pouring piping hot sauce over room-temperature paneer cubes works wonders for delicate sauce-based dishes, while cooking them gives best results and texture in dryer style dishes. <S> I have only used fresh homemade paneer, so I am not sure if differences in taste or texture with the store-bought stuff would yield different recommendations. <A> You have to prepare paneer in boiling water. <S> Remove paneer from refrigerator. <S> Cut it into cubes. <S> Place it in boiling water and keep it for 5 minutes. <A> Uncooked Paneer tastes like putty. <S> No taste. <S> Paneer aught to be fried to a golden crust. <S> Best is to fry the Paneer and let it soak in hot water for some time. <S> That gives the best Paneer. <A> It depends on which dish you are using it in. <S> In some you can fry and put in the sauce, in some you can put after the sauce is ready, <S> in some you might have to marinate it for a few hours before you use it and in some you are required to cook it in the sauce for last few minutes before the dish is ready. <S> Generally in the last case you need to be careful not to cook it too long else paneer cubes might break or crumble. <A> There is no black and white reply to that question. <S> All depends on the dish being cooked or the chef. <S> Some chef might put paneer before serving in shahee paneer or butter paneer but some might like to cook it in the sauce for last five minutes before serving. <S> Generally it is cooked for very short time. <S> The chances that it will be eaten raw is a little less but not impossible. <S> It is put raw in salads and it is grated on several dishes. <S> At the same time chances that it will be cooked for long is also less but not impossible. <S> Like in some dishes it is deep fried or roasted.
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Cooks will also sometimes fry paneer until it is slightly brown and then put the fried cubes of paneer in hot water for a few minutes.
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Making patties from half-cooked ground beef My roommate decided to store a sizable purchase of ground beef in the freezer. For reasons I don't entirely understand, he would thaw it as needed at cook temperature in the microwave, then refreeze. Quite a bit of this beef remains, and it's been in the refrigerator since I discovered his shenanigans, but unfortunately it's difficult to make patties out of the meat because it's partially cooked. I don't want it to go to waste, so what might I use to hold it together while making burgers that still taste like burgers? <Q> Ground beef is a perfect setting for bacterial growth anyway <S> , Ground beef that has been partially cooked and refrozen multiple times is guaranteed to have a huge amount of bacterial contamination. <A> Instead of, or in addition to egg, try a panade of bread soaked in milk. <S> It will act as a binder as well. <A> For my part, I suggest you explore the wonders of Spaghetti, and that most American of dishes, the "Sloppy Joe." <S> You can try adding binders like egg and/or peanut butter (or bananas if you're vegan, har har) in order to firm up your beef for pan frying (forget the grill, it ain't happenin), but, while that will help, it'll definitely change the flavor...possibly for the better. <S> I've been known to add those things to regular ground beef (Also, applesauce, which will not help your problem here, but is quite tasty).
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I believe Cook's Illustrated uses this technique in one of their burger recipes to enhance flavor or texture.
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Does the drying out of vegetables affect the taste after cooking? If I cut the onions and vegetables in the morning, they dry up till evening. Is there a taste change when you eat cooked vegetables, which dried out over 8 hours (before cooking)? <Q> 8 hours in still air is probably not going to be enough to thoroughly dry your vegetables. <S> If you live in a very dry climate and the veggies were sitting uncovered in front of a fan the entire time <S> then you might have actually dried them. <S> So your title is asking a different question than your description. <S> Description: If you live in a very humid climate then you might be more concerned about spoiling than drying. <S> They may have become a little limp so it makes a difference how you plan to cook them. <S> If the veggies are going to be diced and sauteed and used in something else then they will probably be fine. <S> If they are going to be their own side- <S> like steamed asparagus- <S> then the texture may be decidedly un-fresh. <S> Either way- <S> the flavor will be normal or close to it. <S> Title:Actual dehydrated veggies are different altogether. <S> They have had most of their water removed. <S> This concentrates flavors and changes them. <S> They are sweeter and more intense. <S> Their texture is also firmer and ranges from crisp to rubbery to almost normal depending on how much they are rehydrated. <A> I don't think the water change will be very significant. <S> If you were to lay them out flat so the surfaces dried a bit, they might sear and brown more easily (because that effect depends on moisture reduction in the first millimeter or so of the vegetable so that it can go above 212 F). <S> Whether that effect will make any substantial difference depends a lot on which vegetables you are talking about. <A> If you're eating them raw, or if they tend to oxidize (like avocado, for example) then yes, you may notice a difference. <S> Otherwise, you're just losing a bit of water. <S> No big deal.
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The other thing that can be a factor is that once a vegetable is cut, some enzymes are released from the cells that can cause changes.
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How to spice up a carrot cake I have made a carrot cake several times, and I like the way the cake turns out but I want it to have more spice flavors. The recipe only calls for 1 tsp of cinnamon, but since I want it to have more spice flavors I have tried adding varying combinations of the following spices: cloves allspice nutmeg I have tried amounts between 1/2 tsp and 1 tsp of each of the above spices but it seems the taste is always the same - good but not spicy enough. I'm afraid to go too far overboard and ruin a good cake, so does anyone have any suggestions on how much to add or other spices that would help the cake be more spicy? <Q> Cayenne pepper. <S> I'm actually serious. <S> I haven't tried it in carrot cake but a little capsaicin actually works well with a little sweet to offset it. <S> Chile powder also works well in sweet things. <S> Cardamom is my wife's favorite <S> and so it goes into many baked goods I make. <S> It would work and be interesting but not spicy. <S> You can always put in a good extra dose of cinnamon if you want it to punch you in the face. <A> When it comes to spicing cakes I tend to err on the side of heavy handed as I like them to have a bit of punch. <S> I'd go for more cinnamon definitely, and I'd also consider a good pinch or more of powdered ginger. <S> i love the combination of cinnamon and ginger in a cake. <S> I also like to butter my cake tin, then sprinkle a layer of sugar over the butter and cinnamon/ginger/ <S> whatever spices I'm putting in over that, then pour the cake mix on, to give the cake crust a nice, cooked spiced edge, hopefully with a bit of chewiness from the sugar. <S> this works especially well with upside down fruit cakes. <A> I would go easy on the cloves and allspice, but increasing the nutmeg and cinnamon more shouldn't be too risky. <S> You might also try mace if you can get hold of it; it's the dried husk that surrounds nutmeg. <A> I love cardamom with my carrot cakes. <S> I'm from a Persian background <S> so it's a nostalgic spice for me. <S> Both my boyfriend and I love the punchiness of cardamom <S> so I'm often liberal with it. <S> I recently used boxed Carrot cake mix (super moist) and added 1 tsp cardamom, and 2 tsp of cinnamon to the dry mix, it and it was delicious for us. <S> If I was to do it again, for guests, I'd probably just add half a tsp of cardamom. <A> Add Chinese Allspice. <S> These days people are using it to spice up cakes.
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I also love a maple frosting with my carrot cake.
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Why prevent apples from turning brown? It's somewhat well-known that applying an acidic solution to sliced apples prevents them from turning brown as quickly . I believe that the primary motivation to prevent the "browning" is aesthetic: slightly brown apples don't appear as appetizing as bright white ones. Is there any other reason to do this? This page on the subject of apple-browning states: When an apple is cut, it releases an enzyme called polyphenol oxydase. This copper-based compound breaks down in the presence of oxygen, acting both as an antibacterial agent and as a deterrent to animals. This is what forms the brown coating on the apple. The Wikipedia entry for food browning refers to the browning of apples as "undesirable" but is without qualification, and the entry for polyphenol oxidase says nothing about its properties other than colour, and I couldn't find any additional explanation of the "antibacterial" properties of browned apples, and what that actually means. My question is two-fold: Is apple-browning undesirable for any non-aesthetic reason, such as affecting taste, or any property other than colour? When people apply a solution to apples to make them "last longer", how should I read this? Does this simply mean "will brown slower", or is there something else to it? <Q> I found that when I dry apple slices (usually early dessert apples) that there is no noticeable difference in the finished product - except of course the colour. <S> I went so far as to have people blind-test them, nobody could tell between acid-treated and "natural" dried apples with statistical significance. <A> In addition to the brown color they also become mushy and have a bruised flavor. <S> Not a nice thing. <S> I don't know anything about the brown being antibacterial <S> but I don't really care because I don't expect cut apples to stay around long enough to harbor bacteria. <S> An acidic solution will prevent browning. <S> I toss mine with dilute lemon juice. <S> They will last for days in the fridge without browning. <S> I've not done an experiment to see how long it will take them to actually spoil. <A> If I want to keep cut apples from turning brown (e.g. if I'm packing them in a container in my daughter's lunch), I put a small amount of Vitamin C crystals (ascorbic acid) in. <S> This will actually reverse the oxidation, turning slightly brown apple chunks white/yellow again. <S> On the odd occasion when the apples didn't get eaten for a few days, they've tasted fine to me. <A> As Ward mentioned, and some of the other answers hint at, apples turn brown due to oxidation. <S> The antioxidants contained in them are spent. <S> If you want to eat more antioxidants for dietary reasons, you should consider adding acid to the apples. <A> In addition to aesthetics, I actually like the taste of fresh cut apples with fresh lemon juice either squeezed on or by taking a lemon wedge and rubbing it onto the apple slices. <S> Plus, as others have said, citrus adds vitamin C, antioxidants and flavonoids to your diet.
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Like some of the other posters have said, I also find that cut apples that have started to brown have a slightly altered taste and texture (bruised flavor and mealy texture).
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Is my fancy cheese still safe to eat? A few weeks ago, I went to Amsterdam and bought several pounds of cheese, including one massive (3 pound) round of Edam. It was wrapped in wax paper and was told that I could leave it out on cold, shady spot of the counter until it was broken up, at which point I needed to refridgate it. I left it in the paper for a couple of weeks and imagine my surprise when I went to get a slice and it had what looks like white mold growing on the top. It has spent only three weeks on the counter and appears to be in a yellow parafin wax (it's got printing on it, so I'm assuming it's wax). Can I still eat it? If I wash off the mold, would that make it better? Should I have put it in the fridge? If it is edible, how exactly should I store it after it's cut? I was really looking forward to that cheese. <Q> I believe that if you cut/scrape off the mold the rest will be fine. <S> With a huge chunk of wrapped and refrigerated parmigiano reggiano, for example, I have been scraping it off before grating it for over 18 months now with no ill effects. <A> My father used to work in a grocery store and they used to do the vinegar thing. <S> He also told use to turn our cheese if stored for long periods so the gases would not come to the top and form mold? <S> Whatever,I do it when I think of it. <A> That's the only reason I can see for mold appearing inside the wrapping. <S> Now, that suggests that the molds are traditional cheese types, so they are likely to be fairly harmless in most cases. <S> I cut off mold from hard cheese, the same as most people, but I would remind people that if the knife passes through the mold when making the cut, then it is probably carrying mold spores onto the uncontaminated cheese. <S> So the best way to remove the mold depends on cutting from a "clean" area to remove a moldy area, and if the knife passes through the mold the blade should be cleaned for each cut (I use paper towel - perhaps I should moisten it with vinegar, like Sobatchina).
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It looks to me that most molds you find on cheese are picked up from the cheese counter where you buy them!
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Baking chicken in oven, but keeping it moist Here is the problem I'm facing: I am on a diet, which doesn't exclude fat, but doesn't encourage it either. So I am trying to bake chicken in the oven, while also removing the fat that comes out, while also preventing it becoming too dry. I am thinking of rubbing the chicken with seasoning, and then putting it on bars, with a pan beneath, so that the fats would drip down. But as far as i know, that may render the chicken to dry. Any solutions? Thanks! <Q> The technique you describe is pretty much just the standard way of roasting a chicken. <S> A V-shaped roasting rack is excellent for this purpose. <S> As for keeping it moist, the standard technique is to brine the chicken first. <S> Done properly, brining a chicken results in a moist, tender bird with crisp skin, and doesn't involve adding any additional fat. <S> I normally brine by putting the chicken in a stew pot, covering it with cold water, adding about a cup of kosher salt, and letting it sit for 90 minutes. <A> If you're looking for moisture, your enemy is a combination of temperature and time -- if you cook it for too long (where too long depends on the temperature) <S> the chicken is going to overcook and be dry. <S> Good methods are cooking it longer at a lower heat 'til it's cooked through, then giving it a burst of high heat to brown the skin. <S> (there are also recipes done in reverse, where you pre-heat to a higher temp, then turn it down after a few minutes of cooking). <S> Brining can also help. <A> You'll get chicken fat when you eat the chicken no matter what method you use to roast it. <S> To minimize how much fat you consume, don't eat the skin. <S> You can also shred the chicken meat and dress it with some of the juices and fat. <S> I like the beer can method for keeping the chicken moist which someone else has already mentioned. <S> Other methods include putting a pan of steaming hot water into the oven to keep the chicken company. <S> Another is to cover the breast portion with foil for part of roasting time and make sur not to over roast. <A> Variations of this recipe abound. <S> You can use just about any kind of can with just about any flavorful liquid. <A> Cover the bottom of the pan with sliced onions to keep the skin from sticking to the bottom. <S> Place chicken in pan UPSIDE DOWN <S> (i.e. Breast <S> down).When there's <S> about 20 minutes cooking time left (about 130 degrees F) flip it over, turn the heat up a bit and brown up the skin. <S> This way, all the juices flow into the breast, rather than out, and you end up with a very moist bird. <S> I also like to pour lemon juice over the skin, and stuff the empty lemon half inside. <A> I put the whole chicken in a slow cooker with vegetables (but no extra liquid) and cook for 3-4 hours. <S> I tried the beer can chicken once but didn't notice any difference from my normal roast chicken (maybe it was the beer!). <A> Stuffing the chicken with vegetables or fruits should help keep it moist as well as make it tasty. <A> As Joe said, the enemy of moist chicken is overcooking. <S> You can cook a chicken a shorter time at a higher temperature. <S> For example, my favorite way of preparing pieces of chicken on the bone is from Barbara Kafka's cookbook Roasting . <S> Heat the oven to 500 degrees (F). <S> Season your chicken. <S> Put it in the oven, skin side up, for 10 minutes. <S> Flip, and cook another 10 minutes. <S> Flip again and cook another 10 minutes. <S> The chicken will be done at this point and quite juicy. <S> You can even do this without the skin, and the chicken still comes out well. <A> Put 1kg (whole bag) of plain salt on the bottom of the roaster, put whole chicken on it, close the roaster lid and bake till the meat is done. <S> The salt simply drains all dripping fat. <S> The meat is delicious, the skin (in case you are eating it) is thin and crispy, all underskin fat is gone. <A> One thing people haven't mentioned though it was hinted at with Ray's post "your enemy is a combination of temperature and time". <S> The tip is this: Use a smaller chicken if possible. <S> Best would be a 3lb chicken cooked at very high heat (450+) for 45min or so. <S> Make sure and let it rest for at least 10-15 minutes as well so that the juices have time to settle in the meat. <S> Do not stuff it (unless its just tossing in some herbs or something small. <S> You can also through some fresh herbs under the skin and just toss the skin when done since you are not eating it. <S> The small chickens are hard to find but it is possible at some stores like Trader Joes. <S> Most large grocery stores tend to carry larger 5lb birds. <A> Use a probe thermometer to test it. <S> Once it hits 160F, take it out, wrap it in foil, and let it sit for five to ten minutes to let the residual heat finish it off.
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Using the beer can chicken method is a way to keep a roasted chicken moist. Just put in a more detailed answer here , but basically, try salting it for 20-30 minutes before you put it in the oven, and cook it until it's safe, but no longer.
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Identifying Strands of Dough I'm trying to write up a how-to guide for braiding six strands of dough. I figured that for comprehension I would instruct the cook to move the pieces of dough based on a color-coding scheme. E.g. I would say place the black strand between the blue and green strands. However, in order to identify which strand is which, I need food-safe colored items that can be stuck into the ends of each strand of dough [to be removed after braiding is complete]. What are some items that can fit this purpose? <Q> wooden toothpicks with colored ends, like the kind at cocktail parties? <S> (like these? <S> http://tinyurl.com/3pjf4kx ) <A> I guess glass marbles would be safe enough as long you don't forget to remove them! <A> I don't think identifying strands to move (and where to move them) by colour is a good way to go. <S> It'll get too confusing to say "Put the red one across all the others <S> so it's to the right of the orange one, then put the blue one between the yellow and purple, then put the orange one across all the others <S> so it's next to the green one, then put the red one between the yellow and blue, ... <S> " <S> Use colours like this page to show what to do, but if someone can do a basic three-strand braid, they can easily learn to do 6 strands. <A> If you writing up a guide, you don't actually need to do that, just edit your photos in GIMP or Photoshop to add markers as needed (if its a video, you can edit that too, though its more time-consuming). <S> You could also use food colors, I guess, though kneading it in would be somewhat messy (and you'd have to handle the dough as six separate doughs). <S> Would certainly produce a weird-looking bread at the end!
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You can also do something that'll be friendly to the colorblind, like put numbers on them as well.
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What are some appropriate accompaniments for satay? I have an excellent recipe for satay chicken, which I usually accompany with coconut rice. Last time, I also attempted a kind of Asian coleslaw of white cabbage, chilli, carrot and lime juice, but it didn't turn out all that well. Can anyone suggest a suitable accompaniment, preferably something vegetable and fresh to counter the peanut butter in the sauce, for this? The only caveat is that I am cooking it soon for guests who don't like salad of any kind (lettuce, cucumber etc). <Q> It likely depends on how hot you make your peanut sauce, and what you consider to be a salad. <S> You mentioned that you had chilies in your slaw (and some people consider slaw to be a salad), but if you have a very hot peanut sauce, you might want something more cooling. <S> it ... <S> I seem to remember there being a touch of sugar, sesame oil ... <S> soy or fish sauce, can't remember ... <S> it was really, really simple. <S> (might've had some scallions added for garnish, but it was basically just marinated carrots) <S> You could also add some thin sliced red onion, scallions, bell pepper, or bean sprouts to it, but then you'd be getting into salad territory. <S> ... <S> If you didn't want to make coconut rice, I find I can get a good amount of vegetables into anti-vegetable people (eg, kids) with nasi goreng. <S> As I don't have a good source of kejap manis, I also mix in some shredded carrots at the end to add to the sweetness. <A> The classic pairing would be a cucumber salad, but that's out based on your constraints. <S> I think you probably want the same characteristics as the salad though. <S> You want crisp and cold, but with plenty of moisture (like cucumber). <S> Carrots would be a good idea. <S> As you suggested in the comments, apple might be good too. <S> I would do a fruit / veg salad, maybe a slaw. <S> I'd julienne your ingredients so that it keeps some crunch (rather than shredding for a slaw). <S> The cucumber salad has a tangy sweet aspect to it which is a nice counter point to the peanut sauce. <A> I have made Asian coleslaws multiple times, and they work very well. <S> My main suggestion would be to heat the dressing before adding it to the slaw. <S> Particularly if you're using scallions, the heated dressing wilts it just enough to cut some of the sharpness of the raw veggies. <S> I'd probably make my own dressing from rice vinegar, neutral oil (such as canola) and a touch of sesame oil. <S> Add in spices such as garlic, ginger, etc. <S> You can also vary recipes such as this . <S> You could also try using unexpected ingredients. <S> I make a salad from cubed jicama, apple, and ripe avocado, topped with lemon juice, olive oil, and a touch of chili powder or cayenne. <S> You get the crisp sweetness and some creaminess from the avocado. <S> If they're not fans of cucumbers, how do they feel about pickles? <S> Those could also be a nice addition to a coleslaw. <S> Or you could try marinated mushrooms. <S> Either of those would add a vinegary sharpness that would cut nicely through the creaminess of the rice and the satay. <S> This also brings to mind a preparation I've seen for vegetables in a prepared salad. <S> Blanch your veggies and shock them in an ice bath. <S> Then give them a vinegary dressing and lay them on the plate in attractive ways. <S> This could include green beans, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, potatoes, etc. <S> You could achieve similar effects by serving roasted vegetables. <S> (Either from the grill or oven-roasted.) <S> These are quite good cold or warm. <A> Cucumber comes to mind. <S> For instance. <S> Edit: As others said. <S> Apples and Carrots... <S> Why not combine apples, carrots and raisins?
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So check out some recipes for the Thai Cucumber Salad and use that for whatever ingredients you pick, but the basics are rice vinegar and sugar. I once did a very nice carrot slaw (jullienned carrots, left to sit in a rice wine vinegar dressing for a few hours), but I can't remember the complete ingredient list, and I've never managed to re-find
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What would be a good accompaniment for Ostrich fillet with Port and Blue Cheese glaze? On the heel of @ElendilThetall's question: Accompiniments for satay , I'd like to know the following. About a year ago I found this great recipe for Ostrich Fillet , which is basically flash fried in the pan and then the leftover juices is cooked along with port and blue cheese to create a great-tasting glaze. I haven't had the chance to make this very often, but it's an amazingly tasty, quick and easy thing to make. The problem I have is figuring out what would go well with this. At the moment my favourite is a baked potato and roast vegetables, however I'm not so good with the roast veggies. I've also worked under the assumption that anything that goes with regular red meat, like chips, works well, but this is such a unique tasting dish that I'd really like to do something different along with it. Unfortunately I don't really have a knack for pairing side-dishes with recipes like these, so any help would be appreciated. <Q> I've had french fries with (beef) gravy and blue cheese, and it's delicious. <S> However, if you want to get away from potatoes and aren't comfortable with roasting, what about doing some other sort of root vegetable mash? <S> Like mash potatoes, but using turnips, parsnips, rutabaga, or sweet potato instead. <S> I've tried them all <S> and I think they're great. <S> As for a side veg, I'd almost want a really vinegary salad. <S> Something astringent to cut the richness of the dish. <S> To carry the theme, you may like a green salad with apples, walnuts, and a little blue cheese, with a vinegary italian dressing. <S> I imagine that any kind of pickled veg would be nice, too. <A> And a bit of greenery - simple wilted spinach or steamed green beans. <A> A mushrooom sauce over the ostrich <S> steak / fillet, with <S> either mashed potatoes, steamed green beans with pepper and butter or steamed mixed vegetables go really nice together. <S> Mushroom sauce <S> I sautee the onion and mushrooms for about 3 to 4 min, add garlic, fresh cream with a bit of milk <S> and I also add a bit of cake wheat flour to thicken the sauce a bit
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Potatoes are a good choice - perhaps some roasted or parmentier-style, or even fondant potatoes.
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Why add breadcrumbs to meatballs? Besides getting them to stay together, what other reason would there be for adding breadcrumbs to meatballs. Do they impart any particular flavor or texture? <Q> In meatballs or meat loaf or even burgers, breadcrumbs are sometimes added with egg. <S> The bread, if unseasoned, doesn't change the flavor much except to dilute it. <S> The texture is definitely different. <S> It is smoother and spongier. <S> The breadcrumbs also soak up liquid so the product doesn't lose as much and stays moister. <S> Purists often decry the use of breadcrumbs in things like burger patties. <S> For myself- I will add breadcrumbs when I am in the mood for the breadier texture- <S> often when I will be adding extra liquid flavorings like Worcestershire or liquid smoke and want to strengthen the structure a bit. <A> The major motivation for using bread crumbs is if they are soaked in milk, making what is called a "panade". <S> Since meatballs and meatloaf are often cooked to well-done, they tend to be tough and dense. <S> The panade does act as a binding agent, but, more importantly, the milk activates the starch in the bread to form a gel. <S> This gel acts much like a fat, lubricating the meat's protein fibers and discouraging them from forming a tough matrix. <S> Enzymes in the milk can also help tenderize tough cuts of meat, however, that would likely take longer than the average meatball recipe allows. <A> Meat stretcher. <S> The crumbs from sliced bread, leftover porridge, broken bits of crackers or chips can be put to use to stretch the recipe yield. <A> Bread crumbs do not help meatloaf hold together. <S> It was started back in the depression when they wanted meat to stretch out, they would add the crumbs. <S> The thing that hold meatloaf together is the eggs.
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Finally, if the meatballs are fried, breadcrumbs can help crisp the outside of the balls (especially if the balls are rolled in breadcrumbs on the outside). The motivation is mostly textural.
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Theoretical: why there's no gradient of doneness in bread? I was always wondering, why there's no gradient of doneness visible on the cuts of bigger breads. For example: This one was made in the baking form, it has a thin visible crust, but after that the texture is absolutely uniform. How is that happens that temperature is distributed so evenly in the bread mass? Dough is not circulating like liquids do, so I'm puzzled. Could anybody shed the light on that? <Q> Essentially, the exterior crust and the interior evenness are both side effects of the distribution of water. <S> The Maillard Reaction - <S> the chemical reaction responsible for the brown crust - happens at about 150° C. <S> Generally you're baking at a much higher temperature than this - say 200 <S> ° C. <S> The first question one might ask is, why is the crust only on the outside? <S> And the answer is because only the outside gets dry enough; as the small amount of water on the surface evaporates, the temperature is allowed to rise to ambient oven temperature. <S> The reason it doesn't happen on the inside is precisely the opposite; water boils at 100° C, so as long as there's still water in liquid form (and bread is, to a large extent, water), the temperature can't get any higher than that. <S> The interior of the bread is always regulated at approximately 100° C, and since the baking temperature is uniform, so is the finished product. <S> It's almost like poaching an egg or a piece of meat; no part of it is able to get any hotter than the liquid around it, so <S> the longer you cook it, the more uniform the temperature gets. <S> If you continued to bake the bread until all of the interior water evaporated into steam, then it would eventually start to undergo the same process as the steam slowly escaped. <S> But we usually don't bake bread that long, so it doesn't happen. <S> As commenter Ray points out, there are some types of darker bread such as pumpernickel which involve intentional "overbaking", but obviously not to the point of burning it. <S> However, the bread is porous, so this steam eventually has to escape; if it didn't, you'd end up with a very damp interior after cooldown from all the condensation. <S> If you measure, you'll also notice that the weight of a fully-baked bread is about 10% less than the original dough weight. <S> So the steam doesn't stick around indefinitely, but the continuous evaporation coupled with the temperature self-regulation (due to the boiling point) keeps the temperature relatively constant. <A> I may be wrong here as I can't find any definitive answer, but this is probably due to our old friend the Maillard Reaction. <S> This is what causes food to brown - it is often mistakenly called caramelization, which is an entirely different process. <S> The Maillard Reaction requires surface water to completely vaporize. <S> When you put bread into a hot oven, the water evaporates from the surface rapidly and the Maillard Reaction occurs. <S> This forms a partial 'seal' that prevents too much moisture loss from the rest of the loaf, though this seal isn't perfect - bread still goes stale after a day or two. <S> Incidentally, it's often thought that having steam in the oven helps form a crust. <S> This is not the case. <S> Steam in the oven in fact prevents a crust from forming, which lets the bread rise more, before the steam evaporates and the crust forms. <A> The crust is able to brown because it is exposed to much high heat from the oven air than the interior. <S> If you were to take the bread out early before the proteins had set you would also be able to see a gradient- <S> the dough would become progressively more doughy toward the center. <S> Bread recipes cite 190F-200F as internal temperatures for baked bread. <S> After 212F the bread starts to burn. <S> My suspicion, therefore, is that the steam regulates the interior temperature until all the protein has set- <S> at that point you take the bread out of the oven. <S> If it continued to bake and the steam all escaped you would start to see a more pronounced gradient but it wouldn't be edible anymore. <S> In my non-scientific experience, the outer portion of the bread is exposed to more heat than the interior but <S> the difference between the two isn't enough to dry it out or burn it as long as there is steam left.
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When the bread is baking the water in the bread turns to steam that, along with the CO2 from the yeast, inflates the gluten network. Note: There may also be a certain element of the process that is due to steam being trapped inside; the water vapor, like any gas, expands and distributes itself fairly uniformly throughout its container.
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Proper way to add marshmallows to brownies? I've had brownies with gooey marshmallow swirled in and find them delicious. However, when I try to duplicate this by adding miniature marshmallows to my brownie mix, I find that they just turn into overcooked sugar clumps which don't have a very good flavor or texture. What's the proper way to add marshmallow to brownies? <Q> Store-bought marshmallows (and most homemade marshmallows) are gelatin-based, which means they'll melt above 40° C. <S> No chance of surviving a bake. <S> I have, on occasion, seen "rocky road" type brownies with actual marshmallows <S> and I suspect that they are either not conventional brownies or not conventional marshmallows. <S> You could probably create a bake-stable marshmallow by adding methyl cellulose along with the gelatin. <S> MC is the typical additive in a vegan marshmallow; it gels when hot and "melts" when cool. <S> Using both of the above additives (and perhaps several more) could theoretically render a marshmallow with a continuous gel temperature range. <S> I'm not even going to try to speculate what the ratios or other additives would be - this is generally the domain of commercial food packaging, food scientists, etc. <S> - it's pretty complicated even if you're familiar with the main molecular gastronomy concepts. <S> Another alternative would be to bake the brownies plain, possibly overbake them a little, then grind them up to the consistency of large crumbs, mix them in with the marshmallows (and nuts and any other additions you want), and put them back together with water and/or corn syrup. <S> I've made rum balls from ground-up brownies this way <S> and they hold together surprisingly well, although they obviously won't pass for fresh-from-the-oven brownies. <S> As a last resort I'd go with JSBangs' suggestion and go with a marshmallow creme product (e.g. Marshmallow Fluff ). <S> It's basically just syrup, vanilla, and egg whites as a thickener. <S> It won't have the texture of a real marshmallow, but because it's based on egg, the texture that it does have will withstand the heat. <A> The vast majority of recipes I find call for marshmallows to be added at the last second, and cooked only long enough for them to melt. <S> Usually then a heavy frosting is added to top the whole thing, giving the illusion of marshmallow inside the brownie. <S> Find an example here . <S> I've also seen really "wet" brownies with lots of included chocolate chips and butterscotch, which contain non-disgusting looking marshmallows. <S> I've never personally tried these because they seem overly sweet, but they're the only ones I've seen that contain marshmallows that seem to retain elasticity after a normal baking period. <S> See examples here and here . <S> For my money, I'd probably just sprinkle some marshmallows over the top of regular brownies during the last 3-4 minutes of baking. <S> Quick, simple, not overcooked. <A> The marshmallows become gooey and melt on top and into the batter. <S> They don't burn up and get nasty. <A> Use the tiny dried marshmallows used for hot chocolate drinks you can find them next to the cocoa on the baking isle. <S> Here's a package on Amazon .
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I have tried adding marshmallows into my brownies, but I've learned that putting the bigger ones on top then drizzling with more brownie mix is the way to go.
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Is unnecessary refrigeration problematic? Our local grocery store's produce section has a few areas of refrigerated produce along the walls--mostly "wet" vegetables like lettuce, squash, peppers, green beans, etc. The rest, in the middle of the produce section is simply on shelves in bins, like potatoes, onions, corn and bananas. For the most part, our home storage tends to follow the store's--we keep lettuce in the crisper and onions out. However, there are a few pieces of produce that tend to generate some controversy in our house, and they tend to be small and round, like grapes, cherries, and berries. The questionable item this week is blueberries. My tendency is to follow the store's practice of leaving this out, whereas my wife seems convinced they will rot in a matter of hours and insists they should be refrigerated. I'm more or less satisfied with refrigerating them--as long as it won't cause a problem. I've heard that some items will actually go soft faster, or lose flavor, if stored cold. <Q> Living organisms, including plants, are very complicated miniature chemistry factories. <S> Even separated, dead body parts still have chemical processes taking place completely independent from any parasitic organisms (bacteria, molds) present. <S> But of course, lots of the processes which take place in the living plant don't take place any longer, and their absence can change the food considerably (rigor mortis in animals, wilting in plants). <S> Refrigeration slows down the growth of bacteria and molds, and some of the processes going on internally in the plants. <S> There are two problems with that: 1) <S> sometimes, you want these processes to go on. <S> A pear will continue to ripen and enhance its aroma after plucking, especially if there are catalysts like ethylene present. <S> If refrigerated, this ripening will be limited severely. <S> 2) <S> Some of the chemicals already present in plants will change under low temperatures. <S> ESultanik pointed out two such examples, the self-destroying aromatic compound in tomatoes, and the starch-sugar conversion in potatoes. <S> These and similar changes happen in other fruit and vegetables too. <S> But it doesn't mean that all fruit and veggies undergo undesirable changes. <S> There is a good rule of thumb to predict where such changes may occur. <S> It says that the bigger the temperature difference between the plant's living conditions and storage conditions, the more likely it is for its chemicals to behave strangely. <S> So everything which thrives north of the Alps should do well in the fridge (if the fridge has a crisper, use it). <S> Everything else must stay outside (including tomatoes <S> - you can grow them in Middle Europe, but they don't taste well). <S> Shape, color, etc. is quite irrelevant to storage temperature. <S> If you have logistic difficulties, just use small breathable containers for placing berries etc. <S> into the fridge, instead of the squishable plastic bags you may have bought them in. <S> The rule isn't perfect, but to do better than that, you'd have to research the optimal storage conditions for every single fruit or vegetable and possibly furnish a cold storage cabinet or pantry in the 10°C - 15°C range. <A> As Doug mentioned in his answer, tomatoes lose flavor if refrigerated. <S> This is because they contain an aromatic compound called cis -3-hexenal which is permanently destroyed if the tomatoes drop below about 50°F. <S> Moisture makes onions rot, and refrigerators are moist places, so onions should generally be stored in a dry place when whole and refrigerated in an airtight container after they are cut. <S> For the same reason, you shouldn't keep your onions close to your potatoes, since potatoes give off moisture. <S> Speaking of potatoes, their storage depends on what you want to do with them. <S> For most recipes, you should store the potatoes at just above refrigerator temperatures. <S> If the potatoes get too cold, this promotes their starch to convert into sugar, which can cause the potatoes to taste weirdly sweet <S> and/or cause premature browning. <S> This is sometimes a desirable thing, though. <S> For example, if one is making a potato recipe that would otherwise be difficult to brown/ <S> crisp <S> well ( e.g. , oven baked lowfat french fries), one might benefit from pre-chilling the potatoes. <S> As for blueberries, I always refrigerate them and have never had a problem (but they hardly ever last more than a day or two at my house). <S> Just don't pre-wash them, because any moisture on their surface will promote mold/decomposition. <S> In fact, the only berries that I don't refrigerate are tomatoes (at least that I can think of). <A> Just to clarify a couple of things that others have said - The skin of any vegetable or fruit has natural defences against microorganisms, particularly moulds - if you wash your food the minute you get it home, you reduce its keeping qualities. <S> Wash things as needed, immediately before using or eating them, and they will keep longer than if you wash them in bulk. <S> Never neglect the washing, because they may have been sprayed with something to improve their shelf life - and remember this includes things like the peel of citrus fruits, which is often ignored by the pros. <S> It is a fact that chilling foods can initiate mould growth, which will manifest itself quite quickly if the temperature is raised. <S> If you put it in the chiller, keep it there until you use it. <S> If you bought food at room temperature and it quickly goes mouldy, you can usually bet that it was chilled in transit. <A> I have always been led to believe that tomatoes, at least, will lose their sweetness if refrigerated.
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If food was chilled when you bought it, keep it that way and the mould growth will be slowed down.
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Good book on English/British cuisine I am looking for a good book on British cuisine, and I have a specific type of book in mind. I tried looking on Amazon, but I couldn't determine whether a given book offers what I want. I am looking for a book which is more of a good read than a recipe collection. I actually intend to curl up in an armchair and read it through. It should describe different traditional dishes, something about their background, maybe things like where it is from, is it prepared for certain occasions, maybe some historical anecdotes, or typical pairings. If there are traditional genera of dishes which require their own technique, I'd like to see that technique explained somewhere. For example, I have a book on French cuisine, and it contains very detailed directions on making pastetes, independently of any recipes. A general chapter on food history in Britain could also be nice, if not too long. It should also provide the recipes for the dishes - maybe not a big collection, just for sampling whatever is described in the text. But please, it should be a book with good recipes, not one where the author described the cooking tradition and then just slapped the first recipe they came across without even testing if it can be made. It should cover baking as well as cooking. I've always wondered what scones taste like. It should contain a good share of food porn. All in all, I guess it is maybe best described as a collection of Smitten Kitchen articles, only the text shouldn't be about the author's personal experience with the food, but about the tradtions surrounding it. If you know of such a book, I am looking forward to your recommendations. <Q> I have "The Cookery of England" by Elisabeth Ayrton, and it seems to meet most of your conditions. <S> The introduction is a brief history of traditional English food, there are historical anecdotes interspersed in the text, and yes, it has a recipe for scones, and also for cheese scones, but there is little food porn - sadly, the only picture is on the cover. <A> That's a very specific request! <S> Not to mention the fact that Britain has had thousands of years to develop its food culture <S> , so it's not a subject easily suited to a single book. <S> However, if you go to Amazon.co.uk, navigate to Books > <S> Food <S> > <S> Reference & Gastronomy and search within that for 'British', you get a fairly good selection. <S> I think you might need to get a few to cover everything you want. <S> Oh, and scones are nice, especially with cream and jam <S> - there are lots of recipes online, why not try making them? <S> They're just butter, sugar, flour, milk and raisins - nothing you can't find in Germany! <S> We even use the metric system for recipe measurements these days. <A> The archetypal English chef was Philip Harben, the first ever TV chef. <S> He wrote a lot of books - see the bibliography on his wikipedia entry - <S> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Harben <S> He's been dead forty years, but some of the books are still in print ... <S> You might find a copy on eBay, but most of it is on the Be-Ro website <S> http://www.be-ro.com/index.asp <S> You can't curl up in a chair with that, but if you want reliable and simple English baking recipes that work, <S> Be-Ro recipes are unbeatable. <S> That's your scones, biscuits and rock cakes sorted ... <A> I like The River Cottage Meat Book . <S> Obviously it's oriented around large hunks of meat, but, then again, so is most of British food. <S> It has good pictures, and is nicely intimate. <S> And scones are basically rich biscuits. <S> They tend to have a bit more fat, and they have sugar added, as biscuits typically do not. <S> If you can make a biscuit, you can make a scone. <A> Delia Smith has a series of three books called Delia's How to Cook. <S> It is aimed at teaching the basics of cooking to anyone, but is very very British in its recipes and techniques. <S> It's a modern book, so there's no problem using the recipes there. <S> I'm not sure how much history she gives with regards to the dishes, though she does mention some of it occasionally.
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A very reliable booklet of English baking recipes is the Be-Ro Recipe Book, which is only easily available to UK residents.
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Quality of frozen salmon (fish in general) I've bought two different sets of frozen salmon with the same result. On thawing the salmon is bland and off color (more gray than pink). After cooking, the taste is OK, but the presentation and texture is totally off. I've tried to defrost this fish in the fridge and submerged in milk with the same result. My guess is these two brands are no good. So, my question is: does quality salmon exist frozen, with the 'same' texture and color as fresh salmon? <Q> Some species of salmon are better or worse at freezing. <S> It's also the most expensive. <S> Pink salmon doesn't freeze well at all (but is delicious if you can get it fresh!). <S> Others like Chum are somewhere in the middle. <S> Most "cheap" salmon that you get in North American supermarkets is farmed Atlantic salmon. <S> It holds up well to freezing, but is generally pretty gray and bland to begin with. <S> Avoid it. <A> Most salmon (and tuna) used in sushi has been previously frozen. <S> So YES, frozen salmon of high quality exists. <S> The problem is that the freezing process (if you want to maintain quality) is complicated. <S> If done incorrectly you wind up with spongy watery tasteless salmon. <S> So: Buy it frozen from people who really know how to freeze correctly, those who intend the fish to be good enough for sushi. <S> eg: <S> http://www.stormseafood.com/ or http://www.catalinaop.com/Salmon_Sake_s/114.htm <S> If you find it in a store it should be in it's own deep-freeze cooler, and you should bring a cooler to the store with you. <S> Any changes in temperature <S> and you wind up with spongy fish. <S> Thaw it yourself using correct thawing methods. <S> this will ensure freshness, texture (if frozen correctly), and safety. <S> Thawing should be done in ice water for a quick thaw or 24 hours in fridge for a slow thaw. <S> My local grocer carries little bricks of salmon from storm seafood, and following the advice above, I can bring it home and eat it raw. <S> Great texture and flavor. <A> With frozen salmon (or any frozen fish), a lower price indicates lower quality. <S> You might be able to find a suitable vendor with enough experimentation. <S> But frozen fish will never be as good as fresh, and the texture is the first thing to go. <S> You might have better luck using the frozen salmon as an ingredient in the dish (such as in an alfredo sauce), rather than the start ingredient.
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Pacific Sockeye freezes very well and is your best bet if you're buying frozen.
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Should scones dough be sticky? I decided to make scones for the first time and picked a high rated recipe from allrecipes.com. It instructed me to combine the ingredients like a pastry dough (cold butter cut into the dry ingredients, crumble, then add the wet ingredients). Then: Turn onto a floured surface; knead gently 8-10 times. Divide into four portions. On ungreased baking sheets, pat dough into 4-in. circles. Cut each into four wedges, but do not separate. I followed the recipe to the letter, using a scale. But the dough emerged extremely sticky. Kneading was impossible. Forming into circles too: I spread it with a knife, but couldn't get it in any way into a regular shape. It stuck to everything, including a silicone rolling mat and a silicone spatula. The best description I can manage for the consistency is Nutella-like. Is this normal? If yes, why the "knead" instruction? If not, what went wrong? <Q> It should be reasonably dense, firm and only a little sticky on the outside - a bit like modelling clay. <S> You should be able to knead it easily and cut shapes out of it without too much trouble. <S> The absorptive potential of flour varies by brand and even batch, so recipes involving it always require a little improvisation - <S> in this case it sounds like you need a bit more. <A> This is debatable. <S> I work at cafes and the one I was recently at their mixture was extremely sticky. <S> They're very yum though <S> so I think it depends if you want rich and cheesy scone or a dry one (the ones old people eat in England, kidding). <S> I think we have adapted here in NZ. <A> Add a bit more flour to the recipe, or just roll a bit more flour on when you dump it onto the floured surface. <A> Don't knead, work in butter <S> add milk, mix with a knife, cold metal. <S> Put straight on floured baking sheet and press out with damp fingers, then cut into squarish/oblong shapes and separate on baking sheet. <S> Do not over handle dough, it should be sticky, also use cool implements and hands and work fairly swiftly. <S> The dough will drag when you cut it and separate it <S> but that is okay <S> , trust me. <S> It comes good and it does not matter if your sizes and shapes are irregular, they will cook the same.
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It should be sticky, but more viscous than Nutella so that it holds a shape.
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What ingredient adds the sweetness on Croissants in Europe? I'm travelling in Europe right now, and in France, Spain, and Italy I've had croissants and similar pastries. Unlike the ones I've had in America, these have a bit of sweetness to them - my intuition is that something like honey or agave nectar has been drizzled on top, either before or after baking. Does anyone know for sure? I'd love to try baking pastries more often when I get back home. <Q> Sometimes, in the less refined areas, you'll get pastries with sugar syrup brushed on top with the egg. <S> It gives a shine to the pastry that lasts for a long time, protects it from losing moisture and makes it sweeter. <S> This is why all the industrial pastries are usually so sweet. <S> I don't think that any traditional European patisseries have ever used Agave for anything, and I hesitate to think what their reaction would be if you suggested it. <A> The only usual topping on a croissant is a brush of egg to give it a golden finish. <A> In Rome I was informed that I was eating a croissant with honey on top (after informing my host that I had a honey allergy). <S> It had the sweetness that I suspect you're experiencing. <S> To help you determine if we were trying the same thing: the croissant I had was shiny and slightly sticky on top, and it seemed more like it was brushed on top rather than drizzled. <S> That would support @Carmi's answer that it was brushed on with the egg. <S> It was definitely honey, though, not sugar syrup.
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I suspect the sweetness you are detecting may be due to sweeter-tasting, European butter.
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Is pressed tofu what I want? I have been using extra firm tofu to make meals, recently. When I go out to restaurants and get, for example, Thai food, I see a much more thinly sliced form of what I assume it is tofu that is like 0.5 inches x 0.5 inches x 1 inch, and has a red coloration along the side, almost like a skin. Is this pressed tofu , or is it something different? If so, where can I get it? This link says "Asian markets," but I have checked a few and I have not been able to find it. Maybe it is in a different section than the "regular" tofu. EDITHere is a picture: The piece on the left is a "regular" piece of extra firm tofu (even when I press that tofu myself, which I do when I make tofu). The piece on the fork is what I am talking about. It is much more firm than even extra firm tofu and has a different bite to it. <Q> You've probably seen fried, marinated tofu in those Thai dishes (my best guess without seeing a photo). <S> The red colour would be from a short soak in either chili/garlic oil, or sweet chili sauce. <S> Many asian markets sell tofu packaged in a marinade or breading for convenience. <A> Are you doing any pressing of your own when you use extra firm tofu? <S> If you plan a little ahead you can take the tofu out and slice it into blocks, half a block or a quarter block, then wrap in paper towel and leave on a cutting board with some sort of weight on it. <S> I usually balance a plate and another cutting board on top. <S> Make sure you put it in the center of the counter or back toward a wall <S> so <S> when the weight unbalances and falls off it won't crash onto the floor. <S> Remove and wring out the paper towel about every five minutes for half an hour. <S> Once all this moisture is removed the tofu will pick up other flavors much more easily. <A> The coloration of the "skin" will vary from manufacturer but look for a "5 spice pressed tofu" the next time you go grocery shopping and you will find it. <A> In this particular case the tofu you're looking for is likely not pressed tofu as sold in the store, but is just cooked longer as Bruce says. <S> You can buy pressed tofu at an Asian market. <S> It is sold already pressed (and is not in water) and is firmer than extra firm tofu (even after pressing).
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The tofu on your fork is a commercially pressed and seasoned tofu, most likely seasoned with a 5 spice Chinese blend.
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How do I coat popcorn with flavor? There are commercial flavored popcorn (i.e. BetterMade) that aren't topped with flavor but coated like a potato chip. How do I re-create that coating at home? Specifically, I'm a fan or the 'hot' style coating (bbq, buffalo chicken, jalapeno, flame). I've tried oils, tossing in a bowl, spraying from a bottle, but no luck - it's just regular popcorn with a little chili powder sticking to each kernel. <Q> How you are popping your corn makes a difference. <S> Air popped corn with flavoring added afterwards may be healthier <S> but it is difficult to make flavorings adhere. <S> Using an agitated oil popper and putting the flavoring infused in the oil will make the difference. <S> The flavors will be part of the kernel and not just stuck to the outside. <S> Lately I've seen several table top <S> , agitated oil poppers at places like costco for reasonable prices. <A> Anyone ever try just popping with your regular oil, but 50/50 mixed with India Mustard oil, and then before dumping the popcorn into the oil, add 1 tsp of Turmeric powder, and 1 tsp of Reshampatti chilly powder ( hot India ground chilli ) in with the popping corn ? <S> When it pops, you get a hot curry taste, and an atomic yellow colored corn. <S> Salt with unflavored regular popcorn salt, or, powdered India "Black Salt" for an unusual taste sensation. <S> Dave <A> My frying pan ratio is 1TB olive oil per 1/4 cup of popcorn , and also up to 1tsp of seasonings into that, sometimes a tad more onto the popcorn after it has been popped. <S> Use a lighter olive oil if you want less of that bold flavor, but olive oil is definitely nice because a) of the flavor and b) it can nicely withstand heat and thereby pops the corn quickly. <S> The basic process here starts with getting the pan hot, then adding oil, then kernels, and lastly the seasoning. <S> The flavoring is trickier because you don't want it in the oil for too long because it can take on too dark of a charred flavor if you add it too soon. <S> Some seasonings suffer more from being in the oil too long (like garlic), and some don't work well with this method at all (like the Nacho Cheese). <S> If you can have your flavoring at the ready, wait until the very first kernel pops, and then throw the seasonings on and stir it vigorously into the oil - put the lid back on promptly <S> so you don't loose the popcorn as the kernels pop. <S> Because of the flavors you mention, I highly recommend you try the Kernel Seasons Cajun . <S> What's nice about all their flavors is <S> the fine grind helps maximize coating, your primary concern, though it still doesn't all stick. <S> My favorite is to pop with Cajun and sprinkle on some Nacho Cheese afterwards - yum. <S> Another favorite in our house is a homemade powdered rosemary salt. <A> I've had great success infusing butter with flavor and then putting it and the popcorn in a plastic tub and shaking it for a few minutes. <A> To start, coat the bottom of a medium sized pot with canola oil. <S> -Cover <S> the pot and pop the corn on medium heat <S> -Add <S> ~4 tablespoons of soy sauce (I drizzle it over the popcorn in a big bowl, trying to get as many pieces as possible, but you do not want to drench it!) <S> -Take <S> a handful of baker's yeast and sprinkle it over the soy sauced popcorn et voila! <A> I use spray on vegetable oil which is a good and light adhesive, plus add extra taste to flavoring. <A> A search for "popcorn coating" at the patent office turned up several possibilities. <S> This one (# 4,767,635 - 1988) seems like it might be adaptable to home use: <S> A free-flowing uniformly flavorant coated unpopped corn and method of preparation <S> thereof wherein the unpopped corn is essentially oil and fat-free and retains a substantial amount of added salt and flavorant upon popping in a hot air popper comprising unpopped corn coated with an adherent flavoring consisting essentially of an edible adhesive, e.g. gelatin, an edible salt and optional colorants and flavors.
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A method I like to use is to pop the corn in a large steel frying pan, and adding the seasonings into the oil right before the kernels begin to pop.
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How do I remove turmeric stains from metal/plastic cookware? As much as I value tumeric for its rumoured cancer-battling qualities, I find its tendency to stain anything it comes into contact with (including 'stainless' steel) discouraging to the point that I use it much less than I would like. In a previous question regarding a tumeric-stained marble mortar and pestle, it was recommended that bleach be used to remove the stain. Is this recommendation applicable across the board? Pots? Pans? Plastic colanders? I hope there is some other way to remove these stains because I am starting to accrue tumeric stained clothing that I can't bleach, as recommended. <Q> For hard, chemical-resistant surfaces such as marble, bleach or peroxide cleaners will help. <S> On things like counters, pots and pans, a Magic Eraser will often take off the stain. <S> Sometimes a harsher abrasive like Comet or Barkeep's Friend will be needed. <S> Softer or porous materials, including cloth and many plastics often CANNOT BE UNSTAINED. <S> In my kitchen we treat turmeric like a dangerous chemical -- isolate, contain, and plan ahead to limit exposure. <S> It's just that destructive. <S> You might as well tie-dye or bleach white any clothing you get turmeric on; it India it is used as a dye for saris because it will semi-permanently tint cloth. <S> You can brush off the dry powder harmessly, but when it is moistened and allowed to sit for a moment, the color is pretty much permanent. <S> Edit: <S> UV+peroxide: <S> I saw a patent for removing turmeric stains from upholstery using UV light and hydrogen peroxide. <S> You might try soaking fabrics in peroxide or Oxyclean (which uses peroxide) and leaving then out in the sun. <S> Can't hurt right? <S> Edit: strategies to manage turmeric without making a mess Plan ahead where you'll use it, and which utensils and vessels will hold it <S> , so you don't mess up anything you don't need to. <S> Re-use already turmeric-stained items <S> so you don't wreck anything new Mortars and pestles, tupperware, wooden and soft <S> plastic utensils are a lost cause. <S> At least the stain is purely cosmetic? <S> ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wear an apron. <S> Keep spilt powder dry (it won't stain) and brush it off with a paper towel into the garbage. <S> Brushing away promptly keeps you from inadvertently spilling liquid on it, or wiping it with a wet towel during cleanup. <S> That is, unless you want a neon-green counter and towel? <S> Whenever you spill something containing turmeric, promptly wipe it off, to reduce staining. <S> Hard ceramic and porcelain are immune to staining unless the surface is rough. <S> Try to use these for storage. <S> Glass will stain. <S> Stainless steel is resistant but not immune. <S> With these strategies, I find I can use turmeric regularly without problems. <A> Read this thread after trying a NYT recipe for roast pork, that turned out nicely, but left turmeric stains on a non-stick baking sheet. <S> (The baking sheet had been in the oven under the roast.) <S> In my case all sorts of products did NOT work, including chlorine beach. <S> What finally did the trick was a spray solution of OxiClean applied to the cookware, with the cookware then placed in a 180 degree oven for an hour or so. <S> Much, much more effective than OxiClean left at room temperature for days. <S> Stain is gone completely, and the great thing is that the non-stick coating survived unscathed. <S> Hope <S> this helps someone else. <S> My guess is that, for stained cloth, presoaking with OxiClean in near-boiling water would work. <A> try oxiclean - <S> i swear by it. <S> if it can remove red wine from whites, surely it can remove this. <S> i am continually amazed at the stains i find it can remove where nothing else works. <A> Soaking in a solution of washing soda is often enough - the colour is mostly soluble in alkali. <S> It can take time with a cold solution - overnight is good. <S> The bleach treatment works because it bleaches the colour, but also because bleach is strongly alkaline (it is stabilised with caustic soda). <S> Washing soda is a milder option, and better for plastics. <A> We were making turmeric tea and we had to shred it. <S> stained everything. <S> "Ready to use oven & heavy duty cleaner" works for cleaning. <S> This is the spray that domino's uses for cleaning greasy stoves. <S> The turmeric turns copper red in an instant and is easily washed away! <S> Amazing.
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Vanish can get rid of stains on clothes - you may find the stain is still there when washed, but expose the mark to sunlight on a washing line and it magically fades away.
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Knife to Cut Dough What's the best type of knife [and/or method] for cutting raw bread dough? Is a special dough blade necessary, or will any blade suffice? <Q> I work in a fine dining restaurant, and the standard implement is a bench scraper AKA a dough knife AKA a bench knife . <S> It's basically a stiff, 6" wide sheet of stiff metal with a handle, and can pressed or rocked down on the counter to cut dough into portions. <S> It can also be used to move shaped bread or rolls, cut pastry, fold sticky doughs, and scrape off the counter for cleanup. <S> They're not really knife-sharp per se, but the metal is narrow enough to cut dough well, and a knife would go dull against the hard surface anyway. <S> The best models have measurements engraved into them, so you can consistently size your products, and will stand vertically on the handle (for icing cakes). <S> Now, for SLASHING risen breads before baking, the correct tool is something called a lame, which is basically a razor with a handle. <S> Or, you can just use your really sharp chef knife (your chef knife IS razor-sharp, right?) and spritz it with pan spray to keep the dough from sticking. <A> A knife large enough to not require a slicing motion. <S> You want chopping or even better rolling motion. <S> but I have some preferences: <S> In a pinch I use my plastic dough scraper. <S> A metal scraper with a flat blade is adequate, for example this one . <S> Pizza cutters are ok but if there is too much dough then they get bogged down. <S> My all time favorite tool for this - and I have more than one just for this purpose - is an ulu. <S> This is a curved knife used traditionally by native Alaskans. <S> Mine is big and rolls through a lot of dough easily. <S> from <S> this one on Amazon <A> Assuming it is just yeast dough and you aren't trying to preserve some lift characteristic, you don't want a knife. <S> so it does an excellent job of scraping dough up when it sticks to the bread board, and it is completely capable of cutting through dough if you are subdividing. <S> It is also plenty handy for actual bench scraping... <S> i.e. getting remnants of old dough off your cutting/bread board/counter. <A> My mother used to roll a sheet of dough into a tube for cinnamon rolls, then cut the individual rolls by wrapping a piece of string around the tube and pulling both ends until it cut through. <A> For most kinds of dough any blade will do, but you may want to sprinkle some flour on the knife if the dough is sticky (especially if the dough already contains flour; for non-flour ones, it may be a problem) <A> I've never seen a special knife, but I often use a long, thin, smooth edged (not serrated) blade. <S> Cuts cleanly. <S> Doesn't stick. <S> Doesn't crunch the dough. <S> The only knife I would avoid would be a serrated blade because of how the teeth "hook" material to tear.
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You should have a bench scraper as your go-to tool for handling dough, it is not sharp, it is wide and flat Any sharp knife will be ok
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What's the difference between jam, jelly, and preserves? I assume the difference in name is due to their cooking processes, but am unsure what exactly makes them different. <Q> according to the Ball canning book (paraphrasing)... JAM is made by cooking crushed or chopped fruits with sugar, and is made of one fruit or a combination of fruits, is spreadable, and is firm but will not hold the shape of the jar. <S> JELLY is made from juice strained from fruit, usually prepared in a way to keep it crystal clear, and is gelatinized enough to hold is shape when removed from the jar, yet is still spreadable. <S> PRESERVES are fruit preserved with sugar so it retains its shape, is transparent, shiny, tender and plump. <S> the syrup generally has the consistency of honey, and a true preserve will not hold its shape when spooned from the jar. <S> to add to the confusion, i'll also add their descriptions of... CONSERVES, which are jam-like and made of a combination of one or more fruits, nuts and raisins, cooked until it rounds up on the spoon. <S> MARMALADES are a soft jelly containing pieces of fruit and peel evenly suspended in a transparent jelly. <S> similar in structure to jam. <A> An additional note: The cooking process is pretty much the same for jam, jelly, marmalade, preserves & conserves. <S> It is the preparation of the fruit which makes the difference in the final product. <A> From Gregory McNamee's article VQR : <S> Jelly is mostly made up of gelatin, pectin, or some other gelling agent that is added to fruit that has been cooked until it is soft and its solids have been strained out, often to transparency. <S> Preserves similarly contain cooked fruits, except that the fruit solids are left in chunks rather than pureed. <S> From a practical perspective jelly shouldn't have seeds while jam might. <S> I object to the texture of raspberry jam and prefer jelly, but the the seeds in strawberry jam don't bother me. <S> WiseGeek has an excellent article about it that also addresses nutritional value and common uses.
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Jam is cooked like jelly, but the fruit solids are pureed or mashed and kept in the mixture.
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Why would fresh tuna be salted? I bought a big piece of tuna about a week ago. I carved it up and put most in the freezer. However, as I am the proud owner of a vacuum sealer (as of a week ago), the worst part of the tuna got vacuum sealed and put into the fridge. Six days later, I took it out of the fridge to cook, and found that the vacuum was gone (it had been the first item I had sealed). I made a fish-pie out of the tuna. As this was the worst part, I didn't expect anything great of it, but it was salted, apart from having a strong flavor. I attribute the strong flavor to the cut (the dark part, mostly) and from having been in the fridge for a week). One piece of prime cut that I had sealed in with the other meat, I reserved and grilled the next day. It was also salted. Would this be because I salted it too heavily, or can it be because it had been sitting during one week? Is tuna meat salty on it's own? Any other suggestion? <Q> As far as I know, raw tuna is not usually salted and/or pre-treated. <S> What may be happening is a case of perceived salinity. <S> For example, there are numerous studies that suggest foods with certain odors can be perceived as much saltier than they actually are. <S> If you have access to that second article (it is copyrighted and behind a paywall , so I can't post it here), it has a great figure on page 3 depicting the perceived sourness, bitterness, sweetness, and saltiness of a number of common foods, including tuna. <S> The aroma of plain tuna alone ranked higher than soy sauce on the saltiness scale, for example. <S> Perhaps you were using a fattier part of the fish? <S> Finally, there is evidence that dehydration increases the saltiness of tuna (which actually seems somewhat intuitive), especially if extra salt is added before cooking. <S> Was your tuna previously frozen? <S> Freezing—especially if done improperly <S> and/or if there are multiple freeze/thaw cycles—can act like dehydration. <A> Tuna captured by purse seiners or baitboats or jigboats in many cases are preserved and frozen in salt brine. <S> it would have absorbed salt, just a fact. <S> Other fresh tuna could have been stored in chilled seawater and would have picked up salt a well. <S> In these cases the salt would have been higher on the skin edge. <S> Well described in: http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/noaa_documents/NMFS/SWFSC/TM_NMFS_SWFSC/NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWR-011.pdf <S> You may have gotten a portion of some large YF out of Ecuador that was chilld or frozen in dense brine. <S> I am in the business. <A> I haven't heard of it with fish filets, but I know that scallops are often brined before sale to keep them looking moist and increase (marginally) <S> their display life (I choose to think fishmongers are honest and aren't just increasing the weight of the scallops with water). <S> It does nothing good for the scallops, of course, and I try to get unbrined ones whenever I can. <S> And of course whole chickens and turkeys are often brined before packaging. <S> Maybe this is the same kind of deal.
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Tuna is relatively high in fat, and other studies suggest that high fat foods can also increase perceived saltiness.
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Do honing steels wear out? We have a knife set that's approximately 15 years old, and as we were honing a knife tonight, a question arose. Do honing steels get worn down over the years? Should they be replaced? If so, how often? <Q> They are either made of surface hardened steel, which can't be realistically sharpened, or bonded with tungsten or diamond grit, again which can't be realistically replaced <S> Most steels just need a good clean; soak the steel in warm soapy water for a while, and then give it an aggressive scrub with a nylon bristle brush. <S> Dry thoroughly If it still does not hone well <S> , then maybe it's time to buy a new one? <S> I am using a full size silver handled surface hardened steel that is 70+ years old and still works fine. <S> It looks quite beaten up, has had surface rust, but always brings a knife back to life <S> I have a short portable diamond grit steel for camping that is less than 5 years old, and is nearly useless already <S> There doesn't seem to be consensus on what exactly a honing steel does to a knifes edge. <S> But to me it's a very fine file, so it will wear out over time. <S> Considering the normal usage in a domestic situation that could be a very long time <A> I'm not a metallurgist, but when I received my knife sharpening training, it was explained to me that the steel was used to align the microscopic raggedy edge of the knife after sharpening into a "foil", like a fine fin along the tip of the edge of the knife. <S> Depending on what I'm cutting, the fin works like a scalpel. <S> If I'm making fine cuts to meat, I want a foil. <S> If I'm chopping carrots, I prefer a rough edge. <S> I was given a training steel, which has been used many times daily for over a decade. <S> It was a rough steel but the knurling has been worn smooth so it doesn't tear at a blade the way a "sharp" steel does. <S> It does however put an edge on a sharp knife, <S> you just have to strop a bit more. <A> and then it's time for a replacement.... <S> so yea probably time for a replacement if it's that old <S> but Iv had mine for 5 years and the coating has just worn off from to much time in a steriliser . <A> I have a good quality steel, made circa 1910 or a little earlier, by my Granddad whilst working for Wolstenholme's in Sheffield. <S> Previously he'd had his own knife-making company, again in Sheffield, for many years. <S> I still regularly use this steel and, apart from occasional soap & water cleaning, it still works as well as when my Dad passed it to me in the early 1970s.
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Steels are coated in like a enamel tipe of coating and wears off over time
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Frying - Straw potatoes in fryer I've stopped frying my straw potatoes in the fryer as the straws sink to the bottom and get stuck below the heating element. After a while, some of these raw straws float to the top and mix with the already fried potatoes. I now fry in a pan on the stove. Is there a way to prevent the straws from sinking to the bottom in the electric fryer? Edit: I stopped using the mesh basket as the straw potatoes float right through the holes. With the mesh basket, they don't sink to the bottom though. <Q> I thought that all electric fryers came with a mesh basket for the fries. <S> If yours didn't, or if the mesh is coarse enough for the fries to fall through it, you could try to find another basket <S> (I don't know if they are sold separately, but it is worth a try) or make some DIY solution by either suspending a big sieve in the fryer or lining the big-holed basket with fine steel mesh. <A> You're starting with the fat too cold. <S> You need it screaming hot, before you start. <S> Put the basket in the fryer and let the oil heat up. <S> When you think it is getting close to working temperature, add ONE chip to the fat, sideways so it will stay in the basket - not pointing downwards. <S> If it doesn't come straight back up to the surface, fish it out with the basket and wait a bit longer. <S> Take another chip and try again - repeat until the chip comes straight back up. <S> Then add the chips quickly, a handful at a time (a spatter guard and gloves are good ideas). <S> Don't put the chips in the basket, then lower them into the fat - they will stick to the basket. <S> Keep the basket in the fryer and throw the chips into the fat - sideways, so they don't go through the holes in the basket. <S> LOL you've seen those stupid looking kids in MacDonalds doing this routinely, now you have to give them some kudos - they always put the basket into the oil, then throw the fries in. <A> Try switching from a fry basked to a bird's nest fryer or using a "spider" (restaurant lingo for a flat mesh scoop used in frying and skimming). <S> You can find a sample bird's nest fryer here and also a spider . <S> The spider looks exactly like the one we use at work.
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You can also use blanching basket, which is I think what we use for pre-cooking our fries in the restaurant I work at.
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substituting white all purpose flour with whole wheat flour I thought it was one to one (more like, assumed) but I did it with a pound cake and let's just say the product could break a plexiglass window. Is there some ratio to substituting white all purpose flour with whole wheat? are they simply not interchangeable? <Q> Whole wheat flour is denser, has more protein and tends to dry out products. <S> To compensate, sift more, do not overmix, and up your wet ingredients slightly. <S> From eHow . <S> Some sites (including TLC ) recommend only subsituting out up to half of white flour with whole wheat, except if you're using white whole wheat flour (see below). <S> My secret weapon is white whole wheat flour, which is lighter than standard whole wheat flour and tastes more like white flour but has the same health benefits as the whole wheat flour we're used to. <S> Because so many people are looking for whole wheat recipes, you may want to try a recipe that is specifically designed for whole wheat flour--both for taste and texture. <S> Try King Arthur Flour for recipes <S> (they make my favorite white whole wheat flour, and they have a recipe for whole wheat biscotti!). <A> Weak white flour was mostly invented to make cakes and other soft delicacies, you cannot generally expect wholemeal (whole wheat) flour to work as an exact equivalent in such a thing <S> Personally the difference is not really important , and is just what you are used too <S> The protein (gluten) level in wholemeal (whole wheat) depends on wheat source and shelf life. <S> Most of the protein is in the endosperm (the white stuff) <S> From the same wheat source wholemeal flour will have a lower protein level than white flour due to it being bulked out by the bran (low protein) and germ (no protein), and a lower effect of protein by the effects of the the bran and germ For kneaded products (bread, pizza dough etc) you can generally replace it 1:1 without any other changes to the recipe, other than a little more kneading. <S> Any difference is generally in what you perceive the finished product should be like - white colour and no fluffy bits (bran) <S> Wholemeal (whole wheat) has a much shorter shelf life than white flour, This is where most people have unsatisfactory results with it, and it earns it's "hard to use" badge <A> The simple answer is no, white all-purpose flour is not replaceable with whole wheat flour. <S> You can substitute with it, but the characteristics of the finished product will be entirely different. <S> Your plexiglass smasher sounds about right for using whole wheat flour in a pound cake; it's exactly what I would expect. <S> Use whole wheat flour when you really want that rich wheat flavor and are okay with the heaviness that comes with it. <S> Depending on the particular whole wheat flour and the recipe you're using, it is possible to make bread with only that, but as Christine noted, it is commonly used to replace only up to half of the white AP or white bread flour in a bread recipe. <S> Even this smaller substitution lends a nice, nuttier flavor to bread.
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TLC confirms that whole wheat flour is higher in protein because it is milled from hard wheat which is naturally higher in protein, and then ground whole wheat flour is 25% higher in protein than all-purpose flour.
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Availability of pure alcohol in the UK (or alternatives as fuel for alcohol-burning cookers) My friends from Portugal have a chorizo cooker (something, I believe, a bit like this ), and they would like to use it in the UK. In Portugal they burn pure alcohol in it, which they purchase from pharmacies. As far as I am aware, in the UK we are not able to buy alcohol so freely. Does anyone know of where alcohol can be bought, or of a suitable alternative fuel? <Q> You can't use methylated spirit to cook that way. <S> Methylated spirit contains 1% pyridine to deter people from drinking it, and it will taint the sausage (and no, they don't say what is in it on the label). <S> Better to buy pure alcohol in countries that are used to selling it retail <S> (I always bring back a couple of litres from Italy, about €16 / litre). <A> What you are after is commonly called Methylated Spirits, or Meths. <S> Also known as denatured alcohol <S> It is made from ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and tainted with a dash of methanol to make it unfit for human consumption. <S> It is usually coloured purple <S> In many countries it has a bittering agent added (check the label, or taste it), since many people seem to want to risk drinking methanol <S> The bittering agent may make your food taste very bad with such a cooker you pictured What you need is "Industrial Methylated Spirits" from food product, paint or chemical suppliers. <S> It generally does not have bittering agents or colouring added, just methanol <A> You could try getting some Irish Poitín , which is 180 proof, however, I don't know if it's legally sold in the UK. <S> It is carried in the duty free stores in Heathrow and on the ferries to Ireland, though. <S> You can get laboratory grade, additive-less grain alcohol from here , however, it's £27.98/L + duty <S> (and I think the minimum order is for 2.5L). <S> I don't know if I'd trust something that wasn't explicitly listed as "food grade", though.
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The way that excise tariffs are set up, you could buy pure alcohol in UK, but the duty would drive the price to about £75 per litre.
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Olive oil gets bitter in blender? I read somewhere -- maybe a James Peterson cookbook? -- that putting olive oil in the blender for more than a few seconds will make it bitter. However, many recipes for hummus, aioli, and other things call for blending olive oil. At times I've felt that making hummus without the oil, and then stirring it in at the end gives a better flavor, but I can't say for sure. Does anyone have any advice about this? <Q> Well, this is a common confusion between "sour" and "bitter". <S> The better your olive oil is, the lower its acid value - extra virgin olive oil has the lowest acid value, it is pressed in ways that reduce contact with atmospheric oxygen. <S> Contact with oxygen increases the acid value of olive oil. <S> Lots of people can discern the change, but they don't use the right word to express it ... <A> Hammering extra virgin olive oil in a blender or food processor allows astringent ("bitter") tasting polyphenol compounds to be detectable by the tongue. <S> Cook’s <S> Illustrated explained it in their March & April 2009 issue, page 30: <S> Extra-virgin olive oil contains bitter tasting polyphenols coated by fatty acids, which prevent them from dispersing. <S> If the oil is emulsified in a food processor, these polyphenols get squeezed out and the liquid mix turns bitter. <A> The Olive Centre suggests that; other factors can also affect the quality of your oil which include air, light, heat, water and too much sediment. <S> Light speeds up the oxidation process which shortens the shelf life of the oil. <S> Also, there was research carried out which confirmed that dark glass (preferably browner) <S> Antique Green was one of the best ways in which to miminise oxidation compared to other types of packaging. <S> For further reading here are come suggested links: http://www.theolivecentre.com/Olive-Equipment-Menu/LA-OLIVE-OIL-STORAGE-SETTLING/ARTICLE-Oil-Storage-Settlling-for-Oil-Quality <S> Effect of Storage Containers on Olive Oil Quality: https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/09-160
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Whizzing olive oil in a blender aerates it, and the resultant oxidation increases the acid value, ie it gets more acidic and tastes "sourer".
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How to approximate the Maillard temperature (154°C) in a pan? Are there any common (non-toxic) household substances with boiling or smoke points close to the temperature at which the Maillard reaction occurs, 154°C? I want to be able to check that my pan is around this temperature without using a thermometer before frying a steak. <Q> The Maillard reaction begins around 150° C. <S> You do not need that exact temperature. <S> Usually, you don't even want that exact temperature; even baking temperatures usually hover around 175-200 <S> ° C (350-400° F), and those temperatures are held for 20 minutes or more. <S> Pan-frying is almost always a fast cooking process lasting no longer than 10 minutes. <S> Thus, almost every cooking oil has a smoke point at or around the ideal temperature. <S> C (300-500° F). <S> See Wikipedia's list of smoke points for a fairly complete list. <S> Avoid butter and unrefined flaxseed/safflower/sunflower oil (commercially-bottled oil is almost always refined, except for EVOO). <S> Of course, this doesn't say anything about cooking time or sticking. <S> When we talk about frying or sautéing in oil (i.e. to get the Maillard reaction going), we usually want a quick sear , and for that you really want to get the pan screaming hot so that you can get a good sear on the outside without doing much to the inside. <S> Clarified butter, coconut oil, or any other of the highly-refined oils are the best for that purpose. <S> If you're really trying to prolong the cooking time, i.e. pan-frying a chicken breast all the way through, then I guess you'd stick with a lower smoke point oil, such as EVOO or unrefined peanut or sesame. <A> Use a piece of butter. <S> When it has just started browning, pour it out (before it can smoke), and the pan is now hot enough to brown other things. <S> Allow an extra minute or two for the pan to get hotter <S> , so it's well above the Maillard temperature after losing heat to your meat. <S> Or, just do what most people do, and let an EMPTY cast-iron pan get insanely hot and sear the heck out of the steak. <A> As you mention in your comment, 154°C doesn't refer to the pan temperature, it refers to the temperature of the thing being browned, so there's no point in being too precise with your pan temperature, which will decrease a bit anyway when you put the steak in. <S> In any case, 154°C is only when the Maillard reaction starts; it's not like you're trying to maintain the pan at that temperature. <S> Just get your pan really, really hot, i.e. leave it on high heat for a good 5 minutes before you start to cook. <A> I find that a non contact IR gun-type thermometer is a really handy kitchen tool. <S> You can get one cheaply too: https://www.amazon.com/Infrared-Thermometer-Contact-Temperature-Measurement/dp/B002OD0NCG
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Butter is a bit too low around 121-149° C (250-300° F), but the vast majority of liquid oils - peanut, sunflower, corn, canola, sesame, even EVOO - all have smoke points from 150-260° If you really want to test it, corn oil's smoke point is 178°C, so if that starts smoking you're well on your way to browning anything you put in the pan.
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Is a little oven less hot than a bigger oven? Some months ago, I found a recipe for cookies and made them in a big oven; they were delicious and cooked very well (soft cookies) at 180 °C (356 °F) for 7 minutes. I recently tried the recipe again, but I have no longer a big oven, so I used my little one (with heat source at the top and bottom). The cookies were still almost liquid after 15 minutes, and I though that was my oven that was too old and not keeping a good temperature; I tested on another oven that is new, and I got the same result. Does the little oven heat less than the big one? If yes, what do I need to do to adjust the temperature and/or the time? If not, what am I doing wrong? The recipe is: 125 grams of soft butter 125 grams of brown sugar 175 grams of white flour one egg 1 cc of baking powder 100 grams of chocolate chip Mix all except chocolate chip. When you have a homogeneous substance, add the chocolate chip. Bake them 7 minutes at 180 °C. they're still very soft after that delay but they will harden. <Q> It could be that your oven's temperature control is off somewhat. <S> Ovens aren't exactly scientific instruments, so you can't be sure how accurate they are with this kind of thing. <S> Get a decent oven thermometer and go by that rather than the temperature knob. <S> You might be surprised. <S> Mine runs about 10-15 degrees less: <S> when I set it to 180 on the dial, it's often about 165 on the thermometer. <A> You need to reheat the air in the oven after the cookies go in for them to cook. <S> Because the hot walls and rack are much smaller (and probably not as well heated to start with), it's harder for them to reheat the inside of the oven. <S> So the temperature is lower when you start the cookies. <S> Some (maybe a lot) of the cooking time is spent getting the oven, the baking sheet and the air back up to temperature. <S> Cooking them longer or at a slightly hotter temperature should help with this. <A> I have the same issues as I have a small apartment oven. <S> It affects all recipes for baking in the oven. <S> I have found (so far) that I need to reduce the temperature by 50 degrees F and double the baking time <S> minus 15 mins. <S> Example: I have a chocolate cake recipe that bakes for 30 mins at 350 degrees. <S> I reduced the temp to 300 and baked it for 45 mins (double the time = 1 hour and minus 15 mins = 45 mins). <S> So far it is working. <A> It almost sounds like when you moved, you got a different recipe. <S> The cookies before you moved were solid and the cookies after you moved <S> were soft. <S> I will try to bake cookies using the recipe you gave me this weekend.
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My guess: With a little oven you probably don't preheat as long, and when you open the door you let ALL the hot air out.
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What I can use to replace black beer on roast recipe? I have a "basic" recipe for roast beef that uses 1 bottle of black beer as an ingredient. I am looking for a non-alcoholic ingredient to replace it because my parents don't drink alcohol and I usually don't have alcohol on hand. <Q> Non-alcoholic beer makes sense. <S> If you can't find any you could simmer alcoholic beer for about 3 hours, which should remove the vast majority of the alcohol. <S> You might need to add a little water afterwards if it has reduced too much. <A> Black Beer is not beer as you would know it! <S> It is a thick concentrated malt liquor. <S> The best substitute would be a non-alcoholic dark malt liquor, or some malt extract. <S> http://www.drinksdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Mathers_Black_Beer.html <A> Try some variety of Malta beverage. <S> Malta is a hopped, malt soda/pop. <S> Essentially it's unfermented and carbonated beer. <S> If your recipe has some sweet aspect elsewhere you might cut back on that if Malta is too sweet.
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Especially if black beer is exceptionally malty and sweet, Malta would be a good non-alcoholic substitute.
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Wok: Carbon steel or cast iron? I LOVE stirfrying (I probably do it 4 times a week) and I want to take it to the next level (or 2). I am going to get this burner to cook my stirfry's out on the patio. I am wondering if I should also get a cast iron wok, or should I just stick with the carbon steel that I have been using? <Q> I have friends from Hong Kong who always use steel woks in their take-away. <S> It would be slower to heat up and retain heat when you didn't want the food to continue cooking. <S> Stick with the one you have ... <A> There isn't so much difference between both materials to warrant the purchase of a new wok. <S> While the different parameters can be measured, any noticeable difference will probably stem from production quality or seasoning quality. <S> They are just too similar in specific heat per cubic centimeter <S> (how much you can heat the pan) to expect an improvement. <S> Iron has somewhat better thermal conductivity (how quickly it gives off heat to the food), which is more important in a wok than in a generic sauce pan, but the difference is small. <S> Also, they are very similar in maintenance, with carbon steel being easier to (re)season. <S> For specific values and for better understanding the theory behind the heating of pans, read this article . <S> For an example of somebody who has come to prefer his carbon steel pans over his cast iron ones, read here . <S> (The part I mean is the four paragraphs between the picture of the pans and the "seasoning" heading, but the whole post is an interesting read too). <A> When you see chinese chefs in the kitchen they always use carbon steel woks because they are much lighter, making them better for flipping the food in the air in the style called "The Pao Action". <S> This looks exciting, but does not make the food taste any better. <S> If you decide that you don't need the Pao Action style, you are better off with a cast iron wok like those from Lodge <S> (there are other brands as well). <S> Yes, they are much heavier, but they will last for a lifetime, are more stable on your stovetop, and they are not as fragile as the Asian cast iron woks. <S> Why risk cracking a thin seasoned cast iron wok? <S> Buy the heavier cast iron, they can take the abuse and you will never be sorry. <A> From my experience, I do not like carbon steel woks. <S> I seasoned the carbon steel woks by the instructions. <S> When I stir fry food on the carbon steel wok, I have noticed later that the seasoning layers peel off and that is not good at all. <S> I have given chances to try the carbon steel woks about 3 to 4 times. <S> I feel to realize that the carbon steel woks do not build a good patina, after seeing the seasoning layers peeling off. <S> Now, I do not even want to have a carbon steel wok, anymore, after my bad experiences. <S> Cast iron woks are the best for cooking. <A> I would definitely go for the CAST IRON WOK. <S> It is so convenient for indoor or outdoor cooking in term of cleaning it (It only needs water and coconut brush like the Chinese Chef do). <S> It last for a life time and something memorable to pass on to the next generation. <S> My grandpa brought several cast iron woks from China to BATAVIA The <S> Dutch East Indies Colony (present day Jakarta-Indonesia in 1910 during the period of the Last Emperor of China. <S> We are still using the same woks today but in Australia. <S> The thick cast iron wok not just subject to abuse <S> but it also provide dietary supplementation of iron to individuals affected by iron-deficiency anaemia.
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A cast-iron wok would require a different technique for stir frying.
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How to include soy milk in bechamel A visitor has left a nearly full bottle of soy milk in our fridge. Personally, I hate the taste of soy milk, I find it too sweet and nutty for me, yet I feel compelled to use it up somehow. I am going to make a bechamel sauce for a lasagne, and wondered whether I could use 1/3 soy milk and 2/3 regular milk in an effort not to waste the soy. Will this still taste like soy?? Should I reduce (or increase) the ratio of soy? Will it affect the thickening of my bechamel, or the general texture of the sauce? I will be adding a bit of grated grana padano to the sauce at the end of the cooking process. I did a bit of searching online, but everything was about a 1:1 substitution rather than the EFFECT of incorporating soy. Advice appreciated. <Q> If the soy is "sweetened", I would not suggest using it in a savory sauce. <S> However, if it is unsweetened, it should be ok. <S> I personally like soy, but it all depends on the brand, and whether full fat, sweetened, plain or vanilla as to how I would use it. <A> I decided to test it anyway, so here are the results of a bechamel using 1 part soy to 2 parts regular milk: <S> Taste <S> : There was nothing on the label to indicate the soy was sweetened, so I went ahead as if it were unsweetened. <S> However, the sauce was much sweeter than usual, and on checking the ingredients, I note that there is 2% raw sugar (as well as 1% salt). <S> So I guess it was sweetened after all! <S> I added an extra onion and more salt to try to counteract the sweetness, but it was still noticeable to me. <S> My husband said it was fine. <S> Texture: <S> In the first stages of adding warm milk (infused with onion, bay leaves and peppercorns) to my butter/flour, I noticed that the roux was a lot stretchier than normal, so I had to add milk more frequently. <S> Otherwise, the overall texture was lovely, very silky. <S> Thickening: It seemed to thicken a bit more than usual, but this may have been subjective. <S> It wasn't enough of a difference to affect the use of the sauce in any way. <S> It certainly stuck to the bottom of the pan more than usual :( <S> Overall: If I were sure that I were using UNSWEETENED soy, I would try this again if I was again left with soy milk in the fridge. <S> I would reduce the ratio to make 1 part soy to 3 parts regular milk for my personal taste. <S> I added some Emmenthaler and Grana Padano to the sauce, but if using soy milk, I believe the Emmenthaler is too sweet, and should be replaced by a sharper cheese such as Cheddar. <S> Hope that helps others faced with the same problem. <A> I use soya milk because it fits into my wife's diet. <S> In most cases it is hard to tell it is in a sauce. <S> If the soya milk is unsweetened it should work OK in any sauce that starts with making a roux. <S> Add onions and it is almost undiscernable until after the meal. <S> However, if the plates are not washed promptly, the sauce often sets very hard and is difficult to wash off without soaking!
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You might try baking with it, perhaps muffins, cake or biscuits - and substituting the soy for whatever liquid you would otherwise use.
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Are bay leaves dangerous to (unwittingly) eat? When I first started working as a cook, I was instructed in no uncertain terms to only use whole bay leaves when cooking so that when the leaves were removed, still whole, one could be sure that no pieces had broken off and remained in the stew (or whatever). I was told that eating dried bay leaves was akin to eating broken glass in their potential effects on the digestive system. Yet, just the other day I was eating a rabbit pie and I discovered a whole bay leaf in it. I asked the server, and she said that it was common practice for that restaurant to leave bay leaves in situ . I guess they can't be that bad for you if restaurants can serve them hidden in the middle of a pie? <Q> There is no reason to worry. <S> The worst thing which can happen is that a piece of bay leaf, being somewhat hard, can lodge somewhere in your digestive system, necessitating a trip to ER. <S> But a medical paper on the topic starts its discussion section with the sentence <S> "Reports discussing ingestion of bay leaves have been exceedingly scant". <S> They only cite 10 references in the period 1950-1990, and most of these are general studies of foreign bodies in the esophagus, not specific studies of bay leaf ingestion. <S> The same is true for side effects different from mechanical obstruction: if this had happened, somebody would have published it. <S> The paper I mentioned is "Bay Leaf Impaction in the Esophagus and Hypopharynx" by Stephen K. Buto, MD; Tat-Kin Tsang, MD; Gerald W. Sielaff, MD; Laurie L. Gutstein, MD; and Mick S. Meiselman, MD. <S> Sadly, it isn't freely available (I could read the full text because my uni has a subscription). <S> I guess that if you are working as a cook, your workplace may decide that even if the chance for a customer choking on a bay leaf is something like one in a million, they'd rather instill removing bay leaves from dishes as a policy. <S> Probably prudent, although there are more important risks to care about. <A> Bay leaves are definitely edible. <S> I have always heard the same warning, but after seeing flaked bay leaves for sale at the store, I concluded they were safe. <S> This wiki summarizes it as they are safe (if you can stand the flavor), except they are often still stiff after cooking and could potentially cause choking or scratching. <S> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_leaf#Safety <S> Having dealt with them in the past, they are no where near as bad as glass would be. <A> Broken glass is perhaps tipping it a bit strong, but the thick central stem of bay leaves does mean they stay quite rigid even when cooked, so there is potential for scratching the intestinal lining if a whole one was swallowed. <S> I have several recipes that call for shredded or ground bay leaf (in curry pastes for example) which obviously can't be removed. <A> Today I ate soup and it had a bay leaf in it. <S> It got stuck in my throat <S> and I couldn't breathe or talk. <S> Lucky my 12 yr old daughter had the sense to ring the ambulance, I believe I have a guardian angel. <S> I barely managed to pull it out. <S> I was told to sip water and eat soft foods only, my esophagus is cut all over and my throat is really sore to swallow. <S> All bay leaves have been removed from my cooking methods starting today. <S> I was told that the bay leaf is like swallowing glass <S> , I'm so so lucky. <A> I was rushed to the ER after swallowing 2 small pieces of bay leaf that were in a salad served at the Long Beach Diner and lodged in my esophagus cutting me like a rasor blade. <S> It resulted in hours of violent hacking and spitting up blood, xrays, a catscan, and a painful camera probe through my nose and down my throat. <S> Hospital suggested surgery to remove it <S> but I finally managed to dislodge one of the pieces as a result of my violent hacking. <S> Two weeks later the second piece finally passed into my digestive track. <S> Very frightening. <S> Very painful. <S> My digestive system has been in distress for months as a result of the trauma.
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Given how often bay leafs must find their ways into people's digestive systems (they feature in our food), it is safe to conclude that only a tiny fraction of ingested bay leafes cause problems, else there would be more studies mentioning such cases. I don't think small fragments would do much damage however - certainly no more than a bit of un-chewed potato chip or boiled sweet.
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How can I maximize Wasabi flavor? A few months ago, I went to dinner with my brother-in-law, and he introduced me to Sushi. I was skeptical (I've gone nearly 40 years without trying it), but I enjoyed it. My favorite part, however, was the Wasabi. It's like horseradish but hotter. I can tolerate very hot foods, but I don't like the lingering afterburn. This is why I've taken a liking to Wasabi - it is hot, but without the afterburn. I found a tube of Wasabi at my local Piggly Wiggly, it's basically the same stuff they had at the sushi place. However, after a few weeks of putting it on crackers, pita chips, and carrots, I've developed a bit of a tolerance and, as a whole, I don't feel that it's providing enough hot. I would prefer more. I found on-line that they have Wasabi powder, but I'm not sure if it will be very hot or not. Also, I'm not sure how to make a dip from it. How can I maximize the Wasabi flavor? Is there a "pure" Wasabi flavor I can buy? Is there a "nuclear hot sauce" made with Wasabi? <Q> Prepared wasabi that you can buy in a common grocery store (both powdered and paste) is basically just horseradish with green dye in it. <S> Really, you've acquired a taste for horseradish. <S> Not that there's anything wrong with that! <S> I would recommend seeking out other horseradish-based sauces and condiments. <S> You'll probably enjoy them better than the fake wasabi. <S> It's traditionally prepared by grating the fresh root on a sharkskin grater. <S> However, what you had with your sushi was most likely the fake stuff, unless you were in Japan or a very high-end sushi restaurant here in the states. <A> I love sushi, but I've probably never actually had real wasabi. <S> The stuff in the tube is horseradish based, real wasabi is a related plant and <S> I've never seen it fresh, but I'm sure I'd find it if I looked for it. <S> I don't know of any recipes but wikipedia says the tube stuff is eastern horseradish, mustard powder and coloring. <S> If you've ever compared fresh grated horseradish root to the stuff sold in jars for making cocktail sauce <S> you know the fresh is at least 3x. <A> The dried powder in a can is your best bet, short of grating a fresh root. <S> Though an overlingering burn isn't your thing, try pinch of cayenne in the wasabi mix to lend sweetness and more ka-boom. <S> Generous wasabi and some Sriracha are my favorite sushi companions. <A> You may want to try some hot mustard. <S> It is very similar in that you will not feel a burn long after. <S> I like to put it in everything I eat, even my mac and cheese! <S> The kind I am talking about is often served in Chinese restaurants.
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So I suggest an experiment with blending mustard seed, water and fresh grated horseradish root to get the kick you crave. If you're interested in finding real wasabi, you'll need to look for it in a specialty grocery store (or online).
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What makes oil stick to the pan so bad that it is so difficult to wash out? My parents went out of town for a bit and so I had to fend for myself with cooking! I made some chicken and some quesadillas on a particular pan. However, my parents got back and my mom is astounded to find the pan all dirty with oil still sticking to the pan. I washed it with soap, so why is it still sticking??? It is like it is embedded into the pan. Not sure what happened! Anybody knows? I am also unsure about the type of pan it is. At this rate, I'll be buying new pans every so and so months if I lived alone. :( I wonder if it has anything to do with cooking food in a not so high temperature? <Q> As I understand it, when you combine high heat and vegetable oil you get a fairly stable polymer (much like a plastic or resin). <S> The polymer bonds with the surface (which is porous), and results in robust surface. <S> This is what we use to season cast iron cookware, but it's less desirable on stainless and other lighter coloured hardware. <S> You can prevent the coating from forming by never allowing he oil to maintain a high temperature for long periods by itself. <S> Keeping food in contact with the pan will both help keep the temperature down, and reduce the chance of the oil bonding with the steel. <S> Cleaning the oil off once it's formed is usually pretty simple: add water (or soda water) and heat for 10-15 minutes. <S> Often the oil will wipe out (or need mild scrubbing with an appropriate scrubbing pad). <S> You should not have to use steel wool (or a caustic cleaner), both of which can damage the smooth surface of many pans. <A> To remove it, use a little fresh oil, warm the pan, and spread the fresh oil all over the surface. <S> Let it rest for a while, then spread the oil on the surface again. <S> Tip the oil out, rubbing away as much residual oil as possible with paper. <S> Now you can rub neat dishwashing liquid onto the surface and all the residual oil will emulsify, and can be washed away with water. <A> What type of oil did you use in cooking?There are Drying oils , Semi-drying oils , and Non-drying oils . <S> Drying oils are polyunsaturated materials such as linseed (flax), or Tung oil. <S> People usually use oils like these to finish furniture, but some, like walnut oil, do get used in cooking. <S> Semi-drying oils, like corn, sunflower, safflower or soybean oil, have high enough unsaturation to oxidize into a gooey mess on your cookware, especially if you get them too hot. <S> Non-drying oils, like olive, canola or peanut oil, are relatively saturated and don't easily oxidize to form the sort of hard varnishes you have to clean off off with a scrubby pad or angle grinder. <A> If you cook with non-stick pans, you should also be careful to read the instructions on the pan. <S> Mine says to never heat above medium. <S> My last pan was ruined after heating above medium with a black substance much like yours. <A> Here's the other matter. <S> After you've cooked with oil in a pan, mine is the one with the dreaded circular groves, as in Circulon® and any residual oil remaining will turn into the thick sticky substance after at least a day. <S> My mistake was not washing it shortly after using the pan(skillet). <S> If you use a quality oven cleaner, that will take care of the problem, but be sure the manufacturer thinks it's OK for its cookware (or <S> if you know it's scientifically alright to do so without damage to you or cookware). <S> Be careful of the fumes. <A> Oil, butter, wax and greasy substances like that are all hydrophobic, meaning they do not mix with water. <S> The following site can explain this. <S> https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-hydrophobic-definition-interactions-quiz.html
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If you get oil too hot, it can form a really sticky layer of the heavier oil residues.
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How to fix the protein content of my minestrone? I love minestrone, but am concerned that it doesn't contain enough protein. It usually contains pasta, tomato, zucchini, savoy cabbage, carrots and garlic. What could I add to enhance the protein content while retaining the taste and feel of the soup? <Q> I noticed you didn't mention beans, which are fairly common in minestrone. <S> Cannellini beans are most typical, but you could experiment with others (garbanzo, fava beans, etc.) <A> I use to add old parmigiano crusts (cleaned with a brush) and/or a 10cm cube of prosciutto, just before the soup starts to boil. <S> The parmesan left on the crust will melt and blend to the soup, while the crusts will become tender and flavory. <S> The fat in the prosciutto will melt blend to the soup too, while the prosciutto block will cook in a delicious way. <S> For both additions, remember to use less salt in the soup, because both prosciutto and parmigiano are salty. <S> My mother used to add these ingredients sometimes, both in minestrone and bean soup <S> , I guess she learned it from her mother, and I keep doing it too. <S> Or, if you're in a hurry or don't want to add any of those ingredients, you could, at serving, add cubed swiss cheese to the bowls, <S> and/or a couple of spoons of fresh grated parmesan. <A> It will be difficult to add protein while maintaining authenticity, as minestrone is a vegetable soup, and your main sources of protein are meat and fish. <S> Or you could grate plenty of fresh parmesan on top. <S> Of course, there's nothing wrong with having one or two meals without much protein either.
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You might add some roasted, shredded chicken to keep a rustic feel, or perhaps some tofu cubes.
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What features should a food processor have in order to make nut butters? I'm looking for a food processor that I can make nut butters (peanut & almond) in. No reviews on Amazon show any promising information about being able to blend nuts to a buttery texture and the ones I've bought so far have just ground them up into dust. Are some food processors better than others for making nut butters? If so, what makes them better? How can I choose the best one for this task? <Q> Resurrecting this thread in case people end up searching for it. <S> The only requirement for which food processor is that the motor is powerful. <S> Underpowered will tax the motor too much. <S> If the FP says that you can knead bread dough in it, it almost certainly will be fine. <S> Run long enough with a cutting blade, and you will get a smooth butter. <S> Blenders mainly have powerful enough motors, but they are not shaped properly to get thick/pasty substances in contact with the blades. <S> My Vitamix would work for a cup of nuts, but more would be too annoying. <S> Top end Breville FP that I have will make smooth nut butters, with the caveat that some nuts (hazelnut. <S> Walnut) always feel somewhat “pasty” in comparison to peanuts or cashews. <S> I don’t add additional oil, so perhaps if I did so the mouth feel would be better. <A> It's not as fast as a blender would be, but if you just let it chop for a few minutes, you end up with a nice smooth product. <S> The unit's probably pricier than you need for making nut butters. <S> About any low speed FP with a decent sized chopping blade should work. <A> You don't want to use a food processor for making nut butters; they are poorly suited to the task and you can ruin one trying. <S> Instead, you need to get a higher-powered device, either a Vitamix or an Indian Food Grinder, either of which have the horsepower to make a decent nut butter. <S> Even then you'll need to be cautious and grind in bursts to avoid overloading/overheating. <S> If you're going to be making a lot of nut butters, though, maybe you should consider actually buying a nut butter machine? <S> I have a Preethi Mixie grinder, and I've made cashew butter in it. <S> Vitamix: http://www.vitamix.com <S> Indian Food Grinder: http://www.perfectpeninsula.com/EcoTwin.html <A> I use an Oster blender. <S> It has a specific speed for "nuts" only. <S> Don't know how much it cost because it was a gift, but I love it.
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My little Cuisinart makes nut butters with just the regular chopping blade.
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Thick carbon layer on wok? I just got a 100,000 BTU burner for wok cooking. Today when I used it, I got a very thick layer of carbon on the wok (see picture below). Is that normal? Should I remove it? If so, how? EDIT - FINAL RESULT: Ok so I took a combination of the advice here. I used an old metal baby spoon to scrap as much of the loose carbon off as I could. Then I turned the wok burner up to high high heat and burned the crap out of the carbon. A lot of it actually turned liquid and I poured it out. What didnt' turn into liquid, loosened considerably and I was able to, with a hacking/chopping motion of the metal spoon, get all the thick carbon coating off. I was surprised how resilient the seasoning on the wok was, very little of the actual seasoning scraped off. Here's the wok after the burning/hacking with the spoon I used: Next I used some very coarse sea salt and with my hand I scraped and scraped until the inside was smooth again. Then I wiped some grape seed oil on the wok where the seasoning and come off, and burned it over high heat with the burner. Below is the final result. <Q> 100k BTU sounds like overkill for a single burner unless your wok is HUUUUGE (like, fit to serve a large restaurant). <S> I think that's related to your excessive carbon buildup. <S> A little burned-on crap is normal, but that amount is a sign you're either putting in too much heat, or not keeping enough food moving around in it. <S> Carbon is... <S> well it rhymes with "witch"... to remove. <S> I've not seen it soluble in anything available outside a chem lab, and there are no easy tricks. <S> Here are the removal methods I've seen: <S> Scrape it off. <S> This is the standard for serious built-up carbon on pans (particularly ones used as smokers). <S> Use a paint scraper or bench scraper, and steel wool. <S> There are specialty tools for cleaning flat grills which have a flat, very sharp edge that work even better, but in a pinch even a stiff spatula will work. <S> Yes, it's exhausting <S> but it turns out to be surprisingly fast if you can pick a good scraping tool. <S> Be prepared for a lot of smoke. <S> Naturally, you'll have to re-season your wok, but this will remove some of the carbon. <S> I've HEARD people say they can get carbon off by repeatedly heat-shocking it. <S> This means heating it as hot as possible and then dropping it into ice water. <S> However, they talked about like 30 cycles, and it could render metal more brittle. <S> Might be worth a shot? <S> Personally I'd either scrape the bejeezus out of it, or just ignore it. <A> If the other methods fail, you should be able to get your wok to gleam as new. <S> For this, you'll need to use a strong lye bath (sodium hydroxide). <S> Leave it a day or two in a small glass or plastic tub (if plastic, brush a spot with lye first to make sure it doesn't dissolve), then remove and clean with lots of water. <S> Both carbon and seasoning will be removed. <S> Be aware that this is a drastic solution, usually saved for when a pan has rusted below an improper seasoning. <S> The lye doesn't have toxic fumes or similar, but if it comes in contact with your skin, it will cause serious chemical burns . <S> Take extensive precautions (gloves overlapped by sleeves, safety glasses or at least ski glasses which cover from the side too). <S> If there is a child or pet in the household, don't do it, unless you are able to lock the full tub somewhere (e.g. a garden shed). <A> Now let's get this right - if the burner is set up right, it shouldn't leave the soot on the wok, so the burner needs to be set leaner = more air, less gas. <S> Now, not much dissolves carbon. <S> Sulphuric acid will do it, but it also tends to dissolve woks! <S> Solutions: adjust the burner to get more air in the flame - not a hint of yellow or sparkle, just blue flame. <S> For the wok - leave it out in the yard and let nature clean it. <S> Getting a little rust off is a breeze compared to carbon deposits. <A> I burnt some stuff onto the surface of my wok and it was solid like a rock. <S> I scrubbed it off by using a piece of "Wet and Dry" sand paper, about 400 grit. <S> I wet the paper, put about a cupful of warm water in the wok plus a few drops of dish detergent. <S> The Wet and Dry eats the hard carbon off like a starving horse eats grass and the detergent cuts the surface tension of the water. <S> You can sand it right down to the original surface with no trouble. <S> Be careful that you don't sand into the shiny metal. <S> You can continue sanding with 1000 grit or finer and it will polish the steel surface beautifully. <S> When finished to your requirements, wash with hot water and immediately dry and oil the wok. <S> Season the wok again as soon as possible as the clean polished surface will begin to rust quickly. <S> I clean my wok and all other burnt fry pans in this way and the results are wonderful. <S> It is also very quick to do. <S> My 18" wok took only 15 minutes to be returned like new ready for seasoning. <A> I put it over another wok with boiling water for 30 min. <S> Makes scrapping a lot easier. <A> I bought a metal brush for a drill and used that to clean of carbon. <S> I also put oil on a cast iron and burn it off to season it. <S> It will prevent this type of carbon buildup in the future. <S> Then use coarse salt and a rag to sand down the pan or wok after every use followed by a coating of oil. <S> If the oil is giving time to burn off then it will stay clean and nice. <S> Never, never use soap on any type of cast iron. <A> To remove carbon you can use sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) however it must be a very strong (high molarity) and constantly boiling. <S> I've done it using an old sink and portable gas ring heater but do note this is very dangerous <S> and I accept no liability for people trying this. <S> PS <S> I'm an industrial chemist.
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If the carbon is a little tarry, you can sometimes get a lot off by wiping with corn oil, then cleaning that mess off with neat engine cleaner. Burn it off , using the powerful burner or the self-cleaning cycle on an oven.
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Looking to start cooking....but I'm a total noob. Where should I start? Possible Duplicate: What recipes should every high school graduate know how to cook? So here's the deal: I've told myself on at least 10 different occasions that I was going to learn how to cook. I've either given up or lost motivation on all attempts. Now that I'm living in my own apartment, it's essential that I stop eating hot pockets 24/7. But where do I start? When it comes to cooking, I'm lazy as heck, and I don't know anything. So a good recommendation would be for something that is:a) Incredibly easy to cookb) Tasty (to an average college student)c) Quick Maybe once I learn to cook a few incredibly basic dishes, I'll be able to move up to something more advanced. Where should I start? <Q> What @ElendilTheTall suggests is indeed the usual way, and has worked for countless hobby cooks. <S> But the way you describe it, your problem comes from lack of motivation rather than the difficulty of cooking. <S> So you probably need to change your attitude and discover a side of cooking which is fun for you. <S> Then everything will be easier. <S> I, for example, have always been fascinated by cooking as a creative process, but there are different types of cooks. <S> A book which is likely to help you is "cooking for geeks". <S> You don't need to fit the media stereotype of a geek to like it. <S> It just has a very systematic approach to cooking, explains things like the way meat changes under heat on pop science level, and deviates into this special kind of experiments a down-to-earth person like my grandma doesn't get, but a typical tinkerer/engineer/geek loves. <S> Prime example: cooking fish in the dishwasher. <S> It starts with the very basic things and is chock full of useful everyday advice. <S> It also has some recipes, although it will probably a good idea to also get a recipe collection book for beginners after you've got started. <S> If you are a stackoverflow user, chances are that you'll like the book. <S> Still, it is a very specific style, so make sure you can leaf through it or have a return right before you buy it. <S> Of course, the usual motivation advice counts for cooking as with everything else. <S> Start small, with simple things. <S> Promice yourself a schedule, <S> e. g. "Cooking once a week" and stick with that until you have worked yourslef into a habit or enthusiasm. <S> No sense in declaring "I have to cook dinner every day so I can save XXX until Christmas" and then getting tired of it after a week. <A> I'd start with the basic staples - eggs, pasta, potatoes, simple meat dishes - <S> Any of which give you multiple options without being too challenging. <S> With eggs, you can learn to fry, poach, or scramble. <S> Whack any of those on toast, add a little grilled bacon and you have a meal. <S> You can do endless things with pasta. <S> Boil it as per packet instructions, add a little olive oil, crushed garlic and parsley, et voila. <S> From there you can work up to basic marinara sauces etc. <S> If you learn to make basic potatoes - mashed, baked, fried - you can make an accompaniment to most dishes. <S> Finally, you've got meat. <S> Perhaps the most basic thing to learn is grilling or pan-frying a chicken breast, though something that sounds more complicated, like slow-roasting a lamb shoulder, is actually ridiculously simple. <S> Many recipe sites also sort recipe by difficulty. <S> I'd suggest you get a book, look up some recipes that appeal to you, and get stuck in. <A> Start watching the cooking channel on TV (if you can).The BBC one is better than the US version (but chances are that's not your choice). <S> The point is that exposing yourself to folk actually "doing stuff" gives you lots of ideas - lets you learn what sort of things go together <S> - let's you hear and see different opinions (they certainly don't all agree on everything) and so on. <S> Most of it you can get with just the simplest trial-and-error. <S> Start building your collection of condiments and cooking flavors. <S> Next time you're at the market get some balsamic vinegar (mix with a little olive oil, dip bread in it...) Or get a spice. <S> Or a herb. <S> Try it with chicken (pretty much everything goes with chicken). <S> for example: go get a piece of chicken breast, off the bone. <S> Put some butter, or oil in a pan on the stove. <S> Not too hot. <S> let it sit there for a while. <S> Turn occasionally. <S> Every now an then cut a bit in half to see if it's cooked. <S> (is the same white color all the way to the middle). <S> when it's cooked, eat it. <S> I recommend a splash of balsamic. <S> Or a herb. <S> Or a spice. <S> Even just salt. <S> You'd be amazed at how easy it is to start. <S> Most off all - risk a few $, and just do it. <S> What's the worst that can happen? <S> (Ok, don't burn the place down). <S> But seriously, you'll have good days, and bad days. <S> There's always hot-pockets to fall back on. <S> Most of all Have Fun! <S> cooking is fun. <A> Watch the Food Network's " Good Eats " with Alton Brown. <S> In his celebrating the 10th anniversary of of his show " Good Eats " Alton Brown stated that his goal when creating the show was " Julia Childs meets Monty Python ". <S> Alton's show on the Food Network is both entertaining and educational. <S> Many of his past episodes are available online. <S> Start with episode 1 <S> Steak Your Claim . <S> In short, Good Eats will not just teach you recipes, but help you to understand as Julia Childs would say, "With scientific certainty" how to cook.
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There are tons of beginner's cookbooks out there - the Food Network's How to Boil Water gets good reviews. Yes, you'll need to learn a few really basic skills - but you'd be surprised at how little you actually need to know.
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How do I stop my pastry shrinking? So I line a flan tin with shortcut pastry. It's quite a nice deep pan (sides are maybe 2 to 3 cm) so it looks like there's going to be plenty of room for a filling. But after 20 mins baking blind, I get the pastry out. The sides have shrunk right down to about 0.5cm in height. Almost no usable depth for a filling. Is there anyway to stop the pastry shrinking like this? <Q> This has happened to me on occasion when I got lazy and tried to skip steps. <S> My pastry walls were melting and sliding down the pan before they were able to set. <S> There are several best-practices that will help solve this: Keep your dough chilled. <S> If the dough is warm or if it is built into a warm pan it will melt in the oven before it has a chance to set. <S> Make a better lip (if there is one). <S> A more substantial edge around the pastry will give some physical support to prevent falling. <S> Use foil and pie weights to reinforce the structure during the beginning of baking. <A> That will get the pastry nice and cold so that it won't melt as quickly in the oven! <A> The key is not to roll it too thin nor too thick, it should be as thick as pound coin. <S> Then once you've rolled and put the pastry in tin place back into the fridge for 10-20 minutes. <S> (For Yanks, according to the Royal Mint, a pound coin is 3.15mm, which would be about 1/8")
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Another thing you might want to try, is after you have put the pastry in the tin, then pop it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or so (depending on the thickness of your pastry and the coldness of your fridge).
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Why should one always use the same kind of coffee for an Espresso machine? I recently got a new espresso machine, a Gaggia Classic, and I sometimes hear statements like the following: "Always use the same kind of coffee for this machine!" "If you've found one that tastes good, stick with this!" Is there any truth behind these statements? More concretely: Are there any mechanical issues that stem from using different kinds of espresso in the same machine over the course of many years of usage? Or is it only a matter of taste? Is a machine somehow "branded" with a kind of coffee after some time of use? (Bad comparison: Like string instruments that sound better if they are played long enough, some are actually treated with sound) <Q> There are a lot of good detailed answers on this page already, but I guess I could add my own $0.02 to the conversation and maybe a different angle to the answer.. <S> I have been home roasting and brewing for about 2 years now <S> and I think the #1 thing I've learned about pulling espresso shots is that it is all about consistency. <S> In order to effect consistency you have to control your variables, and the more variables you get control of, the better chance you have of maintaining consistency. <S> Over the past two years I have continuously refined my process by modifying the entire chain of coffee production, whether it meant ordering a new piece of hardware or changing how I did something. <S> For instance, I installed a PID on my Racilio Silvia in order to control brew temperature, I bought a naked portafilter to get better feedback on the quality of my shots, and bought a pressure gauge to make sure I was getting proper brew pressure at the group head, the list goes on and on. <S> So when I saw your question about "always using the same coffee" I interpreted it as just another one of those variables that you can get control of and that will effect the quality of the shots you pull. <S> In the beginning I stuck with the same coffee and roast to try to minimize the number of variables I was working with. <S> Once I was more familiar with how each variable effected my shot and how I could manipulate them to get what I wanted, I began to experiment. <S> So I guess for me keeping the coffee the same boils down to removing some noise from the system to make it easier to manage... <A> Are there any mechanical issues that stem from using different kinds of espresso in the same machine over the course of many years of usage? <S> No, the quality of the grind will be much more important to the machine than the type of beans. <S> And even then, not so important at all. <S> Coffee is coffee with regard to this piece of machinery. <S> Or is it only a matter of taste? <S> Is a machine somehow "branded" with a kind of coffee after some time of use? <S> No. <S> I suppose in theory over time one could begin to see some form of flavour buildup on their machine however there shouldn't be porous materials to absorb oils and <S> if you keep it clean that should make little to no difference. <S> My guess is <S> it's either a matter of taste or laziness on the part of the people who said those things. <S> There is no logical nor apparent reason for any of it to be true. <A> There is no technical reason for sticking to one kind of coffee only. <S> In contrast, you should really try different brands (the fresher the better) to find out what you like best. <S> However, there's a small truth behind the statements for the portafilter type of coffee machines. <S> Especially unexperienced users of portafilters need more time to get the perfect cup out of beans, so switching the beans to often is not a good idea at the beginning. <S> Many of the small roasting facilites offer test packages with 250g of beans. <S> These are definitely too small for a beginner. <S> Try to find the optimal dosage and grind with at least 1000g before you try a different bean/roast. <A> Are there any mechanical issues that stem from using different kinds of espresso in the same machine over the course of many years of usage? <S> Or is it only a matter of taste? <S> The answer is no. <S> There are no mechanical issues, ever, that stems from using different kinds of coffee bean on the same machine over many years. <S> The only thing that touches the coffee ground is the portafilter (and the water source above the portafilter, and the cup for the matter). <S> The portafilter should be cleaned regularly. <S> If anything build up there it would be rancid coffee oil which are NOT tasty I suppose. <S> See above. <S> For beginners of coffee making, take the following advice: the fresher the coffee, the better (that is, short time from harvest to roast, short time from roast to ground, and short time from ground to pulling the espresso. <S> Fill the portafilter <S> well first, then tamp it well. <S> No amount of tamping will save an uneven powder filling of a portafilter. <S> Clean your machine well. <S> Nothing will save you from rancid oil. <S> Use high quality water. <S> Poor quality water will make coffee taste worse. <S> Invest in a filter or use distilled water. <S> If you are really into it, you can consider using a bottomless filter to troubleshoot coffee making similar to a debugger to a programmer... <S> Good luck!
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It's not related to the machine itself but to the user, because usually it takes some time to adjust the grinder properly for one sort of coffee.
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Getting the lighter fluid taste out of burgers, after the fact My burgers came off the grill tasting and smelling like lighter fluid. Are there any ways to reduce or remove the taste and smell from the leftovers? In the future I'm using one of those charcoal chimney starters, so I won't need any lighter fluid at all. <Q> Make sure you don't squirt the fluid all over the grill. <S> Keep it on the charcoal. <S> If you have to apply more fluid after you've lit it, you're doing it wrong. <S> Douse <S> the charcoal then wait a few minutes for it to soak in . <S> This is a common mistake. <S> People often pour on the fluid and immediately light it. <S> It then burns away before the charcoal can ignite and they have to try again. <S> You end up putting more fluid into the grill than is necessary. <S> Let it burn long enough to burn away all the lighter fluid. <S> It sounds like you aren't letting the charcoal burn long enough before putting the burgers on the grill. <A> (and then maybe warm up, and break it up into something strongly flavored, like a tomato sauce heavy on the garlic) ... <S> ... <S> but it's likely that it's just a loss. <S> Just remember -- learn from your mistakes, and be thankful that at least you didn't burn down anything (the house, a stove, etc.) <A> Don't use it! <S> Just use some newspaper in a metal mesh tube (chimney starter), or newspaper and some kindling wood for hard charcoals <S> If you want a liquid starter use Meths (methylated spirits, denatured alcohol, industrial alcohol), it leaves no taste or smell after the flames have gone. <S> Pour out 1/2 cup over the charcoal heap. <S> Let it soak for 20 seconds, stand back and flick a match in. <S> Never add Mmeths once the fire has started <S> Lighter fluid is for liquid cigarette lighters, not for starting BBQ's. <S> I suspect some bad TV cook show host used it instead of Meths for an instant start or 'safety', and the rest is history... <S> For a nicer smoke use seasoned hard wood pieces, not charcoal. <S> It takes another 15 minutes to get going and to be fully burnt to embers. <S> It tastes much nicer and you known what you are cooking from. <S> Not all charcoal is 100% wood, at various times they have contained borax, coal, and nitrates
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You don't need starter fluid of any type, just old newspaper and some kindling sticks If they're really thick burgers, like my dad used to make, it's possible that the inside isn't as bad if you slice off the outside.
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How to make a mustard sauce for salmon steak? I'd like to make a sauce for salmon steak, using a whole grain mustard. I would make a roux-based white sauce but I'd like something healthier because the roux has a lot of butter in it. Any ideas of what else I could use to make the sauce? <Q> Gravlaxsås is a mustard sauce for salmon, made with dill. <S> The one I bought reports the following ingredients: mustard vegetable oil sugar water wine vinegar dill modified cornstarch <S> On this site , the ingredients reported for gravlaxsås are the following: 6.5 tbsp. <S> oil 2 tbsp. <S> vinegar 2 tbsp. <S> prepared mustard <S> 1 egg yolk 0.25 tsp. <S> salt 0.25 tsp. <S> dill <S> Preparing the sauce seems quite easy: <S> Mix all ingredients in a jar and fasten lid. <S> Shake vigorously until the ingredients are well mixed. <S> Gravlaxsås is the sauce used for gravlax , a dish prepared with raw salmon, cured in salt, sugar, and dill. <A> I began writing this as a comment to kiamlaluno's reply about gravlaxsås but it turned out too long to post as a comment. <S> +1 for suggesting gravlaxsås, but the recipe does not have much to do with the traditional preparation that I am used to (I am Swedish). <S> I found a more orthodox version here: http://www.grouprecipes.com/45013/gravlax-or-dill-cured-salmon-with-sauce.html <S> A few tips <S> if you want to try making this sauce: The dill has to be fresh. <S> Do not even think of using the dried stuff. <S> If you cannot get fresh dill, just leave it out altogether or make different sauce. <S> The sauce contains some sugar, the amount of which you can adjust to your liking. <S> The recipe in the link fails to mention the amount of dill. <S> You should use a lot, like 1/2 cup or so of chopped dill. <S> Regarding the mustard: If you cannot get to Ikea, just use any whole-grain mustard and adjust the amount of sugar and vinegar accordingly (the Swedish-style mustard is usually quite sweet, and so should this sauce be). <A> I'd make some kind of honey-mustard sauce, perhaps with either some horseradish or dill in it. <S> Just honey, mustard, perhaps a little lemon juice, salt and pepper. <A> A mustard sauce is pretty much going to end up tasting like mustard, with possibly one other note if it's a strong underlying flavor. <S> Other than that <S> , you're just balancing texture. <S> (told you the second note had to be strong). <S> A "bit" in this context means "an appropriate amount to make a sauce of desired thickness and oiliness" while a "small bit" means "enough <S> you know it's there, but not enough to overpower anything". <S> You could also go with dill instead of horseradish <S> but, well, I hate dill.
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I'd go with a bunch of mustard, bit of white wine, bit of olive oil or grapeseed oil, and small bit of horseradish to taste
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Can I replace sugar with honey in tea? If I want to replace sugar with honey in black or green tea, can I add the honey at any point or should I wait until the tea cools down a bit? <Q> There is apparently evidence that some of the flavour compounds in honey deteriorate during heating: http://www.ibrabee.org.uk/component/k2/item/1837-effect-of-heat-on-honey <S> The text suggests that honey should not be heated to more than 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). <S> So it might be wise to let the tea cool down a bit before adding the honey. <S> Having said that, I usually put the honey in immediately after removing the tea leaves and it tastes fine to me. <S> The flavour of the honey is clear and pronounced and I have never felt that anything was missing. <A> Otherwise, it'll be harder to mix it in. <S> And yes, you can replace sugar with honey in tea. <S> It is healthier <S> and I do it all the time. <A> If you want to try something other than honey, agave nectar is another sweet alternative. <S> I use it in baking instead of honey sometimes. <A> Some people are "iffy" as to this because it generally requires a lot more to sweeten than sugar, and can leave a residue if too much is present, but I actually generally prefer to sweeten my tea (and coffee) with honey and/or brown sugar. <A> Hmn... <S> It's not the flavor that you should be worrying about when adding honey to hot tea, but rather, the honey's natural antibiotic properties. <S> At high temperatures, the enzymes are destroyed. <S> Well, the thing asks that I avoid making statements based on my opinion... <S> So I'd like to claim right here that this is not my opinion. <S> I study food technology and honey was a topic that was discussed. <S> And also, I was holding a conversation with the guy selling Manuka honey. <S> So although I can't back up my words, I'll provide a link with information on honey. <S> "But, in some cases, the peroxide activity in honey can be destroyed easily by heat or the presence of catalase." <S> - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609166/ <A> Yes, honey is great in tea. <S> Honey from different flowers can taste quite different so it could be fun to experiment with different types of honey and see which tastes good to you as that's such a personal preference. <S> One honey which markets itself as 'drinking honey' is Belixir Drinking Honey which is targeting people who like honey in tea or in other drinks.
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It is preferable to add the honey into the tea when it is hot to let it melt a bit.
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Alternative for shake and bake? I want to make my own shake and bake at home. The shake and bake you buy at the store is full of unpronounceable, non-organic ingredients and seasoning. I'm looking to make a good crust out of something that has whole grains any suggestions? Oh p.s. this is for Chicken. <Q> The way restaurants do it is simple, straightforward, and also very easy to make organic by using organic ingredients. <S> Standard 3-bowl breading 1) <S> Bowl One: Seasoned flour -- flour, salt, pepper, and seasonings (for me: thyme, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, and parsley flakes) 2) <S> Bowl Two: <S> Egg wash -- <S> Beaten egg with a 1-2 TBSP milk per egg yolk added 3) <S> Bowl Three <S> : Panko (or other bread crumbs) -- alternately, add some salt, pepper, and seasonings to them <S> Procedure: <S> Dredge the item to bread through the bowls in order, then repeat if desired to build up a thicker layer. <S> You only need to change your seasonings to switch from breading chicken, fish, or even doing fried green tomatoes. <S> If you make your own bread and breadcrumbs, the ingredient list will read: flour, water, milk, eggs, yeast, salt, and spices. <S> Hard to get more straightforward than that! <S> It's simple, fast, and works beautifully every time. <S> Here's why it's the best way: the flour sticks to the wet surface of your item, leaving a dry, starchy surface for the egg wash to adhere to. <S> The egg wash allows the panko to stick. <S> For the next layer, the flour fills in the gaps between bread crumbs and absorbs residual moisture from the egg wash. <A> Panko, flour, spices (oregano, cayenne). <S> Dredge through a beaten egg, then though the panko mixture. <S> Amazing the government doesn't make them put a "For god sakes, you can make this yourselves!" <S> warning label on it. <A> For any gluten-free people out there, Quinoa Flakes work great as a replacement for panko. <S> Follow all the other advice here about three stage breading, but substitute gluten-free flour for the first step and Quinoa Flakes instead of panko. <S> This is how I made my chicken for Chicken Parmesean and it turned out wonderfully!! <A> BobMcGee has explained the basic breading technique, but as you specificslly asked about whole grains, you may wish to make some minor adjustments. <S> You could use whole wheat flour for the first bowl, but it should be a very little amount (you actually want to shake any loose flour off before moving to the egg wash, and then letting the egg wash drip free befor going to the breadcrumbs). <S> You would get more fiber using a replacement for the panko. <S> Personally, I use whatever is on hand that I can crush into crumbs easily. <S> This includes crackers (cheezits work great) or most cereals. <S> For your whole grain concern, I'd consider some sort of a whole grain cereal, crushed. <S> The bits at the end of a box are ideal for this, but if you are cooking for more than one person, you'll likely need a cup or more, depending on how finely you make the crumbs. <S> (I've never used them myself, I typically use corn flakes), mAyve something like fiber one (i think that's the name of the one that looks like little twigs. <S> I wouldn't recommend grape nuts, and I'm not sure of how shreaded wheat might work. <S> Common additions to the breadcrumb layer include chopped nuts or grated hard cheeses, but I have a feeling that the cheeses might not stand out with the nuttier flavors of a whole grain cereal, and the nuts wouldn't be as noticable, either.
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I would think that any flaked cereal (eg, wheaties) would work.
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How can I create a chicken substitute? How can I create a homemade product with that has the texture, flavor, and cooking properties of chicken, but is vegetarian (or vegan)? I'm inspired by the Lightlife, the Sipz orange "chicken", and Veggie Grill "burgers" but am looking for something more flexible that I can make myself. I'm not looking for a specific recipe, but rather general techniques and ingredients to use as a starting point. <Q> Seitan (aka. wheat gluten/vital wheat gluten/wheat meat/fu*) can be used to make chik'n nugget type chicken, but not as in breast or thigh, etc. <S> Recipes abound on the internets. <S> The gist of using it involves bringing together compositional ingredients (basically the gluten) and flavoring, mixing to develop it into a rubbery mass, forming it into and using as a dough (i.e. making chik'n nugget cutouts). <S> * <S> There are differences between these, but they are all basically the same beast. <A> There are a few recipes on the Vegan Dad blog for veggie chicken from scratch: Chick'n Burgers (but read the comments also) Chick'n Nuggets Chicken-flavored vegetarian broth is usually a key ingredient. <S> You can find a lot of them on Amazon, and sometimes in health food stores. <S> I usually use Edward and Son's Not Chick'n bouillon cubes, just because they sell them in a store on my block. <S> There's also a company called eco-cuisine that sells mixes, but I haven't tried them. <S> For other pre-made options <S> May Wah in NYC supplies meat substitutes to a ton of vegan restaurants, and Gardein has some great veggie chick'n scallopini cutlets you can use for a lot of recipes. <A> You could try Chinese dry tofu (Dòu gān) as a starting point. <S> It is nutritionally good and has a 'meatlike' texture. http://www.thetofuboutique.com/?p=454&page=4 <A> For stewing, I love Green Jackfruit -canned or frozen. <S> Fooled me entirely in a Malaysian curry. <S> Needs long gentle simmering in flavorful broth/sauce. <S> Flakes fleshily when forked. <S> Beancurd sticks are those shrivelled yellow plastic batons in cellaphane packs that cook up first rubbery then slowly disintegrating to desired tenderness. <S> Forgot it once in a hotpot for 2 hrs <S> and it was chicken soup! <A> I know someone had already mentioned Chick'n nuggets, but you could also try the Quorn brand "chicken" items. <S> They have a very similar texture to chicken. <S> http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-black-bean-cakes/detail.aspx <S> and they are pretty easy and delicious too! <A> For 'chicken' strips I often use tofu that has been pressed for a really long time <S> so it has less of a squishy texture, then roll it in flour paprika and salt and flash fry it until it's golden brown and crispy on the outside.
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But if you are looking for a veggie burger, then i found this great recipe for Black Bean cakes.
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How do you properly cook cow tongue? In Mexico, "Tacos de lengua" (cow tongue tacos) are popular, and I've come to love them! I want to learn to make them in the U.S. What is the proper way to cook a cow tongue? I've seen the taco stands remove the skin from the already-cooked tongue before slicing it to serve on tacos. But what did they do before then? <Q> Standard prep for beef tongue seems to be: scrub it well and rinse, then soak it in cold water for 2-3 hours. <S> Heat water to a low simmer (about 200F) and cook slowly for at least an hour per pound. <S> Preferably cook as long as you can (5-6 hours) to get a more tender result. <S> When meat is tender and cooked, remove meat and save the broth. <S> Cool the tongue and peel off the outer skin. <S> The broth may be reduced and added to vegetables and meat to create a richer, meatier taco. <S> I also found a tongue taco (how is that NOT slang for some sexual act?) <S> recipe . <S> Personally, I'm also a big fan of cold boiled beef tongue with horseradish sauce. <S> You can go from the cooked tongue straight to that just by slicing it up. <S> Now I really want to make tongue tacos. <A> I've only cooked cow tongue once, so don't pay too much attention to what follows. <S> The tongue should be blanched to remove impurities (slime). <S> Then, change the water, start with cold water and simmer the tongue until done. <S> Add the flavor you want. <S> Check for doneness by sticking a needle in the flesh <S> and there is no resistance. <S> Remove the skin. <S> I've tried to remove the skin after blanching. <S> No luck, it stuck to the flesh. <S> Try it after cooking. <S> Cheers. <A> Having grown up on a farm in Nebraska I can speak from experience. <S> There is no need to soak or blanch the tongue first. <S> Thoroughly wash it is all you need to do. <S> In a large stock pot add the seasoning you prefer. <S> I use a large onion sliced, 4 or 5 bay leaves, dried oregano, fresh basil, garlic salt and Fiesta fajitas seasoning. <S> Lay the tongue in the stock pot and cover it completely with water, then simmer for 1 hour per pound. <S> Remove the tongue from the stock pot and let cool long enough that you can handle it without getting burned, then skin it. <S> Do not let it completely cool or it will be much harder to skin. <S> Let cool overnight in the refrigerator and then slice crosswise in 1/4" slices. <S> I prefer it cold on bread and butter with a sprinkling of salt and pepper; delicious! <S> You can also make a sauce of sautéed chopped onions and garlic mixed with tomato sauce.
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Just put it in cold water and bring that to a simmer (as what Bob said, let it soak for 2-3 hours). Throw in several slices of tongue, let simmer for 30 minutes, remove from sauce and put on fresh hot flour tortillas (Lengua de Res tacos, pure heaven)
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What is the best way to store carrots? The carrots that I buy come in a sealed plastic bag. In the store they are not refrigerated. I've tried keeping them in the bag in the place where I keep things like onions, garlic, and potatoes (a cabinet with metal racks, and an air opening in the back - I keep the carrots on their own rack). I've tried keeping them in the bag, but I've found that one often rots, from moisture or something similar, and causes all the rest of the carrots to go bad. I've tried taking them out of the bag, but they all quickly shriveled up and went bad. The only thing I can think of still trying is to keep them in the fridge... What is the preferred way of storing carrots? How can I keep my carrots in good condition and prevent them from rotting? <Q> Store them in the bag in your fridge. <S> Also, if you take the greens off they will last longer. <S> I keep mine in the drawer at the bottom. <A> The best way I've found is a specialty tupperware container designed to keep produce fresh. <S> They have little raised trays in the bottom, and a system of vents in the lid. <S> The combination allows air to circulate and ripening gases to escape, retains moisture, but allows water to drip below the produce to prevent spoilage from sitting in a puddle. <S> Note <S> that produce should be rinsed before putting in the container, to keep it moist, and should be rinsed every week or two to prevent drying out. <S> In one of the special containers, in the fridge, my carrots lasted at least a month, probably closer to a couple months . <S> They were still fine when I tossed them, but it just didn't sit right to keep produce <S> I didn't remember buying. <S> Manufacturers of special produce preserving containers: Progressive International and Ruppermaid <S> both make storage containers with these properties. <S> I have the 4-container Rubbermaid set, and they seem slightly better designed (the tray is inside the container), but the sizes are very much not convenient. <S> The largest size looks like it should hold a heat of lettuce... <S> but just barely doesn't. <S> It's excessively large for other stuff, although it WILL hold a lot of carrots. <S> The smallest size is pretty much only useful for a piece of ginger or half an onion. <A> It likely depends on what shape you want to store them in. <S> I have good luck just putting the bag in the crisper in my fridge, assuming I use them within a few weeks. <S> Of course, it helps to shop at a grocery store that has a good turnover, and they haven't already been sitting there for 2-3 weeks (or spent a week being shipped cross-country) <S> If you find that the carrots have gotten a little dehydrated from long storage, you can actually wrap 'em in a damp paper towel and leave them for a day or so, and they'll come back. <S> You could likely also soak them in water ... <S> my mom used to cut up carrots, and had a tupperware?rubbermaid? container with an insert in it <S> so you could fill it with water, then lift things up out of the water ... <S> and they'd stay good in there for a week or more (she kept 'em so as kids we'd have healthy things easy to snack on) <A> (Notice the little slider that you slide to control moisture and air flow if you put veggies in there.) <S> Only buy whole unpeeled carrots if you want them to last one or two months in the fridge being protected by their skin. <S> I personally keep whole, unpeeled carrots in their bag (to avoid loss of moisture), in the fridge. <S> I never had spoilage issues, even after 6 weeks. <S> They might look a little shriveled but will regain their moisture if cooked in liquid (making soups or using a slow cooker). <S> When you're saying that your carrots are not refrigerated in the store: veggies do not need doors (like frozen food) to keep them at fridge temperature. <S> My store has a funny "storm sound" alarm (like rain is coming) just before spraying the veggies with icy water, regularly, to keep them cold. <S> So you get your hand away for a few seconds <S> otherwise you would get icy water on your arm (and clothes if you wear long sleeves), then (after the "storm" has passed) you can grab your carrots. <S> The idea of storing fruits/veggies at “room temperature” dates back to when people had basements with a constant low temperature under 60F <S> (59F = 15C). <S> My mother-in-law grew her own veggies and had an apple orchard; and also a huge cold basement with a lot of different rooms to store all of her fruits/veggies (separately) for months. <S> But once you heat your house in the winter (or if you live in a hot region in the summer and have to use an AC) the “room temperature” will probably get too hot. <A> You want to avoid a lot of surface moisture as it can lead to spoilage. <S> You can fill a container with clean sand and place the carrots in there. <S> The container can go in the fridge or a cabinet if your house isn't too warm. <A> You've noticed that one always goes off, so you found the reason that they sell more carrots if they are supplied pre-washed and cleaned in plastic bags! <S> The washing and rumbling (the peeling process) takes away the natural protection against moulds, so there is only one answer <S> - you have to prepare all the carrots, blanch them, and freeze the ones you are not going to use immediately. <S> LOL it is a scam, but people do prefer to buy pre-washed and scraped carrots. <A>
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Store your carrots in the fridge, either in one of those special veggies containers that Bob described or in the veggies fridge compartment (usually a bottom drawer with undulated bottom to trap liquids) if you have one. i think the best way to keep them from not getting mouldy is to cut the tops off the carrot itself
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What is the proper way to bake meat balls in the oven? I tried baking meat balls with various temperatures and meat mixtures (regular to extra lean); however, every time, I end up with lots of water oozing out of the meat ball. How can I cook them with minimum lost deliciousness? <Q> One technique I have used is to support the meatballs with toothpicks over a muffin tin. <S> This allows the liquid to run off and collect. <S> I forget which food network show I learned this from, but it has been a good technique for me. <S> I'm trying to minimize the outbound loss of fluids <S> As fat is rendered to liquid it has to go somewhere . <S> It is either going to be absorbed into something (like dry bread crumbs) or it will leave in the form of 'juices' oozing out of the meatball . <S> I have to disagree with @Bruce's "breadcrumb slurry" as that adds an additional saturated element that leaves no place for fluids to go (other than to leave). <S> Dry breadcrumbs will absorb those juices before they escape. <S> One way to put that juicy goodness back into your dish is collect those juices, mix with some butter and an equal (total) amount of flour to create a rue and then either add milk to that to create a cream gravy to serve over the meatballs or add it to a tomato sauce to thicken the sauce in infuse the meaty/juicy goodness to the sauce <S> and so it will stick to the pasta :o). <A> Techniques I use for tender meatballs: Breadcrumb slurry - mix breadcrumbs and milk (or cream) into something that's almost a paste. <S> Mix this into your meatballs with the egg and spices. <S> I use a small bowl per butcher's package of ground. <S> Add <S> fat - sneak a few spoonfuls of bacon fat (or duck fat) into the grind, in addition to the breadcrumbs. <S> Alternatively, mix in a fattier cut of meat (or hand grind good, tender cuts). <S> Cheese can add flavour and fats too. <S> Fast fry - <S> if you have a tender grind, a fast fry (or broil) can minimize the loss of moisture. <A> I normally only make small batches so pan frying is my primary technique. <S> My sister-in-law has two since she regularly makes larger batches. <S> Both rely on a fast fry to firm the surface. <S> Then she either cooks them in sauce for a longer period at a low temp. <S> For naked meatballs she bakes them low and long with a cookie rack in a casserole or cookie pan. <S> I don't think it matters which because I have seen her do both. <S> In either technique the meatballs are ready to serve or freeze when done and fit nicely into OAMC. <A> I wouldn't worry about the liquid. <S> If you pan-fried the meatballs, I bet that the same water that oozes out just evaporates from the pan surface instead. <S> If you've ever cooked wild game like venison that has not been deliberately brined to pump as much moisture into the meat as possible so it can be weighed, labeled, and sold at a higher price, then you will notice quite a difference. <A> I just tried this new recipe for meatballs that has you bake them <S> and I lost very little liquid from them. <S> The new ingredient in this recipe was plain Greek yogurt. <S> My boyfriend absolutely loved them! <S> I don't mind sharing the recipe if you would like to try something new! <A> I like to add Panko bread crumbs to my wet mix then mix well with the ground beef <S> then I put them on a broiler pan that is likely sprayed with olive oil <S> then I bake them at 300 degrees for 30 minutes <S> and then I put them in a large Dutch oven with sauce in it already and once they are all in <S> I cover with sauce and put in the oven 200 degrees for 3 hours they come out <S> tender I make gravy or sauce you come from has the rich meat flavor <S> and it's thickened my mother who is Italian <S> and it's an excellent cook mine are the best she's ever had
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Low and slow - cook the meatballs in sauce in the oven or slow cooker at a low temperature (making sure to hit the minimum internal temperature required for the grind you're using).
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How to fake salmon roe using jello A couple of days ago I made a first attempt at dessert sushi. Everything went reasonably well except for the salmon roe which I'd planned to make from orange jello. I made my own mould from plasticine covered in plastic wrap and imprinted all over using a small plastic sphere. This didn't work out; the wrap burst in several places; the jello clung to the wrap too well and the few jello 'eggs' that came out in one piece were only half spheres. Granted that some of these problems are surmountable, the last problem of producing a perfect sphere is, for me, a conundrum. Does any one have any better ideas? <Q> What you are looking for is spherification. <S> You need to use a different hydrocoloid than gelatin. <S> There are a couple of techniques you can use. <S> If you want solid spheres, you can mix your liquid with agar agar, which is readily available in the asain section of the grocery store, bring it to a simmer, and then use an eye dropper to drop the liquid in to a very cold olive oil bath <S> (put it in the freezer). <S> The dropping action will give you spheres. <S> You can also use a mixture of sodium alginate and calcium chloride, but those are harder to find and will need to be ordered online. <S> The advantage is that you can make a sphere with a liquid center that "pops" just like real caviar. <S> You mix the alginate in to your liquid and then mix the calcium in to a bath. <S> You use the same eye dropper technique to get spheres. <S> When the alginate and calcium touch, they instantly form a gel. <S> This holds the sphere together. <S> Leaving it for a couple seconds makes it thick enough to hold up. <S> All the info you need is available in this free recipe guide from Khymos. <S> I've actually done exactly this dessert before. <S> You can see some of my lessons and issues in another question here . <S> I did it a second time and opted to use a gelled peach (using agar agar) in the center for more of a maki presentation. <S> Enjoy. <A> You truly need to use a syringe to get the right shape and size, and special compounds and powders--alginate, for example--are necessary in getting each tiny ball to hold its shape when dropped into various baths. <S> The main ingredient, actually, doesn't use Jello at all! <S> This video (silent, but informative) explains what you need and how to do it: Making fake caviar-video . <S> Good luck! <A> You can try this: Heat slightly quince jelly with some water, in order to make it melt. <S> Use a pipette to let drops fall in a glass of cold oil. <S> Use sunflower seed oil, which is not thickening when cold, put it in the fridge before you make your "eggs". <S> That's more natural than other propositions I read here, and really delicious!
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I've tried making fake caviar with Jello and a syringe myself, but as far as I know, this is a fairly recent technique that became popular when molecular gastronomy piqued the interest of many, and no one has figured out how to do it with just Jello.
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How long will homemade salad dressing stay good in the fridge? How long can I keep salad dressings that I made? Since this is probably affected by what it's made up of, let's say we're talking about different salad dressings made from a combination of the following ingredients: mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, vinegar, sugar, garlic, oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice... And are there any other ingredients that I should watch out for that could affect salad dressing shelf life? Any rules of thumb regarding storing salad dressings...? <Q> One "rule of thumb" which sometimes gets used is to look at the shelf life of the most perishable component. <S> Frequently it works; sometimes, it is dangerously misleading. <S> A mixture of the things you listed can have a longer or shorter shelf life of that of the most perishable component. <S> An example of lengthened shelf life is mayo; it stays good for longer time than a cracked fresh egg, because the yolk gets pasteurized and the pH is lower. <S> But there can be examples of the other thing happening. <S> The classic is the homemade garlic oil: you can keep pure garlic and pure oil for months in the pantry, but once you combine them, you get a botulism risk. <S> I don't usually keep salad dressings in the fridge, but if I did, I would look at why the most problematic component has the shelf life it has, and decide whether mixing it will change the condition. <S> Vinegar can have a few carbs, but not a lot, and it also has a very low pH, so bacteria die in it. <S> The combination still won't have enough carbs for bacteria, and will still have a low pH. <S> So the mixture will keep for very long time, just like pure vinegar or oil. <S> On the other hand, imagine mixing vinegar with honey and water. <S> Honey doesn't go bad by itself, because the carbs are too concentrated for bacteria. <S> The vinegar and water will dilute them, so this mechanism of bacteria prevention vanishes. <S> The pH of the mixture will probably rise a lot too, because the vinegar gets diluted, so no protection on that front either. <S> Thus, this mixture is apt to go bad much earlier than pure vinegar or pure honey. <S> This method requires that you make a new decision for each new dressing you make, and that you acquire enough knowledge to be able to make such decisions. <S> If you feel this is too much effort or too risky, you can either start adding conservants to your homemade dressings, or just start preparing a fresh dressing for each batch of salad. <A> The quickest and dirtiest rule of thumb is thus: "The more acidic it is, the longer it will last. <S> " Acid is very unfriendly to bacteria. <S> Ketchup, vinagrette, fruit syrups, all fine. <S> Yes, fruit syrup, even if it's just sugar and acid, will last quite a while (think fruit jelly, and fruit preserves.) <S> Homemade pepper sauce. <S> Anything with a bunch of alcohol in it. <S> Mayonnaise is scary for about a dozen reasons: it's not just the oil, or the eggs, or the sugar... <S> It's all of them. <S> Anything with dairy in it... <S> That always comes with its own set of bacteria to jumpstart the process of decay. <S> Anything with too many raw vegetables in it (pesto, for example). <A> If you are using raw garlic, I'd recommend keeping it no more than a few days given the risk of botulism . <S> This risk can be mitigated (although not completely avoided) by using dried garlic or garlic powder , heating the dressing (which is undesirable if you are using a fruity oil), or making the dressing very acidic (which is likely also undesirable). <S> The only other particularly perishable ingredient is the mayonnaise, especially if it is homemade. <S> I'd say that, garlic aside, you should use any homemade mayonnaise-based dressing within six days or so.
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For example, if I had a mixture of oil, vinegar and pure emulsifier: Oil keeps for months because it has no carbs, so nothing for bacteria to eat. There is no rule of thumb encompassing all salad dressings.
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How to remove the bitter taste from green bell pepper? Green pepper has a more bitter taste than red or yellow pepper. Are there tricks to remove or diminish this bitter taste? A special way of cooking, or adding a bit of sugar or something maybe? <Q> Green peppers are green because they are unripe. <S> Unripe fruits and vegetables are naturally more bitter and less sweet than ripe ones. <S> By far the easiest/laziest path is to just use a red pepper. <S> It's essentially the same food, just ripe. <S> Sugar won't really do anything to the bitterness other than mask it. <S> Salt will . <S> Khymos has written that in parts of Asia, unripe fruit is commonly eaten with salt, salty spices, or soy sauce . <S> These are all excellent options for peppers, as they reduce the bitterness and enhance the taste. <S> Finally, cook at low heat if possible. <S> Pan-fried peppers tend to be a fair shake bitterer than slow-grilled or oven-roasted peppers. <S> (P.S. <S> Removing the skin obviously works as well - I personally prefer them unskinned, but if you want to skin them, have a look at this Chow video on it - it's simple to do, you just char the outside and shake it in a plastic bag.) <S> Also, the interior white part and skin (not the big obvious part, but the sort of interior skin of it) are rather bitter also. <S> Remove it be sliding your knife carefully and parallel to your cutting board slowly and shallowly. <A> Much of the bitterness comes from the skin. <S> The skin can be removed with a peeler, or by roasting the pepper until the skin starts to release. <A> If you don't want a bitter tasting pepper, why don't you just use a red or yellow one in the first place? <A> I cook the pepper using olive oil and don't get that bitter taste. <S> It also could be the combination of seasonings that I use with the olive oil. <A> Cook the green peppers in water and add a some apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. <S> Cook for about 5 minutes and then take them out of the water and stuff them as you usually would. <S> I remove the insides and white skin on the inside of the peppers before boiling.
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I have found that Mrs. Dash Tomato/basil/Garlic seasoning does wonders with the green bell pepper. Well, the obvious answer is to add a little sugar, though this probably won't make much difference to the actual pepper itself.
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How does one tell if a jalapeno is spicy? It seems like it is always hit and miss when it comes to eating jalepenos. What are some ways to tell if the jalapeno is hot or not, besides tasting it? Thanks. <Q> The only way to test for capsaicin besides tasting is chemical testing, namely liquid chromatography. <S> Problem is, the same kind of chili can be quite different in heat, even on the same bush it can be quite different from my experience. <S> No idea why, though. <S> Here is one tip on how to check the heat of a chili without actually eating part of it, but still cutting it apart <S> : Cut through the chili below the stem, touch the membranes, touch your tongues, feel the heat. <S> http://www.chow.com/videos/show/chow-tips/78517/how-to-test-the-heat-of-your-chiles <S> You can adjust the amount of heat a chili adds to the dish by removing the white membranes. <S> Just add the colored flesh, check for heat, and add membranes until the desired spiciness is obtained. <S> Capsaicin is only produced in the white mebranes in the center. <S> It may move inside the fruit, though. <S> Areas closer to the membranes will be hotter (like, the seeds), than other parts. <A> Look for the white strecth marks it indicates the jalapeño is old and has endured more stress, it appears that being older and endure dry times increases something in their inner oil that makes them more spicy, of course there's no scientific evidence for this and each jalapeño vary its level of hotness but on average I have picked them like this <S> and they never fail to turn me red btw the color has nothing to do source <S> : trust me I live in mexico <A> The hotter the pepper the more small dark lines on the outside! <A> If it's a great big shiny Jalapeno, chances are <S> it's a Texas A&M <S> mild Jalapeno (TAM). <S> Very popular with farmers because yield is good, and fruit is pretty. <S> Stores lik3e it for same reasons. <S> Organoleptically speaking, you may as well get a bell pepper. <S> They're not hot. <S> Usually best to kick it up a notch with something like Serranos , they're about as hot as old style jalapenos.
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Hot jalapenos will be smaller than TAMS, and have some brownish stripes that many people who don't know their peppers find offensive.
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